entertaining infinity

too long away - (went to another planet)

I have not posted for SO long.  What's been going on that's kept me away?

A few snapshots of what I've been up to:

Driving a few miles from my home I saw these two 'trees' installed on parallel roads.   Love that someone took the time to create them. (what possessed them?  whatever it is, i love it!) It would have be easy to drive right by and not notice them - so glad I didn't. (click on the photos for a full view, but then click your return button to come back...)

Finished the weekly workshop I was taking in NYC: "Writing for Performance."  I've been working on material that I thought I might include in a one-woman show (something i've toyed around with doing for a while - not a serious "career" thing ... just cuz ...), and got some good feedback and interesting direction on the old things, and ideas for some new stuff.  In a few weeks, I'll be trying out 10 minutes of it at the Happy Hour Salon - October 21st, 6:30 at Ripley-Grier Studios in Manhattan. 

Spoke at a really cool arts conference.  Fun to be with "my people" - artists, arts administrators, and people who get that a life without the arts just plain sucks.  ;)

Spent a long weekend in NY with my cousin (she of 'girlene' fame).  Snagged tickets to Spamalot at the last minute.  It is warped and wonderful (like the movie it's based on) and I there were a few times that I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.

The cuz lives in St. Louis now, so we don't get that much time to hang together these days (we used to live 10 minutes from each other in CA), so even without Spamalot, the visit was fab-wah. (fab-wah: a variation on the theme of fab-u-licious...)

I also visited "Planet Fashion."  What a world.

An old friend from high school is a pretty famous fashion designer (for those who follow fashion stuff: he's the "mischka" in badgley mischka).  Another buddy of ours flew in from Miami with his partner, and the three of us ventured into the city to see James' big "Fashion Week" show.  It is truly another world than the one that I inhabit. 

I've been to another one of the Badgley Mischka shows a couple of years ago.  That time I actually tried to dress the part of someone who might possibly belong at a fashion show.  Those who know me understand the futility of such a thing; not to say that I don't have a fashion sense - I do.  Sort of.  It's just that it's MINE, and not one that 7th Avenue would likely approve of.  Trying to dress the part of a fashionista-ish sort was a real bust.  I was hot and uncomfortable and I probably looked like someone who was trying not to look conspicuous, but did anyway because she was trying too damn hard not to.  (another beautiful day in paradox!)  This time I wore my silky pants that feel like pj's and flats and I was a happy gal. 

Besides, nobody goes there to look at me; they're looking through me.  They're looking at the models and the used-to-be-models.  They're looking (actually more like straining their necks) to see the celebrities (from the a, b, c, d, and e list) and those who are a-listers in the fashion world but who the rest of us not living on Planet Fashion wouldn't know from a spangly or chiffonned hole in the wall.

Many of the women (and i'm not just talking about the models) look like they're desperate for a sandwich and/or they're wearing shoes that I know they couldn't have been walking the streets of NY in without screaming every step of the way. 

Perhaps you can tell that I found myself being a bit judgmental about them all.  Except James.  I don't get judgmental about him because I've known him since we were kids and I know he's not shallow - he's a craftsman and he's one of the most generous and sweet guys I know.  (that's him on the left in the photo..)  Yet, everyone around him (except his partner mark - non-judgment by association), I decided were all pomp and circumstance - no substance.

It was an interesting lesson for me to notice.  How quick I was to judge this world that is so far from the one I move in - even as I enjoyed the hooplah and spectacle of it immensely.  Strange how I make a point in my life to remember that people are different and not everyone has the same interests or priorities as I do (wow, what a revelation), but sometimes I need to be reminded. 

And looking at pretty dresses, hanging out with Marty and Paco, and supporting James wasn't such a bad way to do it.  Yep, it's one fabulous strut for models in marvy frocks, one huge step for Deb.  (but i'm glad to be back down to earth again...)

fun links...

Just a few fun diversions:

Computer voices sing karaoke in Dictionaraoke - songs from Abba, Bob Marley, and The Ramones ('i wanna be sedated'...? i nearly peed in my pants!)...oh god, what FUN!

As a former paperdoll lover, I've enjoyed this site for a long time. I kinda wish they had Cher and Ru Paul to dress up, but when they created a chance to put Elvis in black high tops and a rainbow t-shirt...oh lordy, this girl was in heaven!

As if I didn't already know it, I'm not the only Star Wars* geek out there.  Charles Rose performs the entire movie all by himself on stage - one man and a cast of thousands.  Brilliant. (*and when i say 'star wars,' i'm talking the original series. we purists know the 2nd series was crap-o-la...)  (oh my god, i am such a geek!)

Got any favorite diversionary links to share?

to clean your plate or not...

I've been avoiding posting the last couple of days because I keep thinking: how can I write about my life and my weekend and getting through September 4th - my mother's birthday - for the 2nd time without her in the world?  How little my suffering is in comparison to people have lost their homes, I kept saying to myself. 

I wondered how I could write about anything BUT what's going on with the people who are struggling to find family, get a decent meal, and find a shower after Katrina.

I guess probably the same way kids did when their parents told them to clean their plates because there were children starving in Africa/China/everywhere.  Because there's brutality and loss and horror going on somewhere around the globe every minute of the day and somehow we go on, don't we? 

I think it might be because unless you're in it, it's not really possible to wrap your head around how horrible someone else's suffering might be ... and if you could, I don't think it's possible to keep your head wrapped around those concepts without going slightly batty.

I know it was doing that to me.  I sent a check to the Red Cross, because that seemed the wisest and most generous support that I could give, but other than that, what could I do?

I could be vigilant, that's what!  I could watch The Weather Channel for up to the minute reports. I could flip from website to website and speculate, judge, wonder.  I could check my email for the hundredth time to see if there was any news about a friend in New Orleans (she's OK - found out on tuesday...).  I could make W wrong (oh, it would be so luscious and so easy, wouldn't it?), I could make FEMA wrong (or i could make W and his administration wrong yet again for making FEMA part of the department of homeland security).  I could make all people who didn't listen to the original evacuation warnings wrong.  And then I could make myself wrong for being so completely oblivious to the plight of the people who couldn't afford to, or who were too sick to get out of town!  Then I could rail against the human race for ever once thinking that we could best nature with our engineering and then walk around stunned saying: how did this happen? 

Yeah, that's good, I could make the whole human race wrong. 

Clearly this was not working.

So over the Labor Day weekend, I took a break from the news.  I didn't read the newspaper and I avoided television.  I knew horrors were happening, but I didn't feel like I was helping anyone by keeping my head in the news. 

On Saturday my schweetie and I drove to the sea (or as we say in joisey - we went 'down the shore') with the top down on his car.  We walked at the edge of the water.  We watched people swimming and fishing and building sand castles.  We watched birds and boats and clouds.  We ate outside and watched the sunset. 

The rest of the weekend I baked banana bread.  I made fresh pesto.  I watched a DVD.  I blew bubbles with my nieces and nephew.  I repotted plants.  I thought about my mom and how much it sucks that she's still dead.  I thought about my dad and how much it sucks that he's having to walk through the world without my mom.  I felt a little sorry for myself for not having my mom anymore, and I hardly felt guilty at all for indulging in my own longing and sadness when so many are suffering elsewhere. 

I'm not sure if my moratorium on the news helped anyone who has been displaced by the hurricane, but two days out, I'm still feeling way better for it and in no hurry to get back in the swing. 

There's really no big declaration here, but if there were, maybe it's just that there's no need to clean my plate; not sure it helps anyway.

katrina

These photos from NASA's website show the New Orleans area before (the lower shot) and after Katrina. 

The Better Business Bureau has posted links on its Give.org website to various organizations who are collecting funds for relief efforts in Louisianna, Mississippi and Alabama. 

When you click on the individual organization's link you'll see if they meet the BBB's standards for charitable accountability (what % of their money goes for the cause/what % goes to operating costs...stuff like that).

I don't have buckets of extra cash lying around, but I will surely be sending some on to one of those organizations.  As Craig Wilson (a wonderful columnist with usatoday) said about what's happening now in New Orleans: "Kind of spooky how quickly society's fabric can all fall apart." 

There but for the grace of grace go you and I.

Here's hoping your family and friends are all safe and well.