WORTH THE WAIT

Finally.

Today was the day I was finally able to ride the hill I live on. After four years of temptation. It's a very steep, very long hill, and it got 9 inches of snow dumped on it in just over four hours. And it's still snowing. It usually gets plowed before I think to snowboard on it, but today the snow was just too thick and too fast for the plows to catch up. I was racing the plow with each run, and I knew it, as I could see the plow on the streets below mine.

I got three runs in on the hill to my left, which is the steeper of the two (I basically live at the top of a convergence of two hills which are at a 90-degree angle), before the snow plow came along. Then I got two more runs in down the other hill before it got too dark to see.

It was epic.

I was actually able to carve and make powder turns, right from my front steps.

The power was out during the snowboard runs, and stayed out for a couple of hours afterwards. It's obviously back on now.

During that time I decided to read an art history book called David to Delacroix, by candlelight. There was a partially full box of beer outside my front door, covered in snow, left there by a friend on poker night last Thursday. I stepped out on the porch, barefoot, and grabbed a beer. It was a New Belgium Fat Tire, which I've avoided drinking for over 10 years. But it was sitting there in the snow, and the power was out, so I tried it for the first time in over a decade and discovered that it was delicious. I don't know if it was the circumstances surrounding the tasting of the beer, or if it actually had gotten better.

Then my neighbor called (on my landline), and asked if I had enough candlelight to play backgammon by. I said I did and voila, we were playing backgammon.

It was all very romantic.

Until I thought I detected a slight humming sound.

I got up from the game to turn on a light switch, thinking for sure that it wasn't going to produce anything. But no, on came the light. It was so disappointing.

Hopefully the power goes out again soon.

SNOWED IN

I woke up this morning to an email from my twin brother, saying they had about six inches of snow in Cottage Grove (Oregon), and that it was still snowing hard. I called him and asked him to turn on his video camera on his computer so I could see. He figured it was snowing where I am, since the elevation here is about 2200 feet and the elevation in Cottage Grove is about 1000 feet. But no, it was just slightly raining here at the time.

Well, that's changed, as you can see.

My cat decided to make a cameo in this short film; thank you Tabitha.

Just finished a glass of red wine that someone left here on poker night, which was accompanied with a bit of 12-month aged Spanish manchego cheese on a rice cracker. I don't normally drink in the afternoon, but it was so pretty with the snow falling and the quiet that snow brings that I just couldn't help myself.

Now it's back to working on production work for my most recent client, adidas. I've gotta cut out the background from thirty pairs of shoes, four shots for each shoe. It's a good thing my new Native sunglasses arrived the other day, as the act of staring at a screen all day is greatly improved with the addition of polarized lenses on one's eyes (no color correction at the moment, so I can get away with wearing them).

CONTEMPLATION

Once again I attended the Monday morning figure drawing class. Today I wanted to focus mainly on hands and feet, but this drawing is probably my favorite of the day. The model had a very contemplative mood, which I think I kind of managed to capture.

CARROT CAKE KARMA

Today was one of those days where things just sort of worked out. I went to the local food co-op to grab some lunch and groceries, and when I was paying for my stuff at the checkout counter I was told that my co-op member number wasn't showing up in the system. This also happened to me yesterday, and the checker said her machine had done that to someone else, so I just figured it was a computer issue.

But today the girl who was my checker happens to be a friend of mine, and she told me the real issue, which was that my membership must have expired. She asked me if I was on the payment plan for my membership (it's $100 to be a member, and they let you make $20 installments every six months, interest free, so of course I did that rather than shell out the full hundred all at once). I told her that yes, I was on the payment plan, and she said to go the customer service desk and get it straightened out.

I went to the customer service desk and was told that I'd missed a payment, and as a result would have to pay a $10 reinstatement fee. I asked the girl at the desk what the policy was to notify members of when their next payment was due, and she said I should have received a bill. I told her I'd never received a bill, and then she looked up my information and said that I'd been sent a bill last December 1st. I told her I'd never received the bill, which I didn't (I'm thinking now it must have gotten delivered to one of the mailboxes next to mine, as I often receive mail that belongs to my neighbors), and she then got the manager to come deal with me.

The manager, who was surprisingly young, came along and told me that it was simply policy and there was nothing she could do about it. "But I didn't do anything wrong, and now you're charging me", I said. She then said she had a record of the fact that the bill had been sent to me, and I told her that was great, but I never received it.

By that time I'd migrated over to a demo table where another friend of mine was giving a demo on some raw, vegan food supplement, and there were several people standing around trying the samples. One of the people standing around was a woman in her early 60s who happened to mention to someone else that she was shopping for ingredients for a carrot cake, but that she didn't have a good recipe for a carrot cake. Overhearing this, I introduced myself and told her that I happened to know of the best carrot cake recipe in the world, and that it was my mother's and was published in a cookbook which I happened to have. The woman was just in the process of giving me her phone number so that I could call her with the recipe when the manager who'd been looking into my membership billing issue came over and kind of hovered there, waiting to talk to me.

She mentioned again that my account had been officially past due as of January 1st, and that I should have received a bill, and I remembered right then that I'd just received my monthly co-op member coupons for the month of January. I asked her how it was that I was still receiving coupons if my membership was expired, and she agreed that was odd. Then the woman wanting the carrot cake recipe, who was still standing right there, said to this manager girl that she was a member, and hadn't received her January coupons. It was perfect timing, as I was then able to say, "see, the postal system isn't foolproof".

The manager finally relented and told me she'd wave the reinstatement fee if I had the money—twenty dollars— for my overdue payment, which I promptly handed her.

I got home and called the woman to give her the carrot cake recipe, and then said she might as well stop by and borrow the cookbook from me, as it was rather lengthy to tell it to her all over the phone. So, she came by, and she just left. She was here for about half an hour, looking at my art and telling me stories about her life in San Francisco, and how she was an interior decorater and a color expert and lots of other things. She came into my kitchen and started looking at stuff, and I was glad I'd just done a thorough cleaning of my house last night. She was wearing some kind of perfume, which is still lingering in my living room.

MONDAY MORNINGS

Today I attended my first figure drawing workshop in the studio of a local Ashland artist. I'd met him during this month's First Friday artwalk, and he encouraged me to come to his workshop. It's on Monday mornings for ten bucks, and there's no instruction, which is nice. Just a series of drawings done in consecutively longer increments. First it was two-minute drawings, then five-minute drawings, then 15-minute drawings, and finally 25-minute drawings.

There were about 15 people at the workshop, with myself and another guy being the only men there. Not sure if that means that most of the artists in this town are women, or if it means that it's mainly women who are interested in figure drawing.

This is the drawing I did that I like the best. I did a few face drawings, but the paper I chose to bring had way too much tooth (rough surface) for fine detail work.

COMANCHE MOON

I was at my brother's house over Christmas and wanted a book to read, and my brother handed me a nice, thick, hardback book from his bookshelf, which is loaded with nice, thick, hardback books. It was a book I'd never heard of, Comanche Moon, which is the prequel to Lonesome Dove. I'd never heard of Lonesome Dove either before last fall, when my brother gave me that book to read the last time I was at his house wanting something to read.

I've been reading the book on and off since Christmas, and I just finished it tonight, and there's some weird coincidences concerning it. First, I've noticed in the past week during football games on CBS that some kind of made-for-TV movie of Comanche Moon is supposed to air soon, maybe even tonight. How is it that a book written over 10 years ago, which I've just recently heard of and even more recently completed, happens to be broadcast as a TV movie right as I'm finishing the book? There were no ads for the movie when my brother gave me the book; it was only because he'd known I'd finished Lonesome Dove that he remembered to give me that particular book (as an identical twin, I feel qualified to sometimes speak as if I knew what my brother was thinking, even if he didn't actually tell me).

And the second weird coincidence is that, in the very last pages of the book, a character was mentioned who was just some background character that was never mentioned before or after. Just before I got to the page with that character, a friend from Eugene called and I got up to see who it was and didn't answer it 'cause I was so close to finishing the book. Well, the friend who called has a somewhat unusual name, Josh Korn, which just happened to be the name of the random background character in the book. Granted, the character in the book was spelled Josh Corn, but still, it was weird to see that name staring back at me right after I'd gotten the phone call.

Bizzare.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

So tired. Was up 'til 4 a.m. Wednesday night, hanging out with a girl I met at open mic night at a local bar here in Ashland, then got up and went to Eugene for the Pac-10 opener of men's college basketball, where the Ducks played Cal. Right before I was to leave, a friend of mine who used to live in Eugene, but who now lives in D.C., called from the S.F. airport and said he'd be in Eugene that evening. Since I had no place to stay lined up, and his mom's house is super nice, I was glad he called.

After the game, which Oregon won 79-70 after blowing a 14 point lead in the second half, we went out to a club where there was a killer DJ and lots of slutty looking dancing girls. Then it was back to the nice house in Hendricks Park to sleep for a few hours before making the journey back to Ashland this morning.

And now I'm off to another group of girls' house for a birthday/sushi party, for which I'm late.

WINTER CONTEMPLATION

While on an irregular visit to the local Ace hardware store (I'm not the handyman type, at all) to pick up an air filter, I happened down an aisle filled with art supplies. There were several varieties of paper to choose from, and brushes and paints and inks. Overall it was the best selection of art supplies anywhere near my house, and it took me over four years to discover.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to leave the art section without picking up something, and my eye landed on a sumi-e ink set. I've always loved Chinese brush painting, and even though I've spent many hours watercoloring, I've never managed to work with sumi ink. I went to some websites just now to get inspired, and the paintings I liked the most were ones that incorporated snow. I think what I like most about the idea of painting snow with black ink is that of course you can't paint white snow with black ink. You have to paint other things to make the snow stand out.

This is an entirely different process than what people say I'm good at, which is creating photorealistic drawings. While there's something satisfying about drawing in that manner, it lacks spontaneity and freshness. Yet I find myself drawn to both types of expression.

This just reminded me of something that happened on the First Friday artwalk last Friday. I was in a cluster of studios above one of the galleries, where the respective artists had work on display. I overheard a conversation about Philadelphia, which I still resonate with from my childhood there, and went over to see what was being said. I introduced myself to the artist, who was a woman from a suburb of Philadelphia. I then went to the adjacent studio and picked up an American Artist magazine from a stack near the door, and opened to a random page, which turned out to be the beginning of an article on Philadelphia artists.

I read the article for a bit, then went up and introduced myself to the artist, who had some very good portraits in his studio. After listening to him talk for a few seconds, I asked him if he was from Philly. He said that he wasn't, but he was from Jersey, which is basically the same as far as accents go. Then he said that I was the first person to call him on his accent, and that no one else ever picked up on it (or at least didn't comment on it if they did). I asked him how long he'd been here, and I forgot the exact number of years, but it was lengthy.

I realized, while talking to him (I can't remember his name), that he must be the artist that did the Monday figure drawing sessions. I asked him if that was the case, and he said it was. I promptly invited myself to the next session, which costs $10, and he said he'd see me on Monday, which was yesterday. However, after snowboarding in 10 degree weather, and drinking beer and sake with a friend who was visiting, I didn't feel like getting up Monday morning and walking through the snow with my art supplies. So, I want to do it next Monday for sure.

BACKGAMMON BLUES

What to do when the local ski resort is closed due to too much snow? Play backgammon on a brand new table of course.



EXPAND MT. ASHLAND—OPEN ARIEL !

SPRING IN JANUARY?

Just got in from sitting outside reading a book. It's 60 degrees here in Ashland, and even warmer in direct sun. At one point I had to wave off a bee that was trying to land on me. A bee, in early January! I'm taking advantage and have all my doors and windows open, and the fresh air is blowing out all the canned air that's been trapped in here for weeks.

Spent New Year's Eve here in Ashland, and at the midnight hour I was at the Inner Child Cafe, trying to land a kiss on one of the few remaining single women in the crowd. I managed to succeed, briefly, with one of the women I'd had dinner with earlier, but alas, she told me she'd promised to bed with another woman that night. I was mildly disappointed, but not nearly as much as my friend who'd driven an hour to spend the night with the other woman. Poor guy, he had to drive all the way back at 3 a.m. Or at least that's what we think he did; no one seemed to know when or where he'd wandered off to.

Yesterday was spent watching meaningless college football games, the highlight of which was videotaping my drunk friends standing in front of the big HD TV pointing at hideous Georgia cheerleaders, saying rude and crass things. Now I've got great blackmail material should I ever need it...