Wednesday Randomness

1) Have to figure out something to say about a solo show next July... but need to do so now, as it's going out to a magazine shortly. Problem? I don't know exactly what I'm going to do, theme-wise.  Guess I'll write something that's a little "open for interpretation."

2) Found myself feeling nostalgic about some aspects of our days working on the road. Mainly, the cross-country driving. I always enjoyed those trips from one place to some far-flung other place. Omaha to Tennessee... Miami to Tennessee.... Arizona to Ohio... wherever to wherever. I don't miss the work, but I miss the road, and I miss our little community of fellow travelers/coworkers.

3) Speaking of far-flung places, I must be missing Florida as well, as I've been on a boiled peanut kick lately. Made a batch over the weekend that were okay... they didn't get a chance to boil long enough before we devoured them, but have another batch going now which have had a full 24 hours to boil. YUMMISPICYNESS.

4) Whoa Realization that winter is approaching. So much to do before then... including getting busy on this line of scarves I have an idea for (time to break out the serger again) that I hope will provide some extra income.

5) Speaking of income creation (something which is on my mind regularly these days, as we've gone from a two-income household to a zero-income household with mega medical bills) I have a new batch of Travelers up, as well as some Groot-inspired "Treeple"...

They can be found on both my Etsy site, and the Traveler-specific sites here...Travelers and www.charliesspot.etsy.com

That's all... Happy Wednesday, y'all. Be good to yourselves.

The Monthlies Came Early

Yup, somehow I managed to post here before a full month had passed. Wonders will never cease!

It's been somewhat of a whirlwind tour of Dayton, it feels like. As though we just got here... and already we're heading out next wednesday. Dayton itself has proven to be rather innocuous, shall we say. Very middle-of-the-road. Which, after Phoenix, is more than welcome.

There's really not a whole hell of a lot to report from here, even. A trip to Yellow Springs, a cute little berg about 30 minutes from here, full of galleries and bookstores and the like. And lots of patchouli. It reminded me a lot of Gainesville, Florida, actually.

Then a day-trip to Columbus last weekend for their monthly art crawl, which was *quite* fun, though I wish we'd gone later in the afternoon/evening, as it felt like things were just really getting busy as we were heading out. Maybe that was a good thing, as it was VERY crowded... getting there early allowed us to actually be in the shops without feeling all claustrophobic.

One of the best parts of the day was the chance to meet, in person, a fellow blogger.... even if it's only for a brief moment (sometimes literally a "Hi/Bye" deal) that's always a nice thing. We're all  connected on here, this weird online world we live in, and it's easy to forget that sometimes the physical interaction hasn't happened yet! I suppose that's one of the benefits of my job... I get to travel around, and have the oppurtunities to meet folks that live all over the place.

So, yeah, I got to say hey to Sharon, of http://yaysockpuppet.blogspot.com/ fame!

She had some very nifty clown pieces up as one of the displays...

 

It did make me laugh a bit... one of the people I was there with, a somewhat impatient 20-something whom I should have just told to go on by himself (but that's another story) said, as we walked up to the window "Ooooh, those are creepy".... I had to laugh as I replied "yeah, that's the friend I've been looking for, actually!"

 

 

 

 

Anyhoo, on with the random photos you all knew were coming.

 

 

                                                                   What a Waste

                                                              Good advice

                                                           Puerile Graffiti

                                                         Urban Spellcasting....

 

 

For those who may be interested, we've (our employees and I) actually started a group on Facebook to share the images we come across over the course of our workdays. There will be some overlap with the things I post here (obviously) but there will be a lot of other fun stuff as well!

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.293538274052824.67610.293522497387735&type=3#!/groups/176184822517230/?bookmark_t=group

 

 

No new reviews this time around... working my way through The Dog Stars and Blue Magic, both of which I recommend, though neither of which I have finished yet.

The Monthlies

That's what I should change the name of this blog to, I suppose, as that's about as often as I update it these days. Last time was exactly one month ago today... assuming I finish this post tonight, that is. (I didn't. It's now the following day) What can I say? Phoenix took it out of me. It drained me. It's weird to leave a physical place and realize that you're also leaving a dark emotional place as well. One you only kinda-sorta realized you were in. Phoenix was/is an abomination, one I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy (okay, I would actually wish it on them) and I can't tell you how glad I was to see it in the rear-view mirror as we left it behind on monday.


This is what was happening the evening before we left... The haboobs were cute the first few times. By the end (after just having washed the car) I was pretty over them.

Monday. SOOOoooo long ago. Three days ago. Three days of driving ago, to be exact. Quite the haul, even for someone used to a lot of travel. The first day was pretty easy... I think it was just the joy of being out of that shit-hole. The second day was long, but okay. The third day was... hmn... let's say "painful." Skinny little asses like mine suffer after sitting on poorly-cushioned car seats for that long. I was longing for some booty. Thankfully, after those three days, we find ourselves in Dayton, Ohio. This weird, magical place where water falls from the sky, and breezes that don't feel like you're inside of a convection oven blow. It's even actually kind of cool outside right now. Amazing. (except all the clothes we have with us are designed for triple-digit-weather, but oh well. We can deal.)

We saw a whole lot of country in those three days. Some of it really beautiful... specifically New Mexico... unfortunately I was driving during that portion, and didn't get any photos. When I was in the passenger seat, which was rarely as I prefer to drive, I did snag photos out the window at 75mph...

                                                                         El Dorado

                                                                Liberal, Kansas

                                                                   Hooker, Oklahoma

All righty... reviews! Other than sit there and think about how sore my ass was and take pictures out of windows, I did some reading.

Railsea, by China Mieville, to be exact. I'd been reading it for more than a month, but, despite liking it, just couldn't get into it. I blame Phoenix. I would read a bit here, a bit there, but that was it. My concentration wasn't present. The car solved that. Now, I do have to admit to being somewhat biased when it comes to China Mieville. See, he's my Other Boyfriend. He just hasn't acknowledged it yet. See, if you're not familiar with him, he's insanely handsome, crazily smart, lectures at feminist conventions, is a fan of socialism, and, did I mention... he's sexy as fuck?

But this is where my Mea Culpa comes in... his last few books I just haven't been able to get into. The City and The City, while it had an interesting premise (two cities that co-exist literally within each other, but whose respective residents aren't allowed to interact with each other... think Israel/Palestine) just felt like socio-political lecturing to me. I didn't make it past the first chapter. Kraken also had some interesting concepts (Competing manufactured apocalypses, anyone? Giant squid gods?) and held my interest a bit more. I still set it aside 400 pages in. Someday I'll finish it off, I suspect, just not right away.



But I'm not speaking of those books, am I? I'm speaking of Railsea. A return to what I originally found intriguing about his works... excellent world-building, a layer (or more) of philosophy, and some action thrown into the mix for good measure.

The story follows Sham ap Soorap, a young man who works and lives upon a train captained by a woman hunting her philosophy. (that's not a mis-speak on my part, that really is what she's hunting, literally) Over the course of the tale, we see him discover there are other things out there, mysteries of the Railsea to be solved, and is own philosophies to be hunted. If you've never dove into a Mieville book, this is an excellent one to start with. Not too heady, not too weird, not too dark.

Random Photo Post!

Woot! Everyone loves Random Photo Post, right?

Right??

That's what I thought... and it is good, as there's really not a whole lot to report since my last check-in here, other than we're still in Phoenix, and it's still hot as hell. Actually, that's not entirely true... it rained today, and it dropped down to the upper 90's, which feels remarkably cool by comparison. Of course, once the sun came back out, it was a bajillion degrees AND humid.

One thing that Phoenix has done, other than make me sweat, is add to my Sole Remainders photos. There are abandoned shoes everywhere.




There are also pretty mountains here. And cute little quail with funny things on their heads.

Ominous bullet found in the parking lot of the hotel we're staying in. Yay. It's even a hollow-point, to make it more ominous. The only need for hollow-point is to ensure maximum damage to a body. Yay, again.

Ominous insects in resin... and yes, I'm starting a collection of them. My grandfather had several scorpions in resin, and I was quite fascinated with them as a little kid. They (scorpions) have been an ongoing theme in my life, so.... yeah, new collection in my future.