BITE BACK: bink's Coup-coup bird, & other posters

We like to exercise our self-evident right to The Pursuit of Happiness, and that includes having FUN with protest art!
Taking into account protestors in London (Trafalgar Square, 3–5 pm!) and other places around the world, surely there’ll lots of fun signs this Saturday (4/5).

"BITE BACK"

While I was painting a cat on my poster board [[yesterday's post], bink (who had a stinkin' head cold) was painting her trademark terrier. . .
going after a "coup-coup" bird:

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I like that we are seeing the re-clamation of the American flag--
I first noticed it on the cover of Beyoné's album, Cowboy Carter.
Some Black people shun the flag, but others say,
"Hey, we BUILT this country!"

We do not claim it is perfect, nor spotless--of course not!––and neither are we,
but it is OUR dirty laundry, and we'll fly it!

I incorporated it on the back of my NO KINGS cat poster.
"Should I clean it up?" I asked bink.

"No, it looks like a Jasper Johns flag," she said.

I know Ignore Alien Orders from Joe Strummer of the Clash, but it's from 1960s San Francisco: A couple stoned musicians supposedly came up with it when discussing,
What to do if aliens take over Earth?

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Sister, who does a lot of sewing, was stitching an applique sign!
In process: a pink slip for Trump: "You're Fired!"

I texted her that we are carrying on in the style of our father, who was serious (he taught political science) and silly.

She sent back a photo of him carrying a sign for himself running for president on the Oregano Eradication Party---a joke with his neighbors because he was battling wild oregano ("fairly invasive") in his yard that summer.

He's in his early-eighties here:

The photo is him in his pajamas at the ocean.

Are you making a sign?

Pissed-off Pink Panther vibe

 I am well pleased.

Acrylic paint on poster board (3 ft. x 2ft)

Restoration and Reclamation

I. Honey Mustard, Restored

"I can see in two different sizes!"

Honey Mustard was missing an eye, so now one is little & gold, and one is big and blue.

Oh, my, she was DIRTY.

After the bath: nyah, nyah!

"My innermost being is restored!"

 

II. Protest Poster: This Flag Is Ours

Will try the cat on one side "No Kings, Only Cats"?

Thinking of something with the US flag--
I love how people are claiming that---
it's Mump who is anti-American,
whose ideals are alien to ours!

Of course we do not always live up to our ideals, 

who does?
but they are the stars we steer by,
and we'd be fools to let them be obscured.

Print in process: cat says NO

Working on this print for the April 5 protest. I see it’s going to be international too!

Family and friends have lived with  cats off and on, and I’ve house-sat a lot of cats, some of whom I loved, but I wouldn’t say I’m a cat person. Still, I admire that nobody says ‘no’ better than a cat, and I’m sort of amazed that the cat’s expression here is just what I wanted.

I drew from different pictures of cat art. Still want to carve a decorative border.

This is fairly small. I’ve seen small signs be effective, but maybe I’ll see if I can paint a large version on poster board. I don’t know though, when you get a face just the way you like it, it’s almost impossible to reproduce, and I’m really pleased with this particular cat.

Cats say no.

And another cat, a clay tile. Cats sell well.

Yesterday I learned that Mick Jagger was inspired by The Master & Margarita to write "Sympathy for the Devil".
 The Russian stanza!
"I hung around St. Petersburg/ Anastasia screamed in vain".

The devil in Jagger's song, like Bulgakov's, is not a sexy beast, he is more  like Stalin, Putin... (and "you and me"). 

If a reader knew nothing of Stalin or Jesus, what would they would make of The Master & Margarita? Pontius Pilate is a character---do modern people know who he is?
The novel would probably still be a fun romp.
The cat stands alone!
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Time to garden?
I don't garden, but I did see my first green shoots coming up, so I gathered some oddments for a display. I brought home a big pot for geraniums--the one effort I make toward outdoor beautification.
However, after reaching 70º yesterday, today it's in the 30s and supposed to snow.

This display ^ is a jumble--mostly plant pots--and an unrelated UNDERWOOD typewriter.

"Where's Tom Hanks when you need him?" a customer said.
People like that TH collects typewriters. One said I should mail one of my typewriter prints to Hanks, but I don't have a special feeling for him.
There are many other people I should write to first.

I did send "You are made of stars" to Rep. Al Green, to thank him for standing up to Trump.
I  wrote to Rev. Mariann Budde again too--a star print. After her inauguration sermon, for too long it seemed she was the only one with public power who was going to say anything.

I'm hopeful that next week's April 5 protest will be big. A friend who's active in Indivisible told me 800 actions are planned for that day, all around the US.

I have not settled on an idea for a protest poster. I think something new for me--not Star Trek again.
I like the idea of a cat...  The Cheshire cat? "We're all mad here."
I just discovered, Cats saying NO is a meme.
That would be sufficient.

First though... the Wisconsin supreme court election this Tuesday, April 1--the one Musk has spent millions on.
An April Fool, for real.

Cat trinket tray

This bronze trinket tray is very unlike me. I snatched it out of the to-shelve cart at work though because it's like the demon cat in The Master & Margarita. It has a rather evil stare, don't you think? (I might even take it back.)
"Don't touch my dead fish."

Behind, the girlettes are messing around in Easter crates I got them. 
As for devils, "Pshaw", they say.
"No masters. No devils.
ONLY TOYS."

(I'm thinking of "no kings" for my poster for the April 5th protest. Like, didn't we already decide that?
Still kicking ideas around...)
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Also at work yesterday--sugar bowl & creamer cherry blossoms on blue luster-ware, from Japan.  I love the set, but not to own. It sold (for $5) in 15 minutes.

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The Master & Margarita is keeping me reading--weirdly, it feels like reading Harry Potter--NOT in plot (though Voldemort is an incarnation of evil)--but in pacing:
From the very start, THINGS KEEP HAPPENING, which pull you in... and on.

(Though like with H.P., at halfway through its 550 pages, I'm temped to start skimming the quidditch-like scenes---there are a couple/few too many episodes of the wicked chaos the Devil wreaks.)

However, it's so good! So Russian-- full of references to spite and envy, with phrases like "self-annihilating malice".
And Goodness exists, but comes at a high price.
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Speaking of goodness---I loved Happy to Help You-- a short film (16 min.) about a woman (Amy Sedaris) calling a help line and getting nothing but pablum. "I'm holding space for you."
I want to quote other good lines, but that would spoil the treat. (Lmk if you watch it, what jumped out at you.)

It has a very satisfying conclusion.
You can watch it here:

Or here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7FbZJ_CO8A&ab_channel=TheNewYorker

Book-Alikes: Mirrors & Echoes

I started The Master & Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov) last night and was immediately hooked. I stayed up late reading it--the first book I've done that with in a long time.

Right off the bat, it's funny and deep. It reminds me of the effect of Apocalypse Now & Downfall: we can easily see that evil exists.
The echo comes back: goodness must, too.

But it's funny. (Is Pratchett & Gaiman's Good Omens a descendant?)
How does a demon cat get on a trolley when NO CATS ALLOWED?

Googled it--there are many, many illustrations of the cat Behemoth. Even a Soviet stamp--fittingly, as the curtain closes on the USSR in 1991:

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Speaking of things being like other things:
I've gathered some of my favorite book-alikes here.
Sometimes the faces look alike––
sometimes it's the cover designs.

Sometimes a mirror, sometimes an echo.

Two especial favorites:

BELOW Left: A Yoruba queen, 12th-13th cent. (at the Smithsonian):
Right: Boy from Belarus, 2004, by Wendy Ewald, "Uryi"

BELOW, left: illus. by Gunter Grass for his novel Dog Years (1965)
Right: Wood Finishing (1956)

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BELOW: Gurdjieff & Piglet! Was this was intentional?

BELOW: Left, Mary McCarthy (1912–1989);
Right: Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

BELOW, Left: Icon of the Madonna Glykophilousa ("Sweet-kissing" her baby, or "Loving Kindness"), 4th century,
...and, right, a sweet horse.

BELOW: Barbie & Simone de Beauvoir?

BELOW: Vietnam & Camelot

BELOW: Left: Poet George Byron (1788–1824),
& Comedian Sarah Silverman (b. 1970– )

The Absurd.

Everyone likes a good hat. . .

And, more hats. Left,  Selvedge magazine cover (Mar/Ap 2018)––I wish I'd kept this (more cool back issues here);
Right: A Soldier Priest Talks to Youth (1963)

Always time for Tea-time!

A few echoes . . .

(For more pictures of book covers,
I labeled 86 posts here 'Book Displays'--
mostly not look-alikes though.)

Book-Alikes

I happened to set these two books face-forward, and look:
Isn't there a resemblance between Darcy and Behomoth, the Cat as Big as a Pig--if only the whiskers and high collars?
Colin Firth could play the demon cat...

I haven't read The Master & Margarita--have you?
The time is right for an absurdist parable about the Devil coming to town...

Reviewer Viv Groskop gives it a unique recommendation:

"If you are unmarried, and you love [the novel] and you meet someone else who loves it, you should definitely marry them. "

--"Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita, Or, How to Be Happy With Russian Literature." (Literary Hub, 2018)

It seems like a novel for our times, though our Mump has not sunk to Stalin excesses (pleasegod, no), they're certainly absurd enough. Groskop says:

"In dealing frivolously and surreally with the nightmare society, Bulgakov’s satire becomes vicious without even needing to draw blood.
His characters are in a sort of living hell, but they never quite lose sight of the fact that entertaining and amusing things are happening around them. However darkly comedic these things might sometimes be."

Tororo mentioned there's a new movie adaptation. (Russian, 2024).
In the U.S. you can watch it on the site Russian and Soviet Movies...
Hm, well, you need a membership, but there is a 5-min. preview.
(I don't have Internet at home so haven't watched it yet.)
https://sovietmoviesonline.com/melodrama/the-master-and-margarita-2

I enjoyed VG's review--she's funny.
I haven't made it through much Russian lit (Chekhov's short stories were about my speed).
I might look for her book, The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature.

Crowns: Kong, Celt, King

 My book display at work today...

Nyah, nyah

 Drip-drying bear sticks her tongue out after a bath.

The opposite of fascism is... fun?

Sort of. Maybe, sometimes.

Journalist Anand Giridharadas says,
"The ongoing hijacking of the United States by broligarchs and MAGA minions requires a ferocious political response".

But also...

"The best revenge is to refuse their values.
To embody the kind of living — free, colorful, open — they want to snuff out."

––"The Opposite of Fascism" at The Ink––A newsletter on politics and culture, money and power

("Broligarchs"--ha, ha, I hadn't heard that before.)

I bet Giridharadas is an extrovert. He and others like him want to help us resist fascism by prescribing ... throwing parties with friends! Cooking good food and sharing it! Growing community!
"Let's hang a pinata in the public square, it'll be FUN!"

Fun can be a political/survival strategy... Like my toy dogs boycotting Target.

And, BELOW: A kid's sign from an Anti–Iraq War rally rally I attended in 2008 (found it while re-reading my early posts):


But I want to say, tongue in cheek (but really):
prescribing fun can be fascistic too--like all that HAPPY PEASANT propaganda from the Soviet Union or Maoist China.

Not everyone wants to dance under the stars with loved ones.
(And while I'm on it, I will add that I hate the term loved ones. Also, "beloved".)

I wish "celebrating community" was not so frequently held up as THE sign of political and mental health.

Misanthropes can hate and resist fascism too.

I appreciated the article for the reminder that resistance is not all about serious political action. But, include ALL the freedoms, including the freedom to be a grump, alone.
Reading in bed by yourself can also be the opposite of fascism. Spending the afternoon restoring old bears.

(And am I feeling a bit grumpy this chilly Sunday afternoon, and protective of my right to it?

Just maybe.)

Figuring out how to live YOUR life is the opposite of fascism.
No prescription needed.

Loop the Loop

Penny Cooper is wearing her new dress (below).
"But only till Monday morning:
I have to wear my plaid dress to school."

Like every spring, they will be graduating 2nd grade this year,
and then in the fall, they will start 3rd grade...
...only to graduate from 2nd again in the coming spring.

They live in a Moibus strip of time when it comes to school, and every year they travel this school loop.

Penny Cooper was given a little rabbit toy by the friend-of-a-friend where I was sewing yesterday.

Note the tiny, oblong cigarette ashtray ^ behind her.
By Eschenbach in Bavaria, maker of porcelains for hotels & restaurants.
Ah--I found it--it would've been one of four mini-ashtrays that stacked in a porcelain holder.
Nesting ashtrays!

I may start bringing home more ashtrays--they intrigue me because as society changed its view of cigarettes, so ashtrays fell from favor.
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I keep saying, I'm not going for purity. I'm just noodling my little karmic choo-choo on down the line.

At this time, I am going to stay on Blogger. Though I'm not happy with Google, I don't see any other blogging site I love. My best option would be to start my own freestanding blog, and pay for a domain name – – I’m just not up for that at this time, while I’m switching over my email and other stuff.

Reading more about my new email server, Proton, however, I do like learning it was developed in 2014 by scientists who met at CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Switzerland.

Here's a 2014 TED Talk about it from Andy Yen, physicist, founder, and CEO of Proton, and a long-time advocate for privacy rights.
"Without this [control of our own data], we really can't live in a free society."

ted.com/talks/andy_yen_think_your_email_s_private_think_again

Proton itself says it's politically neutral, but weirdly, this year Yen said Trump is better for small businesses than the Democrats.
 ? ? ?
But also Andy Yen said...

 . . . Europe should "step up" and "be aggressive" to counter U.S. Big Tech firms' tight grip on many important technologies, such as web browsing, cloud computing, smartphones — and now artificial intelligence.
--via CNBC

Lordy, lordy, we are in pickle.
Do what you think is best, eh?

Right now, that's making Sunday banana pancakes for bink.
Have a good day, evening, whatever, everyone!

The Idiot’s Guide to Wabi-Sabi

Sewing a Girlette outfit at a friend-of-a-friend’s, we were laughing about wabi-sabi as a fancy name for ‘doing it badly’. 

“We should write a book, The Idiot’s Guide to Wabi-Sabi!”

so mod

I sorted lots of fun donations today--a good day!

Two mod squad puzzles from 1969. I've never seen a single episode of this TV show (nor The Man from U.N.C.L.E. with the cool Ilya Kuryakin).
As I was pricing the puzzles, Big Boss came by. "I'm glad you're here so people know we have interesting things like that," he said.  He’d never heard of the mod squad.

I'd mentioned my earth-tone endcap--I got some good things to spruce it up today.
The yellow/brown/orange floral tins, from the 1970s.

I'd spied these attractive wood bowls ^ in the cart to go out on the sales floor, priced by a coworker 99¢ each.  
That didn't seem right. I looked up the maker's name and found out tthey're handmade of birds-eye maple. I oiled them lightly, wrote a note for each one saying what it is, and repriced each at $6.99.
    

BELOW: "Munising wood bowls are carved as one piece from a log by Munising Wood Products in Upper Peninsula, Michigan, from 1911 to 1955." --via

I love things and their history, and they deserve special care.
My coworker's ignorance is to our customer's financial benefit, IF they know how to spot nice things.
People in the know might wish I wouldn't catch vintage things, but while they have to pay more, I  hope that by me pulling out cool old things and giving them pride of place, other people notice them more and maybe learn about them and their worth---
which is not just financial.

Nothing too extraordinary on the Vintage Shelves today,
but enough to fill the shelves. A sample:

(And I aim to price at a third of antique prices. I look at picclick that averages SOLD prices on ebay.)

My favorite (after the wood bowls):
the very pink Fondue Magic: Fun, Flame and Saucery.

Refreshed & Restuffed

 All clean!

“Even my pink grapefruit ears!”

(My socks hand knit by Ms Chocolate House)

Orange Blossom Special

 The first steps of the restoration of Orange Blossom, the new old bear.

On the doorstep, eager for fresh fur.

“I feel crunchy!”

Yeah, and no wonder – – I opened her back seam, and the foam she was stuffed with is some petroleum product that crumbles back to sand.

They think it’s funny to get turned inside out (to remove all the icky sticky stuffing). “We can see with our eyes facing any direction!”

Five washes, five rinses…

Finally the water ran clear. Pillsbury Doughboy offers Orange encouragement.

Now set in the sunny open window on a stick to dry! She’s made of synthetic material so will dry quickly and refluff well.