Month: November 2009

If you grew up with the Wizard of Oz, you’re drawn to the ruby slippers. The allure cannot be denied. I could never even wear these, but there I was, stopped, staring and taking a picture.

I’m home waiting for a Fresh Direct delivery. In that delivery is a pumpkin pie, which I cannot wait to eat. Hurry Fresh Direct!! Please bring me my pumpkin pie!

UPDATE: It’s here!! I’m eating pie right now!!

UPDATE 2: I realized I had time to get uptown to the library and back before choir. Which I did! I’m back now.

I get this beautiful shot just looking up out of the subway at Christopher Street, at the lavender sky. I can’t wait to post it. It will be the next shot that goes up.

So I call up the library to make sure the thing I need is really there, because it’s kinda obscure and I think it might be offsite, and the finding aid I used didn’t say. Nope, it’s here, they assure me. You can already guess what happened when I got up there. It’s offsite. It’s not a problem really, I had other work to do and I don’t mind making another trip back.

I read a short piece on Salon about how sexy Rahm Emanuel is and I agree 1,000 percent. No, a million percent.

I’m exhausted. Working at the Grace Church archives exhausts me. I think because they keep it very cold and I’m tense and shivering slightly the whole time.

I have more work to do, but I’m not sure I’m going to get to it. Tired. Christ. Would Rahm Emanuel work for a few hours at the Grace Church Archives and then call it a day? No he would not. He go on and write a book, attend six meetings, make 48 phone calls, broker 9 agreements of one sort or another, help his kids with their homework (or are they grown kids?) and after dinner, dance a few numbers from West Side Story to relax. (Oh why oh why is he happily married??)

I mean come on. Look at him! I know I’ve posted pictures of Finney up here on the TV before, but it’s a favorite spot of his. Here he is, my little sunlight-basker.

I could probably make big $$$ renting him out. There’s a big market for cat rentals, right?

I’m in a good mood for no reason at all lately and I think part of it is because holiday decorations have started to go up. Which I believe started immediately following Halloween. Poor retailers.

But it’s a happy time for me even though I can’t help by buying anything. I appreciate the view though. Thank you, retailers.

I’m also happy because I was given permission to access the Grace Church archives in exchange for work I enjoy doing. I plan to do some work and research there on Tuesday.

I came up with what I think is a cool idea that I brought up to our choir conductor. While I was going through the archives last week I started to come across century old choir performance programs. I thought it might be cool one year to duplicate a choir program from 100 years ago. He seemed open. I guess it all depends on finding a good one.

Did I mention this great little song I bought after hearing it on Grey’s Anatomy last week? It’s called Snowfall and the artist is Ingrid Michaelson.

This painting caught my eye on the way home. A simple picture of a Christmas tree. I googled the guy, Bernard Perlin, and this is what stood out for me from his bio:

“Worked 1942-3 in the Office of War Information Graphics Division in Washington, DC, with Ben Shahn. War correspondent for Life, covering the Middle East, 1943-4, and for Fortune magazine, covering the Pacific and Orient, 1945.

“Began to paint seriously for himself in 1946, still partly under Shahn’s influence … [skipping a chunk] … Lived 1948-54 in Italy, where his work became more tender and romantic. Taught at Wooster Community Art Center, Danbury, Connecticut, 1967-9. More or less gave up painting for some years, but has since resumed.”

Now there’s a story. I want to go back and see the rest of what’s hanging there. I’m very curious to see what he painted after having given up.

What did he want to express after being quiet for years? This painting definitely has a former illustrator feel.