impromptu sidewalk art
This is the guy, Peter Yarrow, who along with a friend wrote "Puff the Magic Dragon" way back in 1959. I know dads who's favorite song this was back when they were kids... A great performer, still going strong. The place where this performance took place is his son's import/export store, and the woman with the mic is his daughter. It was a great place to see them - although that one kid who kept getting clocked by the guitar neck (about half way through vid) may not think so... - it was a tight squeeze up front.
Pre-Puff we ran into some carolers who quickly incorporated CP&E into their rendition of Rudolph. Solos left and right... a performance laden day for the kids.
Monday, December 1, 2008
thanksgiving
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
a simple matter of honor
It's been warm and rainy since halloween. One week later and the pumpkin by the door is all patchy, red and black mold inside, its smile collapsing in on itself. Didn't last long this year. I'm not sure why it occurred to me that blowing it up would be a good idea. Maybe because I've never done that. And maybe because the trajectory straight to the compost somehow felt less than honorable―not to mention anti-climactic. It seemed like it deserved more, after its short and orange glowing beauty of a life―like maybe going out with a bang... it was a simple matter of honor. And being a visual person, the idea had already taken on a life of its own. To be sure it actually coincided with my imagination, I had to do it. One never knows what will emerge from that space where imagination meets reality. Sometimes a whole new space emerges, which I guess you'd call art. And sometimes it doesn't. Either way, you learn something.
Afterwards the neighbor, seeing me in the backyard, opened their window and said "did you feel that??" Uh oh... "uhhh, yeah. I was just experimenting with the pumpkin..."
I guess that explosion sucked in a lot of oxygen and displaced it back out again enough to rattle a house...
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
sugar skulls
Spent some time at El Centro this past week; first parent night, where I'm still kicking myself for not bringing my camera. The kids performed between presentations, the first one being where CP came out wearing a big "V" sandwich board, followed by an "O" and a "T" and an "E" and then launched into a rousing song and chant, half spanish half english (as was the rest of the night). A bunch of four year olds yelling VOTE, VOTE, VOTE! is a sight to behold. In between was halloween and then on the weekend was the "day of the dead" celebration, where the video is from. We don't have anything like it in our culture, where we take a day to honor the dead (on whose lives ours are built). We honor specific dead, like presidents or veterans, but no global civilian populist honoring of the dead. And god knows we all have them in our lives (and are moving in that general direction).
Monday, October 20, 2008
after the fog burned off, Sunday
I've always been a big believer and lover of the incidental, the unplanned moments between plans are often the best, just like the best toy is often not the toy, but the box it's wrapped in. Kids are natural experts in this department. Today was a lot like that.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
lunch
: shitake(they-never-come-this-size-in-the-store) quesadillas.
When I pulled back the cover a fine wisp of white spores delineated the air currents. You can see where some have settled in the middle of the mushroom.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
take one : one take
I went to Curtis Taylor's opening and all I got was this vid...
Several people were showing. The photographic work was immediately appealing in a glossy magazine implied narrative sort of way, but what struck me most about them was the dovetailing of commercialism with fine art. I've always been interested in that tension, or question, of what distinguishes one from the other besides context. But in the photos the tension was gone, the two worlds mingled seamlessly. Maybe that's why―in terms of consumption and delivery medium―I would have preferred them in a book or magazine. If I had to hang something on my wall, I'd go with Curtis' painting.
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