42 Days until Heartroot heads to Berkeley...

Hi Everyone!

We hope you had a good Fourth of July! This is Mindy writing. I really want to say thank you for all the physical and spiritual support you gave me as I opened my one-woman show, "How to Survive a Poison Apple," this last weekend. I felt very full. It was very powerful! I am excited to do the show again and again. In fact we're doing it again in Astoria this weekend. (Stay tuned for info on one more possible Portland showing on Tuesday, August 14th!) I'm giving an artist talk on Sunday, July 22nd about my art practice and process. See below for details. I will  present an excerpt from "Poison Apple" and discuss my artistic journey. My graduate portfolio will be on display for the curious. I hope you can come be part of the conversation!

This month we're both working hard and looking forward to what's to come. As you may know, Eric and I are doing tag-team graduate school. I'll graduate with my Master of Fine Arts degree from Goddard College in September - right after he begins his first semester at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. Whoa. This transition might be hard, but it's going to be ours.

We have a few more events before we drive away, we hope to see you before we go!

Sunday, July 22, 12 noon
Poison Apple Medicine:
Mindy Dillard hosts a conversation about her art practice
West Hills Friends meetinghouse
7425 SW 52nd Avenue, Portland 97219
All ages
I'll present an excerpt from How to Survive a Poison Apple,
and describe and discuss other aspects of my MFA portfolio,
art practice and process.


Saturday, August 4, 7 p.m. Show (6:30 p.m. Doors)
Heartroot Farewell Concert
West Hills Friends meetinghouse
7425 SW 52nd Avenue, Portland 97219
All ages
We'll share songs, stories and laughs about our time in Portland.
Donations to support our new life are welcomed and encouraged!

We sincerely hope to see you in the coming weeks! May you have a great summer wherever your travels take you.

Peace,

Mindy and Eric

P.S.  You can also donate to our new life if you wish! Right here on this blog. Click the "How to Support Us" link in the left side-bar.

Hungry Patience

Thanks to Veritas Photography for this sweet film photo!

 Hi everyone,

       As I near the end of my gigantic projects, I am starting to see what might be on the other side. As Eric and I near our "move to California" date (the countdown on our kitchen whiteboard says 51 days at present, and that number just keeps going down...and down...and down), I am starting to feel the expanse of space that lies for me in Berkeley. I hope to take everything I've been doing over my last 6 years here in PDX (I'm a senior in Portland! You know, Jr. High - 3 years and High School - 3 years) and get to slow down with it all in Berkeley. I want to pick what I do rather than finding myself doing so so many different things all at once. I've been an actress, theatre teacher, certified yoga teacher, singer-songwriter, performance artist, freelance writer, food blogger, kids' music performer, graduate student and more all in this time.
        With my MFA-IA graduate degree from Goddard College winding up (I'm just waiting for any final notes), and my one-woman show finding its latest incarnation with performances at Hipbone Studio in Portland, all I really want to do is bake. I am completely absorbed by the alchemy of mixing ingredients and baking them into something new. Just like yesterday when I creamed brown sugar and butter together by hand, with a fork. (I broke my hand mixer and I've never had a stand mixer - only in my dreams.) The butter sucked up all the brown sugar and white sugar, transforming it into tawny, cookie-base glory. From there I suspended eggs, dark chocolate chips and a salty, spelt flour/whole wheat pastry flour mix into that dreamy bowl.
       My show "How to Survive a Poison Apple" is about body image and gender issues and inequalities. It's about what it means to be full. It's about reclamation of fairy-tale imagery. It's based on my own experiences and stories from when I was half-way anorexic in college and shortly thereafter. And doing this show really makes me hungry. (!) I always leave rehearsals feeling like eating. Sometimes I don't even want to do the show, I just want to go make something. Well, I will! I will do both, the show and the baking too.
      I'm making cookies for opening night (hopefully there will be plenty for the second night, too). These cookies are really salty and aged. I've included this recipe in my portfolio for grad school and Eric laughed at me when I had forgotten to include "hours" next to "Refrigerate the cookie dough for 24 - 36." He wrote in his edits "hours? not days I hope...?" Indeed, it's not days. It is hours. The time delay on these cookies is a good teacher. I can imagine the bowl sitting on the middle shelf in its dark cold home, the flavor percolating throughout and going higher up the majestic-taste mountain with every passing second. Even now as I type this, that cookie-dough gold has chilled in the fridge for almost 24 hours, but it'll be in there for a few days yet.

      Finding what I'll do next in Berkeley will take time too. It might take 24 days or even 36 or longer. It might take years. I might fail at all the things I try to do next, but at least I know that I won't be hungry. 




I'll bake up the cookies on Friday before the show. I hope you can come to share some with me! Otherwise, come on Saturday where there will be more cookies. Or otherwise make these cookies yourself. Practice patience while they age and age. You'll have Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt eventually.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

Adapted from The New York Times and Molly Wizenberg of Orangette

2 cups minus 2 Tbsp. light spelt flour
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. coarse salt, such as kosher
2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks, preferably about 60% cacao content
Sea salt

Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk well; then set aside.

Cream the butter and sugars until they are very light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add vanilla, mixing it in. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate chips, and mix them all in, so they are equally distributed in the dough.  Cover and chill for 24 to 36 hours, up to six days.

When you’re ready to bake, take the cookie dough out of the fridge for 1-2 hrs. to allow it to soften. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Using a tbsp. (or for a bigger cookie - a 1/4 cup or 1/3 cup measure) and scoop 6 - 10 mounds of dough Sprinkle lightly with sea salt, and bake until golden brown but still soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool on stove-top for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies onto a wire rack (or a cut-up and splayed across the counter brown paper bag to cool more. Repeat with remaining dough.
 

I hope to see you at the show this weekend or somewhere else soon. Be well!

Love from Mindy
Buy tickets for How to Survive a Poison Apple

Fears

As I've sat down to begin this blog, I notice that I've been attacked from the start by a number of fears.  The kind of fears that often keep me from writing: What will people think of me?  Do I really have anything to say?  Will it be really boring?  Haven't my friends heard enough from me by now?

In addition, trying to write about our upcoming move, a lot of other fears come up:  Will friends think we're abandoning them?  What if we don't like living in the Bay Area?  What if we don't get enough work around my schooling, and we can't afford it?  Will my friends who don't have similar spiritual views feel betrayed?  What if the stress of all this tears us apart?  And many, many more.

My best answer to all of these is:  I'm trying to listen to my gut.  Even through the fears, it seems to say that this is the right thing to do.  Enough inner and outer clues have converged that I feel strongly about attending seminary, attending PSR specifically, and making this move.  Enough people have offered confirmation that they think this is a good path for me, too - a valuable thing, as we humans are generally pretty good at deluding ourselves.  Or at least, I know I am!

As for the blog:  It was my idea, and I feel strongly about making my life more of an "open book" than it's sometimes been (like when all those fears carry me away).  There's only one way from here to there, which is to learn as I go.  So, here is an attempt to face down my fears and do that.

Heartroot's last summer in Portland

This August, we will move from Portland to Berkeley, CA, where Eric will enter seminary at Pacific School of Religion.  The move will be bittersweet.  We're excited about the future, but Portland will always be a special place for us. This is where we met, and where we started our duos with a lot of support from you. We hope to return to the Northwest often, but we don't yet know how often we'll be able.

We've booked a farewell show to gather our Portland community and celebrate our time here.  We'll sing songs, tell stories, and laugh about what we've learned in two years performing as a duo.

Saturday, August 4, 7 p.m.
Heartroot Farewell Concert
West Hills Friends meetinghouse
7425 SW 52nd Avenue, Portland 97219
All ages / Donations welcome

Before we move, there is a lot to do to prepare! We are sorting through our stuff (lots of boxes in our apartment) and paring down.  Mindy is writing her graduate thesis (she's buried in her computer).  One product of this is Mindy's one-woman show, How to Survive a Poison Apple.  It's the culmination of three years of work, and includes Eric backing her up on electric guitar textures.  We'll perform excerpts in two upcoming performances, followed by a full showing on June 29 and 30:

Wednesday, May 30, 8 p.m.
Mindy performs an excerpt from How to Survive a Poison Apple
as part of The 1 Festival
The Headwaters Theatre
55 NE Farragut St. #9 (Portland, OR)

Saturday, June 23, afternoon
Mindy sings excerpts from How to Survive a Poison Apple at Laurelhurst Park
At the conclusion of the Portland NEDA walk

Friday, June 29, 7:30 p.m.  /  Saturday, June 30, 7:30 p.m.
Mindy Dillard presents How to Survive a Poison Apple
Hipbone Studio
1847 E. Burnside, #104 (Portland, OR)
Admission: $12 advance/ $15 at the door.  Recommended for ages 10 and up.
Advance tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com.
More info at www.mindydillard.com.

We're also playing as Heartroot at the Tillamook Farmers' Market (June 16, 10-1) and the Scappoose Farmer's Market (June 30, 10-12).  We'll let you know if we book anything else before leaving, but as of now, this is what we have scheduled.

Also, feel free to check out our other duo, Snail People.  Lately we've been combining our "kid" and "grown-up" repertoires in these shows, making a mixture that has something for everyone.

Thank you for your continued support over the two years (and counting) of our adventure as Heartroot.

Welcome

Welcome to the new Heartroot blog!  Here we will post our thoughts before, during and after our move from Portland, OR to Berkeley, CA in August 2012.