This was my first experience on a small sailboat. I have been on the AJ Meerwald and on a sister ship of the Meerwald,the Appledore. I have been on a 30 foot sailing yacht, captained by a lunatic that had more money than brains or experience.

From the shore, we didn’t feel any wind at all – and expecting a calm lake we weren’t sure how much sailing we would be doing. But as soon as we hit open water, the wind didn’t fail us.

We sailed north, with a fairly steady tail wind. The lake had some white caps, and it was a perfect day with few other boats out. We saw a few boats fishing, but no one else was sailing.

We headed past the original dam, close to the Union House, Millville’s oldest residence. With the strong tail wind, turning around was a challenge, but Ned, with Linda’s help, handled the task like a season old salt.

At the north end of the lake one can hear the traffic from Rt 55, if you strain your ears. There are people that want to pretend that before the NJMP, you couldn’t hear the sounds of civilization on the lake or the river. That’s utter bullshit, propagated by special interest groups that have one goal, to destroy all progress in the city.

Anyway, the tunes coming from Ned’s IPod drowned out any extraneous noise that may have destroyed our quality of life and made every waking minute a living hell. To those people, I suggest that property in Trenton is very cheap right now.

I tried very hard to hear the race track – according to the Track Racketeers you hear it every day, all day, and the noise is excruciating. I didn’t hear anything except traffic from Rt 55, and that was barely audible.

It’s not that I heard something, and didn’t care – I heard absolutely nothing. How can you believe even one word out of these liar’s mouths, when they complain about noise the never ends, when obviously there is no noise the majority of the time.

Speaking of noise, Ned Forbes is Millville’s own mad scientist. He is not only the one person in town that can speak knowledgeably with Larry Ericksen on matters mathematical, but he exhibits Edisonian traits.

His basement is a makeshift laboratory, presently housing a contraption that utilizes low frequency sound waves to inflate lungs. In this case, the “lungs” are reservoir tip condoms. Trojans, maybe? I think he didn’t opt for the lubricated ones. He converted his laptop into an oscilloscope, and ported it into an amplifier. He generates 5Hz tones, which you can feel but not hear. Maybe if you were a dolphin you could hear them.

Oh, and yes, Ned does wear his sunglasses indoors. Anyway, after the sail, we retired to the kitchen, and drank beer and wine. Linda and I talked about religion and politics late into the evening. We agree that religion, regardless of the god or gods it endorses, serves one sole purpose – to force others into a mold of conformity. It uses fear and repression as tools to make others to fit into someone else’s ideal of acceptable behavior.

Some religions, such as Islam and Judaism, were founded on bloodshed and subjugation of others. Some, such as Christianity, were founded on principles of  love and hope and faith, even if we had to kill those we loved, to ensure their faith.   All, however, were formed to excuse humankind from using the brains and logic that the “creator” supposedly endowed us with.

Sharia law discriminates against all non-Muslims as well as places all women into a cast of second-class citizenship. Which causes me to pause, why do liberal women all seem to defend Islam and their right to terrorize others?

So now we have General Petraeus speaking publicly against a weirdo church in Florida, telling them they shouldn’t burn the Koran. Personally, I don’t think they should burn the Koran, any more than they should burn the Torah or the Bible (Catholic version, OR Protestant version).

The Library of Alexandria was burned at the call of zealots, of people that fear that knowledge can somehow topple their god (so true – knowledge WILL topple your god, all idols have feet of clay) that they feel they have to destroy any sort of discourse in order to force their myth down another’s throat.

And that is my problem with this asshole general. Where was he when Muslims were burning our flag? Were was he (and Obama, for that matter) when Muslims were dancing in the street, celebrating the deaths of thousands of American citizens on 9-11?

Islam is a religion of death. No Muslim has any use whatsoever for any non-believer, and their Koran teaches them to lie and make pretense of being friends with non-believers (heretics).

Unlike fundamentalist Xtians – who have never flown an airplane into a skyscraper – their religion was founded on hate and intolerance – read the koran yourself. Xtainity, at least, was founded on the basic tenet of “love your neighbor as yourself” and “turn the other cheek” – something that Islam never taught.

Defenders of Islam will quickly bring to our attention the depraved acts of assholes that murdered in the name of god, the Spanish Inquisition, the evil Popes that were surely insane… however, their acts could not and are not defended in the written records that we now call our New Testament – the god of the Old Testament was a whore and a bugger – and most likely suffered from bipolar disorder.

My point is, now is not the time to preach tolerance for any religion – if some dipwad in Florida wants to burn a Koran – any fucking Muslim in Afghanistan that doesn’t like it needs to be watched closely. If I lived in a war-torn country ruled by religious zealots, I would be looking to fix things in my own backyard and not worrying what they are doing in another country – you know, the one that is helping me survive by buying my heroin! Maybe Petreau needs to be carpet bombing these worthless excuses for humanity rather than trying to stomp down the liberty of some local religious fanatic that is not hurting anyone other than the foolish sheep listening to his empty words.

This summer I have been doing a lot of painting on the back deck, but as the weather changes I will need a location that is dry and somewhat warm.

I will have difficulty working on the larger canvases that I enjoy – I imagine 20″ x 30″ is probably the limit here. But smaller paintings are so much easier to sell.

It’s just that I have another large bar painting in me – another 4′ x 5′ canvas – comparable to “the Last Day’s at John’s Bar“, or “Oar House 3rd Friday“.

The easel will be put to use the next two weeks as I work on a commission painting. I also have two website jobs – but I won’t believe those until I see them. Whenever somebody says “next week” or “next month” or “in the fall” – it is pretty much the same as saying, “I just want to waste your time and make you jump through hoops for a job that you are never going to get.” However, if they come through, along with my painting commission, my bills will be taken care of for September.

Anyway – I now have my two work spaces organized – I can paint, and I can work on my found-object sculptures.

Last week Liz and I went to The Railroad Tavern. I hadn’t been there in over ten years, back when Wendy was rooming with me at my house on Main Street. We had a couple beers, and really enjoyed the place.  The nice thing is that it is within walking distance of home, although I am not sure I would feel comfortable walking home after closing time through that part of South Millville.

Liz Nicklus collaborated with me on the book “Mosaic Murals – How to tackle large-scale installations“. If you order this month only, use the following code (V6MRTN33) to get $2.00 OFF the list price!

This book has a short history of how we started our mosaic mural installation business, as well as step-by-step instructions for intermediate mosaic artists on how to tackle your own large-scale project.

Of course, “Bar Exam: musings from the bar stool” is still a hot seller, and a MUST READ. Use this code (D3BS4QRJ) for a $2.00 discount – for a LIMITED TIME ONLY! Bar Exam is full of full color reproductions of my bar paintings. Almost every one of them resides in a private collection; this is your only chance to see them all in one place at one time!

Bar Exam has my musings of the disappearing neighborhood bar, and how taverns have long been an important part of the social fabric of civilization. It has a lot of great photographs and humorous drinking  quotes – you really do need a copy for your bathroom!

Today we get the attic studio straight – Liz used it to store all of her paintings when we re-did the rear bedroom formerly known as her studio.

I think there will be one more run to the storage unit – and a few more large donations to the curb on garbage day to clear out the basement. After the basement is organized – we are half-way there after Saturday’s campaign, we can move the stuff from storage into the basement on pallets.

Anyway, I guess it is time for me to give Liz a hand in the attic. It seems the last nine months have consisted of moving stuff from one room to another – sort of like the children’s slide puzzle were there are squares with numbers, and one empty and you have to slide the numbers back and forth, up and down to finally get them in order. I don’t even know if those puzzles have a name.

It’s not much, about 4′ x 12′. It has a pegboard, a workbench and very little lighting. It has the only wall outlet that doesn’t turn off when the cellar lights are off. We learned that the hard way when we put the freezer downstairs and wondered why nothing was staying cold!

I have the Dremel vise set up on the bench, and the XTra Hands for the solder station. The workshop will be used primarily as a studio for creating found-object, multi-media sculptures. Liz hates the smell of solder when I do it upstairs, and I have lost enough brain cells in my lifetime that I’m not too worried about the confined spaces. Lead poisoning only kills the slow brain cells, anyway!

I imagine that most of my work will be done on the back deck anyway, as it has been – at least until the weather turns bitter. I can smoke a cigar on the back deck, not so with the basement! Not that I can afford cigars, but one of these days…

I updated Stan Sperlak’s website this morning. Stan added a couple new videos of his latest exhibits, and a sneak peek of an article featuring him in Exit Zero Magazine. Exit Zero lasted longer than I expected, but it still has quite a few years to go to catch up with Inferno! I do not envy the people working on that venture, with the economy sucking away potential ad revenue that drives these new publications.

And, I agreed on a painting commission. I have two weeks to complete a painting, which actually means one week since you need to give oils a week to dry! This will be interesting.

I am applying for an RFQ in Utah, deep in Mormon territory. This will be a job that Liz and I tackle as a team – but the overall budget is over $300K. That doesn’t mean we will get that much, but we have a nice number to work with! that brings to two dozen the number of RFQ’s I have submitted in the past year.

Tomorrow Liz and I tackle the attic space – which now serves as our studios – well, as my studio since Liz is using the downstairs bathroom as her current studio. Don’t ask. Whatever it is, it is really working for her. Her new stuff is breathtaking, and I don’t say that easily. You’ll have to check out her facebook page to see the new stuff.

Today we tackled the basement. What a friggin disaster area that was! We filled three large trash bags with garbage. We took a load of cardboard to the landfill. There is still quite a bit of crap to come up and out, but we were able to organize the paints and power tools and equipment.  I still have to organize the plumbing tools, and woodworking tools, and assorted other stuff.

And I have to clean out and organize my workbench and hobby room. The rest of today I will concentrate on filling nail holes in the two living rooms, patching the walls and tomorrow I can paint the walls and trim. We will re-arrange the furniture, hang art, and the place will be ready for strangers to start tromping through when it hits the real estate listings.

We are downsizing, as the house is WAY too large for two people. At $135,000 – it is a bargain. But I don’t expect buyers to be kicking down the door in this neighborhood. We’ve made progress on the street, but Dennis Ingraldi’s house is a slum with drug dealing going on, and he has still refused to take action against his tenant. I guess as long as he gets his rent payment, he could not care less how much his tenants fuck up the neighborhood.

The AHOME house is an eyesore, also. They should be starting renovations this fall, but to someone coming into the area, all they see is “ghetto”. They see homeowners of the four houses in a row on 4th street that to all appearances do not give a rat’s ass about the properties or the surrounding neighbors. That automatically lowers our house’s value.

Anyway, as usual, I digress. Liz bought mums and filled the planters with autumn burgundy’s and oranges. Curb appeal – as long as we can avert potential buyers’ eyes from Ingraldi’s ghetto slum, they will see that our side street is an array of well-kept houses and friendly neighbors.  Our back yards are full of families barbecuing, and we wave and say “hello” to each other. In a way, I hope the place doesn’t sell in the next year.

I love a good Martini. Shaken, not stirred. With just a pretense of vermouth. Unfortunately I can’t afford one, so I will stick to cheap beer.

A good Martini is not that difficult, it’s all in the details. Fill a shaker with ice, pour in a shot of Noilly Prat French Dry Vermouth, none of that Italian swill.  Swirl the vermouth over the ice, and then dump.

Pour in decent gin. Vodka martinis are for pussies. Beefeater is a good gin, and always will do in a pinch. I prefer Bluecoat American Dry Gin; it is as smooth as it comes. More aromatic but less sweet than Bombay Sapphire. Bols Genever is also an excellent choice.

After you pour in the gin, shake it brutally. Bruise the damn gin! Then pour into a pre-chilled cocktail glass. That is critical, you must drink a martini at sub-zero temperatures.  And use a classic 3 ounce cocktail glass, not one of the hideously large vats that contemporary bars serve in today.  You want the martini to stay cold, and you don’t want to be rushed to finish the drink. This is pure alcohol, boy, and you are playing with fire.

And remember the adage, one martini is enough; two martinis are perfect; and three martinis are not enough.

He recently sold the Old Oar House Irish Pub, but the ambiance and nature of the original live on.

The first thing Brian did when opening the pub was insist on 16 taps. They have since added more, bringing the total up to, I think, 22.

When I occasion the oar House, I generally sit at the bar. I generally wander in alone; my girlfriend doesn’t really like the place and I am not one to hang with crowds. I guess that’s the loner in me, alone even in a crowd.

I suppose that is why I like the image of the tap handles, I have wanted to paint this for years. each tap is alone in the midst of the others.

I might be criticized for the lack of detail (not only in this but all other paintings). Well, I don’t see any Brewery knocking down my door to give me money for product placement, sort of like Cuervo must have done with the most recent season of Dexter.

Hey, give me money and every one of those tap handles would say Budweiser! If you are a regular, you can name every brew. But the variety of choices is one of the reasons I like the Old Oar House. And one of these days when I have money, I will once again drink something other than Yeungling for $2.50 a pint! Presently, on the few occasions I have cash to spare for an hour out, I stretch it as far as I can.  I would much prefer a pint of Harp Lager.

Anyway – this is the latest in my Bar series of paintings. 18″ x 24″, oil on Masonite. This is NOT for sale for $50 – I like it too much. I should sell it for $300, but the first $100 walks with it!