Mekko on rat rock
1988
We're getting ready to head out to Joshua Tree today; it's my b'day tomorrow and the only place I want to be is in that spiritual force field. If you've been there, you know what I mean. We've been going to JT since the kids were literally babies. Tom and I taught them how to climb the rocks, scramble up impossible crevices, jump across 3 ft wide and 20 ft straight down gaps, trek into no man's land where no man, or woman for that matter, could save us if we fell. We climbed until our fingers were stripped raw and our knees beat up and bloody, until we could barely walk back to the car. God those were the beautiful, good old days.
Maya at sunset
I don't know why I'm getting so nostalgic just because it's my birthday, but I am. I wish those kids were here right now to climb with us tomorrow.
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On the rocks with Maya and Mekko
Wonderland of Rocks
Wonderland of Rocks
(photo credit: Tom Harjo)
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A friend— I call her that although we met online and I've never met her in person— posed a question on her blog, asking: what is it you do, what is your project, that allows you to possess your past? I realize I have an answer, but I've been too embarrassed to put it on her blog, so here's my response: Project Fun, Project Happiness. That's what makes it possible to posses my rotten past. I've given up being serious, political, consequential. Maybe that's a product of getting older; I'm giving up on making a mark. As impractical as it may be, I want to be happy.
Okay enough already! Some announcements:
Please check out the Occidental and NELA Bicycle Art Show at Occidental College, opening this Thursday, Feb 28, and running through March 15, at the Weingart Center gallery. Margaret Gallagher, whose concept it was, told me the gallery hasn't been used since the last curator left. I think this show will be lots of fun (oh dear, there's that word again) and if you come, you'll see a piece by Smiley Barnacle, the name alone is worth the free price of admission. I also have 2 photos in the show.
And a new comic!
This one is about my hairdresser, an ex-drug addict, a sweetheart and someone who drives me crazy with her stories. Here's one of them:
http://ratsnestcomics.blogspot.com/2013/02/my-hairdressermy-sniper.html
Now to get on the road....
happy birthday,, friend! of course you're a pisces, not that i give a rat's ass (you'll excuse the expression..) about astrology, but there you go; me, too. fish brains. swimming in both directions at once, natch.
ReplyDeletehave a wonderful adventure. adventures are definitely where it's at. scramble away over those rocks like nobody's business. and then eat a very large piece of cake!
xo
Reporting on bday cake: it was incredible, a buttermilk cake, with blood orange and candied fennel, at Alma (one of those restaurants where things come in mini-portions, but suffice to say, exactly the right amount). The taste and texture-- divine!
Deleteseems like you are having a wonderful birthday break. tiny silver bicycles and cakes with candied fennel. holy cow.
ReplyDeletei have been on a blood orange binge lately...simmered up some tiny bits of one, rind and all and then roasted the bits with chicken and onions and leeks. there is something so brutal, so european about blood oranges. we americans would never have come up with such a visceral, accurate description of their coloring, would have called them rose dawn or blushing ruby oranges. some nonsense.
Could you post that recipe? Yes, blood orange is a good one; crimson red is not as descriptive but close in imagining something bloody. OK, birthday over. Back to work!
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