WE'VE MOVED TO WWW.ANNIEQUICK.COM/BLOG

I got a new place at www.anniequick.com/blog. It's the same blog with a new address. Kind of like I'm a Mr. Softee truck and I just rolled down the street.

Speaking of which, wouldn't it be cool to be a Mr. Softee driver for just a few hours? You could drive around and operate the soft ice cream machine, and you could give excited children sugary treats and then drive away! And best of all, you could quit just before you had to blow your brains out because of too much Turkey in the Straw.

Please come see me at my new location.

Here: www.anniequick.com/blog

HOME DEPOT=PARADISE

I've lived most my life (with the exception of the first few years) in non-suburban settings. First, redwood forest, then NYC. Because of this I have mostly been left out of superstore shopping of any kind. So, I was overjoyed to walk around Home Depot in Mission Viejo (where I'm staying for a few days) to do some research for my impending installation build. THEY HAVE EVERYTHING! YOU CAN BUY IT ALL AND PUT IT IN YOUR CAR AND DRIVE IT HOME! Brilliant.

Do all people feel the same surge of joy that I do when they walk into the Depot? I hope so. It's a lovely rush.

I know some will say that hey, you have a Depot in Manhattan. Yeah, it's just not the same thing. It's small, understocked, and the Depot People won't tell you where anything is.

THE INSTALLATION: WHERE WE STAND

I am going to begin work early next week on building the bulk of my installation. I have recruited my dad to help: he's engineering the structures of the trees and buildings. We are going to convert my sister's 1st grade classroom in Phoenix into a Central Park workshop. I'm excited to use tools for a few weeks. I love to build.

The one piece I've been working on (at home) is stuffed into a box and put into the care of the USPO for a few days:




The whole thing fit rather nicely into a Fresh Direct box, minus cupcakes and ladder, of course.

Next thing we work on is the Tea Tree. Oh joy--the tree will make you tea! I can't wait to see it.


I'm also looking forward to the indoor Great Lawn. I've always wanted to roll sod out on a floor. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

THE MOVIE

My friend and webmaster Ray pointed out to me that there's not a hell of a lot of explanation about this movie I'm up to my eyeballs in editing right now. It's on the site, but there's nothing about it, see?

OK. Here goes:

This is a movie about magical people who live in Central Park. These people keep nature from taking over--they kind of allow for NYC to exist. There used to be a lot of them, but now there are just a handful. They operate below the radar, but are well known (unofficially) to the Parks Department.

Our movie is from the perspective of one 16 year old member of their ranks, Verna:


Verna is pretty much a normal 16 year old, except that she has very little contact with the world outside of Central Park, except for those regulars whom she's befriended. She is in love with this gardener (actually a summer landscaping intern), Mike:

Verna is forbidden by the Grandmother to have liaisons with people who are not Park People. Mike does not qualify because he doesn't live in the park.

Here is the Grandmother:

She's a tough one. In fact, she's one of the reasons that there are so few of the Park People left--she regularly kicks people out for not following rules. One such person was Verna's aunt who left well before Verna was born. Unknown to Verna is the fact that this aunt had a daughter who is drawn to the park, but knows nothing about her inheritance. She and Verna strike up an acquaintance.

This is Ruth:


There are a few other characters who come in and out. I'll tell you about them at another time...

WEEKLY BLOOM: I STAND CORRECTED

It's pretty lame of me to think that nothing is blooming in Arizona right now. Of course the desert plants are all going to flower at some point--why not now? Here's proof, courtesy of Mark and Chanelle.

Chanelle pointed me to her flikr site which has plenty of pix of blooming AZ. Great pix on this site.

photo by iamchanelle

This is a Palo Verde. I have seen them, but never in bloom. This is a very cool tree that looks like it was designed by Dr. Seuss--something I appreciate very much.

And Mark kindly set me straight with a few photos...
The Saguaro, of course, has beeyootiful flowers.

Ironwood flowers. (Olneya Testosa).

And Arizona Thistles (Cirsium arizonicum) which Mark says is the hip hangout for hummingbirds these days.

WEEKLY BLOOM: PART DEUX

I realize I already had a weekly bloom this week, but I'm going to Arizona on Tuesday (for almost a month), and I don't know if there's anything blooming there at this time of year. If I were a flowering plant I wouldn't want to bloom when it's 100 degrees or more every day. Just sayin'.

Here's what's in bloom:

COLUMBINE (Aquielegia)


COREOPSIS (Coreopsis lancelota, also called TICKWEED)


WOODLAND STRAWBERRY (Fragaria vesca)

Did you know that strawberries of any sort (as well as blackberries and raspberries) are very closely related to the rose? Also tree fruits like peaches, plums, almonds, cherries and apricots, though they're a little farther away in the family tree. Next time you see a fruit tree, look at how much the blossoms resemble small, opened roses.

Being a plant geek, I'm very exited about this thing I just found--It's a Bloom Clock. People write in to say what they see blooming. I want to participate, but I can't find one for this year, sadly.

NATURE IS SCARY

BUMMER

A couple nights ago we had a mini hurricane. When I went out yesterday I saw this unfortunate vehicle on 110th Street.

Here's another nature story: I have watched these two grow up from tiny goslings (not to be confused with my sometime drummer Jake Geesling).


I was able to get up real close to them for a couple minute photo shoot. But sure enough, mom and dad came waddling over eventually. They don't want their offspring getting big heads. I understand.

EGG IN TREE

Yarn cones + nest + teeny cupcake= awesome.

Here' s a photo of what I have done of the tree part--you can just make out the cupcake nest at the tippy-top. Eventually it will have several nests--about enough for a dozen cupcakes.

I was hoping to make the frosting robin's egg blue, but the blue cupcakes didn't show up enough from the tree. Were I a real bird that would be a good thing--a little camouflage never hurt anyone. But my goal is for people to see the cupcakes and eat them all up. They have to be visible, see?

BIRDS ARE GENIUSES

I tried a lot of different ways to make this nest. It was my idea that I'd use no glue--that I'd attach twigs together with back pressure. When I realized that was not working I tried sewing them together with thread--also not happening. Did you know it was so hard to make a nest? Well, it is. It's hard and time consuming.

In the end I caved and bought a nice can of spray glue. Even this was not without its difficulty--the sticks stuck to my hand more than to each other. It's actually not coming off my hands any time soon, nor the spatula I used to detach the poor nest from the plate I constructed it on. I may have to throw the spatula away or just use it in nest making evermore.

All this to say: I don't know how they do it. This is really a sorry nest--it wouldn't keep any eggs warm for a second. . And I had tweezers, a spatula, spray glue and needle and thread to help me, not to mention advice from a nice lady at Michaels. It looks simple, but it aint.

I read that the American Goldfinch makes its nest so snug that it can hold water. The American Goldfinch are geniuses!

This nest is going into my Yarn Tree and will soon house some teeny cupcakes with robin's egg blue frosting.

My tree is nearing completion. My joy is great. I still think i have around 100 cones to go, though. Turns out, making a tree is pretty time consuming too, almost as time consuming as growing one.

WEEKLY BLOOM: MY FAILULRE AS A GROWER

My nice landlady bought me this pepper plant kit as a thank you for taking care of her giant, deaf, white cat. It's real cool--you put the soil pellets in water, then you push the pepper seeds into the soil and viola: cute little sprouts that grow real fast for 4 days. I was overjoyed. Rapturous. But, the pepper plants seem sad now, and not growing for over a week no matter what I do. Can I be a plant lover who can't grow plants?

Jalapeños (Capsicum annuum) are supposed to be relatively easy to grow. I guess if you have actual land to put them in...not sure they're suited for apartment life, but who is?

I should get some regular old houseplants now that my plant-eating cat is gone. It'll be the first time in my adult life that I can have plants who aren't someone's personal salad and/or napping ground.

Working hard on my Tree. Have to get this thing all done before I go to AZ for the rest of the installation build. I'm really looking forward to that, though I'm not looking forward to Phoenix's oven-like temperatures. If anyone says "but it's a dry heat" again I'm going to punch them. It doesn't matter how dry 120 degrees is. I must admit that NYC ain't no party in the weather department right now either...it's hot and soupy. Go outside for a few minutes and you feel like you've been dipped in honey. A few minutes later you feel deep-fried.

I'm not really complaining though. I'm over the hump of NYC humidity really bothering me. I was spoiled by a childhood in rural Central California...most of the year it's 50-70 degrees. It's so beautiful all the time there that no work gets done, ever. I guess bad weather is good for production. Yeah, NYC has only two weeks of good weather in the Fall. That's why we have so many type A personalities tap-tap-tapping away all year. Thank God for bad weather.

DAY JOBS & ETC

BROOKE HOGAN INTRODUCES ANTI CHAPS

One of my excellent friends hooked me up with a funny day job for a bit: I'm on a shoot with Hulk Hogan's daughter--it's something having to do with Mr. Hulk's VH1 reality show. Ain't never worked on a reality show before. I'm sure it will be alternately pain and pleasure and by pleasure I mean that awesome feeling you get when you think "well, how did I get here?"

But seriously, I do love working on bad TV. I'm not sure I can explain why...Something about having grown up with little or no TV makes this so. When I worked at TV Land I was overjoyed to watch 25 episodes of A Team. I also loved Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, all of it really. No, I take it back; I draw the line with that awful Olson Twins/Bob Saget sitcom. You know the one.

EVIL CAN BE CUTE

Did I tell you I'm editing a movie? I guess it's not actually a movie--it's more like a serial. It's around 16 episodes of a fairy tale about (you guessed it) Central Park. In the movie the park is filled with magical people who live there, including this girl, who is, for lack of a modern term, a Brownie, or perhaps a Pixie. This pixie does the evil bidding (mostly lurking, spying and message-carrying) for the main antagonist of the film, an old woman called The Grandmother.

Right now I'm looking for footage of the Pixie spying on the protagonist. Also--footage of the pixie running with messages all through the park. This is very entertaining because:

1) The pixie is extremely photogenic.
2) She runs in this way that is very pixie-like and makes me laugh every time.
3) The evil director (me) keeps forgetting to give her clear running directions. Sometimes when I just want her to run out of the frame, she keeps running full bore till she's a tiny dot on the horizon. Then the evil director tells her to do something else and she's totally out of earshot. Then then the evil director looks through the camera to find her. Then the Brownie-actor must run full bore back to make it to the next shot. No one is getting fat on my watch.
4) Then the evil Brownie (who is actually a super nice 15 year old kid named Johnnie Warfield) is panting and sweating. I guess that part's not funny if you're the super nice 15 year old kid, and I felt bad at the time, but man is it funny from here.

One thing that's not funny (as an editor) is watching yourself act on film. Let this be a lesson to would-be filmmakers: leave yourself out of it--you'll thank me later. I have edited out almost all of my own speaking parts so that I'm even more of a bit part then the script called for. Oh the terrible sound of your own voice! Every time I hear myself talk I start writhing around like those characters on old Star Trek.

You can see episode 1 here, btw. And soon you'll be able to see episode 5, which will act as a sort of a trailer.

SHOW REVIEW: TERMINAL REYNALDO + A RANT

Here's a belated show review from Wednesday May 22.

We played WE fest in Wilmington NC, which was nice except for a band (who shall remain nameless) who treated us worse than my band's ever been treated in all my 1000s of shows. We parked our car away from our own motel (which they were staying at too) because we thought they might vandalize it. We also had spit in our beer, my drummer's cymbals thrown on the ground, and tongue lashings about how inexperienced we are. Yeah, we're not 50; we're sorry.

Those old guys just wanted to be Rock Stars, you know? They wanted to be violent jackasses, and they succeeded; it's important to make attainable goals.

The upside is that we made a pretty good plan of what to do if someone starts throwing punches. We're not very violent; my guitar player has a peace tattoo on one arm and a love tattoo on the other. I suppose Jake (drummer) could throw a punch, but he's too nice. Oh and Dan, our bass player for the event, is a Mennonite; they do love their peace and social justice. I think I might be the most anger management member of the band, but I just had major back surgery, not to mention regular anxiety dreams about being beat up by a midget.

Anyway, I digress. What I really wanted to tell you about is a show we saw that night--our favorite out of all the bands at the festival, our almost-homies Terminal Reynaldo (Jersey City).

Austin was having palpitations when they first set up--so many toy keyboards and old-fashioned effects pedals, a Q-chord, and much etc. Gadgets everywhere!

Their show was amazing-- lines played unison on various toy instruments, a violin/sax player also sometimes chiming in (which doesn't necessarily sound pleasant in print, but was wonderful live). They had a winsome, childlike quality in every song, along with a sufficient amount of darkness to anchor everything--a Radiohead thickness with a bright strain of playfulness thrown in--very satisfying. It was fun to hear something completely new--don't you love that feeling? It happens so rarely.

Please check them out. They are going to be huge.

They are also extremely nice guys and let us play their Fischer Price keyboard in their hotel room after the show. They were a bright spot in our otherwise anxiety-filled day.

Did I mention that Jake also got harassed by a southern cop at the Waffle House that night? Inexplicably, the cop decided to call him "Baby Boy." That gives me the creep-out shivers every time I think of it. Baby Boy? AAAAAH!

In some ways, I guess I should feel good about the hubbub. We are so mild mannered. It kind of feels like we were bad-asses for once. Trouble was looking for us, finally, thank God. Now we can have our own reality show.

MY BRAIN IS BORING

My brain is boring, thank God. Perfectly normal, see? I left the doctor with a huge envelope of brain pics, feeling like I had just been to some demented elementary school Olan Mills shoot. Really, the individual scans come out in little squares that are more-or-less wallet sized. I might sign one "have a nice summer" for Jad. He used to tell me he liked me for my brain.

I'm thinking of cutting them up and using them somehow in the installation. They might make good tree innards, coupled with my lumbar spine MRIs. Like the tree skeleton is in there and it's just like yours, you perfectly normal (albeit with some bionics) patient, you.



I'm considering making knot holes in the Yarn Tree or the Sweater Tree which have a magnifying glass and an LED light so you can see the bones.

WEEKLY BLOOM: WEEDS

Yellow Swamp Iris: I'm told this is a weed, and that makes me like this beauty even more than if it were planted fastidiously every year by the Conservancy.

While this Foxglove was planted in the Conservatory Garden, and therefore planned and well kept, in most parts of the country it just volunteers weed-like anywhere the soil conditions are right. These are one of my favorite flowers to run across. I imagine actual foxes putting their paws into the bells of the flowers. It seems like a nice accessory for a society fox to wear to tea, don't you think?

Black Locusts grow incredibly fast around here. When I first moved into my house in 2001 there was a 5 foot tall weedy-looking bushy thing in the backyard that my landlady wanted to remove. Since then it's grown into a giant tree which beautifully shades her backyard in the summer. Right now it's so beautiful with the white blossoms. They smell like honey, Honey.

I should really add this to my list of things I love: weeds. I love dandelions. I love that they win every war to kill them. Were I a suburbanite, my lawn would be all dandelions. They are so bright and noisy. I also love bittersweet nightshade, chickory, ailanthus, and etc. Most of them have flowers. I think that's a defense mechanism; "I know you want to get rid of me, but look how cute I am!"

On a related, but slightly non sequitur topic, I'd like to point out that I'm trying to find a way to give fresh flowers in my installation. Like maybe there's a flower tree that contains daisies. Perhaps people can wander by and pick daisies all day? I think in the apple tree, some of the ladles can be filled with water and flower heads. Yeah.

I'm also toying with the idea that people won't know they can take stuff, until the first person does and doesn't get in trouble. Like you take your 8 year old to the installation and she can't keep her hands off the apples. Then no one yells at her. Then adults start to touch stuff and no one yells at them...then suddenly everyone realizes that everything can be harvested.

One way that my Central Park will be better than the actual one; in Real CP you can pick apples, but you better not get caught.

MEN WHO KNIT

Thinking ourselves SO original yesterday, with our knitting men post, I expected to be the only listing to come up when I typed men who knit in the Google box. Not so. Not even close to being so.

This is a real, live genre of activity/person out there. There were not just a few listings. No, there are pages and pages of listings, including a magazine devoted to it.

This is probably my favorite site out there...It includes a little history of male knitting.

I would like to read this children's book, too, but keep in mind: written by a woman.

Here's a video, featuring a man knitting a hammock with pool cues.

Some more links:
Men Who Knit Community
Male Knitters (at Knitty.com)
A fun blog

Keep in mind, I've only listed a tiny fraction of the sites out there.

We've officially decided to rename our musical genre Male Knitting Music. It's going to catch on, I'm sure of it.

MOBILE SWEAT SHOP

Every band member on the case of the Yarn Tree on our way to Wilmington NC for WE Fest.

Knit like the wind!

CENTRAL PARK + RAIN = GOOD LUCK

Sunday I went to the wedding of two good friends. They got married at Hearnshead in Central Park. Their permit only allowed for 20 or so people to actually be in the gazebo-like structure thingy:So the rest of us rowed out in boats:It was raining and that made things cold but fun. Our excellent hosts provided us with flasks of bourbon and other goodies like wax lips:

Bourbon + wax lips = We don't notice the rain.

Never had wax lips at a wedding before. I've also never attended a wedding in a boat. It was a banner day.

Wish I had a better pic of the bride and groom to show you. Oh here's a funny vid of their civil ceremony; 1.25 minutes courtesy of NY City Hall.

ANNIE QUICK + HEMINGWAY = HIP HOP

This is new math, folks. Somehow Hemingway makes a cool hip hop track. Check it.

Omar Musa is a British/Australian rapper who went to Seattle to record a new record with my record's producer, the very talented Geoff Stanfield. Geoff hooked him up with Hemingway.

REHEARSALIZING

New traveling band members here in the studio for rehearsal this week. We're on our way to North Carolina (Wilmington) for the WE Fest later this week.

Please say hello to Austin Owen:
Notice the flower attached to his headstock. Nice touch, Austin.

The very photogenic Jake Geesling:
We had a fine day woodshedding all the parts. These are kind and talented folks. I'm glad to have them along.

HAPPY NEEDLES

I just got a wonderful package full of these needle books. I'm going to use the needles to make nests for my yarn tree. I didn't realize I was getting these beautiful little old-fashioned folders complete with antique-y threader and bright foil backings.

Here's the front:

I just had this kooky idea that the first person to subscribe to my band-new RSS feed (I'm putting that in today) will be able to receive one in the mail from yours truly. If you are someone who is a non-sewer or a masculine type who won't admit to being a sewer, I'll send you something else that you'll like.

Leave me a message if you've subscribed and I'll send it on over.

I'm going to have a hard time disemboweling these. I love them too much.

HI I'M ANNIE

Hi I’m Annie Quick, and this is my blog, in case you hadn’t guessed.

I started this blog to chronicle the making of a kooky installation about Central Park, which I’m set to take around the country with my band this fall. The installation is really interactive and fun and will hopefully remind you of Dr. Seuss. It is also educational—it teaches where cupcakes come from. I also shot a movie in Central Park last summer, which I’m editing, in a behind-schedule sort of a way. The blog’s about that too.

It’s also a blog about Central Park in general, as I live two blocks north of it and am inside of it almost every day. I love Central Park. I like the idea that nature exists so close to my ghetto home. I’m originally from the Redwood Forest, and never would have considered myself a city girl, but twelve years later, I’m a convert. That being said, my nature girl heart is excited by the giant salad bowl that is CP. I guess it’s time to mention that the idea of parks in general makes me overjoyed. That you can make up nature is just so darn appealing. That raccoons live on 81st street is even more so. In this blog I’m prone to telling you everything I see in CP, what’s blooming, what’s falling, what’s flying, what’s crawling around in there.

When (as is scheduled) I’m gone for prolonged periods, I’ll likely tell you what’s going on in the natural world and in the parks wherever I am.

Here are a few tidbits about me personally, in case you’re interested:

1. I’m a musician by training and sometimes by trade. Right now I have a semi steady gig making Spanish language instructional videos for Yabla.com. I’m a filmmaker and a maker of objects d’art and illustrations sometimes I also do these things for money. When people ask me what I do for a living I pick the thing I’ve been doing that day. At the moment I don’t have a life sucking uncreative day job, like I’ve endured in the past, but at any moment I may. I’ve had a billion jobs including but not limited to:

Ambulance Driver
Gardener
Writer of Articles about New Drugs
Rachael Ray Worker Bee
Someone who Dresses Like Laura Ingalls for TV Land
Deli Meat Specialist
Assistant to Two Men Named Greg
Hair Model (kept me fed one summer—I ain’t proud)
TV Promo Music Writer
Horse Mascot Costume Wearer
Interviewer of Mimes
Security Guard (complete with polyester CHiPs costume!)

2. I got married when I was a kid, and am still married to Jad who likes cats and does Flash Animation for a living. Jad’s shy and kind and funny. He used to play bass in many of my bands, but one day decided to give up the life in favor of growing up. He’s an excellent example of a productive adult and I hope to be like him one day.

2. I like flowers, trees, shrubberies, hills, mountains, lakes, oceans and most animals. I like reading children’s books where animals wear clothes or otherwise engage in human behavior like having tea or ice-skating. I secretly believe that animals can talk, but only wish to do so when there are no humans present. One day I hope to catch an animal red handed.

4. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I thought I wanted to be a musician, but I really like doing all kinds of other stuff, including (at times) nothing. Drawing is my new passion. I’d be happy doing everything.

3. I have a band—doesn’t everyone? The only reason I mention this is because I’ve actually spent a good part of my adulthood in a van with said band, so it must be part of any biographical details. And because right now I’m getting ready to get back in the van with the band, my giant, collapsible Central Park Installation, my Movie and a toothbrush. You see how it all comes around? When that happens, the blog will be about the band and where we go and what we see.


I’m sure there are other things to mention here, but at the moment I’m all out of autobiographical steam. You’ll have to read the blog.


XO
AQ

P.S. Please feel free to email me at annie at teamsuperteam dot com. I'd love to hear from you.

WILD CENTRAL PARK

Last night I was walking home and saw this guy. He was trying to leave the yard at the Museum of Natural History and cross the road to get to CP. He almost got hit by a car on Central Park West in one attempt.

He was a cute little guy, and stood up on his hind legs a couple times, obligingly, so I could take his picture:

I love how it looks like he's wearing pants. And his little hands are nice too. All he needs is a backpack to look like he's nonchalantly walking to subway. Maybe he keeps his Metrocard in a hidden pocket in those pants.

Here's one more dark photo of Mr. Raccoon Pants' epic journey:

I hope he made it across the street.