Pinch Hitting

Hi there. It's the wife. I'm stepping in for the evening as Orion is currently entrenched in the warhammer universe, which has much to do with his best friend returning from the metaphorical grave (or North Carolina). Ah, we lost him again to drawing this time. These artists, I'll tell ya.

So, after several months of complete fiction immersion, I've felt pretty self-indulgent. Usually I do a sort of flip-flop, read a little fiction, read a little non-fiction and keep things nice and balanced. Since Christmas I've been buried in one good fiction series after another, so in honor of the Lent season I decided to give up fiction until Easter. My first non-fiction book of choice is a biography of Martin Luther King Jr. It's called "Let the Trumpet Sound- A Life of Martin Luther King Jr." by Stephen B. Oates. Now to begin with two things: 1. I'm always a little nervous about reading books that are meant to instruct when they are picked at random. I'm a pretty trusting person, so I try to be picky about who I trust and randomly picked books can be well, kind of random. So, far this author seems pretty even-handed, and I suppose you have to start somwhere which leads me to-2. I really don't know much about MLK. This, I suppose, is in the same vein as, I don't know much about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or any other variety of perennial historical figure favorites. You know what I mean, we all know the basic details, in MLK's case, the Montgomery Bus Boycott (although I have to admit I didn't know how much he was involved with it), the "I Have A Dream Speech," sit-ins, his assasination. But, like much in life, it was all so vague, so blurry to me. The beautiful thing about a well written biography is that it leads the reader into the nit and grit of a person's life. A good biography will humanize a figure, a myth, and make their ideals and triumphs more attainable for us lowly folk. So, on that note, I thought I'd share a couple of quotes that I really liked:

Quoting Ghandi, "Rivers of blood may have to flow before we gain our freedom, but it must be our blood. The same must be true of us, King would say, because 'unearned suffering is redemptive.'" Yet, he qualified this statement, this way of life, by saying "this is resistance, it is not stagnant passivity, a "do-nothing" method. 'It is not passive nonresistance to evil, it is active nonviolent resistance to evil.' And it is not a method for cowards. Ghandi said that if somebody uses it because he is afraid, he is not truly nonviolent. Really, nonviolence is the way of the strong."

I know that I, a middle class white gal (not to sound glib, but it's the truth!), won't run into oppression and violence too often, or really ever, in my life. But it is an interesting mind set, this idea of active resistance to the many terrible, terrible things going on in our world today. So, thats my musing....



and for kicks, here's what I caught Orion and her majesty, Lord Cocoa, doing the other night

Mrs. B

Huh...

Here's another reason why med school is starting to look attractive right about now...

Moderate Escapism as a Career

Driving home last night, I decided that maybe I should have a back-up plan with regard to my career. After a moment of consideration, I decided that I would be interested in going to med school, mainly to become a doctor who helps patients who have suffered a stroke.

Reasons for this as a possible career choice: Reason #1, I have excellent hand-eye coordination from decades of art-making and video games. Reason #2, I can engage in incredibly tedious activities for long periods of time without losing concentration. Reason #3, I am a jokster, and could see myself pawing at a patient's noggin while moaning, "Braaaaaains... braaaaaains....". Reason #4, I'd like to make a positive contribution to humanity to make up for all the days I sleep late.

Stroke prevention tips can be found here.

Shapely Environs

Are we merely the sum of our environmental conditions? Does the fish only grow as large as the bowl will allow?
Mission of the day: push down some metaphorical walls, move to a different city.

I doodled last night. My charcoal supplies have been mostly depleted, but I found a solid chunk of carbonized vine that did the job. I've got shelves full of art supplies, some that are getting on in years. Now's probably a good time to put them to use.

I had fun. More drawings to come.

Ice and the Open Road

I took this photo from the studio window last week when everything was covered in an inch of ice (and then four more inches of snow). I measured this icicle with a tape measure which clocked it in at about five feet long. Once again I am in awe of Ohio weather, which never ceases to amaze. Granted, I'm sure there's some icy fjord where people toss around giant icicles all the time. But the fact that we got some nice ones growing here was interesting.

I went on a road trip to see the family over the weekend. Had a good time, despite the long drive. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to pack music for the car's CD player, so I was stuck between the limbo of empty car noise and the three CD's that were in the car at the time of my departure. The Black Heart Procession - Amore Del Tropico, KMFDM - Tohuvabohu, and the Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour compilation/soundtrack thingy. Needless to say, the music selection was schizophrenic at best, and I ended up listening to each of these albums at least three times apiece throughout the drive.

It was t-shirt weather at my dad's. Coming from a winter wonderland, I was agog at the balmy (64 degrees by the time I left) conditions. Regardless, spring will come soon. Just. A. Few. More. Weeks. I had a good time with my dad. We went to a steakhouse to celebrate his birthday, and the waitresses sang to him. He also got a massive birthday brownie and ice cream dish on the house that was so large neither of us could finish it.

I stirred from my mom's couch on saturday to find her and grandma sitting at the kitchen table. The three of us sat together, drinking coffee and having conversations. It was a pretty cool multi-generational experience that I don't get a lot of these days.

I'm back in Columbus now to find that most of my icicles have melted and fallen away. Good that no one walking by the house wasn't impaled by falling ice spikes of death while I was gone.