Five Characters/Man at Carnival

Two oldies as collage studies: here's a hunky model relaxing near a ferris wheel and I think I see the Coliseum in there somewhere, circa 2001. Strange, but I kind of like all the textures and the vivid colors happening in this one. And an old friend's handwritten letter is in the background as our model's thought-bubble.

And here's an old collage-slash-drawing I did where Bill Clinton is holding out fort next to Bjork and a frog-shaped eraser. Naturally. It's good to know that my drawing style has not evolved much since age 16. Maybe an art class or two could boost the intellectual complexity of cartoony snakes and alien tentacles.

St. Vincent and Meatballs in Icelandic

Nearly a month has passed but it has not felt like it. I've been busy but would rather not bother you all with stories mostly of being preoccupied with age-old questions like What Will I Do With My Life, or How Will I Pay These Taxes. Needless to say those stresses have been put to rest, at least for now. I saw a fabulous concert by St. Vincent tonight, which if you don't know her or her band, it's about time you checked out this video. She and her delightful curlyhaired litheness (and the soundguys) totally rocked the multi-instrument arrangements on stage without losing the quirkiness of her amazing compositions that seem to take inspiration from classical music, funk, french pop, and avant-garde noise. I would also kill for those lyrical skills. Plus, everyone in the house thought she was pretty badass when she did her experimental electric guitar whacking i.e. the shredding of the 21st century. Annie Clark is St. Vincent, pictured right.
Those points, and the punctuality of the concert, were the pros. The con was that I stood in back of a girl who was annoyingly texting the entire concert and her phone's light was blaring in my face the whole time. If you're going to pay $20 to see a concert, please do not text to your gurlz the entire time. A picture, maybe. A single text of 'OMGAmazing!', fair enough. But otherwise, keep the clam closed. Though, truth be told, I secretly saw several of the texts including one that read "There is not a single guy here I'm interested in. Not my type." Well, I don't think they're interested in you either, sweets. Most of these people are gay, and the others wouldn't appreciate a girlfriend who can't pay attention. Pictured: someone somewhere is texting something completely inane.

Musically, I've been working on Music of North Side Spaces a bit, and have some sample pages for the vocal groups to try out. I've written/rearranged some music for my sister's wedding, and I've also been preparing for a trip to NYC in March to hear the String Orchestra of Brooklyn play a piece I wrote for them based on an Irish folk tune, The Last Rose of Summer.

I've also been practicing Icelandic! What better way to sing along with some of my favorite musical groups but to study the language. It's hard, but very rewarding. I'm glad I can still memorize nouns and adjectives, but the retaining of genders and declining and agreement and all these case issues are pretty difficult. I can, however, say "meatballs with gravy and potatoes". Kjötbollur í brúnni sósu með kartöflum. This is very important.

Music of North Side Spaces

Some of you may know about my 'Music of North Side Spaces' project in the works. For those of you who don't...well, I have a project called 'Music of North Side Spaces' in the works. There you go. But for those of you who want to know more, I received a grant in the fall of '09 to write music for the summer of '10, scheduled for June 27th at 3pm. Mark your calendars. The performance will feature live performances in site-specific settings on the North Side of Pittsburgh. The project has wider ambitions to connect several organizations in that area, including the New Hazlett Theatre, Children's Museum, Lake Elizabeth/National Aviary, and Mattress Factory, promoting the organizations in general and get people over to the North Side, as well as use alternative transportation (walking/buses). There were several awards chosen as part of the Grable Foundation ' Charm Bracelet Microgrant' process. My project in particular involves guests taking a walking tour of the area, and along one's route you'll hear live music, written by myself, inspired by the history and architecture, natural landscape, and fun facts about one's surroundings. Not only will wanderers realize how close some of these museum/cultural attractions are to one another, I hope it adds a little spontaneity to some of the usual sights on the North Side, and maybe passers by will join in and listen. The best part is that it will be free!

I'm setting to work on this project with a few upcoming meetings, and I hope I can have some questions answered. There are so many factors I've never had to consider before, like park permits, rain plans, coordinating musicians along a time-line, a monologue for a tour guide, and expenses written into the grant. Do I take elements from current cultural trends, like the large African-American population in that area, or do I highlight a site for its former life in the 1900's as a vegetable stand and outdoor pavillion? Do I keep the size intimate, and only distribute a few postcards, or do the other organizations get involved and promote the concert, which might make the group so large that nobody can hear any of the acoustic music? Will I need a megaphone? Oh, and what is everyone going to wear, and I hope it involves top hats and/or costumes. It's going to be a great experience, but the list of questions is pretty long. On top of all of that I have hopes that the music I'll write for it is still interesting.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of planning a possible brass band, Andrew Carnegie's ghost, typewriter percussion, DJ, melodica, folk trio, improvised flute music in trees, and other exciting possibilities...

(Photo above: Deborah Asheim work at Mattress Factory, as I don't have any pictures of the spaces I want to use yet. To be continued!)

And They're Off!

Welcome back, little buddies, I missed you.

Stalactite Press

My sculpture/sound installation received a nice mention on the Pittsburgh Arts- Digging Pitt blog a couple days ago:


"The above work, Nathan Hall's Stalactite, is beautiful. It is this softly glimmering work, with a subtle sound component. I won't try to project a philosophical interpretation on this. For me, it was purely an aesthetic enjoyment of a beautiful object."

Well, thank you Susan, for writing kind words about the piece!

If you haven't seen the work already, please stop by SPACE gallery downtown Pittsburgh before February 13th, when the show closes. Admission is free. If the other sound pieces in the gallery are too loud for you to hear the ambient component of the work, you can ask the gallery staff to turn the other piece(s) down for you.

2009 Review: A!

The year 2009 gets a grade A from me! I thought about A minus, but too many exciting things happened this year to warrant the slash. I suppose it doesn't get an A+, but that would probably have to be one hell of a stress-free year to get bonus points.

Here are some highlights! In no particular order. While I like, no, love lists, I have a hard time prioritizing them.

I managed to secure a boyfriend for a whole year! That was a huge deal. My previous relationship was only four months. Thanks, Boyfriend, for stickin' around! You are delightful. Here we are at the ends of a giant creative sandwich known as Vocal Assembly.
I joined three music groups! I sang experimental and graphic vocal music with Vocal Assembly, wrote a piece for glockenspiel ensemble for Outer Circle, and just recently was asked to join Alia Musica, a group of local composers. And no, I don't have time for all of them at once. Sadly.

I received a grant to write music in 2010, and over the past year wrote five new music works, and debuted a sculpture in a prominent Pittsburgh gallery! Also, the music that I wrote for a play premiered and ran for eight nights, and nobody ran out of the theatre throwing up (at least over the music).

I released a CD! Nathan Hall + David Bernabo. If you haven't already bought one, see me. Or see this website for the album's record label.

I saw Bayernhof Museum of musical instruments, featuring antique music boxes, player pianos, and eccentric mechanical contraptions. And batcave.

My band Wungsten performed more than ever, including battling for top Pittsburgh band. We lost, but it was only because our parallel secundal harmonies go unappreciated by the masses. Here is our trifecta about to perform our hit 'Buckminster Fuller', inside of a geodesic dome of his own design (it's in Montreal).
Travels this year included aforementioned Montreal and Colorado, two places I'd never been but were both beautiful in their own ways. Montreal taught me some differences between Montreal French and Paris French, one of which included watching 'Pimp My Ride' in French. Otherwise known as Pimp Mon Char!
Colorado included this lovely item.
It's just a rock, but it's looking over a recently snow-dusted mountaintop in Boulder, CO.

I also performed several concerts with the Mendelssohn choir of Pittsburgh, the most memorable being John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls, but the most amusing being Carmina Burana, as I'm trying to sing over braces put on my teeth one day prior. Perhaps the ol' braces was actually the most thought-proviking year-long activity; it certainly was on my mind every day, having to take ten minutes every time I flossed, and going to the orthodontist every month, trying to bond (dental pun!) with other adults who have braces. You remember this time, back in February? This picture is a little monstrous but it's hard to get pictures of teeth that don't look absolutely disgusting (teeth are so much grosser than they seem). This was the 'right when they got put on' face.
This is now. They're still naturally a little bumpy, and they have yellowish connector bands to solidify the tooth placement, but they're so much straighter and aligned. I actually like that they don't look like a whole new set of teeth, more like a better version of what I had before, more symmetrical (and without having to pay $5K for the fancy invisaligns). I hope that when the braces come off that I remember how to move my lips with my 'normal' teeth. I'm sure I'll be thinking that it feels weird all over again without so much metal in my mouth. Small differences in position that make a big difference to me! It's kind of amazing how making tiny changes and improvements can add up, one month at a time, to a big change in the end, especially when looked back in retrospect. Perhaps that's a good wise statement to start my 2010.

Almost one year later, I am scheduled to get these braces off on the 16th. Wish me luck for another grade A year full of music and merriment, and straight teeth for years down the road. More to come in 2010!

Piano Recital

Two posts in two days! A Neue Record.
As you may know, I teach piano lessons to one student at the moment, she's 8. Yesterday was our Holiday Recital. She played a couple songs, I played a Bach Prelude, she sang Jingle Bells and played Jolly Old St. Nicholas on guitar–she has many interests and I'm in full support of her pursuing them (though sometimes I wish she could focus on one thought for more than 5 seconds, but then again, she's 8). It was a lovely time for the audience of myself, her mother, and ten stuffed animals on the sofa who were lucky enough to get tickets to the show.

As we were having our "dress rehearsal", my student became distracted that the decorations on the piano were shaking when she was playing. I joked that maybe it was an earthquake. She said, "nuh uh!" and I said that she better play something quick before the piano falls into a crevasse or something equally dramatic. She responded with: "I don't care about playing! I care about LIVING!!"

PopCity

The Nathan Hall Collection of jewelry was mentioned in Pittsburgh's PopCity Media blog today! I say Nathan Hall Collection as if it were the Jacqueline Smith Collection at Wal-Mart or something. In actually it's called 'n by nathan hall' and in the few moments of spare time I have, I made sculptural jewelry things out of twisted wire, crocheted items, lots of earrings, and some nearly unwearable avant-garde-looking things. Either way, I think it's my first press that I haven't solicited myself! And I get called an artist, that's good, right? Maybe commissions for birds-nests creations will skyrocket.


"The number of names on my list dwindling as rapidly as my shopping stamina, I slipped into the Mattress Factory to check the status of two things on my own wish list: a belt buckle crafted by Ohio-based company Maxine, Dear, from the salvaged pages of old children's books, and a silver bird's-nest-like necklace created by local artist Nathan Hall."

Stalactite Debut

My sculpture 'Stalactite' debuted last night at SPACE gallery in downtown Pittsburgh! I crocheted the wire, created a soundtrack with my voice that sounds like cave noises, and hooked up speakers to project the sound out of the sculpture. Overall I was quite happy with how it turned out- it wasn't my original vision to have the top part be so curvy but apparently a lot of people liked the waves. And whose project ever turns out exactly like they plan it anyway?

Thanks to all who came to the opening, even though it was so loud that my piece was inaudible... You could still look at it, though, and that's a large part of the appeal. It's on view at SPACE until Feb. 13, 2010. Here are some photos of the installation process and its opening night- thanks to Nikki who took my and B's picture for an action shot, and thanks to Nikki and Laura for curating such a strong show of local museum talent.

Waffle Shop and Vocal Assembly

I recently was a part of one of the strangest gigs I think I've ever done. A group that I sing in called Vocal Assembly was asked to sing in a Live YouTube Soundtrack Battle in a Waffle Shop. Let me explain. Vocal Assembly is a group of singers who perform our own compositions of things like graphic scores, text pieces, and improvised music. It's fun. Waffle Shop is a restaurant-slash-TV show that serves waffles but also interviews community members about things they might find important. The waffles are delicious. The venue decided to host an event which takes two live bands, and pairs them up against one another, and the two bands "compete" to perform live soundtracks to videos. The videos are projected onto a screen in the waffle shop along with a live feed of the performances. Bands trade off so each group performs the short clip, which is shown twice.
But there's also a catch! The performance was videotaped in the kitchen of the waffle shop. We managed to get a quartet of singers, a drummer, a keyboardist, and an electronic musician with laptop and supplies, along with two video cameras, a monitor, and TV screen to watch the videos all crammed into a tiny kitchen. It seemed like no small feat. And it seems like an unsuccessful idea, but somehow it manages to work. We pulled it off! The videos will go up on YouTube at some point in the future. We also got free waffles (hooray!).
But the best part of the night was for what few people were in the "audience", one woman, a mother of one of the other band's performers, decided to congratulate us on such an interesting performance. She was pretty drunk. She managed to tell us about her life in New York, the lack of new exciting music, how great Pittsburgh is, her rotator cuff surgery, how we should get to know the music of Laura Nyro, and most shockingly, the fact that this woman's mother passed away less than 24 hours prior. She also called our performance "delicious", along with several other things throughout the night that usually aren't termed "delicious" but it somehow made sense. Then she gave us all hugs, and thanked us some more for making her evening so enjoyable, and then asked if she could give us all a kiss.
It was a memorable night. (click on the comic to enlarge.)

Mr. Potato Head

Artful photographs and retouched images of my great Mr. Potato Head Collection, circa 2007. I can't believe I didn't post these when they were actually happening! I think it's because I gave the printed photos as gifts...'cause I'm such a good friend, of course, who wouldn't want to get these beauts in the mail. The one above is a remake of Michaelangelo's Pieta! Can't you see the resemblance?
This one is Butt Belly.
That one is obviously American Gothic!
This one I like to call 'Brown on Brown'. It really recalls the Suprematist compositions of the mid twentieth-century, highlighting the flatness of Clement Greenburg's modernist thesis while still recalling the works of Kurt Schwitters. It's also a cow butt.
This is the food pyramid! Well, before it was inverted into an upside-down triangle. You have your carbs and vegetables (and potatoes...poor guy, he's on the dinner plate and still clings onto some broccoli) on the bottom and your meats on the top.
Finally, to leave you with a final 'wow' piece, I give you the very influential work, 'Abstraction with Carrot and Ear-Hat'. Thank you.

Supposably

One of my most hated mispronunciations of words occurs when people say 'Supposedly' as 'supposably'. But perhaps I shouldn't be the one to critique, seeing that in high school I was adamant that word 'subtle' was being pronounced incorrectly, and I would go around telling people that it's really said as 'sub-tuhl'. Minus five for me.

Any personal pronunciation irks for you, readers?

Vassar Premiere and New York City

This past weekend I jetsetted off to Poughkeepsie, NY and New York City, just two weeks after I flew to Colorado. My coworkers chided me for being such a world traveller, but I think I spent the six months prior here in Pittsburgh with maybe only a trip home to the family in there! This trip was a little bit more job-oriented, as I was attending the premiere of a chamber work I wrote for Vassar College's Mahagonny Ensemble.

I arrived in New York and saw Ben, who tells me that he's met designer Christian Siriano several times, and Christian, despite his TV persona, is quite nice, polite, and always shows up 15 minutes early for meetings. A rarity! I also treated myself to somewhat of a fancy meal at Mary's Fish Camp in the Village; if you haven't heard of it, you need to go and eat their fried items! They are crispy and melty and don't taste greasy or fried, though I probably would have enjoyed that too. I also ate cockle shells, which I had never eaten before, and I had a delicious something chocolatey for dessert that seemed like a stripey mix of melted/hardened chocolate and fresh cream/whipped cream. Amazing.

I arrived in Poughkeepsie, and stayed with my friend Kelly, whose life is always in flux but who was willing to host this composer on her sofa. And what a good time we had! Kelly played the drums while I sang and played piano; we visited Dia:Beacon (pictured), my favorite art museum of all time; we ate a bunch of times at our favorite café by the college; she also brought friends and family to my premiere, but did not bring her yelping dogs (one of them shown here, being a sleeping princess). We then walked over the new Bridge over the Hudson (also pictured at top), which is a recently converted railroad bridge turned pedestrian-only bridge, and the views, despite the rain and wind, were breathtaking. Where's Thomas Church when you need him to paint something like this for you? No wonder the Hudson River School was so inspired to paint here.

Vassar looks about the same as usual, with "usual" being stunning and quite impressive (Vassar Lake, pictured below). The Art Library now has Marcel Breuer chairs. The Retreat Cafe now composts and uses biodegradable flatware! And Nilda's cookies are still delicious. These cookies can still be found at the local gas station with the paper tags inside of them advising cookie-eaters to Never Ever Shake a Baby. But you can shake your booty over the deliciousness of Peanut Butter Choco Chip.

The performance of 'Dark Interval' went well. I was actually very surprised to hear how much the ensemble snapped into shape by the final performance- I got to go to the dress rehearsal, and give my suggestions/improvements, and small changes. I'm hoping that with a few further adjustments the balance between 7 instrumentalists and two singers will be better. That hall has such good acoustics! It's a blessing and a curse. There were also a couple small melodies or motives that I thought could be given to other players that didn't get to have much soloistic time. One of the singers complimented me on my attempt to use the voices not only as solo lines and text setting, but also as instrumentalists in the overall texture, sharing melodic material, and I think I could do more of that in future works. I should mike the singers next time, though, so that the horn and trombone don't have to always play so quietly, and the really wordy sections can be heard clearly. And it's a little more rock and roll.

A rare treat about this piece is that it will also be given a second performance on January 30th at Vassar College Skinner Hall of Music, for their ModFest week. I have the opportunity to change things and make the second time 'round even better. You should come hear it!

I also went back to New York to see fabulous Nicole, and together we went to the Cloisters. Neither of us had been there before, though I've wanted to go for, oh, nine years now. It's a converted monastery, full of imported Gothic and Medieval architecture and art, reassembled before our very eyes through magic and spackle. Vøilå! It's also way up north in Manhattan, at 190th Street. I don't know about you, but I'm rarely in New York City, and I've never been north of 130th and some. This felt like the air might be thinner, way up in the frozen north. Luckily it was a beautiful day, the gardens were lovely, the views were clear, the art was amazing, and even the view across the river was untainted by city life, having been preserved as well. Kudos to the forethought of wealthy old philanthropists, you did it. Now future generations like me can enjoy some peace and quiet amidst the unicorn tapestries.

Bird at the Airport

Also when I went to Colorado, there was a live bird in the Dulles airport on my layover in DC, and it was patiently sitting in the chair next to me. I assume it got in through the open terminal doors, but I envision my interaction more like this:

Bird:"Hey man, what's up."
Me:"Hey bird, not much, you fly here all by yourself?"
"Yeah, I like to migrate."
"Cool, where you headed?"
"Oh, I thought I thought I'd check out Sarasota, I hear the trees are nice there."
"Sounds fun, don't forget to use your frequent flyer points."

Or perhaps,
Me: "Hey, is this seat taken?"
Bird: "Nope, don't mind my feathers."
"So, you come here often?"
"No, just passin' through."
"Hey, I think your plumage is real perty."
"I have a girlfriend back at the nest, buddy."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Security!"

Colorado

I went to Colorado last week and it was stunning! I had never been anywhere West of Indiana before, and that's not very far West. Unless you count a trip I once made to Hawaii, but I didn't stop anywhere in between. Hawaii is almost way East, come to think of it. Anyway, I visited some friends and did the tourist thing after getting a cheap flight over there, and I was so impressed! The weather was changing all the time, which I really enjoy. The mass transit was punctual and got me exactly where I needed to go. There is a great art and music scene in Boulder and Denver.
Here are a few quick pictures! Here I am (bonjour!) at the foothills of the Flatirons in Boulder, CO, which are the foothills of the Rockies, and the Rockies are are the foothills of the Gods, of course.
This is the other side of the Flatirons. It had just finished gently snowing, though it wasn't very cold out, and it was postcard-perfect. There was also a fog that sometimes obscured the view, but also made for good middleground drama with these conifers.
I also spent a little time in Denver and saw the Denver Art Museum, which has a brand new wing built by Daniel Leibeskind. It's crazy angular and slightly disorienting inside, but in a good way. I thought it helped spice the art up by showing pieces on slightly angular surfaces- a little wacky, but I saw a few things in a new way. There's also a great installation by Sandy Skoglund there. But what's that on the front steps of the museum? It looks like a broom and dustpan.
Sure enough! It is. It's hard to tell scale in this picture but the broom is about 15 feet tall. There is also this fabulous plaque on the ground, telling us that the work is a collaboration between a Dutch artist (I forget the name) and Claes Olderberg. It was one of the highlights of my trip! The landscapes were fabulous and very inspirational, the hosts of my trip were so hospitable (and excellent cooks) and the art was all new and in a totally different setting, where the vistas are grander and the skies much much wider.

Manatees and Manna Tees

Future teeshirt empire:
Manatees: everyone's favorite sea cow.
VS.
Manna Tees: everyone's favorite Jewish snack item!

There's even a double pun, after the 'more cowbell' teeshirt that is way too ubiquitous online.

I totally call a part of the profits on this shirt, should it ever be made. Copyright 2009 Midnight Shoveler Shirts, y'all! Perhaps it could even be made out of manna, like organic cotton teeshirts. Useful during fasts, and late-night snack binges. Do not attempt washing.

Fall 2009

It's fall! Raise your flags (higher, higher!) in excitement for long sleeves and cups of tea.
To celebrate: an old work not so much of a collage as an alteration of an old magazine ad, with japanese maple leaves and some scraps of tissue paper.

Jane Tyson Clement and the Bruderhof Community

When I was a senior at Vassar, I had the pleasure of creating an independent study in Religious Communities around the Hudson Valley, NY. As the air in Pittsburgh grows colder and wetter, I have the memories of wearing a giant wool cape at a Benedictine monastery around this time of the year, when the sole monk living there requested that I help him enter some prayers into the most archaic, jankety Apple computer I've seen in my life (and I once took classes on a Commodore computer, which is pretty archaic). Gosh, I wish I could have kept that cape, it was totally enveloping and everything a wool cape should be, especially when you're freezing in a monastery, holding onto a sugar cookie for dear life.
I digress.
One of the places I visited on my community search was the Bruderhof settlement in Rifton, NY. There are quite a few large families living on the land there, in a religious community that I usually explain as a sort of Quaker mentality: respect for the earth, focus on the family, education is important, hard work is too. The Bruderhofs also make excellent nail-less furniture for children's playsets.
One of the more visible members of the Bruderhof Community in America was Jane Tyson Clement. She was an active poet and musician, as many of the community members are very musically gifted, and she published many of her works. Her book 'No One Can Stem The Tide' was given to me as a thank-you for visiting the community and taking the time to see what their life was like. (While I love the concepts of raising your children to know how to rewire a house at age 7, and living in the countryside nearly self-sustainably, I can't imagine myself converting to farm life or being opposed to homosexuality. Nevertheless, mucho respect for you for going against the lure of the iPhone.)
In 2005 I began setting some of Clement's poems to music. Three of those poems will be premiered at Vassar College in November in the form of a piece for chamber ensemble and two singers. It's been great revisiting these poems, and during this fall season, it's very nostalgic thinking back to writing music as an undergrad, being in a practice room when it's raining (and trying to block out the sounds of the pianist next to me). One of the poems I had put to music has never been performed, so I re-orchestrated it; it's great to know that something that's been in the works for a long time will get heard. Clement's poems are usually filled with joy, grief, love of nature, and very simple but stunning language that I thought was perfect to set to music. Rehearsals are underway now for a performance in November. I'll also be able to visit Vassar for the performance, so I invite all my Hudson Valley/NYC to come hear it and say hello!

Vassar College, Mahagonny Ensemble
Premier of 'Dark Interval' for chamber ensemble and two singers
Friday November 13th, 8:00pm
Skinner Hall of Music

Pictured: pleasantly abstract stained glass panel from a religious retreat that was one of the stops along my independent study.

Giant Squid Dating Site

Personal Details:
Marital Status: Single
Ethnicity: Giant Squid
Eye Color: Black
Hair Color: I have whitish tentacles, does that count?
Age: 500 (but I might be lying)
Looking for: Soulmate, someone to explore the ocean depths with me for all eternity
Turnons: bright red skin, ocean currents, lacy panties
Turnoffs: Sperm whales, hunting vessels, bright lights, gangsta rap, fish depletion
Any interested mollusks, please come find me, if you can.

Terrifying, Gross, and Amazing: Sally

Sally is one of the most fascinating and hilarious people I know, and like myself, her life often revolves around categories. I once decided that all objects in the world could be categorized into "funny" and "not funny". Pillows: funny. Pencils: not funny. Sometimes it's a bit intangible as to why you think something is inherently funny when it's not outwardly wacky-looking or used in a funny way. It's not difficult to get a long list going once you start, and there is sometimes crossover potential. Noses are sometimes funny (Barbara Streisand), but sometimes not funny at all (allergies). There are also side categories of "amusing" (lawns) and "vaguely sexual" (kumquats), but still, the system works for me. I might post my funny/unfunny list one day, but Sally's list goes like this: Terrifying, Gross, and Amazing things. Note: if something's particularly amazing, it can also fall under the category of "amahhzing", in which there are few allowances, mostly things involving RuPaul.

Terrifying Things
heatdeath of the universe
clones
bacteria
the year 2080
children's hands inside of their own mouths
thinking about one's death
time
time travel
the sun becoming a red giant
asteroids
geologic cataclysms
reversal of magnetic poles/weakening of forces
ozone depletion
solar radiation
extreme ocean depths
anything more than 2 feet off the ground
babies
having children
anaerobic life
radioactivity
bones

Gross Things
commercials
bacteria
nanotechnology
fungi
2080
botox
eating the sea/sushi
bubble tea/tapioca
cottage cheese
lumpy things
raw chicken
tittybitches
having babies (see also Terrifying)
money/pennies
economics
bones, teeth
republicans

Amazing Things
bacteria
nanotechnology
enzymes
sea salt
RuPaul
the sun
aurorae
mammals and marsupials
birds
time
venus flytraps/carnivorous plants
giant squid
blue whales
anaerobic life
oxygen