We missed all the fun at Dogwood Fest, but did see the Atlanta Rollergirls out at Stone Mountain. My sweetie won tickets from the good college station (88.5) so we got in for free. We stayed for 2 of the 3 periods, so we didn’t get to see who one the game. It was much fun, but the band that played sucked.
And that’s what we did instead.
We’re starting to set up for Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs. Based on the high quality of previous shows at the Ferst Center for the Arts, I would recommend this show sight-unseen. If you go and are unhappy, feel free to comment with poorly-spelled tirades
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Now that I’m back to work I realize I forgot a few things I did with my freetime.
There’s the usual chores: laundry, dishes, spent an hour cleaning the bathroom floor (bleached the hell out of the grout), groceries, etc.
But here were the two highlights…
“Peep Show”, at Orange Hill Folk Art Gallery and Outsider Art Gallery. A sexually charged folk-art show. Loads of pieces, sculptural, paintings, and drawings. The most engaging pieces were by the artist least likely to be described as “folk” or “outsider”. Whitney Lee’s latch-hook rugs featuring pin-up models and centerfolds were good, with the largest one being the best.
The rug pictured was hung on a wall, and it looked great. The other smaller works were harder to read visually, pixelating because of the individual pieces of yarn used as color elements. All the pieces have a quality of looking a scrabbled TV channel trying to make out the good bits. If you are interested in being a hooker Whitney has kits of some of the smaller works shown at Orange Hill. For all the works, not just Lee’s, the show is worth seeing.
V for Vendetta. Just saw the movie, and it was great. Creator Frank Miller (Wrong. Alan Miller – see comments) hates ever movie adaptation of his graphic novels except the phenomenal “Sin City”. Even before he got really well known as a grapphic artist and storyteller, I had all three amazing Hard Boiled graphic novels from ’90 – ’93.
I bought his take on Batman (The Dark Knight Returns) but never got into ‘V for Vendetta”.
The movie worked for me. Glad I got a chance to go.
Last night the dark cloud of jury duty that had followed me lifted. As directed on my month-old jury-duty form I called and found that there were no jurors called in. Hurray!
The main problem with jury duty was that it was coming during a peak period of work, with both art installation and stagehand jobs scheduled until the end of the month. It would have been a big chunk of change lost.
One thing that helps settle my mind when I run into things like this is a theory of quantum mechanics. Yeah, strange, I know. It’s the idea that particles have two states that exist at the same time until something happens to the particle. Then it goes into one of the two states. So, until the thing that needs to happen… happens, both things/all things are possible.
I find it strangely reassuring that until that something that is out of my control resolves itself, it’s all up in the air.
Well… it works for me.
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So, today is the last of my play days, work resumes tomorrow. I will try to finish the tasks on the white board, completing the ones that there was no need to leave undone until now. Procrastination, my faithful friend. Not that I wasn’t unproductive, but I was doing things not on list (alphabetizing books, consolidating shelves) when month-old tasks have been left untouched. Time to erase that one off the board.
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Yesterday was the 8-year anniversary of my first date with my now-wife. I don’t believe in luck or divine providence. Thing just are or they’re not. My life is better then I could have imagined because Caroline is in it. A good thing this marriage, and one that grows better every day. Four months into our dating, we were at a big party and were asked twice how long we had been married. We laughed, and Caroline later joked that she was pleasantly surprised how I didn’t freak out over the question. That night after an excessive amount of drinking, we decided to move in. And she hasn’t kicked me out yet.
How do you know someone is the one? There is no single one, there are many. But you won’t meet most of them or any of them at all, they will remain unknown. But within the people you meet, there maybe a great person or persons for you. When most/all the time spent with them is good time, when you are better for being around them, when the effort you put into the relationship feels like a gift that you are giving then a task you are obligated to do… you already know exactly what you need to know.
I’m a better person then I could have imagined because of her. And she tells me the same. I love that our lives will be spent with each other, because the one we have had is so good. Give me more, I’ll take all I can get.
If I was single, I would think about StreetWars, a 3 week long, 24/7, watergun assassination tournament – NYC, Vancouver, Vienna, San Francisco. Since it hasn’t taken place in Atlanta (yet), there’s no chance.
But even if there was, this is how I imagine the conversation with my wife…
“… so if there’s someone outside lurking around, don’t worry. It’s just somebody trying to shoot me with a squirtgun.”
“…really?”
“Yeah… most likely.”
“I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you.”
“That only works if you’re Muslim.”
“Worked fine for me. Have fun with the assassinations.” Leaves.
… and I have to put out!
“free room, and board, for house and personal duties. Female only Yes room and board for sex and light office duty “
Atlanta Craigslist – Free Room In New House
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First read about it here – WFMY News 2 – Watercooler Section: Sex In Lieu Of Rent Gaining Popularity
“Sideways the dog came into Tech hearts through a tragic case of abuse.
In March of 1945, a small black and white dog was thrown from a moving car near where the Varsity stands today. Tech students, rescuing the dog, brought her back to campus and nursed her back to health.
She recovered, but was left by the accident with a walk in which her head was permanently at an angle from her tail. This odd, off-centered gait gave her a name: Sideways.
Sideways would often accompany students to and from their classes, displaying a preference for certain professors’ lectures. It was said that she would sit up and listen raptly to interesting lecturers, while she would curl up and sleep for a less engaging speaker.
Sideways would spend every night in a different dorm room, and would always get her meals at Brittain Dining Hall.
Sideways often had run-ins with the law and was frequently caught by the dog catcher, but was always bailed out of “prison” by her loyal student benefactors.
Her life came to an abrupt end when she ate some rat poison. She was buried on the northwest corner of Tech Tower, where her grave marker still stands today. From that vantage point on The Hill, she continues to watch over her benefactors in the student body.”
From Ramblins – Stumpy’s bear, Sideways the dog remembered in Tech history
After a long week including a 15.5 hour day on Friday, Sunday started a few days without any work scheduled. The freetime meant a walk in the Piedmont Park with my wife. We saw lots of cute dogs, kids using cardboard as slides on the grassy hills and heard one of them taunt another with a “nanny-nanny poo-poo”. Italian sodas were bought at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse. And then home, dinner and some Adult Swim.
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“Beauty rules here. It cured my wounds from the war.”
Art handler Vadim from the series Hermitage-Niks. This 5-part series is on those people who work at The State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), and I caught a bit of it on Sundance. Valdin (who like like any art handler I could have met with edgy facial hair and a pierced eyebrow) served as a solder during a conflict with Azerbagan. He saw many war atrocities and now find refuge amongst the museum’s beauty, as do many of the employees there.
Carl Jung once said something to the effect that art exists to heal the human psyche. It made me think there may be less of an appreciation for the arts in part because most of us in the west are happier and healthier then a battle-affected russian solder or a Hermitage curator who talked about how her male family members were all killed during Stalin’s reign. I live in a time and country of unparalleled excess. Just thinking about this.
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More good work news. I’m working on cultivating a relationship with a local architecture firm. A chance conversation with the company’s president may be the beginning of something new. The firm has a had some museum-related projects and proposals.
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Reprinted. Purchased today. Rarely am I one for spontaneous shopping. but Threadless T-Shirts brings that out in me. Hmm, wonder what Valdim would think of this.
Neon Poisoning 