Hit Me Baby One More Time

***Strangely, this page has been viewed an unusual amount of times lately...
what is the source? What is directing you here? I can't find the link ...
Will someone please enlighten me?***

And now, back to the story:

Yes, I watched HMBOMT last night and soaked in Dale Bozzio's performance like a puppy-love-crushed 9 year old boy.

I LOVE Dale Bozzio and her performance did not let me down.
No, she didn't let me down even under the circumstances of having to perform on such a cheese ridden show.
In case you haven't seen HMBOMT, the show is ,in fact, the cheesiest and the emcee and his British accent is downright annoying.

Someone remind me...how is that when someone speaks with a British accent, they suddenly are an authority in musicology?

It also annoys me that this fresh-faced kid wasn't even born when most of these performers were at the height of their successes...
dubious as they might have been.

I mean, I just wish he could fully appreciate the interaction he is having with some of these artists.
That's all I'm sayin'.
I have nothing against cute young men with accents.
No, not in the slightest.

I should also re-state that I am still embarassed that I looked forward to any TV show with unbridled excitement and anticipation all week long.

In my defense, I offer this thought to you:

Exactly, where else would I, a woman sans cable,
have been able to see one of my formative years absolute heroines,
in the comfort of my own home,
whilst combing the internet for all things Missing Persons .....
AND eating double-choclate Jello pudding at the same time?
See my point?

Excitement warranted.

Ahem.
Back to my crush Dale.

Her voice, which has always been unusual, now has matured to resemble Marianne Faithfull in a most beautiful way.
Broken and inaudible at times, Marianne strange and pained voice has undeniably and haunted me for a number of years.
So Dale's voice doing a little morph-action toward this same style was not a detraction or distraction, in my opinion.

Did I tell you she still looks beautiful?
She is tiny perfection.
No longer in the rail-thin-plastic-bra-pink-haired-Barbie sort of way...
But rather, in the "yeah, I'm pushin' 50 and I still have pink hair (extensions) and I'm still the coolest chick from another planet you know" sort of way.

I do realize I just posted a whole rant of how much I loved AFOS so you could be getting somewhat over my love of the 80's.

But for those of you that are still reading this....

What I failed to tell you in that entry,
is that I had 3 cassette tapes in my aforementioned Karmann Ghia.
One was The Cars, Candy-O.
The second was Led Zeppelin IV, and last but not least was Missing Persons Rhyme and Reason.
I wore that tape out and when it quit playing I hung the paper insert from the plastic case on my wall in my home(s).
Most recently it was above my painting table at the Cinderblock for inspiration. Maybe you even saw it there and thought,
'what the...'???

Dale has been with me a long time.

At 16, I would drive around and daydream it was me in that space age get up.

At 25, I would dream it was me stiff-legged, flamingo-coiffed and squealing in my leather loin cloth on the stage.

and today, at 35, I still daydream about being as cool as Dale.

And did you know I owe this pleasure mainly to Frank Zappa, whom Dale credits for "giving me everything in my life ..making me who I am today ..giving me incredible faith in my musical ability that I would
have never believed in my life that I could do" ..

I mean, it just keeps getting better, doesn't it?!

Dales debut was as 'Mary' on the Zappa album Joes Garage.
Wow.

I'll bet if any of you watched the show last night and know me very well, you may have even anticipated this post.
If so, I hope I came through for you.
But, to me, it was necessary.
One must give credit where credit is due.

And in the world according to Anessa, Dale deserves some serious credit.

So bravo, Dale.
You keep on keepin' on.
I love you, girl....and thanks for being you.

Peel OUT!

Sorry I have been such a lame-o posting anything lately...but I haven't had the time to sit still very much...
and now that is it nearly 100 degrees by 10am, I am forced to take my early morning walk actually quite early in the morning. This, unfortunately, cuts directly into my blogging time.

I have walked 2.7 miles 16 out of the past 17 days, however.
Apparently, less blogging = less booty....
well, in my world, at least.

So after my walk today, I spent some time surfing around on Craig's List....a very funny site that my Mark's step-brother, Bret, recently hipped me to. Some of the entries are very good and found this little article laugh out loud funny. I don't know who wrote it, but I had tears in my eyes reading it.

Partially, I was laughing because it reminded me of a particular time I peeled out during a fight with Mark.

It seems we couldn't agree on some certain details* of our yearly homemade Christmas/Holiday card and got in a huge yelling match at the local Kinko's. I walked out of the store steaming mad...he followed me and got in the car. Silently, we fumed at each other until we got 10 blocks down the street in front of our house. I stopped the car and said, "Get out."
Mark stepped out of the car onto the sidewalk and I proceeded to peel out with some mad vengeance. Well, that is, as much mad vengence as my 1978 Volvo wagon could muster.
So, with my tires squealing and my teeth grinding, I laid rubber like a true be-otch while simultaneously catching a glimpse of Mark in my rearview mirror as I sped down Bayly Avenue.

Uh-oh.
Oh boy.

It was at this point that things took a turn for the worse.
Thanks to my award-deserving dramatica, there would be a slightly larger problem to deal with once I got home.

The vision in the rear-view mirror?
Um, that would be Mark,
and our lovely hand-made holiday card project.........
absolutely covered from head to toe
in wet, stinky, curb mud from the side of the road.

You see, my bald spinning tires added a doubly insulting touch to my display
by flinging a big ol' bunch of mud right up on the poor guy.

Yes.
Head to toe.
Like a cartoon.
Like a cartoon Dalmation.
Like a really tall and pissed off cartoon Dalmation.
Did I mention that the Dalmation was still in his nice work clothes?

Well, needless to say, it wasn't pretty when I returned home about 15 minutes later.
It also didn't help matters much that I had
become quite amused as to how our project had so quickly spun out of control.

Amused that we got so bent out of shape of the artistic direction of our greeting cards.
Amused by the faces of Kinko's customers that got to hear our bickering about *me making myself too large, er, TALL, on the card and not to scale with the rest of the family
( Family meaning Mark and 2 cats and Lilly Dog.)
and some psychobabble about my inflated self-importance and blah, blah, blah...
(Mark was still an Art Therapist back then).

I was giggling uncontrollably by the time I got home.
I knew I was in BIG trouble, but I couldn't help it.

Luckliy, Mark and I are quick to kiss and make up...
He was only mad at me for about 2 hours and the mud caused no permanent damage to either his clothing or his ego.

And the cards, you ask?
Funny, I can't even remember if we ever finished them.

Teacher Let the Monkeys Out!

T P Madness!,
originally uploaded by Anessa.

Oh my.
It must be summer time...
and I must admit it made me very happy to see such a great T.P.-ing job.
Bravo, kids!
(Just don't get me next!)

Oh Paducah!

2 pretty photos for you.
First, a charming little barn. Taken Friday, early evening, from Mark's parent's back patio...

and Saturday night, taken at the gas station on our way to dinner and sangrias at Tribecca.

Book Meme

I just got tagged by my friend and family member Mike @ 10000Birds.com to participate in the following book meme.

This was, of course, quite challenging for me because I don't really read books very often. Truly, I can't do much of anything that requires sitting still very long. I even stand and pace when I paint.
Once I really gave it some thought, though, I have done more reading than I thought I had. What a pleasant surprise.
Finding out that you are not quite the simpleton you feared you might have been.

So with that said...here it goes....

Total number of books I own/owned:
About 100-150.

I just gave away two rather large boxes of books to a nice couple* that we hired to fill in the crater in our back yard left from the previous owner's above ground pool.

Also, before we moved to Paducah, I put a ton of books on a table in my front yard in Louisville with a sign that read:
FREE BOOKS. PLEASE TAKE A FEW AND ENJOY.
I got rid of all but about 3 or 4.
People were very grateful and I was happily reminded of how easy it is to do nice things for people.
Later that day, Mark and I gave our gas grill to a neighborhood homeless couple we know that live under a bridge.
(she offered to crochet me a blanket to repay me. I told her I would love one, but it wasn't necessary and we moved before I saw her again.)
I highly suggest this as a way to get rid of books, and grills, and share the love.

*Howard and Neecie, they used to be married to one another but now they just do yard work together, so technichally, I guess they are not a couple.

Anyhoo, next question:
Five books that have influenced me a lot:

1. This I Believe written for and with a forward by Edward Morrows.
It was my Grandfather's book. Printed in 1952. It's a wonderful essay-style book of personal philosophies of one hundred men and women. My copy is tattered and yellowed and cherished. My Grandfather made little arrows and notes in the margins. I think he may have used this as a teaching tool in his sunday school class. NPR is running a show based on the same idea, maybe you've heard it?

2. Light From Many Lamps Edited and commentary by Lillian Eichler Watson.
My Grandparents gave as a gift to me in 1991 for college graduation. I picked it up tonight and turned to a page I had dog-eared sometime in the past and read the following quote from William Wordsworth,

"That best portion of a good man's life-
His nameless, and unremembered acts
Of kindness and love."

I after writing about the homeless couple I guess I actually let that one sink in. But now that I have broadcasted it on the internet, I guess it isn't nameless, So I guess it doesn't really count.
I had this marked too, for obvious reasons**.
Page 227, by John Burroughs.

Essay titled: " I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, for, lo! My own shall come to me."

If you have an amazon account you can read, online, Mr. Burrough's short story about a young doctor who realized he really wanted to be a naturalist.

The point I guess I am trying to make is; this book is full of wonderful stories and quotes and I'm pretty sure the answer to life's biggest questions can be found in here.

Boy, can you imagine if I would ever write a book? That would be one convoluted tale, eh?

**Obvious, of course, because I used to be a doctor... (wink)

3. Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.
I have learned and continue to learn so much from this book.
I first read it in high school, finally bought my own copy a few years ago and open it quite frequently.
Basically, it teaches you to see things for what they really are.
For example, if I say to you,"draw this chair",
an image of a chair instantly pops into your head and clouds you from truly seeing the chair that in front of you.
Even though you are looking a particular chair with specific features, your brain keeps referencing the image of the chair in your brain to fill in any missing details.
(It's probably your Mom's kitchen chair where you ate dinner for many years.)
This book contains exercises and diagrams and actual case studies of previously hopeless artists. After reading this, I am absolutely convinced that anyone from any talent level can learn to draw. It is truly amazing.
That impressionable, wacky of brain can get in the way sometimes. It's hard to look at things with no pre-conceived attachments.
Incindentally, I've decided that this whole theory can translate into relationships...
Am I being to abstract here? Perhaps.
Let's move on.

4. What Should I Do with my Life? by Po Bronson.
Um, thanks Po Bronson and my wonderful husband I'm just about doing it! This is a book of interviews
(are you seeing a pattern here?)
of fifty-five individual's personal journeys in various stages of answering this age old question.

5. Our Bodies Our Selves written by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective.
The woman's BIBLE. If you don't have it, get it. Nothing is out of bounds in this book. It covers pretty much everything I have ever wondered about regarding being a woman. It might not hurt if a few men give it a good once over, too.

6. Honorable mention goes to Psychocybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, MD., FICS. I love this book but I always get sick of reading it. I agree with what it says and I pick it up from time to time and say, "Hey, I'm going to finish this son of a gun right now." Then I read a few lines,put it down and say...... oh yeah...... You are what you think you are. Simple enough.
I'll finish that another day.

Last book I bought:
500 Self Portraits
Thick little book featuring 500 self portraits by various artists from ancient Egypt to the present. I have looked at every single one more than once. Whenever I find myself beating myself up about my painting style, I look through this book and remind myself that I admire other people's works, simply because they did them. Then I can revisit my own projects again with a much less critical eye.

Last book I read for the first time:
You Are Psychic! By Pete A Sanders, Jr., summa cum laude from MIT, went to Harvard briefly then moved to Sedona Arizona and opened Free Soul, a non-profit education program.
You are Psychic! is a biomedical chemistry and brain science-based book that shows you simple exercises to tap into all NINE senses. Yes, NINE! I have not finished it, but I love the illustrations. My friend, Robyn Slen loaned it to me and I need to return it to her...
Wait, I think I ma picking up an extra-sensory message right now......It's saying......Yes, she wants her book back soon!


Last new book I finished:
Finished is the key word here, I generally start reading things in the middle. The meat of it. It saves time and lets you know if you're going to like it or not. On rare occasions I will go front to back and complete the entire book, in order, from Once Upon a Time to The End.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was that way.... Marcy loaned it to me a long long time ago and I still have it.
(also seeing another pattern here?) It's a great story about a magical pair of blue jeans that is shared by 4 best friends. I loved this book.

Five other bloggers to tag with this meme:
Marcy@Whyareweinthishandbasket?
Lori-Lyn @ Dream Life Studio
Mandy @ Mad Mad Day
Michael @ Sprouse Art
Mick@ Mingle Freely

You guys, of course, do not have to do this....
and, I should add, that I would like to know what some of you other folks have been influenced by, as well.
I just listed the above names because I think they will feel comfortable telling me to jump in the lake if they don't want to do it.

It's all part of my Rock 'n Roll Fantasy

You know that angel painting from a few weeks ago....yeah.
Um.
Well, as Lori Lyn would say, these things sometimes happen.
It morphed on me like a Transformer.
Bye bye angel...hello Paul Stanley?

Tunes and Treasures

Sunday was a very rainy day so Mark and I decided to make the most of our indoor situation and spent the day painting our den.
It is now a beautiful beachy shade of turquoise that reminds us of the ocean in Mexico. (Our favorite place in the world.)

Whilst transforming our previously sad and dreary pee-yellow, faux-finsihed walls, to the aforementioned, fresh and cheery hue of blue, we listened to our XM Radio.

We love our XM.
(Mark now loves his iPod slightly more than our XM since he became a podcasting junkie, but still digs the XM and awful lot.)

Yes, we listened to various genres of music for about 4 hours or more, I'd say.
We mellowed out to the 70's station and XM cafe, freestyle jammed with some Lifestyles selections,
and finally came to rest on the absurdly awesome 80's for the largest part of our afternoon's listening experience.

One of the things I most love about XM Radio, is that you can glance over and see the name of the song you are listening to and the recording artist glowing in big orange letters on the little tuner...all day, all the time.
This feature thrills me because I never fully recovered from the sad, last few days of the now non-existent FM radio D.J.s
that would tell you a little information about each song before or after playing it.

So we made a game, similar to Name that Tune, where we would see which one of us could guess the 80's song first from the first few notes. I must say, I believe I have a firm grasp on my 80's music knowledge, but Mark's knowledge extended far beyond mine, encompassing the obscure and one hit wonders,
like Le Tigre and Bunny D and Taco.
(I was reminded of yet another reason I love him so much.)

As the marathon of my youth's music wrenched an unstoppable flood of memories from my brain,
I came to settle on one thought for a very long time.
A thought that made me laugh.
A thought that made me uncomfortable.
A thought that made me think...

Where are the Merry Go Round clothing stores of today?

I loved, loved, loved the Merry Go Round in Fayette Mall.
They had the perfect selection of wearables to reflect each month's top 40 track.
It was their thing.

Feeling like a Maniac? Well, here we have a whole wall of Flashdance inspired oversized, pre-cut sweatshirts for you.

Not so much a maniac today? Feeling more like a Virgin? May I interest you in these fine black lace gloves, or one of our layering rosaries?

Oh, Can't touch this? Harem pants to the left on the back wall.

Pour Some Sugar on Me? Union Jack muscle tee, half-shirts are on sale--- this week only.
Buy one and get a free, black mesh, layering, half-shirt to wear over it.

Yes, I used to love that store. I would buy the craziest looking outfits in there and actually wear them to my small town high school.
(Luckily, my after school job only paid $3.25 an hour, so I couldn't buy that much.)

Yesterday, because of the music, I even remembered my very favorite outfit of all purchased at the Merry Go Round.
A pair of harem-like, white, crinkly, wrinkly, super light-weight, gauze pants, (Very skinny at the ankle, large billowy legs and a drawstring and elastic waist) and a light sea-foam green, silk-ish, summer sweater with one button in the back and a large key hole opening that went halfway down my back.
It was daring!
It was this fabulous outfit I chose to wear to a beach party on Hilton Head Island where my beach friend Kristen Burns, (I would love to find you somehow, Kristen Burns from Raleigh, NC.... wherever you are...and the Payne brothers from Cincinnati, too) and I met and hung out with the band Europe.
Who is now touring again...and you thought they'd never last!)

So yesterday, besides getting a lot of painting done, and getting my A double S beat down by playing Name that 80's Tune.. was reminded of how important music is to me.

Music........... and the clothes it inspires, rather.
What an awesome combination.

Nerdtastic

I love this woman and this is a beautiful thing.

Three cheers for Leslie Hall!

Hip, hip, hurrah!
Hip, hip,hurrah!
Hip, hip, hurrah!

On the Easel

I haven't posted anything lately because I have been busy overworking this poor painting and dealing with plumbers, electricians, HVAC men and gutter folks. We're spending $ like banshees.
Have you ever seen the movie "The Money Pit"?

Ahem.

Anyhoo....Drama schlama.
Here's what I have been up to.

Parts of this are only roughed in (the hand)
and other parts have been so completely over worked it's pathetic (the rest of it) .
The nose is very flat....still a bit of work to be done....
Parts of it I like, however. The hair, the right eye, the lip, the halo.
Sometimes when I post things like this on flickr or here on the blog, I can see them with fresh eyes.
I can suddenly see what is wrong with the picture.
So, for what's it worth..

Oh yeah, by the way...it's me. Wearing a tinsel halo and smoking (sorry Michael, just for irony's sake)
a hand-rolled cigarette.
I think I look vaguely reminiscent the paper angels you see during the holidays, at the mall, for the Angel-Tree-Make-a-Kids-Christmas promotion.

Anyone? Anyone?

Just want to post this and see what kind of reaction I get.
You likey? You no likey?
Please feel free to let me have it.
Post anonymously if you want.

Obviously, it's based on my profile photo to your right.
I also looked in the mirror quite a bit.
This is my first attempt at a self portrait in paint....ever.
I'm trying very hard to loosen up and paint more quickly. It's a 2 day project so far,
oil on canvas, 24"X30" I'm having a hard time making it look like the cigarette has any weight to it.
I did say it's not done yet, right?

Like how I painted the wrinkles away?
Painting magic!

Still a Fan

As many of you know, Mark and I have chosen not to have cable in our new home.

We aren't very good at not having a televison at all, however,
so we do allow ourselves a pair of rabbit ears on a medium-sized TV in the den.
Living in Western Kentucky, this means we get one station clearly, UPN,
(which is great if you like Yes, Dear and Everybody Loves Raymond..a lot)
and one other station with very fuzzy reception.
Channel 6.
Not sure what the call letters are because I can barely stand the concentration it takes make things out.
So, last night I was watching, Yes, Dear,
(for the 50 billionth time),
while sitting down to eat my microwave diet meal
(doused with Tabasco so I east it more slowly
and therefore it becomes more filling)
and thought I'd see what was on the other channel.

Click.

Tonight, on blah, blah, blah, where are they now?, blah, blah, blah,
contest, blah, blah, blah, reality, blah,
Vanilla Ice, blah, blah, blah, Flock of Seagulls...

(screeching sound of turntable arm scratching the surface of album caused by major distraction of DJ,
note: this sound is not the same sound used on purpose by music pioneers such as Grandmaster Flash ).

What? A Flock of Seagulls on TV tonight? Yes!

Two things I want to mention here:

#1. I do not think Mike Score and the guys of AFOS were masters of their trade,
but that does not always matter in pop rock.
Remember when Madonna was best known for rolling around in black lace and rosaries on the floor?
It was not her fabulous voice that had our attention.
It was the spectacle, persona and performance.
You see, I was more interested in the idea of AFOS than their skills.
Which weren't bad, I should make clear.

#2. I realize I will get a lot of flack for making these statements, but I don't care.
I'm ready to defend my opinion.
After all, I voted for Nader once, if I can defend that, I can surely defend these guys.


Anyhoo, where was I?
Oh yeah:

screeching sound

What? A Flock of Seagulls on TV, next? Yes!

AFOS, was one of those bands that takes me straight back to being a teenager.
They made me want to be a unusual, artistic, creative, different.
I remember buying my first pair of new wave sunglasses at Festival Market's Sunglass Hut,
listening to my Psychedelic Furs cassette and cruising around Lexington in my Karmann Ghia
(wishing Earl Scheib would paint it pink for me like Andie's)
and thinking....."Yeah. This this is totally the deal."

I loved Mike Score's hair,
I loved the stiff robotic way he played the keyboard,
I loved the dreamy otherworldly sounds he and Gary Neuman were so fond of coaxing from their synthesizers.
I loved the weirdness.
I still love the weirdness I feel in my gut when I hear that spooky music today.

So, I got out my trusty step ladder and stretched my short little arms as far as I could
trying every conceivable angle for the antenna.
(Which I am now convinced is a piece of crap.)
Finally after producing a sweaty brow and a charlie horse in my shoulder, I decided it looked clear enough to watch this one performance.

Well, I watched it.
It was mediocre, at best.
Luckily, I was kind of expecting that.
I really wasn't disappointed.
Well, I was a little disappointed that the whole band wasn't there.
But it was good.
And it brought back some wonderful memories.

I would even go as far as to say, AFOS is partially responsible for making me who I am today.
And you know what?
I like me.

So for all you haters and fair-weather friends out there, likely, ripping on last night's performance right now,
hear this:

Mike, I still love ya, baby. And, yes, I am still a fan.
I'm loud and I'm proud and I'm not ashamed to say it.

My name is Anessa Arehart and I love A Flock of Seagulls.

The end.

What Rhymes with Loritab?

Loritab, Lortab, I've just learned thy name.
Such a popular drug in the west Kentucky game!

Before we moved to the country quite grand.
I'd never heard of it's powers, pleasure and fans.

But, out of woodwork they started to crawl,
"I take mine fer my laig pains."
"I stole mine from my Pa."

They take them with coffee, and water and beer,
then drive up to Wal Mart and for bullets...
and huntin' gear.

My neighbor was on them when she threw out her back.
A dealer was arrested two blocks over,
for selling them with a sidecar of crack.

The teachers are on them, the welcome-wagon and the seniors.
The clerk, the waitress, the judge and the preacher.

It's talked about freely and often, it's true,
A simple matter of fact, in the heart of the red, white 'n blue.

Relaxed and laid back is the way in these hills.
I thought it was tradition,
but now I think it could be the pills.

As opiates go, they're quite easy to get.
A tumble down the stairs and even I got a script.

Tiny, ink-scribbled words on a pad of light blue,
Just a trip to Wallgreen's and I can be on 'em, too.

Narcotics for a bruise?
I think I'll "Just Say No".
Yes, my bruise hurts, but did we overshoot the goal?

A few icy beers will do me just fine.
If it still hurts after the beers,
I've got a bottle of wine.