art, life & poetry

Orlando 2011 Holiday Fun

monsieurswanson — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:39:41 +0000

Marie supports the true champion

For our Christmas vacation this year, John, Marie and I headed south to Orlando to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.

Overall, we managed to have a good time in our two-day visit, but in all honesty, the park itself didn’t manage to satisfy my expectations for a good customer experience. Yes, we went on all the Harry Potter rides, and we managed to collect some nifty souvenirs. Yes, I got to be a star in a Disaster! film. Indeed, I took dozens of photos.

But despite all that, the staff and characters at Universal were largely discourteous and unhelpful. The setup crowd and line control was mismanaged, leaving guests befuddled and unamused. For an theme park, that’s ridiculous. What they couldn’t learn from spying on Disney World, I don’t know.

Whiskey wishes

monsieurswanson — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:59:49 +0000

I wish my man were home.

I wish to live near my family.

I wish my children were still babies.

I wish my dog was a puppy again.

I wish whiskey didn’t taste so good.

I wish my grandfathers were still alive.

I wish sex weren’t so complicated.

I wish owning a home were simpler.

I wish prayer and yoga did more.

I wish writing a dissertation were easier.

I wish more students wanted to learn to speak French and to make art.

3-hour tour of Seattle

monsieurswanson — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:29:10 +0000

Swansons in Seattle @ the Space Needle

While visiting my dad and step-mom in Washington, he chauffeured me and my not so little munchkins in the Honda Ridgeline to Seattle for a day trip. There we sped through Pike Place Market where we visited the original Starbucks coffee shop, ate phenomenally delicious sandwiches at the Three Girls Bakery, and browsed a small kitchen store full of Fiestaware.

Next we jumped back in the truck for the short trek from Pike Place Market to the Space Needle. Getting Granddad’s Magellan GPS to show us the way took longer than it did to arrive. Actually, the navigator app on my iPhone served as the fastest tool for directing us through a maze of one-way streets. Once at the Space Needle, we went up, looked around, came down, and left. That was pretty much it. We did mange an FTL perusal of the infotainment decor, and of course we zipped through the gift shop where I found two shot glasses to add to John’s collection at home in Georgia. Dad and I both put a little fear aside to ride up the elevators and to walk around the observation deck. Two fears for me: falling off (not possible, I’m sure) and dropping my iPhone (serving as my camera) over the edge. Neither happened of course.

After that it was time to return to Granddad’s house across a snowy mountain pass. Although it was a whirlwind tour of Seattle highlights sandwiched between two long car rides, it was a fun day.

Vrksasana – balance like an oak, bend like a willow

monsieurswanson — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:50:37 +0000

In a recent issue of Yoga Journal, I read an article about vrksasana or tree pose. It’s one of the most basic poses, but its challenge for balance is amazing. Whether touching a toe of the raised leg to the floor or placing the heal under the groin, a yogi finds himself amazed at how much balance and stability fluctuate from one leg to another and from one session of practice to another.

Vrksasana is a contradictory pose, standing firmly rooted like the oak grounded in the earth, but bending and tilting like the willow surviving the elements that rail against it. In tree pose, I sometimes see myself in the mirror at yoga class, and I feel like a great sequoia in vrksasana, reaching toward the sky, ignorant of any roof over head. The the very next day in class, I tip and wobble and tumble like the unfortunate pine caught in a California mountain mudslide.

When I was still married, I maintained my balance by learning to bend like the willow. At times conflict in my personal life required me to bend to near breaking in order to withstand stormy changes, bending so much that my personal metaphor no longer resembled any kind of tree. Since then, I discovered and began to practice yoga. I recognized my true self in my relationships, being honest in recognizing the man I am and that I am supposed to be. Now my arboreal center is stronger, straighter, mightier. I feel it in my practice because vrksasana tends to come easily for me now, though there are still wobbles and tilts and threats of being uprooted. I face challenges, and I persevere.

Lessons learned in a newly remodeled kitchen

monsieurswanson — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:37:58 +0000

Neither cast iron, granite, nor ceramic tile are friends to glass.
Libman makes very good brooms.
HGTV lies. A beautiful kitchen cannot happen in a weekend.
Contractors are somehow both the tortoise and the hare.
Let a man play with his caulk, and he’ll put it in anything.
Necessity really is the mother of invention.
People should definitely let gay men design their kitchens.
Finding a complete set of matching kitchen appliances from one American manufacturer from a single vendor takes an entire shopping day. (Thank you to Brenda at Sears for helping us select each and every Maytag appliance and for finding us the deepest discounts.)
Just because I speak French and have a dining room art gallery devoted to la Belle France doesn’t mean I want a French Country kitchen.
If you can swing it before you start a remodel, you want a boyfriend or husband who is either a plumber, a carpenter or an electrician. Thank you, John, for being the do-it-all-electrician.
You can get a beautiful, practical, matching set of kitchen knives at Publix. (It’s also a good place to go for a simple set of very affordable glasses to replace all those dashed against cast iron, granite, or ceramic tile.)

à lui

monsieurswanson — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:14:00 +0000

Tu es mon seul lien contigu. Moi, je suis ton autre.

(paraphrase de Toi, tu es mon autre. Laura Fabian)

3D forms and other disasters

monsieurswanson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 01:32:21 +0000

So today in my Art 1 class, I was leading the students in drawing 3D forms, primarily a sphere. Probably, it wasn’t the best starting point, but I persisted. I’ve drawn spheres upon spheres upon spheres. But today, it just wasn’t working for me. Putting black paper on the board and then trying to draw the highlights and let the black paper do the work of the shadows just turned out one flop after another. The students gave it a good go, but finally we reverted to ebony pencil on white sketch paper, I felt more comfortable with that method. Going from table to table, I was able to guide some students with there pencil strokes. Tomorrow we’ll work on cubes and cylinders. I think that might go better.

To top off the day, I’m coming down with some kind of cold my children brought home from school. All the hand sanitizer, soap & water, and surgical masks couldn’t keep these little bugs from creeping all over the place. I’m no germaphobe, but I do understand that at times I’m powerless against the critters students can bring with them to school.

Visuals today

monsieurswanson — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:21:51 +0000

A shiny quarter in a gutter,
A broken down rust bucket of an F150,
A dozen robins in a field,
A papa cardinal feeding his hatchlings,
A lawn covered in dried grass clippings,
A heavy chocolate lab pulling his owner by the leash,
A soda bottle half buried in weeds and mud,
A road construction sign glimmering in bright orange,
A collection of traffic pylons,
A peach,
A carton of non-fat Greek yogurt,
A piece of French toast,
A nervous teen girl after a driving lesson,
A ghost town-like abandoned shopping mall,
A pretzel stand,
A grocery buggy,
A chocolate creme cake,
A TV show,
A laptop computer,
A man sleeping with his dog beside him,
…

N… (old flames don’t burn out)

monsieurswanson — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:09:38 +0000

So out of the blue through LinkedIn, I get a request for a connection from an old girlfriend. (Yeah, as crazy as it seems now, I was once straight. Hell, for N…, any man would be straight!) Rather than risk abusing her trust, I’ll just use that one initial, N….

N… is beautiful, creative, imaginative, intelligent, charming, sweet, considerate, and I loved her desperately. Suddenly it ended, and I was lost. It took me more than two years to get over the break up that happened during my freshman year in college. Then almost a decade later, we reconnected briefly. But shortly after, I got divorced and in the jumble of resettling my life, we lost contact again.

Another decade passed, and she found me again. I’m glad. To be completely candid, I’ve thought about her often, contemplated our past relationship and how it ended, examined my choices and changes, wondered what might have been. Would I go back and try a redo? No. My life has brought me here, and I am happy with where my journey (rough as it has been) is taking me now. But most definitely I am grateful for the opportunity to catch up life stories.

Panoramic photography: Paris, Las Vegas

monsieurswanson — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:48:41 +0000

Panoramic view from the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, Paris, Las Vegas

View of the Bellagio at lunchtime from the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at the Paris Casino in Las Vegas, 21 June 2011, iPhone 4 (iOS 4.3.3)