Pity that this song never got more than a few rotations on US college radio in the 80s. I love it:

Can’t be bothered with opening up your browser to blog? Would you rather spend time on IM getting things done? Then check out IMified a free software that enables you to blog from your favorite instant messaging client. It’s in beta now and sometimes a tiny bit buggy, but the developer is very responsive in the forums. As the developer Dave Hoff describes his service:

Imified is an instant messenger buddy that works across all major IM networks and offers access to a growing number of web applications, as well as productivity tools like notes, reminders, and todo’s. Imified helps you get things done faster.

For me so far, this is very true.

I don’t know about you, but I’m really looking forward to spring - weeds and all.

Part of the challenge of working backwards (or just in reverse) is still liking the work after I’ve printed it with the right orientation. I’ve had to study it for a while, but I’m happy with it. And it’s available on Etsy:

And I just added the peacock print below to the shop.

Peacock - Reduction Linocut Print

I’ve looked at this work for so long, I’ve lost my objectivity. This is a three color reduction linocut print. Any comments, criticisms, etc. would be MOST appreciated.

I’m not too sure that Jung was right when he said that synchronicity doesn’t happen for a reason, but instead has meaning. In the case of this poem about the above painting by Brueghel I understand it’s meaning, but not in relation to me. But I’m sure that there is a reason that the poem keeps popping up in my life over the past few months. I’m sure it will hit me in an epiphany when I least expect it - the way these things usually do. In the meantime, I’d like to share it:

About suffering they were never
wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they
understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening
a window
Or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently,
passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always
must be
Children who did not specially want
it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:

They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom
must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their
doggy life
And the torturer’s horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Brueghel’s `Icarus,’ for instance:
how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the
ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important
failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing
into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate
ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out
of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed
calmly on.

W. H. Auden

Watch this quick before it get’s pulled from youtube! I remember watching this Sinatra special in the 60’s. I was only a tot at the time, but I remember it vividly and enjoyed every moment. It was just the two of them singing and (God forbid!) smoking. Even though I no longer smoke, I enjoy that cigarette with Sinatra everytime I watch this. A few years ago I rejoiced when I found a badly beaten up copy of the CD at the Chicago Public Library. And why not some more bossa nova? Check out Franco Cerri performiing Corcovado:

“It is the main earthly business of a human being to make his home, and the immediate surroundings of his home, as symbolic and significant to his own imagination as he can.”

- G. K. Chesterton (The Coloured Lands)

They’re finally up! I’m so excited to have my own little prickie shop. Check out my badges!

I hope it will feel right at home as a Valentine this year. The original painting is 11″ x 14″. It’s on tea stained watercolor paper with watercolor, acrylic and ink. I scanned it into Photoshop and added some type. Look for one of these in your mailbox, or just look in my Etsy shop.