a message than the "violence" commited here instead. Instead of hurling his shoes at "president" Bush, a strongly-worded document would have been much more "appropriate". It's "worked" so well in the past. I'm "very disappointed" in that young man; he should be "ashamed".

taken about 10 years ago. Nice picture, mb! You're so cute!!



This is me a few days ago, turning green in front of my computer-

...I'm looking at the instruction manual now, and I really REALLY assumed I could do this alone, without a translator, etc. How do people do it? I was SPANKED UPSIDE THE HEAD with frequent assertions that my website-designing thing I'm using is state-of-the art, tripping over "competitive solutions" or "major global players" and "high performance". This is art, it's freaking painting & drawing & graphic design, the kind where I don't even bother to polish my nails any more, and now I'm wading thru this friends-of-NASA terminology. So I looked at some other art sites to get a clue as to how they do it. And now I'm left with another question: Who's WE? I actually know some of these people and they're the only ones doing the website. "We at Melissa Inc." and so on. Is she talking about her shadow? Is that what I should do?

Thanks. I feel better. Mental 12-car pileups do this to me.

Here are some I did in the past couple of months, finished and unfinished --

and thanks for posting this thread, darlin. I was almost in tears laughing the first time I heard it. I had to hear it once more.

"Hey Olga, it's Dimitri.

Sorry I had to leave such a rushed message with you when we met the other day. I just wanted to quickly give you my phone number, and needed to get the heck out of the area. In any event, I thought I had better leave you a more detailed message and explain why I approached you. I am single. I have no trouble meeting women. I mean, women approach me six or seven times a day, but I'm extremely particular about what I like. You're an extremely elegant woman. I couldn't take my eyes off you, and your friends were very jealous. Even if they say they weren't, they were envious of the fact that I approached you. And I was very taken by you. Elegant women are very rare. I'm Greek and I'm extremely particular about what I like. So I'm giving you an opportunity here. I don't know if you picked up the message on the weekend but I'm working on a movie script so I'll be doing that all weekend…

This looks like a land line and if it is, you may not get the message till Monday. But when you do, call me and we'll get together for coffee or drinks, and let the romance begin. You looked very taken aback by my approach, and I hope that wasn't timidness. I hope it was just shock at being approached so directly. Because I don't really date timid women, because I'm a very direct, very passionate, very assertive man, and I want a woman who is very independent and strong. So… we'll talk about that, but I just wanted to formally introduce myself. I leave the ball in your court. You call me as soon as you have the courage to. Okay, Olga? Talk to you soon. Bye."


Quote from: Message 2

"Hi there, Olga. It's Dimitri calling again - the guy from the street.
I left you a message several days ago. You said you were interested.
Now here's the way I work:
I don't like leaving second messages but I like you. You're a very elegant woman. You're very attractive but, you know, I don't play that game. I know your friends tell you not to return calls. You're playing games like you see in stupid TV shows. So here's how it's gonna work:
It is now 4:30 on Wednesday. Now I'll assume... I'll assume that you've already left work because, you know, some people leave work early, so I'll grant you that. But if I don't receive a phone call back from you by 3 o'clock Thursday afternoon, I'm no longer interested and I'm going to erase your number. I don't play games like that. I'm completely single. I'm very intelligent. I'm great in bed. I make great money. Believe it or not, I'm a complete catch. I've only been single four months. I had a long distance relationship for about a year. It's very tough to maintain it like that. There's nothing wrong with me. As a matter of fact, I'm one of the few men in the city that has nothing wrong with him. So I'm giving you the three o'clock deadline. If I don't hear from you by then, you lose my number. I'm erasing your number right now, so you won't be hearing back from me.
So that's it. Three o'clock tomorrow, or you can just completely forget it.
Now I understand if you've got other issues. Maybe you're not playing games, I don't know. Maybe you were abused in childhood? Maybe your mother has cancer, and you're going to chemo. Maybe you're just a person who's extremely frightened or has an anxiety disorder. Maybe you're on some medication for that, I don't know. There could be another issue that I'm not aware of. But nobody says "Call me," hands a person a business card, and then doesn't return calls. It's extremely passive-aggressive. You should actually look that up - Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder. You let me know. If you've got issues, psychological issues, if you're on any sort of medication for anxiety or depression, I'm not interested. But if you're psychologically normal, and you haven't called me because there's been some horrible thing that's happened in your life that's prevented you from returning my calls, that's fine. But otherwise, don't call me. Okay, bye."

These are pictures from a sketch book I began a week ago. They're all Paris windows and Paris-related sketches, because as you can see, I'm a little fixated on the city. I did these from my own photos and a couple of books. Needless to say, I've saturated myself in that culture this week and I WANNA GO BACK.

This is Sophie. A few mornings ago, she happened to find me struggling with a drawing. She seemed concerned.



She let me know in no uncertain terms that she was available for consultation.



I finished the drawing despite her frequent intervention & protests. Here's a detail from it. And where is she when I need help tidying the house? GONE.

I joined my family for breakfast at Dad's house today, & in my old room there was a copy of this book. It was published in '83 or '87, but it's pure nineties material. Good thing I saved some of this stuff. I've been told I'm overly fond of those times; I'm a pack-rat but only with very, very important material.



I found a total of about 40 pounds of Zines from those years as well. Repetitive clipart and subversive poetry and coffee rings and local show flyers. I became hypnotized by those things, esp. the cut-and-paste lettering on these publications, as though it's a ransom note holding my 20 year-old self hostage. Someone had come up to me excitedly in college when I was suffering from a minute of boredom and showed me this Bob Dobbs book. I was out-of-my-mind impressed. There isn't even a LITTLE condecension in my attitude when I look through this again.



Anyway, these things inspired me then, so I painted a wooden box with Bob Dobbs's picture on it & gave it to my brother for Xmas 1990.
I'm looking at the back cover right now. R. Crumb said, "Finally, a religion even I can believe in". Jay Kinney of Coevolution Quartely said, "A rare knack for masking genuine wisdom in the guise of other bullshit".

I think Kitchenwitch was the one who introduced me to this site. It's huge. There are thousands of airline meals featured in pictures taken by passengers. Underneath the pictures are food reviews--> some of them are pretty funny. This brings back memories because although I never had anything really exotic to eat on a plane, sometimes I really liked the food.

I also always did the obssessive-compulsive thing of ALWAYS saving the miniature peppermint chocolates, individually-wrapped "gourmet" crackers, Laughing Cow cheese triangles, and breadsticks for "later" in my carry-on. I love some of these entries-

This is from Continental:


Photo taken by: Vivek Kaul
Route: Newark - New Delhi, 28 Jan 2006
Ticket price: Non-Rev
Flight duration: 13h 35m
Class: economy
Aircraft:
Meal: Indian Vegetarian - Appetizer Salad:Classic salad mix wiht cucumbers & spicy bean medleyand pepper cream dressing, Yogurt and pickles.
Main Course: Scrambled Mild Cheese & Vegetable Curry.
Dal Curry,Spiced Lentils
Carrot Pilaf
Dessert: Karachi Halva,a fudge -style curry, Cookie
Drink: Water
Comments: A good tasty meal. Continental has done a good job with this meal.
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 9.5

Aegean Airlines:


Photo taken by: Enrico Donelli
Route: MILAN LINATE - ATHENE, 19 Sep 2005
Ticket price: n/a
Flight duration: 2h 30m
Class: economy
Aircraft: BOEING 747
Meal: launch - Rice, Chicken, beans, crackers, bread
Drink: range juice, coca, tea, coffee
Comments: I liked bread
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 6

Royal Nepal:


Photos taken by: Atsushi Niwa
Route: Shanghai-Katmandu, 17/08/2003
Ticket price: JPY 156000 (KIX-KTM RT)
Flight diration: 6hr
Aircraft type & class: B757-200 business class
Meal type: Dinner
Contents of the meal: chicken select
Drink: Red wine
Rating: 6

And Alaska Airlines:


Picture taken by: Jer Reeves
Route: Seattle - Chicago, 30 Mar 2006
Ticket price:
Flight duration: 4h 00m
Class: first
Aircraft: 737-600
Meal: Brunch - Breakfast Buritto
Salsa in a tube
Fruit garnish
Drink: Blloody Mary
Comments: I have dubbed thiis miniscule, lackluster morning meal offering The No-See'em Flite Diet. It could be called the Why Bother?
Portions are so small that the buritto was sliced in half and the fruit cup was four chunks of fruit.
Every time the flight attendants came out of the galley they seemed surprised that we were still there. This is so not Alaska's usual great service and first class offering.
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 4

Bon Appetit! Here's the link: http://www.airlinemeals.net /

If so, I WANT IT!!!!

which starts playing "Honky Tonk Woman" at full blast over & over. Tripping into the guys' room and slipping on a puddle on the floor. Marvelling at the urinals lined up there. Flapping back out with a lil help from her brand new friends.

Maybe a bartender will suggest she put something in her stomach, so she goes for the peanuts, and I mean KNOCKS ASIDE the sucker that gets in her way. "We elephants, & so on****"

Then, she starts talking about her "husb-"

And crying.

But it's not like we know about any of this stuff ourselves, right?

Of bloodiness and hairyness,
I feel obligated at this moment to remind you
Of the most ferocious beast of all:
Three thousand pounds and nine feet tall—
The Glurpy Slurpy Skakagrall—






Who's standing right behind you."

-Shel Silverstien, RIP

I'm becoming attracted to the idea of living in a house with a group of people. I think it would be excellent, especially with the economy not spiraling downward, but taking a nose-dive. If you found the right people with similar temperaments, would you join one? Are you already part of an Urban Family?

OK- Here's my ideal situation regarding this. (I haven't read much about it, but what I've read sounds really good.) There are about ten or twelve people, each holding down jobs but also having a trade. Carpools, etc. The house has a library and communications center. There's a way of growing veggies outside & a bread-maker in the kitchen. Wine and beer making supplies in a basement to produce "currency" in case of economic crash.

Personally, I'd love to live with people with a lot of imagination, curiosity and kindness. Have you ever considered something like this? Also, please don't go bustin' my bubble this morning. I can dream, right?

I love sketchbooks. This is my work, and I truly like to see other people's work as well. If you have things to share, let's put them out there.