Monday, April 28, 2008

WEEKLY BLOOM: PINK SPRING SNOW



This is Betty, the tree that lives in front of my house. I'm not sure what type she is--not a cherry or apple, but something with blossoms kinda like one of those trees. Anyway, she bears no fruit, ornamental or otherwise, so she's just pretty for the fun of it, which I appreciate.

This spring all the trees/flowers/etc seem like they're on steriods, and Betty is no exception. Here she's dropping her petals all over the place and I feel like I'm in some sort of cartoon wedding when I descend my stairs. Who knew that walking to the subway could make you feel like a Disney princess? Too bad I don't have one of those pouffy dresses.


I was sad that I didn't take a picture of Daffodil Season because it was mindbogglingly amazing. It was almost too much. I wanted to tell them all to turn down the volume, we get it!

I don't really mean that; if you're a daffodil you can shout as loud as you want. It's the prerogative of the truly yellow.

Anyway, to make up for the lack of daffodil pix I took about 87 of old Betty here. We moved to the neighborhood on the same weekend. Didn't she grow up nice? Here's a pic of her petals on the sidewalk.

Friday, April 18, 2008

A WEE DOC ABOUT THE PROJECT

Special thanks to John Kenower for the concert footage in this doc.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

THE WHOLE THING

CLICK ON PICK TO ENLARGE

Here's a sketch of the entire experience. Central Park in a gallery. Fun for the whole family, if your family happens to enjoy rocks made of Rice Krispies, interactive forests, crows that fly as fast as you pedal, and indoor lawns.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

OUR GIANT PASTEL COUNTRY


This is the giant pastel USA that's on my wall. I've been consulting it regularly, along with Margo (from our label Organic) to see what our routing is for the Fall tour. One shining fact has emerged from our study of the pleasingly pale Midwest: distances are long.

But I already knew that. In 2005 I was driving from Lincoln, NE to Jefferson City, MO and I happened to leave my wallet at a truck stop just outside of Lincoln. I don't have to tell you that we were hours down the road before I realized it. But some nice lady from the Sheetz or Flying J or whatever it was mailed me my wallet so that I could fly on home from Chicago when the tour was over. That was real nice. I was going to remember her name, but I suck.

Monday, April 7, 2008

REST IN PEACE, DOODIE 1996-2008


Pardon the off-topic nature of this post. I'm too sad to think about anything else right now. Doodie was my cat for twelve years and now he's gone. His kidneys failed, and we had to make that awful decision to put him down. Of course we could have paid $2000 to keep him alive a while longer and then give him shots every day, but geesch--we're just not the kind of people who can make that happen, though I wish we were.

I went in while they administered the fatal barbiturate. It was awful. He died with his eyes open. I wish I could have just dropped him off, but then I would have been tortured about it. I didn't want him to have to wait around at the vet before he got axed. He would have been lonely, and in an unfamiliar environment. He already had motion sickness because of the cab ride to the vet. Poor little guy.

Doodie was a very good pet. He was extremely cuddly, playful, moderately stupid in a pleasant way, had good hygiene, smelled great and was very, very soft. One thing I really admired about Doodie was that he was never afraid of new situations. All the vets loved him because of this--he was very chill for examinations. But he would bite you if you touched his belly; he had boundaries.

Jad was his best friend and they played and cuddled every day. I almost can't imagine Jad at home without Doodie. The man and his cat were a pair. I'm sure Jad's gonna miss him a lot more than I will.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

DIORAMAS

Here are the four dioramas I made to put into our chests in the promo photo. They are supposed to be like the shoebox dioramas you make in grade school when say, you have a report about a state--perhaps you put the Virginia state bird and the state slogan and the state flag all in your box--layers of A+ meaning!

I think I actually did do a report about the state of Virginia in 5th grade. I think I also made a diorama. I don't think I got an A+, though, which figures, because I don't remember the state bird or the state motto.

Here' s the little birdhouse in your soul:

And here's a garden of flowers made of teabag envelopes:


Here is a stately yarn tree for your solarplexus:


And this one is full of label leaves, but I'm going to have to redo it because it doesn't photograph well. In person it's my favorite one. You'll just have to trust me on that one.
We're sinking them into our chests (see last posts). I hope it works. Fingers crossed.