After the post: music, video, etc!
December 29, 2019
December 15, 2019
A recommendation
Joe Pera Talks With You has been one of the quiet joys of the last year or two around these parts, and if you haven't been watching, the latest episode ("Joe Pera Guides You Through The Dark") is a pretty beautiful episode. ("Reads You the Church Announcements" and "Shows You Iron" from the first season are also good places to start if you want to take the whole thing in.) It is, as my friend Julie described it, a profoundly gentle show that is also elliptically hilarious. I particularly love the degree to which the show both celebrates Joe's gentle, midwestern-to-the-point-of-parody optimism and kindness, and acknowledges his blind spots, but celebrates the ethos anyway.
Anyhow, that's my big old entertainment pick of the year, so dig in if you're looking for a quiet and beautiful lil corner in your life!
Anyhow, that's my big old entertainment pick of the year, so dig in if you're looking for a quiet and beautiful lil corner in your life!
December 3, 2019
SPONSORED CONTENT
Pals, if anybody still reads this moribund graveyard of a blog, know that one of the reasons (sloth and poor scheduling acumen being the others!) that we've been quiet is that I been working on a show. Well, we run this weekend (and only this weekend) at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theatre space, and if you wanna come check it out, I absolutely refuse to judge you for this.
It's a thoroughly goofy, heartfelt, hopefully funny and touching, performance art popover with a lot of lip synching, awkward 11 year old dance moves, and sincerity. I will put a bucket on my head and bang it repeatedly with a lunch box. I don't know how else to sell the thing.
Anyhow, it's been really enjoyable working on a project that is so "do these simple things fully and be in the moment" and while I have quite literally no idea how it all looks from the outside, I think it would be Neat to have folks there. C'mon out, if you like!
That aside, life has been nuts, and this two-week stretch is specifically alarming. Between the show and my tenth (!) installment of the Muppet Christmas Party (I feel anybody reading this probably knows what that is?) it will be nonstop til December 16th. And then I will melt into a vast ocean of contented holiday cheer and joy, culminating in a weeklong staycation at Christmas during which time, hey, maybe I'll actually cut together footage from my LA and New England trips, or talk about the spastic travels I have planned beyond them. Or maybe I'll sleep for a year! Gosh!
Please be kind to yourselves. You really do deserve it.
It's a thoroughly goofy, heartfelt, hopefully funny and touching, performance art popover with a lot of lip synching, awkward 11 year old dance moves, and sincerity. I will put a bucket on my head and bang it repeatedly with a lunch box. I don't know how else to sell the thing.
Anyhow, it's been really enjoyable working on a project that is so "do these simple things fully and be in the moment" and while I have quite literally no idea how it all looks from the outside, I think it would be Neat to have folks there. C'mon out, if you like!
That aside, life has been nuts, and this two-week stretch is specifically alarming. Between the show and my tenth (!) installment of the Muppet Christmas Party (I feel anybody reading this probably knows what that is?) it will be nonstop til December 16th. And then I will melt into a vast ocean of contented holiday cheer and joy, culminating in a weeklong staycation at Christmas during which time, hey, maybe I'll actually cut together footage from my LA and New England trips, or talk about the spastic travels I have planned beyond them. Or maybe I'll sleep for a year! Gosh!
Please be kind to yourselves. You really do deserve it.
October 10, 2019
World Mental Health Day
I wrote about this a couple years ago on The Aulde Blogge, but here's another shout for anyone who needs to hear it: happy World Mental Health Day!
The world is: hard and complicated sometimes! And our brains, like our bodies, are imperfect machines that sometimes need upkeep and attention. Our culture is really stupid and bad about acknowledging this! And it's hard to remember that everybody is fighting their own fight, and hard to recognize the signs of depression as depression and not someone "being moody" or "bad at keeping plans" or whatever. And today's a good day to seek resources to take care of yourself and to keep broadening your awareness and sensitivity to what others might be going through. Hooray!
Therapy is extremely useful; also, seeking therapy is genuine work, and it is a project. It's a worthwhile project, and it will not be difficult forever, but it is a hurdle. Equip yourself - look for articles on how to interview a therapist, and think about what you are exploring and what your priorities are in finding someone to work with you. Take time, be patient, and give yourself rewards for doing the work (nobody says you can't have fun snack outings after therapy - even if the session is with someone who rubs you the wrong way, free snacks!!) (this approach may be more useful for me than the general population, but I stand by this essential point: snacks).
As someone who put off therapy for a good long while: the effort it takes to find the right fit and leap that initial hurdle is nothing compared to the effort it took to try to get on top of my stuff alone. Take the leap - you will be glad you did. (Speaking of: you're not alone! Find friends who are good active listeners, who may have their own therapy referrals or approaches to seeking help - it's super brave and almost outlandishly cool to ask yr pals for help with these things! And then someday you get to be that helper person! Wow! Too many exclamation points!)
As for the people in your life - while remembering that you can only control how you behave and not how people respond to you - do keep in mind that some people may be looking for someone to give them permission to ask for help, to have that fraught conversation about how to find support and resources. If you've got the mental bandwidth for it - and not everybody does at every moment of their lives - try practicing patience with them, and check in.
Basically, it's a good day to be kind to yourself, kind to others, and open to the low-key miracle that are mental health resources in whatever form and whatever path they may take. Let's be ongoing and perpetually self-forgiving projects forever! Hooray!
The world is: hard and complicated sometimes! And our brains, like our bodies, are imperfect machines that sometimes need upkeep and attention. Our culture is really stupid and bad about acknowledging this! And it's hard to remember that everybody is fighting their own fight, and hard to recognize the signs of depression as depression and not someone "being moody" or "bad at keeping plans" or whatever. And today's a good day to seek resources to take care of yourself and to keep broadening your awareness and sensitivity to what others might be going through. Hooray!
Therapy is extremely useful; also, seeking therapy is genuine work, and it is a project. It's a worthwhile project, and it will not be difficult forever, but it is a hurdle. Equip yourself - look for articles on how to interview a therapist, and think about what you are exploring and what your priorities are in finding someone to work with you. Take time, be patient, and give yourself rewards for doing the work (nobody says you can't have fun snack outings after therapy - even if the session is with someone who rubs you the wrong way, free snacks!!) (this approach may be more useful for me than the general population, but I stand by this essential point: snacks).
As someone who put off therapy for a good long while: the effort it takes to find the right fit and leap that initial hurdle is nothing compared to the effort it took to try to get on top of my stuff alone. Take the leap - you will be glad you did. (Speaking of: you're not alone! Find friends who are good active listeners, who may have their own therapy referrals or approaches to seeking help - it's super brave and almost outlandishly cool to ask yr pals for help with these things! And then someday you get to be that helper person! Wow! Too many exclamation points!)
As for the people in your life - while remembering that you can only control how you behave and not how people respond to you - do keep in mind that some people may be looking for someone to give them permission to ask for help, to have that fraught conversation about how to find support and resources. If you've got the mental bandwidth for it - and not everybody does at every moment of their lives - try practicing patience with them, and check in.
Basically, it's a good day to be kind to yourself, kind to others, and open to the low-key miracle that are mental health resources in whatever form and whatever path they may take. Let's be ongoing and perpetually self-forgiving projects forever! Hooray!
September 26, 2019
Blinded by the light
Yr fella has interrupted the postings here yet again, and indeed, following the grand tradition of this blog, is back not with more #content but with a thoughtful bouquet of excuses! Basically, a programming note: two weeks after getting eye surgery, there's been a wave of light sensitivity which turns out not to be a great condition to have re: staring at computer screens. It's on the wane now thanks to some steroid eyedrops (side effects: my vision is getting extremely aggro??) which is why I can write this bloblet to say: sorry sorry I'm trying to fix it.
I'm also moving house, in rehearsal, and juggling a couple other Life Things, so y'know, I love you and I'll be back but not YET, I'm BUSY, come back in a MINUTE.
A mountain of kisses, and promises for future nooz you can yooz.
I'm also moving house, in rehearsal, and juggling a couple other Life Things, so y'know, I love you and I'll be back but not YET, I'm BUSY, come back in a MINUTE.
A mountain of kisses, and promises for future nooz you can yooz.
August 31, 2019
August 17, 2019
Coyoacán, Xochimilco, Teotihuacan, and and and
Mexico City deserved a week at an absolute minimum, not hardly the three days I gave her. But that's what I had, and here now is the second piece of the journey. First: video! Then: words and maybe photos!
July 21, 2019
You can jump into the fire
Hey, let's take a break from trying to remember what March was like and indulge in one more.... marker of personal growth, hooray.
July 6, 2019
Mexico City scraps
Finally... Mexico City! Trying to remember things that happened back in March! The futility of the human brain! Before the jump : the first 36 hours or so, in videoform. After the jump: blathering as usual!
July 5, 2019
Postmortem
After the jump: non-travel-related blorps about what it's like getting back into the land of theatre after six years away. Mexico City and New England are coming soon, I promise I promise.
June 30, 2019
May 29, 2019
May 24, 2019
Awoooo, Cocktails of Tokyo
OK, one last li'l post about Japan before we move on to Mexico City (time, she's a funny thing). After the jump: mixology, cocktails, and the hidden enclaves of Tokyo!
 |
| Not doing a great job of capturing the magic of these cocktails, Pat!!!! Anyway this one smelled good spoiler they all smelled good k bye. |
May 19, 2019
Milestoned
This feels like the positive version of a "death by a thousand cuts" thing, but: as of yesterday, I am officially a Doctor of Philosophy. As y'all long-timers know, there were a solid few years where I was pretty firmly convinced (internally, at least) that this was not going to happen. But it has, and I'm awful grateful to have gotten to swing out to Boston (with some Maine time as a forerunner, cos Maine is the Real Deal) to get all the goofy regalia, have dinner with my advisor, and most importantly, celebrate with all the friends, family, and mentors who got me through the darkest, most fraught, depressed, and anxious days of the whole shebang. Not being given up on: is there any better feeling in the world????
The future is, as always, an unknowable blank slate. There's a lot to juggle and a lot of mindfulness to exercise as I triangulate between What I Want and What Would Open Up Possibilities and What Dumb External Expectations Can I Please Disregard Since They Come From Value Systems That I Don't Have. But this weekend was a great reminder that tons of people (too many??) have my back, are there for me, and will be there for me whatever comes next.
So: thanks for and to friends! In conclusion, let's all value hard work and accomplishments without in any way pretending we are fundamentally significant people now that we have a funny hat and a confusing piece of drapery to sling around our necks??
The future is, as always, an unknowable blank slate. There's a lot to juggle and a lot of mindfulness to exercise as I triangulate between What I Want and What Would Open Up Possibilities and What Dumb External Expectations Can I Please Disregard Since They Come From Value Systems That I Don't Have. But this weekend was a great reminder that tons of people (too many??) have my back, are there for me, and will be there for me whatever comes next.
So: thanks for and to friends! In conclusion, let's all value hard work and accomplishments without in any way pretending we are fundamentally significant people now that we have a funny hat and a confusing piece of drapery to sling around our necks??
May 6, 2019
Tokyo
Greetings, travelers! I come bearing tidings of a trip I took (consults watch) eighty seven years ago! That's right, we're back on travelogue catchup times, and we are finally to the last stop of the trip: Tokyo! After the jump: impressions, recommendations, confusions, delights!
 |
| TOKYO: THE PARIS OF JAPAN! JAPAN, THE FRANCE OF ASIA! ASIA, THE EUROPE OF AMERICA! I HAVE SUFFERED BRAIN DAMAGE THANKS TO A SUSTAINED LACK OF SLEEP!!! |
April 19, 2019
Miscellanea: Japan
Time for a pre-Tokyo dump of some scattered fragments from Japan! In no particular order, after the jump...
April 10, 2019
Less 'n' Language
OK, OK, still not wrapping up Japan (soon! I promise! I even have the last video done and everything!) but in this Los Angeles week I've been reading Andrew Sean Greer's novel Less (spoiler: it's good! double spoiler: sometimes Pulitzer winning books are good!) and about halfway through hit a passage that I had to post about, because gosh. After the jump: moooore worrrrrds!
April 1, 2019
And it's time, time time
Boy has this space gotten dusty! A lonesome wind howls through the empty corridors. A tumbleweed nervously clatters down the stairwell. The sun's punishing rays glare through the windows into a vast chamber that has seen neither blog post nor travel video for weeks. A cowboy skeleton languishes near an oasis. Descriptive words flail emptily! More non-content after the jump!
March 10, 2019
Books on Trains
There is almost nothing I love so well as reading books on trains. I recently picked up Lonely Planet's Amazing Train Journeys, which is a genre I usually don't go for: 100 Places To See Before You Die, 75 Death-Defying Treks You Must Take In Your Life, You Will Be Dead Soon If You Don't Instagram These Sites and I Will Personally Murder You Upon Your Having Visited The 400 Cities Arbitrarily Listed In This Book all feel some blend of bullying/goading/chaotic/glib to me. Well, and I made them up, obviously, but you've seen this sort of thing. Anyhow: the Lonely Planet train books was different, because TRAINS.
(I should say: it's actually a lovely book, with only some of the drawbacks of those compilations: a bit of "this journey is in here so you can aspire to badassery even though you're probably not going to this remote corner of the world for a 45 minute train ride." But it's pleasantly informative, with great photography, and so for this year of more-daydream-than-travel it's a nice fit. ANYWAY, past the jump, more about books n trains.)
(I should say: it's actually a lovely book, with only some of the drawbacks of those compilations: a bit of "this journey is in here so you can aspire to badassery even though you're probably not going to this remote corner of the world for a 45 minute train ride." But it's pleasantly informative, with great photography, and so for this year of more-daydream-than-travel it's a nice fit. ANYWAY, past the jump, more about books n trains.)
March 6, 2019
Kanazawa
I'm awful glad I made a stop in Kanazawa on the way to Tokyo from Osaka. After the jump, I'll tell you why, but first, here's another dumdum video with a song that was not stuck in my head during my visit, but somehow felt immediately perfect when I heard it as I was piecing the footage together. Music: who cares about it!
March 1, 2019
Naoshima
The tl;dr of this post is: go to Naoshima if you even slightly think you can weave it into your travels in Japan. The as-I-say-not-as-I-do is: spend the night! After the jump, the longer ramble about this gorgeous and wonderful spot.
February 23, 2019
Osaka, But Not Really Osaka
Before the jump: footage from the Osaka portion of my travels in Japan! After the jump: fragmentary jim-jams about that portion. You know the drill by now, right? Admit that you do.
February 19, 2019
The Shape of Things
Oh! It occurs to me, beyond all the trip reportage arglebargle, that relatives and farflung pals who read this for the sake of what's happening in my life might want an update on, uh, that. So after the jump: where are things in February?
February 18, 2019
Your looks are laughable, unphotographable
After the jump: ways of seeing, photography, and temples in Japan.
February 13, 2019
New Year Same Old Me
Before the jump: the 48 hours that marked the end of 2018 and the start of 2019! After the jump: words about that same 48 hours! Wow what a time to be alive and learning so much about two days in the life of a human being on the internet!!! Read on for boy band monks, fire ceremonies, night tours of cemeteries, crab feasts and hot springs, and m y b r a i n
I'm not sure these videos are cutting together as nicely as I'd like 'em to, so this might be the earliest indication that Travel Exhaustion was starting to set in. Although my journaling indicates (both in its happening and in its contents) that I was in a pretty happy and mellow place! So maybe I just didn't care to do such a great job of conveying the loveliness of the world to you, the viewer??
February 2, 2019
Kyoto: the temples and the cold
After my initial dazed thirty hours in Kyoto, I settled into a pretty solid routine for my remaining days. I'd wake up before 6 (often before 5), have a slow start to the morning in my guesthouse room after a quick shower, and then walk for about fifteen hours, mostly taking evenings off. Full rundown after the jump, but first: another ding dong video! Who needs it!
It's not clear to me if Youtube has been slapping ads on these videos - their language suggests they are, since I'm using copyrighted music, so they (apparently) throw on ads and the revenue goes to the artist. Works for me, though I hate ads! Let's all get ad blockers, is my point. Goodnight!
January 28, 2019
Kyoto: Arrival
With the advent of our second polar vortex of the winter (I still prefer this to 90+ days in August but will concede that it's arguably nicer when you can "go outside" and not "die"), I'm taking the nudge to finally start replaying my trip to Japan!
These travels spanned the end of 2018 and start of 2019, and I figure we may as well kick things off with another one o' these li'l video type deals I make for funzos. This one covers the sort of stagger-around-town-in-the-early-morning-light jetlag of my first 30 or so hours on the ground in Kyoto. You can watch it... on the internet??? (More than the post that follows, in which I attempt to use "words" to "communicate" things, this video gets a sense of how this wander felt, I think.)
After the jump: the first wave of Kyoto!
These travels spanned the end of 2018 and start of 2019, and I figure we may as well kick things off with another one o' these li'l video type deals I make for funzos. This one covers the sort of stagger-around-town-in-the-early-morning-light jetlag of my first 30 or so hours on the ground in Kyoto. You can watch it... on the internet??? (More than the post that follows, in which I attempt to use "words" to "communicate" things, this video gets a sense of how this wander felt, I think.)
After the jump: the first wave of Kyoto!
January 22, 2019
Gratitude: 2018 Edition
Back in my cozy and joyful pad in Chicago, I'm finally - after a frenetic week of work and a long weekend of unpacking, organizing, and decompressing - sifting through my photos and footage from Japan, and flipping through the journal I kept through the end of last year's travels. One stack of pages consists of a list that I'm reproducing below the jump.
I've started to make these lists every New Year's Eve, setting down things/events/people/memories that made the past year a good one. I started this at the end of 2016, without the notion of it being an annual thing, but I've been glad to have the opportunity to make it a ritual of sorts. I'm not much of one for resolutions, but I like reflective New Years Eves more than party-all-the-time ones, so this suits me perfectly and keeps my heart pointed in the right direction. It's a good reminder that a year is a long time, and even my worst years have been packed with joy and goodness. Getting to choose what to focus on, and opting for gratitude, is a good bit of training. Here's hoping, amidst the dark and the snow and the cold, that you're doing the same.
Here, then, for them as wants it, is my 2018 in fragments of happy, grateful memories. Jump to it!
I've started to make these lists every New Year's Eve, setting down things/events/people/memories that made the past year a good one. I started this at the end of 2016, without the notion of it being an annual thing, but I've been glad to have the opportunity to make it a ritual of sorts. I'm not much of one for resolutions, but I like reflective New Years Eves more than party-all-the-time ones, so this suits me perfectly and keeps my heart pointed in the right direction. It's a good reminder that a year is a long time, and even my worst years have been packed with joy and goodness. Getting to choose what to focus on, and opting for gratitude, is a good bit of training. Here's hoping, amidst the dark and the snow and the cold, that you're doing the same.
Here, then, for them as wants it, is my 2018 in fragments of happy, grateful memories. Jump to it!
 |
| It felt like a good omen to have the moon hanging over the clouds on the flight to Japan. (With breathless thanks to the flight attendant who made sure I opened my window to look and see.) And SPOILER ALERT it was a good omen, turns out Japan was good guess you can stop reading the blog forever now huh. |
January 8, 2019
Annnnd we're back!
Hey cats n kittens.
It has been a little stretch here - a couple posts for the diehards who asked me what subdomain to look for when I shelved the blog to finish the dissertation - but as of this writing, I am successfully defended, and on the road again in Japan! It has been a wild year in some ways,and stodgily anti-wild in others. But as I prepare to return to the states next week, I am excited to see what a blank slate looks like for the first time in six years... to see what career paths unfold as I get to figure out what I am suited for... and to blather here about how Some Cultures Are Different Than Other Cultures Wow Who Knew, and Did You Know It Is Better To Travel Cheap. LUCKY EVERYBODY!!!
Anyhow, mostly I needed a space to drop my eventual Japan trip videos, but I am also fairly sure I'll be dropping some musey posts as I annoyingly tend to do. So stick around for THAT... and also for my future I guess???
Who knows what this blog will be! It's highly unlikely to be a travel blog per se, since my career options are not really digitally nomadic, which is fine because that sort of sounds like hell to me. But yeah - travel vids and reflections when they happen, oddball books-I-have-read posts, incisive commentary on uhhhh I dunno dairy production standards WHO KNOWS THE WORLD IS AN OYSTER THAT WE ARE LEASING UNTIL WE DIE.
Love you, kittens, good to be back, more soon...
It has been a little stretch here - a couple posts for the diehards who asked me what subdomain to look for when I shelved the blog to finish the dissertation - but as of this writing, I am successfully defended, and on the road again in Japan! It has been a wild year in some ways,and stodgily anti-wild in others. But as I prepare to return to the states next week, I am excited to see what a blank slate looks like for the first time in six years... to see what career paths unfold as I get to figure out what I am suited for... and to blather here about how Some Cultures Are Different Than Other Cultures Wow Who Knew, and Did You Know It Is Better To Travel Cheap. LUCKY EVERYBODY!!!
Anyhow, mostly I needed a space to drop my eventual Japan trip videos, but I am also fairly sure I'll be dropping some musey posts as I annoyingly tend to do. So stick around for THAT... and also for my future I guess???
Who knows what this blog will be! It's highly unlikely to be a travel blog per se, since my career options are not really digitally nomadic, which is fine because that sort of sounds like hell to me. But yeah - travel vids and reflections when they happen, oddball books-I-have-read posts, incisive commentary on uhhhh I dunno dairy production standards WHO KNOWS THE WORLD IS AN OYSTER THAT WE ARE LEASING UNTIL WE DIE.
Love you, kittens, good to be back, more soon...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)