wood chopping

rip trouble

I hear Trouble has passed away. RIP

http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2013/11/tia.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2013/07/deadmau5.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2013/04/remixed-media.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2013/04/sunday-afternoon.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2013/03/spring-break.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2013/02/its-three-am-i-just-left-my-phone-in.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2012/11/lap-warmer.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2012/11/lapcat.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2012/11/valerie-and-trouble.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2012/10/hurricane-comin.html
http://blomstringsfestival.blogspot.com/2012/10/hurricane-cabin-fever.html

alex mack

During the show's heyday, children who met Larisa Oleynik (and were too young to understand special effects) would often ask her to "morph" for them. Rather than try to explain things, she would quickly glance around, then tell them "Not here - everybody would see!".

chocolate rink

Mrs. Tuckersman and I did not end up going ice skating yesterday. We had sushi at Osaka and then went and ate chocolate cake and drank hot chocolates with espresso ('torinos') instead. And then we went and watched reality tv ('World's Fattest Man' and 'Prison Wives') and ordered Thai delivery instead. and then we went to a mostly-puppet variety show in Williamsburg. Great day.

birthday weeks

birthday with bagel: osteria mamma and harvard and stone
birthday party in la: masa and prince with lmo, lc, kat, rj, katya, john, bagel, candy, khenkel, cathy, max, steph, willis
birthday with family: belmont brewing co. with ma, pa, cliff, rosie, char, bagel
birthday day: st. felix with khenkel, cody
birthday party in ny: mominette, pine box and tandem with cerrito, aijia, rothy, sslover, sam, jay, vanessa, mike, dan, cvc, moe, weaver, colin
birthday tsukerma: is today! sushi, ice skating and more with mrs. tuckersman

what if instead of 26-year-old me at my birthday parties 10-year-old me and 16-year-old me were present instead? 

massage

Ma and I went to get hour-long massages yesterday in Lakewood. I love massages but I also find them to be horrifyingly intimate and spend most of the time in disbelief that they're happening to me. I wonder what they think of my body. My masseuse hovered over my body making very full, loud inhales and exhales. When her stomach grumbled, I wondered if she was hungry. 

ma: do i walk like a cripple?

me: no.

ma: THEN WHY DO I LOOK LIKE A CRIPPLE IN EVERY PICTURE YOU TAKE OF ME

bday gifties

катя and i went out to short stop a few nights ago and she gave me these beautiful leggings for my birthday! they're so so soft and i love them. we had a lot of fun dancing to crazy funk music and taking pictures in ye olde photo booth

and then I received a surprise box in the mail from cerrito in queens!!! he made me a little ramen buddy and i was so surprised and pleased when i opened the box that i thought i was going to happy cry. i puppetted it for baby char and she was really really scared of it and kept shaking her head and saying "no"

feast day

St Valerie of Limoges (also Valeria of Limoges) is a legendary Christian martyr and cephalophore, associated with the Roman period, whose cult was very important in Limousin, France, in the medieval period. The incident most insistently retold about St Valerie is that she was beheaded for her faith and then carried her own head to set before her bishop, Saint Martial, who had converted her. 
The most obvious parallels to the legendary figure of St. Valerie are those that manifest the distinctive trait of cephalophory. France is fairly rich in these, including most notably the capital's patron saint, Denis. The severed head that goes on preaching is a powerful assertion of autonomy, or perhaps theonomy in the face of persecution, with the bishop Denis continuing his work of prophecy and preaching. In St Valerie's case, the severed head is returned to where it belongs, the deceased person's bishop, pastor and confessor. In both cases there is a continuity in the relationship to the Church beyond death.

Terrible declensions

Thought I'd start the day off smartly by casually reading one of my old Russian grammar books over morning coffee... I'm on chart number 1 out of 26 charts of  Russian declensional patterns and my brain is about to explode.

"Russian nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and numerals are declined. There are two numbers, three genders, and six cases."

catching fire

feeling scared and pretty quiet post-HUNGER GAMES 2

Carnegiea gigantea

Arizona was filled with places with most daunting and excellent names, like Deadman Wash and Bloody Basin. I learned on this trip that the saguaro is one of my favorite plants. Wiki says, "They may grow their first side arm anywhere from 15-25 years of age." Saguaro always dreadfully tacky in southwestern art set against bad sunsets and ponchos but in real life they're incredible specimens - the only vertical growth in a wasteland of sand and dry shrubs. They stand in the thousands in the desert like unspeaking sentinels. I felt very disconcerted but awed looking at them.

 

 

 

 

Mystical vortexes

I'm here in Sedona where today I took pictures of deer, sat in a jacuzzi, drank two glasses of wine, got a massage, then ate babyback ribs and had a huge margarita. I feel very pampered and non-religiously blessed.

Something I've learned today is that Sedona is a New Age mystical mecca, where people come to experience "energy vortexes," where the earth is "breathing energy in and out."

"A vortex is a place of concentrated energy that people can sense."

"These vortexes are subtle energy centers where spiritual and psychic powers are enhanced."

"The energy resonates with and strengthens the Inner Being of each person that comes within about a quarter to a half mile of it. This resonance happens because the vortex energy is very similar to the subtle energy operating in the energy centers inside each person."

It must be vortex energy that's making me fall in love with every young man I see, from our hotel valet to our dinner waiter.

Chens depart

The Chens leave for Sedona now. They actually left for Sedona about six minutes ago but then they came back because Jerry forgot his jacket and Frances wanted to go to the bathroom.

the sorcerer & the white snake

Ma and I watched the craziest Jet Li movie, called The Sorcerer & the White Snake, which is based on an old Chinese story about a thousand-year-old white snake that falls in love with a human and transforms into a beautiful woman in order to marry him. Jet Li is a monk whose mission is to destroy these sorts of shape-shifting spirits. It reminded me a lot of the selkie stories from Scottish/Irish/Faroese folklore. I liked the movie's bad-looking special effects, attractive women, excellent fight scenes and overly dramatic love angst. I'm feeling inspired to catch up on some more wuxia films.