Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova Falling Slowly on Letterman - YouTube

Dedicated to Someone Who Will Never See This...from "Once"

Falling slowly...I can't go back.

Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova Falling Slowly on Letterman - YouTube

^^^The film was made by a group of friends in Ireland on a shoestring budget

then went on to win the Oscar for best soundtrack that year after also winning

at Sundance Film Festival. We love it.

A Night At The Gallery!

We love the metal sculptures this artist makes. She lives on one
of the islands and has to take the ferry to deliver them, then take the ferry home...they are so full of whimsy!

Rick always has great music but this woman is truly AMAZING! She sounds so professional and we have heard her a few times around town, at flea markets, where everyone pretty much STOPS to listen and ask why she doesn't have a recording contract. There is so much talent here and that's what Rick wants ARTISANS to showcase. He doin' a good job o'THAT!

There's so much to see at ARTISANS since the other galleries in town specialize either in painting, glass, pottery, woodworking...but ARTISANS HAS IT ALL AND MORE. So people loves just wandering through the gallery making surprise discoveries!

These were among the first metalworks brought by the lady from the Island. Mom was there when Rick tried to hang these by himself trying to attach them to old, rusty snow tire chains hanging from the wall. Adjacent to this "installation-in-progress" was pottery on one side with glass on the other. The sculptures - not yet attached, swung back and forth, side-to-side like a metronome! Mom observed Rick with an unsolicited running commentary on whether he was going to smash the glass first or the pottery first,  if/when he or the sculptures should accidentally fall crashing to the floor. He calls her "Trouble." But he did it!

Hello, Mr. Happy Clockmaker! We love your woodworking as much as you seem to enjoy making it...so beautiful...your smile!

We never figured out what these were but we thought they were very pretty and lots of fun.

Especially the weiner dog! Could be flags or...any guesses?

Today was the last day before Winter! We expect heavy winds,
rain, power outages and snow to begin tomorrow and continue...until spring...or all year 'round if it anything like last year.
The perfect time for a jaunty, handmade hat!

One of the many "breakables" situated next to the swinging metal sculptures Rick installed...glass is really big here in the PacNW and those little colorful balls on the bottom left resemble the glass globes that routinely float onto our shores from Japan fishing vessels...mom doesn't understand it, but people find them and cherish them and what they have to do with fishing...maybe once used to mark nets? But these were made just to BE WHAT THEY ARE. No fish. Just color!

Reuben  recently returned home to Bellingham after running his own music club up in Homer, Alaska or somewhere. He performed later and sounded so much like Glen Hansard from one of our favorite independent foreign films, "Once" which he took as a compliment. We love the film and soundtrack except when mom sings along with Glen when he is kind of hollering out the musical sound of unrequited love...

Don't sound so good when mom singin' so we has to hide until the screeching stops...Ain't no Marketa Irglova, our mom. Those opera lessons only makes it worse...and that a story you will never hear!

Speaking of "Once," if there's one thing Rick hates, it's having his picture taken! So, mom follows him around with her camera just to annoy him but ONCE caught this photo she loves because it reminds her of an impressionistic painting. He gives her "the eye"
and threatens her while she shoots away. But this kinda artsy, ya think? He pretty on the eyes and always in motion during Friday Night Art Receptions.

Rick greeting art fans in front of mom's cards...see how they is dressed? That considered FORMAL WEAR up here! The guy on the left carves spindles and does some kind of weaving thing with them...

It got so crowded last Friday night that Rick re-assigned mom who was sitting on her walker to a card rack full of art made by this little girl's brothers...they are like 10 and 8 years old, one a photographer and one a painter! But mom, of course, hit it off with their sister
who taught mom how to do this so they both became CupHeads
all night long. Cup-Head mom didn't sell much art...although one person was overheard looking at cards saying: "Wow! SOMEBODY WAS REALLY TRIPPIN' HERE!" 
That observation slid mom back into "The Order of the Perpetually Perplexed" as she pondered its meaning.
For a nano-second. Then back to CUP-HEAD, which felt quite lovely with the little girl's flashing way-cool sneakers adding flair!

Who doesn't love jewelry?
(Besides mom.)

Some of the most stunning pieces were done with hand-blown glass. Jewelry cases and wall space filling up fast as word gets out about ARTISANS and more and more artists want "in" on the action! Turning into the hip, So-Ho, bohemian kinda place mom always dreamt of. Unpretentious (been there, done that:mortifying!) just down-to-earth, whimsical, surprising, crafty, amazing, startling, fun, imaginative, and pure B'Hamster COOL. Yeah, baby, THAT WHAT WE TALKIN' ABOUT!

Mom's bff back in Iowa sent her a sign she found in the small town of Muscatine where she makes jewelry and her husband is the editor of the Muscatine Journal newspaper. It was a sign that said:
Ginney Pigs 4 Sale
$30.00 The lowest I will go is $20.00.
light brown with a little white + red eyes

Apparently, mom used that sign as the prototype for her own highly professional version of "self-promotion?"

We can dress her up in cowboy boots, but, you know.

Still, lots of fun and once mom recovers our cages will get cleaned proper and life will blossom with spectacular winter storms, gale-force winds, power outages, snow, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and organizing gear for the many adventures we dream of having in the mountains...mom says even if ya can't go, it's fun to organize GEAR cuz ya NEVER KNOW!

OUR CAGES COME FIRST: SHE KNOW THAT!
Sweet dreams, dear readers and friends.

Whadda-Whadda-Whadda?

"Mom, am I getting in the Guinea Pig Magazine again?"

"Yes, dear, of course you are! Just not this next issue because we think Taj and Raj Mahal are going to be in it. But you will be again."

"Really?"

"Of course, you are so sweet and irresistable! HOW COULD YOU NOT, precious darling?"

"Because we received a coded message from the Lord of the Flies who said..."

"WHO SAID WHO WANTS FRESH CARROTS, CARROT TOPS, SPINACH, AND A LONG RUNABOUT TONIGHT IN YOUR NEW COZY-HUTS, CUDDLE-CUPS, AND FLEECEY-TUNNELS?!"

"SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

"WE DO! WE DO!"

                                                              

the end. with a little luck.

FAME!

As heartbroken as Taj and Raj Mahal are, respectively, over yesterday's tragic events, they have BIG NEWS! THIS HERE PHOTOGRAPH gonna appear in the next issue of the international Guinea Pig Magazine. (without their sentimental captions.) FAME! Helps a cavy get over grief almost as fast as you can say: WHEEEEEEEEK! or SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE! or

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

LOW FLOW & NO PLACE "TO GO"

We here in the Pacific Northwest live green lives.
Lives that, unfortunately, mean low-flow ----what you see above.
VERY low flow.
After the horrific trauma of mom's consumation of The Fly We Loved, an emergency call was made to Maintenance.
Not just for our unit.
She had even broken the one downstairs open to the Public.
Two, count two. Since maintenance confiscated the
Remains of the Fly
we were not able to hold a proper service to process
the profound grief we all felt...
Mom wanted to ask the maintenance man if...
WE REQUESTED SHE NOT!
We like living here.
All we can say is that the fly took out two low-flow
(you know's) with him. He would have made a fine
soldier, that one. We  miss him.
We think he was a Special Ops Fly, since he
was training, in caffeine, on Sea, Land, and the
NEVERWORLD of mom's...you know.
A SEAL Fly. A Special Fly.
Who will always be remembered every time the
not the-brightest-bulb in the pack maintenance man
asks mom: "Did anything unusual drop in there?"
We feel relatively confident he will
NEVER ASK HER THAT AGAIN.

In the immortal words of Jack Nicholson from the film
"A Few Good Flies"

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

Indeed.