MY BRAIN IS BORING

My brain is boring, thank God. Perfectly normal, see? I left the doctor with a huge envelope of brain pics, feeling like I had just been to some demented elementary school Olan Mills shoot. Really, the individual scans come out in little squares that are more-or-less wallet sized. I might sign one "have a nice summer" for Jad. He used to tell me he liked me for my brain.

I'm thinking of cutting them up and using them somehow in the installation. They might make good tree innards, coupled with my lumbar spine MRIs. Like the tree skeleton is in there and it's just like yours, you perfectly normal (albeit with some bionics) patient, you.



I'm considering making knot holes in the Yarn Tree or the Sweater Tree which have a magnifying glass and an LED light so you can see the bones.

WEEKLY BLOOM: WEEDS

Yellow Swamp Iris: I'm told this is a weed, and that makes me like this beauty even more than if it were planted fastidiously every year by the Conservancy.

While this Foxglove was planted in the Conservatory Garden, and therefore planned and well kept, in most parts of the country it just volunteers weed-like anywhere the soil conditions are right. These are one of my favorite flowers to run across. I imagine actual foxes putting their paws into the bells of the flowers. It seems like a nice accessory for a society fox to wear to tea, don't you think?

Black Locusts grow incredibly fast around here. When I first moved into my house in 2001 there was a 5 foot tall weedy-looking bushy thing in the backyard that my landlady wanted to remove. Since then it's grown into a giant tree which beautifully shades her backyard in the summer. Right now it's so beautiful with the white blossoms. They smell like honey, Honey.

I should really add this to my list of things I love: weeds. I love dandelions. I love that they win every war to kill them. Were I a suburbanite, my lawn would be all dandelions. They are so bright and noisy. I also love bittersweet nightshade, chickory, ailanthus, and etc. Most of them have flowers. I think that's a defense mechanism; "I know you want to get rid of me, but look how cute I am!"

On a related, but slightly non sequitur topic, I'd like to point out that I'm trying to find a way to give fresh flowers in my installation. Like maybe there's a flower tree that contains daisies. Perhaps people can wander by and pick daisies all day? I think in the apple tree, some of the ladles can be filled with water and flower heads. Yeah.

I'm also toying with the idea that people won't know they can take stuff, until the first person does and doesn't get in trouble. Like you take your 8 year old to the installation and she can't keep her hands off the apples. Then no one yells at her. Then adults start to touch stuff and no one yells at them...then suddenly everyone realizes that everything can be harvested.

One way that my Central Park will be better than the actual one; in Real CP you can pick apples, but you better not get caught.

MEN WHO KNIT

Thinking ourselves SO original yesterday, with our knitting men post, I expected to be the only listing to come up when I typed men who knit in the Google box. Not so. Not even close to being so.

This is a real, live genre of activity/person out there. There were not just a few listings. No, there are pages and pages of listings, including a magazine devoted to it.

This is probably my favorite site out there...It includes a little history of male knitting.

I would like to read this children's book, too, but keep in mind: written by a woman.

Here's a video, featuring a man knitting a hammock with pool cues.

Some more links:
Men Who Knit Community
Male Knitters (at Knitty.com)
A fun blog

Keep in mind, I've only listed a tiny fraction of the sites out there.

We've officially decided to rename our musical genre Male Knitting Music. It's going to catch on, I'm sure of it.

MOBILE SWEAT SHOP

Every band member on the case of the Yarn Tree on our way to Wilmington NC for WE Fest.

Knit like the wind!

CENTRAL PARK + RAIN = GOOD LUCK

Sunday I went to the wedding of two good friends. They got married at Hearnshead in Central Park. Their permit only allowed for 20 or so people to actually be in the gazebo-like structure thingy:So the rest of us rowed out in boats:It was raining and that made things cold but fun. Our excellent hosts provided us with flasks of bourbon and other goodies like wax lips:

Bourbon + wax lips = We don't notice the rain.

Never had wax lips at a wedding before. I've also never attended a wedding in a boat. It was a banner day.

Wish I had a better pic of the bride and groom to show you. Oh here's a funny vid of their civil ceremony; 1.25 minutes courtesy of NY City Hall.

ANNIE QUICK + HEMINGWAY = HIP HOP

This is new math, folks. Somehow Hemingway makes a cool hip hop track. Check it.

Omar Musa is a British/Australian rapper who went to Seattle to record a new record with my record's producer, the very talented Geoff Stanfield. Geoff hooked him up with Hemingway.

REHEARSALIZING

New traveling band members here in the studio for rehearsal this week. We're on our way to North Carolina (Wilmington) for the WE Fest later this week.

Please say hello to Austin Owen:
Notice the flower attached to his headstock. Nice touch, Austin.

The very photogenic Jake Geesling:
We had a fine day woodshedding all the parts. These are kind and talented folks. I'm glad to have them along.