Explaining Beer Tastes

I don't quite know how you explain beer. I have never been told which flavors are what, regarding malts, hops, and other fun things. Regardless, I rather like beer in its variety, and constantly try new and different ones. Today, the beer happens to be a doppelbock, Salvator, from Paulaner in Germany. This was available by the bottle at Fred Meyer, so that is what I bought, a bottle. It has a strong flavor, which always pleases me, now if I can place the flavor, it would help me describe it. Oh well, with time and some effort at explaining things, this will get easier, but I thought if I can add a bit of variety to the blog, it would make it both more pleasurable to write and to read. It is still only Tuesday and XTC are Skylarking while the oven is pre-heating and I am drinking. Cleaning and straightening are on the agenda this evening as well. For more on bocks, go here.

Actually, I have the suspicion this will turn into something as oblique as wine or Scotch tasting, but let us really hope it doesn't move into something so sublime as vodka tasting.

Another Week Begins

Another week, with bits and pieces of everything all over the place. I have managed to do a bit of work around the house in preparation for a house guest, but there is still work to do, of course. I wish deep thoughts were abounding today, but Yma just finished Wimoweh, and if she doesn't blow away deep thoughts, then perhaps something along Eno's ambient line is for you (if you can't blow them away, just put them asleep). Work today had little going for it, other than it seemed that a lot of people called in, and considering how dreary it was outside, chances are they might have really been sick. Maybe later I will add more, but for now, this is it--mindless puff, but I felt the urge to cut up a picture, and once done, felt the urge to put it somewhere, so here are words to go with those urges. Never a cleaner urge...except when I decide to clean the toilet. By the way, other than cropping the image, it isn't manipulated in any way, shape, or filter. I thought it kind of cool, and I hope it isn't too pretentious.

Weekend Wind-down

While Romanians voted to keep Basescu in office over the weekend, there was also another major election--that of Miss Travesty Romania. In addition to the lovely contestant pictured, more can be found here. Hopefully they won't be too upset with me using their picture, as I gave them proper due. Actually, I don't think ten years ago a contest such as this would have been dreamed of, so the EU has brought some changes, though obviously not everyone is happy on the political front. Luckily, with the political situation the way it is, the ladies can continue to perfect their travesty, and we can hope the government doesn't become one as well.

For me, the weekend hasn't been terribly productive, but that happens now and again. I am looking forward to things building up this week, and a friend from Peace Corps Romania will be visiting next weekend for the NW Folklife Festival. Really, that is about it, and hopefully next weekend won't be quite as dismal as this one.

What is Art?

Are animation cells art in and of themselves, or is it because of their relationship to a film (short or feature) that has been declared a "classic"?

Later that week...

Thursday now, not Next, and still trying to decide whether to continue this blog. Blogs are now, current, and happening, but if you generally try to keep upbeat, and you are having a bad week, all that bile spilling into the blog is a bad thing. Spreading that lousy aura about doesn't actually make it go away, it just exposes more people to it. How long can a I continue on this note before I either tire of it or it just brings me down? I don't know really, and I don't know the answer, and all I can say is that some days a certain bleakness invades my rose tinted glasses, and until I effectively clean them, it just messes things up.

I Don't Like Mondays...

but I don't have quite the same dislike for them as the girl in The Boomtown Rats tune. Here is the result of my painting session yesterday. With luck, some difference can be made in the picture, rather than just the surroundings, since my kitchen is significantly smaller than the space at Pratt.

The Delirium Nocturnum bottle on the counter was enjoyed Saturday, and I still haven't managed to get the bottle to the recycling bin. Glass is always a trip by itself, since it goes in a different bin than the balance of the recycling.

At least I understand why no one reads this blob--I publish when I have nothing to say, and even when I do have something to say, it is a bit dull. Welcome to the everyday world of everyone.

A gray sort of day.

It has been overcast all day. I did call Mom and left a message, since she didn't answer her cell phone. Other parts of the day have been adding gray to the picture on my previous post. If I weren't really tired, I would upload the image, but it is still on my camera. Such is what happens on lazy Sundays. It is always surprising how much focused creation, such as painting or drawing, and I would guess writing as well, can tire a person--mentally and physically. I am sure some things get easier with practice, and the tired feeling takes longer to reach, but that isn't me right now.

Some work on a Saturday

As poor a reproduction it might be, it isn't bad for only 8 weeks of painting instruction. I now have many more weeks of working on it left, using only a photo of the setting. I don't know how much easier that will make it, but I have a lot more to do with the painting, so I hope to manage it without messing up my good start. Today I worked on this (only added another layer of dark to the left side on this painting) and two others that are partially done in the house. The obvious work left on this one includes her face and blouse, with me choosing not to mess too much on the background, though I will do some work on it. Today is one of those typical spring sorts of days with a reasonable temperature and an overcast sky, so I haven't missed too much by being indoors. I still have some errands to take care of, going to the grocery and stuff like that, so I don't know if I will go back into my kitchen studio later today and mess around any more. Other projects are fermenting, but I haven't taken action on them yet, and I am trying to decide if I can actually do three art classes in a single week for a couple of weeks, as there are three that interest me. I am wondering if I am pushing too hard for something with no obvious reward. If so, I have a tendency to wash my hands of it for a bit, though I don't really want to take another 15 year break from trying to interpret the world around me visually, but I also don't want to set my hopes up high, only to have them meet someones concept of reality. Again, I hit the question of why am I pursuing art.

One down, many more to go.

I finished Rene Daumal's "You've Always Been Wrong" today. Overall, it was an interesting book, though I don't know if he actually says much new. Time has a way of repeating itself, and as I finished this book, Thoreau's well-worn quote, "the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation" or something very similar came to mind. Daumal didn't live long enough to see how wrong communism as implemented in Russia went, nor how disastrous it was in the lives of the proletariat everywhere it was implemented. While he did mention that the powers that lead a revolution also put in place safeguards to keep them in power, why he doesn't foresee this with Marxism escapes me. What I can agree with him about is that it is the duty of every man, whether artist, thinker, writer, or farmer to constantly be awake, and try to awaken his fellow man. If everyone shrugs the responsibilities of society, then problems will arise, and stifling new government which can maintain order will rise, hence the Taliban in Afghanistan and any number of other repressive regimes through the ages. Balancing this wakefulness with some sort of social order, where the masses feel secure, is the trick, and what may be the most effective way to do this is by keeping those in power in power for a limited duration, but even that isn't working very well if you look at the government in the United States (and the abuses of power in the current elected administration). A wake-up call of sorts happened in the last elections, but in a two party state, it will only last 4-6 years, and then reverse itself--such is our cycle of waking and sleeping. People wonder about voter apathy, and I think I just explained why it exists, as it seems that regardless of which party is in power, most things don't change. That is what there is to work with here, and from that basis, there may still be room to work within the system, as Jefferson probably wouldn't agree with replacing it just yet.

An apartment filled with stuff,

though not the normal kind of stuff, as I have at least 3 unfinished painting, a handful of drawings (mostly bad), and some charcoal sketches to boot. All my classes have wrapped up, and now I have to decide what to pursue next. I have 2-3 weeks to decide on which classes to take this summer, as I haven't made a solid decision yet. From what I can tell, I need to draw and paint weekly if I want to maintain and possibly improve my skills. That sucks a bunch of time right there, and since I am considering a printmaking class, there is another evening or two busy. At least if I choose representational images for printmaking, I can stay in the drawing vein there, though it will be with a different collection of tools, since you don't extensively use graphite, oil paints, or charcoal in many of the processes past the under-drawing. Oh well...lots to think about, in addition, I could take a class in using the letter press, which sounds interesting, but hinges as much on the technical as the artistic.

Of course, I could always buy a couch & television and forget about working on art, as I would have mindless distraction all the time. (This option would be the one that would make people think me more normal.)

Lovely Monday

Thanks to Dave, I have a new distraction, which is Library Thing (on the sidebar, if you are curious). Now, instead of the numerous things I might feel that I need to do, I can procrastinate very effectively, at least until I exhaust my library, then I just need to find a new exercise in procrastination. I shouldn't blame it all on him, but it is one of those things that I don't need, being just compulsive and anal enough to want to upload all the information I can. Of course, voluntarily surrendering the information on a public database makes it that much easier for our own version of the Securitate to search out dissenters, and flag us appropriately for airline travel bans. [Actually, you don't even have to give a name or email address, so it isn't that easy to track who is actually possessing, and hopefully reading, what.]

Today was gorgeous, which is only natural on a Monday. The drawing today was from a drawing class where the model walked out as she had previously had a disagreement with our substitute drawing teacher and hadn't the desire to work with him again, so we tried portraits rather than figures, since one of his other students, who had come to sit in during the figure drawing, graciously volunteered to model. Not really very good, but it was the first attempt. Sometime in the next week or so, I will try and take some pictures of some of my more successful, and un-erased, gesture drawings from my weekend workshop.

A long Saturday...

I wish I could feel as joyous as the metal dancers seem, even when fenced in, but today I am a bit tired. Still recovering from the "icks," I had an all day drawing workshop that will continue into tomorrow. Today we spent doing gesture drawings, but not exactly of a ridiculous sort, such as 5 seconds, barely long enough to do a line, though some were as short as 30. Working as we are in charcoal, today was spent with the vine variety, even the most promising beginnings, and there were several which I would have been pleased to continue working on, were wiped away with the chamois to make another on its dusty remains. Though I doubt a goal of the course is to make one remember how fleeting a "thing" can be, it is one side effect. From 9:30 to 4:30 is a long time to be working on drawing, but I can't say it has been a wasted effort, as I am enjoying it, and seeing progress in how things progress. With luck, this won't totally mess me up for class on Tuesday, but I think in the end it will be a nice complement. Luckily, we are working a bit with some of the same techniques, such as enveloping, used in my other class. About it for now, time to finish my Red Menace and have something for dinner.

Where to next?

The week is almost through, and I still feel icky--which is the best word I can come up with right now to describe how I feel.

Also in today's post, you can see a full, non-angular, non-kitchenette view of the painting I was working on a few posts ago. I am unsure if I will fiddle with it any more, but I probably won't since I am putting other projects on my plate. Today I picked up some small canvasses at the art store, so I will see if I have any luck working in smaller size (currently, my canvas size has been limited to 16"x20").

Next really is one of those things I am worrying about, though I don't know how many times I get told not to plan the future. It isn't the distant future I am planning, just the next few years. I promise not to go soviet and do it in five year increments, but I really do think, if I intend to survive the drudgery of corporate America, then I need a plan. My back-up plan, or one which frequently pops into my head as one, is to go abroad again and teach English, but even that will require preparations.

On another note, I finally managed to get McSweeney's #22, and have read the first few stories based on Fitzgerald's ideas. Doing things in an inappropriately linear fashion, I have been reading in sequence, meaning I will probably never get to the poetry or Oulipoean pieces.

Time to go make more tea--I don't know if it is helping, but it is nice to sip, since there is a bit of chill in the air.