a cultural test

Blackbird never tags anyone, but I know that if she did, she would tag me. So I consider myself tagged. And I consider all my blogging readers tagged by me.

What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now?
Pears.

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator?
No. It's clementine weather. (This is Blackbird's answer, but it goes for me too.)

What would you change about your living room?
I'd break away a few walls, finish sanding the floor, paint the walls, and install a tin ceiling.

Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty?
We don't have a dishwasher.

What is in your fridge?
Half an onion, cranberries, cumin Gouda, soup vegetables, dog food, mozarella, goat cheese, rose hip jam, eggs, margarine, butter, marmalade, ketchup, Dijon mustard, yellow mustard, maple syrup, left over gravy, turkey breast, smoked ham, hot sauce, milk, BBQ sauce, soy sauce, Tabasco, piccalilli, hamburger relish, capers, tartar sauce, pickles, sambal.

White or wheat bread?
Both.

What is on top of your refrigerator?
Dog food, dog biscuits, a bottle of sake, and a pile of printed recipes.

What color or design is on your shower curtain?
Stripes. Lots of colours.

How many plants are in your home?
None at all, I hate plants. They take up room.

Is your bed made right now?
Yes. And my electrical blanket is warming it up. For when I have finished typing this blog entry.

Comet or Soft Scrub?
Pardon me?

Is your closet organized?
Yes. But not very neatly piled.

Can you describe your flashlight?
Yes, we have mag-lites. I keep them in a kitchen cabinet together with the candles and the matches. For when there is a power outage.

Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home?
Glass! Plastic, what a disgusting idea.

Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now?
No.

If you have a garage, is it cluttered?
We don't have a garage.

Curtains or blinds?
Curtains.

How many pillows do you sleep with?
Two.

Do you sleep with any lights on at night?
No.

How often do you vacuum?
Once or twice a week.

Standard toothbrush or electric?
Standard. Hmm. I never thought of the opposite of electric as being 'standard.'
(I am leaving a lot of BB's answers unchanged)

What color is your toothbrush?
Magenta. But I urgently need a new one.

Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch?
I have a 4 x 6 sisal rug on the front porch.

What is in your oven right now?
The racks.

Is there anything under your bed?
Yes, a big folder with a series of lithographs Michiel did back in the eighties. We have no other place for it. And a baby's mattress.

Chore you hate doing the most?
Changing the beds.

What retro items are in your home?
I don't think we have anything retro. Retro is fake old. In our home everything that looks old is old.

Do you have a separate room that you use as an office?
No.

How many mirrors are in your home?
Many, probably more than thirty.

What color are your walls?
White, except the bathroom. Which I painted blue.

Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home?
No! This is an American tag, scary people, Americans.

What does your home smell like right now?
Of dog needing shower.

Favorite candle scent?
No!!

What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now?
Garlic and sweet.

What color is your favorite Bible?
This question is the reason I wanted this tag. Picture above. I don't leave the house without it.

Ever been on your roof?
No.

Do you own a stereo?
Yes, in the kitchen.

How many TVs do you have?
None.

How many house phones?
None.

Do you have a housekeeper?
Aside from me? No.

What style do you decorate in?
Eclectic minimalism.

Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints?
Solid.

Is there a smoke detector in your home?
There are a few. There are a couple of carbon monoxide detectors too.

In case of fire, what are the items in your house which you’d grab if you only could make one quick trip?
A coat. It's freaking cold out.

stout

It's been a while since I did this one, but it's finally in the papers today. And I am starting a new one for these same papers. They are all different regional papers for regions all through the Netherlands. Illustration is going nice and smoothly recently, touch wood. Every time I finish a piece, a new job comes in. Like clockwork, as if my clients are holding secret meetings to avoid overloading me. I enjoy and appreciate that very much, as I am sure it won't stay this way.

A guy in the dog park has a sweet little lab puppy. It's called Langley. I said, oh, do you live on Langley (Avenue)? And yes, he did. I think that's a great idea, you could do the same to kids. Piffin would then have been called Pieter (de Hooch), and Otger's name would have been Geiger. I think Geiger is a cool name! How would your kids (or you) have been called? I would have been Karel de Stoute. Eat that, Heleen van Rooyen.

broken glasses

Half way through the day, and already done. That should leave plenty of time for me to make dinner and go to my life drawing class. And I already went to my doctor's appointment. My own very nice doctor is away for three months, and I didn't like his substitute much. Okay, my cholesterol is high, but I don't think that allows him to be that grumpy ("is a gym membership going to happen?"). I want my own doctor back. And this one didn't exactly have an athletic body himself. He wants me to go to a gym three times a week, and sweat. It doesn't help if I don't sweat. Nightmare scenario. And then in the backyard when I was throwing something in the recycling, I stepped on the rake. Slapstick. The handle almost broke my nose, which would have meant back to the grumpy doctor. But it did break my glasses dammit.

Update. No drawing class after all. You would never guess, a black out. The whole block on King. But at least this meant that Michiel was home early enough to have dinner with the rest of us, because without power they can't do much in the office. And I had a foot and a half of rainbow trout fillet. Very low in cholesterol.

And for dessert: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings "100 Days, 100 Nights"

eating

I'll make her pretty tomorrow. I hope I will be able to work fast, because I also have a doctor's appointment, and I want to go to my life drawing class. And the family has to eat too. I have to do that for them, you see. They wouldn't eat if it wasn't for me.

al capp

Strange, I was just researching negligees and marabou mules, for an illustration. I only found out today that they are called marabou mules, not that you're going to think too highly of me. My mother owned a pair, in baby blue with wedge heels. I remember how soft the pompoms were.

The Wikipedia about the cartoonist with the gangster name (why am I suddenly reminded of parent teacher night at Otger's school yesterday, mmm):
Born Alfred Gerald Caplin of Jewish heritage, Capp was the eldest child of Otto and Tillie Caplin, and a native of New Haven, Connecticut. He lost his right leg in a trolley accident at the age of nine.
Capp spent five years at Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Connecticut without receiving a diploma. The cartoonist liked to tell how he failed geometry for nine straight terms.

Oh, and by the way, it's not fair. Otger still has both his legs and his math teacher adores him. Oh, I know, it's because this site says that encouraged by an artistic father, young Alfred developed his own cartooning skills. And Otger's art teacher loves him too. And us too, the encouraging parents. Otger says he was still talking about me today. Unlike the incredibly good looking gym teacher :-( Rows of mothers lining up at his table!

florence kate upton

She began to sketch out ideas for a children’s book, using ‘penny wooden’ dolls as her models. However, without a central character on which to hang the tale, progress came to a standstill. Her aunt, Kate Hudson, found an old toy in her attic that had belonged to the Upton children, left behind from an earlier visit. This toy, which she named Golliwogg, provided inspiration, with the first story was produced in 1894. The publishing house of Longmans, Green & Co. offered Florence a contract, and The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg was published for Christmas 1895.
During her stay in London Florence provided illustrations for the Strand, The Idler and Punch magazine. The American Society in London also commissioned a series of drawings and cartoons to decorate the souvenir programme of their November 1896 Thanksgiving Banquet. After three years of work, she returned to New York to attend the Art Students League, then continued studies in Paris and Holland. Returning to London in 1906 to take up permanent residence, she moved to 21 Great College Street in 1910.
Through the years Florence and Bertha collaborated on a total of thirteen Golliwogg adventures, the series ending as, over the years, cultural drift caused interest in the series to wane and Florence sought a career as a professional artist. The last of the Golliwogg books was published in 1909.
Florence continued to study and paint, concentrating mainly on portraits. She exhibited at the Royal Academy and other prominent venues and rapidly established a reputation as an accomplished society portraitist. Additionally, she received hundreds of commissions from the families of young soldiers.
Due to health issues, Florence was found unfit to serve in any physical capacity during the First World War. She instead aided the war effort by donating her original dolls and drawings to a fund-raising auction for the Red Cross, conducted by Christies in 1917. The dolls, sold as a lot, funded purchase of an ambulance, christened ‘Golliwogg’, which went to the front and served in France.
At the age of only 49, Florence Upton died in her studio on 16 October 1922, from complications following surgery. She is buried in West Hampstead Cemetery. For many years her vandalised grave was unidentifiable, with the headstone toppled face-down in the grass. The stone has now been set upright, courtesy of a Heritage Lottery grant, and awaits restoration.

thicky fingers

And it rains and it rains and it rains today. They say it's going to turn into snow tonight. But so far it has been a very Dutch day. Orbit and I have been soaking wet twice, which is very good for Orbit, because he doesn't like the shower. I had to leave him on the porch and get a towel before I could let him in, I don't want him to ruin the freshly sanded down living room floor(!) A lonely day too, nobody goes to the park on a day like this, and even the supermarket cashiers were bored. Into the kitchen now. Whole wheat pasta with schnitzels. Anyone know a trick to coat schnitzels with breadcrumbs and not my fingers? After five schnitzels my fingers tend to be eight centimeters thick.

Cheese shop guy to suspiciously Dutch looking older lady (actually that was yesterday): "This cheese is from the north of Holland, from the Polder".

pmwi

And the post menopausal lady is dancing. Do you think she looks post menopausal? I think I have found myself a great niche market in the post menopausal woman. Instead of calling myself a children's illustrator, I can call myself a post menopausal women's illustrator. I even have one on my promo card. Now all I have to do is order business cards saying post menopausal women's illustrator. The money will come flying to me.

postcards!

I am sorry if I had you check back a few times too often without even finding a website. We slept through the expiry date of our domain... But never mind, I will just give you two exiting posts tonight. My new post cards arrived! This is the first time I haven't physically gone to a real print shop. Instead I used one of those mega cheap internet ones. I feared for the print quality, but I figured it was worth a try. And what do you know, impeccable! I am really really happy with them, I am going to do more! And more! And more! And I will send post cards to all of you. (No I won't)

fleeing can not anymore

Colour is for next week, we'll do weekend in the weekend. Otger needs pants, for one thing. He's still wearing these very thin flimsy linen Summer things, very fancy and cool looking, but cold. We had the first flurries today. At least I hope he agrees to some new clothes, because we watched the End of Suburbia last night, and I'm afraid he will want to stop consuming all together. We were thinking about where to move to after there is no oil. Somewhere where we don't have to heat a house, that's for sure. If we can still get there. Spain or Portugal maybe, somewhere where people still remember how to be self sufficient. Our squatting experience will come in handy, we lived without hydro and gas for two years!

what we want

After menopause, women can finally do what they want, I can't wait. So how better to depict this than by dancing on the furniture? Better than them finding their true self while soul searching. Or exploring their creativity, what a nightmare. But we had a lot of fun taking these pictures, and I don't look half bad for post-menopausal, said she sarcastically. Are you doing what you want? Am I? If you have time asking yourself silly questions like that, you are not. What did I do today? I made draadjesvlees, and bought myself a beautiful Italian leather wallet. The first money I took out of it was a hand full of change for a singing homeless woman. Sometimes I do these silly good luck things. Like the very first euros I ever spent, I gave a rondje with them.

so who do you think would play mr. mooney?

Let's dedicate this post to Ruud, who had the best commentary on the chopping of Anne's tree.

insulation

I struggled with turning form into volume. There was a lot of volume tonight. The good thing was that she did not need the little electrical heaters. The skinny models always get cold, so that we have to heat the room up to the point where I have to leave early or burst. Or undress too, but I don't think that's an option.

i am a food bank

I made eight bread puddings of all the left over bread from Saturday's party. And distributed them on the street. Arlene -find her house on yesterday's picture- already facebooked me that they finished half of it and are skipping dinner. I tell you, I was born to be a neighbour. I love to spend non-illustrating days in the kitchen, love it. But I do feel my back now.

my street

This post is a reply to Blackbird's post of today. The street you see is pretty much the setting of my life. I leave the street to go grocery shopping, or for going to the library or occasional theatre, doctor or dentist visits, but most of the time this is it. Oh I am lying, I forget walking Orbit. Anyhow. I live where the red dot is. I put question marks where I don't know who lives there. Two of them just occurred to me though, so it's really two question marks less. The party last night left me with a not entirely clear head, sorry. I didn't drink much at all, four or five glasses of wine at most, but I'm afraid they were all from different bottles. It was an awesome party, very funky crowd. Auntie Clare works in advertising, very funky crowd. And us neighbours are not entirely unfunky either, I wore a silver dress. Lovely, those neighbourhood parties, when it gets really late, and all the scary strangers are gone, and just the neighbours left, it feels like family. Family in a nice way. I helped clean the house tonight, it wasn't even that dirty, very refined people. And I inherited enough left overs to get me through the week.

mural

Some good has come from this blog. Our dear neighbour and friend auntie Clare saw this drawing and fell in love with it, I can't blame her. For the longest time she has wanted to paint it on their mantelpiece, but you know how it goes. Busy lives. But tomorrow they are throwing their party of parties (hey, I bought a dress!) the mantelpiece has to look perfect, and it does. Doesn't it just?

he doesn't even like this music

Couldn't resist. Michiel just called me, strolling along the Mississippi. I am glad he is doing some touristy stuff on his last day. He'll board his plane at two this afternoon, and after a touch down in Memphis he will be back in Toronto tonight.

tell it like it is

Otger is having a great day, I hope. Today is take-your-kid-to-work-day. And since Michiel is in New Orleans, and I am very boring to look at, our dear neighbour and friend Marilyn has taken him to the film studio. Where right now she is the production designer for a TV series (I forgot the name of the show, I am so sorry), and Otger did the drawings that are part of the set design. So he is between all the actors that probably everybody but him knows, because we don't watch TV. Well, at least today he will learn how it's made. Maybe he will take some pictures that I can link here later. Check back.

Okay, he's back. This is the show. He's trying to send me his pictures, but he is experiencing password difficulties.

And the New Orleans song for today is easier said than done. I always try to tell things like they are, still I am often gravely misunderstood. But I guess that happens to the best of us.

who deserves the ako-prize?

At last (and a big thank you to everyone who went through wind and weather to find me an issue) I found the pdf of the literature section with my drawing in it. Is this "het Libriskrantje"? I have no idea. When was it published? I don't know, but I guess it must have been some time last week, because the award ceremony was last night. I was told this newspaper section is a limited edition, and sure enough, Willem didn't get it with his subscription. I wonder who did, maybe subscribers in the Randstad? Or just customers in Libris stores? Anyway, for sentimental reasons I downloaded the award ceremony, and found myself staring at the six faces. Strange, by drawing people, they become so familiar. And neither of them has a clue about my existence.

And although Michiel hardly gets a chance to leave his hotel -he told me public drunkenness is being officially encouraged, a buck a beer out on Bourbon Street- I keep posting my tunes. This one is inevitable. (Oh en de muziek is kut: 80s r&r. Niks jazz, geen blues.)

bread pudding

Make sure to click the image. Sun-Maid raisins were about the only things that went right today, I made my lovely bread pudding. Very delicious, as soon as you collect 300 grams of left over old bread, you should try it. Today I made it because all of the old bits and pieces in the bread bin started out as outrageously expensive organic loaves, and who feels good throwing those out? Recipe: soak 300 grams of bread in lukewarm sweetened (175 grams sugar) milk. Squeeze it to mash. Then add some cinnamon, a generous hand full of raisins, vanilla essence, and 5 beaten eggs. Into a form and into the oven at 390 Fahrenheit, or 200 Celsius. 45 minutes. Very very good. And what went not good today, I hear you ask. The radio. My stories (story one, story two) were interesting enough, but the host was in love with my counterpart in Beijing. I have gotten used to the style of the radio program. I tell my story, and then I get some questions so I can fill in whatever I didn't make clear enough in my first go. Not so tonight, the questions went to Beijing, I was merely an intermezzo it felt like, bleah.

Anyway, the daily Louisiana tune, until the husband is back. Sit tight boys and girls, you can learn something.

1976

Because of the overwhelming number of comments on my yesterday's blog post, I decided to show you a picture of my 1976 Pax Christi hike. Since you're so interested. Yesterday I said it was '77, but my photo album says I am wrong. I am the one in the light jacket. Of course I snatched the good looking guy in front, that goes without saying. What else would anyone go on a Pax Christi hike for. He was my second kisser. After him I lost count. My current significant other left for New Orleans this morning. Some presentation, I don't know. Until he is back, I will post a daily Louisiana tune, I hope you will enjoy them. This first one is a great song and a great video. I think they are right: a post-millenial Dylan.

do you want to contemplate? get in line, please

About the enormous spirituality hype, and retreats in particular. The only thing remotely resembling retreat I ever did myself was a Pax Christi hike, back in 1977. So I can proudly state I already saw through all that nonsense thirty years ago. Terribly deep we were, singing House of the Rising Sun by the camp fire. I was shocked to find out there were people who participated year after year, and admittedly lived "from Pax to Pax". That phenomenon hasn't changed a bit in thirty years. Apparently many people still can't or won't do their deepest opening uppings in their natural habitats, and need cult like insider circles to give them a sense of meaning. Bigger drawing, click.

scientific parenting

And a parental thingy to top off the week.

otto soglow

We are slowly turning into a lost and found here. Otger keeps loosing stuff, first his metro pass. Then I notice his math marks drop into the seventies, he's lost his calculator, and didn't tell anyone. And his math book, he even lost his math book. He couldn't do his homework, but fortunately the next day a classmate gets him his book back. Then he looses his wallet, with some money, his TTC tickets, and his school and TTC ID's. He gets a form at the school office and takes it to Sherbourne station to get a new ID, but he forgets to take enough money. Which was a good thing, because at home, he immediately finds his wallet. Piffin lost her cell phone, which I find out when I get a call from the lady in Chinatown who found it. Michiel thought he lost his wallet, calls home, and Piffin finds it beside the bread bin. Then he looses the power cable to his laptop. And Michiel found a cell phone in Riverdale Park, which we returned to a very relieved owner. And don't forget the sweet chocolate lab we found roaming our street a while ago, which we got back to its worried sick owner. And then today I found a key chain while walking Orbit. I had already noticed a lost keys sign for days, lost keys on a Swiss Army knife. And there they were. I emailed to the email address on the sign. And the happy happy owner came to collect his keys tonight. And rewarded me with a very nice bottle of red wine. Cheers Charles!