Henny Penny

I know, I know, I sound like a broken record with "Artomatic this" and "Artomatic that"...

but I just thought I'd let you know that this Friday, May 16, is Meet the Artists night, and I'm planning to be there, hanging around my space on the 10th floor from 7pm to 10-ish. I'll even have a few noshes and drinkables* on hand.

So, come on down! If you were already there last weekend and saw some art that you particularly admired (or were disgusted by?), now is your chance to meet the artist and find out what they were thinking.

*Update: I will not be able to bring in outside wine because of license restrictions, but there is beer and wine available at the Artomatic bars on the 1st and 11th floors.

It was quite a death march to get this painting finished (and the paint dry) in time for Artomatic, but I made it, and got in there on the last night of installation to hang it. Opening night is this Friday and I'll be there. I'll also be hanging around on Friday, May 16th, which is Meet the Artists night. Here are teh infose:

Who: Jennifer Bishop

What: One large-ish oil painting of a busy street in Milan

What else: 999 other artists on 10 floors! Refreshments, music, performances, and fun times for all.

Where: 10th floor NW B4, near the Peeps exhibit, 1200 1st St. NE, Capitol Plaza I office building, 1 block west of NY avenue metro.

When: May 9 - June 15.

More info at www.artomatic.org

You are The Hermit

The Hermit points to all things hidden, such as knowledge and inspiration,hidden enemies. The illumination is from within, and retirement from participation in current events.

The Hermit is a card of introspection, analysis and, well, virginity. You do not desire to socialize; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. You prefer to take the time to think, organize, ruminate, take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent but these feelings eventually lead to enlightenment, illumination, clarity.

The Hermit represents a wise, inspirational person, friend, teacher, therapist. This a person who can shine a light on things that were previously mysterious and confusing.

OK, as a couple of people noticed (and I noticed, pausing to check the web page again only moments before heading out the door last saturday), the Montgomery County Farm Tour was NOT, in fact, last weekend, but is THIS weekend. So once again, for real this time - alpacas, sweet corn, chickens, tractors, alpacas, merriment, alpacas, etc.

So anyhow, last Saturday I was so angry and depressed about mixing up the dates of the farm tour that I decided to get the hell out of the house anyway and do something outdoorsy. I did a little research on the intarwebs, hitched up the new bicycle to the bike rack, bid farewell to my husband, who was stuck doing homework, and drove off to White's Ferry to bike the C&O Canal towpath.

The weather was perfect, the trail was blessedly uncrowded, and I was pretty much able to go in a straight line. (I am a cycling newb) Oh, it was so much fun! I saw a bluebird and a bunting and some turtles and ducks and a great blue heron. The trail was nice and shady and perfectly level. Every time I came to another mile marker, I would consider turning around and going back, but I wasn't tired at all - just one more mile couldn't hurt. I finally turned around after about 6 miles. Starting to get a little tired, butt starting to ache, but everything was going all right.

Then a junebug flew into my ear and got stuck there. Within seconds I was on the ground with the bike on top of me, furiously shaking my head and screaming like a baby. I got the bug out of my ear, glad to see it wasn't a bee or a wasp, then surveyed the damage - the bike looked OK but my pants leg was ripped open at the knee and the leg underneath looked like raw hamburger. Not good. Of course, as a novice in these matters, I hadn't thought to bring any kind of first aid kit. As the bleeding started in earnest, I realized I still had 4 miles to go. Oddly enough, my first feeling was a kind of elation - I hurt myself doing something athletic! I'm awesome!

The death march back to the car wasn't really too bad - I ripped the bottom off of my t-shirt and tied it around the big wound, and started walking the bike. After a while I got annoyed and tried riding a little, but it hurt, so I walked the rest of the way. I was really happy to see the car, and a coke machine, when I finally got back to the ferry. I got a can of Coke WITH SUGAR, screw that diet crap. So tasty. All in all, a great day.

So I've been hobbling around a little bit this week because of the road rash, but thanks to modern bandages and polybacitracin, it's healing really fast. I'm planning to call my mom and let her know that peroxide, mercuro-chrome, and "letting it air out" are no longer considered good ways to heal a scrape.

I can't wait to get out there again.

I'm planning to head out to the Montgomery County Farm Tour this weekend. It has all of my favorite things - fruits and veggies, cute fuzzy animals, yard sales, food and drinks, hay rides, and alpaca yarn! And alpacas! Expect to see lots of photos....

Did I mention the ALPACAS?!? YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Because everyone else is doing it, and the site is pretty cool! I don't usually go for fantasy, but maybe I'll read this or see the movie. Sigh. Just another marketing victim.

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Southern. Love it or hate it, your accent says you're probably from somewhere south of the Ohio River.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

Calling all DC-area artists - feel free to pass this info along if you know someone who might be interested.

A large studio space has opened up on New York Ave. near the new metro station. We need a total of 10 artists (give or take one) to rent the space. The rent will be $275/month with 10 people. This is a nice, large open space in a warehouse building, lots of windows, a clean *new* bathroom, a big freight elevator, and good storage areas. You'll be able to do whatever you want with your rented space, provided that you don't totally wall it in. We want to foster a sense of community within the group of artists.

The other tenants in the building are groups of artists and a typography shop, so the landlords are accustomed to working with artist tenants.

The ArtDC folks are taking the lead on this. They're hoping to dedicate 2/3 of the space to "resident" artists who will rent the 10 spaces (month to month, 30 days notice to get out) and 1/3 of the space as a shared resource for area artists - workspace, classes, drawing sessions, etc.

We have 5 people so far. If you're interested and want to see the place, contact Jesse Cohen at admin@jessecohen.com.

I really hope this comes together, I'm so excited to have a "real" studio where I'm not afraid of getting paint on the floor!! This is a great opportunity at this price - DC is sorely lacking in suitable industrial/warehouse spaces.

Update: There is also a utilities fee of ~$25/month.

We really should be more aware of the random acts of violence that go on every day in our world - especially since we as a country are causing so many of them (Iraq). But an event like this is just truly shocking.

Virginia Tech Shooting Kills at least 22

Update: 30+ victims. Truly horrific.

OK, got my Artomatic space, now I just have to figure out which stuff to hang! I want to paint something interesting on the wall too, as a backdrop.... because I'm in a hallway and have a decent chance of attracting attention. Not a lot of time, though... Hmmmmm.....

Anyway, the space is great, and there should be some fun events. Here's what I know so far:

April 13: OPENING NIGHT - big party
May 4: Meet the artists night (but not me, for I will be at the Arcade Fire concert)
May 5: Cinco de Mayo party
May 20: Closing night party (?)

And various exciting performances every night!

Where: 2121 Crystal Drive, 6th and 8th floors. 3 blocks from Crystal City Metro.

More info at artomatic.org. Since this is a volunteer-run collective effort by a horde of artists, the schedule is kind of "organic" and in constant evolutionary flux, so check back often.

OK, I think I got this figured out. I created a feed called divineblog2. If you add it as your friend, my blog posts on Divinest Sense will appear on your friends page! Now, it's pretty close to impossible to find this feed. You have to go to the syndication page, scroll down to the bottom, and search for "http://www.divinestsense.com/feed/". This will bring up divineblog2 and ask if you want to add it as a friend.

Fair warning, my blog posts tend to be long. I'll continue to post more personal stuff here on LJ for my nearest and dearest.

I haven't updated here in a while - nothing too thrilling to report, other than the bathroom remodeling project that

nongamer mentioned. We bought a flapperless toilet! Yay.

I have been doing most of my updating, ranting, and raving on my blog, Divinest Sense.

A fun weekend! Went out for Mexican food Friday night, had a great time at

dallendoug and

nofcna's housewarming party in their fabulous apartment on Saturday night, and did absolutely nothing on Sunday. Loafing is wonderful. Though I am making a general effort to loaf a little less and exercise a little more. I've noticed that I'm getting older and saggier lately, an indication that I am perhaps not immortal, as I had previously thought. I feel a lot better when I exercise for 30 minutes a day.

Also taking more vitamins daily, and I'm trying out a vegetarian diet to see how it goes. My reasons for this are sort of unfocused - half health-related and half cruelty-concerned. After spending a while logging the food I eat on Fitday and getting a feel for what nutrients I'm actually getting out of my food, I've concluded that there's not much benefit to eating meat at every meal. In fact, it delivers loads of fat and hardly any nutrients - and bumps the total calorie intake way up. I also feel like it's really unnecessary to grow all those billions of food animals on factory farms just so I can feed myself a load of really bland chicken or beef that has to be salted and fried in order for it to deliver any satisfaction. This makes no sense.

I suspect that 32 years of meat-eating will have stacked the odds against my success as a vegetarian, but you never know. So far I don't really miss the meat, but it's only been a week or so. I think I will feel okay about it if I end up eating local, free-range meat a couple times a week. It's really amazing to see how much meat we Americans regularly eat. Go to any restaurant, and you will find one entree, maybe two, that aren't meat-focused. (Unless it's a steakhouse, where you really shouldn't be expecting miracles.) But that's all. Many times you end up having to get creative with side dishes to assemble a vegetarian meal. Even the salads have meat in them! You really have to wonder what would happen if our overly abundant meat supply were suddenly cut off. Would there be riots in the streets? Or would we just adapt? I suspect the latter.

When I studied abroad in Italy during college, I lost about 30 pounds in 4 months. I think this was due in large part to increased exercise - I walked everywhere, climbed lots of stairs, etc. I sure wasn't dieting! My days were filled with sumptuous pastas, flavorful cheeses and crusty bread, amazing fresh tomatoes and artichokes and basil and zucchini, hearty lentil and white bean stews, pizza brushed with earthy olive oil and garlic... and very little meat. Sure, I enjoyed translucent rashers of prosciutto or salumi with my cheese and olives from time to time, and once or twice splurged on saltimbocca at dinner. OK, I even went to McDonald's a couple of times to get a taste of home. But most of my meals didn't center around meat, and I didn't even notice. In Italy, meat is markedly more expensive than non-meat dinner items, and servings of meat are quite small. By contrast, here in America people will eat that much meat as an appetizer before the main meal!

Well, I can't claim that my little experiment will prove anything or change anything, but I might as well give it a try.

My extended absence from the internets is now over! Until the next one, anyway. My excuse this time, as most of you know, was my wedding and honeymoon. And all the planning leading up to the wedding. I am SO glad I don't have to plan a wedding anymore.

Everything went pretty well and everyone seemed to have a good time at the reception. Except for

joekerstef, who had a flat tire in Dupont Circle, and

jvowles, who forgot to come. (Haha, more cake for meeeeee!!)

We don't have photos of the wedding posted anywhere yet, but we've got some great photos of the honeymoon. I mean, ahem, tasteful photos of Napa Valley, Yosemite National Park, and San Francisco. It was so beautiful in California.... really difficult to come back to rainy and cold Maryland.

Now we're looking forward to a nice relaxing Thanksgiving with friends in Alexandria, and, oh god, a second wedding reception in Texas. D'oh!! This is where

nongamer finds out exactly what sort of insane family he's just married into, and learns that yes, the Dallas Petroleum Club is a real place.

David Allen - Ministering to the Business Community

I KNEW this guy was some sort of cult wacko! Nobody who's that obsessed with productivity can be exactly sane. ;)

OK, all kidding aside, the "Getting things Done" organizational tips are pretty damn good, and have helped me start to gain better control of my e-mail inbox. But I always thought there was something a little fishy about how Allen's constantly buttering up his audience - telling us how smart we are, how special, and that we deserve something better than to be burdened with the staggering mental load of to-do's that we carry around with us all the time. Hey, I already know I'm the greatest ever, David, what are you trying to sell me??

In my mind, it's a short hop from consciously relinquishing mental control of your daily/weekly plans to giving up mental, physical, and legal control of everything you have, because you believe in something bigger than all that. Bottom line, take the advice, but be conscious of the motivations of the advice-giver.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
671
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

An odd little list of "canonical" literature, by interdisciplinarian Howard Bloom. I yanked this from

jvowles. Pass it on, bold titles you've read all the way through, italicize titles you've attempted but haven't made it to the end. There are a couple here that I'm not at all familiar with.

Gilgamesh
The Iliad
Sophocles - Antigone
Euripedes - Medea
Aristophanes - The Wasps
Aesop - Fables
Plautus - Pseudolus
Machiavelli - The Prince
Pedro Calderon de la Barca - Life is a Dream
William Congreve - The Way of the World
Sir Thomas Malory - Le Morte D'Arthur
Christopher Smart - Jubilate Agno
Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe
Edward FitzGerald - The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
Bram Stoker - Dracula
Louisa May Alcott - Little Women
Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Italo Calvino - If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Jean-Paul Sartre - No Exit
Albert Camus - The Stranger
Shaw - Major Barbara
D.H. Lawrence - Sons and Lovers
Woolf - To the Lighthouse and Orlando
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
George Orwell - 1984
Brecht - The Threepenny Opera
Chinua Achebe- Things Fall Apart
Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises
John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
Richard Wright - Black Boy
Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
Arthur Miller - Death of a Salesman
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Cat's Cradle

You are The Hermit

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