We had a slight mishap today, with senior #1, which is why it's day 10 V0.1
When I got there at our appt'ed time, she was still having breakfast and in her bathrobe. This had happened before and this time I was prepared — I brought my lunch! So I ate my lunch and went for a quick walk. But an hour later, she still hadn't shown up. I knocked on her door again, and she did come to the door, although apparently, she had taken a fall and spilled a can of coke on the kitchen floor. The floor was wet with brown liquids and very sticky. Well, I don't blame her for not being up to do watercolors after that!
After I cleaned up the kitchen floor, she asked me to go into the living room to see the watercolor she painted! She was very proud of it (and yes, it was the watercolor she did with me). (And yes, I reported the fall to the front desk.)
Senior #2, as always, was prepared with 2 drawings, 1 verse, and a watercolor. And we managed to print everything today. Next time we meet, we're going to hand color some of the prints.
The random movie tonight was Summer Palace, a Chinese movie. Except we didn't actually get to see it. We thought it was playing at the Livingroom Theater at 10:15pm, but turns out, they don't show movies late on weeknights. And it was too late to try for another movie.
There was a random movie last week, Mrs. Pettygrew Lives for a Day, which I thought was a magical fairy tale; the Good Prince, naturally, thought it was pretty dumb.
(And yes, all day, whenever I'm sitting at the computer, I'm listening to Andreas Scholl. Like right now.)
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
A new day, a new love
Yesterday, the orange tabby; today, the castrato! Well, ok, the countertenor, but I bet 'castrato' got your attention.
Listen to Andreas Scholl sing Stabat Mater in D Minor here, written specifically for him. And he looks to be a real cutie patootie too. Actually, he looks somewhat like Joshua Bell, if slightly bulkier and not quite as boyish looking. I got my 'Best of...' CD yesterday and have been listening to it all night as I worked. I'm going to have to get a real stereo. And more of his CD's. (Yes, I'm belatedly discovering Scholl, not being a big fan of Baroque music, but I'm coming around!) Kathleen Battle, Deborah Voight, and Andreas Scholl!
[Speaking of Kathleen Battle (the Divine KB), anecdote time: the Good Prince and I got married almost exactly 17 years ago, on our way into work. The next day, we both went off on business trips, on different flights. Although we were going to the same conference, and we did end up staying at the same hotel. We had no plans for a 'honeymoon,' a concept that always struck me as a little silly. Anyhow, people at work gave us so much trouble over that that, a few months later, when I saw that KB was having her debut at Carnegie Hall, we decided to go. So after dinner at Carnegie Deli, we walked over to Carnegie Hall. And as always, I was walking in one direction and looking in another. I looked back in time, just as I was about to bump into someone. I did a double take, because that someone was the Divine KB herself! I let out a surprised 'oh!' She was just as surprised, and let out a giggle. That was my brush with greatness.]
Work wise, finally got Pudding #23 finished, stuffed in the envelopes, stamped and ready to go. Evidence:
It is a miracle!
On other fronts—prepared for my day at rsm tomorrow, and more Portland Open Studios stuff.
Listen to Andreas Scholl sing Stabat Mater in D Minor here, written specifically for him. And he looks to be a real cutie patootie too. Actually, he looks somewhat like Joshua Bell, if slightly bulkier and not quite as boyish looking. I got my 'Best of...' CD yesterday and have been listening to it all night as I worked. I'm going to have to get a real stereo. And more of his CD's. (Yes, I'm belatedly discovering Scholl, not being a big fan of Baroque music, but I'm coming around!) Kathleen Battle, Deborah Voight, and Andreas Scholl!
[Speaking of Kathleen Battle (the Divine KB), anecdote time: the Good Prince and I got married almost exactly 17 years ago, on our way into work. The next day, we both went off on business trips, on different flights. Although we were going to the same conference, and we did end up staying at the same hotel. We had no plans for a 'honeymoon,' a concept that always struck me as a little silly. Anyhow, people at work gave us so much trouble over that that, a few months later, when I saw that KB was having her debut at Carnegie Hall, we decided to go. So after dinner at Carnegie Deli, we walked over to Carnegie Hall. And as always, I was walking in one direction and looking in another. I looked back in time, just as I was about to bump into someone. I did a double take, because that someone was the Divine KB herself! I let out a surprised 'oh!' She was just as surprised, and let out a giggle. That was my brush with greatness.]
Work wise, finally got Pudding #23 finished, stuffed in the envelopes, stamped and ready to go. Evidence:
It is a miracle!
On other fronts—prepared for my day at rsm tomorrow, and more Portland Open Studios stuff.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
The neighborhood Lothario
...is an orange tabby.
When he was younger, he used to come running if he saw me a block away. It always made me feel like one half of those romantic scenes where the lovers run towards each other in slow motion; I could almost hear the music play in the air.
In the last couple of years, he's been less lovey dovey. Once, he turned, saw me, swished his tail, and then continued on his way to do whatever orange tabbies do. But tonight, just like old times, we had a good visit. He makes me smile, even though I'm worried that he's still out this late at night.
But so much for kitty talk. Today was a full day of Portland Open Studios business. The old web site needs to be updated while the new site is still in the works. All the various acceptance letters need to be updated (accepted, accepted as alternates, scholarship winners, accepted but no scholarship). That was the bulk of the day and I didn't make it to Kinko's to wrap up the notes for Pudding #23. Which gave me another opportunity to look over what I wrote for the technical data and evaluations, and I ended up re-writing much of it too. So it worked out ok. Should be able to copy that, and stuff the envelopes tomorrow.
When he was younger, he used to come running if he saw me a block away. It always made me feel like one half of those romantic scenes where the lovers run towards each other in slow motion; I could almost hear the music play in the air.
In the last couple of years, he's been less lovey dovey. Once, he turned, saw me, swished his tail, and then continued on his way to do whatever orange tabbies do. But tonight, just like old times, we had a good visit. He makes me smile, even though I'm worried that he's still out this late at night.
But so much for kitty talk. Today was a full day of Portland Open Studios business. The old web site needs to be updated while the new site is still in the works. All the various acceptance letters need to be updated (accepted, accepted as alternates, scholarship winners, accepted but no scholarship). That was the bulk of the day and I didn't make it to Kinko's to wrap up the notes for Pudding #23. Which gave me another opportunity to look over what I wrote for the technical data and evaluations, and I ended up re-writing much of it too. So it worked out ok. Should be able to copy that, and stuff the envelopes tomorrow.
MiT, 1st senior, day 9, 2nd senior day 10
I'm still not sure what I think of meeting with both of my seniors on the same day. On the one hand, it's fewer trips, and also it means 2 days a week I'm there, leaving me 5 days to myself; on the other hand, it's pretty exhausting. I was so tired and out of it by the time we wrapped up this afternoon that I came home without loading the equipment up into my car, leaving them all sitting by the front entry way at rsm — it was another day where I had to park in the lower parking lot, so I signed out and carted all my equipment out by the curb before I went off to get the car. But then I just got in the car and drove off! Fortunately, the story had a happy ending.
My rock star senior made more prints from her watercolors today, and also another verse. There are enough prints now that I wonder if the current model will still work, it might be too bulky. She's doing some beautiful florals in her drawing/watercolor class and we've been able to use some of the images. She's also been working on watercolors on her own, making images to go with the verses she writes. She's very positive and creative — today, she discovered a spelling error on a verse that we had already finished printing. Ten minutes later, she came up with a solution to 'disguise' the error and to make it more like a puzzle that a reader would have to solve.
My 1st senior is the polar opposite, although she seems to enjoy our time together doing watercolors, if she's made the colors blend, then she wants them not blended; if they're not blended, then she wants them to blend. In short, whatever it is that she's got, she wants the opposite. As a result, she has spent hours working and reworking the same pieces, going back and forth and back and forth, never satisfied. If she's asked me to scrub out some lines that she doesn't want, you can be sure that in another half a minute, she'll ask how she can put some stronger lines in. I'm not really sure how to deal with that, other than to just let her proceed, which is my current plan. She did produce a lovely watercolor during our first session, and she's very fond of it, she's not been able to complete anything since.
My rock star senior made more prints from her watercolors today, and also another verse. There are enough prints now that I wonder if the current model will still work, it might be too bulky. She's doing some beautiful florals in her drawing/watercolor class and we've been able to use some of the images. She's also been working on watercolors on her own, making images to go with the verses she writes. She's very positive and creative — today, she discovered a spelling error on a verse that we had already finished printing. Ten minutes later, she came up with a solution to 'disguise' the error and to make it more like a puzzle that a reader would have to solve.
My 1st senior is the polar opposite, although she seems to enjoy our time together doing watercolors, if she's made the colors blend, then she wants them not blended; if they're not blended, then she wants them to blend. In short, whatever it is that she's got, she wants the opposite. As a result, she has spent hours working and reworking the same pieces, going back and forth and back and forth, never satisfied. If she's asked me to scrub out some lines that she doesn't want, you can be sure that in another half a minute, she'll ask how she can put some stronger lines in. I'm not really sure how to deal with that, other than to just let her proceed, which is my current plan. She did produce a lovely watercolor during our first session, and she's very fond of it, she's not been able to complete anything since.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The short hair picture
So gl requested an image of me with short hair, and without the stubble, so here it is:
When it was first cut, it was shorter still; it had grown out some already in this shot. I did take some pictures at a photobooth right after I had it cut, but the background was black, and you couldn't see my hair against the background. I can vouch that I looked just like k. d. lang though, when her hair is really short!
This was probably around 1997-8. I saw a lot of women with their hair cut really short and it looked really cute, so I tried it. My hair stood straight up when it was cut that short. It was really easy to wash, 5 seconds; then I had to spend another 10 minutes trying to get it to lie down flat! It also required way too frequent visits to the hair place to keep it trimmed and stuff, so I grew it back out. Now I just have the lazy person's haircut.
OK, onto business. Today was the meeting to discuss the new Portland Open Studios web site, and it was a marathon 5 hour meeting! We got a lot done. There was also the wee bit distraction of a 3 months old baby...
When it was first cut, it was shorter still; it had grown out some already in this shot. I did take some pictures at a photobooth right after I had it cut, but the background was black, and you couldn't see my hair against the background. I can vouch that I looked just like k. d. lang though, when her hair is really short!
This was probably around 1997-8. I saw a lot of women with their hair cut really short and it looked really cute, so I tried it. My hair stood straight up when it was cut that short. It was really easy to wash, 5 seconds; then I had to spend another 10 minutes trying to get it to lie down flat! It also required way too frequent visits to the hair place to keep it trimmed and stuff, so I grew it back out. Now I just have the lazy person's haircut.
OK, onto business. Today was the meeting to discuss the new Portland Open Studios web site, and it was a marathon 5 hour meeting! We got a lot done. There was also the wee bit distraction of a 3 months old baby...
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Pudding issue #23, day 3...and I'm a redhead!
OK, finished printing the cover page for Pudding #23. They should be dry and in the mail by Saturday! At last.
And the topic of women & facial hair (and no hair) seems to have struck up some interest (see comments in this entry). And gl—I don't just think I have a funny shaped head, I know I have a funny shaped head! But in either case, having just had my hair turned red today, I'm not going to shave it off any time soon
Especially since it took forever: I went in for my once every 6 months hair cut today. Unfortunately, the guy who cuts my hair, who's actually a neighbor and was doing it out of his house (and I could just walk there), had moved to a salon across town. And since I went all the way out there, I figured I might as well go all the way and have my hair tinted Scarlet (that was the official color name).
I thought this was something you shampooed into your hair and washed off. But noooooo. You paint it on with a brush, hair by hair by hair. Well, it seemed like that anyhow. Anyhow, THAT, took all afternoon.
So where my hair had turned white, it's now a coppery red; where it was still black...it's still black. I think in the sunlight, you can probably see a red cast. The Good Prince, being color-blind, can't see anything different. I think you can see the copper in this shot:
And the topic of women & facial hair (and no hair) seems to have struck up some interest (see comments in this entry). And gl—I don't just think I have a funny shaped head, I know I have a funny shaped head! But in either case, having just had my hair turned red today, I'm not going to shave it off any time soon
Especially since it took forever: I went in for my once every 6 months hair cut today. Unfortunately, the guy who cuts my hair, who's actually a neighbor and was doing it out of his house (and I could just walk there), had moved to a salon across town. And since I went all the way out there, I figured I might as well go all the way and have my hair tinted Scarlet (that was the official color name).
I thought this was something you shampooed into your hair and washed off. But noooooo. You paint it on with a brush, hair by hair by hair. Well, it seemed like that anyhow. Anyhow, THAT, took all afternoon.
So where my hair had turned white, it's now a coppery red; where it was still black...it's still black. I think in the sunlight, you can probably see a red cast. The Good Prince, being color-blind, can't see anything different. I think you can see the copper in this shot:
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The jury process, day 2
Today was the 2nd half of the jury process. Most of the work was already done by the jurors when they scored each applicant, so today's job was to balance out the sides (east/west). Also when you sort by score and, for example, you have the next 10 people with the same score but only 3 slots left, then you have to start looking at things like, is it a medium that's not well represented in the mix, or an unusual technique, etc. So that was an interesting exercise.
Monday, March 24, 2008
MiT, 2nd senior, day 9
After what seems like very long hiatus (2 weeks), my Rock Star senior and I got back to printing today. During these last two weeks, she made a bunch of watercolor flowers and wrote a few more verses to go with them. We printed one flower image with a verse, and a 2nd one just the plain flower, which I really thought was very elegant all by itself, without any words. I convinced her to just let it be without words, and I'm glad she went along. Here's the entry from our last meet.
On the open studios front—finished the score sheet database and I'm ready for tomorrow's final selection process.
In what is yet more of the one thing leads to another department—during which I cleaned up the upstairs spare bedroom, got rid of a lot of the junk accumulated over the years, got rid of the old sofa bed, and bought a more comfortable guest bed—I bought a dresser for the newly inaugurated guest bedroom today.
It's the tall thing on the left. The room is not very big so I've been looking for a high boy style dresser, which seems to be quite popular at the moment. I've been checking the thrift shops and 2nd hand furniture stores, and everywhere the same story, "oh, I sold one just like that yesterday!" Anyhow, saw this one on craigslist, and by the time I emailed, he had already had several responses, and it was first come first serve. I guess I got there first. It was pretty much the exact size I was looking for, perhaps just a tad on the taller side (the lamp now sits a bit high). But I'm not going to complain. It's in decent shape, although some dog obviously had a fun time with the bottom drawer pull!
Serendipitously, I think it goes quite well with the hand woven wool blanket the BiL & SiL brought for us last week from Ireland, which you see on the sofa.
And even more serendipitously, the blanket also goes well with the yardage that I had bought to make pillows for the sofa. The wall hanging is a Taiwanese aboriginal bark painting that my mother had for years and gave to me a few years back. I think they all go together pretty well, without having that 'matched' look.
On the open studios front—finished the score sheet database and I'm ready for tomorrow's final selection process.
In what is yet more of the one thing leads to another department—during which I cleaned up the upstairs spare bedroom, got rid of a lot of the junk accumulated over the years, got rid of the old sofa bed, and bought a more comfortable guest bed—I bought a dresser for the newly inaugurated guest bedroom today.
It's the tall thing on the left. The room is not very big so I've been looking for a high boy style dresser, which seems to be quite popular at the moment. I've been checking the thrift shops and 2nd hand furniture stores, and everywhere the same story, "oh, I sold one just like that yesterday!" Anyhow, saw this one on craigslist, and by the time I emailed, he had already had several responses, and it was first come first serve. I guess I got there first. It was pretty much the exact size I was looking for, perhaps just a tad on the taller side (the lamp now sits a bit high). But I'm not going to complain. It's in decent shape, although some dog obviously had a fun time with the bottom drawer pull!
Serendipitously, I think it goes quite well with the hand woven wool blanket the BiL & SiL brought for us last week from Ireland, which you see on the sofa.
And even more serendipitously, the blanket also goes well with the yardage that I had bought to make pillows for the sofa. The wall hanging is a Taiwanese aboriginal bark painting that my mother had for years and gave to me a few years back. I think they all go together pretty well, without having that 'matched' look.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
The jury process
Today was the first step of the open studios jury process. There were 3 jurors, all uninvolved with the event in any other way. Each applicant submitted 3 images or 6 images (if they were applying for the scholarship). Each juror gave each applicant a single score from 1 to 6. The range of 1 to 6 was chosen (over 1 to 5) so that the jurors didn't have the option of doing a '3', should they be indecisive about which way to go; they had to commit to 1 direction or the other.
We went through all the images first, without scoring, which gave the jurors an idea of the overall pool. Then they scored the applicants on the 2nd go-around. It was a very quiet group, very little talking, chatting, and there were just a few questions. From my vantage point, I could see how a couple of the jurors were scoring, and I thought, "wow, I would never get in with these guys!" It was really very interesting to see how they were scoring, what their preferences were, etc.
After the scoring, the jurors left, and we stayed to tally up the scores. Now my job is to enter it all into a database, sortable by a variety of fields. Then we get together again to review the scores and other qualifying factors.
That, pretty much was the day.
We went through all the images first, without scoring, which gave the jurors an idea of the overall pool. Then they scored the applicants on the 2nd go-around. It was a very quiet group, very little talking, chatting, and there were just a few questions. From my vantage point, I could see how a couple of the jurors were scoring, and I thought, "wow, I would never get in with these guys!" It was really very interesting to see how they were scoring, what their preferences were, etc.
After the scoring, the jurors left, and we stayed to tally up the scores. Now my job is to enter it all into a database, sortable by a variety of fields. Then we get together again to review the scores and other qualifying factors.
That, pretty much was the day.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The (not so) fat lady sings...and can she ever!
Being an opera singer gets harder and harder all the time. It used to be that they could just stand around and sing. But then people demanded that they act, and so they started acting. Soon people wanted more telegenic and not so fat singers, and so they slimmed down (most famously with Deborah Voight's weight loss surgery). And now, with the HD telecast in movie theaters, they must have perfect complexion as well.
Fortunately, so far, they all seem to! It's really quite amazing, to see these gods and goddesses, glorious sounds pouring out of their mouths, their faces 20' high on the movie screen, and not a blemish on their radiant complexion. That can't all be the magic of makeup, right? I mean, if they have a zit, or a wrinkle, it's going to show up...right?
I finally got to see and hear Deborah Voight today, the 5 hour opera marathon of the Met's HD simulcast of Tristan und Isolde, starring Deborah Voight as Isolde and a revolving door of tenors as Tristan. (Today's Tristan was her 4th Tristan in as many performances...I guess it's jinxed. One got sick, one got bunked on the head, not sure what happened to the 3rd. Glad to report that there were no mishaps today.)
And wow, wow, wow, what a great performance! I had only seen still photos of Deborah Voight before (and all from before the surgery), and I have to say that her size was first thing you noticed (well, I noticed, anyways). But in a live performance, she's a lovely, beautiful performer, as well as a fantastic singer, and you never notice her size at all (and I'd bet that even before surgery, she was just as lovely a performer). I'd love to hear her sing Turandot, although that does not appear to be on the list of roles she does.
[A slight distraction, during which I bought 3 CD, one with Deborah Voight, of course; a second of Rodelinda, which I've wanted to do for a while; and a third of Andreas Scholl. I also found a bunch of Andreas Scholl videos on youtube and fell in love!]
OK, so that was all so NOT in the studio today. I did finish prepping for the Portland Open Studios jurying process tomorrow. I guess I'm calling it a day.
Fortunately, so far, they all seem to! It's really quite amazing, to see these gods and goddesses, glorious sounds pouring out of their mouths, their faces 20' high on the movie screen, and not a blemish on their radiant complexion. That can't all be the magic of makeup, right? I mean, if they have a zit, or a wrinkle, it's going to show up...right?
I finally got to see and hear Deborah Voight today, the 5 hour opera marathon of the Met's HD simulcast of Tristan und Isolde, starring Deborah Voight as Isolde and a revolving door of tenors as Tristan. (Today's Tristan was her 4th Tristan in as many performances...I guess it's jinxed. One got sick, one got bunked on the head, not sure what happened to the 3rd. Glad to report that there were no mishaps today.)
And wow, wow, wow, what a great performance! I had only seen still photos of Deborah Voight before (and all from before the surgery), and I have to say that her size was first thing you noticed (well, I noticed, anyways). But in a live performance, she's a lovely, beautiful performer, as well as a fantastic singer, and you never notice her size at all (and I'd bet that even before surgery, she was just as lovely a performer). I'd love to hear her sing Turandot, although that does not appear to be on the list of roles she does.
[A slight distraction, during which I bought 3 CD, one with Deborah Voight, of course; a second of Rodelinda, which I've wanted to do for a while; and a third of Andreas Scholl. I also found a bunch of Andreas Scholl videos on youtube and fell in love!]
OK, so that was all so NOT in the studio today. I did finish prepping for the Portland Open Studios jurying process tomorrow. I guess I'm calling it a day.
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