hey_raze kaya_in_night thank you for putting beauty into a long shift of overtime... " 'why sleep?' he spun around and held out his arms in an expansive way. 'let everyone else do that. i'd rather smell the night with you.' " i fell for those words. did you ever hear the ani difranco song about the fourth of july and she's talking about people setting off fireworks and how the birds think that the world is ending? 060428 ... raze thank you for finding some meaning in it. i haven't heard that song of ani's. do you know the name of it? 060428 ... crOwl i received your package of cds in the mail today and have only listened to three, but must say i am deeply impressed. your voice is definately an instrument and your songs are multi-dimesional. i'm digging it and perhaps most importantly, if i heard your music without already being aquanted with you, i would want to purchase it. seriously. "who you are now is not who you were before" became part of the soundtrack to square_the_circle_chapter_23_. thank you sharing your amazing, professional, improvosational talent with me. i look forward to hearing all of them and i'm sure they will be burned by my daughters and their friends. i also enjoyed maya's artwork for the covers. i'm a big fan of hers....and as i promised i will send you a handmade piece of art in reciprocation, although it may take a while. please email me your mailing address because the ink seemed to run on your envelope and blurred it. 060518 ... bsc multi-dimensional acquainted 060518 ... unhinged i am hopefully getting my hands on some video of my show the other night. i think you will like my friend ben's music. and i didn't suck. want me to send it to you if/when i get it? 100317 ... raze absolutely. i also have video of a show i played just over a week ago, posted on my blog of blarg. i was kind of sloppy and loose, but it was fun, and the turnout/response was far beyond anything i was expecting. it was also a bit of a kick just to play an insane $60,000 grand piano in a live setting, when i'm used to having to settle for cheap digital keyboards instead. memories... 100317 ... raze link to video action, if you're interested: http://johnnywestmusic.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/hairy-dude-in-the-hall/ it was shot on two different cameras (one ran out of space about halfway through), and not at all professionally so, but the sound is pretty decent and i think it mostly gets the music across. i fucked up all over the place, which is kind of what i seem to do when i play live...being up there alone and "naked" is a little frightening. but i've learned to more or less embrace the fuck-ups. some things came off better than others...i kind of threw out my set list early on, and not all of the songs work as well stripped of all their clothes. but i guess the whole point was just trying things out. it was not at all a typical show (which was part of the idea), but people seemed to enjoy it for some odd reason. maybe i won't wait another four years before i put my own show together again... 100317 ... jane is that your dad holding the camera? 100317 ... raze yes indeed...we forgot to bring a tripod, and at a few points he said he felt like his hand was going to fall off, so the image gets a bit jerky. i'm still impressed by how quickly he was able to switch cameras when the first one died. 100317 ... epitome of incomprehensibility You have introduced a non-native species into an ecosystem with a similar soil composition. Are you sure that was wise? I mean, hello. 130321 ... raze i think wisdom is best left to those who scratch their chins and nod while looking solemn and saying things like, "yes, and...?", and, "hmm, very interesting, but..." and, "is that a pen, or just a premonition of death?" me, i just throw a bunch of stuff up in the air and hope it looks pretty before it hits me in the face. and sometimes, it doesn't hit me in the face at all! those are happy times. i don't think that even made any sense. but i'm glad you're here. and hello to you too, i say. 130321 ... kerry i think we are blathing in sync again! 220825 ... raze i think you're right! it always makes me happy when that happens. (and holy crap, i have *no* memory of ever making, let alone touching, the "faulkner" blathe you just brought back. "when you're young the years are longer" nails a feeling i've struggled to put into words for a good chunk of my life. in seven words. you're a wizard.) 220825 ... e_o_i This quote from Fear_of_Flying had a rhythm that reminded me of your writing: "Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own." (The context is that the narrator's ex had an uncle who was a well-known ballroom dancer and a dad who ran a school for it. He seemed proud of the uncle, but was embarrassed about his dad's line of work. Anyway, the way it works on a literal and symbolic level also reminds me of a lot of your blathe endings.) 220825 ... raze that's really kind of you to say. (and what you've been writing about that book has got me thinking i need to read it.) 220826 ... e_o_i It's fascinating and multi-faceted! Also weird and snarky. That's mostly a good thing. Reminds me how recently, I found a copy I'd printed of MLA's list of 100 best novels of the 20th century. I was thinking how I'd change stuff around - include more books by women, probably, and not just BECAUSE they're by women. Carson McCuller's The Member of the Wedding, Erica Jong's Fear of Flying, etc. Except I'd feel bad kicking stuff off, especially since I've only read 20 out of the 100 they list. Anyway, I'm sorry if I was being snobbish or reverse-snobbish about bottled_water. A total hypocrite, anyway, because I bought an unnecessary chai latte today when I was at the mall to pick up my fixed skirt from Stitch It. (although repairing stuff is kind of eco-something, right? one hopes. two wishes. three says I've gone on long enough.) 220904 ... raze you weren't being snobbish! you were defending my sink! someone needs to stand up for maligned basins and their reproductive organs. and in all fairness to this house's faucets and pipes, i'm not sure i've ever tried drinking what i bathe in. i had a pretty rotten experience with the tap water at the last house i lived in (recounted on water_quality). i haven't been brave enough to try again since then. (did i just "it's not you, it's me" my tap water? i think i did.) 220904 ... past thanks for the typo save yesterday with time_changes_me! 221215 ... raze i feel like i'm the one who should be thanking you! some of my favourite unexpected writing prompts have come out of seeing a link that hasn't been made yet and asking myself, "what can i do to close the loop?" 221215 ... tender_square (minnie driver's bellybutton.) 221224 ... tender_square please stay. i need you to know how valued you are, how much your writing means to me, how much i need you here on these red walls writing beside me. 230226 ... tender_square happy blatherversary to you! 230304 ... raze (thank you, brave sorceress of floof.) 230304 ... kerry twenty two years??? cheers! (raises/razes glass) 230304 ... raze your 22-year blatherversary is this year too! according to blue, your first blathe was on december 6, 2001. (it's kind of incredible to me that we're all still here, and that this space still exists for us to inhabit, all this time later.) 230305 ... tender_square i just wanted to say how much i loved "nuts_are_us." you say you haven't written a long blathe in a long time. this one is such an achievement. you capture the souls of those creatures and they are lucky to have you. thank you for sharing your stories and what you see. 230726 ... raze this is one of those times when a simple "thank_you" doesn't feel adequate. but i'll say it anyway. (and that means an awful lot coming from you.) 230726 what's it to you? who go blather from