Two low rez stock images loaded from the web. Painted in photo-shop. New Orleans icons, masks and ornate raised graves. Spoooky!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Timetary
Two low rez stock images loaded from the web. Painted in photo-shop. New Orleans icons, masks and ornate raised graves. Spoooky!
The Old Hotel, Part Three
Banty, Carol and I, giggling from sheer animal vitality and sunshine, skip from the porch. Black velvet and cobalt butterflies land on Papa Gordon's pajamas, drying on the line.
At fifteen years old, Banty is way ahead of me in sophistication. She wears a very tight dark skirt. A three inch leather belt cinches her waist, accentuating an hour glass figure. Dark brown, long wavy hair and electric blue eyes. A few pimples. She limps on feet disfigured by the mysterious illness she suffered in her fifth year. The boys are crazy about her. On a chain around her neck hangs the class ring of Bobby, the cutest boy at Weir Middle School.
Carefully, we climb between the barbed wires of the fence. We run across the field, screaming and sweating, and startling the cows just for the fun of seeing them run away. We dodge cow patties. On one pile of shit, a covey of butterflies dance. I think that they are eating cow shit. I am disillusioned, how can such elegant creatures eat shit? The field crossed, we climb through the fence, and out onto the baking red clay road. A little way down the road, we come to the forest path.
I feel a frisson, both apprehension and excitement just before we enter the forest.
It is cool in the deep shade. Virgin pine trees. Thick trunks reach straight and tall to the sky. High overhead, a canopy of blue green needles, underfoot, a carpet of red brown needles. We walk quietly, subdued by the forest grandeur. My consciousness switches to the channel of evanescent mist.
The path skirts a sandy bottomed, clear amber creek. Then, we arrive at the swimming hole. Because of the depth of the water, it is black. Blue sky, white cloud and green pine reflections flutter on the surface. I am transfixed by the liquid color play.
Faintly I hear Banty, "Jan, Jan".
Carol says, "She cant hear you. She is unconscious, nothing in her head but air". They laugh at me and I am saddened with embarrassment.
We sit on the pine needle carpet and light cigarettes with wooden kitchen matches. Banty shares her cigarette with me. "Here," she says, "smoke some of this coffin nail." She fingers the ring hanging from the chain. We swat mosquitoes.
"I saw Bobby talking to that prissy ass Sally Jo. I told him that if he does that again I will break up with him."
Carol says, "I saw him talking to Irene, the slut".
Banty says, "I am gonna kick his ass. She eats cock for breakfast."
I know that they are talking about sex, but I do not understand the mechanics. Burning curiosity gnaws at me, but I do not ask questions. Questions would expose my ignorance, and that, would be just too embarrassing.
"Why did Bernice pay you?" I ask.
"She gave us a dime and cigarettes, not to tell you, Miss Vacuum Head." says Carol in a self satisfied, mocking tone.
"Please tell!" I beg.
"She didnt want us to tell, that her boy friend came to the hotel," Banty's voice glitters with excitement. "We were suppose to watch the kids, while they 'did it' in room 116." She pokes me with her elbow, "He put his dick in her pussy and pumped up and down". She laughs with gusto. I am satisfied to put some of the sex puzzle pieces together.
"We listened outside the door and heard them moaning and grunting and banging." Carol says, "Ha ha. You missed it, Miss Cloud Head. Miss Stuck Up, nose in the air."
"Woo-hoo" Banty yells. She runs and jumps into the swimming hole, clothes, leather belt, and all. Carol does a butt busting, cannon ball into the water. I ease in the icy water slowly from a shallow edge.
Invigorated, splashing and whooping. The black silk water sparkles. We are shiny birds of youth, and the earth is new.
Walking back to the Old Hotel, on the clay road, a car passes us and kicks up dust. Red clay mud clings to our wet clothes.
At fifteen years old, Banty is way ahead of me in sophistication. She wears a very tight dark skirt. A three inch leather belt cinches her waist, accentuating an hour glass figure. Dark brown, long wavy hair and electric blue eyes. A few pimples. She limps on feet disfigured by the mysterious illness she suffered in her fifth year. The boys are crazy about her. On a chain around her neck hangs the class ring of Bobby, the cutest boy at Weir Middle School.
Carefully, we climb between the barbed wires of the fence. We run across the field, screaming and sweating, and startling the cows just for the fun of seeing them run away. We dodge cow patties. On one pile of shit, a covey of butterflies dance. I think that they are eating cow shit. I am disillusioned, how can such elegant creatures eat shit? The field crossed, we climb through the fence, and out onto the baking red clay road. A little way down the road, we come to the forest path.
I feel a frisson, both apprehension and excitement just before we enter the forest.
It is cool in the deep shade. Virgin pine trees. Thick trunks reach straight and tall to the sky. High overhead, a canopy of blue green needles, underfoot, a carpet of red brown needles. We walk quietly, subdued by the forest grandeur. My consciousness switches to the channel of evanescent mist.
The path skirts a sandy bottomed, clear amber creek. Then, we arrive at the swimming hole. Because of the depth of the water, it is black. Blue sky, white cloud and green pine reflections flutter on the surface. I am transfixed by the liquid color play.
Faintly I hear Banty, "Jan, Jan".
Carol says, "She cant hear you. She is unconscious, nothing in her head but air". They laugh at me and I am saddened with embarrassment.
We sit on the pine needle carpet and light cigarettes with wooden kitchen matches. Banty shares her cigarette with me. "Here," she says, "smoke some of this coffin nail." She fingers the ring hanging from the chain. We swat mosquitoes.
"I saw Bobby talking to that prissy ass Sally Jo. I told him that if he does that again I will break up with him."
Carol says, "I saw him talking to Irene, the slut".
Banty says, "I am gonna kick his ass. She eats cock for breakfast."
I know that they are talking about sex, but I do not understand the mechanics. Burning curiosity gnaws at me, but I do not ask questions. Questions would expose my ignorance, and that, would be just too embarrassing.
"Why did Bernice pay you?" I ask.
"She gave us a dime and cigarettes, not to tell you, Miss Vacuum Head." says Carol in a self satisfied, mocking tone.
"Please tell!" I beg.
"She didnt want us to tell, that her boy friend came to the hotel," Banty's voice glitters with excitement. "We were suppose to watch the kids, while they 'did it' in room 116." She pokes me with her elbow, "He put his dick in her pussy and pumped up and down". She laughs with gusto. I am satisfied to put some of the sex puzzle pieces together.
"We listened outside the door and heard them moaning and grunting and banging." Carol says, "Ha ha. You missed it, Miss Cloud Head. Miss Stuck Up, nose in the air."
"Woo-hoo" Banty yells. She runs and jumps into the swimming hole, clothes, leather belt, and all. Carol does a butt busting, cannon ball into the water. I ease in the icy water slowly from a shallow edge.
Invigorated, splashing and whooping. The black silk water sparkles. We are shiny birds of youth, and the earth is new.
Walking back to the Old Hotel, on the clay road, a car passes us and kicks up dust. Red clay mud clings to our wet clothes.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Woman's Back
This image started as an acrylic on canvas painting. A photograph of the painting was worked in photo-shop. That is when the wings were added. Hi saturated color. The original is 24 megabytes. This version completed today.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Iris Eyes Shining
Digital image. Original 23.3M. Stock traditional Japanese picture from Dover Cd. The round thing started as eyes with iris and pupil, but as they were worked and reworked turned into something that looks more like flowers.
The Old Hotel, Dog Days of August
She silly sally down the hall way. Skip and dip. Stutter, flutter. Kicking up little dust clouds. Aroma of human effluvium.
As I leave the sunny corner room, Aunt Kat is efficiently dressing Papa Gordon in his pajamas. Her soothing voice calms him down. Changes his mode from Hell Fire to quiet rest.
I am wearing pedal pushers and a polka dot blouse sewn for me by Mama. The hall is long, gray, receives sunlight only at the two ends. My mind slides to its channel of choice. A dreamy, wordless place. I drift past Aunt Kat and Uncle Jack's rooms, numbers 113 and 115. Aunt Tilly and Boo Ray live in room 117. On the right are a string of desolate vacant rooms. I pass dining room and kitchen, and at the end of the hall, the communal bathrooms. Then, down the outdoor back stairs and through the screen door to the first floor hall. Feet navigating, mind in clouds. The August southern heat is oppressive.
I enter my family bedroom. Hank is driving his cars over Peggy's dolls. Bernice is tuning the radio. Hank grins and joggles to me with arms reaching open. "Sissy, Sissy, read book. Read Buzz Bunny."
Bernice is the babysitter for Hank while Mama works. Mama is secretary a few hours a week to the only lawyer in Weir, Mississippi. Bernice has a cushioned body, a long dirty blond pony tail, pale blue eyes. She is wearing a flowered blouse and a faded green gathered skirt. She sits in a straight wooden chair and turns the imitation ivory dial of the brown plastic radio. The radio emits weird zippy sounds as she scrolls the stations.
Three year old Peggy lurches to Bernice, squeezes between her legs, and tugs at her mother's blouse. Bernice stops turning the radio dial when she finds Elvis singing, "Warden threw a party in the county jail." Her soft shoulders see saw to the rhythm of the music. Peggy is trying to get under her mother's blouse. Bernice lifts her blouse and pops out her huge milk melon. Peggy slurps at the pap while standing on sturdy plump legs.
"Sissy, Sissy, read Buzz Bunny!" I pick up Hank and the book and carry them to the back porch. Sit in big wooden rocking chair. Snuggle three year old boy chub. Read, "Hoppity, hoppity." The over worked electric washing machine spins with death rattle noise. Beside it is an old wringer washer.
The back porch looks onto a big cow field. In the near distance are lines of scraggly drying laundry with butterflies swarming about. In the far distance is a thick woods, veined with a creek. One area of the creek has been dynamited to create a deep black swimming hole.
Hank and I doze dreamily, gently rocking. I dream that I am trying to water a flower bed, but the hose is stopped up. I shake and squeeze the hose, but water only dribbles out.
Noise of flip flops and screen door slam. "Where have yall been?" I ask Carol and Banty as they jiggle from the hallway to the porch.
My sister Carol is eleven, two years my junior. To my humiliation, she is more developed than I am. She always wins our rivalry fights because she is meaner and stronger willed than I am. Her bangs frizz over her high forehead and tweezed eyebrows. Mischief jets from her blue gray eyes. The sides of her hair fall obediently straight to poufs of tight curls just below her ears. She wears a blue boat neck blouse and a gathered skirt sewn from cotton by Mother. She eats a Snickers bar. "We wont tell you!" she snickers.
"Bernice paid us a dime to keep our mouths shut," Banty says. "And," she says waving two cigarettes, "look what else she gave us." I beg to know why they were paid, but they will not tell me. Banty says that we should go to the swim hole to smoke.
I carry the sleeping Hank to the double bed where Peggy is napping. Bernice is singing along with the radio. "One for the money. Two for the show. Three to get ready, now go cat go."She tosses her pony tail in rhythm.
Dozo saunters in. Sniffs. Lies down beside the bed and immediately falls asleep.
As I leave the sunny corner room, Aunt Kat is efficiently dressing Papa Gordon in his pajamas. Her soothing voice calms him down. Changes his mode from Hell Fire to quiet rest.
I am wearing pedal pushers and a polka dot blouse sewn for me by Mama. The hall is long, gray, receives sunlight only at the two ends. My mind slides to its channel of choice. A dreamy, wordless place. I drift past Aunt Kat and Uncle Jack's rooms, numbers 113 and 115. Aunt Tilly and Boo Ray live in room 117. On the right are a string of desolate vacant rooms. I pass dining room and kitchen, and at the end of the hall, the communal bathrooms. Then, down the outdoor back stairs and through the screen door to the first floor hall. Feet navigating, mind in clouds. The August southern heat is oppressive.
I enter my family bedroom. Hank is driving his cars over Peggy's dolls. Bernice is tuning the radio. Hank grins and joggles to me with arms reaching open. "Sissy, Sissy, read book. Read Buzz Bunny."
Bernice is the babysitter for Hank while Mama works. Mama is secretary a few hours a week to the only lawyer in Weir, Mississippi. Bernice has a cushioned body, a long dirty blond pony tail, pale blue eyes. She is wearing a flowered blouse and a faded green gathered skirt. She sits in a straight wooden chair and turns the imitation ivory dial of the brown plastic radio. The radio emits weird zippy sounds as she scrolls the stations.
Three year old Peggy lurches to Bernice, squeezes between her legs, and tugs at her mother's blouse. Bernice stops turning the radio dial when she finds Elvis singing, "Warden threw a party in the county jail." Her soft shoulders see saw to the rhythm of the music. Peggy is trying to get under her mother's blouse. Bernice lifts her blouse and pops out her huge milk melon. Peggy slurps at the pap while standing on sturdy plump legs.
"Sissy, Sissy, read Buzz Bunny!" I pick up Hank and the book and carry them to the back porch. Sit in big wooden rocking chair. Snuggle three year old boy chub. Read, "Hoppity, hoppity." The over worked electric washing machine spins with death rattle noise. Beside it is an old wringer washer.
The back porch looks onto a big cow field. In the near distance are lines of scraggly drying laundry with butterflies swarming about. In the far distance is a thick woods, veined with a creek. One area of the creek has been dynamited to create a deep black swimming hole.
Hank and I doze dreamily, gently rocking. I dream that I am trying to water a flower bed, but the hose is stopped up. I shake and squeeze the hose, but water only dribbles out.
Noise of flip flops and screen door slam. "Where have yall been?" I ask Carol and Banty as they jiggle from the hallway to the porch.
My sister Carol is eleven, two years my junior. To my humiliation, she is more developed than I am. She always wins our rivalry fights because she is meaner and stronger willed than I am. Her bangs frizz over her high forehead and tweezed eyebrows. Mischief jets from her blue gray eyes. The sides of her hair fall obediently straight to poufs of tight curls just below her ears. She wears a blue boat neck blouse and a gathered skirt sewn from cotton by Mother. She eats a Snickers bar. "We wont tell you!" she snickers.
"Bernice paid us a dime to keep our mouths shut," Banty says. "And," she says waving two cigarettes, "look what else she gave us." I beg to know why they were paid, but they will not tell me. Banty says that we should go to the swim hole to smoke.
I carry the sleeping Hank to the double bed where Peggy is napping. Bernice is singing along with the radio. "One for the money. Two for the show. Three to get ready, now go cat go."She tosses her pony tail in rhythm.
Dozo saunters in. Sniffs. Lies down beside the bed and immediately falls asleep.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
I Talk to Trees
SPRING! Drink in the beauty of spring green leaves and sparkling flowers. See it, feel it. Enjoying beauty has a holistic effect on your being. Taking time to appreciate spring will make you feel better. A minute or two will lift your mood up a notch. The better you feel, the better you perform. Could have a spiral effect on your whole life.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The Old Hotel
I need a plan, man. I need a blog plan. I need focus. I need a cohesive concept. I need to win the lottery. I need a face lift. I need to get my shit together.
I plan to write some biographical material and I plan to post pictures. Dear reader, please dont expect it to be organized or reasonable. I have "art brain", that is my excuse. The pictures will not match the written material. Life is too short. And, life is too complicated to tie into a neat bundle.
Specifically, as to the writing, I plan to write about a period of time in my life when I lived at the Old Hotel. Coexisted there with my mother, two sisters, little brother and a whole caboodle load of extended, busted brained, family. I was 13 years old and the year was 1956.
Naturally, I plan to take poetic license with the facts. Thank the Dear Goddess for spell check. You will not be pummeled with too much creative spelling.
I plan to write as I go along, completing one or two short episodes a week. More if time permits.
This morning I drafted the first episode, handwritten, on old fashioned paper.
Please indulge me my corny alliteration.
I tried to unify the time frame but it kept getting disorganized. So, am going with the mixed past tense and present tense. Whatever.
I plan to write some biographical material and I plan to post pictures. Dear reader, please dont expect it to be organized or reasonable. I have "art brain", that is my excuse. The pictures will not match the written material. Life is too short. And, life is too complicated to tie into a neat bundle.
Specifically, as to the writing, I plan to write about a period of time in my life when I lived at the Old Hotel. Coexisted there with my mother, two sisters, little brother and a whole caboodle load of extended, busted brained, family. I was 13 years old and the year was 1956.
Naturally, I plan to take poetic license with the facts. Thank the Dear Goddess for spell check. You will not be pummeled with too much creative spelling.
I plan to write as I go along, completing one or two short episodes a week. More if time permits.
This morning I drafted the first episode, handwritten, on old fashioned paper.
Please indulge me my corny alliteration.
I tried to unify the time frame but it kept getting disorganized. So, am going with the mixed past tense and present tense. Whatever.
THE OLD HOTEL
The Old Hotel was dim, dusty and delightful. The pea sized town of Weir, Mississippi, was weary, wan and wonderful.
After the heyday of train travel, the hotel fell from relevance. It no longer made sense. In the time when travelers tumbled about in automobiles, capillaries of commerce switched from rail to highways. The Old Hotel was bypassed.
For a few years the hotel was not occupied. Then, Aunt Kat bought the decaying heap for a song.
Papa Gordon's room was to the right of the hallway that led to the second story balcony. Just past Aunt Kat's and Unkle Jack's rooms. The old man's room had more light. On a corner, it had twice as many windows to coax sunlight.
Just as I walked through the open door, Papa Gordon shouted, "You are going to Hell!". He was sitting on the end of his bed. Scrawny knob knees angled over the foot board. "Your sinful ways on the wide and crooked are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord." A gnarled finger, like a shot gun, hurled shame on my sinful soul. Then he slammed his fist on the ragged King James Version of the Bible. "Repent", he bellowed.
The air marinated in an intimate odor of chamber pot under the bed. His voice boomed from a ribbed chest thinly drapped with crepe skin. I did not look at his, 'you know what'. My small voice claimed only a sliver of space in the righteous airwaves. "Papa Gordon," I murmured, "let me help you get dressed".
"REPENT!", the vindictive voice almost knocked me down. "REPENT! The way of the cross is the only way. Jesus is preparing a mansion for you in heaven."
Repentance, curiosity and revulsion clatter in my brain. Curiosity is winning. Well, admittedly, I did get a quick, indelible, view of his "thingie" before editing my eyes. Now curiosity is urging a better look at the shriveled pod. Just as I have my courage worked up Dozo walks in. She is dutifully making her rounds.
Dozo assesses the situation like a professional nurse. She sniffs my quandary. Things are not right. She pads out the door.
I drift to the front facing window. Beyond the balcony, across the railroad tracks I see the Saturday, go to to town, country folks. They shoulder bags of feed and seed from the farm store. They buy flour and sugar in bulk from the grocer.
Saturdays are lively days in Weir. Old fashioned subsistance farmers make a weekly outing to pick up supplies and glad mouth. There are two horses harnessed to wooden wagons tied up by the tracks.
Weir, this small dot of earth, is off current, mired in time warp quicksand. Even in 1956, a few farmers still drive horse and wagon to town. They own a few fertile acres. They raise luscious vegetables, fruit, chickens, milk cow and beef cow. They raise abundant barefoot families. The children beg to go on the Saturday trip for supplies. Town is exciting. There are new things and strange people to see.
Deep in the back woods they live in their own little bubble of self sufficiency.
Beyond the balcony, on the near side of the tracks, I am captivated, as I watch a gang of brawny teen boys playing a game of penny toss. My mind disconnects, drifts to the place of nameless longing. The hell fire and damnation fades to quiet static. Standing in my Mary Janes, my body sways gently.
Dozo returns her head held high with self importance. She is followed by Aunt Kat. Dozo has summoned Aunt Kat to handle the naked preacher situation.
I am pulled back to the sunlit room. "Jan", Aunt Kat orders, "go see about your little brother." She is trying to protect my girlish innocence by sending me away. Ive seen my brothers perky pee pee and my grand father's limp ding dong. My protected, guarded innocence is still mostly intact. Aunt Kat picks up Papa Gorden's pajamas from off of the floor.
I wander down the long hall way to the back stairs.
After the heyday of train travel, the hotel fell from relevance. It no longer made sense. In the time when travelers tumbled about in automobiles, capillaries of commerce switched from rail to highways. The Old Hotel was bypassed.
For a few years the hotel was not occupied. Then, Aunt Kat bought the decaying heap for a song.
Papa Gordon's room was to the right of the hallway that led to the second story balcony. Just past Aunt Kat's and Unkle Jack's rooms. The old man's room had more light. On a corner, it had twice as many windows to coax sunlight.
Just as I walked through the open door, Papa Gordon shouted, "You are going to Hell!". He was sitting on the end of his bed. Scrawny knob knees angled over the foot board. "Your sinful ways on the wide and crooked are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord." A gnarled finger, like a shot gun, hurled shame on my sinful soul. Then he slammed his fist on the ragged King James Version of the Bible. "Repent", he bellowed.
The air marinated in an intimate odor of chamber pot under the bed. His voice boomed from a ribbed chest thinly drapped with crepe skin. I did not look at his, 'you know what'. My small voice claimed only a sliver of space in the righteous airwaves. "Papa Gordon," I murmured, "let me help you get dressed".
"REPENT!", the vindictive voice almost knocked me down. "REPENT! The way of the cross is the only way. Jesus is preparing a mansion for you in heaven."
Repentance, curiosity and revulsion clatter in my brain. Curiosity is winning. Well, admittedly, I did get a quick, indelible, view of his "thingie" before editing my eyes. Now curiosity is urging a better look at the shriveled pod. Just as I have my courage worked up Dozo walks in. She is dutifully making her rounds.
Dozo assesses the situation like a professional nurse. She sniffs my quandary. Things are not right. She pads out the door.
I drift to the front facing window. Beyond the balcony, across the railroad tracks I see the Saturday, go to to town, country folks. They shoulder bags of feed and seed from the farm store. They buy flour and sugar in bulk from the grocer.
Saturdays are lively days in Weir. Old fashioned subsistance farmers make a weekly outing to pick up supplies and glad mouth. There are two horses harnessed to wooden wagons tied up by the tracks.
Weir, this small dot of earth, is off current, mired in time warp quicksand. Even in 1956, a few farmers still drive horse and wagon to town. They own a few fertile acres. They raise luscious vegetables, fruit, chickens, milk cow and beef cow. They raise abundant barefoot families. The children beg to go on the Saturday trip for supplies. Town is exciting. There are new things and strange people to see.
Deep in the back woods they live in their own little bubble of self sufficiency.
Beyond the balcony, on the near side of the tracks, I am captivated, as I watch a gang of brawny teen boys playing a game of penny toss. My mind disconnects, drifts to the place of nameless longing. The hell fire and damnation fades to quiet static. Standing in my Mary Janes, my body sways gently.
Dozo returns her head held high with self importance. She is followed by Aunt Kat. Dozo has summoned Aunt Kat to handle the naked preacher situation.
I am pulled back to the sunlit room. "Jan", Aunt Kat orders, "go see about your little brother." She is trying to protect my girlish innocence by sending me away. Ive seen my brothers perky pee pee and my grand father's limp ding dong. My protected, guarded innocence is still mostly intact. Aunt Kat picks up Papa Gorden's pajamas from off of the floor.
I wander down the long hall way to the back stairs.
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