Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Someone we know as MomSense… raised two sons… who are in a band… that released an album today!
The first song on the album:
I loved this song, and I can’t wait to hear the rest. The video is stunning, here’s a screen capture of one of my favorite scenes.
Silver Heels playlist on Spotify:
It’s Friday night. Let’s talk Music!
The rudiments of my interest in photography began during my junior year at a boarding school in Michigan. As always, my best friend was a socially unsuccessful geek, in this case the school photographer. The position wasn’t actually functional, but it gave him sole access to the darkroom, where I would work with him while everyone else was in study hall. I remember printing photos and singing a loud, off-key version of Clementine with him. It was silly, adolescent fun, but it introduced me to the inner world of photography in a way that blossomed later on, at a time when I was at a loss to know what to do with my life.
I spent my senior year at Los Angeles High School, where I offered my services as football photographer. I provided pictures for the school paper without being on their journalism staff, and I gave team members free 8 x 10 prints of themselves in games. Their appreciation went a long way toward giving me a sense of safety during this white boy’s first exposure to integration. It wasn’t until the following year at UCSD that my Republican heritage was washed away forever.
Much of my photographic experience has been covered in previous posts, so I’ll leave the remaining bits of my story to the introductions of individual photos that follow. I’ve selected this group of pictures because for the most part they’re photos I would not submit to On The Road in the normal course of my posting there. My OTR submissions are more of places and things, so for this go-round I’m showing more shots of people.
I invite you to visit my web site, but I warn you that there are far too many pictures there. I apologize for that. I use the site as a repository for all my photos that I can see possibly appearing in some publication, and I’ve given no consideration at all to the needs of potential visitors who might stumble on my work. My overarching goal has been to demonstrate the many techniques and styles I’ve picked up along the way. Visit at your own risk.
In 1965, while at boarding school in Michigan, I borrowed my friend’s Leica and loaded it with a roll of Kodachrome. I had no idea what good photos looked like. I just pointed the camera at things and clicked away. The building in the front of this scene housed staff offices. The big building behind it housed the dining hall, the infirmary, and other functions I no longer remember. The stream in the foreground emptied into Lake Michigan about a hundred yards beyond this point. Cabins were scattered along the beach for boys’ housing, while girls stayed in a dormitory about a mile up the road.
Steve from Mendocino – A Brief Photo HistoryPost + Comments (34)
Don’t let the blurb about On the Road confuse you – this isn’t an On the Road post, it’s the first of several posts that will feature some of our many Balloon Juice “creatives”. We’re just using the OTR form for ease of submission, and we are tagging these as Artists in Our Midst.
We had planned for the first Artists in Our Midst featured artist to be Steve from Mendocino, sharing his photography with us. But this submission came in with a special offer, so we will run two this weekend, and then go with one a week after that.
Quiltingfool
I made my first quilt when I was 12 years old. I still have it. The workmanship is what one would expect from a first attempt (not too great) but I kept making quilts. I made a few quilts, here and there, in my 20s and 30s, but quilt making back in the day was rather tedious — no rotary cutters! Pattern pieces were traced using cardboard templates and cut with scissors. Quilting was done by hand, and was very time consuming. Now we have great tools – rotary cutters, specialized rulers and affordable quilting machines. And I am lucky that I have all the tools!
I retired from teaching 8th grade science about five years ago. Teaching science allowed me to be very creative, so when I left the profession, I had to channel that desire for creativity – and making quilts really filled the bill. I work on some aspect of quilting every day I can and I love it. I make quilt tops – sometimes I use a published pattern, sometimes I design my own pattern, I quilt my quilt tops, and I quilt tops other people have made. My avocation has become my vocation, I guess!
Switching gears for a moment, I would like to make you an offer. Many of us here are very concerned with some of the things we see happening in our country (voter suppression is just one of those things). I’d like to help folks who are working to get people voting – Voces de la Frontera.
Here is my proposal. I will donate the cost of one quilt to Voces. Here’s how it would work; it will involve a lottery/drawing. Let me know – in the comments on this post or by sending email to WaterGirl – if you are interested in buying a quilt from my store, with the proceeds to go to Voces. Or you can purchase a quilt on my Etsy site, putting “Balloon Juice” in the comments. Either way, you will be entered in the drawing, and for the winner, I will donate the purchase price to Voces, in your name.
The deadline: To be entered into the drawing, either 1) comment on this thread, 2) send email to WaterGirl, or 3) purchase a quilt on my Etsy store by 10am Eastern time on Monday, July 12.
The winner will be announced on Monday evening.
If you “purchase” a quilt on my site by Monday morning at 10am, and you only want the quilt if the proceeds can go to Voces, I can refund your payment if you are not the winner.
Here is the link to my Etsy store:
Many thanks!
Broken Star Quilt. A traditional quilt pattern. Not an easy nor quick quilt, but worth the time.
It’s not often that a day goes by where I am not struck by the incredible smarts and amazing talents of our Balloon Juice commenters. John and I talked, probably a year ago. about featuring some of that talent in a way that goes beyond the Balloon Juice Artists list that’s in the site footer.
So I thought we might start with a trio of photographers: Albatrossity, BillinGlendale, and Steve from Mendocino. I’ll do a guest from each of those three, and then if there’s interest, we could move on to another area besides photography.
Glasswork, jewelry, fiber arts, drawing, painting, watercolors, comics, whatever. Check out all the categories in Our Artists in the footer for some more ideas.
I’m thinking that Sunday afternoons might be a good fit for these?
We’ll plan on one a week for each of the 3 photographers who have graciously agreed to participate, and then figure out how/whether to go from there.
What do you guys think? Anyone interested?
Totally open thread, right from the get-go, but if you have any thoughts or opinions about this, please share.
Open Thread: So Much Talent on Balloon JuicePost + Comments (91)
…Because I sure won’t.
My reaction to the news:
No f**king nil nisi here. His major competition for most destructive asshole (not holding political office) of our time is Rupert Murdoch, with whom he kept common cause.
When (apocryphally) the eulogist at Louis B. Meyer’s funeral asked “does anyone have anything good to say about the deceased,” the silence was only broken when someone replied, “he’s dead.”
So it is with Adelson.
Also: this is a reminder that democracy needs confiscatory estate taxes. Bad enough that Adelson fucked with our politics so thoroughly and for so long. Why should his heirs to the ultimate generation have the same power?
So: a spit-on-his-grave open thread.
Image: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril (poster), 1904.
GREETINGS EARTHLINGS.
According to Watergirl, we have already sold 200 calendars, which is spectacular and really going to help out a ton of animals, so thanks to all you magnificent bastards for that.
I’d like to do one of my favorite things on the website now, which is an Artists in Our Midst open thread where you all get to showcase your talents and link us to your stores and shops so we can peruse and purchase. I’ve had several life-changing purchases because of these (some magnificent photographs I framed and are the first thing I see every morning, and Satby’s fucking AMAZING soaps, which I use for myself and send to friends as gifts) so please show off your art, your goods, your singing, and your writing, or whatever it is you do.
Also, please update your info if you would like to be featured on our page!
Please copy this to your comment and provide the requested information in this format:
Your balloon juice name (nym):
Do you want your BJ nym displayed with your entry? (yes or *no)
category:
business name:
website URL:
social media URL:
Patreon URL (or similar):
relationship to artist: options are self or spouse
*If for privacy reasons, you do not want your BJ nym displayed with your “Artists” entry, please copy the format above and send your information to me (WaterGirl) by email.
Hello, welcome to day 4956 in the hellscape called 2020. I jest, sort of. One of the biggest issues for those of us in the arts, is how to ply our craft under this absolutely ridiculous set of conditions. One of the ways that writing twitter has come up with is Zoom scene studies. What’s a scene study, you ask? Well, some enterprising, brave soul decides to either organize an online Zoom performance of their work or, in the case of one group I have been working with, some outgoing person takes on the task of collecting writers, actors and directors to perform scenes from scripted works for the community. Our little group is called The Thing For AWD because our founder is trying to raise the profile of women directors. Since I know the founder, I accepted the opportunity to direct an episode. Whew. I felt as much stress as my last project. But my hair was flames in my photo.
It’s a very interesting thing to see actors develop their craft in front of you and to see how different directors bring different techniques to scenes. Artists adapt, unlike me to the lack of block editor when it seems my attempts at inserting html breaks aren’t working, like right now. It’s been fascinating to see how distance learning and performance has embraced tools like Zoom, Twitch, Hangouts or Skype. If you have an interest, there’s probably an activity going on online. Here are a few cool home options:
I gotta admit, I’m impressed. When I see folks talk about how doomed & fucked we are, I always wonder if they’re deliberately obtuse or just enjoying a good despair wallow. Humans adapt. That’s why we’re a pernicious scourge on every other creature on the planet. We adapt like fucking weeds. We’re life and we find a way. I hope you’re finding a way to connect, enjoy some kulcha and make a little joy in your corner of the world. Know anything interesting, drop it below in thread. I will be narrating the scene setting for the next The Thing for AWD tomorrow afternoon at 4pm PST, so if you feel like watching a scene study for a movie script, sign up to attend. It’s not like we’re out of seats. Open respite thread.
Obligatory artistic cat pic
