Eyebrows up!

Posted on by Dale

I am pleased to report that at least one part of the Ginormous Liberal Conspiracy has succeeded, apparently. I am referring to the National Organization for Marriage’s recent announcement of “an ambitious new nationwide ‘2 Million for Marriage’ initiative” to combat the horrors of Iowa and Vermont’s approval of gay marriage.

What NOM failed to realize was that our mole was luring them into a trap. Their new initiative is shortened, of course, to… wait for it… 2M4M.

Merciful heavens, people, anyone who has spent any amount of time on AOL or other chat areas knows that M4M is chatroom shorthand for “male for male,” i.e., gay sex chat. The only explanation I can think of for NOM’s epic fail is that there must in fact be a gay mole in the organization who set them up.

Which does not displease me in the least, of course.

update

In a further round of NOMian ineptitudiness, the domain name 2M4M.org has already been snapped up and, um, repurposed. It seems as if the hilarity will not stop any time soon.

further update

This has appeared on YouTube. Why, oh why, are liberal parodists so mean? Oh, that’s right, their subjects are so stupid:

Painting, 4/10/09

Posted on by Dale

This is a very, very odd feeling.

I stopped working on the painting on Wednesday, if you will recall:

I left it to see if would change on Thursday, and it didn’t. Late last night, I signed it.

This is the first painting I have signed in probably 37 years. It took me a couple of passes, actually. I used to sign my stuff with a sturdy DL, but I decided to start afresh with a more traditional Lyles. I tried a printed version, but finally went with my actual signature. I ended up having to practice for quite a while to get it right.

So now there’s a signed Lyles sitting downstairs, waiting to be picked up today. “Field II,” gouache on board, 15″x20″. I’ve dated it on the back with today’s date, along with the title and my signature again. That was mostly to indicate which way was up, actually.

This is a very odd feeling. It’s going to be displayed in a silent auction next to the work of Martin Pate, Georgie Dunn, and others, real artists. People are going to look at it. Evaluate it. Decide if they want it, could love it, would be willing to pay money for it. Or not.

And I will just have to smile and pretend that all of this is very natural which of course it is not. Even if I make small talk about how I’ve just taken up painting again, I cannot possibly say, “And this is my first painting.” And what if people say, “I’d love to see more of your stuff”? I cannot say, with a bitter laugh, “There is no other stuff.”

Yes, anticipating your response, that would be worse than their not asking to see more of my stuff.

This is the emotion of artistic fraud at its most basic. At least I’ll get a monolog for Bears & Giraffes (now in development by the Lacuna Group) out of it.

But Dale, you might say encouragingly, it’s a good piece. Yes, I think it is. (That does not mitigate its fraudulent nature.) And I want to do more in a similar vein. More “snow” compositions, or should I explore other colors?

It is interesting that what I wanted to do with the subject would be more effectively done with oils than gouache, but oils are for the future. They’re expensive and require a commitment of space and ventilation.

In other news, Stephen Czarkowski has, with prompting, remembered that he has a world premiere at his fingertips and has requested the score for “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way.” This is in addition to the idea we had recently of offering it to the Chinese Youth Orchestra for their Georgia tour this summer. And my goal today in fact is to try to finish the two-piano arrangement so that it might actually be performed by a chorus.

later

Done, for a ducat! I was hacking my way through the underbrush that clogs the “piano score” at “I will give up sleeping forever, I said,” when suddenly I emerged into what was clearly finished material. Apparently I skipped over the middle part and worked on the ending last summer. Which means, wait for it, I’m done. “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way” is now ready for choral performance without an orchestra.

Painting, 4/8/09

Posted on by Dale

No new paint yet, but I have broken my resolution not to buy things:

I went to buy a couple of new tubes of paint and ended up with the paint and a new sketch box easel.

Wait, please, I can explain.

I hate painting flat on the table. As my hands and eyes regain whatever it is they had back when I did paint, they’ve rebelled against making do with my drafting table. Also, I have been mulling over a series based on the labyrinth, and that means en plein air, and that means hauling all my crap downstairs. This gizmo solves all the problems. See the little drawer on the side? Isn’t it cute?

And the easel part actually extends below the edge of the table, which is more than perfect. So it wasn’t exactly the kind of purchase I was forbidding myself from making.

Besides, I already bought $300 worth of ferns for the labyrinth last Saturday.

Shut up. I don’t have to listen to you. You’re not the boss of me. I have a painting I have to finish.

later

This is what finished looks like before tomorrow morning when I look at it again and decide to futz with it:

The comments, as always, are open.

Painting, 4/6/09

Posted on by Dale

The taxes are at a standstill while my IRA advisers try to figure out who coded the rollover wrong and why the feds think I was the recipient of a huge disbursement that was taxed, and which if uncorrected stands to have me owe $12,000 in unpaid taxes for last year.

So I thought I’d paint for a while.

Here’s the most recent thing I was working on.

You will notice that I’ve been futzing with it. I am so far from thinking it’s going well that I will not comment on it. And yes, I’ve turned it upside down. I’ll let you know whether that did any good or not later.

At the moment, of course, I have to produce a painting for the Patrons of the Centre event at the end of the month. I served on the committee for the Brooks Arts Scholarship, and while discussing with my fellow committee members what an awesome group of polymaths we all were, I divulged that I had started painting again. I was immediately asked to cough up a painting for the silent auction. My vanity could not say no.

In a traditionally Lichtenbergian maneuver, I am here blogging and putting up this shot of the board with a couple of pencil scribbles on it. You can tell absolutely nothing about the thing, but as long as I keep writing here, I don’t have to break out the paints and actually, you know, produce art.

OK, I guess it’s time to go clean off my palette and get started. It still has gobs of dried up gouache from my recent efforts, including the octopus I painted in fluorescent paint out on Craig’s studio wall last November, and I need a fresh start.

afk–bbs

later

Here it is a little while later, with some color blobs on it. Magnificent progress. That’s what I’m calling it, magnificent progress. Actually, I’m calling it a break for a while, since I have to go to a special Masterworks rehearsal for the “men’s ensemble,” i.e., those of us who volunteered to sing the porters’ quartet in “Moonshine Lullaby” because the men as a whole weren’t getting it. God bless Irving Berlin.

Some reading

Posted on by Dale

I’m behind on my blogging. We’ll see how much I get caught up this week while I’m on spring break.

For some reason I finished up a couple of books all at one time, and with my heavy-duty list of Things to Do over break, I haven’t started anything new yet. All three of my recent reads are worth looking into.

The first is a book of plays by Sarah Ruhl: The Clean House and Other Plays. The other plays are Eurydice, Late: a cowboy play, and Melancholy Play. Of the four, I think Clean House and Eurydice are the best. Both are witty, yet unbearably sad in many ways.

In The Clean House, Lane and her husband Charles are divorced. Both are doctors. She hires a Brazilian cleaning lady to keep her house clean. However, Matilde doesn’t like cleaning, so she readily agrees to let Lane’s sister Virginia scour the place while she continues to work on the best joke in the world. Charles brings his new wife Ana, a beautiful Argentine, to meet everyone. She’s charming and delightful. But her cancer recurs, and the second half of the play is a marvel of surreal warmth. I would love to direct this play. People would laugh, and they would sob. They would have no choice.

Eurydice was also quite lovely in a much grander, mythical way. It would nice to work on, but an elevator that rains?

Next on my reading list was More Information Than You Require, by John Hodgman. Hodgman is the funniest writer in America today. This is the sequel to The Areas of My Expertise, and is in exactly the same hysterical vein, in which he tells us everything we need to know. Everything. A brief example:

  • [Teddy] Roosevelt began every day by wrestling his entire cabinet and throwing them out the window. He accidentally killed Secretary of War Elihu Root this way.
  • When offered the “Presidential Option” to cover up any murder in the White House, he GUFFAWED MIGHTILY and insisted he could easily bring Root back to life VIA STRENUOUS EXERCISE AND BLACK MAGIC.
  • HE WAS RIGHT!
  • When rejected by the mainstream Republican Party, Roosevelt created the “BULL MOOSE” Party. Initially, only moose were allowed to join, as Roosevelt admired their solid, stubborn nature, their hatred of trusts, and their ability to LEGALLY HAVE SEX WITH FEMALE MOOSE.
  • LATER, PARTY MEMBERSHIP WOULD BE OPEN TO ANYONE WHO COULD GROW ANTLERS.
  • Only JANE ADDAMS could manage it!

And so on. A highly recommended read.

Finally, The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914, by Philipp Blom. Breezily written, it explores the social, psychological, and political parallels of the beginning of last century with the beginning of this one. It covers the same territory as Thunder at Twilight, but deals less with the political fissures of the Austrio-Hungarian empire that lead to WWI than it does the mise en scene of Europe as the old order crumbled. It explored some corners of that period of which I had been unaware. Also highly recommended.

So, let me do my taxes, produce a painting for the Patrons of the Centre auction, plant the ferns in the back yard, take out a loan to pay for the Child’s senior year, finish the two-piano arrangement of “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way,” and create an instructional blog for newbie instructors at GHP, and then I’ll let you know what I’m reading next.

Talent

Posted on by Dale

Here’s a great article about Allonzo Trier and all that he represents. You can go read it if you like.

What the article does not tell you is that Allonzo has a little brother, Geraldo. Geraldo displayed an early interest in the family’s piano, plunking out tunes when he was three-and-a-half. By the time he was four, he could mimic anything he heard on the radio.

One day when he was five, he heard a Philip Glass piano piece on the radio (he keeps his radio tuned to the local NPR station), went to the piano, and played it from memory.

He had to do a book report on a prominent African-American in second grade, and he astonished his teacher by writing a small musical about how Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. He wanted to do the famous man’s whole life, but he didn’t have time, he said. His teacher, Ms. Barbara King, thought it was cute.

In short, Geraldo shows every sign of being another Mozart or Bernstein just like his big brother does of being the next Lebron James.

But he can rot in hell.

Quick rant

Posted on by Dale

from Kung Fu Monkey:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

Har. (This is in reference to the recent spate of rightwing chickengalts, of course.)

Labyrinth, 3/21/09

Posted on by Dale

The weather was glorious and I was out in it most of the day. I built a fire very early this morning and kept warm as I wrote the previous post. Then before lunch I headed out and bought some accoutrements for the yard: ferns of various dispositions to begin placing around the periphery, and some Irish moss, which I don’t think is a moss at all but still is a pretty ground cover. That’s going onto the little mound in the middle of the labyrinth. I will keep it watered and let you know how it survives.

Then I did a lot of small things, none of which need concern us here but one:

I went over to my brick pile and began extending the brick edging from the lower part of the yard.

What you see here is where the bricks define the entrance to the “men’s room.” It’s an intriguing gateway; this photo doesn’t do it justice. It just leads into a quiet area next to the bamboo, and all it is, is a corner of chainlink fence.

But the impact of the brick edging is very nice indeed. The two clay pots hold candles, to help light the unsteady their way. (There are other clay pots hung from the fence within the grotto itself.) You will also notice the terracotta pipe, the lingam, guarding the entrance.

I will have to set the bricks into the ground at some point. Spring break is coming up.

VSU

Posted on by Dale

I traveled down to Valdosta for our annual administrative meeting, and this post is more for those with an interest in GHP business than for the general readership.

Look at all the pretty construction! I’ll chat about these in the order in which I took them.

This is looking along the new ginormous Hopper Hall, down what used to be Hopper Circle towards what used to be the University Union. That is the new Union rising upon the ashes of the old one.

This is the new Georgia Hall, rising from the ashes of the old one. You can see Langdale to the left. Georgia has gone from three floors to five, extended itself over onto the old infirmary, and sprouted a wing out into what used to be Langdale Circle.

Here’s another shot of Georgia, from Georgia Avenue.

This is the new Student Health Center, across Georgia Avenue from Georgia Hall. Apparently it’s stunning. It’s certainly larger. It can do its own x-rays now, which will save many a daytrip to the ER. (In an added note, Parking is now way over in a new office in the Sustella Parking Deck.) The old infirmary was called the Farber Health Center; I don’t know why the new one didn’t carry the name over. Perhaps the Farbers didn’t donate enough to retain the honor?

Here’s another shot of the Union, taken at the end of the pedestrian mall in front of the library. Yes, it will have a big ol’ atrium.

Trudging over the pedestrian bridge, here’s a shot of the new Oak Street Parking Deck. Very nice, and even nicer are the Auxiliary offices on the Education Building end of the thing. They are spacious and beautifully appointed. The team is very proud of their new large multipurpose room, which is a Starfleet Command meeting room, along with an enormous catering kitchen attached. Very very nice. The additional parking is handy as well. The University Police occupy new digs on the other side, but I didn’t see them.

Looking back towards campus, here’s the Union again. It’s huge. It sits where the old Union, pool, and Old Gym used to be.

Finally, here’s a shot at the end of Baytree. You can see the old smokestack doing its phallic thing on the right. Last year, you would have been looking at the back end of the Old Gym. The new Union will have meeting rooms, a food court, offices, and way up there at the top of this wing (the other wing runs along Hopper Used-To-Be-Circle) my ballroom.

In addition to this new construction, Nevins will be undergoing renovation by the time we get there, as will Ashley Hall. (IT has moved into University Police’s old quarters in Pine Hall.) Traffic up and down the campus will essentially be between construction sites.

All of this will be over and done with by next summer, and then we will be safe from construction/renovation for some time to come. It’s part of the strategic plan, and the construction part of all of that has played itself out. No new Fine Arts Building in our future, I’m afraid.

On the way home, I avoided I-75 and took US 41 up to Tifton. There’s this building in Sparks, right north of Adel, that has astounded me for years, and I finally took a picture of it:

This is driving north, just as you get to it.

And here’s rounding the curve, right in front of it.

What the hell is it? It’s enormous, and it’s been abandoned for as many years as I’ve been driving through there. It’s obviously a patchwork kind of place, and it gives off vibes of both commercial and residential. If this were in Houston or Peach County, I’d say it was a former peach farm kind of thing, where migrant workers bunked in the background and peaches were sold to tourists up front. And that would make sense before I-75 came through: US 41 was the old 75. But I’m not aware of Cook County being a big peach area.

I’m going to have to stop and ask this June.