Mr. Potato Head
I've reached that point in my life where I'm sporting a moustache. It may be a biological function, I don't know. As such things go, I now notice who also has one. Middle-aged men for the most part. In my case, I got curious in my college days about what would happen if I didn't bother to shave at all, and before long I had some scraggly chin spinach. I did the usual thing that I still see youngsters do, that is to let it grow as long as possible without giving it any shape, resulting in a sort of Fu Manchu affair. Eventually I discovered that it was possible to trim the whiskers to good effect. I usually went with the goatee, it being a more or less natural formation which took a minimum of maintenance. Sometimes I've gone clean shaven. Recently I wondered what would happen if I lost the beard. I like the moustache, it's streaked with grey and is pretty full -- I like to think it makes me look kind of like Einstein. It doesn't matter to anyone else what the hell I look like anyway, so it's just between me and the dork in the mirror.

Meow
I got to do some house-sitting last week. That was kind of fun. I watched DVDs and hung out with the cats. I did my laundry without having to shlep it down three stories. I slept in genuine comfort for a change, and even truly slept in. That's something I can't ever seem to do here. Even on days when we don't have the Dumpster Tango (and it hasn't been as consistent as it used to be) I can't seem to do it. But there I was able to be in some dream, and then wake up for a bit, then fall asleep and dream some more, and so on. It was nice.

So some of us live like Grown-Ups, and some of us don't. I don't try anymore, it's just about simple existence for me. That doesn't come from some deep philosophical position, I just can't see the point of a complicated life. For me to have all of the niceties I experienced last week would take some sort of revolution. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. Also, I always have to keep moving. I don't know what that's about, but I've tried several times to just settle into a spot and stay there. The notion seems wonderful to me, but it seems unlikely.

Oh well, I get by. My friends help me out, and I help them when I can by doing things like making sure the kitties have what they need. Seems OK.

Keep Your Methane to Yourself
There is a report out about how plants and trees give off methane as they grow, which is a surprise to scientists. I don't know anything about that, but sometimes I wonder about the way that the very sources of our lives have become fraught with dangers. I'm thinking particularly about the blood in our veins and the sunshine from above. It used to be that sunshine was considered good for you -- the healthy glow of a tan. There were people that spent their entire lives in the sun, like those crinkly old fishermen in Greece or someplace. Now the sun has become a hovering menace waiting to afflict us with skin cancer if we dare to indulge in its warmth.

Blood flows within each and every one of us, but now it can kill. If some blood leaks where it shouldn't be, it has to be treated as a bio-hazard. That seems strange to me. I would suppose that dealing with blood has never been particularly pleasant, but it wasn't potentially lethal.

So life has its dangers, still the long lonely trudge through the whole thing goes on.

Media Watch (or Listen)
I consider it my solemn duty to keep an eye (or in this case ear) on those areas of the media that are trivial and meaningless. I seem to recall that there are three ways that people take in info; visual, auditory, and one other way (can we learn by sense of smell?). Anyway, I'm a very auditory person. What is bugging me lately is the new style of announcer. There was a time, back in the dark ages of the last century, when the announcer was always some deep voiced American guy. You could picture him in his cardigan sweater getting ready to light his pipe while he cheerfully told you the show was "brought to you by..." and then a one minute commercial would start. Somewhere along the line they started to try different voice types, probably best illustrated by the Carl's Jr bored-out-of-my-mind voice. By the way, that voice coupled with all of the slop and chewing in their commercials has made me vow never to eat there again. I know I'm very petty about those kinds of things, but hey it's a free country. Now there is a new innovation. Every channel (and I don't have cable so I don't know what happens there) has some guy growling about everything. It used to just be the movie guy, but now he (or one of his clones) is everywhere -- even PBS! I bet there's a technical term for it, where the last word in a phrase ends in that guttural breathy sound. "Coming up (growl), the manatees (growl) will they survive (growl)?" Oh well, it's just the current fashion. They'll come up with something else, maybe the announcers talking after breathing helium, that could be fun.

Tribute to Silvia Jahnsons
I'm back in contact with my good friend Silvia Jahnsons. I believe she is one of (if not THE) most gifted artists currently inhabiting this planet. Shortly after I rented a room in a condo in South Pasadena, there was a get-together for the residents. I was there with my paper plate of vittles, and she showed up with a live crow perched on her hand. She had rescued the crow and it was living it up in her condo. I was soon viewing samples of elaborate decorations that she had done for Gina Davis' wedding, and an Oscar party and so on. Her work is not well represented online at the moment, but she reports from Twyford England that her homeland of Australia is planning an "enormous" retrospective of 30 years of her work. It will no doubt be amazing.

I used to visit and sip PG Tips (tea). She would often be working on something, or recovering from a recent project. I remember watching her do lettering with a pen on a piece of illustration board balanced on her lap. I know something about hand lettering and that was amazing to see. There were parts of costumes everywhere; some from past productions, some in the works. She could draw, paint, and do illustrations like anyone -- from Michelangelo on down.

Pictured here is a mask she made for me. I did some graphics and scanned some artwork for her. I happened to mention that I wanted an ape mask (doesn't everyone?) and she assured me she knew just how to do it using classical Renaissance techniques, and we agreed that would be my fee. Eventually I was on the floor with plaster drying on my face, and then she proceeded to build the creation you see there. It is completely durable and quick and easy to put on and take off. Here you see me as my character Jim Pan Zee in a performance she set up for some school kids.

Of great importance to me is that she held my own creations in very high regard. People often don't really "get" who I am or where I'm coming from, but I can safely say that some of those who have are people that I greatly respect, and that makes it OK.