GJ Willis' Art Notes

Nothing terribly interesting happened today until after I left the supermarket. I went through my usual Saturday routine; payed bills, went to the laundromat, and then the supermarket.

The one exciting thing that happened today was that I ran into Quinton. Quinton is a former neighbor from the hood I grew up in. I lived in that neighborhood up until the age of 27. Quinton is about a decade older than me.

He used to work in the Korean owned neighborhood corner store. When the original Korean owners left for New York and another group of Koreans took over the store, Quinton still remained. One got the feeling that Quinton came as a package deal with the store no matter who owned it.

The last time I saw Quinton was a couple of years ago on a #5 bus headed to Mondawmin. He was lamenting over the fact that all his sisters and everyone he knew had children. I told him that I didn’t have any children. This didn’t seem to cheer him up any.

One got the feeling that he really wanted to be a father ASAP. I never saw a man so anguished and desperate over wanting to be a father. I always thought that only women wanted to be parents. This experience really opened up my eyes to the possibility that men could also want to be parents.

Today, I ran into Quinton for the second time this decade as I was leaving the supermarket. It seems that he has moved into my neighborhood and has acquired a brand new wife. At 40something, it’s his first marriage. I wasn't sure if it would have been a good idea for me to ask if he and his wife had kids yet. I wasn’t sure if it was still a sore spot with him. Since he didn’t bring it up neither did I.

Anyway, I hope that Quinton and his wife are happy and have a house full of kids. Lord knows that there father will cherish them.

MEMORIES OF MY OLD HOOD

During the 90’s my old neighborhood became over run with the drug trade. The dealers were very loud and obnoxious. It was next to impossible to sleep at night. They were not quiet or discreet about what they were doing. They would shout at the top of their lungs the products they were selling. Morning, afternoon, and night in my old neighborhood was tinged with the cries of, “Boy Girl!”, “White Out!” and, “Red Out!”

It was as though they were challenging my neighbors, who were for the most part law abiding citizens to do something.

It all seemed useless. Whenever we’d call the police the dealers would hide then come out again later when the coast was clear. Gradually, the people in my old neighborhood began to move out. When this occurred it, rendering a once vibrant neighborhood into a ghost town inhabited by drug dealers and addicts.

My father and I drove by the old neighborhood a couple of years ago. All the houses have been knocked down. The drug dealers turned it into an empty lifeless shell. It was as though they had sucked the life out of it until there was nothing left but rubble.

ackroyd, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

DAILY COMMUTE:
This mornings commute on the MTA went great. Everything ran like clock work. However, everything went bizarre on my bus ride home on the #8 bus. Well, it wasn’t exactly everything just how these two elderly female passengers were dressed.

I’d say that the two women were in there 50’s to early 60’s. They got on the bus somewhere on York Road. They were dressed in these see through net tops that you sometimes see men wearing. You could clearly see there bras and everything else through the netting. It was a shocking and frightening sight. I felt embarrassed for any children or grandchildren they might have.

They both seemed to be on something. As they held onto the bars of the crowded bus they would sink down lower and lower. No matter how low they went they never tipped over. I think they might have been on heroin.

BIG NEWS: Dan Ackroyd Has Asperger’s Syndrome!!
I was absolutely shocked today to hear on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terri Gross that Dan Ackroyd has Asperger’s Syndrome. No one speculated about it, he said it himself on air. I have to give him major kudos for coming out about it. Wow! I get to add another member to the celebrity Asperger’s Syndrome club!! So far we have speculated and confirmed members: Steven Spielberg, Andy Kauffman, Bill Gates, Andy Warhol, Glenn Gould, and Keanu Reeves.

I should say right now if this is your first trip to my site that I have Asperger’s Syndrome. Since I have this disorder I’m always a bit happy when a famous person comes forward and says that they also have the disorder. It gives me hope that maybe if I try hard enough I can make my dreams come true.

Also from the NPR show I learned that Ackroyd has a fascination with law enforcement and hates to leave out the house without carrying a badge.

In retrospect I don’t know why I found his admission so shocking. When you look back on his comedy and acting career you notice that it’s littered with classic Asperger Syndrome archetypes like Elwood Blues from the Blues Brothers and Sgt Friday from the Dragnet movie.

WHAT I’M WEARING:
Today, I have on a beige skirt along with an orange and pink striped short sleeve top. I feel like a walking scoop of sherbert ice cream. I’m OK with that because I like sherbert. :)

I haven’t been anywhere near my computer since the start of the heat wave a couple of weeks ago. When I finally checked my email I was horrified to find 1,189 messages. The reason I don’t go by the computer much in heat is because my apartment is not air conditioned and the computer tends to draw heat. I don’t know when or if I will ever get through the mail.

WHAT I’M WEARING:
Today, I have on blue striped v-neck blouse and a dark blue skirt.

amlightrailstop, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

This is a photo I took one morning of the light rail station I use. As you can see the 7eleven is conveniently across the street.

snowylightrail, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

Lately, it's been brutely hot outside. So I thought I'd post this picture I took of a light rail stop in the winter.

artscapeexhibit, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

This is a photo of the Artscape exhibit that I dod not participate in. The reason being I'm more of a painter than a design of typography. The exhibit this year dealt with re-designing the alphabet and it had to be in.... EeeeeK! Black and White!

artscapetents, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

This is a photograph I took of the tents I saw lined up across the street from my shuttle bus stop. The tents are out for vendors who will be selling there wares at Artscape. I think it was just on Tuesday when they popped up.

kingcrab, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

This is another crab sculpture I photographed after leaving from church. I like to think of this one as King Crab.

lightrailaccident, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

This is a photo of a light rail and car accident that happened on the day that it was announced that Freda from the Don and Mike Show died. The accident as you can imagine severly delayed my commute home.

lightrailsky, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

I was looking up at the sky one morning while waiting for the light rail train to arrive. I just had to capture that sky for future reference. It was simply amazing! I believe this makes the second sky I've photographed.

rainbowcrab, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

I photographed this one on Sunday after I left from church. It appears to be a rainbow crab.

prettystreet, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

I was walking down a street one day when I noticed how utterly pretty the scene looked. Again, I had to take out my camera and capture the moment.

traincrab1, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

One Sunday after church I was walking down to the Charles theater when I noticed this crab sculpture by Penn Station. I just had to photograph it!

lightrailsculpture, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

This is picture I took of the sculpture that stands near the Meyerhoff shuttle stop. Since it's near the symphony I assume it's supposed to be an amalgamate of various musical instruments.

MORNING COMMUTE:
I got on the #20 bus this morning. The light rail train I got on was North Bound. The number on the inside of the train was #5037B. There were five other passengers aboard including this man who was either crazy or talking on a cell phone. I found it hard to figure out what was going on until he got off the train.

He was making all these extreme dance like hand gestures as he was talking. From the back he looked disheveled his clothes looked dusty. When he got up I noticed he was carrying tools and a construction worker hat. Mystery solved! He was not mentally ill. He was just a construction worker who has a tendency to talk with hands. One things for sure with the disheveled clothing he sure looked like a crazy person from behind. Then again construction work is not the type of work where wearing your Sunday best is job a requirement.

THE ARROGANT 7 ELEVEN CUSTOMER:

At the 7 eleven this morning there was this man standing in line in front of me who was eating the sandwich he was going to buy. This man in no way looked like a crazy, drunk, or homeless person. I as well as a number of customers in line found this sight very amusing. The man must have been very rich and hungry.

The guy at the counter told him that he couldn’t ring up the sandwich because he had opened it up. So the man went back and got another sandwich like the one he was eating so that the man at the cash register could ring it up. The man of course was loudly protesting that the man was working in the store and had no idea how much things cost in his own store.

I’m not sure but I think it might have been a case where it could only be rung up by the upc code on the package. Anyway, the man who didn’t look poor payed for the sandwich and left.

WHAT I’M WEARING:
Today, I have on a hot pink top along with light blue slacks. The shoes I have on are tan leather flip flops.

It’s raining outside this morning. I hope that the rain helps to bring the temperature down.

WHAT I’M WEARING:
Today, I have on a striped floral blouse. I also have on green slacks. Also today is the first August appearance of my beige Muppet shoes. They don’t have pictures of Muppets on them. They’re just plain canvas tennis shoes that I imagine a Muppet might wear.

jennings, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

Long time ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings passed away yesterday. Despite being Canadian he was my all time favourite anchor. I admired him because he had this air of sophisticated coolness about him. It was like watching a royal prince deliver the news.

I was not aware of his passing until they said something about it today on the Big O and Dukes show which is soon to be called The Ed Norris Show with Big O and Dukes Show. As everyone knows Jennings died of lung cancer. I wasn’t too surprised when his lung cancer diagnosis was revealed.

I recall being horrified when I saw a candid interview he did a decade or two ago. In this interview they showed footage of him going through his day to day activities as a network anchor. In almost every scene they showed he seemed to have a cigarette in his hand smoking.

As a kid after seeing this I was thoroughly horrified with the knowledge that my favorite network anchor was a smoker! As a kid you naturally assume that the people you admire live clean healthy lives devoid of vice. For a while I couldn’t bring myself to watch his newscasts because I felt let down. Yes, I turned to the dark side and watched Tom Brokaw mispronounce words on NBC News. Eventually I grew up and realized that Peter Jennings was human and like all humans he wasn’t perfect. I will greatly miss seeing Jennings on the magic box called TV.