From The Futro.

At the beginning of August I had a small exhibit of recent artworks just for fun. There was extra space in the HFAC so the gallery director let me make a show of it, might as well pad the resume, right?

My art goal is to make people happy. I want patrons to see my works and be filled with glee, reminiscing on childhood faux pas or day dreaming about the future. Hopefully, the viewer understands that I wish my works to be filled with a longing for the naivete of adolescence, an embrace of endless imagination and tactless/shameless conversations and statements, that we all remember from the "good ole days."

I think naivete is different from ignorance. One is naive when they are open-minded, but they just haven't had the opportunity to learn something yet. One is ignorant when they are close-minded and stubborn in acquiring available knowledge. Simple naivete, childhood peace and happiness, are what I want people to feel when they look at my works.

I was sooooooo excited when I looked through the comment book I left out for visitors to sign. Many of the viewers expressed these same ideas that I had hoped my pieces would engender.

Here are some things they said:

-This show makes me happy.
-I LOVE THIS. Your use of colors is so great! This exhibit is full of good things. I'm going nuts over the humor, whimsy, subtlety and lovely aestehtic. And your glazing is killer cool! Thanks for an awesome experience!
-It's so whimsical and reminds me of children's toys. It's happy--That's refreshing.
-AWZZUM!
-Thank you for making me smile.

Here a few pix of the pieces in the show. Enjoy! I hope they make you happy.

PS. old news.

I have a website in the works.
It's only gonna get better than this.

Kings of Genius.

So many people in this world are amazingly creative. I love hearing about the novel ideas that friends and complete strangers have. Maybe this isn't so novel, but Noah and The Whale made a complete movie to go along with their next album.
Its called The First Days of Spring. I am really excited to see the film and listen to the album at the same time.

Check out a little sneak peek HERE. Great, no?

i olive heart you.

Last Monday I had the chance to go see Bowerbirds at Kilby Court. It has been about a year since I saw them last. They have been one of my favorite bands for a long time. Last year I planned my vacation to Germany around their concert and convinced some guy I didn't know (a friend of my cousin's) to drive me to Frankfurt to find an old bread factory (the Brotfabrik) where they were playing. It was one of the best shows I had ever seen! But this one topped it!! I am tempted to follow them around the country going to every single show they play and singing along at the top of my lungs.


Bowerbirds at the Brotfabrik, 2008


This is one of my favorite songs of theirs.

Olive Hearts (click on the link to hear the song)

With my toes dangling into the sea,
Into a fog, into a lonely drink
Don't lift me up,
I'm a wreck, I know
Still, I've got miles to walk from the cape along the coast
And we'll play helicopter in the sand
And bite our thumbs at the acquaintances,
And make it known we're on par for the evening,
And take the butcher's knife through my words again

Then, in walk, the mannered men
With their smoke-screened eyes
And the sequined girls
With their skirts hemmed high
And you will know from this
That it's all to start.
Our glasses clink,
And our plastic swords stab our olive hearts

All night like a friendly ghost
We haunt the ins and outs of this house of our gracious host
And give thanks, but not much helps.
And so here is where we give the toast:
Cheers to the wives of the drunks
Cheers to the husbands that tag along for good luck
Cheers to the miles it took to get here
Cheers to the the nerve it takes to forget who we are

Then, in walk, the mannered men
With their smoke-screened eyes
And the sequined girls
With their skirts hemmed high
And you will know from this
That it's all to start.
Our glasses clink,
And our plastic swords stab our olive hearts

self. great. day.

Today was a wonderful day.
Maybe it's because it was my last day as an intern at the Salt Lake Art Center. It's nice to be finished working without pay while commuting and living out of a suitcase at my sister's house. Woah! I can't believe I did that for 3 months!!!
Or maybe it's because my friends came up and we ate out at the Himalayan Kitchen. Yum. Nepali food is yum. but make sure you get the mild...
Or maybe it's because I got to go to the temple this morning and I had all fresh, clean clothes. I love that feeling. Plus I didn't fall asleep once, never even closed my eyes! wowz.
Or it might be because I finally talked with the Gallery 303 and told them all the info for my show that opens next week! EZCCITTIngG!!
Or it could be because we went to a free concert tonight, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone at Slowtrain Records and stood right in front, two feet away, and requested songs for him to play and listened and danced. That was soooooo fun!
All the things I love, wrapped into 24 hours.
These ingredients (along with seeing the cute neighbor boy and making a delicious smoothie for breakfast with a magic bullet) make for a good day, I can't deny it.
I 100% loved today and am ecstatic for tomorrow.

Ah what a world...

My friend showed me this article from the New York Times. I love these towns. They are trying to make a difference, one day at a time. I want to be like them. I wish my town could have similar progressive attitudes. Come on Provo.

Death by Bob Dylan

Do you know how many albums Bob Dylan has?

I do, because as I was a passenger/prisoner in a car for seven hours (actually 8, because of a missed exit and 60 extra miles), I was forced to listen to ALL of them. Ok, I'm being overly dramatic, but the music was so loud and jangly. To me, all his songs sound the same and at top decibels, all of them are unbearable. It could be that I have finally come to the realization that I don't like Bob Dylan.
I guess I am just lucky I didn't die from over-exposure. I kinda felt like I might...

love this artist.

I really love these. Good Job, Rob Longo!

Untitled (White Riot), 1982



Untitled, 1981

Es la verdad.

I am a sucker for live music and long hair.
I'm in the process of growing mine out again.
Let it be known.



my "short" hair

REJECTED!!!

That word sounds so mean. But really, it doesn't have to be. I think about that all the time. Today at my internship at the Salt Lake Art Center, I wrote rejection letters to artists who had submitted proposals. It was crazy to be on that side of the spectrum, seeing all those artists' proposals. It made me nervous to be an artist. These people were my competition (since I want to be a practicing artist) and I saw their strategies and portfolios.

The curators had reviewed their proposals and decided that basically what they were doing in their artwork just isn't the aim/goal of the Art Center right now. So I was given the job of politely dismissing their proposed exhibitions and urging them to go on with their noble efforts in another direction.

It's not that we hate them, I actually saw some pretty good artists in the mix, its just that their ideas aren't going to further the mission of the Art Center, so we had to pass them up. And really, that's just the way it is in life. I don't think people mean to hurt you personally when they "reject" you, they just mean to urge you into better, more compatible directions. That's all.

Rode the Bus 500 miles...

When I was in 6th grade I was bused across town to a 6th grade center. All my elementary school friends and I would ride the bus each morning and afternoon, just for that year. We went to Matt Kelly 6th Grade Center. Las Vegas did this equal opportunity bus system so we went for one year to the bad neighborhood. Sometimes we were on lock down because of shootings and stuff like that, but mostly it was safe and ok. We had such a fun time riding the bus. We would play poker and 21, sing along to the radio really loud and fight with our crazy bus driver because she would smoke on our bus while we were at school. I would sit by Ben Anderson, Curtis Barney and Caroline Graham and make some pretty good jokes.
Our bus driver said we could bring music and she would play it. So one day I brought a tape of "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)" by The Proclaimers. I really liked them back then. I put the song on that tape as many times as it would fit and we just listened to it over and over. Until one day when we were all singing along and dancing a little too crazy and the bus driver revoked our music privileges.
This morning I heard that song on the radio and sang along really loud, just for old times sake. Then I thought I should write that memory down. So here it is.

Trust the Chinese calendar.

Lately, that's my only hope. I have been checking out all my compatible years here and am relying on this system from now on to find my FEC.
Also I am listening to this song a lot. Why not? I like me a little Al Stewart

The tallest man on earth.

This Swedish guy is so good at imitating the western accent. I really like his music and think its amazing that he can write such beautiful songs in his second language. wowow.

I have two Valentines.

One is named Art and the other is named Clay. They are both so good to me. I love them both. It's a terrible love triangle. Luckily we all get along. Just like Jules Et Jim.

Here's some of my work from last semester. I don't make things like this anymore really. Now I am making capsule space ships. you shall see.

Happy V-day, ceramic plate, 2008


The Bell Jar, ceramic container, 2008


Containment, ceramic containers, 2008



Discourse of the Drinkers, scrafitto cups, 2008


My Favorite, ceramic bowl, 2008

Rachandom

Someone just said that I was "random". It's funny how an adjective that simply means "made, done, happening or chosen without method or conscious decision" could feel so derogatory. That word's meaning has definitely evolved to entail any type of activity that the observer doesn't care to understand or even attempt to understand. It is frustrating that people would use that cop-out-of-a-word just because they don't comprehend my motives/actions/art/ideas. I don't do things without method. I am anything but random. You can call me names if you want, but please put a little conscious decision into your name-calling. come on. be for real.

blue for you.

This reminds me of some great 80s song. Today I like Chairlift a lot. Good job.

pleasantville.

Life is beautiful. Today I got two free couches and one little suitcase, spent all day with a new friend, took a shower, drove my brother's truck everywhere, listened to Bishop Allen's "Corazon" and now I am getting ready to go to the symphony.
Grad school is still very amazing. This week I met with Skeffington Thomas. He is a famous ceramic artist who came to lecture at BYU. He met with me in my studio for a half hour and critiqued my work and gave me ideas on how to make my work more individual and strong, design-wise. It was wonderful to be able to talk to a potter about my pottery. He was so encouraging and complimentary. Now I feel so excited to just keep making more and more and more work.
I can't say enough times how fun and amazing my life is. Here's some of my unglazed work from this semester:

I am an artist.

I just felt like saying that. It's true. That's what I am.


More blogs to come about my artwork...

Little did she know....

It would be the best Christmas vacation ever!

The sobrinos and I in shadow form.

I didn't plan it. It just happened that way. I planned to go to Nevada City with the DeMartinis. I planned to go to Mexico with my Vegas friends. I planned to go to Salt Lake for New Years. BUT I ended up spending Christmas, snowed in at my parents new house in New Harmony. My parents are so good to me and it was so wonderful to be with them that week. They baby me.

After Christmas day, I made a weekend visit to Las Vegas to visit friends, shop at Savers and H&M and get my haircut.
kirsten and I at Tea Planet in China Town. Get the tapioca balls. You won't be disappointed. At least we weren't.

Here's my new haircut. Thanks Peedle!


Then I headed back up to New Harmony and 2009 came before I noticed. We were too busy playing scrabble, quilting a New Harmony quilt for my mom's Christmas present, cooking, rocking out on Rock Band, riding the inner-tubes down the snow slide and building an igloo. Yep, that's right. We sawed snow bricks and built a full-sized igloo, just like the eskimos. I want to use that word in scrabble....es-ki-mo.

SNOW SLIDE! EMOTICON!

Here's the process


Aaron on the inside putting in the keystone.

In the doorway of our igloo.


Happy 2009. It's looking pretty fine. Prospero ano y felicidad. Loves.

I don't mind the weather, I've got scarves and caps and sweaters. I've got long johns under slacks for blustery days.

But I do mind when my car breaks down.
After loading and starting the kiln last night I went out into the snow to go home. My car struggled to start, and sometimes it doesn't like the cold, so I wasn't surprised. But I didn't know what to do because it would start up for a second and I could drive about a block and then it would die, the anti-lock brake system would turn off and I would have to slam on the emergency break, put it into park and restart the engine. I did this about 4 times as I drove down the street and decided to roll into a gas station to figure things out. The gas needle was on "empty" but the gas light hadn't come on yet, so I figured I was ok. However, when I filled up the tank, that usually takes 16 gallons, I found that my car needed 19 GALLONS! Then it started right up and I haven't had any problems. I was out of gas!!! WOah. I never would have guessed that that is how it reacts if your car is out of gas. That was the first time that has happened to me. Now I know.

A-HA!!!!

I just found this. wow.

this just in.

I am heartbroken, a completely broken heart. I just found out that Kings of Convenience played a show in San Sebastian, Spain on July 26th. I was a short train ride away. I could have gone to see the one band I have wanted to see for 4 years now.....I had no idea. This might be the saddest moment of my life. ok. maybe that's an exaggeration. but still. i love them.

haircutting as an art form.

For some reason, years ago for Christmas, my mom gave me a pair of hair-cutting scissors and thinning shears. I must have thought that was the green light to become a self-proclaimed hairdresser. I love to cut hair and contemplate/consider going to hair school after I get my masters. maybe I will. I know I would really love it.
This week alone, I cut the front of my own hair, my brother's hair, my friend Logan's hair, Chris' hair, Lee's long locks and Emily's bangs!!! Wow. I cut Lee's hair tonight and his was the most fun. It was sooooooo long, past his shoulders, and he let me cut it up to his ears. I have never done such a drastic do....cutting hair is the best.
I have a crush on this haircut. I just want to give every boy the haircut of the boy sitting in the front with the camera. Great hair!!

In addition to the Christmix....

I keep finding wonderful Christmas songs everywhere. There's not a mix long enough....

The First Snowflake from The Boy Least Likely To on Vimeo.

sometimes I do other things when I should be writing a paper.

Haiku by Greg Stuart

Some just fall asleep
Leaves fall, dead, as the wind blows
While some fall in love

I LOVE Platforms Magazine. Such great stuff.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! Can you believe it's almost 2009????

rachel's best friend.

I have been alive 26 years. Approximately every year I get a new best friend. So, if I have done my math correctly, that would leave me with a grand total of 26 best friends over the course of my life. Sure sometimes it's hard to always be meeting new people and getting close with someone and then having to uproot and start all over, but for me, that's life. I guess I am used to it.
However, lately my roommates and I have different schedules and I have been thinking about a new best friend. Yesterday I wondered why I never considered "man's best friend"
Maybe I should get a dog.
I'm serious.
Seriously breed shopping.
Ideas? Comments? Advice? Jealousy?

Olfaction Satisfaction

Today I was thinking that I am glad to have my sense of smell. Gratefully, it is very acute. I smell a lot and I thought I would share some of my likes and dislikes.

First: I LIKE to smell a small, not life-threatening waft of second hand smoke, popcorn, mint shampoo, the front seat of my sister-in-law's truck, GAIN (the laundry detergent) and pumpkin pie.
Second: I DO NOT LIKE to smell poopy diapers, humid exhaust from a bus, feet, spray adhesive, and mold.

voila! Olisfaction.

Listening Fever.

Today I have been in the mood to listen to some type of music. I am not sure what kind though. It has been bugging me all day. Maybe what I really am craving is silence. Sometimes a media fast is really beneficial.
Then today at Family Home Evening we were making Christmas cards for kids in Mexico and singing "Feliz Navidad" When I got home I felt that maybe I was needing Christmas music....and in particular this song. When it is actually Christmas season (after Thanksgiving) I always feel guilty listening to "That Was The Worst Christmas Ever" because I just like to be more positive than that. But right now, when I really want a break from school and work and alarm clocks, this is a good release. Indulge.

one more ukulele.

this seems a lot like the magnetic fields. and I am not opposed to more of them.

a day in the life....

Today I went to buy an outfit for my sister's wedding on Saturday. Before I went to the mall I bought a little bottle of orange juice from the grocery store and was so happy to be drinking juice. I quickly sipped some and stuck the bottle into my purse before I entered Banana Republic to see if they had any chocolate brown or baby blue articles of clothing. As I went into the dressing room I noticed something was dripping. To my dismay, I opened my purse to see that the whole bottle had drained out into the bottom of my purse. There floating in a small lake of orange juice was my wallet, some pens, a package of gum and some papers. I took out everything and poured all the orange juice back into the bottle from whence it came...then went to Nordstrom's bathroom to wash everything off. Luckily, there wasn't too much OJ damage. (make all the jokes you'd like here)
Driving off in my car this song came on. I remembered watching this video when I was in Spain and just felt, "Hey, life is pretty great. I still like orange juice."

summer to fall to winter to spring.

I really like summertime. The lido deck, the beach, lakes, rivers, swimming pools, the sun and heat waves.
I think I am capable of liking winter too. The scarves, gloves, jackets, snow, red noses and cheeks, ear muffs and hot chocolate.
But no matter how much I like it, it shouldn't snow before Halloween. That's one rule I think Mr. Winter needs to keep. Then I am sure I will like him more. And everyone likes to be liked. Bye Bye Snow by Bobby Baby.

How a shish-ke-dog changed my life...

Today in my "Art in Theory: Context" class I was enlightened. We are talking about Modernism and Minimalism. I always thought they were similar and kind of represented the same thing, but today I found out I was completely wrong. With that realization came just enough partial information about the theories behind both of the movements to be able to apprehend. This information has lead me to absolutely love Minimalism!! Mostly for all the theories behind it and its esoteric attitude. I never thought I would enjoy these movements, or this class. I think it goes back to lunch when I went with Meg to Hot Dog on a Stick and Emily made us a shish-ke-dog. That changed my life.

One more thing that I love, love, love.

Check it out.



The video was disabled. So here's the link.

finders keepers.

I just found a cd that I made 6 years ago. and remembered this song. Sweet Avenue by Jets To Brazil Remember these guys? I love it. I dedicate this to Def Leppard and A.

FB stands for "Too Much Information"

I took this picture in Spain at a costume contest parade. I really want to be the solar system for Halloween. We will have a sun in the middle and all the other planets will circle around him/her. Then Pluto will be this nerd outcast who keeps trying to join our awesome solar group, but we don't let him/her. funny.
I think my favorite topic of conversation these days is Halloween costume ideas. It reminds me of one year where Rob and Gian talked for probably 3 hours straight on this theme. Andrea and I just sat and laughed and laughed. They came up with the funniest things ever. That year Stefan (Hi, Stefan) was a French bumblebee. Amber and I were Siamese twin ghosts. Every year I love dressing up, more and more. Maybe I just like to make costumes. That part is fun.
I am trying to ween myself off of FB (facebook). Mostly, I just don't like how you can see soooooo much of everyone's life. Tonight I went to this "painting party". Everyone was talking FB this and FB that. I guess that's just the way undergraduates work these days. Grad students usually just use the phone. ha. We think real-reality kicks virtual-reality's bum. TOE UP!!!
So there you go, besides all that, I am trying to get into some craft/art shows to be able to sell stuff. Hopefully the world/Provo likes my art. I have been in the studio everyday for the past two weeks all day long. I love love love ceramics, if anyone was wondering. And right now I love love love going to sleep.

more like RAD school.

I am back here at BYU, going to grad school.
First of all, I live with Em. That couldn't be better.
Second of all, I sit across from Gian in the studio. He is inspiring.
Third of all, my brother and sister live sooooo close. I love them.
Forth of all, I have my new bike. I have a crush on it.
and fifth of all, I eat grill cheese sandwiches for lunch. Oh. I missed those.
Cheers to Rad School....

PS----paraque sepas....

On Friday night at 1:30am (so really Saturday morning) I took a bus to Madrid. It is a 5 hour long trip so I arrived at the bus station at about 6:30am, switched to a city bus and headed to the airport. I slept on my luggage for 4 hours in the airport while I waited for the luggage check-in desk to open up. Then at 1:05pm (Central European Summer Time) the plane took me from Madrid to Philadelphia.
We landed in the heart of Hurricane Hannah. It was pouring rain. The river was flooded and the rain just kept falling and falling and falling. Although the landing took us and extra 40 minutes, I boarded another plane to Las Vegas and headed home, arriving right on time at 8:26pm (Pacific Standard Time).
My luggage, however, didn't arrive.
They had to deliver it to me the next day, which they did at 9am. I guess it didn't make it to my flight and took the next one over to Vegas.
So, now you know. I am back in the USA. There are many reasons for me heading home a few weeks early, but mostly I wanted to be able to take more classes, so tomorrow I head up to BYU to start grad school, just one week late.
I am still a little jet lagged....getting really tired in the middle of the afternoon, because really it is the middle of the night and waking up in the middle of the night feeling all energized because really it is the middle of the day.
Time zone hopping is not for the weak of mind/body.
I can't wait to see everyone. It has been a long summer.

Raindrops on roses....

Well I am back in Spain. I have one month left here. Wow! I can't believe how "vonderful" my vacations were. I really loved Germany! Here are my 3 favorite things:
1. German Yogurt. It is more delicious then any other yogurt I have ever eaten. Plus they use it as a filling for chocolates and pastries. yummy.
2. Everything was soooooo green and beautiful. My cousins live by a river that has a bike path along it that goes all the way to France if you wanted to go that far. I guess you get what you pay for because it rains all the time there. But still, so beautiful.
3. The Autobahn!!!! My absolute favorite thing is the Autobahn. There are sections on all the freeways that are speed free. You can go as fast as you want. Soooooooo awesome! Here is a picture on the autobahn. We are going so fast that everything is a blur...

Guten Tag!!

My vacations are sent from heaven. I have been having such a good time that I forgot completely about blogging. Adrian came and went. We had a wonderful time cruising around Basque country in a car we rented and then spent the weekend in Madrid before she flew out. Everyday was filled with adventures...and I gave her my camera card, so I will have to post pictures later.
Then, on Monday morning our flights coincided. She flew to the US at 1pm and I flew at 12:55pm to Germany. My cousins live near Frankfurt. They always are inviting us to visit, but I have never been living only 2 hours away. So finally I took them up on the offer...and boy oh boy, I am sooooo glad. Germany is amazing. They live in this 200 year old farmhouse in a little German country village. There are bike paths up along this river right by there house that lead to the train stations in all the little towns and eventually go to France. It is so beautiful and I feel like Disneyland has come to life.
They have been telling me about all these civilian jobs with the military that I could get and I am seriously considering moving to Germany and learning this language too. I absolutely love German. Who would've known??
So, does anyone want to move to Germany with me? Bitte??

my two worlds collide in less than 24 hours.

my old world


Isn't it so weird when the new world you've embraced, for example the mission or a new city and a new life, come to know parts of the old world, like your family or someone from your past. It is always tricky to place the "old" person in the new environment. Sometimes it happens that you move to a new city and see someone out of context and feel, "I know this person, but they don't belong in this context. They belong in a different world that I used to know."
Well, that's the way I feel right now, but in a very excited way. I have made my planet here in Spain. I have a whole group of new friends and family that mean a lot to me and have posed as substitutes for the ones "back in the US(s)A" (Beatles reference for you). But in less than 24 hours, my sister is coming to spend some of my vacations with me. We are going to travel around the Basque Country and then go down to Madrid and check it out.
Think how interesting it will be to join the two worlds! Me, speaking Spanish, with my new Spanish friends, with my silly Spanish personality (which is different than my English personality) and then my sister, who thought she knew all about me since I was born, plopping right down in the middle of Spain...completely out of context.
Personally, I can't wait to share this amazing experience with my old world. I am glad someone will get to see what I am living, otherwise I might go home and feel that all of this was just a dream...

my new world

He will eat you up...

Today at the library in Gorliz I found a book called 3,000 Old Photos: For The History of Viscaya The book is filled with pictures and drawings dating back to the 16th century. It is so fascinating to see how Basque Country has changed...or not. I found a section on the "fiestas" in Bilbao and they are still very similar to the fiestas I just saw here.
In the parades they have "giants" and "big heads" made of paper mache that march around the streets. The giants dance and parade while the big-heads carry bladder-ballons which they use to scare the children...hitting anyone who comes near them. Here is an old picture, like those in the book, of the giants (standing behind) and the big-heads (standing in front) You can see the balloon-type bladders that some of them are holding.

They make the giants look so real that unless you see a normal person standing next to the giant you can't tell its not a real person, except for the floppy arms.

Here's some newer ones:


One of the most interesting giants that I am looking forward to seeing in Bilbao next week is "Gargantua" The French author François Rabelais wrote a series of books called "The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel" They tell the adventures of two giants, a father and a son. Here is the Basque Gargantua that parades in the streets during fiestas. Little children go in through the mouth and slide out the back.

These traditions are so interesting and strange (in a good way). I am having a great time experiencing these things first hand. While surfing around wikipedia I found an English translation of the introduction to the series "The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel" I include it now for your reading pleasure:

Readers, friends, if you turn these pages
Put your prejudice aside,
For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous,
Nothing sick, or bad — or contagious.
Not that I sit here glowing with pride
For my book: all you'll find is laughter:
That's all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I'd rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.

BE HAPPY!

Barrika.

Yesterday I took a little hike around Barrika. There are all these cliffs with paths that allow you to get really close to the edge...to the point where if your mom was there she would say, "Be careful, come back a little bit."
Later, I hiked over to where the two boys are sitting. See them?

So I hiked around and took a lot of pictures of myself (see below) Here I am, just me and the sea. I was on a top of the cliff with only the ocean in the background...for miles and miles and miles.


I perched myself on the precipice facing the sea and read my book. It was so relaxing with the ocean crashing below me and birds flying directly over my head and all around me

I always wish I could fly and I loved being able to be so close to those birds as they drifted around in the air. What a magnificent life birds have!! I felt like one of them, there on the cliff and as I looked around at all the bird poo, I just hoped they wouldn't think of me as a target.

Then as I hiked back leaving the birds I thought of this:



She says "wake up, it's no use pretending"
I'll keep stealing, breathing her.
Birds are leaving over autumn's ending
One of us will die inside these arms
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes 'round the yard

She says "If I leave before you, darling
Don't you waste me in the ground"
I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes round the yard

Compounded/'cause I no longer know where home is....

boats boats and more boats



One week ago, I sat on the river shore in Plentzia waiting for a procession of boats to sail past. The procession was for the patron saint of the town. It was that saint's day so he/she got a boat parade. It was pretty amazing as they all filed passed dressed in the colors of Euskadi. Red, green and white flag flew from the masts. I love the tradition and culture that Basque country possesses and remembers.
For some reason, at that very moment I started to think about compound words and how I like them. A compound word is double the word, so it has double the meaning, no? I thought about taking a compound word apart and substituting its two parts for its two equivalent antonyms or opposites...me explico?? I often play word games to keep my mind busy...so for example: "playground" would become "rest-air" and "haircut" would become "bald-mend" I thought a lot about "homesick" and couldn't decide on the opposite of home. What would it become?? and then I thought about this song and how this song makes me soooooo "homesick"....not "foreign-well" at all.
Homesick-by Kings Of Convenience


compounding on the beach

I just ate this....

Arroz Negro (translation: Black Rice)
It is rice with calamari. What makes it black you ask? It is cooked in the squid's ink. This dish would be among those that I like.

Here on the northern coast of Spain I eat a lot of seafood. Some of it is good, some tolerable and some un-swallowable...I hate to be that picky girl, so I have eaten a lot of food I wasn't really into: anchovies, weird pickled asparagus with mayonnaise, all types of mollusks and cephalopods, blood sausage, cooked red pepper drenched in oil, duck, cow, pig....I am turning more and more vegetarian.

It could be that I just miss vegetables. I only ever eat potatoes, carrots (cooked), hard cooked peas (Aaron remember these from Uruguay) and the typical salad that they have with every meal which consists of lettuce, tomato and onion drenched in oil and vinegar.

Or it could be that I tire from the incessant cutting, blood, chewing, fat, blood, cutting, chewing and chewing, blood, fat, chewing &c. gross.

Anyway. I miss good food. Truth be told, I end up eating a lot of ice cream. You can't go wrong with ice cream.

Oh, this letter!!! Oh, this book!!!----sigh-----I love them both

Miss A.E.
I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone I think and plan--Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes?--I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feeling, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice, when they would be lost on others. --Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be fervent, most undeviating in F.W.

Do you know where this is from? Who else is in love with this book? I thought I had read it already, but while reading realized maybe I had just seen the movie a lot! I can't remember. But anyhow, now it stays in my mind as a wonderful study and commentary on relationships and personalities. The characters are developed so perfectly, the plot so entertaining and the theme so personally engaging!
I must share this quote from the back cover, "the poet Tennyson, visiting historic Lyme Regis, where a pivotal scene occurs, exclaimed: "Don't talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth. Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell!"

Last week I started to read said book on the metro. My previous book I tossed in the trash because that is exactly what it was. I kept thinking it would get better but being half-way through with no desire to continue I threw it out. I was very overcome with the author's immoral, selfish,worthless and hopeless outlook on life. I was charmed by the movie "Everything Is Illuminated" (it is not as vulgar and crude as the book) but would admonish anyone with principles to not read that book. Tangents aside..."Persuasion" by Jane Austen made me trust authors again. Life is about so much more than was "illuminated" in that other book. And I am so happy to love again.