Marin Maven & ArtHound’s Most Excellent Adventure

March 19, 2009

Revolution 9 Store in Fairfax On Saturday, Marin Maven and ArtHound, Geneva Anderson went on the most excellent adventure starting at Revolution 9 in Fairfax. Revolution 9 were celebrating two years in operation by laying out snacks, and hiring henna artist, Darcy Vasudev from Henna Lounge. Revolution 9 feature cool t-shirts, bags, cards, and other neat gifts. I got myself some pretty green earrings and a frog amulet as I wanted to thank them for the pretty special hospitality. It turns out Revolution 9 is a special store as they host After-school Art sessions for grades 1-5 Wednesdays from 3:30-4:30 and grades 6-8 on Fridays 3:30pm-4:30pm.

Darcy giving Geneva a cool design

Geneva and I were first in line to get the free henna tattoos on Revolution 9’s lovely couches.

The henna designs just stain the skin and last at least a week. We were able to let the dark brown henna paste stay on the skin and it kinda looked cool in its raised form. As the paste dries and flecks off the stain starts out as a light orange color but deepens to a warm, reddish-copperish brown.

Darcy and Geneva

Darcy quickly created beautiful designs on our ankles. Just so you know, Darcy does henna parties as well as private sessions. You can also hire her for fundraising or spa nights for mother’s clubs. If you are planning to be in Oakland, you can visit her studio.

Henna proved useful to me as a hair color and love the copperish-red. Henna is really good for the hair and the color covers gray. The only drawback is that the process takes 2-4 hours, more than a trip to the salon. My last trip to the salon though ended up with my scalp having a nasty reaction to the chemicals, so I have no choice but to turn to henna from now on. It smells so much better, and a kilo of pure body art henna is about 35 bucks, which is much cheaper than a typical $150.00 you would be charged in Marin.

Since the days I worked on Wedlightly.com, I admired Darcy’s work as something brides could do to adorn themselves in an earthfriendly way. I have been jonesing to get a henna tattoo — just because. They are beautiful, safe, temporary, painless, and painless — did I say painless? Now, I dread the day it will fade and want a more elaborate ones on both ankles/legs and hands/arms. I will have to come up with means to hire Darcy again. I am hooked.

We just let the henna paste on as we went for coffee at the from Susanne C Fairfax Coffee Roastry, and strolled down the street. It was then I realized that I really should be living in Fairfax as it speaks to my hippiness that really no other town does. The energy is laid back, but vibrant. The people are just very cool and super nice. I could easily live here, these are my people. To think that for most of my life Fairfax was just where I went to girlscout camp out in Camp Bothin where I would ride horses and do crafts.

Apparently, Fairfax holds what they call First Fridays, where from 6-9pm on the first Friday of every month (next would be April 3rd) Fairfax merchants stay open in a festive mood. Parents with tweens can drop them off at Club Between, and perhaps redeem a coupon for a complimentary Margarita at Pancho Villas.

We excitedly talked about the films we were going to see later on in Berkeley for the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival and the financial state of film festivals and art museums. According to our dear ArtHound, It seems the economy has hit these cultural offerings as well. Film festivals like the SFAAFF, depend on corporate sponsorship, cut back the number of films the have shown this year.

We read the newspapers strewn around the cafe. Geneva caught a story of how Italians found remains of a suspected vampire with a brick in its mouth. Apparently, In 1576, folk used bricks to starve those they thought were vampires. Vampires got their reputation I guess for their bloody mouths from the days of the Black Death. Many of the characteristics that lead to the vampire myth was linked to 16th century folk’s misunderstanding how bodies decompose. Bricks are often thought to be useful in toilets to save water, but experts say a plastic bottle with rocks in it are better as bricks decompose and may damage plumbing, but ultimately you should just install a low flow toilet.

When I lived in San Francisco, I used to enjoy spending the day getting lost inside the Green Apple Bookstore. I just would. Bookbeat has that same vibe that would have easily kept me through to evening looking through the selection of books. Borders just doesn’t cut it as you pretty much know their offerings. Bookbeat re-aroused my book browsing fetish. Now to find the time. Sigh.

Stephanie Mohan AT Creative Portraiture We went off to stroll down Bolinas Avenue and we were captivated by photos in the window of Stephanie Mohan’s Creative Portraiture studio. Stephanie’s work was so good that we had to go in to find out about her sitting fees. Geneva thought that a photograph of her with henna tattoos hugging her dog would look cool, so talk turned to dogs. Stephanie let us know that two dogs looking for homes and we would take a look at one of those later at For Paws down the street (we fell in love, but alas couldn’t find a home for the adorable chihuahua-dachsund mix). If I am ever interested in a portrait, I now know who I am going to. Stephanie had such a great energy and absolutely awesome work. Check her out.

Our most excellent adventure in Fairfax had to end so we could shuffle off to Berkeley for two films at the Asian-American Film Festival and Indian food. I will be writing reviews on those films on my other blog.

Bookmark and Share

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks