What Else Can You Do In A Hotel Room?

Bored with the generic art hanging in your hotel room? Think you could do better?

Maybe someone already has.

Take a peak behind the ugly, boring, useless framed art on the wall next time you are checked into a hotel room, see if there is anything like this:

http://www.secretwalltattoos.com/

Secret Wall Tattoos! My favorite is the one done on the bathroom tile, a miniature of the open bathroom door with Munchs' 'The Scream' in the shower...that or the chalk outline under the bed. :)

It's an outsider art project begun by the lead singer of the rock group Queens Of The Stone Age, and his buddy who is a tattoo artist, while on tour. The complexity of each piece reflects the amount of time they had to spend in each room while in that town.

Here And There...

While I'm thinking of it, a few random bits and pieces...

Found a really cool site and new interest that I didn't even know I had, courtesy of Preservation magazine, a mag devoted to the national trust for historic preservation. There is a new photographic hobby, taking pictures of what are called 'Urban Ruins'--abandonded, decaying buildings, whether businesses, factories or homes. If you do a web serch on 'urban ruins' you'll come up with scads of sites, but I REALLY like Rob Dobi's work, here:

http://photos.dobi.nu/

Check out the Tumblr section, which is futher subdivided into various areas for insitutions (mostly hospitals and asylums), factories and homes. He never discloses where these places are or their real names, so that they will remain undisturbed (Go, Rob!). The photos are the kind that pull you in, and make you want to know what is behind that tantalizing, half-open door.

CoolHunting, a site devoted to all kinds of art--and anything else you can think of. Each entry has a short description and a link to the page of the artist:
http://www.coolhunting.com/

There are pages and pages to go through, check it out and find cool art projects and pieces!

PostSecret, an online/snail mail art project that collects and posts anonymous postcards sent in that each share a 'secret'--be it a wish, a hidden need, a secret, confession, fear, fantasy, regret or hope. Their only rule is keep it brief and that you have never revealed it to anyone. Updated weekly, it's fascinating:

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Street art that fools the eye into thinking it's 3D:

http://www.redjellyfish.com/fun/street-art.html

My favorite is the one that looks like someone has cut a chunk of bricks out of the sidewalk, leaving a large square hole. People are actually walking around it!

Grrr...

...and so NOW the Plymouth has decided that today--oh yes, it must be TODAY is the day for a new transmission.

She decided this, considerately enough, AFTER I had parked at N.'s school to pick her up. When I got us all strapped in and ready to go home, there was an ominous 'bang' when I put the car in reverse--almost as if someone had hit my bumper--and the car wouldn't move. When I looked in my rearview mirror and saw no other cars around, my heart sank, and I had a sneaking suspicion that this was going to be expensive.

It will be, never fear.

My mechanic tells me, though, that he is currently looking for a 1969-70 convertible for himself, and was shocked at the price of even fixer-upper Camaros and GTOs. I told him he couldn't have picked more popular cars--heck, everyone wants a Goat, for cri-yi! He told me that my car was well worth repairing, since it is very rare and worth (even in it's present seen-better-days condition), around $30,000 to $40,000 dollars. I had recently learned this so it was no surprise, but it was nice that someone else praised my (accidental) automotive accumen.

Especially since it's currently sucking my purse dry in huge gulps...

So Cal Bad Fashion!

In line at the bank the other day: twenty-something guy, black spiky hair, slouched into line while chatting on his cell, OBVIOUSLY thinking he was hot stuff. I think he forgot to change out of his kick-around-the-house-on-laundry-day duds, though:

Old, torn white (once upon a time, eew!) long underwear shirt with equally eldery light blue T shirt mercifully worn over it...
khaki cargo longshorts, pockets stuffed to the gills with who knows what...
.
.
.
...beige Ug boots, complete with fleece!

Even the little old lady in line behind me stared.
*snicker*

Batch 'O Fun...

A few recent discoveries via the good old Jib Jab site that gave me the giggles:

http://www.engrish.com/
A site devoted to badly translated Asian (mostly) to English instructions, menus, product packages, signs--you name it. They even sell Tshirts, coffee mugs and other items emblazoned with the more outlandish stuff. You'll laugh till you cly!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHNczNvOnGc
The Llama Song! To quote one reviewer: "We can safely say this song is about llamas with other subjects thrown in; like ankles, oranges killing rakes, and a duck. Put on your headphones and see how long you last. I was found two days later, drooling on myself, hugging a paper shredder."

'Nuff said. I'm going to show it to N., she'll insist on us singing it tonight at bedtime.

For those who have never experienced Jib Jab, it's a site devoted to mostly political humor, using Flash movies done in Monty Python style. Well worth a visit!

New Year's Eve...

Today was rainy, so it consisted mainly of mopping up tracked-in mud from the kitchen floor--although it is such breathtakingly ugly early 1970's Harvest Gold linoleum that mud actually improves it. We also had to bring in one of the Silkies and all three Polish chickens for a session with the hair dryer, they were soaked to the skin and looking especially pathetic. Since crested poultry all have the same non-Darwinesque trait--a hole in the top of their skulls through which their brains protrude--wet crest feathers on their heads weight their head feathers down so as to cause brain injuries. This is thanks to dumbass humans breeding the birds for bigger and fancier head crest feathers. So when it rains, in come the Silkies and Polish chickens to lounge in the house, get their feathers blow-dried, eat snackies and watch TV (the 'Twilight Zone' marathon). Today two of the Silkies had the sense to stay in the coop and remain dry.

Tonight we will have our little family New Year's Eve party, complete with sparkling pomegranate juice, party hats, noisemakers and confetti poppers, plus a few leftover Fourth of July tidbits. We're celebrating at 8PM our time so N. can participate, then she's off to bed for a few hours till we wake her again at midnight to stand on the front porch and bang on the good Revere Ware stainless steel pots with wooden spoons (family tradition).

Tomorrow we take down the Christmas tree and pack away all those wonderful holiday baubles until next year. Normally I watch the Rose Parade during the tree untrimming, but because years ago the Rose Parade folks struck a deal with the local churches never to have the parade on a Sunday, no parade till January 2nd--on which day it is supposed to rain VERY heavily. It always feels very weird to take down the tree without the parade going in the background. We'll each write our memories from this year on the tissue that wraps the ornaments, and read the comments from previous years aloud to each other as we do so. N. will write her own comments beginning this year.

I also prune back all my rose bushes at the beginning of the year, which always makes them look like wretched little sticks but does them good in the long run...sad since this time of year I get my best roses--no sunburned blooms like in summer.

Whatever your New Year's Eve tradition is, have fun and celebrate safely and in style, Happy New Year!

Thanks For The New Memories...

Tonight I was watching various holiday movies as I sat wrapping Christmas gifts, surrounded by a confusion of rolls of bright paper and shiny ribbons, and constantly losing the scissors...Holiday Inn, Desk Set, A Christmas Story...

The Christmas tree this year is a good one, and glows warmly in front of the window, smelling great and looking fabulous with all my favorite old-time glass ornaments hanging from it. My six year old daughter was sitting under my table, playing with the scraps of paper and bits of ribbon as they floated down, wrapping her own 'presents'--small plastic animals, dinosaurs, little toys. She does this very carefully and with serious intent, so I help her by showing her how to tear off a strip of tape so it doesn't ball up and letting her choose which gift tags to use. As she works, from under the table I hear her quietly singing "The First Noel"--except she has changed the words, in the way we all do with misheard lyrics. It is now "Oh well, oh well, oh well, oh well..."

Forget loud, fancy parties. These are truly the moments to savor.

Life is good...