Observations from the Window 1.16, Randomness

After careful thought I came to a conclusion tonight. If I ever give up on a career in art I'm going to language school to learn either Pashto or Punjabi and than I am going to get a taxi license. Last night I was in the mood for seafood so after the gallery I called a cab to run down to the South Street Seaport. Some of the best seafood in the city can be found at some little restaurants just outside the main part of the seaport, I guess you could say outside the tourist part. Did I mention they are cheaper too?

So when the cab picked me up I was on the phone and just muttered seaport to the driver. He knew what I meant but without an exact address he dropped me off outside Harbour Lights which is the most expensive restaurant in the area. He jumped out and opened the door for me, a nice touch, but than I saw him give a little wave to the doorman so I'm kind of thinking that he gets a diff kind of tip depending where he drops somebody off. This on top of tips which are on top of $35,000 a year. Export terrorists hell, Pakistan exports cabbies and they support whole tribes back home all on their own.

Earlier this week I managed to pass a new milestone in New York. I think it's safe to say that over the years I seem to have had more than my fair share of run ins with authority. It doesn't seem to matter where I happen to be living at the time, it's just a simple fact. But I have managed to keep a rather low profile since I moved to the Village, as low a profile as an almost six foot tall girl can anyway, but as karma would have it this too would come to an end.

I was in a subway station a couple days ago, minding my own business and taking a few shots as I always seem to be doing when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to face, I should say look down to, an NYPD officer who proceeded to ask if he could see my camera. Now you have to understand that nobody touches my camera and I wasn't about to hand it over to him. For all I knew he would get spooked by a track rat and drop it on the platform. Than he started to tell me that due to security measures adopted after 9/11 I wasn't allowed to take photos in the subway. I very politely told him bullshit.

Ever since I took some shots at ground zero about a month after the attack I make a point of knowing where I can and where I can't shoot. A ban was proposed years ago but was never adopted but he was hearing none of what I had to say because he said what I was doing was suspicious. Luckily just than a train pulled in and I quickly asked if I could go to which he said I should get home safe. As I stepped on the train I had no idea which train it was or where it was going but it seemed like a good idea to get the hell out of there.

Only me ....

Sirenia - The End Of It All

Observations

My primary resource on these things, the Urban Dictionary, defines hero as “Someone who helps without anything expected in return. Their gesture may be big or small, profound or not, it doesn't make im' any less of a hero.”

In his speech in Tucson tonight President Obama said “We are grateful for Daniel Hernandez, a volunteer in Gabby's office who ran through the chaos to minister to his boss, tending to her wounds to keep her alive. We are grateful for the men who tackled the gunman as he stopped to reload. We are grateful for a petite 61 year-old, Patricia Maisch, who wrestled away the killer's ammunition, undoubtedly saving some lives.”

And so I give you a hero ….



Complete text of President Obama's speech.

Observations from the Library 1.12

As much as I like to complain about it I have always liked snow and the winter. To prove my point I'll say I own two pairs of skis and two pairs of ice skates all of which are home at my dad's because one does not do winter in the city. At least that is what I thought until now. I'm either in a better mood since the holidays are past or I’m just resigned to this being one of those snowy winters because I didn't mind at all the coming of the second big nor'easter of the winter. Actually I was more than a little excited as I watched the storm start.

Last night I sat in the window watching the first flakes fall and I came to a decision. No matter how much snow fell overnight today was going to be a snow day and I wasn't going to let work get in the way of it. I even had a plan for the day because somebody had told me of a shop near Central Park that rents cross country skis. Now I may have cross country skied all of one time in my life but I was ready to give looking like a tall dark leather clad fool my best shot. Only problem was the store was closed so I had to move quickly to plan b, whatever that was going to be.

My winter exercises of choice have always been ice skating and ice hockey but I have notoriously weak ankles so I have to wear hockey skates for the extra support and many public rinks don’t rent hockey skates. As I wandered through Central Park I was dreaming of my oh so far away CCM skates when I happened to start talking to somebody and skates came up. Not long after I found myself the proud renter of a pair of well worn hockey skates and in search of ice to skate on.

I headed to Bryant Park because at Citi Pond it is free to skate and I had my camera with me and knew that lockers there were also free. How do they make any money? I didn't say locks were free I just said the lockers were but I'm smart enough to carry a lock in my backpack. When you carry a camera around all the time you never know when you might need one, just like with a bike. After a couple hours on skates, and a slightly bruised butt, I wandered into the library to check in. Than I can do some 'work' I need to do and still be able to skate again later. Skate until I have to head home or until my legs and ass scream for mercy, whichever comes first.

Even though we got another foot of snow dumped on us the storm wasn't nearly as bad as the last one. I do feel for the people of Connecticut, Boston, and the rest of New England where as of now they have gotten up to thirty new inches. Still for me it turned out to be a pretty good snow day. I got out in the air, I got to skate, and I wrote this instead of the gun control or Sara Palin posts I had been thinking about.

All in due time.

White Lies - Farewell To The Fairground

Observations from the Window 1.10

I don't know if I had ever heard of Gabrielle Giffords before Saturday afternoon but the first tweet I saw made sure I would never forget the congresswoman from Arizona, it told me she was dead. Thankfully within minutes I heard that she was still alive but I also learned that a federal judge was dead, that a nine year old girl was dead*, and that three others were also dead. It seemed as if this country had again reached a turning point but the direction of that turn remains to be seen.

My heart goes out to Ms. Giffords, to all the victims, and to their families. Personally I see no reason to blame anybody for this tragedy other than the madman that pulled the trigger. Still some things do seem clear and one of those things is the fact that sadly I wasn't the least bit surprised that this had happened.

When so self styled leaders begin placing 'targets' on their opponents and their supporters carry guns to political rallies the thought of actually using those same weapons can't be far behind. In the end it doesn't matter if it was planned or if it was just some lone madman whose time for glory had come. When fear is used as the political weapon of choice those who use it have to be held partially responsible for the consequences of its use. Second amendment solutions, cross-hair covered maps, and violent rhetoric have no place in our politics because they created the environment in which that madman could pick up his gun and finally pull the trigger. Ultimately words do have far reaching consequences and always have.

George Santayana said "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and this is as true of politics as anything else. Hopefully this nation learned something from that beloved decade that baby boomers seem to always crave a return to.

A more apt name would be the bloody sixties.

*The girl was Christina Taylor Green, granddaughter of former Philadelphia Phillies manager Dallas Green.

Observations on Art 1.10

The confusion that is my mind. Painting versus photography, abstract versus realism. it seems to be a never ending debate between my still living brain cells.

I don't paint to create a style of my own, what I do is paint from the heart to share what I feel. I paint for myself and don't really expect anybody to understand it. When I paint I don't think about how somebody will feel about it unless I am actually doing it for somebody.
I just love the feel and the smell of the paints to the point that sometimes I just like to push the oils around with my fingers like a child playing with water paints.

Photography is so totally different to me because it has that instant gratification aspect to it. I love taking a hundred shots and than go picking through them looking for that one shot, the one that says everything I was trying to say.
I care more what people think of my photos. I want to know their feelings, their opinions, and what it makes them think. Yet I spend so much less time on photo than I do on a painting while I'm stressing about them more.

Because of this blog sometimes I write down thoughts that I think I might want to expand on later. Towards the end of last year I wrote 'I need to be more a participant and less an observer' in the world around me. Not that I expect myself to start playing chess in WSP but I feel like I need to open up to everything more. Than Friday night I was at a party and fell into the usual sit back and take it all in routine and realized that I am what I am. I like being the observer, i like sitting back and taking it all in. It's just what I do.

The dilemma is how best to share what I take in. Painting or photography ....

The Church - Under The Milky Way

Observations

I had written an art post at the gallery today but after today's events in Arizona I thought I would just post a transcript of Keith Olbermann's special comment tonight. i don't think anybody could have said it any better ....

"Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. We need to put the guns down. Just as importantly we need to put the gun metaphors away and permanently.

Left, right, middle - politicians and citizens - sane and insane. This morning in Arizona, this age in which this country would accept "targeting" of political opponents and putting bullseyes over their faces and of the dangerous blurring between political rallies and gun shows, ended.

This morning in Arizona, this time of the ever-escalating, borderline-ecstatic invocation of violence in fact or in fantasy in our political discourse, closed. It is essential tonight not to demand revenge, but to demand justice; to insist not upon payback against those politicians and commentators who have so irresponsibly brought us to this time of domestic terrorism, but to work to change the minds of them and their supporters - or if those minds tonight are too closed, or if those minds tonight are too unmoved, or if those minds tonight are too triumphant, to make sure by peaceful means that those politicians and commentators and supporters have no further place in our system of government.

If Sarah Palin, whose website put and today scrubbed bullseye targets on 20 Representatives including Gabby Giffords, does not repudiate her own part in amplifying violence and violent imagery in politics, she must be dismissed from politics - she must be repudiated by the members of her own party, and if they fail to do so, each one of them must be judged to have silently defended this tactic that today proved so awfully foretelling, and they must in turn be dismissed by the responsible members of their own party.

If Jesse Kelly, whose campaign against Congresswoman Giffords included an event in which he encouraged his supporters to join him firing machine guns, does not repudiate this, and does not admit that even if it was solely indirectly, or solely coincidentally, it contributed to the black cloud of violence that has enveloped our politics, he must be repudiated by Arizona's Republican Party.

If Congressman Allen West, who during his successful campaign told his supporters that they should make his opponent afraid to come out of his home, does not repudiate those remarks and all other suggestions of violence and forced fear, he should be repudiated by his constituents and the Republican Congressional Caucus.

If Sharron Angle, who spoke of "Second Amendment solutions," does not repudiate that remark and urge her supporters to think anew of the terrible reality of what her words implied, she must be repudiated by her supporters in Nevada.

If the Tea Party leaders who took out of context a Jefferson quote about blood and tyranny and the tree of liberty do not understand - do not understand tonight, now what that really means, and these leaders do not tell their followers to abhor violence and all threat of violence, then those Tea Party leaders must be repudiated by the Republican Party.

If Glenn Beck, who obsesses nearly as strangely as Mr. Loughner did about gold and debt and who wistfully joked about killing Michael Moore, and Bill O'Reilly, who blithely repeated "Tiller the Killer" until the phrase was burned into the minds of his viewers, do not begin their next broadcasts with solemn apologies for ever turning to the death-fantasies and the dreams of bloodlust, for ever having provided just the oxygen to those deep in madness to whom violence is an acceptable solution, then those commentators and the others must be repudiated by their viewers, and by all politicians, and by sponsors, and by the networks that employ them.

And if those of us considered to be "on the left" do not re-dedicate ourselves to our vigilance to eliminate all our own suggestions of violence - how ever inadvertent they might have been then we too deserve the repudiation of the more sober and peaceful of our politicians and our viewers and our networks.

Here, once, in a clumsy metaphor, I made such an unintended statement about the candidacy of then-Senator Clinton. It sounded as if it was a call to physical violence. It was wrong, then. It is even more wrong tonight. I apologize for it again, and I urge politicians and commentators and citizens of every political conviction to use my comment as a means to recognize the insidiousness of violent imagery, that if it can go so easily slip into the comments of one as opposed to violence as me, how easily, how pervasively, how disastrously can it slip into the already-violent or deranged mind?

For tonight we stand at one of the clichéd crossroads of American history. Even if the alleged terrorist Jared Lee Loughner was merely shooting into a political crowd because he wanted to shoot into a political crowd, even if he somehow was unaware who was in the crowd, we have nevertheless for years been building up to a moment like this.

Assume the details are coincidence. The violence is not. The rhetoric has devolved and descended, past the ugly and past the threatening and past the fantastic and into the imminently murderous.

We will not return to the 1850s, when a pro-slavery Congressman nearly beat to death an anti-slavery Senator; when an anti-slavery madman cut to death with broadswords pro-slavery advocates.

We will not return to the 1960s, when with rationalizations of an insane desire for fame, or of hatred, or of political opposition, a President was assassinated and an ultra-Conservative would-be president was paralyzed, and a leader of peace was murdered on a balcony.
We will not.

Because tonight, what Mrs. Palin, and what Mr. Kelly, and what Congressman West, and what Ms. Angle, and what Mr. Beck, and what Mr. O'Reilly, and what you and I must understand, was that the man who fired today did not fire at a Democratic Congresswoman and her supporters.

He was not just a mad-man incited by a thousand daily temptations by slightly less-mad-men to do things they would not rationally condone.

He fired today into our liberty and our rights to live and to agree or disagree in safety and in freedom from fear that our support or opposition will cost us our lives or our health or our sense of safety. The bullseye might just as well have been on Mrs. Palin, or Mr. Kelly, or you, or me. The wrong, the horror, would have been - could still be just as real and just as unacceptable.

At a time of such urgency and impact, we as Americans - conservative or liberal - should pour our hearts and souls into politics. We should not - none of us, not Gabby Giffords and not any Conservative - ever have to pour our blood. And every politician and commentator who hints otherwise, or worse still stays silent now, should have no place in our political system, and should be denied that place, not by violence, but by being shunned and ignored.

It is a simple pledge, it is to the point, and it is essential that every American politician and commentator and activist and partisan take it and take it now, I say it first, and freely:

Violence, or the threat of violence, has no place in our Democracy, and I apologize for and repudiate any act or any thing in my past that may have even inadvertently encouraged violence. Because for whatever else each of us may be, we all are Americans."

link

Observations from the Window 1.6

A couple of days ago Ash and I went to a sort of meeting after work. The who or why of the meeting isn't very important but the where I found intriguing. We had dinner at this little lesbian bar that is only a couple blocks from the gallery. I had passed it many times before but had never stepped inside because it looks like a dive from the outside and I had no idea what to expect. Now I have to be honest here and say that yes i have been in lesbian bars before, maybe more than once, but never one like this.

(Suddenly I feel as if every male reader I have just left the room.)

It was just so different than any i have been in before. You enter the bar up a steep flight of steps that is just long enough to keep nosy NYU students from checking in. Once you are inside you find everything is a deep yet bright red in a style that reminds you of a bad movie version of the late Soviet empire. The walls, the leather bar chairs, even the matchbooks on the bar are red. So part of what makes it so different is the style.

But more than the style it was the people in the bar that gave it such an intriguing feel. Maybe having a theatre above it explained some of that but I'm not sure. The best way to explain it is this. The people in the bar totally reminded me of the corner bar I go to to watch sports with a major difference. Everybody inside was a lesbian, or pretending to be one for the night, and I never experienced that in this type of bar before.

As I sat chatting I started to compare the clientele here with other small bars and every role was here. The boyfriend, the girlfriend, the protector, the whore, the lawyer, and the working class person all in a mix of the glamorous, the sexy, the tomboy, and the butch. Honestly I never saw anything quite like it and for some reason it made me feel proud. The world may be changing but it was nice to see this little piece of it carved out of it for us. I may never set foot in the place again but it's nice to know it's there.

One thing I didn't find out till later was that the building is supposedly one of the most haunted spots in New York. Maybe that was where my strange feeling was coming from all along.

Observations from the Window 1.4

Now that the truths and holidays are gone I don’t know what to write so I think it is time to get back to writing whatever seems to be on mind. Off the top of my head is the fact that I look out the window the Village is just an ugly grey. This time of year the sun seems to take forever to reach into the canyons so the lighting is just a dull grey that matches the color of the snow now. It doesn’t make me want to jump out the door with a big smile on my face but a third cup of coffee might help with that. Well it can’t hurt.

Sometimes it’s amazing how you can find a lost love in a totally unexpected place. I have said before how much I love to read, how I used to devour books. I got away from that over the years not so much because I didn’t want to read but because I have my fingers in so many things I just didn’t have the time. Over Christmas I watched the movie “Angels and Demons” with my brother. Not a bad movie at all but not anywhere near as good as “The Da Vinci Code” however that doesn’t matter here. This past weekend I was home again and my dad had a copy of Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” sitting on a table. I picked it up just to occupy my mind and ended up reading all 700 pages in just a few days. I never would have looked at the book on Amazon or in a bookstore but I loved it, devoured it. Now I have no clue what to read but I really don’t want to let that feeling get away. I also have to figure out how I’m going to get this book back to my dad before he realizes it’s missing.

In a totally related matter Snooki’s book is being released today but “A Shore Thing” is one book I know I won’t be reading. Not even if somebody ties my down with my feet over a fire. If this isn’t a sign that the end of the world is upon us I have no idea what is. My New Years wish was for that the faux crystal ball holding her in Sea Side Heights to fall crashing to the beach. Not that I wanted to see her hurt but it would have been totally cool to see that ball rolling down the beach with her in it. From what I know about the Jersey shore I think I’m safe in saying the residents of SSH would have enjoyed it just as much as I would have.

Than there is Lady Gaga who tweeted a photo of her ass to accompany the announcement of the release date of her new album and I totally missed it. I even saw the tweet originally but didn’t look until I was asked about it by a friend. All I can say is if the album is anywhere near as sweet as her ass she has another hit. I can’t believe I just wrote that!

And so blog year two begins with a bundle of randomness that I doubt anybody wants to read but I have to start somewhere and I'm still trying to purge the truths from my brain. That and ESPN has yet to call so now I'm shooting for Michael Musto’s job at the Village Voice.

Life goes on ....

My Chemical Romance - Na Na Na

Happy New Year 1.1.11

I started this blog just over a year ago when I first moved to the Village. A friend of mine had suggested I start one as a sort of stress relief project. Years ago I had written in a journal for just that reason so it seemed like a good idea to me. At the time I had no idea that a year later I would be writing my 240th post. In fact if somebody would have told me that I would be I would have sworn they were as insane as I am. Still here I am doing just that.

So much has changed in the past year. In my life, the lives of my friends, my family, and the world I live in. Not the least of which is the fact that a year ago I was a very secretive person who held her emotions tight. Now, if you have been reading, you know as much about me as but few did a year ago. Always the enigma I do loath change yet I seem to thrive on it. I'm a creature of habit but also a person that is never truly satisfied and I constantly seem to be looking for something even if I'm not quite sure what it is.

Psykhe was the ancient Greek goddess of the soul whose story the saying 'wandering soul' is loosely derived from. In the end that might be the perfect description of me. I might be happy in the moment, and right now how could I not be, but deep down I am a wanderer. Time marches forever onward and with it my soul seems to wander on ahead always tugging me on to the next stop, wherever that might be. But I have a pretty good idea.

Bonne et heureuse nouvelle année à tous!

John Lennon - Imagine

This blog has been more fun than I ever dreamed it would be. In a perfect world somebody out there has enjoyed it as much as I have but truthfully I wouldn't know why. Yet if you have enjoyed it thanks so much for reading. Hopefully year two, another year of change, will be just as much fun as the last.

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

William Shakespeare
Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19–28

Observations from the Road 12.31

Literally from the road ....

New Years Eve and I am yet again on the bus but this time going home for Foxy. The garage where I keep her was finally plowed so with nothing better to do I decided to head home now which gives the added benefit of it keeping me out of trouble tonight. It was a totally good idea because the bus is almost empty so I can stretch out over two seats without acting like a bish first.

Anyways the only reason I'm writing this is because the bus has wifi and damnit I'm going to literally post this from the road. Post what? Post sports trivia, women's sports trivia to be more precise. I was reading an article about UConn's women's basketball team losing after 90 straight wins last night and it reminded me of the Penn State women's volleyball team losing after 109 straight wins. Than something suddenly dawned on me and I think I should be calling ESPN.

On April 6, 2008 the Stanford Cardinals women’s basketball team beat the UConn Huskies in the NCAA semifinals. Uconn went on to win 90 straight games before losing to the same Stanford team last night.

On September 15, 2007 the Stanford Cardinals women’s volleyball team beat the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Yale Classic. Penn State went on to win those 109 straight matches only to lose to the same Stanford Cardinals back in September.

There has to be a lesson to be learned in that somewhere but I have no idea what it would be other than damn those Cardinals. You reading this Sports Center?

Now one request. Have a few drinks and play this vid for me around midnight or whenever the hell you see this. If this doesn't make you jump nothing ever will.

KORN - Coming Undone, Acid Remix

Observations from the Snowpocalypse 12.29

The apocalypse in white is an apt description of the Village just days after the second 'great blizzard' of 2010. I suppose this is just our first because New York City itself was spared the worst of last winter's big storm. After two days of traveling, shoveling and wandering in the wasteland I am going to soak in a tub of hot water for as long as humanly possible. But first my thoughts from the snowpocalypse* ....

As I tried to get back to snow choked New York I quickly remembered something about long distance bus travel. I should never wear boots with any kind of heel at all because I'm too tall and even the two inch heels I had on made me feel cramped for space in no time at all. Also an MP3 player is an absolute must because you can put on the earbuds and zone out even if you aren't listening to anything. Just the mere appearance of the tall, cramped, zoned out dark bish is enough to keep people away, Sometimes it's just enough to get you two seats by yourself too.

A normal three hour bus trip stretched to four until I made it back. The city was a hodgepodge of stuck taxis, buses, and every other mode of transport imaginable. Only the ever present bicycle messengers seemed to be moving normally, albeit some were on mountain bikes. When I finally made it to our apartment building I found the entrance piled high with snow. Than at the gallery the sidewalk was in need of shoveling and I quickly decided that I should have stayed at my Dad's with Foxy. But shovel I did, from the gallery all the way to the liquor store up the street. After all I am no fool. I survived this back breaking labor relatively unscathed but for some sore muscles and a likely ruined pair of leather boots. Than again leather boots are never ruined to me, they just get worn with a diff outfit.

The one part of the city that does seem to have been cleared fast is Times Square. That is pretty easy to understand what with New Years Eve fast approaching. One doesn't want to worry about thousands of psycho snow ball wielding inebriated rubberneckers when terrorists are to be dealt with. And I'm sure the Mayor doesn't want to have this live TV quasi advertisement for the gleaming city disrupted either. How can Mayor Bloomberg expect to be President if he can't even get the snow cleared off the streets?

But I do have to say the city was beautiful when I got back, totally a disaster but still beautiful. Yesterday the snow was still a brilliant white in the Village and not the usual salt splattered grey you get used to seeing around here. The white snow under a clear blue sky just reminded me of the mountains, but not quite, somehow the towers don't remind me of trees.

After a day of shoveling and pretending the gallery was open I declared today a snow day and went exploring. Below is a link to some of what I found.

"the apocalypse in White" a set on flickr.

*Urban Dictionary: Snowpocalypse - A weather condition in which the amount of fallen snow, while not really such a big deal, wreaks havoc on a city, effectively shutting it down and leaving its citizens stunned and unable to see any sign of hope or a return to normalcy.

Observations from the Road 12.26

Christmas, nothing quite like Christmas. You have to love a day where it is perfectly acceptable to be drinking with the family before noon, I mean 11AM, oh it doesn't matter so never mind. It's almost like all day indoor tailgating with gifts with bonus of getting to shock the relatives just like on Thanksgiving. The first bottle of wine was finished twenty minutes after I opened it, that was not good. On the plus side I used a meat thermometer for the very first time and I'm so damn proud. Maybe if I ever give up on art I can open a diner, a kinda Goth diner coffee shop hangout kinda place. Guy Fieri could stop by and do a show.

But now back to reality, I woke up this morning and saw blizzard warnings had been issued for NYC. I think a blizzard warning is the NWS's way of saying 'you people are fucked' but they are too polite to say it. As the first flakes begin to fall here I'm keeping my eye on twitter to see what is going on up in the city. Evidently not much as I write this ....

@KeithOlbermann Not much to see here yet, Snowpocalyptically speaking. Still counting # of flakes not # of inches http://moby.to/x46ugo

But it does seem the dreaded snowpocalypse is back for a second year in a row. All I can think is what the hell? I don't remember New York getting hit with all these storms before I moved there but than I didn't pay much attention either. Now I seem to be trapped at my dad's for the time being because I totally refuse to take Foxy out in a blizzard. Actually I'm trying to talk my dad into parking his truck outside so I can use part of the garage to keep her clean and dry. I'm not getting anywhere with that and my best puppy dog eyes don't seem to work on him anymore. Personally I think he is just pissed off that the Eagles game has been postponed, as he said it's just snow.

So for now it looks like a day of eating, movies, and the last of the wine. But I might need more wine.

18:00 update - Watching the Weather Channel, that Samantha Mohr has an awesome hairstyle. Just sayin. Oh and it's still snowing ....

23:00 update - Ash says there is a foot of snow on the ground, more like on the sidewalk in the Village. No buses are running and the power is flickering, which happens to our old building when somebody sneezes hard. As for PA, buses to NYC are cancelled until 9AM and wine is running low ....

23:50 and final update - Foxy is spending the night in the garage, where puppy dog eyes fail tears never fail to do. Now I have to finish my porn discussion on twitter ....

My Christmas Wish

I wish I had woke up and seen a black Ferrari California in the front yard with a big pink bow around it. Yes pink! For the California I’ll even take a pink bow. I’ll be pissed but I’ll still take it.

But seriously, what would I wish upon that big Christmas star?

It sounds kind of lame but I wish we could all get along. I don’t mean agree because that is never going to happen, just get along would be good enough. There are too many damn probs in this little world of ours to argue about every damn thing.

It shouldn’t matter what color your skin is, what party you belong to, whether you are gay or lesbian, catholic or muslim, or believe in the spaghetti monster for christ’s sake. We just have this one little place we call home and it gets smaller every day. It would be so awesome if we all realized that because if we don’t one day soon the whole house of cards will come tumbling down around us and we all will all to blame.

So that is my Christmas wish. Look at that ahole next to you and say heyas and Merry Christmas. Than ask how they are, how their life is going, just talk.

Barring that the California will do just fine ....

Joyeux Noël

Thirty Days of Truths, Day 30

Tell yourself everything you love about yourself ....

Thirty days and this is all it comes down to? No shattering cosmic event to portend events in my future? This sucks! I love way I use the English language, that's what I love about myself. But seriously, everything I like about myself. Well some I have said before and some I haven't but here it is. Day 30 ....

I love my eyes because sometimes they are so dark they look black. And no I don’t wear colored contacts either so don't ask. They always looked so awesome on Goth Friday. I love being tall, I always have, and I like my body too. That's a good thing because with my metabolism it isn't going to change any time soon, besides I know it well. As much as I have a love/hate relationship with it I honestly do like my hair. I never have had short hair and have never really wanted it short, sorry to disappoint some. I love the way it looks wet and I love the way it looks straight but half the time it is neither, it's just a mess. I have a name for that look but I'll keep it to myself.

I love the way my mind works, the way I think and see the world around me. Actually there was a time I thought I was a bit insane until I was told I have four photopigments instead of the normal three, basically the opposite of color blindness. Who knew? As much as I know it can turn people off fast I love my arrogant personality. I also know it's just a cover but I like the softer side it is covering too. I care about things without really trying to, I just do.

But what I love the most about myself is the fact that I can create, I can show what I see. It's something I never like to talk about but I know I have a talent. I love to be able to see something in my mind and be able to share it. Whether sketching it, painting it, or just shooting it. It really doesn't matter to me, I just like to share. I like to be able to take my world and, however briefly, make it your world too. It's a good thing I can because along the way I have killed so many brain cells that, well, Walmart might have been the only other option.

It sounds a bit vain but I suppose what I love about myself is myself. When I look in the mirror I have few regrets. I'm just perfectly happy how I have turned out so far, except those days when I'm not ....

I’m just an enigma.

So there you have it, thirty ‘truths’ in a little over thirty days. I said I would finish it before Christmas and I do believe I have.
Merry Christmas everybody!

U2 - I Believe In Father Christmas