The show is up. I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. On Monday night when it was all up (thanks to Mills' intrepid pro preparator Stacie, who has my undying gratitude) I looked around the gallery & marvelled at the 2-dimensionality of it all. I haven't put up a 2-D show since, what, high school?! (& that doesn't count!) It's very weird to have everything flat on the walls like that, with nothing taking up physical space in the room. But then at the same time, there is all this space inside the pictures.... I know, I know, this is really old news to painters & printmakers & all kinds of people (photographers!), but it's a whole new world for me & it's messing with my mind. In a good way, of course!

Nobody can accuse me of staying stuck in a rut, that's for sure.

Now I think a vacation would be good. Maui? Zihuatanejo? Hmm.... send me your vacation tips, people, I'm all ears!

Well kids, the Stretcher article is up, wherein you can read all about what it's like to drive around Wisconsin with me, visiting every Chinese restaurant possible. Look for it under "Projects".

I'm going to hang the show at Mills today... I'm so grateful my comrades in art, Peggy & Debra, will be helping me!

From survey respondant Howard Stein comes this very excellent story:

In the early 1970s, I was living in northern Viriginia. I had a girlfriend with a 7 or so year old daughter - who was very smart. As Virginia was pretty white, one evening when the 3 of us were eating in a Chinese restaurant, the daughter asked us "do Chinese people have to work in restaurants ?"

In other news, I have not shown up in the newspaper yet. Well, not in the Chronicle anyway. The suspense is killing me.... (not really)

Yow! The plants are getting really freaky in this scorching weather. I thought I was hallucinating today when I walked by a crabapple tree & saw some blossoms dotting the upper branches... hello?! That's supposed to happen in, like, April!

Then tonight, my night-blooming cereus (aka Queen of the Night, no, I'm not making that up, it's a real name) is exploding with EIGHT, that's 8, blossoms... these 8 are acting normal, which is to say they're all the way open, but last night's 4 flowers were still barely open at quarter to midnight; I was so confused... always before on this plant they have opened by 10 or 10:30pm.

Back on topic: check out the Chinese Historical Society's fundraiser coming up, it's all about food! I mean, it's not just a banquet, the theme is actually Chinese food. They are honoring some very, very interesting people. Cool!

It's a week until the Mills show goes up. Last time I talked to Meigan on the phone, she said, "You actually sound like you're physically underneath a pile of stuff! The way your voice sounds. It's like there's stuff pressing on your face."

I love that I have such perceptive friends.

I can breathe a little today, though, because last night around 1:30 am I finally uploaded my new & improved website, which appears to be working (fingers crossed). Y'all let me know if something on it doesn't work, ok?

Also, the San Francisco Chronicle is supposed to be running an article about me on Wednesday the 24th in the Datebook section. At least this is what I'm told... so keep yer eyes peeled. The photographer came over to my studio & we spread out a bunch of takeout menus all over the table. Looks like I have a lot of menus, & I guess I do. Not enough though! My appetite for menus is insatiable!!! Roar!

I also wrote up a "report from the road" about my Wisconsin trip; this will be on Stretcher.org sometime in the next week or so. I'll post the specific link when I get it.

It's almost the last day of summer! Get out there & enjoy it! (Talking to myself as much as anyone else, maybe more....)

There's no possible way the web can do justice to the sublime colors of Anne Appleby's work, which is why you should go see these prints live if you're anywhere near San Francisco. I'm gonna. My treat to myself, for working so hard.

I turned up an interesting bulletin board conversation while searching for info on Chinese in Brazil. No big surprises here but it manages to hit many of the major points in rapid order.

Most of the google results had to do with soccer.

Don't ask me why it's taken so long, but I finally got around to subscribing to Flavor and Fortune.

The Mills show is starting to shape up... all the photos are at the framer's now & I'm starting to deal with all those little pre-show details like wall labels. The updated website will be up in another week or so.

Good thing I have not one but *two* appointments scheduled for bodywork before the show!

Oh, check out the ButterBurger map. Why'd they skip over Oklahoma?

I'm kind of interested in Oklahoma and Texas right now, since I just read That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx, who also helpfully blazed the Wyoming trail in advance of my own little trip. Also in the name of Texas research, I'm re-reading Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses... well, really, I'm reading just for the pleasure of his incredible writing. Kept me up later last night than was really good for me.

I don't think I ever got around to mentioning the mysterious Frozen Custard ButterBurger Irene & I repeatedly encountered on our Wisconsin travels. It took us quite a while to realize that the Frozen Custard is actually a separate entity from the ButterBurger. Have a look & see if you don't agree that they have a signage problem. I tell ya, we were way more afraid of this thing than of any greasy Chinese buffet. Even after finding out that it's two things, not one.

I am nearly delirious! I recently started tracking traffic to my blog, & just now saw that someone out there found me because they googled recipe tuna salad "chow mein noodles"! It's almost too delicious! That's not all: searching for "chinese takeout carton" leads to my blog too, as does "shrimp walnuts china"... not to mention "crab rangoon definition"! Hee hee... I love the web!

Did you feel that earthquake? Brrr... I just haven't ever been the same since Loma Prieta. Before that I used to think earthquakes were kind of fun & exciting. Ha! But check this out: there's a way for people like me to channel our jumpy nerves. You can fill out a questionnaire about any earthquake, including this Loma Prieta one I'm about to do.

Yes, I am working on the Chinese restaurants. I just don't have very much to say about it at the moment.

Mars has even less to do with Chinese restaurants (I really don't think there are any up there) than Miffy, but hey, the truth is I'm thinking so dang much about Chinese restaurants in my offline time that it's just too much to blog about them... you'll just have to wait for my show at Mills if you want to know what I've been doing in the Chinese restaurant department. Anyway, about Mars, you should go look through a telescope. Tip: the lines are much shorter to look through the independent telescopes set up by assorted folks & the image is just about the same as through the big, official telescopes.

Is it possible to have too much Miffy stuff? I am not really in danger of having Miffy everything, but let's just say that I have a lot more Miffy stuff than your average grown-up. When Jan came to visit she asked, "Who is this little rabbit I see all over your house?"

Are there degrees of off-topic? The only thing Miffy has in common with Chinese restaurants is that I appear to be completely obsessed with both.

Now you know. Will you still send me menus?

Does it mean there's something wrong with me if I'd rather work on my website than go to the beach? Well, here's the thing: it's way foggy out. It's foggy even here, which means it's hella foggy at the beach. Also, I really want to update my website, & if I do it now maybe I can go to the beach on the next clear day when I might otherwise feel obligated to work on my website?!

Yes, this does mean that there will be a new & improved website soon, unless the fog burns off really, really fast....

I have to give credit where it's due: it was Donna's idea to google "chinese take-out" resulting in this insane goldmine of stuff. Did you know that February 21st is Chinese Takeout Day?! Who decides these things??!

Lest you think I really have no life, I did leave the house & do all sorts of things between that earlier post & these last two. You can't be a slave to these things. In fact, I am now going to eat lunch.

I am not, I repeat NOT going to wear these, but apparently someone thought it was a good idea. I just wouldn't be able to fall asleep, is all.

Eek!!! It's the meeting of my worlds! For those of you who don't know: I spent all of 1998 & 1999 deconstructing the evil gingham of my high school uniform... I thought I had finally left all that wretchedness behind but now look! I'm going to have nightmares about this.... it's just too terrible to even talk about anymore.

This is a certain kind of pleasure, a small & specific but deliciously satisfying pleasure, in finding that someone I really admire has their own website. I can now be an Aimee Bender completist because she has links to stories I haven't read before! I love the net, I really do.

Another pleasure this week, a bigger but perhaps more diffuse pleasure, kind of an open-ended pleasure, is the fact that I tested out my audio setup on a Chinese restaurant yesterday & it sounds *really good*! I mean you can hear the wok sizzling like it's right there! Wheeeeee!

Aha! Barry Popik has found that the crab rangoon has been around since 1958, & we can blame it on Trader Vic's (surprise). However, I notice that this description doesn't mention cream cheese. So who can we blame for that part of it?