Redirecting...

I've switch most of my blogging over to my MySpace account... Not sure why...

Want to complain, do it here:

replicant8@yahoo.com

But, meanwhile, check out my other thing:

http://www.myspace.com/phantomconversation

Ok...

Oh, and here's my magazine, if you never saw that:

This is my arty zine. I usually mail it to unsuspecting people (whether they want it or not.) I have received help, usually artwork, from about a half dozen people now, mostly mailartists, who sent me collages or other artwork which I then taped right to a blank spot in the layout before heading off to the printers. It's fun...

























Any comments, questions, complaints, suggestions, or desires to contribute? (I would welcome any of these...)
phantomconversation@yahoo.com
thanks,

Ricardo

An excellent painting by my 8 year old, Ellie. I love the colors, the texture, and the compositional layout of this picture. (And she spent two days on it. My "Bertrand" painting took about 3 hours... I guess she's more serious about art than I am...) 

"Skull, Pastels, and Lines." (Acrylic on cardboard.) I love the "Easter" colors mixed with the "Day of the Dead" like figure... (Am I allowed to say I "like" my own painting???)

When oh when will I find the time again???

Well, I'm back to school tomorrow... (I get the feeling I've written this already, somewhere... I'll have to check thru' my journals and see which one I'm plagarising from...) PSU is my new school and I'm going to have to get there an hour before class so that I can find a place to park and then walk the 18 blocks (from where I park) to the school...

Because academics are about to reclaim the majority of my processing ability, I don't know (OH!!! I wrote this in the intro to episode four of Phantom Conversation...) when I'm going to have the time to work on any of my art projects again. Painting takes time. Phantom Conversation takes time. The M.A.R.S. Project (even though I'm only the curator and not a contributor) takes time... And I don't know how much of that I'm going to have free until the quarter is over... BUT, my classes look like they are going to be very good: I've got "Philosophy and Literature," "H. G. Wells and Friends," and a contemporary composition class... (Don't make fun, I like this type of thing!!!) Also, I don't know when I'm going to have time to "blog" again... (I still think that sounds more like throwing up after drinking too much than it does typing into a computer... BLOOOOOOGGG... Oh, well... I didn't make it up... I'm "ellipsing" again...)

Ummm... that's about it for now. Hopefully I'll get back to this soon. But don't hold your breath...

I call this one "Monster." (Acrylic and newsprint on cardboard...)

The envelope in which "Bertrand Sings the Hits" was mailed to Laura Barletta, a regular contributor to The M.A.R.S. Project... (See below for a link!)

Another care package (that got a little out of control...)

An envelope ghostie...

A package I sent containing a CD-mix and a couple issues of Phantom Conversation.

Like the Dad in Christmas Story...

I fight with this blog in a way that I don't with any of the other systems I use... (For instance, I can't see any of the posts that I have done since JULY!!! I know they are there, because I can edit them, but I can't see them when I just type in the address for the blog.) One might wonder why I continue to use this blog... I really don't know...

Don't know...

Stimulating Creativity...

The wife and I bought the girls some paints for Xmas and today, I had everybody get their equipment out and we had a family painting session. The kids used water colors. I stuck with acrylic and mixed media collage... The piece I completed can be seen below. I'm probably going to mail it out as a piece of correspondence art.

Never to be seen (by me) again...

Bertrand Sings the Hits... (31 Dec. 2005)  

Neglected... nearly dead...

Well, I haven't been writing in the blog much lately... Too busy finishing up my classes (and, subsequently, my bachelor's degree: Humanities with a concentration in English and cultural studies, and a formal minor in anthropology.) But, I haven't been completely comatose since I finished school. I've read a couple books, (most notably, and most inspirational inducing, Rose Lee Goldberg's Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present.) I've also, finally, updated my M.A.R.S. Project site. Check it out here:

The M.A.R.S. Project

I've done some writing that my friend Dave has included in his cool site:

Vision? Nary!

I've started a new print zine (that I've been mailing to a bunch of people who aren't interested) that you can take a look at here:

Phantom Conversation

And I was convinced by a friend (Mr. Fletcher, who you might remember from some of my DJ flyers as a co-noisemaker from my days at the South Pacific Club) to start a MySpace account. You can access that here:

Me Me Me

So... I guess I haven't been completely lazy... But, still, I haven't done much incidental writing... I'll try to get more of that done... sometime...

That's it for now, though... Cuz I'm going to go read...

026: No fighting on my birthday!!!!

So my kids have been up for just under an hour (we have one extra with us today, Christian) and they have already started fighting. In this case, Ellie doesn't want to go swimming with Frankie and Christian, so she's out back yelling at them and trying to bully them into doing whatever it is that she wants to do. Frankie (although she would UNDOUBTEDLY claim that is was a complete accident) sprayed Ellie with the hose.

I don't want any fighting today... But you can't always get what you want....

Today is my 33rd birthday... I have grey hair on the sides of my head... I'm at least 50 pounds over-weight... But HEY! I got the DVD for Jack Black's "School of Rock" and a cool Gameboy game called "Fire Emblem." (Keenan and Carson, my cousin's who are 9 and 11, tell me that what I have is actually the SECOND "Fire Emblem" game, but I thought I had the first. This information was corroberated by Christian, who is 13... I'm too old to keep up with video games, I guess, but I still like to play...) OH, and I got a box of Whoppers, too... Rock! (I can't wait to get back to school though... Working and I just don't get along... And I have to work TONIGHT even! Ucky...) Ummm hmmm... 

Here is the cake that Mariah and the girls made for me. It looks hardcore (PUNK!!!!) and tasted awesome! Vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, blue sprinkles, and vanilla ice-cream... MMMMMmmmm...... 

This is a close-up of the center of the cake. Mariah says it's supposed to be a heart, but it looks a bit more like some kind of pagan symbol... Either way, I'm cool with it... 

Frankie drew this picture for me a few days ago. I particularly like the creative spelling!!! 

025: Summer Sucks...

Other than the cool anniversary trip that Mariah and I took, this summer has turned out to be a not-fun-thing for me... Because this is a public blog I won't go into the particulars, but let's just say I'm not exactly in the best of moods right now... Now I have to go get ready for work... (Ugh...)

I can't wait to get back to school... where I belong...

For two days (one night) Mariah and I made our way to the beach (without kids... for the first time in about eight years) to celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary... We stayed at The Best Western Oceanview Resort in Seaside, Oregon... We ate where we wanted, avoided going on overpriced rides and buying cotton candy, and we both recognized how... QUIET... it is without the kids... It was quite fun... (This logo came from a paper thing that I used as a bookmark while we were away...) 

Moose Munch from Harry and David... I don't quite understand why, but Mariah LOVES this shop... Ummm... Yeah... 

This place had a cool radio station playing with lots of rockin' new wave cuts... (And now I can't recall what ANY of the rockin' songs were, but they were neato...) 

This weird scan is from a box that the checkout lady gave me (for free) at The Tenth Muse bookstore in Seaside, Oregon... The cartoons on the box are from Edward Gorey's "The Epileptic Bicycle." I bought several cool books from that shop... 

Got this when we checked out on Sunday morning... I think it's part of a coupon or deal-thing... I'm not really sure... 

The second day of our anniversary trip we drove north to Long Beach (mostly to hit Marsh's Free Museum and buy some knick knack's for the kids... But I love postcards, so we grabbed some of those too...) 

The back of the Long Beach postcard... 

One of two Marsh's Museum postcards that Mariah and I bought in Long Beach on Sunday, June 19th... 

The back of the first postcard...