The Need for Humor

Robert Genn, right between my eyes again!

"Chaos in the midst of chaos is not funny," says Steve Martin, "but chaos in the midst of order is."

Would-be funny artists need to scratch their brains for visual puns, metaphors and, above all, transformers--things that could be other things.

"It's a matter of what could be, isn't it?" said my mentee. What could be on that woodland path or coming down those railroad tracks? The comic eye, the creative eye, tries different stuff on for size. It's the ability to make previously nonexistent connections. Naïve, realistic or modern, the would-be visual humorist needs to stake out her territory and mine it efficiently. To live in the world of the imagination may be greater than in the real world. To be able to take others into that world may be the greatest gift of all.

I have always gone for the ironic or the just-missed or not-quite-seen in my work. It's always more important for me to capture a certain weirdness of viewpoint, which translates into uncomfortable laughter sometimes. But I don't care- my stuff is made for one purpose and that is to investigate ideas of my own on my own time for my own self. The cool thing is when somebody actually buys a piece because I have tapped into something of theirs too. The recognise my process, so that is the best part of what I do- getting recognised. Sigh. Even if it's for weird stuff. Again: To live in the world of the imagination may be greater than in the real world. To be able to take others into that world may be the greatest gift of all.

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Me, disguised, dodging another bullet. Or two.

Spent the morning in a CT scan tube yesterday, well actually about 6 minutes but it took up a whole morning's worth of energy. Seems my chest xray last week turned up a little something that needed further exploration, hence the CT scan. After I was rolled out of that I scurried down the street to hurry-up-and-wait for a bone density test. By the time I left that office my phone was ringing and it was my doctor. I was scared out of my mind that he called so quickly but it seems I have a couple of nodules on my lungs that seem to have been there a long time. Looks like something a smoker would have the doc sez, and I admitted to smoking in my youth but quit FORTY YEARS ago! Yup, he sez, women retain some of the damage and we are finding it in their old age.

Huh?

The bottom line is I am fine, they will scan me again regularly (probably not too many times since I am so friggin' old...) to watch for any changes. But man, I was scared. So this is my warning to all you young uns out there- stop it. Just say no. Quit. Cut it out, you fool.

You don't want no stinkin' nodules.

To celebrate my successful bullet dodge, last night TY and I went out for pork schnitzel with sauerkraut and anchovies witha fried egg on top. With a good Reisling (which helps the pork slide better). For an appetizer we had two different wursts, grilled and serves with a grainy mustard sauce. Devine. We were having our own private Oktoberfest and (hopefully) celebrating #1 Son and the GF-in-law arriving in Munich. Hope to hear that they are there later today. They were pretty freaked out over being in France and trying to get out with all the security from the terrorism threats. And I admit, so was I... So I hide my thoughts in pork dinners.