LAST BLOG POST OF THE YEAR

A joyous and peaceful happy new year to everyone who has stumbled onto this blog.

In 2013 a grateful list:

I had work published in three anthology books.

Moved to a new apartment in Westbeth Artists' Housing - after being on the wait list for 15 years!

Visited my folks often in Florida and Canada. My parents at 91 and 86 have a good quality of life. My dad plays tennis most days and mom, even with alzheimers, enjoys nature and walking.

Last entry for 2013. I hope to post all past and present work in my own webpage: dianespodarek.com. Still looking for the right host. Any recommendations?

My webpage in the literary section at Westbeth's Webpage:

Artists Page Westbeth Artists

Another reason to be a FB Virgin Or just repent

End of the Year Warning: Quit FB before it’s too late.

Do you need another reason to quit FB or are you just going to bitch about it? Because now FB is collecting what you don’t publish. If you type anything over five characters and stop to think that maybe you shouldn’t call your boss a hoe or say your ex has bad hygiene, FB has it! FB is now tracking and collecting everything you type but hesitate to publish within ten minutes. So even if you delete, FB owns you!

Why?

FB says they want to know why we self censor. They have hired a BF Skinner Frankenstein scientist to look at what everyone deletes.

I am a FB virgin. I have never had an account because FB has always lied about its selling and marketing and advertising of content and images (and IPO), which doesn’t seem to bother anyone except artists and radicals like myself who don’t want to be another pawn for corporate profit and gain.

So the next time you think you are working out your thoughts, moving around adjectives and nouns and verbs, remember, once you type it, you have ten minutes to delete it before MZ owns it.

one link: One link from Mailonline UK

Stars in the Fire Anthology

New Anthology Publication

Estrellas En El Fuego (Stars in The Fire): The Alternative New Year’s Spoken Word/Performance Extravaganza 2014 Anthology, Rogue Scholars Press, NY, NY

Poem included: The Rose Bordello

REVERIE Ultra SHort Memoirs

My monologue "Train Birth" will be published in the anthology REVERIE Ultra Short Memoirs by Telling Our Stories Press

It's a paperback & an ebook

Hooray for books!

www.TellingOurStoriesPress.com 

Snowden: pawn in right-wing conspiracy

There is a belief that Edward Snowden is part of a right wing conspiracy to take down President Obama. Something about the whole thing just doesn’t smell right, including Glenn Greenwald, the lawyer/journalist who broke the story who is now living in exile in Brazil. Are both of these Americans pawns in a bigger story? Did they sell their soul? Follow the money.

Cemetery, Key West

It was recently “leaked” that Snowden and Greenwald will received 250 million dollars from Pierre Omidyar to create an internet “general” news site.  Is Snowden a journalist? Pierre Omidyar, billionaire, was born in Paris of Iranian parents and moved to the US when he was a child. He is uneducated like Snowden and like Snowden is a whiz at computer programming. His billions come from profits from eBay, the company he founded. So, who backed him?

It was revealed in a recent NYTimes article that Omidyar intends to spend 8 billion to back general news sites with the intention of making the government more transparent and making the world a better place. I am not a journalist so I say bullshit! And Omidyar tried to keep this info SECRET?

Here’s the NYTimes article. Try not to laugh – or cry!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/business/media/an-interview-with-pierre-omidyar.html?smid=tw-share

Short excerpt:

Pierre Omidyar: We want to do a better job bringing important investigative stories or deep human stories that tend to be overlooked to a broader audience and we can use technology to figure out how to do that. It isn’t as simple as just throwing something in their faces about an important issue. That’s just like a public service ad and will likely be ignored.

Technologists understand our users and break down how user engagement increases from somebody that maybe just tries your product once and then goes away, to a different kind of person that progressively gets more and more engaged and then becomes just totally locked into your product. That’s something people in Silicon Valley spend a ton of time analyzing, working on and thinking about.

So, it’s about consumerism. As always.

"Lucky Me" a short review of the latest mommie dearest book

**

“Lucky Me: My Life With - and  Without – My Mother Shirley MacLaine” by Sachi Parker.

A short review:

First, Shirley MacLaine says she's devastated about the lies in the book and doesn’t know why her daughter would say such things. Really? Did she really think there would be no payback for abandoning her daughter?

Second, the book is not well written but the content is fascinating. (Maybe she should have written it herself without help.) When questioned about the truth of her claims, Satchi said in an interview that everyone in Hollywood knew everything that is in the book.  If so, MacLaine should be in jail for child abuse and others who knew and didn’t report it, as well.

I am neither a lover or hater of Shirley MacLaine but I did read her autobiographical book “Out on a Limb” many years ago. I knew something was amiss (it’s dripping with narcissism) when there was more in the book about her Russell Terrier than her daughter. So now we know why. She never saw her. Sachi says she still loves her mother, (and that’s her right) but shouldn’t children be allowed to hate mothers who abuse or abandon their children for art?

According to Parker, MacLaine left her with her father who lived in Japan at the age of two (really!). She went on to make more money than anyone needs. Instead of using this money for her daughter (she gave her nothing, wouldn’t even pay for college) MacLaine sent $65,000 a month to the father, (who sexually abused Parker) for over twenty years. MacLaine believed that the man she left her daughter with was not the real father, (even worse) but rather was a clone of her husband who was on a secret government mission in space (which cost $65,000 a month.) When MacLaine found out – after 23 years apparently – with the evidence Parker showed her that the man was a con, MacLaine divorced him.

As they say in art and life: you can’t make this stuff up.
Bravo to Sachi Parker for having the courage to tell her story.

** photo credit: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Photo

No "free use" photos of Sachi Parker on the internet. However, she looks exactly like Shirley MacLaine before she got really big.

Don't Pimp Yourself

NYTimes Article by Tim Kreider today is an important reminder to writers and artists to not work for free. "Slaves of the Internet, Unite! in the Sunday Review section.

Kreider laments how often he gets ask to write, create, and perform for free. Common, but when he mentioned the Huffington Post, i was really pissed. This publication makes millions in profits, enough money to pay its writers but chooses not to, so I choose not to read the HP, especially when they can't even recognize their own hypocrisy when they chastise fast food corporations for not paying a living wage to their workers. HA HA HA HA HA.

I agree wholeheartedly with Tim albeit that I have submitted my work for publication for free: this year I am published in Grisly Shorts, and in the forthcoming "Ultra Short Memoir" and a 20 year anniversary issue of poets from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Since I was the first runner up (to winner Paul Beatty) in 1990 in the very first Grand Poetry Slam I was happy to be invited to be included in the publication. For that I will publish my poem/song "Lose the Day, The Rose Bordello Song". I wrote it when I was living in New Zealand after my partner told me that going to a prostitute in his country didn't count as a betrayal because it was legal there. He had a five year old son at the time and I asked him  how he would feel if he ended up in the brothel and  unbeknownst had sex with  his daughter.

But I digress, as words lead me away from the point, as they always do, I wrote a response to the NYT article, impulsively, unable to stop my disdain for corporate greed:

Great! But sorry you didn't mention how writers are now expected to pay submission fees to have their work considered by literary magazines. A quick look this morning shows fees at some literary publications at $22 per story, poem, etc., which also publish on the internet. Some use a submission app for which you have to pay to submit! Shame on the Huffington Post, the queen, that says let them eat cake. Will she also require a fee to submit? She's probably wondering how she can get in on that action. Artists need to keep their integrity. Don't work for free and don't pimp yourself in social media.

Well! this posting is all over the place. How many times can I say I hate FB? I guess there is no end. Especially since the radiator is cold for the seventh day in a row and I waited for the three maintenance guys to return to fix it. Instead they argued about the source of the problem. I'm still waiting.

Internet Dating: Blind Date at the Gallery

The reading at TheaterLab was a huge success. Produced by Vincent Marano, the six plays were read by professional actors who brought the plays to life. Reading part of the EstroGenius Annual Festival.

Link to my play

Link is page on home page. 

Estrogenius Festival: Internet Dating: Blind Date in the Gallery

My play, "Internet Dating: Blind Date in the Gallery" will be presented tonight as part of the EstroGenius 2013 Xtended Reading Series. It's free. See synopsis below

Diane Spodarek’s play “Internet Dating: Blind Date in the Gallery,”
has been chosen to be presented at the EstroGenius 2013 Xtended
Reading Series, on Friday October 18, 2013 at 8 pm (with three other
short plays) at Theaterlab, 357 W. 36th St., 3rd Floor.

Manhattan Theatre Source presents (4 short plays)

EstroGenius 2013 Xtended (Reading Series)
at Theaterlab
357 W 36th St, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10018
Betw. 8th and 9th Aves
A/C/E, 1/2/3 to 34th St Penn Station or N/Q/R to 34th St/Herald Sq

Producer: Vincent Marano
www.estrogenius.org

Blind Date at the Gallery

Synopsis

A mother and son attend a gallery opening to meet their respective blind dates from an internet dating sight. Be careful of who you meet on the internet. Those sexy anonymous chats may just be with your mother.

Video Art

Videoart works in collaboration with Jay Yager are now archived at archive.org. Links coming.

Still from "Dreaming New Zealand" by Diane Spodarek and Jay Yager. Shot at Belle River, Ontario, Canada.

This is the last video art work Jay and I collaborated with, one of many we shot at Belle River, a place I grew up from the age of three. Although the family moved to Detroit, we continued to spend three to four months in Canada. It is there, that memories have a base, a foundation in stability, something I do not experience in anything else.

The experience of archiving the analog video work to digital was wonderful, with people at the New Museum walking about, watching, some stopping to ask questions, like the artist visiting from China who commented that as a filmmaker, his resources were very limited. 

Archive of my Videoart at the New Museum

In a few days I will be working with technicians at The New Museum to archive my early videoart work, created with Jay Yager.

When Jay and I first collaborated in video, we used a half inch portapac machine, reel to reel tape, and created. "No Pain No Gain." It was 1984 and we traveled to Canada and shot 12 vignettes that i wrote and performed in.
Description of that first tape with Jay:

Diane Spodarek returns to her childhood Summer home where, surrounded by family and friends, she talks about body building and life.  Through twelve intimate "journal entries" she reflects on discipline, confidence, loneliness, sex, art, competition, men, motherhood, marriage, health, rape, and fishing.

This black and white tape, (14. min. 05 sec) was edited and shot by Jay. It went on to win multiple awards and was the beginning of a wonderful collaboration. All together we made 15 videoart works from 1984 to 2006 that originated on various technologies from half inch reel to reel to digital. We hope to have many of them in The New Museum archive. I will post links here.

check out Jay Yager and his work at the spider shack:

http://www.spidershack.net

Jay at the Belle River Marina, Ontario 2006

Another Move - and TRAIN BIRTH

July was full with moving and shopping. I hate shopping probably more than the average person and put it off as long as I can.

 Moving is living in the past the present and future all at the same time. Regular work, meals and sleep interrupted. Dependence on others constant. But here I am. Back in New York City. This time in the West Village on the Hudson River with my daughter and a tuxedo cat who caught a mouse our first week and let him go.

From my apartment I can hear the highway  traffic but I also feel a cool breeze from the river at night. There is no view like my first apartment in Manhattan in '83, a sublet on the UES. Since leaving Detroit in '81, I have moved about a hundred times.

People write books about moving. I doubt if I would write a book about it. However, I do write shorter pieces about moving.

"Train Birth" is the opening monologue from my solo show, The Drunk Monologues.

This story/poem will be published this year in "Ultra Short Memoir" by Telling Our Stories Press in print.  It's weird to have to say "in print" but with so many websites on the internet, it's wonderful to be in a book. To become part of a tradition. To be in a library.

TRAIN BIRTH

I was born in motion

the train rocking and surging

metal against metal

I popped out on a double seat

in a little town called Puce,

which is French for flea,

or so  they tell me

fifteen miles east of Windsor, Ontario

Canada.

Water blood afterbirth

and my mother's tears

mixed with clapping and cheering

and a champagne toast.

some fell on me

and at birth

I was already moving

         and drinking

An Historical Detroit Moment 6-23-63

Dr. Martin Luther King gave his iconic “I have a dream speech” in Detroit at Cobo Hall (Cobo Arena) in front of 25,000 people who  marched down Woodward Avenue. Two months later he gave this speech at the Washington March in front of the Lincoln Memorial. But it was Detroit where he tried it out.

“I have a dream . . . that one day here in Detroit Negroes will be able to buy a house or rent a house anywhere their money will take them.

the detroit speech:

public domain 6/18/63 Washington DC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q3fosthiFU

BRIEF GRISLYS by THE APOCRYPHILE PRESS

BRIEF GRISLYS, short horror fiction is now out!

I am proud to have "Farmer in the Dell" published, a short story in 106 words based on a true tale about the murder and suicide of people I knew in Ontario.

Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Brief-Grislys-John-R-Mabry/dp/193700287X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1371165602&sr=8-1

Readings in New York forthcoming.

The stories were selected and edited by John R. Mabry

Take Cover

Text Alert: Take Cover. Tornado Alert. Take Cover Now

the above text was sent to my phone which I read thirty minutes after the alert expired.

I am visiting folks in Florida. I purchased my phone in New York. However, I got this text. I don't know how it works, but there you go!  So how is it any surprise that the government has authority over obtaining phone records from Verizon when this same story was published in 2006 under Bush!
Here's link to that story:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/06/collection-of-phone-records-raises-fresh-questions-about-domestic-spying.html

What about Zuckenberg? What about the banks, the credit card companies, google, et al?  Every stroke has always been collected. There is more personal harm in spying by corporations than the government. It's interesting though how the right wing call Snowden a hero. Something is behind this.

JUST ASKING: how did Edward Snowden, a high school drop out expose CIA secrets? He then runs off to Hong Kong? Snowden says he trusts the courts and people there over the US. Maybe he should have finished high school geography before dropping out. I remember a friend who applied for a job with the CIA. Snowden couldn't have possibly passed the vetting process. Is he a plant? If so, who is behind this mess?

Why Vegan?

If a three year old knows . . .


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/luiz-antonio-vegetarian-where-meat-comes-from_n_3366242.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Sobriety is Over Rated!

KGB Lit Magazine - The Drunk Monologues "Sobriety is Over Rated"

http://kgbbar.com/lit/non_fiction/the_drunk_monologues_sobriety_is_overrated

News That Should Piss You Off

Oklahoma Republican Senators Jim Inhoe and Tom Coburn, repeatedly voted against funding disaster aid for other parts of the country (most recently Hurricane Sandy) in addition to opposing increased funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers federal disaster relief.
Both have twitter accounts where they asked for prayer for Oklahoma. 

What are the odds they will ask the big bad government for aid in secular cash?

Republican Oklahoma Governor Marry Fallin has refused to accept Obamacare’s optional expansion of the Medicaid program, denying 130,000 low income people access to health care. Under OK law, families can’t get Medicaid coverage unless annual income falls below $6,996 for family of four, despite the fact that Medicaid would actually save OK $48 million per year if expanded to include families with dependent children with an income up to $30,000.

News that brings a smile:

The Oklahoma tornado survivor, Rebecca Vitsmun, while holding her baby, responds to Wolf Blitzer's inappropriate question:

"I guess you got to thank the Lord right?"

Silence (her home was demolished)

"You got to thank the Lord....?"

"Actually, I'm an atheist."

Yes! Thank you Rebecca. you are a hero. It takes courage to look at that dour CNN face and say who you are, and then to laugh.

KGB Lit Magazine - Interview

KGB Lit Magazine - The Drunk Monologues "Sobriety is Over Rated"

http://kgbbar.com/lit/non_fiction/the_drunk_monologues_sobriety_is_overrated

The Dark Side of the Moon

Charcoal drawing

when the dark side of the moon

becomes two

they huddle together

and walk toward silence

masses move as one

men without women

men without children grieving for

what could have been

once sons of men

who went to war now

they send their own sons and daughters

to a war with no end

Waihonga, NZ

2007

The Next Big Thing Project

Update: I will be adding two more self-interviews in the coming week
Susan Sherman and Dawn D'Arcy both said yes.

JOHN McCAFFREY'S NEXT BIG THING

John McCaffrey graduated from the City College of New York’s creative writing program and currently lives in Hoboken, NJ.  His debut novel, The Book of Ash, will be released by Boxfire Press in October 2013.
John has posted the interview on his blog: John McCafferty

What is the working title of the book?

My debut novel is titled THE BOOK OF ASH.  It will be released in October 2013 by Boxfire Press.  (http://boxfirepress.com/products/the-book-of-ash)
Here’s the cover.  Although I did not pose for the picture, I do own a white towel and often use it as a substitute for pants. 

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I’d like to say a white towel, but the idea to write THE BOOK OF ASH came from a serious and sad situation, a response to the 9/11 attacks in New York City.  At the time, I lived (and still do) in Hoboken, New Jersey, directly across the Hudson River from the former World Trade Center, and worked in downtown Manhattan, blocks from the tragedy.  Like many, I was deeply saddened and shook by the event, and given my geographical proximity, reminded nearly every day of what was unfolding at “Ground Zero.” I began to consider what could be done to prevent such needless loss of life and suffering, questioning why our world is always besieged by violence, and thought that the issue lies with the individual – that if we can help each person reach an optimal state of “mental health,” then we can prevent violence – on small and large scales.  So I began to create in my mind a society predicated on forming “mentally healthy” citizens, and came up with the Circle, the fictionalized world in the novel.  However, in developing the concept in my mind, and writing about it, I began to see that such a society could never flourish, or, more aptly, forced anything never works, and the book began to take on this form, of a people in rebellion against authority. 

The inherent strength and, for lack of a better word, sanity of nature is another prevalent theme in the novel, and one that also got its inspiration from 9/11.  Going back to that time, I was very moved, one night, while smoke still rose from the former World Trade Center, seeing a flock of geese flying south.  It made me realize that while the human world was out of order, the natural world was not – that no matter our struggles, geese and animals, plants and fish continued to follow an inner guide, a purer instinct.  This comforted me and so I infused the Circle, where the book takes place, with a more primitive natural setting, albeit one that might have been formed by earlier generation excess and pollution.

What genre does your book fall under?

My idea is that it is part Sci-fi, part mystery, with lots of action and romance and absurdist humor.  I like to describe it as Fight Club meets 1984 meets Clockwork Orange.  Then again, I like to put potato chips into my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so I might not be a reliable judge of genre. 

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

The main character in the novel, Baldwin Wallace, is 33 years old, in a difficult marriage, and facing a life crisis.  He also has a shy humor and naïve outlook on people – he looks for the best in everyone.  I think James Franco would be a great choice to play the role or, if somehow resurrected, Art Carney.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

A promiscuous wife, a sadistic stepfather, and a seductive young woman who promises to love him as long as murder is involved, are just a few of the issues Baldwin Wallace is dealing with as he tries to survive (and just possibly find happiness) in this comedic thriller.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

It took me one year to write the first draft – three more years to edit, and one year to find a publisher.  In that time, I gained greater perspective, wisdom and weight.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

In addition to the 9/11 factor, I also wanted to challenge myself to write a novel.  Before that, I had stuck mainly to short stories, so finishing on a novel was something I thought important for my writing practice and career.  

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I think it’s surprisingly sexy, perhaps not in a Fifty Shades of Grey way, but more in the understated, underhanded, and unhinged manner that befits most romantic relationships. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’m grateful to Boxfire Press for selecting the novel to join with their other great titles.

What is it that you want of a book?

I think it would be wonderful to see someone on a bus, or a subway, or somewhere public reading my book.  Then I could go up to them and ask if they like it.  And if they say yes, I’ll buy them a hot dog.  If they say no, I’ll buy myself one.  

Dangerous Diane's NEXT BIG THING

The Next Big Thing Project has been going around the internet. I was tagged by Bonny Finberg. We all answer the same five questions and then tag five others.

See Bonny's self-interview:  http://bonny-finberg.blogspot.com/2013/03/my-next-big-thing-self-interview-project.html

THE NEXT BIG THING PROJECT

What is the working title of the book?
The Drunk Monologues. Not "The Drunken Monologues. Some people say the grammar is incorrect. But they don't get it. In some way it's sort of a play on the "show don't tell" idiom, isn't it?

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I was drinking a beer in a brown paper bag on Second Avenue when I saw a group of men looking under the hood of a car. I leaned against a deli wall and watched their ritualistic moves and thought it was hilarious. I went home and wrote it all down. That was in the 80's and I've been writing monologues about drinking ever since.

The Drunk Monologues, Fringe, NYC ph: Guler Ugur

What genre does your book fall under?

I don’t know. Poetry, prose, a solo play, fiction, creative non-fiction. Excerpts have been published in fiction anthologies, arts magazines and monologue books. It’s part memoir. It could even be horror or thriller although those genres usually reject me like ex-husbands.

So I guess it’s a novel. Hopefully literature.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in the movie rendition?

Lily Tomlin or Tom Waits.

Tomlin is also from Detroit, where a lot of the stories take place, especially the music. And since there is music, my original drummer, Leonard Paul Johnson would play drums. Waits once said that he’s a musician because it was either that or air conditioning repair. That’s how I feel about being an artist.

I was the first actor. I read the monologues in all the usual poetry venues in NYC and then performed the solo show in a Horse Trade production, which they produced and directed (by their theatre director at the time, Russ Dobular). I went on to do it again at the NY and New Zealand fringe festivals. If Tomlin or Waits turn it down, I could be persuaded to do it myself but I don’t like pretending I’m drunk anymore. I want the real thing now. It might be because I’m in Florida at the moment visiting folks.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

A tragic-comedy about one woman’s drinking addiction with absolutely no reference to recovery.

OR

Sobriety is over-rated. 

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I never stopped. The first monologue was around 1988. There are more monologues than what ended up in the show so I'm excited to get all the monologues together again. Since 1988 I moved three more times in Manhattan, six times in New Zealand, once to Woodstock, three house sitting gigs in NYC, one sublet in Brooklyn (same hood as the Bensonhurt Butcher), and one roommate share in Hoboken, NJ.  In 2004 I went to New Zealand to try a second hand romance. The marriage was in front of a portrait of the Queen of England!. It ended not well because that husband was drinking and I was jealous. My moving for the past ten years has a lot to do with writing and drinking, I’m just not sure exactly what it is.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Steven Canon invited me to be a feature reader at the now defunct Avenue B Social Club where the audience included people drinking and people in recovery. Because they all laughed at my stories I was encourage to go further. When I saw John Leguizamo's “Freak” I knew I had a Broadway show. I never got that far but off-off broadway has been good and getting some of the monologues published is  inspiring.

Now Bonny Finberg has invited me to do this. I couldn't say no. I'm inspired to go forward and finish. Thanks Bonny.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest.

Chapter One: Train Birth

I was born in motion. The train rocking and surging,  metal against metal I popped out on a double seat in a little town called Puce - which is French for flea or so  they tell me - fifteen miles east of Windsor, Ontario. Canada. Water blood afterbirth and my mother's tears mixed with clapping and cheering and a champagne toast. Some fell on me, and at birth I was already moving and drinking. 

Horse Trade Theatre, NY, ph: Guler Ugur

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I would have more control if I did it myself. My last novel was rejected by twenty-two top publishing houses. At the same time I had been dating a poet/cab driver who asked me to marry him over a few bottles of vodka. We flew to San Francisco.  In the middle of the ceremony the judge admonished me for laughing because  it was a “solemn occasion”. I stopped laughing, we got married and my friends Bobby and Marcie took us to a revolving restaurant in the sky where we ordered champagne. However, my new husband wanted a bloody mary instead and I knew I married the wrong man. 

I want to publish visuals and music with the chapters. There are old songs and cartoons that are appropriate and I want to create new stuff with sound and ink.  A blog is the only way to control that. 

When done, I will toast the project with a glass of red wine. This is an incredible incentive. After sixteen years sober, I think I deserve a drink. Recovery is so over-rated. I’m not having any fun since I hit bottom.

What is it that you want of a book? 

I want my book to do what books do for me: EVERYTHING.

Truth! 

Gore Vidal says...I'm paraphrasing..."... a writer must tell the truth and the best way to do that is in a novel."

 I like deadlines. 

My Birthday and i found art

Yesterday
was my birthday


On the eve of my birthday I received an unexpected gift.
At the Farmers Market I was hanging at the Suncoast Food Coop stand when I saw a brown paper bag sitting on the lip of a white board easel.

The tag on the bag said FREE ART: a gift for you!
It was wrapped in paper and a ribbon. The gift: A ceramic heart by "Sherry".
Thank you Sherry.

i found art (by Sherry)

From the "A Gift for You" tag for i.foundart: "Art Abandonment is a group of artists sharing what we love to do by leaving artwork in random locations across the globe to find and enjoy. Today the universe picks you to receive this gift with the hope that you enjoy it or pass it onto someone else. If you wish you can send a message to i.found.artwork@gmail.com t let us know it was found."

itunes too? More household gods win

2nd day of the year and I need an iTunes upgrade.
This upgrade changed the look of my iTunes and prompted the question do I want to SHARE? This way iTunes can send me what THEY think I would like to listen to. Should I agree? Do I really want a computer program to suggest cultural choices?

I don't own the music in my iTunes, even the cd's i put there that I bought and the music I buy (not cheap) at the iTunes store. I can transfer 11 times only to other devices; and 7 times to a CD.

Clicking on AGREE to any digital contract is the same as signing a contract. And that includes renting the music.

So, the household gods win again.

 Got kids and partner? How many devices to play music all together? You could deplete your right to transfer your music to your next device in a year!  So, say five years from now I can't transfer myLeonard Cohen and Patti Smith to my new digital device?

Technology is a necessity. But the cost is not affordable for everyone.  Add up how much today  phone, internet, cable, mobile devices cost a month. All permanent costs that didn't exist a decade ago. I wouldn't care if there was a choice. The only choice I have that is loosing ground is not being on Facebook. Ever since a gov official said the future is using facebook to "inform" the public, I have lost faith in a thinking society.

Not long ago I moved around a lot. Through the years I gave up my vinyl, my cassettes, my CDs (although I still buy CD's). Transferring music from old computer to new has been a challenge. Albums, artists and songs have disappeared. It's just me listening to music, but some of it is gone.

Some artists (like Jack White a fellow Detroiter) are recording on vinyl again because  it SOUNDS better. This is not a discovery. It always sounded better.

Music comes from the heart.  Without it we loose our love and compassion for life.

Women dressing as strippers and gyrating on the stage is not music or love.
Men vocalizing about smashing women's teeth for better blow jobs is not love or music.
It's commerce.

It's only commerce.

The Beginning: Listen

The beginning of a new year, brings gray skies here in Hoboken.
At dawn silence.
A silence so beautiful I had forgot it was there, offering itself.
Now, the above neighbor stomps around her apartment as if no one lived under her. Neighbors return to the stoop, to smoke and argue, so inside their own heads and addiction, they wouldn't recognize me if i walked past them, knowing their secrets.

Silence at Dawn. Sensual.

Why Resolutions?

What one thing can I do that will make a difference?

LISTEN.

The news is full of hatred today as yesterday.
The technological revolution brings junk comments from hateful people I avoid in 3D time, people who don't have any compassion, tolerance or sense of equality for all life.

...speaking of comments...i had to put in place a procedure to limit the crap of anonymous comments trying to get on this blog to sell everything from viagra to ugh boots.

Exactly one year ago 2012 looked scary. Would the racists get rid of Obama? Would my mother be okay? Could my father still play tennis? Would my daughter still love me despite my faults? Would I find another job?

It was worse.
Then there was the weather. Hoboken was under water, the apartment below me, completely gone. I watched the water slowly flow and then suddenly smash the front door down, race inside and lift up heavy furniture. Gone. Yet, the landlord is rebuilding, will move back in. He says he has no choice. But will there be another Sandy? How could there not be?

LISTEN.

It's my only resolution.