My beautiful friend Tara invited me to photograph her newest family member’s birth day. For me, words can’t really describe an event like this. Tara was magical and strong. Her new baby boy is full of possibility.
You can see more photos on my facebook page here. (SFW)
I grew up with a mother who loved antiques. For a time, she even ran a large Antique Warehouse on Apache and McClintock in Tempe, Arizona called Cheap Antiques. It was huge: one of those buildings filled with different vendors and rooms. It was unlike any other I’ve been in since though. The back section of the warehouse was a workspace for certain employees to refurnish the some antiques. I used to watch in awe as they dipped heavy pieces into an industrial sized tub to remove all the varnish. It smelled like stripper, oil, and wood shavings back there. I loved it.
It’s been a long time since then; my mother has long since changed careers, but I did inherit a couple of large chairs that wouldn’t quite fit into her house the way she wanted. I lugged them all the way up here to Portland. (Thanks David! I know they were heavy!)
One of the chairs in particular has always been ugly. The fabric on it, I just don’t even know how to describe it. Colorful?
I have provided evidence with a “vintage” photo of me and my cat taking a nap on it. As you can tell, it is comfortable. Definitely worth saving. MAKEOVER MONTAGE! (Just kidding, although if I already had photos of the after…sorry you will have to wait. JUST.LIKE.ME.
I took it to my local reupholster-er. These folks are legit. Alexander Baghdanov is the third generation in his family to practice this business. His wife Lyubov runs the front desk, and his children work in the shop as well. They have beautiful accents and are wonderfully friendly.
Part of what they do is give the furniture a little love. I look forward to seeing how they salvage what my mother’s pug pack did to this arm.
Alexander Bagdanov
There are A MILLION FABRIC SAMPLES. It was so hard to decide. But I finally did. EEEEEEEE!
I hope to have the “after” photos in another week or so!
Spent time with some of my best friends on Saint Patrick’s Day watching them get tattoos at Martian Art’s Tattoo Studio on Hawthorne Street. The lighting in the shop was lovely, and I managed to get some dramatic shots. (See the full set on flickr)
“You can never be overdressed or over educated.”
-Oscar Wilde
I met Corbin sometime in the past few years in my time at Liberty Market. He’s a regular customer whenever he’s in town. You can often catch him on his laptop or having a meeting over coffee. He makes me laugh, and he challenges me as a friend. Also, he has fabulous hair.
Jamie: Tell us a little about yourself.
Corbin: Arizona native. Can’t get enough coffee, carbs and expensive silk scarves. I’m a fashion writer (The New York Times, Newsweek/The Daily Beast and an editor at the New York Observer’s SCENE Magazine). In addition, I’m working on two books at the moment. I’m an advocate for long dinner parties, pricey perfume and late-in-the-hour consumption of ice cream. Overall nice guy with a soft-spot for outcasts, misfits and troublemakers.
Jamie: I’m curious about your fashion history. Were you a toddler born with all the right tastes who demanded to dress yourself or was this something that more slowly developed?
Corbin: I’m really fortunate to have a ultra-stylish mother and grandmother. I was always concerned about what I was wearing, but I wouldn’t consider it fashionable or stylish. I had a uniform; oxford shirt, bow-tie and vest.
Jamie: What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever worn?
Corbin: I’ve worn a lot of outrageous items (long fur coats, capes and caftans) to suburban-spots outside of the anything-goes-streets of New York City and haven’t felt embarrassed, rather a tad overdressed. Perhaps I blushed a bit when I ran into a very important editor-in-chief in the hallway of a hotel in L.A while wearing gym clothes.
Jamie: Gym clothes are one of those necessary evils, aren’t they? What advice do you have for the average suburban American? What to wear? What not to wear?
Corbin: I suppose gym clothes are a necessary evil– after all the gym is hell. The best advice I can give is that once you’re done with your spin class, go home and change. No one wants to see you in sweaty-spandex at the market, really there are no good excuses. I’m in LOVE with the fitness gear from Nike. It’s the gym, not a the Oscars– just keep it basic, modest and clean.
Jamie: Have you ever met Stacy and Clinton?
Corbin: I’m sorry, who? Doesn’t ring a bell.
Jamie: Would you like to share some internet links?
Corbin: Well, you should read the following everyday…
www.sceneinny.com
www.elle.com
www.thedailybeast.com
And follow these divine individuals on Twitter. .
@PeterDavisNYC
@DrrrAmina
@BryanBoy
@NicoletteMason
Also find me at @Corbin_C and corbinchamberlin.tumblr.com for my constant mischief making.
(photo provided by Corbin)
Thanks again Corbin for participating in my interview series! If you have any questions for him, please ask away in the comments!
So you may remember my friend Alyssa from her interview.
Today I met up with her and her son for tea at Liberty Market.
It was Halloween. But she already had this costume.
(image above: Bob Hoag in the booth)
I got a call from my friend Krystofer who was laying down some tracks for an album at a small recording studio in Mesa, Arizona called Flying Blanket Recording. It was so beautiful inside!
There were little vignettes of mid century modern furniture, doorknobs, and music equipment all over the building. The converted building was built in 1947.
See my whole album here on flickr.
(photo above: credit Chanelle Sinclair)
We went to a coffee tasting at the Stumptown Annex.
It’s basically a Stumptown where they just focus on the flavors and specific brewing methods of coffee.
They host free daily public tastings at 12p and 2pm.
the Stumptown coffee guy
coffee cups
glass jars with various varietals
my friend carl
Krys is one of my most favorite people on this planet. I’ve known him since I was in fourth or fifth grade (we went to the same church), and he was a year older (and probably didn’t even know who I was.) We became friends somehow or another during those years growing up, and we were in the same pack of awkward/emo/drama-kid/musician group of friends in high school. Krys is hilarious. And wicked smart. He’s loyal and brave. He’s one of the good ones.
(photo credit: Jamie Mulhern)
Jamie: Tell us a little about yourself.
Krystofer: We moved to AZ from California when I was 2, so I’m dang-close to being a native. That doesn’t mean I’m particularly fond of the weather or our national perception. I spent a little time at a handful of colleges, including a PC hardware certification program that led to a couple years of working IT for Tempe-based MicroAge (still kind of alive, but a shadow of its former self).
I started doing church music with a guy named Jason Borrmann, he’d wind up to be one of the most influential men in my life. He gave me the opportunity to intern at my home church in Mesa in 2000 (for those of you who keep track of this kind of thing, it would be classified as a megachurch – for the rest of you, yes that’s a thing). I worked there for six years and learned a lot about working in a creative team and leading people. I believe leading volunteers has made me a better manager of employees for a variety of reasons.
Jamie: Aside from being your boss, who was Jason to you?
Krystofer: Jason was the consistent older male in my life, my musical role model, my best friend, a shaper of my humor, eventually my boss, then my professional peer. Arguably the most influential person in my life (sorry dad).
While working there I met Melissa online. We celebrated 9 years of marriage on August 29th.
(photo provided by krystofer)
Krystofer: Then I spent two years as the arts pastor for a “church plant” (also a thing) in north Phoenix. It was a great experience to have more responsibility and creative freedom coupled with a smaller budget. I don’t mean that sarcastically – scarcity of resource can work a different set of creative muscles.
Then another influential man in my life extended me a job offer. Brandon Willey needed help with his growing web development company and asked if I’d like to leave church work and work with him. I am so glad that I did. Brandon introduced me to Twitter, and encouraged me to use social media for networking and marketing the business. Getting into Twitter, social marketing and going to Ignite Phoenix impacted my life greatly. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that these things altered the course of my life. I have always been an introvert, sometimes painfully so. But putting myself out there in social and on the stage at Ignite helped me become more comfortable with another version of myself- one that is confident in who I am. Working in church ministry can lead to always presenting the “right” version of yourself. I call it “the illusion of authenticity” – the leadership wanted me to seem authentic without crossing any of their comfort lines. I owe much of my current life path to Brandon.
(photo provided by Krystofer)
Krystofer: In this season, we had two beautiful daughters. I am ridiculously in love with them. Being a proud parent, I am prone to talk a lot about my kids, and I know your childless hipster audience doesn’t want to read about it. (For those that are interested, the girls have a Tumblr)
(I met Krys for photos, and his girls were drawing and coloring. Yaya wrote me a song, and it is called Unicorn. All the lyrics are “unicorn.” And I am pretty sure she wrote it in binary.)
(photo credit: jamie mulhern)
Krystofer: On June 19, 2010 Jason killed himself. That sucked. It turned out he had been trying to tough out some mental illness on his own. This experience has made me more sensitive to mental illness, and also led me to ask a doctor about my own depression. I am now on Prozac. I am just as smart and capable without it, but it helps me keep from being overwhelmed by things.
Jamie: That was an awful thing. I’m glad that it pushed you into looking for Prozac though. Was it something you immediately faced or was it something that slowly emerged? I took an antidepressant for a couple of years. I’ve just decided to try again without them…we shall see how things go.
Krystofer: I had dealt with irrational thoughts on and off for years, but never really thought much of them. By irrational thoughts i mean always being afraid people will think I’m a fraud, waking up and saying to myself “I hate my life” even though I have a great job and a beautiful family, stuff like that. About a year after Jason’s death I started noticing that I was getting easily overwhelmed by things at work. I was also getting very insensitive to my family’s feelings. I finally talked to the doctor about all this stuff, they put me on Fluoxetine (generic Prozac) and as long as I remember to take it, I’m much more effective and pleasant to be around.
Jason’s story has helped me separate the person from the condition. If you have heart disease, there’s medication to help that. If your brain chemistry is off, it may be alleviated through medication. I would like to encourage any of your readers who deal with anxiety, depression, or difficulty dealing with their own feelings/thoughts to talk to someone about it. It doesn’t mean you’re crazy; you may just need some help with your brain chemistry.
(photo credit: jamie mulhern)
At the end of 2010, I stepped out on my own to freelance multimedia production and social strategy. The design and marketing connections I had made came in handy to get me work, but it was a tricky time to set out on a new venture as the sole earner. Another Twitter connection connected me with a content marketing agency in Scottsdale and I worked there for a few months producing infographics, working on Facebook pages, and learning more about SEO. I’m very grateful to the people I worked with there. In July, 2011 I was approached by another Twitter friend to come work for a larger digital marketing company. I now lead a social media team and love it.
Jamie: You’ve been a musician as long as I have known you. What has that journey been like?
Krystofer: It’s strange, but it’s hard for me to think of a time when I wasn’t involved in music. There really isn’t a “pre-music” part of my life. As far as official training, I started playing string bass in the school orchestra in elementary school, took a couple years of piano and started messing around on guitar in junior high, then started seriously playing electric bass as a sophomore. That was the turning point. My sophomore year, I was in orchestra and jazz band at school, and playing with Jason in the youth group at church on Sundays. This meant an hour of classical, and an hour of jazz theory every weekday, followed by pop production on Sundays. That year is when music became very clear to me – almost like Neo at the end of the Matrix. After that I took music theory whenever they offered it at my high school, and I’ve always loved it. Many musicians endure theory to get what they need from it, but I love it. It’s the math and science of music.
I did a whopping one semester of music education at ASU, but didn’t attend all that much.
I’ve continued to play church stuff, as well as some session and sideman work. (session = studio, sideman = live paid gigs). I think I’ve played on 40 or so projects over the years. I’ll give you a spotify link to some of them. Playing session work is great, I absolutely love it. Between all the projects I’ve touched, there is a creative part of me that will outlive me, and that’s rad. Also, any time I get paid to do music I need to be grateful. I’d be doing music anyway, and in the hunter-gatherer sense, it’s not all that valuable a skill.
Jamie: So…what’s music theory? I’ve heard you mention it before, but since my single (much hated) musical skill is whistling, I never did learn much about the musics.
Krystofer: Firstly, I am supremely jealous of your whistling abilities. I need to record a beatbox + whistling jam with you.
Music theory is the set of rules that music seems to follow. In a way, it’s our means of interpreting acoustic physics in an easily expressible standard. It’s like a programming language that provides a framework for building songs. Each genre has a different take on the standard classical rules, but even turntablism and dubstep can be analyzed, notated, and compared to traditional tonal harmony.
It can raise interesting questions, like do we write music this way because it’s what our brains want to hear, or do our brains want to hear music this way because it’s the way we’ve always heard it? And if we met an alien race that did not hear, would we be able to prove to them that music is happening?
I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds, but here are a few things to check out if any of your readers are curious about the strange world of music theory…
Bobby McFerrin Plays The Audience – musical genius Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the pervasiveness of the pentatonic scale using an unwitting audience. 3 Minutes, totally worth it.
Axis of Awesome – Every Pop Song (NSFW) - comedy/music act Axis of Awesome shows you why so many songs sound similar (and why mashups are sometimes really easy). 5 minutes, but don’t watch it if you want to be able to maintain your childlike wonder.
The Rite Of Spring – In 1913, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring debuted. The music was so different and so much more dissonant than anything the audience heard, that their brains literally couldn’t handle it, and there was a RIOT. For reals. Take that, Woodstock. That Wiki entry talks about the ballet, but this podcast explains the neurological phenomenon at 32:15 – super fascinating to the likes of me. Anyone on the fence about the musicality of dubstep should listen to this 10 minutes for some historical context on pushing the boundaries of acceptable harmony.
(photo credit: Chanelle Sinclair, taken at Ignite Phoenix)
Jamie: What’s it like being so damned clever? Does it hurt?
Krystofer:
Ugh.
So here’s the deal, I’m going to just come right out and say it. I’m smart. Being quick witted, into words, and being starved for paternal approval leads to being what some might call clever. And yes, there are times it hurts. Even though I’m pretty sensitive to others, there are times my cleverness has hurt others. That’s not cool. “With great power,” right?
Jamie: I knew you’d hate that question. I almost thought you wouldn’t answer my questions at all when I threw that one out there. I’ve been reading a little about spirituality and paradoxes (thanks Richard Rohr!), and he said, “Everything except God is both attractive and non-attractive, light and darkness, passing and eternal, life and death. There are really no exceptions…You and I are living paradoxes, which everybody except ourselves sees. “ I think that just recognizing ourselves for who we are frees us and leads to peace. But you are really clever and I admire that about you.
Krystofer: ok.
Jamie: Would you like to share an internet link or two?
Krystofer: yes.
http://krys.co/KrysRecords (spotify playlist of some of the stuff I’ve played on)
http://krysvs.com probably the easiest place to track me down
http://theoatmeal.com/ if you don’t know what this is, i have no time to be your friend
http://ignitephoenix.com only go to this event if you like cool things
for cat people: http://procatinator.com
for dog people: http://textfromdog.tumblr.com/
this actually brings me to another strange point. leading a social media team has turned me into a bit of a nexus of internet crap. people send me videos, memes, etc and expect me to send and post them. I’m like Mesa’s less interesting, less asian, less Takei, less famous George Takei.
Big thanks to Krys for his openness and willingness. Please feel free to continue the conversation in the comments.
hey there!
i’m running a special: $25 for a portrait/avatar photo.
details:
-we meet in the east valley
-i’ll shoot about 20 photos and send you the best one in color and black + white
-you’ll have your photo in less than a week
-payment due at time of shooting in cash (please provide an email)
-shoot will last less than 20 min (for those of you on a time crunch)
-special runs through the 12th of september
see more of my portraiture here.
(this one’s for jeff since he wanted to see his whole head.)
(i protest because he cut his wild mane.)
contact me through email (jamiecmulhern) (@) (gmail)(dot)(com)
or tweet to me!
I first knew of Chanelle through twitter. She was doing what she does-taking photos, talking about food, having a good time…to be honest I was jealous. She then showed up at a the first Ignite Phoenix I went to, and she presented on The Art of Enjoying Food (I just watched the video again.) We began following each other on twitter, talking back and forth, and we first met at her house! She invited me and Rachel (also who I had never yet met), over for chocolate, knitting, and pajamas! Some time after that, I asked her to be part of my group reading through The Artist’s Way. Along the way, we became friends in real life.
Jamie: Tell us a little about yourself.
Chanelle:
i am a mother to two super rad spawn, caleb and arie, who will undoubtedly change the world…. and wife to one wonderful husband, gabe, who has changed my life and the world already. we all love anthony bourdain, macaroni and cheese, pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.
i love food. and drink. reading about it, photographing it, writing about it, preparing it and also eating it. especially the eating part. i have worked in and around kitchens my whole life, i collect cookbooks, and usually think about what i want for dinner before i’ve even had my first bite of breakfast.
i am also a musician. music is life to me…i can find harmony in everything. i’ve been told it’s like a superpower. :)
we have a music room in our home with everything from a rhodes to a vintage drum kit to an accordion to a kazoo. i have even used a lemon-pepper mill as a shaker while jamming with friends. it sounded really good but tasted better.
i create and perform music with my husband gabe as “the bear and the bird” and nothing makes me happier. we have performed in a singer-songwriter showcase and at a couple local venues, and we are currently writing new music to share soon.
aaaand i am a photographer. mostly food [surprise!], but i venture out into portraits, music photography and powerlines too. i see and hear the world a little differently, and i like to share that with anyone who cares to see the world through my heart. once upon a time, i was in the top five best flickr photographer finalists in mashable’s open web awards. and i have had my photos displayed in a children’s art museum too. that felt pretty good.
i don’t like: capitalization, mushrooms or pants.
Jamie: I’m trying to imagine your expression if you had to compose an instagram with proper capitalization of yourself eating mushrooms while wearing pants. Does that make me a bad person? But I suppose my real question is what has your journey as a musician looked like?
Chanelle:
first of all, jamie – i love you. second, i will never properly capitalize an instagram of myself eating mushrooms while wearing pants with anything but the most ridiculous expression on my face. imagine bitter beer face combined with the wicked witch of the west and add some indigestion. whatever visual that gives you is probably pretty accurate.
as for my journey into music, i feel like i have just begun, honestly. i am finding my voice, my sound, myself….more and more every day. i always sing, always play, always listen…and always learn something new about music, myself, others through every note.
i grew up listening to my dad play the most beautiful renditions of classic 70’s rock songs [cream, yes, led zeppelin, ah yeah!!] on his acoustic guitar, and i finally found the self-discipline to teach myself guitar when i was 15. i mostly softly played songs to myself in the quiet of my own room through my teens and early twenties. [side note: i am old.] i am horribly self-conscious, and being on stage or recording in the studio [or just being around people ever, haha!] – well, it’s frightening. i was not ready for that for a long, long time. i still don’t feel ready. 
a couple years ago i started reading this wonderful book called The Artist’s Way [you may recall, since you invited me to be a part of a book club for that very purpose] [have i told you how grateful i am for you lately?] ANYWAY, i was so encouraged and inspired to break out of my crippling internal fears and finally express the art inside me, so i decided to get crazy and go perform at a local open mic night. *gasp* i was nervous as hell, had only my two spawn there to root me on and you know what? i was terrified. AND I LOVED IT. in an ALL CAPS KIND OF LOVE. i began practicing every day, sometimes several times a day, recording rough covers on my laptop and with fear and courage, posted those recordings online. i cannot say that a major record company discovered me and offered me a gazillion dollar record deal, i have never been asked to play live on conan, nor has jack white phoned me to jam [my ultimate dream of dreams] BUT, it gave me the strength to do many, many other things i needed to do to be true to my heart of hearts and i cannot even think about all i have been through since without many grateful tears. i started and performed in a band with a dear friend of mine, bryan mok, for about a year, moved forward from an oppressive marriage and then unexpectedly found the love of my life, recorded an album with another dear friend Kymberlee, and have now started a musical project with my husband that has good, good things in store. just to name a very few.
i have finally learned to follow my heart with my voice, and it has only become stronger, better, happier every day, thanks to the lovely supportive souls i have encountered along the way. freedom is a beautiful anthem, and i am grateful to sing it.
Jamie: You and I are very much into The Enneagram. What has learning about your number done for you in your life?
Chanelle:
the enneagram is an incredibly enlightening personality guide… it has educated me on the healthy and not-so-healthy aspects of the way i view myself, others, and the world around me. when i first learned about the enneagram, and more importantly, that i am a four [introspective, sensitive, brooding], i felt as though a great weight had been lifted from my soul. i no longer felt crazy for processing life in the unique way that i do…and i felt like i could finally begin to understand and appreciate myself and others just as we all are, and learn to be the best version of myself moving forward every day. i truly encourage everyone to use the enneagram to learn more about themselves, to become better, more enlightened. socrates once said: “know thyself”… and therein lies the first and most important lesson. only after you learn who you truly are can you begin to know others, and how to truly love them.
Jamie: I think I experienced that same lightening of the soul when I discovered all that entailed being a one [principled, purposeful, perfectionistic], and that I could could let myself and others grow. The thing I like best about the Enneagram is that it gives a direction for healthy integration of self. For example, for someone like me, I’m supposed to try to relax! Hahaha! What?! So, uh, what are you supposed to do?
Chanelle:
well, fours are naturally creative and intuitive and feeling…but that can go dark very quickly. i experience such a depth of emotion over *everything*, and i have to be careful to remember that my feelings are not always a reality, and therefore do not need to define my total experience. i am supposed to be confident in who i am, purposefully creative, and not jealous of my perception of the peace and calm and self confidence EVERYONE else seems to have. a healthy me means a joyful, creative, inspired and inspiring heart…. using my intuition to love and learn and move forward and enrich the lives of others. also, i am supposed to be more like ones, haha! so let’s just trade.
(photo credit: chanelle sinclair)
Jamie: Are you more auditory or visual?
Chanelle:
yes.
(photo credit: chanelle sinclair)
Jamie: Would you like to share some internet links?
Chanelle:
daily dose of inspiration and love: http://thedailylove.com/
my two favouritest food blogs in all the land: http://mattbites.com/
and http://orangette.blogspot.com/
know thyself: http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/
for your ears: http://thebearandthebird.com/
<3
Jamie: I just want to thank Chanelle for participating in my series! As always, your questions are always welcome in the comments of this post.