Things I am looking forward to...

Tribeca Schedule:

Tuesday, May 1, 2007
3:00 p.m. – Kenna
3:40 p.m. – Yerba Buena
4:20 p.m. – Rhett Miller
5:00 p.m. – Glen Hansard
5:40 p.m. – Jimmy Webb

Wednesday, May 2, 2007
3:00 p.m. – Alice Smith
3:40 p.m. – Martha Wainwright
4:20 p.m. – Mary Gauthier
5:00 p.m. – Glen Hansard
5:40 p.m. – Donovan

Thursday, May 3, 2007
3:00 p.m. – Jon Doe & Exene of "x"
3:40 p.m. – Matt White
4:20 p.m. – Jon Auer
5:00 p.m. – Donovan

Friday, May 4, 2007
3:00 p.m. - Ben Lee
3:40 p.m. – The Slip
4:20 p.m. – Jon Auer
5:00 p.m. – Adam Schlesinger & Mike Viola
5:40 p.m. – Goo Goo Dolls

"The Tribeca/ASCAP Music Lounge is located at Canal Room, 285 West Broadway at Canal Street. The lounge is open to credentialed Festival filmmakers and select badge holders May 1 - 4 and features four to five artists daily. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. daily, with performances beginning at 3:00 p.m. "

Marc Chagall "birthday"

Just because I think it's pretty.

Meat is murder?

I’ve been getting a little more color now that I’ve been taking Iron pills and eating things rich in iron. My vegetarian friend said that when she was told she was very anemic she just ate a ton of beef jerky for a few weeks. I decided it could not hurt to try (and it could not be that bad if I got the blessing of a veggie, right?)
Even though I can’t remember the last time I actually tried to eat beef jerky, I went out and bought a few different styles and flavors. Mild, spicy, teriyaki, thin sliced, thick sliced, cubed, shredded, in the shape of a stick… you get the idea.
I was really starting to feel like a carnivore again. I always tell people that I could never be a Vegetarian after growing up in Michigan and Alaska because those are both places that most people drive trucks and those trucks have gun racks and those guns are used for shooting things that people eat. I’ve eaten my fair share of gamey tasting meats. I’ve had it all; from Moose meat in my spaghetti sauce to bear burgers to venison jerky and I can honestly say I don’t care for any of it. I’m not even the world’s biggest fan of cow, but at least with that it doesn’t have the gamey aftertaste. (Must be all of the delicious hormones?)
So here I am snacking away on this dried and salted cow thinking of how I come from a long line of hunters but I know I could never kill something unless it was a kill or be killed type scenario.
I thought of my little fury pets and their wide, fearless eyes when they look up at me and how very attached I am to each of them. I thought of all of the beautiful wild animals I’ve been *thisclose* to in my life thanks to my Alaskan upbringing and how I saw nothing but a perfect Zen peace when I looked in their eyes. And as I am chewing away on my stick of meat I am wondering why I am not a Vegetarian.
This lead me to rereading an article that was written in the paper I work for by a writer named Brendan Kiley. The article is called Urban Hunt.
When it was first described to me in a sales meeting before it came out, I have to admit, I was a little grossed out by the idea.
I thought, “OK, I know we do a lot to be on the cutting edge and all of that, but now we are killing cute fuzzy bunnies just for a story? Isn’t that just taking it a tad too far?”
I decided that I probably wasn’t going to read the article and just try to forget I ever heard about it. But then this issue came out, and my curiosity got the better of me and I had to read it. I found myself completely engrossed after the first few paragraphs.
I’ll admit that the bunny in the bathtub scene will give me nightmares, but how he described the emotions that followed, how he tied in the death of his ex-girlfriends father, some news about his mother, and how he honestly portrayed what it means to kill something made this article something that was actually really beautiful and sad and left me thinking about things for a long time when I was finished reading it.
It didn’t leave me enraged about dead bunnies like I had anticipated, it left me thinking about when I sat and watched my Grandfather die, and all of my friends I have lost over the years, and just how short and precious life is, and what it means to have the power to take the life of something, and the circle of life, and the food chain, and how it all ties together. At the end of the day, I’m really happy he wrote it because of the things it made me contemplate and what it made me remember.

As for me, I don’t know that I will ever be a vegetarian, but I do know that I won’t ever hunt for fun, or eat things that are gamey. And when I do feast on the flesh of animals I might just take a moment to thank the animal who gave his life so I could enjoy a nice Chicken Masala or a handful of Teriyaki jerky.


Meat is Murder
-The Smiths

Heifer whines could be human cries
Closer comes the screaming knife
This beautiful creature must die
This beautiful creature must die
A death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER

And the flesh you so fancifully fry
Is not succulent, tasty or kind
It's death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER

And the calf that you carve with a smile
Is MURDER
And the turkey you festively slice
Is MURDER
Do you know how animals die ?

Kitchen aromas aren't very homely
It's not "comforting", cheery or kind
It's sizzling blood and the unholy stench
Of MURDER

It's not "natural", "normal" or kind
The flesh you so fancifully fry
The meat in your mouth
As you savour the flavour
Of MURDER

NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
Oh ... and who hears when animals cry ?

A few of my favorite things...

The girls and I were having a day of beauty this weekend and we got to talking about our favorite products. The standards that we always use and would be broken hearted if they suddenly stopped selling them. I decided I would compile a list of mine on here. It took me years of trial and error and drawers full of hardly used drug store buys until I found these perfect products.

Here is my girly list of favorite things in no particular order (A lot of the Lush products are boy friendly as well!)

Bare Minerals Makeup. It took me years to find the perfect make-up. I've tried it all and none of it worked like I wanted it to. It either looked too fake or felt too thick or made me break out. Then one day I saw an infomercial and thought "Why not? I've tried everything else." and I bought it, used it, and have never looked back. It changed my skin for the better. I don't even need to visit my Dermatologist anymore! I've since turned several of my girlfriends on to this amazing stuff and they have all fallen in love with it like I did. This is the first product I've ever used where I wanted to write a letter to the company thanking them for inventing it.

Afterlife by Lush: It is amazing lotion for my face and neck. I use it every morning and every evening. I'm entering my mid 30's and don't have any crinkles yet. I guess it must be doing it's job!

Lay It On Thick by true blue spa- I use this on my hands and feet before bed. I combine it with moisture gloves & footies by Victoria's Secret. I wear a lot of impossibly high heels that tear up my feet and I work in an office where I use a lot of hand sanitizer to avoid the bugs that tend to get passed around offices that dry out my hands. This treatment for my hands and feet is a heavenly indulgence that keeps them soft and smooth!

BedHead After Party and Superstar are my two hair styling standards. I have a lot of hair and this combo gives it great volume as well as leaves it silky soft and smelling yummy!

My fragrance, body soaps, powder and lotions are all Karma by Lush.

Face cleanser is Coalface by Lush.

Around my eyes and lips I use Creme de la Mer. It is really expensive so I use it very sparingly.

No Brain Scans needed!

I got my results back from the doctor and he says no brain scans needed. It turns out I am Anemic after all. This explains why recently my lips were starting to match the color of the rest of my face. I mean, I appreciate a nice Goth glow, but it was getting kind of out of hand. I was so ghostly on Thursday afternoon I scared myself a little when I passed the mirror and people kept asking if I was feeling OK.

But, I have to ask, is it wrong that when I was going to the store to pick up my iron pills for my anemia that I HAD to listen to Bauhaus: Bela Lugosi's Dead on repeat there and back?

I guess there really is a song for everything.

Bela Lugosi's Dead
White on white translucent black capes
Back on the rack
Bela Lugosi's dead
The bats have left the bell tower
The victims have been bled
Red velvet lines the black box
Bela Lugosi's dead
Undead undead undead
The virginal brides file past his tomb
Strewn with time's dead flowers
Bereft in deathly bloom
Alone in a darkened room
The count
Bela Logosi's dead
Undead undead undead

To whom it may concern: It is springtime. It is late afternoon.

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.
-Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007

Easter weekend update...

We started the weekend with a little rock. Jon, Dustin, Gavin and I decided to hit Ye ol' Crocodile cafe to catch Robyn Hitchcock & V3 with a little Sean Nelson & MNME opening. Sean looked a little nervous beforehand, but once he got on stage he got his groove on and it went really well. I was happy to hear live versions of songs I've only ever heard before on Myspace. That was certainly a treat.
RH was good. This show was a lot more mellow than the last time I saw him. I was thinking maybe they were dialing it back because they were conserving energy for the tour they were launching with that show? Or else it was just getting late. I still really enjoyed the show nonetheless. It was good enough that we actually discussed maybe seeing it again in Portland on Saturday for a minute. That was mostly because it was so beautiful out on Friday that if Saturday were the same it would have been perfect road trip weather. No such luck though. Saturday was kind of grey compared to the perfect summer day Friday had been.

Saturday morning we went down to the SakuraCon since my darling daughter really wanted to go. The line was nearly three hours long so I convinced her to go on Sunday instead when I knew it would be a lot less crowded.
That eve Jon and I went to see The Ego and The Oracle. This article describes what it is pretty well if you are not in the know. Basically *Andras Jones and a band are on stage with a box full of audience questions. A question is pulled at random from the box, a wheel is spun (much like the wheel of fortune wheel) that has song names on it. The answer is an interpretation of the song that is chosen at random. Andras is really great at interpreting positive things out of the random answers. It was a good time, and by the end of the show Jon had agreed to be the band for the oracle in June. I'm looking forward to it.
(*Random fact: Andras was also the guy who played little spiky haired hottie in the lesser known Nightmare on Elm Street 4. You know, the shoe in as the next Johnny Depp who had the big Karate scene with Freddy. I loved those movies so much back in the day.)

Sunday was a full day of SakuraCon. Lots of really great costumes and very devoted comic book fans. My favorite part had to be the two guys in line behind us at registration. They were doing the perfect impersonation of the comic book guy from The Simpsons while critiquing costumes of their fellow Con attendees. But the thing is, I don't think they were trying to impersonate him. If I could have recorded their conversation I would have. It was pure comedy.

"But, Aquaman, you cannot marry a woman without gills. You're from two different worlds... Oh, I've wasted my life. "

My little prodigy!

We got the new report card today! My girl's teacher says that she excels in every subject and she is way above grade level and she thinks that we should consider letting her skip a grade! It is an amazing report card. I am so proud of her!

She is a very cerebral kid, and I know she feels like school is too easy most of the time, but I worry that if I let her skip a grade she will go from being top dog to being small fry. In the long run giving her a lot more competition for possible scholarships and so on down the road.
And even though she is mentally mature enough for the harder work, how does that work emotionally? She is very mature, and wise beyond her years in a lot of ways, but I remember what a social nightmare school was and I'm not sure if she would be ready for all of that drama all at once. It is especially hard for girls and even harder for smart girls who are not boy crazy.

A lot to ponder for sure, but I could not be a prouder parent. :-)

I really am made of sugar and spice and will melt in the rain…

Disclaimer: I’m going to whine here. Stop reading if you don’t wanna hear it.

All last week I was feeling all oogy so I went to see my doctor on Thursday. He said that he thinks I might be a little anemic, so he took a bunch of blood and told me he would let me know next week.
Basically, what has been happening is my brain was not connecting with my words. I was thinking one thing and something totally different was coming out. It seemed like some kind of mild aphasia.
For example, when I was thinking “oatmeal” I said the word “coconut” and I kept forgetting things right as I was about to say them. It happened often enough and enough days in a row for me to know something is wrong. Anemia makes sense since I've lost so much weight recently, and it happened so fast. Probably just need some stronger vitamins or something.
He said if that is not the case then we will do a brain scan of some sort next. I’m hoping that it doesn’t come to that, because that doesn’t sound like fun at all. But if I do get my brain scanned I really want to keep copies of the pictures. I’m trying to figure out how I will be able to swing this. Even if they just let me take a photo of the screen that would be fine.
If anyone has any tips, let me know. How often do you get the chance to take photos of the inside of your head?

Yesterday I thought Fish and chips would be a good idea for lunch. It has been months since I have eaten anything deep fried. I didn’t think it would hurt. I was wrong!
About an hour after eating it, that familiar pain of glass churning in my gal bladder came back. It was horrible, and got progressively worse throughout the day.
I didn’t end up doing anything I had planned to do yesterday evening because I was pretty much laying in the bathtub contemplating walking over to the emergency room and telling them to just take it out already. Screw this whole natural health idea of cleansing my body and keeping my organs. That shit hurts!
I really thought it was going to explode on me. After getting a few minutes of on and off sleep in the bathtub I took some pain meds and got a heating pad and propped myself up on the couch. I found that if I sat up in a certain way it hurt a little less.
After watching the sun come up, I finally drifted off to sleep. At some point around noon, Jon woke up and found me out in the living room. He sent me to bed where I managed to sleep until about 2PM.
I woke up with the pain in my stomach much more manageable, but the pain in my head from not drinking coffee yet was pretty intense at that point. (When it rains it pours!)
I sent the kid to the café to grab some black tea since I thought coffee would be too harsh on my poor tummy and started my day.

I had promised to take her to go see that skating movie that is out. It is an SNL comedy thing. Can’t even remember what it is called right now. She seemed to like it, but I really didn’t like it at all. If the seats were more comfy at the theatre I would have probably slept through it. (I did try) Needless to say, I don’t recommend it, unless you are 12, or a stoner, or a man. Lots of obvious “haha” jokes if that makes any kind of sense.
Just not my thing, therefore I’m sure it will be a huge hit and massively successful.