Smashy Smashy

I have a basket for things that need mending, and I took some time this morning working on some of them.  I put a battery back in a smoke detector and stuck it back on the ceiling.  I hot-glued some crafts that had come apart, promptly sticking my fingertip in the fresh glue before the repair was complete.  I had been saving a china saucer that I thought I could also superglue, but I was missing a bit of it.  Maybe I thought I would find it by now, but I didn't, so I took a moment and broke it up on the floor and tossed it.  I'm not a dummy, dummy.  I put it in a bag before I threw it down.  I have a small sewing repair to do and I'll be about done with that old pile of stuff.

The free stuff on the sidewalk finds have been slim this year, but that's just fine.  A round-the-corner neighbor has been giving away a lot of stuff lately, often questionable goods that others might term recycling (glass jars, outdated software manuals, etc.).  I got a couple ice cube trays last week.  They make great earring holders!  You can put a pair in each little cube area and they don't get tangled or separated!  I put the ones don't hang with hooks in these trays.

I have a a shower-caddy type thing I got at a thrift store for about 49 cents for hook earrings.  I I have a matching one right below it for sunglassess. 

A couple friends recommended the BBC series The Fall to me and I'm on season 2.  I was reluctant because Jamie Dornan, the star of the bumbling Fifty Shades of Grey film is the killer in The Fall.  Dude can act, I was really surprised.  He's from Northern Ireland though, he's not getting the American thing right.  Don't feel hurt Jamie, Kenneth Branagh does it badly too and he's Mr. Shakespeare.

Well, Well, Well (Three Holes in the Ground)

Three years ago today I made my first blog post in Fitzrovians.  It's time to celebrate like a champ:

I almost blinded myself this time.  Those Icelandic folks do everything right, I tell you.

Just a few highlights from the many transformations my home has undergone in the last few years.  When I started this blog it had such a long way to go.  I'm really proud of all the work I've done.  Thanks for reading, whoever you are.

I would like a place I could call my own

Have a conversation on the telephone

Wake up every day that would be a start

I would not complain of my wounded heart

¡Qué lista!

Most days, if I remember, I make a to-do list.  This will have my stuff that I want to get done that day, like doing the laundry, picking up a prescription, making food for the next day.  So, no real surprises there.  Not as often, I make what I call the Ultimate To-Do List, which I know is a dumb-ass name but it's just as important to me.  Probably more important.  Those are the bigger projects that I want to complete, often without a specific end date in mind, but the list makes it so I don't forget them.  I put things on my daily to-do list that will help me finish the big stuff.

Now that I have a fancy phone I used it to make out such a list when I was bored.  What is on your list, if you have one?  Here are just a few things on mine:

• Rewire chandelier so it plugs into wall
• Replace broken drum pedal
• Finish zine (ETA Short Run 2015)
• Properly hook up stereo

The stereo has made a cliche out of me - I can't figure out how to connect it.  I've enlisted a friend but the last opportunity I had to fix it, looking at the connectors made me more tired than I already was.

Speaking of my new phone, I have a new app that is a task timer that allows me to create timed intervals with alerts to start new tasks.  It's called 30/30 but you can make time slots of any length, apparently.  I've been looking for a timer forever that would let me do this and I finally have one!!    I usually mark 20 minutes at a time on an egg timer to do chores so it will be nice to not have to reset anything.

Went to Enchanted Forest today for my friend's birthday celebration.  I gave myself the mission to take pics of the garden room in the haunted house for a reference I want to use in a painting.  Alas, the photos are in my phone and I don't yet know how to get them into my blog.

Life in These United States

I'm doing better since yesterday and trying to get a lot of things done today while I have the day off.  I have a comic page to finish and a house to clean.

I'm going to try this method today to unclog the bathroom sink.  It uses vinegar and baking soda to clear the drain, and it's called a sink volcano.  I don't want to keep using the grossly toxic commercial drain cleaners.  You can use vinegar and baking soda for all kinds of cleaning around the house, and breathing vinegar fumes can't hurt you, though your bathroom will smell pickled. 

I first heard about safer, homemade cleaning products from a postcard designed by Stella Marrs.  In my blog I've also mentioned a small book I have: Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills by Raleigh Briggs, which will give you other DIY nontoxic methods.   

Sunshine on a cloudy day

This was going to be a different kind of post, but since starting yesterday with cleaning, I thought otherwise.  Getting rid of stuff is hard, but it's often harder to have it around.  I've been sifting through huge quantities of paper items that fall under these main categories:

• original art by Dylan
• original art and prints by friends
• vintage comic strips, cut/torn from ancient newspapers
• paper for drawing/painting

September is a heavy month.  I might be trying to do a little too much right now.  That being said, at least I'm doing stuff I've been putting off forever.  

One of the things I miss about having a car is that I can't just load up and take things over to SCRAP or anyplace that takes stuff I don't want, so it sits around for longer than it would have a couple years ago.  Speaking of SCRAP, did you know that they moved downtown months ago?  I've been to their donation station but not inside the new retail space.  I've heard it's spectacular, as much as a place can be when it's filled floor to ceiling with random donated art supplies, which is exactly my idea of dazzling and amazing.

I got a new iPhone last week.  I'm not conversant in all of its powers but I can finally text groups of people.  I've been getting all texts too - my old phone would disappear some messages at random.  I took at look at my blog for a minute to see what some of you can see.  Everything is so mini - this will take getting used to.
 
Sometimes melancholy takes more melancholy to make a positive, so here you go.

Peer Pressure, Post Cold War

I've been pestering my artist friends Sean and Daria to take my double-decker flat file out of my place.  I missed my opportunity last weekend to show it to both of them in person, when they and several other fine individuals were in my house watching Eating Raoul.  Once it's out of my hands it's going to hold some first-rate prints and original art once more, you can take that to the bank.  I hope I'll be able to move it out this week, we'll see. 

I still have to store the stuff that's in the file drawers right now.  I will never have to buy new Bristol board again, for example.  My friend Kerri has returned from being overseas this past year, and she offered to help me get new plywood for shelves in that room.  She and I have plenty of vintage home decor field trips planned, as well as a day trip to the gorge pencilled in while she's here in town for the next month.  Kerri gave me the phenomenal bookcase that stands in my living room, when she moved out of the country.

It took me over an hour to write those little paragraphs, I've been conversing with some of the people I mentioned and copying some Pelican and MC Lyte cds.  I don't normally work this way.  I'm kind of zonked so I think I'll go home and do some housework.  It sounds like another movie night is in store.  If it was my turn to choose I might want to see this one:

 


  


  

Hello my little Chickadee

I did the Twilight Rummage Sale last night at the Eagles Lodge.  It happened a week earlier than usual for reasons yet unknown, and the Bite of Oregon festival probably stole a lot of our potential visitors.  I did all right though.

The crowd there is totally right for the kind of stuff I keep bringing.  A lot of fans of film noir, British spy films/TV, horror of all kinds, and sci-fi B-movies.  Not doing so great: dramas about failing marriages in the 1970s, documentaries, or action films.  Here's a tip for you shoppers: when you set something down, you better make sure you pick it up again when you're still standing there.  I had a woman place a box set aside thinking I knew she wanted it, and another guy nearly nabbed it.  A guy who I see everywhere, who I used to think was J Mascis, left his UFO or Die 7" on my table and went home without it.  Don't worry dude, I'll hang onto it until I bump into you again.

I spoke to the guy who DJs the sale, who also happens to be one of my regular comics customers and a pretty nice person overall.  He showed me the equipment I'll need for when I DJ at the next Comix Thing happening in November.  I know it's super soon to be thinking about it but it turns out that I need a mixer, which I don't have.  I have everything else I need.  Another guy who works at the Lodge has offered to help me practice setting up and trying out everything.  When I worked at the radio stations they had everything there you needed, plugged in and ready to go, so this is the first time I have had to set up almost from scratch.  I have trouble figuring out how to set up my stereo at home so you can understand the head start I'm giving myself.  I know a lot of DJs and they are all so friendly and helpful, there are no snobs among them.