Prospero's Books

Argentinian Football - Passion like no where else

2008-10-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

Breakfast at Tiffany's

2008-07-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

Ok not this time. Breakfast at SohoApple!

It was just any other friday morning. I was about to throw my joggers on and go join the multitude of granola eating runners in the park. When on an impulse I decided against it. Running for the body, iPhone for the senses, the choice wasn't a hard one. I chose to break the pattern and go join the multitude of mac addicts in Soho; me, moi, the woman who is so claustrophobic in malls that she shops for everything online!

I won't lie, the thought of wrapping my hands around this new swanky machine was very exciting. I made sure my iPod had enough juice for who knows how long the adventure would last. I got to the store at 2 mins to 8am and was greeted by 3 long blocks of serious iphoners/wanna be iphoners who just had to get their hands on this technological piece de resistance on day 1 of its release.

As I stood in line I was wondering what made me do this; basic instincts, insatiable desire for innovation or the sheer power of Apple...

This day was also the perfect opportunity for product placement - Red Bull, Smart Water, T.Shirts handed out by makers of the various applications that are now available through the app store. The one thing we could have all done with is a massage. Apple should have offered complimentary treatments to everyone who stood in line for over 2 hours. Yes, that's right by the time I got to the front door we had been in line for over 2.5 hours.

Finally a bunch of us that had bonded during this endless wait were greeted by an applause from the Apple store assistants. The airconditioning was enough to cool me down but only briefly when this rude man jumped the line. No mister, you don't get away with that when I have been in line for 3 f@#kin hours. I asked him to step back to where he was, I was not going to take that lightly. As I was dealing with this situation a cloud of doom seemed to have surrounded everyone, everybody looked dejected. But thankfully it wasn't them running out of the phones, Steve Jobs is way too smart to let that happen. It was an unbelievable load on their servers. With millions of previous owners and new ones (in Australia, UK who are ahead of us time wise) trying to get their phones activated and downloading the 2.0 release.

We were all tired and listless so I egged on a few boys behind me to bring over some balls to sit on, you may have seen them on a visit to an Apple store, the kids sit on them while playing with the computers. Very quickly in typical Mac fashion, things were up and running and I had a personal consultant. If after being in line for these many hours you still don't know the machine you want then you don't belong there. The words "16 Black" could not have come out of my mouth soon enough.

Needless to say I left the shop a very happy woman and have not slept since trying to get to know my new mate inside out. I have to say one thing though, as the lady hands me the phone she asks me to jot down my new number. I look very perplexed as she verbalizes what would be from here on out my calling card. She asks me if everything is ok. Of course it wasn't, my new number is 347-xxx-xxxx. 347, I say. What country code is that? You have got to be shitting me right? NYC is 646 or 917, what is up with 347? She explained that all the new numbers now start with 347. Hmmmmm. Don't get me wrong here, this ain't snobbery. This is the basics. Its like having the passport to NYC but not the citizenship. Well that will be a battle for another day. Maybe a plead to AT&T to restore my old number from before I left for Sydney. But in the mean time viva la vida...

Now only if this baby had video ichat, that would give mobileme a whole different meaning ; )

The Quest

2008-05-27T19:06:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help myself. This is my current favorite track since the season finale of Grey's last week. The single should become available June 9th on iTunes. The artist is Bryn Christopher out of the UK.

Things to pray to in San Francisco...

2008-05-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

The Beginning of September
By ROBERT HASS

I

The child is looking in the mirror.
His head falls to one side, his
shoulders slump.
He is practicing sadness.

II

He didn't think she ought to
and she thought she should.

III

In the summer
peaches the color of sunrise
In the fall
plums the color of dusk

IV

Each thing moves its own way
in the wind. Bamboo flickers,
the plum tree waves, and the loquat
is shaken.

V

The dangers are everywhere. Auxiliary
verbs, fishbones, a fine
carelessness. No one really likes the
odor of geraniums, not the woman who
dreams of sunlight and is always late
for work nor the man who would be
happy in altered circumstances. Words
are abstract, but words are abstract
is a dance, car crash, heart's
delight. It's the design dumb hunger
has upon the world. Nothing is
severed on hot mornings when the deer
nibble the flowerheads in a simmer of
bay leaves. Somewhere in the summer
dusk is the sound of children setting
the table. That is mastery: spoon,
knife, folded napkin, fork; glasses
all around. The place for the plate
is wholly imagined. Mother sits here
and father sits there and this is
your place and this is mine. A good
story compels you like sexual hunger
but the pace is more leisurely. And
there are always melons.

VI

little mother
little dragonfly quickness of summer
mornings
this is a prayer
this is the body dressed in its own
warmth
at the change of seasons

VII

There are not always melons
There are always stories

VIII

Chester found a dozen copies of his
first novel in a used bookstore and
took them to the counter. The owner
said, "You can't have them all," so
Chester kept five. The owner said,
"That'll be a hundred and twelve
dollars." Chester said, "What?" and
the guy said, "They're first
editions, mac, twenty bucks apiece."
And so Chester said, "Why are you
charging me a hundred and twelve
dollars?" The guy said, "Three of
them are autographed." Chester said,
"Look, I wrote this book." The guy
said, "All right, a hundred, I won't
charge you for the autographs."

IX

The insides of peaches
are the color of sunrise
The outsides of plums
are the color of dusk

X

Here are some things to pray to in
San Francisco: the bay, the mountain,
the goddess of the city; remembering,
forgetting, sudden pleasure, loss;
sunrise and sunset; salt; the
tutelary gods of Chinese, Japanese,
Basque, French, Italian and Mexican
cooking; the solitude of coffee
houses and museums; the virgin,
mother and widow moons; hilliness,
vistas; John McLaren; Saint Francis;
the Mother of Sorrows; the rhythm of
any life still whole through three
generations; wine, especially
zinfandel because from that Hungarian
vine-slip came first a native wine
not resinous and sugar-heavy; the
soudough mother, true yeast and
beginning; all fish and fishermen at
the turning of the tide; the turning
of the tide; eelgrass, oldest
inhabitant; fog; seagulls; Joseph
Worcester; plum blossoms; warm days
in January ...(sic)

XI

She thought it was a good idea.
He had his doubts.

XII

ripe blackberries

XIII

She said: reside, reside
and he said, gored heart
She said: sunlight, cypress
he said, idiot children
nibbling arsenic in flaking paint
she said: a small pool of semen
translucent on my belly
he said maybe he said
maybe

XIV

the sayings of my grandmother:
they're the kind of people
who let blackberries rot on the vine

XV

The child approaches the mirror very
fast
then stops
and watches himself
gravely.

XVI

So summer gives over--
white to the color of straw
dove gray to slate blue
burnishings
a little rain
a little light on the water

Adrenaline Rush

2008-05-05T03:04:00.001-07:00

My aussie mates bought me some heart-stopping presents...
What a way to look at the world's most beautiful harbour!
Chilling manoeuvres including several 270 degree spins, wild fish tails & power break stops. Got soaked in the Sydney waters. A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Keeping Your Priorities, Even At The End

2008-04-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

Kinda puts it all in perspective...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/health/08well.html?em&ex=1207886400&en=227dcc7269e91cb6&ei=5087%0A

Good Girls Go Bad!

2008-04-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! and TRUE. I have been known to misbehave when exposed to Lynx (the UK brand name for Axe).

Wong kar Wai

2008-04-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

Sand and Foam

2008-03-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

Sand and Foam
by Kahlil Gibran

I AM FOREVER walking upon these shores,
Betwixt the sand and the foam,
The high tide will erase my foot-prints,
And the wind will blow away the foam.
But the sea and the shore will remain
Forever.

Once I filled my hand with mist.
Then I opened it and lo, the mist was a worm.
And I closed and opened my hand again, and behold there was a bird.
And again I closed and opened my hand, and in its hollow stood a man with a sad face, turned upward.
And again I closed my hand, and when I opened it there was naught but mist.
But I heard a song of exceeding sweetness.

It was but yesterday I thought myself a fragment quivering without rhythm in the sphere of life.
Now I know that I am the sphere, and all life in rhythmic fragments moves within me.

They say to me in their awakening, "You and the world you live in are but a grain of sand upon the infinite shore of an infinite sea."
And in my dream I say to them, "I am the infinite sea, and all worlds are but grains of sand upon my shore."

Only once have I been made mute. It was when a man asked me, "Who are you?"

The first thought of God was an angel.
The first word of God was a man.

We were fluttering, wandering, longing creatures a thousand thousand years before the sea and the wind in the forest gave us words.
Now how can we express the ancient of days in us with only the sounds of our yesterdays?

The Sphinx spoke only once, and the Sphinx said, "A grain of sand is a desert, and a desert is a grain of sand; and now let us all be silent again."
I heard the Sphinx, but I did not understand.

Long did I lie in the dust of Egypt, silent and unaware of the seasons.
Then the sun gave me birth, and I rose and walked upon the banks of the Nile,
Singing with the days and dreaming with the nights.
And now the sun threads upon me with a thousand feet that I may lie again in the dust of Egypt.
But behold a marvel and a riddle!
The very sun that gathered me cannot scatter me.
Still erect am I, and sure of foot do I walk upon the banks of the Nile.

Remembrance is a form of meeting.

Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.

We measure time according to the movement of countless suns; and they measure time by little machines in their little pockets.
Now tell me, how could we ever meet at the same place and the same time?

Space is not space between the earth and the sun to one who looks down from the windows of the Milky Way.

Humanity is a river of light running from the ex-eternity to eternity.

Do not the spirits who dwell in the ether envy man his pain?

On my way to the Holy City I met another pilgrim and I asked him, "Is this indeed the way to the Holy City?"
And he said, "Follow me, and you will reach the Holy City in a day and a night."
And I followed him. And we walked many days and many nights, yet we did not reach the Holy City.
And what was to my surprise he became angry with me because he had misled me.

Make me, oh God, the prey of the lion, ere You make the rabbit my prey.

One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.

My house says to me, "Do not leave me, for here dwells your past."
And the road says to me, "Come and follow me, for I am your future."
And I say to both my house and the road, "I have no past, nor have I a future. If I stay here, there is a going in my staying; and if I go there is a staying in my going. Only love and death will change all things."

How can I lose faith in the justice of life, when the dreams of those who sleep upon feathers are not more beautiful than the dreams of those who sleep upon the earth? Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain.

Seven times have I despised my soul:
The first time when I saw her being meek that she might attain height.
The second time when I saw her limping before the crippled.
The third time when she was given to choose between the hard and the easy, and she chose the easy.
The fourth time when she committed a wrong, and comforted herself that others also commit wrong.
The fifth time when she forbore for weakness, and attributed her patience to strength.
The sixth time when she despised the ugliness of a face, and knew not that it was one of her own masks.
And the seventh time when she sang a song of praise, and deemed it a virtue.

I AM IGNORANT of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward.

There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.

Paradise is there, behind that door, in the next room; but I have lost the key.
Perhaps I have only mislaid it.

You are blind and I am deaf and dumb, so let us touch hands and understand.

The significance of man is not in what he attains, but rather in what he longs to attain.

Some of us are like ink and some like paper.
And if it were not for the blackness of some of us, some of us would be dumb;
And if it were not for the whiteness of some of us, some of us would be blind.

Give me an ear and I will give you a voice.

Our mind is a sponge; our heart is a stream.
Is it not strange that most of us choose sucking rather than running?

When you long for blessings that you may not name, and when you grieve knowing not the cause, then indeed you are growing with all things that grow, and rising toward your greater self.

When one is drunk with a vision, he deems his faint expression of it the very wine.

You drink wine that you may be intoxicated; and I drink that it may sober me from that other wine.

When my cup is empty I resign myself to its emptiness; but when it is half full I resent its half-fulness.

The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you.
Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.

Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.

A sense of humour is a sense of proportion.

My loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed my silent virtues.

When Life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind.

A truth is to be known always, to be uttered sometimes.

The real in us is silent; the acquired is talkative.

The voice of life in me cannot reach the ear of life in you; but let us talk that we may not feel lonely.

When two women talk they say nothing; when one woman speaks she reveals all of life.

Frogs may bellow louder than bulls, but they cannot drag the plough in the field not turn the wheel of the winepress, and of their skins you cannot make shoes.

Only the dumb envy the talkative.

If winter should say, "Spring is in my heart," who would believe winter?

Every seed is a longing.

Should you really open your eyes and see, you would behold your image in all images.
And should you open your ears and listen, you would hear your own voice in all voices.

It takes two of us to discover truth: one to utter it and one to understand it.

Though the wave of words is forever upon us, yet our depth is forever silent.

Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

Now let us play hide and seek. Should you hide in my heart it would not be difficult to find you. But should you hide behind your own shell, then it would be useless for anyone to seek you. A woman may veil her face with a smile.

How noble is the sad heart who would sing a joyous song with joyous hearts.

He who would understand a woman, or dissect genius, or solve the mystery of silence is the very man who would wake from a beautiful dream to sit at a breakfast table.

I would walk with all those who walk. I would not stand still to watch the procession passing by.

You owe more than gold to him who serves you. Give him of your heart or serve him.

Nay, we have not lived in vain. Have they not built towers of our bones?

Let us not be particular and sectional. The poet's mind and the scorpion's tail rise in glory from the same earth.

Every dragon gives birth to a St. George who slays it.

Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky. We fell them down and turn them into paper that we may record our emptiness.

Should you care to write (and only the saints know why you should) you must needs have knowledge and art and music -- the knowledge of the music of words, the art of being artless, and the magic of loving your readers.

They dip their pens in our hearts and think they are inspired.

Should a tree write its autobiography it would not be unlike the history of a race.

If I were to choose between the power of writing a poem and the ecstasy of a poem unwritten, I would choose the ecstasy. It is better poetry.
But you and all my neighbors agree that I always choose badly.

Poetry is not an opinion expressed. It is a song that rises from a bleeding wound or a smiling mouth.

Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a knowledge of their timelessness.

A POET IS a dethroned king sitting among the ashes of his palace trying to fashion an image out of the ashes.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

In vain shall a poet seek the mother of the songs of his heart.

Once I said to a poet, "We shall not know your worth until you die."
And he answered saying, "Yes, death is always the revealer. And if indeed you would know my worth it is that I have more in my heart than upon my tongue, and more in my desire than in my hand."

If you sing of beauty though alone in the heart of the desert you will have an audience.

Poetry is wisdom that enchants the heart.
Wisdom is poetry that sings in the mind.
If we could enchant man's heart and at the same time sing in his mind,
Then in truth he would live in the shadow of God.

Inspiration will always sing; inspiration will never explain.

We often sing lullabies to our children that we ourselves may sleep.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

Thinking is always the stumbling stone to poetry.

A great singer is he who sings our silences.

How can you sing if your mouth be filled with food?
How shall your hand be raised in blessing if it is filled with gold?

They say the nightingale pierces his bosom with a thorn when he sings his love song.
So do we all. How else should we sing?

Genius is but a robin's song at the beginning of a slow spring.

Even the most winged spirit cannot escape physical necessity.

A madman is not less a musician than you or myself; only the instrument on which he plays is a little out of tune.

The song that lies silent in the heart of a mother sings upon the lips of her child.

No longing remains unfulfilled.

I have never agreed with my other self wholly. The truth of the matter seems to lie between us.

Your other self is always sorry for you. But your other self grows on sorrow; so all is well.

There is no struggle of soul and body save in the minds of those whose souls are asleep and whose bodies are out of tune.

When you reach the heart of life you shall find beauty in all things, even in the eyes that are blind to beauty.

We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.

Sow a seed and the earth will yield you a flower. Dream your dream to the sky and it will bring you your beloved.

The devil died the very day you were born.
Now you do not have to go through hell to meet an angel.

Many a woman borrows a man's heart; very few could possess it.

If you would possess you must not claim.

When a man's hand touches the hand of a woman they both touch the heart of eternity.

Love is the veil between lover and lover.

Every man loves two women; the one is the creation of his imagination, and the other is not yet born.

Men who do not forgive women their little faults will never enjoy their great virtues.

Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.

Lovers embrace that which is between them rather than each other.

Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.

Love is a word of light, written by a hand of light, upon a page of light.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

If you do not understand your friend under all conditions you will never understand him.

Your most radiant garment is of the other person's weaving;
You most savory meal is that which you eat at the other person's table;
Your most comfortable bed is in the other person's house.
Now tell me, how can you separate yourself from the other person?

Your mind and my heart will never agree until your mind ceases to live in numbers and my heart in the mist.

We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.

HOW SHALL MY heart be unsealed unless it be broken?

Only great sorrow or great joy can reveal your truth.
If you would be revealed you must either dance naked in the sun, or carry your cross.

Should nature heed what we say of contentment no river would seek the sea, and no winter would turn to Spring. Should she heed all we say of thrift, how many of us would be breathing this air?

You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun.

You are free before the sun of the day, and free before the stars of the night;
And you are free when there is no sun and no moon and no star.
You are even free when you close your eyes upon all there is.
But you are a slave to him whom you love because you love him,
And a slave to him who loves you because he loves you.

We are all beggars at the gate of the temple, and each one of us receives his share of the bounty of the King when he enters the temple, and when he goes out.
But we are all jealous of one another, which is another way of belittling the King.

You cannot consume beyond your appetite. The other half of the loaf belongs to the other person, and there should remain a little bread for the chance guest.

If it were not for your guests all houses would be graves.

Said a gracious wolf to a simple sheep, "Will you not honor our house with a visit?"
And the sheep answered, "We would have been honored to visit your house if it were not in your stomach."

I stopped my guest on the threshold and said, "Nay, wipe not your feet as you enter, but as you go out."

Generosity is not in giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is in giving me that which you need more than I do.

You are indeed charitable when you give, and while giving, turn your face away so that you may not see the shyness of the receiver.

The difference between the richest man and the poorest is but a day of hunger and an hour of thirst.

We often borrow from our tomorrows to pay our debts to our yesterdays.

I too am visited by angels and devils, but I get rid of them.
When it is an angel I pray an old prayer, and he is bored;
When it is a devil I commit an old sin, and he passes me by.

After all this is not a bad prison; but I do not like this wall between my cell and the next prisoner's cell;
Yet I assure you that I do not wish to reproach the warder not the Builder of the prison.

Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a fish, may have nothing but serpents to give. It is then generosity on their part.

Trickery succeeds sometimes, but it always commits suicide.

You are truly a forgiver when you forgive murderers who never spill blood, thieves who never steal, and liars who utter no falsehood.

He who can put his finger upon that which divides good from evil is he who can touch the very hem of the garment of God.

If your heart is a volcano how shall you expect flowers to bloom in your hands?

A strange form of self-indulgence! There are times when I would be wronged and cheated, that I may laugh at the expense of those who think I do not know I am being wronged and cheated.

What shall I say of him who is the pursuer playing the part of the pursued?

Let him who wipes his soiled hands with your garment take your garment. He may need it again; surely you would not.

It is a pity that money-changers cannot be good gardeners.

Please do not whitewash your inherent faults with your acquired virtues. I would have the faults; they are like mine own.

How often have I attributed to myself crimes I have never committed, so that the other person may feel comfortable in my presence.

Even the masks of life are masks of deeper mystery.

You may judge others only according to your knowledge of yourself.
Tell me now, who among us is guilty and who is unguilty?

The truly just is he who feels half guilty of your misdeeds.

Only an idiot and a genius break man-made laws; and they are the nearest to the heart of God.

It is only when you are pursued that you become swift.

I have no enemies, O God, but if I am to have an enemy
Let his strength be equal to mine,
That truth alone may be the victor.

You will be quite friendly with your enemy when you both die.

Perhaps a man may commit suicide in self-defense.

Long ago there lived a Man who was crucified for being too loving and too lovable.
And strange to relate I met him thrice yesterday.
The first time He was asking a policeman not to take a prostitute to prison; the second time He was drinking wine with an outcast; and the third time He was having a fist-fight with a promoter inside a church.

If all they say of good and evil were true, then my life is but one long crime.

Pity is but half justice.

THE ONLY ONE who has been unjust to me is the one to whose brother I have been unjust.

When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, "Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison."
And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, "Mayhap he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful."

Oftentimes I have hated in self-defense; but if I were stronger I would not have used such a weapon.

How stupid is he who would patch the hatred in his eyes with the smile of his lips.

Only those beneath me can envy or hate me.
I have never been envied nor hated; I am above no one.
Only those above me can praise or belittle me.
I have never been praised nor belittled; I am below no one.

Your saying to me, "I do not understand you," is praise beyond my worth, and an insult you do not deserve. How mean am I when life gives me gold and I give you silver, and yet I deem myself generous.

When you reach the heart of life you will find yourself not higher than the felon, and not lower than the prophet.

Strange that you should pity the slow-footed and not the slow-minded,
And the blind-eyed rather than the blind-hearted.

It is wiser for the lame not to break his crutches upon the head of his enemy.

How blind is he who gives you out of his pocket that he may take out of your heart.

Life is a procession. The slow of foot finds it too swift and he steps out;
And the swift of foot finds it too slow and he too steps out.

If there is such a thing as sin some of us commit it backward following our forefathers' footsteps;
And some of us commit it forward by overruling our children.

The truly good is he who is one with all those who are deemed bad.

We are all prisoners but some of us are in cells with windows and some without.

Strange that we all defend our wrongs with more vigor than we do our rights.

Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality.
Should we all reveal our virtues we would also laugh for the same cause.

An individual is above man-made laws until he commits a crime against man-made conventions; After that he is neither above anyone nor lower than anyone.

Government is an agreement between you and myself. You and myself are often wrong.

Crime is either another name of need or an aspect of a disease.

Is there a greater fault than being conscious of the other person's faults?

If the other person laughs at you, you can pity him; but if you laugh at him you may never forgive yourself.
If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.
In truth the other person is your most sensitive self given another body.

How heedless you are when you would have men fly with your wings and you cannot even give them a feather.

Once a man sat at my board and ate my bread and drank my wine and went away laughing at me.
Then he came again for bread and wine, and I spurned him;
And the angels laughed at me.

Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb?

It is the honor of the murdered that he is not the murderer.

The tribune of humanity is in its silent heart, never its talkative mind.

They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold;
And I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.

They spread before us their riches of gold and silver, of ivory and ebony, and we spread before them our hearts and our spirits.;
And yet they deem themselves the hosts and us the guests.

I would not be the least among men with dreams and the desire to fulfill them, rather than the greatest with no dreams and no desires.

The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.

We are all climbing toward the summit of our hearts' desire. Should the other climber steal your sack and your purse and wax fat on the one and heavy on the other, you should pity him;
The climbing will be harder for his flesh, and the burden will make his way longer.
And should you in your leanness see his flesh puffing upward, help him a step; it will add to your swiftness.

You cannot judge any man beyond your knowledge of him, and how small is your knowledge.

I would not listen to a conqueror preaching to the conquered.

The truly free man is he who bears the load of the bond slave patiently.

A thousand years ago my neighbor said to me, "I hate life, for it is naught but a thing of pain."
And yesterday I passed by a cemetery and saw life dancing upon his grave.

Strife in nature is but disorder longing for order.

Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches;
Yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth.

Once I spoke of the sea to a brook, and the brook thought me but an imaginative exaggerator;
And once I spoke of a brook to the sea, and the sea thought me but a depreciative defamer.

How narrow is the vision that exalts the busyness of the ant above the singing of the grasshopper.

The highest virtue here may be the least in another world.

The deep and the high go to the depth or to the height in a straight line; only the spacious can move in circles.

IF IT WERE not for our conception of weights and measures we would stand in awe of the firefly as we do before the sun.

A scientist without imagination is a butcher with dull knives and out-worn scales.
But what would you, since we are not all vegetarians?

When you sing the hungry hears you with his stomach.

Death is not nearer to the aged than to the new-born; neither is life.

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully; otherwise keep silent, for there is a man in our neighborhood who is dying.

Mayhap a funeral among men is a wedding feast among the angels.

A forgotten reality may die and leave in its will seven thousand actualities and facts to be spent in its funeral and the building of a tomb.

In truth we talk only to ourselves, but sometimes we talk loud enough that others may hear us.

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

If the Milky Way were not within me how should I have seen it or known it?

Unless I am a physician among physicians they would not believe that I am an astronomer.

Perhaps the sea's definition of a shell is the pearl.
Perhaps time's definition of coal is the diamond.

Fame is the shadow of passion standing in the light.

A root is a flower that disdains fame.

There is neither religion nor science beyond beauty.

Every great man I have known had something small in his make-up; and it was that small something which prevented inactivity or madness or suicide.

The truly great man is he who would master no one, and who would be mastered by none.

I would not believe that a man is mediocre simply because he kills the criminals and the prophets.

Tolerance is love sick with the sickness of haughtiness.

Worms will turn; but is it not strange that even elephants will yield?

A disagreement may be the shortest cut between two minds.

I am the flame and I am the dry bush, and one part of me consumes the other part.

We are all seeking the summit of the holy moutain; but shall not our road be shorter if we consider the past a chart and not a guide?

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too self-ful to seek other than itself.

Had I filled myself with all that you know what room should I have for all that you do not know?

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

A bigot is a stone-leaf orator.

The silence of the envious is too noisy.

When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.

An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.

If you can see only what light reveals and hear only what sound announces,
Then in truth you do not see nor do you hear.

A fact is a truth unsexed.

You cannot laugh and be unkind at the same time.

The nearest to my heart are a king without a kingdom and a poor man who does not know how to beg.

A shy failure is nobler than an immodest success.

Dig anywhere in the earth and you will find a treasure, only you must dig with the faith of a peasant.

Said a hunted fox followed by twenty horsemen and a pack of twenty hounds, "Of course they will kill me. But how poor and how stupid they must be. Surely it would not be worth while for twenty foxes riding on twenty asses and accompanied by twenty wolves to chase and kill one man."

It is the mind in us that yields to the laws made by us, but never the spirit in us.

A traveler am I and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul.

A woman protested saying, "Of course it was a righteous war. My son fell in it."

I said to Life, "I would hear Death speak."
And Life raised her voice a little higher and said, "You hear him now."

When you have solved all the mysteries of life you long for death, for it is but another mystery of life.

Birth and death are the two noblest expressions of bravery.

My friend, you and I shall remain strangers unto life,
And unto one another, and each unto himself,
Until the day when you shall speak and I shall listen
Deeming your voice my own voice;
And when I shall stand before you
Thinking myself standing before a mirror.

They say to me, "Should you know yourself you would know all men."
And I say, "Only when I seek all men shall I know myself."

MAN IS TWO men; one is awake in darkness, the other is asleep in light.

A hermit is one who renounces the world of fragments that he may enjoy the world wholly and without interruption.

There lies a green field between the scholar and the poet; should the scholar cross it he becomes a wise man; should the poet cross it, he becomes a prophet.

Yestereve I saw philosophers in the market-place carrying their heads in baskets, and crying aloud, "Wisdom! Wisdom for sale!"
Poor philosophers! They must needs sell their heads to feed their hearts. Said a philosopher to a street sweeper, "I pity you. Yours is a hard and dirty task."
And the street sweeper said, "Thank you, sir. But tell me what is your task?"
And the philosopher answered saying, "I study man's mind, his deeds and his desires."
Then the street sweeper went on with his sweeping and said with a smile, "I pity you too."

He who listens to truth is not less than he who utters truth.

No man can draw the line between necessities and luxuries. Only the angels can do that, and the angels are wise and wistful.
Perhaps the angels are our better thought in space.

He is the true prince who finds his throne in the heart of the dervish.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

In truth you owe naught to any man. You owe all to all men.

All those who have lived in the past live with us now. Surely none of us would be an ungracious host.

He who longs the most lives the longest.

They say to me, "A bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush."
But I say, "A bird and a feather in the bush is worth more than ten birds in the hand."
Your seeking after that feather is life with winged feet; nay, it is life itself.

There are only two elements here, beauty and truth; beauty in the hearts of lovers, and truth in the arms of the tillers of the soil.

Great beauty captures me, but a beauty still greater frees me even from itself.

Beauty shines brighter in the heart of him who longs for it than in the eyes of him who sees it.

I admire him who reveals his mind to me; I honor him who unveils his dreams. But why am I shy, and even a little ashamed before him who serves me?

The gifted were once proud in serving princes.
Now they claim honor in serving paupers.

The angels know that too many practical men eat their bread with the sweat of the dreamer's brow.

Wit is often a mask. If you could tear it you would find either a genius irritated or cleverness juggling.

The understanding attributes to me understanding and the dull, dullness. I think they are both right.

Only those with secrets in their hearts could divine the secrets in our hearts.

He who would share your pleasure but not your pain shall lose the key to one of the seven gates of Paradise.

Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.

We choose our joys and our sorrows long before we experience them.

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.

When either your joy or your sorrow becomes great the world becomes small.

Desire is half of life; idifference is half of death.

The bitterest thing in our today's sorrow is the memory of our yesterday's joy.

They say to me, "You must needs choose between the pleasures of this world and the peace of the next world."
And I say to them, "I have chosen both the delights of this world and the peace of the next. For I know in my heart that the Supreme Poet wrote but one poem, and it scans perfectly, and it also rhymes perfectly."

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.

When you reach your height you shall desire but only for desire; and you shall hunger, for hunger; and you shall thirst for greater thirst.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

The flowers of spring are winter's dreams related at the breakfast table of the angels.

Said a skunk to a tube-rose, "See how swiftly I run, while you cannot walk nor even creep."
Said the tube-rose to the skunk, "Oh, most noble swift runner, please run swiftly!"

Turtles can tell more about roads than hares.

Strange that creatures without backbones have the hardest shells.

The most talkative is the least intelligent, and there is hardly a difference between an orator and an auctioneer.

Be grateful that you do not have to live down the renown of a father nor the wealth of an uncle.
But above all be grateful that no one will have to live down either your renown or your wealth.

Only when a juggler misses catching his ball does he appeal to me.

The envious praises me unknowingly.

Long were you a dream in your mother's sleep, and then she woke to give you birth.

The germ of the race is in your mother's longing.

My father and mother desired a child and they begot me.
And I wanted a mother and a father and I begot night and the sea.

Some of our children are our justifications and some are but our regrets.

When night comes and you too are dark, lie down and be dark with a will.
And when morning comes and you are still dark stand up and say to the day with a will, "I am still dark."
It is stupid to play a role with the night and the day.
They would both laugh at you.

The mountain veiled in mist is not a hill; an oak tree in the rain is not a weeping willow.

Behold here is a paradox; the deep and high are nearer to one another than the mid-level to either.

When I stood a clear mirror before you, you gazed into me and saw your image.
Then you said, "I love you."
But in truth you loved yourself in me.

When you enjoy loving your neighbor it ceases to be a virtue.

Love which is not always springing is always dying.

You cannot have youth and the knowledge of it at the same time;
For youth is too busy living to know, and knowledge is too busy seeking itself to live. You may sit at your window watching the passersby. And watching you may see a nun walking toward your right hand, and a prostitute toward your left hand.
And you may say in your innocence, "How noble is the one and how ignoble is the other."
But should you close your eyes and listen awhile you would hear a voice whispering in the ether, "One seeks me in prayer, and the other in pain. And in the spirit of each there is a bower for my spirit."

Once every hundred years Jesus of Nazareth meets Jesus of the Christian in a garden among the hills of Lebanon. And they talk long; and each time Jesus of Nazareth goes away saying to Jesus of the Christian, "My friend, I fear we shall never, never agree."

May God feed the over-abundant!

A great man has two hearts; one bleeds and the other forbears.

Should one tell a lie which does not hurt you nor anyone else, why not say in your heart that the house of his facts is too small for his fancies, and he had to leave it for larger space?

Behind every closed door is a mystery sealed with seven seals.

Waiting is the hoofs of time.

What if trouble should be a new window in the Eastern wall of your house?

You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.

There must be something strangely sacred in salt. It is in our tears and in the sea.

Our God in His gracious thirst will drink us all, the dewdrop and the tear.

You are but a fragment of your giant self, a mouth that seeks bread, and a blind hand that holds the cup for a thirsty mouth.

If you would rise but a cubit above race and country and self you would indeed become godlike.

If I were you I would not find fault with the sea at low tide.
It is a good ship and our Captain is able; it is only your stomach that is in disorder.

Should you sit upon a cloud you would not see the boundary line between one country and another, nor the boundary stone between a farm and a farm.
It is a pity you cannot sit upon a cloud.

Seven centuries ago seven white doves rose from a deep valley flying to the snow-white summit of the mountain. One of the seven men who watched the flight said, "I see a black spot on the wing of the seventh dove."
Today the people in that valley tell of seven black doves who flew to the summit of the snowy mountain.

In the autumn I gathered all my sorrows and buried them in my garden.
And when April returned and spring came to wed the earth, there grew in my garden beautiful flowers unlike all other flowers.
And my neighbors came to behold them, and they all said to me, "When autumn comes again, at seeding time, will you not give us of the seeds of these flowers that we may have them in our gardens?"

It is indeed misery if I stretch an empty hand to men and receive nothing; but it is hopelessness if I stretch a full hand and find none to receive.

I long for eternity because there I shall meet my unwritten poems and my unpainted pictures.

Art is a step from nature toward the Infinite.

A work of art is a mist carved into an image.

Even the hands that make crowns of thorns are better than idle hands.

Our most sacred tears never seek our eyes.

Every man is the descendant of every king and every slave that ever lived.

If the great-grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, would he not have stood in awe of himself?

Was the love of Judas' mother of her son less than the love of Mary for Jesus?

There are three miracles of our Brother Jesus not yet recorded in the Book: the first that He was a man like you and me, the second that He had a sense of humour, and the third that He knew He was a conqueror though conquered.

Crucified One, you are crucified upon my heart; and the nails that pierce your hands pierce the walls of my heart.
And tomorrow when a stranger passes by this Golgotha he will not know that two bled here.
He will deem it the blood of one man.

You may have heard of the Blessed Mountain.
It is the highest mountain in our world.
Should you reach the summit you would have only one desire, and that to descend and be with those who dwell in the deepest valley.
That is why it is called the Blessed Mountain.

Every thought I have imprisoned in expression I must free by my deeds.

Your gravity!

2008-02-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

Get moving again: Vote for a change

2008-02-03T21:22:00.000-08:00

pink...

2008-01-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

Have you ever tried to see the whole through rosy lenses. Not bad I have to say! Suddenly the noise lessons, the light gets softer, resolutions not insurmountable and truths more true. Give it a try, come one. Go on, I will wait.... there, what do you feel, lighter, happier, quiet.

What if we were to wear these lenses all of the time, permanently embed them into our corneas? What will that do to us, to our lives? How will we feel? Make our minds more active and our perceptions less intense. Contraction isn't it!

Everlasting magic!

People more loving, skies more passionate, ground more sanded yet unsinkable, promises more true, revolutions less bloody, changes more honest, efforts more genuine

I have tried the restless, the intense, the crazy now its time to switch things around a little bit and go for what doesn't fit. Bring it on, lets see maybe the road I drove past over and over again is the one I am destined to take...

What do you think, other than I need to have my head examined.

Close your eyes... feel that...

Masha' Allah

2008-01-03T03:02:00.000-08:00

tum wafaa hon tum nasha hon
tum muskaan hon tum ada hon

tum hasi hon tum chaahat hon
tum himmat hon tum pawan hon

tum deewane hon tum saahas hon
tum apne hon tum soone hon

tum mere saawariya hon

Cabo, Part 3 -- The Flora

2007-12-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

Cabo is a unique microhabitat for a diverse array of flora, readily evident even to the casual botanist like me....a huge array of succulents and cacti (saguaro, candelabra etc) in the flatlands and foothills of Baja peninsula give way to various types of palms (dates, royals) and other small salt-loving plants as you slope down to the Sea of Cortez. Its quite beautiful and in some ways unexpectedly lush. Theres also a local legend called the salt wood tree, which I believe is a species of banyan tree so common all over Asia. Apparently, the root system of this tree favors soil with high levels of salt, and the circulatory system actually processes the salt and eliminates through its leaves. Note to self: dont park your shiny new car under a salt wood tree because the secretions will eat through the paint in less than a month. MORE PICS COMING SOON

Cabo, Part 2 -- The Fish Story

2007-12-14T20:28:00.000-08:00

Second day...on a fishing boat called a panga skippered by an effusive, arm-waving Italian industrialist who now lives in Los Barriles. Note to self: never get on a small boat with a guy who takes his sport fishing too seriously. Andrew and I caught two 12-15 pound tunas within the first hour of fishing. Then several bites but no real action for a couple of hours. And suddenly I'm locked in this 30 minute death struggle with a type of dolphin known locally as a dorado for its preternatural golden sheen. truth be told it also has strong dashes of red, turquoise green and ice blue. but doradorojoaquaazulado, mercifully, was deemed far to difficult for gringos to pronounce. The fish was so damned strong he nearly tipped me over a couple of times, and actually dragged me from one side of the boat to the other as he struggled to break the line and I simply to hold on and not fall in the Sea of Cortez. We werent using a harness, so the butt of the fishing rod was jammed into that tender flesh north of pubic and south of abs. If you dare, gaze on the picture above, but be warned...the sight of my bruised self is not for the faint of heart. But the fish sure is pretty, aint it? I thought so too and it was a total gift being so close to something so beautiful and powerful. Even as the noble beast was chewing through the fishing line. Ah, but not our obsessive Captain Guido Ahab...nope not him. Ive never seen a grown man so pouty and disappointed in broad daylight. I think he was mad at me, but he was also shaking his fist at the open sea, swearing some sort of unholy vengeance straigh out of a novel. Strange to be sure, but it didnt impact my sense of elation not in the least Im happy to report...

Meditate and Destroy!!!

2007-12-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

So get back from Los Barriles in Mejico and found this excellent little gift (from me) in the mailbox. I just love my new Meditate and Destroy t-shirt and all it stands for...to see more about the folks who masterminded this little gem of consumerism check out the Dharma Punx web site:
www.dharmapunx.com

G

Cabo, Part 1-- Dogs and Dozers

2007-12-13T19:28:00.000-08:00

Just back from 8 days in a little rustic town about 45 minutes north of San Juan de Cabos called Los Barriles. Yup that means The Barrels for hapless gringos and gringas like us. Its a sleepy little place, formerly the exclusive haunt of red-faced, big-bellied fisherman hell-bent on wholesale slaughter of marlin. Nowadays its more of an adventure travel destination with incredibly lean muscular teens from the US, Brazil, Italy --doing unbelievable things on kiteboards and windsurfers -- sharing the limelight with said rednecks. And then there's the latest generation of American vacation home colonizers, now it's the 40 something year olds' turn to invade Mexico. Ahhh, the joys of a global economic upturn as it trickles down to the Third World...

Los Barriles is rampant with new residential and commercial building, road construction, street paving and general mayhem all done in the name of civic beautification and the almighty gringo greenback. Amen. Amen. Streetlights are even going up on the main streets where you wouldnt have seen a thing at night previously if not for the accidental neon burnish of a few tourist bars and restaurants. And most telling of all there are slightly bemused workers painting crosswalks on streets. Unfortunately, the behaviors of local drivers haven't caught up to the good intentions of Los Barriles bureaucrats...no one actually stops when youre in the supposed safety of the hash marks. Which phenomenon I learned the hard way...

And such hard-won wisdom isnt confined to yours truly. The stray dogs or "pie dogs" (as they say in Asia) laze about the streets and sidewalks in search of shade. Some of the large bullying breeds actually snooze in the streets or even in the freshly minted crosswalks, daring pedestrians and drivers alike to make them move. Which they generally do with souped up pickups bearing down on them. Yes, my friends, all is well in Los Barriles, and everything is as it should be. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was...

Footprint

2007-12-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

My boy from LA...

2007-11-27T03:48:00.000-08:00

...is visiting Sydney
he loves Brooklyn
He looks hot in long hair
his scent is instinct
(and mine is desire)

you haven't lived until you have had an English lad, with moves on and off the grass.
I would rip the shirt off his back be it 7 or 23 and like to get my hands on his balls.
mark of this man is his curve.

yes yes yes! Bend me Beckham!

There you have it. Yes he is here!

I wasn't able to get my hands on a ticket but thank God for TV, I couldn't tear myself away lest I miss a moment. My eyes followed 23. It is the first time I have seen LA Galaxy play, the word that comes to mind is "appalling" and the sentence that comes to mind is "Becks, find a European club". Just so I don't paint all players with one stroke of paint, Donovan in his true to being "the best US born player the country has produced" style came in with 2 mins left and scored beautifully to salvage their scoreboard to reflect a decent 5:3 loss to the Sydney Football club.

Who said it was about the game, its always the boy!

Weeding By Example

2007-11-25T08:17:00.000-08:00

I love this kid and what he stands for...

http://neworleanscitypark.com/volmowron.html

and the NPR story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11654614

Efficient Races to Victory

2007-11-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

It is only 10pm some would say, isn't it a tad too early to head home? Usually yes but not when you have been drinking champagne since 1pm. You read correctly, I was told the whole nation comes to a standstill on the first tuesday in November, and they sure as hell were telling the truth. It is Melbourne Cup Day today - put it very lucidly, the ENTIRE nation stops to gamble and watch a five minute horse race that starts at 3.05pm and then continues to drink. I just walked home and the pubs and restaurants were still buzzing.

I have to congratulate the Australians for actually being able to stop on a work day - beginning of the week no less, to indulge themselves in a tradition that goes back 150 years. It is a public holiday in the city of Melbourne. Gambling and drinking are the words of the day. Our version of something that stops the nation, no not a democratic win, it's Super Bowl Sunday. We are so conditioned to feel guilty when we let go that our indulgences can only happen over a day of rest. There is no way we would dedicate a day when the stock market is in motion to drink copious amounts of champagne and watch a thoroughbred horse race or sweaty men throw a ball around with their hands (and call it football).

I needed to redeem myself from all that bringing the aussies and their way of life down when I first moved here. And so as much as my religious beliefs prohibited me from gambling I indulged, yes, all $7 of it. The rest of it I put towards Champagne, Tequila, Jack and eye watering Thai food (you read correctly, authentic Thai red chillies do that to you) - one of the best dining experiences I have had thus far since I have been here.

I have not watched a horse race before and never this closely. The winner jockey was ways away trailing in the back and magnificently worked from the insides and beat the front runner by three quarters of a length. A beautifully orchestrated finish indeed!

Off the field it was couture carnivale. While the ladies flaunted their hats and fascinators, stilettos and fabulous cocktail frocks, the aussie men were not behind donning their tops and tails and dapper suits to prove that they too have what it takes to participate in field fashion.

And...life will go back to the way it was on Monday, although the drinking continues no matter what day it is, that is Australia!

Rolling With My Homey

2007-10-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone...check out the pics of Miss Charity (the poetess, raconteur and roller derby gal) at the URL below. Her nom de guerre is Dorothy Park-her...Does she rock, or what!?

http://www.northstarrollergirls.com/referees.html

GSH

Show Me Yours And I'll Show You Mine

2007-10-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

There are two kinds of secrets. Those we keep from others. And those we keep from ourselves. -- Frank, creator of the Post Secret blog

I've become a bit obsessed with reading this amazing blog every Sunday. It is genius in its simplicity. And profound for believing that individual weakness can be collective strength when we share our stories openly with one another.
A big shout out to Frank. -- G

beauty

2007-10-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

it's raining here for the first time in almost a year. like real rain,with big full juicy droplets-- not at all the meager scattered showers forecasted by the wheatherpeople. for some reason maybe not wholly unrelated to the condition of our parched soil and depleted watershed, i am filled with gladness.

Poem that is getting published

2007-10-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

I'm getting published in the journal "Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley"
- I wrote it when I was working at a battered woman's shelter(obviously)....

In the Shelter

In the shelter
I work at
there is a woman
whose lover stabbed
her in the womb.

She cremated the child
whose heart beat for 31 minutes,
four months too early

We Fed-Exed the ashes
and cried together over how
a life could be shipped cross -country
in 24 hours

when she went into labor
with her 40 staples
she knew she was bearing
her son into
death

So now we are providing her
advocacy - someone even bought
her a plant "to get some new life going"

But the whole time
I am thinking of her running breasts
and empty, scarred stomach
wondering if those staples
are the only things
holding her
together.

Fox

2007-10-11T03:38:00.000-07:00

Everything you hear about them is true and you don't realize the extent of their entrenchment within the White House until you turn on their news channel. Holy mother of God, how can the employees of that place sleep at night knowing what they do everyday - propagating the lies of George Bush and his cadre of policy makers.

I rely on getting news from The New York Times and CNN online but recently in addition to these sources I turned on Fox News since they are the only American News Channel available on cable here provided by Foxtel Cable (figures!) and I have been starving for local news on TV. Didn't know the pit I was going to fall into. I am blessed that my political orientation is sane, thanks to my american family.

Even when I do turn it on it's to get a feel of what is happening back home but my anti-democrats filter is on big time.

The question is, are these people for real? What part of America do they breed these foxters? (they are not even worth capitalizing with a capital F) Do they go to a special school and are they members of a secret society? Is it called H.Burton? I reckon during Orientation week they are put into sweet coma and brains are surgically replaced with pre-programmed chips. If you were to check their bodies you are sure to find some leftover sign-age in a form of a tattoo that serves as a record of them being marked. Hmm a conspiracy theory!

Heather Nauert, covering the Ahmadinejad visit at Columbia University, had the chance to show her FOX(y) techniques during an interview with two representatives from the College Republicans and Democrats. Josh Lipsky, College Democrats and Chris Kuliach, College Republicans were in complete agreement that his visit was a constructive experience.

The students were pleased that they had a chance to ask the president of Iran some tough questions both agreeing that it was a positive experience for the students. They seemed unified describing the event as Americans, allowing their party affiliations to stay in the background. Then Nauert injected with the point about the ROTC being banned from campus forcing the College Republican to take her side. The College Democrat tried to clarify the ROTC distortion claiming that FOX News wasn't being fair.Nauert prevented him from making his point. When he tried to interrupt, she announced there was no more time.

Also recently the foxters went on and on about how the San Francisco Mayor's office was being unfair by not permitting the TV shoot for the marines, when they have granted permissions in the past to other productions. Well dickheads, how much clearer could the Mayor's office be - read between the lines. Guess if you could read between the lines you would know WE DON'T WANT YOU RUNNING THE COUNTRY ANYMORE. The one city in the U.S that is vociferous, why would they allow the filming of a commercial to help you recruit more young americans when the country is blue in the face asking for an end to the (staged) war. It's time to drop the curtains and no there will not be any curtain calls, thank you very much!

Every morning I wish I had the right to vote. In an environment like this every vote DOES count, or not I suppose if you are recounting in the state where your brother is a governor. It is my plea, spread the word, take the day off and go vote, lets make a change, its about fuckin' time! The future of the country depends on it, the future of the world depends on it - remember that when the U.S sneezes the world catches a cold.

Feist : 'I Feel It All' Video

2007-09-28T19:20:00.001-07:00

August Trip to NYC - Gone Fishing

2007-09-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights from my last Gotham trip was a late nite fishing expedition with Miles' buddy, the inimitable and irrepresible Captain Victor. CV is Miles' neighbor and frequent partner in crime, and after a fabulous, boozy BBQ (steaks, portobello mushrooms and fennel all done on the grill) he up and says 'who wants to go fishing?' Well, I was the only taker and off we went to his local fishing hole on City Island (The Bronx). The not-terribly-flattering picture above was taken a couple of hours later...

Feist -- Lyrics for 'I Feel It All'

2007-09-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

....So Ive been getting more and more into this alt-folk singer Feist after hearing a couple of odd but engaging tracks last year...then all of a sudden she shows up as the goofy pop girl on the new iPod Nano commercial (the song is '1234'). Her new album has a couple of tracks that have absolutely killer lyrics. My favorite is 'I Fell It All' which, as Soo Young says, is both beautiful and brave. I guess whats most moving for me is how eerily close this poetry is to my own bittersweet take on love lost and regained, hopefulness and the chance for redemption.

Here it is:

Artist: Feist
Album: The Reminder (2007) Buy The Reminder (2007) CD
Lyrics: I Feel It All

I feel it all I feel it all
I feel it all I feel it all
The wings are wide the wings are wide
Wild card inside wild card inside

Oh I'll be the one who'll break my heart
I'll be the one to hold the gone

I know more than I knew before
I know more than I knew before
I didn't rest I didn't stop
Did we fight or did we talk

Oh I'll be the one who'll break my heart
I'll be the one to hold the gun

I love you more
I love you more
I don't know what I knew before
But now I know I'm wanna win the war

No one likes to take a test
Sometimes you know more is less
Put your weight against the door
Kick drum on the basement floor
Stranded in a fog of words
Loved him like a winter bird
On my head the water pours
Gulf stream through the open door
Fly away
Fly away to what you want to make

I feel it all, I feel it all
I feel it all I feel it all
The wings are wide, the wings are wide
Wild card inside, wild card inside

Oh I'll be the one to break my heart
I'll be the one who'll break my heart
I'll be the one who'll break my heart
I'll end it thought you started it

The truth lies
The truth lied
And lies divide
Lies divide

In Gandhi's footsteps

2007-09-18T09:01:00.001-07:00

Gives new meaning to the oft overlooked phrase "Doing time"...

Good on you SF

2007-09-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

San Francisco to Offer Care for Uninsured Adults

By KEVIN SACK (NY Times)
Published: September 14, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO — Since contracting polio at age 2, Yan Ling Ho has lived with pain for most of her 52 years. After she immigrated here from Hong Kong last year, the soreness in her back and joints proved too debilitating for her to work.
That also meant she did not have health insurance. Not wanting to burden her daughter, who was already paying her living expenses, Ms. Ho delayed doctors’ visits and battled her misery with over-the-counter medications.
“Sometimes the pain was so bad, I would just cry,” she said. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
Last month, unable to bear her discomfort any longer, Ms. Ho went to North East Medical Services, a nonprofit community clinic on the edge of Chinatown, and discovered to her delight that she qualified for a new program that offers free or subsidized health care to all 82,000 San Francisco adults without insurance.
The initiative, known as Healthy San Francisco, is the first effort by a locality to guarantee care to all of its uninsured, and it represents the latest attempt by state and local governments to patch a inadequate federal system.
It is financed mostly by the city, which is gambling that it can provide universal and sensibly managed care to the uninsured for about the amount being spent on their treatment now, often in emergency rooms.
After a two-month trial at two clinics in Chinatown, the program is scheduled to expand citywide to 20 more locations on Sept. 17.
Whether such a program might be replicated elsewhere is difficult to assess. In addition to its unique political culture, San Francisco, with a population of about 750,000, has the advantages of compact geography, a unified city-county government, an extensive network of public and community clinics and a relatively small number of uninsured adults. Virtually all the city’s children are covered by private insurance or government plans.
At the bustling North East Medical Services clinic, where the staff and the signs are multilingual, doctors and nurses are trying to build trust with patients who may have last sought treatment from an herbalist. Families crowd the elevators, as teenagers help parents and grandparents navigate the system. Patients like Ms. Ho say they hope their access to the clinic’s services will bring them independence, and a chance to work.
Healthy San Francisco provides uninsured San Franciscans with access to 14 city health clinics and 8 affiliated community clinics, with an emphasis on prevention and managing chronic disease. It is, however, not the same as insurance because it does not cover residents once they leave the city.
After a phased start-up, the city plans to bring private medical networks into the program next year, expanding the choice of doctors. Until November, enrollment will be limited to those living below the federal poverty line ($10,210 for a single person; $20,650 for a family of four). Then it will open to any resident who has been uninsured for at least 90 days, regardless of income or immigration status.
Only then will city officials learn whether the program appeals to middle-class workers, who make up a growing share of the uninsured. And only then can they test whether San Francisco has the medical infrastructure to handle the desired increase in demand, and to do so without raising taxes.
So far, enrollment has exceeded expectations. The city projected that 600 to 1,000 people would sign up by the end of August. More than 1,300 did, even though officials have done little marketing. They hope to enroll about 45,000 people — more than half the city’s uninsured — in the first year. Some clinics are adding night hours and small numbers of workers.
“We really didn’t know what the interest level would be, so we’re very pleased,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom. “At the same time, we don’t want overexuberance yet because we don’t want to fall of our own weight.”
At the two pilot clinics, efforts are first made to qualify patients for Medicaid or other state and federal insurance programs. Those left over receive a Healthy San Francisco card that makes them eligible for primary care, dental exams, mental health and substance abuse services, hospitalization, radiology and prescription drugs.
Because the coverage is not portable, officials believe that people with private insurance will have little incentive to drop their policies to take advantage of the city’s cut-rate services.
Like Ms. Ho, many of those enrolling were already using the city’s health clinics — or the emergency room at San Francisco General Hospital — in times of acute need, like an asthma attack or stroke. About 57,000 of the 82,000 uninsured San Franciscans have used the city’s health system at some point.
But the new program hopes to persuade them to become regulars who regard their neighborhood clinic as a medical home. Once enrolled, patients are assigned a physician and encouraged to get blood pressure checks, mammograms and other screenings.
“We had a system that was not a system, and was based on episodic visits for chronic and acute care,” said Dr. Mitchell H. Katz, the city health director. “The idea that you should come get a cholesterol test, that didn’t happen.”
Nor was it uncommon for patients to ignore doctors’ orders because of cost. Before the program started in July, a clinic doctor had ordered X-rays and blood tests for Ms. Ho, but she never got them.
“Now I feel more comfortable coming in to get services and following the doctor’s instructions,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. She added that she recently had the recommended tests and is waiting for results.
The program was born of the city’s impatience with federal and state inaction, Dr. Katz said. In 1998, voters overwhelmingly endorsed universal access to health care in a citywide referendum. Over the years, city officials explored ways to provide universal insurance but, like other governments, could not figure out how to pay for it.
“What we did next was profound and simple,” said Mr. Newsom, who shepherded the program with Supervisor Tom Ammiano. “We asked a different question. We asked: How do we provide universal health care to all uninsured San Franciscans? And that one modest distinction allowed us to answer the question we hadn’t been able to answer for a decade.”
Tangerine M. Brigham, the program’s director, projects that it will cost $200 million the first year, and Mr. Newsom expects to finance it without a tax increase. The city already spends about that much on care for the uninsured, and that money will essentially be redirected to Healthy San Francisco.
The program was also selected by the state to receive a three-year federal grant worth $24 million a year for expanding access to care. And because enrollees are still uninsured, they remain eligible for state and federal benefits, like discounts on AIDS drugs.
Patients are asked to contribute nominal amounts through membership fees and co-payments that vary by income.
Those from families with incomes below the federal poverty line pay nothing. Those who earn more pay quarterly fees that range from $60 to $675, which is the rate for those with incomes above 500 percent of the poverty level ($51,050 for a single; $103,250 for a family of four). That is where the subsidy ends. The co-payments range from $10 to $20 for a clinic visit and from $200 to $350 for an inpatient stay.
A final financing mechanism has placed the program in legal jeopardy. To make sure the new safety net does not encourage businesses to drop their private insurance, the city in January will begin requiring employers with more than 20 workers to contribute a set amount to health care. The Healthy San Francisco program is one of several possible destinations for that money, with others being private insurance or health savings accounts.
Late last year, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association challenged that provision in federal court, arguing that it violates a law governing employer health benefits. A judge has scheduled a hearing for early November.
Mr. Newsom, a restaurateur and former member of the association, said the program would work only if accompanied by an employer mandate. But he said the city would have contingencies if it lost in court. “It may set us back,” he said, “but it’s not going to end this program.”

NINA SIMONE sings on west 14th st nyc wild is the wind

2007-09-13T14:19:00.001-07:00

Here's the Nina version I mentioned earlier...

David Bowie-Wild Is The Wind

2007-09-13T14:16:00.001-07:00

Folks, check out Mr Bowie singing this stunning song, made popular by Nina Simone, but originally sung by none other than Johnny Mathis...I will be posting the NS versin after this one and it is absolutely beautiful...down tempo but uplifting and emotionally so naked...

Brooklyn -- fuck yeah!!!!!

2007-09-05T10:43:00.001-07:00

Dana Leong, y'all!!!

2007-08-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

This artist represents everything I love in music....cello, trombone, reggae, world-music, multi-culti perspective...all seamlessly blended in a slick soul vibe....almost too much to hope for, but here it is...

BLACK & WHITE BY DANA LEONG (R&B FUNK HIP HOP CELLO TROMBONE)

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Maya Beiser - World To Come

2007-07-11T19:51:00.001-07:00

No wonder the press has dubbed her "The Cello Goddess"...a feast for the eyes as much as for the ears!

odysseus to park slope

2007-07-10T23:00:00.001-07:00

The gritty F train's never been quite so beautiful...its gotta be the soundtrack

12th Street and 8th Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn

2007-07-10T22:56:00.001-07:00

Another one for you, Miss Deepa...

Park Slope Montage

2007-07-10T22:48:00.001-07:00

For Miss Deepa, who's a bit homesick for our beloved Brooklyn!!!....

datin' ms. behavin' ~ Fireworks and Friendship

2007-07-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

As of late ms. behavin' is in yet another dating quandary. Should she go for the gusto and get it on? Should she play it safe and keep it movin' on the next bloke? What to do...

----- Our chat on Tue, 10/7/07 1:58 PM -----
Asabamon (12:57 PM): hey
ms. behavin' (1:02 PM): hey you.
ms. behavin' (1:03 PM): did I tell you about my latest dating dilemma?
Asabamon (1:04 PM): no. do tell. are you on skype. should i call you?
ms. behavin' (1:04 PM): i'm not yet on skype
ms. behavin' (1:04 PM): maybe i should wait to tell you?
Asabamon (1:04 PM): forget that tell me now.
ms. behavin' (1:05 PM): so i have a very good friend for years, messed around a couple of times years ago, but just friends for many more
ms. behavin' (1:06 PM): recently he moved to BK. and finally opened up his new place with a couple of cook outs last week.
ms. behavin' (1:06 PM): since he moved to BK we hang out all the time. we hung out quite a bit before though too.
ms. behavin' (1:07 PM): so you may be asking, so what's wrong with this guy?
Asabamon (1:07 PM): i'm listening
ms. behavin' (1:08 PM): and i've told myself for the last couple of years...if only he were 2-3 inches taller--he's 5'8"
Asabamon (1:10 PM): ouch. that's a petit guy
ms. behavin' (1:10 PM): yeah, but has great style, great heart and is otherwise hot.
ms. behavin' (1:11 PM): so anyway. since i am closest to him and the new place i was the default co-host in a sense
ms. behavin' (1:12 PM): and i don't know about you, but something about entertaining with someone is a huge turn on--teamwork at its best...
ms. behavin' (1:13 PM): anyway after many drinks and a fun night had by all we succumbed to our own fireworks and messed around (no sex, just passion) on the 4th.
ms. behavin' (1:15 PM): so now, i'm conflicted because we're good. pretty much no issues in how we have interacted since.
ms. behavin' (1:16 PM): but I can't help but hear the voices "I think you all would be good together." echoing from my girlfriends at the party.
ms. behavin' (1:18 PM): I'm thinking leave it alone because there's only one way for this to go if it goes and that's a big committment. you got me.
ms. behavin' (1:18 PM): then on the other side there is a new pursuer on the page.
ms. behavin' (1:19 PM): tall dark and handsome. ghanaian guy up for the"chase"; stepping up the fliritng game. I just don't know him so well yet.
ms. behavin' (1:19 PM): what to do....
Asabamon (1:21 PM): one sec
Asabamon (1:31 PM): stay with the short guy.
Asabamon (1:31 PM): but be prepared for short kids
Asabamon (1:31 PM): something has to be said about the fact that you are good friends.
ms. behavin' (1:36 PM): lol. you are too funny. but the plan for the summer was to be wild and crazy and the tall guy is from ghana doesn't that count for something?
Asabamon (1:37 PM): wild and crazy is cool when you are 20, 21, 22, 23.
ms. behavin' (1:37 PM): and so do you think friend is playing it cool by not saying anything is putting the ball in my court
Asabamon (1:38 PM): not now.
Asabamon (1:38 PM): you are still cute as shit now. at 40 it'll be a different story. maybe i've gotten conservative. i don't know.
Asabamon (1:39 PM): i think you and him should have a vey candid conversation. no ultimatums just to say this is where my head is.
ms. behavin' (1:42 PM): me too. but i haven't had the nerve and like i said its going to be all or nothing.
ms. behavin' (1:42 PM): maybe just a few more dates with mr ghana?
Asabamon (1:43 PM): forget mr ghana? trust me you don't want complications. have a talk with the shortie (lol. get it) first then decide.
Asabamon (1:43 PM): ghana will only be a distraction.
ms. behavin' (1:45 PM): i knew you'd say that. actually you are the only one.
ms. behavin' (1:45 PM): others have said, don't screw up the friendship
Asabamon (1:46 PM): i'm the only smart one.
ms. behavin' (1:46 PM): ;p
Asabamon (1:46 PM): which is why you have a seriously candid talk about what it is you guys are doing.
Asabamon (1:46 PM): would it bother you if he started seeing someone serously?
Asabamon (1:47 PM): would it bother him if you did same?
ms. behavin' (1:47 PM): this is what we should be talking about right
Asabamon (1:48 PM): if you guys are going to remains "friends" then you need to cut out the benefits part and stop blocking so each of you can move on.
ms. behavin' (1:48 PM): at the end of the day i want us both to be happy. i already enjoy his company
Asabamon (1:49 PM): a lot to think about. ultimately, you want to be in love with your friend. if both parties are open and honest with feelings, it's the best thing.
ms. behavin' (1:50 PM): I think I'm still getting used to the physical part
Asabamon (1:51 PM): you crazy. it's 645pm. i'm going home. good luck and big kiss.
Asabamon (1:51 PM): hey your avatar looks just like you. style and all.
Asabamon (1:51 PM): so long.
ms. behavin' (1:58 PM): peace and thanks!

2007-07-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

Choctal (!!!)

2007-07-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

OK, so I just ate the world's most expensive ice cream. Was food shopping, minding my own business, and decided to get ice cream because its been so fucking hot here in cowtown Denver (several 100 degree days, and far too many 95+ degree days already!). Then...BAM!!!...I noticed the sale signs in the ice cream section and was just flabbergasted to see the offer: 2 pints for $10...yup, you read correctly-- 10 smackers. What kind of fucking sale is that, exactly? 10 bucks for ice cream? Anyway, my consumer outrage dissipated a bit as I read the label...pure chocolate from different regions, sourced locally, high quality and very pure, yadda yadda yadda.... But the last of said indignation was blown away when I actually ate the ice cream (pictured)....truly fucking amazing!!! Rich, creamy and bittersweet on the front end and then slowly, almost impreceptibly, sweetening on the back end. If you feel like wasting the MSRP of $6/pint, I strongly recommend that the chocolate lovers among you rush out and try this shit. Hell, its cheaper than dating, right?! LOL!!! Web: www.choctal.com

GSH

Amy Winehouse -You Know I'm No Good

2007-07-01T17:34:00.001-07:00

Amy Winehouse-Tears dry on their own on Jools Holland

2007-07-01T17:33:00.001-07:00

Amy Winehouse Back to Black

2007-07-01T17:30:00.001-07:00

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

2007-07-01T17:29:00.001-07:00

OK...so Ive been listening to this gal for the last 6 months and am still quite taken with her voice...part Billie Holiday, part Ronettes part MJB in a sorta OG way. First of 4 videos coming right up...

Shift Happens

2007-06-30T08:34:00.001-07:00

Living in exponential times...gotta love it. GSH

Sebastião Salgado

2007-06-27T22:56:00.001-07:00

Adventures in babysitting

2007-06-23T01:54:00.000-07:00

Just like the title suggests this weekend has been quite akin to a movie of the same name I remember seeing when I was in school.

It started out to be a quiet one away in Woolongong. As my sister put it "come along with us, what will you do home alone" which in parenting speak translates into "we need you to babysit". I gave in.

Didn't realize how much goes into a simple 2 day trip with a baby. My producing skills sure came in handy, and I was mocked at by my brother-in-law for the many lists that were drafted, re-written and then published.

Other than what I was asked to do I took care of the entertainment for Naina - made sure we had plenty of Tigger & Pooh videos on my laptop and all of her favorite music including the most important one, her bedtime music which has spiritual and calming chant tracks all in Sanskrit.

I will skip through and go straight to the adventures. Last evening Pooja & Karan leave to go for their seminar. I am chuffed with having rather quickly managed to put Naina to bed. While she is still on my lap I am debating in my head which would be a better entertainment choice tonight "House" or "Grey's Anatomy". Neither, she wakes up very suddenly, is upset because I am not her mum and does not recognize her surroundings. The screams get louder and tears more real and lo and behold I am covered in baby throw-up - she does not stop for quite a while and we both are covered from head to toe (and I spend an hour in the shower getting rid of the lovely un-escape like fragrance on me).

Thank God for cellphones but most importantly the silent mode on phones so mothers can be in seminars and still keep an eye on SOS calls from babysitters. Help arrives and all is good...

.... until today. We come back from a walk around town and I need to use the loo. Since the suite isn't 'naina-proofed' I am afraid to leave her by herself so decide to put her back in her pram. I keep talking to her so she knows I am still around. As I am washing my hands I hear her screaming and my heart begins to race. I jump out to find her stuck in her pram trying to get out of it, escape more like it (I forgot to strap her). I panic and this time my brother-in-law comes to the rescue calms the baby down and gets her out of the tangle. Phew!

The afternoon is uneventful!

But not for long. My princess wakes up from her afternoon nap and needs a nappy change. Simple enough. Done it many times before. It all goes smoothly until a moment's delay or pure bad luck if you ask me, and my niece is covered in her own pee because my hands were not swift enough to put the damn nappy under her in time. I somehow manage to get myself (and her) out of that mess.

A clean happy baby decides to make a nice day into an even more stressful one and topples a chair over herself while I am in the kitchen sterilizing her bottles(I swear I kept an eye on her). My agile body leaps into the air and across to the living area and manages to rescue her and hug her until she calms down.

That should have told me today is not my day. Take the rest of the day off Deepa!

Now I am running out of ideas to keep this very curious baby safe in a hotel suite that isn't the least bit baby-proofed. So I text my sister for help yet again. I am told to meet them half way between the hotel and the convention center so we can all get a bite to eat (I was thinking more on the lines of "House of Ale"). The thought excites me and I shift into fifth gear and zoom in and out of rooms grabbing everything I can think of that the baby might need and head downstairs.

A nice gentleman offers to help me with the pram down the few steps at the entrance while I hold Naina and the next thing I know is I am on the floor with a knee that is throbbing bad.

This is what happened. As I was coming down the steps, I slip and realize very quickly that any moment now we are going to hit the SUV at the foot of the steps. So in my mind I already know that I have to make sure nothing happens to the baby. In order for the baby to not leave my arms and get hurt I hold her real tight enveloping her and instead break the fall with my knee.

It was frightening until I loosened my arms and saw Naina smiling at me. Thank you Krsna! A lot of people came running toward me. A chair, blanket (its winter here) and ice pack were brought out immediately, but all I wanted to do was hand over the precious one to her rightful owners.

So my dear friends I am typing this post in my PJ's nursing a very bruised and swollen knee with a few extra strength painkillers (and I admit, a beer) in me.

So how many of you have I scared off (parenthood) with this post. If I have, this is what I will say, its all worthwhile just for that hug they give you when you are reading 'My first words' with them, or the smile they bring to your face when you see them sleeping in their cot with their tiny bottoms sticking in the air or the way they play with your hands as you are holding their bottle while they drink.

I would do it again!

Lost without "Lost"

2007-06-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

A few of you know exactly what I mean. The few whom I emailed my "Lost" woes to. When I left New York, I wasn't bothered at all by the fact that Australia is half a season behind us coz I was so used to downloading episodes on Itunes given the crazy producer life I led. Not bothered until I didn't see "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" listed under TV shows and thus began a fervent research into why the fuck was Itunes doing that to me and I found this:

What about video content for my iPod?

Unlike American iTunes users, Australians don't have access to Disney and Pixar movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Toy Story. US-based shows such as Channel Seven's Desperate Housewives and Lost are also missing. Video content is limited to short Pixar animations, music video clips, and video podcasts. As far as television is concerned, you can download clips from shows like The Chaser's War On Everything, Nerds FC and Rove Live by subscribing to their video podcasts.

Aye aye aye!

Without dragging out my TV woes I will tell you this - Deepa where there is a will there is way Joshi managed to download the season finale and much more AND on Itunes. It's a secret ; )

I have to say Australia isn't too advanced technologically. I am faced with having to settle for DSL since internet through cable option is only for home owners not renters in apartments. They have crazy plans that have download caps depending upon your internet usage and if you go over your planned usage the speed slows down to dial-up speed until the beginning of the new billing cycle. (not like paying Time Warner Cable a monthly fee and you have internet and it is mad fast) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

After many emails and calls to Optus I have been told that I should go for the 60GB plan given my video and audio downloads. So now I have pinned down the neighborhood I want to be in, the cellphone and internet plans I will subscribe to, cable TV through Foxtel. I just need money to pay for all this and that comes with a job.

The search is on but nothing yet. I am going out of my mind. I know I know. I should enjoy this while I can but I am a restless soul with crazy energy. So I have been running a lot, and man do I miss my park (Prospect Park), another necessity, an alien concept here I am finding out. There are tons of playgrounds, every bloody corner you turn, makes you wonder - well they certainly are fertile.

After many a days of exploring I have finally nailed down a good course, one that has some climb to it too and nice looking houses. I can't complain, its the one time of the day I get totally to myself. My outing for the day unless you count the occassional trips to the local growers market. And without fail the manager steps out of his alcove to flirt with me, even when I am at my worst, in my joggers and trainers. I think he has Italian blood in him. For now I am happy with my friends Pooh, Tigger, Roo, Piglet and Buster.

Let me leave you guys with this thought. I want to make money, I want to make money doing what I love, I want to make more money than I made in New York. Right! Wrong. If you are making between $75K-$125K you pay 42% in taxes. Fucking hell!

A Minute longer...

2007-06-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

... the second time in my life this song plays in my head as the runway approaches. Maybe if we stay in the air my move may not be as real as it is. But I wasn't in the cockpit so we did touch down!

It did feel good getting out of the air we all had been breathing for 14+ hours and stretch those long legs (don't even think it Leigh Scott, I am a woman with long legs, as much as you would like to think you are taller than me!). Walking down the airport reminded me of the Geico "Airport" commercial. I followed the signs that said "visitors" even though I am migrating. Will I ever call any country my own? Not quite sure yet????

I will give it to the Australian version of the INS, unlike the U.S Homeland Security (ooh I am scared) that even at 7am in the morning every desk had an immigration officer so even though the queue was long it didn't take much time until I found myself at the baggage carousel.

I anchored myself to a corner and awaited my bags each weighing more than 75 pounds. I had marked them with red and gold tags so I did spot them, but I wish I hadn't, they were bloody heavy and not a chivalrous man in sight. Seriously, I was told so much about aussie men, where the fuck are men when you need them? I managed somehow, damaging my already messed up back in the bargain. I begin to push the trolley and bam, all my bags are on the floor right in front of an officer. My request for help with the bags was instanly denied "the laws here do not allow us to touch passengers bags" I was told. Her statement made America under George Bush seem like Dalai Lama's Dharamsala to me. Oh well deeps you are on your own again! Just as I said that a dog came sniffing my bags, made me wonder if what Dr. Goldberg gave me was indeed ambien, did knock me out for most of the flight!

Oh Krsna, totally forgot about the stringent Australian quarantine laws. An officer asked me if I had anything to declare in my "very few" bags, should have said "my freedom", instead I volunteered "just gluten free crackers officer".

All my woes were dissolved instanly like alka seltzer in water as soon as I saw Naina, my gorgeous 11 month old (soon to be 1) niece.

Baby Rohan and Anya Arrive to Proud Parents!

2007-06-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

One of my best male friends, Ishwari, and his wife, Sladana, were blessed with healthy twins yesterday around 9PM New York time!!! One is a boy and one a girl, weighing 5.7 and 5.5 pounds respectively. Their names are Rohan (after the famed West Indies cricketeer) and Anya (which has positive connotations in both Sanskrit and Serbian....what an amazing cultural mix!). Parents and newborns are fine and resting up for the long haul ahead...

How fucking fabulous is that, no?!!!! [beaming]

Blessings to us all, indeed. :)

GSH

Land of the aboriginies-Getting there

2007-06-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

Almost 15 hours of flying time it read on the screen in front of me. Thank Krsna for all the junky magazines my friends gave me, all the "House" and "Lost" Episodes I downloaded to my ipod and the ambien Dr. Goldberg prescribed.

I have gotten travelling this sector, JFK-SFO-SYD, down to a science. This was the 3rd trip I made in less than six months. Yup, sure do have many a miles now, except that the airlines always make it crazy hard to bloody use them. Apparently my ticket was ineligible for an upgrade to business class. Atleast reinvent the usage of miles - how about use miles to pay for excess baggage - so people like me who usually have a whole bag full of shoes or this time around 3 BIG bags of all the clothing I could possibly fit into the bags, since I moved to Sydney 2 weeks ago to start a new adventure (boy little did I know it will literally be one, more on that later).

My charm did not work this time around with the check-in agent. I guess the fatigue, 4 weeks of running around to wrap up 8 years of my life in NYC, showed on my face. He finally took pity and moved me around to another seat in a row where there were 3 empty seats next to me. Boy did that make me happy but also brought out the nasty side of me (a side I never see or even like). This new (mean) person spread all her stuff, neck pillow, books, jacket on every seat so it looked occupied so no one would steal them away from her. She even looked through some college kids who struck a conversation with me at the gate worried that the fellow "Lost" fan would come and plonk himself next to her for the duration of the flight.

Rewind: As we waited for the flight to be brought in from the hangar - passengers started conversations with fellow travellers and thats when I met these kids - they were headed to various parts of Australia for a vacation. The jokes were endless - none of them had ever stepped foot outside of the United States and the longest flight they had ever flown was from Boston to San Francisco. Our flight was delayed because of a technical failure and of course that led to the "Lost" fan saying - "this ain't good, the Oceanic flight that crashed was on its way from Sydney to Los Angeles". Not funny I thought, I had my reasons to not participate in conversation about crashes but I kept them to myself.

Fast Fwd: Much itv, 3 movies, few pages of a book and an ambien later I wake up and decide to walk around, stretch, brush my teeth and use the loo before the inhabitants of the plane arise and the loos start to resemble the ones on Indian trains.

A vegetarian breakfast and a few tears later (it finally hit me as we started our descent into Sydney that I had just left behind a life I love so much and people I love so much), we land at Kingsford Smith International Airport.

Zoe Keating - The Legions

2007-05-31T21:31:00.001-07:00

So SY's gift inspired me to see what else might be out there in terms of classical music with a pop, indie or modern sensibility. I pinged around my people a bit and behold!...a friend on Myspace sent me some info on an avant-cellist named Zoe Keating. Part Laurie Anderson (cello), part Cocteau Twins (hipster dreadlocks), part Tori Amos (symbiosis with her instrument) and part Michael Nyman (lush hypnotic soundscapes)....shes a creative force all her own. And the music is elevating, transporting, transcendent, mesmerizing, and can inspire a range of emotions far too numerous to be adequately described in my humble blog...it must be experienced. And I cant wait for her to come back through town...apparently she played the fox Theater in Boulder in Summer '06. Website: www.zoekeating.com

[You MUST listen to "The Sun Will Set" gorgeous sound, gem-like]

Rachel's - Water From the Same Source

2007-05-31T18:33:00.001-07:00

Hey Miss Soo Young, check out this video from Rachel's....its so fucking beautiful it kinda hurts a little! Thanks for sharing Rachel's with me.

GSH

Birthday 2 - Ladies & Gentlemen, Baby Talia is in the Building

2007-05-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

OK, so my first girlfriend ever in life (ah....Junior High School....) had her first baby about 7 months ago, and Baby Talia is turning out to be every bit the talented diva her mom, Toni, has been since we were kids growing up together.

The link below is to a YouTube snippet wherein Baby Talia, ever the consummate professional, and with perfect pitch and timing, accompanies her mom in the chorus of Minnie Ripperton's classic love song, Loving You." The torch is most assuredly passed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0TCx0jGimA

If you dont think this is cute, please feel free to call the coroner yourself, as you are legally dead.

Much love,

GSH

Birthday 1- Soo Young Rocks Classical Music Hard

2007-05-13T22:37:00.000-07:00

Miss Soo Young and I spent the afternoon and early evening together celebrating our birthdays as well as Mother's Day. What an amazing strong independent person and how lucky am I to have this friendship!!??

Over dinner, I collect my birthday contraband....I'm not all that fond of receiving surprises. [Long story, we can chat on this later] But it just goes to show how rich and right life can be when you let it unfold...

Over the table she passes me a pretty wrapped package. Its a CD, but I couldnt have known how beautiful and expansive both her intention and the music would be. Flowing, emanating and insistent string music....absolutely stunning. Reminds me so much of Michael Nyman and the seriousness of his modern classical perspective combined with the indie rock insistence and emotional nakedness in the poetry of Arcade Fire or maybe Band of Horses or Cat Power(?)...hard to convey fully.

The band's called The Rachel's. [the possessive apostrophe is kinda important as theres actually some dumb rock band from Texas named "The Rachels"] The album she gifted me is Systems/Layers. Basically, its serious classical music imbued with the urgency of indie rock and the dark emotionalism of gothic-inspired strings. At times it seems more like dark cabaret. All that darkness must be from their Kentucky upbringing. No shit, theyre really from Kentucky!Here's their myspace site:
http://www.myspace.com/rachelsqrewrqwerq

But to hear more than just their most recent album, here's the Amazon site:
http://www.amazon.com/Rachel

Miss G.

2007-05-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

One interesting addendum to the Columbia Invades Wine Country post....

Miss G., seen here kissing a baby manta ray in the Bahamas. Which she described as feeling like a large, wet portobello mushroom. I think Ive had a similar tactile experience but, uhm, it wasnt a sea creature...[evil to the Nth degree grin]

She's Chief Scientist of DeLoach Vineyards....a real life & genuine rocket scientist....and possesses Kate Hepburn beauty, wit, grace and , yes I damned well said that (neck-shaking aplenty)...MOXIE! She likes Johnny Cash (she mentions Ring of Fire at dinner, explaining the unseemly STD reference and all) and thinks men are afraid of strong, smart women (quite possibly true, m'dear)....I sent her the Band of Horses album as a thank you card...

Hmmmm....[chin stroke, though not quite lascivious. Yet.]

GSH

More Blogs I Love....

2007-05-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

OK, this one's not nearly as groovy and I-got-it-goin'-AWN as The Sartorialist, but its damned good....and SF is certainly a favorite haunt of mine, now isnt it? :)

http://fashioni.st/

GSH

Oh My God, I Love This Blog!

2007-05-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

[Arms crossed, b-boy like. Guttural chuff] 'Nuff said...its so damned righteous and dead on point, it drives me crazy!!!!

GSH

Dinner

2007-04-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

March 5th 2007, dinner at the Millenium in San Francisco. My first outing in months! Here I am trying to remember what it was like to spend an unscheduled few hours without thinking about the California bar exam.

My brother, perhaps just as relieved as me, celebarting in kind with me.

Columbia Invades Wine Country!

2007-04-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

The first Annual Columbia Alumni Association event in Sonoma at the Deloach hospitality chalet. Sounds fabulous....but it began as a series of total mishaps, miscomms and misadventures. Perhaps thats not so unusual in the annals of human collaboration and the yoking together of disparate personalities. But it was daunting nonetheless. And frankly, up until a few days before the day of the event, I really didnt think we would pull it off. Hah! Just goes to show how much emanates from laying back a bit and trusting in life, its ebb and flow for sure, but its basic, enduring goodness. A Grand Success!!

Stuart and his glib, New York-ese inflected intellectualism. Greg and his folksy, brainy approach to the timeless art of winemaking. Ginny and her unexpected radiance she brings to scientific (biodynamic) farming. Jean Charles and his hale fellow well met Gallic charm...who happened to be wearing the same navy blue blazer and pink shirt outfit....how funny indeed! And most unexpectedly of all...All those brash, independent Columbia alums doing something one never would have forseen...actually engaging with and enjoying one another!

Next step: More events in NY, Chicago, DC, Pittsburgh etc and (drumroll please...) launching The Columbia University Wine Club . Out of the frying pan and into the fire...

Easter 2007- resurrection for real

2007-04-16T02:23:00.000-07:00

Easter 2007-- all about faith, resurrection and joy, huh?...how very fucking appropriate...

Today started off as a terrible grey day, with Chery very upset over the grisly death (eaten by semi-feral dogs) of her beloved cat, Boris, and the tension between us as thick as toxic molasses. For most of the morning I felt trapped between wanting to reach through her immense sadness in some way, and then feeling like her (apparent) sense of entitlement was going to bring out the absolute worst in me...things that Ive worked hard to control, if not eliminate. Wanted to scream with the unhappiness, the helplessness of it all...

Dan came over later that morning , and we (along with Cheryl) drove out to Jana's home to pick up the antique Korean chest I had bought...beautiful piece, and perfectly suited for storing all those pesky cd's stashed in the last unpacked box from my recent move into the new loft. Made me happy....what a good little interior decorator I'd make, huh? Anyway, got some loving advice from Dan about the danger (to oneself) about being bitter, angry to people. Armed with this, I went back and had an open, positive discussion with Cheryl...

Cheryl rests for a while, the day unfolds in its own inexorable way....and she rallies as the day slips into early night. And her new positive energy (mine also?) absolutely changes the entire context around her, us. [I cant help thinking of the line from What the Bleep?: when you change the way you look at things, you change the things around you.]...

Dan stopped by first and we opened up some champagne...Happy banter...Cheryl starts planning for her fabulous meal, though for some reason we are all rooted to the slow easy pace as it seems to be unfolding. And, even though we all refuse to do a grocery run, Cheryl's culinary skills win out in the long run...she makes an amazing Tuscan feast using only random ingredients we had in the loft. Brava, ragazza, brava!!! Florence arrives, with her radiant smile and warm aura, and wows everyone with her terribly Indian kaftan/kurta thingy...mad style points for you Miss Florence! Then Deirdra comes with her quiet intelligence and curious mind. Shes stunning in her sexy librarian neo-geek black glasses. She stays way past her bedtime...

But who can blame her?...the evening has this organic quality about it and the laughter, joy and fun warms us all.

A Venice State of Mind - 1

2007-04-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

So Ive started in earnest planning to be in Venice from late Sept to early October.

This year is a Biennale year, so the entire worlds art will be on display in Venezia
http://www.labiennale.org/en/

Ive started putting out feelers among friends from Italy (Andrea + Claudia), friends who travel there frequently (Cheryl) and the most excitng wildcard....friends Im starting to meet online....Myspace, Nerve and who the hell knows what all else!

From these online sources Ive already met a Reggae/Dub collective that is based in Venice! (My Yardie relatives---you know who you are -- would be quite amused by this)

Moa Anbessa

http://www.moaanbessa.com/

And a slow food-esque type foodie group that specializes in....pork!!! Now hows that for great goddamned luck?

nicola@ncpveneto.it

Wondering where the dialogue will lead, and am excited....

Third Law, Second Look

2007-04-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

After lots of unplanned changes to our dinner logistics, I met up with Jason B, Deirdra and Cheryl at Royal Peacock in North Boulder--my favorite Indian joint in CO. Amazing food...gravy to die for (Indians, like Italians, call curries, masala, etc "gravy") and great specials that include exotic meats like Russian Boar

Without Lassen there I was the only common link between folks, so I did intros and pointed out common interests....travel and music, esp. Jason's interesting musical journey and his new opportunity to do a film score. As the food starts coming out, the conversation gets increasingly pre-verbal (grunts, moans, etc) and then as the entrees come to a climax the conversational regression hits a low point and becomes nonverbal altogether (head nods and wags, eye rolls, etc). Throughout, I can see out of the corner of my eye Shanti smoking cigs on the porch every 15 minutes or so. He's in a pretty quiet mood, or maybe I shouldve spent more time chatting with him when we arrived...I'm always surprised that he remembers me...

The snow has picked up momentum while we were eating...after a slippery drive to the Dairy Center, the Third Law dance performance was sorta underwhelming-- themes of immigration, love, lost and found memories, youth and aging, loss. Definitely some innovative movements and specific dance syntax...but overall a somewhat dull set of dances, inconsistent tone/polish. One major exception...The Box Dance!!! Amazing, even virtuoso, athleticism, humor and playfulness that didnt sacrafice the symbolism-- one's movement within the confines of life (love?fear? etc).
http://3rdlaw.org/

Late supper at The Med-- Soo Young joins and we make quite an eclectic and diverse group...I love that!!! Finance folks, creative folks, software & hardware engineers, PhD and musicians and dancers. Maybe theres hope for cowtown after all, huh? if such a group can spontaneously self-organize....Gigi, Dan, Deirdra, Cheryl, Jason, Jennifer. Much laughter, 2bottles of Rioja and empanadas and a pizza. Deirdra in particular strikes me as a person of note, whereas in our previous discussions (very fleeting and superficial, admittedly) that was not my feeling. Hmmmm...

While dropping off SY, I am pulled over and given the full DUI drill culminating in the dreaded breathylizer...all worked out in the end....seems I didnt drink all that much (2-3 glasses?) and the rest, well, my metabolism mustve taken care of...

NYC March 2007

2007-04-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

OK-so I just spent a week in New York...one of my regular trips back that somehow turned into one of these expansive experiences, filled with new people and new experiences. The memory, only a few days later, is sort of a blur, slightly shimmering...and happy to be sure...

Thurs- Afro Brazilian DJ set at Sullivan Room and 3am Supper at Employees Only. Ed, Taka, Dan, Gunilla

Fri- Dinner at one of those hipster places on Clinton/Rivington and birthday party at Backroom (nee Lansky Lounge). Megan, Jessica, Dan, Fernando, Ling, Madoka and a buncha Singaporean Chinese fashionistas, and the odd Japanese photographer.

Sat- Rich, Marie, Jakob and Valetta at the brownstone....playtime with the kids all afternoon. Dinner at 5 Points, Brazilian dance at Danspace, Sake at Decibel, supper at Brick Lane (and assorted illnesses and unexplained disappearances). End of the night was an improvissation of island beats and jungle fever-driven folks. Gotta love it...

Ish, Sladana (radiantly pregnant w/ twins!!!), Sue, Anita, Gunilla, Deepa, Tomoko, Taka, Florence

Sun- Brunch at Ici in Ft Greene--fucking babyfest of the first order! Playtime meets feeding time, sprinkled with small amounts of adult conversation. Drinks at Freres on Ludlow. Outernational at Knitting Factory. Lisa, Raouf, Toni, Tony, Florence, Dan, Rich, Andrea, Claudia, Megan, Tim (Robbins) and Susan (Sarandon)

Mon- Dan returns to CO. Russian baths all morning with Hari and then back to his daycare place where baby Uma and her fabulous 2yr old friends are whiling away the day with fingerpaints and afternoon snacks. Dinner with Madoka at Soy. Long lovely walk in the E.Village.

Tues- Business stuff. Packing. Back to CO. Good chat with Taka re JV oppty in the car on the way to LGA.

Introduction

2007-04-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
-- The Tempest

Somethin' filled up my heart with nothin'...someone told me not to cry. But now that I'm older, my heart's colder, and I can see that it's a lie.--- "Wake Up" Arcade Fire

This is a subjective (and at times asynchronous) chronicle of my life after leaving New York and moving into the wild yonder beyond the shores of the Hudson. Sort of a love song to the people and events that have created the fecund texture of life after Gotham. And to some, one in particular, who were there all along. I am not a writer or a photographer, but I'm doing my best to share aspects of my wide world rim roaming...the upswells... and the wipeouts, along the way.