Life's Bone

I hope no one comes along and "steals" them! : )

This is an admittedly bad photo of a bad photo of a little winter project some years ago. But maybe it can still serve as a visual aide for the project. The surface of a washtub full of water iced over, and I was able to pick the disc of ice up and place it on a metal wire lawn chair. The sun heated the wire after awhile, and the disc began to melt through the seat of the chair in the form of flat icicles about 1" wide and 1/4" thick! : )

Ummm...I know, I will make a surprise present for Martha Stewart!

First, I need a nice bunch of sticks!



Next, paint them a lovely Spring green!



Dangle them from a string and entertain your guests with their deep rich clacking together sounds!



Stand them all up for a big warm group hug! Oooh, and dinner is almost ready!



Time for the table arrangement. Jam them into a big fat Mayo jar!



Voila! And, there you have it, a lovely faux Aloe plant that is not only lovely but medicinal!



Enjoy!

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Its still too dark to see outside, but I can tell by the sound of a slow moving car going by, that a nasty day is emerging...the wheels make a certain icy crunchy sound against the pavement. Without even opening the back door, I can hear sleet peppering the tin roof of the porch. And sleet is also making pecking sounds on the north-facing windows. And the loose pane of glass is rattling like an annoying reminder that I should have fixed it last Fall. And the occasional banging of a metal wash tub hanging on a nail on the wall outside tells me the wind is gusting too. And In the other room, the "certified broadcast meteorologist", that I still fondly call "the weather man", is rattling the tv too. And every time I hear the furnace click on, I am reminded of how much it is costing me this winter to stay warm. Its not impossible weather, but it could get worse...so in my mind, I note the location of several flashlights, the candles, the oil lamp, the matches, the insulated jumpsuit. Ok, I'm ready. Bring it on!

My nifty strap-on head lantern for reading in a power outage!

If nothing else, the phone cam snaps shown below serve as evidence that someone is going stir-crazy in his house...namely me...Five day forecast here goes approximately like this: rain changing to icy rain changing to ice changing to snow changing to rain again and back to ice and probably more snow then sometime next week the sun may appear for awhile.......allworkandnoplaymakesJackadullboyallworkandnoplaymakesJackadullboyallworkandnoplaymakesJackadullboyallworkno
aaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh!

And pick a splinter from your foot....

"Loosen, Loosen"

This video features dance film (LaLaLa Human Steps dancers) and music by Aldendorff.



Marco Aldendorff has also been involved in the "poesybeat" project wherein, artists who may or may not even know each other collaborate on-line, putting poetry to music...or music to poetry. Resulting poesybeat pieces are then made available as free downloads.

Pendulum Variegatum

A Poesybeat video featuring music by Marco Aldendorff with spoken poetry "Le Centenaire" (French) by Louis Deformes

I know it seems nothing much to look at, but I found a large hollow tree that I could actually get inside of....and when I looked up all I saw was a black hole.

Sunrise, this morning.

A tree growing up through the remains of a rusty iron bridge along the Duck River.



Signs that someone else has been here.



And some leaves encased in ice.

Ben Folds on piano. Jared Reynolds on bass...and lest I forget, that's my son kicking serious ass on drums. Not the best audio, but not bad for a fan clip on YouTube. Live at Michigan State. "Narcolepsy"

Life is a squirrel dog. I didn't teach her to be a squirrel dog, it just came natural to her. I used to squirrel hunt, especially when I was living in the woods. But now I am more civilized, I eat hamburgers. If I let my dog out, she will patrol the perimeter of the back yard looking up into the trees. If she spots a squirrel, she parks herself beneath the tree and barks in a way she usually doesn't. Its high pitched. Much higher than say, if some guy from the electric company has stepped into my yard to read the meter. She has a low growl and deeper bark when this happens. ( So do I.) I cannot utter the word "squirrel" aloud in my house. If I do, Life jumps up from wherever she was and bolts for the back door. I only say the "squirrel" word when I want to get her out of the house. As it turns out, most of the time, there is a squirrel out there up in the trees somewhere. But sometimes, there isn't. She will run around the yard head up to the treetops trying to spot the squirrel. When there isn't really a squirrel, she will look back sarcastically at me like "Funny...very funny!" Nevertheless, she still falls for it every time. When I have company, I tell them, do not say "s..q...u...i...r...r...e...l". But now that my dog has learned how to spell, I just use a written cue card. "Do not say the word "squirrel". While writing this blog, I found myself reading it aloud. Of course, my dog heard this, and now I have to go let her out.

Maggie, In Memorium...

Click here to read his acceptance speech.

It is cold. But I see the sun looking at me through the dark and barren woods.

Somewhere along the line over the past 8 years - and entering my sixties during that time - I began to feel resigned to the idea that things are never going to change. Or if change was still possible, that it was way out there, years on into the future and well beyond my lifetime. In 2004, after four years of watching things both near and far go from bad to worse, I was stunned by the fact that the same powers that twisted our national priorities to their own agenda, were going to continue to drag us all along for yet another term. I think that's when I first threw up my hands - or threw in the towel - and began to simply relinquish hope that things would get any better in my lifetime.

So I was quite happy to see a sudden glimmer of hope emerge on the national and global scene. Over the last two years, it seems I have been holding my breath, almost afraid to believe that someone very different was actually working his way steadily forward on a march to Washington with the most noble of intentions. And the more visible that surge of energy swelled behind him, and the more I felt a part of that hope, the more afraid I was that something surely would squelch it, stamp the fire out, and return us all to our collective gloom and powerless despair.

Incredibly, the day has come. And my cynical disbelief evaporates and is replaced with a sense of the possibilities for the future that this day signifies. The nation and the world in general seems in tatters, but at least now, there is something to believe in again. Not in terms of a blind faith, but in terms of a recognition that hope is alive, and that action on the part of all of us is vital to turn that hope into a realization of a better world. I think that is what Barack Obama stands for, and what he asks of us. Hopefully, a new and life-nurturing agenda can emerge with his leadership. But it is something we must all own and shoulder, in order to move it into the future. So, let's get on with it!

"The transformation of self is deeply rooted in the joint act of a community transforming itself." : )

Amitai Etzione,
The Active Society: A Theory of Societal and Political Processes
pub. by The Free Press, 1968



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I think sometimes, you have to be your own critic. And so, as I look at this picture, I ask myself, "What is this, really?" "Well," I replied in response to my own question, "it really is nothing other than a cheesy photo of me taking a cheesy photo of a cheesy photo of a cheesy friend doing a cheesy impersonation of Elvis by holding a cheesy photo of Elvis in front of his cheesy face." How could it have it been better? "Well," I replied, scratching my head, " it might have been a slight improvement, if someone had at least said "Cheese!"

It is too bitter cold to do anything outside, so I am currently keeping myself busy with this mindless little project. Last month I asked my sister to save for me the new spherical Coca Cola plastic bottles she had picked up at the store. So now is a good time to contemplate these. The shrink wrapped label was easy enough to peel off, and I could already see these as little vases to put cuttings in in the Spring for rooting some garden plants. But then it occurred to me that if I drilled a hole in the bottom of one that was the same size as the neck of the bottle, I could screw the one right into the other. So currently the idea is to stack 3 of these and fill them with colorful junk (in this case bits and pieces of Ethyl's costume jewelery, beads and so on). It would be easy enough to run a column of plastic plumbing pipe up the middle and snake lamp cord up through that. After that I will only need to come up with a junky base and a couple of scrounged lamp parts...and a shade. Hopefully, this will keep me busy until this cold snap blows out!

So anyway, this is what it looks like so far....

I am sorry to be so bitter, but listening to Bush's final address, I must now retire to the bathroom. It would have been so forgettable, if I had downed a few more beers, but I was caught cold turkey with, perhaps, the most lame patter I have ever heard from an out-going President.

I woke up this morning before dawn as usual, and was delighted that none of my plumbing pipes had frozen over night. The thermometer outside the window read 5 degrees (F)...so I fixed my coffee, blogged a little, and puttered around with an idea for making a junk lamp. At 7am, the power went off throughout the house. I was suddenly in a very silent world. Except I could hear a couple of faucets steadily dripping. So, no computer, no tv, no radio, no light, and..no heat. I consoled myself with the thought that the plumbing was still in tact. Then, I realized it was going to stay well below freezing today, and in several hours, this could become a plumbing issue yet. So I called the electric company, to report the problem and see if they could tell me of some system-level problem. Of course, I got the automated voice telling me their office was closed, but if I wanted to report an outage to call this other emergency number. So I called the "emergency number". Well, you may be guessing by now, that I got another automated voice. If so, you are right. But check out the automated message: "The number you have reached is not in service for in-coming calls." What does that mean?!! They gave me an emergency number that is only in service for "out-going" calls? Where is the customer service representative who was going to assure me my call was only being recorded for quality assurance purposes and then ask how they could help me? I haven't a clue. Maybe her electricity is out too. Maybe the emergency number that is only for out-going calls is some special line where the electric company can call Washington, D.C. and ask for a bail-out...some infra-structure funding.
It is true that, having moved an hour outside of the city, I can see signs of sub-developments of newly constructed houses drawing closer and closer to the pleasant pastures that now surround me. And so, we could use a little infra-structure funding out here. Newer bigger sewers, and more electrical power. The little Duck River Electric Company, that used to service a mostly rural county is experiencing growing pains. And my neighbors and I got to feel their pain, in the form of a rolling brown-out that required the shutting down of power in a systematic way around the county to keep the demand equal to the supply. And now, of course, the power is back on. For how long I wonder, since tomorrow's weather is about the same?
I make some mental notes: Increase my own funding for my own infrastructure. Beef up the level of insulation for my humble abode. Buy a portable generator. Put in an efficient wood stove. Keep several flashlights handy, and know where they are. Keep that little Sony 7-band shortwave radio under your pillow. Wrap all water pipes with insulating materials, and so on and so on. In general, reduce dependencies on the larger infra-structure. Look for better solutions to looming problems. And before the PC crashes for the final time, get on-line and see what information there is about such things as "How to pull your own tooth if it becomes absolutely necessary." And, "Is it true that with self hypnosis to control the pain, removing one's own appendix is not that big a deal?" What else should I think about? Oh yes, a dozen or so books I have been meaning to read, and some new strings for my guitar.

I hesitate to show these photos because they are not very good. But, in the 70's and into the 80's, I was doing a lot of junk art or found object constructions...and many of these were large pieces that turned into burdens as far as storage and maintenance goes. So not only was I making some large and often ridiculous constructions, but I was also running a nursing home for these works that had to be continually dismantled and re-assembled as I moved about. I guess you could call this my "hippie" period (ha). But here is one of the works from that era when I was making and then later destroying many things, and seldom took time to take pictures.
I had found an old coffee bean bag from a South American country and it had the name Raphael on it. So, imagining who Raphael might be, I imagined he had a girl friend named Ramona. I made a found-object necklace for Ramona and hung it on the wall. After that I made a dress for her of found fabrics...that too I hung on the wall. It occurred to me that Raphael was a busker, a street musician who traveled around a lot. So I built a big suitcase with the intention of it being a street corner stage for him to perform on. And then I built Raphael. I constructed him in sections that could be taken apart and all the parts would fit inside the suitcase. Nifty idea , because the work contained itself so to speak and was transportable. Things got more complicated however a little further down the line.

Here is one of the few photos of Raphael playing guitar on his suitcase. Pants are woven of fabric from the coffee bean bag, other miscellaneous fabrics and also some dried twists of tobacco leaves from a local farm. The broken guitar body was completed with a shovel handle. The guitar had a painted island scene on it. His kerchief or neck adornment is from mashed up fan blades painted with an urban scene. His head/face is paper mache.



Well, before I had an opportunity to exhibit Raphael, I couldn't resist getting Ramona in the act. The piece was getting out of control and would no longer fit in the suitcase. But having overstepped my own boundary, I went on to include their child as well. His name was "Chyoh", and where I came up with that name, I do not know. Never able to leave well enough alone, I added a parrot to the child's shoulder. So now, I had one big ridiculous piece that in order to show required a lot of taking apart and putting back together. The piece was called "The Musical Family", and I exhibited it several times in Nashville, Tennessee and then at a one-man show in San Antonio. After that I retired the work and numerous other large and cumbersome pieces, and for a few years thereafter worked on a smaller scale.

So this was "The Musical Family". They had their 15 minutes of fame and then moved on. Sorry for the poor quality of this picture since it obscures many details.



Sometime later, even after retiring The Musical Family, I continued to obsess on the characters and wrote the song that they would have been singing, if they could have. It was about Raphael and Ramona's first meeting. I can't quote all of it, at this point, but it began with this stanza:

"Down by the river, on that side of the valley that faces the first stars over Demon's Brow,
Raphael's shadow was slicing silently, like a dark sword down Ramona's alley, one endless night.
Beneath the window, he leaned on a Mango tree and sang out softly his new love song -
he wrote it for Ramona, and she came to the window and tossed him a morning flower from her evening gown."

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This is me reading the diary entries of a young woman, Safa Joudeh, who along with her family are struggling to cope with the on-going warfare in Gaza City. If you would like to read some of her diary entries click here.

This brief clip showed up on Youtube taken by tourists passing through. The big bird is holding up well, although we did have to remove and replace tail feathers once because children like to swing on them. We have also completely re-done the belly of the bird. It was originally in segments of white plastic milk bottles. The desert sun and air cause these to become brittle and break up. So we reworked the belly with the rubber soles of running shoes (reclaimed from the dumpsters behind Goodwill stores)...you may notice some shoestrings hanging down. Not visible to the eye is a hatch on the underside that enables us to actually go inside the bird to do any necessary structural repairs. Interestingly, last time I was up inside the bird, there were at least a half dozen bird nests. So the big bird is actually a habitat for the little birds!

Olin and I made arrangements to carry out recycling workshops at 8 different elementary schools and one high school in Las Cruces. We would visit each school twice. On the first visit to the elementary schools we worked up a routine wherein the children came into the classroom and would sit on the floor all around Olin who had a large trash can as a prop. Of course, I was in the trash can. He would talk to the children about the problem of littering and show different kinds of items typically found on sidewalks and streets where people had littered. Suddenly, the lid would come off the trash can and I would stand and pretend to be eating a candy bar and then throw the wrapper on the floor. Olin introduced me as "Dirty Dan" and as I continued to toss trash items out of the can he would have the children chastise me and convince me to change my ways! It was pretty funny, and the kids loved bossing me around and making me pick up my littered trash.

On our second visit to each school we worked with the art department on a paint project. The children would be divided up into groups of 3,4, or 5 at worktables where they were asked to paint a house. The children of each group were asked to take turns in carrying their house to their respective homes over the next two weeks and return it to the school with one recycled item inside it. The houses would later be featured on the grounds of New Mexico State University on Earth Day. To set this project up I spent most of my evenings cutting up liquor boxes and hot gluing them into little houses. I did well over 100 of these. So here are some photos of kids painting their houses. Click on photos to enlarge, if you like.

As you can see, these guys are not having any fun at all!



This girl is obviously having a terrible time!



This child showed up for paint day in this amazing little dress, and even though we were using washable tempera paints, we made sure she had an apron to protect her dress! Check out the white cowboy boots too...adorable!



Here's a few of the children's painted houses.



Here's a few more.



On Earth Day, the houses were laid out on the lawn of NMSU as a metaphor for the community. Each house filled with recyclables from many homes. Hopefully, the children taught their parents a lesson or two about recycling as they helped us with this project. This photo shows one portion of the Earth Day Exhibit. There was even a cardboard downtown area with a couple of painted high rises. Also on the campus that day were two of our model roadrunners. In the distance in this photo you can make out a blue orb. It was a model of the earth about 8 feet in diameter made of paper mache and done by the high school kids. Across the painted continents they had identified many global environmental issues in painted words or in little 3-dimensional structures glued onto the surface. I will have to feature their project in more detail at a later time.

No, but it is coming soon. One of Obama's best choices: Steven Chu.

Icy cold dawn.....brrrr......

Back in the ancient early 90s,Olin Calk, an artist I had done some work with in the past on the subject of waste, waste management, recycling, and so on, called me up from his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico and told me to pack my bags. He had submitted a proposal to the city's Dept. of Sanitation, and it was a go! I was gone for about four months and lived in a shack at the back of Olin's ranch while we launched into an ambitious project. It called for us to carry out educational workshops on the theme of recycling in the city schools and included funds enabling us to also construct a large sculptural work out of non-degradable trash. So, we built "the world's largest roadrunner" out of a mountain of trash materials we gathered in daily runs to the city landfill. Here are a few photos of the roadrunner (New Mexico's state bird). Tomorrow I will post other photos and information about the workshops we did.

An informal gathering of friends upon completion of the big bird. In the desert with the Organ Mountains as a backdrop, and the landfill a few hundred yards away. The bird would later be dismantled and moved to a permanent location atop a mesa overlooking the city of Las Cruces. The roadrunner is approx, 40 feet long and 21 feet tall. The armature or understructure was made of rebar steel and built to withstand 50mph desert crosswinds. The entire surface of the bird is made out of trash reclaimed from the landfill. Olin is shown standing and that's me holding onto the reins!


A beautiful New Mexico sunset...Olin and I passing a pint of Tequila back and forth as a toast to a lengthy project.


Close up of the bird's head. Miscellaneous black plastic trash, an automobile headlight for an eye, the remains of a rusted out metal trash can beat into the form of a beak....note handle of trashcan hanging down.


Prior to building the big bird, we built six smaller bird armatures as studies for how to go about it. We finished several of these out with trash, again experimenting with securing and fastening the trash exterior. The models were about 12 feet long and six feet high. Here is one of them being installed in a gallery yard in Santa Fe.


Close up of one of the model roadrunner heads.


By contract with the city, we retained ownership of the big bird and the smaller models. They were built only as iconic demonstrations to draw attention to the issues of waste management. We sold the models to private owners, and the big bird had become popular enough that the city ultimately bought it and it remains on exhibit on a mesa you can drive up to from Interstate 10. Tomorrow I will post some photos and information about our work with children on issues of recycling in southern New Mexico.