ALABAMA BLUE BABY BLUE

ALABAMA BLUE BABY BLUE
Mobile, Alabama

For the flightless baby blue jay I took in for the night. In the morning, I put him high up in the tree where his jay fam greeted him like he had risen from the dead. He stayed up in the treetops for days, learning how to fly with his sibs.

2 oz. vodka
.5 oz. Southern Comfort
.5 oz. blue curacao
1 very large strawberry mashed through a sieve (or 2-3 regular-sized ones)
.25 oz. blueberry juice
splash of lime juice
couple dashes or so of Angostura orange bitters

Shake it all up with lots of ice and strain into a martini glass. To get the strawberry through the sieve: Cut it up into small pieces, use a muddler to pound the pieces into a mush (in a bowl), then using a spoon, mash the mush through a sieve.

i think you'll enjoy reading and finding out about this great lady who travels the use in an air-stream year-round!

here is what she says about herself.

I am a location-independent, full-time RVer living, working (graphic design and photography) and traveling in an Airstream travel trailer. My name is Sharon Pieniak and with Harley the dog, I am inviting a greater portion of the world into our lives while celebrating the beauty of America and exploring the art of nomadic living. This is the travel log of our never-ending road trip.

The above map marks the Latest Trip that started on June 1, 2010. Click on the named locations for log entries.
Also don't miss The First Trip that spanned two years and the entire country.

In The Nitty Gritty section, learn About Us, about Trailer Life, and find some useful Resources and Campground Reviews.

Thanks for stopping by! Would love to hear from you: EMAIL ME.

on the side of the road . . .

on the side of the road . . .

on the side of the road 

at the tour de france

a lot happens

while the cyclists speed by . . .

© 2011 bijou le tord

spiderman & old tin toy-cars . . . waiting to be transformed . . .

spiderman & cars

waiting to be transformed . . .

my desk is filled with metal scraps, stones, found small

pieces of cut wood, cardboard, wires, old transistor , clock, watch, 

electronic-parts . . .

and zillions of small tin-toys cars, mixed in with 

metal elements, spare parts. . .  i use to create

 new objects to photograph. . .

 the fun part of it all 

are the cars laying about (in order though)

waiting to be worked-on : sanded, scratched,

banged up  . . . in some cases completly

 stripped of their colors . . .

i use a steel-wool brush, sand paper, or 

rave up the electric sander. . . 

i like the original

metal to show in parts . . .

(often old tin toy cars were  made of pressed 

metal or 

aluminium) 

, stripping the coats 

of paint transforms the tin car into

a new object it changes its identity

i like to photograph

 that transformation. . .

© 2011 bijou le tord

( a friendly way to recycle )

i spend an extraordinary amount of time 

(& very little money)

at garage-sales, flee-markets , country-fairs

where i could find old banged up tin cars, tin supplies,

anything that will serve

to give a new life to my small world of tin

characters & cars. . .

grains of life : wolfgang laib . . .

© wolfgang laib

Le rituel de la lumière.

A propos de Laib, il faut parler de dépouillement plutôt que de minimalisme. L'artiste a tout oublié des contingences, de la violence du monde, de ses vices et de ses appétits. Il est dans un ailleurs et nous chuchote à l'oreille,  un secret... Un secret ? Pas une idée, pas un point de vue, une vérité non révélée.

Comme un grand sorcier ou un prêtre, il tamise le pollen, verse le lait, ou empile les grains de riz.. Le blanc, le jaune sont éblouissants.  Ils invitent au partage avec l'autre, à la réconciliation avec soi-même.

Les installations de Wolfgang Laib donnent de l'esprit aux lieux. La magnificence émerge de l'insignifiant, du ténu, de l'impalpable. La silhouette du créateur s'imprime sur toutes ses oeuvres, donnant à la notion d'individu toute sa place dans un processus artistique qui n'omet rien dans sa tentative d'atteindre le beau.

Wolfgang Laib (born 25 March 1950) is a German conceptual artist working predominantly with natural materials.

Musée de Grenoble
5, Place Lavalette
38000 Grenoble
04 76 63 44 44

marwencol . . . A film by JEFF MALMBERG

"Marwencol" is a documentary about the fantasy world of Mark Hogancamp.

After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark builds a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populates the town he dubs "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and creates life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helps Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds of the attack. When Mark and his photographs are discovered, a prestigious New York gallery sets up an art show. Suddenly Mark's homemade therapy is deemed "art", forcing him to choose between the safety of his fantasy life in Marwencol and the real world that he's avoided since the attack.

"Marwencol" has won over 20 awards, including two Independent Spirit Awards, Best Documentary of the Year from the Boston Society of Film Critics and Rotten Tomatoes, and the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at the South by Southwest Film Festival. The Los Angeles Times calls the film “an exhilarating, utterly unique experience” while the Village Voice says that it's “exactly the sort of mysterious and almost holy experience you hope to get from documentaries and rarely do.”    "Marwencol" is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.