I made plans to come up to Manchester and spend some time with Arc, and then we were going to go up to Faerie Camp Destiny. Well, our ride decided that he wasn't going to go after all and now we're just kind of hanging out around Manchester. We're still working on finding a ride, but I'm not sweating it. If I get there I get there, if not I still got to spend time with a loved one.

Most of the days here have been mellow. It's been raining a lot, which is most of the reason why our ride cancelled. He didn't want to go camping in the rain. I don't blame him.

I learned how to play Donkey Konga on the game cube. It's quite fun. I started reading "A Stroke of Midnight" by Laurell K. Hamilton, and that's good. Arc and I have had a lot of good time together, and we've had a lot of opportunity to talk about his plans for a high-tech monastery built around ethical principles, a monastic society of friends if you will.

My appendix area has been hurting again. I'm taking it easy.

I've been enjoying the time, I just need to keep it mellow.

I'll be on vacation from June 29-July 7. I'll be up in New Hamphire for a day or so and then on to Vermont to go camping with the Faeries.

More when I return.

Love you all.

Fritter

Thanks to bruhinb I discovered this gem of kookery.

DC Street Sorcery

I know there have been plenty of books about the sacred geometry of DC, particularly in L'Enfant's original design. But I don't think any of them took the same kind of fundamentalist christian approach to amassing piles of incoherent evidence to say that because of the secret messages in Rennes-Le-Chateau, L'Enfant's original design, and the deeper interpretation of Salvador Dali's "Last Supper" that DC is secretly hiding the head of John the Baptist.

That's a new one on me.

What this has sparked in my brain though is to do a QBL tree walk through the city. It's practically a marathon length, but hey, why not? I've got nothing to do today.

It's moments like this that I appreciate.

The boys are asleep.
The house is dark.
Mine is the last light to go out.
All I hear is the hum of my computer's fan,
And the click of my fingers on the keys.
The ceiling fan is blowing cool air on my back.
My skin bristles and contracts a bit with the cold.
My eyes are blurry for bed.
I close my eyes.
The rest
is silence.

The other night I was having a conversation with a friend who identifies as otherkin. This was an outgrowth of a larger conversation with a group of friends who also identify as otherkin. Over the course of the conversation I said, while in somewhat of a trance, with absolute conviction:

I think that this is the natural place for us to be as a post-modern society. If you think about post-modern art it is collage, discrete observable pieces that as a whole become something more than what they were separately. I think that those people who are self-identifying as otherkin are speaking the same language about their souls. They use the language of mythology and religion to explain themselves to others. And I have no more reason to doubt their convictions than I would to someone who claimed any other identity (irish-american, african-american, poet, philosopher-king).

My feelings on this subject have been a complicated amalgamation of things. I, myself, don't identify as otherkin, nor do I have any elements of myself that I would claim as being something more than human. I have, however, for the longest time identified as something akin to shaman/priest/witch. Depending on the day it swings differently. But part of that identity I have claimed for myself is that I truck with spirits and otherworldly creatures.

And here I am surrounded by them.

And I'm perfectly happy with that.

There are several things that compounded to make this day awkward for me. Let me break it down into recognizable chunks.

* It's the summer solstice. As a Pagan person this should be a big deal, but I wasn't feeling it today, excepting in that I was surprised at how bright it was at 7:30 (because I live in a cave with only artificial light).

* It's my parent's anniversary, I think this would have been their 34th if I calculated that right.

* It's fathers day, and My father died on the winter solstice 7 years ago.

* My partner and all my roommates are all away in Buffalo having an equally awkward time.

* I wasn't supposed to be scheduled to work today, but I went in to cover the morning so that there would be two people in the office.

* Well, I would have been doing that if I hadn't been a forgetful fool and locked myself out of the house this morning. I locked my keys, wallet and iPod in the house and EVERYONE who has a key is 500 miles away. So I had to call a locksmith and I got this shady guy who immediately drilled a hole in my doorknob lock and ripped it out with a screwdriver, then proceeded to charge me $340 for the service, the call and the new doorknob and deadbolt. It sucked beyond belief.

* Got to work and was shelving the children's books when it became blatantly obvious that everything was out of whack. I stayed until the afternoon people came, gave them instructions to fix it and left to have the rest of the day to myself.

* I can't find any of my guitar picks, so I've been using my "Lids" store club card as a pick.

* I look at the mess in the house and every day I just go *sigh* at it. I think I picked up three things so far.

* Spent a good chunk of time tonight filling out the ranking factors for the promotion application I'm putting into the pool. I actually went to submit the application on Friday, but got sent back because the ranking factors weren't attached. So, I went back and had to write them today.

So, it's kind of a mixed bag for me. The day started out like shit. Then I started thinking about the celebratory bits of things and it kind of went downhill from there. I was mellowing out from all of that by playing my guitar a bit. I'm liking playing the Morrissey stuff I got online the other day, and the Kristen Hersh songs are all very good as well. I'm going to watch True Blood in a few minutes and eat something for dinner. After that I'll pick up some of the stuff around the house and finish off the dishes, and maybe jump in the bathtub. Then again, by that time it'll be hella late, and I've got to get up to get to work by 8:45 and then I pull the rest of the evening at the branch, because half the staff are on leave tomorrow.

And then I work the rest of the week out as well...

I'll be glad as hell when my vacation comes around next monday.

Today I made boats with the story time kids.

That's about all I have to say.

Well, that and the fact that my boat is very me.

If you missed the Radical Faeries at Capital Pride, then you missed out on a hell of a show. Here's a 30 second clip of our glorious selves prepping and being in the parade.



Enjoy!

This morning I woke up early enough to get my partner off to work on time (more or less). I printed out my Borders DVD coupon. Went to the bank and deposited all the back rent that's been piling up at my house. Went to the Borders at 18th and L and found out they didn't have the box set I was wanting (Doctor Who Series 4), and found out they had it at 14th and H. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time at that point to go down there and get it, so I took a cab to my meeting in Southeast out on Central Ave. I was in the slowest taxi cab in the universe and got there 15 minutes late, even though I left a good 45 minutes before I was supposed to be there. The meeting ran long and adjourned 45 minutes after our normal close of business. *sigh* Then I went to the Borders on 14th and H and went looking for my box set. They were rearranging the ENTIRE DVD section there and they had misfiled it under regular television series, instead of with the British TV series. It took us like 20 minutes to track it down. Then I started walking and tried to figure out what to eat. I just said screw it and went to Cosi in Metro Center. Had a decent sandwich and read another chapter in "Fear of Flying." I'm really loving it. I hope it doesn't really stop being as good as it is in the beginning. Then I took the metro up to work and now here I sit and I'm totally exhausted.

Time to sit down and look at schedules, then do some comic rearrangement.

So tired.

Want to crash.

This morning I dressed to take my partner to a very serious appointment. As a result of that I wore my black shoes, which I hardly ever wear anywhere any more. They're all scuffed up, falling apart in places, and just look like they've been around the block a few too many times.

The good part about them however is that they have soles like you wouldn't believe. In fact when I bought them the man said the soles on these particular shoes were guarateed for life. Unfortunately the uppers were not guaranteed for life...

In essence though, these have now become the perfect rain shoes. There are no holes in the soles, the tops are solid leather, and the places where there is any kind of damage to the uppers are minimal enough that it doesn't force water into the shoe.

And right now it's raining like all hell out here.

Over on the Wired blog, cyberpunk author and futurist Bruce Sterling wrote this twitter-esque manifesto list of 18 challenges in contemporary literature. I'd like to spend some time reflecting and commenting on each of these points. I think some of them are totally valid, but I don't believe that others of them are as solid as he thinks. I'll take them point by point and this may cover a series of posts to get to each of them.

1. Literature is language-based and national; contemporary society is globalizing and polyglot.

The heart of literature is language. Languages are built by cultures, and though we are globalizing we are still the product of our own cultures. Unless we adopt an internationally recognized standard language and a uniform standard culture this will always be a hurdle. Given the lack of success in attempting this in the past (sorry Esperanto geeks) I don't see this changing any time soon. There are books that explore the confluence of cultures and that employ a melange of languages to express things. But even in today's globalizing society those books are of less interest to the broader public than books that have in their focus a particular worldview. The success of authors like Amy Tan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Haruki Murakami and many many others is a testament to that. Entire economies are built on the export of culture. I believe that we still exoticize the other, regardless of how close it may seem to us through our electronic connections.

2. Vernacular means of everyday communication — cellphones, social networks, streaming video — are moving into areas where printed text cannot follow.

Maybe I'm missing something, but language is still necessary for these communications. And language is both spoken and written. Text messaging is going into new places like Twitter and in Japan the Light Novel (where entire books are written on cell phones). But it still requires text. Social networks, while brief, still require text. Streaming video is great for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, but for the deaf and blind they are not terribly helpful without text. I don't buy for a minute that text cannot follow us into these three areas.

3. Intellectual property systems failing.

This is true, and I have no problem with this. I have felt for a long time that the copyright system is grossly unfair to people involved in creative works, because in the United States it binds this up for nearly a hundred years before they can become a part of the public domain. We've gotten to the point though where people just don't give a damn about copyright and are writing fanfiction and putting out fan art in such volumes that to hire the attorneys required to uphold the copyright would just destroy the companies and the authors. I mean, look at Harry Potter. They just got to the point with the HP fanfic that they just threw up their hands and said forget about it. There's just too much of it, coming from too many people that they just can't bother with prosecuting the whole thing without wasting tons of money on something that will come up again and again like a hydra. To that I say good riddance.

More later...

Okay, sure there's a glitch in the song in this little video, but you get the gist of it. Here's me playing and singing The Titanic song in a promotional video I made for my branch of the library.

Building a green man to put on the pride float.

Pics will be forthcoming.

Yesterday, Nick and I went through everything in the laundry room, and I mean EVERYTHING. We got rid of what had to be a dozen bags of trash and countless pieces of furniture and a shit ton of junk fans and space heaters. It was awful. But we made it through, and when we were done, Nick to a weed wacker and the loppers to the backyard, and I assembled the patio furniture. We got a picnic table, a bench, and two chairs from Ikea. I got all the furniture put together in about an hour, and Nick got the yard work mostly all done.

Then the thunderstorms came in, and all work stopped. The only thing I didn't get to finish was the set up of the fire pit. I'll probably get to that in a couple days. Maybe tomorrow. Well, that and we were going to have a grill out, but that didn't happen either. Due to the rain and all. We're thinking we'll have the grillout around 4th of July or so.

All told we got major amounts accomplished.

At the same time while Nick and I were blazing through that, JD and Topher were going through the all the bags and bags of stuff in the living room from JD's move back into the house. Then they went off to Target and Best Buy and got us a new garden hose and a vacuum cleaner. We've been needing a real vacuum cleaner for a while now, and they got us an electrolux with a little dustbuster attachment.

Then I made a hell of a huge vegan lasagna.
And Faeries came
and went.

Then End.

Yesterday I used my 40% off coupon at Borders and got 2 more songbooks. One is a dover edition of 100 classic American songs. It's stuff like the Yellow Rose of Texas and Pop Goes the Weasel and all these tunes that have been used in a million contexts. The second is a collection of Folk Pop songs.

Let me tell you, it's hilarious to play Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" to the tune of the Yellow Rose of Texas.

I also learned:
Go Down Moses (let my people go)
Mrs. Robinson
Eight Miles High
Nights In White Satin
Once To Every Man And Nation
Shady Grove
Barbara Allen

I almost bought an MTV acoustic rock book. I probably should have. It's got more stuff in it that other people in the house would actually like to listen to.

Today and yesterday were all about running around. I think I bought a few hundred dollars worth of outdoor furniture. It's all pretty amazing. We got a full 5 piece picnic table set from Ikea, a fire pit and rocking chairs from Target and a grill from Home Depot.

Tomorrow we clean the hell out of this house and we're going to take the party outside for some hot grilling action. WOO!

Yesterday was an unusual string of events for me.

In the morning we had our juggling clown performer for children at the library. He was interesting, though I don't know why he switched into that ridiculous fake accent that only made J's into Y's. It didn't do anything to really help the show. But the kids liked him well enough.

Then last night faeshale and I went to the opening night performance of Crazyface. Crazyface is more a fool than a clown, though his brother Lenny is a clown in that Joker kind of way of being a creepy ass clown. The show was amazingly good. I was impressed that they made it so damn funny. I mean, it's a funny play, but it's still quite creepy. There's also a silent mime of a clown in the play as well.

So, one clown in the morning and three at night.

I'm clowned out for the year.

I have found the perfect way to blend my knowledge of ridiculous and gross songs and my job. Sing them to kids and teens at the library! Hurrah for freedom of speech and parody rights!

It might be a little offensive, but I promise not to go too overboard.

Well, maybe a little overboard. >:P

I'm sure this is probably starting to get old as hell by now. But this is all I did last night was play guitar. I was going through the Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book, which I'm thinking I'll probably buy. If only for the fact that it's loaded with silly stuff that I sang as a child, and stuff that my family taught me. Among them:

Greasy Grimey Gopher Guts
The Titanic
The Tattered Billboard
Glory, Glory How Peculiar
You Can't Get To Heaven On Roller Skates

And dozens and dozens of other things. Perhaps the main reason why I liked the book so much, was because it did in fact have the Titanic song in there, and it had verses that I didn't know, and they made it even better. Here's the Titanic.

( The Titanic (edited to add full lyrics) )

I also pulled some stuff offline, including some Filk things by Leslie Fish, a Radiohead song, and a couple of old traditional things including Dooley!

The Wheel
Chickasaw Mountain
Black Powder and Alcohol
Greensleeves
Dooley
Fake Plastic Trees

Though I watched the Andy Griffith Show segment again to verify the chord progression in the song. The one I got offline wasn't complete, so I watched the singer's hands move and picked it out from there. I did pretty good if I do say so.

Of course all I'm doing is strumming. But hell, it's only been a week, and I'm picking this stuff up left and right. I'm sure I'll get around to picking out notes soon enough.

Today I've been playing the guitar since about 10:00 this morning. I went over some of the older stuff, worked on the F chord and played a whole bunch of new things. Among them:

I'll Fly Away
Down in the Valley to Pray
The Cat Came Back
Throw it out the Window
Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan was her name
Once to Every Man and Nation
The Sound of Silence
We Can Work It Out

I've also gotten better about being able to tune it against each string.

It's absolutely amazing to me how quickly I've picked this up. I've even been able to start to pick out specific notes along the neck of the guitar, and through a little bit of fiddling around to piece together a simple gospel song (Down in the Valley) out of things that sounded right, and to work out the chord pattern for the whole thing.

I'm completely impressed with myself. I asked myself why I didn't pick this up sooner, and the voice of my father came back at me saying that it was just stubbornness. I agreed, and apologized to his ghost.

On a separate note, I'm cracking up laughing at some of these songs. I mean, "Throw it out the window" is one of those ridiculous things I sang as a kid, and to find it in this book and to be able to play it just made me giggle and jump in hysterics. For those of you who don't know this song it goes like this

Old mother hubbard went to her cupboard
to get her poor dog a bone
But when she got there the cupboard was bare
So she threw it out the window!
The window, the window
The second story window
When she got there the cupboard was bare
So she threw it out the window

Repeat for every nursery rhyme you can think of. It's totally priceless.

Hopefully I'll come up with better headings than that, provided I keep posting about it regularly. I practiced A LOT tonight. I picked up a couple of new chords, and played about a half dozen different songs out of the "Rise up singing" book. Among them:

Scarborough Fair
Little Boxes (on the hillside)
Green Grow the Rushes-O
John Riley

And I tried to play "If I Had a Hammer" but let me tell you, playing an "F" chord is a bitch and half. The pad on my index finger is so soft that it can't depress both the B and E strings in order to get the proper notes in. It sounds like muffled junk. I figure in time that'll change.

I also played about 30 seconds of Tam Lin, but given that I played the shit out of it last night, much to the annoyance of everyone in the house (because it's VERY repetitive), I figured I didn't need to do so again.

Now I'm quite tired and I'll be reading just a bit of a book before bed.