Miro and Flannery

Last night we returned from a day at the Beach. We would have stayed longer but it is high season and this makes everything more expensive and crowded. Another great concern was our two felines awaiting our return.

Miro (our 11 year old Siamese) and Flannery (our 24 week old fluffy Calico) are not the best of friends. Anyone who has lived with a Siamese knows they do not like to be reminded that they are not human. We've tried to bring other cats into our home over the years and she fights them.

Flannery is female. She is very sweet. Whenever she sees Miro she has learned to growl since Miro has whipped her furry butt a few times already.

We separate them as much as possible...its like office politics. We try to remain neutral. Last night we had been away and Miro wanted to be where Flannery has spent the day so we let her onto the screened in porch. We took Flannery into our bedroom where we could monitor her destructive tendencies. (She is a feline cyclone.) When she got out of hand we put her under the covers in a bubble and pet her. Miro came in, suspecting there was an intruder on her turf. She stalked the entire room sniffing every surface. Meanwhile we can hear Flannery purring under the covers several feet away. Miro finally jumped on the bed and watched the cover move slightly and listened to the purr...for a moment. She then turned into the monster Siamese she can be and attacked the wee lumped in the sheets. Flannery now knows when to hiss even though she can't see Miro! She lay in her bubble purring and hissing simultanrously and I wondered what an animal shrink would say. (There were books by animal shrinks at A.R.E. in V.B.)

Does anyone out there have any hints regarding kitty politics? Kitty discipline only goes so far....

Interview questions from the Whizzer

1. Are you a gardener of vegetables or flowers...or both?
I like to mix it up. I grow herbs and tomatoes mixed in the perennials and a few annuals. I am really a low maintennance gardener who should know how to make things flourish since its in my blood. My ancestors on both sides of my family were farmers and ranchers but they had great soil and a lot of space. I now live in a neighborhood with clay in the soil so I ammend every year and have placed pots strategically all over the place. When the temperatures rise into the mid 90's I lose my gardening mojo. The heat index was 110 degrees here yesterday. Its all I can do to prevent everything from dying when it is this hot. The succulents thrive. Not much else.

2. What famous person do people say you most resemble?
My beloved says I look like Dietrich from certain angles. (Everyone looks better in black and white.) Sometimes Drew Barrymore looks like my little sister. Actors are such chameleons anyway...it really depends on her look for a film. My favorite observation was made by my friend Langdon who said whenever she sees an Uma Thurman movie she thinks of me! That was a first. Its must be the strong symmetry of our bone structure. My former studio mate and dear friend Ken used to write me from Rome and tell me how much he missed me since he saw my face everywhere in the streets. I thought that was odd since there is no Italian ancestry in my family. Ha! When I finally visited him on my first European excursion in '84 or '85 I realized he was referring to the Greco-Roman scupture scattered all over the city. (Sometimes my husband says when I am pissed I have the face of an angry Greek God and it scares him....note he did not say Goddess!)

I always feel much more at home in Europe than I do here. It has something to do with time, art and the way people live.

3. Describe a time when you said something which proved to be highly embarassing.
There are so many times I have embarrassed myself I think I must have a mental block... a bit of social anxiety! In general amazingly stupid and subltly critical things come out of my mouth when my husband and I are with other people. I hate it. It is so much like my passive agressive mother who I love but do not want to mimic. My husband never says a word but I am always horrified after I say something that makes me sound like the shrew I don't want to be. Its a curse I inherited from my parents. They lacked conflict resolution skills. I've been catching up ever since.

4. If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Paris during the high seasons and Scotland during the summer. The Isle of Lismore or the Isle of Harris. We were married on the Isle of Lismore and it is a tiny piece of heaven.

5. Describe your favorite birthday.
I try to forget my birthdays since I feel just like I did when I was 21. Their passing adds up to something that means nothing to me but everything to others on the grand pecking order. My birthday always falls during spring break but this past one was memorable since I spent it with my husband and a dear friend who has nearly the same birthday as me. We are one day apart.

The Armory and Scope shows were up in NYC so there was plenty to do before we took off on the Adirondack for Montreal the next day. We looked at a lot of art, drank a bottle of Bushmill and scrambled for Penn Station the next morning. I left my powercord for my digital camera in NYC and that posed complications we were forced to resolve while on holiday.

There is much to be grateful for and remembering these things on my birthday each year is important. As the oldest child my mom always gave me BIG birthday bashes that were kind of hard for a shy kid like me. Most of them are lost memories but one came to mind recently. I was reading about a concert pianist I grew up with in Mississippi that is quite successful in NYC now. He was recently involved in the commission of a Phillip Glass/Chuck Close composition that I would love to have heard. All I could think about as I read the article was the hot dog war he encouraged at the pool party my mother threw for me when I turned 13. It was like the food fight in Animal House (this was way before Animal House) but in the water. The rest is a fog, like most of my birthdays. I think that was last of my big birthday parties.

Thanks for taking the time to think of good questions, Whizzer. If anyone else has incentive to take the bait I will gladly interview them. Instructions are below.

1. Leave me a comment saying 'interview me please'
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here on my blog (not the same questions you see here)
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

Salut to Lulu

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Originally uploaded by amieo.

Our friend Ash brought us a copy of the Australia GQ to demonstrate Brooksie's enduring influence..the cover was a photo of Charlotte Church made up to look like Brooks...
I'll try to add a repro of the GQ cover in another posting.

A lulu of a weekend

It finally came to pass. All of the Brooksians within earshot and bandwidth of my beloved and his friends gathered here to celebrate the life and work of Louise Brooks. Its not something I have been looking forward to except that it would be over and we would have some normalty in our life for awhile. It proved to be much more inspiring than I anticipated which doesn't surprise me since that's why I married the leader of the lulus. (I wasn't aware of this title at the time!)

My favrorite aspect of the event was meeting people he has been corresponding with FOR YEARS regarding their love of all things Louise Brooks. I expected super flakes or super eccentrics... like a theatre full of Trekkies wearing Brooksie Bobs!

It wasn't like that. Not at all! Art - like sports and jocks - proves to be common ground among charming eccentrics.
I am less of a charmer (I leave that to my spouse) but I do love meeting curious, passionate people and we were inundated with those. A dark theatre also proved to be the best way to escape a heat index of 100 degrees of more!

Too Many Things and Not Enough Clock

Today is my Mom's birthday. She is in California visiting my brother or I'd like to think she would be here. She always spoiled me on my birthday and I try to do the same when she is with me. I was her first born so I got all the themed birthday parties and the toughest discipline. Its a double edge sword, being the first.


If she were here we'd do something fun, memorable and appropriate for her 67 years of raising kids, grandkids, etc.


Since she isn't here, the time has come to conquer and divide the many tasks at hand on the home front. I've just returned from two days on a journey to NYC and back to see the show at Stux and the rest of the best in Chelsea. It was exhausting but worthwhile. We stayed at the Leo House in Chelsea which streamlined the experience a bit. I missed staying with Carole in Inwood but the time saved made a difference when the city heat initiated my slow but consistent meltdown. Carole came down on the train and we had breakfast at the Empire. It was a great way to start the day.

NOW is the time to begin the countdown for the Firehouse/Yellowhouse production of LULUPALOOZA. Maybe aftwerwards I'll understand everyone's facination with Louise Brooks. Yes, she had a great haircut and sounds like a real Lulu but...that is all I know. I'll leave the rest to the filmophobes and take this time to to prepare for their arrival.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....

After the rain

Well, it finally rained. Nothing to write home about although there has been some impressive thunder. It sounded like it wanted to storm and it almost did.

Yesterday was another big day for me. I busted my ass getting ready for a presentation for a public arts commission and all I can think about is what wasn't said that needed be said. Something happens to me when I am talking to a group of my peers ... my mind races and I get ahead of myself. I become spastic! This type of race to the finish doesn't happen when I am teaching, thank God.

I would love to be able to speak freely and intelligently, even humorously in front of an audience like my dear husband. He is completely unself-conscious and actually embraces the audience! It is always obvious that he enjoys himself, always has something worthwhile to say... and people love him for it . He has had two people leave messages this week regarding public speaking engagements. Of course, he is an actor, so this type of skill falls into his repetoire of talents more naturally than mine. I had much rather be in the studio making art than talking about it....especially the work being made.

Stimulating dialogue is great but it is very difficult to engage in conversation from a stage. WHEN the miracle of exchange (questions!) happens I am most the comfortable... and at least I know someone was listening.

I do know the committee was paying attention yesterday but haven't a clue who won. Odds are not in my favor for many reasons. The competition was very stiff.... the budget is not very large... and my proposal was likely the most complicated. I do think it would be great thing for the client but I am confident that the other two proposals would also result in something very worthwhile. Both the other canidates are excellent artists and I was honored to be included in a pool of such fine repute.

The Real Deal

Last night Harry and I took First Friday off to hear the Neville Brothers. It was a great venue in Downtown RIchmond, part of the city's summer music fest...outdoors with a fountain and trees and food and beverage vendors. It was the first time I'd seen them in a long, long while and I was a little nervous. I associate the Neville's with a time in my life when I owned nothing and didn't even have a credit card...a time when it was no big deal to stay up all night dancing on a week night.

They were well seasoned then and that was 20 years ago. How would they be different than all those 80's bands that are touring the country now? THEY'RE THE NEVILLE BROTHERS (!) and SONS! that's how they are different. Art and Cyril and Aaron and the rest are all lined up at the front of the stage doing what they do and behind them is a small army of Neville Sons in every flesh tone. They were a beautiful site to see and an even greater pleasure to listen to. We danced all night and counted the stars as the sun set over the city skyline.

They are the real deal...authentic and true to the bone...with a groove that is as seductive and mesmerizing as ever. The bring people together of every color and background... all we are all ready to follow them down river. Check them out at http://www.nevilles.com

Excavation

Its been a month of pre-occupation. Deadlines and committments prevailed with sidebars preoccupied with watering the jardin du Oliver. It has been hot, humid and dry, a condition common to the midAtlantic that I have yet to grasp. I don't know how the farmers deal with it. Even tobbaco requires a certain amount of rainfaill.

I delivered 70 pieces of art to the CACV on Tuesday and spent the whole of the afternoon trying to anticipate what it will look like when it is on the wall...arranging, rearranging, placing, replacing, pulling, editing, etc, etc. Everyone at the artcenter proved to be amazing to work with.

Everything else has slipped to the side of the heap and is waiting to be reordered and reconsidered: bills, deposits, domestic order, passport renewal, shots for Flannery, etc, etc, etc. I don't know how Harry lives with it except of course he has his own creative agenda and is perfectly capable of living in a world of his own creation as long as the piles of neglected reality don't fall on his lap. I quess we are made for each other although we could likely employ a full time administrative assistant or a real wife. (not part of my job description)

So, this week is for excavation, versus vacation. A week in Maine would certainly be my preference.