It is so hard to keep with the program during these merry holidays, especially in restricted space!  I feel special sympathy for Jacques’ computer, downgraded from its own desk in its own office, to where it is now sitting: a dining room table crowded with newspapers and drawing papers, candy wrappers, knitting needles, yesterday’s tea—where, to make matters worse, it gets yelled at for being too slow!  One day when the master’s exasperation was reaching dangerous levels, he repacked it in its carton and marched it to the Paris Apple Store, where a “genius” quickly diagnosed the problem, and explained how to fix it. (Watch for a metaphor!…) When bits of your files are all over the place, he said, making the necessary connections will slow your computer down to a crawl, and what is needed is a “De-Frag”!

Hey, I thought, I am feeling cluttered and overfed and plodding too; do they do those for humans?

It set me thinking. Though I have been making a real effort to keep one hand on a pencil even when the other is in the cookie jar, my drawings  (like my own fragmented self!), have been all-over-the-place, dutiful, and frankly uninspired. What has happened to Playfulness? I think I will give drawing a rest, and dedicate the rest of this Paris visit to collage, a much better medium for scraps and inventiveness and unbridled FUN!

I know you can’t see these images, but the actual drawings don’t really matter. (If you like “process”, you can have a better look at http://bpldrawingaday.wordpress.com). What is important is the momentum that starts to build up when you have repeated a small positive action 50 or 60 times. Whoopee! A good habit is born; things are starting to move again!

Yesterday Pat Sonnino sent me an invitation to a California show she will be participating in at the Sanchez Art Center: www.sanchezartcenter.org.–“70 artists will create 50 small artworks in 50 days!” She has been posting the paintings on her blog as she completes them. What a brilliant concept! I think I start to see a way to breathe some life back into my dying studio at last…

What if I launched a new (private?) blog, and set myself the challenge of posting a small work every day for a year? 356 pieces would surely shake loose some new ideas, form a good solid habit and some technical competence, and leave behind a record of “the journey”…

“But what about the times when I am off at a music course, or traveling, or otherwise indisposed?” my Inner Critic cautioned, ” How will I keep up the momentum?” No problem as long as I have my iPhone handy–”Paintbook to the Rescue!“

I am excited about this project, and am going to begin right now. In the name of accountability, here is the new link: http://bpldrawingaday.wordpress.com/

And we’re off!

I went to my favorite on-line learning site, http://www.lynda.com, to see what I could find out about YouTube and/or iMovie. After watching tutorials for several hours, it seemed like a good idea to at least have a look at the actual YouTube site. Oh! Everything worth doing has already been done!–and often skillfully and imaginatively. What is left for the rest of us? I cheered myself up getting lost on a detour which I highly recommend: Sarah Kay’s Spoken Word Poetry Playlist http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DFBC4DBF7976778A&annotation_id=annotation_251976&feature=iv

Later in the afternoon when the rain stopped, Jacques and I went for our usual walk in a whipping wind. We passed this twisted bag caught on a barbed wire fence, spinning about, struggling to break free of constraints and fly off to see the world, and it seemed sort of poignant and emblematic! I took a few seconds of video with my handy iPhone, this time on purpose, and went back home to Lynda.com to see what you do next.

Several hours later, mostly managing to ignore the more and more urgent calls from below (“Woman! where’s DINNER!?”), I finally pushed “send”, and went downstairs, hoping to witness Jacques’ amazement and congratulations at my first video, duly titled, compressed, packaged and delivered. Ah, but timing is everything!  He was too crazed with hunger to find and open the little attachment by himself, and when the five second weather report was finished (for brevity is the soul of wit!)–he did leap out of his chair and twirl me around, only to exclaim, “Now we can have dinner!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2joQ2xvn8U

Reactions from two others privileged to see the premier performance of “Weather Report” were more positive.

“YES. I saw the wind in the plastic bag!!!”

“‘Cool’”,  meant in  the literal sense!”

(I can only hope that correspondent number three is still asleep in another time zone, and has not merely been “blown away”!)

(Compliments of Martin, 4)

The French children’s prank of sticking a picture of a fish onto the back of a school buddy, and then crying out “Poisson d’avril!” seems so gentle compared to the “kick me!” signs of my youth!…I had completely forgotten about April Fools’ Day till these splendid fish arrived in my inbox this morning. An ancient memory of Grandpa Priester came drifting back. He had the misfortune to be born on April 1, and must have spent a lifetime trying to cut into his birthday cake, only to find it was just an iced cake pan…we, of course, found Mom’s prank hilarious!

I wonder what mischief we can get into today?!

Yesterday is the day I noticed I was running on empty. I walked Jacques part way to lunch with his father, but got no farther than the park in front of the Bon Marché before collapsing on a sunny bench.  I didn’t really feel like sitting around at home on a beautiful afternoon–to do what? Knit another inch of what I swear is the last sock ever? Check emails for the tenth time, look out the window at the little groups of adolescents smoking and flirting in front of their school?

Time management is a subtle and complicated art, whether you have too much of it, or not quite enough.  I confess that having no energy and no plan left me a little pensive. Though I could have gone along for that lunch, I have worked hard to cultivate the image of someone who needs time for herself, and I certainly didn’t want to lose ground! But the truth is, you can forget what it is you DO when you are not in constant motion, but are not ready to go home.

Paintbook to the rescue! I had spent 99 cents on this fascinating iPhone app several months ago, but got sidetracked before really figuring out how it works; so I printed out the user’s manual, and put it aside for a “rainy” day. And there it was in my pocket, waiting for just this moment. What an absorbing way to watch and record the world going by, while posing as someone sending text messages! You can take actual photos of your surroundings (even the pigeons ignore you, thinking you are just playing Angry Birds!), collage them together, add a layer of scribbly lines, a bit of text or drawing, and even shuffle the layers. It is an amazingly sophisticated app, and now that I am starting to get the hang of it, I can’t leave it alone.

Here are my first exercises…how exhilarating it is, having a new toy!

Trust my favorite ten year old to figure it out faster and better; here are Alexandre’s first tries!  At midnight I had to send him to bed to get my phone back, but before breakfast it’s gone again…maybe I’d better spend another 99 cents and buy Paintbook for his family.

I have noticed a curious thing– my knitting has been getting progressively darker as the days grow longer! Look how the winter began; wouldn’t those colors lift your spirits, and make you happy to clickety-click next to the fireplace, waiting for the soup to bubble?…

..whereas this black business is just plain depressing.

While pondering the many faces of Black, I remembered some things I usually don’t dwell on. Number one, I am basically afraid of the dark! I have to be dragged out of my cozy nest once the sun goes down. For as long as I remember I have been frightened of catching my reflection in a mirror in a dark room, and I am terrified of hoods and masks. Even the flirty, jaunty Carnevale masks we will be seeing everywhere in Venice give me the creeps! Funerals, the primordial void, emptiness…black, who needs it?

Of course if you want to be fashionable in Paris (and even in Massa Martana), wearing black all winter is de rigueur. (It is always easy to spot Jacques on a crowded metro platform sporting the one red windbreaker in a sea of black!) Though black covers the post-holiday body forgivingly, is indispensable for those of us trying to learn the art of packing light, and is–at least in this case– the dress code for concert performances, black just does not make my heart sing.

But I think I have found a reasonable compromise. After I finally made it to the last row and sewed in all the ends, I stitched some metallic thread onto the surface ridges. What a difference a tiny sparkle of light makes! Let the music begin!

Shall I just write a list of what goes where? Much as I like stencils, why advertise where my best toys are hidden? I have been thinking about the transporting of stuff a lot since I got home, especially during our traditional afternoon walk. Wouldn’t it be better just to learn to travel light? What can I absolutely not do without?…

I have no Low Cost adventures coming up for a while, but spring is in the air. For our afternoon “giro”, two pockets should do the trick; these vests are painted on lightweight,  thornproof, who’s-afraid-of-a-little-mud linen. With a wink at the hunters decked out in their camouflage vests–it is important to dress for the task at hand!–I hereby present gardening camouflage! Sneak up on those vines and whack them with the machete!

Can you spot the pockets? My technique is improving…

With one of these Low Cost escapades coming up, I started looking on line for garments with lots of pockets. Suppliers to hunters, fishermen, photographers offer a wide choice, if you can decide between macho camouflage and its opposite, Dayglow orange; net pouches in the shape of a mackerel, or special slots for ammunition. (Careful! Security officials are not chosen for their sense of humor!) I notice there is also such a thing as a “travel vest”, with all the pockets on the inside to elude the pick-pockets on the crowded metro; but I hate to order something so fitted and potentially lumpy without trying it on first. I was starting to get discouraged.

And then my inner recycler stepped forward! What about trying to transform one of those baggy linen shirts I used to love into a “secret carry-on”? I’m not quite ready to send it to Caritas–I always liked that fabric–and it would be an interesting project for (yet another) rainy day….

Trusty Google produced an assortment of free tutorials on how to put in a zipper. This one is pretty clear:

http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2007/02/zippered_inner_.html

I went straight to Acquasparta and bought a handful of zippers, and after a timid first try, started to get the hang of it. The afternoon passed in a flash making custom pockets for for sandwich, apple,  knitting,  paperback , Chapstick, map, boarding pass, iPhone. When I ran out of zippers, I cut off the sleeves and added some more external pockets (glasses, keys…) It was so much fun!  If you want to try, here are a couple of pointers: placing the zipper vertically or diagonally seems to make the pocket lie better than horizontally. Give a little thought to which end the zipper pull should be on! DO use interfacing under the zipper. Remember you can put several pockets on top of each other, and you can have one or more oversized pockets on the inside too.

I’ll bet you can’t tell from this photo, but there are nine pockets on the front of this flight vest, and I haven’t even begun with the back. I can’t wait to try it out next Wednesday!