full disclosure

No one needs to feel sorry for me. But some of you have an idea that my life is all exciting and new and I've even heard the word "jealous". Well there have been good moments and things that I'm grateful for but I feel that I should acknowledge the fact that divorce is horrifying and is accompanied by waves of grief that can physically knock you over and starting over from scratch is completely exhausting and a little scary. Just for the record.

Intrepid reporter joins in dangerous game

The game is buzkashi, a kind of insane polo, played in Afghanistan with a headless goat. The goal is to carry the goat to the goal line amidst total chaos and galloping horses. The story is observant, illuminating and extremely hilarious:

 http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-11-18-afghan-goat_N.htm

retro

More curtains from the 50s, 

from my parent's first apartment. 

I can't tell you how tired I am of furnishing my apartment. I left so much behind (in trade for a car) that I am essentially starting over. I'm getting there, it's just taking a lot of effort and I hate to shop and I have better things to do. I find myself wanting to just be done with everything, just go out and buy the stuff I need, all at once. But budget-wise I can't do that. And if I do cheap and quick I will regret it.

For instance. I saw some folding chairs at Wal-Mart or Target. They were made of actual wood, folded smoothly and I thought why don't I just get those for my dining room table. They were $42 each. But I didn't buy them. This is also what takes time, this arguing with myself.

Swank. My new favorite shop in my neighborhood. Driving by at night, I noticed the blinking sputnik sign outside the shop and saw it was furniture from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I went in and there were my chairs. I asked the owner for $50 off and he said "yes" and I said "yay!" which he was amused by. He delivered them and of course fell in love with the curtains above.

The chairs. Black lucite with white vinyl seats, from the 60s. They were in excellent shape. And they swivel! And all for much less than the cost of 6 folding chairs from Wal-Mart. The six Lucite chairs were $150 total.

 

This room is my favorite so far, except for the bathroom (later this week). I thought my style was Arts & Crafts but that was actually Jim's style. This room is really me.

Aluminum. The table I brought with me -- it's an aluminum/birch wood table from Pottery Barn. My dad gave me my mother's old aluminum pitcher and I found the casserole at a Goodwill from up the street where many treasures are to be found. (More on that later.)

is it art?

I stopped in the Weismann Art Museum today. It's on the Mississippi River by the University of Minnesota/ East Bank. It is an impressive building, designed by Frank Gehry (think Bilbao Guggenheim and Sydney Opera House). You can see that it's a startling building to come upon:

On Sunday I read an article about an exhibit at the museum  "To Have It About You. The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection." Dorothy was a librarian and Herbert a postal worker and they collected a vast amount of minimalist and conceptual art and lived with it in a little apartment in New York City. It was such a huge collection that it was split up between the 50 states, one museum in each state. I found the article inspiring and couldn't wait to see it.

I should have known from the terms "minimal" and "conceptual" -- these are not types of art I feel much warmth towards but in this case even the word "art" does not apply.

I can see how they "had it about them". It looked like a collection from the kind of person who has 32 cats and stacks of newspapers reaching to the ceiling. There was a series of five ripped pieces of paper that the artist had swept dirt onto and then painted with his broom. A piece of notepaper someone spilled tea on. Pencil scribblings, smudged. There was a small pen and ink drawing by Mark Kostabi but even that looked good only because it was in the midst of such crap.

How is this art? I thought we had gotten past this and decided the emperor had no clothes. Or maybe that was just me who decided that.

There are art movements I don't especially relate to that I can still appreciate. I saw a show and lecture on Abstract Art at the Guggenheim that made me see the beauty in a Jackson Pollock painting. There was an article a few years ago about how his paint strokes follow a mathematical formula found in nature. (Fractals -- shapes that repeat themselves on different scales within the same object) This is part of what we relate to when we look at it, the beauty of it and genius really to intuitively paint that.

All I can say about the Weisman exhibit is that I hope, for the sake of the remaining 50 states, that Minnesota got the worst of it.

(Looking at the entire collection, there is some good stuff but that doesn't excuse the wastepaper I saw.)

Photo: links to the blog it belongs to

Strange Maps/Get Lost

This image is "The United Countries of Baseball" from a website that I really love called "Strange Maps"  It was a posting from August 3 of this year. He finds strange maps or interesting maps or flawed maps and then has a bit of history or interesting comments on them. It's a lot of fun and the comments are just as fun and entertaining. I even learn stuff.

The novel that I'm working on (or not working on at the moment which I feel with a physical pain) has a cartographer as its heroine. If you look back you can find excerpts from chapters. She maps parks and hiking trails and has even mapped all the exterior images of Madonnas in the city of Prague.

Today my friend Judi (also a blogger) sent me a link to this New York Times story about how people on the ground are mapping their own neighborhoods and adding to the knowledge and information of Google maps in particular and other maps as well. An interesting side note was the back and forth tug of boundaries and information between Pakistan and India -- how politics and emotions enter into mapmaking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/technology/internet/17maps.html?emc=eta1


Get Lost. It's taking longer than I thought to get settled. There are still boxes everywhere and I don't even have that much stuff. First I have to find something to put the stuff in, like bookshelves and cabinets, etc. Then I have to think how I will get it up the stairs and into my apartment. Then life and work interfere. Then I am painting and cleaning and being distracted by this and that. But I have to be pretty well finished by this weekend because a friend is coming to help me paint the hallway. Always good to have a goal and a deadine. Then back to Get Lost.

First room pretty much done

Before

After

A place for everything. Everyone who knows me knows that I don't have too much extra baggage, partly a natural inclination for the serenity of empty space and partly from moving a lot. But I've been carrying with me two sets of curtains since before I was married. They were from an apartment that my parents had before I was born. The curtains above were eventually used as a doorway on my bedroom and there is a picture of me pulling back the curtains from my crib to see what's going on. I've never used them until now.

What does this have to do with Paris? The curtains always made me think of a Paris city scene -- there are ladies in hats, pushing carriages, a fountain and gardens . . . there is also a red barn which wouldn't be in Paris but this whole Paris apartment decor theme is pretty broad.

 

Land of 10,000 Lakes

I've been buying this butter for years, wishing I could be in the Land of Lakes and now I am finally here!

a centerpiece

I wish I took better photos. Anyway, this is a small treasure that I found in my dad's garage -- actually the second floor of a warehouse that is a pack rat's dream and an heir's nightmare. I was combing through a lot of stuff and wondering "Why? Why?"(Why a rusted chair? Why piles of wood? Why pieces of an old church altar?) I was ready to leave when something called me into a back room that I had already been in. And there it was -- "The Booklovers Map of America Showing Certain Landmarks of Literary Geography". It was made in 1933 and depicts authors, books and literary events of that time and earlier. This will be the centerpiece of a little library area in the living room:

The rest of the room will be a Dutch Boy paint color called "Miss Liberty" -- kind of a robin's egg blue so it is a warmer color with a bit of yellow in it.  The sofa I am getting for free (thanks, Laura) is a wheat yellow stitched fabric . Or as Laura says, "like intertwined willow branches". This wall may be a darker version of the blue on the rest of the walls, or not. Anyone have any ideas for me? Should it be lighter? or darker? A different color?

Personal Style

Paris Style on the cheap.

Found this book at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and decided it would be my bible of style. I've been poring over it, making notes, getting ideas. This week I will be painting my apartment and picking out things to fit. My idea of "Paris Style" won't be Angelika Taschen's mostly because I can't afford it but it will be as close as I can get it. Keeping in mind that I usually go my own way if I can and that will result in something entirely different. 

Blog Documentary.

I will take photos of my empty apartment with unpainted walls and then document as I go just for something to do on the blog. If anyone has any good ideas for me, please comment! And no Rae I'm not going to put up 35 paint chips and stare at them for a week.

Cleanliness next to Godliness.

And I have to say that I have an excellent landlord. He cleaned the apartment and started prepping and priming the walls before I got there and, incredibly, his idea of clean and mine are almost the same. He spent hours cleaning the oven!! Actually, that might even be beyond my idea of clean.

Big Ass Yoga

“Offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the outgoing breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both these breaths; he thus releases the life force from the heart and brings it under his control.” The interpretation is: “The yogi arrests decay in the body by an addition of life force, and arrests the mutations of growth in the body by apan (eliminating current). Thus neutralizing decay and growth, by quieting the heart, the yogi learns life control.”
— Krishna, Bhagavad Gita.

Big Ass Yoga.
Picked up my new apartment key, moved a few things in and went to my first teacher training class yesterday. I think this is the very best thing for me to be doing right now. I did a lot of research and picked the Yoga Center of Minneapolis.They have good teachers, impressive visiting instructors and the training covers different yoga philosophies, anatomy, asanas, mentoring, drop-in classes to observe beginning classes, etc. It's a very nice space, downtown, by the river. And yesterday I heard about a class unique to this studio called Big Ass Yoga! Or more properly, Big A#% Yoga. This is the place for me! Not like I have a big ass or anything . . .

Don't know much about the math I took.
I have homework: reading, studying and I have to present a pose next Sunday. A bit of a challenge while painting and moving in but challenging myself is the only way to make myself grow.