Dreamers

I got your latest this morning as seen above.  It's truly wonderful.  This whole project has been so fun because we have totally different ways of approaching it.  I love this.

Here it is upside down.  It's just so cute and funny and amazing.

And the back of the envelope:

And here are the insides:

The top inside one looks a little like two hedgehogs having a bit of a row, or snails with fuzzy shells doing the bunny hop.  Or the hokey pokey, I can't decide.  The yellow dotted one looks like a distant cousin of that ant-like alien queen from Lilo and Stitch, but with better hair.  I like your description better than mine: "What is this?  Bat Mask Spirit needs no wings."  Very poetic!

I've never done these ink blot things.  Are they still used professionally?  Is there a standard text somewhere to find out what your interpretations mean?  

These blots remind me of another kind of interpretation: dreams.  A couple of weeks ago for work, I hired a guy from "The Consciousness Institute" to lead a workshop on Dream Interpretation.  I put together a little outline of what I hoped he would cover and then found myself sitting in on the presentation.  He didn't exactly do what I had requested, but the people who showed up seemed interested and he was somewhat engaging in his stumbling but compelling way.  I honestly thought he would bring copies of a list of approved dream symbols that people could take home and put by their bedside in the event they might wake up from a dream and want to do some spontaneous self-interpretation, but I was sadly mistaken.  He basically said that dreams are not about the story but are about parts of you, which seems pretty common sense-y, although I never analyzed my dreams before.  For example, he mentioned that dreaming about driving a car is about your ambition, your drive.  I said I have dreams of driving, but it's always from the back seat, and I can't reach the steering wheel, or the brakes or the gas without having to reach around the driver's seat, which has no one in it.  Everyone laughed, even though I wasn't trying to be funny and when I thought about it later, I must really feel that way.   One of these days I'll just have to either climb over that thing and sit in the front or remove it completely before I get into the car and just operate the vehicle from the back seat and be done with it.

He also talked about this other kind of dream that I have had for many years and it always makes me happy in the dream but when I wake up, I feel like I lost something, or left it behind.  Apparently this type of dream is very common: have you ever dreamed that you are in or live in a small, dark house; then, behind the couch, you discover this door that you hadn't seen before.  You open it and find another apartment with sunlight streaming in through the high windows.  Everything is white or off white and the furniture looks comfortable and inviting.  You feel as if you've found a secret addition to what you'd thought was your small, cramped home.  I love and hate that dream.  When I am in it, it's very exciting but I never get to experience living in that room because I always wake up before I even set foot in it.  It's aggravating.  

OK, it's my turn again...I have some ideas so stay tuned.  I am going to have to recall my days of home ec for this one.

Shlep Rock

Yuck, today is pure torpor.  It's my day off and I'm usually pretty productive but all I did this morning was play Words with Random Strangers, listen to NPR and generally do nothing.  I've got lots of beginnings and endings happening at once in my life right now and in response, my internal Ferdinand has gone haywire and kicked in with a vengeance.

I had to stop reading The Book of Lost Things.  It was going like gangbusters and I was almost finished but then suddenly it became difficult for me to keep going, like the author himself was getting tired of the story...many books these days seem like they are around 300 pages because they're supposed to be that length.   I will try to skim to the end...at the risk of sounding treacly, maybe I will again find my misplaced interest somewhere close to page 300 of this aptly titled tome?

I started reading another promising book about how creative types will rule the world.  It's an interesting premise but the author assumes too much about the future.  He seems to be coming from a pov of privilege...I don't know if I can read this one either because the writer is so patronizing.  I think he's trying to be funny but it just comes off sounding smarmy: A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink

A read a newly published book he really liked called The Vanishers (by Heidi Julavits), so I started that one last night.  It seems a little dark, a little scary, but I'll give it a shot.

Back to fairy tales and screenplays.  I like the idea of some creepiness and scariness and darkness but ultimately coming back out into light.  I guess that would be tension.  Do you like the idea of a youngish woman going to SF in the 80s, getting into some of the scenes that were abundant then, meeting a potential love interest, finding out strange stuff and getting tangentially involved but then saving herself to find herself?  I have some interesting material that we could riff off and I know you do, too...:)...For instance, did I ever tell you about the time I waited tables at Villa Romana in the Richmond?  I had a very strange, psychic experience there with a pair at one of my tables and it involved...are you sitting down?  A candy store, or a chocolate store to be more specific.

23 things I remember from SF in the 80s:
1.  The smell of North Beach in the early mornings, a mixture of strong coffee with steamed milk, freshly baked rolls and fog
2.  the wall of green that is Golden Gate Park across the street from our place and that little fruit stand with Cliff, who looked so much like Treat Williams selling produce and who knows what else
3.  Someone putting the YES in polYESter as seen on the billboard above Stanyan and Frederick Streets
4.  Pesto pizza at Crazy Dick's down the street from the sign and across from the park on Stanyan
5.  the stained couches and round tables at Cafe La Boheme and the books at Picarro with their big glass window store fronts all lit up on a cold, dark night in the Mission
6. Being all nervous when walking in to a warehouse party and then once inside forgetting who I even was because the music was so loud the wooden floors were moving up and down with the vibrations of it and there were people everywhere, in dresses, in wigs, in drag, in costume, undressed and everyone dancing and being part of the crazy energy of a night of secret bacchanalia.
6. Seeing U2 at that venue by the library (is it still even operational?) and REM at the Stone and someone at the Fab Mab.
7. Getting totally drunk and literally dancing on a table at Rockin Robins (I'm not proud of that one)
8. feeling "safe" at (the) Stud
9. Rock n Bowl
10.  Tasajara bread with dill
11. Roommate Referral in the Haight and those unwieldy three ring binders
12.  late breakfast at Mission Rock
13. Hamburger Mary's bathroom and french fries
14.  Five Spice Chicken on Polk
15.  Seeing movies at the Lumiere. Maybe Diva?  The Man Who Fell to Earth? Or was that at the Strand?
16. Aardvaark's on Haight and Ashbury
17. Those old stores on Grant that sold old, traditional Chinese art supplies, like paints and stamping stuff and bambook brushes
18. Musee Mechanique, of course, but at the Cliff House
19. finding China Beach, like it was a new discovery every time I got there
20. Do you remember Ingrid?  Her dad's house was in North Beach.  It was the first time I'd seen recessed lighting; it was dimmed and the furniture was dark and there were mysterious objects placed with care in strategic groupings.  The feeling was ominous.  Ingrid's room was a little wedged shaped corner in the front of the victorian with just a bed and maybe a dresser.  She was so fashionable and she called her father "Dennis".
21. New Ping Yuen's fried bread and shrimp soup, so cheap, so yums
22. Thrift Town (?) at 18th and Mission where I no longer regret not buying a perfect set of nested Fiestaware bowls for $5
23.  Picking blackberries and eating them unwashed on Poppy Lane

That's it for now...do you have a list?  Maybe we can start brainstorming scenes from our lists?

Saturday, we went down to the East Bay to get out of the heat and went to Vegi Foods on Vine Street in Berkeley for an early dinner before heading home.  I don't know if you've ever eaten there, but that place has been a source of comfort for me for many, many years.   I always returned whenever I had a craving for the black bean chowmein or the "sheets" or the potstickers.   Saturday we found out they are going out of business because the new landlord has raised the rent.  This is one of the endings I mentioned above.  This restaurant is a Berkeley landmark.  Some people I know don't like it, they say the food is too bland...but to them I say, order the potstickers!  Or the walnuts!  But I won't be able to say that anymore because Vegi Foods is gone by the end of this month.  If you get a chance, pay them a visit.  Maybe you can convince them to restart their business in your area?!

Cloudy with a chance of postcards

Stormy weather with lovely red stamp and cutouts. Once again, I have to block out some of the design elements *frown*, but I like holding this up and changing the color schemes through the clouds.

Yesterday we had our first really fiery sunset in a long time and I wondered if it was because of the Richmond oil refinery fire this week. Or just really hot weather, mixed with skittery clouds, which were probably somewhat caused by the refinery fire. Anyway, it was fiery. Our dependence on oil rears its ugly, dangerous head (again).

Fairytales: Oh, Ferdinand. Even more timely in this age of helicopter parenting and all-star little-league sports and expensive Lego engineering camps. Can you imagine Ferdinand growing up in Walnut Creek among all the type-A ("A" for ambitious) parents and their scheduled offspring? I always liked the Disney narrator in the film for saying, "He just wanted to smelllll the flowers..." Whenever I smell a flower, I can't help thinking of that.



Lol at the mother cow's voice. He knew they wouldn't pick him and he DIDN'T CARE. Ferdinand don't care about bullfighting.

Hansel and Gretal is a good one too. Of course, Gretal tricking the witch into fattening up Hansel while making her feel a chicken bone, and then getting her to enter the oven is pretty badass all around. The whole tale is crazy dark: parents dumping their kids in the woods not once, but twice. Clever kids almost getting eaten anyway. A candy house hiding a cannibal. Holy Mother of God. The "Book of Lost Things" really delves into all that darkness and then some. Hansel and Gretal taps into so many childhood fears and just barely gets them out of there in one piece.

I've always had a thing for the Snow Queen. Another kids-close-to-doom, but a world traveling romance. I read it every few years and wish it could be made into a decent movie. Looks like Disney is going to have a go at it, finally. Annoying webcaster ahead:



I just got a call from my freelance boss in Marin. Company's closing after 24 years in business and he needs a Web site update. My lazy flower-smelling days are over for a brief time. I'll send you something in the mail in the next couple of days.

The Snow Queen in San Francisco in the 80s. I know what kind of snow that would involve...

The Ferdinand Effect

Can Ferdinand be considered a fairy tale?  If so, he's always been an iconic hero from my earliest memories.  I haven't analyzed this too thoroughly, but I truly love the idea of  defying the chaos and demands of the world simply by doing what you love best.  It's so epiphanic...it's genius.  And it's been the driving force behind so much of my life...I simply invoke the Ferdinand principle whenever I am feeling pressured by the various demands in my life, be they career, financial, what have you...of course, this will explain my lack of ambition and hence my pathetic earning potential, but I've been able to smell an awful lot of flowers over the years, some more aromatic, let's say, than others.

Other fairy tales I've liked for their imagery are Hansel and Gretel.  Who doesn't love finding your favorite candy in BFE?  Seriously, though, the imagery the story evokes is so amazing.  It's totally a sensory experience and I love that.  And Gretel is so very crafty, a virtual survivalist.

I also like Little Red Riding Hood, but she gets eaten in the end, as does Goldilocks...or at least neither of them are very good role models, just setters of bad examples for kids who might misbehave or make poor choices...

I'll come up with a better list and add it to the comments.  While I was reading your post below, I thought of a story line something like this: protagonist in 80s SF goes there to find love, maybe finds heartache instead, but because of that or in spite of it, she finds what she loves to do.  Vague, I know, but it's a character who metamorphoses from a caterpillar to a butterfly via a trainwreck.  OK, I'll stop here for now...the plot thickens or at least emulsifies and hopefully doesn't curdle.

Johnny (or Janey) Quest

Hey, I got your postcard. That's cool cut-out action! How do you do what you do so well? Do you have one of those circle-cutting Exacto knives? I could never control mine too well. I'll post a photo today.

I like your fairy tale in SF idea. The 80s are kind of fading from my memory—I was so young then. A teenager. Good age for a fairy tale though--starting out in life, maturing into an adult. Except the twist is I found a ton of adults who were not mature at all and were seemingly clinging to their feckless youth with everything they had.

Would it be funny to make the protagonist(s) already mature and wise (if raw and naive at first)? And everyone else completely out of their minds? Kind of like Through the Looking Glass, but semi-reality-based on SF.

What are your favorite fairy tales? When I was a kid, I always changed the adventurer-type characters into girls in my mind. I pictured a princess leaving a palace, dressing up in guy clothes with her trusty bow and arrow, and heading out to slay some dragons and such. I held onto this idea for a long time throughout my later childhood. I just didn't like traditional girl roles in stories. Still don't. There's attempts now to make girls more active in fairy tale movies and I wonder if little girls are relating to that. I bet some are.

Well, I'm rambling again. I guess if you're thinking fairy tale--the quest is kind of the epic goal the hero must accomplish. The quest in SF during the 80s was to survive on next to nothing while pursuing "art." Did anyone we know achieve this? Now it's impossible in that city because of the cost of living. The economy won! The artists must move to Oakland. And now that's becoming too expensive for many (rents are crazy-high). It's an ongoing quest in California. I hear Milwaukee has an active artist community. It's probably pretty affordable.

If the quest is to find true love, then this fairy tale would fail miserably, at least for a younger character in the 80s. I knew people who shacked up with each other then but none of them lasted. I think I better think about this further. Coming-of-age script where no one comes of age, finds maturity, true love or artistic freedom. Would the happy ending be the protagonist moving back to San Leandro or something? What a downer! Ha.

Fairy Tales

I just read over your last comments below and still haven't quite gotten to process all of it.  It's so packed with ideas and insights and commentary.  Unfortunately, as I've gotten older, ok, matured, I've gotten quite slow and basically now plod through this life, needing hours or days to accomplish what most can do in minutes.  My current theory on this is to blame the inundation that is contemporary daily life but that could just be an excuse for my obtusity, if that's a word.

Let's see...I am reading The Book of Lost Things.   He has a way of weaving a sentence together that makes you want to keep going to see what will happen next.  It's a scary fairy tale.  The story drags you in and make you feel as though you are also between sleep and reality and  if only you'd open your eyes, you'd be back home again...or at least that's where I suspect it is going...but I'm not there yet.  Thanks for the recommendation.  I don't read a lot of fiction.

How do you feel about fairy tales?  Do you think they have a place in 80s SF?  I see a lot of faded colors and bad hair.  Maybe a warehouse party or two.  I'm thinking about sending you a list of some of my most vivid memories of that time.  The ones that have a little shimmering edge to them, for lack of a better way to describe what I remember and how it exists in my mind's eye.  This all sounds so stupid when it's written down...hmmmm. 

OK, reality has arrived in the form of a mumbling 11 year old who is now doing curls on the couch and reading his favorite author: Jim Davis.  I must finish up...by mentioning...I just sent out a small item that, upon reflection should reveal its destination.  If not reflection, then it requires a little back lighting...if it doesn't arrive, I can post some pictures of it.  The post person seemed a bit doubtful...this language thing can be so clunky in the hands of a bumbler like me...anyways, I hope you get it soon!  :)

PS: I read both of the Bridge books and both were very readable, very good.  It's been a few years, maybe I'll read them again.  I've never seen the movies...I'll check netflix...we might have them at the library.  Speaking of the library, I just bought the Ben Taylor book (I buy all the 700s (the arts) for the collection (my favorite part of my job) and just put a hold on it as it's not in yet.

Big Wheel

The little big wheel rolled in on Monday and had me laughing from the second I saw it.

It's retro in every way:

1. spirograph
2. that painty spinning wheel thing that I can't remember the name of
3. hippies!
4. Laughing Cow, I presume :)

 I must quote from the contents (three hippies (four if you count their dog), and two spirographs):

On the back of the spirographs:
"...J and his friend C helped make this box and the only thing I could think to fill it was: Hippies.  A box full of hippies for you.  Growing up in Cali, a hippie sighting was like bird-watching and very satisfying..."

The Hippies:

"We will not eat processed, genetically altered food. Locally grown and organic ONLY. Amen.

 "I have modeled my entire life after Jerry.  I carry on his legacy."

"I will grow up to be an investment banker!"

(this has to be an homage to "I'm used to be a heroin addict, now I'm a methadone addict".? )

"Woof!  Woof!  I have a tick on my thigh! Woof! Woof!"

(another homage to: "My name is Rags.  Woof!  Woof!"?)

I feel like I know these people.   I won't mention any names but some of my best friends are hippies!    Some are born hippies, some become hippies. And in 2012, some buy their hippieness at Target and wear it on casual Fridays.  

*   *   *

I read the Eudora Welty short story.  Thanks for the handy link!  It was really atmospheric and transported me from the couch to a place I'd never been before, and it also reminded me of some of the fly specky towns we'd just driven through on our trip.   Sometimes this town reminds me of the smallness of that town...where you can't even go out into your own yard without bumping into twenty people you know and probably don't want to see.  Most of them being hippies and all!

I never had a thing for Woody Allen, just the movies.  I must've been very influenced by Annie Hall.  She was so non-commital.  It was a very useful attitude in so many ways: "oh, I'm not into addiction...it's too much of a commitment", that sort of thing.  I don't remember celebrities I had crushes on, do you?  I must have...but this memory of mine is not very memorable.  Jeff Bridges was always interesting, especially in The Last Picture Show.  If I were a little kid these days and had to pick a celebrity, I don't know that any are really that intriguing.  I never went in for those guy bands but then again, they didn't really exist in the 70s/80s, did they?  Does David Cassidy count? 

I haven't been reading much lately.  I'm working my way through a partially annoying graphic novel, "Friends with Boys".  I don't know where it's going but it's kind of boring.  Then, for work, I'm going to try to get into Negima, a manga series.  I tend to like non-fiction more than fiction.   I wish I liked fiction more.  What have you been reading?  If you have any title suggestions, I'd love to try them.  

Do you want me to look into doing a display of our mail art here?  Or if you'd like to, you can ask to use one of the display cases at your local public library.  Let me know what you think.  

Well, my aunt and cousin are visiting for the next three weeks which will make it challenging for me to work on much...I will try, but please bear with me.  I will get something out to you...

PS: yes, I would love to get together in SF at the maritime museum and musee mechanique (my favorite place even in its new incarnation)...let's try for September?

PPS: do you want to knock around some ideas for a screenplay?  Nothing very serious, just brainstorming, etc.