On the behalf of the entire television viewing community, I would like to thank HBO productions for (perhaps the first time in it’s history) taking the high road and not showing us Paul Giomatti’s ass during a brief yet enthusiastic love scene between John and Abagail Adams during the “John Adams” mini series. Prior to viewing it I had read a synopsis of episode four and was bracing myself for the inevitable eye load of doughy, Founding Father ham but it never materialized. I don’t think I’ve ever seen four episodes of anything on HBO without some full frontal nudity creeping in. If ever a series called for modesty it would be this one. Then again it’s only half over. If they do show someones butt I pray it isn’t Ben Franklin or George Washington. Thomas Jefferson, maybe, but that’s about it.
Filed under: Bloggidy Blog
Since Thursday I’ve been coming down with a cold. Most of my friends have been knocked-on-your-ass sick over the past few weeks so I was really expecting something a lot worse than whatever it is I have. So I’m slow but not stopped. Unless the other germy shoe has yet to drop. Hope, hope.
Lori Greenbergwas kind enough to make me an Etsy button over there on the left hand side of the page. You can click on it to read the daily fortune. The fortune is updated every day sometime before 11am. I hope the fortune is a useful tool for whatever day-planning you do.
I’m getting these new fish down. This one is my favorite. Here’s the link.
Don’t forget to read TODAY’s FORTUNE.
Filed under: Bloggidy Blog | Tags: babushka, erika koivunen, naked lady party, orange peel
I made a creature out of an orange peel, paper and a Sharpie marker. I haven’t tried this myself so I’m not sure what would happen but I think you could fill this guy with cloves and nestle it down in your underwear drawer to keep things smelling like Christmas. The peel might dry into a solid mass around the cloves or it might rot and make a mess. That’s the thrill factor what makes this project so exciting.
Speaking of underwear, on Friday I went to what folks refer to as a Naked Lady Party. I don’t know how into second hand clothing you are but here it’s all about the recycling. A NLP is when a bunch of gals bring in a bunch of clothes they no longer wear and then everyone goes through everyone else’s stuff and keep anything that they or someone they know can use. Any leftovers go to Good Will or wherever. Nudity didn’t actually occur at ours nor is it a prerequisite for one of these parties but there’s wine there so I guess it’s always a possibility. These parties are a good way to get rid of anything that you have that you love but can’t use or that’s too nice to go directly to a thrift store. Get enough people and you’re bound to find something in your size.
Since thinking about clothing makes me tired I did not think this was going to be my scene at all but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I got rid of some stuff and got a natural fiber sweater to torch in. It’s hideous but it’s warm like a coat almost. And I got a bunch of amusing pictures like this one of Erika trying on a babushka:
Erika can wear the shit out of a babushka. I hope she took that one home.
Of course it is still snowing here. We’re getting 6-8″ today. Earlier in the week it was sunny and 40 degrees. A lot of snow melted so I went for a walk with Bob Foster to the Chazen Museum to check out the UW faculty art show and whatever else was around. I didn’t attend the U so I’m not a big follower of faculty art or anything. I do like seeing what people are up to but mostly I just wanted to get out of the studio and walk somewhere…anywhere. Being inside all the time is getting really, really old.
It wasn’t a particularly interesting show but there was some good stuff. And on the way home I got a picture of a lone shoe for my photos of lone shoes collection.
Bob pointed out that the art world has been staring at it’s navel for a long time. I think that’s a fact.
Don and I started watching that HBO series about John Adams. It’s pretty good. I can’t get over how much Adam’s second youngest child looks like that kid in “The Shining”. That helps, because we watch everything Mystery Science Theater style, adding movie references and smart-ass comments to the dialogue whenever possible. So that’s fun. Also fun, for me anyway, is observing old-timey habits and adopting them as my own. As an homage to the Continental Congress, we’ve decided to adopt cane thumping (that is, thumping the end of your cane on the wooden floor in lieu of applause or whatever) as Lost School’s official expression of agreement or appreciation. Already we’ve stashed three canes in my work area. We intend to whip them out and thump them against the floor the next time Bob Foster says something pithy (like that comment about the art world). We know Bob is watching the series and this reference will make him laugh. This is how we amuse ourselves here during the bleak months.
Filed under: Bloggidy Blog | Tags: accordion, bob foster, cheese, magic putty, newport state park, poptarts
This mannequin scared the bejesus out of me this morning. I’m in our basement almost never and I totally forgot it was down there…or that it had hair…or that it’s hand is positioned so it’s reaching out to you. Also, I had occasion to see the movie Disturbia the other day. It wasn’t super-duper scary but it had a bodies in the basement theme. It also had a male protagonist who for a portion of the film wore his pants belted just below his ass. I’ve seen people on COPS try to run with their pants down low like that and it never ends well for them. By the time this guy was running away from the inevitable attacker he changed his clothes so the low pants didn’t really impact the movie in any way. Anyway, the bodies in the basement part flashed into mind when I saw the mannequin. It’s creeping me out even now. Not so much the low pants anymore.
So last night I was hanging out with Don and Bob Foster when around midnight the power went out all over the neighborhood. I can’t tell you how happy I am that we learned it was a widespread outage before someone, perhaps me, ventured into the basement to check the box and happened upon that mannequin. That would have given me fits, I think.
It was up to us to make our own fun while the power was off. Me and Bob ate cheese while Don played the accordion. Here’s a picture of me and Bob eating cheese
and here’s a picture of Don playing the accordion
The flash on the new, new tiny camera works really well. It was dark in that room. Turns out we don’t own any candles. Bad time to find that out. I figured out that I could locomote in the dark fairly successfully if I used my camera to take a picture of whatever was in front of me as I walked. Not much else to do after you run out of cheese and there’s still no electricity.
Filed under: Bloggidy Blog | Tags: dental hygene, Dr. Taco, filmstrips, mojitos
Still I have pictures from Mexico. Rather than letting them continue to gather dust in the image host I shall post them now.
Signage is so regulated in Madison. You’re not even supposed to use sandwich boards out on the sidewalk. In Mexico (and practically everywhere else except Madison) signs are wild and free. Some are there to entertain like this Dr. Taco sign. If you want, you can pretend that you are the giant shrimp! Who wouldn’t? We did but the employees of Dr. Taco were too busy to assist.
Don’t you love Dr. Taco? When I first heard of him I imagined that he would be a human sized taco dressed up like a doctor. That concept still makes more sense to me than the one of an actual doctor (who looks a lot like Einstein) who carries a large taco in lieu of a medical bag and has a giant prawn as a sidekick. But nevermind any of that! Dr. Taco is great just the way he is. And this sign is great.
I found another great sign in an aviary near the hotel:
This brilliant graphic warns against removing plumage from the area. Substitute the bird shape with…well, almost anything and you could have a more all purpose warning advising American tourists just keep their hands off of things. I bet that’s a problem, too, what with all of the cheap booze and the over the counter Vicodin.
There were a lot of anthropomorphic character signs in Mexico.
I love stuff like this. This particular tooth reminds me of a tooth my mom drew a LONG time ago. She used to make filmstrips for VEC Industries. Remember filmstrips? Remember phones that you had to crank to make them go? They are practically contemporaries of one another. Anyway, way back when, my mom illustrated a film strip about dental hygiene. It starred an anthropomorphic tooth named Flory Fluoride. Flory looked like this tooth except he wore a sweater with an “F” emblazoned on it. Even without that filmstrip I probably would have fostered a life long love affair with things anthropomorphic. You never know for sure though.
I have to git on back to the homestead. We are having a triple birthday party tonight for Patrick, James and Bob Foster. They are 57, 37 and 57 respectively. It’s going to be a big one. I hope someone’s bringing food because all we have is booze. I’m making mojitos. There’s mint in those–that’s food, right? Anyway…stop on by if you’re in the area. Should be funzies.
These are my pals Werm and Rob. We drove to Milwaukee together to catch our flight to Mexico. On the way down Rob complained of coccyx (tailbone) pain that resulted from a fall down a flight of ice-covered stairs. I, of course, went “Tee-hee” because, you know, Rob said “coccyx”. I’m pretty sure we all went “Tee-hee” because, you know, Rob said “coccyx”. Maybe it’s just funny when a boy says it.
Then on Saturday I fell backwards on an ice covered driveway and injured my own coccyx. I haven’t been moving around a lot since then and despite the fact that it hurts to wear pants and walk, I still find the word amusing, just not laugh out loud funny. Coccyx. Tee-hee. It’s funny no matter what.
Since it also hurts to sit I’ve been remiss in my listing of stuff on Ebay. Today’s the day, though. I’m feeling much better and I’m ready to go back to work. What a literal and figurative pain in the ass this injury is! Be really, really careful walking on the ice, kids! Mind your coccyx! (Tee-hee.)
Isn’t this an interesting thing? I saw this machine in front of our house yesterday morning. Basically it’s a jack hammer attached to a piece of heavy equipment that breaks up the ice flows that form around storm drains. That’s interesting too. It’s March and there are ice flows that need jack hammering. The asshat groundhog was wrong.
Well, I inadvertently gave myself the day off by not ramping down the kiln last night. So now I’m off to have fun now looking for books about Mexican folk art. Why not? It’s too cold to torch anyway.
I do have stuff for Ebay. It’s still hot though so it won’t be up until later. Later!
Filed under: Bloggidy Blog | Tags: big cockroach, day of the dead beads, peso
In the spirit of absorbing things somewhere and then urping them back out somewhere else, I’m working on some Day of the Dead beads. Off season, I know, but what can you do? Not a far cry from a mask bead, really. Hopefully they’ll get better. This should give me some Watch Me Create material too.
Also, when I said there were no bugs where I was staying in Mexico I meant that there were way fewer bugs than I expected for the climate. I did find one:
That’s a peso in there for scale. A peso is about the size of a nickle or maybe a quarter which means that the bug is about the size of a small bird with antenna that are several inches long. The roach lay prone on the tile floor with it’s feet in the air, dying. I scooped it up and put it outside thinking it was something exotic. I learned it’s true nature later on. It probably wouldn’t have flushed anyway with the water pressure being so low.
