October is here! Can you smell the autumn in the air? If you live in my part of the world (Northern California), I think you can. It smells delicious. And we’re getting treated to a little spell of warm weather as well. I like to talk about the weather in these posts.

Here’s a new wallpaper for your desktop. It’s a photo I took a few weeks back in Sacramento, CA of a spectacular evening sky, and I think the orangey glow is perfect for October. I photoshopped “Oct 2012” over a glowing Taco Bell sign, and then stretched out the dates of the month below. We begin on Monday the first, and each Sunday is punctuated by a larger hand-drawn numeral.

Download in various sizes here, and feel free to share: 2560×1600, 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×800.

Wishing you all a fabulous month!

Carlo was from Napoli, Italy’s last mafia stronghold. He was tall and skinny with a wide smile and green eyes that shifted. He strode around the apartment in flip-flops and tight-fitting designer clothes—little shorts and t-shirts mostly. He’d painted one wall of his bedroom bright blue, the color of Italy’s soccer team. They had just won the World Cup, and a jersey was affixed to the blue wall with thumbtacks.

Carlo had a dog named Chupito, which means “liquor shot” in Spanish. Chupito looked like a Chihuahua but Carlo insisted he wasn’t. Chupito lived in perpetual fear of being trampled or thrown off the balcony of the 11th-floor apartment where we lived on the west side of Barcelona. It was the third place I’d looked at and the first that was mine if I wanted it, so I took it without asking questions.

I used to lie in bed as long as I could in the morning, waiting for the sounds of Carlo to die down before going out to start my day. The nicest memory I have of Carlo is when my mom visited and he squeezed a glass of orange juice for her and said “Este es para usted, señora”, using the respectful form of “you”, and smiling his beautiful smile.

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Joe Gruen and I, aka “The Cream and the Clear”, have a new podcast available for your listening enjoyment. Recorded on the sunny morning of September 5th in my Oakland studio apartment, this hour-long podcast covers a wide range of topics from politics to fingernails.

Click the link below to listen.  NOTICE: this podcast contains some adult themes and strong language, and may not be suitable for children.

Cream and Clear Morning Show September 5th, 2012

Joe Gruen and I became friends in 2001 and started recording podcasts in 2011.  Many of our early recordings are are available on the not-so-polished website creamandclear.com.  We plan to continue recording together when possible, and one day hope to offer more consistent and polished programming.  Thanks for listening!

It’s September! My favorite month of the year. September holds my birthday (on the eighth), the lovely smell of fall (officially beginning on the twenty-second), and apple-pickin’ season (which will hopefully lead to some apple pie eating). Also, we can start wearing sweaters, at least at night :).

This month’s background is a sunlit close-up shot of one of my recent little still-life paintings. The colors struck me as very appropriate for this time of year. I scrawled some text on top, the 30 days of the month, and added a little squiggle for decorative effect. There’s a semi-transparent blue stripe to give some structure to the whole bit.

I hope this warms your computer’s screen and gets you excited about the season ahead (and not melancholy for the end of summer—don’t worry, it’ll be back before you know it). Download in various sizes here:
2560×1600, 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×800