Hot Hot Hot!

After a moderately cool early spring, we have entered into a heat wave for the latter part of spring-100+ degrees for a few days, and the Summer Solstice is still about 12 days away! Last week I went to the River City Roller Girls bout, Go Tiger Beat Downs! Yay Maya, er, Brawling Barista! You rock! the bout was exciting and action-packed. Then this week, I attended a very interesting seminar at UR called Women in the Know, sponsored by Westhampton College. After an engaging opening talk by Presiden Ed Ayers, we broke out into groups to attend two of three mini courses: Women and War; Fire in these Ashes: Understanding Women's Spirituality; and Can We Talk: Intergenerational Dynamics and Relationships. I went to the War and Spirituality ones -- both were excellent, stimulating and led by dynamic women. The first was about women's roles in war times (think of Rosie the Riveter in WWII for example), with much focus on the Comfort Women in Japan. A truly nauseating story. The second course got me thinking about the spiritual journey, and where I fall outside the mainstream, embracing the earth and its cycles, buddhism, agnosticism, Unitarian Universalism. Where are YOU?

Memorial Day

Here's a pic of the all-American Memorial Day dinner Maya and I shared: Hebrew National Hotdogs, bread n' butter pickles and Bourbon flavored Bush's Beans. The unusual topping is fresh-shelled raw baby peas! Then there's a photo from the Hirshorn sculpture garden -- a memorial to tall headless men in trench coats, or maybe bathrobes.

Spring has sprung...

Lots has happened since I last posted in March...let's see...UVA Press turned down my Dashiell ms. One reviewer said it should have been an exhibition catalogue! Duh. Sure, it is disappointing, but I'm not crying about it. Such is life. Oh, yeah, I was elected president of the First UU Church of Richmond. Now there's an interesting job I never thought I'd have... But there are great people to work with, and maybe we can even change the world for the better, a little bit at a time. That office will lead me on a trip to UUA-GA in Ft Lauderdale in June. Then I'm a member of the Victory Farm CSA again this year, helping out some Saturdays at the new and wonderful Southside Farmers Market in Forest Hill Park. My kids made a terrific Mother's day dinner and cake, with artful gifts and a trip to the art Museum. How I love them all! We missed Rose, but in a couple of weeks I'll head off the NYC/Brooklyn for a visit!

Creature Comforts

The critters in my house look pretty possessed in these photos, eyes aglow. Jinx really loves her (sort of) new bed, a silly thing in blue brocade that looks like a mini couch. When Abby takes her nap in the blue bed however, Jinx paces around restlessly. She doesn't have nerve enough to chase the cat out of her own bed! I thought maybe having her very own couch-bed would deter Jinx from sitting on my couch or chair -- but NOoooo. As soon as we leave the house, I imagine her jumping up. So we still have to stack the cusions just so to prevent her from getting up there. Alas, we love her dearly, so she is pretty spoiled, and as Rose and Dave would say, The Best Dog Ever! Abby, on the other hand, is still very bitey and bitchy, even tho she is especially pretty showing off her whitest-white belly against the Turkish rug. I couldn't live without them!

Observations on a February Evening

At 5:30, the almost full moon looks like crazy, white lace,
Laid against the blue sky, lunar craters reflecting blue.
The low angle of winter sun leaves the road in shade
But steeples, tall buildings and tree tops
Are bathed in warm, clear light.
A few lonely, white puffy clouds with purple bottoms
Seem to gravitate toward the golden glow of the sun
As it sets in the sky opposite the moon.

Tufts of intensely green grass push up
through the brown leaves that litter my back yard.
The Swiss Chard is making new leaves,
The Japonica is in full pink bloom.
My favorite perky wren is chirping as is the robin;
A squirrel scampers along a branch, nut in mouth.
The dog goes crazy.
The six o’clock train clacks swiftly along
On the southbound track some three blocks away.
The March-like wind has blown twiggy branches all over the yard,
The compost is too dry.
Five yellow crocuses give up their bloom,
Waiting for tomorrow’s sun.

College Radio

Looking backwards is always fun. Today my buddy Trent sent me the link to the VCU college radio -- WJRB --that was broadcast back in the late 60s and early 70s when we were there -- and will soomn be celebrating a big anniversary. Imagine paying $2 for a Poco concert! (Who?) Those really WERE the good old days. I think I paid $4 to see the Beatles. (And paid over $100 to see only Paul McCartney about 2 years ago.)

Well my daughter Lauren got into radio when she was a student at UR, as the Scenster Extrodinaire on WDCE and just recently, she started doing a new show on WDCE with a partner, 7-9 pm Wednesday (I think) and you can listen in online!

BTW, I'm sharing my virtual collection of SUN images with you with each post.

So Far So Good

Thanks to everyone for keeping their fingers crossed. Yesterday, through the haze of a bad cold and throbbing sinuses, I found a tasteful ecru envelope in the mail from UVA Press. The Dashiell manuscript I sent to them in January has now been sent out to two readers! They hope to have comments back by mid-March. Stay tuned... and don't uncross those fingers yet!

Here is today's SUN image, and me Simpsonized. Wish you could see the whole image of me with the dog and cat, all Simpsonized, but I guess they will only let us go so far with these images!

Good Luck to Me!

Good Luck to me because I finally sent off my [invited] manuscript to UVA Press, "Street Opera: The Life, Art and Writing of Margaret May Dashiell (1867-1958)." This is a short book about an interesting Richmonder who painted and wrote about the black servant class of the post-Civil War South (mostly). I also recently submitted my entry on her for the "Dictionary of Virginia Biography," to the Library of Virginia. I have been researching her for about 5 years, I guess, and curated a 2006 exhibition at Univ of Richmond Museums. So this is a major milestone to have submitted the ms to The Press. I invoked the luck of my office collection of lucky charms -- no, not the cereal but 4-leaf clovers (thanks Lauren!), lucky pigs, a horseshoe w/my name on it, and even a lucky monkey! Keep your fingers crossed for me!