Buddy Guy (SOLD)

I woke up this morning at 6:10 a.m., an unheard of event...well, not unheard of. Wait, let me begin again.  I woke up this morning at 6:10 a.m. feeling refreshed and well-rested.  Yes, that's more like it.

Yesterday, Saturday, I slept 13 hours!   I woke up briefly at 8 a.m. and still felt exhausted, and I crawled back into bed and slept until 2:15 p.m.!  I hadn't felt well at the end of the work week and my hound way lying next to me like an insulator (my husband long ago had went to work), both leading me into a brief coma.

As you can imagine, the day unfolded quite languorously.  Around 5 p.m., I found myself watching Cadillac Records, about the great blues label run by Leonard Chess in Chicago that helped launch Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon and Etta James.  No one represented Buddy in the film, but he's a Chicago Bluesman through and through and was heavily influenced by all these greats.  Anyway, watching it reminded me of Buddy, which led me to rewatch a favorite part of Martin Scorsese's 2005 rockumentary of the Rolling Stones (playing at the Beacon Theatre in New York City), Shine A Light.  The next step of course, was that I needed to paint Buddy Guy as he appeared in that film, during the playing of Muddy Water's hit, "Champagne and Reefer."

Feeeeeeeeeeeeeel the power of his voice and guitar playing.  Oh, so wonderful to behold visceral virtuosity, no?  I've seen Buddy twice in person.  The first time was at Alpine Valley, playing with Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Vaughan, and Robert Cray, the night before SRV's fatal crash.  Ugh, I can barely type it even 14 years later.  The second time was 2007 in Bridgeview, IL at Eric Clapton's "Crossroads" Guitar Festival.  (I was thinking I saw him once more playing at Kingston Mines in Chicago, but perhaps I'm hallucinating.)  Anyway, he is always, always phenomenal.

"Champagne and Reefer" from Shine A Light featuring Buddy Guy:

Here's a little blast from the past.  One of the drawings I did for my 2010 Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook project, "Coffee and Cigarettes," was Keith Richards spitting out his cigarette during that same song.

Day 138. Goodbye, My Dearest Flip Phone

About a month ago, I was making pasta for the man.  My pots were in the dishwasher so instead I used a deep Calphalon braising pan to boil the water.  As I was carrying the water-filled pan from the sink to the stove, I was simultaneously talking to my mom on my cell phone.  And just as you see a glass falling or yourself tripping in slow motion, my cell phone slipped from where it was perched underneath my chin pressed to my shoulder.  You see, I was using both my hands to carry that heavy pan!  I watched as it slid, slid, slid slowly down my arm into its watery death.  I could still feel the ghost of it's weight under my chin, yet my eyes saw--there it was, looking like an underwater turtle with a snorkeling tube of an antenna.

I did manage to shake myself out of disbelief, grab it, and resuscitate it.  However, it was never the same.  It had already been moving into the land of feebleness.  I knew I had to make the switch to a smartphone.  I had even recently been at an art show in February and another artist said to me aghast, "Are you still using a FLIP phone?  I saw you pull out an ANTENNA.  I can't believe it!"  I mean, I felt like I was holding a Thomas Edison relic in my paws.

Listen, I was the same way with my bag phone.  I know about 2% of the population remember those, but until it was stolen out of my car, it was suiting me just fine.

O.K., so after a month of my phone flashing "car kit connected, car kit disconnected" and constantly dying on me, my husband and I FINALLY made the leap to the 21st century.  It seems there are quite a few dazzling things I can do with this new phone...if only I knew how to do them.  Oh little flip phone, how I miss your ease, your simplicity, your inability to make me frustrated when I just want to dial a stored phone number!

Here's a re-enactment of the ultimately deadly event, followed by an appearance by Mr. Flip on my counter as I was finishing up work on my 2011 Brooklyn Sketchbook Project, "Coffee and Cigarettes."  (P.S. Cigs are props only--you'll find me puffing on an inhaler!)