CutestBabyEver

Hello - I'm back. That was such an exhausting trip. Upma - thanks for letting me off the hook and I love your city. We were only in the Independence Hall/Liberty Bell/this is a very educational historical place to be full of rangers part of town - but it was so pretty and the weather was so nice on Friday. My whole family slept on the train ride back to New York. So much walking and we had run up the steps of the Philly art museum like Rocky. (dorky - but a must for the dorky tourist). We saw a few musicals in New York - and walked and walked and walked. I think my calves are finally forgiving me. Then last night I came home and Ted had picked up some tomato basil soup and strawberries romanoff from La Madeleine to have waiting for me. (two of my favorites) Now I have to face the huge pile of work waiting on my desk.
Angie - that is so awesome that you're running - I've found it's so much easier to keep fitness goals when you have someone to go with - do you have someone who'll want to go running as well? My friend Lorrie - she keeps me on track.
I took a few fun pictures while on vacation and visited the photo fantasy mecca that is B&H Photo.

When I first came to the island, I made a small hutch for myself in the hollow under a tree root. The root itself wasn't so large, but the tree rested right on the edge of the beach and at some point, perhaps during a storm, water seemed to have washed the under part of the beachward side of the root system away.
The hutch was nothing special. No one would be impressed with my building skills. I simply found a few straight, strong sticks and made a frame and covered it with the biggest leaves I could find. For the first few nights I slept as far inside the shelter as possible. I did this out of caution, of course, but also because the wind and the starlight out on the beach kept me awake.
I have never heard any monster pass in the night. I think most steer clear of each other when they sleep, just out of politeness. My closest neighbor, Michel, the monster in the hollowed out tree, padded near here once. Not close to my hutch, but clearly on the end of "my" section of beach. He apologized and left without whatever he came to get. A small shell perhaps. Maybe a fish. Although, how anyone could eat a singing fish is beyond me.
A group of old monsters, grey and rugged-looking paddled a few meters offshore in a handmade canoe. They were more friendly than Michel. For example, they told me his name. And their's Henri and Laurent. None of the monsters had French accents, just French names. I asked about that and they replied that they were from France, but the all monsters speak the same.
Monster Island's nearest neighbor, Parrot Island, has a monthly ferry to the docks on the northern side of our island. From my beach, I can see the ship just barely as it steams in. Very few passengers come to Monster Island. Those that do come to see to island, to report on it, to visit, rarely ever to stay. This island is for monsters and birds. But aren't there supposed to be monkeys, too?
I asked Henri about the monkeys.
"The monkeys are there." He gestured generally back toward the island. "Deep in the island," said Laurent.

I have been sleeping, not in my shelter, but on the beach. No one ever comes by and if it rains, its not a far hop to the hutch. But, I can usually smell the rain before it comes. What a gift the senses are!
This morning, however, I woke to find tracks all around me. Not the long, deep footprints of the monsters, but short, sharp tracks like sticks. In the night, birds had been walking around me, in a big oval like my aura. The small tracks crisscrossed the larger ones, both kept a distance of about four inches from where I slept. There were no tracks other places on the beach. I could feel where they had been, however, like an aftertaste. They had been peeking in, listening. Had I been talking in my sleep? What could I say that birds would want to hear?
Michel was up the river a bit. I could go to him. I could ask him. But, would he tell me, even if he knew? The brothers in the canoe would listen, but who knew if they would be back.
Tonight, I'll sleep in the shelter. Tomorrow, I'll see if the tracks appear outside my door.

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Upma - I guess I'm in super big time trouble now. I'm so sorry. I wish my visit to Philly was longer. I think it'll just be tourist spot - tourist spot - tourist spot - train ride back to New York. My family's not even staying a full day. (overapologizing)
Weezie - I'd love to post some Polaroid Transfers - I just need to get on the ball with either scanning or a digital camera - I am super slow when it comes to that kind of stuff.
Well - talk to you guys when I get back (except Upma who may still be mad at me and for whom I'll have to do more groveling)

I made more polaroid transfers this weekend. They turned out pretty nice. I hung a few at work. Maybe I'll get another visit from Mr. Smarmy. I hed to NY this weekend and possibly Philly (though upma - I'll only be there during the day and with my folks - but next time you come to Austin we'll need to hang out). I think I'm going shopping for good luggage that rolls tonight.

i'm trying to work out the exact plot of a video i'm making. it is set in the indeterminate future and involves genetics. specifically i think human egg harvesting by infertile couples. i think. i'm still working it out- i'm not to the ~actual~ shooting part yet. it is inspired by some music my friend ryan composed and told me he'd let me use- royalty free. so i'm excited about that.

paintings are going ok but a little slow. i started talking to a guy in the web department at work about building a gallery website so maybe that will happen in the next few months.

friday i'm (finally) going to pay for the post office box for the Convalescent Adolescent mail art project. if i haven't told you about that yet, then i will soon- it has been in the works WAY TOO long.

so my ratties are at home and resting comfortably i think. i have three. they are from the two litters i was watching. i was only going to get two but all but one of the males from the first litter i was watching were adopted. so one was left all alone. rats are social and should never be kept alone or they get depressed and mean. so of course i had to adopt him as well as the other two brothers. one is gray with a white belly and paws. one is gray hooded. one is blonde hooded. they're still working on the introductions so the gray brothers and the blonde one are still in separate cages facing each other. they need names. the hooded rats look kind of like luna and artemis here:http://www.petoftheday.com/archive/2001/May/31.html

I saw The Sweetest Thing last night. The best things about it
1) The Spider Man preview
2) Jason Bateman singing "Eternal Flame"
3) Christina Appelgate's character saying "Turn around, Look, It's Jesus"
4) My two friends reenacting scenes from the tv show The Bachelor in the parking lot after the movie

Weezie - your new place sounds like it's going to be so homey. It makes me want to do more nesting.
Upma - are you feeling healthy again? It sucks in a million ways to be sick in springtime.

I took a walk into the inner parts of the island this morning. The vegetation is denser the farther you move in and continues up the base of the mountain. I assume the mountain has a name, but I haven't asked and it wasn't named on the map that came with my ticket. But the monsters have to call it something, right? They wouldn't not name the largest feature on the island, would they?

I didn't walk all the way to the mountain however. Maybe an hour into my hike, I heard a rustling off to the side. As I've said, I haven't seen any monkeys here. No Lord of the Flies style wild boars either. So, most of the noise are the goddamn bird following you through the trees. A sound to my side, and on the ground, was odd enough that I noticed it. I crept over and off the path that I was following up the river.

In a log, hollowed out by either rot or hand, I couldn't tell, was a big monster, sleeping. His arms were tucked into his sides to fit into the belly of the log. He was restless and shifted a bit from side to side. Around him were his things, a few fruits, bananas and pineapples and coconuts, a big stick for walking maybe and a shell that was used to bring water from the freshwater stream nearby. I considered, for a moment, stealing his shell. It was huge. Much bigger than any I had found. But, Monster Island seems to have a code, a do-unto-others rule. Plus, I felt certain that a big shell like that would be wellknown, if I got caught with it... who knows.

I watched him sleep. The monsters were, no are, hard to describe. I won't bother. If you want to see one, just look around. They're everywhere before they come here. Big ones, just like sleeping beauty here.

He opened his eyes and looked right at me. I continued to look at him thinking that I would be ridiculous to pretend he hadn't caught me. A pause. I'm waiting. "Do you have a staring problem?" he said, with some threat in his voice. I admitted to him that I thought I might, in fact, have a staring problem. It had gotten me in trouble a few times back in the normal world.

He made like he was going to climb out of his tree. I don't know if you can get your ass kicked on Monster Island. I doubt it, but the only way I would know for sure is to pick a fight and there is zero chance of that. Today at least.

"Where do I get a shell that size? The ones I've been using are half that."

He settled back but remained sitting up. "You can have this one," he said. "Oh no, I can get my own. Is there a section of beach where my chances are better?" "Take this one. Don't lose it. And don't come back here if you do."

It seemed like the final word. I stepped forward and picked up the shell. What a heavy fucker. It was still full of water.

Back on my beach, I listened to the fishes. Those swimmers.

this morning as i was walking to the bus stop, a woman who may or may not have had only one arm, walking about half a block ahead of me turned around and gave me a meaningful look before burping the loudest burp i've ever heard.

in other news: this weekend i went to a performance piece called Today, which included experimental film, live music, dance, and interpretive movement. there were moments which included a group of women dancing and stomping with tattered baby dolls and a young girl writhing in a cage. even though the images were sort of cliche they were rather visually arresting, especially the girl in the cage. an audible gasp went up from the audience at the end of that sequence.
the best images though included:

-the film of a scrolling seemingly endless To Do list of miscellaney like buy stamps, clip toenails, pay bills, call mom
as the list scrolled endlessly people bowed prostrate in front of it.

-a life size image of a woman was projected on a wall. as she crawled in slow motion across the screen the actual woman moved frantically along with her trying to draw herself before the image could move.

- upright brown paper bags covered the stage. people in white ran in slow motion through the bags, leaning over like spindly legged fishing birds, they picked up the bags one by one in their mouths, inspected them and knocked them out of the way. periodically the music would speed up and the figures on the sides, frozen, wearing black and keeping time, would run onstage and stomp and smash as many bags as they could until the music slowed and they had to return to their timekeeping posts.

i have been eating strawberries nonstop and i'm (probably)
getting my pet rats tomorrow!

Monster Island is quiet. Peaceful. I like it here. The humidity is high, but the temperature is cool. On the other side of the island some of the more social monsters are having a beach party. I'm not sure if it sounds like fun or not. Some monsters, as I'm sure you know, have a hard time controlling their volume. I think if I ventured over there I would be deaf by morning. Ha! Maybe I should make some ear protectors out of coconut shells.

A monster steel band has begun playing. I don't recognize the song, thank god. Jimmy Buffet tunes might make me tie myself to a log and float out to sea.

Monster Island has no monkeys that I have seen. It has many, many birds. The birds, I think, listen to the monsters speak. They seem to lean in whenever I mumble to myself. I don't know why they would want to hear me. I suspect that they may report what they hear to someone, but who I couldn't begin to guess. Monsters have secrets, but no one wants to hear them. If they did monsters would be on tv and in magazines and on stage and in space and on posters on walls.

The band is winding up. Its hypnotic. It makes me sleepy. The monsters beat the song. The birds record the music. Do the fish sing the words? How can anyone hear what a fish is singing from the land?

Upma - I'm so glad you're sharing the John Sayles love. Is he giving out the buttons that say "John Sayles for Independents?" They had those at the SXSW screenings I went to.
I think I'm going to go see Monsoon Wedding tomorrow night.

i didn't do a damn thing all weekend. i think i left the house once.the lovely spring weather is forcing me to confront my agoraphobia since crappy weather is no longer an excuse not to leave the house. how can i be both claustrophobic AND agoraphobic?

I went and took photos yesterday. The weather here is all about the mist. I went to our Botanical Gardens - everything was really green and lush. I didn't get too wet, but my hair grew to about four times it's normal size from the humidity. My favorite photo is from the Oriental Garden part of the park. A wooden bridge, lots of abundantly green plants, a still pond, koi swimming around. I hope it turns out. I might make polaroid transfers out of these. Out of 36 photos, I'm expecting to like at least a few.
Anyone priced digital cameras? I'm thinking about getting one - but for mostly web use (then I could finally put up some images of work).

Thanks for all the tips, go to http://www.getcrafty.com for a cool article on pricing crafts/art

My dad's car broke down. This is the car that he lent me while he is fixing my car which broke down. This is also the car that was hit last week. I have no money to pay for repairs. I have no money to put up for repairs until my parents pay me back. I can't go to work tomorrow to make money. My cellphone got shut off today.

I am spending my last pennies to buy a ticket to monster island where I can live alone in freakish misery until the end of my lonely days. Goodbye.

don't come down on your price!!!! this should be a phone conversation but you need to factor the coast of your materials and your time and your comission for selling the piece. especially don't come down for mr. smarmy. $100 is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP art! my paintings are all at least $300 to cover my materials (that doesn't even cover time really). Then stick to your guns and don't negotiate with people who you don't like and /or don't have anything to offere you. it is better not to make 1 sale than to make multiple sales that form a pattern of selling too low.

So at work we have this one wall where we can hang up pieces of art. I've been hanging my polaroid transfers that I do. This morning someone at work asked to buy one. Not knowing what price to quote, I said $100, then felt all squidgy about it. He said that was kind of high, so I said, let me know what you can pay, and we can talk.
So - question - how do you guys price your art? I feel all weird about it. And the guy wanting to buy is a bit smarmy so I don't mind asking for more money. But, in the past installation, when people at work asked to buy, it didn't work out - either I took too long to get back to them, and they didn't want the piece anymore, or they didn't want to pay more than $25.
I'm not sure what to do. It's not a huge deal or anything - if he doesn't buy it, okay, but I'm not sure what fair market price is for art (well, there is no such thing, and I always make fun of bad, overpriced art in coffee shops - so maybe I should come down).
What do you guys think about this stuff?

Whenever Upma wears her hair down, curly or straight, its hot hot hot. But, she only wears her hair down like once every six years.

Angie - Dallas was last weekend. A lot of fun - though lots of sitting around, going out to eat and a bit of shopping thrown in.
I've never eaten a fried pickle.
I'm wearing my hair in pigtails today. And I'm wearing a large red plastic ring that looks like one of those candy pops. Kind of fun in a corporate environment.
I was out all day yesterday at a photo shoot. And am trying to decide which pile to tackle first on my desk.
I spent most of Saturday working on polaroid transfers for my dad's birthday present. I made 20 images - now I need to narrow down. I want to take more photos this week. I'm feeling inspired for some reason.