in which I learn to spray paint

Coming up, from April 13-19, is the  Tom Tom Founders Festival , and arts and innovation festival in Charlottesville. The other day I helped out by working with some local artists to spray paint a soon-to-be retired CAT bus! It's going to run from April- the end of May and local spoken word artists are going to preform on it while people commute around the city.

continue for more pictures… and some great books!

the bus before!

variety of colors

The designing artist, Michael Broth, had to get his ideas vetted by the city before we could begin work. He blocked off areas for us volunteers to fill in with color and then he preformed the finishing touches!

It was so fun and I was so pleased to be involved! I am really excited to TTFF, there are tons of free events and outdoor activities. My only complaint is that the organization called Charlottesville "America's Founding City", which is a blatant lie. I called one of the head organizers out on it (he works at Studio IX where the Grit Coffee Bar is) and he laughed and agreed, telling me that it was a total marketing scam. Well, at least he admits it!

In other news, there have been some very warm days this week which means I have been spending a lot of time outside! However, that also means I have not been reading as much lately. (Also the TV show Magic City on Netflix really sucked up my life…Stevie is just too damn cute. I highly recommend it! Keegan thought it was going to be dumb and about wizards -"Magic"- but it's actually about mobsters in Miami in the 1950s, running hotel and dealing with the Cuban Revolution)

I have read a few great ones lately:

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente, was a re-telling of some Russian folk tales that I had never heard of but nonetheless immensely enjoyed. Taking place during the Russian Revolution, a small child learns of the dark and magical underside of Russia, from the imps that embody and run the houses in Saint Petersburg, to the Tsar of Life who comes to claim the young Marya as his bride and to help him fight the hidden war (mirroring WWI and WWII) against the Tsar of Death. Very interesting and deep characters with a compelling storyline! 

I just finished this book this morning and I can't stop thinking about chaos theory now!! To Say Nothing of the Dog follows the mishaps of time traveling historians in the far future who are trying to rebuild Coventry Cathedral exactly to how it was before it burned down in WWII, "God is in the details!" At first it was a little hard to get into the story, mainly because I did not listen to my mom when she told me what the book was about and so I missed the fact that they were time traveling. SO fabulous, very surprising moments, very introspective about the long lasting and unforeseeable consequences of our actions (also includes a nice love story and some very rare fish).

The last book I read these past two weeks is a re-telling of the Blue beard fable, in typical YA fashion though so the plot line is weak and there's not a ton of character development. However, it was entertaining! A young redheaded girl is taken in by her rich and handsome godfather only to discover that his last four redheaded wives have all died under mysterious circumstances…and she's next! dun dun dunnnnnn

hopefully this chilly weather lets up, but until then I will be in bed figuring out what to read next!

xoxo