12/17/2022 #93
Here & Now, Art of Mochi Making, Barry Lee, Oldster Mag, EAAM, Rod Pulido, Cats x 2, Eartha Kitt x 2, DakhaBrakha x 2
HERE & NOW
The here and now for me is the reality of being carless, which (at the moment) is OK—in fact, pretty good. I’m now familiarizing myself with all sorts of public transport and looking forward to purchasing an electric bike.
The reality is also that my son and his partner both have come down with Covid, which is worrying. Just checked in on them today; both are still sick but feeling a little better.
In other news, I had the honor of having the links to my Mastodon sites blocked by Twitter, as you-know-who sought to keep any mention of its “competitor” off the platform. Just closed down my bird account yesterday. A meme—based on an article that mistakenly called the Twitter-blocked “@JoinMastodon” account “John Mastodon”—is making the rounds of Mastodon instances, providing a few chuckles, which we all need, right now.
ART
The reality of making art is that sometimes you don’t make art. BUT, I did learn the art of mochi making, recently—or at least one part of the process, which mostly involves turning a crank, learning how to pull rice flour out of a grinder without getting my hands burned, and then shaping and pinching the ball of sticky rice before handing it over to the experts. Afterwards (the best part?) is when you get to eat ozoni (a Japanese soup with mochi and vegetables) and musubi. Sake is optional.
The mochi steamer:
ART & CULTURE LINKS
Barry Lee provides some good advice about “Choosing Rest over Public Awareness” or, “Cut yourself some slack, K?” on Barry Lee Art.
From Oldster Magazine: “New and Emerging Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Young.”
Speaking of which, the Emerging Artists Alliance of Monterey (EAAM) is a great group. I’ve shown my work at several of their events (where I’m pretty consistently the oldest person involved); in fact, one of my paintings is hanging over at the Pearl Works Monterey right now, because of a collaboration between them and EAAM. Good people.
Here’s a plug for author Rod Pulido’s new book, Chasing Pacquiao from Viking Books. Back in the 1990s, my friend Liz and I (as Tulitos Press) published his screenplay for his film, The Flipside, which was the first Filipino American film to premiere at Sundance Film Festival. More recently, Rod came out as bi, and that experience informs this YA book. Looking forward to publication of the book in summer 2023.
It's “Caturday,” OK? Blame it on Mastodon, where Caturday is a tradition. So here are some cats. “The Boy Who Drew Cats” was a Japanese fairy tale about a youthful artist, transcribed by Lafcadio Hearn in 1898 as “The Artist of Cats.” Curious Ordinary presents the tale through illustrations by several artists. And here’s a short animation of the story by Shumeng Zhao:
From Hyperallergic, “An Exhibition of Cat Art Worthy of a Meowseum,” new show in Queens. Article by Elaine Velie.
SOUNDINGS
Eartha Kitt’s recording session for the Emperor’s New Groove (2000). Eartha Kitt was one amazing woman:
See also this clip from the film with Eartha’s character, Yzma, with the young and arrogant Emperor, who drops a few infuriatingly ageist remarks (for which he later gets turned into a llama):
I’ve posted a short performance by the Ukrainian “folk punk” group, Dakha Brakha a while ago. Here’s a report about the group from PBS:
And here is a recent (full) performance by them in Bratislava, Slovakia:
More next week. Feel free to share this post!