Big 33

 

Hey look! The basil finally got zapped by a (rather late) frost! That mean that Bob ad I celebrated yet another trip around the sun together. Yes, 33 years of un-anniversary. In a nod to non-tradition, Bob makes an attractive (!?!!) arrangement of the deceased, now rotting basil.

I haven't much more to say than I can think of no one else I'd rather spend a year in COVID lock down with; we had fun! Now on to another 33... of course that's make me 98 and Bob 101 or something so I don't know if that's a good idea. 

So, yes, I look forward to this next year. Hopefully, we can crawl out of our quarantine isolation and once again show art in real spaces and maybe even risk taking a train into NYC to see some art. But let's just get through the upcoming winter first!

Politics as Usual

 

I hope it is easy enough to read ("Eat The Rich"). I photographed it quickly and the bottom is darker than the top, which made the letters harder to read. Obviously, the name of this piece is "A Modest Proposal". Possibly the rich are tough and stringy as they mostly seem to be pretty scrawny (*1), but this could solve some of the dilemmas facing our country at present. The President's (*2) proposed budget keeps shrinking as filibuster and renegade Democrats refuse to fucking raise taxes on the hideously wealthy and meanwhile "we the people" are still reeling from the pandemic and want free college and expanded health care, baby! So tax the rich and then eat them. I wouldn't miss Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos one bit...

My work is morphing from the last president's constant infuriating idiocy compelling me to immortalize his bizzarre rants(*3) to more measured ravings on my part about income equality and social justice. I should be busy for quite some time to come, as none of the societal ills we're plagued with are in danger of being solved any time soon. Call me a Socialist but I'd like to see some redistribution of wealth. (*4)

See what I mean? Plenty of raw material to go around! I know some philistines wondered where my work would go after "He Who's Name Shall Not Be Mentioned" (Thanks Stephen Colbert!) was expelled from the White House, but he was a symptom of some of these persistent dilemmas. Hell, COVID is still as major factor in our daily lives (whether many people would like to ignore this or not!), things are hardly "back to normal" and I'm still on unemployment. What kind of crazy job do I want to risk my life for? I'm content to make art and cause trouble. Revolution now, baby!

(*1) I think they're thin because they have private, at-home chefs that fed them exclusive omelettes comprised of egg whites and kale. And then their personal trainers boot-camp their sinewy muscles and force them to do a thousand squats. 

(*2) And for god's sake, how can Biden's current rating be lower than the Orange Buffoon's ever was?!??! I ask you?!?!? Things are a slow-go for Biden (again: filibuster, recalcitrant turn-coat Democrats in thrall to big money and obstructionist rethuglicans. I don't agree with everything Biden presents, but he's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy better than The Orange Menace- even on a bad day!!

(*3) Remember "Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV"?!?!? Here's my piece "Cognitively There" for old times sake:

(*4) Of course this reminds me of the time that Bob and I were driving home from Home Depot (where we had gone in pursuit of N 95 face masks) when a man in a pick-up pulled next to us and- no doubt admiring our Bernie Sanders bumper sticker- screamed "Socialism Sucks" as he roared away. I assume he doesn't like, oh, I don't know, hospitals and schools and roads and libraries and fire departments and Social Security...

 

A Pleasant Diversion

 

I promise! This is a nice posting full of the colors of autumn; no blood-engorged ticks, or ailing animals. Just pleasing fall color... It all started when Bob bought the lovely chrysanthemum pictured above. Stupendous! It brightened our doorway and replaced the blown-by flowers of summer...

As I gazed on that delightful chrysanthemum, I realized that straight ahead was a maple tree, blazing the same orange color...

And all along the top of our fence was the exact same shade of orange! I was surrounded by the brilliance of fall! (*1)

Close up of those dangerously beautiful leaves! And lastly, as I walked back to the house, I spied the burnished orange of the tall marigolds in our large container:

It seems to be the color of this season, alright! And I for one welcome all the burning brilliance I can imagine as all too soon, we'll have the whiteness of frost and snow.

(*1) The discerning among you will correctly identify that last flaming plant atop the fence as (yes!) poison ivy! This is why I come down with it every couple of weeks; we're immersed by it. But you do have to admit that it's got glorious fall color!

A Strange Post (Aren't They All?!)

 

I admit to being not the worlds most organized individual. Paperwork and almost anything that smacks of bureaucracy sends me scrambling in the opposite direction. This is why I frequently find myself procrastinating and creating vast piles of paper and odd folders full of random (often not-completely read) medical forms, insurance brochures, Chinese restaurant menus and the like.You can only imagine the "fun" that I've had attempting to decode the vast quagmire that is Medicare...

So the illustrations presented here are bleak evidence. These pages of cryptic scrawlings are reside next to the "home phone". (*1) Bob and I are both guilty of haphazardly adding to whatever chaotic piece of paper is lying atop the pile. Messages from friends, potential toppings for pizza, passwords to various accounts, hastily scribbled notes attempting to understand the arcane instructions delivered by a  computer servicing representative, phone numbers of government offices... you get the idea. Boy, do they make for one big indecipherable tangle! 

Here's a particularly fine example, looking for all the world like a Cy Twombley shopping list. (*2) Sometimes, we are actually able to find the number or name that has etched it's way onto the latest top sheet. Occasionally, we're not so lucky. (*3) 

Right now, we have stack I modestly estimate to be thirteen or fourteen sheets thick. At a mysterious level that I have not been able to anticipate, one of us (typically Bob) decides to "go through it" and two piles emerge: a "his" and "hers". Bob identifies a few bits of data salient to him, and the rest gets floated towards me. I then (very carefully) re-shuffle the heap and place it in one of my folders. Pity my poor archivist!

(*1) Yes, we still have this arcane communication device. Soon it will be worthy of a place in a museum.

(*2) For those of you unfamiliar with the name Cy Twombley, he was a mid-20th-Century artist that, well, scribbled all over his canvases. Someone had to do it!

The above isn't even his scribbly-est!!

(*3) But generally, two or three weeks after the information was needed, the now out-dated and useless number or password reemerges as the stack of papers is shuffled.