Archive for July, 2008
24 items.
I’m playing with the appearance of the blog. I may return to the old style and I may not. Will be messy around here for a couple of days and there will be some missing pages as well as I’ve needed to get rid of some upper level pages and need to work with hierarchy.
”Comment
I like transcripts but podcasts might be nice
July 30th, 2008 |Posted In: Computer And Stuff (Probably Be Damned), General
Was wondering what people think of the “Have you ever seen a UFO?” series…not whether you think it’s a good idea or not, but if a podcast might be preferred? Or not?
Am also testing blogging from my iPhone though my computer is right in front of my face.
“Not a toy!” I tell H.o.p. when he asks to play a game on my iPhone. “Not a toy!”
He knows better.
P.S. Marty thinks it ought to always be transcripts, and I tend to agree with him. That probably takes care of that.
Idyllopus Press: OK, recording. Do you want to be anonymous for this or first name or what?
Anon: How about anonymous?
Idyllopus Press: OK and I’ll take a picture of your shoe or something afterwards because we must have a picture.
Anon (laughing): OK.
Idyllopus Press: All right. The first question. Have you ever seen a UFO?
Anon: No. I wish I could say yes. But, no.
Idyllopus Press: OK. Do you know anyone who’s seen a UFO?
Anon: I don’t think so.
Idyllopus Press: OK. Have you ever dreamt about a UFO?
Anon: I don’t think so.
Idyllopus Press: OK. Second question. What’s your most interesting coincidence you’ve ever had?
Anon: The one that is most powerful to me, because I felt it was waking me up to something was something that happened when I was about 19 years old. And I was living in Nashville at the time and I worked for Nashville’s equivalent to Georgia Power. So, to me it’s significant that it’s the power company I was working for. And I was getting ready to go home one weekend, which I would do from time to time, and a woman named Eleanor who worked in an office down the hall had come in. And I had talked to Eleanor before. She was just an ordinary woman, probably in her 50′s. And I mentioned that I was going home for the weekend, and she said, “Oh…”
Idyllopus Press: You mean coming down here…
Anon: Right. I was going home was really all I said. I was going out of town, I was going home for the weekend. So she asked me where was home and I said Atlanta, and she said, “Really!” And I said, “Yeah,” and she said, “Well, I used to live in Atlanta when I was growing up.” And I said, “Yeah?” She said, “Well, what part of town do you live in?” And I said, “Oh, I live in the northeast part of Atlanta,” and she said, “Oh, well, that’s interesting, I lived in the northeast part of Atlanta, too.” And I said, “Yeah?” And she said, “Well, what street do you live on?” And I said, “Well, I live on McQuinn Avenue,” or I did at the time, or my parents did. And she said, “Really, I grew up on McQuinn Avenue.”
By this point in the story I was really beginning to feel pretty strange. I felt pretty disoriented because it seemed so improbable that she would have lived on the same street that I grew up on, where I’d grown up, because, you know, it’s a street people in Virginia Highland would know but it’s not the main street…
Idyllopus Press: Right.
Anon: And she was living in Nashville and we’re talking about Atlanta. So I said, “Well, what house did you live in?” And she said, “Well, I can’t remember what the house number was…” but she said it was the house that faced Avalon. Now, I was beginning to feel more than just really strange about it, because that narrowed it down to only two possibilities. My house and my next door neighbor’s house. And she began describing the house because she couldn’t remember the house number, about what it was like to walk in the front door and what the living room looked like and how the rooms in the house were laid out, and I am just bowled over with the fact that she was describing my house. That here I was in Nashville, Tennessee, working for the power company, and I run into the person who lived in the house where I grew up. And it wasn’t…
Idyllopus Press: So how many years would it have been since she’d lived there?
Anon: At that point it would have been 30 years, and there were maybe 6 or 7 families who had ever lived in our house. Maybe. Maybe not even that many. So the odds were pretty slim.
So as we kept talking about the house, I started finding out things about the house that I had wondered about, but didn’t know, and about people in the neighborhood. And one of them was that we had this garage at the back of the house with a kind of house above it. My mom had put up a sign at the time–and I guess I’m about to give…blow this anonymous idea–but mom had put up a sign for us kids and she had called it “The ______ Pest Nest”, and it was a place we could go and play. Well, it turned out that Eleanor’s father had built what we called the Pest Nest, that it had originally been a chicken coop that they had built. So that’s what _____ Pest Nest was…
Idyllopus Press: The chicken coop…
Anon: And she knew that the people across the street from us, the Browns, who had never had children, that it wasn’t that they didn’t want children, they couldn’t have children. She didn’t know exactly why but, you know, they couldn’t, and I’d always wondered about that too because they’d always been very nice to us. Mr. Brown used to let us do things like, he had this fabulous garden, they grew camellias and azaleas and all kinds of wonderful things, and they had this multi-level yard, and he also did bonsai trees…
Idyllopus Press: Oh, I like bonsai trees.
Anon: And he had music boxes. And it was okay to go to his back door and knock and he’d bring out a music box or a bonsai tree or something like that. To share.
But anyway, it was just that, to me, that was the most amazing coincidence in my life, that I would go to another city and meet somebody who grew up in the house that I’d grown up in. And I felt such an attachment for the home and it was clear that she had as well, that, you know, there was something about that house that went deep in you. It was nicely laid out and it felt so much like home.
Idyllopus Press: What did it mean to you that you would meet somebody…
Anon: What it meant to me…I felt as if something in the universe was really grabbing me by the scruff of the neck and saying that there was something deeper here in the world, that there was something else going on in the world besides just the things that you could see. And, I felt, I don’t even know how to describe a physical sensation other than just to say that I felt so disoriented for several days afterwards. It just seemed so unbelievable. And, um, anyway, that’s it.
Idyllopus Press: How do you think she felt? Did you have any impression?
Anon: I’m not sure she felt as completely weirded out about it as I did. You know, she was certainly surprised and I remember her saying that she was going to get in touch with her mom, who was evidently still living at the time, and find out for sure what the house number is. And the funny thing is, I don’t remember ever having a follow-up conversation with her. And then, eventually, I left Nashville permanently and came back to Atlanta and all. But it has just, as I said, it has always struck me as funny that it happened while I was working at the power company. I mean it was as if power became a metaphor for…
Idyllopus Press: Right…
Anon: It was like, “Get serious here, there’s something more to the world.” And I don’t think I’ve ever really forgotten that.
Idyllopus Press: I like that story. The power company…
Anon: So, that’s it.
Idyllopus Press: OK, that’s a good story. I’d freak out if I met anybody who…
Mutual laughter.
Idyllopus Press: So, I’m going to ask you the third question.
Anon: OK.
Idyllopus Press: And the third question–you’ve already told such a good long story, but I’m still going to ask you for another one. Do you have a story that you’d just like to tell? Something that comes to mind? That nobody else would ever be able to tell?
Anon: I mean, that is a harder one because I don’t know that I go around telling stories particularly. I know I was thinking on my way over here that you might ask that question…
Idyllopus Press: I probably would.
Anon: And I know what was on my mind at the time, what I was thinking about talking about, so it sounds like that’s what I’m going to talk about now, is about my dad…
Idyllopus Press: OK.
Anon: And you know that my dad had surgery for a condition called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, and had a shunt put in a little less than a year ago. And things have been kind of difficult in terms of his recovery from that. And there was a period of about two months ago when he seemed a lot more present and things seemed to be going really well, and a particular thing that happened that meant a lot to me was I came in one day and he just reached up with his arms in this great open gesture and he said, “You’re here!” And I said, “Yeah, I am!” and I held up my arms, too. And he said, “I just kept saying if you would just come that we would have everything we need as long as there’s just the two of us.”
So, that’s meant a great deal to me. But it’s like right after that, it was as if things didn’t go very well, and it was as if, kind of in a way he slipped away again. And then he had the shunt adjusted again about a week and a half ago, and I’ve been looking, looking, looking for some sign that it was helping this past week and a half, and nothing seemed to be changing very much, where his conversation…the first part of his sentence would make sense and then it falls apart into this garble. So, I came in today to see him and it was like he was there again, and his sentences were making sense again.
Idyllopus Press: Oh, that’s…
Anon: It’s not that everything was perfect, but it was a pronounced difference from what it was, and to me it wasn’t just that his sentences were making sense again, but that it was almost as if he was newborn and he wanted to see things and he wanted to know what was going on. And he wanted to go in rooms and he wanted to know what was behind this door or that door, so I was taking him around different places. And we discovered on the first floor, where he lives, that there was a little lending library. So he was asking me questions, “So, we can just take these things? There’s no cost involved?” And it turns out in the same room there’s a computer and that we had free access to it, that I have access to it at any time. So I went to it, I went over to the computer, and I parked him next to me and I typed in his home town, McCurtain, Oklahoma, which I’ve pulled up things from before, and I’ve really wanted to find information about McCurtain, which is a very small town. And I wanted to take him back to McCurtain. He wanted me to take him back to McCurtain then he got too sick for that to be possible. So, I’ve looked for things about McCurtain before and not ever found very much. But this time when I put in “McCurtain, Oklahoma” I pulled up somebody’s website that had about a dozen pictures they’d taken, this year, in McCurtain, Oklahoma, on the main street and identified different places. This used to be so-and-so’s grocery and this used to be this, this used to be that.
And, you know, could be that dad was just agreeing that he recognized some of the names I was saying, I don’t know, but he seemed to recognize some of those things. And, anyway, it just meant a lot to me, that he seemed to be present again. And it’s just interesting to have my 85 year old father but feeling so newborn. He saw, you know, I took him back up to the floor he lives on and he was looking at all these people who live there too and he kept saying, “My goodness gracious, my goodness gracious, I just don’t know what else to say.” And I know…
Idyllopus Press: He kept saying, “My goodness gracious, I don’t know what else to say…”
Anon: About the people that he was seeing, because you know he’s looking at people in wheelchairs and who can’t walk very well. And I know he feels protective of all those people although he’s not very much different. I certainly felt from his saying that that he was seeing all that again for the first time, that he was, um, I don’t know…it was like he was waking up from some kind of dream or something…so…well, hope that something more keeps happening for him.
Idyllopus Press: Me, too. Me, too. Thank you, I didn’t know that…Okay. All right. I’ll cut this off. I’ll cut this off.
Anon: Now you’re going to have a lot to…
Idyllopus Press: Type! I’m going to have to type, type, type, I know.
Anon: It’s too bad you don’t have some kind of machine that will, you know…
Idyllopus Press: Yeah, really…
* * * * * * * * *
And we talked about coincidences and the book Flatland and how there are coincidences which seem like visitations hinting at the type of revelations in Flatland, that there is more going on than is casually perceived.
It has been a long time since I’ve read Flatland so here’s Wikipedia’s synopsis of the plot.
The story is about a two-dimensional world referred to as Flatland. The unnamed narrator, a humble square (the social caste of gentlemen and professionals), guides us through some of the implications of life in two dimensions. The Square has a dream about a visit to a one-dimensional world (Lineland), and attempts to convince the realm’s ignorant monarch of a second dimension, but finds that it is essentially impossible to make him see outside of his eternally straight line.
The narrator is then visited by a three-dimensional sphere, which he cannot comprehend until he sees Spaceland for himself. This sphere, who remains nameless, visits Flatland at the turn of each millennium to introduce a new apostle to the idea of a third dimension in the hopes of eventually educating the population of Flatland of the existence of Spaceland. From the safety of Spaceland, they are able to observe the leaders of Flatland secretly acknowledging the existence of the sphere and prescribing the silencing of anyone found preaching the truth of Spaceland and the third dimension. After this proclamation is made, many witnesses are massacred or imprisoned (according to caste).
After the Square’s mind is opened to new dimensions, he tries to convince the Sphere of the theoretical possibility of the existence of a fourth (and fifth, and sixth …) spatial dimension. Offended by this presumption and incapable of comprehending other dimensions, the Sphere returns his student to Flatland in disgrace.
He then has a dream in which the Sphere visits him again, this time to introduce him to Pointland. The point (sole inhabitant, monarch, and universe in one) perceives any attempt at communicating with him as simply being a thought originating in his own mind. (cf Solipsism)
The Square recognizes the connection between the ignorance of the monarchs of Pointland and Lineland with his own (and the Sphere’s) previous ignorance of the existence of other dimensions.
Once returned to Flatland, the Square finds it difficult to convince anyone of Spaceland’s existence, especially after official decrees are announced – anyone preaching the lies of three dimensions will be imprisoned (or executed, depending on caste). Eventually the Square himself is imprisoned for just this reason.
When we had finished, I was going to take a photo of Anon’s shoes but she suggested I instead take a photo of her feet.
So I sat down at the computer this morning and automatically put my hand on the monitor and tried to move one of the icons.
Oh, yeah.
Not an iphone.
Ken is a studio owner/engineer/producer.
H.o.p. (Hums an intro): This is “Mom’s Questions”. Cast, mom and me. Mom is the questioner, I am the sound man.
I didn’t realize this was “Mom’s Questions”. But it is, of course, to H.o.p. And when he’s an adult and sharing with friends his childhood memories, they’re going to say, “What? Your mom used to drag you around to record people while she asked them if they’d ever seen a UFO?” And he’ll heave a sigh and say yes and wait for the pity.
Idyllopus Press: OK, the first question is always, “Have you ever seen a UFO?”
Ken: Not that I know of.
Idyllopus Press: Not that you know of. OK. The second question is what is the most interesting coincidence you’ve ever experienced.
Ken: Goodness…I’d have to think about that one.
Idyllopus Press: Would you like to think about it while we do the third one?
Ken: Yes.
H.o.p.: Wait! The third question? Sings opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth.
Idyllopus Press: The third question is also an off-the-top-of-your head thing. What’s a history that comes to mind, a story you might like to relate.
Ken: Gosh, these are difficult questions.
Idyllopus Press: Do you have a favorite story you like to tell?
Ken: Well…we were down at the bottom of White Quarry…
Idyllopus Press: White Quarry?
Ken: White Quarry, a quarry near Cartersville. And we were diving there, and I was putting some air into my buoyancy compensator vest and I lost my regulator, and at this moment my light began flashing on and off so that we had this strobe effect, and my partner was seeing me half drowning and half reaching for my regulator, trying to turn my light back on, and he couldn’t decide whether to give me his air or not, but fortunately by the time he’d decided to I’d grabbed my air and put it back into my mouth so I lived.
I was rather speechless imagining this, the strobing light in the dark watery depths, the confusion with not just the loss of the regulator but the disorientation caused by the light.
Idyllopus Press: How long do you think passed by…
Ken: Uhm, fifteen seconds.
Idyllopus Press: How deep were you?
Ken: 165 feet.
Idyllopus Press: Oh, man.
Ken: Seriously. Plenty deep.
Idyllopus Press: Yes.
Ken: An exciting moment.
Idyllopus Press: That is an exciting moment.
Ken: And then so far as…what was the second question?
Idyllopus Press: Coincidence…
Ken: Coincidence, most amazing coincidence. Uhm, let’s see. Most amazing coincidence.
H.o.p.: Oh,oh, wait, is this the fourth question.
Idyllopus Press: No, shhh. This is the second question.
H.o.p.: Oh, not again.
Ken (laughs): I guess meeting my studio partner at Delta airlines when we were both mechanics there.
Idyllopus Press: All right, tell me about this.
Ken: Well, I was a mechanic at Delta from 1980 through 1985, and while I was there I met a young man named Tim Larson. He was interested in electronic gear and I was interested in music and together we started this studio.
Idyllopus Press: OK. All right.
Ken: And we quit our airline job.
Idyllopus Press: How long after you met?
Ken: About a year. But I stayed on for another four years because I couldn’t afford to quit. So…
Idyllopus Press: Okay. Well, thank you.
Ken (laughs): My pleasure.
H.o.p. hums his finale music.
It is interesting that when people think “coincidence” they are tending to relate stories of bumping into a person after a long separation of years and miles. Here instead there is a first fortuitous meeting, and thus becomes a matter of synchronicity in that the individuals have shared interests.
H.o.p. Overlooking a Maze at the High Museum of Art, 2008
Moen Kopi Notel
Approx 30 by 20 inches, digital painting
2008 by J Kearns
Link to the painting’s page on my art website.
Been working on this since June. Tried doing it with the dress in blue, like the sky, but I missed the jungle/garden print of the model’s original dress. It seemed right. Took way too long painting it in but I think it was needed.
The motel was one we passed by in Holbrook, Arizona last spring. I had wondered at the hopeful message on the sign pointing to a new life and what if anything it had to do with the motel being shut down and boarded up.
For the painting, I liked the emotional ambiguity of the model who may or may not have anything to do with Moen Kopi. A woman in her garden print dress.
We spent a couple of days in Holbrook about 15 years ago and because of some brochures I’d seen I placed a scene in the Penguin book in the area.
I could be wrong but I don’t imagine that Holbrook has changed much during those 15 years…
P.S. Simonroy’s photostream at Flickr has a pic of the Moen Kopi in better times (2005) when it was still a motel and not yet a notel.
Appreciation is extended to Phoeebstock for stock reference for the model.
Howard Finster Angel and Woman in Sandals
High Museum of Art 2008
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: OK, the first question is always “Have you ever seen a UFO?”
DAMIEN: Yes, definitely.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: You have! OK! Tell me about it.
Look! Look! I’ve got a UFO sighting!
DAMIEN: I was probably about 12, 13, 14, somewhere in there, and I literally saw a flying saucer.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: It was a saucer.
H.O.P.: Ooooo!
DAMIEN: It was very low and it had lights that were spinning around the perimeter of it. And it sat above a house across the street and I got a good five second glimpse at it before it just disappeared.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: It just disappeared or it took off?
DAMIEN: It took off. It was a flash of light and it was gone.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: A flash of light and it was gone. In the flash of light did it disappear or did it go in any particular direction?
DAMIEN: It went in a direction. It went up and away and then it was gone.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: In just that fast? (Snaps fingers.)
DAMIEN: And I was terrified after I saw it because it was so vivid. And I was also pretty young and I really didn’t know what to make of it. And I knew about UFO’s and this really just confirmed…what I’d seen.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: How large would you say it was?
DAMIEN: It was big. It was bigger than a house. But it was far up in the sky.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: How far up in the sky was it?
DAMIEN: Hundreds of feet. But it was above the house down the block and across the street from me.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: What color was it? Was it at night time?
DAMIEN: Yeah, but it had white lights around the outside, almost head light size, probably…every five feet apart, around the perimeter of it. And it was real narrow. Almost a saucer.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: You’re the first person I’ve interviewed who’s seen a UFO.
DAMIEN: I’ve another one, too, but I’m not so sure about this one, but…
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: What attracted you to look outside?
DAMIEN: You know, I have no idea, that’s probably what was so strange about it.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: So you just went to the window and…
DAMIEN: Yeah.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: And what time was it?
DAMIEN: It was night time. Maybe nine o’clock.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Had you been asleep?
DAMIEN: No. It was just a regular day. I’d probably been out playing with some friends, or something, and, yeah, I just happened to look out the window and it was right there.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: So it was early enough that there was other activity going on around…
DAMIEN: Maybe so. I wasn’t in bed yet and I was still pretty young so it was definitely before midnight, so I’d say nine or ten o’clock.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: That is interesting.
H.O.P.: Oooo, oooo, oooo! First guy with a cool UFO sighting!
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Do you have a question you’d like to ask, H.O.P.?
H.O.P.: Okay, first, what color were the lights?
DAMIEN: They were white. The second one I saw was really strange and, I mean, it could have been some sort of air craft but it was such a strange shape. It was six red lights that were in a straight line. They were linear. It wasn’t like any type of airplane. It was like a definitive six dots and it was moving across the sky, and it was flying real low. It wasn’t making noise like a helicopter or an airplane. It was silent. But it was really strange.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: So you just saw it passing…
DAMIEN: Yeah, this row of six lights and I’ve never seen a configuration like that in an air craft.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Did you observe any kind of outline shape?
DAMIEN: No.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Where was the first sighting?
DAMIEN: They were both in the same place, it was just outside of Detroit, Michigan, and there was a construction site across the street where they were building new condos at the time and we used to go over there…
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: The first or the second…
DAMIEN: Yeah, this is the second and we used to go over there and play in the dirt.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: And how old were you at the time of the second sighting.
DAMIEN: It was like in a couple of days of each other.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Oh, okay, so a paired sighting.
DAMIEN: It was.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Interesting.
DAMIEN: Wild.
(After we’d turned off the recorder, Damien noted that about six weeks later a UFO of the same description was reported on the news, it having been seen in Ontario, perhaps around the London area. I asked what year and it was perhaps 1986. Somewhere around 1993-1996.)
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Did it make you a sky watcher?
DAMIEN: Oh, definitely.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Do you go down to Fernbank to look at the sky, or do you have a telescope…?
DAMIEN: Well, I really like hiking and camping and some of my best experiences have been out west because you actually seem like you’re closer to the sky, the stars seem closer, all the constellations, plus you’re away from the city and you can see more without ambient lighting.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: I’ve heard that out at the Grand Canyon is the best place.
DAMIEN: Yeah, Grand Canyon’s beautiful, I’ve been there at night. Yeah, anywhere out west is very cool and I’ve been to like the planetarium in Chicago to see their humongous telescope.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: OK, the second question is always “What is your most interesting coincidence”?
DAMIEN: Oh. That’s a tough question.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: That’s what everybody says. If you want you can have a chance to think about it a bit…
DAMIEN: I know I can think of something more interesting but one that just happened recently to me that was pretty strange. I was fishing in Lake Allatoona and using what they call Silver Shad.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: What is a Silver Shad?
DAMIEN: It looks like a small minnow with two hooks on the bottom. Made of plastic, and it rattles. And I’d been fishing all day and was with Bill Sheffield, didn’t catch anything, and I broke my line off on the way back in. So, I tied off another lure, we finished our little loop around, totally other side of the lake, I snag something, I reel it in, it’s a rod and a pole with the exact same lure that I’d just lost on it.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: That’s funny.
DAMIEN: Isn’t that interesting? But it’s a funny coincidence.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: That’s a good story. And the third question…
H.O.P. sings the first few notes of Beethoven’s Fifth.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: And the third question is just what is a story you’d perhaps like to tell. Just a little piece of history that comes to mind.
DAMIEN: A little piece of history. Man, this is hard. That’s a good question. Pertaining to anything?
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Pertaining to anything. Just what comes to mind.
DAMIEN: I’m brainwashed with music.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Oh, yeah. Of course. Well, I get all kinds of stories. I have gotten stories of entrepreneurship and banking practices.
DAMIEN: I don’t know. I just got back from vacation, actually. I should have some kind of history about something.
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: OK, let’s skip that and do another one. What is your earliest childhood memory?
H.O.P.: Ooooo! The fourth question?!
DAMIEN: My earliest childhood memory. One that I always seem to remember, and I was real young, just like that set of eyes that looks out, not realizing much else, I was obviously an infant, but we had this gigantic Alaskan Malamute, looked like a Husky, it was an 80 to 95 pound dog named Valentine…
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: She would have been like a monster to you.
DAMIEN: Oh, yeah, just humongous, covered in fur, and I remember just laying on my back and this dog would come over and roll me over with its nose, just push me over, and I couldn’t do anything at the time, I was just a baby, I’d flop over. It’d come over and look at me and nose me back over. I was too small to speak or to even get up on my own, I just remember this huge dog looking at me and I was just a set of eyes looking at him wondering, “What’s he going to do?”
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Did you have any feelings about it? Were you scared or did you trust the animal?
DAMIEN: Yeah, I trusted him. And I remember mom saying that they didn’t trust him. It ended up being OK but they were real nervous at first, this gigantic dog sizing me up. I had him for years. He was a sweet dog.
H.O.P.: Was it a he or a she?
DAMIEN: She. Valentine. My dad gave him to my mom on Valentine’s Day.
(Not a typo. I had to check that again. Valentine was identified as a she.)
IDYLLOPUS PRESS: Well, great. Thank you. You’re the first person I’ve talked to who’s seen a UFO.
H.O.P.: Great! Now, time for the ending theme.
H.o.p. sings a closing theme and gives a round of applause.
Woman in Heels, Man in Stripes – High Museum of Art
2008 July
I saw this woman…and her shoes. Amidst the art, the shoes seemed a sculpture carrying this woman about. And the proportions of her legs, clothes, hair, perfect for the sculptured shoes and vice versa. I had to have a photo of her and tried inconspicuously for one but she kept standing in such a way that her shoes kept disappearing into the dark jeans and shoes of the man with her. Finally she moved over to the maze art and I got an adequate photo of her that was made better by the individual in stripes magnetically approaching the striped painting as if it was destiny they should eventually meet.
* * * * *
Marty’s mother was in town and we took her down to the Louvre and the Ancient World show at the High.
No photography is permitted around the special exhibits. Though I had my camera lens cap on and had the camera on its strap over my shoulder in a way where it would be difficult for me to reach it, security followed me about the entire time I was in the Louvre area. “No photos allowed,” they told me as I entered, and I said, yes, I knew because I do know all this, I’m not a stranger to the High. Security then followed me all around and I did my best to ignore this and remain interested in the art and relaxed. Then, when another security guy returned from his break, the first one brought over the second one to show me to him, which is when I began to feel quite uncomfortable and self conscious.
On top of that I had begun sketching in my moleskin with a pen that was on me and the first security guy pulled me aside a second time to tell me no pens (I’d forgotten some museums have this policy) and I saw he had some pencils and I asked for one and one for my son, as H.o.p. was going to be sketching as well. Then they not only followed H.o.p. around while he was sketching, but kept pointedly walking between him and what he was sketching (Marty noticed this and told me about it).
Y’know, I hate to complain but I don’t know why you get this attitude at the High. In New York, at every museum H.o.p. was sketching in, security was positive and encouraging, they loved to see a young person involved and making sketches.
On the other hand, when we went down to the High cafe to get something to eat, a security guard down there three times mentioned to us that there was a “special workshop” going on, nodding in its direction, and realizing he was really really wanting us to visit the special workshop, I took H.o.p. to the room and found there three individuals doing a children’s workshop on bas relief who were happy as could be for warm bodies and made us feel more than welcome.
H.o.p. and I had fun making large medallions of the clay provided (ours were particularly lame) then ran back up to the fourth floor where I caught this nice scene.
Howard Finster Angel and Woman in Sandals, High Museum of Art
July 2008
