Ozymandias meets Dorothy Gambrell
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said — "two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
One of my favorite online comics is Dorothy Gambrell's
Cat and Girl (
www.catandgirl.com). Gambrell has a keen eye for over-educated urban hipster culture. Her humor reminds me of college at the University of Chicago.
Today's literary-minded installment makes reference to Shelley's poem, as we look at Cat's mundane accomplishments.
Which reminds me that somewhere in Providence I have a little league trophy, three swimming medals, and two trophies for French.
Labels: neat stuff
posted by Tony at 1:28 PM
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Rabbit update
We are now on our third generation of rabbits living in our yard this year. Some of the magic wore off when I saw what they'd done to the pea shoots, but even so the baby rabbits are impossibly cute.
When it was just the first rabbit, the big rabbit, I sat down and sketched it as it hopped about the lawn munching.
So I put up a rabbit-proof fence, which I was assured is the only real way to keep them away. I bought it at Home Depot, and it is basically a metal grid that is larger near the top, and much closer at the bottom -- the gaps are about 1" tall and 5" wide. It seemed to be ding the trick until we began to see a baby bunny (third generation) hopping about back there. It must be going under the fence, or around it, I thought, since it certainly can't go through it.
Today Eric was in back, gardening, when he noticed the baby bunny hopping around in the peas. Hoping to dissuade it from this sort of behavior, he turned the hose on it. The little guy panicked and ran toward Eric, past him, and then squeezed through that 1" gap in the fence, and out into the yard to run away. Eric was nonplussed, and chased after him with the hose till he disappeared from the yard, all the while thinking, how irritating, how cute, how irritating, how cute. Really, the little bugger is so cute you can't even imagine, your heart just turns to mush.
I wasn't there, but this is how I imagine it happening:
Eventually the baby bunny will get bigger and won't be able to go through the fence anymore. He (or she) won't be so cute anymore, but he'll spend more time on the lawn than in the garden, and do less damage. Rabbits in the lawn are really pretty charming.
Labels: drawings, personal
posted by Tony at 10:47 PM
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Thanks for the feedback!
A couple of people commented on the picture of Eric and the oysters — it's the one I'm most pleased with, actually. It's the only one that really came out exactly as I had envisioned it, which is a sort of surprising thing, when it happens.
For those who haven't seen me in more than 8 months, I do have a beard now. I grew it on a whim and decided to keep it. Meanwhile, every third guy around me has also grown a beard this year.
Anyone who wants to can add comments to my blog by clicking on "X comments" link at the end of each post. (Right now they all say "0 comments".) I'll read them.
Labels: personal
posted by Tony at 12:11 PM
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Fire in Chicago on Sunday
For anyone who was in Chicago this past weekend, I've discovered the cause of that big black plume of smoke that was hanging over the city on Sunday afternoon. There was a fire at the Dominick's at Broadway and Wellington. My friend "Jetgirl" took
pictures. She said the apartment buildings behind the supermarket were evacuated, and there were people sitting out on the street with treasured possessions and pets in their carriers. Apparently none of the apartments were damaged, ultimately, though the Dominick's has got to be in pretty bad shape.
Labels: personal
posted by Tony at 10:00 AM
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Drawings of France
Everywhere we went, we started the day with coffee in a café
In Paris we saw my friend Graziella every day, sometimes for drinks, sometimes for dinner. One time we had cocktails at happy hour in a bar called "Indiana," which is a sort of Parisian take on an American bar, with a sidewalk-café setup. Not that we go to France for American-style bars, but it was fun.
From Paris we went to Brittany, which is really beautiful terrain. Along the coast we stopped and hiked along various rocky headlands.
Brittany is the home of those famous striped mariner's shirts that your typical cartoon Frenchman wears. I was coveting them everywhere I saw them, but felt afraid to look like a tourist. Then I noticed that even locals were wearing them, albeit usually women. Finally I tried one on... the sleeves were to short and the body too loose for my taste, so I went without.
Brittany is also famous for seafood and dairy. I insisted on having a kouign amann every day, which is a Breton pastry that is made with copious amounts of butter (pronounced "queen ah-MAHN"). They can be unbelievably delicious, but recipes vary from place to place, and a mediocre one is an enormous disappointment. I must learn to make these myself.
We both ate a lot of seafood, especially Eric, who ate
creuses oysters almost every day.
Creuses have one flat shell and one deeply cupped shell that holds a lot of salty oyster juice. I liked them a great deal more than the more expensive, harder to find
plats oysters, which have very shallow cups and a somewhat metallic aftertaste. (The taste of
creuses is more like American oysters.)
Labels: drawings, personal
posted by Tony at 11:52 AM
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A very content-looking cat
Labels: drawings
posted by Tony at 10:45 PM
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Duck Eggs
Tonight, for dinner, we are having a salad with poached duck eggs. Eric bought them yesterday at the Green City Market, which is Chicago's weekly organic farmer's market, held in Lincoln Park. So although I have not made it to a farmer's market yet myself (I
can't wait till Saturday!), we are eating farm fresh veggies now. And a damn good thing, too, since it's to hot to cook much inside. (We are grilling a lot.)
I don't think I've ever had a duck egg, nor Eric, but it's certainly an exciting idea. Chickens are just so pedestrian. I seem to recall the duck eggs are more sharpely tapered than chicken eggs, which tells me nothing about taste.
Chicken, on the other hand, is an old reliable friend. When we had to spend Sunday night in Providence unexpectedly (due to flight troubles), we ate stir-fried chicken sandwiches with my mother. They were delicious and satisfying and good for out airport-stressed stomachs.
Which reminds me that we had something delicious Tuesday, a concoction of my very own. We had a salad of carrots and cucumber with summer savory, garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, plus a dash of soy sauce, and pepper and salt. That was much more delicious than I had anticipated. We served it with lemon, savory, and hot pepper -marinated thigh meat that was stuffed with more savory and garlic, and then grilled. The whole thing, salad and meat, was wrapped in lettuce leaves, Vietnamese style. Try this at home!
Labels: food, personal
posted by Tony at 5:13 PM
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Big drill
I pass by a construction site every day on my way to work. It's an apartment building that's been getting a gut rehab for quite a while now. I don't think it's going condo, though, I think it's going to remain low income housing or something similar. Anyway, as I passed this morning, one of the construction workers picked up a drill with a bit that was at east 2 inches thick and three feet long, and said, "I'm going in," and then disappeared into the building.
Labels: drawings, personal
posted by Tony at 10:37 AM
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And summer came
When summer comes to Chicago, it comes all at once, like a hot, fat, slap across the face. But I refuse to turn on the air conditioning until I'm completely miserable. Air conditioning is its own kind of misery.
I have some sketches related to our recent trip to France that I will post soon as I make time for it.
Labels: personal
posted by Tony at 1:52 PM
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Wedding
Sara, spelled without an "h", got married to Joshua, spelled with the usual complement of letters, in Bristol Rhode Island yesterday. Eric and I flew in for it because a) I'm a little crazy, and b) Josh is an old, old friend.
So it was a nice wedding, and a gorgeous, hot, day. Behind the spot where the two tied the knot was a bush in flaming magenta bloom.
I saw friends I hadn't seen in years, and so it was something of a reunion. I finally saw my friend Mark, who was my best friend from 4th grade through high school, but who I hadn't seen in over 10 years. It's a bit of an odd experience to see someone you knew so well after such a long gap... it's a little hard to explain, but it's maybe like skipping ahead to the last book in a series. The characters are known, but the context is unfamiliar.
Anyway, all in all a good experience.
Labels: personal
posted by Tony at 1:10 PM
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