for reals

oh my god! and jesus as well!

(if you are a Sugarcubes fan, you will recognize those lines, but I am appropriating them for good reason)

My dad came through with some pictures of my mom's funeral and here she is. I don't see the can of Coors. I guess we thought, since it was a Church affair, that would be going a wee bit too far. Too bad! But it's still horridly, wonderfuly......fucking WEIRD!

Poor mom. I think she ate too many malted milk balls.....what is up with the greenish cast to her skin (and the balls)? Is she radioactive?



I'm about falling out of my chair here. She looks like Herman Munster. Should we sue the mortuary posthumously? She should have Morticia's long black hair.

No six feet under for me. You better burn my ass.

On a lighter note, I am thoroughly enjoying my vacation. I've decided to go on vacation. And not figure shit out, like what am I going to do for work in the winter (not to mention all the other questions of the existential bent I've been fielding), etc ad nauseum. I DO figure that if I can just freaking RELAX for a solid few weeks, the answers will arise*. Despite what others may think, I really haven't been on vacation since quitting my job and selling my stuff and going off last September. I haven't felt relaxed in the least.

I just might do this for a few months.

*or, I should say, I will wear the mantle of ambivalence and unknowing more convincingly

zum pics

Well hey folks, I'm cleaning house and posting a slew of pics from the last coupla months.

Leaving the Matthews Community garden late last month, some dramaticas et wunderbarr




Last sunday it rained, we were soaked! With the added bonus of lightening and thunder. Wicked! Our collective gardens looooooved it. I managed a nice long bike ride up the mountain and back before we were dumped on, too.

This morning, a hearty harvest from the container garden in back, chard chard chard. And I made applesauce with the early-fruiting tree too. Ummm....yum.


Latter part of June, nice and hot and perfect for ICE CREAM!


Here's from a few weeks ago, at World Cafe...Ariana with her daugher Meris, who is ubercute and in her mid-twos now. Half of Jacque's face is on the right. Ariana is working up to running a marathon (sheeyooo!) and Jacque is finishing up a year-long commission designing and building a concrete top desk. You can see photos of her progress and finished product, a la amazing, over here!.


You can't see Marsha, who's on my right....well hang on let me consult the archives...okay well I guess it's all about Meris, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention here that Marsha finished her school year, after an intensive, condensive eight-week summer session and has eight weeks of freedom! Then she'll be a senior at the UofO. Way to go Mar!


Couple of weeks ago, my friend and former co-worker Jackie from the library took me on my maiden voyage to Hideaway Bakery where they fire up their oven (made from local materials, like a big clay jobbie) once a day and bake the bread fresh (how else?). Sitting outside our view included this wonderful truck with a chocolately labbish dog in the back.


Some of the good in the offering at the Bakery......that is one big-ass loaf of bread! Delicioso food, smells, ambience, perfect.

You go! You go now!

There's the beauty of an oven on the right...


Mid-June, Ryan's birthday! Dang are you really nine now?? (he's since shaved his hair off)


Random window-reflection shot


At the coast over Memorial Day





20th Anniversary of Soromundi, all-women's choir of Eugene...okay, I think they officially decided to say 'lesbian' choir, but all women are welcome and not every one is a lesbian. Back in mid-May...the picture on the big screen features Jacque's eight-foot-tall sculpture, Jane. She's since been painted bronze and graces the entry way to their home. She used to stand inside Mother Kali's bookstore downtown on campus......bookstore closed a few years back :-(


And here's Mac, a solid, affable, male pit bull. He lives with some folks I do yard work for. I yuv him.


This place of business, located next to and just south-west of the library, is new since I've been gone.

The choice is clear, don't you agree?

Or, you could just throw me to the wolves when I check out, it's free.

I wish my brother Christopher was alive - for many reasons - but if he was, I'd send this to him because I know he'd appreciate it. After our mother died he sent me a picture of her in the casket. I thought it was in the poorest taste, I was SO offended! I wish I had that picture: now I think it's funny, in a morbid way. He'd tucked in a can of Coors, and....am I making this up? did we just discuss it and not actually do it?...also a carton of those malted milk balls. Two of her favorite things.

Last night I was at a friend's house at dusk. We watched evening primroses bloom. It was so amazing. I love summertime.
Salut!

somebody pull a rabbit

What was that about rabbit holes and disappearing tophats? Put that crook'd cane away, I'm staying right here on center stage for a half a minute, see?

Three months ago I landed on American soil. I've been on homeland land almost as long as I was off said soil. I haven't longed for India, even after today's convection-oven-hot temperatures (climbing into the 90s). 'Specially not after that. I am a wilting flower whose stems rub together most sweatily and in an unwelcome way when walking. Ick.

But, before I shower off the grit and grime, I thought I'd give y'all a limp but enthusiastic hello: I've planted myself firmly in the Friendly Neighborhood, just three blocks north of the house I lived in last summer......literally....on the same street, even! I found a little mother-in-law flat, two rooms of loveliness to unpack for a spell and nestle in.

Paul's Bicycle came through for me and put together a TREK for under two hundred bucks, so I have a reliable set of wheels, and a joy ride. I'm officially self-employed, as a gardener and as an artist. I'll garden (haul, mow, weed, prune, plant, dig, harvest) until my back says Enough. I just sold a boatload of my stencil postcards to Shawn Mediaclast over at his joint, Museum of Unfine Art. He's invited me to do a show, early next year. So how about that! Yah! Hoo!

I ate the first two cherry tomatoes from our garden last night, after eating two big handfulls of blueberries from the bush out front, and an apple off the tree in back. Am I in my element, or what?

My landlady is pretty much the coolest one so far........I'm still going through a healthy existential crisis, but at least I'm in Eugene and I have Eckardt Tolle (I'm half-serious, folks)......listening to lotsa music of my yesteryouth (the 90s, not the 80s)........and generally healthy except for the alien-looking bloom of tinea versicolor on my back and neck, a gift from India. It's a fungus, everyone has it, yes you do too, only most times it's not visible. In my case, it is now. I am seriously working with all my vanity issues. I have now entered My Forties, folks.

Here I am in my studio, and I bid you fair eve.