Dave the 2024 Rave

Dave the Rave is wearing the eponymous pin that I found in my dad's hoard after his death. Dad (David Bailey) had collected lots of things that were just too precious to use, but after a while I decided that they in fact too precious not to use. This pin is one of those things. Wearing it is the well-dressed skeleton bird figure topped off by the skull of a sad little cardinal that my BAD CAT Sunny brought me one day as a gift. His collar is my neighbor Mallory's pastry tin, and his cloak is a second hand bottle. Inside his tum-tum are some unsettled-looking buttons and 2024 beads. He is sporting birdie arms made of the tail feathers of our very own pet cockatiel, Kazuki, preserved in Modge Podge for longevity. And of course I wrapped him in pine needles as a nod to my home in East Texas, a proud part of the U.S. Pine Belt. Creepy? No. Cool? Yes. Creepy (revisiting the question)? Well, maybe.