More than 10 years have passed since Rebecca Gates put out her solo debut, Ruby Series. The former member of the Spinanes mostly shifted her energy to other projects: coordinating and managing exhibitions for museums, lecturing at arts centers, composing music for dance and film, participating in performance pieces and stylizing photos for magazines. She also did some bookkeeping, retreated to Rhode Island and helped friends build a movie theater. But as time and money allowed, she also popped back into studios to put together her follow-up, The Float (12XU). Gates will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with her.
Gates: This year started off with a bicycle ride at night. After welcoming 2012 with Laura Veirs and her Two Beers Veirs combo (including the requisite amount of stellar guest stars), a couple of us took a meandering and spirited ride home. I think those first few hours of a year can set the tone for the next 12 months. It’s about as superstitious as I get. I try to spend them well.
One of my cycling routes home points directly west and over the last few months on clear nights I’ve enjoyed a guiding light western sky full of Venus and Jupiter. Anywhere, the combination of almost silence, almost still, the sound of the tires and an expanse of stars or a low-slung canopy of clouds is always soothing, slow or fast.
Use lights, and if you can, wear white.
Video after the jump.
