Saturday, July 31, 2004

The Feast of Sant Agrippina

From a postcard that Syl got (along with a badge) for pinning a dollar tothe goddess... "Sant'Agrippina di Mineo (guessing that she was no relationto Sal Mineo) was a beautiful, blond princess who was unmercifully tortured to death by the Emperor Valerion (the bastard) in 256 A.D. After her death,her body was taken from Rome to Mineo by three women: Bassa, Paula and Agatonice.Sant'Agrippina is the patron saint of thunderstorms, leprosy and evil spirits". (and I thought that they were holding that job for me)
So, we got there to find that we'd goofed up... they don't parade her through the streets until tomorrow, Sunday. We were early and the vendors were just starting to open up. Wandered through the streets, this is one of the oldest parts of the city... old like 300 years...not much really. Most of the architecture seems to be late 1800's. Old North Church (Christ Church) is here, where the lanterns to signal Paul Revere... "One if by land, Two if by sea..."were hung. There's an house of his around the corner.. dating back to the1690's (still not that old). It's an Italian neiborhood that has been cutoff from the rest of the city by the elevated Central Artery. The elevated has been cut down... the traffic is underground (Boston's Big Dig) and we'll see what happens to this area. I can't see how the old Italian ladies can afford to live there, even now.
Anyway... enough of my tour book writing.We found a place to eat... with a table at the open window onto the street. Payed 3x too much for a bottle of wine but had a nice meal... we even talkedto each other as neither of us had brought any reading material. We wanderedour way back through the street fair and Syl took my pic as I was sittingin a big inflatable chair. Sorry we don't have pics of
Madonna through the streets for you... just me in the comfy chair.

Friday, July 30, 2004

This Would Be Friday

Not to quick out of the gate this morning. Stopped at the framers to get the "right stuff" to install the piece I couldn't manage yesterday. On to the painting job. Three out of three again !!! After all, it IS payday. I put a final coat on a few walls, did some detail work and painted all the doors in the place. The other guys did whatever they do, finishing it up,nicely. I went around the corner to install the piece from yesterday...15 minutes with the right tools. Found out that this client was friends with some of my other clients and ended up getting a job fixing some closet doors. (I guess that I network in many arenas). Back to the painting job to load up the van and rearrange the furniture. I'll have to go back sometime next week to reinstall the artwork. Gave the guys their pay packets (funny,there wasn't one for me). To the grocery and then home... Tomorrow Syl and I are off to an Italian festival in the North End, where they take a statue of some goddess out of her sanctuary and parade her through the streets,stopping so that old ladies can lean out the window to put garlands os dollar bills on her.... more on that tomorrow.

Thursday, July 29, 2004

posting a pic

So... thanks to Michael I've figured out how to post a picture. Now, I have to figure out how to put it where I want it. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things, here.
I got to the job this morning to find that 3 out of 3 had shown up !!! Imagine that. I finished off a bathroom and gave the dining room a second coat, while those guys prepped and painted other bits of the house. We're in good shape to finish either tomorrow or Monday. I'll have to corral Meredyth to place the artwork and then I'll install it... should be a day long event, as it's a large collection. In the afternoon I had to run off and do a couple of installations with an art consultant... dreadful decorative stuff. We had to abort mission on one piece that's to be hung away from the wall, by cables from the ceiling. I didn't have a proper crimper for the sleeves that hold it all together...back for a minute or two tomorrow.
I forgot to mention that as I drove through the city yesterday there was a troup of state policemen stopping all trucks. Checking them for bombs, I suppose. The whole city has been weird this week with the DNC and all. The van in front of me got pulled over...but I sailed through... luckily.

In an origami hat


Jon in paper hat
Originally uploaded by jstangroom.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

for Michael

Michael... still trying to figure out how this works.
I'm addicted to chat rooms for the immediacy, but otherwise I find computers a bit of a mystery. Now, Bates... there's a guy that knows what he's doing. I think that his "MailArt Typface" is one of the most brilliant documentations that I've ever received. He's always been good, but this one is over the top. Anyway,today I picked up a painting (not mine) from the framer and drove it 2 hours to Cape Cod and installed it. The client thought it was the wrong frame (not my doing) and wasn't sure about where it was hung (after she told me where to hang it). Another 2 hours back to my painting job to find that only 1 out of 3 had shown up. Wonderful, that. Helped to sort the end of the day out... then off to a pub to see Maurice (a recently displaced barkeep from my regular) and home. Syl sends love.