May the unplugging begin. We were winding up dinner as the moon was rising last night(is it just me, or is it getting darker much sooner already?), and there arose a glow, a lcd glow from across the driveway on the edge of the property line. Yes. She was at it again. Pirating internet signals...just as bold as paint. So, today the great unplugging happens until I can find the IP address of the router and work the magic online. As you can gather...this is really riling me up. It could be funny, really funny in the ridiculousness of all of this...with our white haired neighbor scampering to not be noticed, computer in hand, searching for signals and mumbling about the former signal they used, the Linksys, gone. "No more Linksys" a mantra, chanted over and over again as she patrols for a connection with us...Monty Pythonesque in it's silliness...but still enraging me none the less.
More kid work with AP papers due next week with slow progress on the reading. No action on the grammer tutoring that needs to happen and planning to meet with our college coach who is going to lead a workshop on geometry as many of her students do not understand it..and as I found yesterday, the PSAT is riddled with geometry. So, I am reeling with the stress of all of this (note the time) and have a slightly unwilling party that this is getting "done to". I am so not enjoying this...I have my own deadlines and papers and projects. It would be nice just to be able to do my own work versus dragging the horse to water and shoving it's head in, opening it's mouth and scooping the water into the mouth. If I could swallow for the horse, I sure would try. Need to be able to manage this better.
On a happier note, classmate Chad Grohman posted his entry for the Obama show in Denver (due date I think is 08/18) that is quite lovely and a departure from his vector work. His strong design skills and color palette peeks out, but this piece is delicate and considered in his approach to his subject, and the political topic in general. It emotes a feeling that he captures in the title, "Hope". Here is some of his preliminary work>>
Paul Zdepski, also a classmate and fellow blogger, shared a wonderful Czech story book about a farm, some livestock etc. The story is great I am sure, but the sheer explosion of decorative borders, title pages and the illustrations within said borders is enough to blow your mind. He has got a connection at a library when the books are cycled out..and this absolute gem came his way. Very bold, shocking...I am going to need to monkey some of this...and see if I can own a bit, learn a bit from it. Beyond the decorative borders, the blocking and tackling of the images are great and the line/stipple effect with these simple blue clouds is worth borrowing for the Monkey King(if he ends up with clouds). (Note picture posted, Sun Wukong actually has clouds built into his shoes.I wonder if Sierra Trading Post has these built in cloud shoes? take a look>>
Finished up the pub for the Museum. Tweaked it yesterday and we are good. Started the slides that I was dreading. It was important just to start messing around with it to see what happened. Had the multi masthead newsletter meeting which resulted in a chinese menu approach to changes (we like this from that, and the color from here and oh, add this here, etc) which I have turned into a new resolution to go out today. I was checking my email on this newsletter and we started talking about it the first week of July. My, how we like to talk about things.
Nothing on the rising Tsunami project. I will need to contact my clients to see if this is a go/no go and the status. If its a go...I will no longer have time to toss in my sleep over teenagery,as I will not be sleeping. We'll see.
Toivo has it's CD release party tonight at Felicias. I worked with Toivo on their cd production with Rich Koski, champion accordian player and leader of this group, and artist, Annie Campbell (Rich is in the center, Annie is on the drums)--doing the layout and graphic designery things to bring all the components of the imagery that Rich and Annie wanted together. The CD is great, as testified by Jonathan Cook of the Finding Ulysses blog:
I got my hands on a copy of Toivo’s new CD, Laughing Shoe, the other day and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it since. So have my kids. Whenever I play the CD, all three get up and started stomping and tapping in orbits around each other on the floor.
My children’s decision to dance isn’t a reflection of a deep understanding of music theory, but it is nonetheless a good sign of music that’s constructed well. They won’t dance to the wandering classical music that plays most of the time on WSKG, and even the hypersurrealist immature electronica of Yo Gabba Gabba fails to inspire them.
Toivo, on the other hand, combines solid folk traditions that have withstood the cultural selection of audiences for hundreds of years. It’s not trendy. It just works. The Laughing Shoe also celebrates our local landscape, with songs like Swamp College Schottische, the Podunk Two-Step and Waterburg Swing.
And, with names that reference our little plateau (Swamp College, Podunk, and Waterburg), combined with the energy and happiness this music communicates,Toivo should have us up and moving this evening.