I fixed the color problem, but I don't know anything about why the left align shifts. I think you Mac users might have to live with it. At least for now.

Hey Upma - moving sucks. I hope it's over soon.
So I'm excited about Labor Day weekend. I'm going to a Grape Stomp festival and sleeping overnight in an 1894 Pullman Train car. And I plan on buying lots of Texas peaches. I've stomped grapes at a winery once before. I remember them being very cold and squishy. And lots of worried spectators asking if those grapes would be made into any wine (they aren't).

>Zach, you are so right.

Hey, and with this sentence you are right too! I hope you don't blow it!

>Nostalgia is the perfect reason to process the hell out of innocent vegetables so you can have a taste of yesterday and false virtue at the same time.

Still right, although I'm sensing a little sarcasm. Hang in there, K, you might come out of this one a winner!

>You rank right up there with the "never too late" people, buddy.

Oooh. Crash. I was really rooting for you, too. I guess I was right about the sarcasm. (Holy crap, I'm right again and I'm not even trying!)

>Why not just have a REAL corndog once in a while, instead of contributing to this industry of fake purity?

Well, real corndogs are made of animal parts. I could get you some documentation on that if you like. What is falsely virtuous about figuring out a way to eat something you like and a fondness for without killing and eating something?

I'll start fixing the design stuff when I get back to Gboro. (I'm in Hickory for a few days.)

i went to the dentist for the second time in as many weeks. a little touch up from my wisdom teeth months and months ago. my mouth feels funny. i bet that later on, funny won't be the word to describe it.

zach - my computer does the exact same as Upma's - gray background, type moving more and more left. I'm on a Mac. I'm using IE. Go figure.

Upma---What the hell are you talking about? It moves more left? What kind of wackass shit is your computer doing to this page?

Ahhh, damn. I reminded myself all week about Shell's birthday and then forgot on the day of. Happy Birthday, Shelly, one day late.

thanks zach - I'll try and email them to you this week - if it doesn't work out - no big deal.
thanks for asking, upma, I'm still sick. In fact, I'm just at work this morning to turn in photo credits, then I'm going back home to bed.
happy birthday again, shelly.

Are you guys using Explorer or Navigator? I'm going to try to change the color of the background again.

Steph---Sure, I'll post them, but it may take week or so. I'm not totally sure if our (my house) new ISP offers us webspace or not.

zach - I scanned in a few photos I took in Maine from the Workshops. If I email them to you - do you think you could post one or two?

zach is the one that does all the work. send all your appreciation his way.

Okay. I'll try to fix it again, but I can't until later tonight.

Right now - the background is gray to me.

If you hate this let me know. I'm not sure about the left alignment. We'll try it out.

Upma is having problems see the background color on her Mac. It's supposed to be light blue, about the same color as the search button on the "edit your blog" page. If you're seeing gray or, I don't know, pink or something, let me know.

I wish I could do better stuff with this, but really I'm hunting and testing my way through this grade school HTML without much knowledge of how it all works.

MY NOSE WON'T STOP RUNNING!
(so why don't you go and catch it)

Kainui grew up vegan. Therefore, her perspective is skewed when it comes to the emotional value of fake meats. (For example, I didn't grow up in a godless tropical paradise. Therefore, my perspective on, say, faux-wild boar or fake coconuts or poi or whatever would be devoid of emotional context as well.) Growing up on hot dogs and bologna sandwiches and burgers leaves you with a certain nostalgia for those foods. To me, Morningstar corndogs are just about the world's greatest comfort food---trashy and dumb. Fake meats are important to people. Cultural identity, even as represented by an all-bean meatloaf, is very important to people. (Another example, I doubt Kainui's relatives still toss virgins into volcanos. Today, they probably throw just throw reformed virgins into wading pools or something. Thus, maintaining modern standards of morality and still appeasing the angry gods of her homeland.)

Rita leaves for SF tomorrow. Otherwise, life is slow here on the ranch.

How yous doin'?

Some things:

I have the camera, it's ready to go to the next person which is Upma, but I guess I need her work address

Upma, could you please send me your work address.

Angie, you should really go off about it never being too late to be a virgin. I have a feeling that these same women who claim this secondary virginity also think "everything will change once we get married." It seems to be a common mistake among people who live together before they get married, more than those who engage in premarital sex. The testimonials seem to suggest that the only thing that is gained is a better honeymoon. But by their own standards, the honeymoon seems to be diefied as the first, last, best sex of their marriage. They get to be kinky for a weekend and then it's back to their so called life, or at least lying about it. I guess my big problem is that even though these women, these couples, know they aren't pious, or religiously dogmatic in the eyes of their Lord, they do it so they can feel as if they are, and then believe it to be true. I'm also not surprised to see the men in these couples going along with it either, only because it appeals to very mysoginistic ideals of possesion and objectification. One only has to think of the "like a virgin" production in Moulin Rouge. Removing sex from a relationship where it already existed seems to emphasize its importance more than not. The whole thing seems bogus even to those who participate in it.

I'm not sure why we need another blog to write articles, cultural criticisms, have heated discussions or rant. I thought that was what this blog was for at one point.

I'm ready to give up the center justification, I had planned on writing mesostics throughout this post but it's impossible to figure out when everthing is going to be center justified.

Is there a place where everyone's IM handles are posted. I've been practicing chatting with a robot named ALICE. She's a chatterbot, you can talk to her too at alicebot.org. She's a gossip monger so be careful. At any rate, thanks to my brother I still have an active AOL account, it's MAGNAPRESS. Maybe I'm ready to chat with you.

Finding shows has been luck for me. I've been invited to participate in the shows that I've been in. I don't have enough similar material to put together a whole show of my own. There are places, galleries and spaces, that are owned by people who don't know much about curating, they provide a space for people who do. It seems like you can find them in every city, espeically big active ones like I don't... Austin, or Houston or Seattle or Philadelpia or Boston or Greensboro or Bloomington. If none of that pans out you can always show your work in your own place and have an opening. It's not anymore difficult than planning a theme party. And while not everyone in the world will see what you've done, at least the people you care about will, you're lucky if you even get that much at a gallery. I can get any one of you a show in Buffalo whenever you're ready.

How is it that I find myself writing a piece of music for late renaissance instruments that have been more or less obsolete for 200 years AND creating new software to sing about your individuality through your fingerprints.

I've been listening to the latest New Order and the oldest Shellyan Orphan

"Good time around the corner, I swear it's getting warmer"

"The earth spins in honey, in humble bee blood, and we are the arteries, the vessels of love."

Sleepy Time

Photo goodness: ordered b&w filers from B&H and went out shooting this weekend - two rolls. Next week I give a brown bag presentation at work about what I learned at the Workshop, and I'll show samples of my work.

Have any of you guys been to http://www.artdeadlineslist.com ? They have a nice listing for places to submit your art for juried shows.

cherry water ice? mmm. please explain.

Upma, Mike---Shelly is whooping our asses in popularity on Rock Star! Jesus, she's up to 70! What's the secret, Shell?

I'm trying to focus on some photo projects I want to do with my newfound enthusiasm. I'm thinking about hitting some junk/antique shops this weekend and shooting what's to be found there. But narrowing it even further - only shooting red things or looking for circles and shooting those or concentrating on repetition. I haven't figured it all out yet. I'm also heading out this weekend to a little town about an hour south of here and maybe doing some old west main street sort of shots.
And something with sequins and iron-on letters is in the works as well. Now I'm off to lunch for Thai buffet. Happy Wednesday everyone.

Happy Birthday JT

Seeing as today is my birthday, I guess I have carte blanche on the August Dada Poetry zine. Your are all invited to help me celebrate by staying up as late as you can, looking at the north east part of your sky, and admiring the meteor storm that I was born into, or by going to bed early and dreaming all night long.

Saturn Returns.

Just got back from my workshop. Maine was incredible and inspiring and beautiful and cool and fun. I lived in a photo bubble - all meals and housing were provided. I just had to eat, sleep and breathe photography. Long days, but totally enriching. We traveled around taking pictures, sunny, sandy beaches, flower-filled meadows, cluttered junk yards, horse farms, boat-filled harbors at sunrise. I ate lobster four times in seven days. I ate fresh blueberries every morning for breakfast. I looked at photo porn (in the form of the B&H photo supply catalog - they have EVERYTHING - I have a large wish list now). It was so intense - I'd wake up at 6am to shoot the morning light - stay out until midnight doing night shoots. I loved it - experimenting with different techniques - pushing myself to look at light in new ways. It made me want to be in a learning environment again - even though I felt so far away from my normal life. Now I have to somehow integrate what I did there into things here. (and go through lobster withdrawal).

Upma-Maybe you and me can get adjoining rooms in the nuthatch.

Angie-There's a funny line in the movie Half Baked, which believe it or not, is a pretty hilarious movie. Sir Smokes-a-Lot (see hilarious) is holding his hands together, weeping, looking toward the sky, "Lawd, if you're listening... HELP!"

> Got me to thinking. For people who don't believe in higher powers, I wonder who they put their faith in or talk to. Ok, maybe I'm not being very clear. When people say stuff like, "Oh, just let me get out of this horrible situation;" or "Please let me get this job;" or even "Damn it my stomach hurts," who are they addressing?

Probably no one, Angie. It's just a habit of speech. I'd say a fair number of people who believe in god say those kinds of things without thinking about them, too.

I say "Heaven help us" all the time, and I believe in Heaven like George W believes in corporate accountability.

no, the poem does not need to contain the word "august" in it, but the source material for the poem must be somehow "august" in nature.

yes, it will still be a good poem. feel free to decorate, embellish, and punctuate at will.

call to action (inspired by PrincessBean on nervousness):
i'm going to make a mini-zine of dada poetry. anyone who'd like to participate, let me know.
use tristan tzara's method (below). the only requirement is August. use a newspaper article from August, a chapter from a history book about an August event, an article about Augustus Ceasar, an article about or a letter by someone with an August birthday, an article about summer weather patterns etc.
decorate and record the poem however you like, with or on whatever media you'd like. mail it to me (or email it if you must). only thing is we have a short turn around time, so please send it to me by August 15, 2002. (that gives you one week.) i'll make a mini-book/zine with some color copies for everyone. i'd like to send them out so that you get them back by the end of the month.

*** Tristan Tzara's method of making a Dadist poem): ***

1. Take a newspaper (etc).
2. Take a pair of scissors.
3. Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem.
4. Cut out the article.
5. Then cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them in a bag.
6. Shake it gently.
7. Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag.
7. Copy conscientiously. The poem will be like you. And here you are a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that is charming though beyond the understanding of the vulgar.
8. mail to:
Candelabra Project
c/o Mary shelly Thyme
410 East Denny Way
#20
Seattle, WA 98122
United States of America

Upma in seattle in october: excellent excellent! when? where exactly? why? how? come visit!! i'll play tour guide if you've got time and i'm in town. let's make a short video while you're here. i'm doing that with my friend mary when she comes, also in october.

art shows in alternative spaces: i'm of the mind that anyplace you don't think your stuff will be stolen or destroyed is a good venue. unless it getting stolen or destroyed is part of the project, in which case, anywhere will do... i wonder if i can make something that will incite people to destroy it...
i have a feeling that i haven't answered the question. jt has had more shows than me. i'll go find the question again and post something more relevant.

bathroom hands: i read somewhere that if you had to choose only one time to wash your hands, before using the pot, or after, you'd do better to choose before, as your hands are much germier than your privates. not an endorsement....

the dirty version: BRAVO!! now i have something to listen to at work when i'm not listening to seize him! what is the cover art going to be? you should tour to the dirtfarm, my friend josh has a record label which is actually starting to happen. the first two 7" are out soon.

slave: what ever happened to this?

los angeles: i was there last weekend. i'll write about it in depth soon. i swear. i'll also post the really old travelogue from victoria, british columbia, but i should really edit it down since it is now longer ago than the visit from mike and weez.

my latest web links list: for crafts and sewing and art and fashion all coming soon. let me know if you want a mega links list and i'll email it to you.

weezie: a store in my neighborhood is actively seeking arts to sell. you (or anyone else) interested? i'll go hawk your wares.

> You ever have one of those friends who just is constantly miserable? No matter what you say or do. It's all about "whoa is them."

Wait. Aren't I this friend?

Went to the shitty, shitty Warped Tour today. Saw zero bands. Got crushed while MxPx (of all bands) played. Saw 6000 sixteen year old girls with budget boob tattoos. Not a wise idea, gals.

It was free and I got to hang out with my brother. We left about an hour after we got there. Yuck.

Drink some new sodas. Tried the new Dr. Pepper variation, Red Fusion. Barf. And some stupid Sobe cola that tasted just like Dr. Pepper. Good news though, Fanta is making an American comeback. I had a peach Fanta the other day.

Mike---I'd say the chances of me stealing the title "Teenage Wasteband" for a song are almost 100%. Call your lawyer.

A few of us went tubing in the Dan River today. It was a nice day for it. Very clear skies, hot. Tubing is a weird thing. Basically, for those of you who don't know, you buy or rent a tube, sit in it and move about .02 miles per hour down the river. Mostly rednecks, hillbillys, and drunks do it, because it involves no money and tons of beer drinking time.

We had fun but there were a few snags. Rick popped his tube really early on and had to walk a lot. Then somehow I managed to tear my pants from top to bottom. I'm standing up and one point and the others are laughing at me and asking what happened. I have no idea what they are talking about until I look I look down and see my balls hanging out. Chris was telling people he spotted the rare Carolina White Snake. Sheesh.

And now I'm burnt on the backs of my legs. I'm going to have to sleep on my stomach. Oh, the things we endure for fun.

I've posted one of the songs from our second demo on our website. The other seven songs will be on MP3.com shortly. If you're interested in here the first one though, click here.

upma, what's up?

The score:
Gone:
Nathan and Krystal gone to Pittsburgh. Benji gone for a week with them. Kris and Jennifer gone to LA. Blake, Andrew and Vic Blue vacationing in Costa Rica for a month. Tipa heading back to Scotland Tuesday. Chris Fox leaving on tour. Evan preparing for LA. Dave preparing for somewhere in Cali. Rita preparing for SF.

Back:
John Rash from NYC. Lisa and Audrey from SF. Ben Bernard back from Wilmington.

Stuck in a rut:
Me.

Upma-Ch-ch-ch-Changes is performed by Bu-bu-bu-Bowie.

I didn't have that bad a time with that girl, but was definately a this-isn't-working scene. Which is why the ignoring game was so lame.

Might have a job at BBs (local record store).

Internet connection comes back tomorrow.

So have any of you guys ever had a gallery showing? I was thinking of getting some work together (probably the polaroid transfers I've done the last few months) - and trying to get a show together. Any advice? (shelly - I'm looking at you) It wouldn't need to be in a gallery - though I've heard horror stories of showing your work at a restaurant or hair salon and the work forever after smelling like that place.

Mike - I emailed you.