lauradi7dw

Someone on twitter pointed out that the police murders of students at Jackson State was only 11 days after Kent State. Not exactly comparable - police, not national guard troops, other stuff going on, but can be held in the same part of one's mind. I didn't remember it. I am not sure I ever knew about it. Now I do, and you can too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_State_killings

Similar to the first Saturday of May in the past, after doing all the day's things including Somerville open studios, I got almost home while there were still fifes and drums playing in the park, although the group had dwindled to about a dozen folks by the time I got there. Still cool.

https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/820311.html

We haven't switched to sword for the summer yet this year. In fact it seems like the weather hasn't switched to summer either. It keeps going into the 40s at night, although flowers are busting out all over.
I did buy a drum I hardly ever practice.

I often quote Ellis Marsalis, responding to someone who didn't like jazz and who said "I know what I like." EM: "You like what you know, and you don't know much."
I did a whole post about this in 2020, with some instructive remarks from bitterlawngnome.
https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/619636.html
But I'm still going with my gut reactions, years later. I have decided that I have a scale
1. Actively dislike
2. neutral
3. That's nice, but I probably won't remember it
4. I like that
5. I like that so much that I will go back to the museum sometime to see it again
6. I would like to buy that so I can see it every day (and maybe touch it)

I went to the Tampa Art Museum on Monday (many concert-goers were also spending the day Namjooning
https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/845822.html so I was not alone). I liked most of what I saw. I learned a lot about the innovative ceramic techniques of Jun Kaneko. I learned about local artists. I took picture, and made mental notes.
This 1970 painting by Alma Thomas would be in category 6, except one doesn't even consider buying something from a museum's permanent collection. My photo doesn't do it justice, of course. I liked it up close. I liked it from across the room, at a slant.



As I mentioned, today was one of the days of Somerville Open Studios. I had not before been to the multi-person studios near the East Somerville T stop. The first building I entered had a lot of art in category 1. A lot of them were nudes. I don't object to bare skin, but in some I didn't like the paint colors and I thought most of them (by many artists) were ugly. But there were a few things I liked, and there was this, by Junggyun Park, that might almost get to category 6 in a more plausible way. I didn't actually ask the price, and it wasn't marked. I didn't like all of his stuff, but a few. I chatted with him about this. These are shrimp from his imagination/memory. There were not real shrimp posing, which was one of the things I asked. He had a smudge (maybe charcoal from sketches?) on his nose. I successfully fought the urge to wipe it off.




Another one that I liked (would be category 5 if it were in a museum) is this, by Zach Faugno-Teig. Why do I really like this one but find all his other stuff (on display and on his website) to be meh, at best?




I liked everything on display by Pauline Lim at Brickbottom*, including not just the paintings but the note on her door (a special dispensation to wear shoes in the room, due to the occasion), her living quarters, and her corsets. I texted Flo, offering to buy one of the paintings for the children, but we decided they're good without expensive art at this time.
I came away with a couple of postcards.
https://pauline-lim.pixels.com/

I suppose it would do me good to figure out why I feel the way I do about individual pieces of art, but for the time being, I'm OK with vibes.

* https://brickbottom.org/

At a BTS concert with thousands of other fans of many colors and ages. Me looking like me, with a mask and a cooling cloth and badly spread sunscreen (also a custom-printed t-shirt suitable for the occasion that is not visible in the photo).



By the Charles River at dawn on May Day, continuing my streak that has gone on since 1978 (the event itself started in 1974, but I was in NC on May Day 1974-76 and Delaware May Day 1977).
This is a twofer - I have been hanging out in English traditional folk music/SCA-adjacent spaces for my whole adult life. But I'm not the only one - there were eight bellringers at the gathering this morning, including some of the Morris dancers.

Explanation of how Steve Goodman came to write the concluding verse at about 2:00


David Allen Coe, gone at 86. I don't think I would have liked him as a person, but that isn't required.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Allan_Coe

Justice Kagan:

"I dissent. The Voting Rights Act is—or, now more accurately, was—'one of the most consequential, efficacious, and amply justified exercises of federal legislative power in our Nation's history.' It was born of the literal blood of Union soldiers and civil rights marchers. It ushered in awe-inspiring change, bringing this Nation closer to fulfilling the ideals of democracy and racial equality. And it has been repeatedly, and overwhelmingly, reauthorized by the people's representatives in Congress. Only they have the right to say it is no longer needed—not the Members of this Court. I dissent, then, from this latest chapter in the majority's now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act."

A week ago I was told that #18 needed to go.
https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/1048278.html
I called the periodontist. Wednesday they called to say they'd had a cancellation for the next day (Thursday, two days before I was going to fly to Tampa). My Thursdays often involve driving a friend to Dana Farber (and hanging out with her for the day). We agreed that the tooth opportunity was important, so I was with her for much of the day and then a different friend drove her home. I had looked at the standard guidance for post-extraction. The top thing was "don't fly for two weeks." * I assumed that my appointment would basically be a checkup to see what she thought she could do. Nope. She and the assistant were planning to remove the tooth. I pointed out the no-flying thing and said that I would be flying four times in those two weeks. She waved it away, saying that it's more of a problem with upper teeth. #18 was on the bottom. She gave me a few minutes to consider. I called Flo, who said that if the expert said it would be OK, go ahead. I agreed (with Flo) and agreed (to the procedure). It took about an hour. She prescribed a week of amoxicillin and a medicated rinse (you're not supposed to swish - you tilt your head and let it pool up around the wound for 30 seconds twice a day). I was told to eat mush food for a couple of days, no nuts for a while (a major part of my diet, so that has been hard), and chew on the right side only for quite a while. I don't like the idea of unnecessary antibiotics, but I was going to be far away and it would be a weekend, so I went along with it. I definitely didn't want an infection. When I got to Tampa I bought a tub of yogurt to try to keep some gut flora going.
I told the periodontist that I was going to a BTS concert but would try not to scream. She earnestly told me to scream all I wanted. (I only screamed a little bit). They recommended icing my face and taking ibuprofen. I iced for a day and did the ibuprofen for three. The dissolvable sutures have started partly dissolving. One of them fell out earlier today. I am not done healing yet but am hopeful. I plan to invest in the implant.

*other things on the don't do list I don't do anyway, like drink alcohol or smoke or use a straw

Sub 2 hour marathon. Fancy shoes, pacers for much of the race, and good weather, but still.
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a71127166/sabastian-sawe-sub-2-marathon-world-record-london/
An amazing thing is that the person in second place, Yomif Kejelcha, also broke two hours. There was a real race between them toward the end.

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/23/nx-s1-5797482/michael-tilson-thomas-dead

Friends were in the Tanglewood festival chorus in the late 1970s. The version of TT they used was Twinkletoes, not Tilson-Thomas. What a goofy thing for me to remember after five decades. As usual, fuck cancer, especially glioblastoma.

in 2012 (!) I posted about helping to harvest potatoes at the Interfaith garden
https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/318368.html

Today I planted potatoes in about the same place. The procedure is pretty simple - dig a trench, cut actual potatoes (with sprouts if possible), put the halves cut side down in the trench about 10" apart, cover with some (not all) of the dirt that came from the trench. I was interested to learn that different potato varieties have different growing duration, so there are three rows that will mature at different times.
It was easier than harvesting them, and easier than weeding, which I don't like doing anyway, because I have the emotional thought that if a non-invasive plant wants to grow, who am I to disagree? I am more ruthless about invasives.

As I worked I was thinking about the kdrama "The Potato Lab," following researchers at a potato research lab. I wouldn't really recommend spending your time on it, but while some of the characters were interesting, while I was watching it I gradually found myself mostly engaged in worrying about the potatoes themselves - there was a storm that harmed the greenhouse. The corporation that funded the research was going to pull out. Stuff like that.