). Good times! Crater Lake was absolutely stunning! Takes you a little while to really sit back and realize what had to take place to form such a amazing landscape. Incredible. I was going to stay 2 nights up there, but it was so ungodly cold at night that I deciced to cut out and head to Ashland a bit earlier.
The wedding and Southern Oregon were great. We had to drive about 15 mins. outside of Ashland, and then 7 miles or so down a dusty dirt road to make it out to the house. The house, where the reception and the wedding were held, sits on 99 acres of rolling hills surrounded by mountains. Weather was perfect, and a full moon lit up the festivities as they progressed into the evening.
For anyone wondering what happened with my date a few weeks back, well let me tell ya! She showed up a day early (on Friday) at the bar where we were going to meet. Gah! If that's not bad enough, after she figured I had simply ditched her, she meet someone! This is my extraordinarily dumb luck in action! We're still in touch, but she's apparently not the type to date around - but she still wants to meet me. At this point I'm not holding my breath. I'm working on another one any way
Finally, today is Saturday, and Bumbershoot is in full swing. I'm going to head down shortly and check out the Black Keys and the Drive by Truckers, and whoever else I can squeeze in today. Monday the Pixies are playing, but I have a feeling that it's going to be near impossible to get in for that one (limited seating
).
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Boy I've been slacking with this, but I absolutely love his work, so here you go: Chris Mars
Given Chris Mars greater fame as the former drummer for the Replacements, you might well think that his career as a fine artist is mere rock-star dilettantism. Its not. Hes the real thing, a skillful visual artist whose work echoes the semi-apocalyptic grotesque tradition of Hieronymous Bosch and World War I artist George Grosz. To make a more modern-day comparison, Mars comes across as a far less whimsical Tim Burton, especially in his repeated use of Halloween imagery. Disturbing, distorted Frankensteinian monsters populate his landscapes, bloated beings of bizarre and demonic ugliness. It is perhaps not surprising, then, to learn that Mars art is a conscious attempt to deal with a traumatic family history of schizophrenia. Often these figures are not demons, but lonely, suffering outcasts. Mars aim is to draw out their inner beauty and dignity without whitewashing their external horror. If anything, hes too successful at the latter; empathy for these ghastly souls does not come easily. But maybe thats the point. (Mars is still active in music as well, planning to release a new record soon.)
