Faces & Places

I'd posted the cover of Africa: The Art of a Continent next to Hamilton here a few days ago--the faces weren't very alike, but human faces share some similarities, which is fun to see.

Then I moved the African art book at work, and the magazine Art Journal, (summer 2006) happened to fall off the shelf, and I saw--almost the same face:

I should look up and see where they're from.
The one on the right is Eastern European, I think.

Ah, here, I found them. The cover of Africa is a Yoruba queen, from Ita Yemoo, Ife, Nigeria, 12th-13th century (terracotta) (at the Smithsonian)

The boy is from Belarus, photographed by Wendy Ewald for her project with children in Margate [England], "a down-at-the-heels seaside resort that had been a destination for refugees since World War One".
Wendy Ewald, "Uryi", 2004:

"My name is Ura, Uryi. I came from Grodno in Belarus. It happened that we had to leave our lovely city. Now we are living in a beautiful English city, Margate, which is by the sea. Every day, my mom and I walk by the seaside. I love this place, but I am always thinking about my grandmother and my friends.

"Nothing frightens me here. Well, I’m afraid of bumblebees. I think I am safe here. There are many people who can protect me. I think that in the future everything will be fine. I want to stay here."

Belarus has been run by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994 and has not gotten better since Uryi left. Belarus supports Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

_____________________

Jester the Bester

Coworker Grateful-J, who I call Jester, is a punster and a jokester (but never mean). He's always adding pictures or text to stuff in our workplace.
The poster below originally said,
"In a world where you can be anything, be kind".

He improved it and sent me the photo proof . . .

"In a world where you can be anything,
BE A DINOSAUR
Because That is Fun."

(And hey, there's a banana box ^ on top--I've mentioned we have 30 of them FULL of media (mostly movied on DVDs and VHS tapes, also some boxes of music CDs).

Yesterday I showed GJ a dress with a mushroom-print, because he is a Mushroom Cowboy.
He looked closely at it and declared the mushrooms weren't accurate.
Inspired by him, I sent him this adaptation:

Grateful J is back at the store full-time now, which is a good thing. He had been very part-time since spring, working for a guy who forages mushrooms & other wild plants, to sell to restaurants mostly. 

Meanwhile Mr Furniture has mostly moved over to driving the truck, doing pick ups and deliveries, so he's not around the store much.
I miss Mr Furniture, but he has so many injuries, it's better he do lighter work. I never asked him to lift anything, or to help with anything at all, really. 

Grateful is twenty years younger than me & Mr F. He's strong and super willing to be helpful, and he knows how to repair and install most anything.
He enjoys problem solving, and he lights up when we discuss how to set up the Book Nook. It's going slowly because we're understaffed.
Upshot: GJ is always needed in the furniture room and donations bay and rarely free for special projects.

Banana Sandwiches & Booze

The store limps along, in business terms—how much better we could do financially if we got our act together--if we advertised in any way, for instance, or hired people who knew what they were doing.

But it is quite spry socially, and I'm always learning a lot in that realm, and (usually) enjoying it.
Not that I enjoyed getting to see alcoholism up close (Asst Man & Willy)--but it was instructive. It was frightening, in fact, to see people so reduced.  Not in terms of me feeling in danger, but just disturbing to watch the transformation, as in a fairy tale.

But mostly it's good stuff.
Louisiana is The Best Storyteller! She never stops talking, an endless stream of all sorts of things, from the petty to the sublime.
She recently told me how to make Banana Sandwiches:
white bread (not toasted)
mayonnaise
bananas

At first I thought that sounded disgusting, then I realized it's a variation on banana pudding, which goes in the category of Sublime.

Reentry?

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever reenter the middle classes... by getting a different job, or joining some groups or something.
And how that would go if I did.

I don't slide easily into that milieu anymore, but sometimes I miss my old social class--miss being in a workplace where it's normal, say, to ask coworkers, "What are you reading these days?"

Or where you would assume people know where Belarus is (or Ukraine, for that matter)––and care.
(The publisher produced a lot of geography books for schools, and coworkers knew their way around the map.)

Oh, bink just arrived for Sunday coffee.
Have a good day, everyone, wherever you are!