PHOTO BY CHANELLE

Almost every time I told someone that I was thinking about putting roll-out sod onto a gallery floor I got the same response: “why not use some kind of turf?” To that I say “If I have to use fake grass I don’t want grass at all.” I admit that I was beginning to doubt myself; it could just be a plain old bad idea- -an expensive bad idea, not to mention a wasteful bad idea, and a bad bad idea.

When the time came to buy the grass I was surprised to find out that you can’t just go to any Home Depot in Phoenix in July and buy a specified amount to suit your fancy- -no, no. Home Depot can’t keep that stuff alive in 110-degree heat, are you crazy? I was about to give up on the idea when my very nice friend Mark (in spite of his misgivings) tracked down a sod farm outside of town who was willing to truck it in for us, in the middle of the night of course. Their minimum order was only twice what we needed.

So, said nice friend Mark had the honor, along with my giant nephew Tully, of meeting the truck at 4 AM outside the Women’s Center of Mesa (where we had the pre-opening). He also had the honor of helping me bring half of the sod into the gallery the next day, rolling it out and fluffing it up. I hope his back didn’t hurt too much. Anyway, turns out that the whole time he was scared that the Women of the Women’s Center would come by and stop us from carrying muddy sod into their gallery. We put it on plastic, honest!

PHOTO BY CHANELLE

I tell you all this because my relief was so great that people loved the grass. They sat on it. They spread out the blankets. They took peanut butter sandwiches out of the picnic basket and ate them. They watched the show from the grass. They played ball on the grass. In fact, they acted just like it was regular grass at a regular park, which was exactly what I was wishing for.

PHOTO BY CHANELLE

BLURRY CONCERT-WATCHERS

The bonus of the whole thing is that after the show was over, everyone took off their shoes and danced on the grass for a couple hours. Have you ever danced on grass? It’s fun.

PHOTO BY CHANELLE

One more bonus (that for some reason I didn’t think about beforehand) is that grass smells good. It smells like grass! The whole room was transformed into a park, not in small part because of the growing smell of grass. I just can’t wait to do this when it’s winter so people can come in from the cold for a tiny summertime experience. Lord, I hope sod is not as hard to get in Michigan in the winter as it is to get it in Phoenix in the summer.

The best part is that my fear of wasting was also unfounded. What was I going to do with 250 sq. ft. of sod? It would die in a matter of hours if I just left it outside without water. But my friend Nancy knew of a nice family with small children and a dirt yard. We rolled up the grass and they took it away just like that. The report is that the grass fit exactly into their space- -no leftover space or grass. I was relieved and overjoyed. Once in a while things work out perfectly.

Here is a detail of the Horn Tree. This mother is pretty hard to photograph.

The idea here is that the mouthpieces of the horns grow out of the copper tubing at approximately mouth level. When the horns are blown (and the proper sound is made), the light bulbs (which are suspended from copper tubing overhead) light up. The tree was engineered so that some bulbs light up at some frequencies, and others light up at other frequencies, see? So that if you blow a high note a certain bank of lights go on, and if you blow a low note another bank of lights goes on. Make sense? No? Well here’s a video to explain:

And here’s another picture–a little blurry, but you can get the idea:

My dad helped me to engineer the base (so that it wouldn’t fall over) and then he had to leave, So my friend Mark took over to help with the engineering of the light bulbs–that is, making the light bulbs turn on when the horns are blown. Turns out he knew of this fun thing called a Color Organ. It’s the device that makes those awesome light banks from the seventies function. Don’t know what I’m talking about? I think you do:

Nowadays you can buy a printed circuit board kit that controls the lights. Thank God that Mark knew how to 1) order it and, 2) solder the damn thing together.

The PCB is almost as interesting as the horn tree, really. It looks like three little robot guys with three little robot drums getting ready for a drum circle:

Here’s a wee video of Ken and Mark testing the color organ:

One more thing I’d like to note: Caralie and I felt very proud of ourselves because we learned how to attach plugs and sockets to electrical wire. Here’s a picture of us doing a victory dance:

Did you know that electrical wire is made of latex? I didn’t. One bad side effect of working with this stuff all day (I learned to use a wire stripper!) is that my latex allergy has been upgraded from mild to relatively severe. Now I’m allergic to all sorts of things. I’m even allergic to my iPod headphones. Sheesh.

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 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.

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.

This is a perfect Spring. By that I mean perfect conditions for growing. Everything is large and full of color. All our city plants look positively corn-fed. I’m not sure what combination of conditions have brought this about, but I’m using my crappy point and shoot to get it all down. One day I’ll get an SLR and my selective focus will be better selected, if you know what I mean.

Here’s a short list of what’s currently blooming:
Forget me nots (above).

Lilacs:
These are in Central Park’s Conservatory garden which is ringed by very old lilac bushes of all different colors. It smells good in there.

Tulips:
Tulips are just over their prime. They had a gorgeous season this year.

Whatever this is:
This white flowering shrub is in CP’s Conservatory Garden.

Other blooming things:
Asian Dogwood
White Azaleas
Bluebells
Wisteria (just starting)
So many other things, I can’t count.

Things past their prime:
apple blossoms
cherry blossoms
regular dogwood
daffodils and other early spring bulbs

Blooming in my house: The yarn tree. Getting bigger but still miles to go:

I wonder if NYC has some sort of an account with Holland. Every year the Conservatory Garden, Broadway and Park Avenue have many hundreds of the same color tulips. It’s actually more like thousands or millions of them. This year many are this weird purple-black color, like photograph of red tulips with the blacks turned WAY up.

But, back to Holland. Do you suppose that the people at XYZ Holland grower are like, “Boys, no matter what, we have to keep the NYC account; wear the wooden shoes if you have to.” Twelve million bulbs a year have probably paid for all their kids college tuitions and the ground breaking for that bulb museum Grandpa Vandersloot always dreamed about.

I really have no idea. I’m just thinking that whomever sends us the bulbs is doing brisk business.

I also know that I’m going to be picking up a few of these girls when they take them outta the ground at the end of the summer. You can have them for free, I’m told, on a certain mysterious unannounced day, if you happen to be walking by.

I went out to Willamsburg last night for a friend-of-a-friends curated show last night. The friend-of-a-friend had a piece in there that I loved. Sort of an upside-down frosted vinyl tent with tubes that went out to fans on the window. Very shiny and smooth and warm-looking. I found myself wanting to lick it, but I’ve heard that that kind of behavior is frowned on by fancy society.

There were a few snow globes that I was real fond of.

A million tiny fans:

And slip covers for the Birth of Venus. I wish I had thought of this idea.

Last night I had a 1.5 hour confab with the engineer who’s helping me structure, wire, animate, cut, construct and etc. His name is Bob Quick and he also doubles as my dad.

Poor guy is neglecting retirement to be in on this, and I’m really glad. He has an uncanny ability to figure out what something needs and make it so, giving me all sorts of structure and materials advice, while allowing for the design of the place.

Progress Report: Still building the Yarn Tree. Realizing I’m gonna need MANY more yarn cones.

CP Progress Report: The fruit trees are done blossoming. Tulip season is nearly over. Hydrangeas and Lilacs on the move. I’ll include a Lilac picture very soon. When, oh when will scratch and sniff technology extend to photographs?

I’ve found some beautiful things in the process of making this project. Some are weird, some are wonderful, some are bizarrely specialized, and some are all three.

Here are just three that please me the more than the rest:

1. A site that makes customized guitar pics cheaper than any you can buy at crappy-ass Guitar Center. I’m ordering green ones with a leaf pattern to put in the pockets of my sweater tree.

2. A blog that’s about cupcakes and cupcakes only.

3. A site that locates free/cheap/surplus materials for you wherever you may be.

There are many more–too many. I’ll keep posting them as they strike my fancy.