Sunday, November 22, 2009

It's More Neoclassical Than Modern

The painting continued today, but this time I got involved. CJ and MJ did the edges and I filled in the middle. LMJ gave a lesson on the difference between loud and quiet. I painted today because I paint faster than anyone else in the house and I wanted to be able to sit on the sofa and comfortably watch some football. Whenever I paint I always try to slather it on as thick as possible so I don’t have to paint a second coat. It never works. The walls are painted – we did a good job too – but there are little patches of white where the porous walls didn’t want to absorb the paint. We’re going to have to throw on a second coat. CJ and MJ are pretty happy with the color they chose. It’s called Waves Of Grain. It’s not the color of grain. It’s tan with hints of green, as opposed to our old color, which was tan with hints of pink. I think the new color is more Florida, more Art Deco. It’s not really Art Deco. My use of Art Deco is an inside joke going back to the summer of 1990. I was working for my buddy Charlie’s dad. The crew was me, Charlie, my buddy Paul, and Charlie’s step brother Michael. Charlie’s dad had a bunch of storage lockers filled with old files and miscellaneous crap that he was paying us to empty. In one of the lockers was a bunch of crappy metal furniture that was all pastel sea foam green. Charlie, Paul, and I were commenting on how crappy the metal furniture was when Michael scoffed and said, “It’s Art Deco” in a James Spader, late ‘80’s, Less Than Zero kind of way. Looking back on it, we should have beaten Michael to death with a meat tenderizer and left him in the locker. Instead, Paul – top 5 coolest people I’ve ever known – just made fun of Michael for the rest of the afternoon. Anything we came across that was vaguely pastel, Paul would ask Michael if it was Art Deco. I don’t know if Michael ever caught on that Paul was messing with him. Since then I’ve been running the same joke with a twist on MJ. I’ll randomly say something is Art Deco and she’ll freak out telling me it’s not. It never gets old because she still bites twenty years later. Good Times.

2 comments:

MJ said...

I had forgotten the back story. You say all kinds of things just to get me. Notice that many of them don't even register a reaction anymore. I'll have to work on this one.

BTW, we loved that you helped with the painting. Looking forward to coat #2. thank you.

Beth said...

This post cracked me up. Partly because I know who you're talking about. Can't wait to see the place with its new coat of paint!