Technical Difficulties and a Move

Are what have been keeping me from writing.

I miss you, heaps.

We played the Garden!

On our way through the gardens with our hostess Lisa leading the way.

The Botanic Garden, that is...and it went well. Todd and I got suited up real nice, had young kids dancing during the first tune, and had an all-around fun time playing during Nancy's opening. Kim took a bunch of pictures before and while we played.














Aforementioned young kids dancing.

My good friend Kate showed up as did Todd's cousin Ben. Nancy's new work is really pretty astounding- her drawings are assertive and joyous, much like her.















L and N being L and N.

Langdon and Nick were there and we all had dinner with Nancy's family and friends. L and N proved that they are well suited for one another by reacting so similarly when faced with a digital image-recording device.

Now, we have all begun packing up our rooms. Our tenure at 3122 Patterson is coming to an end and I am secretly wishing that someday someone will come and steal all of my things so that I don't have to deal with them. I suffer from what Todd and I call "The Ideal of the Absent", a middle-class, suburabia induced condition of having everything and wanting none of it (kinda).

In other news, go here to see the video I made to accompany Shigeo Kawashima's exhibit at the VACR.

Death By Musette! in Brooklyn

Nancy Blum Nirvana Ink and colored pencil on paper

You read that correctly. Todd, Kim and I are heading to the Northeast Corridor this evening so that we can play at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Saturday during Nancy Blum's opening. It's from 2-4, if you can make it, stop by- Nancy's mom is making the baked goods (and I've heard that her 12' foot drawings are amazing).

Thanks to Martin for announcing this on Anaba.

...don't stop!

Can you name that song?

Majuscle

From Brad Walker's most recent issue of Majuscle. The issue is full of jokes that he tells in specific situations that often get no laughs.

Is Brad an old man in training?

More about Brad here.

Zippered Shut

I have a lot to say about death, funerals, interstate-mourning, and the loss of a matriarch, but I am waiting- Kim has been out of town since the 5th of July and I want to tell her first.

So, instead I'll post this picture of Charles and one of Chuck Close. The resemblance ushers forth the unheimlich.

Back Home, and Making Garlic and Oil Memory of Nana

Nana's Dresser, 3 July 12, 2006

Thanks for all the kind words and well wishes.

To see the first Nana's Dresser go here, to see the second one go here.

I'm headed to Connecticut for Nana's funeral. I'll be back Wednesday night.

So long.

October 8, 1912- July 6, 2006

Nobody knows what waits ahead
Beyond the earth and sky
Lie-d Lie-d Lie
I'm not afraid to die

And there the work of my own hand
Be broken by and by
Lie-d Lie-d Lie
I'm not afraid to die

Sometimes it finds me fast asleep
And wakes me where I lie
Lie-d Lie-d Lie
I'm not afraid to die

Forget my sins upon the wind
My hobo soul will rise
Lie-d Lie-d Lie
I'm not afraid to die

Lie-d Lie-d Lie
I'm not afraid to die

-Gillian Welch

What peaches and what penumbras!

My initial response to seeing William Christenberry in the paper on Sunday was: NOT AGAIN! HOW MANY FULL-PAGE ARTICLES IN THE NYTIMES DOES THIS GUY NEED? DOES ARTHUR O. SULZBERGER OWN A WHOLE SUITE OF THESE IMAGES AND HE'S ENSURING THAT HIS INVESTMENT CONTINUES TO ACCRUE VALUE? AREN'T THERE ANY OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS BESIDES CHRISTENBERRY (AND NIXON) WHO MAKE EPISODIC WORK WORTH MENTIONING (AD NAUSEUM) IN THE NYTIMES???

And then this morning I sat down with my breakfast and read the article- hmm'ing and ahh'ing all the way through- not reading (or learning) anything new, but remembering the first time I heard/saw him speak about his work, and how for years all I wanted to do was go to Hale County and walk about like Walt Whitman in Allen Ginsberg's A Supermarket in California, summoning up the spirit of Walker Evans, and trying my best to avoid Christenberry seeing me ripping him off.