Art and Poetry '84-'87

While cleaning out my old room, I found these treasured illustrations, which "hold the mirror up to nature," as Shakespeare says.

THE SUN PERIOD 

My Mommy is Going to Get a New Job Because She Wants to Get Home Earlier


 The presence of multiple suns in this first work, heightens the deranged other-worldliness of the state of the artist. The car in this work is literally a bubble, encapsulating Mommy's (and the artist's) tears. Later works would not feel the compulsion to use such moralizing titles. ~ 1984, Crayola on Marble

Filbert is Just abut to Pick a Flower


Full of the purity of an artist's first inspiration, this picture captures the sun at its brightest and the perspective of life at its gayest.  ~ November 9, 1984, Crayola on Marble

Bird in Purple with Sun


What at first seems to be the artist making a feckless monochromatic choice, is actually an expression of the ennui of imitating life. Why can't the sun be purple? Why can't birds? Grass? What is that thing pecking at?  ~ 1985, Crayola on Marble

 A Happy Feeling


At this stage, the titles take a turn for the ironic. Notice the subtle, mud-colored sun casting a shadowy haze on the scene signifying the ephemerality of childhood (and all) happiness. ~1/10/86, Crayola on Marble

FREE VERSE

Noise
Noise is very loud. Sometimes it can make people deph.
Noise anoises people too.
Noise is good and noise is bad.
Noise is good because if there was no noise there would be no ear to hear with.

~ May 1985

Untitled
Once there lived a old man named Fulls Cotler but he was rich and wellthey and he looked yung. He was handsome, too. But at midnight he would turn into a wolf and eat children. But on Friday, December, 8 he died from a vampire bite. But the vampire was kind and he was 100 years old. And his wife was 99 years old. She hated him alot.

~ May 1985

Untitled
I wish I had a million dolers so I could spend it.
I would by the right thing.
And I would by 2 pecies of candy. One for my brother and one for me. and 16 toys to play with.
It would be nice to have a million dolers.
I would by presents for mom and dad. and I would by a pickcher. 

~ March 1985

It is a Windy Day
I got so mad when my brother pulled my hair and pinched me to.
I got mad so I did the same back.
I got mad because it hert.
And I got mad when he swang the book at me.

~March 7, 1985

Moth
I'm going to say mom I cout a moth in school and I gave it to someone

~ April 1985

It is a Sunny Day #1
Yesterday we went to the talent show. The talent show was good because people were singing and daceing. It would be better if there was magic too.
But I still liked it all.
But I didn't like one song. But I forget what song it is.

~May 22, 1985

It is a Sunny Day #2
Once upon a time there was an old lady and she shouted you can kill me if you want go on chop off my head! "she said." She layed down and held her breth. She had too dye because she was one hundread years old. And she was kind too people. She didn't know how too do anything.

~ May 23, 1985

Untitled
If I were a turkey and new Thanksgiving was coming I woul hide because people would shoot me. I hope nobody finds me or I'll be rosting. I'm sorry other turkeys got eaten. My mother wold be crying. I would be sad too. I'm glad I'm not gone.

~ 11/8/85

A Happy Feeling
When I am happy I smile and my eyes twinkle.
When I'm happy I hug somone and skip, and laugh.
Then I say whee, hooray.

~ 1/10/86

Angry Feeling
When I'm angry I feel like biting something or braking and kicking and throwing something.
Then I wish I was a crab so I could pinch people. Then I make my eyebrows go down.
Then I feel like throwing someone.

~January 15, 1986

My Face
My face can sneeze and caugh and look
My face can see whats ahead of me
It can look at the stars at night
My mouth can talk to you
My face can smell a pie
Finally it can nod

~ 4/23/86

Untitled
I saw a silly being. It did not look like an earth person. What could it be? Was it an animal? Was it a bird? It had a very funny shape.
What a CRAZY creature. I hope it doesn't hurt me. maybe it will go away. I sure hope so. I will say magic words to it. Then maybe it will be nic to me. We might even become best friends.

5/21/86

Southern Comfert
My room has a white, gold nightstand with a radioclock on it. nightstand has walkytalkytelephones on it. Next to it is my bed it's single and pink. My pillow is white and fluffy. My headboard is also white and gold. The carpet in my room is beige. I also have a small, black chalkboard.

Don't let the minimalism of this later drawing upstage the genius of its detail. It is best appreciated in two steps: 1) absorb the innocence of the free verse and the colors.  2) have a whiskey and visit this work again.  ~ 1/14/86, Crayola on Marble

THE DIARY PHASE

Sick #1
The day before yesterday my brother got sick and today he didn't go to school this morning he woke up at 7:30 am and I said, "Michael, if you woke up this late and you were going to school, you'd be very late." Then he thought he was going to school and he said am I going to school?

~ 1987
_____________________

Shut Up
Steven is a stupid rat because he made me say the s.u. word so now I have to minus two cents from my check book.

I hope he gets kicked out of G.T. Language Arts. He said "I looked like an enoli."

So I told him to s.u. Well it started like this,

I came to GT, telling every one there was a castee in the fish tank because I was the first one there. Then they showed me the enoli and the grasshopper. Then I sat down to do my journal.  (I wasn't going to write this until he called me a enoli then I told him to s.u. Then miss Kunihisa minused two cents from my check book. (Steven laughed.) I think he just did it to get me in trouble. I used to hate him but now I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, and hate, him.

P.S. I felt like I was going to cry because it was the first time I subtracted 2 cents for saying the s.u. word.

~ 1987
_____________________

Second Grade Socialism
Our teacher is very, very, very strict because she said we had to read a hundred page book to do our book report. She is also strict because she gave us these words: Washington, president, White House, Reagan, Congress, Democrat, Republican, military defence, United States

~ 1987
_____________________

Sick #2
Yesterday and the day before I was sick. I could have gone to school yesterday but, my grandma said that I could stay home if I wanted to stay home.

Yesterday even though I was sick, I got to paint wood (big kind) and my grandma didn't know. The only reason was my grandpa was painting wood out back and I snuck out the sliding back door and my grandpa said I could help him paint. But when my grandma found out I got in trouble because I was supposed to get better by not going outside.

When I was painting the wood, I painted it wrong. Then my grandpa taught me the right way.

~ March 1987
_____________________

From Now On
Yesterday Kristy, Scott W., William, and I were doing our work the same place as I am doing journal and I am doing journal in back of the book shelf in reading class.

Yesterday while we were doing our work here, we saw a Blak Widdow. Well at least we thought we saw one. We had a fun time behind the book shelf in reading class.

So thats why I am going to have this as my seat for reading class.

Well it all started by me being sick and they changed seats while I was absent so then I had no seat, so in the morning when I came back to school we had a black out and some students were on the floor so I decided to go on the floor then I became attached to it so I'm going to stay there from now on.

~ March 5, 1987
_____________________

Moth #2
Yesterday I went on a hike to the top of Diamond Head and it was 0.7 miles. We had to climb 99 stairs.

Once we went into a cave. We were supposed to bring a flashlight but we forgot. So we had to walk in total darkness. It was scary because I thought there was a giant moth in the cave. We also went in bunkers and we had to climb up the stairs in darkness. Then the cave before that, that was the darkest one.

We ate our lunch there But we packed to much so we had leftovers.

~ 1987
_____________________

The Strange Thing
last july ther was this movie on preview and it was called "Clue" and we ordered it but I thought it would be yucky so I watched it anyway and it was good. that was only version 1 for the first part of the month. Now in the 2nd part of the month was Clue version 2. Now the strange thing about it was that for clue version 1 and 2, we paid to wach both of them, but only once. Now they strange thing was that we did not pay any thing for the others, but we go it anyway with out paying so I wached it any time it came on. It was the same with other preview movies. We got them free too.

~ 1987

Double VV

Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt. ~Measure for Measure, I.iv

The other morning, I finally watched Man on Wire, the documentary about the man who tight rope Walked between The Twin Towers back in the 70's.

Phillipe Petit's fearlessness (and arguably, insanity) reminds me that we can make an adventure out of living . . . out of Walking. Simply Walking! How often we forget our privilege, this luxury, the ability to make music with our legs.

After finishing the documentary, I Walked to Camel Back Park to meet some friends to play guitar and Sing. After a short time, a couple parked their bicycles in the arbor near our tree and set up a tight rope.

I ran up to them and said hello --Ocean and Merritt were just wire-Walking for fun, and only one of them had heard about Phillipe Petit.

Ocean: Do you wanna try it?
Me: Do you have any tips on how to start?
Ocean: Nope.

So I leaped up. Of course I fell immediately, but in the attempt, suspension, and falling--and in this strange coincidence--- was a greater understanding of the importance and necessity of Walking.









I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless I spend four hours a day at least — and it is commonly more than that — sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields absoutely free from all wordly engagements. - Thoreau, Walking

I live 2.5 miles out of town (4 kilometers), half way out towards the remote and rocky ISF performance site, where the "City of Trees" turns into desert. Living here means I enjoy 75 minutes a day Walking where I need or want to go. For at least 75 minutes I experience the effort of motion and living . . . in 75 minutes I contemplate the oft-abused luxury of motor vehicles.

Yet, I am more grateful than ever for the plane I took to Cuzco, the bus to Lima, and the taxis to various terminals. I am aware of my carbon footprint, and I thank these engines for helping me to better use my feet. I thank my feet for reminding me I don't need a car and for teaching me to understand (like Phillipe Petite) the lengths and heights of trails I can blaze on my own.










Since my own adventure Walking the Inca Trail last month, and since being forced to Walk everywhere in Boise, I have the courage to imagine that I could walk almost anywhere and that I can live out my own dreams--mine perhaps less life threatening than wire Walking, but perhaps almost as crazy.

To put teaching, acting, writing, and loving in a handkerchief and hit the road . . . To vow never to lead a life making money behind a desk? To win good for the world? How? I am not immediately sure. How does not yet concern me because coincidences such as my encounter with Merritt and Ocean affirm I am en route to the next adventure that will lead to all these passions. In the last two weeks, I've been having numerous bouts of coincidence--of double vision. Am I in Cuzco or Boise? I know now that I never really leave anything or anywhere--each experience and place is as present as each footstep.













Afoot, I make my way, write my story. The treks and trails I take throughout the day map out the larger picture. I am grateful for the opportunity to breathe, step, and see double all around me. This blurry mystery is, in the words of Olivia: "Most wonderful!"









I don't doubt I could have walked over the Panama Canal drawbridge into South America instead of flying. Perhaps I will someday, testing how far I can go and wind-- never sitting still or seeing straight. But flying does allow us to economize our time so that we may spend it savoring--in the same way Thoreau and Emerson relished Walking in their back yards. Traveling farther --responsibly, consciously--encourages dreaming.

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where
they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

And laying the foundation is easy; notes intuitively come to support the double vision of a song. Like the Via Alpina--ahhhh..... a dream and not a destination, nor a final note-- not even my NEXT note or step, but for certain it will be one of many Walking refrains to come. As for now, I learn to see, sing, and Walk my line.

Peru in Video

Hola Me Amigas y Amigos!

Enjoy these short videos that chronologically capture and highlight my adventure in Peru while I sift through my millions of photos that I'll eventually use to decorate the words--when I find them--to capture the epiphanies and wonders I experienced on my pilgrimage to Machu Picchu. I still can't believe I'm not in South America anymore. I am still speaking Spanish. Thank god I am in Bushwick.

Suerte!

Jennifer x



Llama Path Red Army Starts the Pilgrimage


Atop the Nipple of Dead Woman's Pass


Breathtaking Intipata


Feasts in Tents


A Moment of Silence for Machu y Wayna Picchu...


Gringo Musica in Aguas Calientes


Peruvian P(Up)s


MMMMMMaracuya...


We can do ANYTHING

Changing Lanes with Funny Names

For the last 3 months I have lived off Bogus Basin Road... a name that was strange and funny to me the first time I heard it. It became common place as I grew to know its stretches and bends.

Now, I don't know where I am.

The Shakespearience tour 2010 is OVER?

Kind of: the road is changing again.

My first love and I used to joke that a good Wheel of Fortune "Before and After" would be:
Changing Nathan Lanes ... or was it Changing Nathan Lane?

I look at the signs around me in the airport for a joke--this one says I am in Denver. But in 15 minutes I will be on another plane that whirls me onto streets that don't need signs to scream New York City.

After driving 7,158.8 miles on the road in the last 10 weeks, I am used to 5 hour rides taking me to Sandpoint, or Twin Falls and back, making jokes and jotting down funny road signs and shop puns along the way:

• The Human Bean
• Lardo Grill
• ROBIDEAUX MOTORS???
  

• Post Office Creek
• Chicken Dinner Rd
• True Blood Ld
• K BAR T Ln
• Divide Pass
• Happy Day Blvd
• Bodystun Ln
• Gun Club Rd
• Pot Hole Rd
• Fort Misery Rd
• NO KID --it was a street name but no Rd, St, Ln, Ave assigned
  
• Lois Ln
• Anne Antelope Ave
• Bitter Rd
• Humanity Ln
• Glascock Rd
• Mossy Cup Dr
• Shoepeg Rd
• Sagle
• Freezeout Rd
  
• Slickpoo Rd
• Last Chance Rd

Now, millions of jokes and hours and weeks and years later, I find it hard to believe that this journey will be taking me to New York--the city I left 3 long months ago! It's even harder to believe that another 7 hours will land me in Peru--the first leg of my journey to achieve a dream: to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with my sweetheart. I don't think it is possible to be any happier than to be in this moment with all the wonderful memories and moments and choices and passions that led me here.


Over the last 10 weeks, I had the opportunity to warm up my instrument at least once a day for 90 performances of Othello. No job has brought me more happiness. I feel radiant, confident, healthy. I know my lungs are ready to handle the altitudes of Cuzco! My heart and imagination, more ready to be reunited with love.

I DO know where I am: exactly where I should be--in flux.

This merging road is the only road I care to follow--one that will change into something new and foreign, but will return again to the people and places I love. I see Tyler in less than 24 hours in another hemisphere.


And I return to Boise this summer to teach for ISF. My favorite road is this one that I keep following, laughing, spinning, wheezing, wandering, wondering, and hallooing down...

I'll send a postcard as usual,

Jennifer x

Othello Week 10

GRRRR....

...this was NOT the best week to lose my camera! We played to some of the most awesome schools this week--actually all are wonderful, but I can't possibly spotlight every single one...

Time, distraction, misplaced cameras, the need to find a bathroom: all these factors are part of the chance that captures only a fraction of the 90 schools we have visited in the last 10 weeks.

YOU ARE ALL INSPIRATIONS TO US.

However, in this, our final week of tour, I managed to capture Riverglen Jr High and Mountain Home Jr High before I lost my camera:

Castmember, Sarah gets the honor of posing with
Riverglen Jr High student and ISF Facebook fan, Calista!

Some Riverglen Grizzlies pose for a photo for the blog!

Castmember, Dakotah takes apart the set for some
Mountain Home Jr High Tiger fans

And then.... a blank, my lord...

till Friday at Mountain Home High, when I found my camera--or rather when Katie Mueller found my camera backstage hiding in the sound booth! Aiyeeee!!!!!

Thanks for coming to our last show, Katie! xo
Now we're off to unload our set for the last time.
Thank you ISF Shakespearience for a tour we'll never forget!

Cast of Othello from left, clockwise: David Ketchum (Cassio/Brabantio), Luke Massengill (Iago), Dakotah Brown (Othello), Rod Wolfe (Roderigo), Sarah Gardner (Desdemona), Jennifer Robideau (Emilia/Montano/Duke of Venice), and Infrared Bijounee (the jealousy monster)

Othello Week 9 Pt 3!

So many parts to this endless week... Thank you for helping us load out on our last day of this long week, Sandpoint Charter High gentlemen! Now the van heads back to Boise... well most of us...

It's Friday: Sandpoint Charter School

It's Friday: The door finally breaks on us...and we fix it with zip ties and scotch tape like Ramona Quimby...uh oh, are you old enough to know Ramona???

This entry comes so late because I lost my camera at the beginning of week 10! My pictures from the end of week 9 were on that round of "film"--can we call digital photo memory film? I still do.... yes, I remember film. I used to develop it and have it developed. I remember slides. I remember anticipating those 3 agonizing days where the photo lab would know the secrets of my adventures before I did... and then the miraculous came: ONE HOUR PHOTO.

For the revolutionary, short attention, impatient generation--the generation of which I am on the cusp--almost ignorant--I think I sent my first email when I was 14. Yes, when I was growing up:

• I learned to type on a typewriter.
• The Smurfs were NOT in syndication
• A child movie ticket was $3.50
• School Lunch was $0.45
• Car phones were built INTO the car and you only had one if you were a character on Magnum PI
• I could have auditioned for Saved by the Bell...

But enough of my generation.... back to yours! Thanks for letting me traverse the divide, Fate!

Stay tuned for the last post: Week 10, Mountain Home Jr High, Mountain Home High, and my good bye!

Now, I get on a plane....

xo Jennifer and Infrared

Othello Week 9 Pt 2

Across the panhandle, through Montana, and back again...

This week alone, we will drive 2,000 miles (1/3 of our entire tour) from Boise to Nezperce to Orofino to Salmon to Moscow to Sandpoint and back to Boise! Breathtaking in both senses of the word, we finish this week bewildered and bleary

"JROY" becomes "JRO"!!!

Early morning in Nezperce, ID.

Weary with toil, I hast me to my bed,

The dear repose for limbs with travel tired...

Salmon, ID


Salmon High students rehearse a scene from Othello

Salmon High Workshop Students sign the NEA banner

Awesome Salmon High students after their workshop
And back again... through the rain
when body's work's expir'd...