...better than a dirty chalk-white wall the length of one side of my house! My painting project is complete for the time being:
I brought a small end table up from the basement to use for my growing indoor garden. I never knew quite what to do with it all these years until now!
As you maybe can tell, I've moved around some furniture and the space feels bigger than before.
I've got TWO events I'm DJing in the next couple weeks: the Twilight Rummage Sale this Saturday night and Comix Thing the weekend after that. I already have most of my playlists worked out. I can't wait!! I think there will be some happy freakouts at both places. Here's a band I'm planning to use at one or both of them, we'll see:
Is that one of Bryon Gysin's dream machines I see?
I'm still having trouble adjusting to the time change since returning from my vacation (it's seven hours later there). I still sometimes wake up a little to early anyway because of my sleep problems, so today I just got right out of bed at 5:30 a.m. and started my day. I washed a window, took down curtains for laundry, and repotted a few small plants. I hung last night's laundry to dry. I tidied the living room, but all of the furniture is still pushed out of the way for painting. I even cooked eggs for breakfast and a piece of fish for my dinner tonight. This week has been special because I washed all of my dishes and recycling containers and wiped down the counters. Oh yeah, and I MADE THE BED.
Maybe it's because I missed my house while I was away, or because the last AirBnB I stayed in was so cute and sparkling. It could also be because coming home made me see my place with someone else's eyes for a minute. It was pretty bad, but understandably so. I was so busy planning my adventure that I let everything else fall to the wayside.
My toilet had a clog the day after I got back and I used this young smartypants's tutorial to get it resolved.
I've used his method before and it really works! Here's a sad fun fact about me: I never used a toilet plunger with any success until last year, and that was one time. Also, I need to watch videos like this to do things like unclog toilets and drains. I just want to know it's humanly possible to accomplish. It's just me doing the handywork around here, ya know.
Why am I just learning about the Buy Nothing groups? I can't believe I haven't been all over this for centuries. You know I have stuff to contribute, too. More on this subject later.
Here's my living room as of today. A clean, unevenly primed wall giddily commences its wedding with chartreuse latex.
The guests look on, bemused and probably totally stoned:
I hope to work on it some today because I have the day off and I want to make this place a little more livable now that I'm back FROM ICELAND!!!
I've been dreaming of going there for years and I finally made it! I was there for a whole week, spending several days in Reykjavik and leaving to see as much as I could in a few days. I drove myself around the entire island on the ring road!
I think I'll say more about the trip on another post because I'm actually kind of tired and sore from the long trip back. I arrived late last night. It's weird to be back in my life again.
In a few weeks I'll be taking a magical journey, can you guess where?
If you've been paying attention, you've had several hints over the past couple years. And no, it's not Dirtydumptown USA, population: your mom. And it's not Dust Mountain or Hoardersville either, so shut up.
Aaannnyyyway, I made myself a to-do list of things I'd like to get done before I take off. It's pretty long, but I think it will be nice to come home to see some changes I made before I left.
Here's part of the list:
Clean the kitchen, meaning under the fridge and stove, and the cupboards too
Throw out all carpet scraps that are left from the bedroom removal. Some of them are still in my basement because they are too large to put in my outdoor container, and I don't have a vehicle to haul them
Paint the kitchen/living room long wall green
Spray paint and rewire a chandelier
Sell books to Powells
Weed garden
Get the flat files removed from my basement. My friends are taking them, but we haven't been able to coordinate a time to pick them up yet.
Hang curtains on the sliding glass door
Those are the big things. I know this is boring to read. Maybe I'll have some good pictures as a result pretty soon.
Here's a really nice music video from a band I might see next month. I had forgotten about this song. I made my co-worker watch it because we were both having a lame time today with some bullshit. This helped a little. I'm gonna sort out the linen closet now, re-watch Mr. Robot, and forget my troubles for the rest of the evening.
At the last episode of Twilight Rummage Salerino a pattern began to emerge. I hear myself saying to people who buy my DVDs, "This is a really good movie/TV show. It's so good I had to sell it so I wouldn't watch it anymore." Let's consider the following:
Miami Vice - Season 3
I've lost track of how many times I watched this set. It's because until recently the other seasons were lost in my basement. It's good viewing anytime, but it's better than a sunlamp during gloomy Portland winters. Some spoilers of S3: Crockett goes off his rocker. Tubbs goes off his rocker. Det. Zito gets a hot shot in the neck (I was sad about that one). Lt. Castillo glowers. Also, Liam Neeson, Helena Bonham Carter, and Lou Diamond Phillips make appearances, among others. Wowee!!
London Boulevard
I like gangster movies for some reason, I think for the same reason I like books like Dune or stories that take place in manor houses. Complex unwritten social laws, mores and politics underpin what everyone does and says. When someone diverges (in LB, that would be Colin Farrell's part), it's like cutting the head off a chicken. His breach, in this instance, is leaving prison and trying to go straight. I know you've heard it all before. I know you're probably thinking I have a Colin F. bias, but that just isn't true. I do have a funny thing for David Thewlis however:
Stuff like what I've just shown you, I just have it playing on my laptop while I do dishes and other housework. It's not like it takes my full concentration. Same goes for the VHS copy of Pretty in Pink that I'd watch at least a couple times a week when I was overseeing The Bad Apple store. Finally I stuck it in the window display, and it got snapped up soon afterwards.
Is it weird that this is my favorite scene?
OK, I'm cutting myself off. I just caught myself trying to watch that scene from LB again. See ya later, loonies.
Hard to believe that I haven't done a post about the Twilight Rummage Sale in so long. I took a couple months off to spend time with family, but I came back in June to be both salesperson and DJ again. Like before, I shared the duty with Estaban, the same DJ/seller that worked with me previously. It went really well and Jake, who months ago helped me figure out all the equipment I needed to get started on this wild lifestyle, told us that we'll probably be part of the ongoing core group that play music at the sales in the future.
I DJ'd again for the Sweet 16 party that was hosted at the I.P.R.C. as the Portland Zine Symposium's opening event. Usually I just bring my mixer, a few connectors, a turntable and an iPod. This time I had to set up a PA and speakers too! The speakers were taller than I am! I was really surprised that no one told me to turn things down. I even had my own private dancer!! A woman started gyrating in a crazie fashion to Strafe and kept it up for a good 20 minutes.
I love it when people want to know what I'm playing and what they especially like. A lot of folks mentioned this cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart.
Now I have to look up pictures of Robert Smith. I make myself sick.
Last Saturday was plain old Twilight Rummage Sale with just me at a table with a zillion DVDs and old magazines. I do have other things I need to bring, so that will entail me sorting through the basement some more.
Months ago, I started to pull way back from social media, especially Facebook, and I've been looking for new lunchtime reading at work. A title like Unfuck Your Habitat sounds like hate reading substance, but it's pure sunshine and bluebirds, and that's a fact.
I like that a lot of the folks who post their before-and-afters in UfYH mention that their struggles with anxiety and depression. I'm actually doing a whole lot better in the last two or three months, especially since my sleep problems have been managed. It's not perfect but I feel a real difference! I'd forgotten what it felt like to sleep six to eight hours in a row!!
I've talked about that blog before but I've come back to it for
inspiration, in addition to slobbering over photospreads of dollhouses
and miniature furniture. Like this one. I'm kind of glad I don't know anyone who's as obsessed as I am, because I'll be honest, I don't want competition in that department. I'm not really like that with anything else!
As for books, I'm working on The Strange Life of P.D. Ouspensky by Colin Wilson. It's very good, but I think it's intended for those who are already familiar with Ouspensky's writing, and I'm not as yet. I read another book Colin Wilson wrote, Super Consciousness, which I liked. His bio of Ouspensky references a lot of things he's written about before, and also the writing of William James, so it's not unfamiliar subject matter to me.
