One month and three days. That’s fairly large fraction of the blog’s entire lifespan. I used to freak out if I hadn’t posted in 36 hours. I also used to have slightly more free time.

Anyway, enough about that. I’m blogging again! Hooray!

A few highlights from the past month in Cali:

I officially began work for Porto Franco Records, full time. I still am having a hard time believing that I’m getting a steady salary to do what I love.

I’m particularly happy to be working with this label for a number of reasons. For one, I have a good bit of creative responsibility in my job, which means I have a good bit of creative freedom. Second, the label has a good taste in music. The owners are Russian, and you can hear their tastes translated in their decision to host an eclectic catalog of artists, ranging from indie, folk, americana, blues, jazz, balkan… all with the common characteristic of artistic integrity and stellar musicianship. Third, the label is open minded to not only adapting to the changing industry, but adopting innovative business and marketing models in the interest of finding a long-term solution to the issues in traditional record industry. I spend every waking moment studying the industry and evolving technology, and they want to work with me to find ways to use these new innovations to our advantage. DREAMY!

I’m working on a number of projects for them, but my main focus for the next few months is in the realm of branding, online presence and content overhaul, among developing some really neat projects both online and within the Bay Area. We’re aiming to have the new website up by February, which is exciting. In the meantime, you can check out the existing one here.

Follow us on Twitter, too! We just redid our account: twitter.com/PFRecords.

Also – I’m not going back to grad school (I’ve been in school for an MFA in photography). It was pretty difficult balancing full-time grad work + full-time job + all of my own projects (hence the blog hiatus), and I ended up half-assing pretty much all of my endeavors in the effort to keep all of them in my life. That said, I need to simplify things a bit and hone-in my concentration toward the most relevant projects – work, blog, photos.

Note that I still include photos as a relevant project, as I am still obsessed with photography and I have a blog that runs off of photos. I just can’t afford to build up my debt going through a grad program that I can’t put 100% into, because that would defeat the purpose of going to grad school. And… I have a job that I love. Also a purpose of going to grad school. Achieved.

Anyway. More fun stuff – I attended SF Music Tech in early December. It was, as the name implies, a conference where those involved in the tech and music industries can get together to discuss current issues and ideally brainstorm innovative ideas and solutions. I will say that the discussion of (and/or griping about) current issues largely outweighed the brainstorming of solutions, but it is certainly hard to steer a conversation toward resolution in panels that have a 30-minutes cap, so it’s understandable. There were a number of great startups present that shared new apps that answer to the evolving needs of the industry, including a new facebook music app by my friends at Involver. I met a number of great people both during and after the conference, and am looking forward to attending again. Ideally I’d like to soon get involved with the planning of the conference… with just a little more structure and direction in the panel sessions, there is a huge amount of potential for this to become an extremely productive, content-rich event with a huge amount of utility.

Also in recent news:

- My friend Brandom moved to California, and has been living with me while he’s looking for a place to live. He was a friend of mine from Raleigh days, and I frequently come home to find him and other-Raleigh-now-in-SF-friend Dakota in my room, usually playing cards on my bed. It’s really great. I hope they continue doing this after Brandom finally finds a place.

- My roommates Hoa and Cyndie both had birthdays recently, but Cyndie was kind enough to have her birthday party before I left for NC for the holidays. It was a bacon-and-bourbon themed party, and, in typical Helena fashion, I ate so much bacon that I ended up in bed sick after only drinking half a glass of bourbon. Priorities.

- Brandom and I went out to eat my last meal in California before flying back to NC. We walked to a Japanese restaurant down the street, where I ordered a big bowl of rice with an eel filet on top. Next thing you know, I have swallowed an eel bone. It is stuck in my throat. I can feel it. It is piercing my tongue every time I swallow. I panic. Run to bathroom. Attempt to find bone. No luck. I sit on floor and prepare to faint. Also no luck. I finally reach down my throat and find the bone sticking out of my tonsil. In my attempt to get it out, I accidentally push it all. the way. into my tonsil. GROSSEST INJURY EVER. PS – It never came out and remains inside my tonsil, where it will eventually dissolve. Also gross.

Ok. Now time for pictures! Some randoms from my last weeks in Cali.

Ok. That’s all for now. More updates to come!

END!

Just another day of jumping around Raleigh.

I noticed this little gem on the way back from the Bain Project. Never knew it existed. I fell in love with it immediately.

So I brought back witnesses to jump in front of it with me.

Jumpfail 1.

Jumpfail 2.

Jumpfail 3. Seb is winner.

Then off to the graveyard.

Jumpfail 4.

SUCCESS!!!! I really need to get a remote, so I don’t have to deal with this timer hassle anymore.

And then we rest.