Around the World with Jim part 23

Weather reports on the news tell me that today is expected to be cloudy, but dry, while tomorrow we can expect significant rain. Also on the news today, the governor has opened the marinas for personal use. (people can take their own boats out, but no party boats yet, leaving fishermen with mixed emotions) And I haven't heard anything new regarding the Studio building. All this points to a day of getting some art made. Spent the morning working on this week's lesson. and in the afternoon took the ride up to Ocean Grove.  As usual, the place was dark and quiet, with very few cars in the lot, but the gate was unlocked and the alarms not on.  Turned on enough lights to find my way to the basement.

Had half a piece of Rives Lightweight (actually a quarter of a full sheet) left from my last visit, enough for a new proof.  Took out my ink can and extracted a knife full of black ink, and worked it a bit to warm it up. Been sitting in my car for more than a week, and the weather is a bit chilly these days. Took a moment to take out my paper, removed the old tape from the block, used my tools to clean up a few undesirable bits, then got ready to ink.

This is the 3rd proof I've taken from this block, so it inked up pretty easily.  Music for this occasion was the short version of Live at Raji's from the Dream Syndicate. I first heard the band on WCWM, the radio station at my college, on my housemate Susan's show. Normally I didn't agree with her tastes, but I liked the song she played (a cover of an old blues tune) and made a note.  A few years later I saw this compact disc in the discount rack of a mall record store (malls used to have lots of record stores) and decided to take a chance, despite not having that one song.  Turned out to be quite excellent and became a frequently played bit of music. The reason I called it the "short version" is because a few decades later the music passed to another company (original label out of business) and was reissued as a 2 disc set, so the show was a lot longer than I had known.  I eventually got that one, too, but I made this copy of the first one I had. The 11 songs were just about right for the work I planned for today.

Printing a block that has already been printed is always easier than a first time block.  Inked it, taped it, and printed it quite efficiently.  The proof looked good.  I cleaned up the block, my ink, and my tools, and got out of there.  Made sure the main doors were locked as I left.