Rocky Mountain high, Colorado. Pt 1.

Went to visit Lexie in Denver for a week recently. After the BLIZZARD the night before I flew out (!?), the weather tamed down into normal springtime. We had a lovely time. One nice day was spent at the Denver Botanic Gardens, was excited to find they had a show of 20 large Henry Moore sculptures. Being rather hefty, they don’t tour much.

Moore was always one of my favorites. Saw a lot of his work at the Tate back in the 80s when I was in Europe after leaving Syracuse. Also saw another sizeable clutch of them later at the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City. Might have been nicer if the Denver gardens had been out of their winter torpor, but maybe not...I quite enjoyed it kind of semi-dead. Loved the indigenous trees, the birches and the aspens, the pines.

Some recent-ish collage.

Meant to post some of these for people who weren’t able to attend our Cuatro Amigos en Armonía show at the end of last year. These weren’t all in the show (I forgot to photograph a couple of the pieces before I framed them), but most of them were.

Carrie.

No not the prom-night horror flick with Sissy Spacek. My friend Carrie Nunes, a fabulous jewelry designer and a sweetheart. Another portrait from this last trip to Nashville.

Carrie has really inspired me with this Ring-a-Day project she’s involved in with a bunch of other jewelry designers. Making, as you might expect, a ring every damn day for all of 2010! There are days when she would admit the rings have not been up to a standard of cleverness and/or craft—and you can tell it’s been a long day—but those days are rare.

Her Flickr stream of the project is here. She’s selling the finished rings on Etsy here to benefit the Craft Emergency Relief Fund.

I had an idea of shooting face and hands with LOTS of rings on both hands, but looking purposeful, not just like those ladies that just wear too damn many rings. We didn’t shoot very long, and because of the really narrow depth-of-field I was playing with, some of them the rings weren't too focused, but I liked them anyway. Didn’t really want everything sharpy-sharp. She looks like she’s sleeping and dreaming of rings in one of them, and I’m sure some nights she does just that.

Lately, I think I’ve realized much more keenly that I’ve had a ton of projects in my life that have never come to fruition, because I’ve “creatively procrastinated,” and something has moved away, died, or otherwise rendered a project moot before I got my shit together. Other than the usual bathroom functions, tooth-brushing, eating, etc. I’ve never been very daily consistent with anything.

Trying to fiercely and consistently carpe the diem.

Cornmeal Farm.

I was invited last Saturday to join two of my favorite girls, Capucine and McKenna, for a girls’ Ensworth lacrosse game, lunch, and an adventure to a place called Cornmeal Farm to pet some new baby lambs. Sweet chicks and fresh lambs : )

I know next to nothing about lacrosse. I think it’s one of the things we stole from the Native Americans before we slaughtered most of them. Like most ball-based games, it involves a ball, teams, and goals. Beyond that, I’m fairly clueless. Kind of like the confusion the first time I watched a soccer game, only more so.

Lunch I understand. We had a nice sandwich at a place called Penn Station, probably not ironically named for the rail station that was perhaps the most beautiful public building ever torn down in New York. Curious, I google it to find that, although it’s called Penn Station East Coast Subs, it was started in Cincinnati and seems most popular across the South. Go figure.

Cornmeal Farm is the home of Tami and Lep Andrews, who I met Saturday for the first time, although they are some of those people who are so welcoming and comfortable that I feel like I already knew them.

They have quite a menagerie. All manner of exotic chickens and roosters running about strutting and crowing and pecking, peacocks (including a white one, which seemed kind of rare and mythical), a white horse, a sweet donkey that we all took pictures with, cats, a sheep dog, ducks with funny haircuts (think the AFLAC duck with an obvious white toupee), baby chicks, a big tom turkey that was strutting his stuff like there was no tomorrow (despite the manifest lack of lady turkeys), and of course the sheep and their sweet little 5-day old lambs. The only animal on the place that seemed unhappy was a little raccoon who was in a safe trap waiting to be transported to a new home.

I was supposed to be shooting some more of our budding fashion work with McKenna, but sort of fell down on the job, as I was mostly having a nice time hanging out. What a relaxing lovely place. Look forward to visiting again.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mickey Grimm!

My buddy Mickey set the current Guinness Book world record for
“the longest drum roll by an individual”—5 hours and 20 minutes!—
back in October of 2009. We were all very proud. The town belatedly presented him with a plaque, along with his official Guinness Book certificate, last week.

It was nice for a huge crowd of townspeople to get together in the coffee house, and TOTALLY surprise Mickey with a rousing cheer and a little party. Lucky he isn’t older, or he might have had a heart attack.

M-I-C-K-E-Y!! (drum roll, please)

Mack & Holly’s.

Got out of town last weekend to Chicago, to visit my friends Mack and Holly. They were having a Valentine’s (maybe a little going-away) party. These are a few of the lovely people that were there. Beautiful drive up on Saturday with snow still sitting all over the plains.

I was the odd-man out, I think everybody else knew each other, but I felt welcomed by all.

Mack was reminding me of Kurt Cobain in his wig-hat getup. There was a photo-booth set up and it was a big hit with the kids. Wigs and other costumery. You might recognize the guy in the nose and glasses combo.

For some reason, a group of us was enjoying hot toddies (which I had always viewed as medicinal). You see Mack making them here in the manner of generations of old Southern gentlemen...with a knife. I had one or twelve of them. At one point—deep in the whiskey—I think the devil actually appeared to me, although I can’t say for sure.

“Want some whiskey in your water, sugar in your tea? What’s all these crazy questions they’re asking me?”

I think it was a combination of the hats...and the whiskey, but Tony, the dude in the fez, was starting to remind me an awful lot of the S & P duo on the back of the stove : )

Later in the evening, Tony was making nice espresso drinks and some sort of shot with espresso and peppermint schnapps. Had several of these, too. Couldn’t decide if I wanted to sleep or go out and practice my Biathlon.

Had a nice field trip with Holly and Mack on Sunday. Really good brunch and a drive up to see the Baha’i Temple up in Wilmette. Then a little tour through Graceland Cemetery, where a number of Chicagoland notables are buried. Still too snowy to walk around it, but caught some high points.

The booze is still spanking me days later. Not so young as I used to be. Old man, take a look at my life, I’m a lot like you...Goodnight, Chicago.

And somebody please let Tillie in the bathroom.

Super Andy and Wild Sam.

Some pictures from back in the day—as the young people say, when they mean “a few months ago”—some pix from the Halloween of Ought-nine. Ran into the McLaurins at Local Taco on the way to (or maybe from) some Halloween school festivity.

Obviously the boys are Superman and Max from ”Where the Wild Things Are.” In one Andy tries to decide whether Superman should be sweet or tough, and gives his best of both looks. They were both super. Liz was wearing a witches’ hat as the “wicked beautiful” witch of the South, and Richard was cleverly disguised as a middle-aged dad in a windbreaker : )

Love these guys. Don’t see them nearly enough.