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Texas Ranch House, Grant Wood, and etc
May. 1st, 2006 09:42 pmCame home to find a stopped up kitchen sink - our neighbor had been putting potato peels into his garbage disposal and consequently clogged *our* drain (they're linked). Thankfully the handyman came and snaked out the neighbor's sink, clearing ours. However, our house smells like ass.
Am currently watching PBS's Texas Ranch House - I watched the first hour straight through, but Bemo is a 24 fan, so I only get to watch the second hour during commercial breaks. I'm also picking at my paper a bit, getting ready to send this draft (fourth? eighth? tenth?) off to the Diva. Anyway, I'm always a sucker for these programs, and this one is plenty entertaining.
I forgot to mention the Grant Wood exhibit currently going on at the Renwick Gallery (one of the Smithsonian museums that doesn't get a lot of pub). Grant Wood is, of course, best known for American Gothic, and not a lot else, even for erstwhile Art History Students like myself. He simply wasn't quite ever on my radar. This exhibit changed that immediately. First of all, the exhibition makes very clear that Wood was a man of great humor. He seems to have loved puns, visual jokes, and just plain whimsey. Secondly, he was not only a painter, but was a woodworker, metalworker, and designer of skill. By the time you get to American Gothic, it has lost a lot of its iconic status, because there are so many other, cooler paintings and works of Wood's that you've just gone past, and lots more to come. I spent the least amount of time in front of it. But I came away craving the front door of his first studio, shaped like a coffin and with a very Weasley-family indicator inset into it, which could be set to show if he was in, having a party, or what time he would return.
I tried to read Kelly Armstrong's book Bitten and haven't really gotten hooked yet. Is it worth continuing with, or not so much? I still have the receipt and since I've only read a chapter or so, I'm thinking I can still take it back.
As for the etc part of it all, well - as this journal pretty clearly shows, I've been depressed over a lot of things recently, and while I'm trying to remain upbeat, I'm still feeling pretty stomach-floppy. Basically, Bemo is working a job that he really dislikes, and didn't ever expect to find himself in, and is having trouble figuring out what's going on. Plus, his two bosses contradict each other all the time. (Boss 1 - go do this. Boss 2 - you don't need to do that, it's a waste of time. Boss 1 - why aren't you doing that? Bemo - Uh, Boss 2 said it was a waste of time and I shouldn't do it. Boss 1 - Well did you ask him why he'd say that? Bemo, silently - I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I can't even figure out which boss to listen to.) He's down, scared of failure, and I feel like I'm walking the knife edge along with him. It's not a very comfortable place to live. This is why I've alternated between biting people's heads off and wanting to hide in a corner and cry recently.
Am currently watching PBS's Texas Ranch House - I watched the first hour straight through, but Bemo is a 24 fan, so I only get to watch the second hour during commercial breaks. I'm also picking at my paper a bit, getting ready to send this draft (fourth? eighth? tenth?) off to the Diva. Anyway, I'm always a sucker for these programs, and this one is plenty entertaining.
I forgot to mention the Grant Wood exhibit currently going on at the Renwick Gallery (one of the Smithsonian museums that doesn't get a lot of pub). Grant Wood is, of course, best known for American Gothic, and not a lot else, even for erstwhile Art History Students like myself. He simply wasn't quite ever on my radar. This exhibit changed that immediately. First of all, the exhibition makes very clear that Wood was a man of great humor. He seems to have loved puns, visual jokes, and just plain whimsey. Secondly, he was not only a painter, but was a woodworker, metalworker, and designer of skill. By the time you get to American Gothic, it has lost a lot of its iconic status, because there are so many other, cooler paintings and works of Wood's that you've just gone past, and lots more to come. I spent the least amount of time in front of it. But I came away craving the front door of his first studio, shaped like a coffin and with a very Weasley-family indicator inset into it, which could be set to show if he was in, having a party, or what time he would return.
I tried to read Kelly Armstrong's book Bitten and haven't really gotten hooked yet. Is it worth continuing with, or not so much? I still have the receipt and since I've only read a chapter or so, I'm thinking I can still take it back.
As for the etc part of it all, well - as this journal pretty clearly shows, I've been depressed over a lot of things recently, and while I'm trying to remain upbeat, I'm still feeling pretty stomach-floppy. Basically, Bemo is working a job that he really dislikes, and didn't ever expect to find himself in, and is having trouble figuring out what's going on. Plus, his two bosses contradict each other all the time. (Boss 1 - go do this. Boss 2 - you don't need to do that, it's a waste of time. Boss 1 - why aren't you doing that? Bemo - Uh, Boss 2 said it was a waste of time and I shouldn't do it. Boss 1 - Well did you ask him why he'd say that? Bemo, silently - I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I can't even figure out which boss to listen to.) He's down, scared of failure, and I feel like I'm walking the knife edge along with him. It's not a very comfortable place to live. This is why I've alternated between biting people's heads off and wanting to hide in a corner and cry recently.