Weblog 212

February 28, 2010~ 12:00am
(Early again...but I'm making an early bedtime of it. Rising early in the morning and yes, I'm back)...and yes, it snowed some more in Pittsburgh. Every day a little more... with Friday bringing in about 4 inches. As someone wittily sent me (showing that humor is stronger than weather)

Another 2 feet of snow!



(I swear that picture was taken outside our downtown courthouse, but who knows... made me smile, and that's what counts.) Like everyone else, I've been negatively affected by this late winter pounding of El Nino. It seems most folks I talk to are simply at their lowest right now. News of the earthquake in Chile on Saturday morning so closely following Haiti, and one in Japan... the tsumani's that will ensue -one wonders if it is indeed the 'end of the world'? Maybe the Mayans were right and all this will come to a close in 2012.

What I do know is that people are surlier, more selfish and angrier than I've ever seen them, and I don't have to look at the war-ravaged parts of the globe, just right here in this neighborhood... this city.

As I saw with just one day of light precipitation and not as much road snarl, cars began to do their deadly road dance, piloted by maniacs inside them who show their true natures once emergency status is lifted. It's PLOW THE OTHER GUY DOWN, ZIP AROUND...THE HELL WITH YOU...I'M GONNA GET WHAT ALL THE CAR COMMERCIALS PROMISE....POWER! FORCE! ME FIRST, YOU LITTLE ASSHOLES!" I'm so sick of it. Here is the American concept of road etiquette



....ride right OVER the other guy....."BIGGER IS BETTER"..."I'm driving a tank" mentality.

I've always had a problem with SUV'S and oversized transportation. So often it's an extension of the person's view of themselves in the world, so it correlates that the greedy and the self-centered often choose those death machines. (Death to others, that is.) "I'm gonna drive the way I want, and if I crash into you, I'm not the one who gets hurt!"

Here's the signal you're driving on the road with an A-Number One asshole. Look for indications like bumper stickers and decals.



Look for pick-up trucks (driven by idiots who haul nothing more than their own obnoxious selves) that have those see-through decals that cover the rear window. If they look like this



...or like this



you're in trouble.

Why all this harping on cars, you may ask? It's just since the snows have stymied us, I've really been noticing the appalling lack of compassion and manners in folks around me. It's alarming. It chills me to the core, because - just like the iceberg hides it's real size well beneath the waters, I have to wonder about what else is ticking in these fellow humans.

At least there's family. I'm to babysit the grandkids on Sunday, and that house is always a haven of warmth and laughter. Holly sent me this picture from when she was dog-sitting her father's dog last weekend. "I put wigs on all the dogs," she wrote, sharing a picture of the 'hair event'.



LOL!!!Greg Brady, on the far left in the black Snow White wig with center bow, looks as though his patience has been strained far enough. Poor Abby, the visitor in the middle, looks hopelessly resigned to the humiliation, but JOHN BANANAS, the poodle on the right, is positively doing a 'Naomi Campbell' POSE, proud as can be! (That dog is a cross-dresser, I swear.) All were wearing wigs from the Disney collection that I'd given to Kay on her birthday. The joy I got looking at that picture was well worth it!

Despite my gloomy mood last week, I survived; even wanted to share some thoughts and observations with you again-- so hope does indeed spring eternal (at least as long as dogs wear wigs and people with a sense of humor can build giant snow feet for others' delight.) It's not all bad. Sometimes it tries the soul is all.

Casting about for something new to do (having grown tired of television, and even the give and take banter of my interactive poetry board) I decided to launch another site, just me.... for short poems written off the cuff, inspired by paintings I find on the web that make me want to write. If you're interested, here's the new place~



I never tire of looking at art... so from that it's just a short leap to want to catch what the pictures say to me.

I've alse been reading...a lot. Two books by the writer Jon Krakauer---"Into The Wild", the story of a young man's solo journey into the Alaskan wilderness in which he starved to death in an ecstasy of youthful, adventurous idealism. Fascinating. Heartbreaking. And I've just started his bestselling novel "Into Thin Air"- which recounts an expedition to climb Mt. Everest (in which he was one of the climbers) that resulted in the death of several seasoned guides.

Strange reading for one who is plodding along through this winter more solitary than usual, but in its own way it makes perfect sense. Always, always I am reminded of true hardship, true malevolence of climate and its trials. And what courage is. I exult in the painstaking truthfulness of Krakauer's narratives. He is a joy to read.




March 2, 2010~ 8:00pm
I've been indulging in art's equivalent of 'popcorn'.....you know-- stuff you start looking at and can't quit. In this case it's the pulp-fiction cover art of R.A. Maguire, master of this lurid, leggy genre. (Trouble is......I can't stop myself from giving them funny captions. LOL!!!)



Are you kidding? Not until
you clip those toenails!

Or how about this one...



I don't care what the agency said, that
dame is no babysitter!

Or this one....(I can hear that 40's films' 'pretend British' accent perfectly)



Can't leave now, dahling...
Andre is doing spitcurls.

If you want to see the full array of covers, please do visit R.A. MAGUIRE -you'll find yourself smack inside Hollywood of the 40's & 50's, Sam Spade style....Veronica Lake, Gloria Graham.... every noir B-movie you can think of. (And if you happen to think of some captions, well email me. LOL!!!) I love that kind of humor!





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