The 'new' one

just everything

What to do?

     Earlier today, while surfing through Facebook status updates I noticed a comment about the oil spill: “I don't know how to feel. I don't know what to do. I just sit and shake. But that does no good. It's so big, it's so horrifying.” Since this happened, and every time a disaster happens I find myself wondering what to do. Besides donating money or supplies, I don't usually come up with anything too creative. Today the weather called me and so many others to the beach. It's the perfect day for it; the warm breeze cooling you off just enough to be able to bear the midday sun. 

     Walking along the edge of the water, giving my feet a little soak on my way down the shore, I stopped and looked out. Since I've lived on Long Island Sound for most of my life I learned early on that it is not the cleanest water. The Sound is a big inlet where much of the rivers that empty into it used to carry toxic chemicals from inland industrialization and even though that was stopped years ago, there is still caution about eating the fish and shellfish. Sometimes a pale foam cushions the water from the sand; not the most appealing sight or smell. This is to say that while I've always loved the beach, I only swim in it a few times a year and give it's cleanliness a middle score. 

     So today when I worked myself down the water's edge I grew more appreciative of it's state. The sea sparkled more brilliantly, each poke of a wave grabbing the sun into it to make rainbows; boaters yelling out in excitement while dragging jubilant children on over-sized inner tubes. There were actually people on the sand today soaking in the harmony of sun and cool water. The more I became present, the more I realized that this is what I can do to make a difference. I can appreciate this natural beauty that survives. I can notice what we have left and make it count toward enriching my own life. Don't these man made disasters happen because we have lost our reverence for nature, anyway?  

     Join me, if you'd like, in appreciating the abundance of beauty surrounding us all. I know that we are losing so many innocent creatures to this horror but we can still give love to the ones we have left. 

Specialty

Something silly happens at night
when I stop apologizing and
start peering over my shoulder
for a clue, an appearance from

this person I once held dearly.
The thing is, I never could
put my finger on the importance,
the exact role that held his space.

Since removing this bookmark,
no hole or trace of placement
is lost.  No torn corner to
inform me of this information.

Just a swelling sense of correct
ink in just the right margins.
A breeze through this book
finding the notes that served me

seem only like memories.
Vacant until night; a full moon
of Scorpio swinging behind
clouds patterned ferociously.

At this desk with my dog,
white cheese and water I
wonder who he is and why
there is still a need.

Ahh..I won't leave you hanging.

Boxy Takes a Nap- featuring Peter Pan and Garfield

a break the ice sort of question

A few weeks ago I walked into the Starbucks near work to get my usual when the a guy behind the counter asked me if I liked Lady Gaga.  I'm pretty sure he was already in a conversation with his co-worker about it and wanted another opinion to reinforce his stance.  So I answered honestly, saying that I respected her work but it wasn't really my thing.  The guys looked at eachother for a second then broke out in unison singing the chorus of Bad Romance, "gagaaaa ooooh la laa..."  That little question stuck with me for a while and I began really listening.  The first thing I noticed is that she sings in French sometimes.  So, hello...how could I not love her?  Then someone told me she IS French.  This wouldn't be enough to change my mind completely but something did snap me into place as a Gaga lover.  I was at a dinner party with some friends and we watched the mini-movie video for Telephone.  If you haven't seen it, it's like a big budget/avant-garde spectacle set to pop music featuring bondage clothes and Beyonce.  Aside from the product placement it's rad.  Yes, rad.  Beyonce is amazing in it and she fits doing edgier stuff.  My favorite part of the song is when she says she's too busy dancing to talk on the phone.  That's what I'd say, too. 



I didn't even realize that Just Dance was one of her songs before my research.  This is a favorite for Dance Party in the Car.




Other useful tidbits:
She wears origami inspired hats
She appears not to lip sync in concert
She performed on Gossip Girl
She wears the most kickass costumes ever: (haha, just previewed my post and the still shot for this video is her naked...I guess that qualifies as a costume)



 I've been wanting to tell the guys at Starbucks that I am a convert but it's hard to bring up a conversation that happened weeks ago without seeming like a weirdo.  The only other thing I really want to know is how tall she is.  I bet she's about my height, in which case I now hold Pop Star to be a legitimate dream of mine.  Dress me up in french couture, get me on a stage and I'll twirl around on six inch stilettos and attempt to sing.  It would be a sight...haha.  I'd better leave that to Gaga.


Update:
Through the wonders of Wikipedia and WikiAnswers I have learned that she is not French, but American and "Lady Gaga is exactly 5'2'' - exactly my height.  Maybe I should become French and then fulfill my new found dream of being a pop star ;)

two times four = a high pitched whoah, whoaahhh!

(above)This is Vivaldi's Concerto for four violins in b minor.
(below) Bach's Concerto for four harpsichords in a minor

These blew me away today and I heard them back to back on the way home from work.  The first piece played,Vivaldi's, made me smile (once I turned it up to the appropriate volume) then I was blessed to hear the harpsichord interpretation.  Now, I love harpsichords so this made me double happy.  They are amazing.

The story is that a wealthy prince let Bach hand copy the Vivaldi sheet music and this is where Bach got the inspiration to 'cover' the piece.  He added more movement within it by sprucing it up with added notes because the harpsichord cannot sustain notes like the violin can.  I heard this explanation on NPR or WMNR Fine Arts Radio.  I don't remember the man's name who's show was on.

Sidestepping Caterpillar at the WB

Passe Montagne - French Math/Noise Rock

 Passe Montagne is a trio from France.  They played at Cafe 9 last Thursday, opening for Old Man Lady Luck.  I was psyched to see them because of their origin but thoroughly impressed with the music one they came on.  My video seems to be the only one on Youtube and the audio is pretty terrible from my little camera phone, but they do have an excellent myspace page with a bunch of songs.  It's a shame their tour is so short but keep an eye out next year!   

not burly waves...

A Tribute to Daniel Halpern- Free Event in NYC Thursday

A Tribute to Daniel Halpern

Poet:	Daniel Halpern
Featured Poets:	Daniel Halpern, John Ashbery, Russell Banks, Anthony Bourdain, Janie Fink, Richard Ford, Jorie Graham, Robert Hass, Campbell McGrath, and Joyce Carol Oates.
May 6, 2010, 7 p.m. Rosenthal Pavilion, Kimmel Center, NYU, 60 Washington Square South, New York, NY
Free
Join us for an evening honoring the work of poet, professor, and founder of Ecco Press, Daniel Halpern. The tribute will feature readings and presentations by John Ashbery, Russell Banks, Anthony Bourdain, Janie Fink, Richard Ford, Jorie Graham, Robert Hass, Campbell McGrath, Joyce Carol Oates, and other special guests. Daniel Halpern is the author of seven collections of poems, including Something Shining (Knopf, 2001); Selected Poems (1996); and Traveling on Credit, his first book of poety. He has translated and edited numerous works and anthologies, and in 1970, he worked with Paul Bowles to establish and co-edit the international literary journal Antaeus. Halpern is the founder and editorial director of Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins. He has received numerous honors, including, among others, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He resides in the New York area with his family. John Ashbery's collections include Planisphere: New Poems (Ecco, 2009); Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems (2008); A Wave (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984), which won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (Penguin, 1975), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award; and Some Trees (Yale University Press, 1956), which was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Series. Russell Banks has written numerous novels, including TThe Reserve (2008), Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone, Cloudsplitter, The Sweet Hereafter, and Affliction, the latter two collections were adapted for the screen. His honors include the Ingram Merrill Award, the John Dos Passos Award, the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Banks is the founder and President of Cities of Refuge North America. Anthony Bourdain is an author and a chef. He is the author of nine books, including No Reservations: Around The World on an Empty Stomach (Bloomsbury USA, 2007); The Nasty Bits (2006); and Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook (2004). Janie Fink was educated at the University of Virginia and Columbia University, where she studied with Halpern. She is the author of Bubble Opera (Carrot Press, 2007), and her poetry has appeared in various journals, including Antaeus, Margie, Poetry East, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The Journal and Verse. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter. Jorie Graham is the author of numerous collections of poetry, most recently Sea Change (Ecco, 2008), Never (2002), Swarm (2000), and The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994, which won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She has been the recipient of numerous honors, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, among others. She is currently the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University. Robert Hass's books of poetry include The Apple Trees at Olema (Ecco/HarperCollins, April 2010), Time and Materials (2007), which won the 2007 National Book Award; Sun Under Wood: New Poems (1996); Human Wishes (1989); Praise (1979); and Field Guide (Yale University Press, 1973), which was selected by Stanley Kunitz for the Yale Younger Poets Series. Hass served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997, and he currently teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. Richard Ford is the author of several novels, including Canada (forthcoming from Ecco/HarperCollins); The Lay of the Land (2006); Independence Day (Knopf, 1995); which was the first novel to receive the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; Wildlife (1990); and The Sportswriter. He has also written several short story collections, including Vintage Ford (2002) and Rock Springs (1987), among others. Since 2008, Ford has been Adjunct Professor at the Oscar Wilde Centre with the School of English at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Campbell McGrath's poetry collections include Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2009), Seven Notebooks(2008), Pax Atomica (2005), Florida Poems (2003), and Spring Comes to Chicago (1996), among others. He has been the recipient of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Witter-Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, and a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award," among others. He teaches at Florida International University in Miami. Joyce Carol Oates's numerous works include We Were the Mulvaneys (2004); Blonde (2000), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize; The Falls , which won the 2005 Prix Femina Etranger; and The Gravedigger's Daughter (2007), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and among others. Oates has been the recipient of several honors, including the National Book Award, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and two O. Henry Awards. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and she is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University.
Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Society of America, the New York University Creative Writing Program, and HarperCollins Publishers
Info:	212-274-0343, ext 10 academy@poets.org http://www.poets.org/events

Bikini Day #1

There is something
so satisfying
about

finding
sand in
my belly button.

Contains adult language

I'd like to write a song about someone having a shitty ass day.  It would be called, Shitty Ass Day.  It would probably be funny because when I get mad it usually makes people laugh, which is wonderful actually.  So this song would be humorous and acoustic since I don't have any electric instruments right now.  I'd sing it staccato and scream out the chorus.  The verses would be pleasant because the whole day wasn't shitty, just parts of it.  It would make more of an impact if the shit part was juxtaposed against gentle, clean parts anyway.  You could really experience the shit (and laugh). 

ship

Floor