Dreampepper

I'm missed Pandora Radio ::so much::

2009-06-30T21:42:56Z

Currently I'm in Seattle, tapping away in our new Capital Hill apartment while a nice university student scrubs out the kitchen cupboards for me so I can finally start unpacking. The last few days have been a tangled, righteous haze of putting things into boxes, putting boxes into boxes, sorting boxes, stacking boxes, boxes, boxes, boxes. Tony had barely made a dent in the work by the time I arrived on Friday night, so it was a swoop in and dash rescue, all hauling things around and making space for the hired Saturday movers, (who were accidentally paid twice), working hard until I couldn't anymore then getting up and doing it all over again. Taking time to just sit for awhile feels like a gift. Yesterday should have been my first day to rest, but there was painting to arrange and cleaning and furniture and figuring out what boxes go where and what's in them and boxes, boxes, boxes.

(And as I type this, he's finished.)

Not to say we haven't been having fun. Other things have been happening, lovely brief respites of love: Willow had us over for a social Sunday morning of waffles at her place with some friends a couple blocks away, and Rafael and Michelle came over yesterday to help me fetch a free Craigslist Queen mattress from up the street, followed by Alex, fresh off the plane from SF, who brought his second Tactical Corset prototype for us to play with, (which fit a charm, let me tell you), and we all went for a nice dinner at the Blue Bistro and a chummy midnight tour of Hackerbot.

Today we're back to boxes. Tony is working from home, which is nice, and tonight, after errands and chores and we've exhausted our usefulness, we're going to an Emilie Simon concert. Tomorrow we fly for SF.

and into the after I go until next week

2009-06-26T22:52:28Z

via William Gibson:

SAMPARKOUR from Wiland Pinsdorf on Vimeo.

style

2009-06-24T23:04:44Z

via warren:Kode9 & the Space Ape - Time Patrol

I'm alive!

2009-06-18T23:18:02Z

I picked up my passport today. The pretty young man behind the counter had a chocolate coin festively tied around his neck with shining pink-yellow ribbon. When I asked about it, he explained he'd won an award in the office today, then slyly showed me a glimpse of a rather official looking document that stated OFFICE CLOWN. "That's a good thing to win for," I said. "The best," he replied, "sign here." And that was it. Everything's done. I can now legally leave the country.

Current travel dates

Vancouver to Calgary, June 19th - Calgary to Vancouver, June 22st

photograph Gavin and Rikki's most official wedding yet

Vancouver to Seattle, June 26th

pack, teasingly berate Tony for not

possibly move house (unlikely, see above note)

visit hackerbot labs w. Willow

Seattle to San Fransisco, July 1st - San Fransisco to Seattle, July 6th

attend PubSquat '09

visit...

friends .. like you?

NoiseBridge (shake fist at those attending Tor Camp in Seattle)

The Long Now Foundation

Paxton Gate

Musee Mechanique

??? (suggestions welcome)
Seattle to Vancouver, July 6/7th

linkdump: more updates in regards to the Iran protests

2009-06-17T19:28:36Z

Reddit, via Fark- A very comprehensive breakdown of the last few days, as well as definitions of many new terms you will be seeing and the roles of key figures.
Voting turnouts of more than 100% were recorded in at least 30 Iranian towns.
A list of English language news sources in regards to the Iranian election and aftermath as compiled by an Iranian political blogger, Cyrus Farivar.
Andrew Sullivan is posting very regularly with articles, videos, and first hand accounts- including this news report from the BBC, one of only a few that are making out of the country, and a list of choice tweets from within Iran. The list updates sporadically, so keep it open in one of your tabs.
Speaking of twitter- it is being used as a primary source for news from within Iran, as most journalists are trapped or being shipped out. It has become such a resource that the US State Department requested Twitter to delay it's scheduled maintenance. Here is a list of English tweets from within Iran- sorted by city.
Show support for democracy in Iran add green overlay to your Twitter avatar with one click. (Please note that this change is permanent until you change your avatar back).
Clay Shirky spoke at TED earlier in the year about how easy-to-use social networks like twitter and facebook have changed the nature of news and the media. Given the circumstances, the folks at TED decided to fast track the talk to the web along with an interview with Shirky about what's happening in Iran.
New legislation has been proposed in Iran that could make blogging a crime punishable by death.
Nico Pitney is liveblogging via the Huffington Post. Regular updates with relevant articles, videos, and links to first-hand accounts translated from Farsi and Persian.
Pirate Bay is now The Persian Bay, and has gone green to show support. A lot of people are hoping that Google will do the same soon.
A great article from the New York Times containing links to videos, photos, and a flickr feed.
Boston Big Picture has photos from the first few days of unrest.
A twitpic of today's incredible march.
The most widely distributed photo of a pro-Ahmadinejad rally appears to have been clone-tool enhanced.

From Mike:

If you have loved ones in Iran, my thoughts are with you and yours. I've been stuck to the Twitter feeds for a while now, and I'm worried for people.

But I'm also encouraged. Tactics like the Iranian government's would have worked just fine 20 years ago. (Chile comes to mind.) Locking down the networks and cutting off the professional journalists would have had the effect that they intend - without the world watching, the worst of the protestors could be dealt with ruthlessly, and the rest intimidated into submission. But not now. Using one pesky little network protocol, the people on the ground in this insurgency have managed to circumvent the information wall, and force their way into the public eye.

The government's response now will have to be carefully measured against this unprecedented new level of visibility. They will have to quell the protests peacefully somehow, or else they'll have to resort to acts of mass violence on YouTube.
(note: Violence has already happened in many places.)

If you want to chip in your network resources for this underground news conduit, they could sure use your help. All the major IM networks are now blocked for Iranian users, as well as services like Blogger and Twitter. Getting news, photos and footage out through this network is risky business for the people providing them, and there is a frantic cat-and-mouse proxy server game going on between the censors and the bloggers. You can put your own machine to work in this infowar, and better their chances of evading capture.

First, rock a Twitter account, and make it look Iranian. GMT+3:30. (Think, 'I'm Spartacus.') Cruise over here and learn how to set up a proxy server on your machine. Once you've done that, DO NOT TWEET ABOUT IT IN PUBLIC. The censors are watching Twitter closely, and the moment they see someone post a new proxy for Iran, it goes on the block list and becomes useless. Instead, send it privately to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they'll distribute it discreetly to bloggers.

This is the first time that tools like this have been used on this scale. Here's hoping that Twitter can give us a new and ubiquitous form of political accountability. All eyes are on Ahmadinejad, and I sure hope he can feel them.

#iranelection

2009-06-16T19:06:38Z

I tie our hair together in looping knots, gold twined with red and purple, my hair wrapped in his like set gemstones. We match our garnet earrings, I think, we match and are beautiful, here in this place, this tent of our tangled hair, in this moment where we've erased the entire world but ourselves.

I think of the violence in Iran, the students shot for protesting, the plain clothes agitators hired by the police state to enact violence in the name of the wronged, and I am especially glad for this small green hill, our hair braided together, our eyes shining together like light. Such perspective is deeply important to me. There are no fires here, no government shootings, no rigged elections for despots. We are not threatened here in Canada, the country we've made of a million languages, stronger together, we are safe here, and no matter how complex or stressful our lives might be, we will not die from politics. We are not persecuted and can help those that are.

How to fight from afar: seemingly levelheaded advice on aiding the protests online #iranelection via Eliza

#iranelection cyberwar guide for beginners

The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through twitter.

1. Do NOT publicise proxy IP’s over twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranian bloggers, DM them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.

2. Hashtags, the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88, other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don’t retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become ‘Iranians’ it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don’t blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don’t publicise their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don’t signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind.

6. Denial of Service attacks. If you don’t know what you are doing, stay out of this game. Only target those sites the legitimate Iranian bloggers are designating. Be aware that these attacks can have detrimental effects to the network the protesters are relying on. Keep monitoring their traffic to note when you should turn the taps on or off.

7. Do spread the (legitimate) word, it works! When the bloggers asked for twitter maintenance to be postponed using the #nomaintenance tag, it had the desired effect. As long as we spread good information, provide moral support to the protesters, and take our lead from the legitimate bloggers, we can make a constructive contribution.

Please remember that this is about the future of the Iranian people, while it might be exciting to get caught up in the flow of participating in a new meme, do not lose sight of what this is really about.

Images from Iran, unfiltered, unedited - this is reality.

The BBC has turned green in support of the Tehran protesters.

Sullivan running "a constantly updated feed of the best tweets [from] the resistance, real time."

Reuters: The US State Dept is asking Twitter to delay their maintenance plans.

I would like to learn to do something wonderful.

2009-06-16T00:02:37Z

We began with Craigslist ads, scanning through pages of apartments that offered beautiful views in inconvenient neighborhoods or move in bonus televisions instead of laundry rooms, weeding them down until we had four likely candidates, two of which called us back to view.

The first building felt like a horror movie set. Wide, dark hallways lined in red, with wavy leaded windows on the stairs occasionally missing a pane of glass. The building manager was a young man, passably nice, slightly more sleazy than eager, who in another situation I might have liked, but in this time and place felt like a liar. The apartments we were shown were much the same. Old, antique, almost pretty, with hardwood floors, high ceilings, and wide, open windows, great to visit, but not to live in, even the newly renovated ones. The kitchens were cramped hallways thin as the galley of a small sailing ship, with washrooms much the same, but more awkward, and the entire building slanted as if entire rooms had bumped their heads and never quite recovered. The word charming was thrown around, as was quaint. It was a relief to leave it behind.

Our second building, thankfully, was not so disheartening an experience. As buildings go, it was merely uninteresting. The outside looked promising, a great red brick edifice shaped like a castle, and the hallways were nice, as befit its history as a posh art deco hotel, but the room itself was less than inspiring. We were more concerned with the shaky emotional state of the nice, young building manager whose grandmother was in the hospital than for the space she showed us, crooked, cramped, filled constantly the sound of the I5 louder than live music. When we left, we were glad we let her vent about her family, but also that we'd never be back.

Capital Hill is currently bristling with APARTMENT FOR RENT signs, however, so we called and took reference photos of at least one building every block we passed on our way to lunch at the B&O, basing our choices on capricious things like garden friendliness or how much we liked the font of their signs. Though we'd been having a rough start, our mood was far from dire. Instead we were having fun, finding an unexpected delight in our arbitrary superficial judgments. Even better, they snagged us the perfect place.

The phone rang over lunch, "We could come by in half an hour," we said. "Perfect," they replied, "Come on down."

Our first good sign was the woman waiting for us outside, Penny, and our second was her amused reaction to our amused reaction to the "flesh" tone dildo tied to a pair of colour matched expensive leather boots hanging from a telephone wire just across the street. Smiling, competent, she seemed immediately our sort of person. As did the building once we were inside, a 1920's three story, with six or so apartments on every floor, even the foyer was gorgeous. Someone had come through and meticulously faux finished every wall to be a fancifuly distressed work of art. From then on in, it was all roses. The apartment itself was utterly lovely. Graceful, airy, well balanced, with wide, pretty windows, and incredible light. Describing it feels like trying to capture dance. Even cluttered with the detritus of someone else's life, it glowed with the possibilities of home.

Tony put the deposit down on Thursday. We move in right after we get back from SF.

simply enchanting

2009-06-13T19:38:21Z

Ane Brun - Humming One of Your Songs

via duncan.

not one day goes by that I don't know I'm dying

2009-06-12T23:15:08Z

I leave accidental trails of scarlet across the backs of my boys, red lines thinning pale into permanent fingerprint slashes of I was here, explicit, accidental, time travelling primal distraction, as old and new as the universe, stinging salty in the shower, an archaic, elemental writing sliced into flesh, coloured in with the body's most basic ink, traced by my fingers and the sullen edges of uncertain t-shirts, to bleed later, or ache again when leaned upon, a raw, gentle reminder of my skin and theirs pressing together.

He likes them, he says, wry, "these are the scars that separate men from boys". He likes them, he says, purring, "this way I am never without you."

where are you to say goodnight?

2009-06-09T07:39:46Z

365: 91 - 02.04.09

wake up, love

wake up, love
undress yourself from my skin
put on the sun and let our dreaming rest
come watch the world rise

wake up, love
and be unbalance on the edge with me
of our sagging, remembering bed
come slip on your shoes

wake up, love
and help me sort this tangle of belongings
our thoughts half in day, half still in night
come kiss me full of sustenance

wake up, love
and meet me at the opened door
before the scent of you leaves my hands and hair
come walk with me into this life

by Tobin James Mueller

Decellularisation! Organ scaffolds!

2009-06-08T20:28:14Z

via jwz:

Hybrid hearts could solve transplant shortage

"It's amazing, absolutely beautiful," says Doris Taylor, describing the latest addition to an array of tiny thumping hearts that sit in her lab, hooked up to an artificial blood supply. The rat hearts beat just as if there were inside a live animal, but even more remarkable is how each one has been made: by coating the stripped-down "scaffolding" of one rat's heart with tissue grown from another rat's stem cells.

The idea is fairly simple: take an organ from a human donor or animal, and use a mild detergent to strip away flesh, cells and DNA so that all is left is the inner "scaffold" of collagen, an "immunologically inert" protein. Add stem cells from the relevant patient to this naked shell of an organ and they will differentiate into all the cells the organ needs to function without inducing an immune response after transplant, or any new infections.

Although Taylor only added stem cells to the hearts, these cells differentiated into many different cells, in all the correct places, which is the best part of using decellularised scaffolds. The stem cells transformed into endothelial cells in the ventricles and atria, for example, and into vascular and smooth-muscle cells in the spaces for blood vessels, just as in a natural heart. Taylor thinks this happened because she pumped blood and nutrients through the organ, producing pressure in each zone which helps to determine how cells differentiate there.

But chemical, as well as mechanical, cues seem to have guided differentiation. Taylor has evidence that growth factors and peptides remained anchored to the scaffold even after the flesh was washed off. These chemicals likely signalled to the stem cells, indicating how many should migrate to which areas and what to change into in each zone. "Our mantra is to give nature the tools and get out of the way," she says.

Also: Stem cells used to restore sight

The idea to team stem cells with contact lenses came from an observation that stem cells from the cornea stick to contact lenses. To obtain the stem cells, Dr Watson took less than a millimeter of tissue from the side of each patients' cornea. Working with colleagues at POWH and UNSW, he cultured stem cells from the tissue in extended wear contact lenses.

Within 10 to 14 days the stem cells began to attach to the cornea, replenishing damaged cells. Satisfied that the stem cells were doing their job, Dr Watson removed the lenses and the patients have been seeing with new eyes for the last 18 months.

going across the border without proper ID

2009-06-05T20:44:32Z

My weekends out of town have pushed me out of the habit of writing. Potential words are constantly spilling from my mouth and mind, but not landing where they'll stain page or paper and stick around awhile and have a drink. Instead I find myself busy and busier, living a pace just this side of insane, and never in front of a computer when I need it most, but wrapped instead around chocolate curls and blonde exhaustion, tangled in too many things to set out straight.

The best I can do is point form after-the-fact, small glimpses into moments that stuck, like snapshots taken from a moving car, anecdotes I tell over tea or as we walk, hands carving out the expressions in our bodies as we did this or that, laughter infectious, haltered to speech.

Memories of the Mercury, wrapped in cigarette smoke and surrounded by black, dancing with Dee like the first time we really met, physical strangers in L.A., when he was still from London, and we had never lived in Montreal. Of Tony curled in my lap, days later, slightly drunk at Grahame and Becca's, explaining 'performing' as my partner in front of my mother at Gasworks park, "See my patience!" He says, "how clever and kind a teacher I am! How carefully I'm showing Nick how to spin these poi, how I'm responsible, understanding. Look how perfect I am for your daughter, because I'm AWESOME!" Of Folklife and music and Richard's music just for us, letting us play, the video we took, the glitchy, delightful beat. I think of Rafael dipping me in time to marimba music, all wrapped in tie-dye and a purple skirt, and Tony on the ground leaning forward to kiss me precisely on the lips, as if the entire moment had been perfectly rehearsed. I think of standing in front of the Circus Contraption audience, faking desire, shuddering with it, breaking my plastic glass with the heated deep breaths of my theatrical orgasm, ready to beat the band. The warmth and depth of my smile. Of flying my pocket Pirate kite, of limping gladly, of free hug signs and breakfast and pliers and giving a necklace away. Of sound effects and posed photographs and doing the tango with only my hand, two fingers for legs, stepping along the ground so prettily it was like we could see the invisible held-in-teeth roses glowing alive in our love.

tossing it out to the animators

2009-06-03T20:35:51Z

via Sean:

Illustration by Roy Husada

Vancouver Opera announces OPERABOT, an animation contest for our Golden Anniversary Season. Animators are challenged to create animated shorts of one of the four productions of the Golden Anniversary Season.

The contest is found here: http://www.youtube.com/group/vancouveropera

Anyone 18+ can enter and submit a 4 min or less short that tells the story of one of the four operas of the Golden Anniversary Season. Upload them to our YouTube contest group. Everyone is encouraged to vote for their favorites!

“With the long-running success of our manga series by Roy Husada, we thought this was the logical next step,” said General Director Jim Wright. “We can’t wait to see what people come up with!”

Four winners — chosen by the public and a panel of judges from Vancouver-area animation studios Pixar, EA, Rainmaker, Bardel, and Rival Schools - will win a host of prizes including animation hardware, gaming packages, and digital cameras.

The contest runs June 1, 2009 to Nov 1, 2009 and is open to all residents of the US and Canada. Official rules can be found at www.vancouveropera.ca Everyone who enters will receive tickets to the opera so everyone is a winner!

The contest was inspired by the active animation industry in Vancouver and a similar contest run by Chicago Opera Theater in 2008.

Vancouver Opera is a leader in social media initiative, including the Operalive.ca multimedia site, “Blogger Night At the Opera”, “Operaninja” a live backstage Twitterer, and “Operagator” an opera news aggregator. A leader in Web 2.0 initiatives including an active blog, facebook, flickr, Twitter and YouTube channel, Vancouver Opera is committed to reaching the next generation of opera lovers using the media of the times. Vancouver Opera is also a leader in using pop visual arts as a medium for opera, including a long running Opera Manga series by Roy Husada and Fiona Meng, and commissioning of award-winning visual artists like Edel Rodriguez and Michael Abraham to create original artwork for VO season productions.

Vancouver Opera’s extensive network of Web 2.0 and social media sites as well as official contest rules can be found on our homepage at http://www.vancouveropera.ca.

choose carefully

2009-06-03T17:54:25Z

View Poll: The mayor has begun fidgeting with his sash

above all things, this desire to be

2009-05-29T07:53:41Z

foxtongue, a breath-taking birthday present from last year by my dear friend,
Juan Santapau, mastermind, delight, and president for life of the perpetually beautiful The Secret Knots.

To be put into immediate effect: birthday dinner this evening, meet at my place after seven pm.

"The worst sin - perhaps the only sin - passion can commit, is to be joyless." - Dorothy Sayers

2009-05-22T21:50:09Z

... and I wish you were here to remove the pins from my hair the same way I wish you were here to drown out your absence with your voice. With every pin, I remember the delicate sweep of your fingerprints, the wry look of your eyes laughing at my terrible jokes, and layer it into every moment we've said I love you and I miss you, when we've really meant come home, as if home were our flesh meeting instead of a place, our foreheads together, hands twined, all of ourselves an ornate, whimsical Escher arabesque spelling out contentment, where were you? or yes.

Galactic Center Rising

2009-05-20T21:00:58Z

via jwz:longnow_rss

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

he also makes pretty pictures

2009-05-20T17:28:42Z

An excerpt example of reason eight million five thousand and fourty three why I'm not-so-secretly sideways a little bit in love with my friend Kevin, who I am pleased to say I licked once on the side of the head:

So we get to set early and Reel EFX are overseeing the first segment of the show (Fire vs. Ice) One kid on a snow maker and the other on a flame thrower doing the whole "Woo-Hoo Awesome!" thing. But the kid on the flamethrower keeps complaining that "Oh...It's HOT, It's HOT... And we're all thinking "Kid....you're 16 and you're getting to set off a flamethrower. No one bitches when you get to set off a flamethrower. Ever. It's a fundamental principle. There are 5 billion flamethrowerless children in the world who would trade spots with you this very second. Have some respect...."

with a warm, profound affection

2009-05-19T21:19:16Z

CONGRATULATIONS KYLE AND JENNIFER!!

Kyle is one of the people in my life who has influenced me the most in the past year, encouraging me, picking up when I've fallen, and always inspiring me with his brilliant, infectious good nature, continually reminding me that the world is not always a fight, that to strive can be to succeed, and that sometimes everything really is all going to be alright. I've only met him once in person, (though it's in the game plan to do so again, and again, and as many times as I can), when he and Jennifer were in Seattle for a wedding, and it felt like a gift to be with them, not only to finally visit, but to witness their incredible and utter devotion, one of the most perfect things I have ever been blessed to see. They are beautiful together, enchantment multiplied, and the light that shines off them is blinding. It is my great and fervent desire to one day be so happy and I will forever adore them for leading the way, showing what it possible, and thriving.

Congratulations you two, I wish you well and I love you, even from all the way over here.

some ages are easier than others

2009-05-18T21:06:51Z

Watching him through the partially closed balcony screen, he is beautiful, pensive, sitting with a cigarette, uncertain what he needs to say next. His gestures as he smokes are familiar, the slow, absent dance of the resigned to fate. (I am a comfortable witness.) In his head, he is silently writing a letter as he stares into space, turned inward, performing and rehearsing how to say goodbye. to my dear friends and family... He is new to this, but competent, and I expect him to survive.

(In my memory a day not quite the one before, myself in a mirror, comforting, holding a man through almost similar things.)

We fall asleep wrapped in the couch before the letter is sent, our heavy limbs a knot of courage as well as care, though his writing was finished by midnight, (a time significant only in passing, like a fallow attempt of a traditional childhood's magic spell), marking like a hammer blow one of the last indivisible links in this particular chore.

watching the dissolution come

2009-05-18T03:21:06Z

365: 90 - 01.04.09

keep the body rolling

2009-05-14T22:21:19Z

For your edification: a Conservapedia talk page on whether humor existed before Christ.

Via David S. by way of jonquil by way of james_nicoll.

dressing red as candy blood

2009-05-14T18:51:12Z

Tonight at the Anza Club! Springtime Lullabye!
Jess Hill's costume party music video debut!

"It’s true! As of yet there has been but a whisper in the wind of the coming of wonderful things. The magic people are busying themselves excitedly with the creation of an evening of dream and inspiration, song, poetry, burlesque, and decor. Minds, bodies, and spirits will then make a dream come true as we raise funds for the production of Jess Hill’s upcoming album: Orchard."

doors at 8, show at 9. tickets $10 at the door.
Lullabye's start at 9pm sharp. So don't be late.

The night will feature la musique of Jess Hill, Tarran the Tailor, Maria in the Shower, CJ Leon, Chelsea Johnson, and Sneetch, burlesque performances by the fine feathered ladies in Booty Burlesque and the one and only Rad Juli, and mad poetics by The Svelte Ms. Spelte and RC Weslowski.

The theme is dreamland so do please let your imagination dress you. After all anything goes, it's your dream.

PERFORMERS:

Jess Hill: Hauntingly beautiful, the shadow singing with her crows, the blond-haired, blue-eyed, guitar-riffing sweetheart of East Van, Jess Hill will be playing with her band The Dreams of All and Sundry featuring arrangements for strings by Aaron Joyce and electro-acoustic foley artist Lee Hutzulak.

Tarran the Tailor: An enchanter of hearts, eyes, hips, and toes Tarran combines boombox and banjo to cast Cajun-style charms on his enraptured audiences. His organic beats seem a perfect fusion of musical technologies from the past, the future, and the land of East Van.

Maria in the Shower: A fascinating troupe of soul-singing mimes! Their engaging performances mix theatre and cabaret, horn and voice, musicianship and character into an unforgettably ecstatic happening.

CJ Leon: Clever as a crow with cadaver in his throat, CJ is bleaker and funnier than Hell with classical guitar accompaniment.

Chelsea Johnson: Soulful and true, when she rocks the mic, the world rocks too.

There will also be performances by the folk = fun act Sneetch, the hot and fiery Booty Burlesque, the naturally Rad Juli, the scarecrow prophet of East Van The Svelte Ms. Spelte, and surrealist poet and the current Vancouver Poetry Slam Champion RC Weslowski.

also, we're going to san fransisco in july

2009-05-14T03:18:47Z

Long exposure Roomba path, by http://signaltheorist.com. (More from other people on Flickr.)

Nicole was hit by lightning this week.

Sarah is finally convacating with a Bachelors of Arts degree.

Tracey has just become finally engaged to her Edward, and they're to be married in August.

Tony brought me to see Circus Contraption last weekend and it was so beautiful as beautiful does that it shattered me into a better person. I cried, watching it, as the experience shook my heart in my chest.

Horribly, painfully, (how could they), after eleven years of perfecting their incorrigible circus, they're shutting down at the end of May, so, as Tony said, "if you are in Seattle the next couple of weekends (or can be so) and have yet to see any Circus Contraption show (or have seen them before) then make every effort possible to see one of the last shows that this exquisite troupe will ever be doing."

We're going again on the 23rd with as many people as we can.

Dee, (in town from Montreal), is coming, as is Nick Eddy, and maybe Rafael. Are you? Please say yes.

ps. I need need a place for my mum to stay in Seattle that weekend. Anyone have a spare couch/bed/room?

back, and to the left

2009-05-13T21:42:48Z

We're lying on the couch, grinding on the couch, when he says, finger to my lips, in an overly innocent voice that has no idea the incredible faux pas it's about to commit, "Now you be a good little girl and don't move. Just wait right here."

I pause, distracted, jolted. "Excuse me?"

His eyes widen as the multiple potential layers of his statement sink in, meanings rife with candy, white vans, and puppies. "Oh dear!" he says, "I promise that's not where I meant to go with that."

We collapse laughing, the moment lost now in something else. We lie curled together, our hands lost in each other's hair, and I tell a story of being approached once by a young man in a nightclub who'd had one too many beer, "We'd been dancing, nothing special. We didn't know each other at all, but he came up to me in a pause in the music, drink in hand, smiling, and said, You know what I'd like? Of course I shook my head no. I didn't even know his name. If you came home with me so I can show you who your daddy is."