yo_crowl unhinged sorry i'm holding things up a bit; i've slept on quite a few couches in the past week. i think i'm in a band now though. hope stuff is cool with you. 061110 ... crOwl take your time...i'm glad to hear your good news. let me know when you make a recording... i'm interested to see where you take square_the_circle from where it stands presently. who is jeremiah? possible friend or villain? is dennis browne out of the picture or will he retaliate? what's next for kayla? hmmm... 061111 ... unhinged i emailed you another hot song 061209 ... unhinged merry christmas to you and your family dear friend 061225 ... crOwl thanks for the kind sentiments, james, in a_film_you_should_see. it thrills me to know you are reading my stories. (monet_on_bartlett, neues_leben, cadeau_de_vous, vier_seizoenen) jeunet is a huge favorite of mine and "a very long engagement" ranks in my top 25. "amelie" is in my top 3. i love his collage style of mixing fantasy and reality. 070121 ... unhinged maybe we should write again...yeah i think we should definitely write again i don't know square_the_circle or something else ? but i need to write with you again old_friend 070416 ... unhinged i really don't know; i need your help. you go first please 070417 ... unhinged i'm gonna run with the story a bit. hope you don't mind. 070812 ... unhinged i'm done running out of turn now. tag. you're it. 070812 ... crOwl nice work...i'll be thinking on it today... 070813 ... thorn what is a crowl? 070819 ... crOwl the term crowl was invented by a friend of mine several years ago who once had a garden called monet on bartlett where we hung out and mused about our lives. he called his cat, a black domestic short hair, "the crowl" because he felt she was a combination of a cat, rabbit, and owl. she was very smart, walked with him on the streets of squirrel hiil (a busy shoppes/neighbohood section of pittsburgh) and often hung out on the roof of his attic apartment "chatting" (or would it be chattering?) with birds. my friend said she was teaching them. so, crowl became for me a character in the stories i wrote here, listed above, as one who accompanied, taught, revealed right and wrong, guided, led, comforted, encouraged, chided, helped loved...could change into whatever was needed at the time... conscience...? the soul? angelic presence? i guess i've always had a crowl ever since i learned how to use an imagination. maybe it is the imagination incarnate. perhaps a crowl is what i want to be, what i hope i am becoming... 070820 ... thorn that is cool, i wonder what crowls look like/would look like. and thanks, i love you too! you are a rather inspiring person. these are some of my stencils (http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11965&l=0acce&id=744925126) and photographs (http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11968&l=1bb15&id=744925126). i would love it if you could look at them and tell me what you think. love, . 070829 ... thorn apologizes for stretching the page with her links. 070829 ... crOwl a crowl looks like something only you can imagine. it is your favorite look... i tried to find your art but it wouldn't let me see it. maybe you were adding more. i will try again soon...love. 070830 ... thorn call me sometime if you're bored. if i don't answer, leave me an interesting message. please, . 071023 ... crOwl sure... i'll do it tomorow...maybe even later tonight... 071023 ... thorn so i got your message, and i was going to call you back, but then i realized i had nothing to say, so i figured i wouldn't waste your time. 071023 ... crOwl silly...you could never waste my time... 071023 ... thorn i am silly, yes. and i enjoy talking to you. 071024 ... thorn sorry i missed your call, i was in classes almost all day yesterday, generally morning is not a good time to call me. what's up? 071030 ... crOwl that's ok...another time...we have frost so that means i'm super busy doing fall clean-ups in the gardens...i saw "into the wild" and loved it...i'm going to the library today to get some jack london...i'm seeing "darjeeling limited" this week-end...i made a 36 track mix for greta's housewarming gift. she's recently moved from the upper east side and now living with two other film-makers in kensington, brooklyn. it has elk city, beirut, animal collective, feist, modest mouse, jans leckman, pavement, arcade fire, rubies, radiohead from in_rainbows, iron and wine, black kites, sunset rubdown, new buffalo, love of diagrams, illinois, emma pollock, canon blue, beck, film school, metal hearts, joe henry, band of horses, spoon, emily white, and sea wolf. i'm sending it out with a bag of cacao beans, some himalayan rock salt crystals, and some dimensional paper art sculptures. what's up with you, kat? 071030 ... thorn i have a ridiculous amount of work to do, prepping for the art show i'm having in 2.5 weeks with my friend, tons of things due because it's the end of the grading period, i promised another friend i'd make a stencil for her band's tshirts and help her make them if she gave me a cut of the money they make, i was up until 2am last night finishing a series for mixed media, hopefully i can skip regular school tomorrow to chill, work on my stuff for art school and find cigarettes, and i have to play cello in a quartet for a wedding on the 1oth. basically i have far too much to do. and that is what's up. 071030 ... unhinged story? *pout* 071115 ... crOwl sorry about the delay, nicole...actually i really like where our story is going and so since it's moved to an intersection, i have been giving it much thought but was in a lot of deliberation concerning its direction...soon... 071115 ... unhinged what does it feel like to be the guy in a house full of girls? (my dad also has three daughters. he fainted when my brother was born) 071210 ... crOwl beth bought her own house about 20 minutes from us and is getting married this summer. hilary lives in an apartment with a roommate in pittsburgh, about an hour from us. and greta is @film school in nyc, so it's just kathy and i now...although we have two girl cats. however, when they were growing up and all of us were together, it was heaven. i have a brother and so i always prayed to have girls...i always wanted a sister. now i have a wife and three daughters, which, somehow is infinitely better than having a sister. thanks for your interest. i'm inspired by the relationship you have with your brother of the islands... 071211 ... unhinged well, i have one of those modern families where my sisters are technically only my half sisters. (my dad was married to their mother when he turned 18 and was divorced with two kids by the time he was 22) both of them only lived in our house for a couple of their tumultous teenage years. my oldest sister because she hated her then current stepdad and the second oldest sister because her mother kicked her out. and my mom's sister, the only other one of her siblings to have kids when i was young, got divorced when we were young. so me and my brother had divorce on both sides of the family and somehow often times ended up with the short end of the family stick because our parents stayed together. but i guess the good thing about that is it cemented us together over the years. i haven't heard from my bro in awhile. it is currently finals time. and school is not his strongsuit. less than two weeks and i get to see him....i am making my scrunchy face. do you and kathy like having the house to yourselves now? my parents seem to like it, going on vacations and day trips regularly and going out to bars to hear bands and whatnot. but every now and then my dad will call to say he misses me or me and my mom will talk on the phone for hours. far cry from the days when i avidly ignored her phone calls. (i feel old; this past birthday made me feel old) do you have a lot of snow? i think by the time this storm tapers off there will be over two feet on the ground here. (i guess i could have just emailed you. heh) 071211 ... unhinged (my current episode of i_dreamt_that_i_dreamt sic inspired by olga my grandma i left for an orchestra tour of eastern europe the day she died so i didn't get to go to the funeral to write that was to square_the_circle and christmas is always poignant time because she was adamant about the family and the traditions and stuff) 071211 ... unhinged fallingfruit.tv the buddhist geeks channel 071211 ... crOwl comet sounds like a place i would frequent, cozy and fragrant with warmth and toasty kind of enticing smells, grinding coffee, swishing espresso machines, yummy tastes, eclectic people writing...snow is gone here, replaced by endless rain and fog. i'm soaked working with leaves before it gets too cold to work...kathy and i are definately enjoying time together, going to the city for dinner and films, but there's still a lot of activity going on at robin_hill with the upcoming summer wedding. we're re-doing the st.francis garden with stone paths and all new perennials...that's cool about how your parents are staying in touch...that's what it's all about. enjoy...look for story update soon. 071212 ... unhinged recently, in the past couple of years, comet also bought the dilapidated chinese restaurant nextdoor and turned that part into a bar. while it's not quite as cozy and inducive to people watching as it was when it was half the size, it's also interesting to notice who comes in on a weekday at 11am for a beer. my parents also keep busy being grandparents. sounds like that might be in the works for you and kathy soon ;-) dude there is like two feet of snow on the ground here. holy shit batman, yesterday the storm was so intense that the university actually cancelled classes. i saw someone jump into their car with some ski poles and thought of you. yay....story 071212 ... thorn i got your message. thanks! 071213 ... crOwl you're welcome... 071213 ... unhinged thanks for fielding my inconsistency deftly. ;-) 071218 ... crOwl you're welcome. you've covered my ass like a sister. 071218 ... thorn the rclg second place prize came today. i love it. 'the donkey-headed man', all the paul paper photos, the cute little box. it will live on my bookshelf with my other art and creatures. i love it man. love, . 080303 ... unhinged i saw the rclg prize. amazing my friend. no wonder your daughters are so creative. it's already programmed into their dna. look for our story again soon. 080619 ... unhinged thanks for the email. the picture is beautiful. happy day. i spent the weekend in ohio for the holiday. i will see what i can write tomorrow. 080707 ... unhinged i am reading a book right now you so MUST read. it reminds me of all your solo stories. weaveworld --- clive barker i haven't voraciously gobbled up a story like this since before college i don't think. half way through the pretty massive tome in three days. yes, a wonderful story about a magical world weaved into a carpet and what happens when their world collides with ours. 080724 ... cr0wl thanks nicole...i'll definately look for it. sounds exciting... 080724 ... unhinged another reason you should read it: humans are called cuckoos by the beings that live in the weave i was magnetized to this book in the bookstore a couple times and the last time i just couldn't leave it 080724 ... cr0wl now all the more reason for me to read it...cuckOO! 080725 ... unhinged moving this weekend; not sure what my internet access will be like. 080725 ... unhinged once again no longer have internet in my place so i will come around when i can 080831 ... unhinged but it magically reappeared today *shrugs* there were literally millions of extra people in town this weekend for harley's 105th birthday party. maybe they shut it off cause of that...? well, regardless, i DO have internet around here. 080901 ... unhinged i had an amazing breakfast burrito with the tastiest ranchero sauce i've ever had at comet today ;-) 080901 ... crOwl always nice to wake to good news... 080902 ... unhinged our_story ? 081022 ... cr0wl i_dreamt_that_i_dreamt_30 081023 ... unhinged did beth like her game? 090307 ... cccrrrro00owwwlll she loved it. her new husband rick and she played it and did all the questions in one night! they rolled a die to determine which pile of questions to pick from, ranging from music, film, art, dance, world politics, history, philosophy, and religion. your questions and birdmad's were in there! (we get our science from radio lab, so no medicine or brain facts.) and then, if they guessed correctly on a first try they moved their playmobil piece (beth's was a woman in a dress and flipped up hair and rick's was a man with a moustache and a hat) along the serpentine path to the icon of a bright light. the first one there is "the brightest light in the room." there are stops along the way in different lands, earth, fire, water, and sky. ways of collecting points varied. it's fun. that's what giving is i think. enabling someone to obtain the enjoyment of life. and that's not even talking about what it does for me. 090308 ... unhinged are you busy landscaping and gardening or something? hello, is this thing on? are you there? where'd you go? why'd you go? huh? 090513 ... cr0wl i've been working intensely on a story which greta is adapting into a screenplay for her senior thesis film and then when i finished it we went to nyc/brooklyn to hang out with her, and now that i'm back i'm playing catch up on all my garden work...thanks for your concern...xo 090514 ... unhinged i found an amazing boy about a month ago and we are in smooshy gooey immediate love with each other. we met in a bar the way gavin and lilly did ;-) i just wanted to say thank you for reminding me a few months ago that i would find someone. i was a brat about it then, but of course you were right. sometimes you have to wait for the good things. how's the family growing? 090627 ... unhinged you should see my first serious art purchase. my friend is coming to hang it in my place as i type. maybe i'll snap a pic or two. 091026 ... cr0wl please do...i would love to see it. 091027 ... unhinged you know me and the procrastination; and i was on a bus that got in an accident last week so my already chronic pain has been racheted up a few clicks. maybe a little creation will make me feel better. no promises, but i'll see what i can do. the trees here are super beautiful. how's robin hill in the fall? 091027 ... cr0wl sorry to hear about the accident. hope you are feeling better. fall is on its way out but was breathtaking this year. more rain than usual but when indian summer came, it did so when the color of the leaves were at their height. it was that time of year that i always longed for when i lived in california. the squaring the circle aspect that body rhythm depends on...it was a bad year for walnuts, which is actually good because it saves me a lot of clean-up. please tell me about your art purchase. 091028 ... unhinged i know what you mean about the walnuts. the next door neighbor had a black walnut tree in the backyard in the house i grew up in and they were a serious pain. literally....we threw them at each other after they started to fall. or the squirrels buried them all over and forget where they put them. which meant i couldn't walk barefoot in my backyard the following year cause the little shootlets were like razors on soft barefeet after my dad ran them over with the lawn mower. about a year ago, my friend becky started painting again. she found this vintage doll named blythe (which coincidentally some designer made tshirts of for target...) and started a whole series of paintings based on her. i usually sleep in her painting room when i hang out with her because she lives all the way on the opposite side of town and taking the bus alone all drunk and whatnot in the middle of the night is not fun. on one of our typical tuesday nights she took me up to the spare/painting room to go to bed and show me what she had been working on. on 2ft x 1ft canvas she had a blythe head and torso on a pink background with blue hair and big tears leaking from her eyes, big streams of tears hanging down. i liked it just the way it was at that time and turned to her and said, 'i want that one. don't sell it to anyone else.' she ended up adding a dress and some flowers in her hair. i preferred the naked version because the tears were more prominent but *shrugs* becky also designs clothes, jewelry, hair accessories so most of her other blythes in the series had prominent hair clips or dresses or glasses. over the summer, she had an exhibition of her blythes at a cute cafe across the street from her and her boyfriend's store. it is a cozy little coffeeshop/cafe called hi-fi cafe that has vintage everything including the music. her paintings looked good in there. (some of the artists the owner shows in there don't really go with the space....) everyone wanted my painting including her boyfriend's dad who is some kind of well known photographer. becky seemed surprised that i picked the best one, but i grew up with an artist for a mother. it matches my room very well. i have a really bright color scheme that started around my tibetan prayer flags. red, green, blue, yellow, white. there is a lot of green and blue in the painting. becky and our other friend michelle brought it over on saturday night so i wouldn't have to take it on the bus and they both seemed surprised how well it matched my place. surprising people is quickly becoming a hobby of mine. 091028 ... cr0wl awesome...sounds like your space is becoming an extension of yourself. our house, over nearly 20 years has basically become an art-gallery-of-sorts with very little room left on the walls consisting of a few purchased works but mainly pieces our girls made or we did. when people visit, they are overwhelmed, to put it mildly, just for the sheer volume. we can spend hours with guests just discussing the various elements that demand reflection. 091029 ... unhinged i feel like she is unhinged blythe i have lots of photos and framed cards and stuff, but this is my first painting. i also have a signed, numbered silkscreen print of blythe that becky's boyfriend made. i am going to go to urban outfitters and buy two or three more small canvases and a frame for the silkscreened blythe and then the wall will be covered with cool shit. urban outfitters has cool canvases of various sizes that are essentially silkscreened it looks like; mass produced prints somehow or another. kinda like a painting and a photo mashed together. but they are often really cool. and relatively cheap. some would say my space is cluttered. others would say it's a typical libra abode of comfortable beauty. 091029 ... unhinged i attended a really awesome art/music event last night and thought of you. some of my boys in fresh_cut_collective played in a smaller group for a hip hop photo gallery opening last night. the photographer's name is damon s. joy. i am thinking about buying one or two to go with my painting. i think he has a a flickr account. i have really delved into the hip hop scene here in the past year and damon's photos are a really awesome representation of the scene. i was belligerent. i heckled the band and damon. heh. i do that sometimes. might be going to the gallery on tuesday to make some purchases. buying art is fun. 091115 ... cr0wl this reminds me our collaborative writing somehow. i think i will always know those times to be some of the moments i experienced an ultimate sense of freedom in my writing more than i have ever known. it makes me happy to know you are thinking of me. i often think of you. 091115 ... unhinged if you can get your hands on a winter 2009 issue of buddhadharma magazine, there are some awesome articles about buddhism and art. i immediately thought of you when i saw them. the spring issue is already out, but maybe you can get the back issue at a library. if not, i can mail you mine once i'm done reading it. 100211 ... cr0wl again it humbles me to know you are thinking of me. thank you so much for directing me to this magazine. there is much enlightenment in its pages. 100212 ... unhinged i've had a subscription to buddhadharma along with it's sister publication shambhala sun for years. they are pretty expensive as far as magazines go since buddhadharma is only a quarterly and shambhala sun only comes out maybe 8 times a year, but between the articles and the artwork, they are well worth the money. subscriptions make them slightly cheaper. also, i think they have a lot of their contents online, as evidenced by your excerptage. i guess i'm a little old-fashioned when it comes to reading. i like to hold a book or magazine in my hand. 100212 ... unhinged (the article/excerpt by thich nhat hanh in that issue is also amazing and inspiring. watching my grandma die a slow agonizing death because the people around her weren't ready to let_go was one of the things that led me to buddhism.) 100212 ... unhinged happy belated birthday. sorry i missed it feels sheepish 100304 ... unhinged i read a couple book reviews in the may issue of shambhala_sun (i'm perpetually behind with my magazine subscriptions) that made me think of you the red book: liber novus by c.g. jung a journal of his dream explorations and personal transformation. the illustrations they published with the review made me think of the rclg prize you sent jane. heaven and earth are flowers: reflections on ikebana and buddhism by joan d. stamm for obvious reasons 100622 ... cr0wl thank you so much for sharing this info. jung's red book i know. it actually kicked off blackink_whitepages, but "heaven and earth are flowers" will definitely enter the game somewhere along its serpentine trail. again it totally thrills me to know you are thinking of me up there in milwaukee. actually ever_dumbening, back to the states from berlin, came to get his car at my mom's house and at one point our evolving conversation stopped at you and he said he's thinking about coming to see you. we had dinner together with his friend julia at a thai cafe and then went to julia's house to look at her sculptures. she even had silk worms in a terrarium that she feeds mulberry leaves. i miss writing with you. our stories were the shit. i hope you are happy. 100622 ... unhinged oops. i feel sheepish. i tried to keep up with blackink_whitepages but once again i'm blown away by other skites' acumen. my encyclopedic knowledge is actually pretty limited in topical scope. i got an email from james about a possible visit and i am very excited for him to stop by. i figured he must be back on the continent and also figured he must be visiting you to pick up his car. i miss our stories too. (your solo stories aren't too shabby themselves mister) 100623 ... unhinged and i would say i am rather happy these days. i surf the mood swings and underneath is happiness. the past year has been pretty revelatory ; i am not my emotions. i feel them and move on. that makes me feel old. in a good way. 100623 ... unhinged things are settling down in my life. seems like things are done breaking, ending and a good beginning is coming back around. i am particularly excited about this beginning. whatever it is. it has been long needed. so i guess my more particular point is, since i've started paying more attention to myself i've freed up a lot of time and i'll be back to our story soon. 100902 ... unhinged sorry i'm lagging on the story 100914 ... cr0wl take your time. you know i'm always here. 100915 ... unhinged (i am going to a buddhist funeral today after work. i am curious and a little bit excited. i didn't really know the person but he went to the same meditation center and his family wants to have a service there. does it make me a morbid asshole? (kinda rhetorical) i started up my yoga again hardcore cause the stupid weather and the stupid violin are hurting my stupid shoulder like a son of a bitch. it isn't even really that cold yet :( ) 100915 ... unhinged just as our story is starting to get rolling i am leaving town to visit my parents in their new house. my dad killed their computer with some stupid virus and i don't think they have one at home. something about the community center in their development has one or something, but i don't know if i will be able to write there. so....maybe i can finally delve in when i get back. i've been distracted for the past few months. *sigh* 101006 ... cr0wl thanks for the heads up. the story is cool. i'm loving it. it can sit still and grow underground. take care of your parents. love you. ciao bella. 101007 ... unhinged things went wonderful with my parents. five years ago would have been a different story, but my parents pretty much let me be who i am now without too much nagging or prodding or harassing. (i think that i've done pretty well for myself eases their minds) i was blown away by the desert. it was my first time there and for some weird reason i was under the impression it was like the sahara, just sand as far as the eye could see. my parents new house is beautiful. my mother's decorating and furniture buying skills make me a little sad for her sometimes that she never finished college for interior design. she is so good at it, even without a degree. the first whole day i was there i just lounged in the sun and got a goofy sunburn from my huge bug_eye sunglasses. my mother took me in the golf cart (everyone in their old people village has a golf cart as a second vehicle) to the art center where she does ceramics to show me what she's been working on. she had a piece that she was making for me that she still had to glaze so i got to pick the colors. we went to a cultural festival in tucson where i got to eat thai, mexican, and polish food all in one day. me and my mom make better pierogies but that didn't really surprise me. then we went to an art gallery to meet an artist who was having his first painting exhibition. his name is alex arshansky and he does a cool amalgam of dali, picasso, and van gogh. up close it was much like a surreal where's waldo of shapes smashed together into bigger shapes, but from farther away you could see people or houses or other things. me and my mom talked to the artist and when he asked us what we thought his influences were and we mentioned the above he seemed happy. 'oh well, i am primarily a graphics designer. these paintings are just for fun' alex looked down demurely at his shoe. 'well can i take about half a dozen of them just for fun then?' my mother, only half kidding. (i have no idea how my mother found out about the gallery show but it might have been my favorite thing. alex's family are russian immigrants which i think was part of the attraction for my mom; oddly i find myself pulled toward art, music, literature from that part of my genetic heritage) arshansky.com we stopped at st. xavier mission outside of tucson that day also. my mother's favorite silversmith usually sells jewelry there, but of course wasn't there that day. i think she wanted to buy me something for my birthday so i was a little bummed about that knowing the beautiful stuff she has from the same guy. the next day we lounged again. and me and my dad went to the rec center in their 'resort community' to exercise (!) both my parents have lost about 30 lbs since there move out there; i would have never thought i would be going to the gym with my dad. but i guess we are all getting healthy in our old age. then on my birthday we drove to sedona and went shopping here and there, ate lunch, hiked in the red rock mountains. i have many awesome pics of the sun setting in the mountains. they say there are psychic vortexes in sedona; i didn't go to any of them specifically, but i felt wonderful there. the views, the sunshine, being with my family...i don't know. then again, i am sensitive to the intuition and that sort of thing. i found out that my sister likes to hike so i think we are going to both go to visit in the spring so we can hike in the red rocks together. she went out in august when it was too hot to do anything but lay by the pool. (i guess i could have emailed you but eh *shrugs*) 101021 ... cr0wl sounds cozy. thanks for sharing all this generous recollection...i'm sure your parents were thrilled catching up on your life and having you around like old times. i have been reading old journals of our family. sled riding while holding ducks in our arms! 101022 ... unhinged old but new; it's weird to think our family doesn't have a home in ohio anymore. one of my sisters doesn't have any kids and her and her husband just built a humungous house so there is space for us, but it's not ours really. on one hand my parents seem happier, on the other hand they bicker more. there was always a sigh of relief from everyone in the house when my dad went to the fire station for 24 hours. he's kind of a control freak, his way or the highway, just do what i say kind of guy. but they both have their separate alone activities; my dad goes to exercise and my mom goes to do ceramics. i am glad they live out there. i need a warm place to escape to. 101022 ... unhinged (sledding with ducks in the arms sounds adorable) the buddhist in me is liking where our new story is going 101023 ... cr0wl nice... 101024 ... unhinged i'll try not to hold our story up too much longer with any more shambhala_training or other buddhist nonsense ;-) 101115 ... cr0wl i like your take on shambhala_training. 101116 ... unhinged i wanted to share it with you, red. (once again blue is overrun with retard(s)). i've been thinking about my path as a buddhist lately; it's been a good decade since i stumbled across that book on tibetan buddhism in the bargain section of the barnes and noble in boardman. (or was it a borders?) i only picked it up cause i thought the cover looked cool. thank goodness for that cosmic incidence. 101116 ... cr0wl our crowls have their way of putting things in our path. whatever it takes...so glad you are finding your way. you have good perception. 101116 ... unhinged how is your way these days? anxious for some snow? 101118 ... crOwl my way is a mysterious one. i fall in love so easily with everyone. i am totally looking forward to the fall of snow for it will enable one of my best friends and i to ski and work together. you seem happy. am i right my darling? 101118 ... unhinged it's the pisces in us. prone to giving our hearts away. i'm pretty happy. not without stress, but the shambhala_training and my almost daily meditation and yoga practice is helping immensely. i am also activating plans to move to san_francisco in august, so the thought of this being my last stupid winter in stupid wisconsin is helping to lighten my mood considerably. 101118 ... unhinged i think i am going to give my mom our most recent story for christmas this year. 101122 what's it to you? who go blather from