Ahoy, ladies and gentlemen!  Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, the ATX Notebookery Project is back in the saddle.  My apologies for the nearly month-long hiatus.  It’s that whole “Life is what happens when you’re making plans,” thing.  I got pretty royally bitch-slapped by school, a family emergency, and the insanity of SXSW.  Nevertheless, we’re rolling again!  And to get things back on track, we have our 14th submission.  This one comes from an incredibly talented painter, and a neighbor of mine, Bryant Gillis. It’s a two-pager, and it’s a shame I can’t put the pages next to each other here, because they just work so damn well together. Bryant studied painting and printmaking at the College of Charlston, SC. He lived and worked in Boston for several years, and is now making his home here in the magical ATX. Enjoy!   We’ll have another awesome submission up next Thursday.  Until then, take care, and be well!

I’m pretty certain the post title says it all. Our 13th submission (spooky!) is a recipe for DELICIOUS CAEK from the talented cake-smith Kelly M. Guerra.  You can go check out more of her confectionary goodness at her baking blog, Billa Cakes.

A very different submission than we’ve gotten so far. Artistic? Yup. Creative? Yup. Only difference is, you can’t eat any of the other submissions. Well, you can’t really eat this one either, but it tells you how to MAKE something to eat.  And technically you could eat the other submissions, but then people would be mad… and… yeah.

There ain’t much else to say, other than damn, that looks delicious. Must… go… bake… nao…

Well, ladies and gentlemen, yet again your coordinator here at the ATX Notebookery Project is late.  Let’s just say that school districts have ridiculous firewalls that block Flickr, and that’s where I spent all of my internettable time over the past two days.  Nevertheless, here’s the next submission.  Better late than never, says I!

Our 12th submission makes me imagine watching the Secret of NIMH on mushrooms, and it makes me happy!  And a little woozy, but in the good way.  This lovely piece comes from Emily Younger, who describes herself and her piece thusly:

Emily Younger is a marketing communications professional who enjoys playing on Adobe CS3 in her spare time (www.emilyyounger.com). This image was the result of a Photoshop experiment to achieve an art canvas look with masks and filters. Also, she likes mice.

Thanks Emily!

We’ll be on time on Thursday, next week.  This I vow upon the eternal souls of my entire army of trained attack ferrets!

This week you get TWO, count ‘em, TWO posts!  Why, you ask? My answer is this: Because Elissa, of 11th submission fame and glory, was so kind as to take some lovely pictures of our traveling Notebook.  This was especially pleasing, since my camera is, shall we say, not good, and I couldn’t really get any decent pictures of the Notebook.  So, thank you again, Elissa!  You rock.  Two more pictures after the jump.

Here’s our 11th submission, from Elissa Marie Pyles. She did a two-part piece.  Apologies for the crappy formatting on the post, but the two parts just look so freaking cool next to each other. I’ll leave the description up to Elissa, as she wrote it in her e-mail to me.  She describes this gorgeous piece much better than I ever could.  She sent another picture that shows the detail of the piece up close.  Check it out after the jump.

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Hah! Just in time for Valentine’s day weekend. I honestly did not plan the theme around the timing–pure coincidence.

It’s a two-sided piece.

title (I hate titling work, and debated whether or not to title it at all…): xoxo

medium: 1940s typewriter, embroidery thread and vintage calligraphy ink–all materials once used to express love and devotion in much more eloquent ways than modern technology. It’s something of an ode to love letters, a forgotten art.

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Awesome!  Thanks, Elissa!

You can go check out more of Elissa’s work at her two websites:

Crafts:  www.goodgaudhaberdashery.etsy.com
Art:      www.elissamarieart.blogspot.com

It’s Thursday (the new official ATX Notebookery posting day)!  And our 10th submission comes from the young and talented Clarence L. Hunter Jr., a.k.a. Young C.  He is, so far, our youngest contributor, being a sophomore in high school!  I’m overjoyed to have some young voices represented in this project.  I don’t really think I need to post the text of this, because, well, it’s easily legible!  Anyhow, thank you all for your continued interest and support in the project.  The Notebook will be coming your way soon!  Until then, be well!

Yet again, ladies and gentlemen, your ATX Notebookery coordinator is an irresponsible lout!  I apologize for not getting the submission out until today.  Blah blah grad school blah blah.  You know.  Nevertheless, here is our 9th submission, a beautiful poem by my friend Bonnie.  Despite all my manipulation, the image is horizontally compressed, so you should click on it to get to the Flickr page to see it properly.  Here’s the text, in case you have trouble reading it.

Its grains so delicate
Soft with refined invitation
So supple in fact that the urge to reach through
The glass is overwhelming
To shatter becomes divine obsession
Even though one knows
That to shatter the glass
Is to diminish the
Delicacy of the grains
It is to defile the grain by sending it back to an older time
A rough regression
A lifetime forgotten by the polished granule
A time in which it felt the naked larger self
Exposed
Instead
Of fine and smooth
As it is now…
And so it stands
Is it worth it?
To break the glass
Impulsively
Just for one shot in eternity
At beauty
Before one’s finger is cut?

Our 8th submission is a poem from Eric Garcia, an extremely talented musician who is well-versed in antiquery.  You can go check out some of his other work at http://www.darkcandy.com, and at http://www.darkcandy.blogspot.com/.  My apologies for it being late!  I apparently got my days mixed up and thought yesterday was Tuesday.  It won’t happen again!

Here’s the text of the poem:

At the world’s end; A paper house, set on fire
Its majesty wrenched free from the earth
Its spires burned free of their berth
Old men of fairy tales, Screaming from each window
“Save us from each other, Save us from ourselves”
Watching, the house ascends
Into ashes and embers
Into ashes and fireflies

My apologies for not getting anything together for last week!  What with the holidays and everything, life’s been a bit hectic.  Nevertheless, we have a new submission this week, from the talented Hope Irish!  She has contributed an existential meandering in journal form, and it excites me to see more writing added to the project.  It’s looking amazing, so far.  It’s an experience having the Notebook returned to me each time and holding it my hands, knowing all that’s been poured into it so far, and anticipating what other brilliance will be added.  Anyhow, enough of my rambling.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Until next week!

P.S.  Oh, and Hope had an extra little tidbit to add:

Hello, Notebookery people!  I hope you all had a wonderful Xmas season, and are looking forward to a great new year!  I’m sure we’re all rather glad to bid adieu to 2009. A new decade awaits us!  And ushering in this new decade is our sixth submission to the notebook, brought to you by the designer of our ATX Notebookery logo, Miss Kimmy Shumski.  She has gifted us with a beautiful and poignant collage, complete with multicolored foil and everything! And it leaves me thinking, “When indeed? When indeed?” Kimmy is a certified bad-ass, with a voice as big as Cleveland. I’ve had the privilege of accompanying her playing and singing with my drum, and it’s quite an experience.  I hope all of you have a fun and safe new years’ eve experience! Be careful out there. You know it’s a night when all of the amateur partyers come out to play. Until next week and, hell, next year, and, hell the next decade, be well folks. See you on the other side!