Duchess Jane

Shiny new floor in the shiny new race shop. BLC will appreciate.



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A year and a half ago, Dano and I went on a road trip to Ohio.  It was the first extended period of time we spent together.  Hours in the car, traveling to and from, hours in grandstands, restaurant booths, and walking ghost tracks and city streets.  In a booth at the Steak 'N Shake in downtown Indianapolis at about 1 am, Dano held up his fork and said "Fork!  Tell me a story about a fork." 

His theory, after hours and hours of listening to me talk, was that I have a personal story for any noun in the English language, and that many of them involve a near-death experience.  So now, occasionally, when things are quiet, he will look at me and say "Port-a-potty."  And I will tell him about that time I almost died in a distant city, because of a port-a-potty.

Mr. Zero, our hero, is the proud new owner of a DSLR camera, the same body as mine but eleventeen versions newer, and therefore more jaw-dropping in its quality.  We spent Saturday night in a park, walking and shooting and occasionally shouting things at each other like "~bleeping~ wind!!" and "AAAGGGH BUG!"  The result is that many of our photos are similar, but the best tell a more interesting story when viewed together.

(Dano photo)

(mine)

(Dano photo)

(mine)

More from Dano:

More from me:

We share with you our focal length debauchery as an invitation.  In the comments left on this post, Dano and I will be paying particular attention to the nouns and, working separately, will be taking photos inspired by the nouns you leave us and posting our results next Monday, and then working from the nouns left in comments next Monday, posting more photos the following week.  Our photos may not be of the nouns, but they will be something that reminds us of them in some way.  We may explain why in text, if it's a story we want to share, we may just leave it up to you to interpret.  We will choose our nouns separately, and we don't have to choose the same one.

This is an invitation in two ways:  1.)  As a reader, you can influence and inspire the story that we tell with photos by giving us your nouns in the comments.  2.)  As a photographer - amateur, professional, DSLR, point-and-shoot, cell phone camera, all welcome - you can participate.  You don't have to tell me ahead of time, you don't have to participate every week, you can contribute when you feel the inspiration strike. 

If you're a Flickr user, upload your photo and tag it with the week's assigned tag by Sunday at noon, and I will find it for the Monday post.  If you want to tell the story of which noun you chose and how the photo relates, leave it in the description or drop me an email.  If you're not a Flickr user, email me and we'll work something out.  Your photo should be new, taken after the Monday post containing the noun you are using.

Next week's Flickr tag will be "DuJaneNounGame1".

Today is the first day of a mini-vacation for me, a 5 day weekend.  I started it off by waking up to the overpowering stench of skunk, courtesy of my roommate's dogs.  Wrecks was, of course, cuddling up to the other dogs, so now he smells like skunk as well.  Awesome.

Wrecks had an adventure yesterday afternoon, when he gave his security detail the slip and escaped from the walls of the compound.  He was on the loose for 30-40 minutes, during which I was driving home from work in a panic and DuMom was designing his MISSING PRESHUS BABEEEE WE HAZ REWARD flyer.

But he was found.  And now that he's gotten a taste of the world outside that really solid fence, he spends most of his outdoor time sitting next to the gate, staring up.

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Earl is a great name for a hurricane.  That said, be safe, eastern friends.

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More soon.  I promise.

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This week, years past:

2009:   A big jump.

2008:  11 Hooters passport stamps in one day, Chicago by Motorcycle

2007:  Awkward cohabitation moment

2006:  I accepted red velvet cake as a bribe for Reader of the Month/Millennium

Dear Luke,

Your "Rain Is A Good Thing" has been a topic of conversation many times for me this summer.  First, because it's rained a lot here.  Secondly, because of the central idea:  rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey, whiskey makes your woman allow you to have sex with her.

Now, there's obviously much to be said about that, but my friends have focused mostly on the part about corn making whiskey.  Because by and large, my friends prefer rye or malted barley. 

So if you could record an alternate version of the song using other grains instead of or in addition to corn, that would be great.  That would really help me tap my toe along to you getting your lady friend drunk for the purpose of sex.

Oh, wait.  Shoot.  I forgot something.  There's apparently a third choice.  Elderly diabetic urine whiskey.  Don't forget those whiskey fans.  Rain makes something, something makes you pee, pee makes whiskey, whiskey makes your baby feel frisky?  Obviously, I'm not the songwriter here.  Get to it, professional.

Thanks,

Jane

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