A Happier New Year

 It's been a while.

But it's a New Year coming!

Virtual fireworks over the virtual fantasy city of Illias! 

(Minecraft has been a blessing this year.  A wonderful outlet for frustrated design energies and - who knew? - a way to meet friends.)

Here are my good wishes for a much better, brighter year for us all in 2021!

Day 215 - Love and Care

I always find writer/artist Austin Kleon's newsletter interesting and I usually learn something.  What struck me today was his musings on the nature of loving and caring.  It's understood that if you love something - a pet, a garden, a loved one - that you care for it, take care of it.

But it's equally true, if less recognized, that if you take care of something, you grow to love it.

It occurs to me that very long lines to vote show that we - who all love our country - have rediscovered that we must also take care of it.  

By caring, by standing in line if we have to (a mere 2 1/2 hours for me here in the Dallas, 11 hours somewhere in Georgia!!!)... by waiting, voting, and helping others to get their votes in we are caring more and learning to love our country and our democracy more.

Love your country.

Take care of it.

VOTE

Day 206 - Please Vote

 In case you haven't heard this is An Important Election.

Please Vote.

Here's the video by actor Mandy Patinkin and his wife that best catches my anxiety about this election:

Siege - Day 197

 I PAID MORE IN FEDERAL TAXES

THIS MONTH

THAN DONALD TRUMP DID 

IN THE LAST THREE YEARS

AND THAT'S WHILE I'M OUT OF WORK

...

HE SHOULD BE TOO

Please, vote for the other guy. 

Siege - Day 194

 Just a Reminder...

VOTE HIM OUT

If you aren't already registered to vote, hurry up and get registered!

In Texas you must have a valid excuse to vote by mail, but early voting starts earlier than usual for this election, on October 13th (unless that mean-spirited court case goes badly, watch the news).  

In Texas the important dates are:

Election day Nov. 3

Registration deadlines:

By mail: Postmarked by Oct. 5

In person: Oct. 5

Absentee ballot deadlines:

Request: Oct. 23

Return by mail: Postmarked by Nov. 3

Early voting:

Oct. 13 - Oct. 30, but dates and hours may vary based on where you live

You can register by mail to vote in Texas by printing a voter registration form, filling it out, and mailing it to your local election office. You can also register to vote in person if you prefer.

Siege - Day 187 Little Things...

 A scattershot kind of entry here, a few little things going on... some of them even theatrical!

1)  Kitchen Dog Theater is planning a sort of drive-in cabaret, so I got to lay out my very first auto-parking "seating" plan!  Unique in my experience.  I'll pass on details and dates of this show as I learn them.  I'd say, "save the date" but, really, where else were you going to go?

Car Cabaret.  Sounds fun.

2)  Yesterday was North Texas Giving Day, when charitable contributions get multiplied by extra matching funds.  If you missed it though, I'm absolutely sure the recipients of your generosity today will still be very very grateful.  Your favorite theater, dance troupe, museum, or any other arts group would love the support in this difficult year.  And I know the food banks need help.

3)  Patio Dining - Texas weather is cooling down (though the virus is heating up a little), so patio dining is the way to go out!  I got to eat pizza hot, hot from the oven.  Fantastic.

4)  I found this video HERE at Craft in America about artist Yoshiko Yamamoto.  She makes beautiful blockprints using a blend of traditional Japanese hand craft and western printing press techniques to create nature inspired prints in a style influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement.  

5)  I also found this funny and helpful video by Struthless titled "The Drawing Advice That Change My Life":

Some helpful ideas for those of us struggling with motivation and direction during these weird times.  Plus pretty dang funny.

Siege - Day 185

 Well, this is cheerful!  

Despite the pandemic, the Dallas - Fort Worth Theater Critic Forum met (virtually) to decide their awards... and found plenty of worthy shows even in this weird, shortened season.  Read more HERE at TheaterJones.

Many good people, shows, and organizations are recognized - congratulations all!  Well deserved!

I won't shout-out all my friends (that gets kinda high school-y), but I will just note (in a totally modest way) that several shows I was involved with won awards for acting and/or direction - which the critics call "our version of best production".  The play Alabaster was noted as an outstanding new play along with another I-did-the-set new work, A Love Offering, which also got a best direction nod for Tina Parker.  Both shows were at Kitchen Dog Theater.  

Alabaster at Kitchen Dog Theater - photo by Jordan Fraker

A Love Offering at Kitchen Dog Theater - sketch by Clare Floyd DeVries

And at Stage West, director Marianne Galloway gets to wear a "best director" hat for The Lifespan of a Fact.  (That's the show that started with a shallow, white, stylized stage - just a wall really - that crash landed to reveal a highly detailed "Mom's house" living room.  You wouldn't think a play about fact checking would be so fascinating... but then this era is all about fact checking.)  

The Lifespan of a Fact at Stage West - sketch by Clare Floyd DeVries

Coolest of all, the critics gave this special award :  "The primitive paintings of animals in Kitchen Dog Theater’s Alabaster — a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere — lining the set helped create an authentic atmosphere for this play about a reclusive amateur folk artist whose work is made on shards of wood caused by a tornado that devastated her family. The paintings were a group project of the cast, crew and friends."

So my one shout-out should be to Prop Designer Cindy Ernst, who led this effort and herself painted much of the art.  Kudos Cindy!

"Folk" art by Cindy Ernst for Alabaster

Siege - Day 178

The election is approaching fast...

I would like to suggest, before voting, a little fact checking.

Try a little research using sources outside your usual news-stomping-grounds: maybe the Associated Press and Reuters plus a smattering of NPR, the Washington Post, the BBC, and other "big name" mostly print sources, since print-trained journalists have more time for fact-checking.  (Friends on Face Book or Reddit? Not so much.)

A good idea before every election, regardless of party: research and think twice

But then, Conservative Friends,  I would like to suggest - to beg - that for this one election you think a third time.  I truly believe this election is a turning point for our country.

Even if you like all President Trump's policies and can overlook his abrasiveness, I believe we need to STOP his kingly attitude that anything he wishes to do is therefore right and proper to be done.  This "law and order" president doesn't respect the law.

A small example: using the White House as a background for campaigning.  

The White House belongs to all the People - of every party - so it's wrong to use it as an advantage by any incumbent president.  Also probably illegal.

A bigger example: ignoring the Emoluments Clause.  Even if you don't think Mr. Trump's business interests effect his official decisions, having conflicts of interest is just a bad idea.  He sets a precedent for the next president - who might be less honest than he is.

Most recent big example: using the Department of Justice as the president's personal lawyer.  Just today the DOJ is trying to defend Mr. Trump in a defamation lawsuit stemming from an (alleged) rape he committed 20 years ago.  Before Mr. Trump was president.  The legal rational seems to be that in denying the crime now, Trump is acting in his capacity as president.  So... is denying-rape an ordinary part of presidential duties?  I mean President Bill Clinton, for denying consensual sex actually in the Oval Office supply closet, got himself impeached, rightly condemned for lying under oath, but pre-president Donald Trump gets rape in a department store dressing room grandfathered-in as... what?  An Official Presidential Oopsie?  

I don't get it.  

A lady is defending her reputation in NY court - how is this a federal case?  Is slander and/or rape Presidential Business?  Is this proper use of the DOJ?  Why are taxpayers paying for his personal legal squabble?  

Could Mr. Trump also Officially-Ooopsie a murder?  A shooting on 5th Ave.?  Where does this "if the president does it it's not a crime" spree stop?

A law-bending president like this and protectors like AG William Barr are confusing to me.  What happened to taking "care that the laws be faithfully executed"?  Surely a president and an AG who believe in law enough to try to follow it would be, you know, nice?  At this point, I'd say that every Republican in office (except Mitt Romney) has, to some degree, enabled this law-breaking.  So I will not vote for any Republican in this election.

Do you think this is proper behavior in public servants?  Do you want to vote in more of it? 

So, please, as a favor to your country and your fellow citizens, please research and think twice before voting for anyone... 

...and three times before voting Republican this time.

Siege - Day 171

Taking a vacation - even though not traveling away from home - is still a Nice Thing.  Let's appreciate the Nice Things in life in this difficult year.

Several pleasant or absolutely wonderful! things have happened here: most important, an addition to the family! This is too public a forum for details of such personal rejoicing, but it's comforting to know that life really does go on.  

A smaller example: last night brought rain and with it coolness to dry, hot Texas - we celebrated under the porch roof of a favorite restaurant, watching the blessed rain.

Our newly-planted tree must like it too.

Other rejoicings I can share here are the enduring joy in art.  Now that museums are cautiously reopening, it's possible to visit old favorites.  (I'm not the only one treasuring this freedom, the art critic for the Washington Post sounds giddy too,  HERE.)

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth is a good stand-in for the Met locally...

These paintings by Monet are all the more touching and lovely now that I realize they were painted during WWI.

Maybe that explains something I'd always found disturbing about late Monets - the way these serene images are made up of fierce, even violent and frenzied, brush strokes.  I knew the artist was losing his sight as he was painting these, but it seems that the publicly shared horror of these years of war may have added to his personal pain during this creation... an artist losing sight and deaths of young poets are in the depths under those floating lilies.  Channeling pain into beauty.

Art is a miracle.

Siege - Day 167

 Are You Registered to Vote?

Check. Make sure!

Siege - Day 155

Time... well, it sorta stutters past these days.  

If it passes at all.  A time-vortex maybe?

A day?  Poof!.  A week, however, can trudge on and on and endlessly on, malingering, unrelenting, until grudgingly slumping on into a Friday afternoon.  Months?  Poof!  This whole year though?  

Here's an illustration of this year: I had a crown fall off of a tooth a few weeks ago and the dentist re-glued it into place saying, "There!  That'll last twenty years!"  Yesterday was the twenty year anniversary - because it popped right back off.  So that's (does math) about five years to a week?  So 2020 is basically unfolding in Dog Years?!

2020 is Dog Years plus dental work?  

Of course it is.

Public domain images messed with

Meanwhile, inside my time vortexing studio I've been finding it hard to be productive.  So I reread Austin Kleon's Keep Going for advice.   And I did start reading a new novel; restart listening to Master Classes (David Sedaris now); did start redesigning and redrafting plans for a pump house (which need finishing!); did start swimming more (need more exercise! it improves health and mood); I'm doing serious thinking about one show...  I started generally trying to Buck Up and Get Things Done.  

Also I cut back on reading the news.  Started planning a vacation.  I need a vacation.

If you're having the same time and motivation troubles try that Keep Going book - it helps - and do something, anything, productive, even if it's just clearing off your desk.

ADDENDUM:  Ha!  I'm not the only sufferer, Austin Kleon talks about this too (more eloquently) in a recent post HERE.

Siege - Day 145

 Well, I finally had my little "my poor career!" meltdown.  

The combination of my last-this-year theater show getting officially canceled and me finally emptying my stage stuff out of my faithful car (affectionately thought of as the "Scenic Ride") so that I could trade it in... just felt sad.  

This clear beginning of a new era so clearly underlined the ending of an old era that I loved - me bombing around with my old car rattling-full of set dressing, woohoo! driving from one stage to another and another (often in the same hectic day!).

There will, I believe, I'm pretty sure, almoooost sure, be other shows to design for other stages... 

But things change.

And this is a New Era - marked by a brand new car.  A new car!  How exciting!  New cars are exciting!  New cars DO NOT smell sad.

Siege - Day 140

Just a quick note:

A FB friend posted an article about Black Civil War and Reconstruction era hero Robert Smalls.  Such courage!  Cleverness!  And - if you read far enough in the Wikipedia bio HERE  - also real kindness and forgiveness... as well as a steel spine.  Why isn't this man's story a best selling book and a blockbuster movie?  

Why isn't it required reading in U.S. history?  

I tell you, I become more and more disgusted by the lies and omissions in the Texas history books I once had in school.  Increasingly embarrassed at the gallons of moonlight-and-magnolia-swill that I swallowed without spitting.  And I was a pretty broad reader even then and, I believed, a skeptical reader too, so I did catch some lacks in that teaching... but not enough of them.  I find new insights daily it seems...  Betrayed by my schooling!

Ha!  Fool me once.

Two lessons for me from this: 1)  doubt what you do read/learn/hear, there may be a slant you don't immediately see, and 2) look very hard for the omissions... what aren't you hearing about?  In this age of disinformation and outright lies we all need to watch out.  (This is not, however an endorsement of silly conspiracy "research" involving dubious authorities and "alternative" facts.)

So, I'll be reading more about Mr. Smalls.

Next, complete non sequitur: 

Mark Bradford's painting/collages at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in an exhibition titled "Endpapers" :

Mark Bradford collage at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Mark Bradford collage at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Mark Bradford collage at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Sadly, I did not note down the titles of his canvases. (But then again, I always think titles are a bit of a cheat anyway.)

I really liked the subtlety of his use of color and the subtle repetitions and variations of his building block rounded-edged rectangles (presumably the title's end paper... what is this exactly?  must research...).  I love the map-like quality - sometimes reminding me of the famous London Underground maps, sometimes more of USGS or nautical harbor maps.  

It's a different approach to collage and/or painting.  Some of the few abstract works that I think I could live with and never tire of.  Mark Bradford.  (Some more future research for me on that topic too.)

Siege - Day 135

This past weekend we took an actual Field Trip!!!!

(So exciting.)

The art museums in Fort Worth have reopened and one of them, the Modern Art Museum had an exhibit I've wanted to see for decades (maybe 45 years?)... so we dared it.  

And it was fun!  Red Grooms's Ruckus Rodeo.  This photo gives you a good idea of the entire environment he creates - a Rodeo even more colorful and larger than life than the real thing.

Red Grooms's Ruckus Rodeo at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

 - photo by C. DeVries, free to use, public domain

Their other exhibit, "Mark Bradford: End Papers" was also interesting... completely different, being abstract painting/collages, but full of color too of a delicate, subtle, calibrated sort.  This is minimalism that has maximal impact and reward for close study.  And the two exhibits really did contrast each other in a nice way.  (I'll post a few images of Bradford's work next time.)

The museum itself felt comfortable and - in these Covid19 times - felt safe.  The Kimbell Museum next door was much more crowded, though just doable to me... but then its permanent collection gallery was free, compared to the pricey (and thus defacto more exclusive) Modern.  I'd visit both again.

At the Kimbell the curators were having a good time, pairing art works from different periods and places together - like this pairing of a Mayan sculpture with this Mondrian painting, both artists fascinated by mosaic like color / shape patterns.

Kimbell Art Museum permanent collection 

- photo by C. DeVries, free to public domain

So what else has been going on?

The heat of Texas summer has hit... stunning my tomatoes so that they feel too hot to even ripen.  Now that's hot.  I'll be experimenting with fried green tomatoes here shortly.  But I have just discovered a bonus avocado tree!  Well, a bonus tiny sapling where I idly planted the pit of a particularly tasty avocado.  Also the sprouty sweet potato I planted has grown into a pretty vine that shames the useless eggplant plants in the same pot.  Accidental gardening!

On the reading/watching front, I've been listening to more Masterclass gurus.  I kind of stalled out half way through Ron Howard's class on film directing (probably because I have no real ambition to direct a film), listened to a few classes on color by the expert interior designer (who reminds me very much of an interior designer I once worked with), and have started listening to my new poet fav, Billy Collins, class on poetry.  He's very good - slyly funny and very down to earth, plus a good poet.  I've been really enjoying this experience and heartily recommend it - but Take Your Time.  I find I can only absorb so much at a time.

One tidbit from the Poet Collins' talk: he describes the first few lines of a poem, which sets up its situation and eases the reader into it, as "dangling a bit of scenery in front of the reader."  As a set designer I like that!  (Honestly, in theaters with no grand drape to hide everything, a play's scenery does exactly what Mr. Collins requires from his first few lines of poetry: set the scene and ease the audience into the show.  Exactly that.)

Viewing?  After watching Hamilton, I've been "getting my money's worth" out of this one month Disney+ subscription, watching first The Mandelorean (very good and Baby Yoda!) and then rewatching The Black Panther.  The next couple days will be a Disneyfest!

Picture me lounging in my screen-watching-seat, munching popcorn and waving down the Ruckus Rodeo beer vendor, "Hey! Over here!"

Red Grooms's Ruckuss Rodeo

- photo by C. DeVries for public domain

Siege - Day 128

Oh, this is lovely... Judi Dench laying down the law on acting:

Siege - Day 127

"This is a passion profession. I found it, I loved it and it is gone.”

This quote, from a Chicago Tribune article on the state of their theater HERE.  And Dallas - Fort Worth is in the much same case.  The arts in general and the performing arts in particular are staggering under this virus.

For folks not directly involved with the stage who may look at our art as a mere decoration to society, not as a serious endeavor or industry, it's both.  Not to bore you with numbers (see a UNT estimate HERE ) but the TLDR version is that DFW's "creative" industry means 205,000 jobs.  And all of them - ALL - are at risk right now, whether that's a stage manager's job, a scenic designer's, an architect's, or a ballerina's.  

So it's just so heartening to know that this White House administration is concerned about our loss of jobs.  And has a plan!  A plan recently revealed to the public - announced by Ivanka Trump herself - as their campaign to help, titled: 

Find Something New! 

Stunning isn't it?  

Who gets to tell Yo Yo Ma that, since he has nimble fingers from playing that cello, he'd be really great at data entry?  

Maybe it's the empathy that stuns me...

Vote for someone with a plan in November.  

Siege - Day 115

A shout-out to the artists you discover as you research for your own design work!

Most recently I discovered the Gee's Bend quilt makers and their incredible abstract compositions.  Just wonderful unexpected colors and slightly "off" geometries that make them, I think, paragons of quilts... rivaling anything the abstract painters have done.  Inspiring.  I discovered them during research for my last show, Alabaster, set in rural Alabama - a show steeped in folk art of a different style, but the quilts inspired our scenic colors and attitude.

Learn more HERE at Gee's Bend Quiltmakers: Souls Grown Deep.

Gee's Bend quilt - fair use of this image, I think 

And my other oft repeated how-could-I-forget-this?! discovery of the poems of Billy Collins:

"...The silence of the falling vase

before it strikes the floor..."

I found myself in the little hours, still reading in a cooled bath tub...  Wonderful stuff.

More HERE  at allpoetry.com

Siege- Day 114 - SOS for the Arts

I'm forwarding on a plea from one of the best theater lighting designers I know:

Please.

"Extend the COVID 19 Emergency $600 per week additional unemployment assistance until at least December 31, 2020, and longer if necessary.

Why is this important?

Over the span of fourteen weeks, more than 47.1 million Americans have filed unemployment claims across the country because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. This amounts to nearly 14% of the US population who are now out of a job—and that's only those who have formally applied for benefits. The actual number of newly unemployed people is likely much larger and will continue to increase in coming months.

Many people who are laid off due to COVID19 won't find work for a very long time, maybe never because some jobs lost today won't be coming back. People will need time and resources to learn and develop a new skill. By ending the $600 per week additional unemployment assistance too soon, we will certainly be dooming people to tragic futures. This will have far reaching ramifications. We need to look out for each other during these unprecedented times. Please let's help each other save and serve those who are in most need."

You can find a petition HERE, but better still, call or write your US Representative and Senators.

Public domain image - by Moziru

The truth is, most theater and other entertainment jobs won't come back this year.  Or until there'a a vaccine and audiences are safe to sit next to each other again.  Hard-working entertainment people just can't work at their crafts until then.  They'll find what work they can of course, if they can...

(Me?  I'm kinda okay.  My husband will feed me - especially since I'm cooking!  But many of my friends in theater don't have that second non-arts family income to fall-back on.)

Siege - Day 113 4th of July Weekend

An interesting, quiet, introspective 4th of July.

I heard lots of (illegal) fireworks late at night, but didn't go out to see them.  We swam on Friday, but left the pool to neighbors and visiting grandkids after that... too crowded.  Took a drive to see an architectural project and a sample wall to check out the stone color, which was both work and a welcome out-of-the-house trip (charging the battery yea!)... but only when the job site and adjacent park were empty.  Drove past the good BBQ joint without stopping.

But we flew our flag, grilled hamburgers, ate apple pie, watched Hamilton, and checked in with family by phone vid.  So, all the traditional holiday family and country without the germy crowds.

Hamilton is fantastic!  I have to see this on stage when I can.  I do have the, sorry, THE book Hamilton: the Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter, which is a deep exploration of the creation of the show.  Best room where it happened story I can remember off-hand.  Also, it has all the lyrics!  Highly recommend it. 

Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull - public domain

Other books I'm reading - or getting ready to read - include A Hedonist in the Cellar, by Jay McInerney, which is a very entertaining memoir/collection of essays about wine buying.  Also - this one needs gearing up for - the hugely important and influential architecture/urban planning book, A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein and others.  

This book is a bit of an Everest for me... I heard about A Pattern Language in college (lo! decades ago) but could never get hold of a copy.  I looked for it in bookstores for decades but either could not find it or could not afford it.  After the internet book finding revolution... I still could never afford the copies I found.  The copy I did recently buy was considerably cheaper than it's $65 jacket price or the $100+ it usually goes for.  This volume looks brand new, but I can't tell if it's a reprint or a miraculously perfect relic of 1977... nah, it has a scan code on the back of the slipcover so it's gotta be new.  Just under-priced for some reason. My good luck!

Finally!  I have a copy I can sit down and READ.  This book is small but dense with thin Bible-like pages and small, light type, and it weighs like a brick in my hand.  I understand its density of ideas equals its density of wood pulp and ink.  I'll let you know how it goes...

Siege - Day 106

Theater news?  Broadway won't open this year.

Locally, various theaters are trying video and tiny audience and outdoor shows... we'll see if any of these attempts work.  Since Actors' Equity isn't allowing members to sign contracts right now, it's all experimental.  And at least one theater person I know is at their wits end on how to make a living right now.

Especially in Texas, where the coronavirus is spreading wildly.

My studio here is more full this week - my on-again-off-again home office mate is back (thank goodness!) because now three people in his office have sick family, so have been exposed and could potentially expose everyone in the office.  Home behind the blue door again!  Let's hope it's safer at home.

But I was out briefly this morning to early-vote in the primary.  I wondered how safe that would feel, but actually it was fine: lots of room, lots of precautions.  November may be different.

Siege - 100th Day!

Really?!

I'm not sure if I'm more shocked that I've been hanging out at home this long... or that I've gotten this behind on my blog.  (Who am I kidding?  Only the length of my home-stay is surprising.)

So... 100 days, huh?

Well, I've gotten some reading done.  Some writing - though less than I planned.  Listened to pod casts and watched surprisingly few TV shows or movies.  Eaten surprisingly many homegrown tomatoes.  Sewn some face masks, the latest with cute pink flamingos on it.  I've built a lot on Minecraft.  Drawn a few things.  And I've learned A LOT about epidemiology and systemic racism.

Hermit energy.

Now I have, actually, left the house during this time: lots of walks; less than weekly trips to the grocery; two Home Depot runs; one art-supply visit to Hobby Lobby and one curb pick-up from Asel Art; a handful of restaurant takeout trips; four meals outdoors! in a park or on a restaurant patio; one business meeting; and one, today, a just-gotta-see-inside-a-bookstore treat to Half Price Books (which made it feel safe with few people, lots of space, lots of masks.) Oh! and a crazy-exciting drop off at the hazardous waste / electronic recycling dump.  Wild times.

So let's round that off to about 20 outside the house trips in 100 days.

I'm not going to break the Count of Monte Cristo's record on solitude... but it still seems like a loooong quiet year so far.

Photo from The Count of Monte Cristo film of 1913 - public domain

Siege - Days 85, 86, 87, and (if I haven't lost count) 88

Where was I?

Oh, yeah, life and theater career during this coronavirus siege and this historical moment:

1)  Texas is not presently winning this siege: all the measurements are rising...  Dallas County has a record-breaking 312 new cases of Covid19, is up to 277 deaths and 13,257 total cases while more hospital beds are filling - a record 373 patients at this moment - and 25% of all emergency room visits now are for virus-like symptoms.

2)  So, like a dope, yesterday was the day I decided to have a long business meeting with someone who has not been living in a decontaminated bell jar (i.e. any human on the planet).  It was a great meeting and held outdoors with as much space as possible between us... which, really, why don't we each have our own nice safe bell jar, huh?  Oh, yeah, because even without one we flirted with heat exhaustion by the end.  That's why.  

Still, a very good meeting about a possible new show to design.  Hypnotism!  Cool.

3)  Meanwhile, in the horrible world of politics, our Prez is vowing to crack down on protesters - what was I thinking? on "ANTIFA!" and"ANARCHISTS!" - in Seattle where, as best I understand, peaceful protesters against police violence have renamed the (temporarily closed) police substation the "Seattle PEOPLE'S Station" and have occupied a few blocks where they are camping, cooking hot dogs, and having Movie Night.  How terrifying.  (This seems to be something Seattle-ites do now and then and, honestly, from my distant view it all sounds like quite wholesome granola-crunchy-goodness.  I bet those hot dogs are vegan.  Anyway, I guess the police are now politely asking if the detectives can please go back and sit at their desks now, because, you know, that's where all their crime files are and stuff.)  Just terrifying.

Also the Prez was in Dallas yesterday for a big fund raiser and some big threats.  Strangely, none of our black police chiefs, mayors etc. attended.  Weird.

4)  Oh, and the stock exchange cratered again.  For anyone with a 401K looking toward retirement this is... upsetting.

5)  But tomatoes are ripening.  Two big ones.

NOT MY TOMATOES - These are stand-in, stunt, public domain photo tomatoes

6)   I'm still feeling all dehydrated from yesterday's outdoor meeting - am applying drinks and popsicles.  Just a good thing I don't earn my living as a roofer, that's all.  Roofers out there?  Respect.  Also respect to anyone who picks tomatoes, out in the hot sun.  

7)  Returning to the coronavirus theme of the beginning of this post, the internet has just delivered to me a coolo UV wand/lamp kinda gadget to decontaminate with.  I have turned an old enameled bread box into a UV decontamination chamber for used face masks etc.  Very mad scientist.

Siege - Days 81, 82, 83 and 84

I suspect some of the protesters in DC who were gassed and shot at earlier in the week found this weekend's influx of protests by families with kids a little... disconcerting.  "This is not a carnival!" someone cried out to the ice cream eaters.  Because it is hard to think that protesters with kids and ice creams are taking the serious situation quite as seriously.

But, you know, I think having the protests reinforced by ordinary families, regular usually-stay-home people is significant.  A good sign.  For one thing, police and National Guards are less likely to resort to violence with kids in the crowd.  Also I LOVE that the president's playpen fencing is getting decorated by the protesters, turning into a shrine to justice, to black lives, to freedom of assembly.  (Assembling a collage? Go for it!)  Most important, it means that regular not-too-political folks are taking this to heart.  All this in the middle of a pandemic remember - there may be ice cream carts, but this is still taken seriously.

Wholesale public acceptance - that is how change happens.

The abuse of authority and power has to change.  

And, as grim as I felt when I wrote my last post, I think I still managed to underestimate the built-in racism and violence in the police culture generally.  The police have to be reformed massively.  Reconsidered from the ground up.  No more George Floyds should die.

So vote that way!  Vote local.  Vote national.

Siege - Days 78, 79, and 80

I labeled this coronavirus diary "Siege" as a joke - me in my comfy home bunker, waiting out a pandemic, cuddling books for comfort, talking theater and tomatoes.

Well, by Day 80, it's got Real.

A cop forces his knee into George Floyd's neck.  Mr. Floyd is black so, though it's broad daylight with witnesses with cameras pleading for his life, hey! this is a Bad Cop.  He has power, he misuses it.

Politicians find ways to depress the other party's votes - gerrymandering, crowded polling stations in the middle of a pandemic, no mail-in ballots, whatever.  Pressing a knee on "the Black vote," "the Latino vote," the anyone-who-might-not-vote-for-us vote. They have power, they misuse it.

A little man in a white house wants foreigners out of the country - close airports! kids in cages! -  wants riches - tax cuts! emoluments! - wants to walk across a street to use a church as a backdrop - force out protesters!  (Because it was a little embarrassing when news got out about him hiding in the basement from protesters - "inspecting" his bunker.)  This little man needs to be seen "dominating" the "battlespace." *  So he has legal, peaceful protesters - and clergy handing out water bottles - forced out using horses, tear gas, and rubber bullets.  He has power, he misuses it. 

(He doesn't use that Bible though.  Is he holding it right?  He looks uncomfortable, more used to grabbing other things maybe.)

But it's not just wielders of power who betray our country.  How about those who don't use it?  Representatives who could vote to impeach but don't.  (The little man huddles in his bunker, possibly clutching his tie for comfort, because you see that in videos all the time, a weird pet-the-cat gesture he has.)  Or senators who don't vote to remove him.  (Probably clutching that tie in his basement, possibly sucking his thumb, certainly watching Fox News "riot" footage and ab-so-lutely tweeting.)  They have power, they won't risk it. 

There is no excuse.

These people have to GO.  

Today George Floyd is buried.  There seems to be a real investigation starting of his death. The bravest of the Vichy politicians are starting to explain how hard it is to support the little man cowering in the basement of his white house.  Maybe they will grow a little braver.  Nothing will change the man himself - he is so very little... there's no room. 

But there's room outside!  People protest in front of their White House.  We-the-People are marching all around the country, chanting, and sometimes dancing a little, sometimes talking police into kneeling with them.  (There are many good police and good soldiers, kneeling or not, just as there are politicians dedicated to the people.  And good - if rather dim - people with privilege are figuring things out at last.)  Those of us who can't march are talking, writing, explaining, calling...  And if you aren't, start now.

Let's fire all the people who misuse power - every cop, politician, general, president.  Let's make our more perfect union NOW - one that's just no matter the color of your skin.  No matter your gender or orientation or religion or wealth.  

Let's dump ALL the damn tea in the harbor.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the Government for the redress of grievances.  

*Those words alone betray any oath to uphold the Constitution - damn that Defense Secretary anyway.  And he's not the worst of 'em.  By far.

Siege - Days 76 and 77

Terrible times...

The country is literally in flames.  Long time, deeply embedded injustices are scraped bare by the cruelties of this modern presidency, the danger of the pandemic, the sharp economic drop that falls unevenly across our society.

Hard to know what to do.

Voting in a president who won't cower in the White House bunker seems like a good start.

The White House - elevation by Benjamin Henry Latrobe.  Pre-bunker.

November is a long, long way off though...

Siege - Day 75

Saturday!  And pretty weather.

Oh, and here finally is the color version of that birthday certificate that took all those days.  Now in a gold frame, trucking its way westward toward the birthday party.  Be safe!

copyright Clare Floyd DeVries

Siege - Days 69-74

I love the typo-title of my last post!  It was not, however, actually Day 64068... it just felt like it.

Since then?

Well, my companion in coronavirus-safety is now back at the official office.  Although doing as much as personally possible to stay safe, some of his clients - first responders! - are requiring in-person meetings and not social distancing or wearing masks or taking this health threat at all seriously.  One Head of Response to Epidemics says that since it's mostly those folks catching it and he's a healthy not-old white guy he's not worried.

So that's good.

(Insert horrified face emoji here... maybe that face from The Scream?  Or this innocent below - This is How I feel All the Forking Time lately.  The world has gone mad.)

public domain image of me, being shocked, all the time

If Texas survives this plague I swear it will only be because of the heat of our weather saved us in spite of ourselves.

Meanwhile the Texas sun is ripening my tomatoes.  We've eaten, so far: 3 lovely ripe cherry tomatoes and 1 big tomato! (Okay, slightly bigger than ping pong ball sized.  Delicious.)

I've been continuing with writing and finishing up that colored birthday map and listening to Masterclasses... right now I'm listening to director Ron Howard.  

Every theater director should listen to Ron Howard's segments on collaboration.  Especially toward the beginning of "Collaboration Part I" where he explains the proper relationship between the director-as-decider and the creative team - which in film includes the director of photography (who does lighting too) and the production designer and composer etc.  I'm paraphrasing here, but it amounts to the director knowing the effect they want, then freeing the design team to make suggestions that get really listened to.  A collaborative director multiplies their imagination and problem solving abilities.  And - my favorite part! - the director should strongly retain their roll of ultimate chooser and decider... because that frees the designers to spitball and make crazy suggestions, knowing that these will be evaluated sensibly.  YES!  That freedom is worth gold.  THAT is the attitude that I, as a designer, hope for in a director.

So the Ron Howard class is great so far.  Steve Martin's was also very good - focused on standup comedy mainly, but with a lot of insight into writing too.  His comments on films like Roxanne were enlightening.  Honestly, I haven't hit a dud class yet.