Molly Goatwax

Tap pressure regulators

Watercolor, ink and crayon on compulsively gessoed wood.

Creeped Out

Hubby came into the bar this afternoon and told me he had just heard on the radio Johnny Cash covering Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus". I said "Nooo...." But he called it up on our jukebox. And he played it. Excuse me, I have to hide now.

One Stoop at a Time

"Fabio"* figured out how to turn a discarded tire into a planter with a saws-all and a crowbar and he brought the first one, unpainted, to Molly's for me to see. (The stone warehouse across the street is pictured in the background) This revives an old custom...usta be great stretches of streets had one beside each stoop, painted alike but with individual plantings. They have also enjoyed a resurgency in SoWeBo, with  artist-of-all-things Dan VanAllen crafting many unique examples, one of which I displayed behind my home in Charles Village...but I digress. By the train tracks a block north are a great many discarded tires. In this little loop of the train tracks there are a hundred stoops that need a tire planter. Are you with me here? Fabio's putting three alongside my long wall.

* He's got long blonde hair but he's way better looking than that other guy.

Moving Feast

Lots of urban neighborhoods are populated by pigeons and rats. I don't see many pigeons and have not seen any rats around here since we took up residence seven years ago, Rather, the place seems overrun with doves and bunnies. Besides parading all over the streets impeding my car, the doves make mournful cooing sounds in the mornings and evenings. And, I have been seeing more rabbits this year, twice and three times a day-separate individuals leisurely hopping through my yard boldly going forth in search of bulbs and shoots. Big, fat bunnies the size of cats...and involuntarily, they make me salivate in much the same way as the geese migrations landing at the horse farm did so long ago. (Has it really been less than a year? Yes.) This is my land now, I love hossenpfeffer, have some "humane" squirrel traps in the attic and lots of spinach for bait, but again, I wouldn't really know what or want to do with one once I caught it. Ummm...let's have some chocolate instead.

Dr. This and Dr. That

Dr. Mom and Dr. M. are getting married at the Clarence Mitchell courthouse tommorrow, and when she asked her friend the judge to officiate, he reserved the " 'the most beautiful courtroom in America' "--the former Orphans Court, now doing duty as a museum of Baltimore legal history. The ornate room with its parquet floors, West Indian mahogany paneling, and vast mural depicting the British surrender at Yorktown is exquisite." described here by the City Paper. He called his buddies at The Daily Record, who are sending a photographer. (She rates!) I picked up his suit from the tailor over the weekend and to go with her lavender crepe dress I talked her into wearing her dainty pierced white sandals, rather than the navy bow-toes she had selected, in spite of the fact that it's too early in the season for them. She is, after all, getting married. While every once in a while I've run into brides in full fluffy drag in the courthouse corridors, (and handed back the bouquets knocked to the floor) they still head up to the 6th floor for a perfunctory running of the vows, but it seems that The Powers That Be are pulling out all the stops for the happy couple. Way to go!

Faux Pass on it

Today I went over to Mother's house to help her with a closet and a vacuum cleaner and she took me severely to task for wearing white sandals before Memorial Day. Heck, it's after Easter. I think she was more aggravated for the sandals having previously been hers than for any concern that some Society Matron would bludgeon me to death with a frozen lamb leg for it, although she did mention the scene from Serial Mom.

Money

Where do I apply for a genius grant? Oh, right. You don't. They find you. It's looking like I might have to come out from behind my taps and tubes and find some more gainful employment. If I were to name any one villain in the budget, it would be the health insurance as the deal breaker here...

humming along

I'm becoming quite fascinated with the workings of the tubes, gasses, valves and regulators that deliver the libations. This filtered view above some of the kegs in the walk-in will be incorporated into the next painting. I wonder how I can get the beer to flow directly from the art?

The Good Old Boys

Back in February, when Molly's had been open a few weeks, long time residents of the neighborhood would stop in and wonder what had happened to the old place. They'd complain that the poker machines and the lottery were gone and when was I putting them back in? And what about the Dart League? And what is a Public House? All these questions and their absence in protest I endured with good humor, even as they trickled back in every so often and would answer on their cell phones that they were at "Joe's". Today 2, 4, 6, then a posse of them gathered, wished me well, hugged and kissed, answered on their cell phones that they were at "Molly's" and won't you come down to meet me? And they all enjoyed some of the coldest beer in town. I tell you, I'm still new at this and Stix tells me I am a lousy bartender...(how do you make that? Hold up, I didn't hear you.)...but life can be good in brief shining moments. Now I gotta get back to that board I am compulsively gessoing over and over and over again. It needs another coat Um. Architectural Elements. Um. A discarded regulator from the beer tubes, some photographic information about the gas mixer...um. U-bolts. See ya later BYE!

Roll envy

Photo courtesy JHU Gazette.

You'd think that for 40,000 dollars a year, the President of Johns Hopkins Univervisity would let his students ride his Segway once in a while, as this student complains. (Among other things) Although the one pictured is on loan from the company, it would be neat if they let some engineering students get their hands on some so they could figure out how to make them more cheaply...I'm not the only one who's jealous, seriously. I'd like to check one out.