drifting with the tide...

this oyster is taking her shell and pearls and moving to less murky waters...
follow me there.

http://conceptualoyster.wordpress.com/


you'll see the same content, plus loads more!!!
see you soon!

O.G.

thrill, nostalgia, and escapism

my [preliminary] summer reading list 2007

Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury

Farewell Summer
Ray Bradbury

A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf

The Witch of the Portabello
Paolo Coelho

The Tenth Circle
Jodi Pilcoult

i'd love to hear want you are reading.
i'm looking forward to a long, hot, lazy summer...

georgia on my mind...

or,
going...
going...
gone.

excellent times on the georgia coast,
more pics to follow.

happy memorial day!

WE NEED RAIN!!!

amadeus

http://www.atlanticballet.ca/en/amadeus/

few days ago, my mom took the O.G. to the ballet here in HP,

it was very nice.

similar to last year's The Wedding, in the respect that it was classical ballet with a contemporary touch.

the production was Amadeus, and it was tops! very enjoyable, although the particular company wasnt' the most technical troupe i've seen. i t was nice, the ballet was nice and it's one of my favorite stories in cultural history.

thanks mom...

family values

how is raising a pverty-stricken, undereducated,
parentless individual more moral than abortion?

a poem about us?

Poem: "Unwise Purchases" by George Bilgere from Haywire.
(c) UtahState University Press.
Reprinted with permission.

Unwise Purchases

They sit around the house not doing much of anything: the boxed set of the complete works of Verdi, unopened.The complete Proust, unread:

The French-cut silk shirts which hang like expensive ghosts in the closet and make me look exactly like the kind of middle-aged man who would wear a French-cut silk shirt:

The reflector telescope I thought would unlock the mysteries of the heavens but which I only used once or twice to try to find something heavenly in the windows of the high-rise down the road, and which now stares disconsolately at the ceiling when it could be examining the Crab Nebula:

The 30-day course in Spanish whose text I never opened,whose dozen cassette tapes remain unplayed,

save for Tape One, where I never learned whether the suave Americanconversing with a sultry-sounding desk clerk at a Madrid hotel about the possibility of obtaining a room actually managed to check in.

I like to thinkthat one thing led to another between them and that by Tape Six or sothey're happily married and raising a bilingual child in Seville or Terra Haute.

But I'll never know.
Suddenly I realizeI have constructed the perfect homefor a sexy, Spanish-speaking astronomer who reads Proust while listening to Italian arias,

and I wonder if somewhere in this teeming city there lives a woman with, say, a fencing foil gathering dust in the corner near her unused easel, a rainbow of oil paints drying in their tubes

on the table where the violins he bought on a whim lies entombed in the permanent darkness of its locked casenext to the abandoned chess set,

a woman who has always dreamed of becoming the kind of woman the man I've always dreamed of becoming has always dreamed of meeting.

And while the two of them discuss star clusters and Cézanne, while they fence delicate lying Castilian Spanish to the strains of Rigoletto,

she and I will stand in the steamy kitchen,
fixing up a little risotto,
enjoying a modest cabernet,
while talking over a day so ordinary
as to seem miraculous.

i wnat it all

Adventure seeker on an empty street
Just an alley creeper light on his feet
A young fighter screaming with no time for doubt
With the pain and anger cant see a way outIt aint much Im asking I heard him say

Gotta find me a future
move out of my way

I want it all
I want it all
I want it all and I want it now

I want it all
I want it all
I want it all and I want it now

Listen all you people come gather round
I gotta get me a game plan gotta shake you to the ground
Just give me what I know is mine
People do you hear me just give me the signIt aint much
Im asking if you want the truth
Heres to the future for the dreams of youth

I want it all (give it all)
I want it all
I want it all and I wantIt now
Im a man with a one track mind
So much to do in one life time (people do you hear me)
Not a man for compromise and wheres and whys and living
Lies
So Im living it all (yes Im living it all)


queen

a few of my favorite things

Grotesque (noun)
1. art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of humans and animals interwoven with plants

i became very fond...almost obsessed with these paintings while in italy,
almost like a good book, i could daydream and lose myself endlessly surrounded by these freschi.

why? i do not know, perhaps, that they contain all the elements i enjoy; nature and architecture, beauty and profanity, symmetry and not, the exotic, the erotic, fantasy, romance and the occasional hint of reality.

out of my shell...

i've been looking so long at these pictures of you that i almost belive that they're real
i've been living so long with my pictures of you that i almost believe that the pictures are all i can feel
remembering you standing quiet in the rain

as i ran to your heart to be near and we kissed
as the sky fell in holding you close how i always held close in your fear
remembering you running soft through the night
you were bigger and brighter than the snow
and screamed at the make-believe screamed at the sky
and you finally found all your courage to let it all go

remembering you fallen into my arms
crying for the death of your heart
you were stone white so delicate lost in the cold
you were always so lost in the dark
remembering you how you used to be slow drowned you were angels so much more than everything

oh hold for the last time then slip away quietly
open my eyes but i never see anything
if only i had thought of the right words
i could have hold on to your heart
if only i'd thought of the right words
i wouldn't be breaking apart all my pictures of you

Looking So long at these pictures of you
but i never hold on to your heart
looking so long for the words to be true
but always just breaking apart my pictures of you
there was nothing in the world that i ever wanted more
than to feel you deep in my heart
there was nothing in the world that i ever wanted more
than to never feel the breaking apart all my pictures of you

the cure

interesting...but true i think

When it comes to relationships, you're thinking about what you truly want as opposed to what you've thought you wanted. Take your time before drawing any conclusions, and try to keep your sense of humor.

Take care of the details and plan your next big move. Clean, organize, and throw away things that no longer serve you.

and yours?
http://astrology.yahoo.com/astrology/

one month

today is one month since sammy passed.
i will start to post again,
but here's an update.

life goes on, but i still miss sam. the days are uneventful and painfully quiet. i miss that tail, his face in the doorway when i get home, and his words.

i stayed in america. high point in fact, not really sure why, i just know that one month ago i was certain it was the thing to do.
work is work, boring and not a challenge anymore. but it helps to support my 2007 debt reduction scheme.

i miss welly tremendously.
matters of the heart are just that and are going as expected for someone 'tender hearted' like myself.

maya is struggling with her weight...

i will also begin soon my 2007 east coast visiting tour and should wrap up in june at amber's wedding where i will be a 5th time bride's maid....and wear my fancy sash and purse i made.

ttfn,
oyster girl

sam ran ahead...and broke my heart

sam

march 1, 1999-january 27, 2007

i took sam and maya to hike in the blue ridges before returning to new zealand. not sure exactly what happened, but he got sick in the house after he and maya returning from 'checking the grounds' at 142 sparks road.
i let him out to be sick, waited all night for him. then some friends brought him to me the next morning when they found him.
it really sucks because he was the coolest jumping dog in the world.
he finished his awesome life where he started it...

stewarts mountain view hospital in spruce pine.

maya and the oyster girl are heartbroken and gutted.

the zone 2....emo on ice

highlights from last weeks first annual emo on ice auntie neice nowboard adventure.
brought to by
the letter 'G' for goo goo dolls and
the number 18 for number of rides on the lift in an eight hour period.

highlights include:
-jumping the hump that broke my wrist several years before
-awesome weather
-remembering how much i love this stuff
-some guys believing i was 22
-dinner at scott's pizza place...wait, that was really bad

happy riding ...

bored gypsy oyster...

i've been living out of one medium suitcase for the last six months.

if i go there will be trouble, if i stay there will be double...

Darling you gotta let me knowShould I stay or should I go?
If you say that you are mineI'll be here 'til the end of time
So you got to let knowShould I stay or should I go?
Always tease tease tease
You're happy when I'm on my knees
One day is fine, next is black
So if you want me off your back
Well come on and let me know
Should I Stay or should I go?
Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An' if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know
This indecision's bugging
If you don't want me, set me free
Exactly who'm I'm supposed to be
Don't you know which clothes even fit me??
Come on and let me know
Should I cool it or should I blow??
Should I stay or should I go now??
If I go there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double
So you gotta let me know
Should I stay or should I go??


i think the clash has said it best here.
there was also a church sermon i attended yesterday entitled "you can't go home"

wow, how poignient. and for the first time, and even in a baptist congregation to boot, has the Lord left me with even more indecision. i guess God did create ROS also along with all the other stuff resulting from the garden of eden.

yikes, this is tough.

the zone...monday morning emo

i'm bridging two generations,
somehow i'm proud of this...

still recalling when the phrase 'emo' referred to emo phillips while listening to emo on the radio...

http://www.fourfa.com/

http://krunk1.xmission.com/~trevin/Emo.html



















i'll save 'skr-emo' for another day...
i'm too dark and depressed.
lol

in responce and awareness...

it's a shame when you get to that point.
when we were younger, everything was dramatic and at least passionate.
now it's all practicalities.

i guess knitting has become my 'mental rosary' and i forsee lots of knitting in the coming weeks. i think i took up knitting because it's such an anal craft for perfectionists. then i realise i am so loosey goosey with my knitting, so it safely balances out the uptight attitude i have towards all the other areas in my life.
hmm.

btw:
High Point is having it's first inclement weather of 2007.
i realised it was exactly these days 2 (or maybe 3 by now) i travelled to HP to do a sight analysis for my architectural thesis project. that was also one of those years when december and january seemed to hover around the 70 degree mark. then i came to town for this documentation...and there was a significant ice storm. my nephew and i trekked in the cold for several hours, we got lots of bad photos and several good laughs.
i also got a spa facial during both of these weekends,
maybe HP isn't so bad after all.

i knew he would follow...

for those who know me...

this is so me:

"My brain likes to run on autopilot as much as possible to free up energy for daydreaming and fantasizing and worrying."
CAP

seriously...it doesn't take much

please read the article and have a wee think before dismissing it.

http://boomers.msn.com/articleGH.aspx?cp-documentid=376469&GT1=8903

happy holidays!!!

this year has been one i could never imagine,
happy holidays to all the friends and loved ones
i've met around the world and the ones i count on for being where i saw them last...

peace and joy to each of you,

love,
oyster girl

don't be an ostrich...

http://www.mtv.com/#/news/articles/1546789/20061129/index.jhtml

grotesques

Faces of the Grotesque from...

http://www.spamula.net/blog/2006/06/faces_of_the_grotesque_1.html

The adjective grotesque (as Michelangelo kindly explained in a comment further to the previous entry here), was originally applied to the style of the decorative frescoes found in the buried ruins of Nero’s Domus Aurea at Rome. These long-buried chambers were rediscovered in the last two decades of the 15th Century. The strange ornamental designs that were found there ‘featured elaborate fantasies with symmetrical anatomical impossibilities, small beasts, stylised human heads, and delicately-traced, indeterminate foliage all merged into one unified decorative whole.’ Pliny, in his Natural History, recorded the principal artist’s name: Fabullus; recounting how the painter went ‘for only a few hours each day to the “Golden House” to work while the light was right…’

By the turn of the sixteenth century, some artists had begun to incorporate elements of grotesque decoration into their own, contemporary works. The earliest known examples are Perugino’s ceiling of the Cambio in Perugia (about 1500) and Pinturicchio’s cathedral library ceilings at Siena (1502). Other artists were likewsie inspired, among them Filippino Lippi, and Signorelli. Perhaps more importantly, the Chief Architect and Prefect of Antiquities at the Vatican, Raffaello Sanzio, studied and copied these designs, and directed that they be incorporated into the decorative schemes of the Vatican Loggia, the Loggetta of Cardinal Bibiena, and of the Loggia of Psyche at the Villa Farnesina. Much of the work on these projects was executed by Raphael’s assistants Giulio Romano, and Giovanni da Udine. Romano, as noted below, was later a mentor of Giulio Clovio’s… The image above shows a pair of stylised heads from the decorative borders of a pair of pages in Clovio’s Farnese Hours.

In the 1530s, a number of Italian artists were persuaded to join the French court at Fontainebleau, bringing with them a taste for grotesque ornamentation. In the same decade, the first album of prints of grotesque designs was printed. This new style of decoration spread to Germany, and flourished in the major centres of ornamental engraving at Augsburg and Nuremberg. By mid-century, the grotesque had established itself at Flanders, where, ‘in 1555, an artist called Cornelis Floris designed 18 sheets with human faces made up from vegetal elements, some highly stylized, others still recognizable as leaves and fruits,’ which were engraved by Frans Huys in Antwerp. These designs intermixed a dash of Gothic drôlerie into the Classical grotesque. The pair of images above show two of Floris’s designs.

*
It seems plausible that such stylised faces were one of the inspirations behind Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s famous paintings of ‘composed heads’ the first of which date from the late 1560s. The grotesque came to be applied to all manner of decorative arts: ceramics, tapestry, embroidery, furniture-making, jewellery, and so on. Its later, more exaggerated variant found its way back into manuscript-decoration too, notably in the illuminated alphabet in Joris Hoefnagel’s Mira Calligraphiæ Monumenta, exemplified by the pair of images above. More outlandish still were the designs of Christoph Jamnitzer’s Neuw Grottessken Buch of 1610, in which the standard grotesque ‘mask’ is pushed almost beyond recognition, as in the pair of designs shown below.

The vogue for the grotesque extended well into the later 17th century, and, to a lesser extent, into the 18th. The final set of images, below, are from a reprint of an architectural treatise published in Prague, in 1677, by a master-builder named Abraham Leüthner. At least one of these designs is a direct copy of one of Cornelis Floris’s, then over a century old… I scanned both the Leüthner and Floris images from a book entitled Barocke Architektur in Böhmen, published in 1998 by Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, as part of their Instrumentum Artium series, a previous volume from which, their reprint of Jamnitzer’s Neuw Grottessken Buch, I used for the images immediately above.

*
I scanned the Hoefnagel images from the facsimile edition of the Mira Calligraphiæ Monumenta previously mentioned here, while the details from Clovio’s Farnese Hours are from the 2001 facsimile edition mentioned in the entry below.

Posted by misteraitch at June 10, 2006 10:37 AM

grotesques

Faces of the Grotesque from...

http://www.spamula.net/blog/2006/06/faces_of_the_grotesque_1.html

The adjective grotesque (as Michelangelo kindly explained in a comment further to the previous entry here), was originally applied to the style of the decorative frescoes found in the buried ruins of Nero’s Domus Aurea at Rome. These long-buried chambers were rediscovered in the last two decades of the 15th Century. The strange ornamental designs that were found there ‘featured elaborate fantasies with symmetrical anatomical impossibilities, small beasts, stylised human heads, and delicately-traced, indeterminate foliage all merged into one unified decorative whole.’ Pliny, in his Natural History, recorded the principal artist’s name: Fabullus; recounting how the painter went ‘for only a few hours each day to the “Golden House” to work while the light was right…’

By the turn of the sixteenth century, some artists had begun to incorporate elements of grotesque decoration into their own, contemporary works. The earliest known examples are Perugino’s ceiling of the Cambio in Perugia (about 1500) and Pinturicchio’s cathedral library ceilings at Siena (1502). Other artists were likewsie inspired, among them Filippino Lippi, and Signorelli. Perhaps more importantly, the Chief Architect and Prefect of Antiquities at the Vatican, Raffaello Sanzio, studied and copied these designs, and directed that they be incorporated into the decorative schemes of the Vatican Loggia, the Loggetta of Cardinal Bibiena, and of the Loggia of Psyche at the Villa Farnesina. Much of the work on these projects was executed by Raphael’s assistants Giulio Romano, and Giovanni da Udine. Romano, as noted below, was later a mentor of Giulio Clovio’s… The image above shows a pair of stylised heads from the decorative borders of a pair of pages in Clovio’s Farnese Hours.

In the 1530s, a number of Italian artists were persuaded to join the French court at Fontainebleau, bringing with them a taste for grotesque ornamentation. In the same decade, the first album of prints of grotesque designs was printed. This new style of decoration spread to Germany, and flourished in the major centres of ornamental engraving at Augsburg and Nuremberg. By mid-century, the grotesque had established itself at Flanders, where, ‘in 1555, an artist called Cornelis Floris designed 18 sheets with human faces made up from vegetal elements, some highly stylized, others still recognizable as leaves and fruits,’ which were engraved by Frans Huys in Antwerp. These designs intermixed a dash of Gothic drôlerie into the Classical grotesque. The pair of images above show two of Floris’s designs.

*
It seems plausible that such stylised faces were one of the inspirations behind Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s famous paintings of ‘composed heads’ the first of which date from the late 1560s. The grotesque came to be applied to all manner of decorative arts: ceramics, tapestry, embroidery, furniture-making, jewellery, and so on. Its later, more exaggerated variant found its way back into manuscript-decoration too, notably in the illuminated alphabet in Joris Hoefnagel’s Mira Calligraphiæ Monumenta, exemplified by the pair of images above. More outlandish still were the designs of Christoph Jamnitzer’s Neuw Grottessken Buch of 1610, in which the standard grotesque ‘mask’ is pushed almost beyond recognition, as in the pair of designs shown below.

The vogue for the grotesque extended well into the later 17th century, and, to a lesser extent, into the 18th. The final set of images, below, are from a reprint of an architectural treatise published in Prague, in 1677, by a master-builder named Abraham Leüthner. At least one of these designs is a direct copy of one of Cornelis Floris’s, then over a century old… I scanned both the Leüthner and Floris images from a book entitled Barocke Architektur in Böhmen, published in 1998 by Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, as part of their Instrumentum Artium series, a previous volume from which, their reprint of Jamnitzer’s Neuw Grottessken Buch, I used for the images immediately above.

*
I scanned the Hoefnagel images from the facsimile edition of the Mira Calligraphiæ Monumenta previously mentioned here, while the details from Clovio’s Farnese Hours are from the 2001 facsimile edition mentioned in the entry below.

Posted by misteraitch at June 10, 2006 10:37 AM

mi scusa

hi, sorry you had too look at food coma for so long. the reason is this, i was trying to get fancy with the blog a while back and inadvertantly reset all the controls to this blog. now, using the super powerful non-dial up connection at VUW i have finally hacked my way into my own blog, so here's the recap:

i'm continuing to work at the university, by now i have worked in academic setting more than the practice office, so what does this mean??? i dunno yet, but i am returning in 2007, at least i said i was. i may or may not win the lottery between now and then and you could then find me in Fiji, maybe...

so this trimester has been nuts, out of control, but so far i've really enjoyed it, i even got my own office. (this is good to balance out a rough 2006) now we are off to italy to study in Ferrara for about two months. i'm even coordinating my own brand new course (paper in british uni) with a focus on analysis, step two in taking over the world. ( i forgot what step one was) then i will return to NC to love my snuggly pups, and family too.

biggest challenge:
packing....some of you know this about me all too well (melanie, hiroe, you don't to be sooo mean about how many black shirts i take). well, the current air travel status whipped me in shape, and i am all packed for 4 months in one medium sized suitcase. well done.

okay, love hate relationships, you guys know i struggled with the decision to come here, but i did come, enthusiastically, it was hard and may tears were shed. i was bored, i was homesick, and i felt i wasn't accomplishing anything. then some wise well traveled pals had a talk with me, told me to quit trying to live in two places at once. mom reminded me of girl scouts: make new friends but keep the old. those thoughts along with a bit of prayer, painting, retail therapy (a whole nother entry), and hip hop fitness...i made it clear in my own head why i was here, and i wouldn't be here forever, and what i adore of this country! i let myself settle here, at least for now. and you know what?
suddenly, it all fell into place, i began to accomplish work, friends, health, etc...
so now, 8 months later, i was crying as i pack up 'home' for the gazillionth time:
i'm not so ready to leave.
but now, i reach for another goal, i am now with the opportunity to work in italy,
then home for friends and family,
and back to wellington for more in 2007!!!


i'm off for a bon voyage coffee now, can't wait to share a coffee or biscuit with you soon.

Big Kiss, and I love you all,
manch

food coma

i'm just settling in for a bit of work and mindless internet parusing after consuming a lovely traditional kiwi breakfast at the Brooklyn Bakery and have decided they have the best brekkie in town. (nice run-on sentence)

perhaps i was celebrating italy's advancement to the semi-finals of the world cup...look out kelli and joe. it's going to be italy against germany, might get ugly. or maybe it was just my reward for getting up and at the pub at 6:30 am to watch the game.

but here is what i had:

fried eggs
toast
bacon
sausage
hashbrown and
grilled tomato.

unfortunately, Brooklyn Bakery doesn't serve baked beans...

helloooo...

incase you've been wondering where all the emailing and blogging takes place...here it is complete with silver travel trunk, twisted palm frand wand made by a vagrant in savannah 2 years ago at least, deck chair along side posture chair, and top notch desk and chest from none other than...SA.

i finished the remix sweater, just haven't mangaged to take a good photo yet.

had another earthquake, and at the moment we are having (for the third day) some massive wind storms, irritating. but funny to see the sea gulls...they actually get blown some times.

latest topic to ponder:

serial manogamy.

think about it.

smiles everyone, smiles...

amber just sent me this image (me and hiroe) from the beaux artes ball of 2005...
we've all come a long way baby in one year since then.

speaking of babies...hiro had her babe yesterday.
a healthy baby girl and
" it hurt like hell..."

good job hiro!

hurricane warning

hey, nothing too new here, except that the building handyman has taken to going around his apartment in his birthday suit with the blinds OPEN... his livingroom is a straight shot from mine!

also, it was a sad day yesterday in Welly!!! spirits were quite low after the wellington hurricanes lost to the canterberry crusaders in the final match of the super 14 rugby tourney (i've been following the super 14 for a few months now... http://www.super14.com/)

now, today i was going around on my errands etc...and noticing lots of black eyes, busted eyebrows, and swollen lips....then i remember chatting with a kiwi friend on life in america and new zealand....and her saying that domestic violence, etc...is always quite high following the rugby... go figure...and related to this, if you get a chance to see once were warriors...do it
http://www.finelinefeatures.com/warriors/wasynops.htm

now, i'm quite hungry and will prepare dinner...southern style!

why do i do this?

okay, so i finished the vest from loop-d-loop inspired by the medeival bodice...
isn't it a beaute!
just too bad it doesn't fit! that's right, too small (subject to be addressed in later blog...) especially around the bust line...this is a first.
so after a few choice words, pouting, and conferencing with the other local knitting gurus...
i'm re-knitting it onto larger needles, only i hope they are large enough to make a size difference...
oh well, such is life...

7.1 out to sea

http://www.geonet.org.nz/x2568629g_l.html

seriously, keep us in your prayers....for no more big ones and no tsunamis

deep breath.....okay, exhale...20 seconds

oh boy....
i really want to call home,
but of course it would be the middle of the night and you would be worried if i did...
but we just had an earthquake...
the biggest one yet (that i have experienced), it last a good 15 to 20 seconds...
i know this doesn't seem long...but with the errie-ness of the earth moving beneath you...it's long enough.

i woke early yesterday morning and thought it was simply the wind, but checked below (the link) and it was a quake...a tremor in comparison to what just happened. no everything is fine yet indescribeable, but seriously uneasy feeling...i even have that woozie feeling after an elevator ride.

weird.

(p.s. even the big black housefly living in the walkway is a bit shaken it seems...)

http://www.geonet.org.nz/recent_quakes.html

(p.s.s....in savannah and greenville we had hurricane parties...why aren't we having earthquake parties??? perhaps they come with no real warning....but actually, i think i heard the club down the street just give a big shout....shout another kiwi word)


shout: to buy, to treat one, to celebrate. (ex. we just had a quake...i'll shout you a beer)
http://www.nz-immigration.co.nz/lifestyles/slang-words.html