That's Passion

@lyricontiveros
Remembering Sergio Ontiveros

The scene:
We are in Lyric’s back-house behind her grandmother’s house - separated only by glass to The Miracles’ old recording studio. Lyric wants to be appreciated in her own right for what she brings to the world - as she should. She also comes from an amazing musical legacy - her grandparents, Claudette and Smokey Robinson, inevitably brought her into this world with exceptional musical talents. Her voice is gorgeous and that is the gift she chooses to share with us. Join me for a chill chat with one of my new favorite sweethearts <3

Highlights:
+ Biggest passions: music and fashion
+ Mom is a fashion designer
+ Lyric dates my son Kaya - she’s the best girlfriend he’s ever had <3
+ She has a gorgeous voice and is working on her own album
+ Discovered singing in the womb - born into a very musical family
+ Wanted to be a singing doctor when she was little
+ Dad was also very musical and in bands - rock, electronic, old hip-hop
+ Being exposed to every musical genre from a young age
+ Having an open mind musically
+ Wanting to do many genres as a musician
+ Stagecoach festival with grandpa Smokey
+ Being a solo artist - she goes by Lyric
+ First time recording was with with Smokey in a studio in Burbank at 7 yrs old
+ Releasing her first EP this year
+ Having a boyfriend that pushes you creatively
+ Having a boyfriend who is a writer, producer and records his own music
+ Learning how to promote yourself
+ A special phone call from the boyfriend (who is soon to be un-incarcerated)
+ LOVE
+ Being hesitant to express your talent because you’ve been boxed in
+ Wanting to share a message to others that might help them
+ We love you @arianagrande - thank u for getting us through breakups
+ Expressing your emotions through music
+ Losing your dad, connecting more with family
+ Getting taken for granted and setting new boundaries
+ Learning how to receive
+ Being OK with disappointing others
+ We’re all going through things and it’s OK to open up
+ Dear younger self: trust yourself and stay strong
+ Unlearning being a people pleaser, saying no
+ Accepting the way life presents things to you

A taste:
“Let it be; to not look back on anything. I feel like I’ve felt a lot of times like with losing my dad…maybe if I did this or I did that. […] Even in the hospital…did we make the right choice? …I try to tell myself, it is what it is now, I have to let it be, I can’t dwell on it any more. I have to keep looking forward.”

Favorite saying:
“It is what it is.”

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Love, Sagewolf xoxo

 @firstladyofmotown
linktr.ee/ClaudetteRobinson

Coming Up!  April 23-24, 2022
LA Times Festival of Books at USC, Booth 100
Signing for her book “Claudette’s Miraculous Motown Adventure”

The scene:
We are in Claudette’s home in Beverly Hills, CA, sitting together in her office, after a tour through some of the significant items from her life. Claudette is a magnificent storyteller. She speaks with ease and a close attention to detail and chronology. Her life is fascinating! Join us for her unique journey through the Marines, the Miracles, Mothering, and Grandmothering.

Highlights:
+ Claudette is the “First Lady of Motown” - the first woman ever signed to Motown Records
+ First job at 12-yrs old typing letters for fundraising for $0.50 per hour
+ Quit college to be a “Private Secretary” to the downtown YMCA in Detroit Michigan
+ Graduated from high school at 15 (double-promoted three times in school)
+ She wanted to be a teacher, to help other people, and loves children
+ First royalty check was $3.19 - to split between all 5 band members
+ Receiving a key - or two - from the City of Detroit
+ She doesn’t display her awards so people who visit just see her for her
+ Grandmother and mother gave her a sense of self - a value of self
+ “Inside, I’m very tall” - you can be as tall as you want inside
+ Claudette has decided she will live to be 150 years-old
+ She’d like to go to the moon, when it’s safe
+ Being greeted with a shotgun when trying to check into a hotel in the South
+ Getting lost trying to find where you’re performing
+ Old school marketing: manager puts up posters the night before
+ Airplane travel was not an affordable option - 6 people in a car was
+ Not being taken seriously as new band “kids”
+ The norm was 4 shows in 1 day
+ Making $750/week, 4 shows/day
+ Required to join the union but couldn’t pay for it until they performed each night
+ AGVA - American Guild of Variety Artists - is now SAGAFTRA
+ Biggest passions: loving to love and be loved
+ Takes great pride in her children and grandchildren
+ She wanted to be a nun after going to Catholic elementary school
+ Was in the Marine Corps Reserves - mom wanted to keep her out of danger
+ Looking out for your neighbors <3
+ A cute visit from Lyric, Claudette’s oldest granddaughter, during our interview
+ Every time Claudette looks at me, she sees my son Kaya in my expressions <3
+ Every time Claudette smiles, I see her daughter Tamla in her expressions <3
+  Claudette’s life is very different from the one that is portrayed online
+ Claudette is writing a book about her life - in her own words
+ Ghostwriters trying to write a false story to get more press
+ She’s not from the projects and she’s not a recovering addict
+ “My doctor tells me I’m perfect, and I believe him” :)
+ The Kardashians can get away with a sex tape, but not in her day
+ We don’t say shy, we say reserved
+ We can all try to be a little better than we were yesterday
+ Caring and loving and extending ourselves is what we all need
+ Younger self: stay encouraged, don’t let anyone hold you back from your dreams

A taste:
“It was fun. We were young enough where the adventure didn’t… We didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t know what was going to happen. All we knew is that we cared about each other, we wanted to protect each other and to do the best job that we knew how to do.”

Favorite saying:
“I love you more.”

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Love, Sagewolf xoxo

@jamienelson6
@pink1968
@flamingo_jungle
jamie-nelson.com

The scene:
We are at Jamie’s gorgeous home, sunbathing nude in the backyard, surrounded by penises. It’s just us, but she has a penis topiary, penis statue, and too many penis sculptures inside to count. The minute we start the interview, the gardener surprises us and we go from celebrating our sexuality to scrambling inside. Hilarious. We are everything all the time and this is why we are sisters. Join us poolside for real girl talk.

Highlights:
+ Being terrified to be in FRONT of the camera
+ There’s a lot of glitter on the introvert
+ Creatively directing being a form of control
+ Vulnerability achieved through a “train-wreck”
+ Creating a Playboy-biker-themed house
+ Starting with an inflatable bed in a closet in NYC
+ Renting your entire house out and living in the office
+ Choosing your life perspective as glass all the way full
+ Finding balance and no longer doing it all
+ Having 5 careers and no time to wrench
+ Trying to keep up with 85-yr old car guys
+ Feeling the pressure of your own high expectations
+ Doing a lot of damage to your body
+ Home-owning is not for the faint of heart
+ Biggest goal: life hacks and superpowers
+ Growing up very poor and eating from a food bank
+ Playing all the sports and having other parents want to kick your ass
+ Being an honors nerd rebel and considering pre-med
+ Wanting to do and be it all and not being accepted anywhere
+ Being a pervert and having a drawer full of speedo’s for your male guests
+ 1968 Playmate Pink Convertible Ford Mustang
+ Becoming a photographer in high school because she couldn’t paint or draw
+ Being young and poor in New York
+ Biggest gift: resourcefulness
+ Being poor teaches you tenacity and grit
+ Cross-marketing still, video and home rental
+ Life happens for us, not to us
+ When you focus on the negative, the universe shows you more negative
+ You don’t get it until you GET it - you live it
+ The red heart tub IS a celebrity
+ Killing yourself to buy a house for your mom in the Dominican
+ Raising flamingoes in their own ecosystem
+ Feeling like you’ve never worked a day in your life
+ Fulfillment comes from giving back
+ Setting up a non-profit to give scholarships to a photoshoot studio
+ Moving to LA for the weather and more shooting seasons
+ Space, inexpensive vintage, abundance of time and sun
+ Perfectionism and learning to be gentle on yourself
+ Dreams, visualization, manifesting
+ Midgets, cakes, smoke-bombs, roof jumps
+ When the payoff of a centered life > the payoff of partying
+ Dealing with our problems, not escaping to boyfriends
+ Compound interest lesson from sexy financial wiz Jamie
+ Having “quite a bit of OCD” and counting everything
+ Being inspired by an entrepreneurial mom
+ Appreciating the power of being different
+ Thinking too much about what other people thought
+ Feeling hodge-podge in life, then appreciating it all
+ It’s too much fun - too fun not to share
+ Success comes from so many failures and so much hard work

A taste:
“I just make sporadic, dumb decisions constantly. They end up being the smartest decisions ever because I’m the only one dumb enough to just do it and then it always works out. It always works out.”

“Even my fun is very overachieving.”

Favorite sayings:
“All of the sudden…” (is not all of the sudden)
“Slow down to speed up.”

The scene:
We are in Jay’s smoke shop - Cuzz - on Olive and Palm in Fresno, CA. This area is not for the faint of heart, but his shop is full of all the love. I met Jay a few months ago buying loose-leaf tobacco. I knew when I met him that he is a super solid human. And he wowed me even more in our interview. I was able to witness him in action in his community. He is wise, intelligent, protective, funny, and full of heart. Join us in the shop for his story and a real experience of this neighborhood we share together.

Highlights:
+ Have you ever hung out in a smoke shop for an hour?
+ “I’ve never seen so many tweakers” (meth)
+ Tell-tale sign: swollen fingers
+ It turns out that lawyers and policemen like meth too
+ “Asking for a friend”
+ Living in the TLs (Tenderloin in SF)
+ Not wanting to raise a daughter in a world like this
+ The smoke shop is a ways to a means
+ Building longevity for your children
+ Customer service is everything
+ People vibe because of who you are
+ Have a blessed day
+ Last job working for a boss: Aetna
+ Stacking bread with your hustle
+ Every hustle has an expiration date: death or lockup
+ Always get to know your neighbors
+ Partnering on a business with your neighbor
+ We pause the recording multiple times for “certain” customers
+ Someone taking a chance on you
+ Appreciation, being humble
+ Getting broken into and figuring out insurance
+ Selling your biz to your biz partner’s brother
+ Buying out your biz partner
+ Having a bad experience with an edible
+ If I die today, what can I leave my daughter?
+ Providing options for your children
+ If black lives matter, why are black people killing each other?
+ Showing young black men how to NOT be on the streets
+ You can lead a donkey to water…
+ Building a bond with your customer
+ It’s not the bong or blunt wraps, it’s the clothes that sell best
+ Shoutout to the Cookies clothing brand
+ He can sell snow to an eskimo
+ “Walkers” and the homeless
+ Tattoos and ankle monitors
+ Who you hang around is who you become
+ We don’t know why people hit rock bottom - be compassionate
+ Being desensitized to death from seeing so much
+ Open 7 days a week, 10am to 1am
+ Read the room
+ Competition builds business for both
+ “Baby mama” is not an acceptable term for him
+ People sleeping in closets and bathrooms - and being happy
+ Good people teaching you to not live for the moment
+ Serving Thanksgiving meals to the community
+ Protecting the community you business in
+ Dear younger self: INVEST
+ Learning how to build credit from a $300 card limit
+ Jail life is something some people look forward to
+ Fresno Bulldog gang family
+ “I know now that I can make $500 into two grand”
+ Street smarts = adaptability
+ Life is about chess - you’ve got to know who your knight is
+ “They are watching me all the time”
+ We’re all human, we’re a family
+ Audio of Jay in action with his customers
+ We discover Sevonty’s story together
+ Brain aneurism and stroke at 12, coma for a year
+ Learning how to walk and talk again, and write left-handed
+ How long were you dead for, what did you see?
+ Is it PTSD or just being cautious?
+ Family first
+ Jay asks for my story, so I share it

A taste:
“I like to give back to the community as well. So on Thanksgiving I was open, I worked and I had a whole feast right here. I fed everyone that needed to be fed. […] I think they respect me for that because I look out for people. […] You don’t know exactly why they hit rock bottom.”

Favorite sayings:
“N*%#$”
“Stayin’ out the way.”

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Love, Sagewolf xoxo

@lets_talk_about_recs

The scene:
We are sitting on the floor in the back of the house in the room “where the magic happens.” Get your head out of the gutter! We are in Red’s music room surrounded by 8,000 records, speakers, 2 turn tables, and a microphone (see what I did there ;) I’ve been witness to his DJ mastery for 23 years now, and he’s "even better than the real thing." Join us for the OG story, a homeless jaunt through Yosemite, and THE BEST podcast soundtrack.
Dear parents: we use salty language in this interview.

Highlights:
+ Red "turns the tables" and makes me DJ our interview
+ And unsuccessfully tries to distract me from the interview questions
+ The pricey record collection: Tool’s “Enema” and Harlem Youth Percussion Group
+ A radio station on Humboldt Hot Air
+ Living under a rock in and getting chased out of Yosemite by rangers
+ Volunteering for $6/day
+ Being a DJ for 43 years
+ Sister sang for Charles Wright - in his home, with him playing the piano
+ Having a mom and a sister who are GREAT singers
+ Shout out to the Pin Room in Arcata - Woot!!
+ Having a soft spot for Disco
+ I sing Pistol Annie’s for Red - he has no idea what is going on
+ You do NOT need ecstasy to have fun at a rave
+ He still burns CDs for people (like me who have a CD player in their car)
+ Putting yourself in a position to receive criticism from mass public
+ Billy Corrigan should have stayed gangly
+ “Rock God” and rock power - what happens when you become a cool kid
+ Sensual albums for making out to
+ Nostalgic albums from youth: The Pretenders, The Beastie Boys…
+ Being sorta anti-social
+ Turning people onto new music
+ DJ Logic complimenting your record choice
+ Opening for Rob Garza and stumping him with music
+ Music snobbery
+ The volume wars and harmonic complexity
+ “Music peaked in the late 60’s and has gotten worse ever since” (according to an algorithm)
+ You won’t hear great bands on the radio
+ Current pop music is written by the same 4 people
+ The Telecommunications Act ruined music variety and discovery
+ Propaganda is everywhere you’re looking and listening
+ We don’t care about how many hot models Trump banged in the 80’s
+ “The media’s reaction to Trump is what divided us”
+ The difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth: 6 months
+ Being a local DJ so you can keep playing the music you love
+ “If it wasn’t for the community, I’d be playing for nobody”
+ Kids these days

A taste:
“I’m a storyteller but I also am super self-conscious about talking about myself. I don’t find my life that interesting but I guess I could maybe tell it in a way that it is interesting.”

“There was a crip - a legitimate Gardena crip who was in that class […]. I remember him asking me, ‘Hey, have you seen the Buffalo Gals video?’ And I was a super fucking geek [… ] He asked me if I had a turntable at home. ‘Does it have a scratch pad ?’ I was like ‘What the hell’s a scratch pad?’”

Favorite saying:
“I don’t like the taste of beer, but I like the flavor of being drunk.”

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Love, Sagewolf xoxo

@vitalflowcleansing
vitalflowcleansing.com

The scene:
We are sitting in T-shirts in Ashton’s balmy 73 degree office in downtown Arcata, CA on an overcast day. This office is made for relaxation, self-care and cleansing of the body, mind, and spirit. Ashton is extremely talented at guiding one to achieve health in all three. She is a refreshing balance of professionalism, kindness, intelligence, and intuitiveness. Join us off the table to talk about how life guided her to - literally - help people get free of their shit.

Highlights:
+ We’re going to get to some shit today
+ Facilitating the elimination of the back stock material we all hold onto
+ Discovered through her own personal healing journey
+ Started with a Bachelor’s in Psychology
+ Doing a humanitarian project in Cambodia
+ Returned to the US with Dengue fever and a broken heart
+ Emotional health directly affects physical health
+ Colon Hydrotherapy is immediately rewarding
+ Feeling drawn to help others alleviate what they’re carrying - emotionally and physically
+ Other services: LENS, Holistic Lifestyle Coaching, Ionic Foot Baths
+ We have to get back to a state of rest and digest
+ Microbiome health affects all other health issues
+ Our colon is instrumental in supporting other organs to rid the body of toxins
+ The Liver and Lymphatic System rely on the colon to rid the body of toxins
+ Auto-intoxicative loop is when toxins are reabsorbed into the body
+ Feeling sluggish, skin issues and inflammation are all caused by auto-intoxication
+ Our spirit bodies need healthy physical bodies
+ We are supposed to have vitality in life and have our systems flow smoothly
+ Colon cleansing allows for clearer intuition
+ LENS creates neuroplasticity
+ Choosing geography for the community of people
+ Ambition, drive, tenacity, perseverance, intuition, being humble, flexibility
+ It always comes back to us and the work we do on ourselves
+ Striving for clearer and better boundaries, saying no
+ Collective consciousness starts with each one of us
+ Self-care is the good kind of selfish
+ Community makes any of it possible
+ Partnering with patients for their own healing
+ The clearer we get, the more apparent our choices and decisions become
+ Be gentle with yourself when you choose painful choices
+ Be empowered in your health choices and acquire tools to help you
+ Not being limiting in our mindset, about anything
+ Dear younger self: buy property and invest in crypto
+ We must live for who and what we are now, make the most of it, look for the magic
+ Things tend to happen in threes / multiples
+ We are all more connected than we think
+ Ashton asks me to share my own origin story of this interview project
+ IGS - our Internal Guidance System - tells us when things feel right (credit: Abraham Hicks)
+ The great finesse - learning to listen to the subtleties of your IGS

A taste:
[re the IGS] “It’s a multi-stage process. The first step is knowing you have one. The second step is listening to it - it’s talking to you... The hardest part is actually listening when it tells you. If you’re in a situation with someone and it doesn’t feel right but then all of the sudden - either the social cues of the environment - ‘it’s not polite for me to cut and run right now, I need to maintain this' or ‘it’s not professional’ and your IGS is like ‘this is not what we should be doing!’”

Favorite saying:
“You have to put your own oxygen mask on first, before you can help others.”

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Love, Sagewolf xoxo

The scene:
We are in the mini-van, returning to school for the second time this morning to deliver a laptop that was left at home by my oldest nephew. I meant to join them on their first trip to drop my younger nephew off for a week of camp in the redwoods (if I’m being honest, I wanted to hide in his suitcase so I could go too). Join us as we sister-talk about a nurse’s perspective and personal experience of covid, the extreme importance of breastfeeding and baby/parent bonding, and - holy shit - how is my sister turning 50?!?

Highlights:
+ “Ripping the bra off” - today is the first day that school kids can opt out of a mask
+ Nurse for 17 years - adults, obstetrics, graveyard shift, 12 hour shifts
+ Q: What happens when you tell people to stay home? A: Babies
+ Birthing babies for mom’s with covid while wearing full protective gear
+ Her own rapid test was negative, TWICE (and she actually had covid)
+ If you retest negative, you can come back to work within 5 days - as a hospital employee…
+ Breast-feeding was normalized and natural in her upbringing
+ Huge supporter of La Leche League and lactation support for new mamas and babies
+ Decided against an MPH so she could be more hands-on with actual human care
+ She knew at 6 years-old that she wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse
+ Breastfeeding babies sets the pace for how a human will eat, for their entire lifetime
+ New mothers need A LOT of support after birth
+ Why are we separating babies from their parents? (It’s the worst thing you can do for newborn health)
+ Going against the grain of archaic hospital thinking
+ Humans have made the birth process over-complicated and mechanized
+ Elective inductions - chosen by mothers who are just tired of being pregnant (mostly in affluent communities)
+ The C-section rate at her hospital is currently 18%. The national average is 40-60%!
+ Risks: infection, antibiotics in mom, antibiotic exposure to baby (causing lifelong effects on immune health)
+ A blessing of covid: forced waits for patient-elected inductions led to healthy natural births
+ Women’s bodies are literally made for birthing babies, and you’re not broken if it doesn’t go smoothly
+ Trust your birthing team - they’ve helped a lot of mamas and babies
+ Read the room to observe the needs of patients instead of inserting yourself robotically
+ Every area of your life affects every other area of your life - be present where you are
+ If you do things repetitively, they become your cloth
+ Your work ethic is the level at which you choose to function
+ When you say “it’s not my job,” you’re harming your own ecosystem. Pay it forward.
+ Altruism shouldn’t feel like work, it should be your doctrine - it’s just what you do
+ Senior nursing students: take advantage of the preceptorship you’re gifted
+ Obstetrics nurses need training in all human health areas
+ Life advice: enjoy what you get and you do have a choice about your attitude towards it
+ The shit end of the stick is being working moms and just wanting to be with our kids
+ All kids find a reason to blame their parents for not being perfect (and they get over it)
+ Parents: make time for yourselves apart from your kids - they’ll appreciate a happy, patient parent

A taste:
“What do you think’s going to happen? You stick a bunch of people at home and they can order a bunch of things to their home online, like virtually anything they wanted, except for toilet paper. […] You look at each other, ‘What do you want to do?’, ‘I don’t know, what do you want to do?’ So here you are 9 months later. It’s been kind-of a baby boom.”

Favorite saying:
“This too shall pass.”

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Love, Sagewolf xoxo

nicholsonhatcompany.com
@nicholsonhatco

The scene:
We are in The Old Tobacco House, which is Keryn’s studio and shop. It is a dream - like hanging out in a gem of history, a literal gold mine. It turns out that Keryn and I have been making our way toward each other’s lives and the stars have aligned. I am honored to say that by the end of this interview, I was inducted into the Nicholson clan, and the rest is history in the making. Join us for a delightful rambling exchange of a budding sisterhood.

Highlights:
+ The Old Tobacco House (where there is zero tobacco)
+ We love you Brooke Luallen!
+ Building custom hats
+ “Full classic Western-styled hats for the hard-wearing individual”
+ Cowboys and Ranchers are very particular about their hats
+ Using equipment from bygone eras
+ Dad’s Stetson Open Road hat is how it all started
+ Brandon Wise we love you! (Hatter in Venice, CA that we both know well)
+ Starting in a garage down an alley on the wrong side of the tracks
+ Trusting your intuition and KNOWING in your gut
+ Taking pride in and keeping your last name
+ Entering a very male-dominated field
+ Liking not belonging and proving yourself
+ We have the same favorite restaurant and we went to the same high school - in a small town!
+ Resilience, adaptability, not scaring easily
+ Being introverted and setting boundaries on people interactions
+ Learning your own tools for your personal success and contentment
+ Learning when to not be too self-reliant and ask for help
+ Researching your craft daily and always aiming for mastery
+ Bringing a lost craft back
+ A local friend, Graham, makes her wooden hat forms
+ A local plant dyer, Brooke Luallen (see our interview) dyes her hats
+ A local silversmith makes her hat pins
+ Shout-out to Wedding Dress Designers Brittany and Ashley at Daughters of Simone
+ Ultramarathons and timed trail runs
+ Making time for physical and mental self-care
+ PeaceCorps in Ethiopia as a Community HIV/AIDS educator
+ Grad school in London: NGO and International Relations
+ Thesis in bio-intensive and small-scale farming
+ Finding a creative outlet: sourcing vintage for resale
+ Hatting for 5 years, 3 years exclusively
+ Hard-core researching your craft
+ Secret local BYOB rodeos
+ Hat rules: never put your cowboy hat on the bed
+ Trust your gut and instincts, don’t listen to naysayers
+ Why to not apprentice: develop your own signature
+ The differences from a big-box store hat
+ Mutual respect and camaraderie amongst hatters
+ Not feeling “masterful enough” to take on an apprentice
+ Dear Harry Ayala, you sir are a baller! (see our interview)
+ Using social media tools to share your gift with the world
+ Sharing my personal hats: a hat reading, if you will
+ Hats represent the blood, sweat and tears of people’s lives

A taste:
“It has memory, like muscle memory. The felt literally has memory. The first time you pounce or sand the hat and the first shape you give it, after it’s blocked on an old block, it never forgets.”

Favorite saying:
“You’ve gotta risk it to get the biscuit.”

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Love, Sagewolf xoxo

@truenaturetattoo
@truenaturetattoostudio
truenaturetattoo.com

The scene:
We are at Brian’s house in his kitchen and he is making me a fancier coffee than I’ve ever had anywhere in the world, including Santa Monica. Even the water is being weighed for christ’s sake. I feel very fancy but this is just the daily, artful, thoughtful way that Brian lives his life. Somehow it’s not annoying, probably because he’s been the same for the 23 years that I’ve known him. Join us for coffee and a study of human evolution. Fair warning: we discuss penises and use salty language in this interview!

Highlights:
+ Doing a mindful task first thing in the morning (fancy coffee)
+ We should curate what goes into our minds as much as we do our body
+ What is the meta verse? We don’t want to know
+ Forest bathing is a Japanese term - Shinto is a nature-based religion
+ Japanese culture ingrains nature in you
+ We should be more sensitized to the world
+ Having an autistic son - a more genuine version of a human
+ Simply be kind and considerate of others - duh
+ Interacting with people every day and performing a craft with your hands
+ “Not everything new is bad and not everything old is important”
+ Don’t be a lemur, or a dinosaur
+ Knowing what’s possible, why would you settle for less?
+ Nirvana is to kids now what the Beatles was to us
+ What you’re passionate about can be in each of your life actions
+ Life doesn’t have to be separated or compartmentalized
+ Tattooing since 18 yrs old
+ Shokunin - having technical skills and an attitude in social consciousness. Being obligated to + do your best for the general welfare of the people
+ Doing a good job because that’s what you do, not because you’re getting a tip
+ Inspired by comic books and mom’s boyfriend who had a tattoo by Ed Hardy
+ Ed Hardy brought intellectualism and a large range of art styles to Western tattooing
+ Bill and Junii Salmon (famous tattoo artists) took him under their wing
+ There were so few people tattooing at that level, you had to really bring something to the table
+ There is a huge range of value in tattoo styles and no right or wrong
+ A great tattoo artist puts all their intention into their work and their client’s experience
+ Every single part of your life can be cared for with equal importance, equal pride and intention
+ “You’re as good as the company you keep”
+ Stick with what you have - dial it in
+ Most people define themselves by what they HAVE, instead of who they are BEING
+ Loving your work because it is who you are being
+ Finding balance so you don’t feel like you’re not doing anything well
+ “Money isn’t about what you can have, it’s about the stress you don’t need”
+ Pay attention to compound interest - Einstein knew what was up

A taste:
“I try to see it all as one thing honestly. I don’t separate it into things. I’d like to think I put as much energy or thoughtfulness into making coffee or taking a shower or setting out the vitamins or doing a tattoo. Karma Yoga. Anything you do, be thoughtful of what you’re doing.”

Favorite quote:
“We tried to find a common goal in life because she couldn't rock and roll with me and I couldn't avant-garde with her.  I mean we can, but that's what we thought at the time. So we decided the thing we had in common was love and from love came peace. So we decided to work for World Peace.” From the book "Imagine John Yoko" by John Lennon, Yoko Ono

Support the show

Thank you for listening! 
Please subscribe to support this project.
Love, Sagewolf xoxo

Upcoming show!
Journey to the Center of the Milks 
April 2 - May 22, 2022
Morris Graves Museum - Humboldt Arts Council - 636 F Street, Eureka, CA 95501

@nancy_._tobin
nancy-tobin.com
@vintage_avenger
vintageavengerhumboldt.com

The scene:
We are sitting in Nancy’s store, The Vintage Avenger in Arcata, CA, which I have been coming into since it’s inception in 1999…yeah, that’s 23 years ago. I’m pretty sure up until a recent move, I still had the hand-dyed vintage slips that Nancy dyed, which I wore as dresses - because it was early 00’s and we were so grunge. How many vintage stores do you know of that have been open that long? I’m convinced it’s due to her genuine passion for what she does and why she does it - and that everyone recognizes that. Join us in her store while Nancy hand-sews a piece for her new installation at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Humboldt, CA.

Highlights:
+ Being proud and humble
+ Retaining your own power
+ Self-reliance as a response to trauma
+ Military kid
+ Being ousted socially
+ The mind of a super creative
+ Art as self-therapy
+ The source of life and destruction
+ A love letter to others
+ Be resourceful
+ Creating with waste
+ Build it, they will come
+ Give them the opportunity to say yes
+ Dad was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam
+ Give yourself permission to say yes
+ Learning self confidence
+ Letting kids be of themselves
+ Adaptability
+ Peace out of a pandemic
+ HSU art degree
+ “How to run a consignment shop”
+ You’ve got to build it
+ Isolation and missing people
+ We need other people, the right people
+ Find something and polish it up
+ Changing others’ minds about value
+ The hobby became the everything
+ Competition brings demand
+ Single parenting
+ Tough times come in sets, like waves in surfing
+ Don’t try to bend things to your will
+ Work WITH the obstacles
+ Let go and let God
+ College of the Redwoods is THE best school
+ Being self-sufficient
+ An artist and also an accountant
+ Minimalizing a vintage collection
+ Coming out of the womb independent
+ Introverts need people too
+ Extroverts are over-celebrated
+ Inspiring others visually
+ Get weird!
+ Bringing others joy and laughter
+ Fearing people disliking us
+ The slut from Arizona
+ Keyed cars in high school
+ Working for yourself
+ The covid sabbatical
+ Do it all the same, but in Hawaii
+ Presenting the groom with an umbilical cord
+ Meow Wolf in Las Vegas
+ Counting on friends to keep us in check
+ Life is messy, and beautiful
+ Show the process
+ Wabi Sabi
+ Getting back to being childlike
+ Letting go of inhibitions
+ Seasons of life experiences

A taste:
“It seems like things come in cycles and in waves, and so when something bad happens it’s always like there’s going to be a set of them coming through. And so I’ll be like, uhhhp, here we go! You can just tell.  I’ve seen it enough times. There’s going to be a little set of things here. So I try to think of it like surfing - so it’s like get on your board and just get out past the break and just let the waves roll under you and try to float on top of it and just let them pass.”

Favorite saying:
“Making Lemonade.”
“Don’t wait for the stars to align before you begin.”

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Love, Sagewolf xoxo