Davi in Iowa

NCECA; Final Thoughts

2010-04-08T16:43:00.005-05:00

Well, NCECA was a whirl wind. The above youtube video was taken at the opening ceremonies. It represents the atmosphere of the whole experience - loud, colorful, and fun. Also, this was a unique opportunity for learning that couldn't have happened without a grant from the Iowa Arts Council. For more photos, please visit my Picasa web album by clicking HERE.

Davis in Philly

2010-03-31T16:39:00.005-05:00

Check out my potter's blog for posts about my super-awesome great trip to NCECA in Philadelphia! Thanks again to the Iowa Arts Council for making this trip possible!

Late photos of the Iowan winter

2010-03-21T17:28:00.004-05:00

Our HUGE icicle... a couple of days later, it grew down to about 4 inches above the snow.

Scary crows

2010-03-21T16:40:00.001-05:00

Click here to see scary crows...

Thank You, Iowa Arts Council

2010-02-23T20:56:00.001-06:00

I have great news! I received an Artist Mini-Grant from the Iowa Arts Council to cover the costs of traveling to NCECA. Here is the press release (I'm at the bottom.) Thank you Iowa Arts Council!

What's great about these artists grants is that I can match with hours spent on the project, so the time that I spend at the conference acts as my matching funds. Compared to Georgia, Iowa really supports its artists.

Crazy!

2010-01-09T12:22:00.005-06:00

It's -2 degrees, full sun and high noon. Iowa is crazy, yo. I'm cleaning up the studio at the Octagon today to prepare for the next session's classes. I mopped the glaze room last week. Later I'm going to watch the next episode of Dollhouse on hulu.com. It aired last night.

On our trip down to Georgia I discovered that there is a second volume of Locas by Jamie Hernandez, so I bought it. I'm making myself re-read the first volume before starting into the second. All I want to do today is grab some blankets and read with a little cup of Mexican tea that Jamie found at the flea market in Macon to warm me up. Mexican writers and film makers are where the next renaissance is coming from. I heard a rumour that Guillermo Del Toro (who is an incredible film maker and who, or so I just read, has written a vampire novel - crazy!) was producing movies made by small town/villiagers around Mexico. I think that would be neat-o! I can't wait to see what they do...

3 degrees

2009-12-15T01:26:00.001-06:00

It's 3 degrees right now(2am). I just finished loading a bisque kiln with what will hopefully be Christmas presents. We'll see. I have to go home in the cold. Xerxes will be waiting for me. Maybe Jamie will be ready to come home from his office and I can give him a ride - won't be such a lonely ride home. so tired. don't have to work tomorrow. that's good. sleep in, in the warm bed. that sounds nice right now. home, hot chocolate, lovely kitty, sweet husband, warm bed. reasons to be alive.

Jamie gets the shovel

2009-12-09T18:28:00.005-06:00

This video has a cuss word at the end, so all of you with tender ears, stop the video before the last ten seconds or so. Only 25 views are allowed, so let me know when it stops working and I'll reload it under a different name.

BLIZZARD!

2009-12-09T15:24:00.002-06:00

It snowed all day and all night. And all morning. ISU cancelled classes. The Octagon is closed. Jamie and I slept in. Then, here is what we found....

(Click on here to see our snow photos)

Snow!

2009-12-08T11:11:00.000-06:00

We're expecting a storm front coming from Missouri. 14 inches of snow... also thunder-snow showers. Which I hear is like a thunderstorm with slushy sleet and snow. yikes. It will cover 4 states, I hear.
snow map
traffic cameras in des moines
forecast

A view from my corner office windows

2009-12-08T10:38:00.000-06:00

So, no one here at the office wanted the corner office. It's a little colder back here, and one staff member thinks that the corner office is bad luck. So I got it! It's perfect for me. I like it a little colder so I can wear fluffy sweaters. I have to share my space with lots of filing cabinets, but I love my view of Downtown Ames.
It is snowing.

This is the public library, right across the street. I stop by on my way home for free movies and books often. Democracy rules.

First snow

2009-12-07T22:36:00.001-06:00

First snow fall, an inch or so...

Jamie's cold!:

At this time of year, the crows go crazy. I don't know if you can see them... they are the black dots in the trees and sky. There are thousands of them all over the city. It's totally Hitchcock.

Halloween out on the town!

2009-11-28T13:39:00.001-06:00

We had a lot of fun. We went out with Tom and Sara, a couple of grad students Jamie has class with. They went as hikers. A lot of people were out in really wild costumes.

No line at the ladies'

2009-10-16T15:30:00.001-05:00

Riddle: Where is the only place the mens' room has a long line and the ladies' room doesn't?

A metal concert.

On Wednesday we went to see Mastadon and Dethklok (from Metalocalypse). It was great. Mastadon was droney and serious, then Dethklok was silly and fun. They played all the greats... my favorites are Mermaider and Birthday Dethday with the lyrics, "R. S. V. P. please/To the death of theeee"

So silly.

Playing around in the studio

2009-08-10T22:25:00.001-05:00

just playing around... this is a jar on its side.

2009-07-16T16:09:00.001-05:00

Xerxes is allergic to something. This morning, he sneezed about every five minutes. He looked really tired, having sneezed all night.

He sneezes with his whole body. He shakes his head around and convulses, then he has the funniest face. He looks dazed after a big sneeze, his ears cocked at different angles, eyes squinty, head sideways.

The State is out on video. We looked for it to rent but couldn't find it. I requested it from our library. The TV show buyer there has pretty good taste so I think we'll get it in. I've never seen it, just clips on the internet, but it's one of Ashli's favorite shows and we have similar tastes.

We did find season 2 of Mad Men. That's a good show. We watched it last night.

I'm teaching a class every day this week - sort of a clay-intensive for 13-15 year olds. They seem to really enjoy it although they are all very very quiet and when they talk they talk so low I can't hear them. They're so self conscious and embarrassed. We tried to make flutes today. I hope they work after they are fired!

I think blogger must be in a different time zone. My clock says 4:18, but the time on the blog says 2:09. I'm paranoid about someone at work thinking I blog on the clock. It's so weird.

2009-06-24T21:53:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago, on the day I left for a two week long trip, Nero died. Jamie had to bury him by himself. Now that I am home, I miss Nero in all the places he used to be. I dreamed last night that he wasn't dead and Jamie buried him by mistake. He was all covered in dirt and we were taking him to the vet.

Jamie and I had a service for him today. I made effigies of a chipmunk and a lizard, his two favorite things to catch. We buried them with his favorite toy. I made a tiny clay bowl, filled it with salt and placed it on top of his grave. Then we spread white hydrangea blossoms from the bush in our yard.

Jamie and Nero were real buddies...

Obituary

2009-06-05T23:25:00.000-05:00

Nero the Cat, boss of the pink monkeys Heather and Jamie, 3 (25) of Ames, Iowa died on June 5.

Nero was an expert killer showing no mercy when it came to little cute things. He terrorized all things little and squeaky in his last neighborhood of Stanton Avenue and first neighborhood of Clisby Street. Among his conquests were numerous lizards, a rat, a few birds, several chipmunks and a mole. His crowning achievement was catching and maiming an adolescent bunny although he did not have the pleasure of trying to eat it since he was caught before he could. He presided over the Laundry Squad and was a reigning member of the house Itty Bitty Kitty Committee. His nick-names included Mr. N, Mr. N-ards (innards), Neewoes and Widdols.

He was survived by his brother, Xerxes the Cat, the sometimes co-boss of the afore mentioned pink monkeys, and his parents, the pink monkeys he used to boss around. “He was a special cat. He had a busy, happy life. We‘ll miss him,” said the one who always used to pick him up and squeeze him (Jamie). The one who used to give him food and rub his belly (Heather) said, “Out of every cat I’ve known, he was the most generous with affection and was non-stop enthusiastic about life. He will be missed.”

Jamie SPEEEAAKS!

2009-05-02T20:27:00.000-05:00

I just thought I'd check in with the ole bloggerooski since I'm taking a break from working tonight.

I'm starting to find myself a bit more within the field I'm in. I'm writing a paper about that actually. I want to connect the dots between science studies, postmodern feminist critique, and Marxism. And from THERE I want to criticize all the dumbass things people use "scientific" rhetoric to achieve. "Men are hunters so blahblahblah" etc. Yuk.

Seriously. People are indeed limited by the material resources they have, including biology, but don't make political opinions based the implications of half understood social science research. And don't pretend like politics are not intrensic to science. (Intrinsic politics are inevitable and subject to critique. Extrinsic politics are a blasphemy against everything principled people should stand for. See the Bush administration on Global Warming. See the "creation science" movement. This stuff is bullshit. Everything does not have two sides. Science is what it is and it is not what it is not. I'm for gay marriage not because "science proves that homosexuality is blahblahblah," but because gay marriage is a social reality that deserves legal protection. Having it would be better for society and it would be more fair. I live in Iowa, where we DO have it, and I've yet to feel like my own marriage has changed at all. I'm not saying that science should not enter political debate but that we should not talk about social arrangements in a "scientifically" deterministic way. I am a straight married white guy because of the web of interactions between history, popular culture, education, family, and yes, biology where I live. Some of these things are choices, some aren't.

Rorty says we should talk about affiliations, not essentialist connections. Hitchens (wrong as he is about some things) says we need to understand morality as being rooted in "human solidarity." Some of this is evolution ans some of this is socio-political work. Not of it should be discussed as being biological. Ever.

Rantrantrantrantrantrant. Drinking beer while writing makes me think like this. (Hey, if you click the spell checker over "Rantrantrantrantrant," it offers "transubstantiation" as an alternative. There's a joke in there somewhere. I'm not sure at whose expense it is.)

Ayn Rand sucks by the way. Take that Greenspan.

In other news, I want to see Michelle Bachmann on T.V. as much as possible, if only because it makes me feel better about the South. It's not just us, apparently.

We've got the Joss Wheadon musical at home on DVD. I'm gonna take a break and hang out with lil' Davis and watch that in a little while. I've kinda managed not to get sucked into the Wheadon fan club until recently, but I've gotten sucked waaay in lately. Spagetti, whiskey, and Wheadon make for a good evening. I'm really looking forward to it.

If you took my view of the world and combined it with my particular cultural sensibilities and made a T.V. show starring hot girls, it would be "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I've long been aware of it, but me and Davis just recently caught up to it. Parts of season 5 is as good as "the Wire" or "Deadwood." One episode in particular ("The Body") ranks with the best T.V./film/drama I've ever seen. Any of my homies reading this who haven't caught up with Buffy need to get with the program.

That's more than enough.

Since Spring Break

2009-04-09T16:32:00.000-05:00

Later on the same day that I published my last post, Jamie and I received some terrible news - that Jamie's cousin was killed. It is the first time some one so close to me unexpectedly died. It feels weird talking about such a personal thing in such a public way, but I think it's important for people who know us to know about. When we were visiting Georgia, it was really hard to talk about it and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to share more with everyone who we saw during the trip. Being terribly upset every day of your vacation sucks, so I tried to think and talk about it as little as I could. But I know some of you want to know details, so here are some links for you to follow to get the story:

First of all, here is a good way to get to know Kate - her blog where she kept up with family and friends while working as a Peace Corp volunteer in Benin, a French speaking country on the coast of Africa: http://beinginbenin.blogspot.com/ She was a wonderful writer. You should scroll down to the entry titled "Noises" first.

Here is the news story that Fox Atlanta did. It is a very sweet story. You can see the video also. Emilie took the footage of Kate teaching when she visited her last year. (for any non-techies, just click on the purple "Here" at the beginning of the paragraph).

Here is a wonderful blog story about Kate with excerpts from her blog and lots of lovely comments, some from her friends and family and other people who knew her. Plus it has a beautiful photo of her.

Here is a shorter blog that has lots of comments from people who knew Kate.

Here is the blog post on the official Peace Corp blog.

These posts don't cover the details of the event. We know that Kate died quietly in her sleep. She was sleeping on the porch of her house. There is an individual in custody.

I think I am ready to talk about it now. If anyone wants to know anything else or talk about it more, please call me. Thanks for letting me be silent about it for so long.

(By the way, the time is wrong for this post. It is 5 pm. I am not blogging at work. I am enjoying a cup of coffee at Cafe Deim and their web connection has been extremely wonky the whole time.)

2009-03-11T15:15:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting at jiffy lube prepping the car for the 17 hour drive down to Georgia. Spring break is next week. We'll be leaving Ames on Friday. We can't stop to see the Davises in Kentucky for this trip - we want to be back in Ames on Thursday so that Jamie can prepare for school the next week. (We'll plan a special trip to see you guys when summer vacation starts). Summer is going to he hellish. The shop is moving, I have two workshops that I will hopefully be able to attend on the east coast, plus Jamie is going to want to visit Macon a couple of times, probably. I'll be teaching a couple of classes. It will be busy, but busy is much better than slow.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone! Hello, Steve and Ashli's basement! Hopefully we'll get up to see Gordon and Helen. I have Chirstmas presents for everyone.

We had spring for about three days - it was up in the 60's, I think! Sunshiny, pleasent. Now it is 20 degrees (it was 15 when I left for work this morning).

And my car is ready, so Yay!! See you guys soon!
-Heather

Catching Up with Jamie

2009-02-16T11:54:00.000-06:00

School is a lot more fun this semester than last semester. Last semester I was teaching a comp class that was a little bereft of interest for me. It was a straightforward process-oriented comp class, which I don't particularly dig (I prefer a more reading oriented, politicized approach), and I didn't like the course materials. This semester is waaay cooler, and I feel like I'm back in the saddle again. I like my students a lot.

As a student, I'm doing more theory stuff, which is why I'm here in the first place. I'm trying to figure out what my niche in the department will be. I want to do something related to rhetoric of science (which can end up being philosophy of science or sociology of science sometimes which is part of why its appealing..."rhetoric" should be a big box if you ask me), but I want to make what I do real cultural studiesy. Rhetoric of science people talk about how science is in fact, rhetorical activity...argument, judgment, consensus, deliberation, NOT "proof." We're not saying science does not have some kind of real relationship to the world, but we ARE saying that it is a cultural production that differs from other cultural productions in degree, not in kind. I pretty much buy into some of the more extreme social constructivist arguments, but with a liberal dose of pragmatism.

I'm kinda interested in figuring out how to do research about how scientific tropes bleed out into the real world and develop their own life. Think about the sort of "magical thinking" way that we discuss genetics or psychology or nutrition. If I had MY druthers, I'd be doing "weirdo studies" and talking about stuff like Evangelical Christian sex websites. (I wrote a paper about that last semester that I plan to try to revise and publish at some point. I barely have time for meals right now though.) I'm interested in faux science stuff like intelligent design, but that's been done to death, so I'm not devoting as little thought to that as possible. It's probably better for my health anyway. We've got a job candidate who is writing a dissertation (I think) about creation science museums. I hope we hire her so she can tell me about it.

Speaking of fundamentalism, I wanna see this movie:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/70562-right-america-feeling-wronged-some-voices-from-the-campaign-trail/

People should read more selectively.

Let's see, what else...

Politics...I'm amused by the Republican whining about "pork" in the stimulus package. IT'S ALL PORK. That's the PURPOSE of a Kensyan economic stimulus. TO PUT MONEY INTO THE ECONOMY. There's plenty of things one could object to about the stimulus package, but make an argument that at least demonstrates a passing understanding of the purpose of the damn thing. I mean really. And no, nothing in there is going to permanently fix the economy. But THAT'S ALSO THE POINT. It's a temporary boost to stop the downward spiral. If it WERE filled with permanent economic changes it would be the socialist plan that Republicans say it is.

They've drifted waaay off into la la land lately. It's actually fun and amusing to watch, instead of just scary. At least they aren't out torturing child solders anymore. (I'm looking at you Rumsfeild.) Yes we can.

It's odd that our conservative party is so disgusting and incompetent that even someone who has a lot of respect for several different branches of conservatism (I read Andrew Sullivan religiously) hasn't agreed with anything they've done during his whole life. Of course, I'm deeply invested in Marxism too, so whatever. Libertarian Marxists of the world, UNITE! I need more coffee.

Seriously though, the more I read Marx, the more staggering he is. He was waaay ahead of the curve. Don't confuse him for his silly followers. I mean, you shouldn't blame Jesus for Pat Robertson. I got to re-read a little Nietzsche recently also, and he's also still awesome. Those two guys are among my favs, and I haven't had a chance to read them in a while.

While I'm typing, I'm listening to Satyricon's new record. Trv Norwegian Black Metal forever! Actually, Satyricon's not particularly trv, but they are awesome. God I love Scandinavians and their foolishness.(You see, them silly Scandinavian kids insist on spelling "true" as "trv" because it looks archaic and more "pure." If an act is really underground and uncompromising, they get to be described as "cvlt." You think I'm making this up don't you? Can anybody make up stuff about black metal to make it sound sillier than it is? But damn it's fun to listen to.) I'm listening to this basically because Metalocalypse got me craving metal. I'm not saying Americans aren't as good at metal as Europeans....well, yes. Yes I am saying that.

That's enough. There's where my brains are at today.

Yay.

2009-02-06T14:53:00.000-06:00

Sorry it's been soooooo long catching up. I'll give you the low down:
- we're really into grapefruit right now. Texas is where they come from up here.
- I'm getting an application to Penland together. Maybe I'll be able to attend as a studio assistant!!
- The ClayFiber show was a huge success. We had 300 people at the opening. It was like being back in Macon for one of our shows; running to the back to grab more chips and hummus, opening wine bottles, taking out the trash after.
- I start teaching a kids wheel-throwing class next week - yay!
- I also start teaching an adult tea pot class - yay!
- Jamie is having fun in school.
- we found a weird new show to watch in the same brand as Brak, ATHF and Frisky Dingo. It's called Metalocalypse and it is really really violent and nihilistic plus silly and stoopid. (Mother and Daddy, if you're reading this, don't watch this show. It's not for you.) It's about a death metal band and has a lot of real death metal in the show. Steve, check it out.

I avoided talking about the snow for once! (spring is almost here; the birds are chirping, the squirrels have de-hibernated!)

I'm outie-5000

Even more snow. Do you see a theme developing?

2008-12-16T21:43:00.000-06:00

Today we had huge snowflakes. We got 6 more inches total. I bought some tall boots with my birthday money. I can kick through huge drifts of snow with them. This weather is still really fun to us unless we have to walk long distances. At noon today the temperature was 0 degrees. During the night it's been as low as minus 4. This weather, I've learned, is strait from the arctic. I believe it.

Freezing stories: Yesterday the boiler went out in the building at work and everyone who didn't have a space heater went home; also a window in a bathroom fell open overnight and the toilet water froze. While Jamie carried a cup of water from his office to the house, about a 20 minute walk, little ice crystals had started forming. There is a constant freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw on the windshield while I run errands in the car - the snow melts on the warm windshield while I am driving with the defrost on but freezes into hard, bonded ice bits when I leave. I'm amazed at how quickly the conversion happens.

Jamie and I are getting excited about our Christmas trip next week. He is finishing a paper tonight and when that is done he will be done with school. I'm trying to finish up Christmas presents and get them in the mail. For each of you who are reading this, See you soon!!!

More Snow!

2008-11-30T21:31:00.000-06:00

It started snowing yesterday at noon and it hasn't stopped yet. It's coming down so lightly. Last night it seemed like the whole state was covered in a giant slushy. I wanted to squirt cherry syrup all over the ground and slurp it up. Jamie and I went for a long midnight walk over to the ISU cross training course. It is one of our favorite places to walk. The course goes through a pastoral wooded space; it's hilly and there are bridges, and pleasant little alcoves with benches. There were no footprints at all except little bunny tracks crisscrossing the path. We had a snowball fight and we tried to build a snowman but we'd left our gloves at home so we didn't stick to it for very long. The sky was thick with snow and reflected light. There was almost no space for the snow to fall. It was like the snow cloud was a mile deep and resting right on the ground; resting right on us and on Ames. It was so bright that I felt like I was watching a night scene from one of those old westerns back when they shot during the day and just put a gray filter over the camera lens. We almost cast shadows. The bug repellent streetlights filled the sky and the ground with a yellow-pink glow. It felt dreamlike. The word I kept repeating to myself was "ethereal."

Today I got ready for work, was right on time, not a minute to lose, and walked out of the house to see our car under two inches of snow. Luckily it hadn't frozen yet so it was easy to sweep off with a broom but I was late to work anyway. (When I got to work I found out that I hadn't even been on the schedule today so it all turned out all right.) Jamie shoveled the snow off of our sidewalk. Tonight I went out to Lowe's and bought a larger snow shovel and an ice scraper. The roads were a mess. All of us drivers were going 25-30mph, skidding at every red light and spinning our wheels at every green one. There were no mishaps and everyone seems very patient and understanding. I see the salt trucks going around now.
-Heather
PS: I'm thinking of subtitling this blog; "It's really really cold up here."

SNOW!!!

2008-11-22T21:37:00.000-06:00

Guess what everybody? The first real snowfall is here! It's so fluffy and crunchy and white! It snowed for the better part of the day today and accumulated to a full inch. It snowed once two weeks ago but the ground was too warm for the snow to stick. I sat in the house eating soup watching the snow fall in the wind at about a 45 degree angle. Today I had things to do! So Jamie and I got to drive around in the weather, slipping a little when we took each corner. Everyone went about 25 miles per hour so we were all very save despite the many opportunities of dings and fender benders. The wind was not harsh this time so it was fun to be outside surrounded by fluffy precipitation. Some of the snowflakes were as large as a nickle! One fell into my ear.

It's been a long time since I posted and a lot of great stuff has happened so I'll briefly try to fill you in. The last post was about installing a show in the Octagon Gallery. Since then I've been offered and have accepted an additional job as the Octagon's Ceramics Studio Manager. The studio is in the basement where the Octagon holds year round clay classes. It pays very little but the experience is invaluable and on top of that, I get my own huge studio space! I'm also teaching a teapot workshop in the Spring! CASA had its annual Fall open house last weekend (I have moved from a Shared Clay space to a semi-private studio space; I'm keeping my space there because it is such a resource of experience and talent), and this weekend I was hosted by a downtown business during ArtWalk (businesses let artists display work in their store for the afternoon). I unloaded a kiln for the event this morning:

and here is my table at ArtWalk:

(And I actually have sold a few pieces at these events! Yay!)

So that's what's been happening. I'm starting to feel at home at the Octagon and at CASA, and we've been getting together with Jamie's co-workers every couple of weeks. I will always be an outsider in Iowa because I drawwwl and say things like "Ya'll," "fixin' to" and "it's a quarter-to" instead of "it's a quarter-till," but it's starting to feel like we can make it up here - for a few years, anyway.

-Heather

Something Old, Something New

2008-10-28T22:23:00.000-05:00

Heather:
Well, after hanging four years of shows in Macon, I am back to it here in Iowa. This week I am helping the Octagon's esteemed Gallery Curator, Heather Johnson hang the next show and I feel right at home. Heather J's style is different from mine (she likes to hang the paintings symmetrically like butterfly wings; each wall section is anchored by one large painting and then paintings of similar size are placed on either side until the section is full) which I think works better for this gallery space than my installation philosophy. The way I like to hang a show is to detract attention from the whole wall, pair paintings that compliment each other and make niches of theme or color that pull a viewer in close. Octagon's gallery is a lot larger than Macon Arts and is a less attractive room with gray carpets and uneven sheet rock walls. So the show has to make more of a statement from farther away.

Something new for me is I have been signed up to teach two workshops in the Octagon studios! One is a teapot workshop, hopefully occurring in January. It will be four weeks long, one two hour session per week. I'm hoping that on the fourth week I will have fired everyone's teapots and we can have a round table critique! (this may be a little ambitious). The second is harder - a children's earthday class with the goal of making a hand made version of a chia pet. I'm going to research chia pets tonight. I have never heard of making your own chia pet but I can sort of work out how to in my imagination. I'll have to try it out myself before subjecting a bunch of kids to possible disapointment.

Our Open House at CASA is in November and I've got some works in the pipeline for that. It takes me a long time to get from actually forming a piece to having it glaze fired. I started working with earthenware which you don't have to fire twice which will save time. But I'm still working with good ole porcelain too - something old and something new!

Politics and Davi

2008-10-22T23:24:00.000-05:00

This will be a bifurcated post. The first part will be about politics, and the second part will be about Heather helping me with a project for a class.

I am loving reading the news these days. I am disturbed by it too. I am loving seeing the reign of incompetence and idiocy that has been Republican rule come to an end, and I am loving watching the conservative movement implode. Certainly there are some good-guy smart conservatives out there (Andrew Sullivan is my first stop for political news every day), and I think that we NEED conservatives. But not populist social conservative ninnies. The bad guys are losing. It's sad to see John McCain's wagon hitched to a sinking ship, but he knew the risks.

If you are a Burkean conservative (a moderate-liberal pragmatist), or a thoughtful libertarian (meaning not an ideologue or a resentful old white man), then you have a reasonable point of view. Chances are, if you are one of those two types of conservatives, you want the GOP to blow itself up as much as I do. It's been a strangely satisfying sight.

Like watching any grotesque thing in its death spasms, this has not been pretty. The deregulated credit system is going haywire, sending the world into a recession. The planet is warming up. Racists and idiots are marching around accusing the next duly elected president of the United States of being a terrorist. Sarah Palin is...well...she keeps talking. But it looks like we might have legal abortions, social security, diplomacy, progressive income taxes, and freedom of speech for a while longer. Hell, we might get gay marriage and electric cars too. (I'm being hyperbolic. I'm not THAT optimistic...)

Anyway, its about time Americans got beyond prejudice and stupidity enough to quit electing Republicans. Too bad it took a major economic crisis, several hundred thousand deaths, and the erosion of civil liberties to get them there.

Anyway, I'm super happy that Obama looks like he's gonna win.

In more immediate news, Heather is helping me with a pain-in-the-ass project that involves manipulating a bunch of data on spreadsheets. I am smart enough to think of stuff to look for, but not good enough with the tools or experience enough with data manipulation to do very much of this for myself. The result of this is that she is being my little assistant. (Heather here: more like little savior. Give credit where credit is due. I saved your butt with my biology-major knowledge of Excel!)

I'm buying her lots of meals this week. (Heather: Yum Yum!)

Watching the debates.

2008-10-15T23:25:00.000-05:00

Heather: We've been following the politics and the credit crisis news pretty closely. It is such a turbulent time!

This is my advice for the most painless way to get the news these days: do not watch political news on tv. Only watch the debates themselves. It is at times like these that I appreciate being too poor to have cable. Iowa public radio gets news from the BBC which I listen to often. I can't believe how huge this credit crisis is. it is effecting Japanese markets, British markets, markets all over the world; even sending the government of Iceland into a tailspin. The country of Iceland may actually go bankrupt because of the housing bubble! How crazy is that?

I've been listening to some great interviews on the radio - "Fresh Air" had a great interview with an Alaskan journalist on today. "Talk of the Nation" seems to have pertinent shows with real content every day - I remember them doing a silly show on ice cream a few years ago; the world is their oyster now that we have so much to talk about. "This American Life" has done some really great in depth shows on the credit crisis.

I am flabbergasted to learn that businesses routinely rely so heavily on credit. it has to be more expensive to borrow money for stock or operating costs every month than keeping a reserve. I couldn't sleep at night if my company ran that way.

Well, I'm off to search the web for today's presidential debate. Wish me luck!
-Heather

New job!

2008-09-30T22:51:00.000-05:00

Heather: The job is going well. I am the assistant shop manager (not assistant to the manager) at the Octagon Art Center. Click Here for their website. Their annual Octagon Art Festival was Sunday. I helped make coffee in the morning and followed my boss (the shop manager) Ruth as she went around dropping off old work to shop artists and meeting new possible shop artists. We got some really great new artists. I relieved her Monday afternoon so she could rest. I was so embarrassed to learn this morning when I called her to make Christmas plans that I'd made two mistakes on the receipts - on practically my first day manning the shop alone.

The neighbors got a puppy that they named Lucy that likes to run around the neighborhood whenever it escapes from the grasp of its owners. Friday night when it was time for the cats to come in, Lucy was loose and Xerxes was hiding from her. So the neighbor and I were simultaneously looking for our pets. They happened to be having a Presidential Debate party and invited us over after the respective animal was returned to the bosom of the appropriate family. We agreed to go and luckily, it was a party of Obama supporters, so we all had a great time. They invited us over Thursday for the VP debates (which should be a riot).

Growing up in the country, then in a geriatric neighborhood on Harrington St, then in Macon where you can live between a drug dealer with a crazy wife and a 20-member group of Asian China Buffet employees, then moving to another Geriatric but now rich retired neighborhood I never really got the point of socializing with your neighbors. It's kinda nice being next to some young like-minded folks.

Normalcy settles in

2008-09-15T17:52:00.000-05:00

Heather: Here it is, over two weeks since my last posting. Life has become normal again. We have adopted habits and have settled into a routine. Each day is more and more similar to the last. I'm not complaining - this is a good thing. We're making roots here in Iowa. We've gotten to know several of Jamie's co-workers. I start my new job on Wednesday. (I'll tell you all about it then).

My parents came to see us two weekends ago. We went to Des Moines, showed them around campus and ate out. It was a great visit. My work is coming along - my first glaze firing at CASA will be soon. The weather is changing; it feels like fall already. I no longer feel like I'm in a new place. Everything feels familiar again. What I miss the most is the good friends we left behind. We miss you guys so much!!

Jamie checks in....

2008-08-25T19:22:00.001-05:00

Jamie here. As long promised, I'm posting.

I've had my first day of class, and everything seems fine. Last week was a grueling orientation. From what I can tell, orientations are always grueling. You spend you time sitting through lectures that manage to be somehow both redundant and incomplete. I'm not bashing Iowa State's performance by the way. I'd say that there orientation for new TA's is actually rather remarkable. ISU is a very different kind of university from anything I've personally experienced. I've spent a lot of time in the academic world, and all of it has been as small liberal arts universities. A big, technically oriented place like Iowa State is a pretty different place from a Baptist liberal arts University like Mercer. After a week, I feel like I kind of understand the mentality of Iowa State, which speaks to the success of the orientation, but lordy, that was a long week. I'm happy to be WORKING now and not getting information stuffed into my head. That's just the nature of the beast I'm afraid. I'm afraid that was about as painless as it could have reasonably been.

As I reported, class went fine today. I've got 26 very earnest Midwestern kids to deal with now, which should be fun. They seemed to have the right attitude today, so it's up to me to keep 'em busy and focused. Iowa State uses a rhetorically oriented composition program that stresses multi modal communication. When you are in grad school you have to talk like that. This means that they teach composition by asking students to think a lot about genres of writing and speech, and that they stress getting students to be conscious of written, oral, visual, and electronic communication. The class I'm teaching is mostly a composition class, but we will also be talking a bit about communication through things like web pages and graphic design. We want to stress the connections between all types of communication. A presentation or a group discussion is not absolutely different from an essay or a web page. I like the theoretical foundation of the program, although I'll miss hearing students deal with the difficult reading assignments I used to like to throw at 'em. The ISU approach will be lot less work than what I was doing at Georgia College, which is good because I'll be busy as hell trying to earn a P.H.D. so somebody might someday give me an adult level job someday. Such is academia.

I'm excited about one of the classes I'm taking. It's about gender theory and the "post-human" world. From what I can tell it's about postmodern gender issues. If biology and culture no longer define sex, what does? I figure I'll have some kind of answer by Christmas. I'll let you know. I saw the word "dildo" used in several of the textbooks, which seems perfectly reasonable if you think about it.

What else am I responsible for posting about here.....oh yeah, the fair....it's a big ole damn fair, I tell ya. They got gourmet quality pork chops on sticks and very decent beer for sale (that big cultural difference again....they don't sell beer at "family events" like fairs in Georgia), and apparently Garrison Keillor was wandering around there at some point. (He did a show from there on the last night, which we neither saw nor hear on the radio, although I read an essay on salon.com that he wrote about being there.) Good stuff. Like the Georgia National Fair but bigger and with better food and more of a street party atmosphere. There was lots of live music also, and I'm pretty sure we saw a few minutes of a performance by a guy my brother knows. Country singers get around these days, eh?

What else, what else.....I'm feeling more at home here now that I've got stuff to do. Being a part of a community means having stuff to do that connects you to the community. Being on an extended vacation in a community where you don't know anybody with gets depressing after a while. It's nice to be busy.

Job Hunting

2008-08-22T11:36:00.000-05:00

Heather: I have been pounding the pavement all week looking for a job. There are a lot of jobs available but they all start no sooner than two to six months or are close to 10 hours per week, minimum wage, seasonal, blah blah blah. We may just have to live on dry beans until I can find something substantial. I am quite excited about the possibility of working for Wheatsfield. Wheatsfield is a small grocery store co-op that specializes in local produce, organic produce and other products, and imported goodies. They are in the process of expanding which includes building a bigger store for more products. So in January, they will be hiring more staff. I feel like I made a good enough impression on the managment when dropping off my resume that I am confident I only have to hold a 10-hour-minimum-wage job until then and I will be hired. One of these 10-hr-min-wg-ers that I am talking abou is a movie theater in college town that I interviewed for. The manager was very nice. The atmosphere seems relaxed and friendly. I hear from him on Saturday.

Jamie started school Monday. Maybe I can convince him to post something about that.... More updates coming soon!

Iowa State Fair

2008-08-22T11:35:00.000-05:00

I am going to make Jamie write an entry for this one. It was really fun. They had pork chops on a stick. Also, "rolled nuts." more coming soon...

Nero and the Chipmunk

2008-08-09T15:50:00.000-05:00

Heather: Nero has a long history with chipmunks. He terrorized all the little cute woodland creatures in Macon and he is back at it here in Iowa. Yesterday I let him and Xerxes out by themselves for the first time and within a couple of hours, Nero carried proudly his first Iowan chipmunk victory right into the living room. It was cute and feisty and not very damaged so I had to try to save it. 30 minutes later, after chasing the cat around the house with a chipmunk in his mouth, interspersed with cat-chasing-lost-chipmunk periods (the Chipmunk who I've named Herbert would wriggle out of Nero's grasp, dash around my feet, find something to get behind and chirp really loudly in protest), I finally got Herbert to run into the mop bucket. I carried him outside imagining that I would find a lush bush or leafy terrain to gracefully release this wild animal whose life I had just extended. There was no time for that, because almost before I was out of the house Herbert jumped onto the rim of the bucket and made a daring leap onto the concrete driveway. He ran across the driveway and onto the fence and turned around chirping angrily. I swear I saw him shake his fist at me. Then he darted away.

By the way, I had to save him again today although it was much easier. He needs to move! I hope I won't have to save him again tomorrow. I hope that in the middle of the night when Nero is locked inside, he will gather the wife and kids and find a new house to live under.

Jamie: Having had some violence in their lives the cats seem to sleep better.
Heather: Torture and maiming: a cat's ultimate vitamin supplement.

History in Iowa

2008-08-03T23:40:00.000-05:00

Heather: This week we had one of our favorite Georgians visit us here in Iowa - Jamie's mom came to see us! We had a great time. We went to the zoo, antiquing, saw Wall-E, and we went to the Living History Farms, a typical Iowan town in 1875. We really had a great time.

The weather here is quite humid. It is also quite warm - it gets up to the mid-90s during the day. It's not as bad as being in Georgia around this time of year, but this week it has come close. Just wait until it starts snowing - then these southern bones will have something to complain about. Next week is forecast to be rainy, cloudy, and high in the mid eighties - nice.

A super week

2008-07-25T13:24:00.000-05:00

This week was pretty great. We finished putting up the last paintings and did all those last finishing touches. We still have some boxes in the garage, but they won't take long to move in now that we have designated places for everything. We went to Des Moines to the art museum. They have a very impressive collection. We enjoyed walking around. To the left is Jamie at the front. Then we found this little British themed pub in an alley and had lunch. They had Scotch eggs! I made Jamie order one and eat it since I don't eat meat. He said it was great. I had fish and chips, real beer batter that they make in house. it was super. Here is a silly photo of him and the scotch egg:

and a very silly one of myself:

Art Communtiy in Iowa Discovered

2008-07-19T20:41:00.000-05:00

Heather: This week we've been getting the house in order, unpacking boxes and exploring the community. Yesterday we went to Des Moines for a day trip. They have a farmer's market downtown on Saturday mornings. We're planning to go next week. Also this week, I went to a studio cooperative and met some of the artists working there, and spoke to them about renting a space. They like my work a lot. When one of the artists in residence who has to help review my submission gets back from her vacation they will interview me, see if i'm a good fit and if they are a good fit for me, and voila! I'll be a member. The organization's website is www.creativeartists.org. I'm excited about getting to know the artist community here in Ames. It seems like there is a pretty vibrant one and it seems like the public here has an appreciation for local art too!

Progress, progress.

2008-07-15T17:03:00.000-05:00

Heather: Everything is either in the house or garage. We finished unloading the truck Sunday and turned it in. By 11pm we had all the boxes moved in from the driveway and were ready to call it a day. I've almost got the kitchen put together. My goal was to cook dinner tonight but that may be ambitious. Jamie says he's going to make it out here. There is a super microbrewery pub/restaurant with a superb selection of tasty brews and two really great video stores with almost everything on our movie watching wish list. That, wireless internet, coffee shop extraordinaire, local short order diner for breakfast, and panini for lunch make the recipe for davi in iowa happy, happy, happy!

Jamie: Indeed....we are currently at the local pub/microbrewery drinking malty caramelly ale and reading online news. Today is the first day we have really been having fun here, although arriving and getting into the house was exciting. There is a fine selection of exploitation goodness at the video store here along with a whole section of Criterion collection flicks. Between the two, we should be able to entertain ourselves. Everything out here is cheap too. We actually have a big stack of DVDs at home that we paid about ten bucks to rent. I'm looking forward to work where I'll start getting to know some people, but this vacation time is really nice.

Iowa, finally

2008-07-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

Heather: I was just reviewing my last post, full of glee and excitement about the trip. Wow that was a long time ago. I am glad I wasn't aware of what we had in store for us.

We left Macon at about 3pm Thursday, 5 hours later than schedule, not having finished packing the night before. Atlanta traffic was a breeze; it was not nearly as bad as it could have been if we'd hit it only 30 minutes later. After Atlanta, we didn't see much traffic at all. We got to Lexington at 1 am so the first leg of the trip took 9 hours. The cats were perfect gentlemen. They slept almost the whole way. There were no accidents, kittie or otherwise. They used the makeshift litter box like traveling pros.

We got about 8 hours of sleep at my parent's house, my mom cooked lunch for us and my sister's family (my nieces are adorable), we walked around downtown and went out to dinner with everyone, then got back on the road about 10pm. Our spirits were high... for the first 8 hours or so. Man that was a long drive. We made what seems like a lot of pit stops between filling up the tank (8 times I think?), picking up caffienated beverages and depositing the result of the former pit stop. Also, near the end of the trip Xerxes started complaining and thinking that he needed to "go" we kept stopping to let him out. We finally figured out that he was just getting frustrated at being locked in a box and ignored him. Then, he would meow for 20 minutes and sleep for 2 hours, meow for 10, sleep for three, etc.

We arrived in Ames at noon. Our spirits rose. We were finally here! Time from Lexington to Ames: 14hrs. Total time in the truck: 23hrs. When we got here we went to the Budget's drop off location and freed the car from its trailer, parked the truck and the cats at the house (the cats love the basement by the way) and went to dinner at about 4pm, or 3pm here. Something told me that the butter cream sauce was a bad idea for such a tired body. Jamie and I got giggly and started feeling inebriated through fatigue. We came back to the house and spread out a blanket for a nap (by that time it had been 30 hours since we'd slept not counting dozes in the truck). The kitties must have been worried about us because even though they were hungry they didn't bother us until I got up a couple of hours ago to deal with the consequences of eating such a rich meal - my stomach thought that shrimp scampi was an even worse idea than I did.

The cats have begun to feel comfortable enough to romp around the house. Xerxes has found a couple of hidey-holes that he feels comfortable in. Nero is comfortable anywhere, he doesn't care. Jamie has an alarm set for himself for midnight to start some light work. We haven't unpacked the bed yet. The weather is nice and the house is cute in a renovated-in-the-seventies sort of way. Nero looks like he needs some TLC and i need some from him, so I'll be signing off now...

Pina Colada, not just a cliche.

2008-07-06T22:24:00.000-05:00

Heather: Well, the pool party was a success. We made dinner out of the pantry (less to pack), swam and had a good time with friends we won't see for a while. Jamie cooked a pork roast, and I was the salad maiden. I made pasta, cucumber and spinach salads. Ashli brought fresh strawberries and pound cake for desert. I even got some packing done this morning before Jamie woke up. It was a good day.

Jamie: Spent the afternoon drinking pina coladas (we've nailed the recipe.....add cinnamon and mango juice and be liberal with the coconut rum; *heather: the virgin ones we made for Ed and Ben were delicious too*) and playing in the pool with all our Macon friends. It was a nice way to see them all together one last time before we leave. We'll see most of them again during the week, but probably not all at the same time. Now I've got dry eyes (from the pool) and I'm nicely tired. After supper everybody was kinda staring around and wobbling like tired little kitties. Wrestling in a pool while drinking rum for two hours and then eating a pound or pork roast will wear you out. Great party.

It's time to call it a night. We've got everything back in order at Terrell's, and we're gonna go sleep a out house tonight to spend some time with the cats, who will no doubt appreciate it. I can't wait to get settled into our new place. Our vacation summer is going splendidly, but it'll be nice to settle back into a routine. Tomorrow we've gotta do a little more moving business and a bit more packing. I really think we'll be almost ready to go by tomorrow night, which means we can relax a bit. It's funny how physically demanding moving is. I have been working out a lot this summer, but I've still been sore all week.....

Almost finished packing up our house!

2008-07-06T00:05:00.000-05:00

Heather: We have a little more packing to do. We've been packing during the day and swimming in the pool at night almost every night. Tonight, after working all day we had dinner with friends and we all came back to the house and swam. It feels like we've been on vacation half of every day. We've eaten two watermelons, mostly poolside and we have one for tomorrow, a huge one that Jamie weighed on the bathroom scale. It is 35 lbs! Tomorrow, we are taking a break from packing. We've invited Rob, Courtney, Steve, Ashli, Ed and Ben for another pool party. We'll be making pina coladas, pasta salad and a roast from Jamie's dad. I'll be making the drinks the way I learned on Isla Holbox during the trip for Emilie's wedding - lots of pineapple and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Then Monday it will be back to the grindstone with only two packing days left!

Jamie types from this point forward..... We are tired as all hell, but it's like vacation tired, not stress tired, so we're having fun. We sleep till mid morning, eat breakfast and read the papers (Terrell gets the Macon Telegraph which is interesting....the Asian Massage Parlors have just been survived there annual raid and are back in business again...and the New York times, which is actually good...both are equally valuable for packing dishes), go back to our house and hang out with the cats (who are taking all this in stride) and move (dusty) stuff around, then it's dinner with friends and back to Terrell's for a nightcap and a swim. It's a pretty good deal.

We are enjoying our friends and our hometown (neither of us is from Macon, but it's really our hometown just the same), but we're excited about Ames. Living in a college town is gonna be fun, and living in a cold Midwestern place is gonna be an adventure. And it's a more German influenced culture (for anyone who's never been to north central Iowa, everybody talks like an extra from Fargo, or like Garrison Keillor...they're all absurdly polite, which is odd for someone whose spent time around some of the colorful people who live in Macon) so there will be lots of very very white people (pleasant but dull), but lots of really good beer (there are at least three microbreweries within a half our of our house). It seems like it'll be a cozy fun place to be once the snow shows up and makes it exciting. Also there will be beer.

Anyway, once we finish moving all our stuff around we'll be off. But first we gotta eat a pork roast and drink pina colodas tomorrow. Keep your hands to yourself.

2008-06-29T19:10:00.000-05:00

Heather: Well, I am finally unemployed, enjoying my second to last weekend in Macon, GA. J and I will start moving bright and early tomorrow morning. First thing to do is scavenge for empty boxes around liquor stores. Then we will start packing the kitchen. By a stroke of luck, the opportunity to house sit fell into our laps at a very opportune time. Up until the day we leave we will have a whole second house to act as a base of operations. We won't have to plan what to pack last. The bed can go in the truck as early as we please. And every afternoon when it gets hot we can jump in the pool to cool off then watch satellite TV before drifting off to dreams of boxes and bubble wrap.