blogging is such a self absorbed activity…

I sat for Maybree Ormes last night. She’s in town from Chico, CA, doing a project in which she’s painting 100 portraits. It’s just my face from forehead to chin, no ears or hair. She described a portrait as being a painting of a face in which the mouth is wrong. That’s really funny to me. We had a good time and she’s a good companion and conversationalist. I’m glad she’s on Paseo and I’m grateful to John Belt for giving her some space in Case Rosa.

Being in Casa Rosa again reminded me of MB and made me miss her more than usual. I couldn’t stop myself from peeking into her old studio and feeling a little sad seeing it empty when once it had been so full and lively a place with all her fabrics and colors and textures strewn about and carefully stored. Now, it’s just one empty room after another. No music, no sewing machine, no bustling about.

I have pictures of my grandson cavorting on the deck around the koi pond and walking around that converted swimming pool also made me a little nostalgic.

Some of you know that Bookemdano had a family crisis yesterday that turned out better than any of us expected. I found I couldn’t work and went home and got on my knees and prayed for a couple of hours. I’m quite sure that’s why things turned out so well. It’s my own particular hard wired straight connection with God that makes the world go ’round, as all of you know. Maybe not. I’m grateful in all events.

Speaking of John Belt, here it is the weekend again and I’ve not blogged about Joy Reed’s show last weekend. I absolutely LOVED the work done by my friend Eliz. Brown. Very textural, brightly colored and satisfying, all as a work of art should be in my humble opinion. I can’t say enough good things about what Joy Reed is doing at her gallery. She has very nice works by a variety of artists and her openings are class acts every time. There were also pieces by some familiar artists that I very much liked including some larger pieces by Michi Susan and a gorgeous portrait called “Remembering Big Horn” by Mike Larson.

Last weekend was also an opening by a new art space, Blue Moon, with Randy Clemons on Dobro and Paul Wingo’s watercolors. Have no doubt that Randy and Tara F. are onto something with Blue Moon, especially with Amanda Joy and Christin as assistants. It was exciting to be there at the start of something I think will be really big in a very short time.

I also want to give props to Shy Oren who plays jazz Thursday nights at Rococo and will be playing with Bat-Or tonight at VZDs. What a wonderful bassist he is!!! I don’t want to let him go back to Israel, I want him to stay here for my personal entertainment.

Speaking of jazz musicians, seems like I saw the Ills and haven’t blogged about them, but their atomic jazz at Galileo’s was a very big hit with me. They are really good musicians and I really like their music. Once I picked up on what they were doing, I’ve liked them better and better each time I’ve heard them. Along those same lines, I sat for quite a while with my hero, Michael R. Mutt, on Tuesday night listening to a Japanese jazz guitarist who was technically perfect and played very mellow music along with a bass player. I’m making a guess that his name is something like “Iagashi”.

I know I’ve left you guys hanging on my Tail of Conquest, but don’t worry, I’ll get back to it this weekend. Next installment: Sinatra finds out that trees can be climbed easier than they can be unclimbed. As I’m writing this story, I sort of realize that my attitude towards God and Sinatra’s attitude toward me are eerily similar. I may just be projecting since I’m anthropomorphizing the hell out of the cat.

Paseo dinner and movie night last Wednesday was fun, albeit a small gathering. Six of us ate at Pepperoni Grill and the discussions was swell, if truncated on my part by the addictive necessity that I will go outside to smoke. After dinner, only four of us gathered at my house to see “Bonnie and Clyde”, and we all agreed it held up quite well and was a solid classic film. “We rob banks” is my motto for this week .

I’m not blogging much these days about politics because so much of it is so discouraging: we’re violating civil rights at home and even China complains about our human rights violations and torture abroad; the Patriot Act has been renewed and Tom Delay was re-nominated by a big majority in his home district in Houston. The polls say Bush is at a low point in popularity and that sounds good, but as long as Congress is so strongly GOP, that won’t help since he’s not up for election. We are approaching the anniversary of the start of the Iraq invasion and I watch helplessly as that country tears itself apart under our tutelege. So sad.

Back to work. TTFN