Rattiness, Rat Expertise and other things

Ravyn has posted an animated avatar from the now (infamous?) Rattiness that introduced my Guest of Honor program. It’s right here: Lisa in a Rat Suit

If you’d like to see the rest of the rattiness, what Gene Wolfe had to say, Neil Gaiman reading new stories, Peter S. Beagle in concert, and panels with all the guests, you’ll be very happy to know there is a DVD now available. The price for the two-disc set is $20 ---I’m not sure about shipping---and can be ordered Monday on the Balticon site.
I’ll post a link then, but here’s your ‘heads up.’If you can’t hold out until then, you can email Dr.Gandalf at drgandalf@pobox.com


It’s very likely I’ll be getting together with Debbie Ducommun, elsewise known as “The Rat Lady.” Rat Fan Club She currently has 16 pet rats, has written books on caring for pet rats and is actively involved in changing how people view rats as companions. I’m looking forward to meeting her and will keep you posted.


I got an email from a young man I met at Balticon. I gave him some thoughts, which included things to consider, but didn’t include an answer. I did,mention that readers of my journal have a lot of experience between them and offered to post his question here. He happily accepted:

I am having a tough time deciding what to do right now in my life. I am a painter, I love drawing, but I am most passionately a sculptor. This is what I want to do. I have taken classes at my local community college for two years, have shown many of my sculptures there and have even had a piece purchased by the school. I applied to both the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, NY, and the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY. Pratt was the only one to offer me scholarships, so I chose to go there. I realize I will have to take out $50,000 in loans. Do you think this is wise? Is it worth it to go to a school of supposed high quality to learn of sculpture and pursue a career of such renowned poverty And pay such high loans? I love sculpture and nothing feels better than creating, the school is supposed to be one of the best and it is in New York which is all very exciting and cool. But I am fearful that it may not be worth it if I go and also I am afraid that I won't learn enough or be successful if I don't. Or maybe I should study something else and do art as a hobby?


I’m happy to say I am now re-entering the creative zone. As usual, I’ll show you what I find there. I'll drink more orange juice in the studio, listen to more music and feel more like I do in there than I do out here, even underwater. Which reminds me. Time to go.

g’night

Midnight Blues

Orders packed.
Plan outlined.

Schedule for LA Con: art show exhibit, panel with Bob Eggleton and others about making a living as an artist, panel with Vernor Vinge, Rudy Rucker and others on future anthropology. I'm especially looking forward to that one.

Off for a post-midnight swim under a finally clear sky. Hope it will remind me of why I don't hate the desert. Likely it will be a good seque to the rooms inside my head where art gets made.

stay cool out there

Practically Sane

Most people seem to think I live this altered-reality existence of vision and art. I stand, paint brush poised, deeply (and somewhat wildly) focused on the panel before me—poster child for the mad genius at work.

There are plenty of times like that. And lots of just plain work. But sometimes life is pretty practical, as this past week with a visiting five-year old when either “Mom” or “Auntie Lisa” was to be heard every 1.5 minutes.

Oh yes. I clocked it. Of course I did---it’s me! The average was every freaking 1.5 minutes. They’re adorable.

I’ve spent the past two weeks painting and packing little poppets wrapped in bookmarks that read, “Wake Up.”Sometimes more than others, I know I mean me. Wake up, Lisa, wake up.

The fires here are out, but fires burn elsewhere in the west. Our temperatures are a lot better this week, but last week soared such that there were brownouts and even blackouts in some areas. Summer isn’t nearly over.

So, I ask myself exactly what I would do if we had to evacuate immediately. I’ve always had a fair idea, but fair ideas don’t generally work in serious situations. I’ve given this some thought, packing up poppets and dancers to send all over the world. Where things happen.

The best case scenario in the worst case scenario would be to have a firm and simple plan. Because a plan can be followed.Why must I make this plan? Because it’s absolutely illogical not to. No one expects emergencies, but they happen (surprise) every second. I can choose to be prepared or not.

For what reason would anyone choose to be unprepared???

I bookmarked a few of the better sites I found.

Article list for emergency preparation
American Red Cross
Prepare for Evacuation: Household Tips
Home emergency preparation tips & family disaster plans
FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency
http://www.fire.ca.gov/php/fire_er_content/downloads/Evacuation.pdf

There are lots of different scenarios and situations, but the basic idea is to have a plan. Most plans are very simple. No one has to reinvent the wheel. Plenty of information is out there to be adapted to anyone’s situation.

I look forward to the dreamlike states possible in the studio and the return of the artist who dreams. Today though, I’m a person who lives on this planet and, at least for the moment, wide awake.

Friday night...

Friday night wisdom. A word to the wise...

---wisdom

....Be good to your Poppet and your Poppet will be good to you.

In Between

I'm busily (still) packing poppets and dancing jesters for their journeys to new homes. I'm looking forward to getting back into the studio. Like a kid with coins in his pockets, I'm eager to spend my ideas.

I've got to stop watching the news. I can't stop watching the news. I try to take a larger view, seeing this as a stage of development for humans, that one day in the far future these centuries will be viewed as another sort of dark age and the US as another ancient Rome.
Historically, change comes with a hard price.



What I should be watching is Shrek II. But, I can't stop watching the news.

Happy Birthday, Aubrey.

Mid-wish. (we didn't even consider asking. no way. uh-uh)

Oh yes, Aubrey is definitely my offspring...

Poppets Don't Float

If you've missed me for a couple of days, it's because it's mostly too hot to think. Mostly. Everytime we go outside we go through these rituals we've learned to take for granted.
Like never leaving without water or hats.
Like wearing sunscreen.
Like covering seats in the car interior before locking up.
Like starting the car, opening all the windows, unloading the groceries, then putting the kid in. Like not touching anything metal, ever...

Right. It is the desert and temperatures are extreme here. We know this, yet we also see changes. More extreme temps and earlier, more storms, more humidity. It's hard not to speculate on what might come next.

Possibly it would help if I stopped reading books on chaos theory. But I doubt it. When we're putting up more canopies every year, spending more on electricity and experiencing brown outs, it's impossible not to consider how things might become.

Poppets Don't Float, II

And yet we keep thinking about all the trifling things we usually think about, and doing all the little things we usually do, not oblivious, necessarily, to the possibility that we may be struggling to survive in the not-so-distant future, but in conscious denial. As I type this, I'm sitting at my desk with my feet up, snacking from a bowl of fresh cherries and grapes. I'm becoming increasingly aware of things we take for granted. Things that others don't have, things that we could lose. Orion just tore through here yelling "potty!" Good boy. He's in a rush because he wants to get back to his video game. Outside the sky is ominous and changing. We'll swim tonight, when the air has cooled down to 96 or so, because the water is like a bath. But at least it's wet.

I don't understand it. The architecture is all wrong. Why don't people build at least partly underground? Why aren't there solar panels all over the place? These are questions that beg closer examination, after some research.

I'm packing Luck's Dancers and poppets off to their new homes. They were each dried at some stage of painting, in the huge convection oven that we live in at present.

Tomorrow is Aubrey's birthday.

Hot, Poppets and a Wave from Grim, part 1

ten P.M. and 106

Hot, Poppets and a Wave from Grim, part 2

Hot, Poppets and a Wave from Grim, part 3

Hot, Poppets and a Wave from Grim

Returning from taking Aubrey's friend home, Pete and Aubrey had a very near miss with a weaving Porsche speeding over the Gene Autry bridge in their lane, in the opposite direction and not visible until it was nearly upon them.
It was feet and fraction close, instinct and reflex close.

Pete was quiet, so I had a good idea of how close it was. He had four words about the experience:

THANK YOU VIDEO GAMES


Did I mention it's hot?

Are You Experienced?

A Scanner Darkly isn't a movie for everyone. It is ever so very for everyone it is for.

I'm not sure it's possible to see everything in this movie in one viewing.

What seemed a tiny intruder...

...turned out to be a major infestation.

Tuesday's Poppets

Though Gurtie hid in 'the cave', she too was discovered.

More Tuesday's Poppets

Poppets take Fisher-Price. Orion helped with this one. Long quiet day of working. It's cooled down to a nice 96 degrees. Time for swimming.