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.)