PICK A CARD

HELLO.....KIDDIES...


bEEN here in Portland....(when I ain't in Seattle pickin up shifts at my old job at the Paramount Theater...)...jUst tryin to find some steady work....and working on my art projects....

Lately....ths means looking around on craigslist for CALLS FOR ARTISTS and seeing if there is anything worth going for....just trying to build up the portfolio, learning to make deadlines, etc. etc...gives me something to focus on.....

I have already been in two lil tiny shows here...

...including a piece for the PORTLAND'S AUDUBON SOCIETY ....the 6X6 PROJECT ...you pick up a 6x6 canvas free at Art Media and create anything on the theme of BIRDS....me and friend TER-TER...went to check it out today....was way better than I thought...and good exposure.....I also went because in my haste to meet the deadline, I had no time to document it....was hoping to snap a few pix...UNFORTUNATELY...it was one of those things where you buy it and leave with the piece right away....AND MINE HAD ALREADY been adopted...(or fortunately I guess..)...am currently in the process of huntng it down....

...the other cool thang is that I got into THE PORTLAND PROJECT!!!

(CHECK IT OUT HERE)

they get a bunch of local Portland artists (that's me! barely...) to represent each of the cards in a deck of cards and do their own thang...it's gonna get produced and sold around town....and the proceeds go to artist non-profits....so a big hand to the folks who are making this happen.

I AM DOING THE KING OF CLUBS!!!

...so I went on the wikipedia to get my brain going on ideas...I mean, what do I really KNOW about the origin of playing cards anyhow??

Here are a few interesting facts (or as verifiable as THE WIKI can be...):

- the suits as we know them, went thru alot of changes.... IN GERMANY: the suits LEAVES(spades), ACORNS(for clubs), BELLS, AND HEARTS....The modern decks deriving their suits from MEDIEVAL FRANCE....!!!

- ...later....in the 1800 Parisian decks, the royalty were represented by well-known Historical and mythic persons....MY CARD was represented by ALEXANDER THE GREAT...another big fag....

- One possible reason why the ace (a term meaning the lowest..) changed to become the highest card,and the deuce moved into the lowest position, is because of the FRENCH REVOLUTION, in which the lowest class rose up against the royalty...usurping power....neat....

- there is a small history as to how and why the reversible face cards came about...

- and JACK as a term for the KNAVE was consider a peasant term, due to the lower class game it derives from, and therefore crude....

- ...there are an unbelieveable number of card games you have probably never heard of....

GO HERE TO FIND OUT MORE.....

aNYWAYS...It's good to be back....I'll keep you posted on this cool project...which shows the promise of some really good exposure....you know how i likes gettin naked....

still HERE....

tO ALL YOU SWELL KIDS WHO HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING MY HUMBLE LIL STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS....

I am still here....

I have just yanked up ALL my roots and relocated to PORTLAND, OREGON. What a great idea: I cannot tell you how happy I am....I guess either NYC isn't truly a place for me, or it just wasn't the right time....But I can already tell you that Portland is just where I need to be...YES, it is ALOT quieter, and the weather is taking some readjusting, but it is a good place for the next chapter of my life to begin....

Please stay tuned to my posts...I don't have my own computer, and no money to get one right now, so It isn't easy to post posts, let alone photos, right now...I am usually limited to my ONE HOUR RATION at the library, which ain;'t conveinient, but so much more HEALTHY, I think....(My new roomies have offered the use of their computers, but I don't want to become the annoying roommate always asking for favors every few minutes...(there's that independant streak again...)).

I will post when I can, so for now: Thanks for reading, and stay tuned....

BOWL OF CONFUSION: that's what the world is today....

OKAY: FOR THOSE OF YOU who like to keep it clean...this link probably ain't for you....or if you are one of my parents...or the pope...or a friend of THE christian right....or a gradeschool teacher...actually...I know of few of those who could teach John Holmes a thing or two...so never mind grade school teachers...but the nice lady who lives down the street who has 20 cats and knows everyones children...watched them grow up and go off to college...maybe NOT her...

....then again...I've know some foul mouthed old ladies...thank god.....ETTA wouldn't mind this link probably....

P.S.: HOW ANNOYING this country is....when I went back to this link after posting this..."FUCK" got changed to "DATE" in this song....What's the point of bein an adult if you are treated like a child!?

P.P.S.: I FOUND ANOTHER "ADULT" VERSION!!! HERE.

OUT DAMN SPOT....

After sleepin in this morning...I jumped into my grubbys and strolled down to the river with my coffee to pick tomorrow's breakfast....







Last week as I was walking along I saw several people picking and eating berries from bushes that I assumed were just ornamental, since I didn't recognize them...and I wasn't gonna try 'em neither...you never know...BUT I stopped to asked both people what kinda berries they were....first gal didn't know but said she wouldn't be eating them if they weren't safe...and the father and son, who had been eating from these bushes for several years, told me they were "MULBERRIES" and "BOYSENBERRIES"...and that you can eat them if the birds are eating them....And I sure dont recall eating either...least of all FRESH....








Well so soon after reading the below mentioned book, it was exciting to be able to put some if it to practice...(being pretty broke these days, I cannot afford to buy fruit, let alone berries, at the market...and here was a bunch for free (several weeks worth..), and as far as I have seen "pesticide free"...







The mulberries are like a less complex blackberry...and the boysenberry, like a fluctuating plum/ apricot/ almond paste flavor...depending on how ripe they are...

It's pretty cool to be stepping outside the loop produce-wise even if it is for only a week or so....and learning about new things to eat right here in my hood....








In "IN DEFENSE OF FOOD" Michael Pollan talks about how thousands of years of intuitive learning, and food culture have been robbed from us and replaced with this belief that only a scientist and/ or the FDA know what's best for us to eat....HAH!! In the old days...we learned from our community and all the experimenting...trial...and error (eeek!),AND FROM OUR MOTHERS what was good to eat...trusting our instincts...(if it's sweet and smells good), it's edible....THAT IS WHAT OUR SENSES ARE THERE FOR...right?

It's nice to get back in touch with that, a little bit anyway, today....the animal side of ourselves...which still knows these things...but needs to relearn these instincts....

Standing there along the bike trail reaching out with my grubbin fingers...stained with juice...putting them one after the other into my mouth...I felt kinda like a grizzly bear...getting ready for fall...

is THIS the world PAPA?

I have been trying to figure out what I am doing with these last few months here in NYC....I love this city, BUT I am glad to be va-moosing....

My friend Ryan...I used to work with him, bartending at the Paramount Theater in Seattle....invited me to be part of a migration outta frustrating big city life...(him in LA..)...

...so I am also trying to plan for the future....

I just finished reading MICHAEL POLLAN'S: IN DEFENSE OF FOOD....
It is slated to change my way of thinking about the world around me, the same way that 50 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO SAVE THE EARTH did when I bought it in junior high(?)..ask my siblings....i think I drove them crazy with all the eco-friendly info I spouted at them after that read....

...this book has me planning a garden in my new town to be...visiting farmer's markets....etc etc...dinner's made from scratch for friends....

...I have been trying to envision the next evolution of THIS BLOG TOO....not sure I want it to be so...VERBOSE in future...and more of a scrapbook..snips of image...scraps of dialogue...something more free-form and mutable...and EASY TO DO ON A DAILY BASIS....

..stay tuned and see where I (we) go with this...and thanks for keeping in touch thus far....

AT THE RISK OF BEING A NEGATIVE NED....

I'm not normally one to be the critic...I prefer to TRY and be the "BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE THAN CURSE THE DARK" kinda guy....BUT...

I just saw THE BROTHERS BLOOM and am concerned that we are facing the rise of a whole sub-genre of film here...who's ranks seem to be growing (Wes Anderson, etc.)...and disturbing me....


It kinda feels like an advertiser decided to try and SELL the "WEIRD KID" at school and make him look hip...(okay, I was sort of one of those "weird" kids....but this ain't no axe-grind...). Or better yet, THE JOCK trying to sell the WEIRD KID...and making a lil cash doing so...

THE BROTHERS BLOOM is just that: JOCK ART: let's make it really big because I don't have much to say...so we gotta magnify it so it's loud and clear. All the elements are there for a good story to be made possible: a good cast of actors....some exotic locals....quirky visual chapter headings (like we're trying for cool grown-up kids book look...), and OF COURSE lots of eccentric characters with all sorts of weird goodies, masquerading as hobbies. Granted, I love all that stuff....great...BUT I am feeling the way I felt after the last few M. Night Shyamalan movies: This guy needs to get himself some REAL friends who know how to say "NO!" to their friend Mr. Night....who seems to have surrounded himself with a bunch of YES MEN instead: "...yah, and that part where the monster/animal thing chases the LADY in the water? The thing with the REALLY DUMB name..? That's SO COOL!!!..."....etc....

It's worse with the Wes Anderson effect, because, like the BROTHERS, there are all sorts of indications of the possibilities of a good, entertaining film in the works. Lots of beauty beauty beauty- and NOT the WB kind of beauty...it's the ugly duckling beauty, prettied up so brain-washed people can SEE it....The sensitive character with the puppy-dog eyes, the broken (sexy) nose, and the palpably yearning heart...the crazy around-the-world trek on some folly or other...and then the carpet getting yanked out from under you at the end when you realize there's nothing behind it. Though, actually, you have this growing feeling of unease that there isn't going to be a pay-off...and you are left feeling disappointed. The only thing that would make it a little better is if PEGGY LEE singing "IS THAT ALL THERE IS?" started playing as the wacky credits rolled....THEN you would get to let out a bitter snort at least...

It's hard to know for me just WHERE these films go wrong, but I suspect it's in the fact that the director is also the writer...Even actors-turned-director (and after a lengthy time spent acting in other peoples films at that...) don't make this mistake too often. I read some comments by Mr. Johnson regarding falling into directing which seem to express a disregard for all the talent that goes into it...using the obvious metaphore of THE CON in his winging it and just "pretending" to be a director in order to become one...How can you expect to put out anything worthy, if you think you can just bluff your way through it...? (And this guy went to film school...). It's almost like responding to a painting by saying "I could do that...", though no, not everyone CAN.
Perhaps if this strain of directors were to put their visual packaging skills to better use tackling other people's stories they might be more successful?

But this brings me to ANOTHER point: All these movies seem to have another trait in common: Someone REALLY likes J. D. Salinger. Those quirky siblings who are super smart without really knowing just how smart they are...or how cool....
Salinger is really good at sucking you into these stories and making you relate to these characters...so much so that you start to suspect that you might be really smart and really cool too- because you GET IT.
Salinger is good at selling the story to you: whenever someone reads Catcher in the Rye- don't they always say how they "totally relate to the Holden character.."?

And while we're on it: all those references hinting to how well read the writer is....feel like nothing more than an attempt to "lend credibility" to his own work by inviting older and wiser folks to the party...

This is not all to say how we all ARE NOT UNIQUE..(come on, hands across the world everyone...), but it doesn't mean it would be something you should invest millions in turning into a film...

The BROTHERS BLOOM reminds me of The Emperors New Clothes story: everyone standing around, saying how beautiful the clothes are because they are afraid to say: "huh?".

Rachel Weisz's character SHOULD fall for Adrian Brody's- he's interesting, and he's vulnerable, and he doesn't spend all his time talking about himself...(and he's got those puppy-dog eyes that are ready to tear up, and the schnozz...), so why does he have to take her on this chase around the globe to do so...I am a romantic like anyone, but I do not see it.
Or "THE CURATOR" (Robbie Coltrane-whom I love..)...who just shows up and turns out to be "in on it"...Let's just leave it all vague so that we don't have to tell a story.... NOTE: If you are making a movie: CON MEN as a theme is a really great way to go if you have lots of gaps in a story or unresolved issues...because you can just fall back on "Oh, they were in on it too...it was part of the scam".

So back we go to the problem: lots of great visuals, not enough heart or soul...This movie really feels like it was made by a rich kid who never has gotten his hands dirty, never struggled...everthing seems effortless and elegant...nothing FEELS important because nothing worth having is gained easily. I kept WANTING to care about these characters, but I never did.
Also, usually in a truly good performance, you forget an actor is who they are. And while the acting was completely competent (it's a character actor movie let's not forget...), I didn't stop thinking "That's my man Adrian..." or "Go Mark!!!"....not a good sign.

A budget is nice for a film, but The Lord of the Rings this is NOT. So, ask yourself this: Do you think Mr. Johnson could have made this an absorbing film if he didn't have the budget or the big names? Maybe... alot of times it is the Lack of resources that make you work harder...pushes you to make things happen like they wouldn't have otherwise. The lack of a cushion beneath you forces you to really THINK about what you're saying....

As a fellow artist, I feel for Mr. Johnson...it takes alot of courage to set out on the journey of honing your craft, and making your art....of putting yourself on the chopping block for all to scrutinize....But this film indicates to me that he has a long way to go. And that's okay....as long as he can accept that.

THE PERFECT STICK!!!

NO, SERIOUSLY....I was walking along the HUDSON last week, and just happened to look down...and their she was....something about the form I guess...and it is as light as a feather like a bird's bone.....You just have to come over and check for yo'self....









I walked home with it...and was talking to my brother on my cell and accidentally snapped it in two as I was putting the key in my front door!!! So I painstakingly glued it together....like triage...I noticed that the tinniest bit of bark was missing so I went out into the hallway and found it!!!









I guess sculpture, or 3-d art has been in my bones since I was a kid....I used to take shoelaces and start tying knots in them over and over until it was one big knot-ball, just to see if I could get a cool shape outta it...see?








So, I have a cool idea for this stick, but I am unsure if I want to do anything to it.....It's so beautiful just the way it is.....(?)......