Sue Dough Nim

So after a wonderful weekend, I am back below the Bible Belt. The trip took half a day by plane, during which I was able to sink deep into thought (akin to a sleep deprivation induced stupor). In this state of mind, I tapped into what little literary creativity I possess and came up with a few ballin' Roller Derby names. They are as follows:

Scarlett O'Horror. Mother Noose. Malice in Wonderland. Cat Plower. Bob Villain. The Beat-Alls. Johnny Smash. Shades of Pain. Tic-Tac-Hoe. Shoots & Splatters. Lucy in the Sky with Dynamite. Rot & Roll. Noogies & Scream. Curl-up & Dye. Florence Night-in-Jail. Catch-her and YouDie. Napoleon Blownapart. Margaret Thrasher. Marie Fury. Elizabeth CanWe StabThem. Rachel Arson. Allison Chains. Laura Imthe Wildest. Dora the Exploder.

Some of these are pretty dang lame, but that's all I could come up with for the time being. Now I just need to practice my skate skills.

I thought of just your face, relaxed, and floated into space.

I came to a point in my painting where i was no longer inspired by my subjects. As you may know, when you are not inspired you tend to move slower, to procrastinate, to get bored easily, and to look for any kind of a distraction to take you away from your task. Now, seeing as how i hope to have 8-9 paintings done by the end of the month, i thought i would be proactive. Instead of sitting around waiting for inspiration to hit me, i went out to find it. With my trusty camera in its old holey glove, my bicycle, and a beautiful morning, i set out.

My camera is my best friend.

It's been one week

since you've looked at me. Great Song. And not far from the truth when it comes to me updating the blog. My apologies. But in that week, I have done many things. And consumed many things. With 108 weeks to pack for, I am putting into perspective what I burn through in a week:

Two avocados. At least six eggs. 1.5 cartons of chocolate & vanilla silk. 7 bananas. 8 oz peanut butter. Two heads of romaine. 1 stalk of celery. 12 t-shirts. 4 pairs of pants. 7 pairs of undies. At least 40 text messages. A full charge on my iPod. At least 28 emails.

That's a lot, and it doesn't even touch the surface. Fractions of bottles of shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, face soap, hours on the Internet, pages in my journal, and an array of make up products.

Putting this all into perspective will be quite an adjustment. But luckily, there is a silver lining in every cloud, and always

The Jungle Fowl

I hear a quiet rustle,
and a gentle scratching sound
The bush before me quivers,
a few leaves fall to the ground.

'What creature could be moving,
among the ferns and clover?'
'What lurks beneath the shady elm?'
Are questions i mull over.


A sudden flash of feathers,
a small beady little eye,
and then pops out a chicken
with a startled chicken cry.

Nine chickens then surround me,
wondering if some food will come.
They quickly find, however
that I haven't got a crumb.

With indignant clucking,
the chickens all turn 'round
they march back to the jungle,
leaving feathers on the ground.

The Ozarks

The Ozarks. An American landscape: rolling hills, big red barns, picket fences and double wides. It's a beautiful country. I have lots of kin folk deeply rooted in the Ozark, and while I gripe about it I treasure the time spent out there. My eyes have never met a landscape more pristine and unaltered than the hollers and hills north of Springfield.

When hunting down my Grandmas old farm, we drove over Little Sac Creek and Dry Sac Creek by a highway (MO K) that looked as out of place in the hills as my MK bag & oversized bright purple shades. We drove around in a maroon King Ranch diesel that was as deafening as a garbage truck backfiring. But as we trucked on into the rolling hills, leaving the highway and turning onto Farm Roads, the truck and its occupants (save me) felt at home driving through towns that had a handful of inhabitants, like Hog Eye. There were no post offices, fire stations, or stop signs. A 4 bedroom 2 bath home for sale, with 10+ acres, a well, and a classic bing red barn was listed at $25, 000. In my mind its not that the land isn't valuable, its just the American life out in these parts is a little different. This is the closest location I can find to representing my Grandmothers old 200+ acre homestead on google maps. When I searched for the address, google maps could not find the location.

With the movie Winter's Bone opening soon (which undoubtedly will not come to these parts of American life), I am curious to see what and how the director portrays life in the Ozarks, especially surrounding the troubled characters of the book & movie. I am not by any means a historian or expert of any sort about life in the Ozarks, but from all my family from the area and my visits there it will be interesting to see a comparison.

The only thing I do know is that on an aesthetic level, there is no countryside as peaceful as the sunny wooded hillsides in the Ozarks.

Electrocute the Sound

There is nothing like a good electro/techno beat to spice up your exercise routine. The repetitiveness of the song gives you such a great tempo to work with and really helps keep you motivated. I was thinking about this the other day while I was biking up a pretty steep hill. I was so concentrated on the beat of the music (and breathing!!) that I made it to the top without realizing it.
So, i have scrounged up a couple of the tracks i like (and some of them happen to come with pretty awesome music videos as well). They are in no particular order.

1.) The Chemical Brothers - The Salmon Dance

• Not only informative, this music video also comes with a beatboxing puffer fish and a seriously high kid. I love the creativity and the beat in this one.

2.) Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor

• I wonder how long it took them to wash off all that paint... The chorus is the best.

3.) Bomfunk MC's - Freestyler

• I first heard this song on MTV in a hotel room in Florence, Italy, and man, is it great to dance to! There is no way you can sit still for this one.

4.) DJ Antoine - Work

• Ok, if you ignore what the song is actually talking about for a second, you will find that this is one GREAT workout song! Unfortunately there is no official music video for this, so just sit back and enjoy the music.

5.) Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice

• Christopher Walken dancing. Enough said.

6.) MSTRKRFT - Easy Love

• Gross music video. I actually had never seen it before this posting. Strawberry milkshake aside, what is up with the dentist office?? Anyway...great song. Very similar to Daft Punk.
  

Getting Down to Bees-ness

Ok, let's get this show, or rather blog, on the road!


So, up north on our property we have an old barn which is mainly used for storage. It use to be the home of my mom's rabbits, but now houses our volleyball/badminton net, kayaks, garden tools, junk and... honey bees! And yes, they are there on purpose.

My mom decided that the barn would be the best place to house her two bee colonies. I was skeptical at first, but have since decided that she is right: the barn is perfect.

There is a piece of plastic which prevents the bees from flying
into the barn above the hives. And it works! You can walk behind
beehives and check out the bees without worrying about getting
stung. Below the beehives are comfrey and rhubarb flowers, and
the surrounding area is full of blueberry bushes and locust trees in bloom.
We will hopefully have some pretty tasty honey by the end of the year!

The only problem right now is the hive on the right. As far as my mom can tell, there is no queen! There are some queen cells, so for now we are crossing our fingers that the bees are making their queen. If that doesn't work, we could either buy a queen (which is actually pretty expensive) or we could do this complicated procedure involving removing a frame from the healthy hive, isolating it, making a new queen, and introducing it to the sick hive.

Needless to say, it would be a whole lot easier if the bees made their own queen.

Either way, they sure are mesmerizing to watch.