Day 7 of art every day.

Inspired by Our Lady Peace - Superman's Dead.

Was sitting in the doctor's office with my ipod on today when this song came up. I started thinking about superhero funerals and got the inspiration for this shot.

not quite sure if i like the frame.

more here: abigvictory.blogspot.com/2007/11/art-every-day-11707.html

Day 75 of 365: a year in songs and photos

Song: Atmosphere, Trying To Find A Balance

I'm finally packing. I like to save everything for the last minute. In less than 48 hours, I will be in California.

This is my first 'real' vacation. Well, my first vacation that won't include having breakfast with Winnie the Pooh. I know, I've lived a sheltered life. Hell, this is my first time going anywhere off the east coast!
Travel wasn't always on my agenda because I hate flying. But your fears are easier to face when you have someone holding your hand through them.

A couple of people here and there asked why the hell I am going to Sacramento. Mostly, because Todd's parents are there and the main point of this trip is to see them.

While Todd spent a lot of his younger years in Fresno, he considers Sacramento his home town. It's where he lived during his teenage years (when he lived at home), where he played in a local punk band, where he came home to after months on the road, and where he ended up after he left those days behind and tried to move on with his life.

It's also where he was living when we first met ("met" in internet terms). Our relationship was long distance for a long time (there's only so many trips you can make to NY while trying to save money to move to NY) and as such, we spent an awful lot of time on the phone. We navigated the time difference in clumsy fashion; while I was wrapping my night up, he was going out to get some dinner. So I'd be on the phone with him while he drove through Sacramento, going to various fast food places, running errands, going to meetings, meeting up with friends. I "rode" with him from place to place as talked and he mentioned landmarks and favorite places and I made a mental map of his Sacramento, knowing that I'd be there some day. So when I get there, it won't be just some capital city of a huge state I'll be visiting; I'll be looking at places I came to know through our phone rides - Del Taco and Safeway, Fair Oaks Blvd and Howe Avenue and US50 - they are sentimental landmarks to me, odd as that may be to you. I'm sure no one visits California with the intention of sight seeing a Del Taco. No one but me. My sentimentality is my undoing sometimes.

I'm also looking forward to visiting all his old haunts in Sacramento and San Francisco; for every story he has from his wild days, there's a dot on the map that corresponds with it. Places like Lil Joe's and the Round Corner and Gilman....all places I'll just stop and take a shot of and move on, marking them in my little mental scrapbook of Todd's life so I have a visual to go with the audio when we sit in a diner on Long Island on a Saturday morning and he tells me more California stories.

That's why Sacramento is interesting to me. And just a small part of why I'm looking so forward to this trip. The personal sight seeing, the picture taking...those are awesome things. But they pale in comparison to actually getting away from everything - work, cooking, cleaning, the kids (anyone who has teenagers will understand that), the day to day humdrum of life, of being in a place I've ALWAYS been in, a place I've barely left in my 45 years...to just be far away in what seems like another world to someone so landlocked in their hometown, and to do it with my best friend....yea, I'm looking forward to this.

Day 120 of 365: a year in songs and photos
Song: Radiohead, Subterranean Homesick Alien

PJ left a note on my earlier picture of Gir asking who he is. So I thought I'd take another photo of him and explain.

Gir is a character in one of my favorite cartoons ever, Invader Zim.

Gir says things like:

"I love the little tacos. I love them good."
"But I NEED tacos! I need them or I will explode! That happens to me sometimes!"
"I want to be a mongoose. Can I be a mongoose dog?"
"Yay! We're doomed!"
"Yay! I'm gonna be sick!"
"I'm dancin' like a monkey!"
"I'm running , I'm running....I'm NAKED!"
"Why my piggy?! I loveded you, piggy! I loveded you!"
"All these children get to go to a special place made entirely of food. I like food."
"I wants me a barrel of floss! I wants me two balls of glue…TO BE MY FRIENDS! And I wants to go dancing NAKED!"
"You just gotta give him a chance, and open up his head and sleep in it like a squishy little bed."

Really, I could go on all night. He's so cute.

Yeah, but sometimes, you see, it’s not that easy, you know what I mean?
Not all the cupcakes and "Jesus juice" like you might assume.
Yeah a lot of times, I’ll admit it, it’s not easy being handsome
Being a model, being a graduate even, of the Handsome Boy Modeling School.
Cause they… they pick on you, they make you… you know... say, “You gotta go on the runway.”
Then two minutes later, you have to change and go again.

And the restroom's full, yeah, but they, you know you have…
Can’t get into the restrooms then they say, “You walk so slow this time, you, steps, uh, too tiny.”
This what they say, “Tiny steps.”
Well yes, tiny steps, you eh would walk with your legs crossed together tiny steps if you couldn’t get into the restroom!
What do you want, you know? I said, “Let me go on last."
If, for instance, there is some, ehm, problem, you know, on the stage,
If… if there is… no… no one will slip on it, is what I’m saying, you know what I mean?
So let me go on last. They says, “No, you have to...
Mr. Zack has to go on last to take the big bow,” you know, like he did something
You know what I mean? He stole everybody else’s clothes designs.
What? He takes the bow, he slips, it’s not my fault, is…
It was so crowded they couldn’t get into the men’s room and I should get paid, it’s all I know.

Since I’ve graduated, I uh… I got to say uh… I will say nine out of ten jobs.
Just… just, you know, just marvelous, everybody so nice to you.
They.. they can’t treat you better but every once a while you run into, like, this jerk, you know, like Mr. Zack.
You know, and he slips on the runway and says it’s all. My fault.
When you can’t even get into the restroom cause there’s too many people lined up and they say, “You’re on the runway next.”

Yeah, sometimes it gets to be a little lonely, alone in the hotel room when you just waiting for a show to come up.
They, they pick you up at the airport and then they say,
“Just see you in the morning.” Then they don’t even make no plans for you to go some place.

And you gotta go there and there’s so many people.
They give you clothes, half the time they don’t even fit.
And then, it’s just all the jealousy 'cause, you know, if you’re handsome and that and other ones, they...
They treat you, you know, somehow like they jealous of you.
Just cause, you know, you’re a little more handsome then them.

And then they... they eat all of the food.
They eat, there’s no food left, you know.
They say, “Jesus juice.” Very funny. You know, they have the Jesus juice.
It’s a terrible wine. They just call it to make it sound glamorous or something.
And the food stinks. Usually, this… this junk, you know?
Even… even if you like to eat, you couldn’t eat it.

Then they said they gonna pick you up to take you back to the airport.
They don’t even show, they have… they… they… they… said, they, you know,
“The hotel’s got the van, you could go.” They said they would pick me up.
Why do I have the van? And they never reimburse you, like they say.
They say, “Well you ate so much.” You know, I don’t know.

I like to… and then the catalogs… they don’t even send it to you when you done with them.
You know, like who wants 'em anyway. What?
They say they gonna have a hair stylist there, there ain’t no hair stylist, you know?
One, maybe, yes, for what, 50 people, you know what I mean? “You gotta bring your own scissors too,” They say.
"I have… misplaced my scissors." What? Whoever heard of a hair stylist has no scissors?
They say, “We just style it, we don’t cut it.” What?! In Italy, they have to cut, you know what I mean?
A barber is a what, a hair stylist, it means barber. No, what, you mean, no… cut?
I have my own mousse? What? Think I have my own mousse? I have no mousse.

Sometimes, like, if you… if you wet and then you socks get wet.
Then you have no other socks with you, you know what I mean?
Turn them inside out? No, doesn’t work. They say, “Change your socks,” they say.
Yes, the one for, or do the other one? What? I have no, deh, in the hotel room.
It’s fifty miles from here out near the boondocks.
And they put you next to a place near Sears, I go to Sears for breakfast.

You know, once I was a model for socks.
And I thought, you know, this is a good, eh… modeling for socks… it’s good.
You don’t have to, you know eh… get all cleaned up the night before, you know.
That’s one good thing. You know, you could go unshaved and that.
Then they says, “Well, you can’t do shoes.” I say, “What?”
They say, “No, if you… if you did the socks, then you can’t be model for shoes.
That’s the rules!” Who says this? Who makes these things up?
That if you’re a sock model, you can’t do shoes.
You have to… only the shoe models can do shoes. This is just makes me sick.

I just… I just turned down a job. They said they were looking for a handkerchief model.
I say, “I could do it.” They says, “What, you left handed or right handed?” I says, “Right handed.”
They says, “No, you have to be left handed.” I said I could do it. They says, “No, you says you was right handed.”
I says, “I made a mistake. I’m left handed.” They says, “Prove it.” How am I gonna prove this, you know what I mean?
So I take my handkerchief off from my left hand, right? They said, “You didn’t do that very smooth.”
I say, “OK, lemme try again.” They say, “Why do you have to try again? You left handed, do it.”
I said, “Just shut up and gimme the uh… the Kleenex. Let me show you with Kleenex.
I won’t ruin another one of my hankies.”
Anyway, I’m just… I don’t know what that did.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3297/...b1a90a0679.jpg

[Verse 1:]
Do you want to watch it all fall apart?
Every time I walk, I watch, I look, I notice, I observe.
I read the signs.
And the signs are pointing in the wrong direction.
The signs are not naming the streets or leading me to the highway,
The signs are naming names.
Tombstones to mark the dead of children not even born.
And I don't mean abortion, I mean what is to come.

The signs are telling me to turn back around.
The signs are telling me to to research my past.
The signs are telling me to learn from my mistakes.
The signs are asking me questions:
Do you want to watch it all fall apart?
Do you have any control? Is there anything you can do?

Time is not a nice person, I know because the signs said it.
Time can be generous, but ultimately, time is indifferent.
Time does not give two damns or a fuck.
So what will you do? What will we do . .?

So I'm in the middle of the street, talking to the signs, and people are looking at me, pointing and laughing, like, "This motherfucker's crazy."
But do they not see the signs? Do you not see the signs?

[Verse 2:]
If there is one thing in this world that you can depend on and you can best your last dollar on, it's the ignorance of the American people.
But still I have faith, and still I read the signs.
And they are indeed there. Some of us are lost and will not find our way, no matter what the signs say.
Some of us do not see the signs because we are too busy shopping.
Some of us do not see the signs because we can't help but stop and look at the accidents, and stare.
We are in a daze, we are amazed by the world's displays.

Some of us do not see the signs because we are giving spare change to the homeless.
We are getting gas.
We are volunteering for duty.
And we are watching television.
We are driving around in circles on spinners, and we are working 8-6.
We are on our way to the club, we are high, we are drunk, and we are sober.
And we do not see the signs.

We are listening to a moron babble, we are listening to tongues that lie.
We give them and ear, we give them a hand, we give them both eyes.
So we cannot see the signs.
Slow down, children playing in these streets and they cannot read the signs, they are only children.

Stop, . . . stop!

[Verse 3:]
I fear there is no u-turn, and that this road dead-ends.
Because we cannot read the signs.
Do you not see the signs? We must read the signs.
And we must turn around.
We must turn around.
We gotta turn this shit around.
And we gotta read the signs.
. . we must read the signs . . . (x3)
. . we gotta read the signs . . .
. . we gotta turn this shit around . . .(x3)

We got to read the signs.