What Are We Looking For

It's been more than a month since my last blog post. I know it seems like I take an occasional hiatus now and then, and this is true, but a new life has been metriculating slowly in my direction so it's not really an issue of commitment. I've gone against the grain in many respects (though not like Jean Des Esseintes)...I've been conducting myself a little differently, feeling and thinking differently...and definitely looking for change.

The question I ask myself frequently: What am I looking for? I think too often people find one thing, see that it works, and accept it regardless of it's condition and quality. Now that I'm progressing onto higher levels of education, where the listless have been supposedly weeded out, I'm starting to feel...that expected sense of anxiety that I think even those with predominantly level headed character traits still feel in times like this. I want to tattoo somewhere in the back of my brain: Don't settle, discriminate. There's a certain class of people who should feel it's their true calling to cast a discerning eye on life. Otherwise, how have you really lived? People say, question everything...but since when did tolerating everything and respecting everything also become morally just? These are two polar mantras and I'm feeling it in my bones (not just in my head) the absolute ludicracy of somehow accepting both ideaologies.



Place and Location


Sometimes you don't know how beautiful something is until you see it through a different filter. A movie might do it, or a book. I think I've found another reason why art is a valid element in society, it does for place what a cat scan does for the body or a good wine does to food. In order for these "filters" to really work, you have to seperate creation from creator, art from artist...briefly...and try to see and feel it in a universal way. I think children sometimes have the best grasp on this idea. Children, drunkards and stoners. The best of us can see and feel through filters without fairytales, wine, or marijuana.


One of my Dad's slides from India, I'm guessing on the Ganges. 1970's


One of my favorite filters...


My true love drowned in a dirty old pan
Of Oil that did run from the Block
Of a Falcon sedan 1969
The paper said '75
There were no survivors
None found alive

Trees break the sidewalk
And the sidewalk skins my knees
There's glass in my thermos
And blood on my jeans
Nickels and dimes of the fourth of july
Roll off in a crooked line
To the chain-link lots where the red tails dive
Oh how I forgot what it's like

- Neko Case, Star Witness

My Only Ties to Africa | New Blog Design

The task has begun. Or rather, it began around 3 days ago when I acquired a film and slide Scanner (Arcsoft OVT)so that I could finally realize my dream of digitalizing my Dad's precious Africa slides. As mentioned in the previous post, my Dad's stay in Africa was through the University of Natal in Pietermaritzberg but encompassed nearly all of the South and some of the North (including Egypt). Here is but a taste of the wonders to come and trust me, they will come...hopefully in the form of a website dedicated to the collection which at times can be almost dream like!

I'm leaving the captions off these for now--to avoid rambling--but also so that the viewer might just enjoy the aesthetic quality of the unknown. Blah blah...

New Blog Design
I know that I just updated my layout some 6 or 7 posts ago, but after seeing Bobbi Brown's new Nude collection, my current color fascinations came to me alive and complete before my eyes and I was wont to resist.

This incredible manifestation of everything I hold dear to my rods and cones is quite pricey, but my experience with Bobbi Brown (we actually go way back, to a time in 7th grade when I was boredly rummaging through the used section of Powell's Bookstore in Portland and stumbled upon a Bobbi Brown makeup artistry book...the title evades me now)has been nothing but excellent. I've loved the quality of her gel eyeliners (voted best eyeliner by countless magazines for countless years in a row) and after a helpful consultation with Bobbi's online makeup artist assistant, I might just splurge for her new Caviar Ink shade. Might.

Many Old Stories | Family History

I hope someday I will be wise enough to document my life in pictures so that my progeny will have photographic archives to learn from and enjoy. More importantly, I hope I will live a life worth documenting. My Grandmother's albums were acquired after her death in 1992. Sifting through them, I've found moments of periodic greatness worth sharing.



My Dad spent more than a year or so at the University of Natal (which is now the University of KwaZulu-Natal and includes a campus in Durban) in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa after recieving his doctorate in plant pathology. During his stay, he did much travelling. The pictures above and below were produced from slides which I have found and intend to make digital...perhaps creating an entire website or blog devoted to shots of Africa in the early 1970's (an unusual time period for African photographic documentation..) I also scanned the backs of the pictures to show my Dad's original captions done using a typewriter.
One of my Dad's favorite stories is of how during his time in "the lab", he refused to use some of the newer word processors of the time and opted instead for typewriters. His collegues laughed at him. He preffered being able to type on any 2D surface as opposed to more limited formats.




One of my favorite pictures from the collection, Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe (and was known as Southern Rhodesia under British rule until April 1980). The Peugoet took him everywhere.
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My Dad has had a few good cars in his day, aside from the Peugeot. This VW Carmen Gia (originally Karmann Ghia) convertable from the late 50's looks like a graduation present...today it's worth up to $15,000 if perfectly restored. One day I'd like to get one.

I recall my Dad mentioning something about his first car being bought with spare change he collected over years and years (typical old man story). Perhaps this ivory colored beast? From the hood ornament, it looks like a Cadillac. I'll have to ask.

This is the VW Notchback I grew up riding in...proof my Dad is terribly oldschool. The picture is taken in front of my Grandparent's old home in Culver City, California before the thing had deer dents in it.

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Growing up my Dad was an avid player of the accordian (which he didn't love) and a skilled horse trainer (which he did love) under the guidance of a guy he calls "Red Kennedy". He also loved cats, and still does.









With some black bear cubs in Yellowstone.





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My Dad with early, somewhat primitive looking lab equipment. This could be at Oregon State or University of California in Davis..or the Netherlands. He wrote many papers on things like Potatos and Filberts.

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My Grandmother much later, on a bus touring Europe. The surrounding photographs were from Vienna.

Krazy Kat | High Yellow Notes | Gloria Swanson

The weather, for the foreseeable future, is awful. Downcast, tepid air, dank...the sky spits on us from above! However, this is of no concern. For my plans--dear ones--were to paint, read, and gamble away precious hours cavorting through the interwebular world (this last one needs no justification, I've uncovered many many life changing and fabulous things by 'wasting time'--and money). In fact I did put in a very satisfying amount of work. I set-up a pleasurable still life and proceeded with a canvas (a material I don't usually use) of a fairly large size (something I've been meaning to do) with the hopes of attaining something of the more classical approach. I feel successful and you'll just have to wait for the evidence.

The Krazy Kat

It's curious to ponder all the new fangled ways the Internet allows for total stagnation. PRODUCTIVE stagnation, even. For example, these wonderful Shorpy finds have me longing for my own group of les bohemes and with our own bohemian tree-house cafe-bar!




The Krazy Kat Club in Washington D.C. featured some sort of...classy vagabond tree fort dining/smoking/painting area...a more primitive way to waste time. These photos are from 1921.


High Yellow Notes

The following paintings are proving to be huge inspirations for me and my current artistic ventures.


Van Gogh, Vincent: "Harvest", 1888

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri: "At the Moulin Rouge", 1890

Van Gogh, Vincent: "Nature Morte Aux Oranges"

Van Gogh, I think, was referring to "Harvest" when he spoke of achieving his high yellow note. So so beautiful, this is what I admire about paint!


Timeless Fashion Muse

Strong, ethereal-- Elle est la femme fatale extraordinaire. Gloria Swanson's beauty is flanked by rich fabrics and feathers. There is not a single reason why grace like hers could not be achieved this very day.

Garance | Decorative Muse | Parbuckles

I'm a bit upset that it took me so long to discover the wonderful-amazing fashion (and photography)blog by illustrator Mme. Garance Doré. Her street fashion photography is truly inspiring, and so characteristically French (that is, unless she is in New York..or some other part of the world!). Garance currently has a display up at the Holt Renfrew in Vancouver, so I've heard.


From "Yesterday, At Dries", a beautiful older woman epitomizes a classic and timeless sense of fashion. Not overdone, not too busy, not too structured. Natural, great silhouette, excellent details.



One of Garance's friends has begun a line of very fashionable and unique frames in subtle colors such as 'crystal gray' (a milky taupe) and "Zebra horn". The frames are each named after a major city (Rome, Paris, New York etc.) and seem duly fitted with characteristics from each respective metropolis. I've been struck with the realization that my eye wear collection is limited to one (albeit expensive) pair of fairly new J.F. Rey's...pretty weak. I would love to invest in a pair of hand crafted daring frames from the Prism line! You can view the line at thePRISM homepage.



A photograph from the now deceased Domino Magazine, the color scheme, choice of fixtures, textures, and materials basically represents everything I am feeling aesthetically at the moment. It's simply the most beautiful indoor decorating arrangement I've come across.



The Hovey blog brought me a store called Parbuckles --specializing in nautical,safari, and campaign furniture (SO suitable for the aforementioned blog's aesthetic). This unique rattan "bar trunk" would be a beautiful and classy addition to any salon. Best of all, you can pack it up and move it on the fly. One pretty penny (more like $3,299) will get you this beauty.