Astral Boutique's blog

Sounds: The Creatures

Undergrowth running

A chorus of frogs

A parakeet's picnic

All writhing in a tub

Panoramic banana

A passion fruit samba

Pale skin is itching- a tropical fever

-"Gecko", The Creatures

The Creatures were a side project of Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees. I love all of their work, but this first record of theirs I crazy love. It is from 1983 and it's called Feast... I mean, look at the cover. If there is such a genre as Tropical Gothic, this is it. Heavy drums, Polynesian chants, even some spoken word and smashed glass. It doesn't really make any "sense", but it sounds soooo damn good. There is nothing like a Side Project that no one thinks will be taken too seriously, especially the first album. The artists involved just sound so...free. (The perfect companion piece to this would be 1983's Robert Smith and Steve Severin acid-and-B-Movie-fueled side project, The Glove.) Come to find out they recorded this in Hawaii. Highly recommended if you have a soft spot for early goth music as well as Exotica (a la Martin Denny). You won't be able to stop playing it. 

Do I Dare To Eat A Peach?

Do I dare

Disturb the universe?

In a minute there is time 

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

-from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot

Poor peach tree. I was busy shaking the snow off the Deerbrush tree in my garden, the Birch by the driveway, and I never looked over past the piles of snow by the road and saw your two exterior branches bending to the ground from the weight. Snapped. You aren't my tree, per se, but I seem to be the only one who notices you, so doesn't that make me responsible? And think of all of those juicy, fragrant peaches that never will be! 

I heard that fruit trees, just about to bud, will bloom if you bring them indoors. So with a muddled heart I clipped the branches, and arranged them in a vase.

...and two days later, it is true. 

The snow dumps outside, again, but indoors it is a miracle of Spring.

When Life Gives You Snow, Make A Snownicorn

Snowfall
How can they be all
So very unidentical?
Sleigh Ride
Knocking icicles down
You're melting snow angels
All over town

-The Halo Benders

My magical neighbor Leonna braves the weather in a Tyrolian-mountaineer-meets-Mary-Poppins outfit to arrive at our door:

We give her some graphic novels and Moonintroll books to get through the storm, and decide to walk her home... even though the sky is looking threatening again.

The weather moves in at the top of the hill. Leonna strikes an otherworldly silhouette against the impending white-out:

Listen, the snow is falling over town

Between Tokyo and Paris

Between London and Dallas

Between your God and mine

Listen the snow is falling everywhere

-Yoko Ono

Some really big trees come down across the road later that night, smashing the powerlines and a transformer, and knocking out the power for three days. No light, no computer, no running water, no music. Our world becomes very simple:

Until cabin fever sets in and Chris finds a garbage can lid in the shed, so that we can get Olympic on the slopes.

Later on, we'll conspire

As we dream by the fire

To face unafraid 

The plans that we made

Walking in a winter wonderland

Day Three without power: enter the Snownicorn.

 

...and he is still out there, ruling the kingdom of Snow.

 

I Heart Geometry

Lately

Obsessed

With

Squares

And all possible exploding

Imploding

Geometry

First three images by Mondrian, last four images by Kandinsky

*

Here is my Geometry Treasury, including the World's Most Amazing Sweater...

 

Free Bird

There are literally thousands of photos every week that end up in my Trash. Usually it's because they are too dark, too light, my pose is too awkward (you have no idea how graceless I can be), there is something distracting in the background, or the fabric wrinkled funny or got stuck in my boot or looks like I have cameltoe cause the wind blew right as the self-timer went off. But it was hard to nix this one... I mean, can you really be too floaty? For your consideration:

Let Them Have Their Cake And Eat It Too

My entry for the Indie Free Spirits Etsy Team challenge, I Heart History:

Take an a-a-aphrodisiac, don't do no-no-nothing, just relax
Your ha-ha-heart goes pitter-pat, take an a-a-aphrodisiac

-Bow Wow Wow

Good Problems To Have

I realize that I am having a pretty interesting life when my biggest problem is that I can't afford the rental fee on a wolf head from the local costume shop. ($40? nards!) I actually got in a snit about this. Full-on Pity Party O'Clock.

Then I had a dream last night about a community of people who were amputees, who told me frankly that every little thing they did was a tremendous effort. I didn't feel exactly guilty when I woke up, but it sure made me more level-headed. 

Then come to find out, Zazou was all too eager to play the part of the Big Bad Wolf for me. Best cat ever. 

One Way Or Another

This morning, nothing could be better than Blondie. 

You can still find all the early, fantastic Blondie records for a few bucks a pop. This is possibly the most that you will ever get for your money at a record store. In case you somehow missed (early) Blondie, let me set you straight: the first four records are awesome. Parallel Lines and Eat To The Beat are my faves. I went the fastest I have ever gone in a car while listening to Blondie. (120mph- I was driving- we took a picture.) I get all excited when I hear about this year's bands that supposedly combine the Girl Group sound with rock (a la The Dum Dum Girls and Best Coast), but I usually end up being let down by the hesitance of the female singer to really belt it out. Blondie, on the other hand, totally ROCK. Debbie Harry is an extremely weird, alien-obsessed woman, and maybe that is why. No one is genuinely Crazy these days, they are just full of washed-out ennui. Hmmph. 

The Muse Party Continues

What an amazing week... yesterday one of my customers sent me this drawing that she did in her sketchbook. You might recognize the hat!

 Her name is Jackie Sullivan and she is an incredible illustrator... luckily for us she has a blog and print shop where we can find her work. 

It seems that many artists out there are able to catch up on their work during the snowstorms that have been hitting most of the country for the past several weeks... Jackie did this on a snow day when she got to stay home from work. Imagine what else is being created out there!

Humungous thanks to Jackie for sharing this beautiful piece with me.

Pagan Poetry

Today is one of my favorite Pagan holidays- St. Brigid's Day, or Imbolc, or Candlemass. It is a celebration of the Return of the Light... finally the days are noticeably longer, and Spring is starting its first tentative stirrings beneath the earth. St. Brigid is one of those ancient goddesses who was adopted into Catholicism by the Irish, and she remains the patron saint of smithcraft (forging metal), poetry, and healing. I set up a little shrine to honor her and the spirit of this day, with the elements of metal (my pagan trivet- thrifted!); poetry (I love Yeats- like you couldn't have guessed that), healing (a tincture from an herbalist I adore, Kiva Rose). The fire of the candles represents to me the return of the sun, and the fire of the forge, and the little jar is full of water from St. Brigid's well, a pilgrimage site in Kildare, Ireland. One of my best friends brought it back for me, and I am so grateful to her. Sacred wells and Brigid are both so dear to my heart, so this vial of water is one of the most special things in the whole house. 

 

I consider myself a bit of a Lazy Pagan, but something about this holiday really moves me- maybe because I am an artist. Maybe because Brigid has been special to women, including my own Irish ancestors, for hundreds, even thousands of years. I don't really know.

Today I had tea with my magical neighbor, who re-lit a thousand fires of inspiration in my heart. I really think today was blessed by her, a living example of a woman who strives in all she does to honor the power of imagination and love. 

May the light of inspiration stay alive in each and every one of your hearts. It can be so hard to tend it sometimes, I know.... but we can all help each other.