2011 Wrap-up

Dear diary:

i know, i know. Believe me. And really, its not you - its me. i do think about you. A lot. Pretty often anyway. But our lives are just so different right now. i promise i'll work on it, okay? i haven't forgotten you, honest. i've just been so busy. You know how it is.

Yeah, its like that. i look at the huge-ass blog entries Amanda Palmer posts, a lot more often than i have time to read them, and wonder, how the *eff* does she manage?! Then i remember - she has Assistants, and does not need to do her own grocery shopping nor scrub the floors. But still.. i wonder how *my* life got so busy. i know i was lazy when i was young, but srsly. i wonder that i ever had hours to sit in coffeehouses doing - what did i do in coffeehouses before teh internetz? i remember when i always had a workbag by my side, stitching little whatevers. But before that, how did i ever fill the hours i spent at Arabica? No clue.

There's no real possibility i can catch things up here since my last entry, so i won't even try. i can tell you that today (the day i wrote this, already over a week ago) i slept late, walked the pupster (o hai blog, i gots a puppyboy), drank coffee, went to brunch w/Younger Daughter, did dishes, swept some floors (not all), cleaned the worst of the week's accumulated puppy mess, brought vending tubs in from the car, scrubbed the hallway rug, and straightened the Closet of Holding. Tonight i am going out to my regular weekly haunt, meeting my brother who is in from L.A., then maybe meeting grrlfriends at the punk bar. i think that's all.

Odds are i won't write anything here again until next year. i will be posting on my other blog in a bit; that seems the better place to talk about Solstice. Once again, i'll try to keep up with this better in the new year but - well, i'll try. i will be going to fulltime in the bird room within the next couple months: more work means more pay, which is good; but it will also mean even less time for things that Aren't Work. Hence teh promises, they shall not be made.

i hope this holiday season finds you well, content and surrounded by people you love and who love you. If you're reading this, count me among the latter. Merryhappy ChanaSolKwanzaMas, and i'll see you in *gasp* 2012.

Gamification: Who's Playing You?

i've been reading an article from the July issue of Wired on feedback loops, and at the end it brings up the concept of 'gamification' - that we are more likely to respond or react to something if we perceive it as a game. Therefore, people will happily report on their whereabouts to anyone who cares to check (including the NSA, presumably) if it means they can earn points, badges, and mayorships. Likewise, we'll be glad to furnish market researchers the data they crave on what we watch, read, listen to and even think about, for exactly the same nebulous 'rewards'.

Interesting stuff, if a little creepy in its implication. But what stood out right away for me is that - these rewards don't work on me. i do check in occaisionally on foursquare, but only to give a boost to a business i support. i don't read recommendations or 'follow' my friends activity - seriously, unless i was trying to track down someone, i can't imagine wasting time that way. i've also never had any interest in any of the online games offered thru social networks.

Because ultimately, i just don't give a shit about badges or points. And this got me thinking about my attitude towards games in the 'real' world. i won't say i don't like games or playing - but i only like certain *kinds* of games. Games with a strategy, that require puzzle/problem solving; yup, i dig those. But simple competition, accumulating points - *yawn*. Want to put me to sleep? Try to teach me a card game (as a good friend found to his consternation). If you really want to turn me off, put in a competitive edge, winners and losers. Play for money and i'll elect to watch paint dry instead.

All this makes me a 'bad customer' for games or apps that use simple game strategy as encouragement. And *that* makes me wonder what i'd be a good customer for - and who is already finding ways of modding my behaviour to suit their marketing demands. Will i know it when i see it? Or will i find myself blindly playing along because its 'fun'? Just some things to think of on a rainy Sunday night..

Wassail and Hail the Autumn Moon

OK, you know how crazy my life usually is, right? Well i swear the past couple weeks have been twice as busy as *that*. Maybe three times. Younger daughter moved up from Kent, elder daughter & beau moved out of their Tremont apt, into my living room, then out of my living rm and into small house, and my parents moved out of small house of - 15? - yrs occupancy into 1 bdrm apt. All in August.

Then, i performed as a statue for the Tremont Arts & Cultural Fair 2 days in a row, ran merch for Morticia's Chair as a pirate wench immediately after the second day's gig ended.. had one of those sewing side jobs i get every so often.. attended my monthly mantra meditation group.. landed a job costuming NINE GAY MEN (well, one at least is straight but playing gay) for a show opening Oct 7th.. got backed into in a parking lot and filed an insurance claim for the first time in my life.. remembered too late why i don't go to Oktoberfest.. took a Zumba class but have been too busy to get back for another.. wrote and led an equinox meditation for a small group of friends.. met an actress friend for coffee, went to a few birthday parties, attended a cookout (at the home of Michael Symon's personal assistant - sounds swank but we was punkrok bitchez together way back when) as well as a couple dinner parties, one w just me & my girls.. went on a promo pub crawl to try & book the Chair some shows.. AND I'M PRETTY SURE I'M FORGETTING SOME THINGS. That's how i've been.

Here. Have a picture of the planters i'm making in the evenings.

Maybe i'll be around here a little more this fall; right now, just for today, i have a wi-fi connection right from my apartment so am not dependent on the hours of a coffeehouse (not that i don't love me some coffeehouses). Then again, i don't really see the pace letting up any anytime soon; i'm spending this sudden bonus of internet time catching up on a million things i've been meaning to get around to but could never remember to do when i'm out somewhere. Taking the time to sit and do nothng but write blog posts seems wasteful, somehow, which is why you haven't seen one in a while.

To that end, may i recommend you look me up on Tumblr? Praise them, they support SMS udates; so brief thoughts, cellphonecam snaps, and interesting articles other peole have written are winding up there these days. Some more personal interaction is happening on Google+, and virtually all my random thoughts get tweeted when the mood strikes. Where i'm *not* spending much time anymore is Facebook - new changes there always seem to be for the worse, but its getting so intrusive and clunky as to be unusable. Tumblr will reblog there, so i'll be maintaining some presence for the time being; but i'm no longer actively following much of anyone. But if you really want to talk to me, those are the places i can be found.

Summer slowing

Dear diary:

i know, i know. Every time i say i've had a quiet couple of weeks, it turns out to be anything but, right? This at least *feels* like i've not had so much going on, maybe because in the first half of this summer, i had TOO much happening all at once. On the other hand, i'm not sure just now if i even posted an entry two weeks ago. Which, if true, would indicate things haven't slacked up much at all.

Well, assuming i *did* write about Starwood (i can't find a saved draft, but i kinda think i did)[ah and oh - its on my magickal blog] then all i've done since is attend my very first burlesque event ever - which will hopefully not be my last! - where i performed as a glasswalker for the first and probably only time this year (strike that; i'm working a circus-theme gallery show in October).. performed as a living statue at the Taste of Tremont festival.. saw one of my favorite hardcore bands from 'back in the day'.. tentatively booked myself to DJ a local gallery's benefit, and even more tentatively to offer a workshop/lecture there early next year.. spent a panicky few hours watching reports out of Norway, where someone very close to me Just Happened to be on vacation.. finally got around to checking out the cyber cafe that opened nearby, which is likely where this will post from.. never did make it back to see an actual run of Miracle at Naples, which i did sound design for and got *great* reviews.. got my jam on at a local rock club one evening, hanging out w the owner/pal from back in the same day.. See? Nothing much at all.

Knowing my life, this is what you call the lull before the storm. Or perhaps the storm is now, and that's why this is languishing half-written on a jump drive; August has begun with a crash and a boom and a bash - well, ok, technically the bash isn't til tomorrow ;-) The crash and boom parts are personal, but suffice to say its being one of Those pivotal weekends where everything is going to be different afterwards. MANY things. So much so in fact that i think i'm going to cut my losses and go with this, as lame an entry as it is; if i don't, it'll be half-past the full moon before i get back to it and i'd like to keep something up more regularly here.

So thank you all, you few who tune in; i'll be back around once i find where i've landed in the universe next door. Ta for now, lovies.

Moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a

Hola, dearies. i am so way overdue for an update here that i don't even recall when i last wrote. i could cheat and look, but where's the fun in that? Anyway, i strongly suspect i haven't updated since the Fairie Festival, because it has been That Kind of Month. And a half.

Its been the kind of month (and a half) where i've been really, incredibly busy with Fun Stuff; and then because i've gone and booked up nearly every free moment, i've had a bunch of Not Fun Stuff insist on cropping up too. But let's do the fun first. As i mentioned, i was the the Fairie Festival at the beginning of May, for my twelfth year in a row. This is one of the Most Fun Things Evar, in my book. This was my first year performing as a statue (or - ? i moved around some, there) as opposed to gypsy magician-dancer-person which i used to do with Not Ex-Enough Husband. Statuing there worked Differently than it does on the street; but i expect to do it again next year now that i know that. i was barely home and unpacked from there before i turned around and went off to be a statue at the Hessler Road Street Fair which has been going on for decades and was always my traditional kick-off to summer when i was a Coventry street kid with glitter on her face - a long, *long* time ago.

After that, we did Pop-Up Pearl as the Cultural Freethinkers Social Hall. For which we had some Grand Freakin Plans, you bet; however, various factors got in the way of Grand Freakin Plans so instead we made paper-plate masks for the kiddies. Somewhere along about then i started work on costuming the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, who are doing Othello and Love's Labor's Lost this summer, neither of which i am particularly familiar with. Then i was a statue again for the Gordon Square Arts District Day, which is where i live, yay! so that i was able to get dressed and glittered for the gig and then WALK there pulling my milk crate and ugly green crushed velvet bedspread and tip mushroom behind me on my trusty wagon.

Did i say tip mushroom? Why yes i did. i've been being an elven/faerie sort of statue lately, so i decded a mushroom was a better thing to hold my tip bucket than the column i made for when i'm all white and be-toga-ed. This mushrump is a little battered after all the rain it had to sit in at Spoutwood but i think some red duct tape will soon have it right as - er yeah, well then. Anyway this is the final shroom: And here's a picture of me (in my necktie jacket) with the shroom en situ at the Fairie Festival: .

But, sadly, then there have also been Not Fun Things. Like getting popped with expired plates or for making an illegal left turn (in a rush to check *one more thrift store* in search of elusive costume pieces; i was in such a rush i didn't even notice the No Left Turn sign), or having Not Ex Enough drop a multi-page scrawl in my tip bucket at Hessler. Or having a Falling Out with a formerly-best friend who can't seem to understand that i has a crazy life and if sie wants to see me, that needs to be accomodated and respected.. it hasn't been, so now i guess we're Not Friends Anymore.

But the most Not Fun of all has been visiting my elder daughter, the Lady Eclipse, in the hospital. For nearly TWO WEEKS NOW and we still don't know why, really. Tho it is probably MS. Whatever it is, it has laid her *low*; she's too weak to do much of anything, including stand up or write her name, and while the steroids have restored some ability to speak, her speech is still very, noticably, slowed. This is all kinds of scary and freaky to a point where i won't likely be saying much more about it here, but i expect this is going to be A Factor in our lives for quite some time to come.

Anyway, several of the Fun Things listed above deserve their very own paragraph or three or six. But its a quarter til two in the morning and there are birdies who expect me to come feed and water them and clean out their cages in a handful of hours so i am not going to write those paragraphs now. Which maybe means i won't write them ever and if so, that's the way life is speeding up. But i will try to get them written at some point Soon. Just be glad i managed to get this much done, cuz i am, okay? Okay. Next time, dovelies.

High Holy Daze of April

Hello dear readers. There was a big fat moon riding high in the sky when i wrote this, so that must mean its time for another update in my never-ending quest to avoid boredom. And how have i been managing to keep it at bay since last we spoke? Well. Let me see.

Over the past couple of weeks, i have: attended the 'Cleveland Confidential' speaking tour at the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame; lined up an accomplice a friend to go to the Fairie Festival with; attended a friends birthday, the kickoff party for Recycled Rainbow, and the Battery Park Wine Bar - all on the same night!; begun work on a new performance outfit; joined the Pretentious Tremont Artist's drawing group for an evening; took a field trip to the Natural History Museum (where i somehow did not see the naked mole rats, Woe); held TWO meetings on the Sekrit Project; had the flu; ~maybe~ signed on to submit an imaginary album cover for an upcoming show; paid an afternoon visit to both Daffodil Hill in Lakeview Cemetery AND Eggshelland, in company with my 'nephew' Pookie Bear; did NOT drink a cocktail named 'The Kevorkian' at a closing night cast party; began designing a skeleton marionette; and started tomatoes and peppers for the garden i don't have. This is why i keep a calendar: not only to know what's coming up, but to keep track of where i've been.

So where do i begin? Chronologically, i guess, and that means ArtWalk and the Pretentious Tremont Artists. This is a group of artists who meets every Friday evening at The Literary Club - which, despite its name, is a charming little-known little bar on a Tremont side street. i've modelled for them a couple of times but this was my first time on the other side of the sketch pad. Here's what i came up with, side by side with a photo of the actual model. Now, due to it being ArtWalk, i arrived late and didn't get an optimal seat; in fact, i had some trouble seeing her as clearly as i would have liked. Excuses excuses, i know. i didn't have to go with the quasi-cartoonish styling, but so much of what i've drawn in recent years has been exactly that.

i really want to get back to drawing and painting; i've had a definite mental block whose nature i'm Aware of, and have been meaning to join them for a while as a way of breaking this. Plus its a better use of a Friday evening than just bending my elbow at some other fine local establishment, a pasttime i've grown quite bored with in recent months. This isn't the first time i've drawn from life, but its the first in probably twenty years or more. i hope to make it back again soon.

The very next night was the double parties, as well as a memorial that i didn't manage to get to. Enough confusion working out who was going to be where when. i missed the early 'surprise' part of the birthday party, tho once i did catch up to them, i really *did* get custody of the yellow mushroom. Here's proof, for those on Facebook who thought maybe i'd slipped a gear: Instead, i went on to the kick-off party for Recycled Rainbow. RR isn't our regional burn; Scorched Nuts is that - but its a Burning Man-inspired event that's grown out of a series of household 'salons' that used to happen a few years back til they got too big for one house. i've only made it to one RR so far; every year i hope to catch another. i really like and am inspired by the work these folks do and wish i could be more involved. Then again, i sometimes think in terms of micro-regionalism: they're doing their thing over there in Lakewood, while i'm involved with the Tremont/Ohio City/Gordon Square axis. And as long as there's interest to support it, why not have Their Thing there and Our Thing here?

Our thing.. *giggle*. i'm still not quite ready to spill on the Sekrit Project, maybe next blog. It IS going to be a Real Thing, even if only "just for one day". Funny how Bowie and Heroes/Helden have been weaving thru my life as a theme these past few weeks. Anway, multiple meetings should be a hint: this one's gonna be Coolest Thing Yet, or at least the most time- and energy-consuming!

Next up, Cleveland Confidential. The tour's wrapped up now, so if you didn't get a chance to see it, well, the Rock Hall is supposed to make the livestream available as a podcast, so check their website. That it happened at the Rock Hall was - kinda mind-blowing. If you don't know what i'm talking about, four guys from the earliest days of punk rock here in Cletown all have books out, and went on a speaking tour in support of them. Those four are Bob Whoozeewhasis from the Human Switchboard, Mike Hudson from The Pagans, Cheetah Chrome from the Dead Boys, and David Thomas from Pere Ubu. If you know ANYTHING about punk rock, you know at least one or two of those names.

Tickets were available by reservation only, despite being free; i was really surprised they didn't add a second show here in their freakin' home town. It was something of an Old Home Night down there, tho there were a number of faces i might have thought to see that either couldn't be there or just weren't, for whatever reason. But it was quite the time. i'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of these four being at the freaking ROCK HALL, because... aww splutter mutter! i'm just a wee bit younger and so wasn't physically around when they began their careers, but old enough to have followed them vicariously through the local free papers.

Yes, once upon a time, there were many free weeklies here in town, not just the Scene; and Scene was a far, far cry from the paper you see now. Those weeklies had an immense influence on me; they're pretty much how and why i got into punk. And not just the papers, but one person who wrote for them, specifically, Peter Laughner. At the age of fourteen, a weird, artsy-hippie outside recently transplanted from a college town with a notorious radical past (Kent State, hello?), i was perfectly primed to soak up every single word i could find from someone who was nearly a decade further down that particular path. i could (and have) written much more about this but there isn't time nor space here. Suffice to say this was something more than just a trip down Memory Lane for me, tho i'd have to put more thought into it before i could say just what, and i'm too tired/too busy for that.

In fact, i've been so busy that i never finished this post and now its already time for the next one. Ai chihuahua! So let's try to wrap this up in short order. Eggshelland: a springtime tradition that's been around as long a i have, give or take a year. One of those odd little local 'roadside attractions'. i think i first saw it after we moved to Clevo in 1970; i know for sure i took my kids when they were small. Now that they're grown, it's time to share with a new generation: Pookie Bear.

Pookie and his mom, my friend Sue, seen here surrounded by a few shots of this year's display. Yes, those are all real egg shells. Every one painted with enamel paint and stuck on a peg according to a grid pattern. Pookie, sadly, was much more impressed with the rope keeping patrons on the sidewalk, and the clasp on his stroller seatbelt. Ah well, maybe next year.

And with that, its now time for yet ANOTHER update. Which i haven't written yet. Let's get this posted and i'll see you again as soon as i can.

skirt the full circle

Dear diary -

These past couple weeks i had the centerpiece exhibit for the March ArtWalk at Doubting Thomas gallery; saw Easy Action and Cleveland Psych-Out with the Cynics and Rainy Day Saints; did the sound design for the first production of the 2011 season for convergence-continuum; put in an application for Pop-Up Pearl; celebrated Ostara with old friends i seldom see; had a lovely dinner with *other* old friends i see even less as they live in Ontario; walked downtown to see the St Patrick's Day parade; attended the world premiere screening of Long Way to Oblivion, a short feature written, shot, and based in Cleveland; and what else. Oh yeah. Got a year older and threw myself a party. You know, a typical few weeks in the life of a wolfkitten.

i've already written about the sound design in my last entry, seeing friends and bands is just what it sounds like, and getting old is a drag, and not in the fabulous lime-green false eyelashes sense either. i am really glad to have been invited to see the Canadians when they were in town, as One, they're just wonderful, fun, artsy people; and Two, it was really lovely and affirming to share food and wine and conversation with a group of folks who are all, in one way or another, continuing to live authentic and artistic lives in the face of a society that does not actively encourage either one.

What i really want to tell you about, tho, is the piece i did for the show at D.T. I'm probably more proud of the concept than i am the execution - not that it turned out badly; just that it didn't quite live up to the picture i had in my head, but then, when does art ever do that? The theme of the show was Full Circle, and i spent a couple weeks after agreeing to do it wracking my brain for something that would fit that idea.

What i came up with was first, the Wheel of the Year: the pagan concept of the turning of the seasons as a circle that we move through. But how to depict it? It would have to be shown in a circular format, obviously; however, i knew i wasn't likely to stretch a canvas into anything like a round shape. Finally, inspiration! i would make a circle skirt, of course, of course. And so i did.

It began as a plain white flannel sheet from the thrift store, a sketch, and a pattern (Simplicity 3847). Once the four panels were cut, i made a loose sketch on the material, and then the fun began. Originally, i wanted to do it all in batik, but batik is messy, i don't own a tjanting (batiking tool), and of course i'd left myself not quite enough time to work on it properly. Of course. Over the course of a couple days, i did get some rough wax outlines painted on. i'd purchased dye to use, but it wasn't turning out as i'd like so i opted for (shh - don't tell) food coloring instead. Which means the garment is likely NOT washable but its Art, right?

i'd found some tiny applicator bottles at Pat Catan's and used those to squirt on red, yellow, green, blue and black (that last being thinned acrylic). i know i had a couple shots of the panels drying on my porch that i want to put here, but now i can't find them to save my life. Instead i do have two pics of more-or-less completed panels:



Spring-summer first, then fall-winter.

The wax contained the colors somewhat, but there was more bleeding than i'd anticipated, so i had to let each color dry thoroughly before adding the next. Once everything was dyed, i had to remove the wax by ironing the panels between pages of newsprint - pages and pages and pages. i should have taken a shot of the mess this made of my workroom; i was ankle-deep in wax-soaked ad supplements by the time i was done!

After that, it was pretty simple to assemble the skirt - yes, including a zipper, to the surprise of some at the show. You can't see it here, but i used silver thread to hem it. Each panel has sequins or glitter embellishing some part of the design, and the pagan names for the eight holidays (solstices and equinoxes, plus the four 'cross-quarter days' that fall midway between them) written in gold metallic pen around the waistband. The piece will probably go up in my Etsy shop soon, cuz what else am i going to do with it?

And here - ta-da! - is the finished product en situ:


the upper edge wasn't tacked down enough to keep it from sagging, hence the ruffled look; but i really like the way it was surrounded by my friend Natalia's photos, all printed on round media just for this show. Here's a picture of the curator, Chelsie, in her fabulous outfit at the closing party.

Chelsie has a small part in Long Way to Oblivion, as do a number of my friends. The writer/director, Shawn Mishak, was the first person to ask me to submit something for a show back when i'd first returned to Cleveland in 2006; he hosted the long-running open mic at Edison's that was part of my weekly routine for years, and has been a true and supportive friend ever since i met him. The camerman/director of photography, Noel Maitland, was part of the technical crew at convergence when i first started, and (along with our late and much-missed friend brin) was one of the people to show me the basic ropes of sound design - so not only was there no WAY i was not going to attend their premiere, it all kind of comes - wait for it - Full Circle, don't you think?

And on that note, i better duck and run before you can reload. i promise i'll ~*try*~ to get another entry up mid-month, but April is teh crazeh tiem for me. i've already started prepping for the Fairie Festival that happens at the end of the month, and that is going to eat my time and my brain in a major way. Plus i modeled for the Pretentious Tremont Artistes group tonight, running lights for Morticia's Chair at the end of the month, costuming the next convergence production (and making puppets. PUPPETS!) and pulling together a one-day arts and community center prototype for Pop-Up Pearl so-o.. don't expect me to touch down anytime soon. But i promise i'll check in here when i do. Ta lovies!