I apologize for the fact that I'm hardly ever here at deviantART; I show up once in a while to update my gallery and I usually don't have time for much else. This coming year is probably not going to be much better--I've just got oodles of stuff to do.

So, as much as I'd like to visit the gallery of everybody who leaves a comment, I know better than to promise such a thing when I may very well in fact not get around to it. But I do appreciate any and all comments, criticisms, helpful hints, etc.

So thanks for stopping by, and have a nice day!

/misti

I'm currently obsessed with the bands Corvus Corax and Estampie...German bands that play medieval music that tends to have bagpipes in it. Loverly, loverly bagpipes...

Anybody know of any good bands/artists who do something similar, but which I don't have to buy at Amazon.de and pay for shipping across the Atlantic?

I also like the likes of Hedningarna, Garmarna, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Tori Amos, Bjork...all sorts of pleasantly weird stuff. Anyone have any suggestions for anything I might like?

/misti

So, Halloween's just around the corner, right? Well, I personally am not Christian, and I've noticed that there seems to be this, er, thing that some Christians have about Halloween.

For example, when I went to a Lutheran school when I was little, they...didn't seem to like Halloween. They had a sort of "alternate" holiday instead for members of this church, where kids could come and get goodies and stuff...

And I seem to get the impression that many Christians just don't like Halloween. It's as if it's "the devil's holiday" or some such thing. An evil business, this Halloween tradition. Best stay away from it if you're a God-fearing person, they seem to think.

I'm sorry...correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Halloween, strictly speaking, a Christian holiday in the first place?

You know...Halloween, All Hallows' Eve, All Hallows' Day, All Saints' Day...I did a report on it in school once, and it seems that it was concocted by the Church as a holiday for all the saints that didn't have holidays of their own. It was, of course, meant as a sort of "alternate" holiday for the pagans that the Church was busy trying to convert...give them a holiday at about the same time as their own (Samhain, wasn't it?) with similar stuff to do, and it will make their transition to the "one true faith" easier, right?

Of course the holiday ended up retaining many of the trappings of its pagan progenitor...the preoccupation with death and dying, spirits and ghosts and such...(I guess this is where Christians get the idea of it being the devil's holiday? The Christians always did try to portray pagan gods and spirits as demons and devils...)...I guess the holiday didn't come to fit into the Christian faith as nicely as Christmas did (the history of which, of course, amounts to basically the same thing).

So I find it ludicrous that my (former) church had to have an "alternate" holiday to Halloween. An alternate holiday to an alternate holiday.

Now...am I terribly mistaken in all of this? Am I overreacting? It's just that Halloween is my very favorite holiday, and I hate to see it maligned and demonized, literally, by some fundamentalist Christians...

/misti

Just uploaded the one new painting I've finished recently...something a little more goth and a little less cute than usual. I should probably do more paintings like that...

My cat Freyja has been spending a lot of time out-of-doors lately...she'll be gone for nearly a day at a time and then come back all unapologetic and hungry...whine whine whine where's my can of Friskies whine whine whine...

So is it this time of year, or what? Maybe there's some witches' sabbat being held in the woods in back of our house, and she gets invited. Maybe they entice her with catnip or Pounce treats, the ones in the little fishy shape; she likes those. Why aren't I invited, I wonder? And what's so special about her? She's not even a black cat...more of a tortie, actually...

Should I attach a little micro-camera to her collar so I can watch and see where she goes? Maybe if would work better if I implanted one in her forehead...she could have a third eye. Nobody'd probably even notice...

/misti

I figure I'd better update this journal thingy, since I got an answer for the question I last asked (thank for the answers to that)...so now I have a new question. I've been trying to upgrade my painting supplies lately to more professional-grade stuff, and I hear a lot of good things about Arches watercolor paper. Up until now I've been using the plain old Strathmore 400 series pads I buy at the local art supply store, but my supply is running low so I'll be needing to buy some new stuff.

So I'm wondering what ya'll think about Arches paper versus Strathmore versus anything else that you might use and love. If you recommend Arches, do you like hot press or cold press, or does it depend more on individual style? Any other hints or advice for buying watercolor paper?

Any and all info would be appreciated. Thanks!