whatta weekend!

I got an undeserved reward just as I posted a new story at Adventures, Ink so it's rather a lot for somebody who posts about twice a month (well, maybe a bit more if Crow comes by but you know what I mean).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and a relaxing weekend too.

i'd like to thank the academy..

An Arte y Pico award for me? Well, this is cool even though I'm not sure I'm deserving of much of anything other than congrats for no longer boring the people at work with my weird stories because I write and draw them here. Nevertheless, thanks so much for thinking of me fairlane. I'll try to remain worthy for at least a little while longer. Now for the best part - getting to mention my choices (only 5?) but first the rules:

“Arte y Pico” is part of a tag initiative that is passed along to compliment other bloggers.

Now, here are the rules and regulations, as well as my nominees for the next five deserving winners of the Arte y Pico Award:

1) Pick five (5) blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award which is here Arte y Pico.

missed but not forgotten, Scarlet.

the beauteous and talented, Sera.

remarkable poesy, sports and political melange from Randal

pictures to melt your heart by the Cunning Runt.

and finally a matched pair who enhance one another's best qualities Mathman and Dcup.

i do like to be beside the seaside

I'm a bit worried about Crow who may be more depressed about George Carlin than I could have guessed. He came by late this afternoon wearing another of his bizarre disguises to tell me he was off on what could be an extended hiatus. When I asked him if he had any pithy political or financial analyses for our continuing edification he offered the following cryptic statement:

"An empire is synonymous with centralized hierarchical power structures in which influence is restricted to an economically privileged class retaining its advantage through a judicious use of oppression and skilled manipulation of both the society's information dissemination systems and its lesser power structures. It's all about dominance. Empires are not about efficient use of resources and the spread of happiness; corruption and favoritism are endemic to the system."

While I was understandably shocked by his erudition, I was even more surprised when he went on to say, "If you think politicians give a rusty fuck about you and your hopes for the future.. there's a really nice bridge in New York I'd be willing to sell you for the small price of a super size bag of premium birdseed."

See what I mean? Oh well, perhaps he wasn't feeling so bad after all since he circled back to say one last thing, "Remember, empires fall."

Keep the faith in each other.

ice cubes for polar bears

On the front page of USA Today there's a headline stating that Americans drove 30 billion miles less than usual between November of last year and the end of April. That sounded pretty good until I started reading the article where it stated that 30 billion miles is only 1% of average mileage for US drivers. Now that's scary. What makes it all so much worse is that for the last 50 years everything has been set up in such a way that most people have no choice about driving if they want to keep their jobs so they can afford to drive their cars to the stores where they buy stuff that has been driven, flown, shipped and driven some more from goodness knows where.

Have I ever mentioned I love reading what is called 'hard' science fiction? Essentially, they're books written by science professionals who I presume have graduate students and assistants who do all their science work while these guys head off in flights of intellectual fancy about what human beings might get to do in the universe at large if we ever get through this difficult 'Age of Waste'.

I've just re-read Iain M. Bank's 'The Algebraist' in which one of his assumptions is that a particular alien civilization dropped by Earth 8000 years ago and made off with a sample group of the populace, raised them on planets already inhabited by other races and introduced them to the larger galactic community. They became ahumans (advanced) so when the rest of humanity, or rhumans, eventually figured out not only how to leave the gravity wells but to travel at light speeds they found a galactic society already used to people.

It's never a bad thing to remember that what we call reality might be very different from what we think we know. We can even change direction once we understand we've taken the wrong road. I found a video today called 'The Story of Stuff' which is nearly 20 minutes long but I enjoyed it while doing some paperwork. You might like it too or know somebody who would benefit from its message.

I rather like to imagine there are ahumans out there getting into the adventures people are prone to and learning the lessons that life provides or.. maybe somewhere there's a zoo with 21st Century People as the main exhibit. It could happen :-)

lazy days

Are these really lazy days or is it just me feeling somewhat inarticulate lately? I should be drawing some new pictures but the story ideas have been seeming a bit pointless and without a point of view what's the point after all? Or is this too pointed a question to be asking myself on this beautiful, quiet Sunday afternoon?

Meanwhile, I'm reading a book that's a lot more interesting than anything I can think to say except for my hope that you're enjoying the best of what the season has to offer.

thinking out loud

I've always been in the habit of dressing up for the occasion and if there's nothing in particular to celebrate then dress up anyway was my philosophy. If you've ever wondered what I look like well.. you may never know but I'm willing to admit this is what I looked like in 1972 in a picture taken in our loft in Montreal. Back then I collected and wore a lot of antique clothes and I'm sure the woman who originally had this black silk suit made would have spun in her grave.. or, maybe not.

I spent a number of years living in urban communal situations and although the Loft wasn't the first it really was a lot of fun and led to another and larger one a couple of years later in Vancouver - a place called Armadillo Arms. There'll be a story or two about that place but not today. The funny thing about writing stories is that even if you attempt to write what happened you find it's impossible not to color it with impressions because that's what memory is. The things we recall don't live in little color coded boxes in our heads but go through subtle shifts depending on current context. There are stories that don't fit the paradigm of beginning, middle and end because to do that properly you'd have to start at the beginning of everything and finish when the last star has died. Who has time for that? While I consider the next one to draw I thought I'd mention this commune thing.

Montreal in the early 70's was a city in deep economic trouble because the Parti Quebecois (a separatist movement) was gaining in power and new laws were being passed to make French the official language for education and business. Since a lot of American as well as Canadian businesses had their head offices in Montreal there was a mildly composed panic as they arranged to relocate to Toronto with the consequence of leaving a lot of property available. We'd been part of a proposal made to the Canada Council for an arts grant to be undertaken in the city so once the funds came through we got ready to go. There were lots of large and cheap apartments but we met the people who had the Loft and after an evening of getting to know one another we decided to take up their proposal. There were six adults and one child with everybody involved in the arts - music, painting, weaving, potting, sculpture and the place was big enough that we even had our own radio station. Needless to say there were lots of visitors so lots of stimulation without having to resort to television for entertainment. It was also kind of nice not having to cook every day and in my experience people share kitchens well.

I only mention this subject now because I believe it's still a pretty good idea. As things are now we live in a stage-managed culture where it's necessary for the benefit of the corporations to convince us we need at least one of each of their products. Wouldn't it be better if we could figure out a way to share?



Signed - an admitted hippy.