Scenic Root

2012-02-15T21:40:00.002-05:00

Looking at my calendar: Teaching six yoga classes this week, six next week, and 20+ hours of Teacher Training assisting over the weekend. West Hartford Yoga owns my ass, clearly.

Obama, Contraception, and Election 2012

2012-02-15T12:56:00.002-05:00

Am I the only one to see the unintended (or is it?) consequence of the recent Obama vs. Catholic Bishops dust-up (over contraception) as being a shot in the arm to the Rick Santorum?

Remember back in 2008, when Rush Limbaugh conceived Operation Chaos, urging Republicans to register as Dems or Independents and vote for Hillary Clinton in the primaries, to promote a divided convention?

I don't usually think of team Obama as machiavellian, although I think they are sharp enough to pull it off. But if your goal is to prolong the Republican primary season, and perhaps pull down Romney in favor of a far right candidate who would presumably leave the mderate vote to Obama, well, this works.

Since the preponderance of Roman Catholics use contraceptives, I doubt this is going to be a big drain on the moderate Catholic vote come November. So, a little sketchy PR, a minor pop to the Democratic base, a boost to Santorum, and a few speed bumps in Romney's way. Sounds like a plan to me.....

Coming Home: An LGBTIQ Mindfulness Meditation Weekend

2012-02-08T15:09:00.003-05:00

A friend passed along an email about this mindfulness weekend....

**********************************************************************

Coming Home:
A Mindfulness Meditation weekend for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer Communities

Led by Larry Yang and Maddy Klyne

Friday (6pm) to Sunday (1pm), April 13-15, 2012

Garrison Institute, 14 Mary’s Way, Route 9D, Garrison, New York

More info here

**********************************************************************

Sometimes, it seems as if my spiritual / yoga journey trumps my queer identity or any an affiliations I have had with the GLBT community. I do know that I am supported and affirmed in the spiritual community in ways that I am not in the GLBT communities; and that my attempts to bring my spiritual practice back to former communities and spaces have been unsuccessful and discouraging.

So this looks like a wonderful chance to reconnect, and I plan to be there!

Santorum Victorious!

2012-02-08T07:08:00.002-05:00

Not a Santorum fan. Not at all. But it's lovely to see him atop the polls in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado.

My dislike of Romney (in a smarmy, rich entitled bastard kind of way) is starting to exceed my dislike of Santorum (in a way too catholic, homophobe and misogynist kind of way). I think Obama fares better against Santorum, and though I think Romney still has the money and infrastructure to win the Republican nomination, this sort of thing speaks to the discomfort way too many evangelicals and conservatives feel about him, so assuming he wins the nomination, he's going to have trouble energizing the base. "Anyone but Obama" loses some steam (a) with a palpably improving economy and (b) with a candidate whose historic record is so Obama like.

After years of watching the Democrats kick the stuffing out of each other and emerging with a compromised presidential candidate, it's nice to see the Republicans suffering the same fate for a change.

Plantar Fasciitis

2012-02-05T08:23:00.002-05:00

Been struggling a bit with some tenderness in the left heel which I've self diagnosed as Plantar Fasciitis. Suspect it's a bit self imposed - between yoga teaching, practicing, and hanging around the house, I rarely wear shoes, and when I do, they are far from supportive. Even in January, if the weather cracked 50 I put my sandals on.

Mostly, it's not debilitating. I've had a few bad mornings (typical, as the plantar tightens up overnight), and I've been a bit limited in terms of my power yoga practice (Warrior I and Crescent lunge, with left leg back is a killer) although I've kept up with a few of the teachers that are a bit slower and deeper. When a class moves quickly I do not have enough time to work around the injury, and I can make things worse.

So far, not so bad. I've continued to swim (which either loosens things up or at least does not make them worse), soak in the YMCA jacuzzi, and warm foot soaks a few times a week. I've picked up some PT type exercises, most of which have turned out to be a regular part of my yoga practice or pre-practice stretches. So I'm doing the right things.

Now, just a matter of waiting and watching.

Movie Marathon

2012-02-04T18:30:00.002-05:00

It's become a bit of a new year's tradition - I end up cramming to catch up on Oscar nominated movies. So far, my journey has included:

* The Artist. In theater. Blogged about separately. I remain charmed by the film, it's references to classic works, its technique, its story and characters.

* The Help. Roku / Amazon rental. Felt kind of cleaned up and Disneyfied (like Fried Green Tomatoes, never did get over them making Idgie a tomboysih femme). It was a nice story and all, but I was not blown away.

* Moneyball. Roku / Amazon rental. Charmed in a way similar to A Social Network, Brad Pitt was good and more and more seems to be settling in to Robert Redford's shoes. Not a huge baseball fan but I remember those days, and I liked the end where the Red Sox owner offered a job (and went on to finally break the curse a few years later using a similar philosophy)

* Hugo. In theater, 3D. Not a huge fan of 3D, and Hugo had a little of that unsettling "almost real" quality of The Polar Express. It was also a little too "beat you over the head with the symbolism" that irks me in most Spielberg serious films. Interesting to see Scorcese's use of the technology, and I liked the homage to the silent film era. Good, not nearly as charming (to me) as the Artist.

* The Descendants. In theater. LOVED it. Probably could have used a little exposition (I had a hard time believing that Clooney's character could be as workaholic and distant as he was supposed to be). But I loved the setting (beautiful backdrops), I loved the characters (especially the daughters and friend Sid), I loved the small plot that did not go anywhere but went everywhere. Particularly liked the "cousins". Put Clooney up there with Brad Pitt as one of today's leading men. I would give it the Best Picture nod over the Artist only because the Artist was a little gimmicky.

* Midnight in Paris. Roku / Amazon rental. It's been a long time since I sat through a Woody Allen film, and I loved it. Owen Wilson was a great protaganist - not your typical Woody Allen nebbish clone. I loved all the historic figures and references, a sweet plot device, and a satisfying happily ever after. Loved the film, although really when has a Woody Allen romantic comedy not been a remake of Annie Hall? The whole opening sequence ws as much a paean to Paris as Annie Hall was to New York City. Not my vote for Best Picture but glad to see it.

So what else is there? Probably will not see War Horse, I seem to be averse to horse / animal films. Hate when the dog dies in a film, I cry and cry. Tree of Life is out of the theaters, suspect it's not on DVD yet. I'll keep an eye out for a rerun someplace. And Extremely Loud and Incredibly close is still in theaters, so there is always a chance. But I suspect I'd see The Iron Lady, Albert Nobbs, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, before I saw that one.

And I usually try to get to the Oscar Nominated Short Films over at Real Art Ways, playing Feb 10 - 15.

The Artist

2012-01-25T22:10:00.003-05:00

Just charmed, from start to finish. Beautiful, funny, sweet. I'm not smart or schooled enough to get all the references to old classic films, but I am savvy enough to know they were there.

I usually try to get to see a bunch of the Oscar nominated films prior to the CARC Oscar Night party. Since I have not been inside a mainstream theater in over half a year. I get to Real Art Ways periodically (where the Oscar Night party will be held this year), but that's about it. I suspect I have my work cut out for me. I'm sure a few have hit On Demand / DVD / Amazon by now, so one rainy / snowy day I'll binge - but I still have a bunch to see in the theaters.

Unintended Consequences

2012-01-16T13:15:00.003-05:00

So, Rick Santorum seems to be the christian right's great last hope against the (choose one unforgiveable sin: moderate, flipflopping, or morman) Romney.

The funny thing is, that Dan Savage's anti-Santorum campaign seems to have strengthened Santorum's bona fides with the conservative right - as the most stridently problematic republican from the GLBT perspective, he's by default the most attractive to the religious right. So in some ways, we (the queer community) have created our own monster.

That being said, anything that drags the Republican primary on longer, that delays Romney's eventual coronation, and pushes him to the right rhetorically has to be a good thing, if one is pulling for a second Obama term.

I remain optimistic. The "anyone but Romney" wing of the Republican party seems to remain pretty adamant. Ron Paul continues to siphon off the libertarian wing. No matter how the next few months play out, I fnd it hard to see an engaged and energized Republican party come November.

Now if only we can dig up some video footage of the former Massachusett's governor helmeted behind the wheel of a tank....

Doing my Part

2012-01-11T08:48:00.003-05:00

Lopes Wins 24th House District Seat

Yeah, I voted. I always vote. In these small, single candidate, mid-season elections, my vote seems a lot more potent.

Unofficial results show Lopes polling 785 votes, while Republican Peter Steele got 583. Petitioning candidate Thomas Bozek, a hard-line conservative and former state senator, pulled in 404.

Curious that Bozek, the candidate who sent me a comb and railed against low income housing and public assistance in his mailing, seems to have swung the election for Lopes - assuming that most of his support would have gone for Peter Steele had they voted at all.

Compare and Contrast

2012-01-11T08:36:00.003-05:00

More signs of long term schisms in the Republican presidential campaign.

This week, Newt Gingrich was quoted:

“They apparently looted the companies, left people unemployed and walked off with millions of dollars,” Gingrich said on NBC’s “Today” show. “Look, I’m for capitalism, I’m for people who go in to save a company … if somebody comes in takes all the money out of your company, and then leaves you bankrupt while they go off with millions, that’s not traditional capitalism.”

Compare and contrast to the language of libertarian darling Ayn Rand, from Atlas Shrugged (from Capitalism Magazine):

"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

Looters, huh? What I like to call "coded language" - using the word "looter" immediately calls to mind the libertarian nemesis.

Mitt Romney has serious erosion on multiple fronts - the libertarian wing sees him as part of the big government problem, the fundamentalist Christians are suspicious of Mormonism, and the more conservative see him at best as a flip-flopper (on issues such as gay rights, abortion, health care), and at worst as a moderate pretending to be conservative.

Yeah, he's the only candidate who can grab the middle from Obama. But I suspect in doing so, he'll lose a lot of the fire from his base.

Right Below the Surface

2012-01-06T09:03:00.003-05:00

Here in New Britain, we're getting ready for an election, as Rick Lopes (D), Peter Steele (R), and Tom Bozek (I) vie for now Mayor Tim O'Brien's seat. I'm a registered Democrat so I've been getting calls (thankfully, live persons) from Dem HQ; as well as a fair number of typical campaign mailers. Yesterday, however, I got a real winner.

Tom Bozek sent a letter, in an actual envelope. The envelop was lumpy (my first though; anthrax or letter bomb) - what it contained was a blue comb (hey, I can use that to clean my hair brushes!) and an emory board, both emblazed with his name and political aspirations. However, there was also a flyer, which places Mr. Bozek just to the right of George Wallace, despite his assertion that he is a Registered Democrat.

My favorite parts:

1) Bozek opposes the NB-Hartford busway for the usual reasons (will not work, costs too much), but also IT LEADS TO MORE PUBLIC AND LOW INCOME HOUSING (bold and caps, his).

2) Bozek is pretty clear about his intention to REDUCE ENTITLEMENTS, which he identifies as "Welfare, Medical, Rents, etc.) no mention of those pesky Social Security entitlements though.....

I'm a pretty faithful (some would say, neurotic) participant in the electoral process. But I'm pretty sure I will not be voting for Bozek.

Iowa: And the Winner Is.....

2012-01-04T08:46:00.002-05:00

Barack Obama. I can't think of a better outcome for the incumbant Democrat than the effective three way tie of Romney, Santorum, and Paul.

First, the Republican participation was reportedly not much different than in 2008 - hardly a groundswell of "anti Obama" fervor. Second, Romney (the presumptive eventual nominee, by all accounts) did not budge from his "25%" poll numbers - continued evidence that the religious right is soft on the moderate Massachusetts governor with the curious religious beliefs. Ron Paul's strong showing bodes well for a potential third party run. And the christian right's coalescing around Santorum (abandoning Bachman and Perry) just means that Romney will not deliver a knockout vote anytime soon.

What's not to like? The longer Romney has to scrap for the nomination, the further right he'll be pushed, and the less palatable he'll be to moderates come November.

And as an added bonus, the Romney rooted PAC negative ads really pissed the hell out of Gingrich, who will, I suspect, remain a potent sniper chipping away at Romney's armor for the next few weeks. Next to Romney, Gingrich is, I think, the candidate who could give Romney a run for the money, so Romney taking him out removed a bit of a wild card that could have caused trouble.

I may be wrong, but the Republicans being equally split across moderate, libertarian, and christian right sectors seems about as good a portent as possible, looking towards the November elections. And if the economy continues to show signs of growth (despite the efforts of the do nothing, obstructionist House of Representatives), I think Obama isn't in too bad shape.

New Year, New Energy

2012-01-03T13:40:00.002-05:00

Coincidentally, today ended up being a "doctor's appointment" kind of day.

Started off with an appointment with my APRN (closest thing I've had to a doctor for a few years now) over at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain. No biggie there - although she did refer me to a PCP doc over in Unionville. I ended up calling and getting an appointment for Thursday. So I'm starting 2012 off right by getting my health back at the top of the list.

While I was over in that neck of the woods, I stopped by the New Britain YMCA. I've been saying "I want to find a place to swim" for a while now (friends go to Cornerstone in West Hartford, a little too far for me) - and I visited the YMCA website over the holidays and it seemed nice. So I took a tour, got a couple of free passes, and plan to get my butt over there a few times this week to use the pool. They waive the "new member" fee in January, so I expect I'll be signing up later this week.

An amusing coincidence - the desk person called a staffer to give me a tour, and when she took my info form, she noted "Oh, D lives on your street". D, at the start of the tour, noted "you've been here before, right, you look familiar" - turns out she lives down the street, and her dog goes bonkers when I walk Elo - we've had a nodding acquaintance for a while but had never met. That seemed like a good omen.

The YMCA facility is nice enough - plenty of cardio machines (with TV screens), nautilus, free weights, a pool and jacuzzi, a gym and an exercise room. Not modern and slick like a health club, but it feels kind of comfortable there. Best of all - five racquetball courts. I played in college, and the first few years out of school, and it would be fun to hit the court now and then for a friendly game.

While I was in that part of town, I stopped bu the New Britain Library, and got a library card. I've only been in town two years. Bout time. Since I plan to be over that way more often, I might actually use it....

Finally, a dental appointment, where I got some not so great news. Two decay areas, in already filled teeth, are begging for crowns. $3200 worth of dental work, and although I've got some insurance now, it does not cover crowns. So.....yuck. Have to see if I can swing that.

But, all in all, not a bad morning. A lot of change bubbling up as 2012 gets underway; I've been feeling stuck for a while now.

An Annual Influx

2012-01-02T07:42:00.003-05:00

I was playing around with Google Correlate today (prompted by a piece on Morning Edition). While the point of the site is to find sympatico (expected or not) search terms, there is an interesting trending function that is fun by itself.

Of course, I searched for "yoga", and here's the resultant chart:

Not surprising that "yoga" correlates to "vinyasa" - other correlations include "work out world", "bikram", and "lucille roberts"

What stands out is the annual, start of the year, new year's resolution driven interest in yoga. Each January, we see an annual swell in class sizes and students, and the fact that folks are searching for yoga brings that into focus. There is also an interesting upward trend, year over year.

Ah, well. Enough cyber musing. I've got two classes to teach today, and something tells me they will be full ones!

Yoga: Year End Wrap Up

2012-01-01T20:53:00.003-05:00

I popped over to my studio's online system and pulled out my data for 2011. Some highlights:

Number of Classes Taken: 179. This includes a handful of workshops, and does not include the 6 times (or thereabouts) I practiced with the 2011 teacher trainees. It also does not count classes I've taken out of town, at other studios, or at Kripalu. It works out to about 3.5 classes per week - round it up to 4 including random classes. Not too shabby.

Number of Classes Taught: 142. This includes classes I had subbed out (a handful) but does not include classes I subbed for others (many more). Nor the 10 classes I led up at summer camp or the couple at Falcon Ridge. Right around 3 a week, which is my normal schedule.

Other 2011 yoga highlights:

* Yoga in Times Square
* A 28 hour Restorative Yoga teacher training
* A week at Kripalu
* Assisted the studio's teacher training (6 long weekends, I was there full time)

So yeah, it's been a good year, yoga wise!

2012 Resolution: More Blogging

2012-01-01T07:50:00.003-05:00

I have lots of resolutions this year.

* Drink more water
* Join the New Britain YMCA and go swimming (or other aerobic exercise) a few times a week
* Clean up this mess!
* See more live music.
* Hang out with friends more.
* Give Twitter another shot.
* Blog more frequently.

We'll see....life gets busy and in the way. But Happy New Year's, everyone!

Middnight on Main: Middletown's Answer to First Night

2012-01-01T07:24:00.004-05:00

I spent a few hours traipsing through downtown Middletown last evening, at thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhe first annual (with any luck) celebration. I've spent a number of New Year's Eves in downtown Hartford at First Night, and I have to say, that Middletown has won my heart.

Mostly, it's about the music. Hartford's First Night did not have a single performer or act that could entice me downtown - I looked over the roster and nothing. Middnight on Main, on the other hand, was overspilling in musical goodness. Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams played two packed sets at the First Church Sanctuary; Hartford darlings The Shinolas did not get the nod in the insurance city, so headed down the river to an overflowing room at the Salvation Army, joined onstage by Mark Erelli and Rani Arbo. Susan Forbes Hanson was hosting the Shinolas sets, as good an indication of the bona fides of the musical evening as anything. WNPR's Jeff Cohen and Catie Telarski, also under appreciated by the First Night folks, brought their talents to Middletown.

A somewhat out of focus iPhone pic of Gandalf Murphy from the First Church balcony.

That's who I went to see. But there was also River City Slim (zydeco), John Whelan (Irish), Barefoot Truth (Rock) and a host of others. You can see the schedule here. The only BAD thing about the event was it was perhaps too successful - venues were filled, folks were turned away. Rounding out the more mainstream music, were Brazilian, Taiko Drumming, Wizard Rock, Show Tunes, Rockabilly, Gospel, Salsa - pretty much anything one might choose to hear.

Middletown has a few benefits that Hartford lacks. A compact and vibrant Main Street - with all of the performance venues easily walkable, made for an easy hike around downtown. They set aside a lot for Food Trucks - where one could find a variety of interesting, yummy, and low cost foods. There are a ton of nice restaurants all up and down Main Street - even as the rabble trekked between Middnight on Main events, folks were sitting down to a more upscale new year's celebration. And though we choose not to imbibe, there were a bunch of nightspots where one could fall in for a New Year's toast if one were so inclined.

And Middletown seemed to get the whole First Night sentiment. Less about a big splashy fireworks show, more about entertainment, mixing, and mingling. A great opportunity to have folks come downtown, see the restaurants and shops, feel safe, and maybe plant the seeds for a vibrant 2012.

Sorry Hartford, my heart has been wooed and won by a little city down the river. I hope that Middnight on Main was a success and becomes an annual event - I plan to be there!

GOP in 2012 - The Back Story

2011-12-14T07:36:00.003-05:00

"A lot of the evangelicals believe God would give us four more years of Obama just for the opportunity to expose the cult of Mormon...There's a thousand pastors ready to do that."

Craig Berman, now stepping down as Gingrich's Iowa political director

And that, my friends, is why the GOP is screwed in 2012. Because the "Mormons are not real Christians" belief runs deep in the evangelical, born-again movement, so the Republicans (Romney, Huntsman) who could give Obama a run for his money (siphoning off Independents and fiscally conservative Dems) has almost zero support from the far right. Berman (however problematically or offensively) is simply stating the truth that most the far right would rather believe but not state outright.

Romney is flawed in other ways (from a conservative perspective) - his Massachusetts roots and experience paint him as downright moderate (or flip-flopping) in a few key issues - abortion and health care. Again, things that would make him palatable to the center, and a formidable challenger to Obama.

I'm sport of enjoying the Republican string of right wing clowns that have emerged and been embraced. Keep 'em coming....the more right and wacky your eventual candidate, the more likely Obama will get his second term....

Life in Da Hood

2011-12-08T18:20:00.010-05:00

I was out of state for a few days this week; work in Wilkes Barre PA. When I returned on Wednesday afternoon, I came home to this lovely site.

The low rents in the apartment building next door occasionally drive across the lawn - I've always assumed it was an "end of the month, moving out, too lazy to carry stuff 20 feet" kind of move. But this seems to have been either a case of drunk and stupid or just plain ornery. They left tired marks a good 40-50 feet along the back of their building, and another 10 feet or so in our lawn, where they apparently got stuck.

Of course, in the process of getting stuck and trying to get unstuck, they plastered the side of my condo unit with mud - 1/2" - 1" thick mud, all over the siding, foundation, and electrical and utility boxes.

Being not so smart, the perpetrator left his car right where it ended up, still mud spattered and with tire tracks intact. CT License 157-YBE, I see you.....

I called the local police, an officer showed up who was friendly but mostly unhelpful - she took some pictures, did a plate search on the car (came up clean) and found it was registered to the place next door. But was unsuccessful in contacting the owner and confessed that there was nothing she could do (because apparently this happened on Tuesday, so to charge them on Wednesday involved "warrants" which I guess means paperwork, and besides, this was not a vehicular matter (tickets) but a criminal one. etc. etc.

So, I found an email addy for the management company, and sent off the photos; our condo president is going to contact them via phone / snail mail. Someone apparently came over to try to clean off the side of the building with what appeared to be Windex and paper towels (uhm, nice try, loser) - I ended up going out this afternoon with a hose hooked up to the washing machine's hot water feed, a bucket of soapy water, and a scrubber on a 6' extension. It took a while but it's pretty much cleaned up.

The yard is still a mess, but I assume the apartment complex will have to do something about their own property so hopefully will address ours as well. Once we get the police report, maybe we can find the perps name and follow-up on our own.

Gift Card Hoarder

2011-11-27T10:51:00.003-05:00

I've become a bit of a gift card hoarder. Not sure when this started or why, but I've collected a fair number of gift cards over the years - given by friends, clients, etc. I have Crate & Barrel ($100), William Sonoma ($100), Barnes & Noble (unknown), Cheesecake Factory ($50 or $75), Home Depot (unknown), Whole Foods ($25). Probably a few more kicking around. I also have a couple of free massages and a free Shiatsu session. Just never got around to taking advantage of 'em.

Not exactly sure what this is about. There may be a sense of unworthiness going on - like I do not deserve what might be considered as luxuries. There may be a sense of insecurity - saving these for a rainy day (I think there are websites out there where one can convert gift cards to cash). There may be an unwillingness to step out of routine - these are often not places I would typically go. And there may be a sense of frugality - I live pretty close to the bone in a lot of ways; I shop for necessities and do not often shop for fashion, for decor or for pleasure.

Anyway, an encounter with a friend last night who is 100% my opposite (she can not wait to spend her gift cards) encouraged me to do a small unreasonable. So I popped over to the Crate and Barrel website last night to use my moolah. God forbid I actually go to the store and join the holiday shopping madness....

Picked up:

* Some terra cotta mixing / serving bowels
* Some casserole dishes (baking or pot lucking
* A hanging cooking pot rack (I have copper bottom cookware that would look good out, and a dearth of cabinet space)
* Some lotion / soap for the guest bathroom
* Some candle holders for tea lights / votives.

All came to $114, most of it was on sale, and shipping was free.

My token nod to the holiday shopping madness. Perhaps a visit to the William Sonoma website is next :)

A Long, Cold, Dark, and Wasted Week

2011-11-07T05:36:00.002-05:00

I lost power here in New Britain for most of the past week. Power went out early in the storm (Saturday afternoon, around 4 pm) and returned Friday evening around 5 pm. Here's a brief synopsis.

As soon as power went out, I ran out to find some propane canisters - I've stopped bringing the stove and lantern to my folk fest so I was out - and was able to pick up a couple. I also had (coincidentally) gotten a full tank of gas the day before, which helped a lot in the first few days.

At first, I was fairly well situated. I have a bunch of camping lanterns (LED based, they go forever) and a propane stove. My house is all electric, but the hot water tank held up for a few days. And although the house got cold, I opened up the blinds during the day to solar heat, and had a bed dog. So all in all, not so bad. I was able to make my morning coffee and oatmeal on the propane stove, cooked a few simple meals, and got the rest to go. The yoga studio had power through Tuesday morning, so I grabbed showers on Sunday - Tuesday when I was there to work, practice, or teach. On Sunday, I cleaned out the fridge - tossed a lot, and put the rest on ice / snow in the cooler on the back porch. It kept cold fine all week. And at least I got the fridge cleaned out.

Of course I had my iPhone, and the networks stayed up, so I was able to communicate, commiserate, and see everyone's struggles via Facebook. Definitely a 2011 spin on the "great power outage" - back in the day we'd only have newspaper and radio....

Nights were pretty cold but with an extra blanket and a warm dog, I was fine. And WNPR was my savior - I had no battery powered radio, but I cobbled together an old AM/FM armband thing I used to use when I roller bladed with a battery powered speaker I use for my iPod - and had plenty of radio all week. I'm going to invest in a couple of small battery powered radios when all this is over...

Tuesday morning, the yoga studio lost power. And that evening, something snapped. I realized I was falling behind on work, my main client was getting antsy, so I packed my desktop into my car and took Elo up to MA to visit grandma (who had power and internet). I stayed up there two nights - getting caught up on work, taking a few warm showers, and taking care of a lot of mom's little chores (programming two remotes, installing her casino software on her new computer, flipping her mattress, etc.)

I came back Thursday - my ex Zippy got power back so I assumed I was not far behind, but alas, no. So I set my office back up in the dark, and hunkered down. Thursday night slept at home. Went out to balloon Friday morning (too windy) but we did watch the Farmington fired department roll past in force en route to an apartment fire near Brickyard Road. But when my CL&P "power restore" time came and went (Friday morning, 8:30 am) I decided to punt once again; packing up Elo to stay with Zippy Friday night. I ended up working off my room and board by lopping, chopping, and chainsawing a large tree branch that came down in his yard.

When I got back to the condo Saturday morning, power (and cable) was back, judging from the thermostat timers it was restored Friday night at 5:00 pm. The weekend was busy (balloon chasing, tree cleanup, hiking) so I'm really just getting my life back together now.

West Hartford Yoga remained without power as of yesterday - I teach 2x today so we'll see if there is power this morning. But slowly, life is getting back to normal.

Dear Citizens Bank

2011-10-26T13:43:00.004-04:00

I closed my account this afternoon. You gave me my $24.97, and thanked me and said good-bye. One might think that you would have some process or form that asked the question "Why are you leaving us?" - but you did not.

So, for the record. I opened up a "Totally Free Checking" account a bunch of years ago. That account started costing me $17.50 a month at some point in the past year. There was no announcement, no notification, and you made no attempt to slot me into another low cost account ($4.99 a month, free with a minimum balance or five monthly transactions). You just switched me.

In the process of being pissed off about the $17.50 fee, I found another bank with actual free checking, which coincidentally has branch offices that are more convenient to both my home and one of my workplaces.

I hope this clears things up.

Four Plastic Bins

2011-10-18T14:29:00.003-04:00

I've had four plastic bins piled in a corner, under a table, for years. They have moved from house to house, for the past decade. Each is labeled with an ugly chapter in my life - and the paperwork and detritus of each has been loosely gathered therein.

The labels: Divorce (circa 1992), 12 Geddes (a house that I was upside down in for years, and that nearly got foreclosed upon in the late 90s), IRS (some problems circa 1997-2000), and Bankrupcty (mid 00's). Most of that is well behind me, but the IRS stuff lingers.

I've recently been doing some deep cleansing - cleaning and organizing, tossing and recycling, taking care of old messes. I'm in the process of cleaning up that old IRS mess, which has been hanging over my head for the last decade. So I pulled the bins out this morning.

I tossed a lot of errata - faxes, correspondence, blank forms, information paperwork, etc. and consolidated the things I need to keep into one single bin - joined with my last full time job's separation files (I'm actually vested in a small pension), my condo purchase information, my transition stuff. Eventually, I'll clean this stuff up for good and find a permanent home in a safe or metal box.

It feels good, I've felt kind of stuck and lethargic for the past few months - it's as if I've been digging really deep, and cleaning up some really deep pain and loss.

My friend Cheryl has been visiting, taking advantage of my spare room when she needs to be up in the area early - and noted my newly cleaned room, saying "It looks like you are getting ready for something"

And that's what it feels like. What that something is - not sure. But I'm getting ready....

Dear Netflix....

2011-10-10T19:06:00.001-04:00

Two words - SPELL CHECK. In Reed's "An Explanation and Some Reflections", you blew "streeaming". And in today's retraction email, "DVDs will be staying at netflix.com" you bring us "..in other words, no Qwwikster." This in spite of spelling it Qwikster in the initial email.

Seriously. I am getting the feeling you are making this stuff up after a couple of drinks too many, and hitting SEND before someone changes their mind....

RIP Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T09:16:00.003-04:00

In retrospect, not a surprise. Steve's fight with cancer has been much discussed, and his step back from Apple was as much a portent as anything. But still, a bit of a shock and some unexpected sadness as I learned the news last night, while poking around Facebook on my iPad.

I'm an apple-come-lately kind of girl myself. As a techie I've been PC savvy since the early days - cutting my teeth on an HP workstation (something like a glorified calculator with a full keyboard, tiny CRT, and HP-Basic), then graduating to office PCs. I've dabbled in CP/M. But mostly I've grown up along the IBM / DOS / PC / Windows channel because so much of my professional software and applications were PC-only.

Also, as a notorious skinflint, a MAC was just never within reach.

As a musician, one might think that the iPod might have caught my attention. But I've never been much of an earbud person, preferring live music, the car (where CDs are perfectly serviceable) and the home as listening environments, and NPR to music most of the time anyway.

That all changed with the iPhone. I was charmed by the original iPhone but it was still a bit pricey. When the iPod Touch came out, however, I bit. My love affair was short-lived; I left the touch on the back of a vehicle while ballooning and drove off; it was never found. But I was hooked, and it was not long before I traded up to an iPhone 3G.

And last spring, as I turned to corner at 50, I treated myself to an iPad which has remained a favorite tool/toy.

Steve was my generation, my people. The Apple II came out when I was in college, a few of the more well off and geekier engineering students had them in the dorm. I remember marveling at early versions of flight simulator. Steve and Woz and Apple were protoypes of what an engineer could do with his/her life. So to lose him, relatively young and inordinantly privileged, demonstrates that we are all slaves to time and the capriciousness of health and vitality; technology, health care, none of it can save us.

Thanks for the tools and the toys, Steve. Thanks for the changes your visions have wrought on this world. Hopefully you've planted enough seeds and infected enough of us to carry your work into the future.

Dog Dreams

2011-09-30T07:16:00.002-04:00

I've been dreaming a lot recently. Unusual; I usually sleep like a rock, and if I dream, I'm not conscious of them. But lately, my subconscious seems to be trying to push to the surface.

Night before last, I was on a hospital gurney, heading into some sort of procedure (like an MRI or angiogram or something). Notable was the fact that my dog, Elo, was curled up under my arm on the gurney, and was going into the procedure room. Also that night, I dreamed I was riding my bike, and Elo was sitting on the bike rack at the back of the bike (completely unreal) - and I recall riding up and over a small hump / curb, getting some air, and checking to see if Elo was still seated securely. I woke up distinctly unsettled.

Last night, I dreamed I was at my old house in Waterbury, but Elo was with me. At one point, my neighbor Joyce (from my Hartford home) was trying to take Elo for a walk (I stopped her, afraid Elo would get loose) and as I was taking Elo into the house, she came up with a small thumb tack or dart - was somebody shooting at my dog? I noticed the woman (whose name was Mrs. Martinez, completely fictional) across the street quickly closing her blind. Turns out she had been shooting darts at Elo, because of his barking. She came over and gave me a little baggie with the darts in them (to show me they were harmless, I guess) and I got angry at her; called 9-1-1 to get the police to come out, but the phone was never answered.

Later, same dream, same locale, Elo's back leg fell off. Right below the bony "heel" on his leg; he was limping but not in a lot of pain. I called up a 24 Hour emergency vet - and while I was talking to the vet, I noticed he had lost the other back leg, but that he seemed to be growing new paws.

Finally, same dream, a guy shows up from a mortgage company - thought he was looking for me, but he was looking for the folks next door (when I lived in Waterbury, an old guy named Carl and his nephew). He and some colleagues were hanging around outside, and other colleagues showed up and they had a pie fight with large flat trays of what looked like meringue or shaving cream.

I've been feeling kind of crappy of late; perhaps the dreams are part of my body's healing or fighting off some infection. But....weird.

Even Yoginis Get the Blues

2011-09-27T21:35:00.002-04:00

It was a sucky day.

It was the kind of day where I did not encounter another living human being - not on the phone, not via email or text, not in person. If it weren't for a trip out to grab some lunch and a run to Real Art Ways to catch a film, I might have believed myself the only human left on the planet.

Even Real Art Ways, where I went to see "Shut Up Little Man", was a bit depressing - I was the only person in the theater. As if I needed a reminder of how alone I am.

I stayed out of the yoga studio - because I knew the moment I hit the mat I would dissolve into tears, and I really did not want to be the spectacle du jour. And at times, being there with the community, the interconnectedness, only serves to remind me of my own separateness.

So yeah, sucky day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

CT Pride Day

2011-09-17T18:17:00.005-04:00

Wandered down to Bushnell Park this afternoon for Connecticut Pride. Was a beautiful morning / early afternoon, although it clouded over and cooled down a bit.

I really liked the layout of the vendor / organizational booths - it contained the energy and created a feeling of critical mass, as compared to other years. Think I've missed a few years there so this may not be a new thing, but regardless, I approve. I'm not much for the music at Pride; just not my cup of tea. And without a posse hanging out together, not a lot of fun hanging out all afternoon. So I popped in and out.

Mostly, it's my annual check-in with folks. Some friends I have known for 10-15 years; Pride is my one chance to really touch base every year. Others I see more often, but nice to see them all together. And always a couple I have lost touch with, it's a nice surprise to reconnect.

And always a little bittersweet. Organizations I have been involved with over the years; membership has turned over and now I know nobody. New organizations that have sprouted up that I have no connection or history with; a little awkward to wander up and say "Hey, I used to be somebody, 10 years ago". And a sense of missing the GLBT community a bit:

* Living in a liberal state where GLBT folks are seamlessly integrated into other communities, a lot of the community spaces (community center, bars, coffeehouses) and resources / groups have faded;

* Moving through the world without making waves or encountering much in the way of discrimination or hate, which limits my incentive to stay connected to the support and activism organizations;

* Being way too busy with work, hobbies, and life - I try to stop in to community events when I can, but "when I can" is a pretty thin slice of life.

Shout out to my wing women; Alison from yoga and Sandy from the Guinea Pigs, who both wandered down to check out the festival and wander around with me for a while. I usually just do a circuit or two, say hi to old friends, and head out. Instead I hung out with them and chatted for a few hours. I Am sure they both broke a few hearts this afternoon; sorry ladies, they are straight! Although Alison's sidekick (an adorable pug) was like catnip to the gay men....

I doubt I'll get to any of the evening festivities - a bit too old for the bar scene, balloon chasing in the morning means a 4:30 am wake-up call. But it was nice to check in. The Eros Film Fest is coming up in November...

Losing My Religion

2011-09-13T11:45:00.003-04:00

Somewhere between savasana and home, I had the realization that I have been having a recurring dream. I dream of being in high school, in the middle of the term or semester. And I have been completely blowing off my religion classes (I went to a catholic high school, we had religion classes) - never showing up, not even on my schedule.

Of course, I have been without a formal religious belief for many years. In fact, if anything, I have developed a strong anti-religion bias what with the antics of the christian right and radical islam. It's gotten to the point where I avoid even ecumenical or vaguely religious intersections with other causes and orgs.

I spend a lot of time plugging away at spirituality - yoga, meditation, enlightenment intensives, retreats. I have a strong belief in something larger - the divine, a cosmic consciousness, a soul in the machine. But religion - no thanks.

Pondering what that dream might mean.....

Dear Sir

2011-09-07T19:57:00.002-04:00

I get a lot of unsolicited emails with resumes to my work email address. I have a fairly distinctive domain (yay for early adoption!), and most folks never get past the front page to figure out I am a one-person consulting practice.

So, OK, you are sending out resume or CV spam. But even if I were hiring (I'm not, sorry), heading your email "Dear Sir" is a pretty quick FAIL, at this company!

Since most these come from India, and most of the email verbiage is pretty fractured email, perhaps they get a pass. But still.....

New Laptop

2011-09-06T14:40:00.003-04:00

Just ordered a replacement laptop. My last laptop (a Sony Vaio that I've had since February '08) clearly does not owe me anything. It's been a bit flaky / slow for a while, and at the start of the month, it gave up the ghost completely, refusing to power up at all.

Once upon a time I spent a lot of time researching laptops - with a remote office my main computer was often a car-ride away; my laptop was permanently set up in the house. I traveled a lot for work, actively maintained multiple websites, and did a lot of remote powerpoint / production gigs. But these days, my office (and desktop) are in the basement, and I have an iPad that does almost anything I might want a laptop upstairs for, and I travel just a few times a year. So I picked up a relatively middle of the road model from a decent brand, with good reviews. Stuffed it with RAM, picked up Office Home & Student (I refuse to use Outlook) and away we go.

A while back I left my laptop at the yoga studio for close to a month and never missed it; if it were not for some engineering software and applications that are Windows only, I might step back from a laptop completely.

Camp Camp - Yoga

2011-08-28T09:12:00.003-04:00

I went up to Camp Camp to teach yoga. I was on the schedule for 2 classes a day - a morning class from 7:00 am - 8:30 am, and an afternoon class from 3:30 - 5:00 pm.

I wanted to differentiate the classes a bit, so advertised the morning class (before breakfast, competing only with the morning swim and the fallout from late nights) as a stronger practice. I ended up doing a pretty basic power class most days. The afternoon class was more of a gentle / all levels class. Turned out to be a perfect call - I had a strong core of morning yogis (8-12 every day, a few came every day and most came a few time) who liked the core work, liked the flow. The practice was in an open building, so getting the body warm was an issue - I used flow and pranayama to get the heat up.

The afternoon class was a bit less well attended (6-10) and a bit more of a "drop in" feel; not surprising considering that it was competing with all the other great camp activities. But very sweet to have students who had never done yoga before.

I really loved teaching. It was a challenge to come up with a full week's worth of classes (especially the morning session, with lots of regulars) and it was such an honor to have students coming back every day. Although I am trained in power yoga and that's my normal practice, it was a bit out of my comfort zone to teach 6 power classes in a row. Good growth opportunity.

I brought up my yoga toys - mats, blocks, straps, tennis balls. There were mats at the camp but many of them were pretty funky. Next year I hope to invest in a pile of yoga blankets to bring up - would have been useful for gentle classes as well as the power classes.

I was really touched by the lovely "camp-o-gram" notes of thanks and positive feedback I got in my "Buddy Bag". Each day there was some little bit of positive affirmation, and folks came up to me all week saying "I've heard good things about your yoga classes"

So, call it a win. If Camp CAmp will have me next year, I'll be back!

Camp Camp - Overview

2011-08-28T07:49:00.013-04:00

Just back from a week at Camp Camp, a GLBT summer camp that celebrated its 15th season. I was supposed to be up there through this morning, but the impending hurricane cut the program short on Saturday and I decided to take off yesterday afternoon. I feel much better knowing that my home is secured, my dog underfoot, and I have no reason to travel today!

P.S. - I'm rewatching this video and now a lot of these folks I count as friends (Clink! Nick! Kerry! Phil! Shannon! Goody!). Kind of getting teary, watching with post-camp eyes! My friends!

I was officially at Camp to teach yoga; having applied for and obtained a Staff position to teach two classes a day. But it's an unpaid gig; staff positions simply get you a reduced fee for a week at camp (depending upon number of hours worked) so I was just as much a camper and participant as anyone else.

In a word, Camp Camp was amazing. 250 GLBT campers spent the better part of a week doing typical summer camp things, building community, and enjoying friendships, adventures, and night time celebrations.

I ended up bunking in Sappho cabin, a larger bunkhouse on the shores of the lake. It's a quieter part of camp, wedged in between the men's cabin Greg Louganis and "the condos", a cluster of interconnected men's cabins. The Sappho residents were a bit older "early to bed, early to rise" women (as opposed to younger, "hang out all night talking" women) and that fit my needs and preferences completely. Sappho was also fairly close to the place I taught yoga; quite handy. Very sweet energy in Sappho cabin.

The cabin was simple but functional. Screened windows, no shutters or glass, and rough single bunk beds that were functional. We all got bottom bunks (so we could double up mattresses), and used the top bunk for storage. Couples pushed their bunks together and used air mattresses. Decent toilets and showers, plenty of hot water. 12 women in Sappho and I never had to wait for the bathroom or shower. I slept OK - I tended to wake up early and start thinking about my morning class. One good trick was to line the sides of the bunk with a blanket (I used my yoga blanket) which kept the heat in, blocked the breeze, kept light and sound out (especially when I went to bed early) and let me do a little reading without disturbing others if I woke up during the night.

In addition to the cabin affiliation, everyone was assigned to a Rainbow Group - a small band of fellow campers who met daily to check in, communicate camp news, and who did a few of the evening activities together. I was in Yellow group, which ended up being 2/3 men and 1/3 women (probably close to the mix at camp) under the leadership of a veteran camper / staffer called a Rainbow Group Leader. We ended up having some good discussions during rainbow group each morning after breakfast.

I had my phone up at camp, but cell service was very spotty and electronic tethers (phone, text, web, music) were actively discouraged. So I used it primarily as a clock for yoga classes, to play yoga music on occasion, and to take just a few photos. As usual, I left my camera home and was way too "in the moment" most of the time to take pictures.

While at camp, I did the following:

* Took a kayak out, for a quick lesson, a solo tour of the lake, and a guided marsh nature paddle. A long time goal and now that I've been out, eager for more.

* Went swimming a few times at the beach / dock, I forget how much I love the water and swimming.

* Made the simplest of stained glass art (thanks, Amy!), I liked the process and would gladly take on a more challenging piece next time.

* Took a volleyball lesson (yay, Nick!) which ended up being one-on-one. Very helpful, although I never made it out to the sand court to play.

* Spent some time with Circus Arts (Tigger!) where I messed around with juggling (I already have some chops but we worked on my form), plate spinning (I totally loved and bought myself a set of plastic plates to play with), and stilts (pretty hopeless)

* Played a game of kickball (fun) although I got my bell rung falling over going back for a fly ball. Good to play again but at 50, maybe I do not need to again :)

* Got a massage on Friday afternoon, much needed and appreciated after a week of teaching yoga 2x a day but grabbing my own practice as I could.

Never made it to the climbing wall or the ropes course (I was busy during the introductory ground school). Did not find my way to the dance studio (no surprise there), cooking classes, drawing, pottery. Also missed out on tennis, basketball, softball, frisbee golf, flag football, drumming - my days were just too full. So lots of fertile ground for next year!

In addition to the daytime activities, there was fun stuff to do every night.

Monday: Welcome dinner, we sat with our rainbow group

Tuesday: Barn Dance. I loved the energy and the music, but did not dance, and burned out a bit halfway through.

Wednesday: Quincinera, a celebration of the camp's 15th year, sat with rainbow group and there were some competitions, including a "america's top designer" inspired outfitting of the group "princess and escort" using tissue paper.

Thursday: Tea Dance. Indoors due to weather but a blast, a few friends dragged me out to the dance floor where I boogied til I dropped.

Friday: Talent / No Talent Show. They asked for volunteers to work backstage so I ended up one of three backstage managers. Which was a lot of fun, meeting the campers who performed. A healthy mix of serious talent (music, spoken word, magic and juggling, broadway dance), semi-serious talent (music with some comedic bits), and some drag shenanigans.

Saturday: Camp Camp Dance Dance. I took off early due to the impending hurricane so I missed out.

There were also a lot of "late night" activities - campfires, movies, a pajama party. My duties called (7 am yoga class) so I was in bed early (10 or 11) pretty much every night.

Meals were a cut above institutional / camp food - salmon a few nights, veggie / vegan options, lots of greens (veggies and salads). Great desserts. I ate well, and with all the outdoor activities and walking around the camp, I was hungry. Meal time was a time to come together and talk, and I mostly sat down randomly - sometimes with cabin mates, sometimes with new friends, sometimes with yoga students, sometimes with strangers.

Bottom line: I had a blast, met some amazing people, and hope to be back in Maine next year!

The Cobbler's Kids Go Shoeless

2011-08-17T07:20:00.003-04:00

You might know that one of the things I do* is code websites. I work http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwithhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifone very popular tourist attraction, a fairly well known medical professional (whose site is pretty dated), and a handful of other clients. I'm not a graphics genius, but a fairly good plugger with HTML (I tend to hand-code, a dying art, and also muck around with javascript).

Anyway, my own website is perhaps 7-8 years out from it's last overhaul - its technically archaic and its content is similarly obsolete. I have a few empty hours this week (end of summer slowdown, one of my big clients is out of town) so I'm going to see what I can do this week. No promises - heading off the grid onSaturday for a week and I suspect the week I get back I will be swamped. But it would be nice to have my website overhauled before September wraps up.

* Engineering, teaching yoga, chasing hot air balloons, website design, playing music

Holed Up

2011-08-11T06:33:00.002-04:00

Think it was last Thursday; there was a lot going on in Hartford and friends were posting all over Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere - Billings Forge, the Wadsworth, an art openings, music. Any one of those might have lured me out. But I was up to my usual tricks - spent the day working with clients in Essex and the evening on the yoga mat - by the time 8 pm rolled around I was done. came home, grabbed some food, spent some time unwinding and puttering, and went to bed.

And I realized that I've been kind of holed up, withdrawn. It's been months since I've done anything randomly social (creative cocktail hour, Phoenix After Hours). I completely blew off the Jazz Fest and Monday Night Jazz. I rarely make it north of New Britain Avenue, forget going all the way into Hartford.

Part of that is busy life - folk fest takes a lot out of me and the weekend after was a family reunion. There's been a bunch of work to catch up on in between those, as well as plenty of time teaching and practicing yoga. My condo is a mess; I've been slowly picking away at that. And the summer heat (I recently installed a small window A/C unit in the bedroom, but the house / office does not have AC) has been a bit draining.

I feel a bit more social stirring, and I suspect I'll be popping back up in the world soon. One more summer obligation / vacation (a week in Maine, teaching yoga at GLBT summer camp), and then the fall, and perhaps the emergence of Jude from her cave....

Shoulders

2011-08-10T22:20:00.003-04:00

I've been working with a shoulder injury for over a year now. I think it started with a tear in the brachialis or maybe the deltoid insertion; it only really impacted chaturanga (I could lift from low plank to high plank all day, support myself in Pincha Mayurasana, but lowering down - ouch!) and working around or compensating for that; I messed up the right shoulder. I suspect balloon chasing (specifically, the crown line) as responsible, although lots of chaturangas and carrying extra weight would be exacerbating factors.

I've been living with it for a long while; knowing that having a daily yoga practice was not giving it a lot of time / space to heal up, not wanting to go to the doc (cost and really, I'd be advised to rest it!). So the last year has been a time of humility as I drop my knees for chaturanga and avoid really strong upper arm / shoulder work. I'd toss in a full chaturanga once in a while just to see where I was at, but other than that, I've been good.

But lately I've been feeling pretty good about it all; tossing in more full chaturangas, taking stronger postures. Today, in Marcia's hot class, I did pretty much every chaturanga with knees up, jumped (as opposed to stepped) back and forward about half the time, and to prove a point, took Urdhva Dhanurasana or Wheel - definitely outside my normal "still injured" comfort zone.

I'm not about to go into kick ass shoulder work just yet (or ever!), and ought to drop some pounds before moving forward into advanced arm balance work, but it does feel good to be getting that shoulder / upper arm back, and to reclaim parts of my practice that perhaps might have seemed lost for good.

Time (and a little wisdom and loving kindness) heals....

Asana on LaSalle

2011-08-06T11:59:00.005-04:00

Lululemon Athletica and West Hartford Yoga collaborated on a special outdoor yoga class this morning, on LaSalle Road in West Hartford Center, led by Barbara Ruzansky.

I think the WH Police expected 50 people or so, imagine their surprise when we pulled in close to 500 (484 was the official lululemon count).

A few days back I started sniffing around to be sure Barb could connect her wireless headset to the sound system. I was a little shaky on the sound system lululemon had rented (a battery powered PA from Taylor Rental, never did get teh power or model) so I decided to bring the studio kirtan sound system. It rocked all the way to the back rows.

Some more flickr photos here.

And some pretty amazing photos by David B. Newman for the West Hartford Patch, here. The wide shots (I think the cleaning crew let him sneak upstairs at the Elbow Room) really convey the scale!

Prescient

2011-08-05T07:12:00.004-04:00

On July 14, 2011, fearful of the Tea Party's insistence of "no retreat, no surrender" vis a vis increased taxes, I pulled my 401K out of the stock market, and wrote:

The Dow is at 12,491.61, the NASDAQ is at 2,796.92. Let's see where things are 2-3 weeks from now...

So they came to a pretty crappy resolution to debt ceiling crisis, and as of today, the Dow is at 11,383.68 (down 8.8%), the NASDAQ is at 2,556.39 (down 8.6%).

Somebody Loves Me

2011-07-26T07:25:00.002-04:00

As I was setting up my tent last week at Falcon Ridge, I marveled at how neatly the tent had been put away - all the pieces neatly bagged, the tent nicely folded and put away dry. And I realized that the tent had probably not been pulled out since it was packed up at the end of fest last year; that I had carefully and mindfully put it away last year; sending a message into the future. Jude of 2011, Jude of 2010 loves you and wants you to have a wonderful festival week.

It was a sweet moment of realization. Sometimes I get down on myself regarding my messiness or my lack of discipline around some areas of my life. But having that realization brought me a sense of being taken care of - by myself surely, but also by the universe.

And of course, as I pulled down the campsite at the end of this year's fest, I kept that same sense of mindfulness and reverence for whoever I will be as I set up my campsite in 2012.

RIP Bill Morrissey

2011-07-25T13:53:00.004-04:00

While in the merchandise trailer at Falcon Ridge on Saturday, I got the news - Bill Morrissey had passed away. Such sad news, especially when contrasted with the joyful folk community underway in Hillsdale - many artists mentioned Bill during their sets. It's going to take me a few days to come down from the Falcon Ridge high to start to process Bill's death.

Others have written more and better tributes; you can find some links on a fansite as well as a short blurb on Bill's site. I've been a fan for over two decades; having heard Handsome Molly on a Legacy compilation. After listening for many years, I got to see him play live, and was surprised at such a deep voice coming from such a slight man. I own a handful of Bill's albums (North, Standing Eight, Inside, Night Train, You'll Never Get to Heaven), and have always been struck by his portrayal of working class New England, and his bittersweet songs about relationships. But I have to say that Friend of Mine, a collaboration with Greg Brown, remains a favorite. Just two good friends, sitting around with a couple of guitars and trading licks, verses, and laughs.

As I unwound from the folk fest, I put five of Bill's CDs that I own into the CD player. The very first notes of Pantherville brought me back to the early 90's - I covered that tune at open mics for a while. Married Man is both hopeful and tickles the funny bone. Handsome Molly, the first song to draw me in; think that's Suzanne Vega on backing vocals. These Cold Fingers - a darker song foretelling perhaps some of his personal struggles. Off-White is another beautiful relationship song, kind of reminds me of David Mallett's "I've Been Around."

Night Train features Birches, one of my favorite songs about relationship - the metaphors and imagery are so beautiful. And on that album, the sad (right now) Letter from Heaven and Time To Go Home

All in all it's amazing how little the quality and tone of his songs changed from the earlier CDs to the later ones. he got a little darker, a little more serious, but one could drop a random song from the earlier days into the later albums and it would not be that out of place.

This year, Falcon Ridge featured a tribute to Jack Hardy who also passed away this year. Folk music has lost a couple of good ones. So it was so sweet to rub elbows with and lend my ears to those still with us - John Gorka, Greg Brown, Eliza Gilkyson, Lucy Kaplansky, Mary Gauthier, so many more.....

Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist Showcase 2011

2011-07-16T18:35:00.006-04:00

In the order of appearance, with weblinks!

Grace Pettis-Harrisonburg VA
Occidental Gypsy-Boston MA
Karyn Oliver-Boring MD - eMUSIC
Brooke Annibale-Pittsburgh PA - eMUSIC

Lori Diamond & Fred Abatelli-Metro West MA - eMUSIC
Gail Wade-Colchester CT
Paul Sachs-NYC - eMUSIC
Brittany Ann-Philadelphia PA - eMUSIC

Bulat Gafarov-Moscow RU - eMUSIC
ilyAIMY-Baltimore MD - eMUSIC
Suzie Vinnick-Toronto ON - eMUSIC
Putnam Smith-Portland ME - eMUSIC

Pesky J.Nixon-Boston MA - eMUSIC
Louise Mosrie-Nashville TN - eMUSIC
Jason Myles Goss-Brooklyn NY
My Brothers Banned-Westchester Cty NY - eMUSIC

Friction Farm-Greenville SC
Sharon Goldman-Metuchen NJ - eMUSIC
Devlin Miles-NYC - eMUSIC
Layah Jane-Toronto ON - eMUSIC

Blair Bodine-Ambler PA - eMUSIC
The Whispering Tree-NYC - eMUSIC
Ellen Bukstel-Southwest Ranches FL - Free MP3
Split Tongue Crow-Rutland VT - eMUSIC

And every artist labelled eMusic has their latest album up on eMusic; I downloaded all of those and am gonna have SHOWCASE ARTIST SHUFFLE going in the merch trailer / tent on Wednesday and Thursday!

Falcon Ridge Preview

2011-07-16T18:12:00.002-04:00

Falcon Ridge is already getting started, with some friends on the farm alrehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifady and the rest of us making final preparations. The schedule is already posted online here.

As part of my work as performer merchandise coordinator, I've been web surfing to all the artists pages to collect their CD list for the spreadsheet. Some of my highlights and thoughts:

Supergroups: This year we have two folk supergroups (similar to Cry Cry Cry a bunch of years back). Red Horse features Cry Cry Cry's Lucy Kaplansky, along with John Gorka and Eliza Gilkyson. Can't complain on any front there; they are (collectively) the Friday Night Song Swap, and individually, opening up Saturday's mainstage (John / Lucy / Eliza). In addition, we have Brother Sun, consisting of Greg Greenway, Joe Jencks, and Pat Wictor - Joe and Pat were Showcase artists (and Pat was "most-wanted" a few years back), it's been a while since Greg has been featured at the fest.

Long Time No See: Welcome back, Greg Brown!

Old Friends: Tracy Grammar, Gandalf Murphy, Dan Navarro (who never fails to amuse and entertain the merch crew), Red Molly, Susan Werner, Mary Gautier, among others. I'm particularly hape to see Jay Makita (workshop and family stage only) need to make a point to get out to the satellite stages to see him.

Headliner: Mary Chapin Carpenter is one Sunday night headliner I am excited to see.

You'll Be Missed: No Dar this year, no Pete and Maura Kennedy, no Eddie From Ohio, no Girlyman. Most surprisingly, no Nields (who are kind of fixtures at the fest).

Showcase Artists: As usual, Falcon Ridge has culled 24 artists (from 100s of entries) for the Emerging Artists Showcase. I've visited each of their websites and looks good, with some ensembles, some earnest young singer songwriters, and folks with a few miles on 'em. Some that caught my eye: Gail Wade (from Colchester, CT, the only nutmegger), Lori Diamond and Fred Abatelli (Metro West MA. No really. It's Framingham, right?) A handful of colorful names: My Brothers Banned, Occidental Gypsy, ilyAIMY (an acronym for I Love You, And I Miss You, cute....), Friction Farm, Pesky J. Nixon, and Split Tongue Crow. And all the way from Moscow, Russia - Bulat Gafarov.

I'll post a canonical showcase list with links in a bit....

Looking forward to it. I head up on Tuesday; with a brand new car-top carrier on my little Saturn the better to carry the mad mix of camping supplies, clothes, beverages, office supplies, yoga stuff, and instruments that I bring up!

On the Sidelines

2011-07-14T06:33:00.003-04:00

I just pulled my retirement account out of the stock market until this debt ceiling thing gets resolved. The media drumbeat, the Moody's rating, it's all getting a little worrisome, and I'm going to be off the grid for the next few weeks. If the Tea Partiers' antics crash the stock market I am gonna at least get back in at the bottom.....

I'm usually a "ride it out, long term investment" kind of gal, but when one is a fanatic / zealot, one will (for example) strap-on an explosive vest and wander into a busy marketplace. Part of me thinks these bozos would love to take the economy down just to hurt Obama's chances in 2012.

The Dow is at 12,491.61, the NASDAQ is at 2,796.92. Let's see where things are 2-3 weeks from now...

CT Hackerspace

2011-07-13T23:42:00.003-04:00

When I moved into my condo a year and a half ago, the basement featured a pool table, a suspended ceiling, some 48" fluorescent lamps, and an open electrical box with a hanging light fixture in the storage closet.

The pool table went to a friend; the ceiling tiles got tossed (smelled of smoke), but the ceiling grid, the fluorescent lamps, and the open electrical box remained. Last weekend, in a rare burst of motivation inspired by my wiring work for a friend, I (a) removed the ceiling grid, (b) removed the fluorescent lamps (required a bit of electrical work) and (c) closed up the ceiling box.

I put an ad up on Craigslist to find a home for the lamp fixtures and a carton of bulbs - and one of the first to reply was a guy from CT Hackerspace in Watertown, CT. He stopped by this morning to collect the lights to outfit his space, noticed my pile of suspended ceiling rails, and inquired if they were being tossed. Indeed they were, and he took those as well (saving me the hassle of calling the city for a pickup)

CT Hackerspace is "...collaborating to build a community and space to support a wide array of technical and creative disciplines through infrastructure, inspiration, making and sharing." Or more succinctly, a bunch of electrical and mechanical geeks creating a shared space to geek out in - with tools, instrumentation, workspace, etc. I approve....

In fact, I'm gonna go through my piles and see if there is anything that's been sitting idle around here or in Zippy's basement that I can toss their way.....

Hippy Traveler

2011-06-28T07:36:00.002-04:00

Somewhere in the last year I've become a hippy traveler. Last time out - paisley roller board, matching toiletry bag, black computer bag. Your typical corporate road warrior, skewed a little geeky and independent.

This morning - cargo yoga pants, a backpack, minimal toiletries in plastic bags. I check a toolkit, but carrying on everything else.

Summer conceit? Or is this a shift in my attitude and energy, as I evolve away from a more formal, eager to please consultant and towards a laid back engineering guru who can take or leave these sorts of on site qconsulting gigs.

Do-It-Yourself Basement Pron

2011-06-14T14:03:00.007-04:00

Documenting my little "never want to empty that dehumudifier bucket again" project.

(A) Bought a small drain hose ($7, Loew's) which screws onto the dehumidifier drain, directing extracted water into

(B) The reservoir of the sump pump (Little Giant model VCMA-20ULT, $45 online including shipping and handling). When reservoir is sufficiently full, the pump turns on, sending water through a check-valve into

(C) 3/8" plastic tube, which I've run up the wall, into the ceiling, and down to the

(D) washing machine drain, where it empties. The pump turns off when its reservoir is empty, and the check valve keeps the water from flowing back into the pump reservoir.

The only improvements I might make are:

(1) Place a shallow plastic tray or container under the dehumidifier and sump pump in case of some sort of failure or loose fitting. Just an extra level of safety....

(2) Run the drain into a large container with a tap or faucet (like a water cooler) which I could then recycle for houseplants / grey water. Although I'd have to be sure that did not overflow.....

The pump is very quiet, I almost never catch it working, especially compared to the relatively loud dehumidifier. FWIW, I also have purchased a high current receptacle timer, designed especially for motor drive appliances, to cycle the dehumidifier (on at night, off during the day) if the cycling starts to bug me.

The Model VCMA-20ULT is perhaps a bit overkill (20' Head, 1.3 Gals/min) for my application, but there was not much difference in price between this and the next size down, so I thought it best to be conservative.

Burning the Candle at Both Ends

2011-06-07T19:20:00.004-04:00

I've been running pretty hard lately. That's nothing new; I tend to thrive on a busy schedule, multitasking, and a bit of chaos, but it's gotten out of hand. I guess it did not strike me how busy I have been until this afternoon, as I was sending out an update to a client.

In the first seven calendar days in June, I've done over 20 hours of billable work for my main client. This client typically averages ~30 hours a month; June is on track to hit 80 hours (I doubt the pace will continue, but still....). Now as a consultant, I set my fees so that I'm happy with 20 billable hours a week; this past week, this one client alone has paid my salary. This comes on the heels of a pretty typical May (30 hours) and I am sitting on 8 hours of pending work right now.

That would keep me humming right along, work wise, but on top of that, I spent 25 hours in the yoga studio this past weekend, assisting the teacher training. Amazing work that I would not trade for anything, but it's time away from home and other work. I've also taught 5 yoga classes in those seven days. The ticket launch at my second largest client continues (thankfully slowing down, as they settle in to the system and the bugs are slowly found and corrected), but they did drop a few hours of website updates on me.

And things are slipping through the cracks. I have not gotten my June 1 invoices out yet (tomorrow, for sure). My house is a wreck (although I've been doing pretty well with making the outside summery). My fridge is some combination of expired and empty.

Bottom line: It's hitting me how much pressure I am under, time wise. I'm actually doing pretty well with it all - the dog gets walked regularly, I'm caught up on laundry, I'm getting fairly decent sleep, I'm getting in some decent yoga practice. But I do need some down time - a walk in the woods, a few hours with a book, a movie, or a night out with friends.

This week is not going to help much - working at the studio Wed night and Sat morning; Kirtan on Friday night, and a bunch of classes to teach and appointments. But I can already feel a bit of easing; I spent the entire day at my desk catching up on work reports - a few hours tonight and I'll be officially on track. And the calendar for next week looks fairly empty.

With all the folks struggling financially, out of work, underemployed, I should count myself as lucky. I have an incredible palate of income producing opportunities - well paying engineering work, engaging website stuff, and spiritually nourishing work at the studio and teaching.

But balance....there's the rub.

Rube Goldberg

2011-06-07T07:59:00.003-04:00

My efforts pale in comparison to the technological marvels envisioned by cartoonist Rube Goldberg. However, I spent a few minutes and a few dollars creating my own contraption.

My condo has a basement that is about 50% below grade. I have an office down there: carpeted floor, lots of printed material and supplies, a few computers, printers, and network devices. So a recipe for high humidity.

I bought a dehumidifier when I moved in, but emptying the thing has become a chore, especially this time of year. In other homes, I was able to drain the dehumidifier into a basement drain, or elevate the dehumidifier so that I could use a washer drain, sink, etc. But not here. So last week I purchased a small sump pump with a reservoir, a check valve, and a roll of 3/8" plastic tubing. Voila - self-draining dehumidifier that pumps water up and overhead, into the washer drain.

I picked up a Little Giant pump, model VCMA-20ULT. When the reservoir fills, the quiet pump switches on and pumps the water over to the washer drain; when the reservoir is empty, the pump stops. $35 at Amazon.....

I'm going to get a small plastic tray or tupperware container to set the pump in (just in case, as much as I love technology, I know it also fails occasionally) but as of right now - I'm happy to not be schlepping the dehumidifier reservoir up the stairs a few times a week.

Up a Ladder

2011-05-31T07:24:00.003-04:00

I live in a small condo complex - four units. More of an expanded duplex, really. So each of the four owners is an officer of the condo association, and we tend to handle some of the upkeep and maintenance ourselves. My condo fees are quite low - less than 1/2 the norm for these parts.

Since I've moved in, we've had no parking lot lights. There were two spotlights on the front of the building - one empty, the other with a floodlight bulb and apparent photoelectric sensor that was not working. The folks in the front units could put their porch lamps on (mines on a timer) but choose not to, so the parking lot is generally dark.

This past winter, the one front spotlight decided to turn on - and it stayed on for several months, 24 hours a day. It was kind of nice to have the light on, but it did add a bit to the condo electric bill. And then, a month or so ago, it stopped working again.

Last week, my neighbor Carol, an older retired woman, stopped by and noted how dark it was, lobbying (I think) to get someone in to look at the lights. I went out with her, and decided that was a nice project for me. So this weekend, I purchased and installed two motion lights in front of the building.

I've been the "go-to" girl for electrical projects for years. When I owned a home in Waterbury, I installed three sets of motion lights after we were burgled; those I had to actually run the wire, pipe it in, everything. I also replaced the old small fuse box with a 100 Amp breaker panel, and ran 240 VAC to the upstairs for heat. I've installed ceiling fans, track lighting, power for hot tubs, etc. and replaced countless receptacles, dimmers and switches. But it's been a while since I've tackled a big electrical project.

So I spent a few hours this weekend 16' up a ladder. The electrical install was not too hard - I needed to put in one box, take out the old fixtures, hook up a few wires, and adjust the motion detectors. My legs are kind of cranky from that ladder death grip required when one has both hands into a project, and I got a bit too much sun on my shoulders - but otherwise I'm good....

I was a little surprised / disappointed by the code violations I found in the fixtures. The box with the photocell sensor had both the hot and neutral junctions just twisted - with no sign of electrical tape, a screw cap, or anything. No wonder the light was intermittent. I have no idea how anyone walks away from a box light that.

The second light had no box whatsoever - the outdoor romex simply stubbed out of the wall / siding and an electrical cover was screwed to the side of the building. At least there were caps on the junctions. Needless to say I left everything a lot better than I found it, with screw caps, taped up, and a new box for the second fixture.

It was reassuring to come in last night and have both light come on as I pulled into the parking lot, and see them switch off 5 minutes later. We've never had problems with car vandalism or break-ins, but this will make us all feel a little safer. I might want to get up the ladder again and readjust the lamps (they might be pointed a bit high, flooding the house across the street as well as our lot)

Mostly though, it's nice to know that as I round the bend at 50, I still got it!

Ticket to Ride

2011-05-29T07:17:00.002-04:00

I do not often bring my work life over to my blog, but thought I'd blow my own horn this morning.

One of my clients is the Essex Steam Train & Riverboat. I've been web-wenching for them since 2001; I'm not really a graphics person so their in house person comes up with the "look" and I write the code. They recently had someone in trying to upsell them on social media and webwork, and were told "your website looks and works great, no need to do anything different" which is nice to hear.

Anyway, this year, we've been implementing a new web based ticketing system. They found a shopping cart kind of company that they wanted to work with, messed around with it for a year, and finally turned it over to me. It's up and running now, and two weekends into the season, is working great.

It's been a big, complicated project. It's not simply selling tickets - each ride consists of several segments, each of which needs to be inventory controlled. So an 11:00 am Steam Train ride consists of a northbound ride on the train, and a southbound ride on the same train. But an 11:00 am Steam Train & Riverboat ride consists of the 11:00 am Northbound, a Riverboat ride, and a southbound trip on the next (12:30 pm) train. Each of those segments has a fixed number of seats, and if any one segment sells out, the top level ticket cannot be sold.

In addition, there are seat upgrades - a First Class car, an Open car, a Caboose - each with limited seating. There is a special package including a hike to Gillette Castle (limited by the number of passengers who can disembark at a small platform). It's all quite complex.

I've put together this ticketing system from square one - from setting up useful and meaningful product ID codes and names, creating the linked segments to force top level tickets to sell out when individual segements are gone, setting up a menu of categories to help find tickets, and implementing some novel workarounds to make a standard shopping cart system work for ticketing. For instance:

a) Set up a fake "warehouse" system so that each day of the year has a spearate "warehouse" - this makes sorting tickets (for customer use as well as client use) easier.

b) Forcing products to become hidden at the end of each operating day, as well as when the ticket becomes sold out.

c) Creating special option trees to manage passenger types (child / adult / infant / senior, each with a different price) and also to permit double senior discounts on Mondays.

It's been a fun project, with a liberal use of advanced spreadsheets (filters, text functions, macros) to automatically propogate data - it would be impossible to build and maintain a 10,000+ item inventory control system by hand. Now that the seaon is underway and ticketing is going smoothly, I'm working on spreadsheets and processes to export data (daily ordering information, dinner train passenger manifests, etc.).

I'm not really a programmer or IT person; I'm mostly just an advanced user. But I guess I've got those genes (Dad worked in IT back in the data processing / Univac / punch card days)

Dirty Birds

2011-05-29T07:13:00.003-04:00

I've been feeding the birds all winter. Have had one of those little suet feeders on a hook installed on my porch railing, and I've been entertained by black-capped chickadees, several woodpecker species, cardinals, etc.

A week or so ago, my local Ocean State Job Lot was out of suet cakes; I thought perhaps they were a seasonal (winter) thing. So I decided to step it up a bit - purchasing an inexpensive feeder and a bag of bird food.

Unfortunately, the bird feeder became highly popular quickly, and the birds made a big mess, spraying seed husks across the deck. So after the bag was gone, I found a new source for suet cakes (Loew's) and went back to the old reliable.

Rapture Redux

2011-05-23T06:35:00.004-04:00

My favorite post-rapture quip: "Oh, the rapture happened. It's just that nobody qualified."

But seriously folks, last night's horrific tornado in Joplin, MO, piled atop the Mississippi River flooding and the spate of tornadoes in Alabama and across the south last month have an end-times feel to them, no? But alas, no divine explanation needed. Fairly well predicted side-effects of global warming.

The Big Uneasy

2011-05-22T06:01:00.003-04:00

Went to see The Big Uneasy last night at Real Art Ways. It's a documentary by Harry Shearer, about the post-Katrina flooding of New Orleans and the impact of levee / flood control design by the Army Corps of Engineers on that. It's a story of whistle-blowers, Don Quixote-like professors, and "are they really dumb enough to let themselves be on camera spouting this stuff?" representatives of the Army Corps.

Harry Shearer is mining the same sort of ground that Michael Moore has carved out with his documentaries. But Shearer is calmly earnest, and brings none of the bombast, hyperbole, or cinematic stunts to bear that Moore's later works have come to rely on. I'm recalling that scene in Bowling for Columbine where Moore confronts an aging Charleston Heston, kind of left me feeling a bit dirty. There is none of that here. Perhaps Moore's first big work, Roger & Me, brought the same level of personal involvement that Shearer brings as he documents the issues with his hometown.

I really liked the graphic overview (via map) of how the levee failures flooded New Orleans; was the first time I understood both the geography of the city as well as the pernicious nature of the failures (my mainstream media advised understanding was that there was one or two levee failures. And I've never really understood how the Mississippi River - Gulf Outlet canal, or MR-GO, contributed to both the flooding of the city or to the loss of wetlands / habitat.

The "Ask a New Orleanian" segments, hosted by John Goodman, were good, although I would have liked to have seen a bit more depth / diversity (it seems to have been filmed at a single sit-down with five fairly well-off residents, would have liked a few roving crew interview bits)

Mostly, I was left shaking my head, and a little pissed. I've had my own brushes with the Army Corps (a long time ago in a galaxy far far away) and I'd have to agree with one of the comments in the film that the Army Corps have stopped engineering in favor of project management. There does not seem to be a big picture design concept at work here. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The interview segments with the three protaganists: Ivor van Heerden, director of a hurricane research center at LSU, Robert Bea, a civil engineer at U. Cal Berkeley, and Maria Garzino, an engineer from the Army Corps of Engineers - were the most powerful. All three have paid a heavy toll for simply wanting to get at the truth and butting heads with the federal juggernaut that seems equal parts stupid, bull-headed, and evil.

The Army Corps representatives were conversely pretty frustrating - sprouting the company line, looking at the narrow scope of their particular project or issue, and not really wanting, able, or permitted to step back to see the larger picture.

Great documentary - go see it!

P.S. - Also, the film website's Resources page has some incredible reports and documents supporting the film. Engineering Pron.

Therapeutic Yoga

2011-05-03T06:27:00.002-04:00

Today is day 5 of Therapeutic Yoga Teacher Training, with Cheri Clampett and Arturo Peal, down at the studio. It's been really good training, but I am wiped out, and looking forward to getting my life back!

In some ways, the training is a bit of a refresher. As a teacher, I tend to pick things up as they have been taught to me, as I internalize them in my body. I've practiced with Cheri several times here in Connecticut, spent a week with her in Montana, and several of the studio teachers have done this training. I also picked up a bolster and her Therapeutic Yoga Kit (book / flashcards / CD) last time she was in town and have done some work with it. So in a lot of ways, this is not a lot of new information, but rather clarification, deepening, technical tweaks, and background. It certainly is good to get the information directly.

One of my friends and regular students is in the training; yesterday we sat near each other, and as Cheri introduced a posture or gentle yoga stretch, she'd mouth "Jude Yoga". Because I've incorporated a lot of this stuff into my teaching over the years, mostly unconsciously. Interesting to note how much of my teaching is rooted in Cheri's practice.

I came into the training without a lot of expectations - my own teaching seems (to me) to be more rooted in my own body; I demonstrate postures, I move through the room, I shut my eyes and feel the posture and then speak from that place. I am not so much teaching yoga as I am coaxing yoga out of my student's bodies. So Therapeutic Yoga, with more of a therapist / client positioning, and a need to be more attentive, and less opportunity to resonate with the client's posture and body, feels challenging and less natural to me. So if I had to guess I'd say "I won't be doing much of this, going forward". But I also walked into teacher training with no expectation of teaching - and look what happened.

Cheri and Arturo make a great teaching pair - a good balance of energies and information. Arturo in particular brings a lot of really useful visualizations about breath, connective tissue, muscles, etc. - it's rare that a teacher delights me and makes me smile in the way that he does as he uses three students to simulate a human rib cage and demonstrates twists and spinal bends.

And it's been a little odd with Cheri - having spent a week with her and Heather Tiddens in Montana, I feel a certain closeness and intimacy. But we're in a different mode here - she's available for 25 or so students, she has her own needs in terms of food, rest, alone time, and I'm a bit shy to intrude. It's part of who I am that I sit back and listen, pick up what I can, and try not to intrude or take up too much space. It's a weird combination of shyness, of respect, of confidence in my own ability to do this without needing a lot of attention, of being "in between" on several levels.

So, last day in, a relatively short one. I have to leave a little early today (to teach my 5:30 class in Bristol). It's been a long week, and I'm pretty wiped out. Been running back at lunch break to give Elo some love and air, so I've been a bit negligent in terms of my own relaxation and healthy eating. And I've let go of my yang practice this week. So it will be good to get back to a more stable schedule and a regular practice.

WNPR Signal Outage

2011-04-29T07:09:00.001-04:00

WNPR has been off the air since yesterday around noon-time, apparently there was storm related damage at or near the transmitter on Meriden Mountain.

In the meantime, I've kind of been enjoying radio silence. I am an admitted NPR addict and I often have WNPR going on multiple radios (office / bedroom / living room) not to mention my car and an occasional podcast. So it's sort of nice to try a more contemplative, silent morning. I suppose I could catch the stream (shades of Colin McEnroe on WTIC during Red Sox games) but my computer speakers are not great and I'm slinging around large files for work this morning. Don't worry, WNPR. I will be back to my old ways as soon as you are back on the air.

In the meantime, just passing this along....

I’ve just received word from WNPR’s engineering department this evening that the power lines to the Meriden transmitter sustained heavy damage this afternoon during the violent storm that passed through the area.

CL & P crews, local tree removal services and tower maintenance personnel are working in concert to restore power – and our signal – as quickly as possible.

As I write, we anticipate the earliest time to get WNPR’s 90.5 signal back on line is late Friday afternoon.

Member support not only delivers the best news and information available, it also ensures that we can restore delivery of WNPR’s service as quickly as possible during times like these.

Thank you for your understanding and your financial support. Tonight in particular, your generosity will be at work throughout the night.

Jack

Jack Callahan
Vice President, Individual Giving
Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network
CPTV | WNPR CPTV4U | cpbn.org
1049 Asylum Avenue
Hartford, CT 06105
jcallahan@cpbn.org
Phone: (860)275-7320
www.cpbn.org

Therapeutic Yoga Teacher Training

2011-04-29T06:54:00.003-04:00

I'm headed in for 5 days of teacher training with Cheri Clampett and Arturo Peal. Therapeutic Yoga Teacher Training that is - 30 hours worth of it. So excuse me if I am a bit zoned out for the next week.....

Not really sure why I signed up. I spent a week with Cheri (and Heather Tiddens) in Montana last summer and I'd surely love to catch a bit more of that particular brand of lightning in a bottle. Cheri is one of those persons you just like to stand in the light of now and then; a wonderful swirl of goodness and strength.

Therapeutic Yoga is not something I've really though much of. I love a good Restorative Class now and then; but it remains a minor part of my own practice. And watching myself teach on videotape the other night (as uncomfortable as that was, we were doing the 2011 teacher Training video review and I had gotten tapped to teach one segment for a missing student) made me aware of how much of my teaching is intuitive and body directed, a connection between feeling in my body and voice. I do not so much teach as I pull my students along in my own experienced practice. My classes are a swirling miasma of give and take; my friend Nykki asked "Do you get tired when you teach?" because I am so physically involved in the practice.

So it's hard for me to imagine teaching Therapeutic Yoga - which appears (at least from this vantage) to be much more of a one-way street. The teacher is ministering to her students, there seems to be more thought and less feeling, more of a care-giver or healer role. I am not sure how or if that might work for my teaching style.

At the video review the other night, I was (rightly) called to task for my habit of closing my eyes as I teach. "Sweetie" my teacher said "You've figured out a new way to hide!" Yes, she really said "Sweetie". And yes, I do hide behind those blissfully closed eyes, even as I am tapping into my own body for inspiration and direction. Although, I am proud to say, I've never stepped on a student....

So maybe opening my eyes is the next step. Maybe Therapeutic Yoga is a step outside the box. Three years ago, in the midst of my own yoga teacher training, who could have guessed that I would end up teaching regularly. And yet here we are. So off I go into the unknown, into the future, into possibility.

Melancholy Odyssey Through Limbo

2011-04-27T08:22:00.003-04:00

Maureen Dowd in yesterday's New York Times - Between Torment and Happiness

In it she recounts the rather horrific story of Chrissy Lee Polis's attack in a Maryland McDonald's by two young women, presumably for being read as trans. And folds in some observations about Renee Richards.

Why Dowd but A & B together is something of a mystery, perhaps best explained by this "In the mid-1970s, when I covered tennis..."

Renee Richards is perhaps her best, most direct, or only cultural reference to transgenderism, and part of being that sort of columnist is to reach across the years and ones experience and create deep, meaningful linkages. Or not, in this case. Does not work from an informed trans perspective but perhaps it plays in Peoria.

Also, Chrissy Lee Polis' mom is named Renee. So perhaps she just glommed onto these two stories bubbling up in the media (Richards' book, Polis' attack) and tried to make something out of them. Fail, IMHO.

This kind of reinforces one of my long held opinions - that the folks who truly transition happily, healthily, and well (assuming they are out there) are not the ones who are going to write the autobiographies for fear of damaging the good life that they have found or find their own journeys somewhat pedestrian and ordinary. Instead its the folks who are still in pain, or who crave the spotlight, who write such books. Giving Maureen Dowd (and society in general) the fodder to recount such loving phrases as:

"...at a place in between torment and happiness...."
"...melancholy odyssey through limbo..."
"...something that’s crazy and freakish and not real..."

Just want to report from a bunch of years down the track that this is not everyone's experience.

And.....invisibility cloak back on. Continue as you were. Nothing to see here ;)

Why Taking Responsibility Will Set You Free

2011-04-27T07:47:00.003-04:00

Why Taking Responsibility Will Set You Free

A post from Amy Ippoliti, an Anusara teacher, active in the blogosphere and twitter (my kind of yogi, on all counts!)

So much of what she says (wrapped in yogic philosophy and sanskrit terms that I have internalized far more than I have learned in a scholarly way) resonates with my own journey and philosophy.

We live in this society, in this culture, on this planet, and in this universe as it is. We can work for change at the boundaries, we can gently push our spheres of influence in a direction towards peace and justice. But if we plant our feet, resist the world in anger, and embrace our dis-ease and victimhood, it is a recipe for unhappiness.

Sad Story with Resonances

2011-04-13T11:35:00.004-04:00

Mother Drives Herself, 4 Children Into Hudson River, Killing All Except For 10-Year-Old Boy

Weird Sidelight: Mother was identified as 25-year-old Lashandra Armstrong, childrem were identified as 5-year-old Landen Pierce, 2-year-old Lance Pierre, and 11-month-old Lainaina Pierre. The surviving child was 10-year-old Lashaun. Think she liked "L" names? I wonder how common this sort of alliterative naming is?

What 25 year old has the life skills to deal with 4 kids alone? At 25, she had her 10 year old at the age of 14 or 15. In light of this sort of tragedy, congresses effort to defund Planned Parenthood seems particularly tragic. 14 year olds are too young to be having kids, IMHO.

My heart goes out to 10-year-old Lashaun. He had a different father than his siblings; I wonder if his dad is still in the picture? Abandonment, loss of his mom and siblings, and hid mom tried to kill him....poor little guy.

Teaching Yoga

2011-04-11T07:33:00.002-04:00

I've been teaching yoga for coming up on three years now - since I was (unexpectedly and inexplicably) tapped on the shoulder at the end of my teacher training and asked if I'd like a class. I've had my ups and downs, but I've settled into a nice rhythm of teaching 2.5 classes at the studio, one adult ed class, and filling in when I can. I'm sort of the studio "utility infielder" - not quite in the starting lineup for a lot of classes, but able to step in to a power class, a hot class, a gentle class, even a yin class now and then.

I guess I've gotten a reputation as the gentle teacher who makes you work. Once in a while I'll teach a gentle class where we never leave the floor, but mostly I get the class up for some standing postures. My friend Kristen teased me the other day - she was all zoned out and suddenly realized "Hey. We're doing dancing warrior! How did that happen?" I occasionally get a gentle class into Warrior III without them knowing it. There is a sort of panic / joy thing that happens when they realize it. It's kind of like riding a wave - just need to slowly increase the swells and students go along for the ride.

In my all levels class, I'm kind of the "stickler to form" kind of teacher. I spend so much time in the back of crowded hot and power classes, trying not to watch the students ahead of me who jumped right into these classes. Their postures are all over the map, and the teachers (responsible for 40 or 50 students) are not going to be able to do more than triage in terms of adjustments. So every hunched shoulder, askew knee, bent arm, or lifted heel reinforces my teacher mind - my All Levels students, if and when they make the jump to hot or power classes, will have my voice reminding them of the basics. And it's not so much the cues and harping, but breaking down the postures - setting the feet in Vira I. Then squaring the hips. Then lifting the arms. Then softening the shoulders. Each posture built up from the floor to the sky.

I'm the prop teacher. My own body just does not do every posture easily - I still use a towel to bind in Extended Warrior! So when I see a student's arms loosely approximating a wrap or a bind, I'm quick to offer a strap. I'm a big fan of blankets and blocks. The first few times I went through the Ashtanga series, I was crying at how inaccessible so many of the binds and twists were for my body. But I had some amazing teachers who worked with me to use my props - and now I just automatically put the pieces in place to get into the pose. So I teach with props in mind, always.

I'm also the mischief teacher. There is something ecstatic about crazy yoga poses - Balancing Half Moon, Down Dog on the wall, Warrior III, Dancer, Side Plank. All these graceful, strong, flying poses. I love working with new students, and using the walls, using props, building up in stages, have them walk away with a new posture. I remember my own early days of practice - I'd add a posture to my practice and then get so excited when it came up in a class. So I like to toss in a crazy asana now and then, break it down, build it up, let students play with it a little. Nothing wrong with walking out of yoga class with a bit of ecstatic joy!

Leash Your Dog II

2011-04-06T13:35:00.002-04:00

A) Newington has a leash law. More specifically, the community gardens at Deming Young Farm also has a leash law. Your dog was not on a leash.

B) "He's not friendly" means keep your (unleashed) dog away, please.

C) If you call your dog and he does not come, he is not under control. No how, no way.

D) If my (leashed) dog snaps at your (unleashed) dog who is not paying attention to you, it's not my fault, it's your fault.

E) Deming-Young Farm is *not* a dog park. People walk their dogs there. Dogs (presumably dogs under control) are occasionally unleashed. But it's not a free for all; if your dog does not come when called, you really need to leash him/her. So stick the "He should not be at the park" up your stupid ass. He's FINE at the park if other dogs are properly leashed.

What's on My Bookshelf...

2011-04-05T20:46:00.002-04:00

A quick survey of things I've been reading (or have on my reading list) - in lieu of actual blog posts...

Last time I was up at Kripalu, I picked up two books by folks I worked with up there.

Recovering My Voice: A Memoir of Chaos, Spirituality, and Hope by Aruni Nan Futuronsky. Aruni facilitated a week-long workshop, really liked her energy, and the book blurb sounded interesting.

Zen Life by Daniel Levin. I've done YogaDance with Dan both up at Kripalu and at West Hartford Yoga, and am in love with his energy. The kind of book one might leave in a bathroom, on a coffee table, or by one's mat and digest in little bites.

Women, Food, and God by Geneen Roth. Every third person I come across in the yoga / healing world seems to mention this book. Bout time I read it.

Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation by Sharon Salzberg. A copy came along with my fee when I saw Sharon speak recently at West Hartford Yoga. A really nice primer on mindfulness and meditation techniques - and comes with a CD with some led meditation sessions.

Sleepwalk with Me and Other Painfully True Stories by Mike Birbiglia. I normally do not pick up this sort of thing (spoken word artists are often less endearing in print) but it was clearance at Border's so what the heck. Birbiglia charms me when I come across him on This American Life and The Moth.

Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving. Since Updike passed on, Irving and Tracy Kidder are my two remaining "must read" authors. I'll be seeing him at the CT Forum next month, so better get this read between now and then. At 554 pages, it's not light reading!

Teaching Yoga by Mark Stephens. I don't really need it but Amazon tossed it in front of me when I needed one more thing to get free shipping. If I ever sit down to read through it, I am sure I'll pick something up.

Yoga Body (Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Asana) by Judith Lasater. I worked with Dr. Lasater last year when she visited West Hartford Yoga, liked how she approached practice and anatomy, and found this book at Border's closing sale. It's full of great anatomical drawings and linkages between asana and anatomy. Probably a good backup reference text, and worth a refresher read through next time I'm bored. Joins my Anatomy workbook / notes (Ellen Heed) and Leslie Kaminoff's Yoga Anatomy in what is becoming a pretty solid yoga library.

I've also downloaded the Kindle App for my iPad - have not purchase anything significant yet - but I suspect the day will come. Maybe Tina Fey's new book "Bossypants" - seems like a perfect test!

Cutting the Cable - Or Not

2011-04-05T20:31:00.003-04:00

I called up my cable / phone / internet provider yesterday to "cut the cable", at least as far as television was concerned.

I've never been much of a television watcher - when I lived with Zippy we had basic cable only, the only reason I bit for the digital cable was the bundle deal when I moved in. I need pretty robust internet for work (I upload and download large files regularly, up to 1GB) and I have two phone lines (one of these days I will relinquish the dedicated fax line, but today is not that day).

So Monday, I open up a cable bill for $172 bucks - the new customer special had run out a few months back, and rates just went up. And for whatever reason, it hit some internal threshold. The fact that my cable provider can not seem to resist sending me weekly marketing letters soliciting new business and dangling introductory offers in front of me has not helped my mood...

I've been thinking of killing off cable for a while anyway - I have a Netflix subscription and watch stuff there; I could get a digital antenna / converter, I have the ABC app on my iPAD, I could sign up for Hulu+ - lot of watching options. So I was perfectly willing to kill off my video cable subscription. The base rate would have dropped to $110. Not great, but needed for work.

However, the nice customer service agent dug up a "good customer" deal (also known as the "please do not shut off your cable like everyone else seems to be doing this day" which involved no change in my service and costs $40 less per month. Sold.

So I have not unplugged my cable television yet. But definitely moving in that direction....

iPad Addict

2011-04-02T21:29:00.002-04:00

As befits my tendency to purchase technology once it's mature, I put my family's birthday gift towards a first gen iPad. All they had left was the 64M version, so I copped to lots of memory. I've been messing with it for a few weeks now. And I'm mighty pleased with my purchase. I mentioned my "attachment" to the technology - my friend Peter noted that "it's very sticky". Yes it is.

Mostly, I'm using it to stream movies / documentaries / tv shows (thanks Netflix) and although I'm not quite ready to kill my cable subscription, I am getting close. Netflix + Hulu might be all I really need....

I'm also amazed as usual with Apple's user-friendliness - when I synced up the device all my iPhone apps got installed - at least until I went hunting for the iPad versions of most things. No muss, no fuss.

The one app that I am really enjoying is Flipboard - it's a news reader - but it seems to glom onto just about anything (Twitter / Facebook / RSS / websites) and converts these things into a slick magazine. I've never been much of a twitter user - being put off by the links and such. But Flipboard has converted my twitter community into an amazing resource for news, articles, etc.

I am sure there are plenty of other useful apps out there to be discovered. But right now, the iPad is all that and a bag of chips.

Why I am Not Voting (for my favorite yogis)

2011-04-02T09:36:00.010-04:00

I'm not voting in the Talent Search (presented by Athleta). I'm not promoting my faves on Facebook, Twitter or my blog. I'm being a grinch about it all...

The first level of this is purely self preservation. I have at least 3 good friends and teachers in the running (and another half dozen acquaintances) and I am decidedly NOT playing favorites. Yeah, I know I can spread the love and all. But I'm not gonna work that hard for something I have issues with. Hear me out....

First off, I want you to meet someone. Hothead Paisan.

Now, behind my smiling, optimistic, calm demeanor, my yoga teacher loving self, there lurks this "Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist". Folks who have been in my guest bathroom will find a small shrine to Diane Dimassa, Hothead's creator. Diane and Hothead rock. One of my yogic struggles is to keep the anger, the righteous rage at bay. And for the most part, in the words of Ani Difranco, I'm not angry anymore.

So, back to Yoga Journal's Talent Search.

For years, Yoga Journal has gotten some flak for its choices of cover models (predominantly thin, young, and white) and to a lesser extent its content (skewing the same way). I've mostly just ignored it - it's not any more egregious than anything else in the popular media, and there's a lot of good stuff in there.

Over on the Yogadork blog, they've been holding a (Yoga Journal Shadow) Cover Modal Contest wherein yogis can submit their photos to document the diversity of yoga practitioners.

For our version, it’s not so much a contest as a declaration of satya (truth): We ask you send a photo of who you are, as a yogi, a real person, in any shape, size, age, gender or color/clinginess of clothing. We’re not selling magazines. No fancy poses required, but by all means go for what speaks YOU. Everyone is welcome to submit. Hey it’s no magazine cover, but your photo will be proudly featured in our gallery! (note: while there’s no one “winner” per se, stay tuned, there will likely be goodies handed out down the road for participants, TBA.)

Yoga Journal seems to read Yogadork, and so they came up with their own contest. But they've introduced some complexity. And by complexity, I mean "What the hell were you thinking?"

1) The YJ contest is heavily weighted to the same demographic presently gracing the pages of yoga journal. And although there is a counter movement of larger or less mainstream folks submitting their photos, it's a small movement counter to the 100's of more traditionally embodied yogis. So if we were trying to encourage diversity - FAIL.

2) The yoga journal contest adds the lovely concept of a 0 to 5 star rating for each photo. What are we rating here - looks? hotness? brand name yoga gear? difficulty of pose? beauty of the pose? quality of the photograph? beauty of the locale? popularity?.

3) On top of that, the number of votes cast are tabulated. So my three beloved yogi friends are going to walk away with some numerical rating of their practice or themselves (please, let it be 5 stars, they are all 5 stars in my book!), a tabulation of their popularity (number of votes) and the temptation to do a rack and stack within our little yoga community as well as within the greater yoga community. Bleah...

Now, maybe this contest is just a little bit of innocent fun, and I ought to just chillax and let it wash over me. Folks are submitting to the contest for all kinds of reasons - yoga changes lives, and we celebrate that and want to spread it around. People have had their lives turned around during their first yoga class, and they want to share that. I suspect most of us who have become teachers have that sort of motivation.

And I get that yoga in this country is a lot of things - a spiritual practice, a great way to connect with one's body, part of a fitness regime, a business. I teach and practice at an amazingly spacious and beautiful (spelled "costly to build and run") yoga studio, and the space, the decor, the heat, the lights all cost money that comes in the door because of my amazing teacher friends who bring 50 or 60 folks into the studio on a regular basis. So perhaps embracing that popularity, snuggling up to celebrity is just part of the bargain. I'm fine with a bit of duality or dancing with the shadow.

But still, I am bothered. It bothers me to see photos of (mostly) women rated on a 0 to 5 star basis. It bothers me to see individuals collecting votes on either a popularity or a visual aesthetic basis. It brings up that inner Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist - who wants to toss a feminist bomb into the miasma of patriarchal popular culture. And it bothers me to see something that is so precious to me, so deeply meaningful and life changing, cheapened and threatened by that popular culture.

Not very yogic, I know, and that's one more reason do be pissed off at Yoga Journal - for bringing this stuff up within me. This contest has even made me question my desire to teach yoga - that perhaps I'm hiding behind my own spiritual journey, that perhaps I ought to spend less time on my mat and more time changing the world. The fact that I have written (and rewritten this) four times in the past week and have yet to hit the PUBLISH button, for fear of offending, for fear of being unyogic - speaks volumes. Just one more example of me hiding, keeping my head low, being afraid to be seen.

As one of my (contest entering) teachers is wont to say "The f*cking healing journey". Yeah that.

Spring Cleaning / Procrastination

2011-03-27T18:15:00.003-04:00

It's sunny out, but a bit chilly. I had a day with no obligations (when does that happen? Almost never!) And I have a big queue of work projects that I'm supposed to be chipping away at this weekend. Since I tend to be pretty productive when I am procrastinating over something, it was a perfect recipe for some spring cleaning!

Completed so far:

* Flat Surface #1 - Kitchen Table cleaned off
* Flat Surface #2 - Coffee table in living room cleaned off
* 2nd floor stairs vacuumed
* Basement stairs vacuumed
* Dished washed
* Fridge purged (although not cleaned)
* Kitchen floor swept and mopped
* Bedroom cleaned
* Living room cleaned
* Living room run vacuumed
* Bedroom and hall vacuumed
* Yoga room vacuumed
* Windows washed inside
* Jade yoga mats washed in the tub and hanging out to dry
* Washed and put away winter accessories (hats / gloves / etc.)

Stuff that got moved / put away:

* Tools from yoga room to basement (leftover from miniblind and track lights project)
* Musical gear to yoga room (storage)
* Pile of misc papers and office stuff to basement
* Crock pot to basement
* XC skis and snowshoes to the basement
* Two wheel cart (making its way back from the yoga studio)

Still a couple of small projects to tackle this evening before I settle in to get some work done. But it's been a pretty productive day and my place smells and looks downright livable.

Girlyman Live World Wide 2011

2011-03-27T18:06:00.004-04:00

Been a big fan of Girlyman ever since they hit (and wowed) the showcase stage at Falcon Ridge (was it really 2002? Yes, per their Google cached announcements page)

D2 Productions, an occasional (in the past, mostly) client for Powerpoint schlepping, is producing a World Wide Live Concert on Sunday, April 10. Info here. Coyote Grace (another folk fave) is opening.

It's $12 to tune in. Pretty cool idea and neat to see two threads of my life intertwining....depending on what my like looks like that day, I just might peek in!

Elements Bistro - RIP

2011-03-24T09:47:00.002-04:00

Drove by Elements Bistro on New Britain Avenue the other day to find paper on the windows and a hand scrawled message - NEW RESTAURANT COMING SOON.

Stopping by the Elements webpage, the note:

Elements Bistro has closed it’s doors for business. A combination of a bad economy, bad weather, pending reconstruction along New Britain Avenue, as well as competing with the Center and Blue Back was more than we could manage any longer.

For those of you that have unused gift cards, please email elementsbistrowesthartford@gmail.com, we will do our best to take care of you as soon as possible.

From all of the staff at Elements, we want to thank you for your patronage, support and mostly your friendship. Remember when one door closes, another door opens!

Kind of sad - was a good place, and a nice alternative to Tapas or Corner Pug in that end of town. Elmwood seems to be on the verge of something - with the new Stop n' Shop, the relocated Crazy Bruce's, the spiffed up CVS, and the new location of West Hartford Yoga. Too bad Element's could not hang in there. Hopefully something new and interesting will take advantage of the space.

New Toy

2011-03-10T14:01:00.003-05:00

Bought myself a new toy (it is my birthday, after all) - a Tascam DR-07 digital recorder.

Ostensibly, I got this to record yoga classes at the studio, but I am sure I am going to find lots of uses with the Guinea Pigs, Kirtan, and messing around with guitar and bass. I was looking for some way to do this with my iPhone (hackable, but not optimal) but decided to just buy something dedicated.

Amazing how much technological goodness they cram into what amounts to a popcorn unit ($99) - this thing has built in stereo mics, a mic input, line input, line output, USB port, uses an SD memory card (2 GB included) - and records in WAV and MP3 formats.

Once upon a time I used cassette tapes to record stuff. And a tascam digital recorder might have cost $1500. To quote Paul Simon - "These are the days of miracle and wonder...."

I Have Amusing Friends

2011-03-09T10:54:00.002-05:00

Dear Jude:
As usual, I had every intention of sending you a Birthday Card, but as usual, didn't. So, you will have to make it yourself. Follow the instructions fairly precisely.

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Take one sheet of Japanese heavy ragstock paper (preferably Namura No.3) and fold it in half.

Now scallop the edges artfully with an Exacto knife.

Open up your water color outfit and chose a background color. Mix paint and color the interior of the card (lighter at the edges).

On one side paint a cute little dog (use Booga as model) looking up winsomely with big dark eyes, surrounded with stuffing and shredded cloth from torn up couch and carpeting.

On the other side, paint the words: "Happy Birthday, Jude" in calligraphic script.

Under that, write (with Sharpie marker): Love, Audrey

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So there you go.....

Groupon Redux

2011-02-24T19:01:00.004-05:00

So I cranked out the following analysis in a fit of pique over on Facebook. Decided not to put it there (why stir things up) but I'll put it here. In lieu of actual blogging, which I have been doing little of, lately.

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So here's one way to think of it. East-West sold 345 "groupons" this morning. They sold $10 (lunch) and $15 (dinner) "deals", worth $20 and $30 worth of product. Let's average it at $12.50 and $25.

Now, Groupon takes the money from the Groupon, and sends something to the restaurant. I don't know the details but for low value deals like this it's at maximum 50% (and could be nothing, I've read that for $10 deals, Groupon takes $100%).

So East-West has just assumed liability for $25 (average) x 345 = $8625. They (hopefully) get paid $7.50 x 345 = $2588. So today's Groupon advertising cost them a bit over $6000.

Now folks will bring friends, buy more than the Groupon amount, etc. (all good) - and a certain percentage wll not be redeemed. But that $6000 in lost receipts is coming from somewhere. Assuming that the restaurant is making 10% profit on gross receipts (very optimistic, from what I have read), then East West needs to boost sales $60,000 to break even on the Groupon.

It works out fine if there are a lot of empty seats or folks visit during off-peak hours. But I don't go to East West on weekend nights - it's often full with a wait for a table. So one can assume that some of the Groupon customers are going to be taking seats from full priced customers for a while.

One can do an awful lot of advertising and buy a lot of goodwill with existing customers for $6000. But I think Groupon sales folks are pretty good at communicating "you don't have to pay anything, look at all the new customers, and we'll send you a check!" and businesses do not figure out how much all this advertising will be costing them in the long run.

I do think Groupon makes sense for a lot of businesses - if you can steer customers to off peak or slack times, if you have extra capacity, if you are new in the market or are branching out into new areas.

OK, I'm done kvetching (no, really!).....but please, if you DID buy a Groupon this morning, please tip your server based on the full, regular price of the meal. One of the gripes about Groupons is that folks tip based on the post-groupon bill - so the server / staff gets the raw end of the deal. And undertipped waitrons might be cranky and take it out on customers - even the full-fare ones. Yet another hidden cost of the Groupon experience.

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I've been a long time customer and fan of East-West Grill from the very start, and I want them to stay in business. Have no idea how well they are doing these days. But I would hate to think that one bad decision to advertise with Groupon might push them under.....so call all this sturm und drang self serving.....

Groupon - No!

2011-02-24T07:16:00.004-05:00

This morning's Groupon deal is one of my favorite little Thai restaurants (East-West Grille) - a converted old diner that service great lunch and dinner, and has recently branched into some amazing breakfasts. I noticed it in my In Box, and one of my Facebook friends posted it to his wall.

Noooooooooooooooooooo!

I've been looking into Groupon lately for some clients, and it's not always good news for the businesses who sign up for the service. Some businesses have been driven under ...by the flood of Groupon business - often one-time customers who do not come back without a "coupon" - and in the meantime, having to staff up for the high volume, alienating regular customers (due to Groupon volume), and subsidizing the Groupon customers. Hey, we all know the folks who boast of getting a basket full of groceries for $0, through shrew sales shopping, rebates, and coupons. Not exactly the target demographic for a successful, ongoing business.

Groupon is reportedly pretty aggressive at selling themselves and their unique "deals" (encouraging businesses to agree to 50% off or more deals, etc.), and not permitting a cap on the number of deals sold. Would be one thing if one could limit the number of Groupon deals that one processes per day (like a service business that takes reservations, you could string it out for months) - but it's plausible that a restaurant could be full of groupons for days or weeks following the offer.

For low dollar deals, the business will probably get zero dollars for every Groupon sold or redeemed. (Groupon takes a high percentage of the receipts, 100% for offers under $10). Imagine trying to run a small restaurant for a few weeks with ZERO receipts, as your tables are full of folks with Groupon offers.

Here's one business's experience: Posies Cafe - a bakery / cafe that is probably not too different from my hometown restaurant in terms of scale and economics.

Bottom Line: I have been an East-West customer from Day 1, love their food, and especially their breakfasts. Would hate to see them driven under by a (perhaps foolhardy, and yes most certainly free will) decision to work with Groupon. But if, three or six months down the road, we read about the restaurant closing, I told you so, and I will sorrowfully take my Cassandra-like derriere elsewhere for Thai food.

As for me, I'm not purchasing a Groupon. I'll buy one for a place that I've never been to and would like to try out. But I value local businesses too much; I'll pay full price for my next lunch and consider it a fair trade....

Terry

2011-02-20T20:35:00.002-05:00

My landline (dually purposed for my business, and usually pretty quiet except for an occasional call from clients thanks to cell phone dominance) has been ringing off the hook the last few weeks. Terry Gerratana, Democratic candidate for CT's 6th Senate seat, has been beating the bushes for votes for the special election this Tuesday, Feb 22nd. I've also gotten 4 or 5 post card mailings from her (compared with 1 from the Republican candidate, Mayor Tim Stewart). Some of the calls have been from campaign workers, but at least one of the messages was from the candidate herself.

I'll probably vote, I'm usually pretty fastidious about civil responsibilities, and I'll vote for Ms. Gerratana assuming I get to the polls. Mostly just in an "I lean to the left" kind of way, although Mayor Stewart's potential double-dipping does not sit well with me - I'd fear he's let his New Britain responsibilities slide if he tried to fill both posts.

Just be happy when Tuesday rolls around so my landline goes back to it's normal state of rest....

Oscar Nominated Shorts

2011-02-16T10:52:00.003-05:00

Snuck out into the world twice this week - over to Real Art Ways to see the Oscar Nominated Shorts: Live Action and Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animation. Love to have these under my belt going into the CARC Annual Oscar Night event - gives me something to root for!

Not a lot of time to blog, but a sentence or two about each of the films works...

Live Action

The Confession - Just a really dark film. As a young catholic kid often overwhelmed with my own sense of dread and sin, this was pretty horrific. As my friend Cheryl said at the end "I'm going to kill myself now". An amazing film, but oh so very dark.

The Crush - Adorable, although when played after The Confession, some of the concepts were a bit horrific. We feared the worst, but the worst did not occur....

God of Love - Had every potential of being pretentious, but it was funny, cute, and lovable. Neat concept, artful B/W presentation, and interesting actors and location.

Na Wewe - Having recently read read Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains, this film was also very dark and scary. But I liked it a lot - brought the imagery and location of Kidder's book to life for me. A little too pat an ending considering the seriousness of the documented encounter.

Wish 143 - Totally smitten by this film. It was really sweet to see a Catholic priest just being a humble and kind servant. The lead actor was great.

I'd say it's a toss-up between God of Love and Wish 143, in my opinion.

Animated

Day and Night - I kind of cringe at the Disney/Pixar shorts (having sat through one too many CARS shorts) - this one was different and slightly interesting, but felt like it could have come right out of the 70's drive in features. Meh.

The Gruffalo - Loved the voices, the animation was whimsical and sweet. Story was OK. Felt a little more corporate / kid centric.

Let's Pollute - I dunno. Sarcasm turned up to 11. Kind of funny animation (nice to see something not CG'd to death). But felt like getting clubbed over the head with a concept.

The Lost Thing - Loved it. Very odd and whimsical, a little tear at the end. Combine Wallace and Grommet with Terry Gilliam.

Madagasgar, Carnet de Voyage - Best in my opinion - a collage of animation styles, sounds, a compelling subject. Made me want to buy a ticket and set off for Africa!

2nd Annual Santa Flight in Memory of Mike Bollea

2010-12-18T19:31:00.011-05:00

Eleven hot air balloons rose from the back lot of Southington's Aquaturf Club this morning. The CT Lighter than Air Society (CLAS) sponsored a holiday balloon rally in memory of Mike Bollea, who passed away in March 2009.

Each year in December, Mike would don a Santa suit and fly his balloon, he and his crew handing out candy canes to the kids they encountered on their flight. In his honor, we recreated his flight this morning.

Most of us wore hats and festive garb, although we did manage to field two Santas and one Mrs. Claus. It was a beautiful day to fly, with most pilots heading northeast toward Camp Slopers and Timberlin Golf Course.

After the flight, a toast to our friend Mike, and a meet-up at the Plantsville truck stop for breakfast (not exactly haute cuisine, but a big enough space for the 30 or so pilots and crew)

At left, student pilot Kristen on the burner, initial ascent. Kristen bought a small basket a while back, with room for just two passengers. The propane tanks are suspended outside the basket, and the burner is affixed to a ring connected via cables and carabieners.

Below, the Berkshire Balloons team - pilot in training Kristen, pilot Robert, and crew Jude. The most entertaining balloon team in the state, bar none!

Social Media

2010-11-28T13:30:00.002-05:00

Social Media has been on the table the last few days.

At Thanksgiving, my sister's use of Facebook to keep tabs on her eldest (1/2 a country away as a college freshman) was bantered about - her son refuses to friend her, although has let in an uncle. So she keeps in touch via text message and skype. We were teasing her as a "stalker" although my niece used the perhaps trendier word creeper. She's not really that much of a helicopter mom, but a mom cannot help herself. We were laughing at what our mom would have done had she had access to such technology when we were in school - no cell phones even back then, and no land lines in the dorm, so we had to rely on the catch as catch can payphone in the dorm hallway.

Then at the reunion, a clear line of demarcation between those who have embraced social media (a handful) and those who have not. Interesting. I'm on the cutting edge, I suppose, at least for my age group (surely not in general) - part of my work involves staying abreast of such things for tourism and small business concerns, I've been blogging in one for or another since 2002, and have had an online presence (personal essays, business) long before that. And my social network skews younger and hipper - folks without land lines, who text first rather than call, who have less concern about privacy.

Being self employed helps - my clients come and go, but I am not wholly dependent on one entity for financial survival. So a lot less concern about propriety and discretion. And in some ways, all of my online presence is a marketing campaign for my brand - my self. My music, my balloon chasing, my yoga teaching, my writing - all of these little bits of renaissance me stirred into one gumbo.

In some ways perhaps I am a bridge figure, between we oldsters coming to terms with the new media, and the young guns who do not know anything different. Not fully embracing the technology but exploring it's capabilities and seeding the potential within my generation.

Reunion

2010-11-28T12:41:00.003-05:00

Last evening was an overdue (31) reunion of the Marian High School class of 1979.

We've been reuniting sporadically over the years. 5 and 10, surely. Not sure if we had a 15 - if so I did not make it. We did a big deal at 20 (I was in attendance, probably right on the cusp of my big life change). And now here we are at 31. Can it have been that long?

A reasonable turn-out, 45 or so pre-registered out of a class of 160 and a few dropped in, but that (I think) includes a handful of spouses and SOs. Kudos to the folks who planned this (Dawne, Eileen, Jacqui....you rock!). It was nice to see old friends and schoolmates.

Always a little disappointing regarding who did not show - a lot of what might have passed for my posse (or at least the clump of kids I knew best, by dint of taking similar classes) were absent. Going through the yearbook now - Nancy, Keats, Mary, Jeff, Winifred, Claudette, Joyce, Rich, Kevin, Mike, Andrea, Cheryl, BJ, Maura, Jim, John. All you guys were missed, by me at least.

A few random observations. A couple of my classmates could have walked out of their yearbook photos and into the reunion - Dan, Kevin, Lisa, Marcia - you guys are timeless. Pushing 50 and you look like kids! Others seem to have grown a few inches - almost as if high school was diminishing and somewhere along the line they figured life out and grew into themselves - people you want for friends. Others have aged a bit but still bringing their spirit and energy forward from high school to now. And a handful changed quite a bit - often for the better. The women especially changed hairstyles and fashion, or grew into themselves.

All in all, the class seems to have done very well - lots of kids, interesting careers and lifestyles, lot of great energy. One might suspect a bit of selective filtering (the folks who made a point of coming were happy to be seen) but on the other hand, perhaps those missing have amazing lives that they were not willing to step away from for the reunion. So let's just call us a typical cross-section and say "bravo!"

Although "Most Changed" was not one of the class superlatives to be elected (thanks for trying, organizers!), I nevertheless accrued a significant write-in vote. Kind of hard to top my journey in terms of changes. Tee hee.

A lovely time. Thanks for your kind words everyone. I'll try not to be a stranger going forward.....

Long Time No Post

2010-11-12T22:59:00.003-05:00

Yes, I am still here. No I am not posting much. Quick updates:

1) My engineering work has been a bit too busy (overloaded) which has kept me from too much recreational web geekery (including the blog)

2) My yoga teaching / practice is still chugging along. Teaching 2x a week at the studio, 1x a week at Bristol adult-ed, and subbing regularly. I am working with a fairly chronic shoulder / upper arm issue that has kept me out of full chaturanga, of late, but does not impact my practice too much other than that.

3) Guinea Pigs are also making some progress, with a few gigs this month, and a soon to be available EP / CD with 7 original songs.

4) I'm clearly in a bit of a writer's block (or whatever the engineering equivalent of that is) with a few projects overdue and hard to get cranked out. However, I find that when I am stuck with something, I tend to get a lot done. A lot, in this case, means a complete cleaning of my office (it has become an almost civil place to work, it was turning into a bit of a cave) as well as the rest of my domicile. I've actually had folks over to hang out and visit - almost unheard of.

5) Went to The CT Forum last evening (Education) which was enjoyable. Even if I went with a teacher...

6) Have gotten a bunch of movies in recently - between Real Art Ways (Freakonomics), Bowtie / Cinema City (Waiting for Superman, A Social Network), and Netflix (The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, among many others).

7) Getting regular walks in nature with the dog. Getting out balloon chasing pretty regularly. Finding it hard to believe that it is mid November already. The weather, remarkably, remains quite temperate.

Will post more regularly, I promise. For now, off to bed.

Unfortunate Icongraphy

2010-10-11T13:33:00.005-04:00

I've been watching (for reasons as yet unknown) Ken Burns' Civil War series on Netflix. The other night, watching the first episode (The Cause) I stumbled across two resonances with the present climate of political unrest.

An illustration of a southern protest, where "...Lincoln was burned in effigy...." is focused on a monument bearing a familiar flag.

A few minutes later in the episode, this quote, from the Charleston Mercury "The tea has been thrown overboard, the revolution of 1860 has been initiated."

Whatever one feels abut the Tea Party, I find it interesting (and somewhat unfortunate) that the iconography that has grown up around this movement is rooted (wittingly or not) in the images and language of the secessionist south.

A Beautiful Mind

2010-09-23T14:14:00.003-04:00

There is a scene in the Russell Crowe flick A Beautiful Mind where Crowe's character John Nash is portrayed as being enmeshed in numbers. I feel like that right now.

I'm digging in to a new project - setting up a ticket ordering system for website clients. There are a LOT of ticket combinations / permutations - 100+ operating days, 7 departures per day, and lots of options: class of service, type of passenger, etc. Right now we are at 5000+ "products" to be sold, organized by type, month, day.

It's becoming quite a project. It's not physically possible to load up all that data manually so I am cranking into a spreadsheet to make it all happen. So my mind is buzzing with formula, spreadsheet functions, and little tricks and bits of cleverness to make it all happen.

I could actually do this full time - my mind gloms onto this stuff like a piece of chewy fudge - tasty, tactile, irresistible. So if I'm a bit distracted for the next few weeks, you'll know why.....

Pterodactyl

2010-09-17T16:22:00.005-04:00

Walking Elo at Deming-Young Farm this afternoon, a winged creature swooped across the field. I though canadian goose at first, but the profile was wrong - seemed almost prehistoric with a long thin tail. Turns out it was a Great Blue Heron. Beautiful and awesome.

Becoming a Teacher

2010-09-16T08:14:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I taught my final Wednesday morning All Levels class. I took over this class last winter, as one of the studio rock star teachers needed to give up the class. Class numbers immediately dropped, and those who remained were palpably dubious - who is this woman; she's not the teacher we want. For weeks, I felt on the verge of losing the class. But yesterday was nearly a full room - 20 bodies and spirits, I have built that class up slowly over the past 6 months, even through the traditionally slow summer. My students were cranky again - not because I was stepping into the room, rather because I was leaving. It was a very affirming experience.

I'm trying not to be attached - I'm simply slipping over to a Monday morning class, a shift planned last spring before I seem to have hit my stride, making room for another teacher on Wednesday. I'll build up Monday as well, I am sure.

As I look at my calendar this month, I see a string of yoga classes that I have taught or am teaching. Between my own classes, a string of subbing for others, a free intro class, and my Adult Ed class starting up, I've taught 9 out of 10 days in a row this month. I've also picked up a private session this week.

I've been teaching for over two years now, and I seem to have turned the corner on something this summer. I'm not the new kid on the block anymore, or the novelty - I seem to have grown into my teaching, to have seasoned.

It's a good feeling. And also something to be wary of - hoping to retain my freshness, stay out of pride and not take the privilege of teaching yoga for granted.

Slabs of Cheese

2010-09-02T13:12:00.003-04:00

Last night, taking Elo out for a quick bio break after coming home after a Guinea Pigs rehearsal, I discovered in the yard between my place and the apartment building next door, two slabs of cheese.

These were unwrapped - one looked like a Stop n' Shop slab of sharp chedder, the other some sliced swiss. I picked them up and tossed them last night, but pulled them out today to recreate the scene of the crime, for my Facebook friends. Hard to wrap your mind around slabs of cheese appearing in your yard.

I'm befuddled about this cheese.

I could understand wrapped cheese - someone bringing home the groceries and things fall out of the bag. I could understand rough chunks of moldy cheese - an animal gets into the trash and drops some cheese. A few slices - somebody is decheesing a sandwich or grinder. But these looked remarkably fresh and almost as if they were dropped into the yard deliberately.

My theories:

a) Some domestic dispute next door that resulted in cheese being tossed out the window. Dammit, I wanted provolone!
b) The cheese is poisoned, and placed to take care of vermin, feral cats, or perhaps even Elo (he's a pretty good dog but who knows what might piss off somebody - his barking antics when we get ready for a walk, or perhaps a pissed off dog walker who Elo terrorized one time when he got off the leash.

In any case, I'll be keeping an eye on the lawn looking for future foodstuffs....

Dear Random Facebook Person....

2010-08-12T06:39:00.001-04:00

.....who is now Facebook friends with 1/2 of my Facebook friends, but who I have never met. Here is my Friending Policy: At least one meaningful, in person encounter before I Facebook friend, please.....

It's a little like a wave....you watch this heretofore unknown person "friending" your friends, first one, then two, then 6 or 10. And then they decide that I am worth friending. Almost invariably, this is a person who is trolling for a network to sell or promote something. No thanks....

New Media vs. Old Media

2010-08-12T06:27:00.003-04:00

A not so happy story from down in Essex - there was a fire at the CT River Museum last night. The Middletown Press seems to have the best coverage so far: Fire at Conn. River Museum may have destroyed historic artifacts

One of my clients is the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat, so I'm familiar with the CT River Museum as a tourism partner - which drew my attention last night. I did a bit of web surfing, dropped by Twitter, and watched the 11 pm news. WTNH's Jamie Muro was on site, but was not able to get close enough, quickly enough to catch the fire on video.

The Middletown Press, on the other hand, rocks it in terms of integrating text, photos, and video, and really documenting the heck out of this story better than anyone else on the web. Their coverage seems to be entirely generated by one reporter (Lauren Flaum), with a camera that captured video. WTNH - needing to set up a Sat Truck and Camera Crew, was unable to get close enough to really cover this as it happened (Mr. Muro noted in his first stand-up that he would have to walk over to see what was happening and would be back later in the newscast) - but Ms. Flaum (on foot, light, and mobile) from the Press got right in there, got some photos and video of the fire itself, and some eyewitness interviews.

Just an interesting example of "how the new media works vs. how the old media is limited"

And from the Press article: ‎"At one point as firefighters hammered away at the roof, a cluster of bats was disturbed and fluttered away into the dark night sky."

It's the little poetic touches....heh.

Staining the Deck

2010-08-11T20:11:00.002-04:00

Spent a couple of days working outside - staining the deck on the back of my condo. As I came back from folk fest and was washing yoga mats, I noticed the deck was not particularly well suited to bare feet (rough surface, popped nailheads) so it was due.

Just the right size project - not too many hours, not too much major work. I pulled a warped bench apart for scrap, I drove in all the loose / popped nailheads, I scrubbed the deck down with prep solution. The railing was a bit challenging (lots of vertical poles / risers) and the outside needed a small ladder (borrowed from Zippy). One coat on most of the deck; two coats on the top of the railing and the deck itself. I stained the underside risers and supports but not the underside of the deck itself.

Although I live in a condo, it's sort of a hybrid (four units, the condo fee is minimal) so we do a lot of the little outside projects ourselves. I've noticed that the three other decks are in various states of stain / paint, so figured this was a "do it yourself" project.

Felt good to be doing physical work - although the engineering work is queued up. There is something to be said for having a project, digging in, getting sweaty, dirty, and a little sore - and then being finished. Hopefully, I'll be motivated to use the desk a little bit more....dining, cooking, hanging out.....

A Real Job

2010-08-04T23:26:00.002-04:00

It's been a LONG time since I had the sort of job where one drives to the office in the morning, sits at a desk for a more or less traditional workday, and drives back home at the end of the day. December 7, 1995, if I recall correctly.

Wednesday and Thursday, I headed down to work with a client as they launch ticket sales for a big seasonal event - traditionally the first few days of sales are pretty crazy (we sold close to 10,000 tickets today) and there are lots of opportunities to muck it up - overselling, not cutting off sales fast enough, losing orders, pissing off customers. Near as I can tell, today was a huge success, in part because of changes made this year vs. last, one of which was that I was onsite keeping a very close eye on internet sales, updating the website, tracking ticket sales, etc.

But goodness - is that what work is? Going in for 8-9 hours, sitting at a desk, taking a quick break now and then, framed by a 45 minute commute on either end? Yeah, there was some lovely banter and fun with co-workers, but we had the excitement of an "event" to keep things fresh - a 2-3 day push to answer the phones, move the tickets, and make things happen. I'm certain that a regular workday is far less engaging.

In any case, it's a nice change of pace (and I'll get to bill for my time) but you can keep that 9-5 workday, the organization gig. 15 years of self employment have spoiled me for corporate work.....

In the meantime, I'm off the grid again tomorrow.....

A Beehive of Activity

2010-08-04T11:53:00.002-04:00

I'm camped out (figuratively, I better add that considering how many nights I slept in a tent in July) in Essex CT for a couple of days. We've starting selling tickets for the 2010 North Pole Express down at the Essex Steam Train, one of my clients.

My job:

a) Monitor online ticket sales, using some extensive email filters that drop individual orders into a folders by departure date and time

b) Shut off online ticket sales as needed

c) Keep a tally of online sales plus group / walk-in sales

d) Monitor the Facebook page for customer feedback and to post updates

e) be here "just in case" we have issues with the ticket sales, website, etc.

Last year, the ticket sales could best be described as a FIASCO - with the railroad folks unable to keep up with the flood of online orders. This year, by pulling the most popular Saturday sales offline (phone orders only) and bringing me in to track the remainder of online orders, things are going much more smoothly.

Digging Out

2010-08-02T22:16:00.003-04:00

I am not a neat and tidy person. At my best, my living quarters might be described as functional, with an emphasis on efficiency as I stack yoga mats, musical instruments, and various other props for hobbies within reach.

But during July, my abode dropped off into utter chaos. Between a bunch of Guinea Pigs gigs, a week in Montana, and a week at folk fest, I had a lot going on. I headed out to Montana hustling to finish up work, not a lot of time to clean the house or pack thoughtfully. When I got back from Montana, the bags hit the floor, the laundry hit the machines, and I scurried to catch up on work in the 4 days before Falcon Ridge. Once more, I packed in a hurry and scampered out the door without much organization, and returned with a packed car full of camping gear, clothes, yoga props, and miscellany that was again dumped onto the floor. So as of last week, I had officially moved from clutter to squalor.

I've been slowly digging out. Last might, in between Mad Men commercials and afterwards, I slowly cleaned the kitchen - the table (a horizontal surface, fiar game for piling) is now bare save my coffee mugs and a vase of flowers. The dishes are caught up, the counters and stove clean, the floor swept and mopped. A few spots could use some organizing (the tupperware drawer, the spice bin) and some cleaning (the fridge) but in general, I have a livable kitchen.

I scrubbed the tub as well; and ran some drain cleaner down there (not sure if the slow drain was a clog or just the drain being flaky). The bathrooms are on the list for a thorough cleaning, as are stairs. I vacuumed the basement steps for the first time since I moved in, the stairs to the second floor get more attention but are still overdue. Living room, bedroom, yoga room. The whole place needs a good straightening up and cleaning, and I'm starting to nibble away at it.

I also tore out a useless (warped and too low) bench on the back porch in preparation for a good cleaning and staining; need to pick up a scrub brush and ladder from Zippy. Picked up a can of rustoleum as well for the porch railing (with $100 a month condo fee, we do a lot of the little upkeep ourselves, which is an OK trade in my book)

After a month of fairly frenetic activity, August seems to be a bit more quiet - a good month to get my living space neatened and cleaned, and perhaps think about painting, redoing the rugs, etc.

Haying the Field

2010-08-02T16:14:00.005-04:00

Elo and I headed over to Deming-Young farm this afternoon for a walk, only to find three vehicles moving through the fields. Two mowers, and a hay baler, were making short work of the season's growth of grass.

It felt kind of sad - a visceral transition from the hopeful new growth of spring to the inevitable harvest. The long grass which had all season sheltered nesting bobolinks and red-winged blackbirds was now close shorn. Two opportunistic hawks circled the field, perhaps looking for unfledged chicks or small mammals left vulnerable in the hay piles, as barn and tree swallows swooped across the fields, perhaps feasting on insects shaken into the air.

The place seemed suddenly different, more civilized and less wild. AS the summer wore on, it was easy to get lost in a corner of the field, hidden from other dog walkers by waist high grass, the dogs restricted to a narrow pathway. Now, suddenly, the entire field seems accessible.

Still, some beauty and color in the midst of human endeavor.

Having Enough, Giving It Away

2010-07-27T08:30:00.002-04:00

As an occasional customer of CD Baby (which has done a nice job of selling produce for the sort of independent, unsigned, musicians I listen to), this is both very interesting and inspiring.

Why I gave away my company to charity by Derek Sivers

Much Life, Bad Blogging

2010-07-26T22:01:00.004-04:00

I find myself in the embarrassing position of not having blogged one bit in July, to date. Aack! Bad blogger!

I have excuses, however. I was in Montana from July 10 - 16, on a Yoga & Ceremony retreat at the Blacktail Ranch, with Heather Tiddens and Cheri Clampett. An amazing week - the land, our hosts, and these two amazing yogis, healers, and spiritual catalysts. I'll blog in detail in a bit. But while I was there, I was 100% deprived of cell phone and internet service, so it was truly a "get away from it all" kind of weekend.

In the days proceeding the Montana trip, I was scrambling to get ahead on work. And similarly, right after the trip I had a backlog of things on the to-do list that I needed to plow through. Then off to my second "getaway" - 5 nights in a tent on a farm in Hillsdale NY for the annual Falcon Ridge Folk Fest. As usual, I had a blast, and the weather was much better this year than in previous years (we got some rain, but only SOME rain, and no tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, day long monsoons, etc.) I shall blog as well about the folk fest.

On top of all that, Guinea Pigs stuff - a gig at Billings Forge on July 8th, and another coming up at Manchester Community College Farmer's Market on Wednesday, July 28th. Some rehearsals in there as well as a visit to the recording studio to tweak the bass tracks.

And now, back in my life for the first time in a few weeks. Work to catch up on, laundry as well, airing out the camping gear and stowing it. I got in a good practice with my teacher Barbara tonight - wonderful to be back in my body after so much rough service. Just puttering tonight - folding some laundry, straightening up, listening to my folk fest music purchases, looking forward to This American Life at 11....

I'll leave you with this snippet of folk fest life:

Summertime

2010-06-30T14:38:00.002-04:00

The guy who plows the small parking area of my condo planted some stakes in the ground at the edges and corners - so he could see where to plow (and where not) in the snow. These hung around all winter, around the middle of April I pulled them out and piled them up near the trash cans. They've never quite made it out to the garbage.

Today, heading out for an ice coffee, I watched as three young boys (maybe 10 - 12 years old) collected the stakes and headed off down the street. One was on a bike, one had a few gathered in his arms, and the last boy was dragging his armload behind him, no shirt and his baseball cap askew on his head. It was a quintessential summer scene, right out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

No idea what they were going to do with the stakes - play weapons? building materials? just something to mess around with? Regardless, this was a treasure trove to these little guys....

Oh, to be 12 years old, on a summer's day, with nothing to do but hang out, collect wood, and walk the fine line between entertaining oneself and getting into trouble.

Territorial

2010-06-28T14:07:00.001-04:00

The farm where I walk Elo is patrolled by red-winged blackbirds, who are apparently nesting at the moment. As we walk by a nesting are, hidden in the tall grass, the male flies up to an overlooking tree, and quacks disapprovingly. And fairly often, they swoop down behind Elo or myself, at the last minute flaring the wings to brake and squawking loudly, driving off the potential threats. Per Wikipedia:

The Red-Winged Blackbird can be very aggressive while defending its territory from other animals and birds. It will attack much larger birds, such as crows, ravens, magpies, birds of prey and herons if they enter.[12] Only on a very few documented occasions have they been known to attack humans who encroach upon their territories during mating.[13]

Even when I am on the lookout for them, one of them will scare the heck out of me on a typical walk. Never seen them strike Elo or myself, and they tend to swoop in from the rear as we depart their territory, so it seems to be more of a show than anything. However, I did see one chasing, harassing, and driving off a hawk a week or so ago.

The Bulletproof End of the Spectrum

2010-06-25T07:11:00.002-04:00

It's a little thing, I know. And I'd hardly notice it except that I am an NPR junkie who listens pretty much non-stop.

There's a promo running right now about WNPR environmental reporting, and the interviewee in the promo is talking frogs. Not exactly a direct quote, but he says "....frogs are on the bulletproof end of the spectrum; they spend part of their lives on land and part in the water, so they are exposed to lots of toxins and are at high risk as a result."

Now, Frog Mutations are a pretty well known (if not fully explained) phenomena. Frogs are pretty sensitive to environmental issues. So I would not exactly refer to them as "bulletproof".

Call me Miss Cranky Pants, but wrong word, dude! And "boo" to WNPR for putting that particular clip in their promo so we're subjected to the improper usage repetitively....

*** End of Rant ***

Who Needs a Webmaster?

2010-06-21T08:38:00.002-04:00

I've recently started playing with a small musical group, the Guinea Pigs. The group has had a minimal web presence, so I've been slowly setting up a website. Instead of a formal website, I decided to simply set up a free blog, using Blogger technology. Here.

Pretty please with the blogger technology (this particular blog dates back to 2005, and I have not done much updating to the format or template). But nowadays, blogger lets you set up a text boxes, additional internal pages, a host of layouts and color schemes. It's all very easy to use, flexible, and powerful.

Would encourage any of my friends looking into a small website to promote a group, a small business, etc. to consider using blogger. It's fast, it's free, and it's pretty powerful!

Coventry Regional Farmers Market

2010-06-21T07:22:00.003-04:00

The Guinea Pigs played the Coventry Regional Farmers Market yesterday. It was a totally fun gig!

I saw local friends - Jane (one of my yoga teacher friends), and also from the studio, Dayna aka the Crafty Scientist. She had a booth set up and was selling various soaps (and handmade fabric objects especially in skulls). Her logo looks like her, only evil - she seems rather angelic in person.

Another posse of friends wandered by, surprised to see me playing. Not sure why they missed the news (I was rather annoying at spamming my Facebook friends list with the gig). And when I asked them what brought them to Coventry, they informed me that it was a lesbian meetup or womyn's gathering of sorts. (Not sure if its formal, through some organization, or its just something that has organically developed). So I was amused and delighted that by the end of the afternoon, there were small clusters of earthy women hanging out - listening, chatting, occasionally dancing or singing along.

Feedback was very good from the patrons, vendors, and staff - we do a nice mix of music. People stopped to listen, danced a little, applauded. We only were asked to "turn it down" once.

Pictures here (my flickr account, I handed my digital camera to some friends) and here (drcope's flickr account, fewer but much higher quality photos)

Again, a total blast, hope we get out there again this season!

Slow News Day in New Britain

2010-06-17T11:32:00.002-04:00

Showcase Preview

2010-06-16T20:19:00.002-04:00

Got the list of showcase performers; and decided to do a little pre-fest screening and listening. A bunch of them have music on eMusic so I burned through my monthly allotment (and added a 50 song booster pack) to grab the latest from the following groups:

* Pauline Pisano
* Chris O'Brien
* Rachael Sage
* Wiggins Sisters
* Anna Vogelzang
* Tripping Lily
* Shannon Wurst
* Chris Velan
* The Folkadelics
* Wiggins Sisters

Got me a lot of listening to do pre-fest! It will be nice to have some familiarity with the artists - I'd be pretty stoked if, upon check-in, the merch person says "hey, I really like your stuff!"

Falcon Ridge!

2010-06-15T08:08:00.001-04:00

It's that time of year again. I'm knee deep in Excel again, setting up a spreadsheet for the performer merchandise for the Falcon Ridge Folk Fest.

I took on the mantle of performer merchandise crew chief back in 2006, and spent some hours assembling a magic spreadsheet that tracks merchandise sales. Each artist gets a worksheet, into which I preload all the CDs and merchandise I can find. I've pulled the performer list from the website, and have just gotten a copy of the 24 new artist showcase performers.

Once on site, we update the spreadsheet as the artists come in, and then afterwards as they check out. It's all very efficient (and technologically a bit off base, in terms of the spirit of the fest) - but it's helped the festival organizers really get a handle on merchandise sales, help us get the artists paid and on the way after the fest, and makes everyone's life easier.

Will be a little bit of a crush for me this year - I'm heading to Montana the week prior to the folk fest for a yoga retreat. So trying to get a jump on things now.

No rest for the weary!