Heather Gold

#DateDay: A new feature in which I share our affordable magical dates in NoCal. No 1. Vichy Springs in Ukiah, CA

I took Mariko, my sweetie to Vichy Springs in Ukiah CA a few weeks ago. It was the second anniversary of our meeting. We had an amazing time. Friends and acquaintances have been asking us about our #dateday posts on Instagram (I’m @heathr and she is @marikotamaki) So we thought we’d start blogging our dates to give other people date ideas and hopefully get a few from you.

Vichy Springs has cheesy billboards up all over the Bay Area with line drawings of Jack London trying to impress you with “champagne baths.” None of that may sound appealing. The rust colour of the older-than-Mark-Twain stone baths above might look even less appealing. That’s why I’m writing to tell you that floating in one of those mineral, bubbly, warm baths looking at the sky after a beautiful hike is pretty much a slam dunk fantastic date. Sublime even. It’s all about the floating, which was completely Mariko’s idea. The baths are not like the tub you take at home. Water is running through the thing the whole time. Water full of Lithium, Bicarbonate and other mineral goodies said to have all kinds of healing and happy powers. To be completely buoyant and warm (when you are still all the bubbles coat you and keep you about body temperature) and feel the slight wave from the water moving is to have the easiest meditation you will even have. You can do an hour easily. Easily. Then there’s a really hot larger communal tub to warm up in when you’re done. Nothing foofy about this place. V old and simple but super magical.

Time: 2 hours from the Bay Area. Lovely drive. Do-able as a determined day trip. Map.
Cost: $30 each for day use plus gas.
Tips: To do as an overnight, great off-season discount, maybe $150 night including breakfast. Bring flip flops. And comfy warm sweatshirts and hats. Bring a picnic. No food here for daytrips. There’s a great market in Healdsburg.

morning Jew Ep 8 (10/18/2013)

I’m enjoying doing this weekly morning show with my pal NY comic Katie Halper. We review the week’s headlines and ask: Is it good for the Jews? It’s so morning show sometimes you even get a true morning face from me, like in this week’s episode. This week we hit topics from the hugs: how do political parties really work in America to what a good Jerry Seinfeld interview sounds like.

If you want to know if something is good for the Jews, just ask or (more likely) tell us.
The show is at http://morningJewz.com .

10/4/13 Woody Allen is the ultimate shonda, Miley Cyrus and critical history of bras for Jewesses.

Are Woody Allen, Miley Cyrus, Sinead O’Connor or the government shutdown good for the Jews? Show notes.

Also: a special outtake. Heather is busted.

More morning Jew.

morning Jew 9/22/13 The Pope, Israel pays for Propoganda and Pop Chips

Katie and I take on the latest headlines and ask: is it good for the Jews? All the good nosh here.

Ryan. The Ultimate Lesson in Show Don’t Tell and a More Moving Computer Animation Than Anything Pixar’s Done.

Ryan by Chris Landreth, National Film Board of Canada

My girlfriend Mariko showed me this animation by Chris Landreth at the National Film Board of Canada the other day. It hit me like a rock.

It won an Academy Award and made one of those happy occasions when something superlative won. It is perhaps the best piece of documentary I’ve ever seen and one of the most whole expressions of what it means to make art and what it means to live in suffering I’ve ever seen.

It captures what is handed down from generation to generation. Its characters embody what our mental anguish does to us, literally. It shows what a hold money has on art and why art is oxygen. It has tenderness and such self-awareness and love. And it does all these things compactly in beautiful small, detailed gestures. It is exquisite storytelling. Chris Landreth has committed the greatest act of art: he has paid great attention. And he has cared. And he has not turned even one inch away from the truth.

A note: You will probably cry. I did. But it is the most satisfying and important kind of cry. The kind that lets you know that the very point of being alive has not been overlooked.

“Putin wrote an op-ed in the NYTimes, like a good Jewish boy” Morning Jew is back.

Katie Halper and I have just brought morning Jew back. We ask: Are the headlines good for the Jews?

Today’s full post. You can follow us on tumblr.

I Highly Recommend Not Knowing Too Much About What You’re Trying to Do

This was me on my 44th birthday at one of my favourite places in Napa. I didn’t live anywhere yet.

Right before we taped this I ordered a plate of fresh cookies and then spent the rest of the night giving them away to other people at the very posh restaurant and getting to know the people there. That was the best part of the night.

I needed some inspiration today. I came across this video and thought I’d watch it and attempt to learn something from myself.

What did mid-life teach you?

Where Technology, the Economy and Culture Come From

## Getting ready to give my new talk tomorrow Nerd, Know Thyself at UXWeek. Emotional self-awareness is what the web and the economy need most. I’ll be giving a longer keynote version at Web Development South in Sydney this Fall. If you’d like to book it, get in touch.

Art is not a quarterly business, says Rick Rubin. And me.

the structure of the music industry is rooted in a corporate structure. It’s a quarterly business, but art is not a quarterly business. At Columbia, if Beyoncé didn’t deliver a record one year, for whatever reason, that really affected the whole economics of the company. And it’s impossible to build a music company as if you were selling shoes.

– Rick Rubin

I remember when the bankers came in to meet with my boss when I worked at New Line Cinema. They wanted to know about the second quarter films slated this year and then were going to compare them to last years second quarter. And I was only 24 and had only worked there for less than a year but it was clear to me that they had no idea what they were talking about. We weren’t making pencils, or as Rick Rubin puts it, shoes. The desire for predictability means the bankers want to decrease risk. But you decrease risk really differently in making art. Value isn’t created by avoiding risk. And as you would in a business, any business, you have to take the right risk to grow and benefit. And you have to keep taking risk to get good at it. And the knowing of art is not a thinking knowing. It is a feeling knowing. That’s where the value is.

Today I Am A New Kind of Lady

#crone #barren #transition #EISTC #woman #whyhide @lizbelile @christenclifford, a photo by subvert.com on Flickr.

Yesterday at the screening and feminist conversation (Mother Whore Complex) I hosted for Jill Soloway’s new film Afternoon Delight Jill told us a story. An investor asked her to take a scene out. It was a scene in which the two leads happen to meet in the bathroom, one is looking for a tampon. They discover they are synced. Jill couldn’t believe it “It’s a feminist art film and you’re asking me to take the menstruation scene out?” There was a huge laugh. Such discomfort with something so humdrum. So basic. Something women generally can’t escape.The request proved the point of the film.

“Where do they think the children come from?” I asked, getting another laugh. But I didn’t know that that was the day, yesterday, though I was sure I was menstruating too, when I would fail to have a period for the first time. And I didn’t know just how hard it would be more me to say even the next day. It marks a loss for me. And as sad as it is, it took me three quarters of the day to have the courage to post this. Because it might make someone else uncomfortable. But someone is always uncomfortable. And I am becoming a different kind of woman.

More: Everything Is Subject to Change #EISTC