TMi

  W elpy-welp. I’ve officially arrived at the ass end of the snake year. The boulevard outside my door was soaked in pooling sewer filth from the 27th of December to about January 20th. The snake has incontinence in it’s old age. Or it is terrified of the coming hooves of the next year. I remember once being at a picnic with my family on some bright New England day. I don't know who spotted it, but we– us kids got excited about finding a snake nearby. I believe I was the quickest one and was able to catch the garter snake with my hands. I did not keep hold of it for very long. It was terrified of being snatched up out of the grass by a child and it wet me in defense. And it 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝓀 . I remember the talk turn immediately to best practices for nullifying strong animal odors, skunk smells especially. Tomato juice seemed to be top of the list. We did not have that available– and perhaps orange juice was used instead? I have trouble remembering if it was me who actually caught a wild...

artist: Peter Halley At the top of this month I went to Art Basel Miami. Not the whole Miami art week extra satellite show whateverness, but the Art Basel Miami fair itself. There were over 280 booths full of eye candy to match that vase you have or that vice you have. Oh, OK, it wasn't all vacuous. I remember seeing a large circular wall hanging that caught my attention because it was made out of hammered bullet casings arranged to look like scales on a shield– the offensive killing thing made into a beautiful defensive thing. I liked that. I needed to carry that beautiful defense with me to block out the dog and donkey shows in the “new media” section though. I am sure you can guess the dog reference. It was all over the new outlets stealing undeserved attention. Unfortunately, there was another exhibit that was even more... 'adding to the problem.'  Just imagine being too poor to live in your own country, and this artless cryptobrosephus billionaire is standing next to...

In southern California / Baja California it has been very humid and rainy this month which unusual, in my experience.  I suppose it's part of the weather shift the call La Niña... Aw, look at me talking about the weather! How cute.  I'm avoiding US theee sociopolitical discussions by talking about the weather.   Or am I? Is this code? Sure it's code!  All language is code, silly-goose-head! The code word I thought about "virtue-signaling" for in this post was some made-up thing called... oh what is it now... Empathy? Yes, empathy. I got that right.  But then I self-censored.  It's been a wild month. I'm having a lot of thoughts that aren't productive (I want to be dead) and strong feelings that make my arguments appear less than thought out (except they really are).  I mean, people, look, it's not a common occurrence for me to have work I made get targeted by the White House to be censored. I'm not used to h...

Photo by Marek Piwnicki It's been a rough summer in so many ways. Just go on over and look at all the wild news, and even the wilder social media. As a HSP trying to stay informed while filtering out and blocking the onslaught of... all the things, I am a touch fried. With an effort, I rallied focus enough to cough up some lines today: we ran among the others– all children he was laughing my expression fixed in righteous anger tickled him when i could catch up, i'd swat him, tell him to stop– he would not– he does not– as if my actions could possibly take anything away from him– he went on and on shouting RAPE! at me– in mockery of all vulnerable people, of our mother– shaming himself who would claim to be a man (of god)– it was only a game out on the schoolyard   no adult attended to his shouts or my outrage a joke, a joke–nothing was meant by it to this day, i choke

exhausted, wired, dancing in a hotel room alone This is a long post. And certainly chock full of mistakes. Deal with it.  💙     I did a "wild" thing this month. I crossed the busiest international border in the world and took two flights during a global software hiccough to go to the Voices Against Cancer 605 Pop-Culture Con in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Some of the cast of the Ahsoka live-action Star Wars series were slated to appear there. George Takei would be there... It's an event to raise funds for kids with cancer...    Of all the people attending this event, however, the draw for me was Lars Mikkelsen- actor, Timothy Zahn- author, and Marc Thompson- voice animator. These three people have made and brought to life a particular Star Wars character that I have been in love with since I was roughly eleven years old. You may have heard of someone called Thrawn, perhaps? Eh, perhaps not. He's still lesser known than my other hard crush- Darth Vad...

About twenty percent of people on the planet have Reynaud's Disease/Syndrome/Phenomenon . The numbers vary depending on what source you cite, but no matter where you look, it is clear that this is not a common ailment. It is, however, something I suffer from . Some people have called it being allergic to the cold. To me, it is more like having a stutter in your arteries. The blood vessels are called on to do something quite ordinary and natural, but they get freaked out and overwhelmed by it and then don't operate properly. When it kicks in, I feel like I become the ambient air temperature. I feel like I wear the flesh of a dead person. It can be harder for me to speak because of the decreased feeling in my face. I noticed this happening when I was a teen. I saw that I was the only one in PhysEd who could not warm up while running track in cooler temperatures. I found out that not everyone's hands turned bright red and hurt afterward. Not everyone's toe...

Champiñones con ajo Our plan for Sunday was a giddy success. Because Cafe De La Flor still has the best mushroom dish in all of anywhere around (and that Italian panini thing isn't so bad either), we shrugged off the brunching yuppie families and fresas to have our menu favorites at the cafe before walking over to "Jabba's Palace"- more commonly known as Plaza Rio; an even bigger hive of yuppies and fresas. This was where we got our skate on. I thought I had not been on roller skates in a while but when Human figured he hadn't been skating in a Christ's lifetime , my crazy idea seemed even more perfect. The Oh-Zone was writhing with children. The music was blasting. It was all so familiar to experiences in my youth. Giggling behind my knees.   I was going to chicken out of getting skates and ask for blades instead, but the man behind the shoe counter plunked down a hideous octet of wheels before I could say anything. Choic...

A tiny miracle happened down here in this land of bottle water and drafty sunshine. A friend from waay up in Queens made the trek across the states and the border to see a bit of the life that is Baja- Below. I had this impression that no one would EVER take me up on my offer to come down to see Jesus embracing the Pacific Ocean, hear chickens that need their timers reset, cuddle baby lions... and then- the stars aligned just right and  Hiram Pines  shows up with one of his L.A. friends,  Jess Porter . Luh-vly PEOPLE!  We sat and had a laugh about German - our different levels of language understanding being the funniest part. Our word for the day was the verb transitive- to prostitute. We drank a lively, satisfying wine with other local goodies from one of my favoritest stops along the wine route La Casa Dona Lupe . For me, it is the Italian(!) / Mexican equivalent of Brookfield Apple Orchard  in Massachusetts; which I visited often enough in my youth to ...

To all the gaming/ comic book/ sci-fi/ fantasy/ cartoon/ graphic novel/ anime/ BRONY(!)/ conventions with corporate sponsors, 'famous people' appearances, press agencies, advertising campaigns and spending budgets well over the few pesos that these young people have- I say-   SUCK IT. The success of this little convention was that it happened at all: not the tally of thousands that passed through or how much money it made back. this event was like a fair at school, but the kids, for kids they were, had taken over an almost abandoned mall to, because they are brought up as humble Mexicans, respectfully run amok. There were attempts at costumes, but you could see that these kids were lucky to have a pink wig to don or a deck of cards to play and trade with.  They served bento lunches in a Tijuana sort of way and the music was alright, as I recall. (Except deafening. Thank the gods for ear plugs! Borrowed as they were. Ick.)