The infinite lily pond

Magnet #1109 - Water Lilies, again

Another of my Met Museum Monet Magnet Set. I must say this out loud - after much thought, I really don't think I like Monet's Water Lilies after all.

Sure, they're all gorgeous, but honestly, I can't imagine sitting there in Giverny painting water lily after water lily after water lily in varying shapes and sizes and colors and times of day and season after season and different patterns in the water, over and over again. And yet, they remain his most popular and most recognizable works.

I did magnetblog a few months ago about my online search for the definitive answer for how many water lily pieces he painted, but couldn't find it. All I know is that there are too many to go around. Even in my own collection, I must have half a dozen, and that's just on a single 2' x 4' metallic magnetboard!

There's so many down here that it makes you wonder if that Monet's up there somewhere in a little corner of heaven painting nothing but water lilies.

And maybe the odd haystack or two just for a change.

Totally radical blocks

Magnet #1108a b, c & d - 80s blocks

I bought these from the dollar bin at Office Depot the other day. Yep. In 2011.

If this were the 80s, I'd be wearing these prints on button-down shirts with skinny ties, or on my shoes.

Or on T-shirts with a jacket over it, and a side ponytail.

Sigh. There's a reason these prints went away.

Like. Totally.

It takes a village...

Magnet #1107 - Salvadoran Village

...or just my sister.

STW Sister brought this magnet back for me from El Salvador, on a work trip. She's moving back down to NC from DC, in favor of working for a non-profit company in Durham, so it looks like the STW title still stands.

It's funny, I consider the non-profit, save-the-world work that she does is basically my carbon offset for the corporate work that I've done for big oil, big pharma, big technology, big energy, big whatever's not saving the world organizations in the past.

Of course, it's not a surprise - after all, she's like eight years younger, which puts her squarely in Gen Y, the folks out there to save the world.

The Good Wife

Magnet #1106 - Politician who's moral

The other of my Marion Barry set from Craftgasm - this time, in honor of his belief in the sanctity of marriage. Uh-huh.

I just finished catching up on the last few episodes of The Good Wife, so I figured I'd use this magnet now, rather than waiting for the next "moral" politician to come out of the woodwork.

If you'd told me a couple of years ago that I would still be watching The Good Wife, I would have laughed in your face. I even said it at the time, too, that there was no way that I'd watch [insert every wronged politician's wife's name here]'s story, no way in hell. I wasn't even going to give it a shot, even with Doug Ross' wife in it.

But, from the pilot episode, the show's had me hooked, and I can't even tell you why. Like I was totally against watching a show that had a politician's wife standing by her man, and yet watching Alicia Florrick navigate her marriage and Will Gardner has kept my attention. I was totally against watching a legal drama, and yet watching the Lockhart Gardner team in court isn't so bad. I was completely against watching any sort of political drama, and yet, even the political storylines haven't turned me off.

It might be the amazing cast and the fantastic guest stars. It might be the amazing writing. It could even be that they're shooting NY for Chicago. I dunno.

But, yeah, still watching. Surprised, but still watching.

We're family, that's what we do

Magnet #1105 - Keep Calm and Carry On

Another one of my Borders going out of business magnets...

We all hate those emergency phone calls, you know, the ones where you know the second you've picked it up, your life is about to change on a dime. I'm grateful that's only happened a handful of times for me, one was one month and a day ago today.

That's the day my mother called to say she was bringing my dad in to the Emergency Room*. Though he had no telltale chest pains or aches in his right arm, he knew he was in trouble, and he acquiesced to being brought in. In truth, that's how Mom knew it was bad, that he agreed to being brought in at all.

Less than 12 hours later (and still waiting for a hospital bed, natch), all the kids had come home - me from NY and the others from DC. And for the next week, we took turns hanging out with my dad at the hospital, getting to know the hospital staff and sleeping in not-comfortable chairs, practically living on the fourth floor of the very hospital we pretty much grew up in. (It's much different outside the Doctors' Lounge, for sure.)

It's been interesting, learning how each family member deals with the stress of the last month. Trying to control the things we can, organizing and cleaning like no one's business, joking to lighten the mood, yelling when we can't.

We're still trying to figure out the next steps of treatment, and all in all, we've managed to keep calm and carry on. Today, some will get a little help from some magic pills to help them remain calm during an MRI, and some will be actively trying to find out where the lost family fortune is from those under the influence.

I won't say who will win that one. Wish us luck!



*Yes. I know that nowadays people call it the Emergency Department, but I honestly can't bring myself to call it ED. Honestly, would ER have lasted as long as ED? Scratch that, maybe it would have lasted longer (see what I did there?), and the ad sales folks would have found some way to get Cialis or Viagra to be the show's anchor sponsor.

Good grief, Charlie Sheen

Magnet #1104 - Bitch set me up

Well, at least Charlie's not saying there's a big ole conspiracy out to get him, or that any of those goddess chicks or hookers set him up in any way. At least, I don't think he is. I'm trying to delve too far into what he has to say lately.

Not that I stayed up to watch last night's 20/20 or anything. Or that I waited with the rest of the world to see what @charliesheen would Tweet first. Or that I read that weird pyramid of power going around the interwebz today. (I'd link it here, but it's gone around so many times that I honestly don't want to have to dig for who the actual creator of it was.)

I will say that I've also been Tweet-reaming his PR team for weeks, wondering what the hell they've been doing as Sheen gives interview after interview, making a cracktastic, manic, bi-winning fool out of himself everywhere. Then I found out he was George Clooney's publicity dude as well. Oops. Well, I guess for every great client, you have...Charlie "the winner" Sheen.

No judgment here, but I do hope he finds what he needs, that Charlie Sheen.

In the meantime, this magnet - made with reclaimed paper and a vintage (no less) typewriter - is part of a Craftgasm set called "Pearls of Wisdom from Marion Barry." This 1990 quote relates to Barry allegedly (I dunno if he's actually been convicted - what? I took Journalism 101!) smoking crack with a hooker.

Hahaha. I love it. DC Sis got these for me, because she can't figure out how a guy with Barry's record ends up mayor of one of our most influential towns. I'm assuming it's for the same reason a guy with Sheen's imdb and rap sheet ends up one of the highest paid stars ever.

Until now, I guess.

But, what IS it?

Magnet #1103 - Henry Moore's Large Art

I love public art. There's something funny about seeing people in public spaces around town - any town - walking around sculptures or other works of art, and trying to figure out what they're looking at.

More than in an art gallery, people tend to walk around the piece, inspecting it from top to bottom, presumably because it's out of its element, just sitting in whatever public space it's been allotted. It demands attention.

But what is it? Why is it there? Who approved it? Why did they approve this art? I mean, let's face it, when it comes to the public at large, governments, corporations and schools tend to err on the side of conservatism - art that doesn't necessarily challenge anyone to think beyond what they're looking at. In the end, it's the audience that makes that final determination between conservative and controversial. Eye of the beholder, indeed.

Whatever the piece is, or how people feel about it, it sparks conversation, and that's the part I love. Take this Large Arch in Columbus, OH, created by English sculptor Henry Moore. I.M. Pei designed the library it sits in front of - in fact, Pei suggested Moore for the library plaza space.

Moore intended for it to be something that people could walk in and around - he was influenced by nature and Stonehenge. That name Large Arch is no joke, either - it's 20 feet tall and 12 feet wide. He designed it in England, but it was actually built and pieced together in Germany and shipped over as one huge piece that weighs as much as an elephant.

Moore called it an arch. A large one. But what is it? What did he mean? Is it a gateway to the future? It stands between a library and a church, is it the gateway between knowledge and faith? Or is it just a giant opening for people to walk through?

One thing's for sure, in person, it's huge. One might even call it...large. Of course, I saw it only from the slow-moving car, a victim of our family's customary drive-by tourism habits.

Speaking of, in my own customary miss-something-by-thismuch, I missed the first Salisbury Sculpture Show, where they had 13 pieces from 14 artists installed in various places around town. I mean, I missed it by like weeks, man! From what I gather, there were some interesting pieces dotting our landscape.

I'll be around to see the second Salisbury Sculpture Show happening later this month.

When that happens, ya'll can drive by and watch me, walking around each piece...trying to figure out what the heck it is.