back home from a long weekend in new mexico, i have lots of memories; i slowed down a little, slept well especially in a nap on my parents' couch; spent a lot of time with my parents, just visiting. the trip was also full of sights- the irrigated checkerboard texas plains; the dry dusty mountains rising out of el paso; the cactus garden; the adobe houses of las cruces. out there the big north-south road, camino real, ancient passageway of goods-merchants coming from lower mexico and going up into the beautiful hills of santa fe and taos- come to what is known as the jornada de los muertos, the driest of all deserts, not a drop of water, i think i read a mcmurtry book about it a while back. east-west, interstate 10 comes out of the el paso airport, goes past where you can see mexico, and crosses up into las cruces; i take las cruces to mean the crossroads of these two major roads, past and present, though i know it's more than that. read a little about the treaty of guadalupe hidalgo while i was there, immersed a bit in history, history of polk, of the alamo, mesilla and the gadsden purchase, and santa ana, president of mexico, and head of the army at the same time. the area was, in some ways, as old-world as ever; other times, i'd turn around, and i knew there was no going back.

i used to avoid or resist becoming like my parents, but now i relish it, or at least, don't worry about it. my dad is at the same time a graphic artist, and a recycler; i managed to make him excited about pop art and messing with the color controls on ordinary computers, but his dinosaur pc, he'd never thrown out, and a mac, older than this, he hadn't got online yet. like me in so many ways. so we played with cords & walljacks for a while; i read what they were reading, and we watched bela fleck on television. coming back a freak rain storm hit el paso of all places; delayed the plane, and settled the dust i suppose. the mississippi looked terrible from a mile up, way swollen, out of control, and i could see a baseball game in st. louis, as we circled around and landed. summer is in full swing here; i've got three more classes; they're still changing, and, after the long holiday, it'll settle into a groove that may or may not involve more graphics. for now, at home, i do pop art with whatever i have (see below) on the desktop of the old home computer, which, like the dog, has control issues and one foot in the grave. dad gave me a disc of his photos, which always were superb, and permission to play, but i left the disc at work, at the better computer, where i've been too busy to even pull out the flag and play with the pop camera, even as i eat lunch. so i'll have to really play pop-art, later.

the little guys were glad to see me return, and i've been taking them outside, filling up a small pool and letting them splash. the heat is kicking in; the fourth here is brutal, unless you like this stuff. i myself may have to work that day, showing students around st. loo, watching the fireworks by a swollen river. interpreting modern america for visitors- but, in some cases, just interpreting it for myself. kinda like bela and the banjo, in some ways, it may not make the top of the pop charts, but it'll be my interpretation, a variation on classical, a dress shirt with a coffee stain. i'm talking about the art now (see below)- where, hats off to andy, i'm 'a concentrate on my own stuff, i like to put it here, see what it looks like for a while, before i put it in the collection, or storing it at the fotopic site, but i risk forgetting about it or leaving it to sit around a little too long. fortunately, it's digital graphics. it doesn't get yellowed on the edges, faded, brittle; doesn't get fingerprints on it, or coffee, though it could be deleted, i suppose, accidentally, or in a fit of anti-google rage. not by me, mind you. i like google- as a publisher, they've been loyal, they got me where i am today. in the right field of the blogosphere, way down on the astroturf, way over there by the foul pole, tossing the ball into the stands. peanuts! getcher peanuts heyah! peanuts, now! have a good summer...