Wednesday musings, historically speaking...

Just watched a video on YouTube, a site I would never have found by my lonesome, but one my more savvy friends are addicted to, on the incredible advances in our technology, which are expanding exponentially even as we speak. Yet, the Wright brothers first flight was less than 100 years ago. Women in this country have had the right to vote for only 87 years. And we still labor with intolerance and discrimination against persons of color, persons of different sexual orientations, and yes, persons of the female persuasion across the board. Soon, we will have a computer that exceeds the calculating capacity of the human brain. Do you think it will then turn its wrath on all machines perceived to be inferior to it? Just wondering here. How far have we come, really? Not very far at all, indeed.

Mufti moments...

In keeping with my philosophy of when in college, blend, I bought myself a pair of Levi's low riders. Actually, I wasn't aware they were hip slingers. I just saw that they were long enough to walk on. That's a tall girl's wet dream, to fray the back of her jeans like all the tiny little girls. Anyway, they fit just swell. And I really like them. Until I sit down. Then, they creep down and, if my top is not super long, show all my business. I realized, after thinking about it, (like why do they do that anyway?), that is the point, to show off those thong thingies that the younguns are wearing these days. Now, I don't know about you, but I have spent my very long life trying to keep my panties from creeping up the wazoo. There's no way I'm buying those dental floss undies. I may be in the market for a belt, though.

A little flying music, please...

Very gray and damp and cold here in paradise. The day started late, I slept in, what a sweet thing that is. Put on my favorite very soft pink sweater, moussed my hair and went off to my most favorite meeting, where this big guy who is one of my least favorite people endeared me with his spirit despite myself. Hurried home to a helping of my curry that I made last night, then discovered the dog was sick. All over the bed. Sigh. Now doing a heap of laundry and hoping the Boo will be all better soon. Kind of gray inside, too. So I put on some music. Nothing lights up my day more than music, no sirree. Have decided I want to leave this world in the rapture of soundtracks, ET, Out of Africa, Somewhere in Time. Sweet.

If all else fails, throw money at it.

Nasty popup browser seems to have expired. I bought an adware spyware blocker. I have papers to write! I cannot spare the time it takes to zap those annoying windows every 2 minutes! Research! Online games! Okay. That worked. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, after spending all Wednesday afternoon scooting around the art classroom floor, banging and pulling and stapling my self-stretched canvasses together, I got to prime them today with gesso. I really love gesso. I thought my 30x30 canvas was kind of flabby, but after slapping on this goo, it is drum tight. How sweet is that! Biggest challenge was all the free-floating Boo hair that had to be plucked from the canvas' surface, over and over again. Well, maybe what I missed will come out in the sanding that comes before the next coat of gesso. I had this good feeling that I really am an artist, standing there swiping away. There was a sense of pride that I actually put this thing together, and it actually will support a painting. I think the first assignment, which even those of us in the ADVANCED category will be called upon to perform, is an abstract. I hope to make a big statement with color, if she lets us. Sometimes she restricts our palette, which is really irritating. Just try painting without white, or limited to the earth tones. I am sure there is something to know there. Right.

Joy in the morning...

Happiness is:
pancakes with cranberry preserves, sliced almonds and Cool Whip
fresh brewed Sumatra coffee
hair that does not need to be curled
jeans that are long enough (tall girls understand this one) and a little big even though they are my size
a parking place in the campus garage, even if it is all the way at the tippy top
Mr. Thompson's comparative mythology class, where he recited Genesis in the original Hebrew, complete with sound effects, hand gestures, and a lot of yelling
being able to mix and match the colors for my very own color wheel, most of them on the first try
running into a whole bunch of students I have known in previous classes
meeting a whole bunch of new friends in my new classes
abundant good health
salmon tacos with mango chutney (the special today in the Food Court)
homemade split pea soup and broccoli salad for dinner
a new episode of Gray's Anatomy
curling up with Boo and a mystery novel.

Life is good!

Mythological morass...

Happy to say I found my way here and now have bookmarked this site in my new browsers bookmark file. I am sure there is an easier way, but gee, I am too overloaded to learn anything new at the moment. Let me exposit on my comparative mythology class. Of course, I expected we would be looking at different cultures, and indeed we are. We will be reading the Popol Vu, for instance, the sacred text of the Mayans. But our first assignment is to read the myth of all myths, Genesis. Yeah, it meets the criteria of a myth: anonymously written, pertaining to a supernatural being, widely accepted culturally, and totally without factual support. So, we learned, are the gospels. Not written by Matthew, Luke, John and Paul at all. Those authors were assigned to the scrolls at the Council of Nicea. So, where is truth in all this bullshit? Certainly that stringy guy in his Salvation Army suit passing out New Testaments on the sidewalk by the college looked like he knew the truth, and was eager that we all know it, too. I think this is one of the very classes his literature is hoping to neutralize. And I think it is really important to exercise my mind, one of the reasons I schlepp off to school instead of laying around the little yellow house, thumbing through my new O magazine and throwing crumbs of my hotcakes to Boo. Actually, I got to do that, too, this morning, while sipping my freshly brewed Sumatra that I freshly ground first thing. Oh, it is all so confusing. And upsetting. I want to know what is really true. Guess Dan Brown might have been right. It appears anything goes, biblically speaking.

What a bother!

I seem to have picked up a hitchiker on my system. Lots of annoying windows opening in Microsoft Internet Explorer, which I have never used. Not popups, though. Popups are blocked. I have been in every file I can think of trying to fix this puppy. Finally gave up, decided my browser was infected, and downloaded another browser, which works, but did not keep my bookmarks, so I could not get to my blog. How annoying is that! Anyway, the new browser seems to be unperturbed by this pest, so I will have to find out the address of my dashboard, because I have never needed it before. Gee, I miss the good old days, you know, when dirt was new and one could interact with one's operating system and viruses were just a gleam in the evil geeks' eyes. Anyhoo, here is the scoop on school, which started yesterday. It is always a zoo the first few weeks until attrition sets in and the weak drop off the tree. Parking was a little dicey, because my classes on Mondays and Wednesdays don't start till noon. How sweet it is! Even so, I plan on going in early tomorrow, to do my assigned reading for art history before class, and get a parking place in the new garage. I love the sweet young thing teaching this class, and her syllabus promises that we will be able to critique and compare and identify art from the French Revolution to modern day. Sounds like a deal. Painting in the afternoon will begin with that most rewarding task of stretching our own canvasses. I did this last semester and it is a hoot, crawling around on the floor, looking for tools that get covered up by the sheet we use to keep charcoal from the morning drawing class off our jeans. Staple guns, hammers, pliers, all bamboozle me, but I am up for it, yes I am. I have all the tools, and the grit, and plan on assembling two of those suckers in the allotted time. And I have a friend in class from last semester, so we are all juiced up to have a roaring good time. Today's classes were comparative mythology, taught by a Robin Williams wannabe who actually knows all the languages he spouts, and principles of color, taught by a gal who actually may be older than I, which is refreshing to say the least. She is not very exciting or animated, but I bet she knows her stuff, and we will be doing all kinds of projects in class, sort of kindergarten for grownups, things like color wheels and grey scales, so if she is articulate enough to explain how to do them, it will all be good. We got out early, and I thought, oh joy, I can get home to watch my soap. Right. I spent a happy half hour trudging around the garage, looking for my car. One woman actually laughed at me. Oh, well, I must have needed the humility. If I can find my way back here, more later.

I surprise myself sometimes...

Last summer (and the summer before), I had a list of things to accomplish. It was essentially the same list, and it remained unaccomplished through the second summer. Don't know what that was about, but everything seemed unimportant when compared to long sleep-ins, Disney movies, detective novels and my Netflix queue. Then, all of a sudden, over winter break, a measly three week sojourn in the darkest days of the year, most of it got done. Don't know what that was about, either. Usually winter is a chance to semi-hybernate, eat things that are not good for me like See's candy and sugar cookies, and do all those other things listed above in abundance. After I assembled my little art table and stool, I needed a place to put them, which required mucking out the studio that had become piled with all the canvasses I had painted over the last two semesters, plus my drawings, bags of art stuff, portfolios, design projects, etc. All the paintings are now hanging on the wall of the studio, where they can be observed and I can make the decision to keep them, rework them, or paint over them. Hmmmm. I made a portfolio out of cardboard from the table carton with tape and wrapping ribbon to hold most of my drawings. I put hooks up on the walls to hang my bags. With the new table tucked into the corner under the window, it is a cozy and hospitable place to work. Then I got the four paintings framed. Because the rabbit was not deep enough (I thought it was 5/8 in., but actually it was 3/8 and the painting stuck out a little), I decided to secure them into place with duck tape. How easy is that? And if they come lose, well, there is always my trusty staple gun to hold the tape down. Life is good when you own duck tape and a staple gun. There are now four new paintings hanging here in my little office. The frames are just right, not too formal, not too casual, subtle but striking, too. It is so empowering to have created something of permanence, something that is worthy of displaying. I get to believe that I truly am an artist when I look at them, as I often do. Anyway, while mucking out the studio, I found the material for the kitchen curtains I was thinking of making last summer. So I hauled out the sewing machine, put up the ironing board, unearthed the sewing box, and had at it. Now I have sweet tie-backs over my table, and it looks like someone of substance and taste lives here. Did I mention that I also knitted 8 scarves over the break? Five were gifts, three I kept for me. Busy little bugger, that's me.

What a difference a day makes!

You know, I have worn my hair long for the last 10 years. That's because I wore it short short for 15 years before that. I do that, glom onto something and just hold on to it, forever. Well, I got tired of it. I have weinie hair, really soft and shiny, but really really fine. It kind of just hangs there. And when the wind blows, what a mess. It kept getting in my mouth, like when I was bent over my drawings in the figure drawing class. I hated that. Half the time I clamped it up behind my head or cinched it up in a ponytail just so I didn't have to curl it with my collection of curling irons. Curling it really doesn't work anyway. The slightest moisture and the curl just dies. So I went cruising on the Net yesterday looking for a new look for me. And printed out the picture, and took it to my favorite haircutting person, and voila! Brand new me! Well, not quite. Actually it is a new rendition of old, old me from 10 years ago. Whatever, it is like laying down a heavy package. Wash, blow dry and I'm out of here. Of course, that is all it will do. No more improvising with hair implements when it is sticking out funny. However, from my research, it is unlikely anyone would be surprised if it did stick out funny. Most of the 'dos I saw stuck out funny anyway. If I get tired of it, I will grow it out a little and wear a bob. It has been about 25 years since I had one of those.

Small triumph here...

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I ordered a little drafting table and stool from Dick Blick, and the damned thing arrived yesterday. This was a little soon. I had planned on getting the studio all cleaned out first, and of course, I took the holiday as a day to loll about doing nothing particularly exemplary (saw dynamite film, Juno, loved it), and yesterday seemed to be an extension of that holiday, just getting settled back into routine, and lo, is that the doorbell? And is that FedEx with two humungous boxes? Of course, first I put my paintings into the frames. I was dying to see how they would look all dressed up. And that is how they look, like my paintings kind of gussied up. The frames are exactly what I wanted, now just need to figure out how to get paintings semi-permanently situtated within, and get them wired for hanging. Anyway, after breakfast and a couple stiff cups of coffee, I decided to tackle the assembly of my new furniture. Have I mentioned how handicapped I am, mechanically speaking? Nevertheless, I went about it with great elan, full of confidence. I can read a diagram. I can use an Allen wrench (kind of backwards at first, it works best if you put the short arm of the L into the screw, wish I'd know that a lot sooner). I put the stool together first, and did a bang up job, if I do say so myself. Then the table. It is adjustable, so it was a little trickier. One screw just refused to embed itself into the end of this dowel, that I had to hold while trying to get that sucker to go in. I wound up leaving it sticking out just a little, and it can't be too important anyway because the thing is all together now, and really super. Except I wound up with spare parts, two washers. I thought, how thoughtful of them to include extras for people like me who lose things so easily. Except then I noticed they really do belong in the assembly. So I am steeling myself for another tussle with the Allen wrench to put them in. I think they are actually important. Did I mention I own an electric screwdriver? And the bit for Allen bolts was too small for the ones in my table kit? What can I say. It's a guy thing, this fascination with drill bits. One needs to have a lot of them, I guess. This is frustrating, but also a good lesson. Look carefully at the diagram before screwing.