Tag: art

Categories
personal

Only go up(side down)

Visiting inVisibleNY

Him: Every restaurant is all you can eat if you keep paying.

I’m continuing to sleep well so I’m gonna try and enjoy it for as long as I can.

Might’ve mentioned that I met the Gymgirl through my cousin so we see her and her fella a lot these days.

She has her own Friendsgiving get-together with her high school friends once a year and invited us along out in Long Island, which was fun. One of her friend quipped the above.

Later on that weekend, the Gymgirl told me about #inVisibleNY, which is/was a pop-up art installation in SoHo.

So we hopped the train, went down to Chinatown so I could get a cheap haircut and walked over to it. It was designed like a cell phone repair shop but didn’t actually fix phones; they just had these cool scenes where you could go in and take pics.

The young lady at the front desk played a very dour and irritated clerk but she was really quite nice.

Woman at desk: Are you really here to fix a phone?
Gymgirl: No.
Her: Great! (hands us a token) Have fun!

We actually did have a lotta fun.

Although most of our fun is really the conversations we have with each other.

“Fun” is a relative term.

Me: I don’t want your mom to hate me.
Her: Oh, don’t worry…she already does.
Me: Waitwhatnow?
Her: (dismissively) Look at it this way: You can only go up.

Of course, we know, there’s always room for more down.

Location: yesterday morning, running outdoors in slippers with a pecan pie
Mood: productive
Music: I have loved you like a fool
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Categories
business personal

Good salesmanship is the conveyance of enthusiasm

Singer sewing machine parts

Salespeople get a bad rap. Which sucks cause every business has three parts:

  1. Research and development
  2. Operations
  3. Sales and marketing

Two outta three of those spend money but only one of them makes money. That’s why its so important. The other two can slide at times but sales can never slide.

Did I ever tell you that I taught sales? Did it for a while at the Fortune 500 company where I learned that good salesmanship is the conveyance of enthusiasm.

Take my Mac computer.

Was against the mac for years until my brother and Rain – neither of whom worked for Apple nor owned Apple stock – each individually spent days (days!) espousing all the benefits of the mac. They were excited. They got me excited. Next thing you know, I’m plunking down twice what I’d spend on a PC for some shiny.

That’s good salesmanship. That’s the kinda salesman my dad was. That’s the kinda salesman I am at heart. Those are the kinds that don’t need to lie or puff, they just get you hyped up about how this product or service can make your life better cause it actually can.

When you truly believe that your product/service will make people’s lives better, you cannot stop that.

So I went to see Rain with an idea I have for a show.

Him: Man, the best thing you and I did were those commercials.
Me: I know. We should do something else.

Admin note: No posts next week. Got a thingy to do and my injuries are driving me up the wall. See you in a week?

 

Location: still sitting with an ice pack
Mood: still in pain
Music: bring me home to Hadestown way down to Hadestown
YASYCTAI: Do something artistic, it’s good for the soul. (7 days/1 pt)
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Categories
personal

Art beneath the canopy glow

Location: the interwebs, trying to get something 46x35in
Mood: frustrated
Music: accounts of peace while passed beneath the canopy glow

Edward Hopper Room in New York

Ended up making pizza. Tasted great, looked terrible. Gonna try again and take some pics for you.

———-

Late posting cause I spent the last two hours trying to get an oversized print of Hopper’s Nighthawks. If you’re in Chicago, y’should really see it in the museum – never have myself.

If y’ever came by my pad, you’d see that my walls are bare except for one thing my pop drew for me once.

But, realized that barren walls don’t make a home, so been looking for some artwork with my very limited scratch. Hopper’s got a good sensea how solitary the city’s sometimes. Y’can have someone surrounded by people and still by yourself; or even be at home with someone and still be by your lonesome, like his Room in New York.

Sides him, kinda partial to vintage posters like the kind below.

Thing is that, always thoughta home as someplace else. George Carlin useta say something like, a house is just the place where y’keep your stuff. So, I was never one to get even more stuff, like artwork.

But, being 36, suppose it’s time to call a place home already, yeah? Ergo, stuff. Ergo, art.

This’s my first real piecea artwork that I’ve not made myself.

Tell me something, what else should I consider?

Vintage poster of a ship - KNSM Oceanliner
Vintage poster - Altes Plakat Auto Kesselberg-Rennen by Klotz, Anton und Kienast, Eugen, (Klokien)

YASYCTAI: Tell me what art y’like. (5 mins/0.5 pts)

Categories
personal

Guernica

 

Stopped by a friend’s house midday in Queens cause I was around the hood but he was out so his wife and I caught up. She wants to fix me up with some of her doctor friends.

I’m not sure she knows what she’s getting them into.

———-

Picasso’s Guernica is probably one of the most famous paintings of suffering out there. Buddhism says that suffering comes from the uncontrollable. Either externally, such as in the painting, or internally, when we try to control the uncontrollable.

I believe that.

On a related note, man, I wish I could fall asleep.

Of course, there is no great tragedy without some small gain(s): I’m completely caught up on Lost and BSG, can now do all my sabre strikes with my left hand and have made a month’s worth of chili.

I’m thinking of brushing up my German or teaching myself Arabic or something. I dunno. I’d rather sleep.

Location: 21:00 yest, thrust, parry, thrust on the UWS
Mood: tired
Music: The old man said to me Said don’t always take life so seriously

Categories
personal

One point five

Painting by Constellajen
Me: Mom, don’t cry, my hands always shake.
Her: But they’re not supposed to…

Mom’s terribly worried about me these days. I tell her not to be and yet – well, mothers are as they are.

When she first came here, my mom tied a 1.5 minute egg timer to the phone. Once a month, she would call her mom and they would talk for exactly 1.5 minutes. No matter what, they got off the phone after 1.5 minutes. It’s all they could afford. Her mom worried about her too. She was 26?

Can you imagine?

Here’s the thing: unless you know me IRL, you and I most likely wouldn’t be anything back in those days. What a world we live in, where communication is a commodity. Text, email, fax, blogs – we can all connect.

Veijukka asked who gives me pep talks, I don’t really need them. Because I’m so much in my own head all the time. Sometimes, though, I could use a quiet connection.

Thanks for listening this week. It’s been rough.

I’ll see if I can’t get slapped again by another girl this weekend to keep y’all entertained.

Location: Queens, locked outta my office
Mood: irritated at myself
Music: The more you ignore me, the closer I get