Abandon ship! Abandon ship!

I've been having this insane surge of creativity over the last five weeks--writing and painting and decorating and stencil-making and karate-practicing like a madwoman--but for the moment I feel that it's beginning to wane (or rather, it's lurching in a most sickening manner to an absolute stop). I sit down to write but nothing substantial comes out, and I tried last night to paint, but ultimately just fucked up what I'd started, got angry at myself, painted the whole canvas black, and threw it into the trash bin. (The turn of events seemed bizarrely incongruous with the music I was listening to as a soundtrack: I was convinced that Andrew Bird would somehow save my painting, but alas, he didn't.)

So the muse has left the building.
I need some nuance, I think, to cajole it back into action. I wish I could just hop a plane to some other place with some other landscape, but the funds just aren't there (and won't be, until I get off my lazy ass and get a real job).
Instead, I think tomorrow I'll swap a few books down at the Smith Family Bookstore, take some photos of weird urban Eugene stuff, and then maybe hit up the local Goodwills for some trashy treasures. I want to find a few bright ceramic vases (orange! turquoise! pink!) and tacky 80's patent leather slingbacks (which I live in habitually) and maybe some vintage childrens' storybooks (which have the best color schemes and animal illustrations ever). If you put these things into a blender and hit frappe, you'd have the Elixir of Life. But don't tell anyone.

For now I'm going to drink a glass of wine (ever so grown-up) and watch Disney's Cool Runnings (perhaps not so grown up after all).


I am trying to convince Andy to start a U of O radio show with me, but so far he's not taking the bait. Updates on this as they unfold.