GJ Willis' Art Notes

Yesterday, I went to the 6th Annual get together of the art mobile e-mail list. My main fear was that I would be the only one that showed up.

I arrived at the Senator Theater at about 5:45. This was great because a band was supposed to be playing at Belvedere Square which is across the street from the movie theater. When I arrived they were just setting up. I noticed that a number of people were already there. These people had brought chairs with them. I wasn’t about to be standing up up for an hour and a half. The free concert was supposed to start at 6:00. I was supposed to meet Richard from the mail list at 7:30. I was suppose to hand a person I had never met before $10 to see a movie. Was I insane? Was I the only one to show up?

Since the band was setting up I thought it would be great to get something to eat while watching the concert. I was enchanted by a sign I saw across the street that read, Egyptian Pizza. I thought it would be neat to get a slice of exotic pizza. I soon found out that they did not sell slices of pizza. Feeling disenchanted I walked further up the street to the gas station on the corner and bought a bag of chips and two sodas. When I got out the gas station I noticed that there were even more people gathered for the concert. I decided that I would stay on the side of the street I was on. It wasn’t like U2 or the Stones were playing. I could hear them just as well across the street as I would near the square. I decided to sit down on a brick pillar where I ate my chips, drank one of my soda’s, and did crossword puzzles up until it was time to leave for the show.

Every now and then I’d look across the street and wonder who amongst the crowd was part of the internet group. Then I saw a familiar face, the computer guy from Towson University’s art department. I couldn’t quiet remember his name. Like Eureka! I recalled that his name was Richard! Then a thought occured to me was Richard from Towson the same Richard that owns the mail list? Nah, it couldn’t be. Then I noticed that a lot of people seemed to walk up to him and know him. Maybe he’s more popular than I thought he was. However, the question kept running through my mind was he the list owner or the most popular man in Belvedere Square?

Then I was surprised to see a man who looked a lot like Glenn Flodstrum my former chemistry professor at UMAB’s med tech school. I wasn’t quite sure if it was him or someone who looked like him. Who ever it was he seemed to know Richard quiet well. Then at around 7:20 I decided to walk towards the Senator to see if anyone else showed up for the movie and to finally settle the Richard mystery once and for all. I also noticed that the group of people who were with Richard across the street also began to move towards the theater. This is getting weird!!

When I got to the theater I didn’t quiet know what to expect. I had never met anyone from the internet before. For the first time this whole situation sounded silly and downright crazy. I saw no one who looked as though they were waiting for people. I went up to the guy at the box office and told him my situation. I expected him to call the cops or something. He told me to go inside the theater and that the ticket taker would give me a ticket. Again this all seemed silly. I was afraid to go up to the ticket taker and tell him my situation. It took a while before I gathered my courage to go up to him. When I told him he wasn’t surprised shocked or immediately called security. He told me to go to the left and head up the stairs. I was so relieved and yet still scared that I went to the right instead of left.

Eventually, I made it upstairs. The woman ahead of me on the stairway was disabled and there was a concessions person who had boxes of popcorn with her. When I got upstairs there was a table with two pieces of notebook on it. One read left wing the other read right wing. There was also Hershey’s Kisses covering the table. I grabbed a few. I noticed that the majority of Hershey’s taken were those on the left wing. There was also a wooden bucket that contained beer. There was a lot of people there too. So I was not the only one there!

Also there are two sections to the Senator theater’s private upstairs area. I first tried to find a seat in the ‘ahem left wing but noticed that the majority of seats were taken. So I went over to the right wing and found a seat near the aisle.

Also, I found out that Richard from Towson is in fact Richard the e-mail list owner. They’re the same person! I had never really thought to give a mental picture to Richard’s name on the list because no last name was attached to it. However, after seeing him and kinda sorta already knowing him from my days at Towson, I’d say that the celebrity he most resembles is a taller, glasses wearing, Matt Damon. He especially reminds me of Matt Damon as seen in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

I would later find out that evening that the man who looked like Mr. Flodstrum, my chemistry professor was none other than Rev Paul, the mail art guy! The resemblance to Mr. Flodstrum was over whelming. He had the same mannerisms, voice intonations, and everything. He was like Mr. Flodstrum but not Mr. Flodstrum. I learned of his identity when Richard introduced him to the group. After the introduction Rev Paul then went through a presentation about the mail art show that the Creative Alliance was putting on. He later handed out red square pieces of paper with the address to send the mail art to after September. Someone in the audience asked him what he was a reverend in. I didn't quiet catch his response. It sounded like he said hermetic or something like that. I can't think of a celebrity that Rev Paul looks like except for Mr. Flodstrum who's not a celebrity.....

A few minutes later the movie began. I didn’t read any reviews about the movie before hand. Therefore, I wasn’t expecting too much one way or the other. Overall, the movie was ok. It wasn’t the best movie I ever done seen!The Village, was ok. I found it somewhat predictable. At first I thought that they were a group of right wing conservatives who banded together to get back to the alleged good old days. The one thing that led me to this conclusion was that there were no blacks or other minority groups in the village. Also they kept going on about crime and the violent deaths of there loved ones. It turns out that they were a group from a counseling center who decided to live like the good old days.

After the movie I fled the theater. My bus was due to come at any minute and I didn’t want to miss it. I think they were all going to some pub or bar with an Irish name after the movie. I don’t drink so I didn’t see the point in hanging around and going to the bar. Also, I think it would make people feel uncomfortable if I sat around and watched them drink.

If they did this again next year I would definitely be there, bad movie or not. Richard did a great job organizing the event. I swear, I'm not just saying that because there was a bountiful amount of free Hershey's Kisses at the theater.

Today, the bus and light rail were both on time. However, I saw the man I have dubbed the harbinger of lateness on it. I hope his presence doesn’t cause the train to suddenly grind to a halt somewhere between the Baltimore arena and the Pepper Road Stop.

Yesterday, at work we had to sign a card because someone was leaving. I haven’t the foggiest idea who it was. I suppose it was someone that works in the warehouse.

I feel uncomfortable when they pass cards around to be signed and I have to pass it down to someone else. I feel uncomfortable because I have to remember the spiel they said before handing the card to me. It’s almost like wondering if you can remember the magic words to a special incantation. The only person I had to hand the card down to was Arnold because Arvada was out. When I handed the card down to him and told him the best I could remember why I was giving him the card to sign, he had the happiest smile on his face. It wasn’t just a little smile it was clearly in the Snoopy Dance category of happy. The last time I saw him smile was when we were working at the old building. One day on the elevator he quickly smiled at me and said, “Good night.” Who knew asking someone to sign a card would make them Snoopy Dance happy? It kind of makes me wonder if anyone at work has ever asked him to sign cards or if they’re just passed by him....

Also, yesterday at work I saw neither hide nor tail of the alleged visitors to our company. Whenever this happens it makes me wonder if business casual day is just a ploy to get employees like me out of sneakers, jeans, and t-shirts.

Also, I was asked to help out Li Jie and Lisa. They had a large influx of work that had to be sent out immediatly. I was happy that they remembered I was trained in their area. I suppose I hadn’t done anything wrong in previous weeks and I wasn’t being shunned from helping out when Li Jie was out last month.

Today, I’m going to the 6th Annual gathering of the Artmobile e-mail list. Basically, the artmobile or art mob for short is a Baltimore e-mail list that primarily consists of local artists, writers, musicians, and whatnot(I know it’s not a real word but I’ve always wanted to use whatnot in a sentence....).

This years get together will be held at the Senator theater. The movie playing will be M. Night Shyamalan’s, The Village. I’ve never been to an art mob get together. I’m going today because it’s Friday night and I’ll be seing a movie. I would not be going if it were a party or something to that effect. I don’t drink, smoke, dance, or talk that much. I hope I won’t be the only one that shows up....

Interesting Sites: Yesterday on the #8 bus heading downtown a blind man got on the bus with his seeing eye dog. The man promptly sat down and began knitting. I like some of the other people on the bus was surprised by the site I saw before my eyes. I had no idea that blind people could knit. I suppose he feels his way around the knitting. It was an amazing site. The blind man later announced to all the curious looker ons that he was making a shawl.

Also yesterday I saw an unusually large influx of people one would describe as geeks or nerds. In other words my peeps by proxy. They all seemed to be heading to the Wyndham Hotel. Then I saw a woman dressed like Sailor Moon. It occured to me right then and there that Otakon must be in town this weekend!!! Otakon is Baltimore’s annual anime convention. I’ve always wanted to go there! Somehow every year I manage to miss it. I never know when it’s being held. I’m not sure if this can be considered a good or bad thing.....

I’m happy to report that the bus and light rail were both on time this morning. So it looks like I will be on time as well.

Today, I am over the moon with joy. I got a slight mention on the Out To Lunch Show! They were doing a show on the interesting things that you pull up when you do a google search on your name. My site came up when they did a search on their show. They said that they were surprised to be found on the site of a local artist. Wow! I guess I really am a local artist! Anyway, the entry they pulled up was the one where I wrote that I was excited that Steve “the Thrill” Hill was doing movie bets again on the show. Yeah, I know it’s sad I’m excited that my site was mentioned in a round about way.

Yesterday, Nilsson’s Greatest Hits cd arrived in the mail. I was surprised to learn from the liner notes in the cd written by super fan and actor Curtis Armstrong that Nilsson worked for the computer center at a bank. I already knew that he worked at a bank in the evening before he hit it big. I also knew that before he left he was running the department he worked for. However, I never knew that he worked in the COMPUTER CENTER! Personally, I found that bit of information distressing. Also all the accompanying photo’s in the cd are of a young clean shaven Nilsson. He looked very much like someone who would work in the computer department. Anyway, these photo’s differ from the images I’m familiar with. I’m used to seeing Nilsson with a beard. Overall, I loved the cd. Currently, I can’t get Cuddly Toy out of my head. I found a really good site to visit if you want to learn more about Harry Nilsson. I also found a good Harry Nilsson fan site that had interesting links.

Yesterday, I got around to changing the link for Asperger’s Syndrome which is over on the right side of this page. I changed it over to a more stable site. The OASIS site has been around for ages. It can be in a way considered as the ultimate source on the web for information about Asperger’s Syndrome. It’s rare to run across an AS site that does not list that site as a resource or a link. So it’s not likely that they’ll be going down or radically changing the format of there site anytime soon. I guess I should let you know that everything on that site is done in a frames format. So if your computer can’t handle frames I don’t know what to tell you...

Today at work is business casual day. We have business casual days whenever any big wigs are coming to the company to visit. The majority of the time we wear what we want wear to work, provided it’s not too risque. I’m wearing my black pants, again. In the past I used to wear khaki pants on business casual days. However, my khaki pants are too big for me so now it’s black pants day. I took down all the things that decorated my cubicle; Elvis photos, ferret photos, stuffed bunnies, and my Kerry bumper sticker. I did this voluntarily without being told. I did it because I didn’t want to be the one who possibly offended who ever will be coming through the building today. Who knows maybe some of them are staunch Republicans or bunny haters. Anyway, we usually have to remove all bright shiny objects from our desks when visitors come. I guess the company is afraid it will distract the visitors.

Another thing before I go.... My painting is still on display at the Pinkard Gallery at the Bunting Center of Maryland Institute College of Art. The last day it will be at MICA is this Saturday. In a way this is ironic. I applied many times to get into MICA but was not accepted. Anyway, go see the painting. Experience the magic that is Dana Doll!

The bus and train both were on time this morning. I did not get much sleep last night. I was trying to fix the dates on my blog. As you probably may or may not be able to see I have a few posts with double dates on them. It was difficult to fix what the problem originally was. You see I recently discovered that there is a function on blogger that allows you to select the date you want to head your posts with. I had previously entered the date header manually. As I’ve written before I know just a little of html code to get by with. Well, as I began to play around with the newly discovered blogger function the posts became jumbled up in order. Right now they are in order. However, they have double dates. It was such a headache last night to get them in order. I do not want to suffer another one wiping out the double dates. Maybe, I’ll give it a go over the weekend.

Also, yesterday, I went to the library. I picked up two books about Ganesha. As I’ve written in a previous post I am researching Ganesha for a mail art project I’m working on. By the way I get all my leads for places to send mail art to from Kiyotei’s website. I swear that site is power packed with leads. Anyway the books I took out for my research were The Broken Tusk by Uma Krishnaswami and Loving Ganesa by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. I also tried to find a book I was really into in my late teens/early twenties, Everyday Zen. I really loved that book! Somehow, it became misplaced in my move from my father's house to my apartment. I guess I was an unusual kid being into existentialism and Zen while other kids were into dating and partying.

Oh, another thing before I go! The best speaker at last night’s Democratic Convention was Barack Obama. After seeing him I think it’s possible that he might be our first black Vice President or dare I say it our first black President! I first learned of Obama yesterday morning on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Also, I still hope no one tells me to take my John Kerry sticker down from my cubicle. Maybe, I should get a Bush sticker so that my cubicle can be fair and balanced unlike the Fox news network. Speaking of which I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of Out Foxed. That’s it for now!

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Today, the bus and light rail were on time. Also I had my regular bus driver. It’s raining today.

I would like to go downtown to the library to research the indian god Ganesha. Ganesha is the subject of a mail art project that I’m entering. Also I need to get photo’s of post office related things. This is for yet another mail art project that I’m entering. Just to let you know I’m still working on my big paintings as well as work to put up on eBay in the fall.

I got my John Kerry For President bumper stickers yesterday. Ahhh, just in time for the Democratic National Convention. They sent me not one but two of them. I think I’ll put one up in my cubicle. I hope no one tells me to take it down or harrasses me.

I heard Clinton gave one hell of a speach last night at the convention. I wish he could run again for President. In my opinion he was the best President ever elected during my life time.

Monday, July 26, 2004

I left out early for work. The bus was late. It was also driven by a driver that I had never seen before. I suppose either my regular driver is on vacation or took the day off. So thus I just missed the train heading to Hunt Valley. However, I got to watch it drive right by me. I saw the harbinger off lateness guy this morning. It has just occurred to me that the celebrity he most resembles is a slightly younger version of 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney. Also on the light rail stop was this girl named Bird. She usually comes to work in car driven by her sister Alexis. To the best that I could see Alexis was not on the light rail stop with her sister. I suppose they must be having car trouble.

Anyway you slice it it looks like I’m going to be late today. Last week I was late. I don’t like this. I work very hard to be on time just to be done in by vacationing bus drivers or over zealous light rail drivers who are filling in for vacationing light rail drivers.

Also yesterday I watched New Order Story. Since I’m pretty much a hardcore New Order fan I really enjoyed the video. Watching the video in a way was very fitting because on Friday I got my cd’s of Joy Division’s Substance and Unknown Pleasures. So I’ve had a very New Order/Joy Division filled weekend.

I have to say that every time I listen to the Joy Division cds I feel that I should be wearing black clothes and sporting black eyeliner. They’re very goth sounding.

Another cd I got on Friday was Modest Mouse’s,Good News For People Who Like Bad News. I checked Amazon’s if you own this list and again eerily I have cd’s in common. I own Wilco, and the Strokes. I want to get Death Cab For Cutie and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. You know I broke my sacred three hit songs rule when I bought the Modest Mouse cd. I also broke it last year when I got The Dandy Warhols, Welcome To The Monkey House. I hope I don’t do it again. I don’t regret my purchases. It’s just I’ve got to obey my own record buying rules. No purchases of cd’s until there are at least three hit songs on it.

Oh, before I go I have to say that my painting is still on display in the Pinkard Gallery of the Maryland Institute College of Art up until Saturday, July, 31, 2004.

Sunday, July 25, 2004

Today I got up good and early to do my grocery shopping. I left out at about 7:45 thinking that my neighborhood Safeway opens up at 8 it turns out that the earliest they open up at is 6am. As I was about to leave the store I encountered a homeless man who asked me if I had 50 so that he could buy a pack of hotdogs. He told me he hadn’t eaten in days. I told him I didn’t have the 50 cents, which was true. I usually pay for everything with my check card. I haven’t paid cash for groceries, clothes in years.

Anyway, I told the man that I would pay for it for him. He did not walk away. Which I assume meant that he really was hungry and wanted the food and not the money. He then wanted bread to go with the hotdogs. I bought them both for him along with my groceries. I didn’t give him my name because I didn’t see the point. He told me his name was Geronimo.

As I we were leaving out the door security stopped him because he had a bag. This was of course the bag of food that I had paid him. I suppose that he must regularly go in there and steal food or something. Well this time I paid for it. So I went back in and told the security guard that I paid for his bag of food.

After I left the store he started following me. I felt uncomfortable about this. What if he wanted to come over my house and regularly beg me for money. So I ran to shake him off.

To this day I don’t know if he really needed the food because he was hungry or if he later trashed the food. I’ve seen homeless people do that before. They get somebody to buy something for them when all they wanted was the money then later when the person isn’t looking they throw it away. Then of course he could have sold it for drug money or booze. Either way I don’t care. He looked like he needed help. He seemed sincere. What he finally did with the hotdogs and bread is on his conscious not mine.

Also, I could not log into PayPal today. I had been trying since 9PM. I tried again at around 6PM. Then I decided to change browsers. I no longer use Internet Explorer or Netscape as my primary browser. I downloaded an entirely different browser and now I have no trouble what so ever logging into paypal. I have used paypal for years. This was the first time I ever experienced any problems with them. So now the Violent Femmes, Add It Up 1981-1993 and Harry Nilsson’s Greatest Hits are paid for. I got the Violent Femmes cd because I recently realized that the only copy I have of that is a cassette. I got Nilsson’s Greatest Hits as I’ve said before because it is the only place where you can find Girlfriend, the original title of Best Friend the theme song to the Courtship of Eddie’s Father’s.