May 26, 2006

9:43 p.m.

I'm Hungry; Let's Eat a Book

I was confused. Was mehiel telling me to eat the spaghetti, or slipping me a cryptic mickey from the hip world of Japanese art?

The latter, as it turns out. I had to go look up manga. The dictionary didn't have it; the closest I came was mangabey n, and I didn't think it was any of a genus of large African monkeys having a silky, gray coat, white eyelids, and a long tail -- although they are really cute. Mh (as I now dub you), if you get temporarily stuck in NY you're definitely going to have to open my eyes.

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Today I made eight hardcover books. They're smaller than a teaspoon is long, and they have a coilbound book inside. MOUSE BOOKS! I can hardly bear to part with them, but I know I must. Here's the collection, minus a couple:

And a couple of closeups.

I'm so happy.

Obviously I'm still popping up early in the morning with book ideas. The Peru journals are coming along very nicely; I should be done next week. It's so strange to be thinking of our gig tomorrow, and just getting it out of the way so I can get back to my real job. Except, of course, music still IS my real job. For now.

Can't remember if I've written this, but Rose and I have gotten in FREE to a cheesemaking workshop in July. That's a $300 value for the two of us. It's at a place we did a house concert a couple of years ago, and she offered to guest the band -- but my mates can't go. So I shall bring my sister, and we shall make cheese. I'm thinking of trading with the local guinea egg guy. Rose and Mike stopped there this week to get eggs, and he said he needs a new sign for his driveway. He had a ragged and rather artless cardboard one leaning against his truck, but it got rained on. My sibs offered my services so I'm scrounging a board and some paint and I plan to get paid in eggs for this as well.

Other thoughts are:

I've pretty much decided to get rid of my big, heavy, beloved Total Gym. I've had it about 5 years and used it a lot, but it just takes up too much space here. Now that my kitchen is taken over by crafts, I'm becoming aware of the need for empty areas. Also I have some shoulder issues that I'd like to not aggravate. I think whoever is willing to come up here and lug it down two flights can have it, and I hope they love it as much as I have.

We were going to be picking up the director of Capote (Bennett Miller) and taking him to a film series for a talkback next weekend, but now he's coming in on a 6am flight and Steve kindly got somebody else to pick him up. I don't think we'll be ready to go to Shelburne Falls quite that early in the day... or do anything except sleep and dream. Meanwhile, though, I'm almost finished with In Cold Blood and we will be showing up for the film that evening.

And after tomorrow's gig I have another 2 weeks off, during which I plan to finish enough journals/books/scrapbooks to get into a couple of CT stores. Must... recoup... investment...

Thank God for Dar, that's all I can say. He's unfailingly encouraging, helpful, diligent, and generous. He'll trek to a paper store to try to find the perfect cover stock. He mails me something fun almost every week. He listens to me gab on and on about every minute detail of everything I do. Occasionally I let him get a paragraph in edgewise about his various careers. I am so blessed.

Oh -- soon there will be a webpage for my book endeavors. It'll be called Talking River Books and I s'pose there'll be no harm in putting the link here, although it will thin my usual veneer of anonymity. I'm just so proud of it.