Rando-mize:

This surfaced and was too good not to share.

Circa: 1993 Here we are. What a day, + we look like wrecks. + what of it? 

i was art directing. We had stopped for a ‘buddy’ shot during the plexi-painting photo. From left, someone-you-know, Ann Cunningham, Terry Koepsel + Lonnie Hanzon, looking as though he is trying to talk photographer, John Mueller, out of this one.

ME: Any monkey can do what i do…

LONNIE: Well, that may be true, but do you realize how long it would take to train a monkey?

‘Drew is listening to the song One More Day from Les Miz (colloq.) when his sister comes in asking  hurried questions about this and that.

He raises his eyes to heaven in mock disgust, The moment is ruined! START IT AGAIN!

He cracks me up.

The only part of costuming i do not like is taking the time opening safety pins.

Where there are possibilities of too many double letters in one word, i usually get the spelling wrong.

+ another thing, the ‘i e’ rule doesn’t.

Matching furniture is a clue to adulthood.

i wonder about many things ...  not in the least is, when did my generation get use to listening to mini sound speakers instead of the steady boom of a Klipsh Belle?

 

Chloe-ism.

Chloe is running from clock to clock in every room trying to account for the lost minutes.

While ‘Drew is listening to a loop of the intro credits to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, staring into the you tube box figuring out how it was done pre-cg.

For three men the civil war wasn’t hell, it was practice.

Fucking cool.

Oh, i mean, it’s a well done movie, sure.

Remember, when you have lost your patience, stop, + wait a few breaths longer.

Action and reaction are equal and opposite. -Gertrude Stein

Choose a subject equal to your abilities; think carefully what your shoulders may refuse, and what they are capable of bearing. -Horace

All men are equal before fish. -Herbert Hoover

William of Occam's Razor
The principle states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed.
=
One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.
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All things being equal the simplest solution if often right.

...I would have to add that all of the religions today seem archaic and dangerous. -Joey

Drew would have to also add,
I don't think god is in heaven anymore, that was a long time ago.
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A quandary.

-Being Red Skelton. 

Three memories with Hats:

1. There was usually a group of musicians over for the day or the fortnight blasting looped tapes out the second story window to see the street walkers reactions. These guys, judging by the sounds they crafted, majored in the most compelling + wonderful feedback imaginable. One handsome devil was obsessed w/ Einstein on the Beach at the time. We’d have parties depending on what we wanted to score. For instance; The Hat Party. People invited would know hats were mandatory. Eventually everyone would get drunk + a sea chapeaus would be left behind. Voila. +, if it ever got too weird, i could always crawl into my loft + pretend i didn’t know what was happening. 

 2. i went down to see the opera production director w/ a hat in question pinned together, mocked up to the nth detail. Upon seeing it, he ripped it apart verbally + shredded it literally. Humiliated, i came back up stairs to the craft room where Charles was huddled over a balsa block pining a turban. He glanced at me sideways for a moment + caught the mortified shock on my face w/ the hat draped over my arms in pieces. He offered, Oh, I forgot to tell you he’s in a snit today.  From Charles i learned of the blind nuns at dawn stitch.

 3. Manhattan winters are slap-in-the-face cold. Turning up toward the sun to warm our faces, we walked along planning a trip to the flower mart. We carried three regular coffees from Chock Full of Nuts steaming into the chilly early morning air. Heading down to the Bowery we traversed Union Square where we recognized the huge pile of fabric as Evelyn. She embodied a fashion statement by building a hat ornament day to day. If you had the time, you would notice that she added a bit of this or that to her chapeau everyday until her headpiece became too heavy. She’d have a two day break + then begin the building ritual again. She inhabited a homeless dingy heap moving from this place to Washington Park on quieter days. Kyle + i had been paid in cash for a restaurant installation the day before, so life was good. i casually handed Evelyn a twenty dollar bill + coffee as we passed her in the park. Her frosty breath rose from the lifeless pyre into the crisp air. When she bolted + came chasing after us, we didn’t know if she was in trouble or if we were. 

Inside a repro of Lenny's hall of mirrors.

He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there's another dog.  -Rainer Maria Rilke

I look in the mirror and say to myself, Can it be you once played Romeo? -Bela Lugosi

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only. -Samuel Butler

Sister + i would sit in the attic w/ the dull winter light glancing in through the mutton barred glass. Staring at each other until we took on another form. So deeply frightening neither could move for fear it may be real. Years later i came across a passage of Dylan Thomas describing the same thing. Mr. Thomas called it Invoking The Devil. i knew immediately what he meant.  

-Script for a Practicing Artist and an Unfinished Life.

A random memory just flew by.
Years ago i knew a woman selling fabric goods at a hip store named Poppies in Berkeley. She had this conversation w/ her roommate one night that;

Geee it was busy, we sold so many notions today.

You sell Notions?

Why yes, we do.

Notions.

Yea.

Wow... you... sell....Notions...

Obviously he was thinking on the lines of Sometimes a Great...

+ why yes, it is a burden to carry other people memories.

Okay, so here's what i wanted to ask.

Am i the only one who saw the film Where the Wild Things Are, + turned it into an Ingmar Bergman film? It really was not that big of a jump.

So, i read into things. It’s one of my faults. It’s not as though i shoot smack.

i introduced the kids to Limelight. Synopsis: A young ballerina is a mess because she can’t get her career started. Cavalero, an aging train wreck of a vaudevillian, is at the end of his. Every line seems to have weight to it, reading as Chaplin’s essay on how to live without regrets. It is an autobiographical bittersweet film spoken in a lyrical voice.

The kids had seen it three years ago but understood more this time around.  

The coming of age as a blooming metaphoric understanding. The year you realized that the scarecrow, tin man and lion ARE the farm hands. (Sorry if I just blew that for some of you.) It happens to every single child (in us all) + there is a proverbial line drawn at that time. This instance becomes a gateway drug to harder symbolism.

-Chloe + Drew quickly tracing as the writing comes up. 

A whirring rhythm slowed down to a recognizable slapping of playing cards stuck in bike spokes, + then stopped at the studio door. 

'Drew's head pears around,
I need one of those puppets on strings of an old man that I can make walk + close one eye to wink, + I need him dressed in black, w/ big funny clown shoes on. Do you have one of those?

“No, but i have a Chinese dog parade head w/ closing eye lids + a yak beard.”

Oh, that will be perfect!

Dexterity or Deceptiveness.
Sleight of Hand is often used in close-up magic. It makes use of simple everyday props, such as cards + coins. The guiding principle is be natural. A well-performed sleight looks like an ordinary, natural + completely innocent gesture.

The hand is quicker than the eye is usually not the case. Along w/ manual dexterity, sleight-of-hand depends on the use of psychology, misdirection, + natural choreography to accomplish a magical effect. Misdirection is perhaps the most important component to the art of sleight-of-hand. The magician choreographs his actions so that the spectator will look where he wants them to. More importantly, they do not look where the performer does not wish them to look.

Two types of misdirection are time + movement.

Time is simple; by allowing a small amount of time to pass after an action, events are skewed in the viewer's mind.

Movement is a little more complicated. A phrase often used is a larger action covers a smaller action. Careful not to make the larger action so big that it becomes suspicious.
This is worth more study...

-I'm Going to Act Like I Don't Know What's Going On.

Even with only two, i can occasionally feel like mother Hubbard + not know what to do. Having one of each means sooner or later i’ll come up against every combination of gender joy, toil + trouble. i’m broiled into thinking of how to get ‘Drew excused from the draft, even though it's ten years and a WW away. i’m hoping that the refusal to spar in Karate class + walking out on two (so far) violent adventure flicks will count toward a C.O. status when the time comes. 

Drew + i where talking about following rules:

-If you look suspicious try not to say bomb at the airport. 

-If your going to speed while driving try to have your paperwork up to date. 

-If you are going to harass someone in another country try to know how to apologize in the native tongue.

The subject turned to temperaments of young friends. It is easier for ‘Drew to understand black + white filling in the mid-tones as they come up. If someone is not civil even after you try the mirror method, think again. You can make as many excuses as there are people. Bad day, up on the wrong, toothache. Remember the fact you already know, sometimes folks aren't in a phase, they are just that. A person you can’t take probably doesn't want to be taken.

Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.  -Lenny da Vinci

Drew + Chloe have a go at the Vitruvious Man.

Drew: Do they have a class where they teach you how to change into another animal your own size?

Me: No shape-shifting. But, they have martial arts.

Drew: Oh, that sounds good.

Full Flower Moon. 

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna to make this garden grow...

That has been the kids goodnight lullaby since their beginning. Having sang that every night for ‘Drew's first 6 years Chloe's 4, i’m thinking i don’t know another song by heart.

That really just could not be.

We are grooming ‘Drew as a silent gardener. No gas machines -only hand tools, + push propeller mowers. A garden about growing rather than cutting. + always, later, about the process of decay.

It’s hard to imagine that w/ all of the safety gear kids are suppose to wear these days that they may actually get through an entire childhood without a skint knee. It’s just unnatural.

We do spend a lot of time protecting our kids. i reckon there are different buffers found at each generation. But why not give them the full catastrophe?

'Drew had sat quietly + listened to a Tibetan monk + his translator. Three hours flew by. He must have been deep in thought, for on the way out he accidentally let go the door on Ruth Denison, who was coming up behind. We apologized. + i thought, she is wise, she knows we all have to live in this world, too.

Crystal, Rainbow, Indigo ... i realize my naivety, + this is all very interesting, but what of identifying generations in the metaphysical world + the one world we have to live in? We are all a part of a tribe that propels the next forward. If the new kin coming up think they should be able to image what they want + have it in front of them instantly ... so, what about it? Yes, we may be able to do this in a one hundred years, but for now, unless in front of a fast food counter, a bit of patience works the best.

i find more + more wider + wider descriptions for making everyone happy — spiritual yet flippant — serious yet irreverent — beautiful yet edgy.  

Will you explain everything when the opportunity presents itself?  -Ringo / HELP

...Are to...not...are too...am not...you are to...Are too...am not...are too...am not ...you are
...Are too...am not...are too...am ...are not...Are too...I am not...are too...am...you are to
...Are too...not...are too...am...you are to...Are too...am not...are too...am...you are to...Are too...am not...are too...am...you are to...not...are too...am not...you are to...Are too...am not...are too...am not ...you are...Are too...am not...are too...am ...are not...Are too...I am not...are too...am...you are to...Are too...not...are too...am...you are to...Are too...am not...are too...am...you are to...Are too...am not...are too...am...you are to...

Scout meeting. The boys each in turn sounded off what he wanted to be.

A marine meteorologist, a dancer, a paleontologist, an archaeological anthropologist, an engineer, a biological anthropologist, an archaeological anthropologist, a Linguist, + a few things i had to look up. in a heartbeat, my son said a super hero — w/ just as much conviction as the rest.

When it was my turn i mentioned that there once was a football goal kicker named Ray Wersching, who always looked down entering the ball field, never toward where he was kicking. The quarterback aimed him in the right direction + Ray lifted his head only after the kick. They didn’t believe me. i don’t know why, it seemed important for them to know.

They are digging in my business. How dare they!  - CMHH

An intent of writing is to heal + awaken. Words dancing off the page aiming their medicine into the topical condition  + back to the scribe. Being judged or judged not, supported, or supported not, loved or not.

Dominate cherub so not to hoard the impossibly irresistible troupe disease. 

One of those meaningless mnemonic device sentences that you construct as a list to be able to remember despairing particulars you would otherwise forget if you tried to recall them separately.

An experiment in stream of conscience:...went into the place, left, salt picture too blurry from fade, this is too bright, the books will fall, falling, too late, older than, it worked for Edith Head, check that...mark of Cain, + that, metaphor, is that something, expected but never believed when it happens pull here, dad gum, needs an illustration...

All things being equal, stream of consciousness sounds this side of mad. Rest on that.

...but then using reason doesn't always make sense neither.

There is sometimes a greater judgment shown in deviating from the rules of art, than in adhering to them; and ... there is more beauty in the works of a great genius who is ignorant of all the rules of art, than in the works of a little genius, who not only knows but scrupulously observes them.  -Joseph Addison - in The Spectator in 1714.

Peering into random journals, it occurs that it doesn't matter in what order a life is written down in a book. Linear prospects make no sense once you begin to see cycles + loops + back lashes. When meeting someone it’s not on the terms of tell me everything that has ever happened to you since your birth, you can’t skip phases and you can’t go back to fill in. Getting to know someone IS much like filling in. A first impression may lay down the bare bones of a tentative sketch. Some areas remain empty for quite some time, + then, in a flash those blank spaces become rich w/ layers of kindred experiences in explicit detail.

Cartoons don’t grow older, they just change their clothes.  -ANHH