Bo's Request (an Art Thread)

[pan]

Been writing cover letters for job applications (two submitted yesterday). More of a movement artist than a wordsmith but, to get things started, here is something I wrote for Migrant, my section in Train.

Where is home?

Moved twelve times in the last 16 years. The transient in transit. Pierce Transit runs through it. Before I came here I was in Rush Limbaugh’s home town before I was surrounded by corn fed Norwegian bred Lutherans singing praise in perfect four part harmony to that Home on the Plain before I’m taken Home – Praise Jesus. I grew up in Iowa, Little Town on the Prairie an island afloat in the ocean of corn. Lived in SoCal, in the Desert where golf and plastic surgery reigns, might have the grit to stay in rainy Tacoma, but, I always say I’m from San Francisco - though I rarely visit anymore.

Home, where is home?

Home is where you are. Correction, home is where you and the two cats are.

What is home? That safe place. That place with love. I love that old car, it always brought me home. The ’75 Westphalia could be home. Or rather, the place that used to be home. Too old, too unreliable to be trusted anymore. Baling wire and duct tape. Just like the U-Haul I drive to the next place, hoping for home.

Searching for home. Migrants with heavy furniture. U-haul. Our orange travois with wheels keeps getting bigger. Full of stuff. Heavy Stuff. Stuff that anchors us. To a home of nostalgia. Anchors to a home that never really existed. That place. This is the place! Well bully for you Brigham Young. Bring ‘em young. Not young anymore, with more stuff each move to stuff in the moving van and every move leaves behind anchors that are mourned in passing.

A house burns down and the anchors are cremated and the past has passed on.

The bubble is burst. The house is on the market. The anchor is weighed. The trees we planted are left behind. Do the new owners love that Japanese Maple we planted as our 10th anniversary gift to our dream of home? Have they maintained the landscaping? Have any of the plants, the dreams, the love we planted been cared for in our absence? Or have they been torn up by the roots to make room for the next owners’ dream of home?

Where are the anchors? Is there a home port? Adrift. Without a home. Drift wood is picked up for beach fires to warm the beach rats without a home. Their shacks have been bulldozed like West Bank ancestral olive groves to make room for more condos and home-loving dreamers blowing a bubble. Pop!

[Mouse]

That drew my eye too, the double-headed axe, very nice.
I was hit on the head with an axe as a child, hardly noticed it.

But back to websites, no bells and whistles on that, no double columns or anything so marvellous. But you can still do an awful lot, and its easy enough for a foolish girl to manage with no technical prowess or bent. When its just a question of having a plain presence that acts as a point of reference where you can pull up a chair as it were, it seems adequate to me. Fingers crossed.

The real web design is beyond me, the very thought of it makes me cross-eyed.
As does all that other stuff I should be doing with machines.

I think I should have planted a little wood for coppicing if I'd known.

[Mouse]

Been thinking about my axe for a while. Need to get some wood in. The shed has woodworm. The cutting block has woodworm. The door to the other shed is still blocked with the ladder holding the rooftile with the electric cable going through it, and the axe is past that particular obstacle.

[littleoldme]

"If you're going to murder and chop up your family, I'd go for the pretty painted ones. Maybe it's because there's just something about a painted axe handle that just seems odd to me -- in kind of a fetishy sorta way. Like something Jeffrey Dalmer would have wanted to use."
Sorry but this cracked my ass up.
As for the axe I'd go for Granfors, any place called Bestmadeco just doesn't seem like a place I'd wanna trust to have anything that's actually best made if ya get my drift. It's the name that, ....bothers me. If they're makin' the handle so damn fancy what are they tryin' ta keep ya from noticin' about the blade?

[waldopaper]

Exactly, lom... these days, when somebody says they are "best-made," it's quite likely they are making crap. Mygod... what's happened to us?

[littleoldme]

We've gotten old and cynical. Or maybe, just maybe, we grew a brain and the world lost it's new penny shine, lol.

[waldopaper]

"If you're going to murder and chop up your family, I'd go for the pretty painted ones. Maybe it's because there's just something about a painted axe handle that just seems odd to me -- in kind of a fetishy sorta way. Like something Jeffrey Dalmer would have wanted to use."

For some reason... that line made me giggle. I think I'm becoming a sick old fuck. The only web page I ever designed was this one. It's really ugly- and I did it zippity-dap quick... I forget the software... but it was some huge-ass web-design software thru the U. Now that I am exiled from that place. I can't modify it... and it's fortunate that it's still up. It was designed to use minimum bandwidth... because a lot of the studes had dial-up connections... so I tested it with my Mac at home with a dial-up connection. I started a "blog," but really haven't ditzed with it much. Just wanted to get it out there. Just a place to dump any material if I ever come up with any.

Grandfors' prices are on their US site. There, you'll find their price list in pdf format. <==WARNING- PDF FILE. I hate fucking pdf files worse than a rat in the mouth. And talk about goofy web design... having your prices on a separate site... and in nasty pdf. But that's Bo's turf. Maybe HE can explain what earthly fucking good pdf files are. I know the graphics people like them because they "maintain graphic integrity." Sounds like bullshit to me.

Brother Dave sent me the best-made link... mebbe coz I'm really into stuff that cuts. I like to sharpen stuff. dunno why. But a Granfors "American Felling Axe" costs just about as much as one of those fetish smeggers. If you could actually USE the best-made axe without dinging the handle (or halb or whatever they call em) would mark you as an expert axe-person. Or mebbe marketing... or fetishism... I dunno. But after reading all this axe stuff, I got my Roughneck axe wit da fiberglass handle (10x stronger than wood!) out of the stump where it was out in the rain... cleaned it up, oiled it... and sharpened it... cut myself too. But now it's standing in the entrance-way where I usually keep it. Nice and sharp. Every cutting edge I use is wicked sharp. Used to keep ms. waldo's kitchen knives wicked sharp too... but she kept cutting herself because she was used to dull knives. If you can't make the hair jump of your arm with one gentle stroke... I consider that "dull." O course a chopping edge is different than a cutting edge.

Have seen the Nova Samurai Sword program several times. In the old times, Japanese judged the edges by how many bodies they could cut through (five!!). European edged weapons were generally different from Asian edged weapons because they had to cut through metal armor... Asian armor tended to be lighter and more "organic." European weapons that were not used in "warre," that is- against a foe without armor... tended to be long piercing weapons... like the rapier. But then- there are hybrid European weapons... like the saber... my favorite. Shit. Don't get me started. Anyway... it's really cool that the sword form of Japan continues and the tradition is alive and well.

Mouse-- planting white oaks is at the top of my to-do list. It's the best firewood... and makes nifty objects too. So does hickory, but not as good for burning and really hard to work. For splitting straight-grained well-seasoned firewood, a good axe is best (if you know how to use it). For gnarlier less-seasoned wood... like nasty elm or curly-maple... use a maul... which is nothing but a sledge hammer with one skinny side.

At least we got our wood ready now... it should be enough... unless the power goes out.

[Mouse]

When I was at school I won first prize for public speaking with a ten minute speech about the history of swords. I was rather partial to the rapier and the broadsword. I loved looking at photographs of old hilts. Especially hilts with ornate guards.

Nothing ready here. While negotiating with the gas board through their representatives in India, to try and stop them getting a court order and putting in a meter to charge the poorest at the highest rate again, bastards, I've ordered more books. :-)

Sufi: Expressions of the Mystic Quest (Art and Imagination)
Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality" Philip Newell
"Visions and Voyages: Story of Our Celtic Heritage" Fay Sampson;

And a couple of others I shan't mention just yet. My project about Celtic and Sufi spirituality...

It seems I've almost finished the project about pimping, just have to do one last dreadful thing, perhaps I'll tell you about it soon. Passing on a message to some people. I've been asked to talk at a conference in Leeds about my quiet project in November. Hmm. What a surprise. Thought I'd done a terrible job and really let them down, but she was so pleased.

[waldopaper]

EM- have I told you I loved you yet? No? Ah... well then... never mind.

[BO]

Damed Illegal Aliens! Look out Cal, they're in your neighborhood.

Actually, this is supposed to be a very good movie, in spite of the questionable trailer.

[Cal]

I'll keep an eye out for it. From the trailer it looks like it might have it's roots in real life ...

[BO]

Amazing.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

[pan]

kinda reminds me of Shel Silverstein's stuff.