SpaceCat's Thanksgiving Adventure

The last time I left Zaphod at home for a few days he was pissed. I came home to find sweaters pushed of my shelves, all the jewelry knocked off my bureau, and all the cupboards open. I guess I can't blame him. If I got left at home for four days, missing out on fun and new sites, locked in the apartment by myself with one visitor and feeding per day I would be upset too. It makes me feel guilty, because this little guy is my number one. He had been there for me through some seriously hard times. He brings me joy and helps me appreciate the little moments. He's my muse. It's not fair to continually go off and leave him. And I haven't even gotten into the guilt accrued by constantly asking friends to watch him.

So you'd think I would decide to curtail my traveling, or at least keep it short. I however, like the genius I am, went and booked a Tuesday to Tuesday ticket home for Thanksgiving. It was a lot cheaper, and it's my birthday, and I have a new baby niece. Once I got to thinking about logistics though I saw the flaw in my plan: what about Zaphod?!?

So I did the obvious thing and decided to take him with me. I mean, I don't see the traveling stopping anytime soon. And maybe he would like to go with me. People take their dogs all over the place. Bond villains travel with cats. And how about the Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp-that old lady totally brought them visiting with her. Anyway, the only way to find out is to do it, right?

So here we are at the airport. Zaphod is keeping up a steady rate of low unhappy meows, and I have a little bit of pee on my jeans.

Yeah, he peed. Horrifying, right? I gave him kitty herbal sedatives, but I guess that's just not adequate considering the mortal terror of an airport. Burbank airport, btw. If I was flying out of LAX this wouldn't be an option. But do you remember your first time in an airport? Overwhelming! And if you were a little kid it's entirely possible that you peed yourself.

Even worse though, is that as soon as I went into the family bathroom to destinkify myself he immediately shit in the carrier. It's like as soon as he realized we were alone and that I had the ability to clean it up he just let it go. I understand though; I hate to fly before pooping.

Luckily my carrier is all nylon, and all comes apart, so I was able to tidy up pretty nicely. While I was doing that Zaphod crouched miserable behind my backpack, taking full advantage of the echo effect of all the tile. I'm sure anyone passing by must have wondered exactly what manner of family was making use of the private bathroom. No apologies though.

Twenty minutes later as I stood in line to board as I almost bailed. I smelled like cat pee (hopefully not too strongly, but can you really answer that objectively when you're in the middle of the smell?), Zaphod was unsuccessfully suppressing hysteria , and I had a connection both ways (awesome planning, right). This trip really wasn't planned with a feline traveling companion in mind. Admittedly, I'll be staying in the welcoming environment of the house I grew up in for a week, but is that enough to offset the stressful situation this was shaping up to be?

Once we were in the air, though, Zaphod calmed down. That or it was just too noisy to hear him. And this far, through all this, I think I'm finding something. "You gotta do what you gotta do," I stoically quipped to the gate agent who checked us in. And that's true. I don't need to explain myself, or to apologize for our smell. Airports are weird public places. Traveling puts us in the strange position of sharing our quirks and bodily functions with strangers directly next to us. I imagine this must be similar to what traveling with small children is like. I couldn't begin to count the number of times I've found myself seated in the middle of baby central. Last time I flew I eve found myself holding a toddler while his mother gathered herself between flights. She was completely unapologetic, and so will I be.

I don't know if I'll travel with Z again, it will depend on the rest of the trip. But we're halfway done. And you can be sure I'll let you know how it goes.

SpaceCat and the Cone of Shame

Darling Friends, it's that time again.  I have completed another short for you viewing pleasure.  So with mighty flourishes and blaring of trumpets I give you:

Thanks again to Casey Gates for directing, editing, and moral support as I do my weird thing.
xoxox

SpaceCat loves you.

Okay I've sat down to write this blog post at least three times, I think, and the damn thing doesn't want to get written.  I don't know why.  But here it is:

I have this thing I'm working on; it's called SpaceCat!  (That's all one word, in case you didn't notice.)  At various times I have described SpaceCat in the following ways: Ziggy Stardust+internet cat videos+ street art, my alter-ego, my artistic identity, an interdisciplinary web installation, Facebook art.  SpaceCat comprises the following things sometimes referred to as the Five Faces of SpaceCat: Zaphod in all his many photogenic moods, a stencil I designed of Zaphod as I imagine he would look in a spacesuit, shirts on which I have painted said stencil, me and my girlfriends (or boy friends - ahem Josh Tolle) wearing little to no makeup and posing in SpaceCat shirts, videos of me dressed up as a feline impersonating Zaphod (I'm imfelinating him, get it?), me dressed up as a superhero named SpaceCat, the Facebook page (SpaceBook page) I created to act as a home for all this.

Okay, I feel better having that all off my chest.  Sometimes I have to get out of my own way and just write it down without making it too complicated.  I'm going to save this now.

Okay, good, it's saved.  So what's left to tell?  What is the point, you may ask?  I wrote a response to that question a few weeks ago, but I have to admit that it is a valid question.  Well, I'm hoping to push my career further with this thing.  For a while there I was experiencing no joy in my art, and SpaceCat is nothing if not joyful.  I think ultimately by doing all this: making my weird videos, creating a story about a superhero named SpaceCat who fell to Earth, and painting shirts and putting them on my friends, that I am exploring and displaying a much rounder version of myself as an artist.  My hope is that I can really bring everything to the table, and ultimately have more success in my career as an artist.

So how?  Aargh, that's another good question.  The two things I have in front of me right now are my videos and my shirts.  For a while now I've been exploring with paint and used tee-shirts (a great excuse to go to the thrift store) and my stencil, and having a lot of fun making designs.  I've been posting pictures of my process (along with all the inspiring things I see on my way about the world) on Instagram (you can follow me @nerdgirl).  So far I am really pleased and touched by the responses I've gotten to my SpaceCat shirts.  I have a pretty good variety at this point, and made my first sale last week.  Now I need to start really selling them, and also think about how I want to continue with my little business.  Things under consideration: Etsy, silk-screening, buying wholesale tee-shirts.  The important points for me are that they be affordable and fun, and ideally that I get to photograph everyone in their respective SpaceCat shirt.  This aspect of SpaceCat is called Imperfect Woman, but I'm not going to get into that right now.  After all, I've got to keep you interested, right?

As far as the videos go, I am currently working on the second one: SpaceCat and the Cone of Shame!  I am so excited, and I really hope you'll like it.  And again, I totally, TOTALLY appreciate the support we received for the first one.  Thank you.  I have ideas for other videos after that - some about SpaceCat, some about Chatty Cathy (hooray!!) and some other totally unrelated things.  The videos are important to me because even if they're low budget to begin with, I'm creating the habit of making my own work: following through with ideas start to finish, doing what I say I'm going to do, learning the skills I don't have, and putting art out into the world regularly.

So that's what I'm working on.  Something that should hopefully bring in a little money, and something else that should hopefully get me a little more exposure.  I don't know if this clarifies at all for you what SpaceCat is.  But you can follow the process and see how it develops if you're interested.  And of course, if you like what you see: 'like' my SpaceBook page, share it with your friends, contact me about buying a shirt, offer me your input, suggest a trade, smile.

I am eternally universally infinitely lovingly blessedly happily star-brightly sun-shiningly sweetly goofily thankfully joyously grateful for your continued presences in my life.

SpaceCat loves you.

Zaphod Bukowski

Ten days I woke up crashingly to the sound of breaking glass.  I immediately thought that someone (my ex-boyfriend) was breaking into my apartment, and fumbled for my bathrobe so I could go investigate.  In  the dull orange glow of the street lights I saw my cat crouched in the middle of the living room looking very freaked out.  Reaching him in the half-light I found a gigantic jagged piece of glass curving out of his chest.

I flipped internally, but still managed to channel enough  of my mother's calm-in-any-storm mojo to investigate.  His fur should've been soaked in blood - it wasn't.  Despite about ten inches of broken glass attached to his neck, my cat seemed fine.  Once I turned on the light I discovered the full extent of my cat's stupidity.

That's right, I said stupidity.  Cause I love my cat, and in some ways he is really intelligent (I'd say he has more emotional intelligence than many humans I know), but lately he is nothing but trouble.  Poor decision making is where the problem lies, I think.

picture this filled with kibbles

Before going to bed that evening I emptied out the canister of Zaphod's dry food, and apparently left the lid open.  And then my brilliant cat must've stuck his stupid furry face in there in the middle of the night.

And gotten stuck on the rim of the jar.

And fallen off the counter, smashing glass everywhere.

I figured this out as I examined Zaphod, who was wearing a beautiful broken glass collar with metal clamp detail.  Doesn't he look lovely Gina?  This unique piece can be yours for the price of BUY THE DAMN PET INSURANCE ALREADY.

A liberal amount of vaseline later I had my cat free, and some awesome early morning cleanup ahead of me. But everyone looks forward to thoroughly vacuuming their kitchen at 6am.

I swear, this cat is the feline incarnation of Charles Bukowski.  I feel like lately he's just an angry growly cat who goes around three days drunk picking fights and hurting himself.  Earlier this summer there was the episode of the cone.  More recently than that he had another scratch on his face and an upset tummy.  And let's not forget the car accident (I think?) last fall.  And now this.  If this is the stuff that I find out about, I don't want to know what he does when I'm not around.  So I'm keeping him under house arrest for a while.

Of course I say that and then three days later I'll let him out for his morning poo again, but I really mean it this time.  Because this morning he locked in a death match with Egypt and my neighbor had to dowse them in iced coffee to break it up.  And inevitably I found that Zaphod's paw was bloody.  I swear, it's like living with Will Hunting before he meets the girl.

The upshot is that there's got to be a video in this somewhere, right?

Presenting my first video!

I am really excited today.  I wrote a short film, and it debuted on the web yesterday!  For the last year and a half I've been writing sketches and short stories and monologues.  I've started and stopped screenplays, and even collaborated on an entire webseries.  But none of that panned out.  Until now.  I conceived the idea, wrote it, created the costumes (!), and produced it.   The lovely Casey Gates filmed it (on her iPhone4!), edited it, and generally encouraged me - for which I am extraordinarily grateful.

This film is not trying to be fancy.  The production quality is low, but I think the whimsy and laugh factors are high.  This is the first of many: they're just going to better and better.   I hope that you'll enjoy this short film for what it is.  To me it is a triumph.

With no further ado I happily present you:  Space Cat Gets a Haircut!

If you enjoyed my film you can learn more about SpaceCat on Facebook!

xoxox

Thanks to Jaq Galliano for an afternoon's work well done.