I wanted to try another one of the “resistance” methods from Monday’s class, so I blocked out the sun and the other large sphere with blue painters tape. I’m not sure why I got that dark ring around the sun. Maybe the paint collected and mixed under the tape? I painted the sky very wet. I’m going to bring this in next week for feedback/help from the class.
Here was the inspiration:
Fond memories of Key West. Hopefully we can go back sometime 🌅
Yesterday was a discussion of the various “resisting” techniques (tape, wax crayon, etc) and a demo of how masking fluid works.
I gave it a try in this painting, inspired by my photo shoot on the rail trail the other day.
Here’s the inspo pic:
You can see I tried to use the masking fluid (aka rubber cement) to try to create those tiny rays around the sun. The teacher said to rub them out a bit with a MagicErase sponge, which is a tool that watercolorists use to soften areas and rub out paint that has already dried.
I also used the MagicErase sponge on the bike path because I felt I had “overpainted” it. One of the hard things with watercolors is knowing when to stop. It’s very easy to ruin a nice effect by doing too much.
I sat away from the major gabbers in the class and was happier (although it did not go unnoticed that I changed my seat).
What are you watching and/or reading to escape paying attention to the fall of democracy?
My husband and I just started season 5 of “Poldark”—the period drama from Masterpiece. We were watching it in Passport (the PBS app), but Netflix just acquired it, so you can watch it there. Highly recommend (if you like period dramas). I’m a longtime Masterpiece lover, but somehow I missed Poldark when it originally aired. It takes place in the late 1700s, with the main character (Ross Poldark) having returned to Cornwall from Virginia, where he was fighting for the British in “the American War.”
Also, we recently read “A Visit from the Goon Squad” (copyright 2010) by Jennifer Egan in my book group. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2011, but I had never read it. This genre-blurring book traces the lives of a GenX record-executive and his young assistant across decades of cultural change, interlocking thirteen short stories into a vivid mosaic of time, music, ambition and memory. I liked it so much, I read “the sequel” The Candy House, which came out in 2022. I can’t really explain it, but the term “sequel” is not particularly apt in this case. It’s more of a prequel & futuristic running out of the stories from Goon Squad. Highly recommend if you’re between 50 and 70 years old and find the zeitgeist interesting. Even if you simply enjoy saying the word zeitgeist, I think you will like these books.
Knowing me as you do (😉), please let me know if you have any other recommendations.
Related:
My husband very kindly ordered and planted a bunch of dahlia bulbs to fill in a dead area in our front garden.
Unfortunately, the deer kept eating them and only a single one bloomed.
It’s such a great color though—the one bloom.
Fuschia?
Raspberry?
Magenta?
What would you call it?
I am not brand obsessed, but I’m not brand immune either. I think I like fashionable stuff about the same amount as other GenX women. (We are products of the Reagan era after all.)
I confess I once hopped into a windowless, unmarked van on Canal Street in NYC to buy a fake designer purse. Once.
Well, now that fall is here, I wanted a new silicone “solo loop sport” band for my Apple Watch in a fall color. The “moonglow” one that came with it is too light-colored for the season. The official Apple ones are very expensive and in limited colors.
This sent me sorting through the endless array of Apple Watch band knockoff websites.
I finally ordered one from god-knows-where that I thought was going to be $20, but ended up being $30 with the shipping.
The email address for the company literally came up “iMod Watches Knockoff Bands.”
It took forever to get here (from China, I presume) though the outer packaging says it came from “Shipping Department” in Jamaica, NY.
It feels very similar to an actual Apple Watch band. My only complaint is the color is a bit redder than I thought it would be. It was called “plum,” but I’d say it’s actually maroon.
I like it (so far). It feels just like the Apple one.
What about you? Do you ever go searching for “knockoff” products? Do you have any moral or economic objections to buying them?
I’ve already posted many Irish doors from my trip in June, but not this one:
This is the Dublin Unitarian Church, which I walked by many times before realizing what it was. The church was right near our hotel, but so “tucked in,” I didn’t notice it until the very end of my time there.
It’s clearly in the gothic style, similar to last week’s doors. I guess I like “recessed arches.” (Thanks to Suzette for naming them for me.) And look at those cool hinges.
What’s the difference between Unitarian Universalist and just Unitarian?
PerChatGPT:
American Unitarian Universalism (UU) emerged in 1961 from the merger of Unitarian and Universalist traditions, forming a non-creedal, pluralistic movement embracing humanists, theists, atheists, pagans, and others. It emphasizes individual freedom, social justice, and spiritual diversity without doctrinal boundaries.
European Unitarian churches, including Dublin’s, remain rooted in liberal Christian heritage, emphasizing reason, conscience, and the moral teachings of Jesus while rejecting the Trinity. They are typically more theistic and biblically grounded, though open and inclusive. In short: American UUism is multi-faith and post-Christian, while European Unitarianism is liberal Christian with freedom of belief.
For more Thursday Doors, see Dan’s blog No Facilities.
We have a woman in our church choir with dementia or Alzheimer’s (not sure of her official diagnosis). She has a lovely singing voice. In fact, she was a music teacher at one point.
But Susan (not her real name) is getting worse. She has an extremely difficult time keeping track of her sheet music and the folder it lives in. Last Sunday, as we began to warm-up before the congregation arrived, she turned to me and said, “I have no idea why I’m standing here, but I was a music teacher once.” She gets upset when she doesn’t know what’s going on. She’s never caused a scene or melted down, but her anxiety is a real issue. She needs constant reassurance. And she can get snippy with people who are trying to help her.
Her partner Jim is a nice man who has already lost both of his adult daughters to diseases. He’s doing his best, but this has got to be really tough on him.
The plan now is to make a formal schedule whereby her fellow sopranos will take turns supporting her each week, so that nobody gets stuck doing it all the time. It’s going to mean showing up early, sitting with her, making sure she has music, reassuring her throughout the rehearsal and performance, and then making sure she gets back to Jim.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not looking forward to it. I never knew this woman before she had dementia. She’s not a family member of mine. I have no special fondness for her.
But clearly, I need to step up. That’s the whole point of church, especially Unitarian Universalist churches, where belief in God is optional. “Community” is the goal. I know that if I get dementia (or cancer or anything else), these people will support me. They are GOOD PEOPLE. Most are better than me. (I’m not just saying that. They really are.)
Here’s something Susan said to me in one of her sweeter moments: “I have a trick for when I don’t know what’s going on. I smile more.”
I’m going to try to remember that. Smile more. If she’s annoying me with her inability to follow along and constant questions, I’ll smile at her. She has a lovely smile. And so do I.
Smiling in annoying or uncomfortable situations might not help. But it can’t hurt. I think this might be a uniquely American thing.
Today was a landscape demo and then we had to paint one of two photos in 10 minutes. I think the idea was to see what choices people make with little time to think.
I was the only person in the class who chose the stock photo of a sun with visible rays bursting through a dark forest. I thought…what the heck? I’ll give it a shot. (Everyone else chose a more natural image of a forest that the teacher had taken herself.)
This wasn’t the exact stock photo, but you get the idea:
The result isn’t great, but I learned about a few techniques in the process.
Some of the ladies bugged me today. The ones that already knew each other before the class started tend to chat constantly, even when the teacher is talking. Two of them speak so loudly to each other that everyone can hear their entire conversation. They lack self-awareness.
It’s great to see there was huge turnout out in the major cities, especially Boston (wow), but it was interesting to protest in a small town.
I’d say we had about 400 people on the town green where I waved my sign.
We were mostly middle-aged and older white people. I chatted with a teacher, a dental hygienist, a grocery store worker, and a lot of retired people I know from church.
We were in a high-traffic area where we actually waved our individual signs at passing cars and got lots of curious stares, many supportive honks, a few middle fingers, and 2 to 5 dudes yelling “Go Trump.”
There was a small counterprotest (2 to 4 people at one end of the town green in full MAGA regalia with a Trump 2024 banner), but they were peaceful.
Oh, and there were two Jesus freaks (sorry, that’s what GenX calls them) with “Jesus IS King” signs. They were fairly young skinny white guys with beards who were there to proselytize. I overheard one lady trying to find common ground with them on the immigrant issue (“but Jesus wanted us to welcome the stranger and help the poor”) and they were having none of it. They were much more aligned with the small MAGA counterprotest.
Oh, and thanks to the great city of Portland which started the trend, there were multiple inflatable costumes. We had a giraffe, several bees and a unicorn, YAY. The unicorn was adorable.
Onward.
And honestly, FUCK DONALD TRUMP and All Who Support Him. I kept the F word off my sign (both of them: Fuck and Fascism) and did not engage with any pro-Trumpers yesterday, but I need to be the real me on my blog and I really truly hate him.
Quick update since my last post.
I fit everything I planned onto my poster. It was a tight squeeze, but I did it.
Liberal churches like mine are ready to show up on Saturday – peacefully.
XOXOXO
Mary G,
Retired Grandma
😀 🌈 🦄
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