Have you ever had a day of the week take you by complete surprise? I have. Just today, when I realized that it was Monday, and I hadn’t posted anything for Three Things. So, today, let’s all practice our surprise faces, and maybe throw our characters a few curve balls while we’re at it.
Henri Rousseau, Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!), 1891. Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London, England.
Lynn Skordahl (Paperworker), Pop Tarts, 2012. Collage. www.lynnskordal.paspartout.com
Living movie still made by If We Don’t, Remember Me. Scene from Vertigo, featuring James Stewart. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Paramount Pictures, 1958.
P.S. We’ll take a break next Monday, for the holiday weekend. Three Things will be back Monday, September 8!
For those of you who missed it, we held a winter-inspired haiku contest over on the Hazel & Wren Facebook page on Friday. It yielded all number of fantastically frosty phrases, including my new-favorite line: “Thighs like Barbie’s pink Corvette” (Elizabeth Sowden), and perspectives ranging from the season’s perils (by Kyle Hebert):
Black ice beneath wheels
Inertia’s spell is broken
Spinning to freedom.
to its cozier benefits (by Margret Aldrich):
When winter arrives
Get the goose-down comforter
And meet me upstairs.
Let’s continue the theme this week, shall we? Write your own piece (haiku or not) inspired by the winter months. Here are three winter scenes to get you in the mood, although I would recommend checking out the rest of Friday’s haikus for maximum inspiration.
Andrew Wyeth, Winter, 1946, 1946. Tempera on board. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.
Aleksandr Deyneka, Skates, 1927. Gouache on canvas. The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Living movie still made by If We Don’t, Remember Me. Scene from Fargo. Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen. Universal Pictures, 1996.
Ever have one of those days? You wake up to discover your alarm decided to stay silent, there’s no hot water for the three-second shower you don’t have time for, you stub your toe on the kitchen table as you run past it to the (empty) coffee can, and that’s all before you even leave the house (to find a flat tire patiently waiting). Even the most cheerful and optimistic of us (at least, this is what I tell myself) has had one of those days: days when life is just plain out to get you. Yes, a no good, very bad day.
But hey, bad days usually at least result in a good story, right? Not yours? Well, these three will. This week, I have for you three moments in three very bad days: a rogue flock of owls (happens to me all the time) to start, then a missed bus and subsequent chase, and a particularly pesky rain cloud to finish.
See? Your day wasn’t so bad after all now, was it?
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (El sueño de la razón produce monstruos), from Los Caprichos series, c. 1797. Etching.
Alex Colville, Berlin Bus, 1978. Acrylic on masonite. Private collection.
Living movie still made by If We Don’t, Remember Me. Scene from The Truman Show. Dir. Peter Weir. Paramount Pictures, 1998.
P.S. Open Mic is this week! Submit your stuff before Wednesday to participate!
