Here is a picture of a door. #RandomPhotoDay
Rainy Weekend
Asparagus fern in a Jim Bob Salazar pot
Words cannot describe how good it feels to sit on my front porch on this rainy Saturday. Clarice the cat and I have been listening to the mourning dove and other birds. I did a little bit of yardwork before it began to rain. New plants, new planters, new opportunities. I can't wait for the hibiscus to bloom.
Pottery by Jim Bob Salazar
Don't tell Barry that Clarice was out here with me.
She enjoyed exploring new areas.
Annual Rebirth
Springtime is all about new beginnings, a new opportunity. The cycle begins again and another year in our life. What a world we live in, that gets reborn every year.
Mobile
A few years ago I wrote a little piece about how some of the apps on my mobile device were kidnapping my mind. It would go something like this: I would be writing and want to look up the definition of a word, so I'd pull my mobile out to open the Merriam-Webster app. I'd see the little red number indicating that I had Facebook notifications and I'd immediately check them. Then I'd chat back and forth with people, do another couple of things and then put the phone down to get back to what I was doing. Then, I'd come across the word I needed to look up and I'd reach for my phone.... That could go on for hours if I let it – and sometimes I did.
But one can learn. I have learned to love my mobile phone for what it allows me to do, namely – be mobile. I always have a camera with me. It's not an SLR and it does funny things sometimes, but it's a darn good camera, and it's my camera. If you look at my website, most of the pictures have been taken with a mobile. For a long time I thought that I would grow up one day and learn to keep the SLR with me.
More recently I have decided that these are the pictures I take. I will never be what the world thinks of as a professional photographer, and I don't even want to be that. I want to be a writer. And, I have developed a little bit of a style of my own with them. Barry Perez was telling people the other day that I'm the one who handles most of his social media, and more to the point I am the one who had recently posted a photo album for him, including work of a lot of artist friends. One of them said, "I know. They have Earnie written on them. I mean, they have your name, but they have Earnie's touch." I like that she could tell from looking at the images that Earnie Painter was the one who took the pictures. They may not be the best pictures in the world, but (to steal an idea from Sheryl Crow) they are the most Earnie Painter pictures in the world.
I also always have music with me. As long as this world of ours keeps it together and our technology doesn't come crashing around us in a pile of apocalyptic rubble I'll have tunes at my fingertips. I have the music that I buy, which is kind of a lot, but not really, and the music that I stream from YouTube, which I financially support. I can sit in a coffee shop and envelope myself in a world apart from everybody around me. This is particularly useful when the people around me are loud, jarring or otherwise unpleasant.
And, social media is becoming a more important part of our careers – Barry's and mine. This is where the mobile phone really saves the day. I would imagine that the vast majority of people looking at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are doing so from a mobile device, so doing my social media work on a mobile device is the ideal way to do it. On my breaks during the workday I can sit quietly and check in. After work, sitting in a coffee shop I can add a few posts and answer some questions.
All of this is a boon for my life – or an enabler, depending on your point of view. I have a tendency to not be home. I've mentioned this before and I need to explore it more pointedly. But, for the moment I'm going with my nature and living my life in my car, in coffee shops, walking around graveyards or driving to visit people. I'm slowly learning how to make my home more appealing, but even when I get there I think I'll still be on the road. I'll still be living outside of my home, more than inside it. It just seems to be who I am, and my mobile phone has been very accommodating. I don't think they were thinking of people like me, particularly, but we fit into that market nicely.
Houston Museum Day
The face of the exhibit - literally. This is a mask of the artist's face.
I have piles and piles of laundry to do, and a floor to sweep and mop. Haven't cleaned under my bed in a while. So... it's a perfect time to go to Houston to see the Museums. Saturday crowds? Check. Construction near the destination? Check. Temperatures over 100°? Double-check. Let's go!
Actually, this was the last weekend for an exhibition that I've been wanting to see – Ron Mueck. I've seen his work on Facebook posts, but never thought that I'd see his work in person. I wasn't disappointed. His famous quote is that he never does life size, because he doesn't find it interesting. He either does things that are on a smaller or a much larger scale. Two old ladies confer with each other, a young couple is caught in an awkward moment of new love, a nude man looks skeptically out of his boat, all in a scale from 1/2 to 3/4. Then there's the face of the exhibit – literally. The picture above is a self-portrait of the artist sleeping. It's not enough that his eyes are closed, but each line under his eye is believable, the skin where the face hits the ground is pressed and squished just right and his hair, from a distance, looks just like hair. Whiskers come out of his face and you can see the pores in the skin on his nose. You can almost see a puddle of drool where the mouth is slightly open while he sleeps.
After seeing that exhibit, we ate, had coffee, and passed by the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Then Barry wanted to go to see something, but he couldn't remember exactly what it was called, just that it was across the street from the Convention Center and it had the word 'Green' in it. After looking for a while, we discovered Discovery Green.
It's a beautiful park in the middle of the skyscrapers, a garden tucked away with public art. We were thrilled to see art by a friend of ours, Margo Sawyer. (I knew she had a public installation, but I thought it was at the airport.) There are green lawns, listening vessels, gardens, public art installations and people milling around. We didn't eat at The Grove, but this is a goal of mine on the next trip. I really wanted to sit in there and have a cup of coffee, but when don't I crave this? We had visited Bosta Kitchen for coffee earlier, so I contained myself.
We watched people dancing tango under the beautiful live oak trees on a wooden deck. They were there promoting Milonga Mi Refugio. They encourage appreciate of the art of Tango dance in Houston, and with Milonga Mi Refugio they have a fundraiser for ACLU. It was the perfect way to end a perfect day.
Thank you for visiting bemol Ardiente. What is your favorite museum? What's your favorite city to visit? Do you believe that people who have passed on can come back to visit us through dragon flies, spiders and other critters? I don't know if I do or not, but it makes me happy to think it's true, so I do. Leave me a note in the comments below. ;-)