Saturday, March 14, 2009

Signals



So now it's Saturday night and I begin to believe I'm becoming the hermit I always thought I would be. It's late and I'm dirty from cleaning in the studio. After three different incidents of having to look endlessly for something that should have been easy to locate, I knew it was time. Besides, I'm restless. It's that kind of restlessness I get when things in my head are converging into an idea. It might be a good idea, because I'm that kind of restless where I eat my soup standing up. Where I don't want to sit very still. Where I pace and mutter things to myself and jot down things like dates and names and make little sketches. So, it might be a good idea. A long time ago, in the long time ago when I actually used to leave my house, someone asked me in an interview how I recognized good ideas. I told them that good ideas make me antsy, and that great ideas make me sweat.

I wasn't kidding.

This particular idea has to do with the rat(s) in the cupboard, an unresolved issue that I hope will end well but I worry will end unhappily. It has to do with the fact that things that happened in 1900 keep popping up in my readings. (1900 is the year of the rat. I was also born in the year of the rat.) I don't know that it has anything to do with Zorcon, who is a rodent, but not a rat, but he and I have been spending a lot of time together. Tonight he hung out in the studio with me and watched a program about rhinos.

I am neither sad or happy, but resolved. I'm going to have a drink, a strong one to sit me down, and read some more about rats, and hope to run into the final piece that will click this thing. That will either pull the good idea together, or it will reveal a great idea which will be disruptive and sweaty and exhausting and will suck for awhile but will be very satisfying in the longer run.
Or it will do neither of those things and I'll get some sleep and try again tomorrow.


I did manage to finish a couple of Poppets. "Lady" who has a lot to do with fashion in 1900, and "Signal" who has little to do with inventions, because no one actually invented radio. Like light, it was always there, though lots of people helped other humans learn to use it.

Still, if you want to see some cool early transmitting equipment, go to the Sparks Museum.

Hope you're having a good night. I'm not sure what kind of a night I'm having. If I had one of those pages that asked my mood, I suppose I'd answer Honest.

5 comments:

mordicai said...

Needlecrown I want to hug you (carefully)!

Stacey said...

Lady's little bustle makes me giggle. :-)

wv: minto. Irish mint, a close cousin of the mento:scotch mint.

ravyn said...

i really like "Lady" :-)

Ed said...

Loved Signal...

"It's in the air, for you and me..."

And an honest mood is one of the best moods, I think.

Carl V. Anderson said...

Signal is fantastic. On first looking at it I thought that it looked like he/she was holding one of those old-timey radio microphones and I'm thrilled to see that I was right in spirit.

Thanks for being 'honest'. It is the kind of insight that is very interesting as a person who enjoys both the results of your creativity and your creative process.

If the latest rats are the results of this creative antsy feelings, it turned out to be a really good idea! You must have been sweating up a storm! :)