A word is a thing

"A word is a thing. It is non-visible and audible only for the time it's there. It hangs in the air. But I believe it is a thing. I believe it goes into the upholstery, and into the rugs, and into my hair and into my clothes. Finally, even into my body. I believe that words are things. And I live on them."

-Maya Angelou
(from a conversation with Dave Chappelle on Iconoclasts)

I just needed some inspiration. I always find it in the words of Dr. Angelou - be they extemporaneous, prose, poem or song.

Off to write some more...

Super Cat Mom

It's late. I should be in bed. I'll be there soon. Just can't stop being proud.

It took 4 emails, 3 phone calls, 3 trips to various hardware and plumbing supply stores, 2 pipe adapters, 1 wrench, 1 towel, 1 cut thumb and much determination to install the CatGenie for the impending arrival of my big sweet cat in LA. Don't laugh; a self-cleaning litter box that flushes itself down the toilet is a G-dsend, especially in a small space. I won't miss scooping and smelling the box, but mostly I'm thrilled to be spared the dust that litter dumps all over my apartment and lungs. I am Super Cat Mom.

I also assembled small furniture pieces, cleaned my apartment, finally got paid for an old job and got a new writing gig. And that's just today, just me. My sweetie got an acting gig, too. I'm so proud of her anyway, for everything, really. Pride doesn't feel like a sin today. It just feels good.

Virtual Guilt

For the 10th time in about two weeks someone who I've never met has tried to guilt me into some action. Tonight it was a follow-up on a friend request on myspace. I happen to be obscenely busy at the moment, and this person, who I'm sure is a wonderful human being and worthy of friends/rewards/success in her life and whom I have never had face-to-face or even online contact before, sent me a message basically trying to guilt me into adding her as a friend. Now, that generally makes me want to deny the request, but I replied honestly with my jam-packed life details and said I'd reconsider. Here I am reconsidering; I feel guilty enough that I don't get to spend enough time with my girlfriend and family and real-world friends, let alone with myself, so online guilt trips from strangers just don't rank in comparison. Sorry. Call me a virtual bitch, but that's how my loyalties shake out at the moment. If I'd been asked for advice, I probably would have carved out the time to reply from my precious limited supply. But for a rebuke? Forget it.

On a brighter note, the things I'm busy with are writing jobs. And I think I've figured out how to be in the same place at the same time as my sweetie, and even some of my family. ;-) L.A. is looking up, now that it's not burning a mile away from my apartment.

R.I.P. Dyke TV

I am sad to see it go: Dyke TV is off the airwaves for good. (Who knows how long that link will work...?)

I watched Dyke TV from its ambitious riotous start because I came out of the closet at the same time as this amazing television venture was hitting the public access airwaves in NYC. I learned how to be a lesbian by watching (my herstory, the lesbian avengers' escapades, queer filmmakers, politics, news, I was a lesbian child, trans issues), and came to love it for so much more.

Dyke TV is the place where I learned basic camera work and Final Cut Pro; I made fantastic friends and launched a film career. "The D Word" was born at a producer's meeting. While I was only involved for a short time, the organization and people gave back to me threefold what I contributed. For that, I'll be forever grateful.

Where else are you going to get "Television to Incite, Subvert, Provoke, and Organize!" ?

R.I.P. Dyke TV
1993-2007

1,000 words

So much has been happening lately, lets just go mostly with the pictures, since I'm short on the 1,000+ words to describe it all.

This is a view from inside the new building at MICA (Maryland Institute College of the Arts) on opening night of the MD Film Festival. Dig the onlooking reflected posters.

Why the inside of MICA? Because of these three gentlemen:

Leon Fleisher, Dr. Daniel Drachman and Nathaniel Kahn - all key players in the making of "Two Hands," which was one of the opening night shorts.

This trip back had happy things: the MD Film Fest and visiting family, like my cousin Emerie, who is doing a rousing job staring in the ensemble of Arena Stage's "The Heidi Chronicles."

And my two sweeties together:

It also had sad things, like the memorial for my beloved theater professor Joe Patenaude.

This is the door to Joe's office at Drew University.

This is some of my fellow theatre arts alumni - notice how they taught half of us to keep our eyes closed for the photograph.

My favorite republican, Gov. Tom Kean & I... The first student show he saw as prez was my first play, "Gaijin." We've had a mutual admiration society going on ever since.

It was healing, though, to walk on the campus again and see the beautiful new Arts building - of which I'm totally jealous (we had to rough it in The Commons, a blackbox, and Bowne, a converted gymnasium).

From Drew's college in the forest, to Baltimore's oddities...

Filling up on the East Coast to last me a while on the West.