Happy July 4th! My birthday is (basically) today, and those fireworks tonight -- yeah, those are all for me. July 2nd was just a fluke on my impatient mother's behalf those twenty short years ago.

I didn't lie, because I never lie! Three paintings have been 80% completed (figure that one out), and they're all quite bizarre in a progressive sort of way. Transitional period.

Hope the celebrations go 'swell

moving moving moving (ever notice that ants don't sleep?) literally carrying five times my body weight in clothing and books from my old place to my new apartment. And it's all, of course, for the queen ant--rent in this case--with her fat ass that keeps demanding for more.

That's why there's been a lull in my ' production '--I'm leaving my studio, and haven't quite figured out where I'm now going to be able to paint. But I promise something new will come in the next two weeks. I promise.

-Winston

This smell of people in springtime forebodes a hot, humid summer. At least Union Square has fresh-cut sweetly scented flowers on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday to keep the BO at bay!

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Currently looking for studio space in NYC, so if anyone is moving or subletting, hit me up.

...It's what they told me to do at group meditation (a first experience with meetup.com), so I looked and looked and finally came upon a rather large lake, complete with a realistic autumn wind rustling the maple leaves overhead and swaying my bright red canoe side-to-side. Were it not for the pristine and succulent raspberries positioned perfectly at eye level to the left, I could've mistaken all this for reality (for even before raspberries can fully mature, even when they're still a virgin green, too hard and sour to eat, people will inevitably wrestle them off their stems and chew them hard and violently because a green raspberry is better than no raspberry).

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I broke down the other day and my mind went completely clear and it scared the shit out of me. My mind is never clear, and I don't know if that was the cause, or the effect, but either way I hope I'm not fated to break down whenever my thoughts need their occasional rest.

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I entered "The Sex Issue" contest at [link] If you head there you'll be bombarded with a bunch of work, so feel free to beeline straight to mine and then cast your vote (you get a piece of my heart in return). I have no idea what the end result of a contest like this one is, but it's been so long since I've entered anything that I thought it couldn't hurt. And Sex seemed like a decent theme.

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New interview at [link]

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Honey recommendations:

Union Square, NY farmer's market has a decent selection.

If the idea of eating a farm -- the animals, the hay, the fresh produce and all that stinky fertilizer -- sounds enticing, then pick up some Buckwheat honey and have a field day (no pun intended). The taste has grown on me though (again, no pun intended).
Miel de Bruyère -- it might be a wildflower honey (made from Heather) but its taste is powerfully unique and refined, floral and full of caramel. My pick of the week!

I want to be the studied expert of something particular—not necessarily in an academic vain, and, above all, peculiarly respectable. Take honey, for example. I would like very much to be an expert of honey, to be able to say sincerely (while making small talk with, lets say, a like-minded acquaintance who finds pleasure in others’ genuine appreciation of his most recent honey acquisitions), “Now that, my friend, is good honey.”

Because just yesterday, with eight hours to kill in Boston, I spent thirteen dollars on a small jar of amber-colored honey from the Haute-Provence region of France. It has a floral taste, with a bitter-sweet sophistication and a buttery texture--my most satisfying purchase in a while. For unlike the best wines, or the best cars, or the best foods, the best honeys are still affordable, and yet in stirring this gold into my tea and spreading it on my toast (let them eat cake!) I feel transported to the height of extravagance and luxury, able to assign to 'royalty' a discernible texture and privileged sweetness...

Next entry will come with recommendations.