San Francisco Art Opening September 8

Art Opening in San Francisco!

Yes. mine!

September 8!

I'll put you up if you want to fly in!

Ahab or the Whale: Which are You?

Two items married by me and listed just now in my etsy shop. Well, you know...if I'd found a china albatross instead of a white china whale, the story might have gone differently.

Aye, aye! It was that accursed white whale that razed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day!... I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out.

---from Moby Dick, Herman Melville

I don't know about you, but some days I feel like Ahab, and some days I feel like the whale.

Scattering

And when Thyself with shining Foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass,
And in thy joyous Errand reach the Spot
Where I made one—turn down an empty Glass!

- from the Fitzgerald translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Free and Street Legal

Outrage


More thoughts about forks here

Criminal Activity in the neighborhood

Caught on Camera, Carlos' cat Mischa,
convinced that a benign feline diety has
delivered an armchair to her personal turf
for her to claw to her heart's content.

The Sisterhood of Guangdong

I bought this jacket in a thrift store a few years back and was doing a little research prior to putting it on etsy. Checking the label, I couldn't find anything under "Plum Blossom", so I checked the place name, Guangdong, which opened up a whole new perspective. The cheerful birds on this jacket were not hatched in a sweatshop.

Guangdong province was famous for its handspun silk thread and its embroidery style (Yue). The silk trade gave independence to female domestic laborers, who took an oath to remain single. When the Communists took over in 1949, they cut off trade to the West from this area, and many of the women returned to domestic service as nursemaids (amahs). I don't know, but would like to think, that the embroidery tradition was kept up in private.

The style of script on the label leads me to believe that this jacket was made in the late 40s and that these embroidered birds were among the last to cross the sea.

Elder Abuse Lite

Serving dinner to aged parent at 7:00 p.m. instead of 5:30 p.m.

My Lovely Assistants

Mending the frame of an exquisite needlework piece picked up last weekend - those ceramic dogs are heavy.

Three things I found on the sidewalk

With apologies to Oscar Wilde, looking at the gutter can have its rewards.

I'm mystified by the cross inside the metal frame.