Recently I spent the better part of last week volunteering for the Utah Arts Festival. This picture to the side is the Library Square in Salt Lake City where we have been holding the Festival for the past four years, beautiful no? This year we celebrated our 30th anniversary and I celebrated my 9th year volunteering. It may seem like quite a bit of time (even makes me feel old saying that), but I spent the first half of that simply showing up for the facepainting portion of the Children's Art Yard. So I spent a good 4-5 hours a day just sitting in the shade and enjoying the bright smiles after I perfected "movebrushwithsquirmingchildsface"-fu. But last year and this year, I was one of two Lemonade stand girls. So I was there for about 12-13 hours straight each day with the Odyssey House volunteers. Which was an awesome experience in and of itself (except for the direct sunlight.. I'm now a darker shade of stark white). I am rather fond of the people I work with during the festival. You never know what to expect! One day I was working with one of the leading research scientists of the health department of the state and the next I was working with a mother of five. After my semi-parenting experience I had earlier this summer, I just have to say that I was completely astounded by her. The entire festival is just chuck full of people from every walk of life! Oh, and having the chance to watch the Taiko Drum group perform every year just rocks my socks. I must admit that it is one of the highlights of my year. There's just something about percussion that makes my day bright.

I must admit though.. Last night I had this horrible repeating-waking dream that Neo from the Matrix walked up to the counter and the entire dialogue of the conversation consisted of him asking what we had and saying "Whoah" to everything I said. Even after I insisted that he make a selection and pay, all he would say was "Whoah" and stand there in that usually awe-inspiring Ted Theodore Logan jaw-drop position that the man will never escape at any point in his acting career. Ever. I was half-expecting him to claim that he knew Kung-Fu when I threatened to call security after standing there for a half-hour holding up the line. I tell ya.. people in muggy weather will get rather fiesty if they don't get to the front of the line in at least five minutes or less.

To me, it's worth every moment I'm there to simply enjoy being out amongst others that appreciate Art like myself. Oh, and the artwork, simply stunning this year. Everything you can imagine from Surreal Multi-colored Victorian oil paintings to a 50 foot cloth dragon that we had laying in the fountain in the above picture., oh.. and who cannot forget the little demon metal sculpture seen gobbling down the last half of a lawn gnome and dragging another behind him. Not only do you have the opprotunity to see this artwork, but the artisans themselves are often nearby to answer any questions and most of them are extremely friendly and unfortunatly very thin (Utah is not renown for it's support of the Art community). John Sumner was especially friendly when I came around during my breaks. He has a fantastic sense of humor and it shows through his work. His booth has always brought a smile to my face whenever I have passed it during the years. There was another artist that did these graphite pieces that were so incredible that I honestly thought he was a photographer when I passed his booth the first few times. Steve Nowatzki has been my favorite for the past couple of years. I am poorly incapable of articulating exactly what his artwork is like, you should really take a look at his website. I'm particularly fond of his Big Cats series.

The Featured artist this year was Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune. He apparently has attended the festival for many years and for our anniversary he created a poster with several illustrations of the different types of people he has seen while there. My favorite has to be the 'Alternative' Couple you can see to the right of the logo, with their pretty-in-pink daughter. It's funny because it's so unbelievably true. Coming in close second is the hippie chick leading the rock art illustration around on the beginning of the second line. Oh, and who cannot love the couple in the middle of the third row. You know, the old fat guy with beer and the gorgeous long-legged philly. Honestly TELL me that you've never seen those people wandering around. I dare you. And what in the HECK is up with the lawn gnome?

Overall I really enjoyed my time at the festival. The long hours, direct sunlight, and the people complaining about things you cannot help can sometimes get you down.. But the myriads of artwork and sensations that surround you at every moment are more than enough to make me look forward to donating my time every year.

H.P. Baxxter cracks me up..

A good friend of mine has been lending me quite a bit of Romance lately. She thinks that the load of non-fiction I read is ridiculous and her attempts to distract me have proven to be rather successful. And to be honest, I am oh so very entertained by it all.

Now there's always the stereotypes and cliches of Romance, but the other night I read something so straightforward and so direct that I was quite taken back by the phrase.

“Your wrapping paper may not be as fancy as some others” she husked. “but the gift you keep inside is everything that I could ever want. I don't care how it is wrapped.”
Tina Price

Okay, I admit, pretty cheesey line. However often one can see people expecting relationships to pop up amongst the beautiful, the loving, the passionate and often they miss out on something they too could have had due to insecurities about outward appearances. I'm astounded by our society's focus on physical beauty and how it affects each and every one of us in our decisions from what we wear in the morning to the very people we choose to court, or even how we treat those we meet on the street. You may say that it isn't true, and that you are not affected by this and that it shouldn't be. However, evolutionary and social psychology is stating the blatantly obvious that it is so. I had a professor that would constantly repeat the same phrase to me whenever this very subject was brought up, "Shelley the more beautiful you are, the easier life is for you, it's just that simple." Several of the studies I've read in Evoultionary Psychology have stated that you mentally size up and evaluate every person you meet within a minute. There are variations to this time limit, like if you move and it takes longer for someone to look over you, the list goes on. From this conclusion it is theorized that one should know if they are compatible to those they are looking over within this time period.

Although I'm aware of human nature through study and being human myself, I still appreciate that simple phrase I read the other night. The simple truth that despite physical appearance of the reciever, this woman loves him for everything he is, everything he strives to do, and the very content of his mind and personality. That being with him is a gift and that is all she truly wants..



Oh, perhaps I am too much of a Romantic idealist; but as Pepi Le Pew used to say "Lesigh."

"When I was sitting in my ward meeting reguarding the black sisters coming up from Louisiana that have lost everything a little old lady raised her hand and she said: "Why don't we just put em' back where they belong, on the Plantation fields!" And I really agreed with her."

Someone please hide me.. my scary racist aunt is in town.

What is the power of words in music?

I was looking through my playlist and I couldn't help but notice some songs that I have on there specifically because of the power of the words they contain. Songs that have brought a variety of emotions to mind like desire, unrequited love, fear, anger, loss, helplessness, actvism, despair, psychological dissonance, awe, passion, excitement, independence, disdain, revenge, sexual desire, new love, numbness, and of course the very long list of break up songs.

In a world and nation that is steadily failing to teach us and the growing generations the importance of discovering and researching ourselves and our words, we seek those words and mediums that express what we all share fundamentally.

"In my life, I have prayed but one prayer: 'Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it."

~Voltaire

Many of you have beliefs about this current war.

Some against, some for, some that don't really care.

It varies..

But how accurate is the information we are receiving really?

My father left two months ago for the Middle East in the honest belief that he was supporting his nation and that he was fighting a fleet of angry, and blood-thirsty terrorists. When I asked him to name why these people were fighting and why, he couldn't name the three major religious factions over there. It was simply, them.. the terrorists that hate America.

My father is an intelligent man, but he's also extremely defensive of what he believes is right.

It is a tangled web of propaganda and jingoism that our nation, government, media, and masses weave as we sit safely behind the cushion of our televisions and yellow ribbons.

So now that he is arriving home tomorrow at four p.m. My house is coated in these yellow ribbons, these metallic holographic red, white, and blue flags that hang from wall to wall.

He left with the promise of money, lots of money, and the belief that he is protecting his family against a greater evil.

Strange.. it feels like we're on a sidewalk, and to protect us he's running out onto free-way traffic to stop the cars with his body weight and faith in a government that has been lying to it's own people.

I don't claim to have all the answers.. I don't claim to have accurate information to what is really happening.

But I do declare that the presence of these ribbons and decorations that reinforce my father's beliefs that it's okay to leave home for long periods of time to a completely distraught part of the world for a load of money really FUCKING bothers me. If they were just welcome home banners and this and that, sure.. it wouldn't bother me. But it's partiotic left and right.. America this, America that.

Nevermind me though, I'm just a pale old man that speaks madness.. I'll soon be forgotten.

A Crazed Girl

That crazed girl improvising her music.

Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,
Her soul in division from itself

Climbing, falling She knew not where,

Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,

Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare

A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing

Heroically lost, heroically found.
No matter what disaster occurred

She stood in desperate music wound,

Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph

Where the bales and the baskets lay

No common intelligible sound

But sang, “O sea-starved, hungry sea.”

~William Butler Yeats~