"WE SERVE ONLY BLUE FOOD"

Back to Work: It's been a couple of years since PAINTING. Now I'm PAINTING once more, and it's always such a mirror. Fer instance, it makes it obvious that I spend way too much time on the computer. Don't know why, it's just that since I've taken the brush up again—by necessity, I didn't have many paintings left to sell—it's more noticeable what a useless time suck it is. Worse than useless, filling head with all kinds of so-called knowledge. But it's not knowledge, it's data, and it's mostly useless, and it takes up much needed space in our heads. I think the singularity will be, not the moment when computers get as smart as humans, but the moment when there is more data than the universe can hold, and it all folds up into an origami elephant on my dad's desk. As far as painting goes: More theater pieces, more pieces out of the world of Subject to Verification, local scenery, the new house... tho it's a bit less interesting to me as a painter than other houses, even though it's more comfortable. More modern.

It will be like winter at Tahoe up here.

showdown

I mean, show down. At a local food place. Nice to have the children home, but already wondering what their next adventure will be.

Possible scheme: getting a temp studio in Vienna (Wien) and paint, then do a show later. Then it occurs to me: do I really want to paint? Better question: what should I be working on now? Orders as if from above, but directions come from within, that is, the gut. How it feels.

I feel like continuing work on Subject to Verification movie.... so ... that's what I'll do...

goodbye Pittsfield

It's been great as always. Looking forward to getting back West, tho.

Did a reading, a signing, sold some paintings. Feedback from the reading, and those who have read some or all of the book: priceless. It's a bit of a trick to not be attached to good words, praise, but, at the same time, use your skillful means as a producer of some work - you need to know how it works out in the world. and it's gratifying when you hear that it does. But nah, not attached to that. At all.

The last piece of eggplant, dinner with DeGroot.

Woke up before dawn this morning. Feels like something is up.
Squirrel in tree last night said hi but seemed preoccupied, maybe worried.
Send my book to my siblings a couple of days ago. When you're talking memoir, that's scary.
Watched The Last Wave last night. It's a fave, but still the story track eludes me.

Hedwig

I was telling friends in Ibiza about Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a day or so later, back at the Port Authority in NYC, waiting for a bus to Pittsfield, this young lady was standing in front of me

great movie.

old pictures

Walking the fantastic old tourist district in Vienna, I saw a gallery with this in the window. Nothing like straightforward advertising. What is it about old photos that so entrances us?

Where We Go To Remember Home

It doesn't really work the way we want it to, the remembering. The picture of the house - is that where it was? I'm having trouble. The hallways - where do they go? When will we be served? It seems like it's been forever.

St. Stephen Was Here...

This magnificent cathedral - it's HUGE - is now surrounded by hundreds of high-end shops, and thousands and thousands of high-end shoppers. I joined in the fun, too. But I was haunted by the different pictures of the two ages. What was central to each, what motivated each.

I love modern life: the convenience, the choices, the freedom (at least for me), the power. But I also sense something missing, something displaced by the hunger for acquisition. I guess it's up to each of us to find it in this modern age.

I thought I was going to quit drinking coffee in Vienna.

I'm an idiot.

Transformers Were Invented in Pittsfield

BullDia
Originally uploaded by douglasstruth

Did you know that? This is one of the earliest versions. It was filled with PCB, which was thought to be a kind of nutritious lubricant back in the old days. These things are worth a fortune now.

one great song

Dave Van Ronk's Mack the Knife

As Above So Below

Originally uploaded by douglasstruth

We humans, we're just in the middle of everything. It's up to us whether we send it up, or down.

have a nice day

I love the what appears to be a third eye on this guide. someday we'll shake hands, fellows well-met, and tell stories of the old days, and laugh, laugh, laugh.

Remember the time... he'll say, and I'll say, No.

Rusty

Rusty
Originally uploaded by douglasstruth

I remember the day long ago, in Portland OR, when the People of the Wall revealed themselves to me for the first time. They warned me: don't tell others about us. They said that not out of worry that they might be generally revealed to the world at large, but, as is usual with them, out of concern for my well-being. "No one will believe you," they said. "You'll be committed."

I'm so glad they were wrong. But maybe it means that no one believes anything I say.

Noble Toad

Noble Toad
Originally uploaded by douglasstruth

Don't you wish you had one of these old Douglass Truth Institute Tshirts? I do. All gone, gone, gone. Being used now, I suppose, to clean carburator parts for an old Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine. Or dusting the parlor. Or sent somewhere, ignominiously, as part of a bale of cotton to be used in paper-making. No one knows what happens when you die.

sun needed

IMG_1861
Originally uploaded by Teahouse of Danger

my toes are complaining about having to be inside shoes all day long. here they are relaxing in Paul Graubard's Pittsfield art studio.

I told him I was working there.

I'm doing this instead of figuring out what the opening for my show is. It's the hardest part, you know. A couple of bad jokes in the beginning and you're saying, like Moms Mabley, "well, you might not like it now, but you'll be glad when it's over..."

The Douglass Truth Institute

Feels like a renaissance is in the works. The Institute is weed-grown, paint-chipped, silent. The cafeteria echoes with the olden sounds of happy, dynamic students. But now.. now... perhaps spring comes for the Truth as well. A ver.

VIDEO!

At long last, we got the Lantern video edited.


check it out! We're really really going to make a real movie out of this story some day.

Scene from maybe my favorite movie. Something about the corporate/government talk in this movie is so accurate, and in its precise way says something profound about the old world which is soon to be gone...