Getting Ready For Some New Adventure.

I worked on m paintings a little bit yesterday, but I'm going to wait until they look a bit more changed before I post more progress. Sometimes, like with building anything, foundation work takes a while to build up, and you don't see the big changes until afterwards. It's different with every piece.

I spent a bunch of time preparing for a couple other opportunities coming my way. I mentioned in a recent blog that I've got a show coming up at the Tarragon Theater. What I found out when there is that there is a lot more space than I originally anticipated, so I need to gather much more work.

Two other jobs maybe falling gently into my lap, if I can time-budget properly. A bit of minor set-painting for a children's theater on Queen St. and potentially some paint nite work. A fellow I met recently who suggested I might be a good fit for the job actually pulled through and recommended me! No matter what comes of it, this is another one of those moments that I believe in humanity. I make it a rule never to believe promises, but instead to be thrilled when people follow through on their word. They may still choose not to employ me because I don't drive, but I'm grateful regardless.

I don't know that any of my writing is new... I honestly can't remember if I already shared this one, so here it is perhaps again... A poem I performed while reading with Mikey on stage a few months ago. He played Crustus, the hapless Gladiator.

A very long-far time ago
Long before George Lucas
Our tale precedes the fall of Rome
With our feckless hero, Crustus

One day before our champion's fight
He made his mind to wander
A temple drew him in in spite
of growing, gnawing hunger.

And lo, there sat a cooling treat
Some sacrimental cobbler
The king of gods watched Crustus eat
the pie right off the altar.

Fist by fist into his maw
The pastry disappeared
But mouth crammed full, he dropped his jaw
As Juno's Groom appeared.

There he was, great Jupiter ,
with eyes so dim and vacant
suddenly the Gladiator
was not so glad he ate it.

"THAT WASN'T YOURS!" He stomped his foot
So petulant, divine.
"HOW IS IT NOT UNDERSTOOD
THAT SACRAMENTS ARE MINE?!"

Tears of rage escaped his eyes
the god-king robbed of eatings
"HEATHEN, THAT WAS NOT YOUR PIE
NOW YOU HAVE HURT MY FEELINGS!"

Jupiter ran wailing out
into the public square
Crustus, worried, followed suit
to meet the townsfolks' stares.

First there came an elder man
who beat him with a cane
"Take every ounce of this!" He said
"Take every ounce of pain!"

An ancient crone came on full tilt,
brandishing a chicken
"You made god cry!" rebuked his guilt,
then gave the boy a lickin'

"You knave! You ass!" The townsfolk yelled
Judges all, and jury
They beat with shovels, cows and bells
With fire and with fury.

Then there came the babies
who sallied forth with blocks
a drove, of maybe eighty
delivering hard knocks.

Crustus now lay sprawling
in the square before the steeple
a hero mighty, fallen
served justice cooling, by the people.

Jupiter quit sobbing now
and looked upon our warrior
Vindicated, yet somehow
he felt a little sorrier.

"REGRETTABLE" He said with thought
While nodding, still affirmative
"SAD IT HAD TO END THIS WAY
BUT THERE WAS NO ALTERNATIVE"

"AND YOU'LL BE A REMEMBERED MAN
EVEN THOUGH YOU HAD TO DIE"
The god-king waved his godly hands
And Crustus

was a pie.

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