Donna Barr's Blog, page 7

Sol Duc Hot Springs Birthday

I'm going to the Sol Duc Hot Springs on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, on August 13. It's my birthday, and I want to swim and soak and get a massage for these tired bones!
Come join me. Bring a swimsuit and towel, and flipflops or other swimming shoe. The pool entrance fee is very inexpensive. The pools range from mild to very hot, and the pool is a delight. But hide shiny stuff - ravens fly overhead!
They have food at the pool, including the Sol Duc Resort restaurant and a snack bar. No eating in the pool area, of course, but direct access. Gorgeous walking trails, to Sol Duc Falls. 
There's cabins and camping, too. If they don't have them, try the Last Chance Camp and Equine Rest Stop in Forks. Which means you can bring your horse.
Come join me. If you can't, I'll be doing this every year!The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Old Shadow Fading But Happy

Old Shadow with Betsy the Stove
Shadow keeping warmOur old Shadow cat is finally fading. He has renal failure - but of all the cat deaths we've dealt with, when this one is controlled and monitored, it is far less painful than many of the others.
Shadow's sister, Fearless, passed away last year, of heart failure, after a long life of thyroid problems. She was a tough little thing. 
Both of them were called the Potatoes, because when they were very little, and held in one hand, upside down, their little bellies looked like potatoes.
So we have one last Potato left. He's also the last of the Bremerton cats. 
He's happy, he's doing okay. And if we get a cat all the way to renal failure, we win. Because we all die of something, and renal failure has always come late. He was born in something like the autumn of 2001, so that's not bad, making it so far in 2017. 
I know we'll get good wishes - and huge thanks to all of you, who extend them. They are much appreciated.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Just For Joy

BLESSED BEFound this artwork while going through old files on disks before I send 'em to San Diego State University Special Collections. 
I think it might be an old commission. But it's been a tough week for a lot of my friends.
So this is just for joy.
Blessings on all of you.
Share as you please.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Olympic Collectible Expo 2017

Hope to see everybody at the Olympic Collectibles Expo on Saturday the 29th of April! 
Here's all the information in a neat little postcard ('puters cut the edges off stuff - but you've got all the info, here).
It's free admission, and it's a lot of fun. Good people run it, and it's the first multi-focus show in Kitsap. Yes, it's pretty superhero, but they were very welcoming to me last year. And they love goodies for their auction.
So treat yourself to a trip on the Bremerton ferry, and run five miles north to the Kitsap Mall in Silverdale.
See you there! 
The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Holocaust Center #IAreGoingToHell

And I am, too. In honor of Mr. Spicer, who said Hitler didn't gas anybody. Not anybody white and soldierly, anyway, in HIS mind.

It sat on my desk a while until I got to a scanner and it just got worse and worse....The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Sticks - because that' where we live.

Did these originally as a choice for Seattle's The Weekly. Click on it to see it larger.

I soon found out, dealing with them as I did with a letter to the editor with the Peninsula Daily News, what happens if you make fun of the logging industry. Or even talk about how many tax deductions they get. 
They're both owned by the logging industry. You can hear the axe breathing down the editors' necks.
So I just posted this, here. If nothing else, it warns you of what driving with logging trucks is like. I swear, the way they stack wood, it's like they're drunk. The way they drive, it's like they're trying to get to Happy Hour.
BTW, I've noticed the Logger Culture, and who pushes it. You folks in Seattle want to end up being made fun of the way Cowboy fans get made fun of? Back when cowboys were prettied up, it was an argument about why they were the Good Guys and the Indians were the Bad Guys. Loggers have chopped down two state parks out here, clearcut a bear's home next to Forks so hunters in Forks could kill him when he came out starving. Guess what tone the papers took about the animals and parks. 
Hey, I'm not just picking on Sound Publishing. I just tweeted The Washington Post, and asked them who owns them.
It's hilarious watching papers scrabble around blaming "distribution" and social media for their loss of content - when they're in a choke-hold by the industries they cozied up to just to survive. It's like watching "Mainstream" comics losing it over webcomics and what they still call "Indies." (It's 2017, people! Not 1989!)
Look, newspapers are at fault that the books in the Library of Congress are crumbling to pieces. Do I HAVE to make the connection to "Forestry?" You all know it.
So, enjoy the cartoon. And TradJourns? You're not fooling anybody.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Black Lives Matter March - Seattle, March 5, 2017

Many great signs All ages participatedOn March the 5th, 2017, a good-sized Black Lives Matter march took place in Seattle, protesting the building of a new juvenile "justice" center.
It was an energetic march, and well-attended. 
Flyer and book table.A good live report can be found here. It does a good job reporting the march itself, and getting live video interviews. 

This is so much different from the WTO marches, when media concentrated on a few marchers who attended for the purpose of making trouble, instead of on the thousands of marchers there to be seriously involved and to make a statement.
The pink sign around my neck says "Jews for Black Lives Matter." The woman passing them out said that, before, when they'd made signs for different groups, they ran out, and then everybody wore the Jewish signs. So she just made the Jewish signs this time. So I wore one. 
Pink is the color of Resist, of course. We all know why.
Me and BarbarBarbara is a woman I met at the march. She didn't have a hat, it was drizzling, and I had an extra Nasty Woman Pussy Hat (my amateur crocheted hats). So I gave her one that fit her. I soon lost her in the march; I hope she's enjoying her wicked Resist hat! It's darned cute on her.
More signs
There were a lot of signs, and a lot of people. 
Of course, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were there, as they always represent for good causes.
The march stopped at certain intersections, so individuals could give speeches and point out how many people in government and even the college had money in the detention center. 
The police were well-behaved. The vehicles were there to guarantee our safety in traffic, and the bicycle police accompanied us on one sidewalk. I told one of them I'd been in the WTO marches, and I liked seeing the police not wearing riot gear. 
The SistersAfter WTO, the best of the police knew they'd been had and decided to do things differently. But we still have too much police action against POC and immigrants.








A few masked folks showed up and tried to escalate, but we pretty much ignored them.
At about half-way through the march, I hit my second win, and got pretty drunk on adrenaline, marching up the hill too fast, especially for the hard driving I would have to do the next day. 
Pause for speechesAs we were near where I was staying, I left the march and took some final photos. 
The march continued on, energy unabated.












BLM hoodie
Resist
Speeches - lots of folks

Up Yesler





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

Gabriela Maya's Postcard Project

While at the San Diego Comicfest, Mexican artist Gabriela Maya gave me a stack of her beautiful manga postcards.
She requested that I use them to send to friends, and to ask them to send back photos I could share with her. Angela Risi
I only send postcards to a couple of people. Neither of them has an email account, nor digital cameras. So it becomes difficult to finish the project with postcard people. Rob Ray
So I decided to send the photos to Special Collections at the San Diego State Love Library. I asked Pam Jackson at SDSU to give me a hand collecting photos, and she came through like a trooper! 
First up, we have Angela Risi, SCUA Foundation Employee
Then Rob Ray, Head of Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA)
Anna CulbertsonNext is Anna Culbertson, Assistant Head of Special Collections and UniversityArchives.
Wil WestonThen Wil Weston, Head of Collections
And finally Pam Jackson herself. Pam Jackson
Other people have already received postcards, and I'm waiting on some more photos, including one with SDSU Library Dean Gale Etschmaier and Michelle LeGrandeur, University Relations and Development.
But I have five of them left. I should think about who to send these to. 
My only problem is, I have too many friends!!
Bitch bitch bitch. 

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

2017 Emerald City Comicon Report

Just The Thing For SpringFirst of all, on the absolutely fabulous Artists' Alley on its OWN floor (the 6th), we have Carla Speed McNeil in one of the Nasy Woman Pussy Hats I've been freehand crocheting out of remnant thrift-store wool. She models it with her ever-so antique Hermes scarf. It's just HER.
Roberta Gregory says to watch for it on Jaeger in Carla's Future books. While drunk, probably.... or will Nasty Women march in Finder?
Touch it.THIS IS HOW THIS STUFF GETS STARTED. Us writers are more like the party than most people think. We're more like the directors of Despicable Me, who giggle their way through their commentaries, and doing Minion voices.
While you're at it, you need to get her "No Mercy." One of the best and most horrible and true.
Now wait until Chris Pegg finds out about the Bible plot we have for him. He can play Jesus - or Joseph, who we KNOW must have been a hottie.
Time to Die!Emerald City has a No-touchy policy on co-splayers - but what do you do when the Gang O' Deadpools and Harly Quinn show up and say "Spank that thang!"?
At sci-fi shows, the Klingons are the crackpots who do what they want any way they want. Looks like Deadpool will be taking over that roll.
RED DWARF! RED DWARF! Do not look upon me, or Penguin of glary death. I Boots and all.used both these photos because I are a Dwarfer, of course. 
I dare yo.And now more Deadpool nuttiness. Including Mashups. That movie may be faux X-rated, but it's a genuine clever silliness generator.


I don't know what this next character is, but her dad engineered the wings, and they fold down Fly girl!and outwards. Amazing stuff on the floors, every year.
Gotta catch up.I love when the anachronisms of everyday life show up in fantasy. As in this gorgeous creature with her purple-and-scythe.
Of course, had to get a legit pose photo, too. One of my favorite costumes this year.
Stop me. I dare you. Sharp!More Deadpool nuttiness. "I'm playing Deadpool. I'll do whatever I want! So there!"
WHEW!Speaking of able costuming, this woman had never made a costume before. She's discovering how hot it gets on the show floor, however! 
Passengers and all!Back in full costume, in front of one of my favorite booths every year, Fez-O-Rama!  Long Day!
Poison Ivy is a great costume, but it comes with very high heels. Ivy kicks back with the kimono she wears to get to her car, and no shoes. I say she could get away with red flats. To match her hair.
And of course it wouldn't be America without lying religious assholes showing up.
They could have just posted, "We have a cool fan club, too! And books!" Instead, they couldn't help themselves.
Trolling for kiddies. They're pushing cures for "depressed teens." One of their number showed up and said, "We need more kids!" 
Thanks a lot, you mental child molesters. I pity the gay kid tries to not commit suicide in YOUR fake-doctor hands. 
At least they're forced to be on the street with the ticket-scalpers where they belong.

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

Convention Art

While sitting at my table, between customers, panels and events, I do art for myself. Here are a couple examples, a Red Glowing Dragon, and "Awa' with the Fairies."
When I'm just doodling freehand original art like this, if you walk up with $50 cash, you'll be able to buy any sort of art like this, easy. So if you have ideas of what sort of doodles you'd like to see me doing, let me know. And because we all have Square, now, but it seldom works without 20 minutes trying to get connected, you bring your twenties, I'll bring my ones, and we'll do it the old-fashioned and easy way.

And you get publishing rights with any art you buy. This means you can share it any way you like, as long as you don't manipulate it or get money involved. Personal cards and postcards are fine, so long as you don't sell 'em.
The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...