Sculpin

“As you find that stillness within, welcome the angels, beginning with the Angel of Vision. Listen carefully and allow the Angel of Vision to speak to you…” So says Gary Quinn, who goes on to list all the other angels you should “access… and put to work.”

I think he missed some angels:

Angel of incidence
Angel of repose
Angel of attack
Angel of inclination
Angel of sideslip
Angel of view
Angel of vanishing stability
Angel of elevation
Angel of depression
Angel of approach
The carrying angel

Got this in the mail from Jack Straw Productions a while ago, and it looks interesting to me. I might go to the artist talk tomorrow.

Kichul Kim: Rapport
May 12 - June 30 2006
Artist talk: Wednesday May 24, 7 pm

Kichul Kim follows an artistic path in the pursuit of this basic idea: If I see the sound, I can reach Nirvana. He has explored this concept for more than 10 years. Rapport is an interactive sound sculpture, and Kim’s first US exhibition.

Hooray, the irises are blooming for the first time since we moved here! I guess they are glad that Josh took out the enormous sword fern that was competing with them. They’re lovely, delicate little things.

I think every homeowner wonders, as do many renters, “What the hell was the last resident of this place thinking?” In my case, I keep wondering why they liked to plant sword ferns on top of other things. That’s four rose bushes, a peony, and an iris that were getting smothered by sword ferns. I suppose they were trying to hide off-season canes and foliage, but it wasn’t the best choice.

Next year I hope to plant veggies several weeks earlier, in cold frames. (Note to self: build cold frames.) I’m feeling pretty impatient for vegetables.

I wound up firing that trainer and speaking with his boss. I could go back with another trainer, but I think I’m going to let it rest until fall and concentrate instead on my yoga practice. Besides, with 2500 pounds of river rock arriving this weekend, I may well have all my weight-lifting needs covered. The garden makes a pretty good gym these days.

(Special to Amare: I’m sorry we didn’t get in touch with you last weekend.)

Via Open Reading Frame:
Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi is an 18-year old Iranian girl who has been sentenced to death for stabbing a man to death because he and two other men were trying to rape her and her niece. Her case is being reviewed by the Iranian Supreme Court this week. Things you can do:

• Help spread the story about Nazanin! Tell everyone you know, family, friends and others who might be interested. Direct them to supportnazanin.org and ask them to take action for Nazanin.
• Contact newspapers, TV-channels, blogs and other media and ask them to report this story. US residents can contact local or national media via NOW.
• Write about Nazanin in your own blog, homepage, or in internet forums or chat rooms you frequent.
• Put a link to supportnazanin.org in your email signature or at your homepage.
• Put one of these banners on your website.
• Write the Iranian government or the Iranian embassy of your country , and demand that Nazanin’s death sentence is commuted immediately. Read more.
• Contact politicians/representatives and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in your country and ask them to pressure Iran to commute the death sentence and free Nazanin. US representatives can be contacted via NOW.
• Contact the United Nations Office of Human Rights and ask them to protest.
• Sign and spread this petition, started by the Canadian model Nazanin Afshin-Jam.
• Buy a T-shirt in support of Nazanin, designed by Lily Mazahery.

$70 is the new $50. The location field is the new command line. Water is the new oil. Fake is the new real. Awake is the new sleep. Sleep is the new sex. Death is the new pornography. Ignorant is the new educated. The individual is the new group. Death is the new sex. Blue is the new green. Green is the new black. Orange is the new black. Pink is the new red. Blood is the new black.

I just found out that vanilla leaf, also known as deer’s foot, has another common name: sweet-after-death.

Put that together with some bat-leaf passionflower and you could have the beginnings of a nice little goth garden.

Update: and Warihio amaranth!

Today I am grateful that I am not terribly conflict-avoidant.

I am also grateful for Wild Divine, the neat biofeedback video game that Josh got for his birthday. I’ve been playing with it and revisiting my old biofeedback skills. It’s fun to play a video game I don’t suck at, and it feels kind of like magic to move things around on a screen without using mouse, joystick, or keyboard.

Thanks to this mix of natural crabbiness and hours of relaxation training, I was able to have a difficult email exchange with my trainer without completely losing a polite tone. (Though I was maybe a little over-Cameronian in my approach of considering four conceivable rationales for his position and squashing them one by one like fat aphids.) There were some things that needed to be brought out into the open. Now we’re both annoyed. And yet, this feels like progress.

It was Disability Blogging Day yesterday, and this would have been a pretty good jumping off point for it, even a day late. But I’m already sick of the particulars, so let’s skip to the big generalities.

I’m not looking for a display of empathy; I’m not looking for a display of sensitivity. Getting and staying sick was disappointing, but I’m over it. I don’t need anybody getting all huggy with me about my weirdo chronic illness, and if I did, I’d get a therapist already. What I look for is is a lack of jackassery. Alas.

update, 10:30 a.m.: Now I’m feeling a little bad. Written communication isn’t this guy’s strong suit, he’s basically a nice kid, and I kind of stomped him. Oh well. As I said to my friends on #foo, I’ll have to be extra kind to stray kittens today to make up for it. Or something.

Via the Homewaters Project:

May 3, 2006 6:30-8:30pm — Get to know your furry neighbors and how to live with them in the urban home we share. In partnership with Seattle Parks and Seattle Public Utilities, Homewaters will introduce you to Meadowbrook Pond’s resident beavers at this fun event featuring roving naturalists, family activities, and real beavers.

Josh and I went last year and enjoyed ourselves. The beavers were industrious and winsome, and the roving naturalists were knowledgeable and friendly.

In celebration of May Day, a bouquet of old postcards of maypole dances.

And (via that page) the Digital Video Research Archive of Morris, Sword, and Clog Dancing at Boston University. They have performances going back thirty years. There are maypole dances, garland dances, all sorts of morris dances, etc. My favorite is rapper sword.