Outta Town for a Week

Hello May.
Hello Perigord.
Check back later for stories of "Most Ducks Ever Eaten" and "A Hundred Things to Do with Truffle Oil."

BOX NYC PREMIERE April 24, 2013

http://boxthemovie.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/box-premiere-new-filmmakers-ny-april-24-2013/

BOX: NY PREMIERE April 24. Come on Down.

http://boxthemovie.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/box-ny-premier-you-are-invited-april-24/

Funny Pages: Thursday Evening at 8. ARRIVE EARLY or be Turned Away.

Adam and I will be presenting at The Old Stone House in Brooklyn on April 18.

Perhaps you live in Brooklyn, have heard of Brooklyn, have dated someone who hales, heartily, from the borough or just wish weekend subway work wasn't so punishing.

Funny Pages is always a good time.

Adam is going to read a funny piece.
Marian is hosting and doing lots of funny things.

I'm going to do some funny songs.
And other funny stuff.

That's funny, six times already, in one invitation. Could this be overselling? Come decide.

April 18
8PM
Old Stone House, Park Slope, Brooklyn
336 Third Street, Brooklyn NY  11215
No rez necessary. Five bucks at the door.
Map to it

Brooklyn Reading Works: Funny Pages

This is the actual venue. Nothing funny about it at all, right?

What if there was a plaque that read, "Washington thought about sleeping here?"

That's almost funny. If someone funny were to say it at the right moment, it would be funny.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: 

FUNNY PAGES

THURSDAY,  APRIL 18th,  8pm

Old Stone House,  336 3rd Street,  Brooklyn, NY 

Please join us for an evening of music, mirth and merriment with Don Cummings,Sarah Fearon, Marian Fontana, Deborah Goldstein, Martin Kleinman, Leah Mitchell, Anya Ulinich and Adam Waring. 

Boston Wishes

You hate to have to hope for one kind of horrendous thing over another…but until the proof has been filtered out of the pudding, one can make an educated guess mixed with some wishful projection about the source of these explosions.

Because this awful terrorist attack happened on Patriot’s Day, was in Boston and possibly also caused the fire in the JFK Library, I believe that some very dark faction of the Tea Party is responsible for this. I think this faction is a group of just one Constitutional Conservative loony.  A payback for the entrenched liberal thinking that pervades Massachusetts.

I also would rather it be one right wing radical than another Islamic radical situation since I (though erroneously, probably) have this sense that the Islamic radicals are calming down and/or are being closely watched by our government.

Lastly, our sad violent country could be so much less violent. And we all know it. 

Boston, we love you. 

Time to Get Specific About my Political Affiliation

I am a fiscal Socialist, with a partitioning off of 30% of the economy for people who need to take monstrous risks and play with each other’s money and a cultural libertarian.

Hallelujah

Greedy Island Bitch: How Geography Can Change the World

Manhattan, being one of the world centers of capitalism, is a tiny island thirteen and a half miles long and two and one-third miles wide at its widest point (around 14th Street). Its geography creates a natural demand for space. Any space, anywhere. Because of this, there is a psychological shift toward great material needs of all kind. The competition for space is so severe that prices for most items, especially housing, are driven into the stratosphere. Because it is also a draw for second homes for the wealthy of the world, the prices soar.

If there were no East River so the island became part of Long Island to the east, everything would have been cheaper. Spaces would have been built larger. Wall Street workers would feel less like rats in cages who were in need of more space. They would panic less. They would possibly be calmer and more responsible. The east side would have been enormous.

I say, for the sake of world fiscal stability, fill in the East River and let Manhattan roll effortlessly into Queens and Brooklyn as one land mass. Please.

Change

Money: Change.

All these years, man to the moon and all that, and still---we cannot fix our monetary policy so that poverty never happens?

Seems absurd.

First step: stop with all the birthing, ye fecund loonies on earth. Plateau, please.

Second: Manage the building of houses and buildings, food and utilities, education and healthcare in a big ol' collectivist socialist way---but instead of making everything as cheap as possible, SPEND ALMOST EVERY DIME WE HAVE on them--so that no one is really poor, ever, in the main areas.

Third: The limited amount of money left for luxury goods, boats and things--will make the rich people feel extra rich if they can afford those things.  Deprivation: it does a greedy soul good.

Fourth: This spot left blank for you

Funny Pages, April 18

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: 

FUNNY PAGES

THURSDAY,  APRIL 18th,  8pm

Old Stone House,  336 3rd Street,  Brooklyn, NY 

Please join us for an evening of music, mirth and merriment with Don Cummings,Sarah Fearon, Marian Fontana, Deborah Goldstein, Martin Kleinman, Leah Mitchell, Anya Ulinich and Adam Waring. 

I Am a Part of All That I Have Met

Excerpt from: Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Ulysses

I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move.

Alfred,Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) 1833

Delicious Variety

So, I watched this.

This is Annette Bening’s and Warren Beatty’s offspring.

During all the talking on the tuber, I had a hard time figuring out what sex and sexual orientation this person is. Then, my husband clued me in.

Now that I know this person is a born xx (or something close to it) who identifies xy and is attracted to xy (or something like it), I have come to conclude that I just want a pudding pop.

Let’s let it all go, Janine.  We are a brave species. Ready for all things. Frankly, all labels are tiresome in that they presume things.

How about: we are people…

Which I believe was the point of this tuber.

Hillary

Let’s face it: She’s going to make a run for it.

Why shouldn’t she?  She is so tough. And she looks better than ever.

A life of Bushes and Clintons with a little bit of an Obama break…sure.

I look at her…I am happy. Perhaps she’ll choose a Hispanic woman as her running mate.

This country needs a woman. And not a Margaret Thatcher type.

Studies have shown that when certain women lead, the populace eases into a more compassionate stance. “Mom’s watching.”

Hillary…we’re ready.

I’m going out to buy a pants suit today in solidarity.  I don’t care how fat my winter ass looks in them.

Oprah for Secretary of Sate.

Coast to Coast

Many years ago, I moved to Los Angeles. It was just about six months after two friends  of mine from New York, too, had moved there.

And K said about the two cities:  “In Los Angeles, you can be the star. In New York, New York is the star.”

Well put. And so true.  New York takes over. Of course, it is very fascinating. But you do tend to feel swallowed up by the activity.

I, more cynically say about the differences, “If each city were to be described as a sin…New York is greed, Los Angeles is vanity. And I do believe greed is the greater evil.”

And I do.  You can laugh off vanity. Additionally, vanity changes with age. Sure, in absolute value it may never go away, but it does morph into different things---some of them with horrifying results---like foreheads that don’t move, suckerfishlips, etc. The vanity may fly off you and into your house or your garden.

Greed---however, usually just grows.

Lastly---can you tell I’ve had enough of this New York winter to the point that I would not mind clubbing every ground hog in Pennsylvania to its untimely death? (That’s a reference to February 2.)

Enough.  Now let’s get back to the real issue—the stock market…

BOX NY Premiere April 24

http://boxthemovie.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/box-ny-premier-you-are-invited-april-24/

A Supreme Thought on this Foolish Day in April

 With DOMA most likely repealed and the Feds then simply recognizing any marriages from any state that has a marriage in it, will it not be bizarre for the Feds to have two classes of marriages out there? Won’t they work on DOMA and then, logically get to the repealing of Prop 8 with some sort of thinking that goes, “Well, I mean, this is nuts. We’ve basically made gay marriage federally legal by repealing DOMA and now we’re going to let the states fill in the rest? Sort of silly. And yeah, this is not the same as Roe v Wade. No “babies” are being harmed with this one. So, yeah, we’re going to repeal Prop 8 on equal protection and then, we’re going to apply it all over the place.”   //   Then, Scalia finally comes out of the closet and the rest of the country agrees that High Speed trains are not only cool, but they are economy builders.   April Fools on those two.

But let's pretend it's April 2. How can you repeal DOMA and then say, "And yeah...let the rest of the states decide the rest of the gay population. We're too afraid to do it."  Nah. They repeal DOMA, they're going to equally protect all citizens of all states. And wisely, they will let the media do all the work. They will hand down DOMA first, quickly...then wait a little bit-- a brilliant gay fire. 

Move On Dot Org. Come on.

You Are Invited: Funny Pages, April 18 8PM, Brooklyn

Adam and I will be presenting at The Old Stone House in Brooklyn on April 18.

Perhaps you live in Brooklyn, have heard of Brooklyn, have dated someone who hales, heartily, from the borough or just wish weekend subway work wasn't so punishing.

Funny Pages is always a good time.

Adam is going to read a funny piece.
Marian is hosting and doing lots of funny things.

I'm going to do some funny songs.
And other funny stuff.

That's funny, six times already, in one invitation. Could this be overselling? Come decide.

April 18
8PM
Old Stone House, Park Slope, Brooklyn
336 Third Street, Brooklyn NY  11215
No rez necessary. Five bucks at the door.
Map to it

Brooklyn Reading Works: Funny Pages

This is the actual venue. Nothing funny about it at all, right?

What if there was a plaque that read, "Washington thought about sleeping here?"

That's almost funny. If someone funny were to say it at the right moment, it would be funny.

Pema Source

Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.

                                                Pema Chodron

Well, if you know Pema, like I don’t (but have read a book or two of hers) you will understand that she means this with love and not with any judgment.

However, let’s get into when this applies, at least, when I believe it applies. Say, every time something happens you have a certain kind of negative response that is larger than is necessary. I think it applies there until you figure out why you are overreacting. Or, if you always ___________ whenever faced with _____________ and you really do not want that second ______________. 

However, I do not believe this applies to the victimized. Like, “You will continue to be victimized until you learn to endure it better.”

The problem with aphorisms—is they are often out of context. But what we must do, because aphorism are so useful, is apply them where we believe they are useful. If we take an extreme literal stance on all sayings, like, “You create your own reality,” and find while saying this that we are living in a Concentration Camp, that is probably not the time to apply that statement.

If you begin with a loving understanding, and presume you are heading in the direction  of love for others, the self, animals, the planet, something else, so many sayings are wonderfully useful.  If you in a very dark place, sometimes you just have to get the hell out of there in a primary way before Pema can kick in.

Lastly, what we need to know is never an intellectual thing. It is always one of those I-accept-the-truth-of-these-feelings-and-where-they-come-from thing. You can never really think your way out of a state. You can temporarily distract yourself, which is great. But you have to get to the bottom of it. And usually the feelings have something to do with primary reactions to original environment that gain momentum and heft. But when we know what it is, that can be reversed.

I have seen wealthy men in the hills of LA with terror in their eyes about fear of loss.

I'm With You Republicans...on this...

Kill the taxes. Sure, get rid of them all.

But then, dismantle the military.

Thank you.

If You Haven't, You Must...

The Queen of Versailles