Every Stone a Story

Hi, Honeys, I'm Home!

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:23:23 GMT

Yes, I;m still here on planet earth, and I'm so glad I've come back home to Dreamwidth/LiveJournal. It's been a long time.

I've read back a week or so and made a few comments, but there's no possible way I can really catch up. So please tell me: What's up with you?

comments

Fri, 07 May 2021 07:47:12 GMT

Yes, we had an earthquake. But I'm okay, everyone here is okay, there is no damage, and I didn't even feel it.

The quake was a small one, 4.7, and it was near Truckee, so it was 155 miles away. Although I was alerted as soon as it hit (I have a cell-phone app), I didn't feel a quiver of it. So far no reports of damage from Truckee.

This was the first quake reported by the new alert system, and it worked splendidly, at least from my point of view. I had plenty of time to prepare, if there was going to be a big quake, and that's all you can ask of a warning system.

How are you doing?

comments

PANDEMIC: I Am Not Going to Waste My Shot

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:59:41 GMT

I’m so happy every time I hear of someone getting the COVID vaccine. Every vaccination is another stone thrown down from the Bastille. We’re in a slow-motion revolution, and this time we can all be freed.

(Yeah, that’s optimistic. There are already far too many people who have permanent damage from the virus, too many who have lost friends and relatives. But for a moment I want to rejoice.)

My first shot is Thursday.

Have you had yours yet?

comments

IN MEMORIAM: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1919 - 2021

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 01:18:41 GMT

Poetry as Insurgent Art

I am signaling you through the flames.

The North Pole is not where it used to be.

Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.

Civilization self-destructs.

Nemesis is knocking at the door.

What are poets for, in such an age?
What is the use of poetry?

The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.

If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.

You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words....

Farewell, dear Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Your poems, your bookstore, your publishing company are all still shining stars.

comments

First Anxiety Dream Since the Inauguration

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:46:53 GMT

I dreamt I couldn’t find my toenail clippers. ETA: I checked when I woke. There were right where they should be.

How are you doing?

comments

IN MEMORIAM: It Was Forty Years Ago Today

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 16:57:15 GMT

John Lennon, October 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980. May he rest in peace.

He's been gone almost exactly as long as he lived. We'll never have the music he might have made, or the changes he would have gone through. And he went through a lot of changes.

His early life wasn't easy: when the boy was 5, his father moved to New Zealand; his mother surrendered him to his doting Aunt Mimi to raise. Despite Mimi's (rather controlling) love, the double abandonment cut very deep. The intensive primal scream therapy Lennon did with Arthur Janov uncovered extraordinary pain. Janov later said, "John had about as much pain as I've ever seen in my life."

He put that pain into some of his best songs. "Help," "I'm a Loser," "In My Life," "Nowhere Man," "Julia," and practically the entire "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" album, particularly the haunting, terrifying song, "Mother." And he spoke openly in interviews about his psychological issues.

Lennon was capable of spreading pain as well as enduring it. He could be a difficult man: snarky, sarcastic, with a streak of violence in him. He was an unfaithful husband to his first wife, Cynthia, and a neglectful father to his first son, Julian. He was somewhat better to Yoko Ono and their son Sean, but by no means perfect.

I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically -- any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything's the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster. -- John Lennon, Playboy interview, September 1980

He never got to be a lot older; he died within months of the interview.

John Lennon left us with the music he made: alone, with Yoko Ono, and with Paul, George, and Ringo. He left us his songs. Thank you, John. Thank you.

comments

A Question a Day Keeps the Memegoblins at Bay

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 15:10:25 GMT

Someone came up with 31 questions for the month of December. I swiped the list from julian and decided to catch up by answering the first seven questions all at once.

1. How do you feel about snow?

Last time I saw snow, I was taking a Greyhound bus to Reno with pokershaman . We went through Truckee, where there was real, live, actual snow on the ground, which I greeted with the glee of a kid facing a snow day. However, my current reaction is the result of having spent the last two decades in the notably snowless San Francisco Bay Area. I spent the first 42 years of my life in places with four-season climates.

What I feel about snow depends on whether I have to go out in it and how well the local authorities clear the roads. Snow in upstate Pennsylvania is common any time from October through April, and I’ve seen it several times in May. The roads are cleared efficiently—or were, last time I lived there. Snow there is generally a mild inconvenience, though always with its dangers.

Snow in the Philadelphia area, on the other hand, always seems to astonish the weather forecasters and 90% of the drivers. Dear Philadelphians: IT FREAKING SNOWS HERE. GET USED TO IT. Also, snow in that area often shades into sleet or freezing rain. That’s dangerous.

TL;DR: I like snow. I hate ice.

2. If you were a toy, what would you be?

Magnetic Poetry with far too many special-interest add-ons.

3. What’s your current weather situation, and how is it affecting your day?

Gusts of wind are pounding around the house. Right now it’s cool—57 degrees—but it’s supposed to warm up to 72 later today. No rain in the forecast. All these factors will make the day pleasant, especially since I have errands to do.

4. What was the last live performance or concert you attended?

Probably the Richard Shindell concert gramina and I went to in Novato in January of 2018. Nope, I’m wrong. Hamilton in San Francisco in August 2018. If the air had been sufficiently clear that I could walk and breathe at the same time, I’d have seen Joan Baez in concert in November of 2018. However, I had to flee to Los Angeles to get any fresh air. (Fires. We were breathing the smoke of Paradise burning.)

5. What is the most offensive thing a person could say to you?

Any opinion about people that’s based on the tenets of the KKK, the Westboro Baptist Church, and/or Donald Trump.

6. Do you take compliments or praise well?

I’ve learned to do that.

7. Who was your first teeny-bopper celebrity crush? Did you have posters on your wall? Did you ever see them in concert or meet them in person? (Pictures, please! Gotta have that pin-up poster on the wall.)

Hmmm, I’m going to go with Jonathan Frid, AKA Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows. We did see him from a distance once; he was making an appearance at the Devon Horse Show Grounds. He drove around the track in a convertible. No posters.

( The rest of the questions, in case you want to play too )

comments

The Ultimate Emoji for 2020

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:43:25 GMT

I saw this and had to share. I'm also planning to make it into an icon.

comments

That Music Meme

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 13:00:53 GMT

I had a lot of fun with this one.

Answer each category with a SONG TITLE. No repeats and don’t use the internet (it's tempting but try not to). Go with the first song that comes to mind, change my answers to your own (can’t steal mine), and repost.

Something To Wear - A Summer Wind, A Cotton Dress (Richard Shindell)
Something To Drink - Tea and Sympathy (Janis Ian)
A Place - Silver Spring (Fleetwood Mac)
A Food - 30,000 Pounds of Bananas (Harry Chapin)
An Animal - Puff the Magic Dragon (Peter, Paul, and Mary)
A Color - Blue on Black (Kenny Wayne Shepherd)
A Girl’s Name - Walk Away, Renee (Left Banke)
A Boy’s Name - Alexander Hamilton (from the Hamilton soundtrack, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda)
Profession - Paperback Writer (Beatles)
Day of the Week - Gloomy Sunday (Billie Holiday)
A Vehicle - Surrey with a Fringe on Top (from Oklahoma! Rodgers and Hammerstein)

I'd love to see your lists.

comments

Breathe. Keep Breathing. Try Not to Burn.

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 15:04:23 GMT

The fire season has a couple of months to run, but it has already been devastating: weeks of breathing smoky air, the destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of grass and forest, the evacuation of many friends. Luckily, none of the current Bay Area fires threaten my home or work. The CZU complex fire came within 50 feet of my old home in the mountains, but it didn’t cross the road.

Fun fact: the air quality has been as bad recently as it was during the Camp Fire two years ago, which sent me to Los Angeles in search of fresh air. However, there’s a big difference between the smoke from a forest fire and the filthy smoke of a city going up in flames. Pure woodsmoke may not be balm to my asthmatic lungs, but it’s a lot healthier than the smoke of burning houses, cars, plastics, and things better not to name.

Yes, I have become a connoisseur of wildfire smoke.

How are you doing?

ETA: Here's a link to a fascinating set of before and after satellite images of the Bay Area fires. The vertical bar in the middle of each image can be moved back and forth to show the changes over time. The burn scars on the pure green landscape of the Santa Cruz Mountains physically hurt me to look at.

If you're having trouble with the link, try this:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/09/05/before-and-after-satellite-images-show-how-lightning-complex-fires-scarred-bay-area-landscape/

comments

That Food Survey

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 14:28:46 GMT

Swiped from twistedchick .

Have you ever:

( Food memories and reflections )
Doing this survey reminded me how much I always loved cooking. For excellent reasons, as well as a few fairly pitiful ones, I haven't been cooking much lately. I'd like to change that.

comments

MUSIC: What are you listening to?

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 17:13:51 GMT

What songs do you have on repeat lately? This song is from the Zac Brown Band's album "Uncaged," and it's a recent favorite of mine.
https://youtu.be/eGtcmhQ9pAk
I'd love to hear what you're listening to. I would never have encountered the Zac Brown Band if housepet hadn't played them to me.

comments

Life in California

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 18:45:11 GMT

A bright, fresh morning in Hayward, California, and I’m driving up the on ramp to 880. (That’s our local freeway: 4 to 6 lanes in each direction, and traffic jams available 24/7.) As I pull into the correct lane, I notice a vast rumbling sound.

Earthquake.

But where’s the shaking? I’ve been in the car when an earthquake struck, and you definitely feel it. And with this amount of noise. . . . Oops.

Dear friend with the brand-new pickup truck: if your subwoofer is producing bass that cannot be distinguished from an earthquake, you might have it on too loud.

How are you doing?

comments

THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS POEM: “The Work of Christmas”

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 04:47:49 GMT

Wishing everyone a Christmas as full of love, joy, and thankfulness as mine has been.

Here’s a litany called “The Work of Christmas” composed by Howard Thurman, an African-American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

======

May we all do the work of Christmas every day of the year.

comments

The Edge of Nature

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 16:34:15 GMT

If you leave very early for work, you might get to see two deer, graceful and delicate, strolling the neighborhood on their fragile legs. #lucky

What have you seen lately?

comments

IN MEMORIAM: Harlan Ellison

Thu, 28 Jun 2018 19:29:22 GMT

Rest in power, Harlan.

"The ability to dream is all I have to give."

comments

IN MEMORIAM: Donald Hall (and still remembering Jane Kenyon)

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 18:22:28 GMT

Donald Hall, poet and husband of Jane Kenyon, has died at the age of 89.

Gold
Donald Hall, 1928 - 2018

Pale gold of the walls, gold
of the centers of daisies, yellow roses
pressing from a clear bowl. All day
we lay on the bed, my hand
stroking the deep
gold of your thighs and your back.
We slept and woke
entering the golden room together,
lay down in it breathing
quickly, then
slowly again,
caressing and dozing, your hand sleepily
touching my hair now.

We made in those days
tiny identical rooms inside our bodies
which the men who uncover our graves
will find in a thousand years,
shining and whole.

And a poem by Jane Kenyon, whose work I love:

Let Evening Come
By Jane Kenyon

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

May Donald and Jane rest in power.

Please feel free to share any poetry. These days, with so much going on personally, politically, professionally, I crave it.

comments

A Soup Recipe

Wed, 09 May 2018 23:55:48 GMT

Ginger-Gyoza Soup

Recently something reminded me of a soup recipe I'd developed, and I thought I'd share it here. There are two versions: the detailed and the quickie. Also: gyoza are otherwise known as potstickers or dumplings.

( Read more... )

What are your favorite recipes for an easy dinner?

comments

Looking for a Short Story

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 18:54:58 GMT

You know the feeling. You've read a story or a book that stayed with you -- all but the title and author, that is. I'm suffering a small, annoying torment along those lines. Please help, if you can.

For the SF/F readers among you: In the past couple of years, I read a time-travel story told from the POV of John Lennon. Someone had come back in time to pull him out just before he was assassinated. Does anyone else remember this story? Who wrote it, and what's the title?

Notes:

It's a short story, not a novel.

It's not any of the following:

Get Back: Imagine… Saving John Lennon by Donovan Day.
Lifehouse by Spider Robinson.
Saint John Lennon by Daniel Hartwell

comments

MEME: Icons a Go Go

Mon, 22 Jan 2018 19:33:20 GMT

Reply to this post with "PORGS!" and I will pick three of your icons for you to talk about in your own journal, and then keep the meme going by making this offer on your post.

Swiped from the estimable rydra_wong .

Keywords: russ, SF, wiscon

I made this icon -- a photo of SF author Joanna Russ followed by two of my favorite short quotations from her brilliant THE FEMALE MAN. On reflection, I'm not sure how coherent it is, and the aesthetics make my eyes bleed. Nevertheless, they're still two of my favorite quotes from Joanna Russ, and she is still one of the most important writers in my personal canon. Not just because she was a lesbian and a feminist when I desperately needed to know I wasn't alone, but because she deconstructed oppression with such wit and accuracy.

Keywords: change, hands on from iconsbycurtana

Yes, that is Katharine Hepburn, but even more important than the magnificent Kate is the role she was playing: Eleanor of Aquitaine in THE LION IN WINTER. If you haven't seen that movie, remedy the omission as soon as you can. Peter O'Toole reprises his role as her husband Henry II from the movie BECKET -- the two films make a great double feature. Let's just say that the family is royally dysfunctional. I rarely use this icon, though I should bring it out more -- being able to change the world doesn't depend on having a solid foundation of a healthy family life.

Keyword: lies made by dymers_dream

Quotation from Terry Pratchett, another star in my personal canon, with a nod to the X-Files. It's a useful reminder to question your own assumptions -- although it's always easier and more fun to question other people's.

comments

MEME: Cross-posted from Facebook

Thu, 18 Jan 2018 22:45:13 GMT

I'm curious to read other people's answers and get to know some of you better! Here goes nothing. Remember only FOUR.

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Jackson, PA

2. Philadelphia, PA

3. Stockholm, NJ

4. Ridgefield, CT

Four places I've worked: (I’ve chosen long-past jobs)
1. As a janitor in Haverford, PA

2. The late lamented Bryn Mawr Dunkin Donuts, Monday through Friday, 6AM to noon

3. The late lamented Auerbach Press in Pennsauken, NJ

4. The late lamented Haworth Press, Binghamton, NY

Please note that I did not in fact cause any of these to shut down.

Four things I like to watch:
1. Breaking Bad (we’re watching it for a second time)

2. Other limited series; we loved Feud: Bette and Joan and (in a very different way) Einstein

3. Old movies

4. Not-so-old movies

Four places I have been:
1. Glastonbury, England

2. Cape May, NJ

3. Yosemite (California)

4. Pike’s Peak, Colorado

Four things I love to eat:
1. Pizza

2. Homemade bread

3. Grilled mushrooms

4. My extra spicy homemade chili

Four people I think will respond:
Anybody who wants to

Four favorite things to drink:
1. Tea

2. Diet Cherry Dr Pepper

3. Water

4. Bengal spice herbal tea

Now here is what you're supposed to do: copy and paste this in your status and update it with your responses. If you do it, just comment "Done" on this post, so I'll know to check yours out.

I'm hoping this will lead me back into posting more. I really miss DW/LJ's longer, more meaningful posts from interesting people.

comments

Merry Christmas

Mon, 25 Dec 2017 08:22:38 GMT

In the first moments of Christmas Day, my mind is filled with the words of Isaiah: “He shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” All as sung in Handel’s Messiah. May your day be full of joy and blessings, whatever your faith.

I have to confess my mind is also full of the cherry-peach pie I just pulled from the oven and the rising bread that goes in next. My heart is full of the joys and losses of this year. And so much else.

How are you doing, and what is in your heart today?

comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thu, 23 Nov 2017 12:44:11 GMT

One of the delights of my life has been getting up early on Thanksgiving to cook. It still is a joy. Whether today is your official Thanksgiving Day or not, may all of you have a wonderful day and much to be thankful for.

comments

Godot Fixes Refrigerators

Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:05:41 GMT

Today I'm waiting for the repairman to come and tell us that our fridge (out since last Thursday) can't be fixed. Or if it can, that the part will take 3 weeks to arrive. The fridge belongs to our landlady, so we can't just go out and buy a new one.

With all the fires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes others are enduring, living in a house with no working fridge doesn't rank high on the tragedy scale, but it's amazing how inconvenient it is. I can't even think about the vast amount of food we had to throw away, or what it will cost to replace it. But at least our neighborhood is not on fire, and we have electricity and safe drinking water.

comments

Thursday at 5PM

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 11:13:26 GMT

Dear clothing company:
It's 89 degrees out, rising to 102 over the weekend. I know that September starts tomorrow, but it's our hottest month. So if you ever want my money, stop sending me email about velvet dresses for fall.
No love,
Broiling in the Bay Area

What's your weather going to be like this Labor Day weekend?

comments