me ka pu'uwai hamama

Where did you leave your heart?

Ho'i hou mai kaua e ku'u pili e.

3 perspectives

1. I dreamed in French and black and white. People and life appeared simple, but were really as complex as they always have been.

Yet situations were navigated in shades of grey.

2. "A correspondence is not the same as a life." ...say this at least three times before proceeding.

Remember choices that others have made.

3. Who is the audience? am I reaching my intended audience? who is the audience I am not anticipating?

NaNoWriMo ends this month.

Encore

Fourth warp tie-up in progress today. Each one goes more quickly.
At dusk I took a break à recontrer mes amis en Marseilles.
Then I read an obituary and began composing a version from the subject's perspective.

Dog

Privilege

Because my opinion counts.

Because the ritual of walking to the polling site, making choices and entering my ballot in the box is a tribute to those before me who fought for the right to vote, and a tribute to those elsewhere who still struggle with establishing the right to vote.

Song

Sing, the Muses, sing!

Sing the story of the war,
Of the front line - you know
What that looks like,
Don't you.

Sing of the 9 years.
Of the rage and killing that
Whipped the frenzied
Reptile so it
Tasted sweet alongside
Tears of grief.

Sing of words
Cut short by death,
The spirit leaving the body
And returning in bottles
To those who carry
The song to their children.

Sing of Berkeley Rep's
Production of An Iliad,
A world presented by
Two people who have traveled
Through time.

Corpus

The Greeks believed that when a person dies, his spirit or psyche leaves the physical body in the form of a little breath or puff of air. The deceased was then prepared for burial.

The remains of the body, or ashes, if cremated, were placed inside the tomb specially built for the deceased. Immortality lay in the continued remembrance of the deceased person by family members.

The interment of the body, either the bones or ashes, had to be duly buried in the earth in order to bring happiness and peace to the soul of the deceased person.

Those who did not receive proper funeral rites were doomed to wander by the river Styx, the entrance to the Underworld, for eternity; their souls could never be at rest. Thus, denying burial to a corpse not only insulted the body, but also damned his soul for all time.

Burying and mourning their dead relatives gave women an opportunity to do something important. It brought women to the fore and gave them a role to play in a society where they were not viewed as equal citizens. When Creon forbade the burial of Polynices, he denied Antigone the chance to do one of the few important things society allowed women to do. Thus, he attacked her identity, and that was a primary reason she opposed him.

CA Shakeout: what 3 things would you do?

An earthquake has struck. It was so strong that you looked for a place to duck, cover, and hold-on. It lasted 20 seconds but it felt like a lifetime as you heard glass shatter, light fixtures fell from the ceiling, and heavy cases toppled over. Your office mates shout with alarm. What a mess.

The San Francisco financial district has no power so your office is plunged into darkness. Cell phones, internet, and all wireless does not function. The BART transbay tunnel is closed and the status of roads and transportation will be unknown for at least 6 hours.

What are the first 3 things you do?

Fall warp

Goofing around again.

10/11/12

Am I a nerd or what.

Need to find a way
Out of this rut:
Release biters to
Couple atop their own,
And do not worry if
They notice I’ve grown.

5 prompts at 10

1. Each day, kharis proffered, until it stopped.

2. Pedestal: for a Statue or for a Caryatid.

3. The overtones and rhythm of drumming transported him.

4. God help you if you don’t have another place to go.

5. It's okay to look back.

Neruda's Tribute

Ode to My Socks

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder’s hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.

-Pablo Neruda (trans. Robert Bly)

slow learner

sometimes the wind gets
knocked out of me
oxygen gets
sucked out of me
when someone does something
that affects me.
repeatedly: it must a part of what they are.
why do I think
things will change?
it's an easy thing to hope;
it's so difficult to
change one's own perspective.

...and the hits just keep coming...

Blue Moon

Plans for the moment:
_finish dresses, insert labels
_writing goal: a page a week of personal content, a page a week of professional content
_warp with multiple colors and widths for color studies
_devolve old clothes: make quilt material or get rid of them
_try another new venture

...for those who DO

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

― Andy Warhol

August thought

...end of summer in the field of lavender and roses.

Wondering

...how dates birthdays anniversaries all figure during a full moon.

CA State Fair 2012

Had some big fun at the state fair on Sunday at Cal Expo.

At the UC Davis station, watched a goat get milked. Also saw sows with nursing newborn piglets, and saw pregnant cows ready to drop.

In the livestock area were colorful Jacob sheep fleeces, newborn and old.

Dairy cows were judged for udder size, teat resiliency and capacity for production.
"They're being treated like animals!"
"Oh, they ARE animals!"

A 4-H contestant and his goat wait.

A judge speaks to each 4-H entrant about their goat while others wait their turn.

Janice Kang, Spun Yarn. Fiber dyed by Lisa Souza.
This is well spun with uniform consistency; something to aspire to.

Janice Kang, "Haapsalu Shawl", knitted garment.
Pretty with intense nupps; beautiful lace that would have benefitted from a more open display.

Kurt Thomas, detail from "Donn and LaMoyne", paper mosaic.
Meticulous work.

Victor Chaney with "The Flying Marbellos", kinetic sculpture.
This was especially fascinating and engrossing. It took 2 years to construct and was one of at least 5 of his sculptures displayed at the fair.

Linda Mihara, "Blue Wave Dress", Wet-folded mulberry paper (36" x 12feet).
Exquisite. I'd love to wear this as paper or velvet. Blue-black is one of my favorite colors.

Ianna Frisby, "Archaeoacoustics", mixed media.
References drawn upon include ancient pottery, lasar reading, a bell-flower amplifier, and "his master's voice".

Dave Lane, "Device for Creating Stars, Model A", Sculpture.

There were corndogs!
I got my annual ration.

There were corporate sponsors!
Reddy Kilowatt was taking a break. That's a joke! he was not there and hasn't been for a generation. This is the second reference that date-stamps my memory of corporate advertising.

Of course, some things are fleeting and don't last long enough to be recorded - here's a remnant of the late afternoon.
We looked at a thermometer on the way home: 104F. Unbelievable but clearly tolerable - good thing we didn't look beforehand!

TdF 2012

Na lei hulu hipa (from inside to outside):
2-ply merino off a bobbin from SW 2011 (yep, pretty old);
2-ply "Salad Days" from several "first-try" bobbins;
TdF 2012 project of 2-ply cashmere-merino.
They've gone through the wet bath and are drying.

After the yarn was dry and hanked up I had a chance to mention the project to Lisa. When she asked if it had a tight spin I knew I had to revisit this yarn.

I put the hank on a swift and put it through the wheel again, adding more twist. This first pic was taken when it was taken off the niddy-noddy.
Looking good!

This second pic was taken a few minutes later as the yarn was no longer constrained with tension.
Looking wacky!

I made wool soup again. I love the aroma. We'll see what's up when this is dry in a few days.

a gem in The Little Hours

This is the time the swooning soul hangs pendant and vertiginous between the new day and the old, nor dares confront the one or summon back the other. This is the time when all things, known and hidden, are iron to weight the spirit; when all ways, traveled or virgin, fall away from the stumbling feet, when all before the straining eyes is black.

--Dorothy Parker

...is then balanced by La Rochefoucauld.

by hand

Progress

...on the lapaiki.

Some things done

Saturday Jun 30: This afternoon dying occurred - turmeric, vinegar, soda ash in a boiling solution onto muslin. The aroma triggered a yearning for curry.

At 11:30pm I opened my eyes wide and realized I had not started my TdF. I found consolation in knowing I had my goal and fiber in mind, so re-affirmed those two thoughts and vowed to spin tomorrow.

Sunday Jul 1: Countless "birds" were crushed, maimed and killed with my sweaty right hand that held tufts of cashmere and merino. At least 3 false starts occurred in getting spun fiber onto the bobbin before my hands and wheel found their balance with this precious short-staple fiber blend.

When I took this picture I intended to stop for the day. But my hands wanted to feel the fiber so I continued, putting aside the desire to eat (or do anything else on my weekend "to-do" list) and spin instead. Hours later, 2 ounces were spun, with 2 ounces of fiber remaining for another day. I don't know if I can spin this fiber in short periods of time - once a rhythm is established it is difficult to stop and re-start without losing consistency of spin. I suppose the consistency will occur with more practice.

Then I went into the kitchen (in the early evening) and saw the bowls of rhubarb and strawberries that I'd prepared a day earlier, to be put into jars. I could no longer postpone this so I just did it.

Recipe notes: 2# rhubarb, 2# sugar, 50g grated ginger, 1/4C lemon juice. 2# cut strawberries, 2# sugar, 1/4C lemon juice and a few shreds of lemon peel. Macerate fruits in different bowls for 2 hours then refrigerate for 24 hours. Bring strawbs to a boil several times, resting 5-10 minutes between each boil. This process gets the air out of the berries. Drain & divide juice & solids for each mixture (yields approx 4C juice, 4C solids for each fruit). Put 1/2 of each fruit's juice in pan, bring to boil until "set stage", skimming scum. Add 1/2 of strawbs & boil about 10min, then add 1/2 of rhub & boil another 5min or until "set stage". Yield 5C for this 1/2 batch (total yield 10C). Process jars.

I'm a bit tired. But I feel like I've put money in the bank.

solstice 2012

Making plans - what are you doing?

Travelled

Got blown away yesterday afternoon by the power of La Tania, flamenco. Didn't this happen to me last year, too?

Book

Repository
Quality
Discerning
Ubiquitous iPod and iPhone
Film
Digital
Backlit electronic images
The smell of the printed page
Physical impressions of letterpress
The feel of the page as fingered
the weight of the page as it is
turned and
falls
Binding appropriate to the book
Proportions: length, width, thickness
Layout of images
Color balancing
A box slipcase for a bed

Primed

Oh my goodness she's back at it, doing it again. Do you remember when she was a kid in school she'd talk the teacher into passing out little leaflets with some snippet of a story and having the other kids in the class write their own endings? She promised to share her version but she never did. After complaints from the other students, the teacher stopped this little exercise.

Glimpse

M sat in a room lined with layers of silk draped on the walls. He unpacked his baggage slowly, revealing layers, some thin and delicate, some ornate and intact yet clearly worn, some barely held together. Each piece had been wrapped and kept, occasionally tended to. M held each piece up to the light as he continued his quiet narrative. He let his friend E help him unpack, and E tried some items on. "You may have them, along with the stories they hold." E skipped outside and whirled around merrily, garnering attention and accolades from observers.

The clothes got caught, they tore and shredded, and E returned periodically to get reclothed. Soon he said "I cannot stay in this place," yet E stayed long enough to quickly dress and return to friends and audience outside, leaving M with the baggage. One warm spring evening E hurried in and saw that the room was empty, the walls were barren, and M stood alone. "Where are my clothes?"

"The clothes in the bag were mine. I let you have them and I have no more for you."

"Are you sure? Maybe you have another bag? Yes I can find more but I like yours. Are you sure?"

M stood silently, arms at his sides and palms out.

Marker

Yesterday a moon filled, today Venus traverses, tonight a gavel will pass.

And

Yesterday I had serious intentions to complete a particular task that really needs to be done. I actually have several tasks in this category, but one in particular has become more urgent than the others.

However when I awoke I realized that if I didn't start this piece then the optimum window of opportunity would close quickly.

So I made one piece, then another similar one, based on Warp 4.
Very glad I did this; it clearly needed to get done. I used the remaining warp and will need to tie on or rewarp the loom.

Now I'll go back and focus on the task that I "should have" been doing to begin with.

TAW

This is my first try at designing a small overshot piece adapted from Davison.

Warp 4, tromped as writ, in-progress.

Spring liners

1. At 43, heart attack, on life support for two days before being disconnected. Wife, 10 and 2 year olds, family and neighborhood network and support system. How the world has changed for those who remain.
2. Brain tumor diagnosed at the beginning of the year. Surgery and prognosis for "three years minimum". Within a month he awakes and feels tired, then dies that day.
3. Self-reflection. I am my worst critic. I am humbled and acknowledge cowardice.
4. "Are you living the life you want? If not, what are you doing towards it?"

Warp 4

The previous one was not working for me so I'm working with a different one.

Supermoon

I love this image, taken a few days ago.

Photo by Ira Serkes, Berkeley, May 5, 2012

A supermoon is “the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, or perigee, leading to the technical name for a supermoon of the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system".

Line

Heard a line that took my breath away because when I said it awhile ago the response was different from the response observed this time. Regret, rueful, poignant - I'll be away for a while longer.

Sampler 2

As a followup to Book 1, Tabby, Book 2, Twills, was completed on April 30.

Fibers: wool/nylon, wool, hemp.

Inadvertent exercises:
inserting a string heddle,
splicing a warp thread,
looking at the gap-tooth grin.

Page 1, the front cover, followed by pages 2 and 3.

Pages 4 and 5 followed by the back cover, page 6.

Flipped, page 1 followed by pages 2 and 3.

Flipped, pages 4 and 5 followed by the back cover, page 6.

This time I kept the warp so that I can tie the next one on for Book 3.

Don't know what to do about that gap, though.