Showing posts with label Dad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dad. Show all posts

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Although I am emotionally drained trying to get my fathers project all lined up again...I am really glad for art.
Art is gonna save me again. My day has been really weird. My job is sucking. My relationships with people are sucking.

I have art. Art will keep me alive.
I am blessed.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The Raleigh Twenty


 The Raleigh Twenty was my bicycle in high school. Now that I think about it, it was my first bike. The first one that wasn't a hand me down or something I shared. Though, everything in our house was community property for the most part, and things I was given by my father turned out to end up being his, or other peoples later when he thought them unsuitable for me at some point (have I told the story of my first car? Remind me to tell you the story of the first car.) So, when I was not interested in this bike anymore, and he had brought home the more fashionable beach cruiser for my younger sister and I to ride, this was just sort of absorbed into his collection.

His friend Leann was...having a yard sale? Had just acquired more collectibles?  I don't recall...I remember standing in her front yard, of the lovely little house she rented on 10th and...Pearl-ish area of Santa Monica and my father loving this bike. Trying to talk her into parting with it, he said "Sydney needs a  bike!" She asked if I did, and did I like this one. I said yes, to both questions. I really did like the bike. I really did hope it was going to be mine, and not a thing he was telling other people was for me, but was really for him. (This was never intentional really, things just mattered more to my dad than most people and so if you were not interested he would say you were so he could get something, or if you lost interest in it he wold save it from the trash. Everything had a use and a meaning to him.)

The bike was mine throughout junior high and high school. My sisters were not interested, he had many bikes, all used and rusted; but this one was always so charming. It had so much more personality than the others. After the beach cruiser became more practical I lost track of this bike, it went into his Santa Monica storage, then moved to Culver City storage, and when he passed away I reclaimed it. Leann asked if I still had it, and I kept it, either for her or I to restore and ride. It has now been 4 years. I am pairing down my things, trying to totally liberate myself from the clutter and chaos in my apartment, and I am just not going to restore this bike. I have to let it go.

I have known this for, I don't know...a year? I am not totally sure why it came with us when we moved in May 2012. The lady that lived upstairs from us in Palms asked if I was willing to sell it, and it didn't feel right. That's the only way I know how to explain holding onto this thing for 4 years. It never felt right to let it go. For a month I have tried to motivate myself to post the thing on craigslist, it's been hot, I've been busy. For whatever reason I got out and did it Sunday.

Then, I panicked. I have to let it go. I could hear my father say the price I was asking was too low, it's an antique! It's worth money! But, it's very rusted...if it is going to get restored, you can't sell too high. Crap...I'm going to have to let this thing go!! He would be so mad at me..but what am I going to do? Schlep it around for the rest of my life? I do not have the time or money to put into this thing when photography (his and mine) and dance are calling.

I had an email from a man named Jon Sunday night, just his number, just asking to call. I put it off. Other emails asked about the bike Monday morning, but we go in order of who asked first.

He sounded European, and a little older on the phone. He said this was the bike he rode throughout his school years in Philadelphia. Even in the snow! He loved this bike. He had been searching awhile. I told him I would text him the address, and be home at 6:30pm. I warned him it was gonna really need some work. It had been neglected. At 5pm he texted to say he was leaving his house now. I confirmed I would not be home till 6:30. He responded "NP".
 
 I go home, unlock the bike, and say a formal goodbye. I thank her for her many years of service, tell her I always loved her and I always will. I acknowledge out loud I can hear my father arguing with me I am making a mistake, but I can not care for this bike. If there is a person that will appreciate her and can put time and money and love in, that's where the bike belongs. I kiss her handlebar, say goodbye and pull her out of the carport.

Jon texts right then he is parked in the alley behind my building.

I waddle forward with the bike, approach a white Prius with dark tinted windows, and a man with white hair and glasses emerges. "Jon?"
"Yes, yes hello Sydney nice to meet you!"
He takes a look at the bike. "Oh yes, this is it. I rode this bike all over Philadelphia when I was in school. Even in the snow! I would ride over to my wife's house then, when we were dating, and lean against it and wait for her to come outside. Her father would tease her. Say I was crazy for riding my bike in the snow."

Oh my god.

I tell him this is just what I was hoping for. Not someone that needed extra metal for scrap. Or someone that didn't know what they were buying, but someone that would appreciate and put love into this bike.
He looks closer, and realizes the rust is pretty bad. He has a guy, he's bringing him the bike tomorrow, and he said to be sure there is not too much rust. He asks my price again, his eyes are bad and he wasn't sure what I was asking. He winces when I tell him. I knock $15 more off and he hands it to me and starts opening the hatchback on the car. I tell him to please keep my info and send me a picture when the bike is finished. I've had it since high school, I really intended to restore it myself, but I have not had time or money. I am so pleased I found him, I am so happy he wants to restore it. He gasps and then smiles when he hears this, "it was your bike in school too?!" He assures me he will send photos. We both have a good laugh about how you can't be sure who you are going to meet on craigslist and we are both so pleased this was such a positive interaction. He says he is so relieved that after driving all this way it worked out. That's when I find out he came all the way from Laguna Niguel!! Almost 70 miles in rush hour traffic for a bike he's been searching for for years.

Sometimes you wait and don't know why. Sometimes you hesitate and can't explain. I held onto a rusty bike for 4 years and moved it 20 miles because my gut told me to and in the end, the bike got the home it deserved.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Happy Birthday today Daddy. Missed you a lot. Miss you a lot always. Hope you're rocking out on that astral plane with mama tonight.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Sorted another box of my dads tonight.
Got to the bottom, some old dust clumps, some, tape or string...? Can beat it out outside and get rid of it. Looked closer...

My hospital bracelet from the day I was born.
I cried. I thanked him. I felt like he was there. Tried to hold his hand.
Grateful for the little things tonight...passing moments with the otherworld...I felt at peace and so thankful for moments like this to process my feelings.

And, other parts of me are so pleased with the proof that you shouldn't dump all your dead fathers things in a dumpster the weekend after he died like some people worked so hard to do..HA MOTHERFUCKERS!! 

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Happy Father's Day 2015

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there! 
Go call your dad if you can. Or hug him. Tell him you love him.



http://envisioningtheamericandream.com/2014/06/12/a-retro-fathers-day-fit-for-a-king-2/

http://shewalkssoftly.com/category/tribute/page/2/

Tuesday, April 21, 2015


Happy Birthday Iggy Pop! 

http://jimcassatta.blogspot.com/
Letter he wrote to Creem Magazine on the back of one of my dad's model release forms in the late 1970's: 

http://jimcassatta.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Today would have been my...is my parents 45th  wedding anniversary.  Crazy huh?

I said this exact thing to Steve this morning. He started to cry.

Then I started to cry. I didn't really feel any which was about it, then it hit me.

I think about them every single day.

Happy Anniversary Mama and Daddy. Wherever you are, it is my greatest wish that you are together.


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Happy Father's Day



 This one is harder for me than Mother's Day was, but I want to take a moment to wish all the Dad's out there a very Happy Father's Day. You are all amazing and I hope this is a wonderful day spent doing anything with your child.


This one is signifcant for me in that my step-daugher will be with us. I really can't wait to get it going.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Funk

Funk.

And, not the good kind played by amazing people like George Clinton or Bootsy Collins...
The last 3 or so days have just been, weird. I feel weird and unmotivated and like I want to just go hide under the covers with my book and about a pound of chocolate covered marshmallows.

Fuck I love chocolate covered marshmallows.

See, and there's the other thing, I want to eat and be depressed. Not good. No. Not in the least. I fed this beast for 5 fucking months last year. It took me till March of this year to get over Christmas...I was doing so well...What now?

Last week was so much better, so much more full. I worked my ass off in like 4 classes in the gym at work, I was exhausted but felt amazing. It was the free week to try the gym and the woman I walk with encouraged me to join her in her classes. By the end, Thursday night, I thought I was gonna fall over. I wanted to go lay in a hot tub for the rest of my life.

I so looked forward to the long weekend, and so needed it when it arrived and then didn't know what to do with myself. Friday was good, ran a bunch of errands, got stuff done. Kinda...Then there was Arrested Development and reading and I got the bathroom clean and went to yoga...and completely avoided cleaning my bedroom...again.

Monday came and we tried to figure out how to spend it and I felt restless. I wanted to just go drive, drive in the sunshine and soak up the warmth and energy and fire and let it heal me and make me whole. We went and got boba at the outdoor part of the mall and got in the pool. I still hate boba by the way...I wasn't sure for a second, but nope, don't care for it. Then, I took on the bedroom. Monday evening. After texting and calling various people to distract me and failing to find anyone to save me from the stupid chore that has exploded in my head...then, at the end of cleaning the bedroom, came the putting of my fathers film and such into my closet...I took a deep breath and shoved things in fast and hard and sat with a thud on the floor and bit my lip and tried not to cry. My partner has gently suggested sorting this stuff once or twice, it came up again when I emptied a plastic bin in the closet of my belly dance costume crap, but I still haven't been able to give it enough of a go. I still can't really look at it. I still can't allow myself to process any of it, the pain washes over me and I feel like I am gonna puke...

So, I guess in this long rant I have figured out why I am in a funk. I guess we got that. But, I mean, fuck SERIOUSLY? Is this gonna happen every time I have to move my parents crap around? That exhibit of his art is gonna take me YEARS at this rate...I am so frustrated. Some days are ok, and I keep on keeping on and have hidden my parents in that dark little room in my head where it doesn't bother me that I don't have them to talk to, I'm fine, it's fine. Then, other days knock me in the head and the pain is so sharp I can't see straight.

and that feeling lasts for days. and, here we are.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Ray Manzarek died...

 
I can't begin to tell you how much this upsets me...

Sunday, May 5, 2013


“She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum. “
                     
~Jonathan Safran Foer

“Grief changes shape, but it never ends.” 

~ Keanu Reeves

Monday, April 15, 2013

The auto-bio entry #2

So, it's the 1980's, the setting is Venice, California.

Now what?

Oh, yeah, I tell you the shit I remember and try to spin it into some kind of pretty tapestry of words...

The very idea of this makes me itch to wax poetic about my high school years in the 90's...a friend of mine posted this thing on the increasingly frustrating facebook about the differences in yourself and how you react to the world in your early 20's versus your late 20's. For whatever reason I thought about high school, and how sweet and innocent it all was. Seemed. Seems now, in my far off memories of it. It was also a huge clusterfuck that I barely survived much like most of the rest of my life up to this point, but at least I was not completely aware of how much of a clusterfuck it was at the time...

Anyhow...let's see, some other fact's of life...I was home-schooled. Or, well, I was actually what some groups now call "unschooled" for the first 12 years of my life. I was taught whatever seemed like a good thing to teach that day. My mom did a good job of finding out about lots of books to teach from at the Venice Library. Back when it looked like this:


And was in the building on California and Electric Ave. that is now the Vera Davis McClendon Family Center.So many memories in this building...I went to so many events here, my sisters and I grew up in this library. 

Anyhow, I was taught to read, write, spell horribly, cook, sew, clean the windows, all from home! I also learned the basics of the combustible engine, how to change the wax ring in the bottom of the toilet, how to pick both a pad lock and door lock with a piece of music wire and the great importance of Jazz music on not only American history but on the family unit. This last was due to the fact that my father came from a deep network of Chicago Jazz musicians and was taught how to play drums by none other than Joe Morello while his father (my grandfather) had an after jam session conversation with Dave Brubeck in the living room.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Back to stick my finger in this outlet


Back,
I’m back to this forum, to use this outlet, to improve myself, my ideas. To have a place to vent, a public place, but a place nonetheless. Don’t misunderstand me, I also journal, but this spot helped and was a wonderful repository for the things I was thankful for, the things that made me smile and the things that inspired me. I need that now, more than ever probably. This was a place where I could vent about being Sydney C. and all the frustrations that life brought her, while feeding and nurturing Sydney Hell, the woman I wanted to be. The alter-ego that was a little more outspoken; a lot more creative, and much more at peace. Sydney Hell was never, fully alive in any form, not strong enough to stand on her own 2 feet, and Sydney C. had so much on her plate, so much…survival to concern herself with that my concentration needed to be there. Then, one dark and cold September morning in 2011, Sydney C. was killed, bullet straight through the heart. An angry, confused, lost, resentful, catty, self-destructive bitch left in her place. She had all this stuff she left behind, and all these responsibilities to take care of, all these people that needed her, this fancy new corporate job that destruct-o bitch was gonna have to maintain if she wanted to eat…so, destruct-o bitch has had to pick Sydney C. up and Meat-Puppet her around for over a year, making her smile, forcing focus, pretending to care. A year…the longest, shortest, strangest, most painful year of my entire life so far; I do hope it gets better from here on out, but I hold little hope, hope for anything at all died with Sydney C. A year, and a month actually, almost 13 moths to the day today that my entire world turned on its head, a year that has left me, tired, sad, and, uninspired.
I know I have done end of year reviews in the past, and have highlighted the things that were good, the things that changed me, the things I learned, tried to take the lesson away, tried to see the best. Every year is a mixed bag, and the start of 2011 was amazing for me, things were starting to work. I was creative, productive, inspired. I had 2 showings of my photography, was working constantly (freelance, no insurance, but was delusional enough to think it was gonna last.), I got an interview and then a job at one of the largest studios in the world, and then had the insurance and stability I so desperately needed. I had purpose, on many levels, for the first time.
Then, my dad killed himself, and it all went down the drain. I lost myself in the pain and confusion. Even though there had been good earlier that year, it didn’t matter, even though there is always possibility for good in the future, that didn’t matter either. There was (is, has been, always will be) pain. Nothing but pain. Do you remember the 1990’s movie Death Becomes Her? And at some point Goldie Hawn’s character is shot through the middle and since she is basically undead it leaves a hole? 


Yeah, that’s what I feel like every day. I hear, from other “survivors of suicide” that this is the way they all feel, always, it doesn’t go away, you simply learn to live with it. Like, a person with chronic back problems, or someone that lost a leg in battle, you learn work arounds to live with the pain. Lovely.
I’ve jammed the hole with all kinds of stuff, trying to fill it up. It’s left me tired, upset and…well, still blown half apart. The point I started to realize this wasn’t going to help, was after purchasing a case of Two-buck-chuck at Trader Joe’s, and then about a week and a half later, my partner, trying to make room in the pantry, lined up the bottles left on the counter. There were 4. 4 bottles of wine left. We drink together, and I’ve seen him drink this whole week, and didn’t see him drink much of this wine. When doing the math and consulting him I realized I had had about 1 bottle of wine a night, all by myself. Shit. At about this same point it came to my attention that I did not fit into any of my clothes any longer, and my skin was a mess. I cried(and this was before stressing my back out of whack and somehow compounding 2 ribs into my left lung. Surprised the hell out of the chiropractor). I cried and he held me and listened to me vent about how much food and drink and crap I had tried to jam in the hole. How the hole was just as large as ever and I was starting to look and feel worse. That was May of this year. Now, I know I’m not a full blown alcoholic, or drug addict, I’m not here telling you how I’m homeless and have been fucking people to get to my next hit of heroin or my next bag of speed. I know there are a lot  of people that have it a LOT worse than I do. I know many of them. We are still living in a god damned depression in this country and I personally know many people that have gone home to live with their parents, or  are sleeping in their cars, or in parking lots and have no jobs. But, this is enough for me, like I said, I’ve lowered my standards, my expectations, on everything.
So, I’m back to use this as an outlet again as a means to a more fulfilling life. I didn’t need to explain my journey to anyone reading this either, so if you rolled your eyes and said I’ve never seen pain then go fuck off home. This is my space and I’ll use it as I like. I did this to vent and…give insight to the lurkers out there, cause I’m a lurker to a lot of strangers that I follow, and I do actually care even if I have said little to them ever. So, for those of you that like me: Stick around, I’ll post some pretty shit with inspiring quotes under it and crap.
~Sydney

Friday, July 9, 2010

The Dark Master, in his youth

Oingo Boingo (EP)Image via Wikipedia
Those that know me well could probably ramble off the short list of my all time favorite bands because I am so very, very obsessed with them. I like music from all over the world, however, if I were to narrow it down to music I couldn't live with out; music that I would require to keep me sane on my proverbial desert island it would come down to about 5 bands. Sadly or not most are rock, I realize Led Zeppelin is a given here seeing as I have sung loudly the praises of one Robert Plant. I also realize, startlingly in fact, that you wouldn't be able to claim to know me so well without one vital piece of information I have neglected to mention in this space: I love, LOVE, LOVE...Oingo Boingo.


In the earlier days of seeing each other, The Man and I realized we were having one of those I'm really gonna like this person moments when I asked if he liked Oingo Boingo and it happened to be the CD he had grabbed to put on.


The music of Oingo Boingo shaped my youth and may be a very good indicator as to why I am so...unique.


Anyhow, you can imagine how surprised and delighted I was to find this as I was going through my fathers slides:


BMP_292a


That is an approximately 20 year old Danny Elfman, in approximately 1974, on the beach in Venice California. EEEEEEK! What a fricking find!


The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo formed in 1972 by Danny's older brother Richard Elfman as a performance art group that toured large parts of the world. In 1976 Richard retired the group to Danny who turned it into the Punk/New Wave wonder that took over the 1980's and toured for 17 more years.

Incidentally I also happen to have a photo of Richard taken on the same day!!

BMP_287a
Double Eeeeeeek!

Both Elfman brothers in one day! I nearly fell over when we found these. There are a few more, of the band in costume, with instruments. I haven't photoshopped those yet, so I'll post them later. Till then you can just bask in this rare and amazing Boingo find.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

I'm Back!

I have internet again! Hurrah! Things have been a bit...flustered this last week or two and we forgot to pay the internet bill...oops!

I will go on and on about the amazing weekend I had later, I have errands to run in a minute. I am waiting for The Man to finish shaving and thought I would post my Happy Father's Day now. Two days late.

Happy Father's Day!
We grabbed my dad and had an adventure downtown! It was so much fun! Again, details later, gotta run. Here's a picture of my dad at the nitorous Hyatt House (Riot House) in Hollywood waiting for the elevator. This one is also stamped 1974.

BMP_12a