oh my darlin'.

Apparently i only feel the need to post things when i'm having an o f f day.
Here are some things i found on the magical screen:


(this guy takes old bike/car parts and makes lifelike animals out of 'em.)


(this person makes tiny dioramas! awesome, tiny dioramas!! iii smell a craaft night!)


(a head, formed from a carefully-cut out street map. i like maps... and heads.)


(pretty seriously fantastic illuminated wire sculptures from some dude. they are around.)

Meanwhile, i sit here eating chocolate-chip cookies (the recipe claimed them as "the best ever", which they absolutely are not), paying bills, watching The Incredible Shrinking Man (gets surprisingly preachy at the end!), and above all, not cracking open my catalog of Spring 2012 community college classes. i also need to:

–touch up my bike (red nail polish is standing by)
–figure out which two hideous christmas sweaters nat and i will wear for our first annual Bad Holiday Photo
–stop biting my fingernails
–take the trash out,
–work on some photos.

On this last note i should mention that i'm sick and tired of being a perfectionist. It gets in the way of a person's ability to get a damn thing done... i would just like to edit and post some of these f*cking photos, okay, self? No need for them to be artifact-free; other people have easy-breeziness, where can i get some? Is it in potion form? Are they sprinkling it on their breakfast cereal? Is it in the genes? Hm.

Anyway, back to:
–scrubbing the toilet
–eating another clementine
–biting my nails
–anything else i can do to avoid everything else i have to do.

Love,
the girl who likes stormy cloud photos. big ones.

Brought to you by: the letter "e".

(found on the sidewalk yesterday in San Juan Capistrano, right near a pink baby sock. weird.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you guys remember those coloring books where you just painted over everything with a wet paintbrush? There was that little hint of color on the page, here and there, and you could sort of manipulate where you wanted to strongest concentration of the color to go with your brush. End results were pretty dang similar to this (not sure that this is an actual page from one or not?):



...so yeah. Good times.

And then there were the good old "stained-glass" coloring books, that you could tape onto your window afterwards:





...ahh, good times. Those cellophane-like pages were so fun to marker in, even if the end result was never quite as spectacular as one would have liked.

FYI if you're my best friend you would get me this sweet Ms. Pac-Man water-color book from the '80s. yessss.

it's not vicious, or malicious.

Friends, i have spent the entire day on the internet. This is not a lament, or a boast: it is a simple truth.

And i found some stuff.

This lady's comics are great.

Here are some photos that are not mine:








The National Geographic Photo Contest is at it again. Have a gander!

i just discovered The Fray. It has good stories in't. Sat here reading for an hour or more.

(All of the orchids in my house are almost done blooming. Feeling poisoned from smoking too many cigarettes. i think we'll eat pumpkin pudding for dinner.)

i drank too much last night and would like for that to not happen again. There was a variety show among friends: "Africa" was covered, and Nico, as well as "Groove Is In The Heart" (complete with slide whistle). There were rum balls and Guinness cupcakes. i found a "k" in a snapped-off twig. The clouds were like cotton balls stretched out across the sky. i was finally able to say aloud to someone that i was having a difficult time getting truly involved in the 'Occupy' movement because i feel that there are bigger problems in the world... his response was that, well, doesn't the problem of the rich getting richer sort of have a hand in most (if not all) of those other problems i was mentioning (rape, slavery, lack of clean water, etc.)? It was a tough call; i had a hard time clarifying my position and verbalizing what i meant. Also, as i believe i already mentioned, i was pretty inebriated.
Oh, to have excellent speech and debate skills!

This post brought to you by a hangover.

how does a day take shape? there are distant hums, sirens, and cages..
smells and sounds, inner rumblings.
cloud swaths, ethereal
and the cold, hard ground.
there might be a dusty road
or a bright smiling face.
lines on your hands, and on trees' trunks,
(everything is growing)
light reflecting in pools of inky water.

we are trying to keep something alive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Someone thought of us, once.

It's true–
we flashed across their brain pans and for a brief moment
each and every one human
(some robust, some passing in and out)
was quickly and carefully
lifted up
and held;
lovingly inspected
each and every inch.
But there is not enough time
can't look for very long
So they closed their eyes and imagined, hard

emblazoning all of the faces,
and garments,
and shrieks (of laughter, and pain!)
and endless possibilities
of combinations.

it burned brighter and became a din,
ferocious.
until the moment passed,
and they resumed their own life
picked up where they'd left off
(where was it?)

Someone thought of you, once.

Visuals

Went last night to the final viewing of the Art of Photography show in downtown SD. It was at that mega-shopping paradise, Horton Plaza; i was one of literally three people who made their way downstairs to the Lyceum Theatre to check out the photos. It was pretty rad. Here are my favorites.


"Back to nature 1" - Patricia Van De Camp
(Superb colors in this one. The actual print looked a bit darker. Gorgeous!)


"Arcimboldo W6I0970" - Klaus Enrique
(um, YES. This one was gigantic, and incredibly shot. Also, what an effing brilliant idea.)


"Long Winding Road" - Dejon Walker
(stared at this one for a long time. it was huge and beautiful.)


"Dad's Things Aren't Dad" - Russ Rowland
(since i'm obsessed with collections, and items as evidence of our 'self'.)


"Dissolve" - Alison Turner
(one of the first ones i saw that stopped me in my tracks. Weird, but excellent.)


"Covered in White Powder" - Larry Louie
(so, this is a balloon factory. gave me the shivers. i sell those fucking things every day.)


"Three in the Lake" - Carl Tremblay
(perfect.)


"Litter" - Linda Kuo
(this was way better in person. water glistened on every surface. although i still can't figure out what that white thing is.)


"Louise" - Tom M. Johnson
(Louise = obviously amazing.)


"Girl, Ballinasloe Horse fair, Ireland" - Kenneth O Halloran
[this one got 'Honorable Mention']
(another large, stunning portrait. i was transfixed by those freckles.)


"B 1004 (Window)" - Noritaka Minami
(is it weird that i want to sleep in here? this was related to this other photo.)


"Hot Rod Dream Girl Priscilla" - Jennifer Greenburg
(check out her shift knob! Also, the light was fantastic in this one.)


"Day 47" - Jennifer Wilkey
[also received 'Honorable Mention']
(creeptastic.)


"Place 1861" - Jose A. Gallego
(this was possibly my favorite. can't really explain why. i just wanted to be there, badly.)


"Feet Over Coconut Shell" - Andre Cypriano
(visceral. i want to do this!)


"Red China" - Li Jiangsong
(slightly ominous, obviously accidental.)


"Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" - Brian Almaraz
(surreal! kind of reminded me of a scene from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez story.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These 2 were the first-place winners:

"Flesh Love Chihiro & Takeshi" & "Flesh Love Michico & Yuhei" - Photographer Hal

...and this one was also pretty great:

"An Ordinary Day" - Bev Short


Well, that's all folks. Off to make shrunken apple heads.

punks

Okay. i went a little crazy last night looking at pumpkin decorating ideas. Here is a (long) roundup of my faves. Hope you didn't have any other plans in the next few hours.

...yeah.