Mile Marker Zion

[stilltrucking]

A man gets shot four times & is still alive means the gun that shot him is too small.

"Meaning leaks from the molecules" Plath
Good luck finding meaning mingo.

About the weapon used: one of them was the FN 5.7

Records indicate Hasan bought the FN 5. 7 Rampage gun legally. The pistol has been dubbed a cop killer by those who have tried to stop its use

Historical factoid:
From an article in Sunday's San Antonio Express News titled "City suffers a second time.

"In 1991 in Kileen(where Ft Hood is located) a man shot and killed 23 people, wounded another 20 and then committed suicide by shooting himself. It was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history until the Virginia Tech massacre."(wiki)

But at least he had good reason. He did not shout "God is Great"
As he shot them he calmly told everyone "This is what the women of Belton have done to me. Is it worth it" (Belton another town neer the fort)
A psychiatrist (my brother and oldest friend) told me I have a sick sense of humor. Sorry.

[sooZen]

No rubies here, just coal dust waiting for the main squeeze.

Flickers are woodpeckers or I should say in the family of... I love the story you told of the old man and the rock. I am gonna paint a rock today. It is not on my list of things "to do" but I am adding it right now to the "should do and get inspired list."

As for the rest of your musings, their are two damn many of us peoples and not enough of everything else and what there is left of everything else is disappearing quickly. We are not rare like rubies or Flickers or ancient Redwoods. Frankly, I quit watching people kill peoples. We have a killer gene. I would rather create and paint a rock and watch the same birds return next year... Makes more sense anyway than watching "us" kill "us".

Course, I wouldn't like it much if one of those yahoos killed someone I loved and I certainly wouldn't like to die at the hand of another's misplaced violent tendencies. Put too many rats in a cage and they will eat each other and we have a lot of rats in our cage. Don't wanna die in fear at the hand of another but I never know what may happen.

So I am gonna go paint a rock now with grackles and white wing and inca doves and the curved bill thrashers and mockingbirds that nest around my yard each spring and I thank you for that inspiration... I will have mt take a picture and I will post it for you my friend. I am gonna call it mingo's lingo rock for all rocks must have names, I am sure of it.

[the mingo]

You and Jack are right, sooZ. The world gets to be too much with me sometimes. I be stepping along gypsy style & walk right into quicksand. Quicksand always infects me with goober-brain. Then I have two enemies to grapple with when all I wanted was to get by.

I'm glad you enjoyed the story of Cyrus. I think he's about a hundred & forty years old but he don' look a day over 82. I went up and saw him on Veteran's Day. He's doing good. Says he wants to get a thing going with his day nurse. She's got to be close to retirement I think. He says she's hot for his bod. Then he smiles showing me all three of his teeth.

I'll tell him his rock painting activities inspired you. He'll get a kick out of that and then he'll berate me for tellin' secrets.

[the mingo]

Doodles. The world wants a good doodle...

I just finished reading a collection of Ryokan's poems. Every time I want to nail him as a sad sack of rice he'll write something that makes me cross out the sack of rice figure. Still sad though.
Give me an Ikkyu any day. A Bukowski in the hand is worth any 10 sadfuck poets in the bush.

Opinions are diluted socially acceptable rage I think.

Shit. I'm behind on my electric bill. Bad time for that with winter coming on and heat eating the money I need to catch up on the electric. Bastards calling me even on Saturday. They want their bucks. That's what I should do too, go out and kill a dozen deer. Drag them down to the electric company and say, "Here, I'm covered."

What's the advantage in progress if all it comes down to is having to kiss much more ass much faster just to get by ? My hope is the good Lord won't be allowing electric companies, heating companies, landlords or the legal profession to set up shop in the Kingdom. That's something that I'd call righteous.

The world is the sound of water boiling in a tea kettle. The future is a woman picking up that tea kettle and pouring the water into a cup. Fate is her walking back to the table cup in hand & sitting down. The last sound the world will ever hear is the scrapping of her chair on the floor as she pulls it closer to the table lights her cigarette & settles in to her game.

[the mingo]

sooZ - this is one of the bags i spoke of. First pic flap closed. Second with flap open. Sorry they are sideways. If I ever learn to operate this thing I might get dangerous. Nancy beaded these working from designs I came up with. She did the straps with beaded beads which I see didn't get into the pics. The bags are about 3"x5". Peyote stitch. The third is a coyote skull beaded. I really got into that. For awhile there nobody would stand still around me cuz they knew I would bead them on the spot.

[judih]

beaded coyote skull!
magnificent - what a trippy art object
the dead bull at the side of the road on friday would've made an amazing beading....(that thought will never come to fruition - he's gone)

[the mingo]

And lastly, I guess it's 'bout time I showed my mug 'round here.

[SadLuckDame]

I think seed beads feel great on skin. I'd had a glass seed beaded necklace with a piece of deer horn as a centered "decor". For years I wore it, sliding it around my neck, chewing on the antler piece. A gf of mine makes me seed beaded purses and plaques.
These are wonderful! They are bright, and love them.
Bead up everything in reach Mingo
bead it all up bright and wonderful.

[sooZen]

mingo, you are a beautiful man and I mean that sincerely. I didn't get on here (Studio Eight) today to reply to any posts as I am sans computer right now as my laptop went dark (and I was feeling rather dark myself until I saw your beadwork and that picture of you. It seems my friends have rallied to my plight, even if they didn't know what was going on...one way or another.) I am on mt's computer and it is hard for me physically to type on it but I must reply to you. I just got on to read some and see mt's new Sunday Stream but here you are and here I am...

The beadwork is splendiferous and amazing, especially the peyote stitch (without using a loom) on the bag. Wonderful pattern mingo and please tell Nancy I am in awe. I use a graph for some of my peyote stitch work, except for the free form work I do on some of my necklaces and bracelets on and thru wire forms that I create.

Also, the coyote skull work is very, very nice. It looks like you used a technique akin to the Tarahumara Indians' bees wax work where they lay the beads into the wax layered on skulls and other objects. I see the seed beads are hole side up so that is my guess. Did you use wax or glue or what? Would love to know the technique.

Great stuff and thank you for sharing and again, I love seeing your "mug"!!! (Nice hat too.) Nancy is a lucky gal.

[Doreen Peri]

Wow! The bags are stunning! I bow to your designs and Nancy's artistry! Really beautiful! I'd like to buy one, really. Let me know how to go about that if they're for sale.

It's also really GREAT to *see* you! Yeah, it's about time, alright! Thanks for sharing your photo!

[the mingo]

judih - Thank you judih. I've been wanting to attempt a bison skull. Trouble with that is the only way I have at present of getting a bison skull is by purchase. $250 to $350 is the price range and that is beyond my reach presently. Even if I had the money I could not justify spending it like that. I think what's goin' to happen is there is a connection waiting to be made that ain't been made yet and when that connection is made it will be with someone who will offer to trade me a bison skull for something they need from me. A piece of work that they want me to do for them. It will be something like that. Call it a hunch. In the meantime the situation has had me considering many other things that could be beaded. Ya wouldn't believe the things that have lent themselves to my mischievous eye.

[the mingo]

Dame - Thank you. I know what you mean about the feel of seed beads. I just like the feel of them in my hands. That hard roundness in its glorious hundreds of them. Nancy says they feel "alive" and she don't mean that figuratively. The Indians say that each bead is a prayer. That's how it feels to them. Having worked with beads I think the Indians are exactly right. I'd cover the world in bead prayers if I could.

[SadLuckDame]

me too, Mingo. I'd swim in them and pray if I could.
We must of posted about the same time, so forgive me for my lateness, but it's great to see you there by the way.

[the mingo]

sooZ - Thx for all your enthusiasm & gracious thoughts. Let me say again what a fine fine touch you showed on the bird rock. Your birds are much more literally drawn than Cyrus's. His tend more toward the pictographic. I love love love the setting you have it in. I ain't seen a garden so well realized as that since I left Japan. I kid you not. And tell Cecil he captured that space on camera exquisitely. Shit, it was like I was standing there looking at it with my own eyes.

I stuck to the traditional methods on the skull. I used a mixture of beeswax & pine pitch like the Indians do. The problem I've discovered with this is the Natives made these things as offerings used in their ceremonies. They were not meant to be permanent. I've made some of these items as gifts for friends & what I've run across is that everybody who sees them wants to touch them, handle them, rub them. FEEL them over and over again. Under this kind of intensity they were never meant to be placed and sooner or later a bead works loose and falls off here & another there. People bring them back to me and say, "Look what happened! Can you fix it?" So I've looked at modern glues and other substances to fill the bill. Trouble with modern glues is they set too fast for the work. You need t-i-m-e to accomplish this. What I'm thinking (or hoping, actually) is that a silicon based adhesive might be just the thing here. Set times are a lot less frantic with silicon & it might give you enough unhurried lead time plus the time to follow unexpected inspiration that happens when the surface you are covering surprises you in some way. I ain't tried it yet but am going to shortly. Winter is the beading season 'round here & it's right around the corner. For the traditional matrix of beeswax & pine pitch I've never found a published recipe. So it was hit & miss for me. What I can tell you from that is too much pine pitch and your mix will be & set too hard and pushing the individual beads into it becomes very very frustrating. Too much beeswax just the opposite. Your mix will be too soft, very easy to work but it will be too susceptible to any kind of warmth - even room temp. Your beads will "droop" over time. If you're of a mind to go traditional don't mix it half & half which was my first inclination - too much pine pitch. If you're going to err err on the side of the beeswax. Pine pitch is available commercially but that doesn't mean it will be consistent in practice. Beeswax on the other hand seems to be all the same in quality. I use a turkey needle to place beads - the kind you use to hold a turkey together for baking, best thing I've found bar none. Consistent. Toothpicks can be used but they wear & also break and they can slow your work in other ways, like getting the bead to release from the pick. You'll find this out if you try this. You can see on the skull that most of the beads are placed like you said hole side up.
Take another look around the eye sockets. You will see that the first three rows of beads, yellow, orange, & red are all hole side up but the following few rows are placed on their sides. This adds some texture to your piece. The mind of the observer will "feel" this difference even if the eye does not at first see it. To place beads this way presents challenges hole up does not. Hole side up leaves you pretty much open to free play & inspiration along the way. But side placed beads ask that you consider the shape of your piece - its various intricacies, because you cannot (at least I can not) place size #11 seed beads or smaller by finger. You need the needle or toothpick or whatever other enterprising way to help place the bead. Whew! Hope I've answered to the curiosites you voiced. And thanx again sooZ.

[judih]

mingo, you could be hosting bead camps. you could trade bison skulls for your know-how and environmental inspiration.

great photo of you - what blatant inner beauty. i don't know what i imagined but it did involve a hat.

we have a factory here on the kibbutz that produces silicone. we've got some pine trees that grow till they topple over (since the soil here is too sandy for those large trees), so maybe, just maybe i could begin my own explorations of beading on bone. thanks so much for your detailed commentary.