Boyhood

I watched "Boyhood."  I recommend you watch it too.  This movie is different because it took 12 years to make it.  The same boy and girl are filmed in this family drama as their relationships evolve with their mother and their father.  The parents are divorced.  Life isn't always smooth.  I've never seen a movie like this before.  I've seen coming of age dramas before but not with the same characters as they age over 12 years.  The boy's name is Mason.  I think my favorite scene is when Mason and his sister are riding in their Dad's car for a weekend visit.  He asks them typical Dad questions like, "How are you?  How was school?  How is your art project coming?"  They answer him in typical kid fashion with one word answers.  He pulls the car over and says this is not how it's going to go. He gives them examples of what he wants them to say; separate examples for the son and for the daughter.  His examples are pretty funny.  Mason turns the conversation back on his Dad by asking, "How are you?  Who did you hang out with this week?"  Dad realizes the rapid fire question and answer sessions are not the best plan.  You have to see it for yourself because my description doesn't do the moment justice. 

PS I also recommend Paddington!

Some Times It Pays To Procrastinate

Last night I worked on my taxes and went to bed feeling like I had accomplished something.  Both state and federal were e-filed or about to be e-filed.  Job well done.  First thing this morning I see in the news that the state of Minnesota is not accepting tax forms sent through Intuit or Turbo Tax?  Seriously?  What are the odds of reading this headline just 11 hours after I pressed the "send" button? The state is worried about fraud.  G r e a t !  My sense of accomplishment, still shiny and new from last night, shrunk and shriveled like a balloon with a hole in it.  I will try and remember this the next time I mentally scold myself for procrastinating. 

The Round House

I listened to Louise Erdrich's novel The Round House this week as I walked around and around and around the block.  This engaging story kept my mind off the cold, the wind, and the bleakness outside.  This award winning book tells the story of Joe who lives on the reservation in South Dakota with his mother and his father.  Thirteen year old Joe is a typical boy and I ended up falling in love with his character.  All the characters are so well described I feel like I would recognize them if I drove onto the reservation.  After reading this book I could magine my 13 year old self hopping on a bike to ride with my friends.  My friends and I never got into as much trouble, drama and danger as Joe did.  This story isn't all fun and games.  Very sad things happen and hard choices had to be made.  Joe starts out the story as a 13 year old but ends up as an adult even though only a few months pass from the beginning to the end of the story.

Bird Lover's Dream

I had a great dream last night.  In my dream I am driving my car south on Victoria Street heading down the hill near Lake Owasso.  As I take the sharp curve to the right I see some big birds standing on the road.  I am excited to see such big birds on the street and I decide to pull over and get a good look and get out the bird book I have in the back seat.  As I see them closer they look like pelicans except the skin is tight under their beaks, their heads are black and their feet are blue, turquoise blue, like a blue footed booby.  Some birds have more turquoise on their heads while others are all black.  As I move my car over to the side of the road and glance in my rear view mirror to see if anyone if behind me, my mirror disappears and I am no longer in my car.  I am sitting on one of those four wheeled scooters like we used in junior high school - a flat square foot board with 2 inch caster wheels. Now I really need to get off the road.  As I maneuver my scooter to the curb another bird comes at me and starts pecking at the hem of my jeans.  I have my legs crossed to sit on the scooter (that would be a miracle if I could bend my legs like that!)  This little bird is tan but is shaped like a brown creeper.  All of a sudden another bird flops into my lap.  Before I can get a look at this new bird I wake up.  What a wonderful dream!

 

Great Blue Heron

For this project I used a frame and put a black and white photo of a great blue heron in reeds behind it.  Then I broke glass into pieces and glued them to the glass of the frame.  In retrospect, I wish I had used another color for the sky because the sky blends in with the yellow beak.  Blue sky would have been boring though.

Then I applied charcoal color grout to the top and pressed it in.  What a freaking mess.  This is really a summer time project because it would be easier to do it outside in the grass where the extra grout would fall harmlessly in the grass or in the driveway.  This grout is like cement so I can't even wash my grouty hands in the sink because it would clog up my drain.  So I was careful and used all the extra newspaper I had plus 2 pair of disposable gloves.  Now all I have to do is put some weather stripping between the glass and the frame so it stays secure. I love the shape of the herons.  That long, curved neck and hunched back are so pleasing to my eye.

Mosaics

In the spare time I have had recently I started working on a couple address plate mosaics.  I used some boards leftover from the deck and glued broken pieces of tile to them.  On this one I used white tile for the numbers, blue glass tile for the background, and gray and black tile for the border.

And then I smeared black grout all over filling in between and around the tiles.

I made a black and white one for myself too.  As long as I had the grout mess made I decided on a more artistic project which I will show you tomorrow.

Obsessed

I confess that I am obsessed with the television series House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey.  I rented seasons one and two from the library.  I just finished the 28th episode today and now I can't wait for season three to come out.  Although this is a television series it wasn't broadcast on network television.  I think it was made by Netflix.  In any case, this series is horribly fascinating.  Or maybe fascinatingly horrible.  If you watch it prepare to be disillusioned about our political process.  Kevin Spacey's character is Frank Underwood.  That makes his initials FU which pretty much sums up his character.  Sometimes Frank turns and speaks directly to the audience through the eye of the camera.  When he turns to the camera he says what he really means and it's creepy as heck.  He doesn't do it every episode and I never know when it's coming.  Franks is the kind of guy I never want to meet.  He wants power more than anything else in the world and his wife is right there with him in the power quest.  What lengths this man and woman will go to is positively frightening, horrible and yet fascinating.  I heard this was based on a British series that had only four episodes.  The British series came out just after Margaret Thatcher resigned and reality came really close to the series and it was very popular.  Maybe I'll watch the British version and maybe I won't. First I want to watch Frank Underwood in season three.