Get it while it's hot at Metallicity.
Much thanks to Blue Max for volunteering his own personal space to host this Power Point version of Pizza Dough:101
And while you are there, check out the man's other blog entries. Blue is such a prolific daily blogger that the pizza entry will soon be far far down on the list of interesting things to peruse at the MetaBlogger.
In fact, you should go soon.
You should go now.
This pizza dough recipe is so much easier than it sounds.
Truly, any imbecile, with the barest of necessities can succeed at this recipe.
(I mean hey! Look who created it?!)
;O)
Once you master the basic concept, it's a matter of testing all the variations possible and that is where YOU make your culinary mark on the pizza map. If you come across a variation that works, please contact me and I will add it in, some how, in the future, when I start adding all the variations, so that all may pay homage to you and your delectable discovery.
Stay tuned for the exiting new video, "Pizza Face," which further simplifies the process, and hopefully will inspire you to new and greater pizza-gourmet heights.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Of Panic and Peace
Well, today is my daughter's last day in the US for many days.
It will be the first time she has left the country with out me.
She is travelling by car, in the company of her da, his friend and friend's son.
She leaves to volunteer in spring-cleaning and childcare at an orphanage in Mexico. It is a wonderfully safe place. My fear is more for her on the trip down and back, travelling only with males - I mean, who is going to scope out the womens rest rooms for her at the rest areas along the highway?? What about once they cross the border?
She is so excited.
More excited than I have seen her in a very long time.
This was her idea to go.
She has expressed desires to be a missionary some day in India.
While secretly thinking "That's nice," it was in a long list of "things I want to be when I grow up." Since she rarely gets this outwardly excited about things (being an internal sort of personality), when she said in all sincerity, that she REALLY wanted to go on this trip, I vowed immediately to make sure it came to pass.
She and her dad were discussing the trip a few weeks ago, saying that they would be leaving on Thursday early and coming back on Tuesday, late.
I thought, "hmmm, that's a quick trip. Maybe it is just a weekend work party?"
So I was prepared for her to be gone a week.
I found out last night that they will not be returning until the 8th of Feb.
So now I am un-prepared.
Today is my last day with her for a very long time.
I was unprepared to be this weirded out.
I think it is weirding her out too:
Normally she is awake and ready for school by 6am.
She likes the quiet privacy of the house in the morning, to get her thoughts together, without all the noise and bother of siblings and people.
Well this morning, she was up as usual and ready, but she hung out with the whole family for the whole morning instead of reading and what not.
I think the scope of the whole trip kinda settled over her this morning.
So the secret gifts I got for her, which would have allowed for one each day, she will now have to open one every other day.
I wrote notes on postcards, and little treats, and small trinkety presents wrapped up in six packages. She loves Happy Bunny, so I got her some little Happy Bunny thingies among the prizes. I will hide them in her backpack and suitcase tonight after she goes to bed- hey! I should hide one of the presents down in the toe of her sleeping bag!
Heheh!
That should be fun.
Anyway, I hate when my kids are beyond my help. It is unnerving to think of things that can happen, and know that I am too far away.
That is when I remember - and must exert energy to remind myself:
God loves her more than I ever could.
She is more precious to Him than to me - as difficult as that is for me to imagine.
He is able to take waaaaay better care of her than I ever could anyway.
So I have to let go, and trust Him to flatten the bumps in the road before she encounters them.
This is going to be a faith-growing time for Scout.
This is going to be a faith-growing time for me.
I straddle a fence; panic on one side and peace on the other.
Ugh!
It will be the first time she has left the country with out me.
She is travelling by car, in the company of her da, his friend and friend's son.
She leaves to volunteer in spring-cleaning and childcare at an orphanage in Mexico. It is a wonderfully safe place. My fear is more for her on the trip down and back, travelling only with males - I mean, who is going to scope out the womens rest rooms for her at the rest areas along the highway?? What about once they cross the border?
She is so excited.
More excited than I have seen her in a very long time.
This was her idea to go.
She has expressed desires to be a missionary some day in India.
While secretly thinking "That's nice," it was in a long list of "things I want to be when I grow up." Since she rarely gets this outwardly excited about things (being an internal sort of personality), when she said in all sincerity, that she REALLY wanted to go on this trip, I vowed immediately to make sure it came to pass.
She and her dad were discussing the trip a few weeks ago, saying that they would be leaving on Thursday early and coming back on Tuesday, late.
I thought, "hmmm, that's a quick trip. Maybe it is just a weekend work party?"
So I was prepared for her to be gone a week.
I found out last night that they will not be returning until the 8th of Feb.
So now I am un-prepared.
Today is my last day with her for a very long time.
I was unprepared to be this weirded out.
I think it is weirding her out too:
Normally she is awake and ready for school by 6am.
She likes the quiet privacy of the house in the morning, to get her thoughts together, without all the noise and bother of siblings and people.
Well this morning, she was up as usual and ready, but she hung out with the whole family for the whole morning instead of reading and what not.
I think the scope of the whole trip kinda settled over her this morning.
So the secret gifts I got for her, which would have allowed for one each day, she will now have to open one every other day.
I wrote notes on postcards, and little treats, and small trinkety presents wrapped up in six packages. She loves Happy Bunny, so I got her some little Happy Bunny thingies among the prizes. I will hide them in her backpack and suitcase tonight after she goes to bed- hey! I should hide one of the presents down in the toe of her sleeping bag!
Heheh!
That should be fun.
Anyway, I hate when my kids are beyond my help. It is unnerving to think of things that can happen, and know that I am too far away.
That is when I remember - and must exert energy to remind myself:
God loves her more than I ever could.
She is more precious to Him than to me - as difficult as that is for me to imagine.
He is able to take waaaaay better care of her than I ever could anyway.
So I have to let go, and trust Him to flatten the bumps in the road before she encounters them.
This is going to be a faith-growing time for Scout.
This is going to be a faith-growing time for me.
I straddle a fence; panic on one side and peace on the other.
Ugh!
Monday, January 24, 2005
Reclaiming the Domain
Ever since I came back from Paris, and began to play at painting, I have always had the "Vanishing Studio."
There is never any place in the house for me to have a room of my own, where somebody is not going to get in and mess with stuff. Maybe I am being an idiot, but sometimes, I just wish that I had my own seperate space for my own stuff where I would not have to worry about people coming in and taking it. For once I would like to put a pair of scissors
or a sharpie in one place and have it be there the next time I went to look for it.
So, because of familial needs, my "studio/workspace" has had many miraculous appearances throught out the house.
It was in my bedroom (at the house in the woods)for one winter in 1998.
After which time I moved it to the pantry in the kitchen of the house in the woods.
After that I had no workspace again until the summer 2001 when I set up a locking cubicle in the garage. During the winter there was no studio, so as to make way for the car in the garage, but the same cubicle miraculously resurrected itself in the same location the next summer in 2002. It eventually moved into the laundry room, on top of the washer and dryer for the winter of 2002, (this location was highly un-inspiring and I got practically nothing done.)
and then disappeared completely until Spring 2004, when I absconded with the living room.
I succeeded in this by mentally drawing a distinction in the minds of the family.
"This room is clean," I said.
"This room has my stuff where I work," I said.
"You people have all the other rooms of the house, but this space is sacred and holy," I said.
And then I gave them the 3 Commandments:
-Thou shalt not take or place anything within the sanctum that was not already in residence, neither shall you remove any object therein.
-Thou shalt not partake of thy meal times within the sanctum, for in the day that ye do so, ye shall surely reap an eternal reward.
-Thou shalt not defile the sanctum with thine undergarments, whether they be for the feet of thee or thy private realms beneath, for they are steeped in vileness and are an abomination unto me.
So, it seems that, barring the recent holiday needs, they have managed to keep this area holy.
Of course the rest of the house looks like The Abyss vomited up it's contents, but hey, that is their problem now.
Having said all of the above...
I have finally managed to reclaim my workspace after all of the Christmas pine needles and gift stowage.
And I had a major find down at a local thrift shop here in town. Check out the nutty coffee table.
It was part of another item, and the main piece had broken. They had this left over piece outside and they couldn't figure out what to use it for. LOL.
Blake was looking at some t-shirts that were outside under the covered porch and he comes into the store and goes,
"Hey mom, come and look at this weird thing."
I'm like, "oooooo! I see a coffee table there!"
But that is kinda my M.O.
Taking things and using them in ways that they were never designed to be used.
What is that?
Like, Garbage art or something?
I have done it with other garage sale finds/cast-offs too.
In my studio there is a big ol'wall hanging (which I am not finished with because it irritates me. There is too much white in it still), which was crafted solely out of garage sale finds and seconds. The only thing I think I paid retail for, was the hardware I used to hang it. Anyway, I say that it irritates me, and this is often my reason for hanging (my own) art on the walls. I can't often tell if it's finished, until I have to deal with it everyday. A piece will annoy me for months sometimes before I realise what needs to hapen to it next, or what should never been attempted to begin with - in which case I usually reprime the canvas and paint something completely different.
I have stack of these re-do's in the corner. A lady came over yesterday and wanted to buy one!
LOL! Just goes to show, ya never can tell with some people! Anyway. I will probably give it to her, unless I become really desperate for a painting surface real soon.
There is never any place in the house for me to have a room of my own, where somebody is not going to get in and mess with stuff. Maybe I am being an idiot, but sometimes, I just wish that I had my own seperate space for my own stuff where I would not have to worry about people coming in and taking it. For once I would like to put a pair of scissors
or a sharpie in one place and have it be there the next time I went to look for it.
So, because of familial needs, my "studio/workspace" has had many miraculous appearances throught out the house.
It was in my bedroom (at the house in the woods)for one winter in 1998.
After which time I moved it to the pantry in the kitchen of the house in the woods.
After that I had no workspace again until the summer 2001 when I set up a locking cubicle in the garage. During the winter there was no studio, so as to make way for the car in the garage, but the same cubicle miraculously resurrected itself in the same location the next summer in 2002. It eventually moved into the laundry room, on top of the washer and dryer for the winter of 2002, (this location was highly un-inspiring and I got practically nothing done.)
and then disappeared completely until Spring 2004, when I absconded with the living room.
I succeeded in this by mentally drawing a distinction in the minds of the family.
"This room is clean," I said.
"This room has my stuff where I work," I said.
"You people have all the other rooms of the house, but this space is sacred and holy," I said.
And then I gave them the 3 Commandments:
-Thou shalt not take or place anything within the sanctum that was not already in residence, neither shall you remove any object therein.
-Thou shalt not partake of thy meal times within the sanctum, for in the day that ye do so, ye shall surely reap an eternal reward.
-Thou shalt not defile the sanctum with thine undergarments, whether they be for the feet of thee or thy private realms beneath, for they are steeped in vileness and are an abomination unto me.
So, it seems that, barring the recent holiday needs, they have managed to keep this area holy.
Of course the rest of the house looks like The Abyss vomited up it's contents, but hey, that is their problem now.
Having said all of the above...
I have finally managed to reclaim my workspace after all of the Christmas pine needles and gift stowage.
And I had a major find down at a local thrift shop here in town. Check out the nutty coffee table.
It was part of another item, and the main piece had broken. They had this left over piece outside and they couldn't figure out what to use it for. LOL.
Blake was looking at some t-shirts that were outside under the covered porch and he comes into the store and goes,
"Hey mom, come and look at this weird thing."
I'm like, "oooooo! I see a coffee table there!"
But that is kinda my M.O.
Taking things and using them in ways that they were never designed to be used.
What is that?
Like, Garbage art or something?
I have done it with other garage sale finds/cast-offs too.
In my studio there is a big ol'wall hanging (which I am not finished with because it irritates me. There is too much white in it still), which was crafted solely out of garage sale finds and seconds. The only thing I think I paid retail for, was the hardware I used to hang it. Anyway, I say that it irritates me, and this is often my reason for hanging (my own) art on the walls. I can't often tell if it's finished, until I have to deal with it everyday. A piece will annoy me for months sometimes before I realise what needs to hapen to it next, or what should never been attempted to begin with - in which case I usually reprime the canvas and paint something completely different.
I have stack of these re-do's in the corner. A lady came over yesterday and wanted to buy one!
LOL! Just goes to show, ya never can tell with some people! Anyway. I will probably give it to her, unless I become really desperate for a painting surface real soon.
Friday, January 21, 2005
In retrospect...
...the birthday round-up brought in quite a haul.
-A pint of Rogue River Brewing's Chocolate-Stout Ale
-A golden box of hand made truffles (4-pak)
-A pint of Hair of the Dog Brewing's "Rose" (Belgian Triple Style Ale)
(Named after my home town, Portland Oregon ,aka the ROSE city)
-A Sisters Bakery Creme Puff
-"India in a box" - better known as the incense we call Nag Champa ( a scent that is to die for!)
-And a home made chocolate cake, courtesy of my kids complete with whipping creme instead of the traditional heavier frosting.
It was a great day.
-A pint of Rogue River Brewing's Chocolate-Stout Ale
-A golden box of hand made truffles (4-pak)
-A pint of Hair of the Dog Brewing's "Rose" (Belgian Triple Style Ale)
(Named after my home town, Portland Oregon ,aka the ROSE city)
-A Sisters Bakery Creme Puff
-"India in a box" - better known as the incense we call Nag Champa ( a scent that is to die for!)
-And a home made chocolate cake, courtesy of my kids complete with whipping creme instead of the traditional heavier frosting.
It was a great day.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Todays History Test and Airport Security Profiling
Here is a fun little multiple choice quiz for you American History buffs.
How many do you remember?
1). 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
2). In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Corbut
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
3). In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80 year old women
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
4). During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
5). In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
6). In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Atrus
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
7). In 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, adn a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
8). In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Faery
c. The Olsen Twins
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
9). In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
10). In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's Women Problems.
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
11). On 9-11-01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wile E Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. TheSupreme Court of FLorida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
12). In 2002, Th eUnited States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
13). In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
Interesting. I really don't see a pattern here worth profiling, do you?
To ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics who are bent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile "certain" people. They must conduct random searches of 80 year old women and kids, and you and I, airline pilots with proper ID, secret agents who are members of the Presidents security detail, 85 year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winning and former Governor Joe Foss, but...
...we must leave Muslim Males between the ages of 17 and 40 alone because of profiling.
Stupid is as stupid does.
-
How many do you remember?
1). 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
2). In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Corbut
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
3). In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80 year old women
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
4). During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
5). In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
6). In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Atrus
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
7). In 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, adn a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
8). In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Faery
c. The Olsen Twins
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
9). In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
10). In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's Women Problems.
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
11). On 9-11-01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wile E Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. TheSupreme Court of FLorida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
12). In 2002, Th eUnited States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
13). In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40
Interesting. I really don't see a pattern here worth profiling, do you?
To ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics who are bent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile "certain" people. They must conduct random searches of 80 year old women and kids, and you and I, airline pilots with proper ID, secret agents who are members of the Presidents security detail, 85 year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winning and former Governor Joe Foss, but...
...we must leave Muslim Males between the ages of 17 and 40 alone because of profiling.
Stupid is as stupid does.
-
I am not owning that.
I am not getting a cold.
I refuse to accept the possibility.
I am not receiving it.
I will not own it.
If my denial is strong enuff, (and I believe it is) then I will remain steadfast and
not get a cold.
I refuse to accept the possibility.
I am not receiving it.
I will not own it.
If my denial is strong enuff, (and I believe it is) then I will remain steadfast and
not get a cold.
Friday, January 14, 2005
Friday's Happy Surprise
Well that was interesting.
Someone from one of the local design houses stopped by and asked if they could take a copy of the RIMH manuscript back the office to have some of their people look it over.
That was kinda out of the blue.
I wonder which ex-Multnomah-ite mentioned it to them, because it's only a few of my ex-coworkers in editorial and publicity that have seen it.
Interesting.
I have become really adamant about some of the illo's.
(It is a read-aloud/picture book after all.)
I am not willing to dumb down or weenie out, milk-toast style on some of the concepts. I also don't believe I want to do my own market research just to get a publisher to look at it. That's their job and if that is what it takes to get it into a useable format, then I think I will look at self publishing in the far future - when ever it happens. Unfortunately, I have met so many kids that I would love to have given a copy to already.
Kids in the hospital.
Kids going through hard times, and even some adults.
Time will tell.
Barb and I kinda had our hearts set on one particular illustrator though, but we can't afford his services just yet.
I am still hoping for a miracle to occur: that some one will see his work, and the heart of the story and be willing to invest in the project.
Yes, I know I live in faery land.
But hey, stranger things have happened.
"Ye have not, because ye ask not."
Time will tell.
Someone from one of the local design houses stopped by and asked if they could take a copy of the RIMH manuscript back the office to have some of their people look it over.
That was kinda out of the blue.
I wonder which ex-Multnomah-ite mentioned it to them, because it's only a few of my ex-coworkers in editorial and publicity that have seen it.
Interesting.
I have become really adamant about some of the illo's.
(It is a read-aloud/picture book after all.)
I am not willing to dumb down or weenie out, milk-toast style on some of the concepts. I also don't believe I want to do my own market research just to get a publisher to look at it. That's their job and if that is what it takes to get it into a useable format, then I think I will look at self publishing in the far future - when ever it happens. Unfortunately, I have met so many kids that I would love to have given a copy to already.
Kids in the hospital.
Kids going through hard times, and even some adults.
Time will tell.
Barb and I kinda had our hearts set on one particular illustrator though, but we can't afford his services just yet.
I am still hoping for a miracle to occur: that some one will see his work, and the heart of the story and be willing to invest in the project.
Yes, I know I live in faery land.
But hey, stranger things have happened.
"Ye have not, because ye ask not."
Time will tell.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Concussion
So yesterday at school some girl in her class slammed the class room door on Scouts head.
She lost her memory for a few seconds and then described getting it back as though she "were just waking up." She has a terrific headache, neck ache and is sick to her stomach. She is home today and doing better but my first gut response is wanting soem one to blame. Of course, it was an accident there was no one to blame. Not the teacher. Not the other girl, even though she is not very nice anyway, and openly insults Scout in public. Yes I would love to blame this obnoxious child, but I can't because it truly was just an accident.
She lost her memory for a few seconds and then described getting it back as though she "were just waking up." She has a terrific headache, neck ache and is sick to her stomach. She is home today and doing better but my first gut response is wanting soem one to blame. Of course, it was an accident there was no one to blame. Not the teacher. Not the other girl, even though she is not very nice anyway, and openly insults Scout in public. Yes I would love to blame this obnoxious child, but I can't because it truly was just an accident.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Water, Water everywhere...
Wow.
First the Tsunami,
then the Scotland torrential rain flooding,
and now California flash flooding and mudslides.
Yikes world.
First the Tsunami,
then the Scotland torrential rain flooding,
and now California flash flooding and mudslides.
Yikes world.
'What is contemporary Gaelic culture?
OK, I promise I will stop doing this: pasting entire articles from the Scotsman Journal.
But this one was really interesting.
HEADLINE:
'What is contemporary Gaelic culture? I do not have a clue any more'
Andrew Eaton
Nursing a red wine in Glasgow’s Tramway, Kasia Zych looks anxious. It’s easy to see why. The young photographer only graduated from the city’s art school two years ago and yet, to the envy of friends, she is curating and co-starring in a show in Tramway 2, one of Europe’s biggest contemporary art spaces.
As if following in the footsteps of Douglas Gordon and Christine Borland wasn’t daunting enough, Flower of the West is so open to misunderstanding that discussing it is like negotiating a series of trapdoors. It was commissioned by An Lochran, a charity set up to promote Gaelic culture - specifically, to establish a Gaelic arts centre in Glasgow - yet none of the six artists involved speaks Gaelic. It is named after a Runrig songbook, yet the organisers seem oddly reluctant to mention the band in press releases. Zych’s attempts to shed light occasionally do the exact opposite. "We’ve had a lot of discussions about what contemporary Gaelic art is," she frowns. "I don’t have a clue any more." Asked about Runrig’s absence from the publicity, she says blushingly that it might "put people off", before hastily saying lots of nice things about the book. I’m guessing she’s not a fan.
Then again, this is what happens when you break rules; and, in that respect, Flower of the West could be a fascinating show. What is it? According to An Lochran, it will "develop a contemporary dialogue about Gaelic culture" and consist of work by six artists - four from Northern Ireland, one Scottish, one English but based in North Uist. It will explore "issues of place, belonging, territory and cultural identity", and tie in with a gig later in the year at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, also inspired by the Runrig book. The exhibition was supposed to be there too, but was later moved to Tramway.
The difficulties begin with that word "contemporary". Zych worries a lot about what "contemporary Gaelic culture" is, and whether she’s representing it properly. While the artists use many modern methods - film, video projections, photography - all, she says, "have quite a personal relationship to landscape. There’s also a strong element of history and belonging." Most of the six grew up in remote places before moving on and, Zych says, "there’s quite a nostalgic, romantic layer to a lot of the work". Her own contribution will be an hour-long film in which fishing boats slowly appear on the horizon of an otherwise featureless ocean. "It had a lot to do with my childhood, waiting for my dad (a fisherman) to come home. You’d wait until the dots appear and try to guess which boat was his." The sea features heavily elsewhere in the show: Shauna McMullan will build a 22-metre long sculpture of a coastline; Maria McCavana will contribute abstract drawings of beach scenes. Zych says everyone was amazed to discover how well the work fits together.
It probably helped that much bonding was done during a pre-show group outing to North Uist (the show travels there, and to Skye, after its Glasgow run). Zych grew up in County Down, and shared her stories of getting a bus over the Irish border "to get to the most awful nightclubs", only to get turned away because she was underage. "There was probably a better place ten minutes’ up the road, but no, we had to get on a bus," she laughs. "All of us had these same experiences. And what did we end up doing on the first night in North Uist, but take a bus to a ceilidh that took an hour to get there?"
• Flower of the West is at Tramway, Glasgow, 14-23 January
Delivery formats for "Features"
[more info] RSS feed JavaScript feed Add to my email
But this one was really interesting.
HEADLINE:
'What is contemporary Gaelic culture? I do not have a clue any more'
Andrew Eaton
Nursing a red wine in Glasgow’s Tramway, Kasia Zych looks anxious. It’s easy to see why. The young photographer only graduated from the city’s art school two years ago and yet, to the envy of friends, she is curating and co-starring in a show in Tramway 2, one of Europe’s biggest contemporary art spaces.
As if following in the footsteps of Douglas Gordon and Christine Borland wasn’t daunting enough, Flower of the West is so open to misunderstanding that discussing it is like negotiating a series of trapdoors. It was commissioned by An Lochran, a charity set up to promote Gaelic culture - specifically, to establish a Gaelic arts centre in Glasgow - yet none of the six artists involved speaks Gaelic. It is named after a Runrig songbook, yet the organisers seem oddly reluctant to mention the band in press releases. Zych’s attempts to shed light occasionally do the exact opposite. "We’ve had a lot of discussions about what contemporary Gaelic art is," she frowns. "I don’t have a clue any more." Asked about Runrig’s absence from the publicity, she says blushingly that it might "put people off", before hastily saying lots of nice things about the book. I’m guessing she’s not a fan.
Then again, this is what happens when you break rules; and, in that respect, Flower of the West could be a fascinating show. What is it? According to An Lochran, it will "develop a contemporary dialogue about Gaelic culture" and consist of work by six artists - four from Northern Ireland, one Scottish, one English but based in North Uist. It will explore "issues of place, belonging, territory and cultural identity", and tie in with a gig later in the year at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, also inspired by the Runrig book. The exhibition was supposed to be there too, but was later moved to Tramway.
The difficulties begin with that word "contemporary". Zych worries a lot about what "contemporary Gaelic culture" is, and whether she’s representing it properly. While the artists use many modern methods - film, video projections, photography - all, she says, "have quite a personal relationship to landscape. There’s also a strong element of history and belonging." Most of the six grew up in remote places before moving on and, Zych says, "there’s quite a nostalgic, romantic layer to a lot of the work". Her own contribution will be an hour-long film in which fishing boats slowly appear on the horizon of an otherwise featureless ocean. "It had a lot to do with my childhood, waiting for my dad (a fisherman) to come home. You’d wait until the dots appear and try to guess which boat was his." The sea features heavily elsewhere in the show: Shauna McMullan will build a 22-metre long sculpture of a coastline; Maria McCavana will contribute abstract drawings of beach scenes. Zych says everyone was amazed to discover how well the work fits together.
It probably helped that much bonding was done during a pre-show group outing to North Uist (the show travels there, and to Skye, after its Glasgow run). Zych grew up in County Down, and shared her stories of getting a bus over the Irish border "to get to the most awful nightclubs", only to get turned away because she was underage. "There was probably a better place ten minutes’ up the road, but no, we had to get on a bus," she laughs. "All of us had these same experiences. And what did we end up doing on the first night in North Uist, but take a bus to a ceilidh that took an hour to get there?"
• Flower of the West is at Tramway, Glasgow, 14-23 January
Delivery formats for "Features"
[more info] RSS feed JavaScript feed Add to my email
Monday, January 10, 2005
Addition to Scouts room
Way back in November, for Scout's birthday, I re-did her room as a surprise. I did a medeival theme with Renn art on the walls and what not. Her bed has no headboard though, which is a thing that never bugged either one of us, until just a moment ago, when I thought of a great headboard for her bed.
Now I must make it.
She is the child I call "my own little Wednesday Addams."
She has loved Lemony Snicket books since she laid eyes on the first one.
She loves Poe.
I will pattern the headboard for her bed after an old grave stone.
What could be more perfect that things like, "Rest In Peace," and "Here Lies Scout."
I could put some wacky epitaph on it.
Doesn't that sound like fun?
I have already figured out how I will make it and what materials to use.
Anyway.
That is my idea for today.
I can't wait to do this.
I will have to try to surprise her with it.
:o)
Now I must make it.
She is the child I call "my own little Wednesday Addams."
She has loved Lemony Snicket books since she laid eyes on the first one.
She loves Poe.
I will pattern the headboard for her bed after an old grave stone.
What could be more perfect that things like, "Rest In Peace," and "Here Lies Scout."
I could put some wacky epitaph on it.
Doesn't that sound like fun?
I have already figured out how I will make it and what materials to use.
Anyway.
That is my idea for today.
I can't wait to do this.
I will have to try to surprise her with it.
:o)
Lothian on storm and floods alert
Alan McEwan, Scotsman Journal
The Lothians were on storm alert today as experts warned that winds of up to 90mph were set to batter the region. The Met Office said that gale force winds will continue to pummel the region today but predicted they were only "the calm before the storm". Forecasters advised the public to brace themselves for powerful gusts tomorrow night which will continue into Wednesday. A Met Office spokesman said: "We are expecting a windy Monday with further showers blown by strong winds. "Winds in Edinburgh and the Lothians are up to gale force for today although they will tend to die down and become less frequent with some showers developing. "But we are expecting a significant storm to affect Scotland and Northern Ireland with winds gusting up to 70mph on Tuesday night and into Wednesday. Tuesday night may even see winds in Edinburgh reaching 90mph."
we are expecting a significant storm to affect Scotland and Northern Ireland with winds gusting up to 70mph
The warning came as the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) issued an all-clear for rivers in the Lothians. A Sepa spokesman said: "Although river levels are still high, there is no significant rainfall forecast for today. This will result in river levels reducing throughout the day." A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police added that there had been no problems reported as a result of flooding. But many parts of Scotland remained on flood alert following another night of high winds and heavy rain. Across the country seven severe flood warnings were in place today, with 13 flood warnings, mainly in the Highlands, and 25 flood watches. Meanwhile, part of the West Coast Main Line was closed by flood damage with Virgin Trains from Glasgow and Edinburgh to the south via Carlisle cancelled. Roads throughout the country were also closed as widespread flooding took its toll. The A7 at Hawick in the Borders was shut due to a landslide and both the Tay Bridge and Forth Road Bridges were closed to high-sided vehicles. A number of roads in central Scotland, including the A9 at Plean, A84 Callander to Strathyre and the B829 Aberfoyle to Kinlochard road, were closed. Many others were open but affected by surface water. In Aberdeen, police were evacuating two residents of a building in Hutcheon Street after part of its roof was torn off by high winds. Hundreds of homes and businesses in the Tayside area were preparing for serious flooding after torrential downpours caused river levels to rise across the region. In Grampian the search will resume this morning for a man feared drowned in the River Findhorn, near Forres in Morayshire. Grampian Police confirmed Andrew MacDonald, 42, who is missing from his Forres home, fitted the description of a man seen being swept away by a raging torrent on Saturday morning. Yesterday a ferry forced aground by hurricane-force winds was refloated after more than 30 hours at sea. • Residents of flood-ravaged Carlisle were returning to their homes today after heavy rain brought chaos to the region. Flood waters which had engulfed part of the city had receded by up to three feet overnight, allowing homeowners their first clear view of the devastation. The weekend’s heavy storms led to disruption across the area with emergency services put under strain attempting to rescue stranded locals. Hospitals cancelled many operations and non-emergency treatment to cope with the volume of people displaced by the floodwater. Power lines were affected and mobile telephone masts were brought down by the torrential rain, hampering local residents contacting relatives or calling for assistance. Three people were killed and two were missing after the heavy rains and gales swept through northern England. Rail services from Edinburgh to Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness were suspended due to floods yesterday. The latest warnings follow widespread problems linked to gales last week. On Thursday afternoon, a 74-year-old woman was blown on to London Road and hit by a bus. She was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with serious head and arm injuries.
The Lothians were on storm alert today as experts warned that winds of up to 90mph were set to batter the region. The Met Office said that gale force winds will continue to pummel the region today but predicted they were only "the calm before the storm". Forecasters advised the public to brace themselves for powerful gusts tomorrow night which will continue into Wednesday. A Met Office spokesman said: "We are expecting a windy Monday with further showers blown by strong winds. "Winds in Edinburgh and the Lothians are up to gale force for today although they will tend to die down and become less frequent with some showers developing. "But we are expecting a significant storm to affect Scotland and Northern Ireland with winds gusting up to 70mph on Tuesday night and into Wednesday. Tuesday night may even see winds in Edinburgh reaching 90mph."
we are expecting a significant storm to affect Scotland and Northern Ireland with winds gusting up to 70mph
The warning came as the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) issued an all-clear for rivers in the Lothians. A Sepa spokesman said: "Although river levels are still high, there is no significant rainfall forecast for today. This will result in river levels reducing throughout the day." A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police added that there had been no problems reported as a result of flooding. But many parts of Scotland remained on flood alert following another night of high winds and heavy rain. Across the country seven severe flood warnings were in place today, with 13 flood warnings, mainly in the Highlands, and 25 flood watches. Meanwhile, part of the West Coast Main Line was closed by flood damage with Virgin Trains from Glasgow and Edinburgh to the south via Carlisle cancelled. Roads throughout the country were also closed as widespread flooding took its toll. The A7 at Hawick in the Borders was shut due to a landslide and both the Tay Bridge and Forth Road Bridges were closed to high-sided vehicles. A number of roads in central Scotland, including the A9 at Plean, A84 Callander to Strathyre and the B829 Aberfoyle to Kinlochard road, were closed. Many others were open but affected by surface water. In Aberdeen, police were evacuating two residents of a building in Hutcheon Street after part of its roof was torn off by high winds. Hundreds of homes and businesses in the Tayside area were preparing for serious flooding after torrential downpours caused river levels to rise across the region. In Grampian the search will resume this morning for a man feared drowned in the River Findhorn, near Forres in Morayshire. Grampian Police confirmed Andrew MacDonald, 42, who is missing from his Forres home, fitted the description of a man seen being swept away by a raging torrent on Saturday morning. Yesterday a ferry forced aground by hurricane-force winds was refloated after more than 30 hours at sea. • Residents of flood-ravaged Carlisle were returning to their homes today after heavy rain brought chaos to the region. Flood waters which had engulfed part of the city had receded by up to three feet overnight, allowing homeowners their first clear view of the devastation. The weekend’s heavy storms led to disruption across the area with emergency services put under strain attempting to rescue stranded locals. Hospitals cancelled many operations and non-emergency treatment to cope with the volume of people displaced by the floodwater. Power lines were affected and mobile telephone masts were brought down by the torrential rain, hampering local residents contacting relatives or calling for assistance. Three people were killed and two were missing after the heavy rains and gales swept through northern England. Rail services from Edinburgh to Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness were suspended due to floods yesterday. The latest warnings follow widespread problems linked to gales last week. On Thursday afternoon, a 74-year-old woman was blown on to London Road and hit by a bus. She was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with serious head and arm injuries.
Actually had a "Weekend"
It was great.
Got to work on an abstract painting which I ended up hating.
What's new.
I will hide it in the bottom of a closet again for a couple years, which will give my brain sufficient time to misfire, miraculously causing me to like the painting by then.
Hung out with Scelle (Skehl) on Sunday.
We walked under some huge rails, fell in a crevice. Linked out of the crevice and came back. Found a shell. Climbed in a big machinee thingie, and pulled some levers, making the thingie go. Had a nice ride on the rails. Went into a building. Found another shell. Went back to Relto.
Dumped Scelle and took the kids out sledding at Cold Springs for an hour. We came back, had hot chocolate and made some spaghetti.
At the end of the evening I played a little more in Uru.
Discovered the beach ball.
Still looking for the beach.
(Too bad flip-flops weren't a foot-wear option.)
Got to work on an abstract painting which I ended up hating.
What's new.
I will hide it in the bottom of a closet again for a couple years, which will give my brain sufficient time to misfire, miraculously causing me to like the painting by then.
Hung out with Scelle (Skehl) on Sunday.
We walked under some huge rails, fell in a crevice. Linked out of the crevice and came back. Found a shell. Climbed in a big machinee thingie, and pulled some levers, making the thingie go. Had a nice ride on the rails. Went into a building. Found another shell. Went back to Relto.
Dumped Scelle and took the kids out sledding at Cold Springs for an hour. We came back, had hot chocolate and made some spaghetti.
At the end of the evening I played a little more in Uru.
Discovered the beach ball.
Still looking for the beach.
(Too bad flip-flops weren't a foot-wear option.)
Saturday, January 8, 2005
On Painting
The beauty of painting is not necessarily in the end product, (any one who's ever seen my work can certainly attest to THAT!) but rather, it's in the time spent thinking, and musing as one applies colour and works their way through. The time to simply think on abstract ideas, and muse on ones own life and the inspiration that comes through having the simple free time to alow ones thoughts to wander.
It's a wonderful thing.
The paintng?
Oh. Well, it ended up being and abstract melange of paint and wax-not strategically applied-but more emotionally applied.
;o)
and it is snowing outside.
It's a good day.
It's a wonderful thing.
The paintng?
Oh. Well, it ended up being and abstract melange of paint and wax-not strategically applied-but more emotionally applied.
;o)
and it is snowing outside.
It's a good day.
Friday, January 7, 2005
The Typo Faery Lives...
And I don't plan to kill her.
In fact, I think that people have come to know my natural proclivity to having typos so well, that they expect them. And there are some people who can even recognise me by my typos. Certain words that are habitually typed wrong. Certain letter combos that I habitually type in a dyslexic manner.
I think I will let the Typo Faery have her fun, undaunted and unashamed.
(But then, how would that be new?)
;o)
In fact, I think that people have come to know my natural proclivity to having typos so well, that they expect them. And there are some people who can even recognise me by my typos. Certain words that are habitually typed wrong. Certain letter combos that I habitually type in a dyslexic manner.
I think I will let the Typo Faery have her fun, undaunted and unashamed.
(But then, how would that be new?)
;o)
Different is good, Cyber Towns Live.
Some people brought up an interesting point on the LYSTS today.
It was about the many facets of the Community, and the labels that we slap onto ourselves.
They made some interesting points. (As always! - These people, I tell ya!) ;o)
How does one truly assign a"label" to a growing, changing, organic, mass of people who group themselves together under a common bond, and this common bond changes and brings in new people that are unfamiliar with the original bonds?
I suppose referring to The Community under the name of the original game that drew some of us in the beginning, is the most basic and logical thing to do. I myself, choose to call our Communitiy many things at many different times, mainly so as not to offend or leave any one out.
Call me a wimpy mom.;o)
For me, I just call it The Community because, as someone pointed out, there are so many facets to it now, and I think this is a good and healthy thing.
There should be many different avenues of involvement, and opportunities for people to praticipate, that way every ones needs get met.
Participating in the forums may not work for me, and there are many people there that I never meet, unless I go to a Mysterium to meet them. There are many people in the Community now who have never layed eyes on Myst or Riven, but came in via Uru, and may not naturally fit under the MYST community label, but for me, I don't really see the need to label us.
I don't think the game developers or the publishers really have a care one way or the other about what the fan community calls itself. Nobody can own a community anyway. I think the interested companies are as happy to be along for the ride as we are. :o)
We are what we are, I guess.
And we know who we are without really having a "corporate name/logo."
It's funny.
There are people that need to have a label, or an "Umbrella" to gather under that can easily allow them to be defined. There are as many people who hate the very thought because it also allows others to pidgeon-hole them. I guess it's all a matter of perspective.
At least that is my take on it for the moment.
Cyber Town:
If you look at a town, it grows and becomes a city.
Neighborhoods sprout up.
The give themselves a name.
It is similar in The Community (as I will here on out refer to it).
We had MYST.
We had RIVEN.
We had...etc blah blah blah all the others.
The tiny town of Myst has grown in to a thriving city with suburbs.
You can identify your "City."
You can also go into greater detail defining the "neighborhoods" you typically reside in, such as:
The Lysts,
CC,
UO,
MC,
GoG
and all the ones I am not naming.
They are all valid identifiers for those that "Live" in the "City."
But it seems that our city bears a nebulous "name."
But then again, I personally am of the opinion that, in our case, no name is a good name.
:o)
And now I am reminded of the Mysterium event, as another example of different people, different expectiations and different needs.
There are many who look at Mysterium as an oppportunity to go and do things as one, massive collection of people.
Sometimes that's been a possibility, but Mysterium was never meant to be that, necessarily. And by now, it has grown too large for everybody to do all the same activities at the exact same place and time as one.
One observer put it this way, "This has got to change, we destroy every place we show up at." He was dead right. Some activities can be mass coordinated, things like laser tag etc. But last year, a library tour was offered. 35 ppl signed up and over 60 actually came. It was horribly rude. The poor library people graciously took it in stride though. The same thing happened with Ubi. They had, I dunno, maybe 63+ signed up for their presentaion and over 100 showed up? How rude was that? They, like the librarians, took it all graciously in stride.
Even so.
These are things that should not be.
We have grown far too large to have these kinds of things happen.
Some people were disappointed that there seemed to be clique-ish groups that spent more time together than they did mingling. Well, perhaps, for them, that was their goal : too meet and bond face to face with the people the interacted with most online?
That is why Mysterium was originally designed with free time and lots of options in mind.
That is one of the reasons there were also some group activities pre-planned as well. So as to meet the needs of both groups. But certainly to expect that the whole thing is meant to be experienced as a huge mass of people, for the entirety of the event is unreasonable because of the sheer numbers of people that show up now.
A funny recollection of Toronto Mysterium:
We would often congregate in the lobby (so what's new there eh?).
Very few people would leave the lobby, unless somebody just started walking.
It was kinda cute. So I tested it. There was a planned group activity at one point. Everyone knew the time constraints. But nobody was actually making a move toward the doors.
So... I just started walking.
And you know what?
People started following.
Just like lemmings.
It was histerical.
But what does that say about our group?
To me, it speaks of an unhealthy inability to move outside of what is familiar and comfortable, unl;ess somebody else makes the first move.
I wonder if that isn't a bit like how people like Hitler were able to succeed at committing the atriocities he did with so much seeming support from otherwise very smart and loving people?
Somehow theidea got communicated that there was "Group" and this is what they are "Doing" and you better just go along with it.
Anyway, that was quite a ramble.
but its my blog.
I can do that.
Here.
;O)
In summary I guess I would say:
We know who we are.
We know why we are here.
We are what we are.
Who cares how we refer to ourselves whether it be Myst MR, MRE, MRED, MREDU, Pink With Purple Polka-Dots, or Franks Kraut Club.
I mean who really gives a rats and what does it matter in the long run?
Well.
Guess that was amore impassioned summary than I had origianlly planned too.
Guess I better stop.
;O)
Addendum:
Ok so now, somebody justbrought up another interesting point, which reminded me something I was talking to a friend about months ago:
Bob said:
" Your City analogy is one I thought about sometime back.
While there are many different neighborhoods, they all reside in our little city... or maybe I should say, 'Cyty' "
I couldn't agree more.
His comment reminded me of a time when Randy and I were having a chat, discussing how it would be interesting to have an anthropology student observe and comment on the rises and fluctuations of our "Cyty." How it compares to other civilizations with regard to their rises and falls and changes through out history. I have had a little bit of experience observing the "Lives" of churches from their inception to their splitting up or dying out. The average life of a church, from its birth, to its dying out takes approx 25 years to complete. And a dead church can still be functioning, just not very effectively for the benefit of God or the people they are supposed to serve, if ya know what I'm saying? Anyway. It's all kind of interesting isn't it? In some ways, the way our Comunity seems to function is similar to that of a church in some ways.
Bob went on to comment:
"Reminds me of the saying about a house divided "
Man that is a sad/scary thot and one I refuse to contemplate/accept as a possibility for our Community right now.
I'm not even gonna think about that today.
There is just too much good to be dwelling on instead.
It was about the many facets of the Community, and the labels that we slap onto ourselves.
They made some interesting points. (As always! - These people, I tell ya!) ;o)
How does one truly assign a"label" to a growing, changing, organic, mass of people who group themselves together under a common bond, and this common bond changes and brings in new people that are unfamiliar with the original bonds?
I suppose referring to The Community under the name of the original game that drew some of us in the beginning, is the most basic and logical thing to do. I myself, choose to call our Communitiy many things at many different times, mainly so as not to offend or leave any one out.
Call me a wimpy mom.;o)
For me, I just call it The Community because, as someone pointed out, there are so many facets to it now, and I think this is a good and healthy thing.
There should be many different avenues of involvement, and opportunities for people to praticipate, that way every ones needs get met.
Participating in the forums may not work for me, and there are many people there that I never meet, unless I go to a Mysterium to meet them. There are many people in the Community now who have never layed eyes on Myst or Riven, but came in via Uru, and may not naturally fit under the MYST community label, but for me, I don't really see the need to label us.
I don't think the game developers or the publishers really have a care one way or the other about what the fan community calls itself. Nobody can own a community anyway. I think the interested companies are as happy to be along for the ride as we are. :o)
We are what we are, I guess.
And we know who we are without really having a "corporate name/logo."
It's funny.
There are people that need to have a label, or an "Umbrella" to gather under that can easily allow them to be defined. There are as many people who hate the very thought because it also allows others to pidgeon-hole them. I guess it's all a matter of perspective.
At least that is my take on it for the moment.
Cyber Town:
If you look at a town, it grows and becomes a city.
Neighborhoods sprout up.
The give themselves a name.
It is similar in The Community (as I will here on out refer to it).
We had MYST.
We had RIVEN.
We had...etc blah blah blah all the others.
The tiny town of Myst has grown in to a thriving city with suburbs.
You can identify your "City."
You can also go into greater detail defining the "neighborhoods" you typically reside in, such as:
The Lysts,
CC,
UO,
MC,
GoG
and all the ones I am not naming.
They are all valid identifiers for those that "Live" in the "City."
But it seems that our city bears a nebulous "name."
But then again, I personally am of the opinion that, in our case, no name is a good name.
:o)
And now I am reminded of the Mysterium event, as another example of different people, different expectiations and different needs.
There are many who look at Mysterium as an oppportunity to go and do things as one, massive collection of people.
Sometimes that's been a possibility, but Mysterium was never meant to be that, necessarily. And by now, it has grown too large for everybody to do all the same activities at the exact same place and time as one.
One observer put it this way, "This has got to change, we destroy every place we show up at." He was dead right. Some activities can be mass coordinated, things like laser tag etc. But last year, a library tour was offered. 35 ppl signed up and over 60 actually came. It was horribly rude. The poor library people graciously took it in stride though. The same thing happened with Ubi. They had, I dunno, maybe 63+ signed up for their presentaion and over 100 showed up? How rude was that? They, like the librarians, took it all graciously in stride.
Even so.
These are things that should not be.
We have grown far too large to have these kinds of things happen.
Some people were disappointed that there seemed to be clique-ish groups that spent more time together than they did mingling. Well, perhaps, for them, that was their goal : too meet and bond face to face with the people the interacted with most online?
That is why Mysterium was originally designed with free time and lots of options in mind.
That is one of the reasons there were also some group activities pre-planned as well. So as to meet the needs of both groups. But certainly to expect that the whole thing is meant to be experienced as a huge mass of people, for the entirety of the event is unreasonable because of the sheer numbers of people that show up now.
A funny recollection of Toronto Mysterium:
We would often congregate in the lobby (so what's new there eh?).
Very few people would leave the lobby, unless somebody just started walking.
It was kinda cute. So I tested it. There was a planned group activity at one point. Everyone knew the time constraints. But nobody was actually making a move toward the doors.
So... I just started walking.
And you know what?
People started following.
Just like lemmings.
It was histerical.
But what does that say about our group?
To me, it speaks of an unhealthy inability to move outside of what is familiar and comfortable, unl;ess somebody else makes the first move.
I wonder if that isn't a bit like how people like Hitler were able to succeed at committing the atriocities he did with so much seeming support from otherwise very smart and loving people?
Somehow theidea got communicated that there was "Group" and this is what they are "Doing" and you better just go along with it.
Anyway, that was quite a ramble.
but its my blog.
I can do that.
Here.
;O)
In summary I guess I would say:
We know who we are.
We know why we are here.
We are what we are.
Who cares how we refer to ourselves whether it be Myst MR, MRE, MRED, MREDU, Pink With Purple Polka-Dots, or Franks Kraut Club.
I mean who really gives a rats and what does it matter in the long run?
Well.
Guess that was amore impassioned summary than I had origianlly planned too.
Guess I better stop.
;O)
Addendum:
Ok so now, somebody justbrought up another interesting point, which reminded me something I was talking to a friend about months ago:
Bob said:
" Your City analogy is one I thought about sometime back.
While there are many different neighborhoods, they all reside in our little city... or maybe I should say, 'Cyty' "
I couldn't agree more.
His comment reminded me of a time when Randy and I were having a chat, discussing how it would be interesting to have an anthropology student observe and comment on the rises and fluctuations of our "Cyty." How it compares to other civilizations with regard to their rises and falls and changes through out history. I have had a little bit of experience observing the "Lives" of churches from their inception to their splitting up or dying out. The average life of a church, from its birth, to its dying out takes approx 25 years to complete. And a dead church can still be functioning, just not very effectively for the benefit of God or the people they are supposed to serve, if ya know what I'm saying? Anyway. It's all kind of interesting isn't it? In some ways, the way our Comunity seems to function is similar to that of a church in some ways.
Bob went on to comment:
"Reminds me of the saying about a house divided "
Man that is a sad/scary thot and one I refuse to contemplate/accept as a possibility for our Community right now.
I'm not even gonna think about that today.
There is just too much good to be dwelling on instead.
Thursday, January 6, 2005
I hate that Eye!
It bugs me.
I will have to go in and re-move that right eye, re-print the thing on some good water colour paper again and then re-do it. I dunno what the heck happened. It is so wrong.
It makes me mad every time I look at it.
I found some old files I backed up on floppy before the fire. It was nice to see some of the really old things, and now I have hopes to restore/re-do them.
Yay!
Reading lon25's blog always makes me hungry.
Does that happen to anybody else, besides me?
After I read his blog, I want to run down to the Subway and get a sandwich.
Dang!
He must not be eating enough these days, because food seems to be occupying alot of his thoughts. I must make a note of that, so that I can arrange to feed him really good the next time I see him.
I will have to go in and re-move that right eye, re-print the thing on some good water colour paper again and then re-do it. I dunno what the heck happened. It is so wrong.
It makes me mad every time I look at it.
I found some old files I backed up on floppy before the fire. It was nice to see some of the really old things, and now I have hopes to restore/re-do them.
Yay!
Reading lon25's blog always makes me hungry.
Does that happen to anybody else, besides me?
After I read his blog, I want to run down to the Subway and get a sandwich.
Dang!
He must not be eating enough these days, because food seems to be occupying alot of his thoughts. I must make a note of that, so that I can arrange to feed him really good the next time I see him.
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Wednesday
The snow has remained, in all its fluffy glory, for almost a week now, and there is hope for more on the way. Yay. Not that this years current snow fall could compare to the deluge of last January where we got 2 feet in one day and it stayed around until March. THAT was fabulous!
Even so, it's nice and cold so there is hope for the snow to stick around for a while longer.
Loosing Faith in the prospects:
I find it hard to believe that we will be able to go on living here, in Central Oregon.
There just isn't a large enough market to support all the would-be film producers and TV people that are coming in from LA. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the market is over-saturated. As things appear, I don't fully believe that Stu will be able to earn enough just by freelancing solely in Central Oregon. So either he has to commute, or I have to get a better job and/or commute myself. The employer does not want experience because he doesn't want to pay the appropriate wage for it, and wants the ability to abuse the young worker with 60 hour weeks and pay him peanuts for it. Stu is way beyond that, so that is why I say, outside of LA, there no way he is going to get paid scale in Central OR.
It's time to fish or cut bait.
The reality is that the gig is NOT here.
Even so, it's nice and cold so there is hope for the snow to stick around for a while longer.
Loosing Faith in the prospects:
I find it hard to believe that we will be able to go on living here, in Central Oregon.
There just isn't a large enough market to support all the would-be film producers and TV people that are coming in from LA. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the market is over-saturated. As things appear, I don't fully believe that Stu will be able to earn enough just by freelancing solely in Central Oregon. So either he has to commute, or I have to get a better job and/or commute myself. The employer does not want experience because he doesn't want to pay the appropriate wage for it, and wants the ability to abuse the young worker with 60 hour weeks and pay him peanuts for it. Stu is way beyond that, so that is why I say, outside of LA, there no way he is going to get paid scale in Central OR.
It's time to fish or cut bait.
The reality is that the gig is NOT here.
Monday, January 3, 2005
A New Day
Well, It's back at the daily grind we are once again.
Back in the 8-5 mode.
Some things occuring during the holidays?
Try as we might, Scout and I could not get past Narayan once Saavedro sailed off in his little sail ship. We sought the aid of some friends, but even they found the age a puzzlement. Scout also enlisted Brigit, to see if she could shed some light on the puzzle. Brigit possesses the ultimate curious personality, however she also possesses boundless energy, and is not the type to settle down and help with a computer game for long. In the end, she was absolutely no help to Milton or Bob.
It was at this time that we decided to throw up our hands, give in to recklessness and load up Uru and have a go at it.
And so "Scelle" (Skehl) was born.
Scelle is the combination of Scout and Michelle(Mihshehl).
(tips hat to inspiration from Devonette)
Since Blake and Co, were absorbed in the shootin gof their crime drama sequel, I had to improvise on the pizza making images. I am trying to decide if I should just put them all in to a power point doc and email to somebody ( or 'somebodies') or if I should blog the process.
Have to decide on that one still.
Anyway, gotta go back and finish a gi-normous mailing.
Back in the 8-5 mode.
Some things occuring during the holidays?
Try as we might, Scout and I could not get past Narayan once Saavedro sailed off in his little sail ship. We sought the aid of some friends, but even they found the age a puzzlement. Scout also enlisted Brigit, to see if she could shed some light on the puzzle. Brigit possesses the ultimate curious personality, however she also possesses boundless energy, and is not the type to settle down and help with a computer game for long. In the end, she was absolutely no help to Milton or Bob.
It was at this time that we decided to throw up our hands, give in to recklessness and load up Uru and have a go at it.
And so "Scelle" (Skehl) was born.
Scelle is the combination of Scout and Michelle(Mihshehl).
(tips hat to inspiration from Devonette)
Since Blake and Co, were absorbed in the shootin gof their crime drama sequel, I had to improvise on the pizza making images. I am trying to decide if I should just put them all in to a power point doc and email to somebody ( or 'somebodies') or if I should blog the process.
Have to decide on that one still.
Anyway, gotta go back and finish a gi-normous mailing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)