Monthly Archives: January 2022

Jan21

memoir.

Posted on January 21, 2022 by beth

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the kinder wondered what happened to the big, old tree they used to play under

it was a good tree

we sat under it when it was hot in the sun and its shade kept us cool

we collected pretty leaves that floated down from it in the fall

it was on a hill and we ran by it in the winter when we were playing in the snow

pieces of it had been falling off for a very long time

we guess that maybe it was very old and very sick and it was getting too tired

the kinder began to put its little pieces back on to decorate it

we hope that in the spring

a new sapling will come up near where the old tree used to stand so tall.

—

“a tree’s wood is also its memoir.”

-hope jahren

Jan20

unexpected.

Posted on January 20, 2022 by beth

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last night when i walked outside

i tripped over a bag left at my front door

it was filled with treats

cookies, candy, and ice cream

(the three c’s, the holy trinity of sweets, cake can be subbed in as needed)

i had no idea who it was from, no note inside, such a great surprise

then i noticed the address

guessed the delivery person had just reversed it

i could go and deliver it myself

tried to imagine who was waiting for it

maybe

it was from a parent

who sent it to their child/college student cramming for an exam?

the victim of a recent romantic breakup needing sugar therapy?

a parent who just needed a break and a treat?

a dieter on a sweets bender?

a family waiting for dessert to go with their board game?

a hallmark movie night for friends?

was it a test from the universe

to challenge my recent healthy eating resolve?

cadbury is my favorite chocolate

the cookies aren’t that big

i could eat one spoon of ice cream a day

i had no idea how long it had been out there

no one had knocked

the ice cream was beginning to soften

i felt for whoever was expecting it

called the company on the bag

they said the customer had reordered when it didn’t arrive

they had already sent them out a new bag of treats

i was welcome to eat it or throw it out

i chose a third option

i delivered this unexpected gift to my daughter

at her house in the light of day.

—

“life is always bringing unexpected gifts.”

-may sarton

Jan19

raining popcorn.

Posted on January 19, 2022 by beth

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popcorn is art and one of my favorite snacks

(though it’s no flamin’ hot cheetos!),

something to consider on national popcorn day.

Raining Popcorn (2001) is a piece commissioned by the Faulconer Gallery of the Grinnell College in Iowa. The commission would take artist, Sandy Skoglund many months to complete. In Skoglund’s art practice, the conceptual subject matter works in conjunction with the physical materials she uses, drawing on historical references, and instilling them with psychologically complex meaning.

Produced in 2001, just before the September 11 attacks, Raining Popcorn references the complex roots of American contemporary culture and overconsumption. The unifying subject throughout the piece is popcorn, so pronounced and repetitive it replaces nature. The popcorn becomes an all-encompassing reality, lining the walls, the floors, the subjects, and alas growing from trees. This obsessive environment constructed by Skoglund derives from the artist’s desire to combine sculptures of animals, live humans, and nature into a space that involves thought and play, as part research and part recreation.

The abundance of Popcorn acts as a reflection of the cultural environment, being noisy, excessive, universal, and part of popular culture. Currently, Americans eat 13 billion quarts of Popcorn a year, produced mostly in the heartland of America, from Illinois to Ohio. The piece is a response to memories and experiences Skoglund felt as a graduate student in Iowa.

The painstakingly handcrafted quality of the endless popcorn creates a fantasy landscape, one that raises questions about climate issues and our surrounding environment, as well as fantasy and reality. In Raining Popcorn, Skoglund’s objects and composite staging have a base in truth; they are not a product of photoshop or digital manipulation. It is critical for the artist that the photographs evidence something genuine. The constructions are explicitly staged to be photographed from one unique viewpoint.

—

“americans love popcorn, and their love doesn’t quit.”

-rosecrans baldwin

—

Credits: Sandy Skoglund, Raining Popcorn – Holden Luntz Gallery

Jan18

what?! a follow-up to my exciting ‘huh’ post?!

Posted on January 18, 2022 by beth

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Because sometimes periods, commas, colons, semi-colons, dashes, hyphens, apostrophes, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks, brackets, parentheses, braces, and ellipses won’t do, here is another punctuation mark to work into your everyday communications:

INTERROBANG

You probably already know the interrobang, thanks to its popularity (You did what!?). Though the combination exclamation point and question mark can be replaced by using one of each, they can also be combined into a single glyph. The interrobang was invented by advertising executive Martin Speckter in 1962, who said “it is the typographical equivalent of a grimace or a shrug of the shoulders. It applied solely to the rhetorical, when a writer wished to convey incredulity.” The name is derived from the Latin word interrogatio, which means “questioning,” and bang—how printers refer to the exclamation mark.

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“symbols are nothing but the natural speech of drama”

-tennessee williams

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source: mental flosss