Virtual Brush Box

Writer: Hello Muse.

Muse: Hello. Another holiday movie?

Writer: No. I guess you could call it an Occasion Movie, the occasion being kids going back to school. Probably a made-for-TV movie.

Muse: An After School Special?

Writer: No. So much no. I may be a hack and a shill for corporate advertisers, but even I have my limits.

Muse: Good to know.

Writer: Several of the producers were sending their kids back to school. They got to talking. Gave them an idea. If they are doing it, so is a large segment of their audience. They want to develop something to use around this time of year.

Muse: But you don’t have kids. You don’t interact with kids in your day-to-day existence.

Writer: I know, right?

Muse: Lean into it. How does back to school effect people without children?

Writer: Well, Traffic for one.

Muse: School buses?

Writer: Yes. But also regular traffic. Mom and Dad and assorted caregivers are all getting up to get tots on the 7:20 bus. Then they go to work. Traffic gets compressed into a tighter time frame.

Muse: I’m not seeing a traffic movie.

Writer: Actually …

Muse: Focus!

Wrtier: Let’s see. What happens when one segment of society relocates en masse? Places that were full of kids are suddenly empty. Pools. Parks. The barn aisles are quiet. The summer camp industry shuts down for the year. [Back To School]

Muse: I’m not hearing sparks.

Writer: (ponders) … kids go back to school … adults who have jobs at school got back to work … teachers, chefs, janitors, administrators … kids start a new grade … start high school … start college … Gaaaaaa. It’s all been done.

Muse: What do you mean?

Writer: So many movies. Adults go back to school pretending to be kids, or as adults who need to finish high school for plot reasons.

Muse: What about adults who go back to school for real? As adults?

Writer: (ponders) … finishing a Master’s … ESL … Executive MBA … GED … overcoming the odds … education is important … move over Horatio Alger … it’s an option … let call that plan b.

Muse: You don’t like it?

Writer: It feels too earnest. If we are going to sell people on spending their free time back at school, we have to make it sound fun. Kids have just spent the day there. Adults probably still have exam nightmares. We have to put sparkles on it.

Muse: The anthology approach?

Writer: I like the idea of being able to tell several stories at once. But I used the short story concept last time. Doing it again feels like a retread. They’re gonna want a shiny new idea. [The Summer Movie]

Muse: Turn it sideways.

Writer: (stands up, looks at screen sideways, sits down)

Muse: Very funny. Instead of telling one story after another, tell them consecutively.

Writer: (blank look)

Muse: Not ringing any bells?

Writer: I feel that you are broadcasting but I am not receiving.

Muse: What uses an ensemble cast?

Writer: TV show! Night School! Like Night Court, except with school! Oooh, gotta love it when the elevator speech writes itself.

Muse: (sotto voce) The light dawns.

Writer: We have all kinds of options with casting. Ongoing characters as teachers, and chefs, and janitors, and … wait … do principals work at night? … never mind, I can find out. Guest stars as characters who attend classes. We can have story arcs of different lengths all interacting with each other. An arc could be two shows, or an entire season. Or an arc stops when a person leaves suddenly because that’s what happens when people have to fit school around their lives.

Muse: (smiles)

Writer: We can get advertisers to sponsor scholarships to real night schools. Name recognition! Branding! Actually doing some good.

Muse: (watches writer’s moving fingers fondly)

Writer: (looks up from keyboard) Thank you, Muse.

Muse: You’re welcome. It’s good to see you working.

~~~ curtain ~~~

Afterword

The muse fiction sketches are still me talking about story ideas rather than creating a full-blown piece of fiction. At least I am coming up with story ideas, and at least they are presented in fictional form. Turtle steps.

Free Fiction 4U

Speaking of back to school and good stories. Dartmouth Alumni Magazine: The Devil and Dan Club, Collins 2011. Project Gutenberg of Australia: The Devil and Daniel Webster, Benet, 1936.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “Faces and Fabrics Everywhere! For me, making quilts is a creative outlet. Visit a quilt retreat with the Evening Star Quilt Guild, via my collection of photographs from our 2023 ‘Out of This World’ Retreat, held at the Alabama 4-H Conference Center, Columbiana, AL, Aug. 3-6.” Facebook: Meg McKinney 7 Aug 2023. Meg always does a great job with ‘in the moment’ photos. Not sure if you need to log in to see. Sometimes I can see a FB page without doing so. It varies.

~~~

Creek
Old Highway 280
Chelsea AL, US
July 2023

Technical Details

Creek. f/11.0, 1/125 sec., 105.0 mm, ISO 400, manual

The meta picture was hard to get this time. The first attempt of the two above has a lovely shot of the big camera, obeying the rule of thirds no less, with the subject scenically fuzzy in the background. Alas, there is a partial reflection on the display screen superimposed over the thumbnail image. BTW, not the worst example of reflection. I didn’t post the one where the reflection was so strong that you can read what my shirt says, and don’t see green at all. The next one, above, has the creek in focus and no reflection on the display image. I remember checking for that. Alas, the target camera is not in focus.

Things I need to keep in mind when I take the Android photo of the Nikon.

1) Is the Nikon in focus?

2) Is the photo shoot subject in focus? This is easier when the the Nikon is close to the subject. Actually, I have no control over this. Make sure phone knows to focus on the Nikon and let it do what it will with the background.

3) Check for reflection on the Nikon screen. Be aware that this is hard on a sunny day.

Works best if I can rest the Nikon on something and therefore not have to position, focus, and operate the Android with one hand.

Went somewhere. Did something. Check.

Previous [Quarry], with better examples of meta pix.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “Bats can hear shapes. Plants can eat light. Bees can dance maps. We can hold all these ideas at once and feel both heavy and weightless with the absurd beauty of it all.” Twitter, the CryptoNaturalist, @CryptoNature, 10:39 PM · Aug 15, 2018. Website, The CryptoNaturalist, list of podcasts. Have not listened. Don’t do podcasts. Like the quote.

~~~

A while back, Jasmine had her left eye removed due to disease.

You don’t notice. She can stare with one eye as well as most dogs stare with two.

She points that enormous Basset beak at you and you know you are being Looked At, no matter how many eyeballs are involved.

Rose prefers the droopy eyes, mournful ears method.

Jasmine & Rose Fan Club [list of posts]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. I got nothing. I’m having a long week. Not long in any absolute sense. Long for me.

~~~

Phase I

Rodney has found yet another way to get time off with minimum inconvenience to himself. It’s his super power.

His left front shoe shifted slightly to the inside.

He was fine.

Shoe was tight.

He could mosey about with no problem.

There was juuust enough lip that if he stepped on it, he would have pulled the shoe – and since it was tight – rip half his foot off.

Was this scenario likely? No.

Was there an outside chance that Rodney could completely trash his foot? Yes.

So, he went for our morning stroll. He hung out in the stall. Ate meals. Hung out in the field.

No lunging. Circling would increase the likelihood of cross-stepping.

No trot or canter. Speed would increase the damage.

Blacksmith notified.

Phase 2

That was insufficient. He decided to opt out of the morning walks as well.

He removed the right front shoe. Yeah, the other one.

Hung out in the stall to preserve his foot for blacksmith the next day.

In theory, Rodney wants to live in a stall.

In reality, not so much.

After overnighting in the stall …

Rodney: Yeah, I’m over this. I wanna go ouuut.
Me: You’re the one who took off your shoe. Gotta wait until the blacksmith gets here.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. I remain appalled by the news. The news keeps requiring me to be appalled by the same things. That is appalling in its own right.

~~~

Not a horse hunt. A hunt implies a mighty hunter. We are poking noses out of our burrow like a pair of alarmed meerkats.

Emails were sent.

Conversations were had.

No candidate horses were examined.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Your Dressage: Prepare to Be Humbled, New para-dressage docufilm, Paragold, spotlights four athletes’ journeys as they strive to make the US Paralympic team, By Jennifer O. Bryant, June 20, 2023.

~~~

Photos of Milton’s tail trim which were sent to taunt the Saddlebred people.

[The Unbridgeable Abyss That Shall Eternally Divide Them] 2020

[Mane Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow] 2021, explanation, with a side order of feghoot.

[Mane and Tail Time] 2022

Can’t stop now.

This year, trimmed Rodney’s mane when he had a big, shallow, goopy scrape on his neck. Photo taken for reference. Neither sent nor posted.

Trimmed Rodney’s tail. No photo. Do I really need to send this picture every year?

Yes.

Yes, I do.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world, from our guest contributor, “May I recommend ‘generative art’ as a technique (which predates the recent spate of AI ‘art’), which consists of writing computer code to generate a series or continuum of art pieces that explore a specific visual space designed/chosen by the artist while holding the potential to surprise them.” He goes on to recommend, ‘Data Imaginist’ or Thomas Lin Pedersen as a particularly good example, Generative Art by Thomas Lin Pedersen. “I am especially fond of his ‘phases330033’ or his ‘folding flow 41’ both available at that page.” MG

~~~

Back text

Toulouse-Lautrec
Cheval blanc <<Gazelle>> (1881)
Musée Toulouse-Lautrec
Albi

by Apa Poux, Albi

Mathieu Glachant, my friend and classmate from Graham School classes, was visiting Albi, France. Did anyone want a postcard?

Yes, please.

Et voilà.

Thank you so much, Mathieu. Mailbox treat & blog post in one!

Links

“If Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec could not ride the horses, he showed them his affection by fixing their attitudes on paper or on canvas.” care of Google Translate. TLM: Cheval Blanc Gazelle.

“Thanks to a bequest from the parents of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the museum houses the largest public collection in the world devoted to the famous Albi painter.” Toulouse-Lautrec Museum.

Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa. Every museum has an opinion. Pick one.

The Toulouse-Lautrec Museum is located in the Bishop’s Palace in Albi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. “On the banks of the Tarn river in south-west France, the old city of Albi reflects the culmination of a medieval architectural and urban ensemble.” UNESCO: The Episcopal City of Albi.

“A feminine icon symbolizing the citizens’ attachment to a republican France, Marianne is an emblem of liberty, fraternity and equality … stamps bearing her image are called Mariannes.” Canadian Museum of History/Musée canadien de l’histoire: Marianne, Symbol of Liberty in France.

Postal Posts [Archives]

Update. Added, see comment. Linn’s Stamp News: New French definitive series presents Marianne the Engaged. “(as in, engaged in social consciousness or political action).” Baake 2018.

Also, with photo of mural, ArtNet: Emmanuel Macron Picks a Street Artist to Render Marianne, the French Symbol of Liberty, for a National Stamp. Rea 2018.

Onwards!
Katherine