Hey there kids,

I intended to send this out much earlier in the week, but since I haven't been up to much publicly, until very recently, I kept twiddling with this message until I fell asleep every night, and now it's Friday. Or maybe it's the old self-directed safety-net-cum-roadblock, wherein if I send things out at the very last minute, then I can relax about whether anyone actually shows up. Anyway, here's a bunch of stuff. Please read it -- the reason I've been invisible lately is that I've been in the Abandoned Salt Mines, slaving away at actual art, which I am actually now presenting to you. Thanks. /t

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Greetings, friends and frolickers! The fantastic weather, combined with the clean sweep of pure moral defeat against our governor, well, my mood for one has lifted quite a bit, and I hope this message finds all of you in similarly high spirits.

Continuing the blessed opportunities to share some of the work I've been hammering at for the last couple years, i.e., the good reasons why I've been invisible, I've got a list of four, count 'em, four offerings this weekend, and I hope you can join me in person for some cultural activity, featuring your cultural gal pal, Tarin Towers!

After a long absence from the stage, I am producing fruit and handing it to you. This is a metaphor; I am not actually going to be handing you fruit. Unless you really want some, in which case, you should provide the fruit, which I will gladly hand to you from the stage.

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1. Glowworms Education Foundation Community Fundraiser, Friday 11/11
Benefit Auction of art, travel, food, & memorabilia

2. Closing Party, Art Explosion Autumn Open Studios, Saturday 11/12, 2-5 p.m.

3. Drug Diaries at the Dark Room, Saturday 11/12, 8 p.m.

4. Tenth Anniversary Party, Laughing Squid, Saturday 11/12, 7 p.m. - 2 a.m.

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1. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11 at 111 Minna, the Glowworms Education Foundation presents their 2005 Community Fundraiser, a party and auction that will benefit several projects for San Francisco public schools, including funding a physical education teacher for the 2004-2005 school year at Leonard Flynn Elementary School in the Mission District.

www.glowworms.org/

The main event, benefit-wise, is an auction that will start out silent in the first half of the evening and will be presented later on by yours truly, Tarin Towers, as your celebrity auctioneer to raise the stakes on in-demand items, such as two San Francisco 49ers jerseys, autoraphed by Joe Montana and by Steve Young. Other prizes include a plush Napa Valley getaway and several gourmet dinner packages, including a hands-on cooking class for 6-8 people taught in your home Susan Hewitt, who will also be one of the chefs catering the event. The list of auction items can be seen here:

www.glowworms.org/events.htm

Entry for the Glowworms Community Fundraiser is $20, which includes food, drink specials, and bidding rights at the auction. The event starts at 6 p.m. and is scheduled to close around 9 or 10 p.m.

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2. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, from 2-5 p.m., Art Explosion will sponsor a closing party to celebrate Fall Open Studios and the striking and diverse body of work hung by its artists, of which Tarin Towers is one of the newest. She made her debut appearance in the San Francisco Open Studios this year, joining more than 100 artists in the Art Explosion space in hanging her work for the visiting public.

Assigned the appropriately marked "Wall U," Towers is currently showing a wall-sized installation consisting of self-portrait work in photography, ephemeral inkjet prints and handwritten texts, and contrasting hand-labeled contributions from fellow-artists and gallery visitors who made the trip to Open Studios October 21 and 22. The work is entitled "I Killed Whatever This Coat Used To Be With My Bare Hands Just So I Could Make This Picture For You." Visitors are invited to write messages using art supplies hung and labeled on the wall adjoining the installation (wall U-2), and to use the provided envelopes, thumb tacks, and soforth to add their comments, found objects, and other contributions to the wall itself or to the baskets on the floor beneath the installation.

www.flickr.com/photos/tar...ts/1336316/
www.flickr.com/photos/tar...ts/1322918/
www.flickr.com/photos/tar...ts/1132883/

Tarin also hung some paintings and collages from the past five years, and some photographic works in progress from a series about the Hunter's Point neighborhood, entitled "The Invisible Pier."
www.flickr.com/photos/tar...ts/1119462/
www.flickr.com/photos/tar...ts/1117803/
www.flickr.com/photos/tar...ts/1114211/
www.flickr.com/photos/tar...ts/1130455/

The artwork hung by the residents of The Art Explosion for Open Studios, in the main gallery and the hallways, will be up on the walls until at least 11/12.

The collective of artists in residence will be serving snacks and beverages. Tarin will be offering her friends and guests a champagne toast at 5:30 p.m. in her studio #323, in order to christen it and celebrate the sale of her first painting.

The Art Explosion
744 Alabama St. @ 19th, San Francisco, 94110
Tarin Towers: Wall U, Studio 323

Closing Reception: 2-5 p.m.
Champagne Toast with Tarin: 5:30 p.m.

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3. THIS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, marks the second evening including my participation in a series at the Dark Room (2263 Mission St. @ 19th St., SF) called the Drug Diaries, in which many and several performers of such things as stand-up comedy, spoken word, music, storytelling, film, and stage antics of all kinds get up on the Dark Room stage and present themselves as drug users, either past, present, future, or even at-no-point-ever.

www.darkroomsf.com/techslave/

The series costs $13 per show, at the door or on Ticketweb. Opening night is Friday November 4, and "The Drug Diaries" continues every Friday and Saturday in November except the 25th. All shows are at 8 p.m., and stoners are asked to please arrive on time, for the sake of all non-stoners.

Ticketweb: tinyurl.com/bqto7

Tarin's dates in the series: Sat. Nov 5th, Sat. Nov. 12th, Sat. Nov 26th.

Performers for Saturday November 12: Jim Fourniadis, Sherilyn Connelly, Micah Pilkington, Corey Rosen, Shaun Landry, Lev, Tarin Towers

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4. SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12, Laughing Squid celebrates its tenth anniversary as a cultural arts organization, supporting and promoting various underground art enterprises, plus those giant dog heads.

Laughing Squid Anniversary Party
Varnish Fine Art
77 Natoma Street at 2nd Street

$10

Tip: The line will be long. It will start on the first street end of the block, because we will be sharing the block with another big party at another venue.
Tip: Most of the party will be outside, so wear your finest coat, and dress warm otherwise.

Information about the party is here:
laughingsquid.com/laughing-...ary-party/
and here:
upcoming.org/event/31966/

I will be walking around handing out dada, compassion, tarot readings, magnets, and deflecting weird vibes. Let me know if you want to join my army of the intentional.

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Thanks for listening. Please let me know if you have stuff going on I should know about. I've been kind of out of the loop.

Love, sausage, cleavage, and soforth,

/tarin

As I've previously alluded to, this is my first-ever open studio. Anything you might want to know appears below.

1. I'm Studio #323 in the Art Explosion Studios at 744 Alabama, x st. 19th.

2. I'll be sitting both days, 11 am - 6 pm.

3. I'll be showing paintings in progress from the past five years; collages finished and in progress from the last five years; and photos from the last six months or so. I may have the odd sculpture or assemblage out, depending on space and soforth.

I also have a painting in the silent auction, which closes 3:00 p.m. Sunday.

4. I'll be serving snacks and drinks, as will the gallery as a whole.

5. **I need some help** I have to be in the studio all day, both days. If you feel like volunteering to be a gallery host in my studio with me, that would be great, so that I can take the odd break. My tasks are interesting and byzantine: in addition to talking to friends and strangers, with any luck I'll be taking orders, discussing commissions, and possibly even shooting portraits on-site in my studio-within-a-studio.

If you feel that you could devote any time to helping me out, you could, if you're an artist, put it on your resume. I can tell you that the language, depending on the tasks you do, would be something like "Gallery Host, Volunteer, (Private Gallery/Floor Host/etc - just ask me) Open Studios, Art Explosion, San Francisco, 2005" or "Photographer's Assistant, Volunteer, Event Only, Open Studios, Art Explosion, San Francisco, 2005."

If you have specific hours in mind you could spare, let me know what they are ASAP.

6. **I need some specifically-timed help** I myself as part of the way my studio is run am pledged to greet people at the front desk from 2:30-4:00 on Sunday. I need TWO VOLUNTEERS for this shift, one to sit with me at the front desk and one to sit in my studio and perform mainly the task of sitting in my studio, offering people food and drink, and telling people I'm at the front desk and sending people to talk to me if they feel like buying anything.

If you are available 2:30-4:00 Sunday 10/23, or any portion thereof, please let me know ASAP.

My phone is 415-271-1418 and my email is tarintowers@mac.com.

Thanks & I hope to see y'all this weekend.