Artists are basically fucked in America. They work their asses off, often all day and all night, spend heaps of money and thought on their craft and at the end of the month, they still have nothing with which to pay their water bills. So can they flush their toilets? NOOOO! One of the offspring…
Category: Consuming Things
Time, Sculpted and Consumed
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We have time, and we use it up. It is the ultimate commodity in a temporary life. In a creative space, it seems to waiver in form: great gaping hours of fearful emptiness, or ultra-thin slivers of panicked release. Between reading Jon Kabat-Zinn’s “Wherever you Go, There You Are” and Scoutie Girl’s latest post on…
First Pesto Of the Season
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From our organic garden… Well at least the basil is. The recipe is “Classic Basil Pesto” from a great new cookbook called “Put ‘Em Up” by Sherri Brooks Vinton. Makes me really admire the makers of all organic foods … Timing of foods, storage and transport is not easy!
Getting the Olivetti 33
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I just went ahead, finally, and dished out the $$ on the Olivetti 33, because every writer should own a manual typewriter and this one is so lovely. I did what Mom told me and thought about it for awhile– like two years. Restored to oily perfection by Dan, aka “Mr Typewriter,” from Florrisant, MO,…
Why is “Local” so Weird?
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My kids reallyreally like bananas and I am reallyreally glad about that. As some of you know, we are greeny-greensters, so we grow our own veggie garden, make compost, and buy organic and local. Well, sometimes. If we started to apply the “locally-grown” condition to our food (250-mile radius), what would be have to give…
The Unfinished Basement is Not Worth Examining
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So I’m just emptying the dishwasher this morning and number one son runs out the the kitchen and says: “Mom! I just saw this guy on TV! He says he can finish your basement!” “Oh yeah?” My mind is spinning. I start to do the math. Local news is on. Commercial jingles ring. TiVo has…
The Recurring Potato
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We accidentally have perennial potatoes in our garden. These potatoes are unstoppable. We “planted” these them two seasons ago, on a whim. “Whim” = they had actually started growing from a few rotten potatoes we’d thrown out into the compost pile. Colin said “Hey, look. Potatoes are growing!” and dug ’em out and put them…
Fighting Back Against Planned Obsolescence
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Or, Why you MUST Attend my Electronics Recycling Event this Weekend Or Or, Why You MUST, at least, Start Recycling Electronics SOMEWHERE In the world of electronics, planned obsolescence rules. What makes the iPod (sorry, no iPhone! Ooops what’s that? The IPAD, I mean!) so appealing? Eternal updates, that make it better faster, more capable…
Life is Too Short to Just Wear Black
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Or, An Ode To Candied Fabrics, Who Is Very Busy Quilting, Yet Commented on my Blog Anyway Everyday, the grass pushes up through the dirt And Everyday We swing the doors of our houses In and out– (My front door is red, chipping red paint With chipping brass fixtures)– And Everyday, we knit our wardrobe…
Boobquake, Milkshakes and Our Diabolical Plan
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As a professor (all right! just an adjunct…) of rhetoric, I can spot and identify logical fallacy when I see one. So did the awesome BlagHag blogger Jen McCreight when a Muslim cleric managed to twist the logic so profoundly of protecting women from their own immodesty that he accidentally predicted that free-moving, free-ranging cellulite…
Earth Day, Imagined
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I found that my iPhone’s App Store “What’s Hot” as Green Apps featured today, as part of Earth Day celebration and I am thrilled. Earth Day is 40 years old today, and now it is almost ubiquitous. Everywhere there are thousands of events, so many that it is impossible to even get to all of…
The Parenting Apocolypse
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Wow there is SO much “content” out there in the World (Wide Web) to inform, amuse, and berate today’s parent. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Some of it is actually useful. Such as the answers to basic questions like “Which end is up, again?” “Will it ever stop pooping?” and the classic follow up,…
Stephen Fry and the Perfect Rant
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Thanks to my husband, I got the chance to listen to the ultimate rant on America… from my favorite Brit, Stephen Fry. He has a fantastic podcast called Stephen Fry’s Podgrams. Some are scripted, others are extemporaneous. That is major. Fry came to America for his BBC series Stephen Fry’s America, now available on DVD.…
Kentucky Fried Christmas
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After a visit to Colin’s work, we were all famished for lunch today. Nothing says special holiday like a big bucket of KFC. We got the family 12 piece meal and just about devoured all of it together. Dining on fast food on Christmas eve always reminds me of my own childhood. Ever so often…
Dreams, canned and stuffed
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“So tell me your dream Lay your head on my pillow Tell me the things that you hide away Your pain Your pleasure Your sorrow Tell me the things that you hide away Your pain your pleasure your sorrow.” –Blue Rodeo If you are looking for the less fortunate, you can find them waiting in…