Daily Asserveration - Sunday, January 25, 2009

The art is finished and photos have been submitted. Yikes, now I'm really nervous. And because I often speak before thinking, now I realize that I probably shouldn't have talked about it at all before I knew whether I was accepted or not. Oh well, you will all (all three of you) share in my chagrin if I don't get in.

Having said that, I'm happy that I decided to submit and even happier that I completed three pieces for the show. Send out happy thoughts to the art gods for me, will ya?

Because I didn't have to go outside all day, I can still be rather delighted by the snow.

Tomorrow morning at 6:30a when I'm removing all this snow from my car so I can get to KDHX? I suspect I won't be so delighted.


The pristine front steps (well, as pristine as our steps can ever be!).


It is lovely, but it is COLD. Really frakking cold.

And speaking of frakking, Battlestar Galactic marches on. I wasn't as thrilled by this week's episode, but it is clear we are moving towards something really good.

You don't love me yet...

I've just finished reading "You Don't Love Me Yet" by Jonathan Lethem for the fifth or sixth time. Even after all these reading, I'm not sure I can put my finger on just why I love it so much. But in the character of Lucinda Hoekke, Lethem has captured a woman who I can relate to, though I'm not really proud of that. Lucinda is somewhat aimless, impulsive and prone to intense and sometimes short-lived sexual obsessions. She's flawed, but compelling and fully formed, though Lethem never even gives a physical description more specific than what she's wearing.

Lucinda is the bass player for an unnamed band that has never gotten beyond the living room practice space of their drummer, Denise (the other female character who remains undescribed). Taking a job at her former lover's art gallery, Lucinda begins receiving complaint calls as part of the gallery owner's latest installation. Soon enough, her time is taken by one caller who talks of his own sexual obsessions, dropping carefully casual catch phrases as a habit. An early conversation is the genesis for the band's breakthrough song, "Monster Eyes," and several others, all based on the Complainers rambling. Soon enough Lucinda and the Complainer meet and fall into an all encompassing affair of roundabout conversations and fucking. And soon after that, the Complainer insinuates himself into the band, taking credit, rightly, for the the bulk of their new (and admittedly better) songs.

When confronted by Denise as to his motives in joining the band, the Complainer (Carl) replies:

"I want what we all want," said Carl. "To move certain parts of the interior of myself into the external world, to see if they can be embraced."

And perhaps it's that line that explains why I love this book so much. And why I love Jonathan Lethem. I was never able to articulate it that succinctly or beautifully, but that's it -- that line was a eureka moment when I read it. I had mental equivalent of pumping a fist into the air - "Yes! That's it!" - when I read it.
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I'm well aware that I missed yesterday's asserveration. Let me just say that I got much further along on my artwork for my submission to Naughti Gras, and that is a very good thing. Particularly since the submission guideline is tonight at midnight. So that was a happy thing. Keep your fingers crossed for me. My first submission to a fine art event - I'm a little terrified. I won't show the work here until I find out whether I'm accepted or not.

Daily Asserveraton - Friday, January 23, 2009

Today was a lovely day. I woke up happy, I had an exceptional chat with my Scottish Correspondent, some amusements on Facebook, and I got a lot of work done on my paintings.

Speaking of Facebook, I got a message there from my old friend Mark, who was once my roommate. When we lived together, one Monday morning he came to my room before I got up and suggested that we take a road trip to Albuquerque, NM. I had to work that week so I wasn't too keen on the idea. But it got under my skin and when my boss got in that morning I asked her if I could leave that day *and* take off the rest of the week. Because she was the best boss in the world, she said yes. I hightailed it home, packed some stuff up, got a pet sitter and Mark and I hit the road in the Fragile Porcelain Mice van.

It was an interesting trip, not always light fun, but I don't regret going. New Mexico was gorgeous (the stars you can see in their night sky was worth the whole trip) and seeing the Acoma cliff dwellings is something I will never forget -- the oldest continually inhabited dwellings in the United States. While we were there, on Route 66, we discovered a tattoo shop and decided to commemorate the trip. On the Acoma reservation, we found a jewelry artist with some fantastic designs. He agreed to sell us a couple of his design drawings and we hastened to the parlor to get inked. Anyway, I had no recollection of keeping the paper design, and making that's because I didn't. In Mark's email, he attached a scan of the design. Apparently he had had it all this time. It was nice to see the design with all its sharp lines and designs -- it's gotten a little blurry over the last 15 years.

Daily Asserveration - Thursday, January 22, 2009

Today was the first day since Saturday where I felt completely normal, back to my regular self. Not only did I not burst into tears today, I didn't even get teary. Not once! The mere absence of something bad isn't necessarily to be celebrated, however.

I'm planning to submit a piece to an art show and this evening I finally got a fairly clear idea of what I'm want to do. Which is a good thing since the submission deadline is Sunday at midnight. Now I can just hope that I will be able to pull off my vision - in the next three days. Hey, why not?

Daily Asserveration - Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hell's bells, I forgot to post yesterday, which probably means it was more of a neutral day. Which, coming off three days of hormonal lunacy, is not a bad thing.

It was a day to be grateful for the people in my life. No big declarations, no significant events, just an enforcement of the knowledge that I have people in my life whom I care about and who care about me. Even when I'm a lunatic.

That's enough for me for one day.

Daily Asserveration - Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Ok, I'm late posting this and while my main source of positivity yesterday happened to the entire world (and I think you know what I mean), it was personally a darker day than I would have liked. After some serious wallowing and questioning of my own sanity, things settled down a bit and I managed to push myself over to the positive side. Forgiveness and understanding are my friends.

We were tentatively planning on attending an inauguration party last night, but as I dread parties in the best of times, I asked to switch out our plans for finally seeing Slumdog Millionaire. So happy I did! What a great movie. Plus the cute girl at the concession stand was a fan of our radio shows and it's never a bad thing to hear a compliment.

And then, just to squeeze out another little bit of happiness, we watched the lastest episode of "Fringe," a show that has my favorite character on TV - the absolutely wonderful Walter Bishop. Walter has the best quotes and non sequiturs ever. I will just say, "You are like a question machine!" Every episode gives me at least one opportunity to exclaim, "God, I LOVE Walter!" Ask Steve, he'll confirm.

Daily Asserveration - Monday, January 19, 2009

It's a good thing that some nice stuff happened early in the day because things kind of took a downward slide toward the evening. But that's not what these posts are for. I'll save that for a separate entry.

This morning I had what I considered to be a very successful radio show. My musical choices flowed well, there were few and minor technical errors, only one weird caller, and my Scottish Correspondent had some time to chat.

On my way home, after a stop at the grocery store (where I did encounter an empty checkout line manned by the fastest checker I've ever had, another good thing), I spotted a big, fat mockingbird landing on a trash bin. He jutted his perfectly gorgeous, perfectly taupe breast out and offered himself up for my admiration. I stopped my car to look at him longer, he caught my eye, and flew away. Still, it was an ideal little moment.

Daily Asserveration - Sunday, January 18, 2009

This is the first day since I started that I didn't immediately have something in mind. I didn't have the best day today - I was vaguely (or not so vaguely) anxious much of the time, resulting in me being on less than my best behavior.

But just a few minutes ago, I got an email notification that someone had written on my wall. In fact, it was Mo Ryan, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who is a big Battlestar Galactica fan. She wrote a fabulous column on the season 4.5 premiere that included some fantastic inside information and I told her so on her Facebook wall (yes, I am a BSG geek so much so that I am FB friends with two journalists who love it too). So, it pleased me to no end that Mo wrote back on my wall. Woo hoo! BSG geeks unite.

Oh, and I had fried shrimp and ice cream today. That wasn't so bad either.