Outside: dogwood blossoms

Last weekend I went into town to photograph the lilacs... and I ended up taking over 600 pictures in 2 days - most of which were dogwood blossoms, since that's what happened to be blooming at the time.

 

dogwood bokeh

 

dogwood abounds

 

dogwood fantasia

dogwood memories

You can see some of the rest of them here at sarahknight.etsy.com.

Yes, I was a dogwood junkie for 2 rather cold days last weekend.  It was like 40˚F, and while I was wearing a shirt and a coat and gloves (and pants and shoes and socks, and a wrist watch and sunglasses) — I was also very cold.  I want that unseasonably warm weather that we had in the beginning of March to return. I'm tired of being cold...

We have dogwood bushes in the yard, but they're not the same thing.  They're mostly thin red sticks with weeny little flowers on them, when and if the flowers actually bloom.  Nothing like the splendor of the flowers on dogwood trees.  So, yes, if you were briefly awoken and saw the lady with the big sunglasses and the crazy hair standing on your lawn, well, that might have been me. Don't worry, I'm not a burglar or a terrorist, I'm just a dogwood junkie.

As I said I would, I went out last week and got a copy of Jack White's "Blunderbuss." And like a school girl I have pretty much played "Love Interruption" on repeat. I'll eventually get around to listening to the rest of the album, but these things must happen slowly & organically. I still haven't quite gotten around to listening to that Bob Dylan album from 2005... but someday I will unwrap it and pop the cd in the player.  Someday.

If you're not watching "Grimm," well, I don't know what to say. That show is awesome.  The dinner scene awkwardness between Nick and Monroe was a priceless and hilarious bit of acting. You can see part of it here. The full episode of "Leave It to Beavers" can be found on hulu.

Anyway, have a good week, oh, and awesomesauce — M&Ms FINALLY put the coconut ones in a big bag!

love is like jazz...

I think I heard this song on the satellite radio at work, or maybe on one of the music channels on the television... because, as much as I am remiss to admit this, I haven't exactly just turned on the actual radio in a while. Anyway "Love Interruption" by Jack White. Oh. My. God. I am infatuated with this song.  I think the first arc of the infatuation was trying to figure out that the hell he was saying in the chorus, because I'm a tad deaf like that (there were a lot of hearing tests taken multiple times when I was a kid)... but after figuring out that it was "I won't let love disrupt corrupt or interrupt me" — I still have a desire to play this song repeatedly like a 12-year-old hopped up on the Bieber-juice. So much so that I looked to see if the album was available in a store, and then subsequently checked Amazon. Evidently "Blunderbliss" is available on April 23/24...

Yeah, I'm old (32), I still buy cds. I like having the actual thing.

I'm a casual Jack White fan.  I'm not exactly a devotee, I don't think I'm hipster enough for that.  The White Stripes were something that had to kind of grow on me... because Pink Floyd really does take up a lot of the oxygen when it comes to the atmosphere of my favorite bands (well, that and Dylan, Zeppelin, Cat Stevens, and Everclear...). "Elephant" was actually the first White Stripes album I bought.  I also got the next 2 White Stripes albums, plus the Dead Weather and the Raconteurs records.  So, when I remember some time in April, I plan to buy this one as well.

Anyway, until then I'll just be playing that video on repeat and letting the serotonin take over my brain every time it comes on that station at work...

Aside from saying that "Love Interruption" is just a damn cool song with interesting lyrics, an engaging lyrical structure, and an perfect harmony of sound, I really can't tell you anything about it beyond the fact that really, I like it because it's cool. So, I suppose the same model that applies to the way I like a song also applies to the way I produce work sometimes. 

orchid honeydew dawn

I apparently made this painting on 4 August 2011.  According to the calendar, that was a Thursday.  And, vaguely, apparently I did actually blog about it in the abstract.  But I don't really remember making this painting, like what I was thinking or what I was 'watching' on tv at the time — in that most things are made while I sit in my living room in front of the television while my eyes and attention are on whatever I'm making... So, I guess I was playing with gouache for one of the first times, and obviously salt and watercolors, but nothing quite jogs my memory to the specific moment when I made this.  Given the cumulative amount of random things I remember at any given moment — having no recall of precisely painting this painting amuses me.

But I like it, because it looks cool.  It's the wrong answer to give in an art school critique, but it's the simplest answer. Technically, it doesn't look cool; in that the individual and overall tone of the colors is warm, but, well, sorry Paris Hilton, I'm not one of those people that wanders around and exclaims "that's hot." So, yes, I'm declaring that I think it looks cool, which I guess might be me being egotistical, but well, I'm actually not completely neutral when it comes to the things that I make, and I like some of them more than others... that's why there's a keep pile. Sadly, I cannot keep them all. Well, I guess I could, but no, I can't.

I didn't get much made this week. Some weeks are more productive than others. I mean, redesigning my business cards doesn't really count as making something? Does it?

Maybe it does...
Watching Tabatha Takes Over, Criminal Minds, CSI (yes, I have a little girl crush on Spencer Reid too), and WWE Raw, probably ate up a couple hours of time as well. It can't all be Supernatural and Grimm all the time. Besides, the Rock sang for us. Yeah, I will never understand the appeal of John Cena... Rock 3 / Cena 0. That's all I'm sayin' particularly in the event that anyone was keeping score. Yeah, I know you weren't. Yes, I know, I know, people, the outcomes are pre-determined as we say.

Anyway, after 15 years with the 19 inch RCA, I finally bought a new tv. So, uh, now I guess I have to get that thing of the box and figure out where the red and yellow and white chords go. I figure this should be fun, and by fun I mean unnecessarily difficult. I guess that's really my project for this weekend.

*Update! I have now stepped into the 21st century! The television is assembled and functional. Woo-hoooooooooo! It's time to break out the cream soda and the pizza or something, or finally get around to watching The Rum Diary now that Johnny Depp's face will be life-sized.