GJ Willis' Art Notes

Today, I mostly sat around and worried if I would get my zines mailed back or if they were all sold at the Baltimore Book Festival. I’m not sure if it would be cool to call up Gary Kachadourian and ask if there were any remainders.

Also today I made a bid on eBay on a Sangean radio which is reputed to be amongst the world’s best radios. Heck, it’s even endorsed by Art Bell. Yes, I know Art Bell is a bit of a kook. His late night talk show is mainly about UFO’s, ghost’s, and government conspiracies. Despite all this , I trust his opinion on radios. Don’t ask me why but I do.... Anyway, the model of Sangean radio I’m looking at has a ferrite antenna which is supposed to be the antennae to have if you want to pull in stations. For all I know this type of antennae might be a common feature on all radios.

Right now, I’m wearing a floral pink pajama short set with red flip flops.

shemaryellow, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

This is photo of actor Shemar Moore. In my opinion he is amongst the best looking men in daytime television. He will be returning in a few months to reprise his role of Malcolm Winters on The Young and the Restless.

This week I mainly tried to listen to soaps on my radio. I’ve noticed that I can get a slight signal if I put my radio on top of my computer monitor and kind of move my seat away from the desk. The whole set up is awkward because if I move too forward I loose the very faint signal. I’m doing all this so that I can listen to The Young and The Restless. I want to do this because Shemar Moore will be returning to the show reprising his Emmy Award winning role of Malcolm Winters. Despite the Emmy to me he’s still one of those actors where it’s best to watch him with the sound turned down.

Today, I’m wearing a purple short sleeved cotton and lycra blend v-neck t-shirt. I’m wearing it with blue jeans and black canvas tennis shoes.

Most Listened To cd’s This Week

The list below is in no particular order. If you have reading this a while then you probably have noticed that the musical stylings of Bobby Darin have a strange hold on me. Right about now, I'm getting kind of tired of the Bobby Darin cd I have. I'm looking into buying a newer Bobby Darin cd that has more hits on it. Anyway back to the list....

Patsy Cline-12 Greatest Hits

Bobby Darin-The Bobby Darin Story

Joy Division-Substance

Prodigy-The Fat of The Land

Today, the bus and light rail were both on time. However, the #20 did not come on time. Instead the #1 bus arrived in it’s place. This is ok because I can take either bus down to the light rail station.

I have to say that the light rail train is unusually crowded this morning. Some gray haired old lady sat next to me. No one usually sits next to me in the morning. After I finish writing this blog I like to take out my sketch book and draw. I can’t draw this morning on account of the little old lady sitting right next to me.

I bought a bunch of old time radio MP3’s to work with me. I listened to them as well as Doctor Who, Big Finish audio’s, over the fall and winter of last year. I did this because I couldn’t get TV stations on the radio in the new building our company moved to last fall. I still can’t get NPR. I haven’t listened to the Marc Steiner Show at work in over a year. I’m thinking maybe I should look into getting a more powerful radio that has a wider reception range if that is at all possible.

Today, I’m wearing a rarely worn black t-shirt that has a bunch of writing on it in slick graphics. It has words like Couture, 76, Glamour, Rock, Girl, Love written on it. I got it on sale a couple of years ago at K-Mart. I’m also wearing blue jeans and black canvas tennis shoes.

Today, I had a scheduled day off. I figured it would be the pagan thing to do. As you may know today is the first day of fall or as we call it Mabon. I didn’t go out and do anything special for Mabon. I just stayed home watched soaps and lit a few candles.

Yesterday, I went over my father’s house to pick up some books I ordered on Amazon.com. The books that arrived were, The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon and Oil Pastel: Materials and Techniques For Today’s Artist by Kenneth Leslie. I ordered the latter book because folks on the wetcanvas oil pastel board have been raving about it.

The visit over my father’s house was pleasant. It seems that Little David has moved in and his sister, Alexis has moved out. I’m sure she’ll be back. Every few months she leaves in a huff and threatens to never come back!! I believe her next scheduled time to become angry at the family and vow never to come back will be around January. Also, I’m happy to report that their phone is turned back on! My father believes that the main reason Alexis left is because she can not scrape enough money together to pay for next month’s phone bill. I know how she feels. When I was around her age I was responsible for the cable bill.

I suppose this can be considered an odd tradition in our family. No adult child living at home that has a job in our family pays rent, they just gain responsibility for a utility bill. To the best of my knowledge no one has been brave enough to let their offspring gain full responsibility of the gas and electric bill.

When it was time for me to leave my father’s house he generously paid my cab fare. The cabbie that arrived was an American and very talkative. He wore dread locks and kept going on and on about vegetarian places to eat around town. It seems that it was getting close to his lunch break and he was hungry. He told me about this great vegan restaurant he likes to go to called, The Yabba Pot. By his descriptions alone it made me want to go there and try out the food, even though I’m not a vegan. I am by the way a chubby, vegetarian, semi-dread locked, tree hugging, hippy chick.

Right now I’m wearing a blue flower print night shirt with blue fuzzy slippers.

Today, the bus was on time. However, when it arrived instead of saying #20, the sign read, Out Of Service. The stern looking bus driver was there only she wasn’t wearing her glasses. I should have known right then and there that something would go wrong.

The bus chugged along right until someone got off at the UMAB Medical School stop. When he got off the bus the driver had difficulty closing the doors. This was at around 5:45AM. She tried and tried to get the doors to close but they would not budge. Finally, she gave up and told us that another bus was on the way.

I had to catch my train at 5:50. I was unsure if I could walk all the way down to the light rail stop in under five minutes, but I got off the bus none the less. I was feeling antsy waiting to see if either another bus would come or that she could get the doors to close. I finally gave up and walked down the street with the throng of former bus passengers. Just as I started my walk down the street I noticed that the bus was also going down the street. Would she let us all back on the bus? She did! God/Goddess Bless the stern looking bus driver!!!

So after this little morning adventure I made it to the light rail stop on time! While there I saw the guy who works for the same company. He was having a very animated conversation with some man. I wasn’t sure if he saw me or not. He usually says, “Good morning!”, whenever I see him. Today, instead of saying good morning he said, “What’s up baby!” This was kind of surprising to me personally as no one has ever addressed me as baby before.

The lady who brings the baby was on the train this morning but there was no baby. I guess it’s getting too chilly to bring a baby out in the morning. God, I miss that baby!

Also, this morning we had our usual light rail driver. He’s a gray haired crotchety senior citizen. It seems he’s off every Monday. I guess he must get to keep Johnny Carson hours. Johnny Carson hours is a term I made up for people who work just four days a week. If you’re old enough you can probably recall that during the last years of Johnny Carson’s reign as host of the Tonight Show he worked just four days a week. On Monday nights he had a guest host or ran repeats of previous shows. I aspire to one day have Johnny Carson work weeks.

Yesterday, I painted. I mainly listened to WLG AM while I painted. They play music similar to Music From the Blue Light on Live365 Internet radio. I don’t know what it says about me that I like to paint while listening to Bobby Darin or Frank Sinatra.

Today, I’m wearing blue jeans, ancient Payless tennis shoes and a shirt I like to think of as my infamous pineapple shirt. I think of it that way because I have yet to see another human being sporting a t-shirt with a pineapple on it. The pineapple on the turquoise t-shirt is done in an almost abstract style adorned with rhinestones. It’s ironic in a sense that I would wear this shirt because I’m allergic to pineapples.

This morning the bus and light rail were both on time. We had the stern looking bus driver again. Also there was a different light rail driver this morning. All in all it looks like I’m going to be on time.

Today, since I get off early I plan on spending some time working on my postcard for the Creative Alliance’s mail art show that’s curated by Rev. Paul. I haven’t really painted much last week. I plan on pumping up my painting sessions this week.

Today, I’m wearing a brown shirt, blue jeans, cheap Payless tennis shoes, and a blue knit jersey jacket that has a print design of red, yellow, and turquoise. I’m wearing the jacket because for the first time this week it’s cold outside.

Looks like I will not be going to the Baltimore Book Festival today. Just thinking about going feels me with fear. What if the zine is there but looks horrible next to everyone else’s? Or worse what if I go there but everyone’s angry about what I wrote and draw? Or worse yet, what if it’s not there at all?

So instead of going I watched movies on my dvd player. I watched Camelot, The Mists of Avalon, and The Royal Tenenbaums.

I was really surprised at how much I took to and enjoyed The Mists Of Avalon. If you can recall I read the book in the early part of summer in my King Arthur gotta read it, see it, know it stage.

As expected I loved The Royal Tenenbaums! This isn’t surprising because I really seem to like movies written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. As far as I’m concerned the two are comedic geniuses. Yes, I know I’m basing this on just three movies (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums). But damn those were three great movies that made me laugh! I look forward to the next Owen Wilson/Wes Anderson movie.

Today, I’m wearing a purple and blue plaid mini skirt and a light blue t-shirt along with blue flip flops.