I’ve had a few different hairstyles over the years. Towhead toddler, darkening and bad perms during the teenage years, stringy to the inexplicable appearance of curls in college. Topside, we’ve been here, here, and here:
The new look for 30?
—–> Bombshell. <—–
Got to hang out with dear old friends Jesus and Satan for a moment last night…
What do you talk about when the subjects of love, history, and destiny are verboten?
Music, of course.
(What do bagpipes, the Roots, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins, and this post’s title have in common? Kento knows.)
Sometimes, it’s all okay. Such is the human condition. We feel, we fight, we share, we persevere, we search, we continue. Jobs, homes, lovers, dreams, come and go. Friends remain. Love takes many forms. What comes out as meaningful in the end, what worthwhile, what ends up as true, will be interesting to see. One thing is for sure - be careful what you assume is a current truth. What you assume is a Truth truth. What is good, what evil, black and white, right, wrong, pure, tainted, saved, doomed, universal, personal. Where is the light? Where does it come from, from good, from above, from heat, warmth, sun? Oh really? Then from whence the song? I call into question all that I know and need and believe when I ask: where is the voice?
Josh turned 30 on Monday the 6th, and so lord help us, I bought him a boat.
The day was very nice… we woke up at his mom’s in Bellingham, had a nice leisurely breakfast, watched some cats on the roof of a shed out back, played with the dogs. We were serenaded by a shy little bird in the cherry tree out front when we left. such a pretty song!
We took the scenic way south, down Chuckanut Drive, and stopped at Larrabee State Park for a little hike. I took lots of pics of Josh clambering about the rocks along the coastline, we peered at tidepools and enjoyed the view and the fresh air. We went to a darling little lunch shop/drive-thru espresso stand/ice cream parlour called the Vanilla Swan, and had grilled panini sandwiches. The panini thing is everywhere - looking out on farmland and beet/potato trucks, we munched on pestochickenprovolone and turkeyswissveggie. Tasty. (The SUV thing is everywhere too - quite a few went by between the motorcycle gang and the work trucks.)
Between the two of us, in two days we saw a total of 15 hawks by the side of the road. 15!! Just hunting along the grassy medians of 1-5. Is this normal? Gorgeous, huge. It became a game to spot them.
I had told Josh I’d made dinner reservations for that evening, for the time I’d arranged with Joshua Kohl to meet us for his elaborately planned birthday surprise. Joshua Kohl is a champion - he arranged everything! We’d been trying to figure out what to do for weeks, but it was he who found the boat on craigslist, and Chris our roommate who went to get it in Tacoma, Ambrose patched it, a whole crew inflated it, and Joshua made it all happen. So that evening as we were making our way to Fremont in the car, I had Josh put on a blindfold. (Imagine being blindfolded in a car with ME driving - poor dear!!) We parked at Adobe and made our way under the Fremont bridge, where Joshua was waiting in disguise in the boat. (see above.) At this point we had to take Josh’s blindfold off, because getting to the water’s edge is tricky there. I kept alluding to the restaurant, saying things like “the guy on the phone said not to talk to the boatman”, and we had a lovely sail down the canal for quite some time. It was cold, but gorgeous. Not another vessel in sight. After a lengthy, soothing ride, we pulled up to the bank and a bunch of Josh’s friends yelled “surprise!” They had a bonfire and a spaghetti dinner waiting, and Josh was truly surprised. (Even though he figured out Joshua about halfway through the ride when the wind blew his hood off and he glimpsed an earring…) When we got ashore, Joshua said, “And the best part is, you get to keep the boat!” A great start for Josh’s lion decade.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeasart/sets/72057594061855153/
oh and since we’re behind…
for Valentine’s day we hiked here: Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Gorgeous!! We only had time for the 1-mile loop (between my eyes and my camera, we go pretty slow) but we saw SO many wonderful birds (red-winged blackbird, tons of geese, a couple of enormous raptors of some sort, many many songbirds, regular and strange ducks), got a foot away from a squirrel, and even happened upon 4(!!) deer all together in a clearing! I can’t wait to go back and check out the 5-miler through the mudflats. (We heard the tree frogs, but couldn’t spot one.) My new favorite place.
Oh what fun we could have with these in the Cathedral project!! Multi-touch screens could simplify the production and blending of sound and samples in performance. I know I would have a blast manipulating channels and parameters of sound in a more fluid and visually stimulating way… Nora manipulating her visual themes and mandalas in sweeping, natural movements real-time along with the music…
Not to mention what it could do for gaming, interactive advertising, research, 3D modelling, conceptual modelling for that matter, imaging, art installations, robotics, medicine… I can’t even begin to imagine! Like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. People could take this as another dimension in their art or science and blow open a whole new door or two we haven’t gone through yet.
Of course, I’m just charmed by the grace and presentation of the lovely video… I get idealistic and starry-eyed…
So…. I wanted to write about the performance I went to tonight, but when I got home my roommates were monopolizing my laptop with this game. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy playing with them! They made enchiladas, too.
I will say I enjoyed many parts of the show I went to this evening. which incorporated dance, film, music, improvisation, and the freaking Infernal Noise Brigade, and wasn’t nearly long enough. Highlights: Pol throwing dancers around, the film of the dancer in the white dress flinging water and appendages about in an old-fashioned bathtub, Jherek’s bass playing, Sam & Beth’s precision, Robb’s outside intruments. Saw Jessica Jobaris there (we discussed collaborations long overdue), my old literature professor, and my old TKD instructor Nicole - speaking of things overdue. She’s been playing with the INB, (as if she needed an increase in badassness) and I’m sorry I didn’t hang out longer to chat. Guess I’ll actually have to go train now.
In this picture, Beth and Sam are watching the INB postgame show. –>
Oh, and on the way home I saw this cute little guy!
Tomorrow Josh and I are going to Bellingham for a wedding. I know, on SuperBowl Sunday? It’s even at the same time, 3pm. All the uncles are livid, let me tell you- the family is made up of Seahawks fans, and the rest of us would really like to see the game considering it’s the first time our city’s team has ever made it this far. But oh well - uncles in earpieces notwithstanding, the wedding should be very special. Heather and Salem just announced their engagement at Christmas, and they’re a young, impulsive, and lovely couple. Josh is in charge of music and I am (gasp!) the PHOTOGRAPHER. This is my first wedding, and I am quite nervous. I even borrowed my sister’s camera for backup… and I have to read the manual on the drive up so I’d better get to bed.
