books of the week & some rambling about thanksgiving

i've been pretty busy so i haven't read as much as usual...

1) john del vecchio's The 13th Valley
2) boris vian's I spit on your graves
3) duncan maclean's Bunker Man
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so thanksgiving turned out really well. a lot of people, a lot of food, a lot of noise, and a lot to clean up. but i think everyone had a good time. i know they ate enough! melissa and mike brought their dog so i let mine out and they had a great time playing and running around. it kept them away from other people and more importantly away from all the food. finally (i can only take so many people for so long) around 11:30 everyone was gone. but the weekend proved to be filled with people dropping by - mostly uninvited - but in some cases i hadn't seen some of them in a long time, so it was alright. steven's friend steve (and his band The Blue Light Special) was in from philly to play at the Knitting factory last night. good to see them doing so well.

so that's it. back to work tomorrow. wait is that a tickle in my throat? i don't feel so good... :D

this week in books

1) frederick down's The Killing Zone
2) jonathan shay's Achilles in Vietnam
3) donovan webster's The Burma Road
4) jennifer vanderbes' Easter Island
5) andrew greig's Electric Brae
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so today at 7am it was a bracing 24 degrees and the dog needed to go out.
now i remember why i hate the winter and having a dog at the same time. it was SO cold - even after i got dressed for the Arctic - that my nose ran (pretty, right?) and my eyes watered. petra wasn't all that thrilled with the weather conditions either seeing as how she has next to no fur to keep her warm and toasty. i have a fleece-lined harness for her, so that does a little to help, but mostly that's so she doesn't pull me around the block until my arm comes loose from it's socket. well, we made it back in 20 looong minutes. my hands were frozen through my thinsulate lined gloves. and it's only NOVEMBER. lovely.
now i'm off to shop for thanksgiving.

god help anyone who gets in my way - i'm on a mission.

i'm out.

for those of you in the LA area - don't miss

Luis Rodriguez, award-winning poet and best-selling author (Always Running, Music of the Mill), will be the featured performer at the Blue Nile Cafe in Long Beach on December 2.

Luis, also a co-founder of Rock A Mole Productions, will highlight a night of poetry and music presented by the Poets of the Round Table. The Blue Nile is a beautiful two-story venue in the classic New Orleans style. A comfortable place to hang out and the staff will treat you with love and respect. Come on out. It's all ages and it's free!

here's the info:

Blue Nile Cafe
438 Broadway
Long Beach
Friday, December 2, 9 PM
All Ages
Admission: Free

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so a week from today is thanksgiving. my favorite holiday. yet this year i am SO horribly unprepared - both mentally and food-wise. i have nothing purchased, no idea aside from turkey, of course, what i'm going to cook. i suppose i'm kind of dreading it because of the dog. that sounds terrible, but she's definitely NOT ready for the chaos of the day. people in and out, FOOD tempting her the whole time. shit, I'M not ready for that either. well, better get cracking on a menu and a shopping list. i'm not even sure how many people will be here.

maybe i'll do take-out?!

books of the week

1) cherokee paul mcdonald's Into the Green
2) magnus mills' The Restraint of Beasts
3) philip caputo's A Rumor of War
4) jose saramago's The Cave
5) nina berberova's The Italics are Mine
6) romeo dallaire's Shake Hands with the Devil

i'm all over the place today

some days you're the dry land and some days you're the island... a football field sized mobile island washes up in a Massachusetts mans backyard

speaking of things moving (when they shouldn't, that is) check this -
icebergs on the move in Antarctica


paris suburbs STILL burning
here's a link to what the residents are saying about it all

don't mess with Texas' death row convicts, that is they just walk right out of prison after killing 2 people back in 1999


so both my employers are (attempting) to quit smoking AT THE SAME TIME. i am seriously thinking about giving my notice. there will be a homicide (or 2) if things get ugly in the workplace. or maybe it's the perfect kick in the ass that i need to make some big changes in my lackluster life. i watched the movie 'WHAT THE #$*! DO WE KNOW?!' last night - not a good thing if you're feeling small and insignificant already - but it was entertaining. all about quantum mechanics and the what ifs...
a few of the 'scientists' were pretty amusing in a kind of eerie way.

time to put my newly stained bookcase together. sigh. hopefully i'll be able to figure it out. it DID come from IKEA after all. these times are pretty much the only times i miss the ex...

a poem by sherman alexie


spontaneous combustion

sometimes when an indian boy loves
a white girl and vice-versa
it’s like waking up
with half the world
on fire. you don’t know
if you should throw water
or let the whole goddamn thing burn.


books read this week:

1) neil gaiman’s Anansi Boys
2) sherman alexie’s Business of Fancydancing
3) octavio paz’s Early Poems: 1935-1955
4) gabriel garcia marquez’s One hundred Years of Solitude (re-read for the 10th time!)
5) khaled hosseini’s The Kite Runner
6) mark haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

more Paz

Vida entrevista


Relampagos o peses
en la noche del mar
y parajaros, relampagos
en la noche del bosque.

Los huesos son relampagos
en la noche del cuerpo.
Oh mundo, todo es noche
y la vida es relampago.



Live interval

Lightning or fishes
in the night of the sea
and birds, lightning
into the forest night.

Our bones are lightning
in the night of the flesh.
Oh world, all is night,
life is the lightning.


big, big sigh...