Monthly Archives: February 2008

The French Canadian grown-up circus that is! The minutes are easing by at the requisite snail’s pace this fine Fri Day…I feel like a little kid waiting to go to a birthday party, or like an Amelia waiting to go see Cirque De Soleil tonight! Drew and I bought our tickets in early December, and I have been dilligently waiting for the day to arrive, and it’s here! The show is Saltimbanco which I know centers around “the urban experience in all its forms”. I remember from the one that Mom and Skip took me too in Vegas that I couldn’t really follow the story line that seemed to be imbedded in the acts, but it didn’t matter because the show is so visually stunning. To give the slowly ticking clock a hand, I have found some pictures and a video to put up here so that I can do a little daydreaming between now and the 5:00 whistle.

and, to watch:

Drew and I are fast approaching the seven year mark–lucky number seven, with its highlights and hiccups trailing behind us–and I cannot help but alternately think of how many years that seems to be, and conversely, how very young we are. The past three years of marriage is what has really taught us a lot about one another, how we make decisions, the “right” way to do almost anything, and the sweet rhythms of tying your life to another. We both like traditions and patterns and I think that we both take a little more delight than either of us would like to admit in creating our own, seemingly secret, domestic rituals. We have promises to one another regarding holidays (something made or found, something indulgent), unspoken chore roles that we have adapted, places that the same kitchen items have lived in each of our transient homes and other little nuances that characterize what it’s like to be in Drew and Amelia’s relationship. One that thing that we have, thankfully, rarely braved together is getting sick at the same time. This past weekend, the flu struck, and in the midst of fevers and sniffling and perhaps a wee bit of whining, a new tradition seemed to rear its head. We made soup.

Drew is truly the impetus behind this, as I would have likely spent 72 hours with my head under a cover had I been alone, but something that I have known about Drew since the earliest weeks of meeting him is that the man likes his soup. Simple broth will more than suffice, though elaborate seafood creations are always welcome, and five nights out of seven, Drew closes the day down with a cup of broth or ramen (oo-noo, appropriately, in my family) and that impulse only intensifies as a winter cold sets in. Drew felt himself coming down with something and braved the store to begin a huge pot of homemade chicken noodle soup, or Jewish Penicillin as Tom Lam calls it, and I think that it’s what kept our three day flu from becoming a week long epidemic. We both stirred and sipped and I fished around the various parts and Drew “bold me about der bexture”–chalky livers and chewy something else until the fevers broke and life could begin again. While I think that I will more happily revisit the holiday traditions, and keep putting the garlic in its ceramic jar next to the stove, it is awfully comforting to think that even getting sick with Drew can be a good time.

While in NC this past weekend, Uncle John introduced me to a website called www.stumbleupon.com which has just increased my ability to waste significant amounts of time on the internet by an impressive degree.  So far I have learned about people that shape trees into topiaries, found a site that will show the real time birth and death rates and the CO2 consumption of any country in the world, and a link to an artists street work.  Good stuff.  In an effort to reign myself in and not have my work begin to wane, I am restraining myself and only "stumbling" a couple of times a day.  The gist of the site is that you choose from a fairly extensive list of interests, install a button on your toolbar and then voila! it generates one website at a time that relates to your interests that one might never find otherwise.  The one that I came across this morning that kind of blows my mind is just a site with these pictures:

AHHHMAZING.  I get it, I’ve always known that the earth is a spec in the solar system, but this perspective just blows me away because I’ve never seen it that way.  So when I was worrying about the internet last week, I was not taking these moments of awareness in account.  This makes my pending decision about what to have for lunch today look like small fries, so to speak.  Happy Hunting! 

My friend Allison Sommers, who is also Art Director here at the Hook is always having her art shown around the country and has had to provide interviews for various publications all over the place.  Usually, I think, the interviews go to the tune of, "tell us what inspires you" etc.  Today she came into our office and asked us off the cuff which muppet we thought we might each most identify with the most and before anyone could answer, we had to know why.  It turns out that she was completing one of the interview forms and that it was reading much more like an online quiz than an interview for a legitimate gallery.  I thought it might be fun to fill out, as I’ve only ever interviewed for jobs, I have decided to take a little time and give it a go–please note that this interview was tailored to Allison, and I commend their creativity with some of these questions, so here we go…

1. Why do you create such worlds of unsettling whimsy?
You’ll have to ask Allison this one, I’ll post a link to her answer when it’s published.

2. What have been your most important influences?
Where my parents decided to live, my parents themselves, the self-help books that I inexplicably read as a young-ish person and the obvious decline of the environment.

3. Are there any time periods that most appeal to you? Why?
I am not immune to Gatsby’s 20′s, not for their indulgences, but for the optimism of invention when invention was still state of the art.  Or margaret Mitchell’s Old South sans all those undergarments.

4. Why is there such a clash between the explicit portrayal of body parts (both internal and external) with fairy tale subjects and environments?

Body parts have always been an important part of fairytales, and it hasn’t been until recently that they became so sterilized.  If you think about bedtime stories of the past, children were not so far removed from the necessary blood of life, especially if they lived on farms and slaughtered what they ate.  Now the irony that we’re faced with is that Cinderella’s sisters get to keep both of their feet when trying on the glass slipper, but after the story the kids can run down to play Duke Nuke ‘em or whatever.  I would have to agree with Allison that there is some merit in the way that Art shouldn’t look like life even if there is some imitation there. 

5. What artists do you admire?
Franz Kline, Georgia O’Keefe, Alexander Archipenko, Gustav Klimt…

6. What artists would you like to feed to obese fairy-tale monsters?
The guy that makes those back-lit paintings that are so awkward.  Kincaid?  But really, feeding people to obese fairy-tale monsters due to their pursuit of a passion that’s not to my taste is not really my bag. 

7. Are there any fairy tales you are particularly partial to?
Honestly, the moral veil on fairy tales has always been a little too thin–I can’t get lost in the story because I want to know why it is told in the first place…what the objective of the story is.  If I had to choose, I would say Through the Looking Glass of the Wizard of OZ.  I also cannot get enough of fairy tale parodies.

8. Would you enjoy living in the world you created? What sort of career would you have if you moved there? (What is the world’s name, anyways?)
The thing about questions like this is that it’s easy to get distracted by the prospect of greener grass.  The world that I might create would be somewhat fabulous for me, but I have a feeling that it would be ravaged by my oversights.  But my job?  My job would be not having a job and I would indulgently fill my time with things that interest me rather than the pursuit of the stuff that pays the bills.

10. How honest are you with yourself? How honest are you with other people?
This is turning out to be an incredibly personal interview.  I can safely say that this is the second dishonest statement I have made today: I am the most honest person you will ever meet and have never been guilty of lying to myself or anyone else ever in my life.

12. Have you ever turned anyone you know (or yourself) into one of your drawings?
I have, and unfortunately, my drawings look a lot like most people’s doodles.  Many a teacher has become a doodle.

14. If Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Vishnu, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Hercules, and L. Ron Hubbard were all put on Big Brother, what do you thin would happen? Who would hook up, who would get kicked out first, who would win? Etc..etc..
Wait, what’s Big Brother?  I mean I know the concept, but put ON Big Brother?  Like Life Support or Prozac?  I believe that this current administration has probably put all of us ON Big Brother.

15. Do you ever censor yourself? What have you always wanted to say but were too afraid to do so?
Those that know me well, and not so well, know that censoring myself is not an area that I excel in–unless it comes to writing.  My pen is much more modest than my mouth.  And in terms of being afraid?  The only thing that I’m afraid of is that today is not the day to reveal or bore anyone with those fears.

17. What do you think about vegetarians? Vegans?
I really think very little about Vegetarians or Vegans, except when I’m eating with someone that identifies themselves as such and then I think about how much I simply adore meat.  And, of course, how generous they are to consume less as I eat the quarters of an animal that trampled the land that could have fed 30 others.  Mmmmm, bacon.

18. Did you suffer any severe trauma as a child?
A tonka truck split my head open like a melon once, but mostly, I think I was ok.

19. What sorts of people do you most enjoy working with?
drugged people.  No, no, that’s a joke!  I enjoy working the most with people that are idea people, can roll with the flow and are willing to take accountability.

20. Any thoughts on Disney?
I often have the tunes from the Disney version of Robin Hood stuck in my head, and I know that I’m supposed to be all righteous about Disney, but honestly, who has the time?  Buy it or don’t buy it, and just calm down.

21. How many times have you been called a "genius"?
Tons, my brother used to say it all the time…"Good job, genius.  Now we’ll have to tell Mom."  You know, things like that.

22. What’s your favorite brand type of tea?
I know that peppermint is not a brand it’s a type, so I’m about to put a strike-through on brand and change it to "type" so that I look less foolish.

23. Which Muppet do you most identify with?
I believe that would have be Fozie (Fonzie?).  My friends and I used to sing "Movin Right Along" fairly often, and I am now doomed to have that in my head for the rest of the afternoon.  Movin right ahh-looooooong 

24. Which Muppet would you most like to draw covered in entrails and groins?
Please refer to my answer about artists being fed to obese fairy tale monsters.  But ultimately, I always wanted someone to give Miss Piggy a drink and a good talking to.

25. Anything you gotta say that won’t be documented and put into an FBI file deep underneath the statue of Abraham Lincoln?
oh dear.

Well, my plan for the Monday update was to put up pictures from Jack’s 1st birthday this past weekend, but that will have to wait until I get home to my camera and have my slippers on. Work is busy. However, I did hear a pretty hysterical commentary on the radio this morning about how holidays like President’s Day have become increasingly more about car and furniture sales than about remembering presidents past. So, for your reading enjoyment and in the name of all things procrastination, I am taking my lunch break to provide you with some President’s Day activities. First, I present you with the riveting Lincoln Word Search. If that leaves you unsatisfied, you can spend some time Memorizing all of the presidents using an amusing and odd “memory tool” and if it would help you to remember all of the presidents even further, definitely print out these pages and color the presidents in. While seeming very childish, this might be a great chance to take out any latent frustration that you might feel on presidents past (or current) and additionally provides a chance to break out the old crayon box, which is always a thrill. Happy Day!

It’s raining. The levy is going to break–this is one of those days when the emerald glasses are only pictures of fire places and deep comfort covers and thick books and stay-puff man marshmallows. There is not one iota of warmth in the air and so I’ve got rain on the brain. Here’s a fave rain poem of mine by Shel Silverstein that I always think of on days like this (I had to memorize it once upon a time, and parts have stuck with me) and below are some pictures from our friend Tom Daly from the last time that we had stormy icy weather here in town. Although the ground is loving the drink, I’m looking forward to the sun that is promised for tomorrow!

Rain

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can’t do a handstand–
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said–
I’m just not the same since there’s rain in my head.

Shel Silverstein

Another quiet weekend under our belts…Drew and I had a drink together last night to catch up after not seeing much of each other through his 24 hours on the clock over the weekend, and started talking about the Virginia Primary tomorrow and the apathy and disenchantment that people our age are expressing towards the government and the voting process in general. Drew talked about a lack of love of knowledge (a lack of opportunity, mostly) these days almost because “knowledge” is too readily available. Learning opportunities have become lackluster? The glorious internet has perhaps taken away as much as it provides, in that people assume that the knowledge is there, so there’s no need to worry about putting it in the old dome too. I am the most guilty on this front, as I can access the internet from my phone and so I am constantly looking things up, checking the weather and generally allowing myself to forget information because I don’t ever have to worry about being too far away from it. This mentality is both remarkable in its seemingly progressive nature, and is also terrifying to think how easily we can become sheep to generalized idea making without the concrete pursuit of facts. This conversation led back to discussing the whole voting process and how people are voting for buzzwords and platforms rather than unity and leadership, thinking that we can’t help but merrily follow along. At any rate, this morning in my inbox I read an e-mail that Mom sent me about 8th grade educations and laughed a little thinking that maybe Drew and I aren’t so far off the money in thinking that education is becoming more and more about teaching students how to thrive in society over teaching them about all facets of the society itself. Anyway, this is the e-mail, give the test a look–it sure made me look a bunch of things up (on google–ha!)

Remember when our grandparents, great-grandparents, and such stated that they only had an 8th grade education?
Well, check this out. – - –
This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , KS , USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , KS , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th GRADE FINAL EXAM
Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no Modifications.
3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb. Give Principal Parts of. lie, lay and run
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at
50cts/bushel, deducting 1050lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a v aluation of $35,000. What is the nece ss ary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
8 Find bank discount on $300 for! 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance
around which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.
U. S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U. S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus .
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States .
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas .
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell , Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour)
1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, sub vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret ‘u’.
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e.’ Name two
exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane,
fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)
1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America .
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver,
Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall &Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in th e same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Our friends Katie and Tom are jet setting to the tropics (smart kids) so we have the good fortune of taking care of their dog Henry for a couple of days. Henry is a 7 month old (mostly) black lab and he is reminding us of what puppy energy is truly all about. He has an earnest lab face that I couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures of, and Grace is doing as good of a job as she can with sharing space and affection!
We’ve had unseasonably warm weather these last couple of days, although the it appears that we’re headed back to more February-like temperatures in the next couple of days. Although the environmental implications aren’t that great, I certainly wouldn’t mind a winter of spring. I did catch sight of some forsythia starting to push out some buds this morning which brightened my day a little!

Here’s Grace smiling up for the camera

Henry’s a hard guy to catch, so here he is playing with his chewie in the living room

Two tired dogs snoozing under the table.

Here are some pictures from the mini vineyard tour we did this past weekend. It was all ladies and we were shuttled to three vineyards (we ambitiously started the day thinking that we might make it to five.) that are, essentially, in Charlottesville’s back yard. We went to Oakencroft Vineayrd, Whitehall Vineyard, and King Family Vineyard. Most of the pictures are from King Family Vineyard. We were fortunate to have chosen what turned out to be a warm and sunny day and the wines were quite the experience. It’s amazing how much you can like and sincerely dislike wines when they’re paired side by side. For the most part, they were all surprising and interesting, although there were a few that passed the lips and then quickly hit the spit bucket. Learning about all of the wines is always a highlight, but I think that our favorite part of the day was lounging in the sun at the last vineyard with a bottle of wine and that rare Saturday sensation of knowing that there’s no other place to be.

The van that carried us around:

Antlers are apparently very important in a Virginia Vineyard motif:

These are some of the ladies that I work with. Katie (on the left) was attempting to teach us how to pose for pictures. I failed this portion of the exam.

Well, it’s Super Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, and Production Tuesday (here in newspaper land) so I thought I would share this in light of the first of the three. It’s too soon for me to know how my vote will be cast, but I will say that I really enjoyed Barack Obama’s Yes We Can speech in SC and I found this video to be equally moving. Happy watching, laissez les bon temps rouler and love to all!