Yesterdays Clouds, Last Nights Moon

The sky was bright blue and the clouds were crisp where I live. Driving home in the afternoon I can't help thinking of all the dreadful things going on in the world. What does the sky look like over Japan...will the cherry blossoms bloom again in Spring? Will the death toll continue to rise, and how long before her people will feel safe again? The skies over Libya...we can see if we turn on CNN...all the disastrous elements brought about by mother nature, and man as well. I'm actually weary of CNN playing everywhere I go. I don't want to dwell on the bad things, but how can I NOT? It's hard to avoid them. I did receive an e-mail back from one of the sketchbook participants that I sent a message to. He and his family are fine, in Kobe.

Hubby and I needed a small break and so we went downtown. On a Saturday night...during SXSW? What are we, crazy? A friend of ours was playing at a bar that was NOT on 6th Street, so we figured we'd brave it. We saw a couple of acts before his band, and a couple after. We were home by mid-night...so we missed the action on 6th Street and the kerfuffle with the police...only just now heard about it from a neighbor. Too many fans trying to get into small venues, add alcohol..spells trouble! I told you this town gets crazy around it's musical festivals. We love live music, but are not party people...I had one beer, hubby doesn't drink at all. We both felt hung-over from the cigarette smoke and lack of sleep.

We took a walk through the Capitol grounds before coming home. It was cool and breezy, and very beautiful. I could have sat there for hours watching the moon.

I still keep taking pictures of the moon, even though with my little camera, it's hard to get photos that do it justice. I still feel compelled to do it. The moon was huge last night, but looks dwarfed by the capitol.

Spring...renewal, growth, hope for peace and tranquility in the world.

Sketchbooks and SXSW

Still in recovery from a busy, crazy week-end. We usually leave town the week of SXSW, because the entire city goes crazy. Influx of thousands of musicians, film folks, etc. from all over the world. Unless you have been, you can't even imagine what happens. Don't even dare to try to get a hotel room in this town right now.
Anyhow...the main thing that I wanted to see was the travelling sketchbook project.
http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

When we got there at 11 for a 12.p.m. opening, we were told there had been a problem and the opening was pushed back to 2:00p.m. There were already a large number of people milling about in the museum. We left and went to a Teachers rally on the Capitol lawn. Then we went to a SXSW film at another location. When we got back to the museum, we got in line and were the first ones outside the door to where they were having the event. Hubby was peeking through the opening of the door and read the sign with the rules on it. First we had to get in one line and get a library card. Then line #2 to check out a journal, then line #3 to return, then back in the line to check out. There was such a mass exodus into the room that things got all jumbled and people didn't know what to do. The organizers hadn't done a real good job of explaining the system, and I think they were overwhelmed with the amount of people there. My hubby and another guy, who happened to be the two tallest people in the room, began trying to explain and help people out. A lot of people were grumbling about the small size of the room, and the disorganization. No matter, folks settled down, and started getting books. They let you check out two at a time, and you could give a name if you knew they had participated, or a city or a country. Since I was number 2 in line I actually got my first two rather quickly. On my second trip it took me 45 minutes from the time I returned two and got in the other line to check out two more! Then I had to weave my way across the room back to where my hubby had saved us a standing spot in a corner. Then he went to get his two, and so on and so on. We looked at books from people we knew, then just asked for random countries. It was really getting warm and crowded in the room, and it seemed like with this system we wouldn't get to see very many journals. I suggested to the people who were eyeball to eyeball with us that when we each got two books we all pass them around so we could view more at a time. So that worked out well, as long as we got them all returned to the person who had checked them out.

They were amazing, such a variety of styles and from all over the place. We met people close by who had participated, so we got to see their books. I wish I could show you all the books I saw. I started out taking photos and writing down names, but that didn't last very long. Here are some I can show, and I did them in collage style to try and take up less space.
Some have names, some I didn't get. Every person started out with the same size moleskine journal. Some were sketched, some collaged, every page used, some pages removed.

This person was from LasVegas, it was fabric and the pages had been removed from the book and the fold-out pages inserted.


Lenna Andrews- Bradenton, Fla. Know her from online.


Angie Beck from Australia. All postage stamps...see Russell Crowe?


Forgot to write this person's name and location


After I had looked at all the books from people I knew, I decided in light of what was happening in Japan, that I really wanted to see books from there. From that point on, both Hubby and I asked for two from Japan each time. So there we stood, with these books in our hands...praying and focusing on sending healing energy to the people living there, in the midst of this tragedy. Soon, there were several students who had been standing next to us, who did the same. In retrospect, I wish I had stood on the table and asked everyone in the room to do the same.

Kuniko Komaba-Tokyo Japan

This book really touched me. It was entirely filled with ink sketches, each one more fantastical than the next. These are just a few of them. They were really hard to photograph. This one appears to be the only one of the books from Japan I took photos of. One was from Kobe, Japan, and it was all rubberstamped words and quotes, all in Deutsch.

These were just some of the many books we got to look at. I would liked to have seen them all. One of the organizers told us that there were 10,000 sketchbooks that had been returned.

Week-end Getaway

I went with the Hubster to an MS fundraiser and dinner party on Saturday, in San Antonio. We spent the night and had a leisurely time on Sunday. We were planning on doing a little sightseeing in some areas we'd never been before. However...I discovered there was an Anthropologie store nearby where we were staying. Of course, that is always first on my list of "sightseeing", no matter where we travel. HaHa We did get to walk around the area before the shops opened at noon, because we got there way early. I gave hubby a bit of a teasing about it, because if we'd checked to see what time they opened, we would have had plenty of time to sight see in other areas. It was nice and cool though and a beautiful morning to just stroll and plenty of places to sit and people watch.



The Anthropologie store was awesome, as they all are. To see the photos I took, go to my other blog. www.barbaradunbar.blogspot.com/ Sorry...I still haven't figured out how to do a clickable link in the blogspot. Someday...

Afterwards he took me for lunch at a little Mexican place he had been to before. It was very quaint and seemed to be where the locals go. That is always so much better than a chain restaurant where you always know what you'll get. Full parking lot is always a good sign that the food is good. The restaurant was pretty large, the front side of it was around the left hand corner of the photo.




We had flautas and chicken fajitas. We had planned to stop for a Starbucks afterward, but were too full. Didn't even have dessert. Traffic was very heavy going home, we got home at 5:30 and I was unpacked and had my p.j.s on by 6:30 and went to bed at 7:30. So nice to be back in my own bed. Hotel beds are never as comfy as ones own bed.