Imaginary Inspirational Quotes?

For the last couple of days I've been motivated into action by a couple of quotes that I read. Or did I? As I try to search for the quotes themselves, they are nowhere to be found in magazines around the house or online. But despite that, I have been running them through my head.

The first one came from some rich businessman/entrepreneur. When asked what the difference between most people and a billionaire, he replied, "intention." While there's a lot more that keeps most people from being a billionaire beside lack of motivation, the trip towards crazy-ass wealth does have to start with a first step.

The second came from pop-culture renaissance man J. J. Abrams. In addition to creating favorite shows "Alias" and "Lost" , he may even get me to see a Tom Cruise movie this year. When asked why he liked doing movies, TV, etc, he said unlike other people his dreams didn't fade away. Instead he was allowed the opportunity to make them real and live in the world.

To repeat Mel Brooks and myself from a previous post...

" 'My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.'

- Hedley Lamarr, 'Blazing Saddles' - 1974"

I love that quote. It seems often that I can't turn off my head, music, ideas, etc. Always thinking."

And I have yet to turn it off. I figure why keep all those ideas that I've been creating, revisiting, and continually reworking only in my head. I'm always thinking about the things that I would buy if I had more money, and if any of these ideas lead to a little more spare change then great, more toys!

The first tangible step ( and the simplest) was taken a couple of days ago. 9 bucks got me a 8 1/2 by 11 inch notepad. Already filled a couple of pages with ideas, drawings, notes, etc. Nothing world changing for sure, but a good starting point. So, hopefully the future will have me posting about new non-work related projects. It's about time to get some of these ideas out of my head and introduced to the world.

I will end with questions relating to 3 different projects. While I will be cruising the internet for answers, I'm always interested in what anyone has to say.

1) Anyone have suggestions/experience with printing t-shirts? Easy/hard? Worth the time? Did you make any money?

2) Anyone have suggestions/experience with mass-producing plastic molded items?

3) Anyone have suggestions/experience with filing a patent and/or patent attorneys?

One Gallery, Some Flowers, Misc...

Before going to work this evening at the Ferst Center I decided I needed to hit some places in town for a little taste of culture.

First on my list was Youngblood Gallery and Boutique. They will be having a new gallery show opening next week, which I am hoping to attend. The boutique had a 40% off sale so I ended up buying a copy of Found Magazine #4 and a pair of Stroke's Striped Socks.

After that I headed out to Foundation One Studios, a gallery Atlanta blogger Mary wrote about. But they were closed. On a Friday?

After that it was a short visit to a couple of vintage clothes and antique/tchotchke stores in Decatur. Before coming home, it was a trip to the Your Dekalb Farmers Market for some flowers for the hard-working sweetie.

Now I'm home getting ready to head out. This show (The Secret Garden) will be the last scheduled show for me, and I have to start working on a summer strategy for work. Often museums, galleries and theaters have less work during the summer's warm months and this is something most freelancers in my field have to contend with.

But before that, a big 'ole roadtrip.

Upstate NY!
Vegas!!
New Orleans!!!

Sweet!!!!

Masonic Tattoos

These guys just can't keep a secret. The tattoo are nice, though.







The Master's Jewel - Masonic Ink - Tattoo Page

Getting in Trouble at the Bar, Weird Georgia, and God in Las Vegas

What's better then trying to get your friends in trouble at the bar? Not much.

The girl that was making a spectacle of herself by bumping and grinding her girlfriend all evening left her purse open on the bar. Only the sharp eyes of one of our friends prevented us from putting his phone number on a napkin in the purse. So close! And they thought I was going to pussy out and not join them. How could I not, I had my Communist Party T-shirt on.

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My email had the newsletter from Weird US.Com talking about Tiger Ridge, GA. Their messageboard reposted the newsletter titled, "TIGER RIDGE, GA: INBRED AND LOVING IT?"

Knit Motorcycle, originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

Also, I may have to take a trip to Athens to see Theresa Honeywell's Knit Motorcycle at the Georgia Museum of Art.

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2005-06-19+12-43-59, originally uploaded by Frank Peters.

Atlanta blogger hannahbeth just got back from Vegas, and noted, "God seems to be missing in Vegas and it's palpable and it made me very uncomfortable."

Being a 5-year resident of Vegas, I can tell you that's not true, he visits the strip just like every one else (map). Right off the strip is the Guardian Angel Cathedral. This modernist catholic church was built on land donated by the former owner of the now-destroyed Desert Inn, and features a stained-glass cityscape of Vegas with a collection of casinos depicted.

So far a google search finds no pictures of the cathedral's stained-glass. That's something I may try to remedy when we hit Vegas on our cross-country roadtrip.

Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center: Pictures of the New Exhibition

The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (map) will be having its public opening of "Courting Disaster" on Friday, April 21st, 7pm - 9pm.

For those that like the visual arts, this opening is a welcome excuse to some good art in the ACAC's great exhibition space. For those who think contemporary art is talentless crap, come to the show and I'll try to explain why that's not true in this case.





Hilary Wilder: Painting installation with a complete take-over of the exhibition space.





Katherine Taylor: Large and small painting detailing the aftermath of hurricane damage.



Donna Mintz: Intimate installation of submerged houses, suspended from apothecary jars.

Drugs, Work, etc...

So, I heard the score was approximately 2 lbs of meth...

"Currently, methamphetamine prices nationwide range from $6,500 to $20,000 per pound..." - DEA - Publications - Methamphetamine Situation - A Growing Domestic Threat

If my info is right, someone from Saturday is in trouble!

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Lot's of work these last few days. Doing a gallery installation at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (map). For those culturally inclined, the ACAC will be hosting an opening of:

"Courting Disaster - Katherine Taylor, Hilary Wilder, Donna Mintz, presents the work of three accomplished artists, each delving into the themes related to natural and man-made disaster and catastrophe."

This is a real beauty of a show, and I hope to post pictures before Friday's opening. I'll post more about the artists and their works, but I'm beat and I can't do them justice right now.

And lastly....

While getting a ride to work, I saw a blogger in the wild.

Drugs Are Bad, Mkay: Why So Noisey, People Upstairs?

Why so noisey?

Well, it was the Narc Squad busting in on the upstairs apartment. It actually made for a fun evening of various neighbors getting together and gossiping about, "what that was all about!"

They are nice.

We should get together even when there's not a police raid going on.

Blogger Get Together: Not @ work

Not @ work, originally uploaded by MDL.

Sadly, that one (and only) beer got me WASTED!

Not really. But I hurt a lot because I was laughing so much. I was hurting because of work, but the hurting continued throughout the evening.

And it was good.

Free Speech Issue At Georgia Tech: The Right To Be Intolerant?

"Ruth Malhotra, a 22-year-old Georgia Tech student and evangelical Christian, along with co-plaintiff Orit Sklar, a religious Jew, are suing the college for infringing upon their right to speak freely, if in an unpopular fashion..."

Plastic: The Right To Be Intolerant?

Slow Down, and See the Sights: Airships

Images from the Panoramic Photographs Collection (American Memory from the Library of Congress)



Image from Drawnography



Wimberly, Allison, Tong & Goo Futuristic Projects Airborne Hotel Resort

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Worldwide Aeros Selects WATG for Interior Design of Airborne Cruise Ships | Dexigner

Lockheed Martin's Secretly Built Airship Makes First Flight

Girls Gone Wild: Denim Demons vs. the Toxic Shocks

We missed all the fun at Dogwood Fest, but did see the Atlanta Rollergirls out at Stone Mountain. My sweetie won tickets from the good college station (88.5) so we got in for free. We stayed for 2 of the 3 periods, so we didn't get to see who one the game. It was much fun, but the band that played sucked.

And that's what we did instead.

Back to Work, Things I Did While Not Working

We're starting to set up for Dein Perry's Tap Dogs. Based on the high quality of previous shows at the Ferst Center for the Arts, I would recommend this show sight-unseen. If you go and are unhappy, feel free to comment with poorly-spelled tirades

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Now that I'm back to work I realize I forgot a few things I did with my freetime.

There's the usual chores: laundry, dishes, spent an hour cleaning the bathroom floor (bleached the hell out of the grout), groceries, etc.

But here were the two highlights...

"Peep Show", at Orange Hill Folk Art Gallery and Outsider Art Gallery. A sexually charged folk-art show. Loads of pieces, sculptural, paintings, and drawings. The most engaging pieces were by the artist least likely to be described as "folk" or "outsider". Whitney Lee's latch-hook rugs featuring pin-up models and centerfolds were good, with the largest one being the best.



The rug pictured was hung on a wall, and it looked great. The other smaller works were harder to read visually, pixelating because of the individual pieces of yarn used as color elements. All the pieces have a quality of looking a scrabbled TV channel trying to make out the good bits. If you are interested in being a hooker Whitney has kits of some of the smaller works shown at Orange Hill. For all the works, not just Lee's, the show is worth seeing.

V for Vendetta. Just saw the movie, and it was great. Creator Frank Miller (Wrong. Alan Miller - see comments) hates ever movie adaptation of his graphic novels except the phenomenal "Sin City". Even before he got really well known as a grapphic artist and storyteller, I had all three amazing Hard Boiled graphic novels from '90 - '93.



I bought his take on Batman (The Dark Knight Returns) but never got into 'V for Vendetta".

The movie worked for me. Glad I got a chance to go.

My Sweet Wife. But First How Quantum Physics Helped Me Deal With Jury Duty & Something about Housework

Last night the dark cloud of jury duty that had followed me lifted. As directed on my month-old jury-duty form I called and found that there were no jurors called in. Hurray!

The main problem with jury duty was that it was coming during a peak period of work, with both art installation and stagehand jobs scheduled until the end of the month. It would have been a big chunk of change lost.

One thing that helps settle my mind when I run into things like this is a theory of quantum mechanics. Yeah, strange, I know. It's the idea that particles have two states that exist at the same time until something happens to the particle. Then it goes into one of the two states. So, until the thing that needs to happen... happens, both things/all things are possible.

I find it strangely reassuring that until that something that is out of my control resolves itself, it's all up in the air.

Well... it works for me.

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So, today is the last of my play days, work resumes tomorrow. I will try to finish the tasks on the white board, completing the ones that there was no need to leave undone until now. Procrastination, my faithful friend. Not that I wasn't unproductive, but I was doing things not on list (alphabetizing books, consolidating shelves) when month-old tasks have been left untouched. Time to erase that one off the board.

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Yesterday was the 8-year anniversary of my first date with my now-wife. I don't believe in luck or divine providence. Thing just are or they're not. My life is better then I could have imagined because Caroline is in it. A good thing this marriage, and one that grows better every day. Four months into our dating, we were at a big party and were asked twice how long we had been married. We laughed, and Caroline later joked that she was pleasantly surprised how I didn't freak out over the question. That night after an excessive amount of drinking, we decided to move in. And she hasn't kicked me out yet.

How do you know someone is the one? There is no single one, there are many. But you won't meet most of them or any of them at all, they will remain unknown. But within the people you meet, there maybe a great person or persons for you. When most/all the time spent with them is good time, when you are better for being around them, when the effort you put into the relationship feels like a gift that you are giving then a task you are obligated to do... you already know exactly what you need to know.

I'm a better person then I could have imagined because of her. And she tells me the same. I love that our lives will be spent with each other, because the one we have had is so good. Give me more, I'll take all I can get.

StreetWars: Let the Street Run... Wet... With Water!

If I was single, I would think about StreetWars, a 3 week long, 24/7, watergun assassination tournament - NYC, Vancouver, Vienna, San Francisco. Since it hasn't taken place in Atlanta (yet), there's no chance.

But even if there was, this is how I imagine the conversation with my wife...

"... so if there's someone outside lurking around, don't worry. It's just somebody trying to shoot me with a squirtgun."
"...really?"
"Yeah... most likely."
"I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you."
"That only works if you're Muslim."
"Worked fine for me. Have fun with the assassinations." Leaves.

StreetWars on KRON4 - Part I - by Jeff Bush

StreetWars on KRON4 - Part II - by Jeff Bush

My Wife Makes Me Clean AND Pay Rent...

... and I have to put out!

"free room, and board, for house and personal duties. Female only Yes room and board for sex and light office duty "

Atlanta Craigslist - Free Room In New House

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First read about it here - WFMY News 2 - Watercooler Section: Sex In Lieu Of Rent Gaining Popularity

A Dog Named Sideways: A Bit of Georgia Tech History

"Sideways the dog came into Tech hearts through a tragic case of abuse.

In March of 1945, a small black and white dog was thrown from a moving car near where the Varsity stands today. Tech students, rescuing the dog, brought her back to campus and nursed her back to health.

She recovered, but was left by the accident with a walk in which her head was permanently at an angle from her tail. This odd, off-centered gait gave her a name: Sideways.

Sideways would often accompany students to and from their classes, displaying a preference for certain professors' lectures. It was said that she would sit up and listen raptly to interesting lecturers, while she would curl up and sleep for a less engaging speaker.

Sideways would spend every night in a different dorm room, and would always get her meals at Brittain Dining Hall.
Sideways often had run-ins with the law and was frequently caught by the dog catcher, but was always bailed out of "prison" by her loyal student benefactors.

Her life came to an abrupt end when she ate some rat poison. She was buried on the northwest corner of Tech Tower, where her grave marker still stands today. From that vantage point on The Hill, she continues to watch over her benefactors in the student body."

From Ramblins - Stumpy's bear, Sideways the dog remembered in Tech history

The End of Work For Now

After a long week including a 15.5 hour day on Friday, Sunday started a few days without any work scheduled. The freetime meant a walk in the Piedmont Park with my wife. We saw lots of cute dogs, kids using cardboard as slides on the grassy hills and heard one of them taunt another with a "nanny-nanny poo-poo". Italian sodas were bought at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse. And then home, dinner and some Adult Swim.

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"Beauty rules here. It cured my wounds from the war."

Art handler Vadim from the series Hermitage-Niks. This 5-part series is on those people who work at The State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), and I caught a bit of it on Sundance. Valdin (who like like any art handler I could have met with edgy facial hair and a pierced eyebrow) served as a solder during a conflict with Azerbagan. He saw many war atrocities and now find refuge amongst the museum's beauty, as do many of the employees there.

Carl Jung once said something to the effect that art exists to heal the human psyche. It made me think there may be less of an appreciation for the arts in part because most of us in the west are happier and healthier then a battle-affected russian solder or a Hermitage curator who talked about how her male family members were all killed during Stalin's reign. I live in a time and country of unparalleled excess. Just thinking about this.

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More good work news. I'm working on cultivating a relationship with a local architecture firm. A chance conversation with the company's president may be the beginning of something new. The firm has a had some museum-related projects and proposals.

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Reprinted. Purchased today. Rarely am I one for spontaneous shopping. but Threadless T-Shirts brings that out in me. Hmm, wonder what Valdim would think of this.