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Tag Archives: family

1. Rig

In order to be a functional professional tomato slicer

You need a pair of slip-resistant shoes

You need an apron

You need a hairnet (plus a beardnet if your facial hair exceeds 1/8″)

You need six gloves, and each hand must wear a glove sandwich of vinyl glove, mesh-cloth cut-resistant gloves, vinyl glove (nitrile gloves may be used instead of vinyl if there is an allergy)

You need protective sleeves on your arms

A compliant work uniform

A large container to throw tomato scrap in for possible use as salsa ingredients

A sheet tray (layman’s “cookie sheet”) or the lid to an XXL container to rest the hand-operated tomato slicer on that will keep tomato juices and seeds from making a mess on your station’s work surface

Product trays to put the sliced tomatoes in

A roll of 12″ plastic film in a box with a built-in cutter to wrap the tomato trays in

Labels that accurately describe net tomato weight, creation date, use by date, and description (“Sliced Tomatoes”) to affix to the plastic film after wrapping

And you will need two tomato slicers,

One of which is yourself

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2. Ma

I never called my late ma Ma

Nor even called her Mother

But since our time is limited

I call my brother Brother.

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3. Role

Today I have been a sleeper, an alarmist, a driver, an idler, an employee, a tomato slicer, a diner, a puzzle solver, a correspondent, a customer, a distant admirer, a fertilizer manufacturer, and a poet. The last two roles are not mutually exclusive.

“Acceptance,” said Sabi, “is paramount.”

“Albinos,” said Wabi, “are weird.”

“You’ve weirdness yourself. Quite a fair amount.”

“You’re one to talk,” Weird Wabi sneered.

.

“Look. She’s got some eggs. Instant family!”

“Good point. I would be down with that.”

“Hey, Dabi, you’re IN,” Sab said hammily.

Thus ended the brief, perfect spat.

There’s a sort of warning in the background of this image, a sampleresque homily which has been, to my knowledge, as yet unwritten. It says “Ambiguity S O C K S.” it is sort of self-demonstrating.

I got ambitious, and my have overreached my ability –I KNOW the viewer needs all the help she or he can get, yet there’s a lot of chaos here. The double acrostic poem, “Kitchens Sync,” gives another clue as to why. A lot is thrown in.

2020 0526 kitchens sync ii

kitchens sync

kundalini yoga sends
intimation to yr friends
take a ride on grammerly
challenge all yr fammerly
help a sea or gutter urchin
end a quest 4 what yr surchin
need of job r wife r clinic
seeds yr future megacynic

When Kitchens Sync, i.e. become synchronous or achieve synchronicity, the phrase “everything but the kitchen sink” expands to become “everything INCLUDING the sinks of more than one kitchen.” I hope and trust that some enjoyment of this poem/image may be derived by looking for patterns. One example that may be missed if I don’t mention it is that the poem has one instance of the shorthand word “yr” (for “your”) in every other line of the poem. That wasn’t done gratuitously. It’s intended to reinforce the connection between the reader and the poem’s arc.  Whether it works or not is a matter of opinion–YOUR opinion.

The center figure seemed to me to look a bit like the late Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson once ran for public office, and used a symbol of his own design for the political party he was trying to get off the ground, of a two-thumbed hand gripping a peyote button. My guy doesn’t have two thumbs on his hand, but including the thumb there are six fingers. I think I owe the whimsy of that to Marc Chagall, who once gave one of his figures a seven-fingered hand. After I post this page I’ll see if Chagall had any other reason for doing that other than the sheer anarchic joy of it. If not, that was plenty–doing a little time in the Anarchic Circle is good for an artist’s refreshment. 🙂

20181206_071133

This was all done under the influence of a severe toothache, but I am happy to say the work was engaging enough to distract away the pain for awhile. Now that the work is done the ache is back in full force; but I earned this toothache, and I own it. –The heck with THAT phony-baloney posturing–I’m going for the Oil of Cloves pronto! 🙂

family & vortex

famine & color TV
anthem & o sole mio
migraines & 4 on the floor
insight & clever retort
lattice & tree felled by axe
yelling & time to relax

Note: I have a dentist’s appointment for 11:30 this morning. Please wish me luck!

Here’s a “digital remaster” of some trick photography I did a few years ago, of my younger brother Brian and me in the 20th and 21st centuries.

briangary

Since this picture was made Brian has put on a few pounds, and I put on a lot of pounds and then lost a few. We’re both a little grayer, and a lot groanier when we get in and out of chairs. We get along great and we love our Mom but we wish she’d dial it down a little. And we love each other.