grocery hell #1

I have this crap mindless day job. grocery cashier. Sometimes it makes me want to kill myself. One day I read this by David Foster Wallace.

& on another day recently DnD inspired me to just draw, at work, cause DnD was born out of turning the bad stuff into art and getting over it (drunkenly). (although I'm not drunk at work )

& isn't the whole point of DnD NOT KILLING YOURSELF through Drawing (& having fun?)? 

without any further explantion, some scenes from grocery hell. (this will be a continuing series. dedicated to DFW at all times. fuck I wish you were still alive & writing).

fresh meat & seafood. plus some lists I made.

there's some bacon dancing in the margins.

people are assholes, but food is visually appealing. get me that bumper sticker, please.

7.31.2009: it rained, a lot of people bought cookies.

Life is really hard, sometimes, & one of my main strategies for coping came from someone who killed himself even though he was brilliant. hard to deal with during the day to day bullshit at the grocery store. Thank christ for DnD, cause we are survivors (even if through alcohol) y'all.

weird sleep/life schedules make for weird food schedules...

what I ate over roughly the last 24 hours, 7.29.09-7.30.2009.

I should really stop the not eating/binge eating late at night thing.

just a sneak preview...

of awesome, incredible, awe-inspiring, cannot be expressed yet on the internet, things to come.
just sayin'. rin's portrait of the three of us, having the most fun ever.

on the other page, me scribbling out my frustrations with the fact that I couldn't see the stage. hey everyone get out of our way, we're Drinking & Drawing, we'll fuck your shit up. We need to be able to see the fucking bands, y'all. or otherwise I just sit in the booth & drink beer & draw things like this.

also, everyone, wasn't July a good month for DnD? Review the archives, July 2009 really ruled. Milkshakes, bacon, arabian princes, asses, not killing yourself, sunflowers, PBR,
south deerfield = crap, glitter, cosmo quizes, the fourth of july, thursdays! toast & the dragoncat, thunder, cute girls, & the sierra grille. wow. what a month. SERIOUSLY. check it out.

thursday thursday

ah, thursday nights. DnD night. it's great when your weekly drinking/art group is providing your major source of life security. but whatever. Myself, & of course the rest of the internet, we can always count on thursday nights for AWESOME. & that's what she said.

it's finally (sort of ) like summer here in northampton, SO...OBVIOUSLY...outdoor DnD. we headed to Veracruzana & scored the prime outdoor table. On a reasonably summer like night (come on summer 09, come on already) beer + food + evening light = the perfect conditions for DnD. While I was waiting for jed to find our food, here is a girl on a bike in a snappy striped shirt. while I was drawing her, the noho police were hassling a possibly crazy homeless man. He kept saying, "I'm not drunk. hassle the people who are drunk." & although I wasn't even drinking yet, I still thought he was talking about us. plus beers & art supplies on our table. I love how socially awkward it is for us to draw outside on main street. Someday, people will tell their children about us, how very much art geeks we were.

our food. Drinking & Deliciousness series. I really like food being involved in our DnD activities, we need to keep this shit up. fuck yes, yum.

off to the office to watch True Lies & do some watercolour & some clean up, then to the sierra grille for the second anniversary of Reanimate the Baystate. Mark Sheehan in a classic pose, texting/taking cell phone pictures at the edge of the stage.

alison & rebecca dancing at sierra tonight. & a raffle ticket. jed won a gift certificate to sierra. DnD as a collective better be seeing some food, yo. & drawing it of course. Jed draws the asses, I draw the snacks.

perfect.

& finally, alison & rebecca's DnD contributions.

yeah, I could have been packing tonight, but food/music/beer/friends/conversation & DRAWING are clearly more important. we all gotta have our things that keep us sane, y'all, & sometimes that's better than practicality. WTF will happen NEXT WEEK? OMG. OMG.

The Trials & Tribulations of the Glitter Pen

Last night, in honor of Cher's
very kind offer to let us be semi-official during the screening of Azwan's film Off Da' Chain (official for the second time! why do people keep allowing this? ridiculous.), jed & I invested in some glitter pens at Stop & Shop on our way to the 11's. This didn't go well. This AWESOME, PRICELESS, CLASSIC drawing was damaged. & I accomplished crap like this.

I'll admit it. I was really off my game last night. Look at Jed's post if you want anything actually good, amusing, visually stimulating, witty, etc. The best drawing I did at the 11's was this, which has nothing to with anything other than all the weird obsessive bullshit that goes on in my head. & the glitter pen then kind of torn up my sketchbook.

In conclusion, Drinking & Drawing is undecided on the subject of glitter pens. On one hand, GLITTER. On the other hand, DESTRUCTION. Hmmm.

I'm Falling Into Old Patterns

Last March Rin & I embarked on an art project where we drew what we ate, every single thing we ate, every single day. we never finished the month, or at least I didn't, but about 14 paintings exist, & part of the reason for the creation of this blog was so I could use some of those images. & they will eventually be posted here.

What I ate 7.25.09.
Lately while out & about with Drinking & Drawing, when I get bored with bands & people & the bar in general, I find myself sitting at Hugos & compelled to draw my breakfast or to spend the whole night doing portraits of bar snacks.

last night between the 11's & Hugo's I drew this. Not what I was supposed to be drawing at all. what fascinated me about our project last March, & what still fascinates me about these drawings in general, is how bizarre my eating habits are, maybe everyone's are, especially when laid out visually. This isn't all I ate yesterday though, don't worry...when I got home from the evening of 11's/hugos/dancing at the basement I had one of my recently increasingly common 3am dinners while blogging, more on that here.
& stay tuned for more adventures in the mundane details of myself & food & art & why I think about these things so much.

I think that this qualifies as a good time.

in contrast to my last post, scenes from the last roughly 24 hours, in which there were very good friends, incredible dreams, & some amazing food. & much laughter & silliness.

Instead of packing, I unpacked the little I've so far managed to pack & we cooked a last minute incredible dinner out of random items in my pantry & vegetable drawer & porch garden, during which rin proved once again that he is in fact a genius. wild & brown basmati rice, caramelized onion & mustard sauce, & roasted yukon gold potatoes, summer squash, eggplant, with garlic, olive oil & fresh thai basil & thyme. with nasturtiums. all entirely vegan, & we bought no groceries for the creation of this meal. & the vintage cloth napkins were beautiful & individually chosen. 

dinner with rin & tim, 7.22.09, at my soon to be former apartment.   a dream I had in the early morning, waking up on the couch with some of my best friends & dusty rose. caught in a rabbit storm. 7.23.09.

breakfast at the green bean with rin & tim, 7.23.09.

another dream, a recently reoccurring dream, of muffins, plus jed's banana peel from the yellow sofa today. & a drawing of the astonishing muffin we witnessed but did not purchase at the green bean, the raspberry marshmellow brownie muffin. no really. 7.23.09.

pizza at sam's with jed tonight, plus jed's sketchbook. pizza in the bar series. jed's slice of pizza was insanely large, so he wins. this drawing would be better but we were there fifteen minutes before closing & bob wanted to kill our arty hipster asses so we ate & drew fast. & I cannot apparently spell "slice." "Sclice." fuck spelling.
We are Drinking & Drawing.

It's those sunflowers again. Tonight, finishing up a night of DnD at the Dirty Truth, 7.23.09. Guess what, it was raining. These sunflowers keep coming up. some guys next to us were having an amazingly offensive yet hilarious conversation about women & later walking home we saw them both pissing in a fountain. nice.

all in all, a good day. confusing & random, but I'm all right with that.

another shitty day ends with a night at the bar.

as it should.
this, the 19th of july, was a particularly sucky day. I think for everyone, at least in our town. these are the same sunflowers lisette more beautifully drew. nothing like Drinking & Drawing to take the edge off of life being crap sometimes. Because we are also aware that sometimes it is awesome. Anyway, sunflowers. & a real flower. the dirty truth, 7.19.2009. Shane, bartender at the Dirty Truth. I like Shane & he had nothing to do with my horrible mood, but this drawing of him is suffering from it. & from the fact that I was indeed drinking wine like a pro that night. whitehaven sauvignon blanc, my favorite wine (in case anyone wants to buy me a drink, buy that. available in noho at the diry truth & the tunnel bar. hint hint hint.). delicious. but fuck, you buy me a pbr at hugo's I'll still love you forever. xoxo.

on a happier note, from tonight at the 11's: two girls watching the show. nothing on earth could possible say "massachusetts" like these girls, they should be on the state flag, the rmv website, on your tax forms. when I was living in louisiana these girls would have brought me to tears with nostalgia. I guess I drew the bands tonight too, but honestly, these girls were way more visually interesting. the 11's, 7.20.2009.

there you go. scenes from the bar, where I hide while the rest of my life collapses dramatically around me. is this blog getting too personal for you? but what's more personal than the musings of drunk people? is this an art blog or what?

Various: Late July

Barley wine at the Dirty Truth. I like the way the head clings to the glass on the wines way down, down.


A sunflower behind the bar last night. I didn't feel like looking at people.


Took Kat to a noise show at the VFW. She survived, thanks to random odd woman's variation of "Part of Your World" at attached bar's karaoke, and a $1 j-e-l-l-o s-h-o-t.


Jono. cat sits, chap books, gardens, rain hates, @ Bishop's.

DnD: Better Than Killing Yourself

& so it is. It also comes in handy when you are feeling out of place at a dance party. Scott Alden djing at Amazing Gloves, the 11's, 7.15.09. There was no real reason for me to be all angsty that night, but I wouldn't be a founding member of Drinking & Drawing if I didn't sometimes enjoy being socially awkward. Also, here is a good example, also from Amazing Gloves (I for some unknown reason dated this drawing 7.12.09, but that is a lie) of one of the challenges of being a Drinking & Drawing watercolourist: variable light quality. Watercolouring in very low light is um, interesting. These drawings were done on the couch in front of the sound booth at the 11's during a dance party, & you can see the difference from these drawings done at local burger during the daylight & at kathy's under diner light. I actually like both. & watercolouring in the dark is such a classic liz thing to do it's ridiculous.

But even creating red, muddy, possibly crappy watercolour paintings is certainly better than killing yourself. An inspirational message brought to you by Drinking & Drawing.

Nothing Good Ever Happens in South Deerfield

if this "art" thing ever fails, we are going to take our standup comedy routine on the road. 7.16.09. rin, jed, & I, hugo's, talking trash. or talking art. same thing. classic DnD. also, remember rin? he really should post more.

rin: "girls are hot." jed: "yes, & when I draw them they look like men with eyelashes." liz: "when did I become such an abstract expressionist?"
(everyone: "cornucopia of pabst.")

jed: "speaking of skanky looking girls, I had the craziest thing happen to me last week."

Drinking & Drawing: It's ok, but it's not pornography.

jed: "you can't really hide behind a pencil. you sure as fuck can't hide behind an ink brush." & the TRUE INTERNET CLASSIC : "how does anyone tell anything? NIPPLES."

ah yes. sorry South Deerfield, but Drinking & Drawing can't argue with the opinion of EVERYONE ON EARTH.

Drinking & Talking: Jed comes up with the astonishingly awesome phrases, I provide the collage backdrop & the scribbling.

Are You Good-Girl Hot or Bad-Girl Hot?

in which jed & I take a cosmo quiz together at hugo's. turns out we are both "Bad-Girl Hot." we are "So Bad, We Make the Rock of Love Girls Look Good." nice. Also we learned that in order for Drinking & Drawing to take over the world, jed must be sassy & I just have to lie there & look delicious. Don't ask. No, really, DO. but buy us a beer first.

further adventures of toast & the dragoncat

Toast & the Dragoncat: celebrities in our own minds. y'all getting sick of our private jokes running this show yet? Well, don't worry, it's only gonna get worse from here.

some crazy nonsense at kathy's diner, 7.16.09. jed said something about straight boys that was probably truly brilliant & I wrote it down on this page but I can't read it now & neither of us can remember what it was. & I drew some eggs (classic liz), & we drew our BAND personas.

jed: "I just finally got a picture of what your life is like." (& then he fell over laughing). yeah. Us, trapped in the Land of Burger Grease.

jed, again incredibly poorly drawn, (my bad drawings of jed series), colouring in his classic drawing of me as a sausage. jed, the ENTIRE INTERNET is waiting for the watercoloured version to be posted. Get on that. (YAY EXCESSIVE LINKS TO OUR OWN BLOG). jono in the corner watching us from across the bar (I draw jono better than jed apparently). plus some advice on boys from cosmo & jed's BEST QUOTE EVER, paraphrased & misquoted by me. but he still really said essentially that. & my whole body still hurts from laughing.

Drinking & Drawing: "I'm like george clooney. & we have condoms in our business plan." (paraphrasing & misquoting is fun).

bacon as noodles (or why hugo's solves all my problems)

BACON LASAGNA! a drawing of the bacon lasagna I made for izaac's fabulous bacon party. This is a classic DnD moment because the recipe was invented by me late the previous night at hugo's (our office) after literally a month of me worrying obsessively over what to cook for this party (many moments of astonishing brilliance occur at hugo's, at least for me. If I have a problem, clearly hugo's is the place to work it out). "Bacon as noodles" is pretty much a life-changing revelation. THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES.In all its glory: Vermont applewood smoked bacon, patty pan squash, green zebra heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella cheese, & a garlic/shallots/white wine butter mixture, layered in the fashion of a traditional lasagna, salted & peppered, then baked for an hour. Pretty incredible.
I know. We're nuts.

Drinking & Deliciousness: some recent snacks we ate

why are we so awesome at Drinking & Drawing? obviously for more reasons than it's possible to list here, but here's one: 'cause not only do we adore our pbr, sometimes (often) we have drinking excursions involving delicious greasy food things.

kathy's diner once more, from my late night chocolate milkshake series. also we had onion rings & a bacon cheeseburger, (not pictured), sadly (too hungry). jed & I & ansel, around 1am, post-DnD thursday at hugos & ye olde, 7.16.2009. the first outdoor/food centered/early DnD, at Local Burger, 7.17.2009. A Bacon Cheeseburger & A Green Chili Cheeseburger, called the Westhampton & the Southwestern at Local Burger I believe, respectively. & sweet potatoes fries, & a six pack of pabst from Pop's. eaten sitting at the prime corner table in the window, pre-thunderstorm summer night. yeah that's right.

Drinking & Drawing = Delicious. Yum. Come Draw. We encourage ridiculous indulgences, beer, bacon, milkshakes, excessive watercolour, whatever YOU like, we support you.

just another night in northampton (this time with bacon).

lisette's room, & some objects present on her floor while we were getting ready to go out. & go out we did. 11's, bishops, the whole circuit, & I didn't draw any of it. but it began here, with those cowboy boots & that keyboard. 7.13.09.

earlier that night, I attended izaac's incredible bacon potluck party. these were some of the highlights (for me) (all drawn from memory on the balcony at bishop's later). aurora's bacon eclair with maple filling & her bacon jalapeño poppers (aurora rules), the spicy bacon bloody mary with bacon shrimp (izaac's creation? idk), & justin's bacon deviled eggs. I never got to try the bacon ice cream (sad face). my drawing of my own bacon lasagna coming later. I love hanging out & drinking with serious food people.

yup, just a typical night in noho. bacon party, drinking wine with an awesome lady, & the usual bars & music & dancing & such. I think lisette drew me at some point that night, while I was recreating the bacon snacks in my sketchbook. DnD. yeah. this is how we roll.

the 11's: some bands, some hipsters, some art (no wait, that's just us)

hey, Drinking & Drawing loves the Elevens. so many bands, so many drunk people, so many awkward experiences. what happened last week, you wonder?

Space Captain , 7.10.09. (jed's drawing is WAY better). "I want to do that, only DRUNK-jed." audience at ten on the tenth, or elizabeth macduffie + a guy wearing a hat. I thought it was a stupid hat, but possibly I am overly judgmental when it comes to fashion.

some drunk girls, + still more dudes in hats. that pretty much sums up the 11's, many nights. ten on the tenth.

POOL ROOM: girl playing pool, plus a cartoon of jed & I drawing in the pool room. DnD meets your average non-hipster drunk person in northampton.

Beauty Feast, 7.12.09. They were really really great.

& we can't forget Bunny's A Swine. As always, all Drinking & Drawing has to say is: Eat A Cheeseburger, Guy. 7.12.09.

Good times, 11's. but seriously, your girls bathroom is off the hook disgusting, & I've spent a lot of time in the bar bathrooms of brooklyn, san francisco, & new orleans, so I know what I'm talking about. Do something about that please, 11's? we love you otherwise, xoxo Drinking & Drawing.

Stay tuned for further adventures in music, art, & ridiculousness.