Hubby

Now that I'm using my Rock and Eagle filter in looking at the world and to find those things in the world, I have stumbled upon the realization that people make money off of selling things of no value whatsoever, even things that have pieces missing or are broken. Now, for the Rock and Eagle Shop, some of these things are useful and desirable to me, more for poetic and or comedic value than nostalgia - certainly not for filling a niche on my nic-nac shelf, but the mind reels that scores of people across our land are packing these bits and bobs up in boxes and sending them to each other for cash. Makes me think I may be in the wrong business. Here's an article telling you how to get in on it. As I mentioned before though, most of my findings are heartfelt and come from sincere sources of creativity.

January 30th

On the crux of the weekend it was getting stuff done day.

I had lunch with Brooke Hodge, who heads the Publications Department at the Hammer Museum. She was a guest of the Get Hubbied wedding and an esteemed writer about that project for the New York Times T Magazine blog under her column called "Seeing Things" (click here for that article). I wanted to see what her thoughts were about this venture - I knew she'd be a great idea machine. Suffice it to say, I took a lot of notes and will follow her sage advice to the letter. She also turned me onto a great website called Dave's Down to Earth Rock Shop, click here for that world of fun.

Then I went to the Eagle Rock Farmer's market and met with this guy AJay who runs a website, Patch Eagle Rock, for local news, events and announcements. I thought it would be useful to meet him and just ask how to get the word out, and he ended up liking the project so much, he's going to write a story about it on the site to help me promote, as well as to find a space.

January 27th

I was introduced to Mason's humor by Ed Ruscha and have since become a fan (amongst throngs of fans) of all his creative endeavors. Click here for his website and peruse to your heart's content. There is a wealth of material and accomplishment, and it is indeed a pleasure to be in conversation with him regarding eagles, rocks and beyond. Alongside all the musical feats, poetic triumphs and and comic scores, the art piece he did photographically replicating a full-sized Greyhound bus has given me a special shiver or two:
click here and scroll down.

Yesterday I sent him some pictures of eggs with eagles painted on them, since he wondered if an 'Eggle' already existed. I even bought a rock with an egg painted upon it, so all in my current world is in a word associative fervor.

Today I got a poetic and eye-opening article in the mail from him about the real story behind Plymouth Rock, called The Pilgrims And the Rock, by Francis Russell (who has such a enviable vocabulary) - click here to read it. It's myth making at its finest. My favorite most seemingly obvious misconception of the whole event is that the Pilgrim's vessel (and they weren't calling themselves that - at the time they were the self-named 'Saints') would have seen a huge looming boat-threatening rock as they approached land from sea, and said, "Hey everybody, there's a huge rock, let's land on that!" No, that's not what happened. They landed ashore away from any rocks. This from the article: "That granite egg laid by the glacier was the most conspicuous object on the flat, curved shoreline, a seamark for any helmsman...it is hard to imagine the helmsman on that bleak, brawing December day taking the rist of battering his craft against it when the wide sheltering inlet of a brook lay only a hundred yards or so beyond."

The rock that was named the Plymouth Rock was actually bestowed its symbolism to commemorate the landing of our ancestors much much later in 1774, not 1620. Russell ends the article it by saying,
"I feel a homely affection for that familiar, battered granite lump..."

On a tangent, but still related to this collab., a few days back in my first parcel from Mason, I got his album called, MUSIC, with the cover art by Ruscha, that includes upon it a rather infectious song about an eagle named J. Edgar Swoop; Swoop makes such a dandy-like mess of being an eagle, or an embarrassment as a national symbol since he dressed sloppily and had no fervor towards flying or swooping, and he gets replaced as our patriotic bird by none other than a poodle. Mason is going to rerecord the song and made a CD for me to sell in the shop. I would include the lyrics here, but its just too good to hear rather that to read, so I'll wait till I get the recording. I sent him a bunch of Rock and Eagle Shop swag, and a fire hydrant t-shirt and poster. Ying and Yang, ya know.

January 26th

I'm having more fun than should be allowed. It may be a no no to admit, but this new art project, from an older idea via Mason Williams and Ed Ruscha, has me in consistent grins and stitches, which by some medical claims will make me live longer, though I don't think I need to worry about that as my grandmother is turning 105 this year. The statement on the Eagle Rock, Rock and Eagle Shop section of this website describes the whole business quite sufficiently, but I will digress, and this is where I'll do that.

Eagle Rock, The Rock and Eagle Shop is by no means a joke, but it is funny, and I hope will infect others as it has me. Beyond wanting to connect and please the community of Eagle Rock, I have been blessed through this self imposed mission, to have the time to take a close look at the online community of sellers, crafters and doers out there making stuff, and putting it up for sale. I feel a people-lovin feeling as I learn how many of them in the US (and beyond) are doing creative things, let alone that they are eagle and/or rock related things. There are so many people working from home, advertising, sometimes quite poetically, sometimes insanely, the wares they have to offer. Now I know why there are so many people in line at the post office. They are mailing trinkets and do-dads, buckles, beads, used clothing, puzzles and parts of toys, tools, eagle figurines and paintings on rocks to strangers everywhere. Now some of them are selling crap, but even that is charming (to me), because other people are buying it; Mason gave me the perfect word to describe them for the press release: entremanureal.

I still have to wrap up the wedding project's catalog, and am working on a book of collages which will be published by Iceplant press this year. And, there's the catalog for this new adventure, which I am bent over nightly, refining and aligning. So, the haus of Hubby is again in full steam ahead motion. There's the sound of a rock fountain bubbling in the background as I type. The wall behind me is radically hung with my current muses - all shapes and sizes and expressions of rocks and eagles. All I need to do now is find a space to house this venture. I am meeting with Ajay of the Patch Eagle Rock organization on Friday, which may prove useful in this endeavor - or at least to help get the word out to the community.

January 25th