I’ve got nothin’ right now, so I will simply share this lovely picture by a late 19th-early 20th century painter called Bertram Hiles, who lost both his arms in a tramcar accident as a child, and who painted with his mouth.
There is more at Callum James and at Design. Decoration. Craft.
So what the hell, lets make this an open thread and an impromptu “Artists in our midst” thread.
Feel free to link to photos, painting, craft, music, writing (including gratuitous blog whoring) or indeed anything that you or your friends have made that you want to show off.
WereBear
My latest cat blog post explains why cats bother us while we are on the phone.
My art is Understanding and Explaining. Because even my trace-your-hand-Thanksgiving turkeys back in kindergarten were pathetic.
NickM
Well, thanks for this opportunity. I am writing my first book, a novel, and I haven’t told a soul. I’m 105 pages in or so. It is tremendous fun and hard work at the same time. I’m so sorry I didn’t cultivate the habit of writing regularly sooner. Best of all, it makes me feel great, like I am being the person I want to be – hard to explain but nonetheless true – even if o one else reads a word of what I’ve written. Although I’m hoping that won’t be the case.
PsiFighter37
Just donated another $100 to the President. After the last debate, I’ll probably toss in a little more dough and see if I can spare some change to fly myself out to Ohio the last weekend before the election.
I do hope that if/when Obama is re-elected, he doesn’t stop campaigning. It seems like the only thing that the GOP in Congress may respond to is popular pressure put on their ass inspired by the President going around the country and talking to folks. He’s got to be much more aggressive out of the gate, starting with the whole ‘fiscal cliff’ crap.
slag
Obligatory Pro-Bo Obama design: http://www.zazzle.com/slagathor/gifts?cg=196926803949439587 .
Spaghetti Lee
Well, it’s not much, but I do have a DeviantArt account where I post my drawings. http://langon.deviantart.com/gallery/
It’s not much, but I’m always trying to get better. It’s just so hard to get down to business and really work hard at improving.
Yutsano
@PsiFighter37: I am BEGGING he gets that fixed. Not just for my personal sake. It will make my job just that much harder because people are going to get so far behind. There might be a fix if it’s possible: when the tax rates go up, flood the economy with stimulus. If we can get it flowing back out maybe the damage will be mitigated.
Then again I’d like to have my office fully funded please. It’s not like we pull in 8 dollars for every 1 spent on us or anything.
redshirt
Blog Whoring: A recounting of my Away Mission to your planet.
burnspbesq
Unflippinreal.
Duke goes 87 yards in three minutes for the win.
Bowl eligible for the first time in 18 years.
The Victory Bell is repainted the correct shade of blue.
Joy!
PsiFighter37
@Yutsano: I do, too. We’ve been hauling our ass out of this hole for too long (and too slowly) to get tanked by a recession again at this point. Of course, knowing the turds on the other side of the aisle, they will merely view this as a way to improve their political prospects and potentially shit all over the president’s legacy. Win/win in their twisted minds, and fuck what the actual consequences are for the country.
It really annoys me when we hold up our democracy as the finest form of government in the world. We have way too many idiots in the Congress who would be ashamed to raise their hands in a high school class on government, much less be trusted to make informed decisions that affect the lives of their constituents and everyone else in this country.
donnah
I’m a fiber artist who creates fine art wool hooked rugs. I finished this one about Alzheimers a few months ago.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d27/Rughooker/5cdc34b1.jpg
And I just published a handbook for rug hookers! It’s on Amazon and it’s Rug Hookers Companion.
So excited!
Spatula
My portrait of Gary Cooper.
Measures 20×16 inches and is available for purchase.
Also about 200 other celebrity/entertainer portraits I have created, including the Grateful Dead piece I made for Cole.
Also too: My portrait of President Obama: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3986423254677&set=a.3986421574635.2168421.1103643503&type=3&theater
Hal
Somehow I got sucked into an hour long gaze at a tumblr page devoted to the Ghostbusters proton pack gizmo. I’m alternately shifting between why on earth does someone have an entire website of photos, diagrams, pseudo scientific explanations of this device and “damn the Internet is cool.” At least the non-political aspect of the Internet isn’t so damn annoying these days.
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/proton-pack
wonkie
I’m working on a novella. When it’s done I will submit it to Narrative Magazine and similar venues. It’s mostly a true story about a series of dog rescues. Here’s how it starts:
The Dog Thief
Larry
A dog staggers down a dirt track in the woods. It’s autumn and the ground is obscured by sodden leaves. In the damp silence it’s the dog’s motion, not his panting, that catches your attention. Tongue flapping and spit flying, he lurches along. You can see his eyes now. He is desperate.
Now view the scene from above. Along the track is a Berlin wall of moldy eight by four plywood sheets standing upright edge to edge. There is a gap in the wall and through it you can see a ramshackle collection of homemade dwellings huddled around a dirt plaza. An old pickup is parked by a honey bucket stolen from a construction site. On a tall pole droops the community totem: a limp, soggy MIA flag hanging in stubborn loyalty to the dead of a forgotten war.
Three men are standing by the gap in the wall. They are silently watching the dog’s clumsy race down the homestretch. He’s getting closer, scrambling, staggering, he’s nearly there. Finally he heaves himself across the finish line, the divide between his owner’s property and that of the three men. The dog collapses at their feet.
They don’t recognize the dog, but they can guess where he comes from. They look up the road expectantly, and here he comes: a fat, pale man in overalls. He arrives at a trot and halts, sweaty and breathless, at the property line.
He is big man with a shapeless pink head and ears that sprout out sideways like mushrooms. His loose wet mouth betrays weakness, but his tiny eyes have the strength of sheer pigheaded stupidity.
He takes up a stance with his weight thrown onto one leg, arms akimbo like a gunslinger, and attempts belligerence, “That’s my dog. Give him here.”
“No,” says Blacksnake. “Fuck off.”
Blacksnake is wearing combat clothes. Judging by the smell, it’s the same uniform he brought back from Viet Nam. He has a sizable pot belly, a grey ponytail, and a cynical gaze. His two friends also wear hodgepodges of old military garb. Upon closer inspection one of the “men” turns out to be a small, scrappy, one-eyed woman. All three are old, but look like they might have been pretty tough back in the day.
The fat man was never tough. He blinks, sputters, and starts a rant, waving one pink finger in the air, “That’s my sister’s dog. My mother gave him to my sister. He was stolen by these dope dealers. There’s a gang of dope dealers hanging around my house…”
Blacksnake interrupts, “Your sister is dead.” He rarely makes eye contact with people, but now he directs a glare straight at the fat man. “I said fuck off, Donny.”
Stand off. The dog sprawls in the dirt, worried brown eyes tracking the conversation. The three people don’t move, but somehow their bodies meld into a wall as dirty and mean-looking as their plywood barricade. Muttering threats, the fat man backs away. The three people watch silently, not bothering to jeer, as he turns and shuffles up the track toward his home.
And that’s how Larry, the three-legged pitbull, was rescued by Blacksnake and his crew. It was an impulse born of a marriage between spite and kindness. No one realized at the time that this simple act would set off a cascade of events including a series of miracles, a felony, a tragedy, and a happy ending straight off the Hallmark Channel.
Hill Dweller
Any guesses on why some of the best papers in the world bought the Iran-US nuclear talks story? Is it an eventuality, but the reporters jumped the gun? Is someone planting the story to deflect from some other story?
WereBear
@donnah: Congrats!
The only thing that gets me is how to autograph an eBook.
Peter
My fine art site.
My food blog.
My Etsy page, where I sell ceramics for use while eating food.
PeakVT
I got nothing.
In related news, I put a whole recycling bin full of paperbacks out front today and not a single one was taken. Admittedly they’re all relatively crappy sci-fi and fantasy books. But I’m still a little disappointed. (No, the nearby thrift stores don’t the want books, because right now they have too many.) I guess I’ll do the authors a favor and recycle them next week.
ETA: If you’re considering selling you books and going digital, do it soon. I’m trying to unload some on that big auction site, and the only ones that people want are some out-of-print construction-related books. (I managed to unload one for 3x what I paid for it in college 20 years ago, which was sweet.)
James E. Powell
@Hill Dweller:
There are many people in the corporate press/media who are eager to help Romney/Ryan. It is fairly clear that the Republicans have no foreign policy arguments against Obama/Biden other than the standard Republican “Democrats are weak!” and “Democrats are betraying Israel!” claims.
The Benghazi thing hasn’t worked out like they planned, so they need something else to talk about in those TV ads with the ominous low strings and images of anti-American crowds burning the flag. I have no doubt that before Monday morning, everyone will be talking about how Obama has failed in some vague way to show resolve.
Aaron Baker
Well, I recently published this poem:
http://www.ascentaspirations.ca/drunkenness.htm
Comments appreciated.
J. Michael Neal
I’m a writer. This is my short story Living After Noon.
The Gophers beat Ohio State 8-0 this afternoon. That means that in the eight games this season, four of them against teams that have been in the top 10 at some point, they have outscored the opposition 55-3. The penalty kill has scored five goals and given up just one. It’s been a pretty amazing start.
freelancer
@Hal:
People are awesome. And this movie would have been infinitely better than some bullshit about vampires.
donnah
@WereBear:
ha ha! Thanks!
Spaghetti Lee
@PeakVT:
I’ll save mine until they become antiques, I guess.
I don’t know what I did to deserve it, but it seems like everything I like entertainment media-wise, namely owning physical copies of stuff is vanishing, and everything I hate (e-readers, subscription over single purchases, streaming vs. owning) is apparently the way of the future. Why in the fucking hell would I want to get rid of books I love for some stupid piece of plastic? No one has adequately explained that yet.
Bruce Partington
I’ve some digital art up at DeviantArt: http://mrossiter.deviantart.com/
…and electronic music at SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/ntopia
Thanks for the opportunity.
karen marie
@Peter: I’m jealous about your ceramics making. Back in the early ’90s I lived in Tacoma and spent two years making bowls. I’m thinking about moving back so I can do it some more.
I was a photographer once upon a time too.
Spaghetti Lee
@efgoldman:
And that’s the thing-I’m 22. Maybe I should have been born 50 years earlier.
redshirt
@Spaghetti Lee: I love – LOVE – my classic paperbacks. They’re 40/50 years old now, yellowed, and have this wonderful smell of promise and time. That smell is going to be forgotten.
Also too: Get of my damn lawn.
Hill Dweller
@James E. Powell: I know there are plenty of hacks willing to sell their souls for that sweet, sweet wingnut welfare, but this is a career crushing type mistake should the story turn out to be complete bullshit.
I’m thinking someone was either misled or jumped the gun.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Peter:
Your Relief work is quite lovely, and those bowls are just beautiful.
jayboat
I travel around the country and the Caribbean taking pictures of very fast boats. Not a very green sport, I know.
Once a motorhead, always a motorhead. 8-]
Maz
*delurks*
A collage I sold recently, imagining a roadside attraction running amok.
And my website – paintings and collages based on vintage postcards – mazdixon.com.
*relurks*
TaMara (BHF)
Lots of talent here. All I have is your moment of zen, once again provided by nature:
Sunset over the Rockies
redshirt
I’m no physical artist (I work in other mediums), but I once lived in a jewel-smith’s workshop and for that torturous year, I felt as if I was possessed by his spirit. I created a monstrous mobile that was awe-inspiring, and destroyed by the assholes I lived with, on purpose. I then created a collage centered on Nancy Reagan, of all people. It was featured in a couple of local galleries, and then was hung in a bar in Portland ME, where it disappeared when the owner sold the bar. Haven’t seen it since.
If you’ve seen a large, laminated, psychedelic collage of Nancy Reagan, please contact me. I’d love to take a picture of it for record keeping!
mdblanche
@Spaghetti Lee: I have to say I find the idea of being able to carry around and access my entire library wherever I go very tempting. Just not tempting enough, yet…
The way I see it, streaming and e-books are for people who don’t really care about what they read or listen to that much, while owning a hard copy is for those who truly appreciate it.
Scott S.
I haven’t written anything worth reading lately, so instead, I’ll point y’all at my sister’s art glass Etsy site.
She does decorative plates, bowls, sushi dishes, necklaces, melted/flattened bottles, dragonflies, soap dishes, and much more. It’s good stuff if you’re looking for unique Christmas gifts. GO BUY ALL MY SISTER’S STUFF, PLZ.
JoyfulA
@wonkie: Wonderful! Keep writing.
jayboat
My first FYWP event. I feel like I’ve arrived.
Try again with a link.
PurpleGirl
@donnah: That is beautiful and holds so much meaning. Alzheimer’s is such a scourge; I see many of the first residents of my Co-Op suffering from it.
Jack Canuck
I’ve got quite a few photos up at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegreensea
and some music to be found at
http://www.myspace.com/memorytree
Unfortunately, the challenges of being a sessional university lecturer (adjunct, in North American terms) and having a two year old son have combined to leave me virtually no time for either activity for quite some time. Hopefully things will settle down work-wise soon, one way or another, because I’m itching to pick up the camera and the guitars again.
Larkspur
@efgoldman: I have tons of crackling, aromatic SF paperbacks as well, most of them way older than Spaghetti Lee. I also half a few dozen old Locus newsletters from when the internet was all theoretical ‘n’ shit. I’m keeping it all because, from reading SF, I know that there’s a possibility* that I’ll need post-apocalyptic reading matter. Heck, I’ll be reading post-apocalyptic post-apocalyptic fic!
*I swear to y’all that I totally hope not. I’m not even remotely that grumpy.
dance around in your bones
Ok, so this is the first time I’ve ever done this so I probably screwed it up, but if you go on Flicky and look for dance around in yer bones you just might see my knitting and needlepoint photostream.
But maybe not, because I have no idea what to do on that site.
srv
Well. my father and I made this craft:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/q594/sphoto51/5a4ff366.jpg
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@mdblanche:
I almost agree with you, but no. Ebooks and real books just fulfil different aspects of the same purpose.
I do most of my reading on my ipad because it’s easy, I can take hundreds of books with me wherever I go, I can read with a black background late at night or on a plane without keeping anyone else awake, and if I read about a book I want to read I can usually start reading it immediately, often for free, and almost always cheaper than in print.
I also have a hard copy library which I adore, and I buy books to add to it every month (often print copies of books that I already have on my ipad which have impressed me or older books which aren’t in electronic form).
Every day I go into my library and look at one of my old books – the eighteenth century Portuguese dictionary or the books of General Orders from the Napoleonic wars or the colour plates of marsupials or some other treasure – or I drag out an old paperback I haven’t read for years, and breathe the scent of old paper, and its wonderful.
The idea of giving up my library just because I can get books electronically is absurd.
However, so is deprecating ebooks simply because they are different.
This is why real books and ebooks will both survive happily along side each other for a very long time.
Larkspur
@efgoldman: Agreed. As of right now, I simply don’t need an e-reader device, and since I’m unwealthy and near a library, it works out okay for me.
donnah
@PurpleGirl:
Thank you. My father-in-law suffered (quite literally) from Alzheimers until he died. It’s a hideous thing that steals our loved ones and creates ripples that affect everyone who knows and loves them. I make these art rugs to reach out to those who deal with that pain.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@jayboat:
One of us. One of us.
Jack Canuck
@efgoldman:
Well, that’s why I said I hope things settle down work-wise. I could cope (I think) with the time-sink that is a child, if I wasn’t constantly being forced to design and write new units from scratch virtually every semester. Besides, he’s more fun than writing lectures and marking essays!
WereBear
Mr WereBear’s original music is featured on this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUJ–1gGFKI
Words by Jesus.
PeakVT
@Spaghetti Lee: The printed page is a marvelous technology, and it will be a while before some publications can be reproduced in digital format in sufficient quality that the print version will be made obsolete. But for most forms of media, including books (except religious tomes, which are free anyway) we consume them only a few times. So owning them in a permanent form is not really necessary. Music is the main exception, as we all have favorite songs or albums that we’ve listened to hundreds of times. (And I have yet to buy a digital song.) To me, at least, if I’m only going to watch/read it once or twice, having a permanent physical copy isn’t so compelling when the tradeoff is convenience. YMMV.
That said, I still have plenty of dead tree books around. I’ve just been ejecting all of the ones that didn’t influence me, or that I won’t ever read (I occasionally have the book equivalent of GAS).
suzanne
@efgoldman: My friend, who has a literature degree and reads more than anyone I know, loves her Kindle. I personally am not a fan, but the idea that people that own them don’t like to read is pretty ludicrous. Kind of like the idea back in the early days on the Internet that people that used it were socially maladjusted.
redshirt
I just moved, and personally moved my library. Believe you me, I was thinking of the efficiencies of eBooks often that day, I tell you!
Still don’t trust it – when I heard Amazon pulled copies of 1984 from people’s readers in the middle of night, it confirmed all my fears. You don’t ever own digital works.
Larkspur
@efgoldman:
I remember 32. It was great! All the 30s were pretty damn good, I think 36 being the most golden. I very much disliked 16 through 26, but no complaints about all the other years.
MikeJ
@jayboat:
You do Seattle hydroplane races during Seafair? We’ve got 10 months to set up a meetup.
And for other Seattlites, some of us are planning on doing election night at Montlake Ale House, site of drinking liberally. 2307 24th Ave E. Lets make plans for meeting there.
Hillary Rettig
Here are sample chapters for my book The 7 Secrets of the Prolific: The Definitive Guide to Overcoming Procrastination, Perfectionism, and Writer’s Block:
http://www.hillaryrettig.com/the-7-secrets-of-the-prolific/
my other two sites
http://www.howtofinishmythesis.com <-advice for academic writers
http://www.lifelongactivist.com <-my first book, a self-help guide for progressive activists
I'm currently working on a book How to Get Willpower for Weight Loss, which looks at overweight as a type of procrastination. I'm looking for manuscript reviewers – especially guys. If you're interested please email me at [email protected]
srv
@efgoldman: Yes, airworthy and all that. I was the banker and my dad did the hard work (all the little stuff). Flown it many times, but he didn’t let me go alone in it until a couple months back. It’s a little finicky solo, nose heavy and weak nosegear.
Larkspur
@efgoldman:
Ahem. I do not sleep at the library. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, although one might wish that such libraries had showers.
Shadow's Mom
Met a lovely writer, Emma Newman at worlcon this year. Free stories for a year: Split Worlds
Photography, jewelry, excellent blogging at: Body Impolitic
MikeJ
@efgoldman: in 2008 I remember going to a victory party for another candidate over in Bellevue, but I don’t remember a lot about getting home.
piratedan
@burnspbesq: congrats to your alma mater burnsie
Joey Maloney
My digital art at Imagekind.
Warm glass work. I’m fixing to buy myself a kiln so I can start doing it again.
Edible art – stained-glass sugar.
kdaug
Current project.
Low poly in Max, high in Mudbox, working on procedural shaders now (everything but the normal maps)
Yutsano
@MikeJ:
I see the problem already.
Larkspur
@efgoldman: And the librarians are always so helpful. They are like evil seditious subversive demon creatures. I can’t think of words bad enough to describe them. If there was a librarian around, I might be able to. Darn. But it’s nighttime and I am not at the library.
ranchandsyrup
My wife and I write about humanity and music and books and motorcycling and parenting and so on
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
I’m tempted to go with Onion Parody, but emo insurgents in Iraq are unexpected.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/10/20/244940.html
waratah
@PeakVT: I took a lot of paperbacks, a mix of mystery, thrillers and a few western to the VA hospital.
I gave them to one of the volunteers at the front desk and they seem to be pleased.
Frankensteinbeck
I am a writer. I have three published books (Wild Children, Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth, and Quite Contrary). They don’t come out until about the end of the year, since I just signed the contracts a couple of months ago. I have a fourth book I have no worries about getting published almost finished, and wonderful ideas for the fifth ready.
I absolutely would not have gotten anywhere without Balloon Juice. WereBear turned me onto the concept of ereader self-publishing. Jacy walked me through it, and we became writer buddies together. That got me to where a small press traditional publisher noticed me and signed me.
So, you know, you people fucking rock. That’s all I’m sayin’.
Fwiffo
I’ve got some photography.
JustAnotherBob
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
I’ve heard versions of that argument for vinyl records and film. Both still exist, but not in many people’s houses.
E-books will continue to improve. I don’t expect many people will be buying paper books ten years from now. The coffee table books might be the exception, but even they may be replaced by large format ‘pads’.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
There are no trolls. I don’t know what you are talking about.
Note to you know who: you can troll any politics thread you want, but you’re not doing it on this one.
ranchandsyrup
@Frankensteinbeck: Congrats! That is awesome.
PeakVT
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Grazie mille.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@PeakVT:
De nada.
Yutsano
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: You do realise I less than three you mightily. :)
@Frankensteinbeck: That is frabjous! Her Hoofiness has indeed blessed thee. :)
PurpleGirl
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Thank you. I thought I saw something but then it was gone. I got mad it defaced this thread. Again, thank you.
dr. luba
I write (create) traditional and modern Ukrainian Easter eggs. It’s done with batik. My site (a work in progress).
And what’s up with all the box elder bugs in SW Wisconsin?
srv
@Hillary Rettig: How about a primer that forces me to admit I’m a procrastinator?
@Fwiffo: Dragonflys are like the most rocking insect ever.
Frankensteinbeck
@Yutsano:
Most hilarious detail: Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth contains jokes about ‘rainbow unicorn ponies’. These jokes were written before I’d heard of FiM. I left them in. I WELCOME YOU, DATEDNESS.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@JustAnotherBob: I think children’s books will still be around. Those stiff cardboard books that get chewed on can’t be replaced.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@dr. luba:
I love those. Particularly these.
2liberal
suggested reading for any Tunch owners reading this thread:
How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You [Kindle Edition]
redshirt
@srv: Amen. Dragonflies rule.
Two examples:
1. I spent three years living on a lake, writing novels (Heaven!). I’d write for four hours in the morning, then take a two hour lunch break. During this break I’d go smoke a cig on the stone steps in the sun. Everytime I did (everytime it was nice enough outside), dragonflies would gather about me, landing on the rocks and brush beside. I’d talk to them, about how awesome they all were. I then wrote a children’s book (never published) called “Dragonflies are my friends”. Cuz they’re awesome.
2. In Gondolin, now, watering the yards, the same dragonfly (I think) follows me around and dives into the stream of water. I’m far above any standing water, so I’ve long wondered what this dude is doing up here, other than hanging out with me, like old times.
PurpleGirl
@dr. luba: Wonderful site. I could easily get lost and spend days looking at it.
WereBear
@Frankensteinbeck: I am thrilled to be a part of this triumph!
PsiFighter37
Before 9th or 10th grade in high school, I hate how this series called ‘The Animorphs’ ended. Over the course of a month, I cranked out a 28-chapter version that would’ve printed out to over 200 pages. It’s still on fanfiction.net floating around, but that was my crowning literary achievement. Downhill ever since…
RaflW
Things are getting ugly in the Minnesota marriage fight. I knew this was coming – I’ve been an organizer for 6 years here on LGBT issues. But when the awful lies get cranked up – major ugly op-en in the Sunday Strb. No link, it’s u.g.l.y. ~ says gay parents don’t care about their kids or at best the kids are an afterthought subordinate to carnal desires.
Its just fucking obscene how these people can peddle such immoral propaganda.
Spaghetti Lee
@PsiFighter37:
I wouldn’t mind taking a look at that. I loved Animorphs.
PeakVT
I’m not much of a photographer but this one turned out nice.
jacy
I’ve been doing book cover design for the past several months and finally to the point where I’m having to schedule clients, so woot! Alchemy Book Covers
And I write fiction of the dark variety (Mystery/Crime/Horror). My new collection of short stories is just out recently. Here’s my Amazon Author Page.
dr. luba
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Thanks. Most of those (brown egg pysanky) are my own designs.
MikeJ
@RaflW: I’ve found it odd that I’ve seen five pro equality ads a day on TV here in Washington, and it was not until today that I saw anything anti equality. The freaks down the street with seven stick figure kids on the van and the “nOpe” bumper sticker have a “no on 74” sign in the window of their house.
I imagine decent humans will carry the day in western Washington, I just hope the rural areas don’t outvote us.
dance around in your bones
In Mexico, dragonflies are called Caballitos del Diablo (basically, Devil’s Little Horses).
You could always tell when a Santana (that’s how it’s said there, Santa Ana winds) was coming, because those Caballitos del Diablo would start showing up. I guess they blew in from the desert?
PsiFighter37
@Spaghetti Lee: If you’re interested, go to fanfiction.net and search for author JohnDoe3000001 (5 zeroes). It’s the only thing I ever put up. If you didn’t finish the series or read all the books, a few references may be missed…was a pretty hardcore fan.
Yutsano
@MikeJ: I’ve seen the polling for pro-74 and what I’ve seen is it’s passing comfortably. The nice part is they worded it as a positive question, so it becomes an affirming experience.
On another note, I hope Tim Eyman is crying on November 6th because he fails to turn us into a California-style tax system. Which will not pass Constitutional muster here anyway.
TheMightyTrowel
@Hillary Rettig: I’m pretty sure it was you who posted an ebook many moons ago which was a howto for applications/CVs and interviews (or something similar). I’m in academia so many of the points weren’t directly relevant, but I read it right before applying for my current position and I can’t help but think that some of the can-do spirit got into my cover letter and application packet. So thank you.
RaflW
@MikeJ: The ‘yes’ folks in MN have been running ads, but relatively not horrible ones till just a couple days ago. I expected the slanders about teh scary ghey to start sooner. But now that it’s on, its really vile.
I just hope moderate Minnesotans feel like its gross too and show those asses the door.
nastybrutishntall
anybody who is into chillwavy electro soul check out my alter ego CØP F==L. There’s a 2-song EP free via bandcamp. Yep.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@PeakVT:
We have an organization here in Los Angeles called Books for People that will come by and pick up your excess books (http://www.booksforpeople.org/) — maybe there’s something similar in your state?.
Also, you may want to check with any local literacy and/or free tutoring programs. As far as they’re concerned, any book that gets their students to read is a great book. One tutor would buy copies of “Flowers in the Attic” for her students because at least it got them to read something.
srv
@dr. luba: The eggs bring back many happy memories of my Ukranian kinfolk.
ruemara
I used to do monoprints.
I also used to write and colour a comic.
I write, usually articles of importance about things to buy, but sometimes I get to write some more meaningful stuff.
That’s a snippet from my article on love for Valentine’s.
I’ve been going through a dry spell lately, so I hope to do more art this year.
EvolutionaryDesign
If you like good rock and roll in the vein of Nirvana and Black Sabbath, check out my Denver-based band Old Dusty Death @ soundcloud.com/olddustydeath. Thanks for your time!
nastybrutishntall
@NickM: I’m trying to get my first novel published right now. Lit fic, contemporary, psychodrama w/ near future political elements plus cultural satire. I think it’s good, and my writer friends think it’s good, but, you know…
It was great to write it. A spiritual experience, as if I were channeling someone else entirely. It felt like THE THING I WAS MEANT TO DO. It’s puzzling now why it’s so hard to get other people to read it. Oh well.
Good luck. You are on the right path.
hitchhiker
Okay . . . here’s the book I wrote about a crazy & terrible year. There are lots of cheap 2nd hand copies available, which is how I’d get my hands on it if I were interested.
In brief, me, spouse, 2 kids, 2 cats, dog, normal US life — interrupted rudely by a fluke fall spouse took while skiing.
Oh noes. He broke his neck.
It’s a narrative about family, community, hospitals, the healthcare “system,” spinal cord injury, nurses, doctors, wheelchairs, lasagna, home accessibility, “our thoughts and prayers are with you,” shitting your pants, murderous rage, annoying religious types, neurobiology, and living through your worst nightmare with sense of humor only partially impaired.
I’ve always been a writer, so there wasn’t really any way NOT to write this story. It’s the thing I’m most proud of getting into print.
danielx
Off topic but not….it was brought to my attention that last Thursday was Chuck Berry’s 86th birthday. Many happy returns to a man responsible for more misbehavior than anyone else I can think of, and whose licks are still played in bars throughout the land.
Jeff Spender
I graduated U of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature. I specialized in creative writing and analyzing science fiction literature, and I’ve since been working on a bunch of different projects in that regard.
I’ve been trying to crack Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine for a few years now, and I think I might have finally come up with an idea that can do it.
I’m one of those really annoying people that has to type all of their first drafts on a typewriter. I use a 1930s model Remington Rand Noiseless Model 7. Works wonderfully.
Apart from that, I’ve been slowly working on a novel for a long time, now. It’s not anything I plan to publish, but it’s an attempt at fantasy worldbuilding ala George RR Martin and JRR Tolkein. I’m also running several short stories through a revision process that I might try to do something with. One of them was actually an experiment to see what it would be like to have a character who spoke in split-infinitives and functional shifts. My favorite line by that character is, in response to someone asking where he is going, “To morosely liver.”
I’ve sort of got this blog thing, too, that I haven’t updated since May that just sort of sits there. I have many pieces underway for it, but nothing that I feel good about posting.
http://arushedjoke.wordpress.com/
Oh, and aside from all the crazy stuff I’m doing with science trying to get all the pre-reqs I need for PA school, I’m also trying to come up with a new set for a stand-up routine. I haven’t been on stage in a while and I really miss it.
JustAnotherBob
@Or something like that.Suffern Ace:
Possibly. Or they could be replaces by chew-proof ‘pads’.
Touch screens. Video clips. Sound.
Very young kids get the interactive stuff.
—
I’m finishing up building my house. I designed in a lot of book shelves. It’s been a while since I’ve bought a book. I’m trying to think what I’m going to put on all the shelves.
The paperbacks that I’ve saved over the years aren’t designed to last decades. I’m replacing my favorites as e-books. Most of my hard bound books are ‘reference’ and I go to the web for information, not books.
I’ve got a few hundred CDs in my storage room. They’ve all been ripped to MP3. I haven’t bought a new CD in a few years.
We’re making information and art so compact and accessible.
tb
Thanks for the thread– I’ve been reading BJ since John was a Republican. I’m a jazz drummer from Portland, OR, with a new CD of the music of Ornette Coleman. My other big project for the year is a Europe tour which I’ll be doing in the coming weeks.
I also write the Cruise Ship Drummer!, which is chock full of fairly hard core drum geek stuff with largely a modern jazz / 70’s funk bent.
Spaghetti Lee
@JustAnotherBob:
I don’t want compact. I want something that I can connect with emotionally. Hell, what else is art for?
JustAnotherBob
@Spaghetti Lee:
What allows you to connect with art on a piece of paper but not on a screen?
Might earlier people have connected with art on cave walls but failed to connect with art on paper?
Hillary Rettig
@TheMightyTrowel: Lovely to hear that it was helpful! Thank you. Please check out my new site just for academics, http://www.howtofinishmythesis.com (thesis finishing + career advice) and let others know as well.
Yutsano
@JustAnotherBob:
Children as young as 2 not only learn how to interact with an iPad they can actually start using it. Not only that, but a static medium like a book confounds them because it does not interact with them in the same way. This is suggesting a HUGE change in how we are wiring young brains and has very strong implications for how we will educate them in the future.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@tb:
Portland to Urp for a tour? Man, enjoy yourself! That sounds like it will be a blast.
Musician joke: Do you know how to tell if a stage is level?
suzanne
@Yutsano: Children younger than 2 can use an iPad. TRUST ME. I have to do battle to use mine.
suzanne
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Drool comes out both sides of the drummer’s mouth?
Spaghetti Lee
@JustAnotherBob:
What allows you to connect with art on a piece of paper but not on a screen?
Beats me. If I could explain it with If-A-then-B-style logic, I wouldn’t be using the word ’emotion’.
Might earlier people have connected with art on cave walls but failed to connect with art on paper?
Good for them. I’m not one of those. They’re all dead now and I’ll be dead too one day. Until then I don’t think it’s too much to ask that I do what I love.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@suzanne:
We have a winnah! :) Guitarist here, I never saw the drummer.
Too many chicks in the way. ;)
Elias
What the heck? The cons in my neck of the woods are currently claiming that Ambassador Stevens actively supported Al Qaeda, was a traitor to his country, and that while his death was a tragedy and scandal (in that Obama allowed it to happen) he pretty much deserved to die.
Where the frack is this even coming from.
And I need better insults, because FUGDIAH is completely inadequate for the caliber of these assholes.
suzanne
Man, I love the hell out of this song. I got to see GbV for the first time last year after loving them utterly and completely since I was sixteen. What a great show. (Incidentally, it was at an outdoor show in Brooklyn, and I finally understood why people enjoy summer music festivals. Out here in AZ, I consider them an endurance test for the crazy.)
Fuck ALL the chickens! (né Studly Pantload, t.e.u.u.)
@Jack Canuck: Hat duly doffed. You have quite the eye, and you have something I can only dream of – the patience to work in black & white. (My fave works are the wet plate landscapes of Sally Mann, but I’m such a color junkie; I get fidgety trying to do monochromatic pieces.)
A recent piece: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinmerigan/8096246352/in/photostream/lightbox/ It has the look of a soft-focus lens, but that was a happy accident, although I do want just such a lens. In the meantime, I have lots of fun with my 50m f1.8.
BruinKid
Man, I’m tired. Did another round of canvassing today with Bruin Democrats for Julia Brownley in CA-26, who’s in a very tight race against Tony Strickland (R), the co-chair of the Romney/Ryan campaign here in California, and who even voted AGAINST California’s version of the Violence Against Women Act, and opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
This is one of those seats that may determine whether the House will be controlled by Tea Partiers in 2013, or by Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats.
Had a lot more positive responses this time around than when we went two weeks ago. There were several Democrats and Democratic-leaning people who just weren’t aware about who was running in the Congressional race. They also hadn’t studied up on all the propositions on the ballot (10 this time), so we provided them door hangers from the state party that had their official recommendations for all the propositions. Only met one outright Republican household, but even he was very polite about it.
But oy, one of the streets was going uphill at around a 40° angle! It was one heck of a workout as well. The lists we were given were about 65% registered Democrats, and the rest were 3rd party or undeclared, so we weren’t trying to find registered Republicans to debate with and convince to vote Democratic. Think I managed to knock on about 30-40 doors today.
If anybody here is within driving range of Ventura County, please get in touch with the campaign and help them out. They still need volunteers and resources, as the Berman-Sherman race seems to have sucked up all the money and energy in Southern California. Argh.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Watching Up with Chris Hayes from this morning. He had on a guy from the United Mine Workers, whose comments would have made a tobacco executive proud.
Peter
@karen marie: When I moved out of the city I looked around for classes and ended up joining a studio coop. It’s a nice place to spend my nonexistent free time.
Elias
Oh. And I should rep my band.
http://frenchreform.bandcamp.com/
We just put up our first demo track this week. Recorded in a shed with laptops and mics in Redneck, CA. Pretty good results considering and a very unique composition for a pop song. Still some work to do to get it on the radio, but that’s mostly in production and effects. Getting something to sound like it does live on a recording is tricky.
Peter
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Thanks. Coming from a world-renowned connoisseuse of controlled substances such as yourself, that means a lot. And thanks for the thread; something sold on Etsy tonight and I suspect I have this link to thanks for that.
James E. Powell
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Watching Up with Chris Hayes from this morning. He had on a guy from the United Mine Workers, whose comments would have made a tobacco executive proud.
Would you favor us with a brief summary?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@James E. Powell: It boiled down to various versions of “I lived next to a coal power plant for years, and I don’t have lung cancer”. Weirdly similar to “cigarettes don’t cause cancer”.
I had an aunt who lived into her eighties, smoked like a freight train her whole life, and died of something else. Doesn’t mean smoking isn’t dangerous.
karen marie
@efgoldman:
Paper.
That’s why I love the library – I can find old books with wonderful papers and wonderful fonts.
I can see how ebooks are good for the go-go lifestyle or for people, like your daughter, for whom holding a book can be painful, but I will never* read anything but books printed on paper.
*Never say never, shit happens.
TheMightyTrowel
@karen marie: i’m a big fan of my ereader but I also deeply love paper books. When I have the choice I buy paper, but I’m a reader of a number of niche genres which have largely moved to e-only or e-first publications so an ereader was a necessity. I love to bring it on work trips loaded with pdfs of things I’ve been meaning to read.
Jack Canuck
@Fuck ALL the chickens! (né Studly Pantload, t.e.u.u.):
I think black & white is my default mode; I tend to look at a scene with that in mind first. Probably comes from my dad, who is an excellent photographer himself. When I was a kid, back in the days of film cameras, he had a b&w darkroom set up in the spare bedroom, and I used to watch/help him develop stuff from scratch, use the enlarger, all that. He used colour for slides, but the stuff he printed was pretty much all b&w.
Your shot is beautiful. When I don’t have a cranky two year old to cope with, I’ll browse through the rest of your stuff.
karen marie
@Frankensteinbeck: Congratulations! I hope to find you in my local library.
Yutsano
@Jack Canuck:
Heh. You just made me think of the spouse of RedKitteh. :)
Gwangung
Seattle folks can still catch my contribution to a FREE theatre event…with ZfREE food…
http://www.artscrush.org/event/detail/441693797
Revealed: Savoring the Stories, Culture & Food of the I.D.
Presented by SIS Productions
October 22, 2012
Savor the stories, food and culture of one of the best kept secrets in the City! Take a one-of-a-kind theatrical walking tour (with food!) of Seattle’s International District revealing the different characters – contemporary, historical and fantastical – of this unique cultural neighborhood. Enjoy snacks, surprises and special guests along the way!
Yutsano
@Gwangung: On a Monday. Bloody hell. :)
karen marie
@Peter: Yeah, I got totes spoiled in Tacoma. I threw porcelain, fired at cone 10.
asiangrrlMN
I post at the Angry Black Place Which Must Not Be Named – mostly about race, so-called women’s issues (I think of them as human issues), and queer issues. From time to time, I also post short stories I’ve written that are set in a dystopian world that has outlawed abortion at ABLC as well.
For fun, I write zombie fiction at Dead Shuffle under my real name. I call the group of stories, Zombiepocalypse: Minneapolis Invasion.
@Yutsano: Hi, honey! ::mwaaaaaah::
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Hi hon. I go sleep now. I’ll let Sister Sarah take care of thee. :)
normal liberal
@dr. luba: Your work is spectacular – as I went from one collection to the next I kept finding new favorites. A friend used to do the traditional ones, but your modern and diasporan patterns are new to me, and gorgeous. And the patterns based on ancient pottery seem like a whole different art form. So, so neat.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Sleep well, hon. I’m sure Sister Sarah will take GREAT care of me – but I’m not drinking anything she has to offer!
Death Panel Truck
@Frankensteinbeck:
If they don’t come out until “about the end of the year,” then how can they considered to be already “published”? Seriously, I’d like to know how unpublished books are already published.
Anne Laurie
@PeakVT: Around here, all the local libraries collect ‘donations’ for annual book sales, and use the funds for stuff (outreach, teen reading groups, kid’s craft supplies) they can’t fund otherwise.
I’ve also been told that prison libraries can use paperbacks, especially (ha!) crappy ‘escapist’ fiction that inmates might actually be interested in reading…
Applejinx
Nice! I love you Balloon Juice, I needed this. I just put out a new song that combines pony with POLITICS and in some ways it’s kinda awesome (still writing books too but this one’s more relevant to BJ by a long shot)
Discord Welcome Home
Please feel free to pass this around if ya like it. The idea is, the villain Discord from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is summoned to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange by stockbrokers who worship him as a God.
The reason they do that is, they are fuckers who should jump! you fuckers! and they seriously think they can wreck the world with chaos and destruction and each one thinks he’s so clever he can individually profit off this chaos- so they have NO social feeling whatsoever and WANT chaos so they can gamble on turning it to their advantage.
WHICH IS TRUE and that’s the whole problem with these guys. And I got it into a catchy, hard-rock song (only to see the pony sites fumble it) so let’s see how it does as a crossover with the political content. I REALLY wanted this to hit because it sneaks that way of understanding the viewpoint of these Masters Of The Universe in there, and it’s crucial that people ‘get’ that. So fine- takin’ it to the Juicers. Rock on!
Lyrics:
I hope that you believe me, I saw something very strange
For they were watching ponies on the New York Stock Exchange
The people, they all joined their hands and they set up a chant
And Discord oozed right through the screen like horror from Japan
And they sang
Discord, Welcome Home- we’re all so glad you’re here
Discord, Welcome Home- we’ve longed for this for years
We’re here to do your bidding, so don’t you dare be sad
Let’s get this party started, ’cause there’s chaos to be had
I asked a man if we could have Celestia instead
He looked at me like I was kinda derped up in the head
He said, there’s something that you stupid bronies never see
To share’s a sin- if chaos wins, the money’s just for me
And they sang
Discord, Welcome Home- we’re all so glad you’re here
Discord, Welcome Home- we’ve longed for this for years
We’re here to do your bidding, so don’t you dare be sad
Let’s get this party started, ’cause there’s chaos to be had
Lead us, said the stockbrokers, we’re bringing on the pain
We don’t care where we’re going if you promise chocolate rain
I’ve got to say, you’ve made me proud, said Discord with a smile
You humans have a special gift for breaking things with style
And they sang
Discord, Welcome Home- we’re all so glad you’re here
Discord, Welcome Home- we’ve longed for this for years
We’re here to do your bidding, so don’t you dare be sad
Let’s get this party started, ’cause there’s chaos to be had
Well, Pinkie Pie reached through the screen when all the hope had fled
She gave him a big kiss and then she bopped him on the head
He gave a start, his eyes were hearts, popped back in the TV
His final words, ‘and you expected faithfulness from me?’
And they sang
Discord, Welcome Home- we’re all so glad you’re here
Discord, Welcome Home- we’ve longed for this for years
We’re here to do your bidding, so don’t you dare be sad
Let’s get this party started, ’cause there’s chaos to be had
Applejinx
Can I have a youtube embed somewhere on the strength of the lyric “You humans have a special gift for breaking things with style”? I didn’t get to see my song embedded that way in pony-land, and it is a pretty rockin’ song with its snarky heart in the right place…
Let us hope this November it is not the ONLY gift humans can boast of…
Peter
@karen marie: The first place I took classes had a big gas kiln, but the coop sadly just has electric and we fire at cone 6. There’s a big anagama kiln a couple hours away that I have plans to use next year.
Another Halocene Human
So, I haven’t asked the “yo, is this racist?” guy or trolled racebending yet, but I’m wondering if anyone else has seen the Assassin’s Creed III web ads that have what appears to be a Native American male saying something like, “George Washington rallies the colonists… perhaps this nation will finally be free.”
Umm, really?
First time I saw the ad I thought it was a video game about the French & Indian war. Washington was a general on the British side. But now on reviewing, I see that it says “1770s” at the beginning.
Another Halocene Human
@PeakVT: Prisoners still want books.
Applejinx
Oh my GOOODDDD (not me this time, not even a BJ poster, but)
Will The Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up
Another Halocene Human
@Yutsano: Y’all need an income tax and more progressivity. Bad.
I was shocked at the state of the physical infrastructure in Washington State. Awful. Ridiculous with all that wealth.
Another Halocene Human
@Elias: What the heck? The cons in my neck of the woods are currently claiming that Ambassador Stevens actively supported Al Qaeda, was a traitor to his country, and that while his death was a tragedy and scandal (in that Obama allowed it to happen) he pretty much deserved to die.
Wingularity. Look away, look away.
Basically, these shits can’t conceive of a political system in the Near East that isn’t despotism propped up by American power. Also, too, POTUS BHO winning at anything. So they are going nuts and eating their own livers.
Another Halocene Human
@Applejinx: Whoever it is can rhyme, though.
jayboat
@MikeJ:
Mike, haven’t been there yet. Hoping to catch the hydroplanes this year at the Gold Cup in Detroit.
Some of my favorites from last year.
Applejinx
@Another Halocene Human: No no, I loved it :D
Maude
I have no talent. Sad, but true.
I borrowed four books from the library last evening for my Nook.
The Nook has made a huge difference for me. I can get a book at any time. If I buy a book, it stays on my Nook. The book stealer doesn’t come and take it away when I am asleep.
When you buy an ebook, it is yours. It will stay on your ereader and you can read it at any time.
One thing about electronic publishing is that people can upload their ebooks independently. This gives readers more books to read.
WereBear
@jacy: Thank you, your mystery series looks intriguing!
Got the first one. Please mentally autograph it for me :)
C.King
Longtime BJ reader, though I don’t comment much. Anyway, I’m late to this, but my wife has recently published a graphic novel (nonfiction), Hit By Pitch. It’s about Ray Chapman, a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians who was killed during a game in 1920 by a fastball thrown by Yankee pitcher Carl Mays. If you like baseball or comics, or both (or neither!), check it out!
http://www.amazon.com/Hit-Pitch-Chapman-Fatal-Fastball/dp/0786446099
Johnny's Mom
Award winning on-line comic strip, Ace Kilroy, in it’s second season: http://acekilroy.com/season2/ by regular reader Rob Kelly and his partner Dan O’Connor.
TerryC
@Spaghetti Lee: Seriously, I’ve read more than 20,000 books in my life, and I have found that reading a story digitally actually frees up the story to be itself, unbound by physical constraints, from being embedded without change in a piece of physical property.
TerryC
@TerryC: Actually, since you are apparently less than 1/3 of my age (65), I consider myself to have been leading edge in the 1950s.
I spent most of my time—including walking, waiting in lines, and sometimes riding my bike (Ouch!) with a small rectangular object in my hands, which most of my attention was focused on.
Now, all the kids do that :)
csbella
I paint and have an out of date website
Phone bank I work at made thousands of calls to a swing state today.
laskar rebellion
I created a character to explain science, using humor, to kids. Doing things the hard way but loving it. I’ve got an illustrated kids book out called Professor Blue Top Secret Lab Journal for kindle
and a website here
http://professorblue.com
For those who have a third grade sense of humor like I do.
Frankensteinbeck
@Death Panel Truck:
Because I signed contracts, and the economic deal is made with a publishing company that is already hard at work with the publishing aspects. Because physical paper copies exist in the hands of newspaper book reviewers (My editor was distributing them in London, of all places). A director can be said to have made a movie if the movie is already finished, the distribution contacts are settled, and it will be in theaters in a month. This is exactly the same.
Uncle Cosmo
@PeakVT: Too bad you’re not within schlepping distance of Baltimore–we have a thing here called The Book Thing that would be happy to take your discards, even trashy sf/fantasy. (Which if past experience is any indication, will be more than half taken after the first weekend they’re up.) I’ll be toodling over there in an hour or two for some pregame browsing.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Fuck ALL the chickens! (né Studly Pantload, t.e.u.u.):
I’d like to put that photo on the front page, if you would be happy for me to do so.
Fuck ALL the chickens! (né Studly Pantload, t.e.u.u.)
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Oh, my stars, that would be a high honor, indeed!
PaulW
…I think an earlier attempt to add a post got blocked, so here goes a re-try: I’m getting mentally pumped up for the upcoming NaNoWriMo novel-writing for November, so please if I may mention some of the ebooks I’ve got on the market such as The Hero Cleanup Protocol. Just type in my name Paul Wartenberg in the online book retailers and see if anything comes up, thanks.
Coldfire
I work with glass. Got tired of just making windows, so now I’m fusing glass in kilns to make dishes, sculptures jewelry, whatever. I’m too tech-stoopid to know how to link to a photo of my stuff, but there are pics on my studio Facebook page,
http://www.facebook.com/ColdfireGlassStudio