photograph the night sky

The challenge: take a picture of the African night sky, on a muggy, gin-fueled, mosquito-heavy night.
With tiny white crabs skittering across the pale sands.
With the moon an eclipsing sliver in the sky.
It was night two at the Beach Crab, a beach-front tent hotel near Pangani, Tanzania, where the surf was a constant crashing background, the beach and the sea mere steps from where we slept and ate.
You can't take a picture of the moon, someone said.

superior

I took this picture on a particularly tough day last week. My sis and I sat together in a courtroom, not for the first time, certainly not for the last. We stared at our reflections in the Plexiglass and waited and tried not to hear the slurpy machine noises coming from the row ahead of us, where a big stringy-haired girl with smeary jailhouse tats sucked the snot out of her sick kid's nostrils with some kind of electric gadget.

Lawyers came and went--this little circus is all about the lawyers, there's a chunky guy with 80's feathered hair and too-tight double-breasted suits that we call Tonka Truck--anyway the lawyers did their lawyerly thang and we waited and the judge trained an eager-eyed up-and-comer in low murmurs and we waited and then it was over, continuance, continuing disappointment, more waiting. I just want it to be over, we kept saying, and then later, over coffee at the Vietnamese place down the street, we realized: it won't ever be -- over.
In America nobody is superior to anybody else, right?
Oh please, who am I kidding? We preach egalitarianism and meanwhile elections are bought and sold and VIPs shop exclusive after hours sales events and rich travelers float through time and space on a magic carpet of free booze and roasted mixed nuts and leg rests.
Anyway, our circumstances are horrific. Mostly, we are just trying to survive with our senses of humor intact.
We are trying to survive without losing our shit or our grip; without losing a most precious gift who is sometimes a sarcastic little cheating-at-cards shit but mainly right now all arms and legs and glittery eyeliner.
*
Funniest fb post I saw today: Not true, Dad. BACON is bogus. Like!

disco disco good good

Today's guest post--well--more on that in a second. I spent the morning hanging out with talented artist and super cool friend and soon-to-be-ex-seattleite-Nate. We caffeinated ourselves and debated cynicism and parallel universes and I faffed on my laptop and he drew a cool design on the wall.
So that's a guest post of sorts yeah? Drop by whenev and have a look.
*
The grinny gem above snapped from the wall in the ladies room at Roxy's.

a few words from thad wenatchee

well, what's all this talk about the future???
where is my hoverboard @..

and where are my messages from space ??

we've been hanging out today, feeling the rotation of the earth, talkin' bout good times. i would suggest to you to mostly do that all the time with your friends.
as Elise once said today, somethin like Spicoli, "what the f*** is work good for??"
it's good for money. but otherwise, coffee buddies and jalepeno cheese puffs and Earl Sweatshirt traxx.

what's it worth to you to ride the wavve, ride the stream ??? it's your value, your perception that dictates it's worth. and you already knew that.

this winter, the weather will be mild, the mood will be wobbley, and the portals will be open.
let's chill and listen to good music and get good work done and laugh a lot and drink mostly clean liquids.

live savage and hug your friends and eat well. and stuff.


oh, and the end of the world has already happened. so chill.

- tw
   nov mmxii

so I wrote this thing

So I wrote this thing. A story thing. I wrote it and been editing it for a few months and feel like it's something special.
I've been sending it out to various journals and magazines, looking for a home, possibly a paying home.
But so far, no dice.
Could it be stronger?
Less weird<-->Less conventional?
Should more happen? Or less?
It's the pushmi-pullyu of the writer.
I want to trust my ear, my voice, my words. And yet I want to be open to making it better.
Such a metaphorical situation: confidence vs. humility.
May the best noun win.

the give

I have such good people in my life, so generous and thoughtful.
Tonight a chef friend poured bubbly and fed me and others morsels she'd labored over for days. Then she sent us home with a clove-scented favor. Friday night I arrived at some other friends' house, cold and wet and tired from work and a long bus ride. They greeted me with kisses and hugs and smiles and a manhattan, perfectly delicious right down to two whiskey-soaked cherries.Yesterday my sister picked me up after another long bus ride (a theme here, no?) and later, my niece shared her favorite bubble gum from Uwajimaya and as we sat next to each other on massage chairs, she patiently leafed through People magazine to show me just the right handsomely-scruffy celebrity.
The best gifts are these, off the list and offered without reserve.

chillun

This was my view just a few short days ago.
Home now after nearly a month away, and I'm cleaning house.
Big changes coming. Stay tuned.