. Wayang Greetings

. Toads

I have written a computer game.  It is called Toads.  You should play it.  It's like those old Choose Your Own Adventure books you probably never had when you were a kid.  It has no pictures or sound, just lots of text.  Play it anyway.  And let me know if anything is broken or confusing and I will attempt to fix it.

Play Toads Part One

. Watching Miller's Crossing with Sasha

. Favourite Beer of the Week

Goats are cute, but they stink, because they pee on themselves.  The goat on this bottle of Sam Adams' Cinder Bock probably peed on himself.  He's got a wild look in his eye.  And his horns seem to be on fire.  I'd probably pee myself if my horns were on fire.

Bock beers were first brewed 700 years ago in the German town of Einbeck, which the Bavarians pronounced as "ein bock" which means "a billy goat." And that's why they put goats on their beer labels.  

Cinder Bock is actually a rauchbock - a cross between a bock and a rauchbier.  The rauch makes it smokey, and the bock makes it malty.

This next goat is from the south of France.  He looks friendlier than the first goat.  But he probably still pees on himself.  The beer is a Bier de Garde.  

Garde is French for Guard.  You're supposed to guard the beer so it can age.  No one was guarding mine, so I drank it.  It was like a Belgian saison - frothy and fruity.  Brasserie Lebbe make goat cheese.  And that's why they put goats on their beer labels. 

Sometimes there are goats at the end of our street.  They eat the grass and weeds.  People say goats will eat anything, but it's more that they will taste anything, and if it tastes nice, then they'll eat it.

Another thing people say is that goats will stand on anything.  And they will, it's true.

Religion has a lot of goats in it.  The Norse god Thor owned a pair of goats called Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr.  They pulled his chariot across the skies.  In return, Thor ate them for dinner every night.  And every morning they came back to life and pulled his chariot.

The high priest Aaron owned a pair of goats.  He sacrificed one to God, and confessed all the sins of the Israelites to the other, then sent it off into the wilderness to die.  It was the first scapegoat.

In the Middle Ages people believed that goats whispered naughty things in the ears of the saints.  And Satan would appear as a black goat and hang out with witches.

Baphomet was a deity known as the Goat of Mendes.  He was a winged humanoid goat with a pair of lady breasts and a torch on his head.  He later featured as The Devil in the standard Tarot pack, and also as the official logo of the Church of Satan.  

The Church of Satan was established by Anton Szandor LaVey in 1966 at this house on California Street in San Francisco's Richmond District.  

Inside "Black House" LeVay performed satanic seminars and rituals, including the Satanic baptism of his daughter, Zeena.

He was also technical advisor on the film, "The Devil's Rain," which starred Ernest Borgnine and William Shatner, and featured John Travolta in his first movie role.

You can join the Church of Satan for a one-time registration fee of $200.  Your membership may be terminated at any time at the discretion of the Council of Nine.  The issuing of a refund is left up to the High Priest's ruling, though generally $100 is returned to the cast-out member, and the other $100 used to cover the cost of the ruling.

Heavy metal bands are big on Satanism.  Their fans can often be seen "throwing the goat."

In Spain they used to throw goats out of church windows.  Every year, on the 4th Sunday in January, teenagers from Manganeses de la Polvorosa would throw a goat from a church bell tower. The goat would fall 50 feet to a crowd holding a blanket.

The goat throwing festival was officially cancelled in 2002, after the town was threatened with a fine of 25,000 Pesetas ($150 US).

In Australia they still throw tuna.

. goose goose duck

Every summer the Canada Geese arrive at Redwood Shores where I work.  They eat a lot of grass and poop a lot of poop, and scare away all the other birds.

Soon they have babies, and the babies grow up, and eat a lot of grass, and poop a lot of poop, and eventually they all swim away into the bay. 

And then the duck comes out again and he's all like "Where did those geese go? I was going to kick their asses." 

He's super cute, but no one believes him.

. Us in Mendocino

 

. Basil in a Can

  I haven't killed it yet.

. Fear My Registration

What oh what have we been doing...  Taking captivating polaroids of cats, is one answer.  Blowing each other up is another.  And spending hours boring book arts students with micro registration is another!   

Perhaps because of my excellent ability to make simple projects drawn out & complicated, printmakers Susan Belau and Mario Laplante invited me to collaborate with MFA Poetry student, Carolyn Ho, to create an artist book, and then to work with their Advanced Book Arts students to print the edition. 

Turns out Carolyn & I are mean, and we're making them print 80 of everything.

But after just 3 hours of nano-fussing...

 ... you get 80 prints of perfection in 20 minutes.

Well, per each color layer...

Per each page... 

But, yeah, halfway done!

There are few better ways to earn booze o'clock & then fall asleep at a respectable 8:59pm.