Wear your face panty!

The results of wearing the most uncomfortable bra I own.

July! The month were the house starts to kill me in the manner of a slow cook oven.My space is constantly stuffy. Even with the windows open and the fans going. Heat rashes adorn my hand and feet like awful henna designs.
It’s been hard to sleep. 
It’s been hard to not get depressed.
It’s been hard to concentrate. 
Fortunately, I won’t be stuck in here for the whole  summer! At the end of this month there is a trip to Mexico City lined up. It’s part work related, part mental health booster.
I am happy to get out. I would be thrilled to get out except there is as yet a pandemic drifting through the air. Still drifting through the air. Mutating as it goes.
Sure, sure I got my vaccine, but there is a little fact that keeps slipping people’s minds: VACCINES ARE NOT A CURE ALL. I can still get sick even if I have been vaccinated. My CHANCES of not getting sick are improved. 
It’s like that cancer that I had in 2017. (Remember that time when I had cancer?) The CHANCES of it not being something really nasty are very high, but I how would I know what my personal chances are? There is no test to make such a determination. That’s why I went through with putting a sizable hole my chest that resulted in a sizable scar. 
You don’t have to scar your body to increase your chances of not coming down with COVID-19. You don’t even need to take the vaccine (which is not being forced into your body by some scary doctor-man, by the way). Eat well, stay clean, stay away, and wear a mask. It doesn’t seem like that was ever a lot to ask. 
But from what I have seen… far too many people are so mindless and careless and so self-righteous… It was way to much to ask. If people can’t follow basic health and safety measures I don’t understand how the hell they are going to travel in space let colonize places with alien and quite hostile environments wherein you will have to wear protective gear a whole heck of a lot.
More complaint has been made about mask wearing than I’ve heard women complain about bra wearing! At the end of the day even the most comfortable bra I own annoys me. 
But I have to wear a bra, right? It’s not “proper” if I don’t, right? And I don’t wear bras for my sake. I don’t have large breasts. What need do I have to wear this garment?I wear bras for the sake of “society.” For the sake of my fellow “-men.” 
Which, as it turns out, is same reason anyone should wear a proper mask during times when an airborne disease is passing through multiple populations. So you don’t get all hot and bothered with a certain fever and become a useless burden to everyone around you with your sweaty moaning and groaning. 
AM I RIGHT?! {😏}
And you know what? I really don’t care if I can’t see your face- or if you can’t see mine. For me, mask wearing has been a such a mental relief. Wearing a mask mutes the smells of the street, it block some of the dust kicked up by the endless traffic; and it works as a sunscreen. What, oh what, is not to like?
If you wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from the sun’s invisible dangerous radiation that may or may not damage your optic nerves, then what is wrong with a mask to filter your airways when there may or may not be crap in the air? Do tell, do tell.
I didn’t exactly want to go off on a thing about “face panties”
– which you change and or wash daily- RIGHT?!  
Yet there I went talking about “face panties.”
 (Are you cringing yet? Should I say it again?)
But, wait, hey, I’m going to Mexico City! 
I need the change of scenery. 
Badly. 

The Armory Show Art Fair

the armory show logo

Ecstatic News!

I’ve been sitting on this news for months and I think FINALLY now it’s OK to post –

Video work that I helped to create with Hugo Crosthwaite will be exhibited by Pierogi at The Armory Show this year! This is extra juicy because it’s going to be a solo show. If you are in Manhattan, come by and see the work!

When: September 9 – 12, 2021
Where: Javits Center, NYC


Not just an art fair - new york's art fair

Lemuralia, It’s Halloween In May!

Happy Halloween, biz-nich-izzles!

It’s May. It’s spring!


It’s time to celebrate Lemuralia!


Wut?
Is that a kind of lemur party?


Well, no, not quite. 
Before the Catholic Christians messed around with the dates- as they always seemed to do- the month of May was the time when some ancient Europeans would turn their thoughts to lemures or the dead- the scary, unhappy dead. And how to make sure they weren’t a bother to the living. 

Romans, in particular, held observance for lemures on May 9th, 11th, and 13th. 

May 11th just happens to be my birthday and it’s an “unlucky” day according to the Romans.

Which would explain so much about me?

They warn against people getting married in May, but what of those born in the month?

Are we screwed?

For me, yes. I’ve been sufficiently, quietly screwed right over in so many ways through the years. Given the list of things that are wrong with my existence, I’m not exactly living the most ” #blessed_life. “

(If you want to see it, I have the list. It’s even in alphabetical order for you persnickety snarks out there.) 

Back to those lemures:
In one way or another, the Romans figured out that to appease these unhappy dead you would have to walk around your home barefoot at midnight on these three particular days in May and throw dry black beans (or fava beans) over your shoulder (or spit them from your mouth) while reciting, 


 Haec ego mitto; his redimo meque meosque fabis. 


And then clang your (copper) pots and shout 
“Ghosts of my fathers and ancestors, be gone!” a lot.

I might be cursed, I might might identify as basically dead, but I’m not as dead as beans.
I don’t want legumes for my birthday or a loud and pointless amount of noise aimed in my direction. What would I do with any of that?

Then what do I want?

  • Straight up- send money. 
    Grease the gears so this preta can reclaim some joie de vivre. What’s more life affirming than being gifted the stuff that helps you move fluidly through a capitalist system?
  • And then you should to go treat yourself- treat yourself to a gooey chocolate fudge brownie and wash it down with a hot cafe mocha in my honor because I can’t eat chocolate or drink coffee quite like I used to. SIGH.
  • And/or bake a nice batch of ossa dei morti. They seem really tasty! 
  • And then, just, like, be a better person than who you were the day before.
  • Being a better person is the best way to appease, or honor, or stick it to your ancestors and all who came before you.
  • Also, send money. It’s my birthday!

 ” #manifest ”