Sunday wanders into an art fair....
Sep. 28th, 2025 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatIt was a lovely day, the sky bright as a robin's egg, so I took a long walk to the local art festival or Artmeggadon - which allegedly had over 400 artists participating. It was all in all about five to six miles from my home as the crow flies or the pigeon waddles. I made it to the a block of it - about a mile and a half from my apartment, along 18th Street and Dorchester, just south of Courteylou. There were some artists scattered north of there, but not many. Also listened to an old folk singer, who looked to be in his late 60s early 70s, singing on a porch stoop near a senior center. With folks lounging in outdoor plastic porch chairs on a green lawn that seemed to be seeded with new grass not fully grown, small trampled emerald shoots trying to push up. Saw a few ceramic cups that tempted me - but I don't have the space for the ones I already own. And the art did not speak to me. It did however make me feel better about my own - which I like better, and did not see duplicated nor any similarities. My work is unique to me. Yet so much of the art I saw on display was not unique and felt like the work I'd seen as the outcome of one too many painting and life drawing courses. The student hadn't quite gotten past the need to copy photos or do self-portraits. There was however some interesting ceramics, jewelry, and a comic book artist that I found somewhat interesting in passing. Plus a puppetry troop with a life - sized monster puppet swinging in a hammock, hand constructed.
But I found it a bit crowded in places, and often hard to see the art, so chose not to walk any further into the fair, and zig-zagged back home taking in the scant offerings on the way. It being Brooklyn, I saw a variety of landscapes on the walk - from multi-family homes that one might well see in the wealthy suburbs of Connecticut or Mass, with their broad porches, arched roofs, and well manicured lawns - to the brick multi-storied pre-war apartment buildings, and old school shops. Upon two walls were painstakingly painted murals, telling their own stories of the people who lived here, with songs in their hearts.
As I neared my own block, I chose to snap a few photos of the sunflowers growing in wild abandon in front of stone and mortar house that dated well back to the 1950s and the pre-war apartment building next door.
Television this weekend
* Great British Baking Show - up to Episode 13
* The Newsreader on Prime - it only has season 1, and it's leaving in four days, after that you can only see it and the next season on AMC. S3 has aired in Australia but isn't available yet on streaming. It takes place in yesteryear - the yesteryear in question, 1986. And focuses on a National News/Local News broadcast station in Melbourne, Australia during 1986. It stars Sam Reid (Lestate in Interview with a Vampire), Anna Torv (Fringe), and Robert Taylor (Longmire). I finished S1. The later seasons aren't available on streaming (outside of AMC). But S1 kind of stands by itself, and wraps up neatly on its own. I didn't really need to see anything after it? It doesn't really require more episodes, although there is obviously more story there. It's a workplace serial. Also discusses homosexuality and bisexuality through a 1980s lens - which is painful at times, but accurate and informative - it's good to see how far we've come, I think.
* Call the Midwife - this is a partial re-watch continuation. I can't remember when I stopped watching the show? I think it was somewhere around S6 or S7? Since I vaguely remember the episodes I'm watching now.
But not well enough to skip ahead. It's a comforting series that takes place in the 1950s-60s in London - Great Britain. It's on Netflix, so it's just streaming from one episode to the next. I'd originally watched it on PBS several years ago.
*Angel the Series - started my re-watch. It's better than I remembered and holds up better than expected. Things I didn't realize? Whedon co-wrote with David Greenwalt the pilot, and directed it. The PTB isn't clearly defined, Doyle just assumes that the visions come from them, but doesn't know for certain. Nor does he know why he gets them. It starts out as episodic and kind of a vampire version of Kojack the Night Stalker - until the writers got incredibly bored/ran out of ideas - and went the full on serial route. (Stealth Anthology/Episodic is REALLY hard to do well or pull off week after week for a 22 episode series.) They really didn't know what they were doing to begin with - and much like Buffy - played with it. I also didn't realize that Tim Minear started as a writer/producer in episode 1. Or that the Kuzuis, Sandy Gallin (Dolly Parton's group) and Gail Berman (WB's group) owned the rights and were the executive producers. Greenwalt and Whedon may have come up with the idea and created it? But they didn't own it, and get nothing in residuals or royalties. So if you are worried about Whedon getting anything from the series - if you watch or rewatch, don't. He doesn't get a dime.
****
Question a Day Meme - End of September
22. Are you good at managing your time, or would you love to be better organized?
Yes. Perhaps too good - work wise. I've had to be - because of deadlines, and I get anxious. So, I don't procrastinate on big things, and get them done quickly. Also, I don't over-schedule myself.
23. Do you know how to perform the ‘Heimlich manoeuvre’?
No. I used to, ages ago. But I don't now.
24. Have you ever seen a comet in the sky?
No.
25. ‘Rotomontade’ is a bragging speech or rant. When was the last time you had a really good rant about something?
My rants tend to be more kvetching not bragging? I don't tend to brag? Bravado is not a skill of mine.
26. Have you ever been fruit-picking? What kind of fruit did you pick, and what did you do with them?
Yes. Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries as a child. We made pies with them and put them over cereal and ice cream. Also muffins and cake with the blueberries. I can't remember if we picked apples.
27. Do you know how to change a tyre/tire on a car? Have you ever had to do it?
No. And no.
28. Have you ever eaten caviar?
Yes. It's salty, but I'm not really a fan? Expensive but not worth the price or the bother.
But I found it a bit crowded in places, and often hard to see the art, so chose not to walk any further into the fair, and zig-zagged back home taking in the scant offerings on the way. It being Brooklyn, I saw a variety of landscapes on the walk - from multi-family homes that one might well see in the wealthy suburbs of Connecticut or Mass, with their broad porches, arched roofs, and well manicured lawns - to the brick multi-storied pre-war apartment buildings, and old school shops. Upon two walls were painstakingly painted murals, telling their own stories of the people who lived here, with songs in their hearts.
As I neared my own block, I chose to snap a few photos of the sunflowers growing in wild abandon in front of stone and mortar house that dated well back to the 1950s and the pre-war apartment building next door.
Television this weekend
* Great British Baking Show - up to Episode 13
* The Newsreader on Prime - it only has season 1, and it's leaving in four days, after that you can only see it and the next season on AMC. S3 has aired in Australia but isn't available yet on streaming. It takes place in yesteryear - the yesteryear in question, 1986. And focuses on a National News/Local News broadcast station in Melbourne, Australia during 1986. It stars Sam Reid (Lestate in Interview with a Vampire), Anna Torv (Fringe), and Robert Taylor (Longmire). I finished S1. The later seasons aren't available on streaming (outside of AMC). But S1 kind of stands by itself, and wraps up neatly on its own. I didn't really need to see anything after it? It doesn't really require more episodes, although there is obviously more story there. It's a workplace serial. Also discusses homosexuality and bisexuality through a 1980s lens - which is painful at times, but accurate and informative - it's good to see how far we've come, I think.
* Call the Midwife - this is a partial re-watch continuation. I can't remember when I stopped watching the show? I think it was somewhere around S6 or S7? Since I vaguely remember the episodes I'm watching now.
But not well enough to skip ahead. It's a comforting series that takes place in the 1950s-60s in London - Great Britain. It's on Netflix, so it's just streaming from one episode to the next. I'd originally watched it on PBS several years ago.
*Angel the Series - started my re-watch. It's better than I remembered and holds up better than expected. Things I didn't realize? Whedon co-wrote with David Greenwalt the pilot, and directed it. The PTB isn't clearly defined, Doyle just assumes that the visions come from them, but doesn't know for certain. Nor does he know why he gets them. It starts out as episodic and kind of a vampire version of Kojack the Night Stalker - until the writers got incredibly bored/ran out of ideas - and went the full on serial route. (Stealth Anthology/Episodic is REALLY hard to do well or pull off week after week for a 22 episode series.) They really didn't know what they were doing to begin with - and much like Buffy - played with it. I also didn't realize that Tim Minear started as a writer/producer in episode 1. Or that the Kuzuis, Sandy Gallin (Dolly Parton's group) and Gail Berman (WB's group) owned the rights and were the executive producers. Greenwalt and Whedon may have come up with the idea and created it? But they didn't own it, and get nothing in residuals or royalties. So if you are worried about Whedon getting anything from the series - if you watch or rewatch, don't. He doesn't get a dime.
****
Question a Day Meme - End of September
22. Are you good at managing your time, or would you love to be better organized?
Yes. Perhaps too good - work wise. I've had to be - because of deadlines, and I get anxious. So, I don't procrastinate on big things, and get them done quickly. Also, I don't over-schedule myself.
23. Do you know how to perform the ‘Heimlich manoeuvre’?
No. I used to, ages ago. But I don't now.
24. Have you ever seen a comet in the sky?
No.
25. ‘Rotomontade’ is a bragging speech or rant. When was the last time you had a really good rant about something?
My rants tend to be more kvetching not bragging? I don't tend to brag? Bravado is not a skill of mine.
26. Have you ever been fruit-picking? What kind of fruit did you pick, and what did you do with them?
Yes. Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries as a child. We made pies with them and put them over cereal and ice cream. Also muffins and cake with the blueberries. I can't remember if we picked apples.
27. Do you know how to change a tyre/tire on a car? Have you ever had to do it?
No. And no.
28. Have you ever eaten caviar?
Yes. It's salty, but I'm not really a fan? Expensive but not worth the price or the bother.