Sunday, August 31st, 2003 - Goats and Floating Couples Ahhh. A Sunday during a long weekend at home. No travelling (which always makes me a little sick, much to my dismay). Nothing I really need to get done, other than a few fun, self-imposed writing goals. The only thing that would make this perfect is if I could get Tim to stop playing Tenacious D right behind me as I work; I'm so sick of this album that I can't like it any longer. Ahh, ok, Magnetic Fields -- not sick of them yet. Much better. So! Hi! How's it going? I'm still in a pretty good mood from last weekend -- on Friday, the shipping boy, my dear friend Richard, commented that he'd never seen anyone glowing for so long after a vacation as I was. Hee. Richard also knows most of the specifics of my work stress, too, so he knows how very up I must have been all week to not let that shit pull me down. But, hey, I'm not here to dwell on work stress. So, yesterday Tim and I went into the City (aka San Francisco) to see the Chagall exhibit at the SF MOMA. We'd bought our tickets ahead of time, which meant we got to waltz past a long line of people (wrapped around the side of the museum no less) laughing and going, "See ya, SUCKERS!". No, not really, but we did get to pass the line to a much shorter one. Still a line once inside, as they let in groups of us so it wouldn't overwhelm the exhibit. Once it was our group's turn they made us walk over this metal bridge thing that spanned a hole that went five stories down, much to my vertiginous dismay. Not the scariest thing that has ever set off my fear of heights, but I have to admit I was annoyed that they gave us no choice but to walk across that . . . Anyway. The Chagall exhibit was crowded, but breathtaking nonetheless. The thing I love about museums and seeing the actual work of art instead of the print is all the detail and texture you just don't get in the prints. I like to notice how globby certain portions of certain paintings are. Some artists almost have 3-D work, they use so much paint. I like how you can see the fibre of the canvas in some paintings, the sketch of the pencil in another. Chagall is one of my favorite artists, probably because of the combination of his bold use of color (and in hues I find very pleasing -- deep blues, underwater greens, vibrant reds, sploshes of yellow) and the fantastic subject matter. Walking through the exhibit, I also noticed how often he uses couple spooning or cuddling in his works -- many times couples are snuggling as they float above a town. This was especially nice since Tim was in couple mode (he's been extra sweet since I've come back from my long weekend without him) and was coming up behind me, sliding his hand along my hip, pulling me close and stealing little kisses all through the exhibit. I felt very loved, inspired, cosmopolitan and pretty all day long. Chagall also uses lots of donkeys and goats (some of these so subtle you'd only be able to see them in the live paintings, I think), fucks with perspective in a skilled way, randomly turns buildings upside down and, again, uses splashes of color to make you wonder why the fuck that church is pink when everything else is green (for example). I was also finding some pornographic material in some of his paintings, which Tim was discounting until we found, in the corner of one of the huge murals, a pig pretty obviously being humilated by a man. My only complaint would be the crowd, and the fact that both Tim and I got so tired from standing and walking slowing that we decided to ditch our plan to go to Golden Gate Park and took in a movie at the Metreon instead. Actually, the movie right after the museum was perfect, especially since the theater was fancy and we had reclining captain's chairs which were waaaay comfy. We also picked a movie with as much contrast to high art as possible -- American Wedding. I'm fond of this series, even if there was one of the grossest extended poop scenes I've ever had to sit through (I thought I was going to vomit) in this one. Love me some Alyson Hannigan, and the characters are all really sweet. I enjoyed it, overall, and it got me really wanting to start planning our wedding. Our wedding, which we really can't afford and probably won't have until our kids are in middle school or something. Sigh. Anyway. Dinner at Mel's Diner, where my food at least tasted like plastic but oh well. Home to cable TV (Tim figured out we get cable if we run it through the VCR) which will be the writing death of us, I swear. I finally saw Jaws, which, yes, I'd never seen before. Lovely shag, followed by Tales from the Crypt (the 1972 British movie version), followed by the beginning of Jaws that I'd missed the first time a few hours earlier. It was an absolutely lovely date day with Tim. Ahh. Today, the plan is to revise Single White Farmhouse and get it ready to send out. Also, want to get Goat Girl in shape to send to P4 and there's a grant I'm applying for that I want to get my stuff together for. Oh, and I can't forget to set some hamsters on fire and fling them back at Ms. Reese to keep our story collab going! It's a writing type day. Whoot! Hope you all are having a great long weekend, too. Miss you! "That man is peeing on that pig's head!"

Exercise Log: Lots and lots of shuffling along, looking at paintings. Current Publications: "Famishing" in Strange Horizons. My first pro sale! "Wetting the Bed" and a collab with Tim Pratt, "A Serious Case of Fairies" in Floodwater Recently read: Skellig by David Almond Donate money to my teeth, our moving fund, our wedding fund, or our writerly projects (Floodwater and Flytrap!). Every little bit helps!

Previous | Next List of Entries for this Month | Journal Index | Cafe Rambleflower The Nid