Growing Versions

For the past three years there has been a version of the Hallowe'en vending machine.  It was initially invented to deal  with us monstrous parents intent on stealing Hallowe'en candy.  It was a little rough around the edges, but it definitely resembled a vending machine. Put money here, take one candy. Last year, it was resurrected  again. This year, a full three weeks ahead of schedule, a whole Saturday was devoted to creating the latest version. Like an Apple Launch , the vending machine version 3 was launched with much fanfare, a little bickering, and a lot of treats (for a price, mind you). I introduce, generation 3 Hallowe'en vending machine. Separate slots for pennies and bills.     Easy to use dispensing slot.  Plastic viewing panel This version has improved on earlier designs to dispense candy to greedy parents.

Right after I posted my ambition to write a novel via twitter , a few issues imposed themselves. a) unless I write the novel in reverse, it will be difficult to follow after a while because you'll have to go all the way back to the first tweet to read it in the correct order. b) twitter is meant to be social, so short of not following anyone, and constantly, rigorously, purging the account of automatic followers,it won't quite work etc..it should be a social enterprise. So, now I am not writing a novel on twitter. We are writing a novel on twitter.  I have posted three tweets so far.  You are going to help me write it.  You just have to preface any additions with @JointNovel and write a tweet or two when you feel like it. Think about the primary improv rule. Always say yes.  (Don't thwart others' attempts to go in a new direction, build on each other's ideas). Keep it (relatively) clean and avoid cliches (if possible.)  Let's see what we can writ...

A lot of famous writers published their novels first in serial form in the newspaper of the day. Charles Dickens published The Pickwick Papers one chapter at a time. I was reminded of  this the other day after a morning of debauchery, feeling slightly ill, bingeing on one episode after another of Call the Midwife and compulsively scrolling through a random smattering of tweets on Twitter. When I re-read The Stranger by Albert Camus last year I read it with newly twitter-conditioned eyes. I was keenly aware that his main character Meursault, who was hatched fully grown into a world that was questioning all the conventions that had governed life before. Perhaps there is no narrative, or morality post-modernism posited, perhaps life is just a series of random decisions and choices that make up our reality.  For this reason, this story of a post-modern poster man, who ends up killing a man because he gets irritated by hot sun,(just another decision in a long line of ot...

 I saw how he admired the drape of that sheet, the lines, the tracks it created, the ideal marble roll. I heard the deep satisfaction with how it rippled in his voice.  Draping that sheet over the chair and stool and table made a room.  It was all nailed down with a jug of fabric softener and rocks.  He built a  room of small corners. The corners are so small "that only a child can fit inside".

Cheap entertainment is thoroughly undervalued and boredom just might save us. We went from climbing up the walls to decorating them and scaling them and surmounting them. Walls, what walls? That's a screen. That's a theatre.

When I was about 10, music video as an art form was in full swing.   There was a famous show on in the afternoons called Video Hits and it highlighted all the newest music videos.  Early on, in my childhood eyes, they seemed so naughty and modern.  Dramatic stories steamed in sexy mystique, longing and rejection all set to catchy pop. The very first one I permitted myself to admit was catchy was "Sunglasses at Night."  The once audio only radio hits were being animated right in front of our eyes and everything changed.  Their creation spawned an entire perpetually visually-ravenous generation, that in turn replicated itself as digitally hardwired progeny. Now, it is relatively rare for me to see an actual video. If I see them, I don't sit through a whole t.v. show anymore to watch them.  I wait for them to spread like a virus on the internet. One at a time. Only the most spectacular filter through. When I came across this recent video by Tegan an...

It started out as a dog eating everything. Then there were several hours stewing and doing nothing and watching too much t.v. There was a mom resistant to all the ideas that were proposed much to her shame.  But then, like a strike of lightening splitting the sky, a vision about how a nut might be conveyed by a swirly slide came charging out and changed everything. The dog became a tunnel through which an attached and more than a little broken toy turned into a new toy.  More boxes and more milk cartons were added and angles were experimented with .  The mom started to loosen up a little and was in charge of cutting and duct taping.  The kids kept bringing more things out of the recycling bag.  More possibilities were discovered and more vehicles, beyond the nut, were tried.  The milk carton became a channel through which a bouncy ball could pop out of.  Soon enough, the dry version was outmoded by the water slide version.  Inste...

There was so much excitement this week about adorning the tree that there were a few dry runs first.  Many different possibilities exist for spreading light (as I'm sure anyone who has celebrated the holiday without a tree can attest).  A tiny pine cone filled in for a couple of days. When the tree went up, it was discovered that all kinds of things can be ornaments.  As long as things can shimmer or be suspended somehow and/or let light shine through them, just about anything can adorn a tree!

I was captivated today when I came across this creative suite of appliances.  It not only freezes things but it also melts and cooks things too.  It is a real space saver too. It produced maple swirl banana grape pop lactose free milk shake right in front of my eyes, followed swiftly by veggie spaghetti.  

Torrance Community Dance Group performing to "Praise You" by Fat Boy Slim I can't help it. Each and every time I see a flash mob on youtube or anywhere, I burst into tears.  What is it about those daft moments set to music in airports, food courts and supermarkets?  They are designed to throw us off kilter.  It does not matter how ridiculous, in fact, the more ridiculous the better. The unexpected break into song and dance jolts me out of my insular, tunnel vision and invites me to have the lines between me and everyone else around me blurred.  The world is ruptured just for a moment.  I am split right open. One of these days, I am going to get up the courage to be part of one or even instigate one.  Have you ever been in one or witnessed one?  What was your experience?

Of course it was.

1.Find a flashlight that has batteries and is still working. 2.Empty a candy container (any candy is okay, but we chose skittles) 3. Turn flashlight on. 4.Put flashlight into the candy container. 5.Voila! A candy container lantern to light your way.