In it’s most ideal form, Cinco de Mayo is less a specific celebration of the Mexican army’s 1862 underdog victory over the much more massive and heavily equipped French army and more a general, symbolic point of pride for Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

But, in fact, most of just use it as an excuse to eat Mexican food, hang out with friends, and drink Margaritas.

Which, honestly, I’m pretty okay with. As long as we know it’s origins, I’m generally of the mind that life’s short, so why not take any excuse to celebrate a thing?

And Margaritas are great and everything, but, every since living in Brooklyn and frequenting a relatively new Gowanus establishment called Lavender Lake, we’ve been in love with one of their mainstay cocktails, the Night Heat.

The bar’s in a beautiful space right on the Gowanus Canal and they offer some of the best house made pickled vegetables, bar snacks, and original drinks around.

We’ve never acquired the exact recipe for the Night Heat, but we know it’s primary ingredient is Pechuga organic mescal from celebrated handcrafted mezcal producer, Del Maguey. Pechuga has a smokey, almost scotch-like taste that, honestly, reminds you a little of old bandages…in the best of ways, if that’s possible. It’s difficult to describe, but we love it.

For the rest of the simple recipe, we essentially followed the blueprint of a Margarita recipe, substituting fresh lemon juice for lime and a homemade rosemary syrup instead of Cointreau or Triple Sec, both of which have lost favor in our home in the past few years anyway in favor of simple syrups.

Those seem to be the only ingredients of the original Night Heat and, from our home experimentation, this recipe seems to really nail it on the head.

How do you make simple syrups?

We wrote up homemade syrups in detail way back in 2010, but, basically, you take two or so cups of purified water, bring to boil, add a cup or so of granulated raw sugar, lower to a simmer, and allow to reduce until the sugar’s dissolved, stirring occasionally.

In the case of rosemary syrup,  just add five or so sprigs of rosemary as you’re simmering and then store with a fresh on when transferred to your storage container and chilled. Just be sure you don’t reduce the syrup too much so that you keep it relatively watery and mixes will with you lemon + mezcal.

Click on the recipe to the right or right-click to download the PDF, and enjoy.

One of our Record Store Day finds this year was an RSD exclusive 7″ with artwork Shepard Fairey from NYC’s Interpol, a band that survived the indie commercial success of the early aughts followed quickly by the decimation of the industry by the Web.

I was mediocrely into the band when they first hit the scene but I really dig their subtly reinvented sound on this most recent ‘comeback’ album, El Pintor—a Latin-sounding anagram of the band’s name and their first full-length in four years.

The single features a stand-out from the album—”Everything is Wrong”—and a great unreleased B-side—”What is What”.

Here’s Shepard Fairey on the artwork for the 7″:
“The lyrics to ‘Everything Is Wrong’ are open to interpretation, but whether the song is about hard living, relationship failures, wear and tear on the environment, or an empire mentality, regret for poor decisions seems to be the theme. I decided to explore the idea of being complicit in a personal relationship or a relationship with a system that one realizes is unhealthy.”

You can see a shot of the sticker included in the 7″, a shot of the record, and the mural Fairey did around the corner from Acqua Santa in Williamsburg below. Watch the video for “Everything is Wrong” (directed by Paul Banks and Carlos Puga) below too. It’s either a commentary on our collective views of “old” and “new” residents of NYC…or just Interpol hanging out and doing stuff. Or both.

A brief ode to stepping away and breathing in.

We took the day to get away from work and the studio and the facets of of our everyday life that, while most often wonderful, have the tendency to begin to appear flat, expected, and creatively sedative the more usual and familiar they become, despite their wonderfulness. Without fail, we always always always find it refreshing and wildly productive to step away from our industry of being daily creatives. It’s rare that it doesn’t result in a piling up of work on the back end, but it’s always worth it in the long run, it’s just a simple matter of making the time and remembering that it’s always worth it.

After a day’s worth of exploring, we ended up heading back to Los Angeles with an armful of eclectic literature—everything from biographies we’d been meaning to read to new world publishing high end magazines to area hiking guides to half-century-old cookbooks to treatises on creativity itself.

One publication Katie picked up—issue no. 8 of Darling: The Art of Being a Woman—is the epitome of this now not-so-new movement of beautifully produced new world magazines, boasting a masterfully crafted layout, subtly beautiful design, big, bold photography, and even an embossed logotype on the thick card stock of the cover. Some might call this a shift into the pretentious for the periodical publishing world, but I admire both the end product and the fact that so many have found a way to survive as a print publication in a digital world.

This particular issue of Darling kicks off with an inspiring and particularly fitting piece from author + WANT (Women Against Negative Talk) founder, Katie Joy Horwitch on creativity. In a sense, the one-pager a list of ways to keep faith in one’s self and continually refill that well of creativity within each of us. In another, more important way, it’s a reminder that we all need to constantly seek inspiration both inside and outside of ourselves. As Horwitch so beautifully puts it:

“Yes, this world is turning. Yes, this air is alive. Yes, to be static is an illusion, and, yes, to be creative is our calling. Everything is a little piece of artwork, from complex humanity to the grass and the clouds. Creative dry spells might make us feel as if we’re not imaginative enough, clever enough, or artistic enough—but with a little positive proactivity, we see that, just like in nature, every drought is followed by a fantastical rain.”

So, let it rain, world. We’ll do our best to stop what we’re doing and breathe it in.

Guys, I totally got tricked into liking a Christian band.

That’s not fair. Vancouver band We Are the City may or may not define themselves as a Christian band, but they certainly don’t shy away from the subject matter of god or faith in their songs, specifically in the context of the Christian upbringing of guitarist, David Menzel, and singer-keyboardist, Cayne McKenzie.

And they’re on Christian label, Tooth and Nail Records.

And they have songs with names like “King David”,  “Passing of the Peace“, and “Baptism“.

…so, yeah, they’re a Christian band.

But they’re a REALLY FUCKING GOOD Christian band. So good that I couldn’t stop listening to them when I discovered their new, jaw-droppingly amazing album, Violent, the other night and the beautiful video series they’ve created for it. As I told a friend and ex-bandmate over email, I feel like this is what good, progressive emo music of the late nineties and early aughts should have evolved into. Beutifully intricate, emotively introspective, thoughtfully crafted music that’s really hard not to love. Even once you realize it’s essentially Christian rock.

Dammit! It’s Dakota Motor Company all over again!

Check out We Are the City’s video for “Baptism” below.

In doing some research for a design project earlier, we came across NASA’s extensive + visually impressive archive of space photography, much of which is high resolution and free-to-use (providing credit is given).

One feature of the site is NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day—”Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.”

Today’s picture: Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

“What’s happening to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko? As the 3-km wide comet moves closer to the Sun, heat causes the nucleus to expel gas and dust. The Rosetta spacecraft arrived at the comet’s craggily double nucleus last July and now is co-orbiting the Sun with the giant dark iceberg. Recent analysis of data beamed back to Earth from the robotic Rosetta spacecraft has shown that water being expelled by 67P has a significant difference with water on Earth, indicating that Earth’s water could not have originated from ancient collisions with comets like 67P. Additionally, neither Rosetta nor its Philae lander detected a magnetic field around the comet nucleus, indicating that magnetism might have been unimportant in the evolution of the early Solar System. Comet 67P, shown in a crescent phase in false color, should increase its evaporation rate as it nears its closest approach to the Sun in 2015 August, when it reaches a Sun distance just a bit further out than the Earth.”

Clearly this is a site I will now be visiting on a daily basis.

PS—Los Angeles residents especially should click on that giant dark iceberg link.

To the right, the Orion nebula as captured by NASA’s Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, an image I nearly used in a new project and really want to use going forward.

Comet image credit: ESA, Rosetta, NAVCAM; processing by Giuseppe Conzo; Orion image credit: NASA, ESA, T. Megeath (University of Toledo) and M. Robberto (STScI).

We couldn’t pass up pulling a color palette from this bouquet of spring green stalk we picked up from the farmers’ market recently.

Still unsure as to what we’ll use it for, but, at the very least, it’s a striking, invigorating palette that unmistakably speaks to lively spring days to come before we settle into summer.

Today, April 27th, at raven + crow studio, we celebrate the little-known quasi-holiday of International Crow and Raven Appreciation Day—a day of recognition of our corvid friends seemingly relegated to the pages of Facebook and this Web journal.

Though not yet recognized as an official bank holiday in the States, we hold out hope here at the studio for national + international recognition and—with any luck—widespread, appropriately flamboyant parades full of over-the-top avian floats, marching bands, and (obviously) bizarre raven- and crow-themed costumes.

We’d obviously petition the high courts to have the nomenclature altered slightly before official recognition to have the proper name be International Raven and Crow Appreciation Day…though we get that the resulting acronym’s not quite as palatable as ICRAD.

Above, a detail of a piece we commissioned by friend + talented artists Deirdre McConnell years back; full scan below (click to open full-width in a new browser window).

And happy ICRAD, all! Give your favorite raven and/or crow a hug today!

Or don’t. That likely wouldn’t go well for either party involved.

Maybe just join the Facebook group and (if it’s not too late), do as they ask and celebrate by wearing black today!

RIP, Rosie.

Art by Norman Rockwell.

Obviously.

Like we mentioned yesterday, we’re co-sponsoring the Dog Daze 2015 party Saturday night at Kombucha Dog. The night’ll feature products for sale from MooShoes Los Angeles + the Made in America Project, beer, wine, and kombucha, food from Sun Cafe, and live music from three bands—acoustic duo Aaron + Jane, indie-pop artist Autumn in June, and the band Forebear.

We spoke with Forebear drummer,  Mike Musselman (above, far left), leading up to Saturday’s show to find out more about the young Los Angeles band. Listen to their cinematic pop and read on below.

raven + crow studio: First off, thanks in advance for playing the party this Saturday. We’re excited to see you all live. Are you all particularly big fans or kombucha or dogs…or vegan food or just into the gig?

Mike Musselman: You are quite welcome. We are excited to play for you. I would say our bass player Nick is a fan of kombucha. The band is a fan of dogs…I mean who the hell ain’t? I think we all have our days of being a vegan unintentionally. I was a vegetarian for 5 years. I think Nick was a vegan for about a month. There’s a great vegetarian restaurant we all like to eat at before rehearsal in Canoga Park called Follow Your Heart.

Ah! Awesome. We love their products—especially the new cheese they’re doing—but we still have yet to make it up there. Anyway, out of the gate, as is often the case for us, we’ve gotta ask about the name. Where does it come from? You all used to perform under a different name, right?

Our singer, Scott, was under the name Wise Cub for some time. He had a revolving door of musicians that backed him. Then came Molly, Nick, and I. We started playing Wise Cub’s catalog. Then collaborating in the writing process more and more. It became an entirely different beast (pun intended). After gaining momentum and arriving at the conclusion we want to take this seriously, we began to question if this was Wise Cub anymore. We saw a band with a similar name to ours getting some popularity. That led us to think we should change our name. In the process, we considered a lot. Where we all tie in together and where we are going. The name Forebear pays homage to the ancestry of our past musical efforts together as Wise Cub and otherwise (pun definitely intended).

Ah, yeah, I think you’re referring to Keegan Dewitt’s Wild Cub—they’ve graced these pages a number of times before. We’re fans. But yeah, I saw a poster you all did with your February shows and it was, like, the four of you…and a bear. I wasn’t sure if there was a pun there.

We knew a creative fellow with a lot of time on his hands. He took photos of us individually in his living room during the day and what he sent back is what you saw. We think it’s pretty sweet. But to answer the question, hell yea it’s pun!

How did you all get your start? Are you all longtime friends? Or maybe everyone just answered an ad on craislist? Something in between?

Scott, Nick, and I started a band almost 10 years ago called The Harm. The Harm split and Scott started the solo project, Wise Cub. Nick, Scott, and I stayed in touch. Then an opportunity arose for Nick and I to be with Scott again. I honestly forget how in the world we stole the immeasurably talented Molly from the world of classically trained professional musicians—she got in there somehow. Friends of friends basically.

Always the best way, I think. I’ve seen ya’ll described as ‘cinematic indie rock’, so I’ll bite—what is cinematic indie rock?

Cinematic indie rock is a title you get when you throw a viola player in a band whose songs are longer than three minutes. We might have used that term to differentiate ourselves from other indie rock bands in Los Angeles at the beginning of our media encounters. Also, our tunes provide emotional landscapes. I think film score has an acute sense of capturing tone and feel quite well. We aim to do the same…and to please.

Do you all have any desire to transition into actual movie soundtracks or scoring at all? It’s the town for it….

Why not! We have the intestinal fortitude to handle Hollywood douche-baggery. Anything to get closer to Charlize Theron. Oh la-la.

Hah. I heard your cover of Portishead‘s “Wandering Star”—that was certainly cinematically dramatic. Do you all do other covers or was that a one-time thing?

The Portishead cover is a great release at shows to be dramatic and let some energy out. We love Portishead—we know you do as well…. So let’s all rock out. We are working on a Radiohead cover and a Monsters of Folk cover.

Ah, looking forward to both. And yeah, I love that you all incorporate viola into some of your songs. There used to be this amazing solo viola artist, Anni Rossi, who we loved. Do you find having a less conventional rock instrument in the mix changes how you write or present songs?

I have no idea what’s going on outside of my drums. Whatever Molly does is usually epic. There is a heck of a lot of respect and trust amongst the members in this band.

I listen to bands that aren’t ordinary rock bands. At the moment, Death Grips, Animal Collective, Aphex Twin, and the album Penny Sparkle from Blonde Redhead are spinning on my turntables. I know from the amount of .GIF’s I get from Molly she is definitely down with South Africa’s Die Antwoord.

They cray! In a very cool way. So what did bring everyone out to Los Angeles…assuming you’re not the legendary four native Angelenos I’ve heard exist somewhere?

We are so close! Scott, Nick, and I are native Angelenos. Molly hails from Kentucky. She has lived in LA as a working musician for four or five years playing violin and viola.

That is close! What do you all like about LA? Any favorite local spot—coffee joints, bars, restaurants?

LA, for me, is peculiar in the sense of how many enclaves there are. The Valley, DTLA, West Hollywood, Venice, and everything in between. They are all independent limbs on a mythical angel. You could be ensconced in one of these areas and not need to visit others for the better part of your life.

I dig Guisados on Sunset Blvd on the east side. Anywhere there is cold brew coffee, you can find a Forebear. The Baked Potato has some legends roll through every once in a while. Scott and I saw Terry Bozzio and Alex Acuna improvise two 1-hour sets there. I bootlegged it with a concealed recorder.

That’s a whole lotta drum, man. I know the LA music scene’s always been pretty active, but I feel like it’s gotten pretty rich in terms of creative independent artists, especially in the past few years. Are there any other local artists you’re particularly into these days?

That’s a great question. I won’t get to esoteric with LA bands, so I will think local to all things Forebear. We went on a mini-tour with 2 great bands during February—(in no particular order) Figs Vision and The End of Summer. They both kick butt.

Cool. Then, I know you have an EP that you’ve got download cards for at shows—any plans for a full-length any time soon?

No plans for a full-length, which I would thoroghly enjoy making. In the meantime, Forebear will be releasing another “cinematic alternative progressive folk indie rock” EP in mid-June. A music video is also going to appear come early May directed by Tommy Wooldridge. As well as, some pretty snazzy t-shirts available today designed by our pal Augusto Piccio IV.

Awesome, man. Thanks for talking with us and see you Saturday!

You can listen to more of Forebear’s music and sign up for the band’s mailing list on their site; catch them live at the Dog Daze party we’re throwing Saturday night at Kombucha Dog—details + RSVP links on the Eventbrite page.

What happens when you’re a successful commercial photographer and the digital photography revolution hits? For many, at worst, it meant an end to a long and prosperous career; to others, at the very least, it meant a sea change, with a massive devaluing of the industry as a whole and a dramatic decrease in income for many who relied on the industry as their financial bread + butter.

For Los Angeles-based photographer, Michael Faye, it meant turning his lens toward two of his passions—dogs + kombucha. In 2007, the longtime dog-lover sold his commercial studio with the intent of rebooting as a pet portraiture business. Then, as he eloquently put it:

“That’s when Lindsey Lohan changed my life. Stay with me.

I come from a family deeply rooted in holistic tradition. I was raised vegetarian. Father is a chiropractor and Mother made her own yogurt! Sugar was not on the menu. No soda. No chocolate cereal. To some that may seem like hell for a kid, but I stilI hold those core values. I started drinking kombucha around 2005. I was then, as I am now, a strong believer in the raw food movement, with a regular yoga practice. I felt healthy, in shape, even so I felt kombucha’s health effects from the start. The sense of well being that comes with drinking kombucha became part of my every day.

But just as my interest in kombucha was deepening, it disappeared. Literally. The story goes like this: Lindsey Lohan’s lawyers attempted to explain away a failed alcohol test by claiming it was a false positive brought about by a lot of kombucha drinking. The practical (and hysterical) result of which was that kombucha was summarily pulled from the shelves. Such is the power of the Lohan. After a few weeks without, it was time to take action. I started learning how to brew and found that friends and family were really liking my early efforts and requesting more… I also discovered I loved the art of brewing.”

Three years and a lot of work later, Faye turned his new passion for brewing into a business, tying his now commercially available kombucha to his love of dogs + photography by taking shots of currently homeless dogs in the Los Angeles area and putting them on the labels to help them find homes.

We’ve been fans of Kombucha Dog since we first came to LA. They make great kombucha and who could deny such an adorably awesome business model.

A little while back, Michael reached out to us to inquire about doing something together as our roles of running MooShoes Los Angeles. The result is this Saturday’s coming Dog Daze 2015, a celebration of local shopping, local music, local food + drink, and, of course, local four-legged friends (many of whom’ll be on-site and available for adoption).

Admission’s free and you can purchase beer, wine, and kombucha on-site along with some products from our store and the Los Angeles-based Made in America Project. Local vegan restaurant Sun Cafe‘ll also be on hand to cater a dinner for any interested (just RSVP for it on the Eventbrite page).

Details + RSVPing for both dinner and general attendance here—hope to see you there!

Below, more KD labels + dogs; the indoor event space at Kombucha Dog; Katie with the new pup at the brewery, Jax; the KD credo; large scale dog love on the brewery walls; and more kombucha.