pinkveneer

saw eiko + koma last nite (again) time for some more butoh inspired yarns! this aesthetic/view jives with mine...here's an older butoh yarn, probably done when i last saw them...



peter's birthday is coming up and he wants to do the zipline in nh :) looks like fun on a nice summer day!

finally, the hothot heat is here!! today will be a day of important decisions: lime popsicles, mango pops or both ;)

probably one of the more posted photos this week, but i love the fact that mimosa pale made this vagina bike/pedicab. the world could use more woman centered public art :) 

i can't remember ANY of the rebate offers i've ever sent in being sent to me. i sometimes send them in, knowing it's just a scam. and AT&T, you suck. even tho it's only $20 bucks, you suck. or maybe it's someone at the PO who sucks. in any case, good luck having to deal with the karma you're creating by such little screw jobs. how can you consider it worth it??????????

on a happier note, tho, 2 fleeces came in the mail today - a hogget and a lamb, both wensleydale. ah, the smell of farm fresh fleece in the afternoon :)

yesterday was a perfect day for picking thru fleece. just me, the birds + the breeze...





that's some icelandic and the lower photo is some BFL/lamb. i really love the "primitive" breeds like icelandic. and they look like such a manageable type of sheep...hold me back! as far as the lamb, one of the things i've been doing this year at festivals, is trying to scout out lots of different fibers in lamb version. i also have some reserved from some farms that are coming in as they get sheared :) just a little project to fulfill my curiosity.

so this is june, so we must be seeing bitch in cambridge, right? yes!!!!!!!!! and she was there with ferron last nite. those women are so good. i still don't understand why we're seeing them in such small rooms, tho. those people need to be filling huge halls. there's still some left to their tour, mostly california, west coast and canada.

In every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator.
In every heart there is a god of flowers, just waiting
to come out of its cloud and lift its wings.
- mary oliver from "the kookaburras"

well, i guess mine came out of its cloud for a bit :)
because i don't post much, you might not realize i've been offline for over 2 weeks. i usually comment more in friends journals and communities. i just suddenly lost all desire to be in internet land, and at the same time, i was filled with the energy and desire to recompose aspects of my life. mostly re-arranging, discarding, focusing on what's important to me. very fruitful time!!! so i'll dip into your journals and communities to see what's been happening, and slowly start to update my sites. see you! :)

spent a few perfect days in maryland, and also went to MDSW for all of the days it was open. will write about it later, but here are some pix in my flickr...

the vineyard fiber fest was truly charming, not a word i use much, but it really fit this event. just a perfect day to spend with peter in a perfect place :) forgot my camera, but it doesn''t matter. lots of little sheep + goats being sheared, you get the idea :) i'll have some of their wool from the fall shearing as part of my CSA. (cormo + mohair!)

and TENNIS!!! has begun. we've been able to play about 4 days so far. happy bout that!! i love my tennis.

went to hear john zorn and friends play last nite at the ica/boston. beautiful music, beautifully played. i love how his music can make me smile at one moment and want to be crying at the next.

saw all of the usual boston music nerds that i've been seeing for the past 30+ years :) that's a group of people who always show up at certain events, most of us have never even talked to each other...but we always see each other at concerts. there's a few i only see at jazz events, some i see at jazz + contemporary events, a smaller group that goes across all genres. i wonder how many of the other regulars see it this way. we're people who have a certain interest in common...we care deeply about the music - we really love to listen and feel the music in our bodies, i think. sometimes i used to run into a few in front of the more obscure music bins. most are male. usually they're alone...occasionally they come with a female. i usually bring the guy in my life at the time, altho there was that extended period where i went everywhere alone.

when you spend an extended period in a city/town, there are these people one runs into at select spaces. sometimes you get a knowing look of recognition. but there's often a resistance to wanting to get to know these people better, at least on my part. i prefer to let the mystery remain :)

going to the vineyard for a fiber festval tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!! can't wait to see all the animals...supposed to be a warm sunny day. willl take pix :)

if you like used books, an lj friend niyabinghi has an amazon store, and has a variety of books, including gardening, cooking + more.

for the past year or so, i've encountered a few newsy stories about the town where i was born, and left at age 17, to return only a few times. it was a culture-free zone long ago, full of grey skies, pollution and bad attitudes :) syracuse university provided a refuge and salvation to me in the form of its hip radio station and bookstores.

lately i have seen that there is quite a bit of fibery/textile activity, again thanks partly to the university/teachers + students. and i saw an article today that noted details of a comeback in the form of buying + rehabbing existing buildings.

"...Mark Robbins, Dean of Syracuse University School of Architecture gets it- according to the New York Times, "His ambition was to help revive, and even remake, the city."

We [Treehugger site] do go on about the urban infrastructure that is being wasted in rustbelt cities on the Great Lakes or the Erie Canal, that have water, highways and wonderful buildings that can be repurposed. Downtown Syracuse was cut off by a highway in the 60's; buildings were abandoned, and Dean Robbins told the Times “The big resource in Syracuse is basically surface parking lots and vacant buildings."

yup, parking lots and vacant buildings...i am glad for its current citizens that things have changed. but there's still all that grey that would keep me from returning.

Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully related to truth as a value. This includes listening, and any action in the human repertoire — as well as speaking.

Superficially, honesty means simply stating facts and views as best one truly believes them to be. It includes both honesty to others, and to oneself (see: self-deception) and about one's own motives and inner reality. Honesty, at times, has the ability to cause misfortune to the person who displays it.

just a wikipedia definition, but i think it says a lot. truth does have a value. indeed, i think it's one of the highest values.

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

well, didn't that just fit the day?

"Deep down inside, I always consider myself a monk, even in my dreams." this makes me smile. that the dalai lama is a monk, even in his dreams.


reminder to self: tonite 8:15 TED live broadcast

(from my handspun yarn)

there are always a few events in february to remind us that new england is still somewhat alive. starting to be lots more music that i want to go out to now that "hard winter" is over.

on friday, there was the sex workers art show. as usual, very funny and poignant. there's still a little bit left of their tour in case you're interested...
also saw bill t. jones on saturday; chapel/chapter. i never watch news (or tv) because i don't want the violence burned into my brain. in these dances, he included lots of repetitive readings of violent events and i found myself focusing on the cellist's hair so i wouldn't have to envision the events. the dancing was good but the overall evening reminded me that i like it less when artists just present. i like to see the events worked through. i think he considers it an ongoing conversation, tho.
(here's a short clip of the dance if you want to see/includes sound)

and i've made yarn, too. i am just making stuff for me, more and more.  i like just satisfying myself.

i have the most fun learning new things. and there's SO MUCH i want to learn.
sunday:
took a tuina and herbal plasters workshop with the (chinese) doctor who helped out my broken leg. so informative and interesting!!!! mostly he concentrated on chinese herbs that can be powdered, made into teas or soaking solutions to treat various conditions. and anybody can basically just have this around to treat their family. boy, is the west missing out on some good stuff by not knowing all of this wonderful info. he didn't do that much tuina (bodywork) but i am going to california in may for a tuina event, and i can also probably do more study here in boston.

monday:
went to a really fun + lively event...learning some rudimentary overtone singing from a few guys from alash, throat singers from tuva. you can hear sound clips on their site. i love this music, and it's so great to have these sounds come from my body, or anybody's body! amazing to me when i hear bird-like sounds come from those alash guys. they were here last year, performing, and they'll also perform later this afternoon. i plan to hear them. so relaxing. however, my practicing the overtone chanting makes the cats hide...
there were around 25 people in workshop, and the room was full of us all trying these sounds for over 2 hours. so much joy.

every now and then i ask myself how old i feel inside. the answer these days is 27. and peter said he felt 29 :) i don't know what the number really means for sure. but it just feels like the energy of me at 27 feels like where i am right now. just vital, engaged, green.

hmmm...the top yarn from october looks more like the weather today than the yarn made this week :)

going to visit my mother and siblings tomorrow. i think it's been about 10 years since i've seen them. rough edges might have been smoothened. in any case, peter and i like roadtrips, so we'll have a good time, i'm sure! going to central new york area, where there will probably be lots more snow. will be fun to see childhood places again. not staying long.

There is a transparent peace tower in New York City which casts no shadow and, therefore, very rarely recognized.
Yoko Ono

video/sound/contains violent war images toward end yoko's letter to john
more imagine peace/no sound

i watched this earlier today online. it's normally pretty hard for me to sit and watch a cartoon/film for 20 minutes online, but this engaged me. a little synopsis of lots you know about consumption and a few things you might not know. i'm sure some of it is debatable, but worth spending the time...
Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff

"A great, concise, and clear explanation of global capitalism and its effects on the environment (which includes the human body)..."

"The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever."