days of old

i found an old sketchbook.
a really old one.
Looks like my art hasn't changed that much in the last 20 years.

the nitty gritty

halloween in b-more
no, you are not hallucinating, those are jello-shots.
some people are too cool or lazy or both to wear a costume to a halloween party

philadelphia, part II

Even though it was windy-rainy-misty-cold, I got a good feeling from the past 2 days in Philly. A lot of people and places looked familiar, like I've known them all my life.
It's reminiscent of New York, but more intimate, and with more seedy character. Also similar to Baltimore, but bigger and more bustling.


At a bar in some part of downtown, I was trying to figure out why the bartender looked so familiar to me. Then he metnioned I looked familiar to him. Turns out he was from baltimore, but really we had nothing else in common. Didn't go to any of the same schools, not the same age. We didn't know each other, but we did. And that is a delightful thing.

philadelphia, part I

today I went to the Reading Terminal Market. This place has been there for over a hundred years. 114 years, to be exact.

Purple cauliflowers
Ginger and wheatgrass smoothies
Squashes-a-plenty
white eggplant!This market has excellent lighting for produce.

pink champagne

Best Cocktail Ever: Champagne, Malibu Rum, Pineapple juice, and Grand marnier.
Got it at a fancy restaurant in Philly, but will definately be trying it at home.

begin the reign of scorpio

Symbol: The Scorpion
Ruling Planet: Pluto/ Mars
Element: Water
Cross/Quality: Fixed
Group: Intellectual
House Ruled: Eight
Polarity: Negative
Opposite Sign: Taurus
Favorable Colors: Dark Reds & black
Lucky Gem: Opal
Key Body Part: Reproductive
Period: Oct.23 - Nov.21

citron et sucre

life handed me lemons.

i made lemon pound cake with lemon glaze.
i gave my nephew a haircut.
betsy called while i was giving my nephew a haircut, i feel like I havent talked to her in forever.
my sister got a big promotion today.
I worked for hours on a bunch of fake ads, probably for nothing.
My grandmother told me she wanted me to sell something for her on ebay, I figured no matter what it is it should be easy to sell because all of her stuff is old and valuable and cool. Turns out, it's cemetery plots. Of all things.
I am going to philadelphia for a couple days.
there's this new site- www.artbreak.com it's like myspace for artists, and I wish more cooler people would join it. People from like Germany and Brazil and Seattle can leave you comments and stuff, and I got a lot of hits on my website from it. So tell all the cool artists you know to join!

You wear your heart on your sleeve

a snowball's chance in hell

That saying is funny. I just imagine a cute little snowball trying to make it in hell. Poor lil fella.
Anyway. It's hot again. 80 degrees. I already started eating halloween candy. But I think this year I want to give out tricks instead of treats- Those kids go out fully expecting to get a sack full of free baby ruths and tootsie pops. Why even bother saying "trick or treat"? They could just say "GIVE IT" and it would be the same. It's boring. Together WE CAN PUT THE TRICK BACK IN TRICK OR TREAT!

Gotta keep those kids on their toes.

over the river and through the woods

I love my Grandmother (Ama Colleen) and everything in her house. I realized my taste in housewares, furniture, and decorating stems directly from a mixture of both of my Grandmothers. Time travel has been on my mind a lot lately, and I wish I could go back in time to my other grandmother's old house, where my Mom and all her siblings grew up- that house was lovely and I want to go back and take pictures of everything, just the way it was. The house is still there, but some one else lives there now. Maybe tomorrow, I will tour childhood homes in this town, there are at least 5 of them. I guess that is the closest I can get to time travel for now.

Viticus awareness

Some people are just really good at singing.
Born naturals.
A little viticus never hurt anyone. Uh oh- he's got that crazy look in his eye- don't give him a microphone!
You are probably wondering to yourself, What is viticus? If you have never been to Nevin's bar and you are not up to date on the underground moonshine circuit, then chances are you've never heard of it. If you do in fact know anything about Viticus, please fill me in- all I know is that it is home-brewed moonshine, it's DELICIOUS, and it's either Polish, Lebanese, or Greek. But it might be Hungarian or Czech. Either way, it smells like Christmas and tastes like a cross between spiced carrot cake and a gingerbread man. And it kinda gives you the feeling of being on cough syrup.
note: Not sure why I made these pictures square.

Pizza Party

Friday night on the streets of downtown Baltimore.
Why do drunk people love pizza so much?
What is it about pizza and booze? They just go hand in hand.
Give a drunk a pizza at 2 a.m. and this is what happens.
Walking home through a sea of discarded pizza remains.

update

I've updated my website.
it now includes titles and descriptions (dimensions of drawings coming soon) as well as new images in each category.
see for yourself at...
www.bethhoeckel.com

I couldn't have done it without the generous help of Derek and Paul-
THANKS DUDES, YOU'RE COOL!

something to fall back on

IT'S HERE! IT'S FALL! Chilly wind, grey skies, still waiting for the leaves to change...
Not going to bother waiting for hot apple cider, spiced wine, roasted pumpkin seeds, haunted houses and haunted hay rides.

So long, Indian Summer

Today may have been the last hot day this year.
Which, after living in LA the past four years, is exhilarating.

I renewed my Maryland drivers license today. Apparently it's already been 5 years since I got the last one. Even though I have lived in 2 different states in those 5 years, I somehow managed to never have to get a NY or CA license (oops). Now here I am, getting yet another MD DL, same height, same weight, same address. Only difference is this time it has a picture of a crab on it. And I don't mean me.

genius lives on, all else is mortal

The Walters art museum in Baltimore is way awesomer than I remembered it. And thanks to some rich person's generous donation, it's free for everyone.

this leopard lives on! or is it a cheeta.
We just happened to be walking by and ended up staying for hours. Highly recommended.

Lowcountry Risin'

A night on the town with Donald McMichael
Of the rock group Lowcountry Risin'
No less than 8 people asked to have their picture taken with Donny
Be on the lookout for our first album- "Risin' on the Horizon" and our 4th album "Lowcountry Risin V-I". We haven't made our second or third albums yet.

don't know how I'm gonna do what mama told me...

I think I'm getting addicted to not having a job. Not sure what I'm gonna do about that dilemma.

Feeling the urge to go to Europe; the UK. Funds needed.