Donna Barr's Blog, page 19

Black Friday 2012

Hello, Colleagues, friends, family, reviewers, and anybody else who might want to know or asked me to keep them in the loop:

Well, it is Black Friday, and we all buy gifts (yes, we do). Us print artists get as "local" as we can.

30% off on all my gorgeous prints:  http://rummelhart.deviantart.com/prints/

And - until November 27 - for 51% off calendars and 30% off everything else, use code DELITIRAS at

http://www.lulu.com/desertpeach

Have a happy holiday season!The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Big Sis

Me and my sis, Dotti, at Mukilteo.

The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

A Little Death - the Introduction

According to the Center For Disease Control and Prevention, the top 10 causes of death in the United States in 2007 and the number of people affected were:Heart Disease: 696,947
Cancer: 557,271
Stroke: 162,672
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,816
Accidents: 106,742
Diabetes: 73,249
Influenza/Pneumonia: 65,681
Alzheimer’s disease: 58,866
Nephritis, Nephrotic Syndrome, and Nephrosis: 40,974
Septicemia: 33,865
There were 30,622 suicides and 16,110 murders during the same year.
WE ALL HAVE TO GO THERE
A Little Death is directly influenced by The Virgin Project by Kevin Bose and Stasia Kato. That ground-breaking work dealt with something that happens at the beginning of almost everyone's life: the end of virginity, the beginning of sexual adulthood. A Little Death addresses the other end of life, one we will all have to face, some sooner than later. It looks at how we think we might die, how we would rather die, or even how we dread we'll die.
When Kevin heard I'd thought about creating a different version of the personal-experience anthology The Virgin Project, he dove headfirst into helping. At the time I had just finished another book and working on some much-needed home maintenance. Before long, I began to experience the usual in-between-book blues, when nothing I can do next seems fresh, funny or profound enough. After years of producing books and attempting to always raise the level of my own work, these weeks of indecision and frustration are normal for me.
Within a few weeks, I was receiving repeated emails from Kevin with lists of anonymous descriptions of death. At last I could just paint the house and think about what I was going to do with the ideas I'd received.
This is the first time I've done anything that can be considered a full-length genre book. In this case, it's something that Kevin is calling BOATS: Base On A True Story. Tom Beland's True Story -- Swear To God can be seen as the granddaddy of the form. My own The Desert Peach is, in its own way, a BOATS; I was never making any of that up.
What Kevin -- and now I -- are doing is a bit different. It's very hard for drawn book authors to find artists, and artists in many cases find it difficult to work with writers; the horror stories about collaborations gone wrong could give Gilbert and Sullivan nightmares, and form their own BOATS anthology. This form takes a few anonymous lines from dozens of people based on a single subject and fills it out with art.
There are many reasons why BOATS is anonymous for everybody but the artists. In the case of The Virgin Project, anonymity protects the contributors so they can display very personal moments in their lives without embarrassment of complications; "graphic novel" is a loose distribution term based on volume of pages, but in this case it may be accurate about the subject matter.
Since recent political controversies concerning the question at what point we are dead -- especially whether or not brain death constitutes death -- the medical community is re-defining death as heart failure. Hard to argue with that; when the pump stops pumping, we're dead, irregardless of what turned off the switch. At the time this list was posted, it was more about the old folks' diseases than the traditional engines of human demise. These days, not a lot of us are eaten by lions, although we can get killed by a mountain goat if we push the question.
The best fictional portrayals of death on television were on Dead Like Me.
Most of these stories were drawn by me, but at least one of contributors insisted on doing his own. You'll have to admit his Icelandic hard-headedness got it right. In return, he's the only contributor other than me whose identity is public, and he gets to tell you how to find more of his work. And I'm not so concerned about art-witching him into anything he doesn't want, because this is obviously exactly what he wants.
"As Kjartan grows older, his sense of humor grows darker. A survival adaptation, probably. If you regard fools as free entertainment, then it's not so bad there's so many of them. He's available for commission or what-not thru Kjartana@comcast.net . Good manners and amusing subject matter get you discounts. Rudeness and sick subjects... well, assuming he answers you at all, you'd better be obscenely rich.For all its horrors, it's still a wonderful world, and Kjartan intends to enjoy as much of it as possible before he goes completely cyborg."The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Seattle Pike;s Place Restroom art

An oddly delicate - or not - way of signaling without language, "This way to the restrooms." 
Yes, I'm easily amused.


The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

What to eat at the Clallam Bay Comicon

Hi, folks! For the 2013 Clallam Bay Comicon, here's the good stuff:
Espresso: the best is at the Weel Road Deli. The 3 Sisters of Clallam art gallery (big green building on the west end of town) has espresso go good you can drink it straight, and they'll be where we're holding the Comicon.
At the Breakwater Inn, halfway to Sekiu, order Dixie's bread pudding. This ain't your bad aunt's bread pudding - it's light and fluffy and rich and more like some kind of ice cream. You may have to share, it's so yummy - or fight over it. Best view in town, too.
In Sekiu, the By The Bay Café has good ol' 1950's diner food, tasty, but been there, done that. 
In fact, that's all we've got up here, plus pizza (the overload of one kind of food already closed one Clallam Bay eatery). Do everybody a favor and ask where you can get Chinese or Vietnamese locally. Because sooner or later they'll see there's not just one tourist dollar for food, and whoever opens an Asian food trailer is going to clean up (Actually, there was one at 2012 Fun Days, in the vendor area, so maybe there's hope).
During Fun Days, look for street vendors outside of the main area, especially with little tables along the parade route on Saturday. In 2012, the best was a scrumptious strawberry smoothie. Tip them; the prices were incredibly low, because they think they're in a "depressed area" (Neah Bay's getting all the festival money, but attendees say they think Clallam Bay is a cute town, too).
On Friday, if you get here early, you must go to the potluck. You probably won't be bringing food, so pay your way in and support the Saturday fireworks. The local cooks turn out dish after dish of meats, veggies, made dishes and desserts you can't match anywhere else. It's real home cookin', and lots of it. If you can, throw 'em some extra cash.
The Clallam Bay Inn: Ask the name of the barkeep. Look for Kera, and her panko-dipped fish and waffle chips. Light, crispy, luscious. With homemade tartar sauce. Ask for a small pitcher of Mac 'n Jack beer, and share. Because it will be too much for one, and it's more fun with two. 
If it's Edna, she burns the food black (the potato slices are just black brittle pucks), and she MIGHT get you a beer when she gets around to it. Maybe. Don't bother - go anywhere else when she's on the bar. She'd make a great character in a rural comedy novel, but you wouldn't want to eat in one.
Sunset West Co-op: haven't eaten at the Eatery, but let us know if you do!

The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

My 60th Dragon Birthday - More Cakes Than Anybody

I'm a Dragon, in the Chinese calendar. This is my 60th year.  I had the most fabulous birthday anyone could wish for.  Well, I did.
Firs of all, I had a cake that frosted itself, when Wendy Emlinger sent me this fabulous birthday card.
Best Reuben ever.Then we toured Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and had lunch at Homegrown restaurant. An accidental choice, made for the elegant and soothing decor. But the food was a revelation. The best Reuben sandwich I'd ever had (and I had a truck-driver dad who used to drive me about to taste pies and Reubens in rural Washington), combined with an arugala-hazelnut-almost-too-many-figs salad. Goodness.

Roberta Gregory took me to the King Tut Exhibit in Seattle, and we discovered that an ancient prince had accidentally speared his beloved - and no doubt sacred - hunting cat. This was very sad, and we read it in words and pictures on the cat's sarcophagus. Ancient drawn books coming alive. Well, you look at it and tell us that's a cat's tail - usually carved so smoothly and elegantly by the Egyptian sculptors - and not a rigid lance head. We felt so sorry for the cat and the prince.
Afterwards we discovered Morfey's Cakes, and the adorable and sprightly (sprite-like?) baker, Erin Blanchard. Morfrey should be filming her for their site. She's completely excited by her art. While I didn't taste any of it - I am 60, after all, and now it's about the eyes - in this case it was truly about the eyes.  Ooh la la.
Erin Blanchard and The Blue Cake.. 

The cake tower - with Rainbow Cake.
Too - many - cakes. The gray cake. The Eifel tower atop it had melted in the heat. Only pretending to taste. Om imaginary nom.We ended up at the Oddfellow's Hall restaurant, where Maggie Bloodstone shared the icy top sip of all her champagne flutes with me. Marvelous.
Finally, Ron Austin sent me the link to part of his amazing international comics-author series. Right when I needed it for an interview.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Geekgirlcon

Geekgirlcon - WHY weren't you there?

I was - in my Ka-blam t-shirt.



More later.




Giant pontoon for 520 bridge.




The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

ToorCamp

Lovely, lovely time at ToorCamp yesterday. Castle Camp (bicycle jousting), RF Palace radio, lockpicking school, help getting Car's battery jumped (would you believe I VERy VErY carefully turned my lights OFF - the wrong way?).

Ugly Reality Makes Us Fall Over Laughing moments:

Sciency guy who thought my being an Atheist made me unaware of the Mars Lander project.
Makah guy insisting - repeatedly, as the women's eyebrows went up - that the reason women didn't whale was because "women are so powerful, the whale will disappear or kill us all." That he had to keep repeating it made it hard to keep from giggling.

As a gay friend once grunted, primitively stirring a fire: "It's a GUY thing."

But no, seriously, I'm SO going to take advantage of my membership in Geezer Media next year to go and stay longer. I MISSED the Darkbots because I have to drive to GeekGirlCon in Seattle today!

I also wrote a supportive article (hey, there's no such thing as objective journalism), that included mention of the festival business model, and hinted that Neah Bay was bringing in jobs and money with fun and entertainment. As a kid, my parents' generation destroyed what we had, while this area still has a chance to heal and grow. YES, it's all scrub and plantation and clearcut now, but they're beginning to understand that all a clearcut pays for is more machines - while media and entertainment can pay for your living, your kid's education, and your future.

I'd need to promote my own books a few years before I could buy a booth, but I want everybody at ToorCamp to come to the Clallam Bay Comicon (see events). I know they'd love ToorCamp.  YES, there's plenty of the community that fear novelty, but I've been up here giving the new and intent a reason to come out and enjoy themselves for nearly 9 years. They're ready up here - and "Twilight" teaching them there's money in media didn't hurt.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

2013 Clallam Bay Comicon

You kids KNOW you shouldn't smoke, right?WHEN:  July 13-14, 2013.During Clallam Bay/Sekiu Fun Days


WHERE: Three Sisters of Clallam Art Gallery, the big apple-green building on the west end of town.


With Fun Days you get an old-fashioned small-town parade, a KILLER pot-luck if you come in early on Friday, a barbecue, and a bajillion fireworks Saturday, some of them even legal. We're the comicon with the BEACHES, bitches.


EVERYONE WELCOME. If you do comics, poetry, gallery art, jewelry, paint cars, bake pies, sing, do stand-up, sculpture, hip-hop, light shows, whatever - bring it.


Booth fees: $25 ($27.00 Paypal). Contact for booth space: donnabarr01@gmail.com


Admission for public: free.


PROVIDED: space, electricity, municipal stuff.


NOT PROVIDED: everything else. If you need it, bring it.


Housing: http://www.sekiu.com/


How you get here: Take a flight to Port Angeles, then take the Forks bus to the the Clallam Bay connection at Sappho. Yes, Sappho. Those in Seattle may find Olympic Bus Lines helpful.


Children: watch your own.


Trash: pack it out.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Photosynthesis Festival

Just spent a couple days at Photosynthesis 5.  Photosynthesis 5 starts another morning with stretches in the Hobuck Campground in Neah Bay.My cut line for the local paper: "This popular techno-music festival returned for a second year, offering long nights of music, light shows, bonfires, massage and healing tea ceremonies. Local and traveling vendors find eager daytime customers for food sales, costuming materials and jewelry."
Not so much on paper items. But everybody was into the idea of the Clallam Bay Comicon, and that the Photosynthesis folks would be welcome at it. Only one guy was awake enough to show up at my lecture - the dancing runs until 4:30 am, and the lecture was at 11:00 am, which is first-splintery-light-of-day wake-up time for these folks. But my audience of one paid deep attention and asked a lot of questions. I think he's going to use the "Cheap and Easy" model for a gardening-garage sale-comicon for starters in his yard. Baby steps is the way to go.
Raining most of the time, of course. Got soaking wet in a badly-built tent put up by the folks from the local gallery. I think Kevin in the big tea alcove saved my life in the cozy warm tent, with all that hot, comforting tea. The big bonfire over by the dance-hall didn't hurt, either. The laser lights extended their effects out into the smoke and mizzle.
After working so hard on other trade shows and especially the comicon, I think I might just - gasp! - reward myself with the Photosynthesis Festival from now on. Just going to a show to goof off and have fun (oh, okay, and to shove ideas).
What a concept!
Oh noes!  Another picture of me in the Ka-Blam tshirt!  But every time I wear it, I get another $10.00 for printing new books.
The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...