Spiders In The Subway I, Fiction Warm-Up Ring

Words

Well, that didn’t work out the way I thought it would.

I started with an art commission and ended up with a blockbuster movie and the title of Spider Lady. Yeah, it was as weird as it sounds.

By now, you’ve seen the movie, or at least the ads, or the stories about the ads. The one that looks like the enormous spider legs climbing around the doors of the subway car? That freaks *me* out, and I was there when they came up with it.

So, I’m writing this to set the record straight, or – as Douglas Adams would have it – at least firmly crooked.

To begin, there was a call for a civic works project in the old Trolley Depot at the Essex Street subway station. In their wisdom, the city’s civic art committee hired a tapestry miniaturist. That would be me. Not a person you would first think of to fill a cavernous space that people can only glimpse for two minutes from 100 yards away. Clearly I had gotten caught in some inter-office dynamics at City Hall.

I think they expected me to cave.

Instead, I got mad.

Shortly after I got the commission, I wrote a journal entry with an expectation that I would follow the process as it happened. [Dark Journal, First Entry]

I got busy. That was the only thing I wrote. So, I’ll start with a quick recap of the project.

Since active subway lines were involved, I had to have a guide from MTA. That turned out to be a huge bonus. During an early inspection of the site, I made a comment about subway cables. The subway Virgil to my aboveground Dante took me to an old storage site that had enormous rolls of subway cables. Well, enormous to me. They came in a huge array of colors.

I knew color. I knew weaving. So what if the scale was not one I was used to? Same concept; different size.

If I hadn’t been so annoyed, I might have gone with a more moderate approach. Instead, I thought, ‘You want big? I’ll give you big.’

I corralled artists who were steel sculptors and welders and muralists. People used to thinking big and dealing with heavy materials.

We wove huge nets of wires back and forth through the space. Each net was woven from a single color. As you looked through one net you could see the colors of the nets behind it. As the subway moved through the station, the angle changed, which changed the colors. We used lights to perk up the dark corners, but not too many. The goal was to provide highlights while leaving space for shifting interplay of the colors.

Turned out pretty damn well, if I do say so myself.

The project got a few minutes on several local new channels. Made some art journals. I got a What Was That interview with Time Out New York. Overall, a moderate success for a civic installation.

Take that City Hall.

After a month, it got shut down, as scheduled. The lights got turned off. I kept trying to make appointments with MTA to take everything down. We never quite got together. Clearing out an unused space wasn’t a big priority for them. I was just as happy to have it stay up, even if you could only see it dimly.

When we turned off our spotlights, the MTA turned their lights back on back on. While the flood lights were strong, they were also along the back wall. Much of the light was blocked by the nets.

You know what a weaving in the shadows looks like? A spider web.

You know what a big weaving in the shadows looks like? A giant spider web.

That’s when the rumors started. Much like alligators in the sewers, only with eight legs and in the subway. The 21C part of your brain saw a pile of wires. The lizard part of your brain said, Spider! Really, really big spider!

Do you know what happens when you leave a big net off by itself in a corner? It collects things. Didn’t help when a homeless person hung a hammock in the center of one of the nets. Boy, did that look like a trapped fly.

It was Halloween. Spiders were at the cultural forefront of the moment. I think half the rumors were spread by people who had fun freaking themselves out. A city tour company start a web site called Webz NYC for people to report spider sightings. Got a surprising amount of traffic.

Halloween came and went.

The rumors died down.

The rumors never went away entirely.

Next week. Making movies.

~~~ curtain ~~~

Walking With Ukraine

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. I aim to walk a mile a day. This should take me 36 days plus/minus. I wonder where we will all be in a month.
~~~

VIRTUAL CHALLENGE FUNDRAISER, Stand with Ukraine
36mi (58km)
Digital finisher certificate. No medal.

I’ve started a new virtual walk. [Walking Virtually, Kyiv]

I know I said no more. [Walking Virtual Angkor Wat]

This one is short and topical.

The start. Weird to “see” places that damn sure aren’t the happy peaceful places that they are in the photos. I’ve already learned about the band of civic green spaces that lie along the Dnieper River.

Issues

My walking doesn’t help anyone. True. I can only hope my entry/donation goes somewhere useful. I like that they have – or claim to have – Romanian connections. They will have more information on what needs to be done.

There are many other horrors in the world that have not captured our collective attention. True. I take this to mean we should pay attention to those as well, not pay less attention to this one.

Info

From website, VIRTUAL CHALLENGE FUNDRAISER, Stand with Ukraine.

“A big part of our international team is based in Romania, which borders Ukraine and where there has been a huge mobilisation.

“We’ll give 100% of proceeds (less bank transfer/platform fees) to charities that deliver much needed aid and provide immediate resources.

“We direct all proceeds received to organizations such as International Red Cross, Save the Children Ukraine.”

Onwards!
Katherine

Hooves, Milton at SSF

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. TOMORROW. Livestream musical rides to benefit breast cancer research. Challenge of the Americas – Musical dressage Grand Prix. I know nothing beyond what is written here. Will be tuning in with fingers crossed.

~~~

Schooling/lesson for Milton & Husband Greg at Stepping Stone Farm.

Original plan was for Milton to watch the lesson from center ring. Hence the standing around pic. Milton handled the confusion so well that he ended up doing a majority of a walk-trot lesson with six other horses in the ring. He walked. He trotted. He did not have post-parade flashbacks. He got passed without getting upset.

Gold star for Milton!

Gold star for Rodney for staying home! [Rodney’s Semi-Permanent Gold Star]

Also gold stars for the six beginners in the class who had an spontaneous lesson in traffic management as their school horses lapped the race horse.

Sadly, Milton only got a silver start the next day when Rodney went to FHF. Milton was suspiciously damp from hanging out alone in the stall for a few hours. Maybe we need to put up the fans. Maybe he ran around a bit. Time will tell. [Ears].

Onwards!
Katherine

Ears, Bubba at SSF

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Ancient Alabama recap. AL.com: Ancient Alabama journeys through 500 million years of the state’s history, Pillion 29 Dec 2021.
~~~

Lesson with Bubba at Stepping Stone Farm.

~~~

Coach Courtney knows firsthand how stressed I can make myself.

At her suggestion, I now arrange my lessons the morning of, rather than days before. Gives me less time to swivet.

Making exceptions takes effort. Much easier if everyone acts predictably and uniformly. Coming up with alternative approaches takes effort. It requires acknowledging the existence of the client at times other than when they are directly in front of you.

These attributes are not as common as one might think.

And that, Dear Reader, is the second reason I keep coming back to saddle seat.

The first, of course, being the horses. [Saddlebred Attitude]

Onwards!
Katherine

Mindset Monday, The Followup

Riding

“Spirit in Motion.” Paralympic Motto

I took the online workshop I mentioned a while back. [Nevermind]

While the workshop was free to the group, I assume someone somewhere paid for it. So I won’t give out any proprietary information.

The presenter was well spoken, the ideas well-presented. Unfortunately, it all had nothing to do with me.

I don’t think I am telling tales out of of school to say that the presenter emphasized visualization. This is a big deal in sport psych. The idea being that the brain can’t tell the difference between physically performing an activity and a fully-visualized version of the activity. Therefore, one can practice repeatedly without wear and tear on horse or self.

I am not a visual person. Oh, I’m passable. I’m more visual than I am musical. But that is not a high bar to vault over. I do photography, but it tends to be plot-based. What’s IN the photo, what’s happening, rather than evocative depictions of mood.

Undoubtedly, if I practiced I would get better. Perhaps it would help. Even if visual is not my main mode of information retention, how could it hurt?

The problem is that these practices are aimed at helping people from letting their nerves interfere with their ride. As I’ve said elsewhere, that is not my problem.

I have a long list of things to fix about my riding. Improving my skills. Being more subtle. Listening to the horse. Sitting up. But pre-ride/pre-show nerves do not affect my ride. (crosses fingers)

I show pretty well. In that I can generally ride at a show as well as I do at home. I have even been known to rise to the occasion. I would consider myself a competitive show rider. (looks around to see if anyone is spitting out their coffee.)

So, methods for addressing show ring nerves do not speak to me. In fact, when I did fix my pre-show nerves, my riding got worse [Show Report MSSP 2016 No More Magic Bullets]

I don’t know where this leaves me. Aside from back to where I started, plus the added thought that even with the best help in the world I ultimately have to address my own issues. [Nevermind]

For unrelated reasons, I have decided not to pursue an individual appointment. Thus ending this go-round of sports psychology.

Posts
[The Mental Side Of Sport]
[Nevermind]
[Mindset Monday, The Crux]
[Mindset Monday, Wondering Where I Am Going With This]
[Mindset Monday, A Moment]
Mindset Monday, The Followup

Onwards!
Katherine