Booking a vacation
April 13, 2004
I dream very intensely on the first few days of a vacation, as my brain reorganizes its hard drive. Weird hallucinogenic dreams feather into each other, dredging up dramas, ancient and new. Old bosses, old addresses, old mistakes, reappear in new masks to cavort on the brinks of skyscrapers or wrestle in Jelloฎ. It's like File Day, as rusty drawers squeak open, folders and envelopes get hauled out and dumped in piles, sifted through, tossed or reformatted. All this housework doesn't necessarily result in clarity but it's an important part of growing and assimilating experiences.
Here, however, are a few of the things I gleaned while lying poolside:
It's a mistake to start a vacation by saying, "I sure hope nobody gets sick on this trip." I am a hardy type, rarely sick, but in Tuscany I got a virulent ear infection (my first in thirty five years); in Puerto Rico, Jack got chicken pox; on the Jersey shore, I got poison ivy (that required two courses of steroids) and so, inevitably, we succumbed in the Dominican Republic too: head colds, coughs, skin allergy, sunburn, insomnia, and diarrhea made for a fun time.
Cheap rum is cheap for a reason.
Al Franken is funny, right, and a bit too much of a shrill wonk.
You can only draw so many palm trees and no one but Albert Bierstadt should try to paint sunsets.
The Da Vinci Code is an abominably written regurgitation of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a preposterous best seller I read ten years ago and is just a disservice to Leonardo. It wreaks with wooden dialogue, leaden characters and lumbering plot twists and treats art like some sort of word jumble. Wait for the TNT miniseries to come out.
European and South American pop music uses harmonizing vocal chorus in almost every hit. American pop almost never does.
Jhumpa Lahiri richly deserved her Pulitzer prize. Many of the characters in The Namesake are still hanging around me, offering me pakoras. I can't wait for her next one.
Rapidographs leak after air travel.
How to be Good suggests that Nick Hornby may have been a one or possibly two book wonder.
I still love James Herriot, almost as much as I did at twelve.
Sixpence House is the story of Paul Collins' year in Hay-on-Waye, the Welsh town with 1,500 inhabitants and 40 antiquarian bookstores. He is a deep and infectious bibliophile and the book is very entertaining. If you love sifting through shelves of dusty obscure books that no one has read in a century (as I do), it's worth a quick read.
Topless sunbathers make me yearn for more covering, rather than less.
A.P.P.B. (Always Pack Peanut Butter)
It's nice to go traveling, but, oh, so nice to come home.
A record of my exploration into all aspects of drawing, illustrated journaling, creativity, and the inspiring aspects of art. By the author of "Everyday Matters," "The Creative License", and "An Illustrated Life" and other books.
Comments
>> How to be Good suggests that Nick Hornby may have been a one or possibly two book wonder.
I wholeheartedly agree. I was so angry after reading that book...angry that I read it all the way through. What a waste!
Great observations, as always.
Posted by: katharine | April 13, 2004 10:41 AM
Dude! Another serendipitous posting. When my email notified me that your update email arrived, I was cyber-fighting with the airlines and travel-r-us websites trying to find an obscure flight to an obscure locale...I think I'll just call travel warrior (aka agent) and pass the sword...
Posted by: Camilla | April 13, 2004 10:45 AM
thank goodness you've returned to the party. We missed you and you've exceeded my expectations with your travel "pics". I can't determine whether the fact that coming home is always as good, and sometimes better, than the trip is a sign of aging, a good thing, or what? But I wholeheartedly agree that no matter how enjoyable the time away was, returning to my home (my pillows, my kitchen studio etc.) is a longed-for and thoroughly enjoyed, treat. I choose to think that's a good thing and that everyday there matters more than most days somewhere else. Thanks for taking us with you and many more thanks for returning home.
Posted by: dana | April 13, 2004 11:03 AM
ersatz = substitue!
(did not understand how that relates to the lighthouse?!)
i liked "how to be good".
Posted by: anke | April 13, 2004 11:27 AM
Anke:
ersatz = Being an imitation or a substitute, usually an inferior one; artificial:
This is a fake lighthouse. It was built to be a bar. Thus it is ersatz.
I did not like How to be good.
Lovely to hear from you.
Posted by: Danny | April 13, 2004 11:34 AM
i always get confused when German words get incorporated into English language and the meaning altered in the process. same with "uber".
oh well.
:)
Posted by: anke | April 13, 2004 11:43 AM
Nice to have you back and thanks for the new pix.
Posted by: Karen Winters | April 13, 2004 02:03 PM
I decided I was going to this year's Guardian Hay festival in Hay on Wye last week - will certainly keep my eyes out for Sixpence House. How to be Good was a disappointment for me too, and I thought the same of About a Boy. I have Da Vinci Code waiting for me and have been looking forward to reading it, not as much as the Namesake though... Anyway, welcome back!
Posted by: azura | April 13, 2004 03:51 PM
I just wanted to say HELLO to you, 'cause I discovered you and your wonderful site a day ago and have read so much that I feel like I know you for long and very personally. Thank you. You moved me. The things you do are REALLY inspiring. The entry about the paper ("Thinking on paper") and you thoughts on color... just wow!
Posted by: Olga | April 13, 2004 06:01 PM
Great drawings. I drop by your site everyday just to jostle my imagination, thanks!
Posted by: Melissa | April 13, 2004 10:20 PM
ahhhh - Hay-on-Wye. A friend and I were talking yesterday about taking a trip there very soon (it's about an hour and a half from my corner of west Wales). I'll just need to make some room on my crammed book shelves first...
Posted by: Michael Nobbs | April 14, 2004 03:04 AM
Could you give me little more info on your leaking rapidograph problem? I'm flying with the family to Mexico next month and was planning to take mine in my little bag of art supplies. I'm also going to pack the peanut butter. Hopefully my kids will have better luck than your little guy with the "turista" problem.
Cheers,
Kim
Posted by: Kim | April 14, 2004 09:45 AM
Kim:
When you take a fountain pen on a plane, the change in pressure makes it leak. Think of it as Montezuma's final Revenge. It's almost universally true. The one thing that seems to work is to pull out the pen midflight and write with it. I'd also suggest removing the refill part and wrapping it in a paper towel in a Ziploc. Oh, and unused refills don't have the problem, so take a spare.
Hope that works and you get to draw lot in Mexico.
Your pal,
Danny
Posted by: Danny | April 14, 2004 09:50 AM
in the danger of being annoying,
in the original sense of the word an "ersatz - lighthouse" would be something that is not a lighthouse but serves its function.
if this lighthouse is functioning as a bar and not as a lighthouse, it's just a fake lighthouse?!
ps. it's true - german people are anal about stuff like that.
Posted by: anke | April 14, 2004 01:34 PM