Angie- that guy sounds like an awesome person. How shitty of the hospital to do that.
Alaska - it's Ted's family reunion, which I've been invited to. His aunt lives up there; she married an Inuit. It should be a lot of fun, gorgeous scenery, some hiking, kayaking, etc. I plan on taking 15 rolls of film with me.

I leave tomorrow for a week in Alaska. I'm a mixture of excitement and nervousness. It sounds like the Seattle crew had a fabulous visit. A visit on par with Soap Bubble Land.

This is my favortie paper that I've read at work. A sixth grader in Arkansas wrote this.

My friend Susie and I went to a trip to "Soap Land Galaxy." When we got there the planet had green, white, pink and blue soap suds for the ground and blue soap suds for the sky. Our shapeship, to the aliens, was very strange.

The aliens of soap land were made entirely out of bubbles. The so-called "huts" of these people were made out of different colored suds. After we were given a place to stay, we were invited to a banquet to meet the ambassador of soap land.

The banquet was glorious, all the tables were made out of ivory spring soap, the chairs were made out of lever 2000. For dinner we had the choice of eating Dove soap or fried chicken. We had only planned to stay in soap land for a week.

When our week was up we got in our starship (which was built for two). Susie asked me, "Can I stay here?" I asked, "What for?" Susie told me that she had fallen in love with the ambassasor. So, I said that she could stay if she wanted.

That afternoon, I ventured out in space by myself. I visited many planets such as the 70's galaxy. I went there because that is where my beloved husband was staying. The planet has disco lighting, Hippy Island and the ping-pong game sea. So, that's where I stayed for the rest of my life with my hippy children, disco husband and ping-pong parents.

From the Buffalo News

The buzz

"Strange bedfellows at UB's June in Buffalo new music festival – conservatively clad English pianist Ian Pace, and a page-turner who was obviously trying to make some kind of androgynous statement. The page turner, whose look was handsome but completely androgynous, wore a man's crisp white shirt and tie paired with a long wild skirt. This is why we love the avant garde. June in Buffalo continues through Saturday at Slee Hall"

Why must people go out of their way to misunderstand me? My Roommate moves out on Monday. The residency program will begin soon. Upma, if your friend needs a place to crash for a few days while she finds a place, the pillow room should be available. Feel free to give her contact info. All the immediate big projects are over. Now that I've gotten some things done, maybe I can get some things done. I am full of love tonight, which makes me very sad. The moon almost agrees looking in trough the fire escape.

Do you have the key that unlocks my heart?

i spent the better part of my freshman year of high school giving my locker combination to any passerby who'd unluck it for me. though there was nothing wrong with it, i simply could not unlock the damn thing. my first week was particularly hectic as it had me down in the office several times verifying that the combination was indeed correct. yep. you're just a dope. by the time i figured out how to work it, there was no point in locking it. i'd given the combination to everyone.

i was in a car accident. we get out exchange info. i walk to the phone. the car that hit me zooms away. i return to the car realizing that i've locked the keys in the car with the car running.

locked the keys in the car at the grocery store. locked the keys in the car dropping a friend off at a bar.
locked the keys in jacob's car when i was supposed to go meet him. had to call him and he drunkenly rode his bike over with spare keys. locked myself out of jacobs apartment with my car and apartment keys inside.
locked my keys in the car once twice in the same day.

i told this one on here already:my neighbors have five cats. the men who used to live in our place had three cats. they were accustomed to leaving the doors and windows open for all of the cats to come and go as they please. the remaining five cats seem to be mystified as to why my apartment is no longer part of their domain. they perch on my window ledge and look in and meow in the most adorable way. one accidently mistook a closed window for an open one and jumped into the glass with one thump then another as he hit the ground. he seemed to be ok. i was trying to clean up and unpack when i heard a thump behind me. another cat stood in the middle of my living room looking quite triumphant and proceeded to strut about. i tried to shoo him out of the front door before he could rub aginst any more of my furniture creating an atmoshere in which i can't breathe. he began to dart from room to room as i shut doors behind him finally rustling him outside again. i saw the mail had come and closed the door over as i went to get it since the cat still looked very intent on exploring my apartment. at that point i realized i was locked out. fortunately jacob doesn't work far away and i had shoes and somewhat presentable clothing on (excluding the broken straw cowboy hat). i'm sure that cat invited all the others back in my window and had a party while i was away.

these are just the ones i remember off the top of my head.

It was my birthday - the 20th one, I think. I was shooting a minor league baseball team in Indiana. I left to put my camera in the car because it had started raining. But I saw some kids playing baseball in the rain - I just grabbed my camera for a few last shots and by instinct, shut and locked the door (keys inside, of course).
I take my photos, get wet and head back to the team's offices.
"Hi, it's my birthday and I just locked my keys in the car and can I please use your phone and maybe do you have a towel cause I'm kind of dripping on your floor here"

at my place if you are not there in front of the washing amchine or dryer when the buzzer goes off, your stuff is fair game and is piled on top of the machine. too bad if it isn't dry or you had a load in the wash that you wanted to dry next. *bonus* you get to see what everyone else's underwear looks like.

as for bosses that make you feel crappy, if you can't say anything to them, find silent ways to aggravate them while still doing your job impeccably, let it fester silently, or look for another job. i'm working on the "fester silently" plan.

i lock myself out of things all the time. it doesn't mean you're an idiot; it means you're too busy thinking about important things to be bothered with such mundane trivialities (that is what i tell myself). turn the experience into a hilarious story and save it for your next social gathering. you'll make more friends you can hang out with the next time you're locked out.

Before you ask, I have no idea how this game works.

Here's our new group, Lake Effect . You are all invited to join. I have emailed you all the password.

click here to start the game.
click here to join our group.

Mike, I'm hooking up a character on rockstargame.com, but I don't know much about it. Can we start a band together?

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I had the best birthday ever. We had a work picnic that day at Zilker Park, so I spent most of my birthday afternoon swimming at Barton Springs Pool. So once you jump in the water, it is subarctic (it's spring-fed) Well, I decided to do some popular 80s dance moves to keep warm. Have you ever tried "The Running Man" underwater - it's so much easier. And moonwalking, and the robot. And that New Kids side to side thing. stephmo and I amused ourselves for at least 20 minutes with the dancing. Well, until I tried that holding your ankle, bent leg, pumping motion and almost drowned myself. That's when the fun ended.
Then it was on to Ted's for party preparations. Luckily the boy had done me proud. There were Christmas lights strung in the backyard. All the wine was set out of the table. I just had to put food in pretty bowls right before the guests arrived, chose the first CDs to play and we were pretty much set. Then a short dinner break to Romeo's where I proceeded to eat an entire head of roasted garlic on bread - but felt no ill effects.
And a short stop at my house for last minute items - and what should I see, spread out on my kitchen counter, but my gift from Ted. I got a plant (only feeding into my garden passion), some CDs and the best part - a charcoal drawing of his face - done by an artist in Times Square from his trip to New York City the previous weekend. Can you tell the camp factor was high. He's striking a serious pose - and I about fell to the ground laughing at it.
"You do know that it's a joke," he asked worried.
"Of course, I love it, and I get to keep it, right?'
I may have to build a little shrine with red candles and philosophy books in front of it.
And back to the party. I was dressed in a bright green striped top and blue polka-dotted skirt, orange bracelets, pink hat. But somehow it worked. Maybe it's the 80s Esprit influence. I think I should clash more often. Guests started to arrive. A popular party event was the Clash of the Titans coloring book I'd purchased on eBay. I didn't realize the hidden depths and artistic talents of my many friends. I want to scan in some of their masterpieces. Perhaps that will happen, if not I may have to hang them in my cube for prosperity.
More guests came - looking very cute in their clashing outfits - I received Elvis merchandise from Graceland, cute pompom socks, sunprint photo stuff, homemade earrings and headbands - all such good loot.
My friend Paul made carrot cake cupcakes from scratch. To say they were amazing is an understatement. In fact, they made such an impression, I had two girls the next day asking me "So tell me more about Paul"
Lots of red wine was drunk. Olives were consumed. More costumes showed up. We had a few punk rockers, a few in togas, but most people clashed. A prize was awarded to Andromeda - she got to take home the Clash of the Titans board game (eBay again) and a bottle of red wine. She looked more like a white magic Stevie Nicks but got the A+ for effort.
Guests stayed until 2am - then Ted and I stayed up til 3am cleaning.
I got the Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game - the instructions are more complicated than my old Physics class.
The next day was all about rest. And eating. And then getting dressed up for my friend Jessie's bithday party.
Then on Sunday, more resting, went to see The Bourne Identity, and headed to the gym.

So today's my birthday. I walked into my cube at work to find muffins, balloons and flowers. I'm all smiley. And we have a work picnic from 12 -4 today - I brought my bathing suit and plan on sneaking out early to do some swimming before working on preperations for the Clash of the Titans party tonight (I plan on dressing to clash). I hope everyone has most wonderful weekends.

Weezie - thank you, thank you. I can't wait to see those pages.
Upma - you are too a smartypants. What's going on at work?

Shell - that's really cool (to be quoted) and sucky (to be at that job).
Never had a veggie dog, so I'll refrain from that conversation.
Thanks (Louise and JT) for all the sewing tips. I looked for Patternless Fashions. I'd love to see a copy of it before buying it - cause I think I need a really dumbed down version of "this is sewing" before attempting any patterns or whatnot. My friend Erin is going to help be make thick headbands next week out of this cute fabric I had to get at work - red kimonos on one, green and blue shoes on another, purple stars on a third. I hope they turn out okay.
So has the camera been sent out yet?
Did you know that the word porcelein is named for a pig's vulva?
Have any of you guys ever been to Alaska?
I hate pop-up ads. (and this ends another non sequitar post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22603-2002Jun9.html

i'm quoted in the washington post today. know which one was me?

There's a place in Chapel Hill that has rad vegan chili dogs. We make pilgrimages to it every little bit. Your friend makes a good point, too, Angie. A vegan chili dogs has probably got more "normal" things in it than a regular one. You should try them. Hot dog are easily made vegan, because there so full of shit anyway, its not like you're tasting the meat.

Do pop-up ads ever sell anything to anybody?

It seems impossible but I have some sort of insomnia this evening. I say impossible because yesterday June in Buffalo concluded. My newly composed Brass Quintet and Percussion closed the festival, albeit at about 10:00 am on a Saturday morning. The festival was exhausting, going to bed at 1 am getting up for the next day at 7 am and going nonstop for most of the week. Overall I would say it was a success. I slept in a little today, went on a hike with a friend I haven't hung out with in a close to a year watched some videos created over the weekend in an intensive film-making weekend workshop at the squeaky wheel. I've been trying to sleep for a while, I should really be tired, I am really tired, but sweet sleep passes me by.

Upma, Tony Conrad has mentioned his son in passing a few times. Not very much about where he is or what he's doing now. I think he might be in New York or New England somewhere. I had a long conversation with Tony Conrad about multi-channel digital audio recently. He actually wanted my advice on what direction to go, or at least what the options were. He thinks 5.1 audio systems are the wave of the future partly because he remembers the transition from mono to stereo. He sees the exact same transition already happening from stereo to 5.1. Sorry I don't know more about Ted Conrad other than some anecdotes about him and his father getting thrown in Jail during some protests in the 80s.

Stephanie, the sewing book I have is the "Vogue Step by Step Guide to Sewing" it mostly involves basic techniques but doesn't necessarily have anything specific such as A line skirts. It deals more with different set-in sleeve techniques or pleat options etc... It's been useful for me.

Mulholland Drive. For several years now Lynch has been able to trick a great many people into thinking that they are watching narrative films. I see Mulholland Drive more as a series of narrative scenes that are in many ways unrelated, in other ways exactly the same, like variations. Don't forget that Mulholland Drive was originally scripted as a full season T.V. series until ABC dropped it. Even still the use of repeated objects and in this case an actress (which I think is the leap Lynch made with this film) creates an implied significance and narrative that otherwise wouldn't exist. Imagine having the task of writing a script of 15 vignettes in which you have a limited number of characters and objects. After these vignettes are written you add tenuous but acceptable transitions between each. This, I think, is what Lynch does but in such an effecient and skillful manner that the scenes blur into a whole, a perceived narrative, that is until a scene comes along that can no longer sustain the narrative chronolgy. Lynch banks on and in some ways suffers from the human desire or expectation for narrative (as this is the temporal form of human experience), especially in the movie theater. While some try desperately to explain the impossible, others give up totally. It's my impression that Lynch comes up with scenes and figures out ways to construct entire films around them, this could also be a bit of projection, because this is the way I compose.

For those of you bloggers who sew - do you recommend any books? I want to try an A-line skirt, and don't think I can do it without some instruction - in the form of a person, book or class. And I'll need to combat my aversion to ironing and master cutting in a straight line.
Have fun Seattle birds.

ahh fuck, dee dee...

SWEET!!! a photo comic book sounds awesome

I would like to sleep. I need sleep. But the sleep don't come.

YAY! YAY! i got the first submission to Convalescent Adolescent!!! Thanks Stephanie!!!

Friday night - ate two bowls of olives while drinking margaritas - then spent the rest of the night saying "Olive baby, olive baby" while rubbing my stomach
Saturday night - went to the Smartie Pants party for my friend who just got his Masters. Ate meat on sticks. Took a quiz on his scholastic background (sample questions - What was Paul's largest library fine in college? What was the name of the cutie he sat next to in French class? etc. Luckily it was multiple choice)
Went swimming on Saturday and Sunday. I love June.
Met my new downstairs neighbor. She just moved here from Hawaii.
Shell - let me know when you get what I mailed you.
I'm thinking about buying a bike. Any advice? It'll be mostly for getting around town.