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September
2004 Archive
Thursday, September 30, 2004"Money is sometimes the way that people without talent or imangination keep score."- Bruce Northam, Globetrotters Dogma: 100 Canons for escaping the rat race & exploring the world. I am SO rocking out to The Cars right now. Choice: a) Stop before I really get myself riled up and can't sleep. b) Dance. Party. I half-listened to the first presidential debate. Still think Bush is a knob. No surprise there. In theory, I want to watch Charlie Rose tonight for the wrap up, but in reality I don't care. The rollercoaster that is my life has had some fun, stomach turning dips as of late. Like the back stretch of the High Roller at Valleyfair in Minnesota. Saw the swan song exhibit at the Terra Museum on Michigan Avenue today. Conclusions: Chicago artists tend towards thick people and architecture. Chicago - The Land of Thick People and Architecture yep. Some stuff really was sorta undergrad art-ish - some skill, but not quite there. Two Macena Barton paintings stood out. Salome and Portrait of C.J. Bulliet. The former was a naked machete wielding woman on a acid yellow ground, holding a candy pink piece of fabric which connected her hand to the platter holding the greeny Head of Saint John the Baptist's. Great rendering and perfect color. Reminded me of the blurb of a news story I heard about proof that women see color more vividly than men.* To it's right was C.J. Bulliet who was, uh... something... and Barton's lover. He had a red aura. I came home searching for, hoping for a book about Barton. Nada. Phhbt. Back to the DANCE PARTY. *Ha! posted on 9/30/2004 10:37:14 PM Tuesday, September 28, 2004A Hair Cut? I Got Them All CutHar de har har. This weekend in Minnesota, I went from this:  to this:  with a much appreciated haircut from my mom, Bobbie, who's a hairdresser/wig stylist. I think my last haircut was just under a year ago in my (lack of) effort in being low maintence and keeping things simple. An annual haircut, a half box of hair dye a month and lipstick once in a blue moon. I first died my hair black last October, when I arrived to my friend John's house in California. He said something like, "Nice hair, but it's the most conservative I've seen" in it's dark brown bob-ness. I had been considering black - hearing that clinched it. I bought black hair dye at his nearby drugstore and dyed it in his bathroom. I'm still loving the black hair. It matches whatever I'm wearing (yeah, I'm a matching freak), I've got fun bright hair to add to it, and it makes my eyes greener. All good. posted on 9/28/2004 01:30:46 PM Friday, September 24, 2004Notes on Life:• Sunlight filtering through the trees on the 92 bus heading west, going to the airport. • The woman on the back of the 147 bus who pulled out a pink plastic compact and starting scraping between her teeth with a safety pin. • Burgundy & Mike's Rhodesian Ridgeback Louie woke me up this morning by laying on me in the guest bed. Oof. • A couple weeks ago, my friend/poker buddy Leah invited me to be in a women's roller derby league here. I laughed out loud at my computer, wondering if my life could get stranger and better than this. I had to politefully decline because 1) I don't like roughhousing and 2) I don't have medical insurance. But I offered to help design a logo. I really like the idea of being Bomber Brandy, but I would just get too surly being jostled. Kristen rightfully pointed out that would make me a better player. • When aware of all the opportunties there in my one short life, I always say that if I had a couple other lives I could do X or Y. My friend Pat puts it in the terms of my alternative universe personas. Like one where I am scientist Brandy if I had stuck with my original notion of being a Biology major in collge. Or comic book author Brandy. Pat is very keen on roller derby Brandy. • Finding an old, really kick ass mix cd is a great joy. • The stewardess on United last night had to move two teens from the exit rows. A couple switched and asked, "So, can we get free drinks?" She responded, "Yeah, I'm going to get you hammered and then put you in the exit row." • This couple ended up sitting next to a German/Austrian/Swiss/that kinda accented man. Through my headphones, I could hear them break out into huge bursts of laughter every so often. I'm sure they felt the hour long flight was too short. • At the Renegade Craft Fair, I sold a bunch of my Drink from Art mugs. The best part was that every person who bought one was giddy about them. Very gratifying to see that reaction. • I am truly a creature of habit. I mentioned to Rose that I had ordered the seafood combo for dinner after the first day of Renegade. She said, "Oh, like last year." I had completely forgotten that I did precisely the same thing last year. • The deaf volleyball team of high school students on my flight to the Twin Cities. The back of their shirts said, "Actions speak louder than words." Made me wonder about sign language teen slang. • Back at Renegade, Erik came by the booth and bought a sunshine. I asked, "Would you like a bag for it or a piece of string to wear it?" knowing/hoping that he'd pick the latter. Which he did. Should have snapped a picture of him wearing it. Delightful. He reported back that everyone loved his new necklace. • Last night at the grocery store, I picked up a lil' Bambino Watermelon. I picked it up and showed it to my sister. Thumping on it, it made the best sound. I said, "Thump on it." She did and we cracked up saying, "Wuzza, wuzza, Bambino watermelon." • My friend C died Sunday morning after an aggressive reoccurance of cancer. It is of course sad to lose someone so young. C (his name, not code) was a fantastic cook and Thanksgiving will not be the same again, going to his and his husband Darryn's house. The memorial was lovely, getting to visit with all his good friends and family. I've been asked to help create a sand mandala with friends, incorporating C's ashes. What a lovely, creative tribute - I look forward to being a part of that. • At the memorial, I got to see the progress on the second tattoo I designed for Shea. The first was an old sailor "Man's Ruin" type representing the vices. On his other arm, we represented virtue, tied in with his existing wedding band tattoo. The black outline was done - both inked by Patrick Cornolo of Cherry Bomb Tattoo Studio - and it looked great. Wednesday, Shea got the first session of color done and he's very pleased. He says each new tattoo is better than the last. At Renegade, there's was loads of stunning tattoo work. Every so often I entertain the idea of whether I'll only ever have my one tattoo, or cover myself in my own designs. At this moment, I think (nearly) blank slate. • C dying reminded me of my college best friend Becca dying suddenly. Becca was a great friend who lived half way across the country in San Francisco. She was hit by a bus on her bike - so people saying, "You know, any day you can get hit by a bus..." is very resonant with me. I found out that Becca had died just after getting back from a business trip. It was late at night when I got the call from Jim with the news. I was alone in my house, sad and hungry and generally bereft. I'm not a big cereal eater, but it turns out the only food in my apartment to eat was dry cereal. So, I sat in my apartment and ate dry Life cereal. There is so much beauty and humor in the world. posted on 9/24/2004 01:44:25 PM Thursday, September 23, 2004The Rollercoaster ContinuesThere is both joy and sadness here these days. Opportunities are appearing and vanishing. *poof* & *ta da* Day in, day out. At least I know I'm alive, feeling all this flux. I'll try to write more soon. I'm now off to Minnesota for a long weekend of R&R. p.s. I'm DELIGHTED that Peter Greenaway and all three installments of the Tulse Luper Suitcases will be at the Chicago Humanities Festival. I ordered tix instaneously. posted on 9/23/2004 01:05:54 PM Saturday, September 18, 2004One Down, One to Go.Today was Day 1 of Renegade Craft Fair. A bajillion people. A big bajillion. Waves and waves of people. Some sales, loads of Lookie Lous. Not a bad take after all was said and done. There are three items: my decopague bowls, my scarves and my sunshine dolls - Nearly everyone touched them, looked, inspected, ooh and aahed. Didn't sell a single one. Shows you never can tell. We'll see what tomorrow brings. If you're heading to Wicker Park tomorrow, be aware - my booth (booths 1-13 really) are moving tomorrow for a Farmer's Market. Go here for a map. I'm now going to watch a dumb movie, put up my feet and eat highly caloric food. But truly, thank heavens for deep bathtubs and hot, hot water. G'night. posted on 9/18/2004 08:26:12 PM Wednesday, September 15, 2004Wheeeeee!Life is a rollercoaster right now. I'm still strapped in and screaming on the drops. posted on 9/15/2004 10:09:11 PM Monday, September 06, 2004Labor DayWhat did I do today? I spent an insane amount of time finishing the Chicagoing post below. And I decided it was a really, really good idea to make a list of my 100 favorite songs. I'm maybe 50% done. Really, really vital work. I'll keep you posted. Yesterday, I instigated a lovely picnic at Foster Street beach. It was a Pot O' Luck Pic A' Nic. I strongly believe in potlucks. Even on the host and everyone contributes. Small-ish turn out compared to my mega Evite. No complaints there, since the pro-picnic contigent was delightful. Rose, Cinnamon, Andrew, their friend Carolyn/Caroline, Steve, Michael, Jim, Pat, Erik, Eva and her friend Katie. Nice way to spend an afternoon. Last weekend, my Aunt Kathy really liked that I said, "when it comes to friends, I've got an embarrassment of riches." Too true. posted on 9/6/2004 11:41:58 PM Sunday, September 05, 2004PlaytimePlaytime = epic loveliness. On the recommendation of Eva, Erik and I went to see it at the Music Box Theatre just now. Superb. I am exhausted in the best possible way! Note post-sleep: Boy, the movie works on so many levels. There's the physical comedy level, the visual jokes level, the immaculate composition of the shots, the grand arc from stillness to frenzy to post-frenzy stillness again, comment on modernism. Personally, I enjoyed that it was beautiful to look, but I really dug that it was so much about design and architecture, the visual and how we live with it. Or don't. Granted, that's the lens I see things through. What really wowed me was that it was made in the thick of moderism and while people were in the Now with it. I appreciate modernism, and wish I was a contemporary of the Eameses, but I wasn't there. I only see the artifacts of modernism; books, objects in museums. Granted it was comedy and fiction, but Playtime was the first time I had a sense of what modernism was like to live with. Best gag on that was that in the tourism office, every poster, for USA, Hawaii, Japan, Stockholm, Helsinki, etc, had all the exact same towering, boxy, white, International Style building with pieces of "local color" pasted on. Like a girl in traditional dress for Japan with a pink parasol. Funny as a visual gag since the whole movie takes place in these boxes of glass, even funnier if you know that that style is International. Literally. (From the late-night sleuthing I did, I found out that there's a not-so-good 1 disc DVD of the movie that's out-of-print. Rumor is that the Criterion Collection will be releasing a better two disc version with loads of extras. When? No idea. I hope it's true.) posted on 9/5/2004 10:41:12 PM Wednesday, September 01, 2004Evil Emporer RagweedBah! My hayfever allergies just kicked in now! Now I'll be bleary and teary and muddled until the first frost! Fingers crossed for a cold snap to knock down the pollen counts! posted on 9/1/2004 04:27:08 PM |
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