Feets don't freeze me now

This time of year don't discount the benefits of wearing socks over your socks. Generally my own socks are the kind that are comfortable in the summer, or whenever. Which means they might not be adequate when it gets noticeably below freezing. So I double up, sometimes, or maybe  just bring along a second pair in case. And I recently got a nice thick pair as a thoughtful gift, so that's a lifesaver.

Like cats & dogs

In current taxonomy, the order carnivora is divided into two suborders: caniformia, or doglike carnivores; and feliformia, or catlike carnivores. There are more kinds of caniforms, which include bears and weasels, as well as pinnipeds (seals and walruses.) But hyenas are feliform. They look a little canine, but they're more closely related to cats. You just never know about people.

In the street

Mark Jenkins: Go Figure! from gestalten on Vimeo.

This short film shows the process and the thought processes of an artist.  Not sure where I come down on him. Jenkins is perceptive when he says the reactions of people walking by are the key thing. The guy walking by with a giant floor lamp in his hand? An unplanned bit that makes the whole thing work.

Squeaky New Year

Chinese New Year is about now. We're heading out of the Year of the Pig and into the Year of the Rat. So far, so Charlotte's Web. I do like the idea, and these can inspire very colorful themed parades. What I'm not clear on is where this pig and this rat came from. Like, where did celebrants first see them. I don't think they're constellations that can be seen for an entire year but only for one year in twelve. So how'd they decide?

Two things about this week

1. Okay, Monday? I was on a bus that crashed. Specifically it ran into an SUV. The driver of the smaller vehicle apparently wanted to pull into a driveway, but they just kind of came out of nowhere.

By way of explanation, I wasn't being coy or secretive on Monday. I was genuinely too beat to go into it.

Don't know for sure, but the driver might have been distracted by this couple sitting in the back. She was drunk and hysterical. He was less drunk but an asshole. Like, I think at the ER they might find a bunch of injuries he's given her. Just a hunch. I told the fire department to keep an eye out but I don't know if they heard me and anyway they're not cops.

Anyway, the rescue workers went up the aisle asking people if they were hurt. They let the half of the passengers who didn't have any injuries go. I was in that lucky 50%.

2. Today I got the news that Terry Jones, the charming Welshman from Monty Python, had passed on. This doesn't come out of the blue, but it's a bit melancholy. I have to hand it to the local library. By the time I went there this afternoon they had a display by the entrance of all the Flying Circus episodes and at least one movie (Meaning of Life.)

Ah

I had the day off, and thank you Dr. Martin Luther King. But it's still been something of a day. I'll have to tell you about it soon. Only reason I'm not doing it now is that I'd have to stay up longer and that's not an acceptable result.

Cleanup crew

Just recently found out about Caroline Walker. She's a Scottish artist who's shown in London and New York. The image above is part of a series she did on women who work in housekeeping at a hotel. The pictures aren't grimy or miserabilist. Colors are few, at least in most of the pictures, but make a stronger statement because of it. Walker speaks a visual language of modernist realism, and in that language she takes time to acknowledge a group of female laborers who tend to go unseen.

Anyway, her website is here if you're curious.