Hey Ya’ll,
Welcome back to you and me and everyone else!

Wow — such a beautiful summer. Those 100+ degree-days were totally insane, but kinda exciting, too. Wouldn’t want to live in that all the time, of course, but it was a wonderfully surreal 2-day experience.

And speaking of surreal summer experiences… I had a few of them, however one in particular stands out, and it happened just this morning:

Our shower drain has been clogged up. Not totally, but draining really slow for the last few weeks. Now, it turns out that Joe, my smart and capable husband, is afraid of drains, so he asked me, very nicely, if I would clean it out. Me, being an obsessive cleaner, jumped at the chance.

Of course, cleaning out a drain demands the correct tool, which sent me to the kitchen. Rifling through cupboard and drawers, I grabbed a variety of utensils, and headed for the shower. I lifted the drain plate and tried tongs, a large meat fork, and a plastic noodle grabber. No go.

Desperate now, I jammed a metal skewer, usually used for kabobs, into the dark, gaping hole, twisted it around, and Voila! Up came a huge monster hunk of slimy, soap-soaked hair. “Gross” I cried with delight, and yelled at Joe to come in for a closer look.

Isn’t this great?”, I yelled.
“Uh huh.”, he mumbled.
“Just look at it!” I screamed.
“I see it, hon, good job. I really gotta go.”

Joe made a quick exit and, as much as I wanted him to share in my glory, I couldn’t really blame him. I mean, it was super-creepy. Still, I felt proud, like I’d reeled in the big one. Here’s a picture. Perhaps it could be an art piece entitled “Skewered Hair”, or “Hair Kabob”.

Okay. Time to move on.

The big news is that Art Zone is moving to Friday nights at 8:00, with repeats throughout the week and streaming online

Our first show back of the season is:

FRIDAY
SEPTEMBER 18TH
8:00 PM

And what a show it’s gonna be! Artist Julie Lindell is bringing her gigantic branch sculpture by on a flatbed truck; Barsuk artist, David Bazan, will sing from his new record, “Curse Your Branches”; and I’m interviewing Joel McHale, host of “The Soup” on E Entertainment, and star of “Community”, the brand new comedy on NBC that premieres on Thursday, September 17th @ 9:30 pm, right after “The Office”. It’s funny.

Finally, I have a few arty suggestions for you:

I recently saw “The Year of Magical Thinking” at Intiman Theatre. This play, a one-woman show, is based on the book of the same name, by Joan Didion, who wrote this adaptation. To put it simply, it’s about the year when Ms Didion lost her husband and daughter. The book is excellent, and this theatrical production has nice moments, however the lead actress lost her way few times near the end and, although she recovered nicely, the rhythm got thrown off. The upshot is this– I didn’t love the show, however I do recommend that you check it out, especially when the role is being played by the understudy, the phenomenal Lori Larson. Lori, one of our local greats, will be featured on:

Saturday, September 12th
Sunday, September 13th
Wednesday, September 16th
Saturday, September 19th

Also, artist Robert Hardgrave has a terrific exhibit of new works at Pioneer Square’s FLATCOLOR GALLERY that runs now through September 26th.

That’s it for now. Can’t wait to see you on Friday, September 18th @ 8:00 pm. Until then, remember that art is life, and life is a gift.

Talk to you soon.
xo, nancy g.