Pure Religion is Love in Motion.

Tools

Every tool has its quirks and limitations. When a tool works well for a while, then suddenly appears to stop working, frustration ensues. This is the case recently as Blogger, the tool that Connie and I use to publish this blog has updated to a new version. In addition to that, Connie's voicemail is full, which makes communication more tricky. Suffice to say, once we work though these complications, you dear reader, will be treated to more of Ms. Vandeveer's interesting words and images.

viva bravo whoopee oooooooh eureka hallelujah

I Love My Bed

Dynamic Duo

SophieLight

"We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." - Henry Beston, circa 1925

First Duo

I've always been a sucker for a wink.

Okay. So anyone who's talked to me this year knows how completely and utterly I've given myself over to Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise.

This is Katchoo.

As a piece of fiction I've been thoroughly enjoying for the better part of a year, Strangers in Paradise has me on the edge of my seat. What fun! As a piece of visual storytelling it seems to be reaching a sort of perfection. It's breathtaking. And funny. I was of course smitten from the start. But this last issue was a real zowie. Four solid black pages spoke profoundly without saying a word, not the tiniest scratch was implied on the perfect pages - just blackness. Like aweful deep space, terrifying in its possibilities.

And the wink. This wink nearly shred me to bits. I would show you the two frames before and after this one but it might spoil it for Those Who Do Not Know Yet.

So I wrote to Terry Moore today and this is what I said about #86: I've always held a deep appreciation for a well placed pause in poetry, in art... SIP has had this in hand on so many occasions... The possibility in those black pages holds infinite breath and life. That said, it was the wink that did me in. What an awesome acknowledgment of a beautiful, complex and mutual friendship. There's so much love in a wink like that. It's easier to bear the parting with such astounding love.

Since it's my personal goal to get you all addicted to Strangers in Paradise I cannot explain some of the details. But what inspired me to say all this, right now, is what I said, taken out of context.

(I've also been reading Margaret Atwood's Writing with Intent.)

Occasionally I write something that goes out into the world very near to the way I actually mean it to. It makes me feel happy.

Setting Up My New Domain, Easy Cheesey!!

www.reverentstrange.com is in the house!

It was easy and cheap, just like me. I decided yesterday that it's time to get this going. Poof go the barriers in my brain. I get so in my own way all the time. I'd like to make a toast to not getting in my own way anymore. Proust!!

Second Trio

A Few Words To My Brother On Father's Day

You're such a complicated person. So beautiful and so messy. A skinny little fucked up kid inside the body of an ogre with an unbelievably awesome laugh that transforms you. I wish that you could let go of some of the anger inside you.

You're not fooling anyone. Except maybe your son.

First Trio: Show Me The Way To Endless Joy

Family Snapshots

I've been searching for and trying to download a single picture by a photographer who's work I deeply respect and admire...Turns out her work is heavily gaurded, protected and otherwise off limits to the pilfering masses and since that obviously includes me, you're looking at my awesome nephew. Since the day he was born he's been teaching me how to make the photos I love the best.

Alongside all the fancy art books I have on my bookshelves are my photo albums. A few of the albums are fancy pictures from trips abroad, but mostly they're family pictures. Some of these pictures I flat out stole from my mom (remember: amateurs borrow, artists steal), but most of them are probably just like yours: random get togethers, the occasional oh-that's-a-strange-picture, sleepovers with cousins, holidays blah blah blah...

I've looked at these photos a gajillion times. I never get tired of them. These are the kind of pictures I want to make for the rest of my life.