Draped to the Ankles

So....

Ok, ok, I haven't been posting regularly. I really want to post about art, but there's just nothing tickling my fancy right now. As soon a I get back in gear, I'll put something worthwhile, here, I promise.

I do have some good news on the presonal front, though. Starting in September I will be taking courses online at Texas Women's University leading to a Master of Library Science. When I grow up, I'm going to be an Art Librarian!

That book meme

I'm so excited! I got a meme passed on to me. And it was one I had seen before and been thinking about already. Thanks, Lynn.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
I've always thought I would be The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, but it's such a long book, I don't think I could ever memorize the whole thing. Perhaps Love You Forever by Robert Munsch would be more my speed. It's certainly the most moving book I ever read.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Gosh, Yes! Francis Crawford of Lymond, the main character in the Chronicles of Lymond, of which Game of Kings is the first book. I so wanted to marry a man just like him. But there aren't many who can write songs and poetry, quote the classics, wrestle, fence, sing, fight, command men, and play the lute AND pianoforte around these days.

The last book you bought is:
Conflict of Honors by Sharon Lee and Stephen Miller. I bought it used, but I have been looking for it for a while. It's recommended by people who like Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire books. So far, it's looking good.

The last book you read:
The last book I finished was Archangel Protocol. The last book I read was Seeds of Time by Kay Kenyon. I didn't like it, though: the future she wrote about was just too grim, and her main characters were not very sympathetic.

What are you currently reading?
Conflict of Honors

Five books you would take to a deserted island:
1. Can I take a whole series as one book? 'Cause I need my Chronicles of Lymond.
2. Dune. When I read it at the age of 11, it really changed my outlook on life.
3. A History of Art book, perhaps by Marilyn Stockstad. The pictures would be comforting.
4. The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by the Dalai Lama. He makes sense to me.
5. The Lord of the Rings series. I have never read it, aside from The Hobbit in high school. This would force me to finish it - maybe.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And Why?
1. Craig, because I know he'll come up with something hoity-toity as well as funny.
2. Roxanne because I would like to know what she reads.
3. Rufus because she needs to post more often!

Claim to Fame

Aside from being a distant cousin to George Burns - as Nathan Birnbaum he was my grandmother's first cousin - I also went to high school with someone who would become sort of famous. You might have heard of him by now: Giamatti. Not the former president of Yale/baseball commissioner, that was his dad. And not Paul, either. I graduated from high school with Marcus Giamatti. I had quite the crush on him when we were in The Crucible together. I played Goody Nurse. Hung, you know.

I've been watching Marcus on reruns of Judging Amy, just sort of catching up. I never knew Paul because he didn't go to the same high school. Apparently, he went to another preppy school with a more famous name. But there was that crush on Marcus. As with most high school crushes, he never knew.

So I thought, gosh, Tyne Daly reminds me a little bit of Marcus' mother, Toni Giamatti. I was in an after school drama group she taught when I was a kid. I had more fun than should be legal. She was just wonderful. Then Mrs. Giamatti came to teach at our school and the Giamattis became a fixture.

I remembered I had pictures taken one day after the last workshop, and went digging. Lo and behold, I DID know Paul (don't remember him, though). Below is a picture of me, Mrs.Giamatti, and her younger son Paul.

We were supposed to look goofy, OK? Costumes were the most fun part of the drama workshop. Oh, for the days of childhood!

Deadwood

I know this is a good show, but I don't watch it. I don't watch it because the language assaults my sensibilities. Yes, I know all the words and I've heard them all before (many from my former-Marine husband), but I still feel like I'm being verbally assalted when I hear them used so much. I don't watch The Sopranos, either. But, there's another reason that Deadwood bugs me: the main offender and star of the show is named Swearingen. Hey! That's my maiden name - almost. Growing up, I never knew anyone else named Van Sweringen, or anything similar, but since I started doing geneaology, I realized they're out there. Lots of them. Ellis Albert Swearingen actually did live in Deadwood, and he's actually in my geneaology book. Fortunately, he's only a very, very distant relative.

And where do the writers get off using him as the main foul mouth? What, just because his name is Swear - ingen? Don't think I never heard that pun on my name before. Then there's the branch of the family who equated Swearingen with "cuss motor." Must've been one of those strange spellings.

And another thing. My husband and I have been saying "Where have we seen Ian McShane before?" I finally googled him and did a big double take. He used to be Lovejoy back when he was still British and less hairy and younger. No wonder we didn't recognize him.

Navy Hospital Ship Quilt

Quilting has a long tradition of commemorating people, places and events, and it's still a vibrant practice. Navy Hospital Ship Honored with Commemorative Quilt . I found this rather inspiring.

Yikes!

Looks like everything is falling off the page again. I guess I need to post, hunh? I haven't continued the art history series mostly out of laziness - it takes more effort to write something intelligent than to just blather on. But, none of my 3 loyal readers have gotten on my case about it, so I'm not really worried about it. I'll probably do some more later on, though.

Meanwhile, I guess I'll do some linkage to a few blogs I have come across while playing around on Blogshares.

AHA Weblogs Blog - reviews homeschooling blogs, and there are so many of them popping up all the times, this is a useful site.

The Art Cart - the intelligent thoughts on contemporary art by a University of Wisconson student. Her major is actually print journalism, but I might be able to forgive her given time.

Mix V.2 - is a gallery of creative works and graphic illustrations.

Eye of the Goof - does interesting things with retro advertising and graphic arts. It also points the way to more esoteric spots on the web.

Gironale Nuovo - art, illustrated books and book covers as well as history and commentary.

Archangel Protocol

Archangel Protocol
by Lyda Morehouse
ROC, 2001

It's 2076, and the Medusa bomb turned parts of major cities to glass. Everyone is connected to the web by the LINK, everyone that is, except outlaws and poor people. And in this reality, anyone who has no declared faith or who is excommunicate is outside the law.

Deirdre McManus is one such person. Thrown off the police force, excommunicated from the Catholic Church and cut off from the LINK for her non-involvement in the assassination of the Pope, she lives on the edge of society, scraping by as a private investigator. She has hit rock bottom when a man by the name of Michael Angelucci comes to her with an offer she cannot refuse - access to the LINK.

We are told that many people have changed their name to some form of Angel due to the presence of the LINK Angels. The Archangels appeared on the LINK, showing themselves to people in a reality that seemed more than virtual, and they were unanimously proclaimed miraculous. But not everyone believes they have come from God, and Deirdre has been asked to find out the truth behind them.

This is Lyda Morehouse's first book. It's very good, even though there are some spots that feel rather amateurish. Archangel Protocol was hard to put down, and since my attention span has fizzled over the years, that's saying a lot. I highly recommend this book, especially to Unitarians. In this reality, Unitarians run the underground railroad for scientists, excommunicates, and secular humanists. Oh, yeah, there are a few UU in-jokes in this one, since Ms. Morehouse was "raised in the traditions of a Unitarian Universalist fellowship." But it also has a rather spiritual quality which gives it a rich texture as well. Ms.Morehouse is quite prolific, too - she has already published three more books since this one came out. I look forward to reading them as well.

Artist by Nature

I never blogged Artist by Nature when I put it on my blogroll, so I am making up for that. Check it out and see the process of painting beautiful cat and dog (and an ocasional horse) paintings. All your catblogging and art needs rolled into one.

Craft Corner Combat

I can safely say I have seen it all. I saw an ad for this on TV yesterday and I thought they had to be joking. "Craft Corner Deathmatch." No, really, two crafters go at it, head to head, in an arena with screaming fans to see who can come up with the best craft. And, as a bonus, you learn how to make these lovely items in the process. It'll be on the Style Channel. This is what happens when comedy producers brain storm game shows. Step away from the studio, please!

Michael Jackson

When I was a kid, the Jackson 5 helped define who I was. As a mixed-race kid who looked white, I always had to prove myself, whether I lived in a black neighborhood or a white. Living in a black neighborhood, there wasn't much I could do except beg them not to beat me up. But in a white or mixed neighborhood, I could like the Jackson 5, because if you liked the Jackson 5 and hated the Osmonds, you were obviously black. That was the line - Osmonds vs Jacksons, black vs white.

I continued to like Micheal when he went solo. I owned a copy of Thriller and Bad. His music was always good. But somewhere around Thriller he started getting nose jobs. He started to get weird. Worse, he started to turn white. The bleached skin was only the final step - the nose was the biggest.

I hadn't actually given it this much thought until I started to write it down, but now I see why I have felt so betrayed by Micheal Jackson. Here I was using him to define my "blackness" because he was obviously black and I looked obviously white, and then he turned it all upside down. Hmph.

The thing that is glaringly obvious about Michael, though, and one no one discusses, is that he is emotionally unstable. Any person who hates their own appearance to the extent that he does has serious issues that aren't being addressed. The other day I saw a documentary on him on the Discovery Health Channel that looked at him as a person who has had way too many surgeries and may be addicted to them. They also talked about people with body image problems. I was glad to see Michael's issues finally discussed, even if it was on the Health channel.

As for this whole pedophile thing, I reserve judgement. I have the impression that Michael is not a bad person, and I don't think he would do anything to intentionally harm a child, but he does need therapy. And he has done some inappropriate things in his weirdness. I worry as much about the parents who let their kids stay overnight with him, knowing how weird he is. If it bothers you, don't do it. If he throws money at you and you take it, then you should just shut-up about it. Whether he actually did the things he's accused of - I don't know if we'll ever know for sure. I just hope the court comes to the right conclusions.