free bird

it's day two of my new unemployed life and so far, so good. i've got some catch up to do on here about good stuff i've seen recently, but that will come, today i'm going to start from today, or rather from yesterday, because, you know, today has yet to happen. yesterday was really productive, I crossed two things off my major things to get done in the next few months list. two things- in one day- off that list. for me, that's major. that list has been haunting me for months and threatens to haunt me for several more months and several big blows to my bank book.



but at least now the cats have been to the vet and are in perfect health (although, in true pickle form, pickle has at some point managed to knock all but one of his front teeth out, and the one that remains is hanging on by a thread, and bisbee couldn't help but pee a river into the cat carrier about a block and a half from the house on the way TO the vet. I adore my little dirtballs).



And I finally got lenses put in the most beautiful vintage 50s frames that I got in Amsterdam last summer, and I am totally thrilled with them and so happy to not be wearing my ill fitting old glasses from about 6 years ago. If you find yourself in Amsterdam, and you've got a thing for vintage and antique eyeglass frames, you seriously can't miss the Brilmuseum. It is this tiny little shop full of glasses frames, sectioned by decade and style, and I think a lot of them haven't been worn (mine hadn't). If you don't have any intentions to buy, I'm not sure if I'd ask to try things on just for a lark. When I was there it was manned by a somewhat surly (I guess this is relative, and maybe curt is a better word than surly), but super knowledgeable woman who refused me even to try on a few pair of frames either because they wouldn't fit my head, or they would look bad on me, and then when we got to the pair I ended up buying, said "these are the ones", set them on the counter and sat down. What can I say though, she was spot on.

I also finally made it to the Oakland art murmur, which I've been meaning to do forever. My favorite stop was at Johansson Projects where they had the Propagations show in the front gallery and I'm not sure what the show was called in the little back gallery. I especially liked these drawings by Evan B. Harris in the back gallery, and the paintings by Alexis Amann, and Kiersten Essenpreis in the front gallery. It was really great just walking around there, the art vibe in oakland feels really visceral and celebratory, and I like that. It reminds me of how we get to this place where we're toiling away in isolation, but the when all pop our heads up for a second and look around, it's really amazing just to see that there's so much going on.


Evan B. Harris


Evan B. Harris


Alexis Amann


Kiersten Essenpreis

that's it for yesterday. off to today.