Join Wild Bill Tick Tock in Chicago!

For four days, December 2-5,  
the infamous Wild Bill Tick Tock 
aka Bennie Merideth 
aka Mr. A Life with a View 
will be exhibiting his extraordinary timepieces
at the One of a Kind Show at the Merchandise Mart, Chicago.

Click here to download your complimentary tickets!  If you're not in the Chicago area, feel free to send the link to anyone you know there.

Here's a preview:

(Be sure to enlarge the image above.)

The tops lift up to reveal a hiding place for the contents of your choosing...

Love letters?

Dental appointments?

Chocolate?

Einstein, 77" H x 8 1/2 " W

Another Roadside Attraction, 15 1/2" H x 6 1/2 " W

VISIT US AT BOOTH 8048.

More clocks can be seen here.  If you can't be in Chicago, you can purchase clocks by email from the website.

Do your part in the important global movement to stamp out the proliferation of dull timepieces now!

A Typical Thanksgiving Day at Our House

Flannery and I busily prepare the feast.  An assortment of mouthwatering pies prepared from scratch will be set on the windowsill to cool in the crisp autumn air.  Carrots, rutabagas, acorn squash, turnips, parsnips, brussel sprouts, cabbage, all manner of leafy greens, fresh from the neighbor’s garden, will be transformed by Thanksgiving Alchemy, into our delectable fat-free Vegan Stew.  Bennie will shoot an enormous turkey on the back forty.  Oakley will demonstrate, before our very eyes, his prowess in dressing a turkey, as he has for seventeen Thanksgivings past.
 
Each year the turkey’s attire is more festive than last. Oakley’s dressed turkey took top honors at the 1998 Macy’s Parade. Willard Scott was dazzled.

  If our humble table doesn’t have room for each and every one of us--this year we'll be hosting a multitude--we will set up quaint picnic tables by the rushing river behind the house.  If need be, we will eat in shifts, asking the heavens for a sign as to who should be first to dine, before drawing straws.  Those coming up with the short straw may sit on the ground, on the sidelines, salivating.  Babies shall rest comfortably in hollowed out logs.

 Yes, Native Americans will be in attendance.  They’re a very big part of the tradition.

Whatever your own traditions this year...

Out of Jail

Have I really not been here since June 14? That's what happens when you're arrested for vandalism to public property and have to wait for the Man on the Ladder to post bail. This is the sad sequence of events:

I was visited at the gallery by two bloggers:

C. M. Jackson, of
States of Mine

Kate, of
Visual St. Paul

It was a fun time, until those two, inspired by my previous post, decided to paint the town red. Literally. As she was being handcuffed, Kate broke down, sobbing. She shared with me she hadn't quite gotten that post. She hadn't seen I was joking, poor thing. Apparently neither did C.M. My heart went out. I took the rap. I did the jail-time.


Here I am, almost five months later, a free woman, hardened a bit. I smoke Marlboros. I've lost my patience with the little niceties in life. I guzzle milk straight from the jug. I wipe my white mustache on my sleeve. I'm tough as nails.

So here's a recap of what's been happening since June 14 (aside from the rotting in jail):

The Man on the Ladder, who appears to be applying graffiti, actually patched and painted the entire exterior of our house. We now live in a house painted the color known as "La Luz," one of the seventeen shades of brown allowed by our neighborhood covenants. Every house in the neighborhood is an adobe or a pretend adobe, and the houses nestle into the high desert landscape quite nicely. Our new trim color is sage and I realize I don't have a picture of the new, improved exterior. One of these days.

Climbing down from the ladder, the man was joined by his cousin Paul, visiting from Chicago, in the very ambitious project of installing a cherry floor in our bedroom. Here they are, basking in the satisfaction of a job well done...

Notice they're standing near a wall they can collapse against. It was a big project.

I took this painting, well past the expiration date, from the gallery to hang in the new bedroom...

Gazing at it first thing in the morning lifts my spirits if I do say so.

We enjoyed our share of magnificent high-desert sunsets...

Paul snapped this one from our bedroom balcony. To see more of his photographs, go here.

I published a story in the summer issue of Dream Network Journal, an eclectic quarterly focusing on somewhat scholarly pieces about, yup, dreaming, as well as personal accounts of interesting dreams. Mine was the latter. A one-page reproduction of my painting "Wanderer" appears in that issue too. They're open to anyone's dream musing, particularly that of prisoners, so my work was accepted almost immediately.

Turned 57 last month. Shudder. Received some interesting gifts, among them a life-size replica of a severed human foot. I was told it came from the state medical examiner's office. No, I am NOT kidding. Don't have a picture of it. Yet. Snapping one's on my to-do list, and posting it too.

Here's my beautiful cake, created by Flan...

Chocolate buttermilk cake.
Chocolate ganache frosting.
Raspberry filling.
Crowned by sculptures of praline brittle riddled with cacao nibs.
Extraordinary!

Found good homes for a few paintings, among them this one, which was a bit of a departure for me, depicting semi-recognizable objects from the natural world...

Disappearing Beasts
acrylic on canvas, 36" x 24"
private collection, Tallahassee

Summer was good. Fall is too. It's good to be back in blogland.