Emily Heller

My extremely talented friend Rosa is selling off some of her paintings, just in time for X-mas! Email me at cobrapussy at 911wasaninsidejob dot org if you are interested in any of them. She’s located in Oakland.

That one is apparently some dude from gossip girl?

Edit: Just got word that this last one has sold already, but I am leaving it up cause I think it’s cool.

I love video chat because it can take pictures of what you’re saying EXACTLY!!!

So… how to start. I look over at coworker Andy sitting at his desk in tears laughing. After a bit of prodding here’s what I find out:
- Andy used to live in Santa Cruz
- He moved to Iowa for a couple years and his parents rented out their house in SC to a musician
- When they came back, musician dude gave them one of his album
- It was hilarious
- Andy lost it
- Andy found it… on the internet!!!!


http://www.thecrystalbridge.com/Catalog/NatureBrings/01DanceOfLife.mp3
“Hello everybody and welcome to the Crystal Bridge - songs for the journey! Grandmother spider has woven a wonderful web and we all play a part in this dance of life!”
It’s like a hippie B-52s - bad synth and nasally narration.

That’s the first thing he sent me… and yes, it’s amazing, and a wonderful introduction for the rest of the website, which is a real treasure trove. I recommend taking some time this afternoon, getting situated at your computer with a cub of yerba matte and your spirit animal and exploring thecrystalbridge.com. A couple other sweet album covers from his catalog, but there is so much more to see, if you’ll only look:

When I was growing up there was a decaying old hardcover book on my shelf that had belonged to my mother when she was young, called Archy and Mehitabel. I never picked it up. Then my friend Rachael gave me a paperback copy for my college graduation a year and a half ago. It’s a book of poems written by a cockroach named Archy about himself and his friend Mehitabel, an alley cat who claims to be reincarnated from Cleopatra. Here’s a poem I read in there today:

the lesson of the moth

By Don Marquis, in “archy and mehitabel,” 1927


i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense

plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity

but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself

archy

It’s a good book with nice cartoons. I recommend it.

I started using stumble upon for my job (look into it), and found this site… it’s in Russian, but it’s easy to figure out. They took kids’ drawings and made them real.