glimmers

Fun morning of playing with my electric metal shears and cutting up bits and bobs for the WIP, a prototype for something else (see: this week's earlier Replicate post for why I'm considering most of my metal things prototypes) with occasional glimmers of the writer coming out to play as I pick at the WIP over on that side of The Shed. Acceptance that my primary method is to go do other things while things percolate until a line or phrase shows up that fits and then bang the whole thing out while ignoring the guilt of not going about things the way I used to (because, clearly, that worked out oh so well). Out into society for a bit today, society being a waiting room and a book store and maybe an antique mall. Status: fit for public consumption, more or less.

metalshack complete

Fought the icemud which is now just mud mud and put a new, vinyl roof on MetalShack (because the original one didn't survive last night's freezing rain, much to my welding table's dismay; oh well, it's seen worse), put up the rest of the flame-retardant curtains, and used the remaining vinyl roofing to line the inside of the ceiling. Pretty sure The Shed's protected from my spark-inciting passion, so now I can get back to play. It isn't pretty - nor is gold my jam - but it'll do the job.

icemud

Morning's ice has given way to mud again though I did get to experience walking on icy mud which was certainly an experience but anyhow it seems that the key to making the writing part of The Shed as creatively appealing to me as the workshop side is to lock the desk at standing height so that I can pace to my quasi-beating heart's content: clearly, the lapsed percussionist of 20 years ago remains a steadfast part in position if not in performance – and besides, I always have Derbz's chair should I need to take the proverbial load off but only if he's not in The Shed with me because that's HIS chair, whether I'm in it or not.

THIS BEAUTIFUL, RIDICULOUS CITY (Kay Sohini, 2025)

Only six weeks into the year and we've been gifted 2025's first Great comics work: by turns beautiful, informative, poetic, mouthwatering, and heartbreaking, Sohini manages to make me miss cities even more than I do all the time. Her true gift here, though – thanks to her impeccable eye for the beauty of the smallest detail – is that she makes me feel as at home in her NYC as I felt when I made my first treks to that magical city all too long ago. She has found her home’s beating heart and is in perfect synchrony with it; highly, highly recommended.

replicate

Waiting patiently for my flame-retardant blankets to arrive so I can make MetalShack a little safer for all involved but already the benefit of a dedicated metalshop is evident. Started clearing out the workshop side of things – much nicer space without buckets of scrap metal all over the inside – and figuring and staring at the present metalwork WIP. In so doing, a realization: metal is the first medium I've played with in which full-scale, tactile replication (or gathering, but why would an ornamental hermit like myself do that?) is the only way for multiple people to experience the work as it was intended: in other words, if someone wants a work that I want to keep, I either have to remake the work or part with it, bleeding and screaming. Sure, I can take a picture of the work and stuff it online, but that's not the work: that – unlike writing, unless intended solely for physical release – is an approximation of it. My 10 minutes are nearly up: perhaps I’ll ruminate on this notion further tomorrow or later today maybe or move on to some other similarly useless mental gymnastic.