"Wite Out"

Never mix business with pleasure ... unless it results in cool photography. Correction Fluid? I don't think so!

Sandboxing

Today I am wearing my Birks to work ...

Out from the Wonderbrush

After almost 1200 days… I finally stumble hurried out of the underhumblebrush, crushed and crosshatched. I see the blurry sun, zigging and zagging; murky; but surely; over the furze and teasel… Bearing the family standard, barely standing, I numbly cross the crush of wonderbrush, a son surely seen as bumbling. After almost 1200 days, I mumble humbly,
Thank you…

All wordplay aside and not in ANY order, I want to sincerely thank the following people for helping me become the person I have always wanted to be despite a few poor life choices; Mom, “K.W.”, Dad, “my Bro”, “Smooshie” “SI”, and my future in-laws!
I love you all more than you may know- but this does not mean I will respond to your email…;)

The Breakdown Lane

Blanching sun on unresolved roofs,
A pigeon’s progeny,
kicks from the gutter,
she awakes to tire noise,
snakes from sheets of sleepy heat,
rough rug tugs,
at fluffy slipper nubs,
cold hiss of tap and clack of coffee pot:::
another tap,
warm rush, she staggers in the wash,
rubs and suds,
puddles and ruffled towels,
COLD, and bed-creaks and stretches,
struggles into the woof and weft,
brushes and the painful glare,
feet smacking to the cold hard car,
and then :::: SWITCH
SWITCH
moving,
still asleep,
creep and drift,
glances and blinkers,
curbs and curves,
cracks and corners,
reds and greens,
stop and start, all hands and handles,
so many signs and; “what’s the time?”
boxes glint and gleam, slip and slide,
taking sides,
she brakes,
and breaks… down.

ReCycling through China

Sometimes my posts might be very focused on my two amazing stays in China. My first trip was in September of 2004 for 2 weeks. My second trip was for the entire month of March, 2005...

The Cultural Revulsion,
what did I do to deserve this? Mommy and Daddy; what should I do about this homelandwork assignment? I’ve been sent to the gray fucking moon:::::::and I’m sure I smell something burning… and there’s no stopping the sand.
Is there a woman of power anywhere here? It’s a HUGE piece of the Earth. I want to teach the world that Europe is dead. I speak, respeak, think, wakeup, speak, rethink, retard, retard, retard, relay race and delay-lay-lay-lay and I rethink EVERYTHING. What more can I say?
Odd jobs on the telephone:::the intrepid reporter.
With my spy-cam set on stun, I have no idea just how far...
Headlines in RED
Big Bird on the Great Wall:::
My first and last cigarette:::
The juggernaut is coming up the street of my hotel.
I hate that I love this place; hey, can I get an airlift?


create your own visited countries map

My favorite holiday

Today I woke up late and it was sunny for the first time in a long time around these parts. And warm. I took my sweet time getting ready to go out starting with stretches and teasing the cats. Today I was going to spend some real quality time with my daughter. That was it. If nothing else happened THIS would. And so I set out with a purpose. And it was great! Like a dream come true. She was happy to see me, she showed me her school and her classroom, and I met her friends and her teachers. We went to the playground like so many times/years before… I hung and swung and played for over an hour as she showed off for me and I for her. It was so amazing. Like going back in time three years. It was like a gift of forgiveness for all the long sad nights away from each other. Then a perfect parting with hugs and orange cheese puff kisses, little gifts of orange leaves, and orange cards and stickers and seat belt buckle clicks as the sunset swung and set ::::::

A Loud Voice

Gone but not forgotten...
I won't get into much here; so much has been said already. Here's the picture they wouldn't show on the news.
Thank you Rosa!

Le Mot Soporifique...

d’lepeshon? d’lepshoneh…

I had this “word stays with you all day word” day today.
I’ve had a different word stuck in my head that I play with from my waking moment, through my shower, and my getting dressed for about fifteen years. I don’t always know what these words mean. They can be like a song that you can’t get out of your head… I always tried to write these words down to see if there was a pattern.
<’)}}}}><
BUT I was always afraid of what records like that would tell about me if anyone found them. Now I don’t care… I’ll go back as far as I can with them…
morass
soliskery or soliloquy (this one was a little upsetting when I looked it up)
tralbute
mismass
forensa
calculous
tributary
fisian
gualcum
valence
scissory
fondra


This “mosquito in my ear word”, or “shadow word” happened to be “trutionaire”
trutionaire, trutionaire, trutionaire, all through this dream, (it was about building cardboard box forts with children as part of an art show), this really happened!
and after I woke up - bugging me! GRRRR!
“It sounds like French, I thought…
well yeah,
I think back just a few days to my esoteric Philliposophic tenure at L’Ecole Bilingue High Skool in crusty French::::: trutionaire, trutionaire, trutionaire, trutionaire,
{{{Que ce mot signifie t’il ?}}}
so I look it up on websters.com… nothing…
I Google it too...
Now I find the closest word, the ONLY word even close to this is ---- tortionnaire- THAT’S IT!
The word I can’t shake is… tortionnaire.

Meaning in very loose French…TORTURING
Wow, what does THAT mean Jung?

Twisting in again...

Today I finished a beautiful two-day-long varnish restoration on a $40,000 18th century German cello. I also had my six-year-old daughter ask me why I couldn’t come home. Some things I can do effortlessly, others, not so. It’s like skiing on powder and then hitting patches of dried grass. My days this month are like a badly edited video of ::::: INTENSE Calder mobile spins. I am dreaming, awake at 4 AM, cats, sleep until sunrise, GF’s alarm, sleep, to my alarm, warm water, cats, clothes, cars and cars and cars, clocks, tools, woods, so many fragrant oils, ancient bible-resins and iron ore rusts, chips and dust, touching pretty sticky colors in white porcelain wells, wax and brushes, steel and sand, chaff and chatter, notes and nodes, from behind so many doors:: the amateurs and hams dejours… from my chair I chase and tease the ghosts…”have I done you justice”? Have I done her justice? And it all comes twisting in again at the day’s end...

The Big Ant

Erik: (coming around from a prolonged visit to the sink in the shop)
Wow, look at that huge carpenter ant
Marsha: Where?
Erik: There, in the woodchips, it's stopped moving. Under your chair.
That can't be good...
Marsha:I don't see anything.
Erik: (pushes the chips and detritus around under Marsha's chair).
Marsha: I don't kill anything...
Erik: me neither, unless it's like a spider in my bed...
I was just thinking that it's just so big! In an old house like this, there must be alot going after the old violins........
Marsha: I didn't see any big ants...
Erik: I hear ya, I never saw a thing...
Marsha and Erik go back to work; as does the big ant...

The Tinker comes 'round again...

As of yesterday:::
Rain heavy bees, slow as honey,
slovenly, but again with purpose,
I began yet another full time job as a luthier. I must say that I’m VERY excited about this position. The people I work for are incredible people, full of insight and a true joy for life. So many creatives packed into such a small space! I think I have found my niche at last. In a “real” job at least... My chosen trade is obviously very small and competitive. There aren’t many games in town if you know what I mean. The fact that I have had little trouble “landing a gig” in this trade must say something about my skill... or at least my powers of manipulation! I would like to thank EVERYONE from both my past and present for their help in making my dreams come true. My greatest wish as a child was to bring my love of music together with my love of science and art. To be able to realize this using my own hands has been nothing short of a religious experience for me. Yes Mom, self-actualization! A purpose! Pure fucking Taoism::: Every action a huge sticky chunk of who I am TODAY.
AND NOW I FIND::::: every day an object comes to me with a story. Someone’s dusty wooden journal, every good and bad day passed over onto SUCH a delicate “tubula rasa”.
AND I THINK::: At its inception, someone had to sit down with or without skill or knowledge and reflect on why they were creating this instrument. If they wished to continue further, they then had to instate their ideas as to what the instrument should look like and just as importantly, what it should sound like. This could be through careful training or self-professed theory. I have seen so many egos taken to (and into) the concrete! Everyone has his or her own idea of what is “right”. Finally, they had to bring the whole mess to fruition. This is the most difficult trial for any artist. In the case of any instrument, it must first be a tool for the musician. If it is accepted as such, then it might be viewed as a thing of beauty, art, sculpture, or, sometimes, even an epitaph...
Whenever I am incurred to resurrect a horrible toilet brush of a violin, I try to reflect on its history and its journey. It’s sometimes very humbling. I can only hope that someone in the future will approach my instruments in the same way...

Draize Test Reflux

So…
I was thinking about bats all day. Hey, I’ve got issues, alright? I was thinking that some of these bats don’t look any worse than some pug dogs or Chihuahuas…. they’re just smaller. What if bats were the size of DOGS! Like Golden Retrievers with wings. Huge flying dogs that ate everything they could find. Songbirds, trash, crows and big rodents and rabbits. Now THAT would be cool! And no walking. Just let them out at dusk to play with their friends in barns instead of parks.
It’s 2005 and we are already playing God, why not?

House Bats

I had a house bat for a few days in my apartment hallway. My room mate and I finally caught it in a flannel shirt and let it go. A house bat might be nice, but they can carry rabies and fleas... Oh well, let's just look at some nice pictures instead, shall we kids?








OK, so that wasn't fair. But it WAS CUTE, no?
Just for educational porpoises...

I want to show you the VAMPIRE BAT...

these bats actually bite and lick animal blood like the fictional dude.

Bat houses and Mom’s visit.

My Mom’s coming up to visit around Halloween. She sent me an email about plans for a house to attract mosquito eating Chiroptera. Naturally, I had to write a word-play poemy thing… :) I’m quite pleased with the way this one bounces around…


My mother wants a bat house,
a dry and hollow place to hide,
although she has some house cats,
they cannot catch the blood-gnats,
on thier Sleepy Hollow rides…

Is it a house fly or a gnat Mommy?
Is it fruitless to catch it Mommy?
Why can’t you just decide?
And if summer leaves you dry,
With nothing left to try,
fall slides…

There is a fruit fly in my wine,
and though I whine, fruitfully she’ll fly,
from the housed bats and the house cats,
hollow dried hides, lemons, limes,
ride and sleep on borrowed time…

Why does the house cat hide Mommy?
Is it fruitless to watch it Mommy?
Why can’t you just decide?
And if summer leaves you dry,
With nothing left to try,
fall slides…