anyone for a halloween barbeque?

is anyone else concerned that we're well past the autumnal equinox and it was 88 degrees and humid yesterday? record setting. and not that it was just yesterday, but that summer hasn't waned in strength in all these post summer months. everyone walks around new york in their shorts and smiles that the weather is so pleasant and all i can think is, "this shit ain't right!".

did i not know at age two that i hate german chocolate cake?

okay, separate story.
on my eighth birthday, my dad brought me out to the camper (what--you didn't grow up with camper shells on your property that occasionally hosted extended family?) for a secret birthday surprise. i sat down on those thin tweed cushions at the dining table that converted to a bed--the ever-present scent of stale pepper in the air--and he placed before me the much coveted box of strawberry shortcake SUGAR cereal. birthdays were taboo. sugar cereal was taboo. and strawberry shortcake was everything to me. quietly he poured me a bowl, slicing up a banana on top to somehow offset the intrinsic evil of this particular breakfast. these were no cheerios! my heart soared with excitement. so today, it's corn pops, um, and tofu scramble.

in case you don't have a subscription to the press democrat

TO: PRESS DEMOCRAT ATTN: CLASSIFIED
FOR: ONE Time, WEDNESDAY, October 10, 2007 (WITH Photo)

SCOTT, ALICE ABBIE CLARK (ST. MARIE) – Entered into rest, at home, in
Santa Rosa, CA, October 5, 2007, after a long and fulfilling life.
Dearly beloved mother of Allan (Barbara) St. Marie, Edwin R. “Gus” St.
Marie, Elizabeth (Joel) Montgomery and Susan K. St. Marie. Adored
grandmother of Sean Bressie, Amy Ahlstrom, Mackensie Ashton, Abbie St.
Marie Kearns, Naomi Campbell and Kitty Joe Ste-Marie. Cherished great
grandmother of Kyle, Allyson, Anika, Colin and Rory. Also survived by
her loving step-children; Jeanine, Linda, Esther, Shirley and Clarence and
her brother, Stan Clark.
A native of Tacoma, WA, age 85 years. Alice was fondly known to her family as “The Grammy”. As Alice traveled through life, she knew no strangers-she loved people and made friends easily. Alice lived on Fox Island and in the Tacoma area until she married Nathan St. Marie in 1941. During the war, Alice drove trucks in the motor pool at Ft. Lewis, WA. Her first two children, Allan and Gus were born in WA.
After the war, Alice and Nathan settled in Montana, where Elizabeth was born. Thence on to California, where they welcomed their youngest child, Susan. Alice has lived with her family in the Sebastopol and Santa Rosa area since 1947. She was married to William A. Scott for thirteen years, who preceded her in death in 1979. In her forties with four children in school, she graduated from the Santa Rosa J.C. as an LVN, one of her proudest accomplishments. She worked as office manager for C.A.
Anderson, chiropractor for twenty-three years. After retirement, she provided loving care for a number of her friends in need of assistance. She was a deacon at Knox Presbyterian Church and a member of the Druids Santa Rosa Circle #66 and the Navy Mother’s Club. Her favorite things in life were her family and drives to Bodega Bay for a bowl of clam chowder. She enjoyed weekly poker games and scrabble with her long-time good friends.

Family and friends are invited to attend a Graveside Remembrance Service on Saturday, October 13, 2007 at 11:00 A.M. at Santa Rosa Memorial Park-Garden of Devotion, 1900 Franklin Avenue. Family prefers memorial contributions in Alice’s memory be made to Memorial Hospice,
821 Mendocino Avenue,
Santa Rosa, CA, 95401.

Arrangements entrusted to:
LAFFERTY & SMITH
COLONIAL CHAPEL,
Directors
(707)539-2921

thirty-two

tomorrow's the big day. usually i'm a childish birthday fiend. this year, not so enthusiastic, just ready for this year to be over. abbie says thirty-two is a magical age. cheers to that. and thank you to mieke and ezra for having a handful of us over, despite my grinch-like protests, for 'exotic dishes you've never had', cake and belgian beer. my contribution was peanut butter and pickles sandwiches. don't knock 'em till you try 'em. they were quite the hit on twig avenue in the 80's and now the upper east side.


and oh, i just can't help myself (click here). i wanted to be short and elegant with just the candle blow out. but it's just not my style.

back by popular demand--for real!

oh there are so many reasons that i didn't post my 'pod' assignment this week before i turned it in. first in line, i was simply working right down to the wire on wednesday to finish in time for class. attempted to escape the insanity threatening to overtake my brain via a trip up to the adirondacks and then boston. not sure i was successful in that endeavor, considering i managed to THROW MY WALLET IN THE GARBAGE CAN including all credit cards, check cards, driver's license, school id, gift cards, costco memberships, punch cards for no less than eight local coffee shops, birthday checks (okay--check) and pictures of your children, then drive 250 miles from it. also, i didn't want to bore you. but silly me! it's seems the readers of spackleshot demand rigorous routine boredom! that's why you're here, right? oh you faithful handful were just livid by the evening of wednesday, wondering "where is the work?". and i get it. you all have to listen to a lot of bitching from me concerning the soul sucking tuition i pay to this unnamed institution i attend and the resulting poverty which envelops my existence. you want your money's worth! so here it is, well, after much ado....

the story.....THE BOYS OF PARADOX LAKE by kitty joe ste-marie
the photos should be side by side, but cut me some slack--it's a miracle i even figure out how to hit the publish button around here!






my first idea for this series came while paddling across the stunningly beautiful paradox lake. i imagined the exaggerated expressions, the boat tipping, etc. obviously, i couldn't be in the boat with my camera. so i staged a faux happening in the tributary creek which leads to the lake. i imagained little white bordered sepia toned black and whites. nostalgic. adirondacks. totally not what i got. it was a disaster. the sun blew the highlights out of the silver canoe and emre's pale skin. i barked impatient orders to eddie and emre as they fought and lost the battle of tipping at the wrong time. emre shivered as i shot and shot and shot. finally, after i gave up, i was struck yet again by inspiration as they carried the canoe across the green meadow. i would re-shoot with the grass as paradox lake. more control, slower, and plus a strange surrealism. bingo. that's when we started having fun. it's too bad eddie can't see these photos, as he turned out to be quite the cooperative actor. he staunchly refuses to look at my blog because he's my "reality friend", not my "blog friend". ooh, look who's in the blogosphere now!
another favorite of mine that wouldn't fit into the series since it's horizontal and a bit redundant...

and here, just a little look at the insane volume of images i shot. these are just the ones i narrowed down as my favorites! be thankful i didn't engage you in the selection process!


my favorite comment in critique was my classmate saying that the black and white captures not necessarily the nostalgia of the adirondacks, but harkens back to 1920's surrealism. wanna flatter me? mention my photography and surrealism in the same sentence.

passage

dear grandma,
i love you.
your youngest, tallest, silliest, hurts-to-be-the-furthest-away,
maverick granddaughter.
please, make it painless.

technical difficulties, please stand by

the internet connection is down at my house. after unplugging and replugging the modem, wearing a hole in the screen where the refresh button is i am given no explanation, no money back, and most importantly, still no internet connection! i am now in the school lab, sans images, asking you to hang in there and come back real soon!

today, thursday, marks the beginning of a most ridiculous schedule:
11am to 3pm ta art history class in the west village
2:30pm to 530pm in chinatown lighting class
6pm to 9pm studio lighting class back in the west village

now if you actually read the above, rather than skimming it as i would have done, you would notice that i'm actually overlapping timing here, and the whole dash from the west village to chinatown (east chinatown at that) is absolutely stupid and crazy. i will be an hour late to my first lighting class and probably 15 minutes late to my second lighting class. i don't know what i was thinking when i signed up. oh yeah, i remember, i'm wonderwoman, right?

how not to impress your boss: tips #48-51

a random sampling courtesy of one loony butler.

#48
set the fork on the right, knife on the left. continue to do this even after three times being corrected. glare at boss remainder of day.

#49
next time you see boss, before even greeting her, launch immediately into 'conversation' about life aspirations, in spanish. don't bother asking if lily white boss speaks spanish, studied spanish, knows the word for graphic designer en espanol, nor if she cares about your aspirations when she has a room of 300 to set in half hour's time. (let me step out for a moment to explain, dear people, that this is not me being unsympathetic to a language barrier. understand that 'loony butler' in question speaks perfect english, without any accent whatsoever.)

#50
follow up, at least this time in english, asking, "you live in williamsburg, right? i've seen you in the neighborhood." when your puzzled boss who doesn't know you at all asks if you are her neighbor, reply, "no, but i want to be".

#51
now that boss realizes she should just avoid any chance of conversation or eye contact with you, save from firing generic orders like, "please pop and drape the hi-tops on the portico", run behind her quick stride, questioning, "what does it mean?" when she rewords the request, "um, please build the tall cocktail tables on the balcony and place linen on them", confuse and creep her out by insisting, "no, i mean your tatoo!"