It's 2010 bitches! The past two years, as best I remember them.

Me,  drawn by my classmate Diane

 Hopefully this post's title doesn't alarm anyone since it's already August of 2010. The title is just in case any of you readers happened to be on a life-support system that was powered by my blogging. Surely, if you are not dead, you must be in a state of shock to awaken from your coma to find that not only is it more than two years since you were last conscious, but that America has a Black president.

What else is new? I currently share an apartment in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn with my ever supportive and loving supernerd boyfriend Richard and our soul-survivor cat Lucy (a.k.a. Big Lu). Our landlord Jacob Lev is a total slumlord, but thanks to Abraham Hicks I am appreciating the contrast. Besides, we have so much. Our apartment is spacious and has roof access, which we take advantage of at least a few times a week by lounging with cold beers. We live minutes away from the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, Prospect Park, Grand Army Plaza and it's awesome farmer's market, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, and Brooklyn Museum of Art. There are tons of vegan and vegan-friendly eats nearby. There is Stumptown Coffee served one block away at Sit & Wonder. There's LaunchPad, the best community center EVER! I can easily walk to Park Slope, Bed-Stuy, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, and Fort Green. I can hop on the subway; correction: I can walk for 10 minutes then get on the subway and visit friends in Brooklyn Heights or my favorite riverside park in DUMBO. I can see why they call this neighborhood the Heart of Brooklyn!

For cash, I have been hostessing at Angelica Kitchen for almost three years and I've been a salesperson at Sustainable NYC, an eco-friendly boutique, for nearly two.  I love working at places that are in sych with my woman warrior battle cry of "defend the planet and equality for all inhabitants!, "still I am growing bored with only using my vivacious personality at work. I have so many other talents and gifts to share, and with more people! I just read Jonathan Mead's amazing- and free- eBook Zero Hour Work Week and am inspired to indulge my passion for creating art, creating poetry and prose, and conscious-consumerism and living. The idea is to just do the things I am most passionate about and talented at in a creative way that can give unique value to others, and this value will be rewarded in profits. Sounds like it is worth a shot to me.

What about SuperVegan? Well, it's a great website, but I am not sure if the work I was doing there was fulfilling. Actually I am certain it wasn't. I enjoy writing, but there came a point where writing entertainment and lifestyle content for an audience of committed vegans (many of whom were holier than thou-- not to exclude myself) seemed like such an utter waste of time. People (rich people, crazy people, ignorant people, powerful people, disenfranchised people, mean people) were out there kicking the shit out of all kinds of innocent animals and people and the planet in a million different ways and not only did I have to deal with knowing about this and figuring out what I could about it, I had to deal with ten million promotional emails a day. Some events and products were more important than others, but oftentimes it was hard to tell since I was drowning in a sea of requests to write about books, benefit parties, art projects, adoptable kittens, and meat analogs.

WHINE ALERT: Most of the emails and calls were from Karen Dawn demanding that I read Thanking the Monkey in its entirety before writing the positive review I said I would write after skimming it. She seemed to think it was the most important book ever written, though further examination of the book suggested to me that it was your classic animal rights introduction book. Not bad, but far from exceptional  and likely to end up as the kind of coffee table book one uses as a coaster without even thinking twice. Having said that, I'd like to add that I am a fan of DawnWatch and I wish she had directed her energy toward that project, rather than pestering me to read her mediocre book. Grrr...

Some people can withstand this kind of pressure and information overload. In fact, they get off on it. In the end, I discovered I am not one of those people. I realized that my interest in vegan culture is not infinite. I can get enough of all things vegan, and limited interest-- no matter how far expanding-- is no substitute for pure passion and infinite love. So this explains why Karen Dawn can be in the vegan/ AR media game since the dawn of time and I couldn't last even two years. I may still write the occasional SV post, but I'm not cut out to be a major player there anymore.

Again, I am pursuing some passions that I have infinite interest in. This summer I took a portrait drawing class at the Educational Alliance. It was great! The instructor was engaging and engaged, it was affordable-- only about $30/ class with free figure drawing open sessions on Sundays (I never went though), and my classmates were a mix of pretty cool older adults and fledgling youngsters (ha ha!) like myself. Pictured here are some of the my own favorite in-class drawings (all done in compressed and/or vine charcoal), but you can see more student drawings on my teacher's blog. It is all so exciting!

One of those nights

I drew this with Sumi Ink during my craft group meeting today. I think I'd like to add some color to this, but because I'm a little scared of color I wanted to somehow preserve this drawing before I botched it. It's not the best scan, but it's the best scan I could get on my little freebie Dell printer.

This drawing is called "One of those nights" and it's an illustration of a bunny's nightmare. It was influenced greatly by my visit to Brooklyn Museum, which was recently given a super Japanimation makeover. It was also influenced by that picture of the furry stuffed monster running in a field to escape a gaggle of cuddly kittens. (Who made that?) My craft group mates Tammi and Marissa also helped by making suggestions and offering support. FYI: The meatwad looking things in the right corner are supposed to be rotting heads of cabbage. It doesn't really look like that though. Maybe I should add some flies.

The drawing is sort of a part two or finger wag at the character in this earlier Curly's placemat drawing about a real-life giant Brit rabbit who had been "stealing" massive amounts of veggies from village gardens. Unfortunately the real rabbit was killed, but my bunny just got a stomach ache and had a nightmare.

This is my second time drawing with ink. The first time was on Easter, when I participated in the Sumi Ink Club event at Little Cakes. It was super fun, but I just checked out the L.A. drawing group and I noticed they had tons of space and even chairs and a table! Fucking L.A.!

P.S. I'm a little sad today because Charlton Heston is dead. I know he wasn't the most politically correct person, but I loved his work. Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green are two of my favorite movies. He will be missed. On the upside, I guess we'll be able to get that gun now.