TMi

Summer is stuffy, humid, rotting wood, spores, insects... Daydreaming intensifies The need to escape persists I move inside spaces without purpose Playing make-pretends with the walls looking on While my guts ache and my spine crumbles Neuromuscular issues never quite gone Frittering in uncertainty I wish I could sing

san miguel adventure fun time part three of six- festival de cine  The major take-aways: talk to strangers sometimes if you still have your hearing, always keep earplugs handy partying is difficult for 20% of the population a good thunderstorm should never be ignored Onto the film festival! The Guanajuato International Film Festival - GIFF is essentially three film festivals happening back to back in three different locations in Guanajuato. Films are shown first in Leon, then San Miguel De Allende and finally Irapuato. Theoretically, we could have driven out and seen our film in the three different locations, but that would have been, shall we say, over-doing it. In San Miguel, our film was showing on a Monday evening in this building that had a few lives before becoming a cultural center named after a fellow with the nickname “El Nigromante.” As a writer, poet, journalist, lawyer, and politician Juan Ignacio Paulino Ramírez Calzada was an important voice in the shaping of Mexico...

I went off to and came back from Mexico City without much of any fanfare.  You didn't notice, did you? I thought I could just tag along on for a music event . Just slip away for a bit. Because what urgent things rest on my aching neck? More than I thought...  It was supposed to be a little vacation for me; a little time away. But when I came back from wandering through the green and previously earthquake shaken streets of Mexico City, I was hit with a suddenly urgent to-do list. After a month of suspended animation I was called into all this action. So the supposed rest and relaxation I accrued went straight out the window.  Between the things I am trying to do for myself, preparation for a big show coming up, and actual paying work- oh and my health issues, I am no blissful, carefree specimen over here. Yeah so, my health remains questionable. I after all I have been through, I developed a 'silent' tooth infection. There was no pain because I had had...

Wednesday I went to Tijuana and then across into San Diego. I didn't exactly know it at the time, but it turns out that was the last time I'll be making the crossing for at least a month. The border will be closed to 'non-essential' travel by midnight Friday- today. It seemed like there were too many people outside even though it was pishing doon off and on all day. And, oh, there is supposed to be this highly contagious, potentially deadly virus going around. It was like folks were furiously trying to pretend nothing different is happening in their little end of the world. The rain has been abundant recently, so at one point the car had to turn around and get on the toll road because of flooding. The border crossing took about 40 minutes. Not a long time, but not that quick either. The wet US roadways buzzed and hissed with drivers also desperately pretending nothing is changed; the pretending was so hardcore that there was a two car smash up on the fre...

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...

Before I came down with a cold for my birthday, I took a day trip- no, this was  definitely a road trip- out to Mexicali. Why? I hadn't been there! And I had a chance to go. Simple enough.  What I knew about this city was hearsay: the only thing you can do in Mexicali is be hot, drink beer to not be so hot, but end up just being drunk and hot. And eat famously good Chinese food. Stopping at a Starbucks in the city to use the toilet and the wifi,  (my dudes, that is all Starbucks actually exist for in this dimention)  I did notice a distinct spike in the number Chinese/Chinese-Mexican people in the coffee shop. There had better be amazing Chinese food around here then, right? And did I even try any comida china? HA! Of course not! Why, would I EVER do that?!  I opted for a vegan place . (It was Asian fusion food, ok?!) The atmosphere was a little weird because they were in the middle of moving locations, but the food w...

{outside of Tipitina's there was this communal work of art: a staple and flyer encrusted telephone pole} I am still processing what I experienced in New Orleans. And I'm jet / time change - lagged. So I'm not really processing. I'm just tired and coffee compensation is giving me a headache. Maybe I am trying not to get a cold. Hugo and I were in New Orleans for one week (only one week!) and it was the best trip we could have hoped for: the city was celebrating Halloween, the weather was like New England summer time, food and drink were deliciously bountiful, rest was attainable, music was everywhere, and yes one could get their work done. I am so thankful that the Mexican consulate was able to arrange for us to stay at the Joan Mitchel Center . This is a note for artists especially: Check this place out! If you find a way to utilized this space, do so! It is a piece of artist heaven in the middle of Treme. My mouth was hanging open just a bit when we shown a...

{ Familial feet } Blog's been quiet for a while now. I'm sure by now all six  seven  of you subscribed readers are desperate and foaming at the mouth to have another precious gem of a 'me' filtered blog entry. (Can you even imagine the layers of embittered sarcasm in the tones of that sentence? Probably not. But no matter.) I'm still coming back to myself. Been traveling. Been sick. Been working. For a while, I purposely walked away from my self imposed obligation to write, doodle, dance, be creative in any way, or actively absorb anything to feed my creativity. I needed to step out of the conference room in my head wherein every one of my creative and (practical parts too) have been basically drinking lots of coffee and yelling at one another, and me; and nothing is getting done. Reboot. { Eastern water } Thanks to random turns of events, I found myself in tranquility on Martha's Vineyard, then surrounded by family on the Massachusetts mainlan...

It was our last day to get out and see Madrid. So what had to happen? {Shoes and wet pavement.} A pollen nastied wind kick up all of the histamines of the city and threw them in my face; all up in my mucus membranes. As soon as we left the hotel, I was miserable. I should have been excited, but all of Madrid went up my nose and I was horrified at the thought of getting sick outside my usual realms. I did that once in Derby, England and I swear my sinuses (even my ears) have not been right ever since. To this day, I curse that place for my succumbing to illness during that long, chilled night waiting for the stupid East Midland train . So this vile Spanish wind was bringing a storm front with it. After weeks of sun and hot weather, it finally rained. A passing shower, really. We hung around outside eating lunch to let ourselves get get caught in it. When it got too heavy, we did the city thing and stood under the nearest welcoming over hang until the clouds thinned. This kind...

The usual Newport Beach weather. The Newport Beach weather after Magarios on opposite ends of the continent talk about how there has been too much rain in the North East. {Yes,   +Mom , a fog rolled in a few hours after that phone conversation.}

So here I am, landed in the depths of the Brooklyn and sitting in an oven apartment of my herbal wizard friend Irena getting my strength and wits back to myself from travels and sleep deprivations and sundry other woahs. I don't feel culture shock, at least. I will save that for L.A. ;) I still want to sleep. One clock says 2:40. The other says 11:40.  All of me says it must be 4:00 am somewhere and all good children are fast asleep r.e.m-ing it up for a full, productive day outside of dreamland. I am caught of the border of wake and sleep. Do I trust myself to wander Brooklyn alone? In daylight?! Erm.. I think I will wait till later- when the sun is lower. It is too hot too early here and I have not felt this kind of heat in a long time; whether it be artificial or natural. This is a treat to be so uncomfortable in heat for a time. Then I can go back to Rosarito Beach at sunset and welcome to cool air of the great Pacific with more appreciation. The body and mind needs changes...

The gorgeous weather couldn't last (as I knew it wouldn't) so  today  t he weather is crappy and my planned trip across the boarder has been delayed. I have been waiting  two weeks or so for this jaunt; apparently, looks like it will have to wait even longer- til Monday... Hum. In the meanwhile, let me tell you about Chapultepec. Fuimos caminando en las Lomas de Chapultepec y es mejor caminar allí que en las Lomas de Beverly. Esta es mi opinion, por su puesto. On two different occasions, my Human and I have been able to celebrate  a few days of some early Spring/Summer weather by taking hardcore strolls through the  more ritzy parts of Tijuana. This particular area of the city was where all the gangster related violence was happening a few years ago. But that isn't why the strolls are hardcore. Now, there is a quiet in the hills, fresh air, pizza bike deliveries, construction crews remodeling homes and folks in veh...

This is the first week I have been in Rosarito wherein I am not wearing 5 layers of clothing to keep warm while sitting at the computer. Have any of you in the depths of winter in the north been dealing with such things? Probably not. You all have hissing, pinging, clanging, wonderful radiators in every room with a magic thermostat that gives you the power to make your home the Sahara desert at your command, if it suited you. Since the space heater fried a couple weeks back, I haven't even have that for relief. So it has been quite difficult to sit still and think about/deal with 1st world problems. I have already done my share of shivering when I lived in a 1953 bread truck in Brooklyn through all the seasons (ALL of them), but it was dead easy to find a warm (hot even) spot somewhere to sit for a while.  I learned that, for delicate, bloodless me, mid to low forties was bearable, but just barely. I knew I wouldn't die in that sort of weather, but it was not very comfortab...