Where's the Jell-O?

Serving up a huge slug

Sorry I have been so lax about writing here while I give out card after card sending people here to read things...I have another blog, a more personal one, where I write much more frequently. If you are interested in other aspects of my life, go there. You never know what the subject will be: often Saturday Market or local politics, Oregon Country Fair, or some drama or other. I like to process emotions by writing and often work out what I really think or feel in the course of writing the post. Here I thought I would mostly focus on Jell-O Art, and work.

Jell-O Art is so highly concentrated in the months of January through April that sometimes I really lose my taste for it the rest of the year. I took some to OCF but as it was rainy every day I didn't even open the tubs to wear any. This week, though, I will be taking it out and putting some selected pieces to work for the annual Slug Queen Coronation at which I appear as that other Queen, the Queen of Jell-O Art.

The event is this Friday evening, August 12, and the dedicated crowd will show up ready to be delighted. Apparently we will have a canine contestant for the first time, so we are all curious to see how that plays out. He may be fairly talented, but that question with the complicated answer might not work for him. We shall see. There will also be the full range of talented and wacky-ish human contestants. This year you can even try for a chance to be a "Celebrity" Judge by putting your name in a hat. I've been one, and found it highly entertaining in a different way. I would actually prefer not to vote...I like everyone to win. But obviously we need a single Queen...except maybe we don't. A set of identical twins would be a cool wrinkle on it...they wouldn't even have to be conjoined, just confident and sufficiently confusing.

This event is one of the most pure fun ones we have here, so no wonder it has survived the Eugene Celebration, the parade, the Mayor's Art Show, the Festival of Eugene, and most of the other related Eugene celebratory notions. The Queens serve for life as Old Queens, and just won't go away. They often make new outfits for each show, get to perform if they want on their 10th and 20th year anniversaries, and show up at randomly chosen events throughout the year. They serve an important local purpose and so do I, so I will show up and do my usual service. I like to go early and help the First Lady-in-Waiting, Kim, put up the decorations and get the place ready and reserve myself some seats for me and my entourage, such as it is. I don't require a lot of minions but it's nice to have a few at the ready.

At the Jell-O Art Show, 2016

Our Radar Angel Queen #2, Markalo Parkalo (Your Queen and Mine) will end his year of glory and sing a song. I'm sad to not be in his back-up band but I have a meeting the night of the rehearsal and am too far out of the loop to get back in there. The Radars are now a fairly large group at Fair and as I have zero time there to play with them, I have to restrict my Angel stuff to the Jell-O Art Show in April, for the most part. But this Friday I get to put on some lipstick (I have to) and something smart and flouncy. And of course I will wear Jell-O on my head, because I can.

So look for me there, and we will have some fun for a few hours. I bug out early to get to bed for Market the next day, but if you want to touch my Jell-O you can. Probably you don't want to sit behind me unless you don't mind looking through layers of dried gelatin. I'm not tall but I like to keep my hat on. Those in the know come early and bring a chair, as the red ones fill up quickly. Will I make new Jell-O? I just might. None of mine really looks that spectacular to me anymore. I have just enough time if the sun comes out.