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Not-For-Profit
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 160
According to Toni this is how they're all run...
M******, last week, showing up to volunteer and he shoos me away. They're good. Lots of volunteers at the moment, they'll be fine, take the day off.
Now this, of course, is nonsense, the place is run on volunteers, only what is probably going on is M****** is going away for a couple of weeks, starting Saturday past, and he wants to hide away all his little treasures before I get in and bust up his nest.
So, running into the staff, they're telling me I'm missed, and, yes, but I showed up, was shooed away, and I'm not going to force my time, labor, services on anyone...
But this week, now, M****** is gone and I'm busting up his nest. I have 2 weeks, Substantial progress made after just one 7 hour day today.
There's 3 rows of boxes to the back wall. Figure 8 wide, 8 high, go through maybe 32 a day, not counting what's coming in...it can be done. It will be done.
Now M*******, he has some reasonable insecurities, he doesn't like my work ethic. Everyone else there, himself included, the paid employees, they're there as a social thing. I've seen him chat for an hour on end to one customer, about his art, theatre, and then, when finally he's done and "has to get back to work" not 2 minutes later he's off and talking to another. It's non-stop, decorating, rearranging, "Staging", no work done, workplace gossip, complain, hiding in back rooms "Looking things up on the computer", the collectables, an hour to research an item they'll end up selling for $5.00, all the while he's building his nest, adding to his heap of trash, garbage to be sorted.
I'm going to get through it. There's going to be Xmas stuff in those boxes, I don't want to hold on to it for another year.
He gets overwhelmed, you can see it, doesn't want to deal with it, although - it's easier to deal with if you just fucking do it and don't hide from it.
I figure, go through the boxes. Half is trash, easily.
Of the other half, maybe 10, 15% clothes. Not our department. Give to clothing. another 10-15% electronics, give to electronics, not our department.
And so on and so forth until you have it managed, in bins, put out on the floor or ready to be put out onto the floor.
Now is the time, while he's away, if not now it's never...
The Sonoran Desert toad, or Cane Toad
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
- Hits: 191
Of course it's more Facebook AI generated nonsense, but I tell you, if I was heading off to lick some toads and get high this would definitely be my #1 candidate:
Painting for Imbeciles...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 204
So, finally, confronting my anxiety and resolving to use up my art supplies.
Most of which, at the time of this writing, have pleasantly decayed into uselessness, repeated freeze-thawing of the watercolors, acrylics and oils has left very little that remains useful.
Whew.
Before beginning I consult with some of the innumerable YouTube videos on the particular topic I've chosen.
"Painting for Imbeciles". Results may vary.
I comb through them, there are many, many, many and I watch quite a few before settling on a couple I like.
This should be a cinch.
Of course, it isn't, and while the artist/narrator surely knows his stuff it's not coming through the screen to me.
They tell me that color and shape and tonality are important.
Like bloody hell they are.
I paint along. If he's painting a ballerina I end up with Bigfoot. If he's painting a still life I end up with a bullet-ridden corpse.
Maybe they were right?
Are these my eyes? What in the hell am I doing wrong? If I stand 10 feet back from the canvas, glasses off, it only vaguely resembles what I'm working towards.
Step any closer and it falls apart.
Rub it out, try again.
And again.
And again.
I'm realizing why I so long postponed this, what I can't figure out is how I have so many art supplies...
Conrad Moricand
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 187
And, reading at the moment Blaise Cendrars "Moravagine" I come across a reference to Conrad Moricand, the French Astrologer that stays with Henry Miller in Big Sur and is so aptly described in his story "A Devil in Paradise", a hilarious, albeit very unflattering portrait.
And so googling for more information I find nothing, only that he was a personage of some import, that he was known to Cendrars (who dedicated a book to him), to Miller, to pretty much everyone in Paris, but whose legacy seems to only be as a comical prop in literature.
Reminding me a bit of the Character of Gregory, someone I knew in London & Prague who achieved nothing, did nothing, yet somehow knew and was known to everyone.
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