Tag: dharmazine

Gesture Painting

This is the painting, that is Stan’s converted bus and then there is my mess in the foreground.  At this point the painting was about 2/3rds done.  A few others had worked on it as well.  In the comments I’ll post a picture of the Happy Winner.  Click on the image to see it full size.  There will be some better photos coming from some friends shortly.  But at least now you get to see a bit of my style.

Normally I work on a flat surface so it was a challenge working on the vertical surface again.  I used natural charcoal, acrylic paint and iridescent inks.  The canvas is lightweight, I prefer linen but linen is very expensive.  

I learned:

1. to bring a stool to hold my pallet so there isn’t as much bending over involved.

2. bring some acrylic extender to increase the workability of the paints.

3. set up in the shade next time.

4. letting go of ownership can be a wonderful thing.

 

My Experience at String Fling in Sterling, NY

After an easy drive out to Sterling I had a little difficulty finding the venue, but like most things that are hard to find it was worth the search.  The “gate” consisted of two large trees on either side of the road with some friendly faces there to greet you.  Eric, the Arts Director came out and introduced himself, gave me some background on the venue, musicians and layout of the property.

I was lead to my spot, right in the middle of Vendor Row, quickly unpacked my things and set up my tent.  Stan, my neighbor in a big white converted bus, was the first to say hello, he gave me a tour of his bus and introduced me around to his travel companions.  Stan sells rocks, crystals and anything terrestrial and was going to head to Herkimer to get some more Herkimer Diamonds right after the show.

I exited the bus and was asked if I’d be willing to paint a sign for the Family Village area, a small hollow that sits away from the rest of the venue where things are quieter.  I said sure and was handed a beautiful piece of wood that had been reserved for just this purpose. I broke out my paints and started in on it. People walking by asked what I was doing and who I was and it was a good way to meet new people.

30 Minutes to Kill

Nope this isn’t some cleverly worded title about the latest situation in Iraq, just another update from the farm:

I am pretending I have 30 spare minutes but in reality I do not.  Reality can wait.  It is still snowing…hasn’t stopped in 36 hours. The weatherman just said there is a total of 12 1/2 inches.  The tractor got a real good workout yesterday but it really isn’t meant to be a snow plow.  I’ll be getting a larger truck soon and putting a plow on it.

I found 3 possible spots for the new house, they all have southern exposure and are pretty high up on the property.  I found out that this property is the watershed for two small brooks, one leading West and one leading South.  Another cat has shown up in the barn and the bravest of the barn cats is now upstairs in the house munching out and hanging out with Dancer.

Jesus the Lost Apostle

Hyper Thick Compression Sticks

like Jesus the lost Apostle begotten from Zen

and carved from Chi balancing

in/ rainbows cherub voices fugue

like “smile” on the cutting room floors

of  Billboard’s Top Forty

yeah yeah he hates these cans

and exchoooose me

blunderfoot and bubblehead bounces

in consumption spirals blank

syncopated like cannonball adderly

but a poor man’s version

that’s what I like

make it sparse

make it important

on a hillside at 3 am tingles

trickling spinewords in pinewood caskets

and baskets of wings

clipped by Missus Obstacles

in spent little pentagrams of white chalk dust

escaping

so ignore my days

ignore my gaze

not meant for you

just left over from

another’s reflection bouncing like time

while swinging on vines

or am i a doorbell

ringing

an instant classic that won’t be read on the radio

a stale bread masterpiece with caribou meat

and chalice

balanced at the first supper table’s edge where no one was betrayed in gospel tones and tent revivals

where god gets paid like the mob boss we make him out to be

in harmony off bathroom walls and corridors bleached

meat equals cake

bread equals life

egg is soul

fork is this memory of college before it went bad

and you got lost between the coats, toads and racists

oh bitch face it this dress ain’t for me

magnificent though it is

so go on ignoring

keep on ignoring

me

unintended tragedy singular and hollow

like being lied to at nineteen

when it meant so much

another small gray American upbringing

howling in cracked panes and coarse wood

in roadside shacks beside your car

meditating in motion

and crushing forces

Rep. Wexler Introduces 190,000 signatures for Impeachment!

Last night during the debates, to an almost empty House Floor, Rep. Wexler introduced 190,000 signatures of people calling for the impeachment of Vice President Richard Cheney.

Rep. Wexler gave an amazing performance.  Completely shut out of the media this morning, only CBS seems to be about the only web-site with this story.  Of course it’s on Wexler’s website also.

Here is the video, it is brilliant, please pass this around.

Web Stats of Presidential Candidates and Why They Shouldn’t Be Ignored

I noticed a very interesting thing while doing promotions tonight, namely, the web site statistics for Presidential Candidates.  There is a correlation between current standings in the voting booth and current rankings on the internet.  It is not a perfect correlation but I think it is important enough to mention to the group.

See Hillary vs Barack vs Edwards here  on Alexa.

See Huckabee vs Rudy vs Romney here on Alexa.

Google stats below the fold:

 

Saturday Night at the Pictures – Hodgepodge Edition

I love photography. It is my main hobby, right after politics. In keeping with introducing all of you to ‘me’, I decided to do a series that spotlights the photos of all the DD folks.

I want to show some of my pictures, and see some of your as well. Tonight, the ‘hodgepodge’ edition gets started with a photo I took in one my favorite cities in the world: San Francisco.

Statue of Columbus with Coit Tower in the background.

I Am Sick to Death of War and Madness

My generation thought Vietnam was an aberration, but it wasn’t, it was the game plan.  Lie your way into a nasty little war and let other people’s children do the killing and dying while the fat cats at the top of the capitalist pile rake in the dough.  It’s all for the benefit of those so bloated with greed that they just don’t care that their profits come soaked in the blood of innocents and patriots.

truth-of-vietnam

More on the DharmaZine

I created a new look for the DharmaZine and it’s coming along nicely.  Any suggestions would be welcomed. Anything related to the site or our goals would be good.

Known issues:

1. it appears slightly different in IE than in Firefox but either way it’s presentable.

2. load time is slightly longer than I’d like but that can’t be fixed until the new script is installed.

I can begin promoting it now and add anything you suggest along the way.  

On the same server there is a small search engine which you can add your sites to.  And there’s an event calendar which I’ll be promoting.  It’s only accepting submissions for politics, art and music.  But if your site(s) or blog(s) fall into those categories please head on over and fill out the form.  You can even skip the email part of the form as I’m not sending out verifications.  Access all of the above here.  No registration is required or even allowed.

Also on the same site is the News Engine.  I’ve been plugging away at the look of that as well.  If you’d like your blog included in the news being served up just comment here or send an email to info [at] howod.com.

Thanks for helping with the development of these projects.  They are meant to push as much traffic to your blogs as possible.

 

The Primary Season, the Way of Politics

(Crossposted)

There are many things we encounter in the Primary Season. Too many to recount here.

So I will use the law of three, and recount three.

Opposition. Need. Reconciliation.

We encounter opposition, we generate opposition, we oppose others, sometimes we oppose ourselves.

We address needs, we point to needs, we have needs, sometimes we create needs.

We, eventually, consider reconciliation.

More, over the fold.

A poem

This poem started off on dailyKos….I added a lot of images, fixed some of the text, and put it all below the fold

You don’t bring “Kumbaya” to a gunfight

Look, I’m not going to write a “candidate diary.” I never read those, and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to read them, either.

But BenGoshi’s diary on the Big Orange Satan today got me. I hear what he’s saying.

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