Joel Brock paintings

ANACORTES — The Scott Milo Gallery, 420 Commercial Ave., will exhibit the pastels and acrylics of Joel Brock, opening with an artist’s reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, and continuing through Jan. 2. Gallery hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. http://www.scottmilo.com or 360-293-6938.

Intimidation of the Artist

The rare, full version of "Intimidation of the Artist" is available for the first time online at: http://ia360639.us.archive.org/0/items/IntimidationOfTheArtist/Intimidation.mov

See Picasso haunt a Seattle artist from beyond the grave.

((Please be patient while the video loads...))

EVENING OF SEVDAH

Saturday night Julia had a large display of photographs at the First Annual 'Evening of Sevdah' in Seattle. This 'stecak' was one of them.

A review said: "What was readily apparent was the affection and commitment to this music from the excellent singers and instrumentalists . . ." (Click here for review)

And here's an example of Sevdah.

Old News: But Crazy, Crazy, Crazy Art

. . .the 'Temples of Damanhur' are not the great legacy of some long-lost civilisation, they are the work of a 57-year-old former insurance broker from northern Italy who, inspired by a childhood vision, began digging into the rock.

(continued)

Mr. Big Shot Remembers "Middle School"

Somewhere between childhood and driving your parent’s car is where you find yourself in middle school. After school one day in the sixth grade I remember 3 girls pantomiming the words to “My Boy Friend’s Back” swaying in unison each girl with their hair done and pretty dresses on and me thinking that they were way ahead of me on the sexual awareness chart. . . (continued)

Blue Spencer

Help a blue Spencer get out of the hole and find his true love. (Click on one of the 3 objects in front of him.)
A Spencer animation from 2006.

The Church

Julia and Lori check out the church for wedding photographs. This is going to be a big deal!

Spencer's Graphic Design

Spencer's Portal from last year is still up. Check it out before it's gone!

http://myweb.students.wwu.edu/hurds/portal.html

Catherines 60th Birthday

Bellingham Friday

Viet Namese noodle soup with Spencer and Olivia. Allied Arts opening with live music. Warm milk in a coffee house on a cold, wet night.

Lynne Says: Beautiful day in PA

Torrents of rain washing down the trunks turning them black and causing the fall foliage to blaze in burgundy, russets, oranges, chartreuses.
In the forties, baking cranberry, flax, orange, walnut muffins and putting a stew into the oven for a long lazy bake.
Changing the sheets and putting the fluffy comforters above and below. Chasing the dust bunnies and warming the rooms with soft lights.
AHH, the change of seasons at home. . .

Dinner with the Knox

Down to Mercer Island tonight for a great pasta dinner at Tom and Denise's. Coffee and Bosnian pastry for dessert. Since we are all getting along as it were, for party games afterwards we took turns taking our blood pressure. Julia lost.

Mr. Big Shot is RED HOT

Mr. Big Shot continues his roll with "Culture and Lifestyle Choices Among the Okanogians." This guy is ret hot! Is there no stopping him?
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I grew up in the car culture of the west coast of the United States. Not the car culture of suburban sprawl and cul de sacs and drive through food and commuting and waiting in traffic jams and drive through churches and bedroom communities and drink holders.

No, I grew up in the Hot Rod culture and mindset of 1960’s west coast Americana. Cars with really big engines and candy apple red paint jobs and bucket seats and big tires and chrome wheels and big overhead cam engines and getting rubber left on the road and girls hot girls in tank tops and short shorts smiling when you drove by and wanting to ride in your car because your car was so hot and fun and hot and you could be a real man if your car was a great machine with a lot of speed and maybe some fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror. . . (continued)

WIND! WIND! WIND!

Four or five days straight of high wind.

The days are dim gray,

almost like a deep twilight.

Great cedars shake themselves

into a frenzy.

Forty year old alder sway in frantic arcs

across the sky.

Now and then, there's a sudden crack

as a branch or treetop

gives way.

Routines

We have finally worked out our daily routine: Julia gets up at 2 a.m. and works through the night, I go to bed at 2 a.m. after watching late night movies and youtube videos. It's working so far.

I am becoming quite a fan of YouTube. I think Slavko turned me on to this when he showed me Croatian videos there. Now I find it astounding what a simple search will turn up. I just finished watching a 3 part documentary on Dada, a voodoo healing ceremony, and home movies of Frida and Diego.

Mr. Big Shot Says: When the Carnival Came to Town

As I remember it. The Christmas of 1962 Santa brought me a red Schwinn 2 speed bicycle. It was a remarkable present as I had not asked for the bike and was not expecting anything as spectacular as this gift. On Christmas day I was out front of our house trying desperately to learn how to ride such a wonderful bike. I was falling into the hedge and the roses and my father would alternately yell at me for falling into the bushes and wrecking his plants and pulling me out of the thickets and putting me back on the bike and pushing me for another start. After an hour or so of scratches and bruises and pain I was able to get around the neighborhood and visit my friends close by. This two-speed bike was a marvel for a kid in Omak. Everyone else had a one-speed bike and they had to huff and puff up hills with the same gear. I, on the other hand, had a second gear I could shift into by touching my pedals backwards and engaging the second gear. It was like getting the wind blowing behind your back. I felt like a prince . . .

(continued)

Slavko Says: Auntie Liza

This is Aunt Liza, from Medjimurje region, singing their traditional songs with a heavy dialect that I have a problem to understand.

Friend stopped by and asked which language she sings?!
This makes me cry each time I listen to it . . .
(click on image to play . . .)

Happy 31st Birthday, Eliot!

Gary, Catherine, Kyra, Eliot, Spencer, Julia . . .

Heads Up: When the carnival came to town

It’s funny how one, even us management types, can start to think like a self-centered self-promoting artist once one begins to produce art.

With that in mind, how about a little advertisement on the blog for my fans to know that the carnival is coming to town ? soon!

Mr. Big Shot

Three Gorgeous Ladies!

Brianna, Julia, Denise setting out for a walk to Squire's Lake on a sunny NW day. (Love the new glasses D!)

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Slavko Says "Olives and Tuna"

It's been amazing morning and whole day spent in the olive garden picking the olives, and evening as you can see on the grill with tuna fish.

Olive harvesting's on the peak this weekend, presses working all day around!!!!!!!!!
(D'brute sez: I wanna be there!)

Chaz says . . .Hvar

Melanie had a dream last night that you bought us a cabin on Hvar and brought us there on a helicopter. The cabin was sited near an inlet and out in the water there was a smaller island where sharks were able to beach themselves for sunning and mating and dying purposes. Melanie awoke with a smile and was happy.

Opening: Christine Wardenburg-Skinner

We visited Christine's first solo show ever, at the "Dear Edison" gallery(Edison, WA). It's there the month of November. Over the years, she has participated in many, many group shows. Here, her woodcuts are powerful and her ceramics charming!!!

Eliot's Fab Cab Work

Here's Eliot at his current job site . . .making hand-crafted vertical grain fir doors, cabinets, and stairs...fabulous, fabulous stuff . . .imagine it finished and gleaming like sun-warmed gold! Teresa, the owner - also in the picture - loves it.

Ganga!

I love this stuff!!!  Mountain music from Croatia and Herzegovina . . .we have some short videos that we shot in Solin this summer while eating lamb and drinking pivo with Slavko, Eliot and Kyra . . .maybe we'll post them soon . . .find lots more of this music , grouped by region  -- and downloadable -- at http://www.imota.net/html/ganga_u_karti.html

 

Ginger

A bit of sad news from the Pennsylvania Hurd household.
Our cat Ginger, we got when we first moved back to Hanover
over 16 years ago, passed away today of old age.

She was a wonderful companion.
She had lost her agility, speed and hearing by this summer
but not her good nature.
We will miss her.

Mr. Big Shot is "Out of Sorts"

(Mr. Big Shot says about this: " . . .while writing this story I had a lot of energy driving it and I think it was because I first understood, at that time, that you were now going to be livingin Croatia and things would be different.")

So, I got the postcard. I guess I have not gone along for the ride or something. The voyage. Nonetheless, I have been thrilled for you. Loved the pictures and the stories and I hope you bought that old rock. It’s so much more convenient to purchase antiquity rather than having to live through it.

Things are good in Alger. Get your ass back here. I need to borrow your lawnmower and I don’t want to be nice about it. I am tired of being nice to people who pretend to be your friend as long as you are nice.

I need to have my friend back here so I can borrow his damn lawn mower without being nice. And if I were to offer him a few beers he might bring it over as well. God, the world is full of crazy people and they are crazier than when you left. Speaking of crazy . . . (continued)"

Slavko Says . . .Poems from the Island

Well, the Book is coming to print as soon all details are ready . . .poems and anecdotes I showed you this summer . . .

it feels exciting . . .Thanks for support, otherwise it would still be in the drawer. . .

(D'brute sez: More on this as it develops!)