My Comic Book Reading Dinosaur (by sarah)

Jean has discovered my old comic books 🙂

She is a bit annoyed I do not have whole sets of them and she is has pretty much gone through them all in a couple of days!

I have them because I struggled with reading and one of Dad's friends at work had used comic books to help his boys learn so he passed on a bag of random comics for me.

I loved the comics very much but they didn't teach me to read - I spent hours pouring over them - making up my own stories to go with the pictures. It was a good idea though and I know many people who it has worked for!

Jean just loves them so I may have to get more comics at some point - not sure what though.

A Style A Voice A Choice (by sarah)

Something I forgot to mention in my previous post about the Art Exhibition was that people were surprised at how much of it was mine with comments such as, 'I would never have thought those pieces were by the same artist' and 'wow that's a lot of variation in style.'

People who actually know me could pick out which ones weren't mine with the comment that there was something me about all my pictures. It was mainly the fractals that gave them a pause for thought with, 'They aren't yours are they?' No they were Alaric's - my husbands but I chose the selection and no they weren't digital renders of my 'fractal style drawings' though that mistake was understandable.

Again I am against the concept that you should choose one specific thing to be your style at least for a couple of years at a time. People expect artists to have phases what they don't seem to be able to cope with is someone who takes photos in the morning, draws in felt pen in the afternoon and knits in the evening and then does painting at the weekends or someone who thinks that mediums and styles are something to understand and learn to add to a tool box of skills.

I love mixing things up as well.

And it is not just with the visual arts or the crafting it is my writing as well. It is hard to know what to push sometimes with me writing novels, short stories, flash fiction, essays, articles, how to stuff and some for adults and some for kids and kids groups in different ages and some of it needs my art and some of it doesn't. And even within something like poetry I have several different types I write from political, to comedic to kids to sci-tech to gothic and abstract.

I love brining visuals and audio into these creations making them something multi media that I'm not sure there is a word for yet.

People who read alot of my stuff again say they can hear my voice in it all but many coming to it for the first time find it hard to connect me to such a lot of 'voices' and this makes it hard for them to recognise me.

Now people in the publishing and arts world and science for that matter have always told me I have to choice to get anything done. And I can see why but I am not like this because I haven't thought about the consequences - I made a choice and that was to be ME and me is a person who likes and is interested in a lot of stuff and who has found it all feeds off of everything else.

I get a new skill it may get a bit rusty but it is easy enough to polish it up again if I need it or want to mix it with something else I now have.

And because I do all of these things I find myself being asked to do lots of strange and lovely and exiting things. Stuff that I wouldn't have been ended up doing if I'd focused on one area.

In the last fortnight I have been described as someone who sits on the divide between art and science and who is a brilliant crafter and a teacher and I sing as well. Such glowing praise made me blush and hide behind my camera to take more photos. A poet and writer, an artist, a knitter and baker and a craft maker.

Then I had a moment when having had a lovely rejection, a not so lovely one and an acceptance with editing and one without of poems and someone I respect as poet tells me I am an Experimental Poet - and I thought YES! that's it isn't it?

My voice, my style is experimental that's my choice.

Now all I have to do is deal with the fact that not everybody is nice about achievement and some feel I am too prolific or a hack or any of a number of other things.

Mods and Rockers (by sarah)

I love motobikes and mopeds and that sort of thing in general - yes I am one of those people that like vintage cars and funky sports cars.

So the other week we were in Morrisions in Cheltenham when I spotted these babies out side the window - apologies for the poor quality of the photographs they were taken through glass.

There was a four wheeler there too 🙂 The guys the belonged too were sitting not far from us wearing Mods and Rockers T-shirts much to my dad's amusement. I think one of them may have been his age but the others were all younger.

Mods and Rockers as popularised by the film Quadraphenia was a sixties phenomina where those that rode motobikes and those who rode mopeds dressed differently and listened to different types of music. They were seen as gangs and a series of riots were blamed on them.

My dad says it wasn't really like that at least not where he lived. He got teased for riding a moped dressed as a Rocker instead of mod but later on had a motorbike and him and his friends all rode about together with a mash up of vechiles not smashing the place up though they did apparently get chucked out of a pub family room for swearing or something.

This is my favourite track from Quadraphenia.

And this is my second favorite.

The album is deeper than the film in my opinion especially as the film never explains the title. Thought the film leaves me with a lingering sadness, the struggle of disconnected youth trying to find where they fit into society whilst not wanting to end up as nothing but a puppet, a clone and boring person and yet they crave stability.

And of course drugs sort of fluffs it all up but mainly it is a desperation and loneliness that bites the protagonist too the core.

I still prefer just the album.

A Little Bit Of Random and Things I Learnt (by sarah)

Saturday was the last day of my Science-Art Exhibition and I went along to the Arts Cafe to meet with friends who were coming along to see it and too work on my visual poetry journal.

At five o'clock I took it down - this happened alot quicker than putting it up. Nothing other than some post cards sold but quiet a few people came along to see it.

The main comments were, 'I really like that picture but I am a student or out of work or have just been told my contract wont be renewed...' There simply is not the spare money at the moment for your average person to buy art. Other artists have said they have had similar. But it wasn't really about the selling it was about the exhibition - however I would have liked to recoup the money spent on frames etc... but that is not money wasted as I now have a bunch of framed pics.

Also I learnt that framers can be unreliable, bought frames are rubbish and flimsy and looking into it we have decided to make our own in future.

Other things learnt are - some spray mounts are better than others and price is not an indicator of which is which. Do not mount on grey card as everyone thinks you've just put it straight on the frames back board - I assume the same goes from brown. Get frames that leave a boarder around all sides of the picture as it looks better.

Severn Print are amazing life savers and even if lots of people say they are going to contribute and take part in something most of them will pull out as the event nears.

Alaric is amazing at getting me out of such a pickle with trips to buy last minute canvases to paint and so much more.

The whole thing would not have been possible without my parents help and of course Centre Arts who helped me sort the mountings out when they slipped that first day and didn't shout!

I came back somewhat deflated from the gallery having missed the Bristol Minni Maker Fair and the meal afterwards with friends - though other friends had tea and cake with me at the centre which sort of made up for it 🙂

Also Seth and Tanu came home with Alaric and we had a lovely random time with Seth making my guitars sound much better than I can ever make them 🙂

Bitcoin Mining (by alaric)

A few folks lately have asked me what Bitcoin mining is all about, and how it works, and I've not seen an explanation that focusses on this at the right level, so I'm writing my own.

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