:: Ray's Periodic Rantings ::

:: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 ::

Xmas mystery

There is one thing I forgot to write about from last week's journey to Indianapolis. First, some background. A few years ago, someone broke the plastic grill on the front of my '95 VW Golf, and stole the VW logo. I was a bit bummed about it at the time, but pretty much just shrugged my shoulders and left it that way. It wasn't important enough to fix.

Wednesday, when I arrived in Indy, James asked me when I had fixed the VW. I looked, and to my amazement, the logo was back. He says he didn't do it, and I don't have any reason to doubt him. But that means that at some point over the week or so before, someone walked up to my car and replaced it. Who? Where? When? Why? I may never know.

Sorry for the sparse posts, but they will continue for a few more days. Tomorrow I fly to Florida to hang with Biomom for a few days. I plan to spend some time there offline with the iBook putting my Burning Man 2003 pics together. I will post them on my return, if I finish.

Happy New Year!
:: Ray 9:57 PM [+] ::
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Xmas

Happy Holidays to all, from lovely Indianapolis. I am here visiting James and Ingrid, and their moms, for a little Xmas cheer. Xmas can be a downer for a lot of people, myself included. Lots of people seem to die around this time of year, which makes it difficult to get through a holiday with such high expectations. Mary died two years ago on Dec. 10, Ingrid's dad died three years ago on Dec. 18th, and yesterday, driving Ingrid's mom down here from Chicago, I saw three different funeral processions. All I can say from personal experience is that it takes a couple of years to get over the crappiness of Xmas without a loved one that I though would always be here. But two years later, now that I am getting better at letting go of the expectations that I once had, I am much more able to just enjoy the spirit of the holiday among good friends, and it's not all that bad. So wherever you are, whomever you are with, I wish all of you the best for this holiday season.

It has been an eventful week or so since I last wrote. I've been meaning to write about the highlight, another burlesque experience that I had last weekend. I'd recommend it to everyone but, regrettably, the show has already closed. A local troupe, the Lavender Cabaret, premiered a show called FemmeTV in early December. The concept was that the audience was watching programming on a burlesque cable TV network. Projected video and techno-ized burlesque music was used to establish vignettes such as a travel show, a game show, and even commercials, in which fantastic babes who were obviously trained dancers (not strippers) performed in corsets and panties and stockings and heels and such (nobody got naked). There was also a comedian and a magician. The show was slickly produced, and a whole lot of fun. Everyone in the audience had a great tim. We let the performers know it, and it was exciting to see them feeding on that energy, obviously having fun, themselves.

The show was intended as an open run but, sadly, the night I attended was the third and final performance. They had opened as a weekly late show in a 350 seat venue, but they simply couldn't sell enough tickets. I hope the troupe regroups and tries another less ambitious show in a smaller theater. I want more burlesque!
:: Ray 12:11 PM [+] ::
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Fun show

Saturday night I went with friends Julian and Isabel to an odd little collection of performances in an interesting loft space on Ravenswood Ave. It was a fundraiser for a local women's drumming advocate, Jenny Swerdlow and an acquaintance of hers, who leave soon on a trip to Africa to improve their drumming technique. The space had sensors in the floor which cause reactions in images being projected on the walls, which was implemented well enough that I didn't think it was cheesy or lame (high praise from one as jaded to "computer art" as I am). The acts ranged from old-time performance art (circa 1990) to drumming and samba to what could only be described as "new burlesque." I had a blast.

One of my laments about Chicago has been the lack of a wacky performance scene like I perceive exists in San Francisco, based on my experiences there, visiting Mike. We have a vibrant storefront theater here (despite a recent crackdown on companies operating with out a city amusement license), but while it can vary from interestingly staged modern plays to crude, gross, shock theater, it is primarily traditional theater. There is little performance art to be seen, and not much in the way of venues for what I saw on Saturday, which made it that much more special to me, even if every act wasn't fantastic. I don't expect every act to blow me away...I'm just grateful for the opportunity to see people creating culture in real time, on the fly, nary a TV in sight.
:: Ray 9:21 PM [+] ::
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A guilty pleasure and a sad day

Monday and Tuesday night saw me nesting in front of the TV, watcing Sci-Fi Channel's 4 hour remake of Battlestar Galactica. The original show ran on network television for one season in 1979. It was really bad, but as an 11 year old boy I ate it up. Sci-Fi did a great job with the remake. There were a few subtle references to the original, and the basic plotline was the same, but the new version had a good script, interesting characters, and very good effects. I give it a B+, and I hope they turn it into a regular series.

Wednesday, December 10, 2003, is the second anniversary of Mary's death. It has been on my mind all day, from the moment I woke up to now, as I prepare to go to bed. I haven't been overtly sad or in pain, but the recognition of the event her absence hasn't strayed far from my consciousness. Tonight at dinner with friends, I toasted her with hot sake in a way that seemed appropriate: chin-chin, Mary, chin-chin.
:: Ray 1:34 AM [+] ::
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Weekend and music thoughts

After a fairly low weekend, I am OK. Sure, I managed to get out to a couple of social events among good friends, but I spent a lot of the weekend vegging in front of the tube and the net, using my waning cold as an excuse to myself. I saw some really awful movies -- I mean exceptionally bad (think Tomb Raider 2...think Steven Seagal).

Somehow, despite my amazing lack of motivation, however, I managed to get a good start on a project I have been considering for quite some time. I moved my iMac from the former front porch area of my house to the living room. I am happy to be typing this on the iMac. It is the first time I have written a blog entry from it, because I just didn't use it much when it was out there in front. This move is the first part of some more rearranging that I hope will make a lot of the space in my house more functional.

I am listening to Moby at the moment, and pondering the healing power of music. My mood wasn't great until a while ago, when I finally turned off the TV and put his music on. Music can inspire emotions and can fire up our aspirations. Can it also heal, or be part of a healing process? I think that in certain sense the answer is yes. Of course I don't mean that Bach can heal cancer or anything, but I think that music that uplifts and inspires (and this probably means different music for different people) can have a positive effect on a healing process, spiritual or perhaps even medical.

In the coming weeks I plan to start unifying my music collection with Mary's (now that I have finally created a place where I can store it all near where it gets used). In the process, I plan to look for music that I consider healing to me. I'll let you know what I find.
:: Ray 12:13 AM [+] ::
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The grunge and a film

I'm enjoying one last gift from Italy and/or the airlines: a nasty cold. I've been loading up on C and echinacea, and I made my usual pot of chicken soup. Dayquil and nyquil help, but it still sucks.

Tonight it occurred to me that I might use some of this yucky time to catch up on some films that I have been intending to see, so I rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. The film is more of his usual shtick, a well edited collage of interviews and found footage on a subject of social concern. In Bowling for Columbine specifically, he is trying to answer the question, "why do we have so vastly many more shooting murders in this country than in any other?" In doing so, we learn a number of interesting things. Who knew Canada had so many guns (7 million), yet such a low crime rate that many people there don't lock their doors? Who knew that "welfare to work" meant dirt poor people riding over an hour each way on a bus to work all day crappy barely-above-minimum-wage jobs for companies that receive tax breaks for hiring them, instead of being there to spend time with their kids? And who knew that Marilyn Manson would sound downright reasonable and insightful in a conversation about gun violence and teens?

Go Michael Moore!
:: Ray 11:59 PM [+] ::
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Home

At 1:00 this afternoon, my plane landed after an eight hour flight from Brussels. I am back from my Thanksgiving week in London and Italy. It has been a wonderful week, but it is nice to be home. The cats were happy to see me, and I am happy to report that Momma Sea Monkey and her brood are still doing well. I've just remembered that the plants need water, too.

There are lots of tales to tell from the past week about beautiful and historic places, fun with old friends, and food, both good and bad. Some of them may get posted here, but some you may just have to hear from me in person.

For now, it's just really nice to be home.
:: Ray 5:01 PM [+] ::
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