All LakeEffectors are cordially invited to the following performances:

Date Time Location Description
April 4th: 7 pm Brandeis University (Boston) Performance of "petit mort" by J.T.
April 5th 9 pm Tea House (Boston) Performances of works by Cage, Browne by Augenmusik
April 14th 8 pm Center for the Arts (Buffalo) Premiere of "RobotRockBand" by J.T. and Bill Sack
April 21st 8 pm Slee Concert Hall (Buffalo) Premiere of "hangnail" by J.T.
April 22nd 8 pm HallWalls Art Center (Buffalo) Performance of "petit mort" by J.T.

It's going to be a busy month, I wish you could all be a part of it.

I just finishing shooting with the camera. Zach - it'll be in the mail to you tomorrow.

I have the camera - and I'm last on the list before you Zach.
I'll try and get it done this weekend.

Hey, where's the camera? Didn't we start that goddamn project like 18 years ago? That camera's old enough to have baby cameras by now.

Sounds like everyone has lots going on right now. Angie, that's great about the 5K and Louise - about your class, I bet you're a great teacher. Zach - if you find anyway to cure the nerves, let me know, I turn into a human spazzball when nervous, unable to eat, unable to finish complete thought and sentences, in a state of perputual motion.
Anyway, work was sucky but it should be getting better soon. I'm getting two freelancers for my project.
I went out photographing this weekend and came back with some images I liked, though I find if I go too long without shooting, it takes a roll or two to get back into it. That I have to just shoot images to feel comfortable again. Do you other artists find that to be true?
Shelly - you'll be getting mail from me soon.
Upma - can I expect that DVD anytime soon?
And Mike, it sounds like spring has hit Boston. I hope it lasts.
JT - I like your butterfly message.

I am entirely too nervous to be around other human beings. Didn't I move to Monster Island for this very reason? Why exactly did I come back?

A Butterfly Storm:

I was talking to a friend about some of the recent discussions we had the other night chatting. Mainly about what seems to be a lack of effective yet civil protest. We discussed possibilities but never came up with any real new solutions. As the talking went on, she mentioned that they were giving a weather report for Iraq on the local news. I joked about having spring like arid war conditions but she mentioned that the sandstorms are actually severe enough that most military operations cease while the storms are in progress. Some of you may know this theory of the butterfly storm. That a butterfly in South America flapping its wings can create a ripple effect, a chain reaction that creates hurricanes and monsoons in other parts of the world, it's one aspect of what is referred to as stochastic theory. I came to the conclusion that the most effective protestors at the moment are these butterflies. I imagine one now, somewhere in Venuzula contemplating flight to another flower, just the right one that will create a sandstorm in the Kuwaiti/Iraqi desert. The ruefull gleam in it's eye, the tiniest of giggles as it ruins the great power plays of our time. I don't really want this to be an anecdote about how every little thing you do has a consequence but more just to imagine in some way that butterflies can stop a war, or at least deter it for some amount of time.

The show tonight was fantastic on just about every level. I'm so pleased with myself that I'm hard to be around.

The US doesn't answer to the UN. That's the end of the story. We can kill babies in Iraq, because we have the bombs to kill babies in Iraq. And nothing short of a full scale war between the US and the other UN countries will change that. The US has more than enough clout with the other countries of the region to force them into allowing use of their military bases for attacks on Iraq. The only reason the US is pretending to give a hot shit about what other UN countries think is because 1) it help reinforce the idea that we aren't going over there just because we're greedy, murderous motherfuckers (which we are) and 2) because the people of the US would prefer to believe that they aren't part of any bullying (which they are).

The last unjust, imperialist war the US fought lasted for 18 years. The Vietnam War was old enough to die for itself by the end. That's a cute way to look at it.

tonight i watched haley and dean simultaneously race with coat hangers to see who could break into mary's car faster to rescue her keys. dean had a head start, and is a mechanic. haley is from detroit.


haley won.
barely though.

Thanks everyone for all your nice words. I'm pretty excited about the website.
In other news, I got to hang out with Upma and her equally cool friend Maria today. We met up at one of the SXSW film venues and watched about four hours of movies together. Oh, Upma - I forgot to remind you to tell me that thing you couldn't tell me when we were sitting by those people in the second movie. Anyway, the first movie, Cinemania, about these five film fanatics who live in New York and who see up to seven movies a DAY was pretty good in a do I laugh or cringe sort of way, but it ran a bit long for my tastes. The second one was SEX: Female. And it was awesome. Hilariously good. It was a bunch of women just talking about sex, but it was so well done and well balanced and bittersweet and touching and laugh out loud at other parts. I left the theater with such a grin on my face. It got picked up by the Oxygen network so I'm glad more people will see it.
Tomorrow - free outdoor music shows and sunshine. It was great not being at work today. I also went a bit spring crazy and bought a bunch of flowers to plant. My balcony is a riot of orange and pink and red flowers now.

Wow, Stephanie. Your photos are beautiful. I love the low-motion stuff. Very nice. If you ever do something that you think might work in the context of our magazine (I have sent you some copies, right?), then let us know. We've done photo essays in the past. We're limited to B&W, of course. But, I think they've come out nicely.

Oh - I just realized some images are not loading - back to work on that.

It's up - check me out - http://www.stephaniefriedman.com - and give me any feedback you like - I plan on making changing and updates in the next few weeks.
whee!!

Upma - I emailed you my digits - give me a call sometime next week.

last night the art show opened. it was cool. the paintings are (i hope) sort of dreamy moody landscapes. there are buildings in them that people in seattle will recognize, but i didn't really try to make them very literal landscapes. i'm thinking of them as "dreamscapes." it is kind of weird, cause i never been interested in landscape AT ALL before living in seattle. i think part of it is about exploring and then becoming comfortable in a new place, especially because it is a place that i chose. the air here is dense and humid and often has a palpable mist, which appeals to me. it is similar to new orleans humidity but different. familiar and exotic. i like the way it makes colors look. plus i feel safe taking long walks alone, and i've certainly never lived anywhere before where that was the case. the other night i walked a good portion of the city from end to end. it was a walk full of synchronicity and magic. these walks give me space to think. i think i have a different relationship with the cityscape as a perpetual pedestrian, or something. maybe that is coming out in these dreamy cityscapes i'm painting. anyway, the show was interesting. lots of really varied works, like usual. it was interesting to see how other people chose to hang my works. i thought of the 5 as a group but they were hung in a group of 2 and 3 individually. it was interesting to see them that way because the one that had been my favorite in the grouping, i suddenly felt uncertain about it hanging solo. a lot of my friends came out to see it, way more than have ever come before. i felt really supported and loved. it was really nice. and 3 of the 5 paintings sold. to my friends, but still, sold. two sold to an artist whose work i really like. she has never complimented my stuff so it felt really nice to be appreciated by her, cause i really respect her opinion. and i have a space to hang all of them as a group. the two buyers so far are willing to wait to let them hang as a group at the end of this show, so if the other two don’t sell or the buyers are equally cool, i’ll have a mini solo show.

last night, i was up late talking on the phone after the show, and something weird happened. now, i have to preface this with the fact that i haven’t been getting a lot of sleep and i was still rushing on adrenaline. anyway i started seeing colored lights flashing back and forth across my dark living room. they looked a little like someone from across the courtyard was shaking a flashlight pointed through the window or someone was flashing lights over a distance with a mirror or some other reflective object. i let it happen for a few minutes thinking it was the little trailers of color that happen when you’re really sleepy, or if you rub your eyes too hard. but it was too rhythmic a pattern of movement for that. i thought, aliens? angels? hallucinations? i went over to the window and tried to peer through the semisheer curtains to see if someone was in the window. i saw movement, but without moving back the curtain i couldn’t tell if it was a person crouching there or a tree branch waving in the wind. there is a mentally ill man who lives in the apartment the light would have been coming from, if that is what it was. anyway, it kind of scared me. i moved out of that room but this morning i’m still totally unsure as to what happened. i’ve never taken any kind of hallucinogen, but i’ve had a few mildly tripy hallucinogenic types of experiences when i was in deep concentration on something. nothing like this has happened to me recently and never so randomly. i hope i didn’t have a stroke.

I swore I was going to talk to this girl the next time she came in the store. But, I didn't. Like a complete asshole I just sat there and looked around. What's wrong with me? How can I be so committed to working against myself? Should I always be on my team? I'm like my own arch-enemy.

Work, work, work. Since the layoffs no work processes have changed, the work amount has stayed the same, and the work force is halved.
Besides that grumpiness, the web page designing is a lot of fun. I've got the home page where I like it, now I'm trying to figure out the best way to show the images.
Shell - when are you going to put some of your art online?
Angie - I think I'm getting Dixie Chick tickets as well. I think they're pure fun.
Upma - I'm taking some days off work next week - let me know what your SXSW plans are.

this weekend i attended an all women's cabaret theater
it was pretty cool
um. i think i was networking at it or something though
today i operated on adrenaline not sleep.
5 paintings signed & delivered for display in a show this weekend.
i previewed them for a few people, and i think they may actually sell.
they're sort of landscapes that i'm thinking of as "dreamscapes"
i'm plesed with them, whether or not i get a buyer
also two more opportunities of places to show work have appeared in the last few days
then i had a long walk from one end of the city to the other, full of random magic and syncronicity
to the old Panama hotel teahouse for a lecture by artist kitemakers
then i watched black and white "killer shrews"
tomorrow night i help hang the show
tonight, i will sleep
oh, tonight i will sleep