Welcome, Weekend! Plus, a Play Worth Your While

Well, I write this in a state of distraction, because it's Thursday (HOO-ray!), I was, "hmm, Michael Imperioli as a bigamist-with-a-ponytail on Rake?," and then (forgive the hopping), now there's triple lutzing but no twizzles, and I shall be going to bed earlyish, because last night was full of theater and dazzlement and sleeplessness.

But! the theater! If you're Michiganish and are going to see "The Suit" at the Power Center Friday or Saturday night (closes Saturday! best to nail it down now), lucky you! Stripped down stage set (a handful of chairs (brightly colored), a garment rack, a table), four beautiful, talented performers and three wonderful musicians, whose music weaves through the monologues, dialogues. A mournful accordian wonders onstage, a trumpet summons New Orleans, a guitar is nimbly strummed and plucked. Love, betrayal and carefully kept garments, set against the backdrop of later apartheid era South Africa (based on a short story by Can Themba, who wrongly predicted that the beautiful tale would make himself and his wife both rich; it was instead banned, and he eventually died from complications from alcoholism). Sounds heavy, I know. But it is surprisingly light, in its experience. The cruelty, yes, is as fresh, and intimate, as the hope of beauty. But beauty there exists.

****Inside (well, in Sochi), Bolero, beautiful landings, but the legs are getting tired: a triumph for Carolina Kostner of Italy!  Outside: THUNDER SNOW.WHA????. Michigan, we give. we surrender.****

When the female lead, Nonhlanhla Kheswa (playing Matilda), first breaks into song, it was the first-best present of yesterday. She started in Lion King on Broadway at 16, so no wonder, but we (partner-in-crime/Javier) didn't know that. Watch the first video here, for a lovely snippet from the performance. Could she be more beautiful, more composed?  Numerous presents followed. I have seen *so* many fantastic shows since taking up with the ever-so-busy boyfriend last January, but this was definitely close to the top. The story was deceptively simple, as the best stories often are: and the pared down actualization of it had the feel of the best folk tales and story books. Poetic, multi-faceted, true.

But a moment in acknowledgment of the further presents, by no means limited to this highlight: Jordan Barbour, as the friend of our male protagonist, Philomen, sang one of the most unexpected -- and to my mind, best -- renditions of "Strange Fruit." I do not say this lightly. This is a song I never want to hear singers other than Nina Simone or Billie Holiday perform. People overestimate themselves, throw vehemence at an already powerful song, and butcher it. Barbour, however, sang it softly, conversationally; as if encountering it for the first time, but knowing it to be true. I got to speak with him afterwards, and he said this was a song he and Peter Brook have continually gone back and forth on -- he had to pull back from prior training, to sing it simply, to "let the words of the song be the guide." He said they had just, um, intensely discussed it over the past week. And moreover, through their global tour, across all the musical numbers, they vary it constantly: maybe it would be sung a capella, or with trumpet, or, or, or. Such agility, for both the actors and musicians alike.

****Sleep break.*************************************************************************************

So anyway, if you count yourself lucky, you should be in the audience tomorrow or Saturday night. We're more likely to regret what we haven't done, rather than what we have, right? And this includes opening yourselves to these life-giving works of art, whether performance or quietly (/not so quietly) hanging upon a wall.

Visit an official take from the NYTimes here, but maybe if you're going to see this weekend, don't look! SO nice to be more surprised, right? 

Random bonuses:

• "Meadowland: Stolen Jazz"  Kheswa and her Martians, lovely weekend soundtrack
• Acting reel for Ivanno Jeremiah, who plays Philomen, to Kheshwa's Matilda
• Plus his twitter account, not because if short, epic brilliance, but OMG check out his photo backdrop! Scroll down! Period dress or Alice in Wonderland? Please tell me. I'd take it either way. 

Happy Friday, All! Has everything frozen over? Does my snow boulder still block  the foot of my driveway? Are there charts in my near future? Magic 8-Ball says: Yes.

An Unseasonable Spot of Green

Snowed again last night and from what they say, the polar vortex is coming back around next week. I was all devil-may-care today and wore only one -- ONE --  set of thermals! ...and then huddled resentfully at my desk, glowering at my powerpoints beneath my red knit hatandscarf, because the office was colder on this slightly warmer day. The hatandscarf is nice in that it's kind of like a sweater, but better, wrapped as it is over your dome and covering your ears, cushioning you from the harsher realities of life. Plus it has three pompoms. You needn't tie it beneath your chin. Perhaps you merely loop the long scarf ends across your neck, free to dangle behind, which they will, (clever pompom weighting, also tastefully red); or tie at the nape of one's neck: this is also fine. The hatandscarf* may not lend an air of sophistication, nor convey the often useful Back the fuck OFF, but then again, it may also indicate that you're a little loopy, mildly off-center and so perhaps it's better not to bother you on that score.

*A brief selection of remarks uttered to me in relation to the hatandscarf:

• "So then we -- could you take that OFF? It's kind of distracting, we're inside now." -- Javier
• "What the hell kind of papasmurf thing is that on your HEAD?" -- coworker, as if irritated by the hatandscarf's existence, though it by no means impacts his existence.
• "Maybe the new rule should be that when your coat is off, that comes off, too." -- Javier, who is fond of laying out new game plans.
• "You know, from across the room, I really didn't have a sense of the *length* of the scarf...It's kind of...like the Lorax, you know they make the *thneeds*, maybe you could get on that ~~"** -- different coworker. **To which one is compelled to reply, "Everyone needs a thneed!" thus immensely improving the work week.

Which all to say, I was first plowed INTO my driveway, before being plowed OUT OF my driveway, the Pennsylvania contingent went without power for a good many days, thank heavens for the astounding Olympians whose amazing strength, dedication and inspiration we bask in from the (relative) warmth of our living rooms; and goodlord bring on the warmth-but-not-the-floods.

Time for a break from (our) reality. This break brought to you by: the Domnican Republic:

If you are hereX, you're standing in front of the remains of the first hospital in America (built 1503-1508)

from across the street it looks something like this

 Atlas Obscura has a little background here. No old beds, no implements to be seen...Only walls and arches, framing sky.

                                             The most fun to be hard is when you walk
                                                       beneath the pigeon archway

A shadow of things to come

                                            ...to the far side of the hospital ruins...

and to your right and above you is a wall, with many nooks

and in each nook, a pretty green parrot.

Aratinga Parakeet? Hispaniola Parrot? Unclear.

Just beyond is another whitewashed church

with a high relief Madonna and child

looking up the hill, with the church to our right. Oddly this felt somewhere between Philly and New Orleans

Notice for the eucharist

white church front with sky blue sky

Madonna behind a grated window

The lit votives and money were below the frame. Deposit here, your hopes and dreams, your wishes for loved ones in epic health battles. Set your worries carefully down, if you can; and may the grace you need find you.

 

Sunday, Random Sunday

I can't stop eating double chocolate malted milk balls and I can't stop listening to Thao & the Get Down Stay Down,* following their surprising set at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival** on Friday night. I also have been incapable of getting off the interwebs this fine Sunday, between the shocking Philip Seymour Hoffman passing, emails, other assorted randomness (the finest of which is videos from new favorite Emily Graslie, at the Field Museum: Owls!). I heard on FB that Toyota used the Muppets in their Superbowl ad (meh), and have already seen Doberwawa commercial, so I think I'm set on that score. Though I'll certainly check out the superbowl ad digests when they circulate around tomorrow.

*Follow up: you may be wondering, as I was: who's Valerie Bolden? Interesting article here.

from Houston Press blog

** Of course, the most, most important reason for going was NEKO CASE, who was the bomb, as ever. "Oh," said Javier after the performance, "I think I get it a bit more now," by which he meant the mild obsession//starry-eyed hero worship. Talented, jaunty, mildly raunchy, with her bad-ass sexiness and bizarro most-distracting-ever pants -- which apparently are a tour favorite (House of Blues: Houston).

And now, what everyone has been waiting for, this Sunday, February 2nd: Sherlock.*

*Plus, more chocolate malt balls.

I'm Mr. Icicle, I'm Mr. Ten Below

"Now is the winter of our discontent..." Did politics, general malaise, or the polar vortex  bring this to the tip of my tongue? Sadly, it was probably Winter first, followed by January cabin feverishness. Ahhhh, misapplied Shakespeare, a good way to start the year. My use is even cheesier, since unlike you Dear Reader, I did not immediately recall the rest on my own ("made glorious summer by this sun of York" Richard III), so its apparent meaning of "The time of unhappiness is past" was lost to me. To wit... let us all be of good cheer, even if we are aggravated, aggrieved, malcontented, maladapted*: better times are coming!


(*maybe not, that can be hard to undo! but. you know, take heart.)

It is, however, ridiculously cold. For once it seemed the doom-saying forecasters called it. And even now, though the worst of it has passed (I think?), it's difficult to characterize it as anything other than 'frigid.' I heard 6 degrees below tonight, and apparently double digits are too much to ask. At least through the joy of relativity, the recent 30-degrees-below-with-windchill makes the current sub-zero doable if not especially pleasant. Plus, people are no longer freaking out and stripping all the grocery shelves bare, so that your quick trip of I-just-need-five-things involves unanticipated problem solving. As well as freezing the *insert preferred noun here* off almost every citizen across the U.S. and presenting real danger to the more vulnerable members of our population, it also blew in highly agitated Mom fronts, which the weather experts failed to track on their screens.

On the eve of the coldest projected day, my Mom called me with a pointed mission: to keep her youngest, living several states away, from foolishly exposing her body parts to the elements. I had worked that day from home --  after having shoveled three times the day before to keep up with the snow -- my back was sore, and I was rather done with it. But the next morning -- after reshoveling my drive -- I needed to get back into the office: the multitude of charts I was making were difficult to see on my wee laptop screen.

"HI Mom! How ARE you? How's the weather?"

"Hi, How are YOU???Oh I keep thinking about you!"

"I'm fine, it's *cold*, there's lot of snow, I keep shoveling--"

"-- DON'T GO OUTSIDE"

"well, I just needed to shovel a bit, came back in--"

"DON'T. SHOVEL. Aren't there neighborhood kids*? Did you go to work today?"

{*they must be conveniently immune to the cold.}

"No, I worked from home today, I'm going to go in--"

"Stay HOME tomorrow, DON'T leave the house!"

"tomorrow, I kind of need to, I know, the weather IS kind of crazy. --"

"NO. It's *dangerous*. You just. work. FROM HOME. Why do they need YOU so much? They don't!"

"ummmm"

"...And if something happens to YOU, what are THEY going to do??"

"...Well, anyway, it IS crazy to think of states where they have these kinds of temperatures and somehow they get through"

"You're not used to these temperatures! You're not some big burly guy who has fat to spare! You could freeze in the time it will take you to walk to your work from the parking lot!"

At around this time, I detected my Dad in the background; he either mocked or tried to soothe**, because she hissed, "Her temperature is reading ten degrees BELOW zero. BELOW." I listed off my extra special layering techniques to appease her; she was somewhat mollified, but reiterated the speed at which frostbite can occur.

{**probably mocked.}

"So. Just don't DO IT. Now your father may have some OTHER thing to say, but you just listen to me. Here's your father."

Horrible daughter that I was, I went into work the next day, but duly reported having survived to the day's end. The East Coast is now due for more snowstorms, hopefully the forecasted foot or so is exaggerated. But if not -- consider your options. And Then: STAY INSIDE...

All Hail the Wekend! Wherein I am Two Places at Once

About ten minutes away from Javier's house in Detroit last night, I keenly felt the lack of my freshly laundered tablecloths in the car. I felt a wave of panic rising and total aggravation. I glowered at the steering wheel and grimly fumbled with my phone. Javier talked me out of what seemed the only course of action: driving all the way back to Ann Arbor, and then back to Detroit again. "No. We'll go to a Meijer's." This seemed ridiculous. I needed my tablecloths. They were the right amount of color and quiet; good amount of interplay with the woodblock prints. On the average day, you may not think about tablecloths that much. But then try setting up a table at a fair, and the tables, they're ugly as sin (your own, or the craft host, either way). You can't leave them bare. And what's going to be available? Some vinyl nightmare? But sense won out. Javier's a decisive sort.

And this morning (at 6:30 AM), it came together. The display possibly a little motley, but not much more than usual. And look, here we all are at Merry Market in Detroit, in the event space of Detroit Mercantile on Russell Street, right by Eastern Market. Despite the snow outside, there has been a steady stream of shoppers since around 9:20 (started at 9, woohoo!).

If you're nearby/adventurous/in need of presents/yearning for wall art, I encourage you to stop by. Do say hello! I am mixed on typing on a laptop during a show -- but it seems to be 6 of one/half dozen -- I don't want to be inattentive, but then again, some people are hesitant about entering booth areas. Better to pretend you're not entirely there. So for those, let my laptop serve as a shrub.

This weekend is the last time I'll be out and about selling in person, for awhile, so I'm hoping for a good one! Many sales to make way for new artwork, for the New Year!

And, if you're all, "I'm in *Ann Arbor*/Ypsi/Chelsea/etc for heaven's sake, I'm not driving out to Detroit!" then you're still in luck! I highly recommend the Granger Art Open House tomorrow (Sunday).
 
Perhaps acting and song would do more to get you in the spirit? I am excited to see Woodward Wonderland by Mosaic Youth Theate tonight, but you could even take in a matinee showing -- and visit the DIA, to boot! (this weekend only)...

 

Upcoming Art Shows/Open Houses

Greetings Fine Folk, apologies for the absence!

This won't do much to alleviate that, as time is short. Try considering this a post card rather than a blog post.

Dear Reader,
Truly sorry I didn't pick up that ANIMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA postcard in the rest stop (camo border, yes!), but maybe you also have a soft spot for the Liberty Bell. The drive was long, but fine* -- the mountains and foliage were gorgeous {*fine, because Javier did most of the driving, holla!}. It was wonderful to reminisce and reconnect with my family, and give Javier a little look-see around Philly. No time for him to pull a Rocky pose in front of the art museum, but in Pittsburgh we were compelled to take pictures of ourselves seated on a red divan, below a portrait of Warhol seated on a red divan. Thank goodness for jumbo postcards, right? Thank you, too, for watering my plants and for dismissing the sounds in the basement. Next time I'll bring back Tastykakes.

xoxo,
M

And now, back in Michigan, following the fastest-ever Summer, Fall seems to have lasted a week or so before unceremoniously dumping us on the doorstep of Winter. It fell below freezing the night before last, the radio murmured about rain/snow and this very afternoon, I saw flakes drift idly down as I gazed past my laptop screen, through the cafe window. My office is moving into a renovated building, but just as the renovations have been protracted, so too has the moving in part. I'm sure they are making great strides, etc. etc.; the second day on my loaner laptop was ever so much better than the first, when nothing seemed to work. Now, mostly everything works just fine, except for a little ghost-in-the-machine which hops my cursor back into the middle of words I have already typed and paragraphs I have already completed. Who doesn't love glitchy technology? But soon, very soon, we shall be back in an office proper and all shall be well (right?).

Outside of work, it is quite busy-busy. So let's get down to it. Brief answers to two key questions.

1.) What have I been up to? 

Now: listening to new sound cancelling headphones, though there don't (seem to be) any noises in the house, plus unearthing important things from closet corners (best yet: bags of dozens and dozens of cloth and kid gloves worn by my Grandmother).

Recently:

Detail from newest in Cakeasaurus Project

Targeted cupcakes, inked block

Targeted cupcakes, indigo test print

Mobile making at the "What have I done?" stage

  
2.) Where will these new prints be? 

October (Dexter): This Sunday, Oct. 27th. I am returning to sell prints at Art on the Farm, in Dexter, Michigan (in its tenth year! Nice Ann Arbor profile here.)10AM-4PM, rain or shine. Photography, jewelry, paintings, sculpture, blue grass music, gnoshy bits, cider, all make for a fine Sunday :)Visit the Facebook page for more details.


November (Ann Arbor):I am happy as always to join the artists at Jeanne Joesten's Art Open House, in Ann Arbor, just off Scio Church Friday, Nov. 22nd (4-8PM) and Sunday Nov. 24 (I want to say 11-5, but need to doublecheck on this score -- will update once we have a postcard). I have some snaps from last year in this post (scroll halfway down, went dancing the night before ;))

December (Detroit): Have you checked out Detroit Mercantile yet? Just off Eastern Market in Detroit, the Mercantile is filled to the gills with character, Detroit pride, and entrepreneurial spirit, with curious and quaint nods to our shared past...Walk past the made-to-order denim, reproduction Corktown maps (1923), polyglot baby blocks, Shinola watches and bicycles...  and if you're lucky, you can peek into their back 'room,' a tidy word for such a wealth of space! They could house giraffes in there. Rebuild a plane or raise an army of stiltwalkers. None of which they seem to be doing, mind. But they WILL be hosting their second Merry Market event on (Sat & Sun, December 14th-15th) and I'm excited to join the roster. Make a day of it! Swing by the Eastern Market, score a reuben at Russell Street Deli, you know, make it so I can justify buying one of Silent Giant's Jack White posters...Hah! All in the holiday spirit. See also Detroit Mercantile's Facebook.

Happy Fall to Everyone! Nifty quote, to help you on your way:

“Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.” 

Music pioneer Brian Eno on art, in excerpts from his diaries -- I'm not sure where I got this from, but a good guess is BrainPickings.

Will You Not Add to Our Happiness? A bit of penmanship, a spot of guidance

A mind blowing play with Javier started the weekend on Friday (Shun-Kin, New York Times review here --  while we both struggled with bouncing between the supertitles above the stage and the action on the stage, like the reviewer, to my mind, the reviewer wasn't sufficiently appreciative of the absolute visual beauty of the show, which was ASTOUNDING). Yesterday brought fine bar food at Detroit's Mercury Bar with Ginger and a friend...and today, we have some more picture book noodling to round out the weekend.

Based on positive reception of these signs:

 

I decided that the Cakeasaurus picture book pages which do NOT have words incorporated into their woodblock designs may have hand lettered text added to them and then I'll eventually scan all of them into el trusty computador... I took at a stab at some initial lettering yesterday for the first page of the picture book. It wound up being too heavy handed, so it was back to the drawing board this morning.

This attempt struck me as a bit more successful, though close to the upper edge. The "T" however, was a problem. While I'm more attached to handwriting than some (most?) these days, I can't claim beautiful penmanship, and too long ago to remember I developed the unfortunate habit of mixing cursive and print together. How does one even WRITE a cursive "T"?



What's that? What's that, you say?If only you had a compendium of all things factual, both daily and esoteric, to help you navigate through life! Great point! It was, indeed, time to consult with my COMPLETE LIBRARY OF UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE. Surely it would have a page of cursive letters! It did not disappoint. It was a little long in yielding up a T, but oh my goodness, it had a lot more to say on the subject of handwriting (I beg your pardon: penmanship)...It has drills and notes on technique! Explanations of muscles involved! Benefits yielded from this worthy endeavor -- truly, as with so much in life, the degree to which you commit will surely be matched by life's bounty!

Details from the matter at hand: Each upper hand M should be drawn to a count of four, and 40-60 Ms should be drawn per minute. Ns get shorted by one count, and with respect to the beginning loops, "that part of the letter should take care of itself, but in size and general proportions, the copy given should be closely imitated." The library intones: "...with a slow, dragging or cramped movement, nothing of lasting value can be accomplished..."

More dramatic: "Clothing for the right forearm. As the movement taught is one in which the  muscles of the right forearm play an important part, it is highly essential that these muscles should be so clothed as to permit, at all times, unrestricted action. Many good writers consider this of sufficient importance to lead them to cut off the right undersleeve at the elbow." 

Positioning is important.

It fails to say how many Omens should be written per min. Worrisome.

Instruct with a sense of rhythm: Close em up, close em up!

I can't get with their Qs, much less penning 37 of them per min.

So, after suitable instruction and admonition, I practiced a handful of the foreign looking Ts...
I think it does suit a bit better. Reactions?

On a non-editioned print. The editioned ones are a bit darker.

 After that I just noodled along, as I am wont to do.

Bonus Tip from the COMPLETE LIBRARY OF UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE! Informal letters:

Splendid, I love tally-ho rides!