Views of the ceiling at Union Station, Cincinnati, Ohio

Make it the deep blue gray of a Victoria Crowned Pigeon.

taken in White Oak, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. May 2009

What do you think she's keeping in there?

"Though Tony Curtis' wardrobe in The Boston Strangler consisted almost entirely of work clothes, he insisted that everything be custom tailored. The assignment fell to costume designer William Travilla, a high fashion couturier under his professional name, Travilla, and the designer of Errol Flynn's costumes in some of his swashbuckling and codpiece epics. 'I'm not knocking Tony, but he is a pain in the neck to work with,' Travilla said one day. 'He's such a perfectionist. But I guess it's a very serious picture and the clothes couldn't be handled by just buying a green zipper jacket. We wanted to get as slender a look as possible, so the pants were dropped to the hipbone and made with fewer pockets. Then the work shirts were made to measure so there wouldn't be a lot of extra bulk to push down into the pants. Then everything was put into the washing machine and mangled so that they'd have character. Oddly enough, the changes we made in the clothes aren't noticeable. The character comes out moody and nasty and certainly doesn't look custom made. The clothes create a more sensuous approach, and after all, the Strangler had to have sex appeal to get into all of those women's apartments.'"

-from The Studio, by John Gregory Dunne

There's a feeling of elevation when you put them on.

Erin O'Connor in Hussein Chalayan

He cleared my mind, like light moving through water.

Camelia design

Craggy Molecules design

 "I the broken plastic Snoopy swing sit

  in the garbage, I was once a source 

  of pleasure for about five minutes

  but I didn't last long. I got broken.

  Why? that's why.

  I, the thing that the donuts go on,

  am a yellow cone called I don't know

  I got unscrewed from my base & found I was used

  as a drinking cup by children

  because I was hollow.

  I am loud, I am the radio

  that plays "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head."

  The rain and the rainbow & the one sleeping

  with the frog are on me and the one sleeping with

  the other girls sharing yellow are on me.

  I was stolen from a playgroup in Massachusetts

  and have lasted a long time. I have notes on me."

  excerpt from Toy Epigrams, by Bernadette Mayer

Certain things are evocative, almond paste is one.

Over and over, she tried to grind her pelvis into the earth.

Morning Drawing # 14

At thirty-eight she changed the stones in each piece from black to red.

"Dress rehearsal was a disaster. One of the chorus girls sprained an ankle, a costume in the 'Electricity' number short-circuited, Chiquita (Baker's pet leopard), unnerved by the general tension, chewed a hole in a dancer's trousers and the wind machine broke down."

-Josephine Baker, description of the days leading up to the premiere of Paris qui Remue, which opened at Le Casino de Paris on September 26, 1930.

We have turned the Modernist eye on the poor creatures and whittled their bodies down to nothing.

Morning Drawing #13

Morning Drawing #12

Two Monkey Valentine

He died without anyone knowing the recipe.

She very gradually stole service for twelve.

And then Leo started to cry and it ruined the whole brunch.

Cowboy wrapping paper, purchased in Nogales, designer unkown.

He has eyes like a Fayoum Portrait.

Diana Vreeland knows how to pack a museum,

People Magazine, December 9th 1974

Diana Vreeland knows how to pack a museum

People Magazine, December 9th 1974

It tastes like stamps.

2 sketches made while looking at the Yves Saint Laurent show  

DeYoung Museum, San Francisco 2009.

Blur the edges and set the image adrift.

When you open that trunk I smell mushrooms.

It's delicious. It tastes like nothing at all.

Riff on Mrs Vreeland's wallpaper (original was a Brunschwig & Fils)

There was a man on the boat who could take the peel off an orange in a way that made it look like a frog.

I think if you want to collect chickens you should collect chickens.

The little eggs are filled with confetti.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with your choice of shoe. The shoe is just a metaphor.

You think you are seeing blackness but it is actually just endless layers of transparency.

Blue Mosque design

Egyptology design

Circus One design

Rickety design

Find me two more like her.

Stand over there in the leaves and let me see if it gets any better.

It's fine during the day but at night something sinister rises up with the fog and then it's better to be indoors.

The cake plate was her mother's. She sold it to me for fifteen dollars.

 "I went to Staten Island, Sharon

  to buy myself a mandolin.

  

  And I saw the long white dress of love

  on a storefront mannequin.

  Big boats chugging back with a belly full of cars

  all for something lacy.

  Some girl's gonna see that dress 

  and crave that thing like crazy."

  -Joni Mitchell, Song for Sharon, Hejira

Sometimes I just wish they would write the idea on an index card and save me the bother of having to look at it.

Something in the interior is poking into my side.

Birthday lunch for Edna Lewis

potted shrimp on toasts and a champagne cocktail with geranium syrup

*

steamed asparagus with lemon juice, duck drippings, parmesan, chopped fresh tarragon and a fried egg

*

pan roasted quail, sweet potato souffle, and sauteed watercress

*

Red Leicster cheese with apples and good mostarda

*

strong coffee ice cream

*

brandy and candied grapefruit peel

I have to put out champagne and perfume so that one of them will come and inhabit my body.

He gave each dog the same name and so they were (for him) 

the same dog.

I am a Vuillard man myself.

Things to eat (mostly sweets) in San Francisco/Berkeley, California.

Bergamot or Tamarind Chile Caramels at Miette

www.miettecakes.com

Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake at Tartine

www.tartinebakery.com

Cornmeal Cherry Scones, Cheese Bread, Brioche Buns, Morning Buns, and lunchtime pizza at The Berkeley Cheeseboard

http://cheesboardcollective.coop

New Orleans style Iced Coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee

www.bluebottlecoffee.com

A good and cozy place to stay is The Inn at the Opera

www.shellhospitality.com/hotels/inn_at_the_opera/

The Curry Fried Chicken at Foreign Cinema is very nice, plenty for two not so hungry people.

www.foreigncinema.com

But she then said,"No, no. I'll just sit here with my yoghurt."