Tuesday, January 20, 2009
We got some active time in the last few days — no video games! Yesterday we played at the park, and went for a walk through the forest. Because of the fresh snow, there were dozens of bunny trails for us to “track” on our exploration. Today we skated at the Natrel rink until a bit after sunset and then came home to a nice big healthy meal. I think now I’ll paint until Caitlin gets home and then — today being an appropriate day for it — wrap up on the couch and watch “W” since I just got the screener…
As you know from my other blog, I’m a big fan of classic fiberglass VW kit cars, so I was quite thrilled to stumble upon a related gallery of fiberglass boats from the fifties that mimic the styling cues of cars of the time… There are some absolutely beautiful boats on the site (the first in my images here especially), and they capture an era of design that I like a lot — they evoke a period of unbridled optimism for the future. Maybe when Caitlin and I finally move back out East we’ll get a motorboat — I love waterskiing and I’m pretty sure Nefarious would too. Our homestead there is on the Mira River.
In the “oh so sweet” category, we were telling jokes at dinner yesterday — you know, like “why is six afraid of seven — BECAUSE SEVEN ATE NINE!!!” and here is Nefarious’s made-up-on-the-spot joke:
“Why did daddy cross the road?”
“To get to the beautiful girl he loves!”
Nefarious has managed to collect enough change from couch cushions and such that tonight after a forced visit to the park (it’s not her priority today) she’s going to drag me to Walmart and have the thrill of buying her own Littlest Pet Shop stuff. Total obsession!
I think that parts of the freestyle may have been muted because of last night’s tragedy in which a boy was killed by debris at a monster truck show — or it was just build up for Gravedigger — but Nefarious and I had a good time at this afternoon’s Monster Jam at the SkyDome… It was fun riding the subway there too because every subway car — more and more the closer we got to Union Station — seemed to be full of kids headed toward the event.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
I’m not done with the Abyssinian Maid yet, but I’m starting on another painting for the Kubla Khan book, and just finished roughing it out. I’m sure it will still change significantly but this is the foundation it’s being built upon. This is for the part of the poem that goes (in bold),
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
If you’re wondering about the skulls, this is from later in the poem;
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
So, of course, it’s a dead underground sea fed by the sacred river Alph.
