Sunday

to other places

today they say i am a magnet.
but i am
still thinking about planning my escape.
i would like to visit the el ateneo...
the bookstores to end all bookstores.
sit in a theater box and look at books in spanish.
thinking about snow and snow storms and 
skiing in new powder and fireplaces
and being snowed in with friends.
i don't smoke anymore...
but my personality still does.

thinking about escaping

i think about escaping to far away lands.
every spare moment.
while driving.
while working on things.
while day dreaming.
even while thinking about escaping.

Friday

nino rota and cough syrup

today i am sick. 
i have actually been sick for 
about a week.
it started when i was in san francisco.
i refused to let it have a hold on me.
i still refuse to let it take over.
mind over matter.
but my voice is spilling the secret.
i did go to the doctor and he gave me some
codeine cough  syrup.
also some anti-biotics.
so i listen to nino rota's
il casanova...
and then go see the fantastic mr. fox!
which all seems to already make it better...

Sunday

the grackles

i've been working on my annual rare bird costume...
this year's theme is a disheveled grackle.
in the wash room...
part bird - part snowy coldness...
looking out on things...
and modern typing...

Wednesday

the never ending project

days of being a luggage organizer...
then delays and cancelations at various airports.
flying in over palm trees, waterways, little bridges.
then a break with a street taco.
then back to the never ending job of...
unpacking and sorting through stuff.
yard sales and finding new homes for things.
the other house up north is finally on the market.
now waiting and tapping my fingers.
half of me is up there and half down here.
iv'e been living out of suitcases for more than six months now.
when this is done - there are many places i daydream about and
would like to travel too...
one is 
peace of mind.
travel too and 

Saturday

the willard village

these are some images of the willard state hospital.
willard grew into a sizeable village,
relying heavily on unpaid patient labor to sustain its operation.
the patients that worked in the farm, 
bakery and kitchens provided most of the food for the inmates and staff.
it's industrial shops produced clothing, shoes, even the pine caskets used to bury patients in the hospital's cemetery.
the hospital's original purpose as a bucolic rural retreat
was lost in the grim realities of the institutional life.
in the mid 1950's, they started using newly developed 
antipsychotic drugs to control patients crammed
into ever-tighter living quarters.
more than 50,000 patients were admitted to willard 
during its 126-year history,
and nearly half of those died there.
some of those grave markers are just a number.
most of them are un-marked.

Monday

as is's at the flea market

a day at the flea market.
i walked around for about four and a half hours searching for things that were slightly damaged and needed a home.
findings i found...
1. an old brown german wind up rabbit eating a blade of grass.
2. a small black microscope.
3. a pair of black no. 9 french military skibbies.
4. a piles of old photographs including one of a family having a picnic by a lake on a small pier, a couple playing the apple on the neck game, two dogs [ one wearing a tutu ] sitting up doing a trick on a table, some white baby bunnies on a table with a man in a bowler hat, and others...
5. a bell jar.
6. a taupe colored utilitarian type dress in almost perfect condition [ i was holding it up to me and an older woman who was walking by, with an eastern european accent or possibly russian, told me i would look beautiful in it...so i believed her.]
i took a break and had a hot dog lunch with extra onions on top. as i leaned on the pillar- next to me were the two kids from 'mystery train' [well' they were similar]... having a hot dog lunch too. they had chili on top of theirs. they were standing next to their old suit case finds and looked as though they were really waiting for the train.
...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJNDcMfSQ4Q
...
i managed to spend no more than forty dollars and although everything was sold to me as is...i really found some wonderful treasures.