Moving Day

Stuffeddoggie activities have been moved over to the Boijer Blog. Thanks for following me on to my new adventures!

Summer Supercut

Summer Supercut

In the midst of political and social unrest, work, and change...
Things were alright this summer. The power of love and nature persists.

Stuck

It's the summer of being stuck again. I don't expect this post to mean anything to anybody, but I'd like it to be here so I can see it someday and remember how I was feeling right before breaking out to do my own thing for a living.

Fountian Cow

↑ Unknown (via)

Fountain cow.

Astronaut Mae Jemison, M.D.

↑ Dr. Jemison at left with her suit tech. Sharon Caples McDougle at right (via)

↑ Floating in space during STS-47 (via)

Dr. Mae Jemison, MD.
First black woman in space.

There are about a hundred thousand things I want to say about how awesome this woman is. I love these two photos of her. At top, Mae and her suit tech Sharon Caples McDougle (awesome interview with Sharon here) seem to radiate pure brilliance. It is very obvious that they have a special relationship and that they both love what they do. Space suits! - absolutely utilitarian - totally freaking cool.

Dr. Mae Jemison is an avid Star Trek fan and especially fond of the character Lieutenant Nyota Uhura. When opening her communications with NASA Mission Control at the beginning of her shifts, Mae would proclaim Uhura's standard line: "Hailing frequencies open". Famously portrayed by Nichelle Nichols, the role of Uhura was one of television's first significant feature roles for a black actor. Spanning from 1966-1969, Nichols' contribution to television came at a significant time during America's Civil Rights Movement - and when Nichols was considering leaving the show, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made a personal plea for her to stay. Nichelle Nichols is also credited to have shared in the very first on-screen interracial kiss on television with co-star William Shatner. As the story goes, Nichols and Shatner purposely messed up every take in which the studio wanted to film versions of the scene that omitted the kiss.

Dr. Jemison did herself appear on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation as Lieutenant Junior-Grade Palmer and is the only real-life astronaut to have ever appeared on the show.

↑ Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhara as (via)

↑ Dr. Mae Jemison as Liutenant J-G Palmer (via)

"Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations...If you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility won't exist because you'll have already shut it out ... You can hear other people's wisdom, but you've got to re-evaluate the world for yourself." 

– Dr. Jemison at the Annual Biomedical Research
Conference for Minority Students, November 2009

Matahdatah, Zaouli, Kankudai, Pancakes, Farm Boy

I love this audio/visual project so much (more information). Also, M.I.A. had most everything to do with concept and production. It really gets my heart racing. She even has some Zaouli dance in there (remember?)!!
M.I.A.'s music is so dear to me. Her album Kala was the soundtrack I used as a line cook years ago. Her tempo and stories sped the whole team up with a unity and importance that I had never before experienced as a person assembling things for my money. Her music made our repetitive work as a group lyrical and important. Hot kitchen!




You spend all this time doing something, and then you become expert - sometimes / most of the time / your expertise is actually just an afterthought of the thousands of hours spent having to make money for yourself. Watching these amazing working people fills me with respect and really makes me think... I should stop wasting time. It is so scary knowing that if I has spent as many hours on what I most want to do more than anything, that I could already be pretty good at it. All panic aside, I really have no regrets for my time spent. Everything I have done up until every moment has been like a drip in a cave - and so I am basically an approximation of a human stalagmite. This goes for you too! I promise to try and document my journey with honesty, and frequently.

Anyways. Onwards!

Larry Cat

Almost every single morning I wake up hugging Larry. 
It is one of the great things in my life. 

Sick

I am sick, it's just a cold. I am trying to memorize all the discomforts - the ache of my hips and the pain of holding my head up. It's a labor to do anything. I am so thankful for my health. I am in disbelief at how easy it feels to be when you're well and why is this something I always forget to note except for when I am truly well-fed and sublimely happy?

There was a car crash on the Island tonight and somebody died. Whenever I hear the Life Flight helicopter thumping overhead to land on the ballfields I pay a moment to acknowledge that somebody is having possibly the worst or even the last day of their life. I wish for a stronger culture of empathy in our communities. A moment for the anonymous soul.

For all this doom and gloom, I promise I really am doing quite well. I have decided to start working on making dresses. I will call the brand Böijer after a silly nickname I have. It's a beginning, at least.

Late Summer

A few photos from a late summer arranging gig yesterday with Chickadee Hill Flowers. I love Emily's big arrangements. She always manages a shape you thought impossible to build with flowers. Every piece of material she applies is done with deliberate attention and starts with a thoughtful framework of greenery. At a glance it feels like you are experiencing something that fell from the most secret garden plot and right into the vase - if you you knew how much observance and experience it takes to create a piece so beautiful.

I got to make a large wreath with Darcy. We used Queen Anne's Lace, four different types of Eucalyptus, some blushing Sedum, Spruce branches, and spent Astilbe flower seed heads. It's great to create something with someone else. If you are carrying a heavy fridge with another person, you are not going to skimp on your efforts, but rather lift hard and consider your partner at every step! I grow so much when I work with other people.

The airy cabin space where we installed the large arrangement and wreath sat on a beautiful point of private land by the ocean. The water was a translucent milky green, a perfect swimming spot.

"Drinking cup (kylix) with erotic scene"

↑ Taken at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston USA

I spent a few hours exploring the Boston Museum of Fine Art's Greek pottery collections this past weekend. I particularly liked this piece. It's crazy how old these objects are and how useful they were in their time. My companion Ian was able to weave the ancient stories to me as we investigated the pieces. Fascinating and beautiful on so may levels.

A bearded man bends over a woman with short hair (which may indicate her status as a slave). She braces herself on the stool in front of her which has lion-paw feet and various things piled on top of it, including her clothes. To the left is a couch (kline) which has an elaborately carved post with ionic volutes. An overstuffed striped cushion tops the kline. 

Inscription:
"the girl is pretty" (HE PAIS KALE) (above their heads), and "Hold still!" (HEXE HESUXOS) (issuing from the man's mouth) ΗΕΠΑΙΣΚΑΛΕ ΗΕΧΕΗΣΥΧΟΣ (via)

Haircut

↑ (via)

Julien Dys cuts Linda Evangelista’s hair, photographed by Peter Lindbergh, 1989.

I love how this amazing haircut was documented.

Chickadee Hill Time

↑ Private

I am learning so much at Chickadee Hill Flowers. The other day we arranged and installed flowers on a beautiful chuppah that Emily's dad made. The apple branches made everything extra lush and lovely. We also used Forsythia branches, Mountain Mint, Dahlias, Matricaria, Queen Anne's Lace, Cloud Larkspur, Peonies, and Baptisia greens. Beyond the material that she grows herself, Emily also sources from the incredible Sacred Bough Farm (definitely worth a follow on Instagram! @sacredbough).  The greenhouse feels especially exotic right now - the Sweetpeas that Emily started back in January are being cut down soon to make way for peppers. Until then I will continue to enjoy their incredible fragrance. I rolled my ankle and fell on my head once - It smelled like Sweetpeas in the room at the time. The smell of their blooms will always haunt me a little bit but I still love them all the same.

Home Garden

↑ Private

I love the time of year when the lilacs leave thick mats of fallen blooms on the ground. This spring carpet is a fine luxury. I leave the irises as their blooms fall away - their stalks and molting brown petals are so enchanting. The night I took these photos was heavy with the damp - it was low tide and I could smell the wet seaweed on the beach all the way down the block.

Drug Busts

↑ Lewiston, Maine Drug Bust / MDEA (via)

↑ Brunswick, Maine Drug Bust / MDEA (via)

↑ East Madison, Maine Drug Bust / Somerset County Sheriff's Office (via)

It occurred to me this morning as I flipped through my local paper that I love drug bust contraband photos.

First of all, how much thought goes into setting up the photo? Do police stations have special areas set aside for these pictures? Does some dummy try to set the shot up in a dim corner when another officer intervenes "The light is much better there over by the coffee maker."? Does the task default to an officer with artistic prowess like a waiter whose knack for drawing lands him the task of scribbling daily specials on the patio blackboard? Were any of these pictures taken with a cellphone? I especially like the second photo because you can see the photographer's shoes.

I also enjoy drug bust photos because they document a bunch of someone's stuff that was very recently taken away. The people whose possessions are documented here remind me of squirrels.