Well, HELLO Pluto!

It’s so cool getting a close-up of Pluto.  When I was a kid I really liked the idea of all these planets madly whirling around the sun but I do remember being intrigued by Pluto even though the rings of Saturn caught my eye first and don’t even get me started on the giggle-fit that Uranus had on my juvenile mind.  After all, Pluto was small and lonely and the furthest from Earth and we knew zilch about it except that it was probably one solid block of ice.  Pluto was not discovered until 1930 (by a guy named Clyde) so it was a big deal in the study of the skies of California during my formative years.

Of course my infatuation with Pluto also probably stemmed from the fact that Pluto was the name of Mickey’s dog.  I don’t think I even considered it strange that a mouse could own a dog.  In 1992 Pluto lost its designation as a true planet and is now considered a dwarf.  Doc and Dopey and Sneezy and Pluto?





Coincidentally, I just finished reading “The Martian” by Adam Weir, wherein an astronaut named Whatley gets marooned on Mars and has to survive alone for more than four years before there is a chance for rescue.  It has lots of nerdy technical stuff to plow through but it’s ultimately worth it.  I bought the book for 35 cents (15% senior discount) at The Poverello Center, a charitable thrift shop in Wilton Manors, FL and I saw the trailer for the movie when I went to see Jurassic World last month.  It stars Matt Damon and is directed by Ridley Scott.  I loved Damon’s Jason Bourne trilogy and Scott’s “Alien” scared the bejesus out of me whilst being beguiled by Sigourney Weaver in the teeniest of underwear.  I don’t always like the movies made from books but The Martian might fill the bill.  It comes out in October of this year.

So far I’ve purchased two lamps, a picture frame and some books at Poverello and have my eye on a bookcase.  Seniors get a 15% discount on Thursdays so we’ll see what’s what with that bookcase next week.

Banana na na na

I fell in love with the Minions when the first Despicable Me movie came out.  How can you not love the Minions?  I went to see "Minions," the movie, on Saturday.  Last night at bowling a guy on the opposing team was wearing this t-shirt.  JC Penney, on sale, two for $20.  So I bought two.

Name dropping

Pixar Animation Studios, or simply Pixar (/'piksar/), is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, CA.  Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the computer division of Lucasfilm before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986.  I happen to own, and treasure, the commemorative cap!  After I took this picture I put the cap through a wash cycle with other, equally soiled, laundry...mostly socks.  I've worn it all day as it dried so it would keep its shape.

That old poster art

I did this painting in June of 1974.  It was not actually meant to be a painting, per se, and I did it as a favor for a young concertmaster who was making his debut in NYC with his equally young quintet of classical musicians.  It’s not large, only 12”x16”, but it’s painted on canvas and I did it before acrylics became ubiquitous, using small jars of egg tempera (better known as “poster paint”) in primary and secondary colors and did my own mixing.  If it seems a little out of balance it was on purpose because it was used to advertise their concert and the black space, when in poster form (and the program cover),  was used for the name of the group, the concert itself, ticket information and venue.  My friend was most grateful but, as seems to be usual with good deeds, it did not go unpunished.  I did not get paid but I was still proud my poster was displayed all over the place in NYC.  But astonished peeve surged to the surface when, one fine day a couple of years later, I found the poster (in postcard form) on the racks of a bookstore in Greenwich Village.  Then I discovered the poster itself had been reproduced in print in numbers way beyond its use as advertising and was being offered for sale everywhere.  It took me a while to track down my musician friend but by that time in his career he had gained some notoriety and he got his manager and/or agent on the case and I was able to obtain a lump sum payment for what had previously been a freebie.  He also, in about 1980, called me and said that he had found the original art and did I want it back?  You betcha!

Once it was back in my possession, however, it was just another funky piece of decorative art that I had on the walls (or not) in the various abodes in which I subsequently resided.  During one fateful move in 1993 it got damaged and was relegated to a basement closet, along with other abandoned flotsam of my past.  Sometime in 2001 (maybe), I was attempting to make sense of a lot of my stored-away detritus and brought this painting upstairs and was able to repair it satisfactorily, cagily using Krazy Glue and quick-drying acrylics.  Coincidentally, in April of that year I had houseguests who seemed to like it and I just handed it over, right then and there, to my friend Ismael as a housewarming gift and it was reportedly well hung in his bedroom in Quincy, Mass.  Sadly calamity (in 2007), in the form of the Marlboro Man, stabbed Ismael in the lungs and in 2009, the grim reaper struck him down.

In 2014 I moved lock, stock and art to Florida and in early 2015 I thought to ask Paul, Ismael’s husband, whatever happened to “that old poster art.”  He said it was hanging on the wall of his house in Milbury, Mass.  It was good to know it was still somewhat treasured and I forgot about it (yet again).  Two weeks ago Paul was back in FLL and, one fine morning, delivered to my doorstep a half dozen bagels and this painting.  I was wowed by the bagels and very pleased to see the painting and it now hangs, once again, on the walls of its originator.   This narrative is all true except that most of the dates are guesswork.  Even the delivery date of the bagels has slipped away.