Archive for February, 2008
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Not quite Mario Andretti, as I’ve been called before, I drove to St. Louis thoughtfully yesterday. I was successful in escaping Iowa City’s impending snow storm and in rescuing Courtney from her hotel room, showing her around my hometown on a rainy day, and feeding her tons of family-created deliciousness at London Tea Room and Nino’s– while also catching her inspiring book talk at SLU. When public radio ceased to fuel this drive, I listened to the Oprah and Friends show on my mom’s portable satellite radio. After hearing Oprah explain her creation of the term “shlumpadinka” and why we should all buy an expensive trenchcoat and white jeans, I was about ready to switch to the indie station. Then, she gave an intro to her Soul Series.
Dr. Larry Dossey wrote Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine in the nineties, and Oprah professed that it has proved prophetic– that scientific study after scientific study has shown that prayer can be the path to healing. My first thought was: you’ve got to be kidding me. I just don’t know how to swallow this idea that a higher power is waiting around for us to ask favors. I do believe in the power of positive thinking, so I assume that happy thoughts are the underlying reason for any demonstrated efficacy of prayer. Then I realize that Dr. Dossey is talking about third-party prayers. Double-blind prayers. Halfway across the universe prayers.
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Thursday, February 28th, 2008
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Kimmi
Therapy Thursdays
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
It will come as no surprise that I love Eli Stone. (I’ve been watching online, for those of you aware of my TV situation).
The show combines two of my favorite things – George Michael and a belief in signs.
On the series premiere, a very handsome George made a cameo, singing the 90s anthem Faith. Each episode (with the exception of the pilot, appropriately titled “Pilot”) is named after a George Michael song — Freedom, Father Figure, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. And a George Michael song has figured prominently in the storyline of almost every episode thus far.
It’s kind of like the show’s creators flipped through my fantasies, plucked this particular one out of my head and made it come true.
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
Last week, I roamed around northern New Mexico with 9 friends. For all intents and purposes, the high desert climate can be downright hostile. Noses bled; bloody cracks formed right where the nostril meets the dry air. We dodged cactus needles, burned in the sun and slipped unknowingly into constant dehydration. We ate hot-like-fire green chile. We barely slept.
But there are other hostilities bred in such a spare wide open landscape. Like, three female puppies at a gas station, probably on their way to be drowned. Shivering, underfed, terrified small animals, not so different from anyone else in the world. Today, on the streets of New York City, life continued in its hostility, a cousin to its desert version.
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Posted in Environment, General, Orienting, Relationships | Comments Off
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Turnaround
Every now and then I know there’s no one in the universe as magical and wondrous as you
Turnaround
Every now and then I know there’s nothing any better and there’s nothing that I just wouldn’t do
–Bonnie Tyler (written by Jim Steinman)
While Kimmi was stopping strangers on the street to tell them about the lunar eclipse, I was frantically calling loved ones. “Are you watching it right now? Why not? It’s when the earth shadows the moon. Didn’t you have to learn that in school? There’s not going to be another one until December, 2010. Go outside!”
Turns out that if I were from Pakistan, I may have been accused of putting my unborn nephew in grave danger last night. I told my sister to go outside and look at the lunar eclipse, even though she protested that it was too cold. And now I find out that it is widely believed in South Asia that a pregnant woman must not go outside during a lunar eclipse for the safety of her unborn child.
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Thursday, February 21st, 2008
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Kimmi
Therapy Thursdays
Posted in Career/Life, Random, Therapy Thursdays | Comments Off
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
We had friends in town this weekend, and on Sunday morning, we ended up at Maria’s Taco Xpress, a local joint that’s owned by an eccentric taco Goddess named Maria Corbalon. On Sunday mornings, the outdoor patio (that’s decorated like a garage sale crossed with your grandmother’s attic) transforms into Hippie Sunday Church, where folks of all religious traditions come out for some damn fine tacos and raucous singing and dancing.
I was so taken by this overwhelming spectacle that I forgot to record any video, especially of the wild McMercy Family Band performing Neko Case’s “John Saw That Number,” one of my favorites of hers. The spindly, brown-braided woman on the upright bass thumped and whacked it with her whole body, and reminded me of a person straight off the frontier. The percussionist rattled a Nalgene bottle with uncooked popcorn in it.
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Posted in Beauty in a Wicked World, Music, Religion | Comments Off
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
Dear Funny Valentine,
My yoga teacher/guru has convinced me that Valentine’s Day does not have to be about cards or loneliness or candy, but about LOVE. A true sage, she’s not just talking about the kind I give to my love’, but something more universal– the kind for the unknown man who checks out my groceries and the unknown woman who rides in the elevator with me. And get this, last night the yogini went ahead and threw in all the people like you, people who scare me or irritate me or who have, in my opinion, acted evil toward me. I’m supposed to love you too.
The premise is that the more I excavate any ill will built up over the years, the more room I will have for love and good will. This is challenging. I don’t go around hating people willy nilly. Instead, I reserve negativity for those who I feel have earned it, perhaps by hurting someone I love or by standing for something repugnant. It is only now that I’m realizing… who does my anger or disrespect actually affect? Me. Really only me. So, Funny Valentine, maybe it’s a bit selfish that I’ve vindicated you. But maybe loving you will make you more loving too?
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Thursday, February 14th, 2008
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Kimmi
Therapy Thursdays
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Thursday, February 14th, 2008
While walking the dog last night, we found these love letters chalked on the sidewalk outside a nearby middle school. I think these are Valentines written by students to themselves. I love this.
Here’s your assignment, Crucial Minutiae readers: on this day dedicated to love, get some chalk. Go write a love letter to yourself on the nearest sidewalk, brick wall, construction scaffolding, whatever. If you’re feeling especially spicy, take pictures and post them here.
this is my favorite
To You, I Pledge
My Love.
You are a fabulous dancer
You sing so sweetly
You are good at so
many things
You have lovely toes.
You are so brave
and INDEPENDENT.
How fashionable you are.
But most of all I love
how you keep being you.
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Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
I’ve got a one-sentence post for this week’s “Beauty in a Wicked World” column:
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Beauty in a Wicked World is a weekly column by Jennifer Gandin Le. It appears on Wednesdays.
Posted in Beauty in a Wicked World, In The News, Movies, Writing | Comments Off
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Two weeks ago, my hairdresser called to say that George Michael was going to be on a new show called Eli Stone.
Understanding my intense love of all things George, she knew how much this would mean to me.
What she did not know was that I no longer have a TV.*
Three months ago, when I moved into a new apartment, I decided not to get cable. After eight years of having more channels then I could ever possibly watch, I decided I did not need cable.
I will write more, I said. I will read more books. I will finally transfer all of my CDs into iTunes.
Mostly, what I’ve done is miss having cable.
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Friday, February 8th, 2008
Bats swarmed eight-feet above my head, flapping and flicking shadows against the starry night sky. They were delighted; they were squeaking, in the full rhythm of awake-time. I was delighted; I was almost squeaking, tucked into my sleeping bag on a wooden bridge over a wide river in Idaho on my 23rd birthday. Bats doing their thing. Out at night. Me doing my thing; relishing the unexpected, turning a year older, and anticipating the sunrise.
Amazing, isn’t it, that me doing my human thing is just like you doing yours. Our circadian (what a beautiful word) rhythms are guided primarily by the light/dark cycle. We humans, like most mammals, depend on sunrise and sunset, much like menstruation is tied to the moon, as are the tides, as is all life. The bats and I were on separate schedules. I knew the sun would soon spread over my face and simultaneously lead the bats swooping under the bridge to hang upside down and chill. So, fast forward a stack of years. My dear friend Marcella graces me with a house-sitting gig at her ground floor apartment in Manhattan. I blink once, hug her and count my blessings. But ground floor in Manhattan means slot canyon and drawn curtains, which means no sunlight.
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Posted in Environment, Health, Orienting | Comments Off
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
On Skype with my cousins in Sardinia yesterday, they asked in Italian, “Who are you for? Ilari or Obama?” And then a correction to the effect of, “Oops, it’s spelled Hillary, isn’t it?” I was floored.
Me: You’re following our election?
Cuz: A little. It’s always on television.
Me: I thought you watched the O.C. and House in Italian.
Cuz: Hahaha. And Ilari crying. I mean, Hillary. So who do you like?
Me: OBAMA!
Cuz: [in English] Yes, we can. [in Italian] I like his wife. She seems quite a lady.
When I sent her the link to the Yes We Can music video, she told me she’d already seen it. And she knew who was singing it and which stars were featured in the song. So you might think, oh, they just dig all things American (besides the war). And maybe that’s true. But I also think it’s fascinating that the rest of the world is paying attention to our primary. If they had their eye on the November 4 election, that would be one thing, but they’re already tuned in.
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Posted in All The World, In The News, Politics | Comments Off
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
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Kimmi
Therapy Thursdays
Posted in Health, Relationships, Therapy Thursdays | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
Update: Courtney and I have already tried two new things for the New Year:
1) Video blogging
2) Trying to sell vintage gems on eBay. (the auction has ended!)
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Beauty in a Wicked World is a weekly column by Jennifer Gandin Le. It appears on Wednesdays.
Posted in Beauty in a Wicked World, Career/Life | Comments Off
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
American Museum of Natural History, New York City
Kanye West makes a guest appearance at Flavor Pill’s One Step Beyond series featuring Kid Sister and The Cool Kids.
Wearing a Michael Jackson button.
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