My Myrnita

My stepmother is named Myrna .  I love her so much!  She has been the light of my Dad's life for like, a bazillion years, which would make me, like, a bazillion and 56.99.  She is facing some medical challenges one way or another, and ,come to think of it, has been meeting medical challenges for a long while now.  Always with grace and a calm demeanor.  A great role model and friend to moi.   That's her on the right, my sister Leni in the middle, and Dad.  So keep on keepin on, Myrnita!  Give those challenges h-e-double hockey sticks!  

Back to Moi.  Okay, it's raining and I am stewing, steaming actually, about all the ways I would like to cash in on my extreme talent.  I  mean art stuff.  Why is it when I see other artist's work in a Gift Shop I feel so inadequate, like there are art police that will prevent me from marketing?  Am I afraid to make money?   that no one will buy anything?  That it has been done before and so much better so why bother?  Probably all of the above.  Which is kinda dumb, because I have swum with Mermaids, and we all know that's impossible.  I am pretty sure that I can do anything if I allow it.  So I guess I will make some cards or something....

The Litany Against Fear--from Frank Herbert's  Dune

I must not fear

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear. 

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

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Up in the air!  It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's

Lovin' Homosassa

Went to Homosassa Springs State Park today with Rhonda--we checked out all the possibilities we could milk for Weeki.  Well, maybe not all, but a lot, including the art gallery in the main lobbyish place.  It had prints from various artists and a lovely Winslow Homer Gallery in the back.  I want Weeki to have mostly original  work from local artists.  I suppose we will have to have vendor ids but a lot of us do anyway, for the shows.  There is so much to learn from the variety of exhibits at HS.  But Weeki is always going to be white sunglasses and turquoise and pink postcard fun to me.

We spoke with several volunteers who really knew their stuff.  Lucky them, taking the boats and cayaks out with the manatees, helping out with the wildlife and answering questions.  They had put in many hours and had served in different capacities before enjoying their current positions.   I think I will most likely start out as a host and then find my niche, like they have.  And a cool uniform.  Rhonda says pink polo shirts and badges. Works for me.

Mr. President, We are Ready

So I hear the new President will have some openings for black ops, you know, unusual low-profile, under the radar, specialty positions.  Check out the new supergirl action uniforms, battle ready and super cool armor.

Whenever you are ready, just say the word.

Meatloaf and Friends

Did I say I had odd taste in music?  I am a big Meatloaf fan.  and Clay Aiken, too.  I love this duet with Pavarotti.  Meat also sings with Jennifer Hudson on " The Future Just Ain't What it Used to Be"..talent is talent....this goes well with some Bolla Valpocella or a Barolo.  and lots of spaghetti.  *sigh*

   

Sunnyside was under construction when Ponce first encountered Washington Irving.  It was a cool, damp morning and Ponce's rough footwrappings were soaked through.  He sniffed the remains of  someone's morning breakfast fire and headed in it's general direction.  Nose in the air, JP did not notice the legs splayed across his path and promptly tripped onto their owner, who was fast asleep.  A tankard empty but still smelling strongly of ale clattered away from it's last user, who snored deeply uninterrupted by Ponce's sudden collision.  Ponce righted himself and took a long look at this log of a man.  Nudging him with his foot, Ponce took in the velvet waistcoat and linen shirt, still stiff but wrinkled and stained with the previous evenings repast.  The man seemed abandoned in the muddy lane.  As the Spaniard's wet toe was about to poke him for the fifth time, Washington Irving rolled over.  "Tell me, sir, what day is it?"

Where is Super Bad Brad?

Okay, I have odd tastes in music.  Usually I will go along with what ever is on the radio--lately being Earth Wind and Fire.  The tune or performance will get stuck in my head and it just has to play itself out. (Manysisters did that with "She Loves You" by the Beatles during the Mesozoic period.)  I have to call attention to a man I first saw on Showtime at the Apollo.  He looked homeless and carried a huge boombox on his shoulder.  The song was "Let's Get it On" by Marvin Gaye.  The music started and I thought it wasn't real, that it was all an act.  It wasn't.

Super Bad Brad, the famed street performer of New York, can be seen on YouTube in several videos--amazing talent and interesting man.  He can be seen in a documentary called "Karaoke Man ", by Adolpho.   A lot of people think this is Bruce Willis in disguise.  Every once in a while you can find him downtown, his boombox planted along with a box for change.  If I could get a grant to go to New York and find him (for a painting) I would be gone already.  There are so many talented folks around that hide their T's--T meaning truth, according to the Lady Chablis, a vision of vision I saw in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  Here is Brad singing "The Idiots", a tune from the Republic of Loose.    Below that is the documentary .  You just never know....

Catching the Rhythm

 Stayin' Strong with the greatest Irish Blues Band Ever!

Sometimes I forget how awesome live music is.  Then I put this on.  Yeah.  Ladies and Gentlemen,  The Commitments!

Had a great get together with my Art Buddies.  If the ride home wasn't so long we would have finished the whole bottle.  Thanks, Lynne!

Dreamland

okay, so Ponce's story is going to take a while. lotsa stuff going on in my head.  I am getting tired of all these voices!

idea for art-Sky and Laura as storybook characters.  Maybe as superheroes.  hmmm.  Just got an email from a mersister, V, ( I am an honorary Mermaid) with pictures to use for the calendar/children's book I am working on.  Marla, another mersister, gave me some great pix of her horse costumes.  She is incredibly talented with a great eye for detail.  Anyway, my world is so full of real make believe that I am hard pressed to distinguish the differences....

Taking a break from la-la land, I am really missing the guys and dolls overseas and in California.  But seeing them on the webcam is so wonderful and current.  As long as they are having adventures and moving on. That's what counts.  When I was just a tadpole (yes, carrying on with the mermaid thing) I flung myself at life.  It may have been playing the odds a bit, like running across a rickety rope bridge over a bottomless pit, but I like to think that we make some of our best memories that way.  Live Juicy!

Dreaming along, my Artist in Rez status is great, but I don't know how I can effect real change or add to the k-12 curriculum of art in the schools here. Almost 23,000 students!   Maybe if Weeki Wachee opens up to the idea of an art center with Moi as the Artist in you know where, maybe then we can do some fun stuff year round and hold hands with the community and all the resources available for nature exploration and hands on creativity.  I can see it now.  Little trailblazers learning all about the spring, guest artists doing workshops, retreats, festivals, lectures, gallery, conservation, involving all of Hernando County and benefitting everyone. I hope.

Why are there craters on the moon?  because I have no more room in my back yard for the dogs to dig.  They are down to the sprinkler pipes and any minute now I expect the underground  to tunnel out to freedom.  

On the street, it's Super Bad Brad

  

And now, it's time for "Ponce Upon A Time"

Ponce loved the smell of orange blossoms and leather...  And smoke.  He had spent many nights by a fire, trying to keep small orange  saplings warm so the frost would not take them.  There he learned the languages lost to us now--Calusa, Timucuan, Mandan, the old ways gone with the people whose lives he sold for immortality...