Lately, when I start to wake, instead of remembering part of a dream, I have a novel running through my head as I come into consciousness. Crazy stories, just like I’m reading it from a book.

This morning’s was something out of science fiction. A person, in the future, doing some schleppy IT-related work because he wants to slack off. Only he realizes the work he does fuels what he hates about society and aids in lining the pockets of his enemies. There were spaceships involved – a la Futurama, but more grown up and realistic and grimy.

It just always strikes me as odd when I wake up and there are these well-formed sentences running through my head, and I’m not the center of the dream or even watching it – someone is narrating it. I find it even more odd that I have some sort of science fiction brewing in my unconscious; I don’t even like science fiction. But that can mainly be blamed on Star Trek.

It’s time to pick up work on the pod series again.

Filed under:
Day in the Life, Dreams, Observances by Courtney

Pantheon, Rome

I’m not big on watching political anything. It’s just not for me, listening to people drone on. Put a transcript in front of me, so I can read, deconstruct, take notes – that I can do, though I realize you lose the human element, body language, the tone. I just can’t stomach 90 minutes of chatter and blah, blah, blah.

But highlights – a 3 to 5 minute recap, I’ll listen to that, stay current (again, taken with a grain of salt, since what is shown is very subjective to the producers, reporters and editors). The thing that really strikes me this morning is, “Biden vs. Palin – there’s no clear winner, but Palin didn’t fail, which is what many expected. She held her own.”

Yes, that’s a good motivator for me when I’m at my lowest. I may not have sparkled and shined, performing top-notch, but at least I didn’t fail. Quite frankly, I don’t see that as I’m successful at something. Is that really what we need in a leader of our country? “Wow, she didn’t fail, so that’s successful.” That’s bullshit. You need a leader, someone who can take charge, bring value to the table and clearly come out on top. Not someone who scrapes by, because they didn’t fail.

Since I didn’t really listen to the debate, and I haven’t actually read any in-depth information on the debate, this isn’t so much a criticism of the two candidates as it is the press and the reaction of the hand-picked “public” on the TV this morning.

Filed under:
Observances by Courtney

Wednesday night we celebrated. After a few years of filing papers capped by a 1 hour ceremony, Raju became a US citizen.

The swearing in ceremony was interesting, though it left me wondering if the first thing a president does is make a video that welcomes new citizens. Does this happen before he is in office? Or, in that small cusp, do new citizens get to watch the former president welcome them to this country?

At any rate, gee-dub is the usual embarrassment, talking about religious freedoms and looking as if he’s reading the captions right off the screen. It really is hard to take him seriously.

But alas, celebrations ensued – handmade craft, beer, hamburgers, good friends and Rocky IV. Welcome to being an American!

Filed under:
Fun Times by Courtney

Door Knocker, Florence, Italy

Does anyone remember when Senator Clinton was running for the democratic nomination? How it was insinuated that women would vote for her just because she was a woman – damn her policies, positions, etc. And women were up in arms because we’re not that dumb; we do have functioning brains.

Then along comes Sarah Palin. An inexperienced governor from Alaska with a knocked up 17 year old who has taken over the news for the past week or two. What on earth would make a man choose such a person as a running mate? Possibly angling for the women’s vote? Doesn’t that mean the Republicans are insinuating that women will vote any woman into office – the thing we were up in arms about to begin with when the press portrayed our support for Hillary in the same manner?

Filed under:
Observances by Courtney

House on a Hill, Rome

There’s something about this photo that reminds me of Arbus’s similarly titled photo – A House on a Hill, Hollywood. It’s one of my two favorite photos of hers (the other being the Disneyland castle), and the dialogue generally surrounding these photos is how atypical it is for her to have taken more of a landscape photograph, as she normally works in portraiture. Thus, there’s a lot of discussion on what this means – photographing a house on a hill, photographing a castle at a theme park. Most often, the thought is she is photographing what is not there – i.e. the content of the house is missing in Hollywood; it’s just a shell (read what you will into that). Things aren’t always what they seem.

A House on a Hill, Hollywood, by Diane Arbus

The mood of the two photos feel the same to me. Somewhat gray (though in Arbus’s work this is achieved via B&W), clouds in the sky, perspective, and what’s not there. It’s obvious in Rome what is left is a piece of magnificent architecture, and what’s left hints at what once was, but is no longer. Whether that be as simple as part of the house is missing, or a great society that has come and gone… well, I’ll leave that to you to read into.

Filed under:
Italy, My Art, Others Art, Rome by Courtney