"When I'm Sixty-Four" by the Beatles, from the animated film Yellow Submarine (1968)
Heh, that was a very Pisces "two fish swimming in different directions" post yesterday.
Q: How was your birthday?
A1 [fish swimming one way]: It was great! I had chocolate cake with my dolls, and my friend gave me a spaceship.
A2 [fish swimming other way]: It was great! I read a fascinating list about surviving a Soviet gulag.
And in the evening I looked up how stars work.
I'd thought they were nuclear bombs, but they're not bombs because they don't explode apart (till they run down on fuel).
They are nuclear reactors, where two nuclei slam into each other and make one bigger nucleus--but the whole thing stays together because . . . Physics.
Crazy beans! It seems more of a process than a thing.
Our sun emitting strong solar flares, from "Star Basics", NASA
I also started a List of Things to Do Before I Die.
(That's overly dramatic! It's just a list of things I'd like to do, coming up, but due to age, I'm aware of the time limit in a new way.)
(I'd listed "Stuff to Do, Get, Be" when I turned 51,
and then wrote a Review of the List when I turned 52, a dozen years ago. I've either done or don't want to do most of the stuff on that list.)
So... here's a new list.
I'd like to add to it, but for today--here are
Ten Things I'd Like to Do
1. Visit the Headwaters of the Mississippi River at Itasca State Park.
It's about 4 hours north. I've never been, and I very much want to. bink said she'd drive with me this year!
"In 1832, Ojibwe leader Ozaawindib led explorer Henry Schoolcraft to Lake Itasca. Schoolcraft renamed the lake Itasca, which means true source in Latin."
2. Go surfing!
I always wanted to learn to surf, but at this age would settle for the easier body surfing (riding the waves lying down).
People surf on Lake Superior, north of Duluth, but I think the best waves are in the cold seasons--they wear wet suits.
Brrrr. No.
3. More printmaking!
Not that I wouldn't make more word prints, but I'd like to do more stories like The Moth Burial. My best work.
(I am not motivated to try to sell prints now, but maybe at some point. Too many logistics for this human...)
4. Art the Fence!
From a political-science point of view, organized resistance is the most effective way to combat power, but it's not my way.
I am going for tying things on the fence the city put up to keep people OUT of the pocket park.
Emily and I are going to tie "You are made of stars" prints on the fence today---I want to keep decorating it, and it's a very Emily thing to do too. I imagine tying little toy art pieces on it.
5. Construct more toys!
Alley protectors, things to hang on the fence, and the like... I love to do this but have slacked waaay off.
6. Never eat added sugar again, except when pre-planned, for instance on my birthday.
I'm finding this is doable at this time in my life, which it never was before. Naturally sweet things to eat are proving to be perfectly satisfying--like when I binge-ate an entire butternut squash for comfort the day Trump was reelected.
7. Photography Projects!
I will continue with Toys Recreate Paintings.
I want to expand to Victorian-style Toy Portraits, which means making a portrait studio, with painted backdrops.
Would also like to make an effort to photograph objects at the store more carefully. Snapping them in the store's fluorescent lights isn't the best. Maybe set up a black box? Taking them outside works in the warmer weather.
8. Travel to see Paintings the Toys Recreate.
Vienna to see Bruegel would be cool, but I'm thinking closer to home--more comfortable traveling, and more affordable.
And, for instance, I've never been to St. Louis, Missouri!
I would love to go see Henry Caleb Bingham at the St Louis Art Museum.
Also, choose to recreate paintings in places that I'd like to go--like Chicago. Or the local art museums!
9. Walk a day on the Lake Superior Hiking Trail.
I'd be happy doing a day on a section in Duluth. Directions.
10. Paint more pictures in goauche.
I got tired of it a few years ago, but I love many that I did and would like to do more.
As this, one of my favorite things I've ever made––Girlette Spike on the New Mexico goat farm with Marz–– says:
"Nothing for it . . . but to do it."