My friend kateyule died this afternoon after struggling with brain cancer. Kate and I have known each other 20+ years and were very close the last ten or so. We shared a lot of things--art and craft and books and some very personal things. She was funny and very smart, very practical and creative. Kate and her husband davidlevine and I went to Disney World together, ( Read more... )

Recently, in a locked post (that will remain locked), I observed that we live in a touch-stingy society, and how when I've been alone for long periods of time, I get touch hungry. I wasn't talking about missing sex (though I'd be lying if I said I didn't). I was talking about missing physical contact with other human beings. I am naturally ( Read more... )

Back to workWent back to work yesterday via telecommute. I had three weeks of email to catch up on. It's hard to read three weeks of email and not be able to do anything about what's already happened. I wanted to butt into every thread and yell, "No! That's wrong!" But not having been there, things went on without me as one would expect. I don't ( Read more... )

So there I was at the office on a Thursday morning. Suddenly I became nauseated. My head began to hurt like hell. I had the dry heaves. I headed home. That was Thursday, July 28. I haven't been back to the office--or pretty much anywhere except the hospital--since then ( Read more... )

Saturday morning, we got up, packed our bags, had breakfast, and prepared to be picked up by our driver, Donal Moyhnihan, who was to be our guide for the next 8 days. We had no idea what to expect. The person who arrived was probably somewhere between my and Elizabeth’s ages, a tall, very slim man with lines on his face, a head of thinning, graying ( Read more... )

We had lunch on Friday at a pub called O’Neill’s just outside of Trinity College. The place had a sign out front that said, “Good times are coming, no matter how far away.” I took that as a good sign. I had the beef and Guinness stew. The respite was needed; we’d been on our feet a while, and it was nice to sit and eat and mull over the exhibit ( Read more... )

We woke ridiculously early, around 4 AM-thank you, jetlag-to the raucous sound of seagulls mobbing above the rooftops. When we went to bed, we had left the windows open for the air, and the curtains open mainly because we were so tired after our epic journey that it didn’t occur to us to close them. What this means is that we were assaulted by ( Read more... )

Not: this was written when I was extremely tired. Expect no poetry, just chronological exposition ( Read more... )

I've been sick the last couple of days, and last night I had what felt like a significant dream. The sensation was powerful ( Read more... )

You can see trailers for the movies I'm discussing here at the links included. More film reviews to come.

Tanna is a fascinating project. Set and shot entirely on the island of Vanuatu by two directors who have previously specialized in documentary film, and cast with natives who have never even seen a movie, it tells a sort of Romeo-and-Juliet ( Read more... )