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March 31, 2005

exclusive hinterview!

Ok, so Cari is doing this fun thing, and even though I am not usually one to participate in fun things on purpose if I can avoid it (and complain about missing out on it later) I couldn't help myself. One can't help but take advantage of an opportunity to carry on about oneself, after all. I mean, really. Plus I seriously enjoyed finding out factoids about Cari and what goes on in her world, especially with regard to her past as goth journalist and her sheer huevos (and cuteness) in interviewing Nick Cave in 1992.
So here is the thing of it~ there is a method to this interview madness!
Here's how it works. After I answer Cari's questions on my blog, then you, legion of Knit-A-Log readers, good sports all, get to post comments saying "Pippy, interview me!" and then I get to think up 5 questions for you, and post them up on here. Then you have to answer on your blog, and post the same rules and whatnot. And if you don't have a blog of your own well, it must mean you live under a rock or something. And plus it means you can't really play. Hey I didn't make it up.

Ok, so here are Cari's questions~

1.What, exactly, is an Egghead? Or who is an Egghead? They seem to lurk around your blog. There must be a story behind this and we, your readers who have never met you in real life, want to know.

Oh gosh, Eggheads! There are several who are near and dear to my heart, and at least one who isn't but I wished might have wanted to be.(sigh) But the ways of Eggheads are mysterious and complicated, because they overthink everything, which you have to do to be one.
In any event, I didn't make up the word. In the dictionary its defined as an intellectual or highbrow, I think of it as more of a 1950s caricature of a rocket scientist, the kind that has thick glasses and a pocket protector. Women eggheads are similar, except sexier and they tend to frighten men. I also think of it as an endearing term, especially in the case of one in particular, whose middle initials just happen to be E. H. and whose head, now that I see it again, is vaguely ovoid, is it not?? A little bit flat on top, maybe.
Eggheads are good to keep around because they are genenrally fonts of information, some of it useful, and will correct one's spelling and grammar if one makes some kind of error, which, ahem, I never do. So I hope that explains it!

2. Give some kind of visual—photo, drawing, painting, collage, whathaveyou—to show us something that would surprise us about you.

Ok, I don't know if there are any surprises here, but these are the best I could come up with on short notice! Some little paintings (sorry the color is kind of odd)

The titles might be revealing in some way. They are called, from the left, Pond Lily, Tricycle Red, and Even The Lucky Have Close Calls.
This drawing is called Sloth.

3. If you could have only one superpower, what would it be?
The ability grow extra limbs, or shed them, as needed. If that can be called a superpower.

4. What did you absolutely believe to be true when you were younger that turned out to be quite false in adulthood? Pick either your favorite, or your most shattering, or your favorite shattering moment of disillusionment.
Gosh, I can't think of anything in particular, aside from the fact that when I was a kid I had the idea that adulthood was somehow better than childhood (!) since you could do whatever you wanted then! Ha!
Like you could stay up until all hours of the night watching garbage on tv, eat all kinds of junk and drive a car. Plus I thought that once I was an adult I would have it all figured out, like I would have a job that I was good at and I would always know what I was doing, and I would always have some kind of cool adult answer for every situation. And I would know how to balance a checkbook and things. Seriously.
So, its not so much a single shattering moment as a process of disillusionment, I guess.
And some of it is not so disappointing because I used to almost always eat cereal for dinner, and I enjoyed it tremendously.

5. What do you look like inside your head with your eyes closed? How do you picture yourself?
Gawd, I have no idea! Its kind of like a jumble of parts. Distorted, flat, and backwards. Usually as much younger than I actually am. Always really really pale, because that's the one thing I know for sure.

Jeepers, those questions were harder than they looked!
Anyway I hope that was fun for somebody besides me! Now its your turn, somebody, anybody! Let me interview you!

The End.

Posted by pippypippy at 08:36 AM | Comments (4)

March 30, 2005

new pitchers!

Once I remember, some time ago, I read a study that showed that something about singing was good for one's brain chemistry, and actually improved one's mood. With that in mind I hum to myself often just to vibrate whatever it is in the brane pan that generates the good mood enhancing chemicals. Today I shall be have a radiant smile for all humanity as I have done several rousing renditions of There Is Power In A Union this morning so far. And I'm just getting warmed up.

And what's not to be happy about?

Its a beautiful day!

There are comfy new beds in unexpected places!

and I finished the grey patas!

And the Bee stripe patas! With extra Bee left over. (Though haven't quite got the hang of grafting toes yet, sigh)
And plus I am looking very coy in my new Kidsilk Haze scarfles.

Ooh la la.
Plus all my new elephant needs are arms, legs, and a name!

We are open to suggestions!
p.s. Thanks to Thomas for email of photos, and for extra bonus Cellie photo which made us laugh and laugh!

Posted by pippypippy at 08:19 AM | Comments (5)

March 29, 2005

immutable

Oh, how do I love thee, Billy Bragg! He and I have something in common besides both being pinkos, too. Ah yes, we both need a diction'ry, in the end, it appears, to find out the meaning of unrequited. Sigh. I have got way too much time on my hands.
Actually, if I could manage to get anything done, the truth is, I wouldn't, but forces beyond my control seem to thwart me at every turn!!! Its this chaos problem I seem to be having. Can anyone explain it??
It all started when I decided to work on my grant application and discovered the slides I need are *somewhere* in this total mess of boxes that I have been living with. Which thankfully are in only two places, as far as I know, at this point. But then there is the immutable law of things, which is that whatever you need at any given moment is either in the place where you are not, or, if it is in the same place, is at the very bottom of the very last place you can reach, and where you would never think to look, and will remain there until you no longer need it, or give up trying to find it, at which point it will be right there in front of your face.
At least I've had (far too much) coffee today and done some serious unpacking, and found a bunch of drawings I'd forgotten about, and said to myself, "damn, I'm good". Which is somewhat more irritating given the fact that I am being thwarted in my grant applications and goddamn, if anyone ever deserved to be given big big handfuls of cash just for being a brilliant genius, well I AM THAT PERSON- oh yeah believe it! So that's when I found more CDs, among them Billy and his jangly clangly guitar and oh yeah he's rocking my world.
More later including sock photos. Oh yeah. And is there a flag, Knit-A-Log readers, that flies above your hearts? And is my name writ there upon it?? Say there is. Oh say there is.

Posted by pippypippy at 01:29 PM | Comments (1)

March 25, 2005

peeps

It always rains on Good Friday.
Took Marcel to the parkles but he was having none of it, the damp makes his patas feel funny and so he has to stop and cry until I pick him up. Such a little mama's boy! Such a hothouse flower! How did it happen?? His Uncle Mike fed him lots of milk-bones, which he accepted in spite of some trepidation, as Uncle Mike is something of an Alpha dog! Cel wasn't quite sure what to make of him..
It was good to get out yesterday, and to dislodge some of the brain fuzz with coffee at Taste of Heaven, and to see people besides my computer.
Once I was in London on Good Friday and absolutely everything shut down. Last year I was in Montreal and we peeked into a dark church full of people and then tiptoed away. I remember it was Easter because the bakery had chocolate rabbits and also chocolate chickens and I really wanted a chocolate chicken, because I love chickens and who ever got a chocolate chicken in their Easter basket? Not me! Marshmallow peeps, yeah. But these were full on giant size chocolate chickens. Believe it, because I'm not making it up! They are depraved in Montreal.

Posted by pippypippy at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2005

better

There appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel!
Here's the thing~ first I had this cold that everyone seems to have, this endless sore throat thing and then the snot part too. Then I got the stomach flu. Which I didn't think could happen at the same time as you have a cold- its just not right!!!- but it can, and does, oh yeah. I thought I was gonna die. But then, as my dad once said, when I said I felt like I was going to die, "no, you won't be that lucky" or something equally clever. See? I'm still not terribly witty. Also I have had no coffee for 2 days so please pardon the lingering brain fuzz.. I honestly didn't know I could survive this long without coffee.
Plus not wanting to sleep all the time is nice and so is eating solid food. Hourah!
So now I am knitting an elephant and plotting how to scrape up some kind of cotton (and what kind, and what color) for the Chickami.
Blah blah. More later.

Here's the other thing~ my feelings are still a little wounded though. And I keep trying to find out some tiny clue about whatever I may have done or said but really I know these things have a way of not working out and one should go into them with limited expectations to begin with. Its just that now I think that somebody out there thinks I am not nice or worthy or smart or something and I don't know why and I hate that. And plus it sounds like I'm being self-depracating which is never attractive and so there I go making it worse. If you don't know what I'm talking about its ok because its not such a big thing. Blargh. Its just stupid. And I only suggested the Cornell boxes at the Art Institute to be nice, because I was afraid you would look at that silly Seurat too much-and you know who you are. That's all I'm saying. I'll stop now.
p.s. but I could really use a friendly word from someone friendly!

Posted by pippypippy at 11:21 AM | Comments (3)

March 20, 2005

you may think its funny but

its snot! Ha! (sorry!)
My head is still all stuffed up. Yuck.
I'm listening to all these CDs I pulled out of boxes.
Here's who I love~ a Texan.
I've loved other Texans too (you all know who you are!). What is it about cowboys? I think maybe its because their Mommas raised them up right. But then Lyle says they're lonesome and blue, and make the ladies soo sad. So who knows. Oh, and bull riders do it best, yee-haw.
The big knitting news is, after countless hours and skeins of Manos and Kureyon, the blanket is done!
Last evening was spent watching basketball, weaving in ends and sneezing. Oh and we watched The 10 Commandments, there's some pretty good chest hair in that movie. Too bad its on Charleton Heston.
Did you know it~
Palm Sunday makes me think of my grandmother, and Iowa, and being 14. And my dad who didn't go to Mass with us. But did take short catnaps in the car, by the side of the highway, trucks blowing past us, while I drew the clouds and the cornfields in my sketchbook.
My face hurts.
I feel like a dawg.
Be nice to me.

Posted by pippypippy at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2005

......

Ugh. Still sick.
Still got fuzz for brains.
Is anybody out there?
Eek! There is!!! There's a man swinging outside my window on a rope! I'm not kidding! He's washing the windows and swinging like Tarzan! Should I smile and wave?! Helllloo window washer man!
I wonder how many people they see naked every day by accident? Hm. Window washing. Could be an
interesting career possibility, what with the swingy ropes and all. And who doesn't like using a squeegee?
Since I can't seem to write anything pleasing today, here, for your viewing pleasure, or pain, a bit of what I do best, without further ado, ladies and gents, madames et messieurs, I present

And the big big bonus, poetry by special guest, our very own inimitable J. Egghead Smith praises the noble horse. Personally I like any poetry that mentions Hyderabad.(I believe its untitled) ~

But lo, I have yet to praise the proud, tall horse,
Lord of Eurasia,
Who snuffleth up the Zephyr
Through volcanic nostrils
In his desire. 

Desire for what?
A far-off battle,
Or anything that sounds like one,
Like skeet-shooting, yea, or traffic.

Or for a mare,
And the restlessness differs only in this:
That as he leaps over crag and crevice
Toward her who’s provoked him,
He leaves behind a scattered trail of residue
That the ancients call ‘horse madness’.

And the peasant girls will come along,
And collect the droplets of hippemania,
And mix them in bowls together with
Life-giving leaves only they know,
And the leaves and the seed will feed the corn,

For the ancients say the corn comes from the dead,
But those more ancient still say it comes from seed. 

And if you wish to know how it all got started,
And who is the most ancient of all,
Look for that forest that once kept Scythia in shadows,
And now is radioactive.
Or look just north of Hyderabad,
Where Agni has taken on the form of a missile.
Or to a defunct polyclinic on the outskirts of Ufa.

There they all know horse, and they all know corn.
And there all the other words derive from ‘horse’ and ‘corn’,
There it is always ‘horse this’, and ‘corn that’.

There, indeed, they will tell you
That the cosmos itself is a giant horse.
This they will demonstrate, point by point,
By carving one up, before your eyes,
For crop fertilizer, dog food, and glue:

The sun is his eye, they will tell you,
The wind his breath
The fire that is in all men his open mouth,
The year his body.

When he yawns, it lightens,
When he shakes himself, it thunders,
When he urinates, it rains,
And speech, they will tell you, is his voice. 

Thus, ends the weird sick-brain Knit-A-Log, with promises of knitting content to come.

Posted by pippypippy at 12:04 PM | Comments (2)

March 16, 2005

scarfles

Be nice to me, I'm sick today. Snuffle.
So I've been drinking tea, sleeping, and in between making little progress on Duchamp! and also the lacy black scarf (from Last Minute Knitted Gifts-what a great book-by Joelle Hoverson) Which is shown as a lacy pink scarfles in the example. But I am making it black, black, black like my soul. No, not really, silly! Its because I had black Kidsilk Haze left over from the Floof, the fabulous furry Floof.
Ooh my poor brane is full of lint, how did it happen? Lint and fuzz. Ugh. sick.

Posted by pippypippy at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2005

at the dennis

Oh gosh its good to be back in blogland! Or, in the words of Joni Mitchell, "I'm gonna see the folks I dig, I'll even kiss a Sunset pig", oh yeah. Because I wanted to hear a skating song, you know the one. Where she wishes she had a river she could skate away on. Its a skating and disappearing theme I guess..
Before I forget, in my glorious, unfettered, unmolested, sheer, unbridled, joyful surfing this morning I decided to pay a visit to these guys. Oh, go there, go there if you know what's good for you! Trenchant stuff, always stimulating, as someone once said. Ooh, I've had sooo much coffee!!
Today is not so terribly auspicious because I have to go to the dentist, blargh. I am trying not to think about it. I will think happy thoughts. I will pretend to levitate. I will ask for headphones and listen to Led Zeppelin. Gritty toothpaste is no match for Houses of the Holy. Afterwards I shall drink foofy coffee with milk (au lait!) and smile with my sparkly new teeth and everyone shall be dazzled.
Here is what a young man told me on the street, coming back from the el one day, as I passed him on the street, and I quote, ahem-
"you have got the prettiest smile..on Erf !!" Emphasis on "erf". So there you have it.
More later!

Posted by pippypippy at 08:52 AM | Comments (1)

March 13, 2005

auspicious!

Praise Jaysus! Its a very auspicious day!! We've eeked out space between the kitchen table and my boxes of yarn for The Little iMac That Could, dug out my modem, got the dsl turned on, and today, and long last, located a power cord for the stupit modem, which seems like a small thing, but somehow turned into something of an ordeal. Finally we located some kindly Geeks who wanted to help damsels in distress- electronic chivalry is not dead! I could have kissed them but their glasses had so much tape on them! Ha! Just kidding. Radio Snack guys on Michigan Ave in Chicago, you have my undying gratitude for ever and ever, I love you, no kidding!!
Hourah!!! Back in the Land of the Living! Its a beautiful thing. Somebody say amen! Amen!
So- what now!??
Gosh I can hardly write without that public library ambiance- no mouth-breathers at the next desk, no lurking weirdos with bad personal hygiene, no one asking me for change (really happened at Evanston Public Library). The cafe is kind of nice but they have these funny twisty stools. Its a little unstable of a situation, not so conducive. Anyway.
Ok, well not a lot of knitting has been going on lately but still drawing like crazy, all these ideas are coming along faster than I can do them, it gets this way sometimes. Mostly when I have a lot of time to myself and am well fed. The first issue of Duchamp! has been printed by our very own Library Boy, also known as Marcel's Uncle Wininger. For a first issue its not so bad, just needs a little tweaking and then look out. The second issue is well underway, in addition to poetry I am working on a book review section on Steven Heller and Mirko Ilic's Handwritten – Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age (this book will kick your ass) which I am calling The Call of the Scrawl- and what's not to love about that?- and also illustrations on the theme called Still Happy (or Encore Heureux, the words printed in big letters-all in caps-on a card someone handed me on the street in Paris, which I think means Still Happy, and which I figured I should interpret as some kind of sign). As you can well imagine, it involves lots of flowers with faces, happy singing birdies, smiling Boston Terriers, and little candy houses on hilltops. Just you wait and see. It will be an awesome spectacle!
In the meantime I am also working on a scarf and a string theorist. Went ice skating today for the first time since I was about 12, at Millenium Park, which is highly recommended but one thing~ look out for little kids under your feet! They are small and they are fast! They flail about and they fall down a lot. I fell once only, rather spectacularly, on my butt, which surprised me. My companion, a rather lanky character who claimed to have never skated at all that he knew of for certain, (though suspected he may have as a child once or twice) remained upright, despite having a less conducive center of gravity. Not fair! However it was not Too awkward to be helped up (in fact it was rather nice, once I actually got my feet back underneath me, which took some doing! Egads.) and not laughted at too much, at least not to my face! Which was very kind, because I'm sure I looked like a goose!
Here's the thing of it– my computer is in the same room as the tv. And my mom is watching John Denver on pbs. I'm not kidding. He is saying how Sunshine on the water looks so lovely.
Here is my song to you dear readers –
If I had a tale that I could tell you
I'd tell a tale sure to make you smile.

Here's what I like- Bengal Spice tea with cream and equal. Try it! It will blow your mind. I mean it man.

Gee I'd do just about anything for some comments..hint.

Posted by pippypippy at 04:57 PM | Comments (2)

March 03, 2005

brane pan

Here is a poem I wrote about chickens and knitting. Ahem..

Chickens don't knit
but if they could,
they'd find 2 sticks of sturdy wood,
then settle down
inside the barn
with some multicolored yarn.
They'd cast on stitches
1,2,3
to knit a cozy for their tea.

It goes on from there but I don't want to spoil it for later! Trust me, the dramatic conclusion is worth waiting for. When the new issue of Duchamp! on paper comes out
it will be included in its fully-illustrated splendor!
Marcel and I are thinking Spring for this one. The new issue will also feature an Egghead's musings, in verse form, on the Nature of the Soul, also, hopefully, fully illustrated. Edifying!
Of course what with all these grandiose plans one should expect to see the issue sometime in late 2008, but who knows. The pencils have been flying lately, and all manner of pictures have been rattling my brane pan as they haven't for some time.
More later I promise.
I'm a bad bad blogger. Bad.

Posted by pippypippy at 05:06 PM | Comments (1)