Reading
Warrior Poet: The Lfe of Audre Lorde - Alexis Masani DeVeaux
Black Mountain - Martin Duberman
Election - Tom Perotta

Listening
Afropop
Orchestra Baobab
Wondermints

Watching
Rock & Roll Circus--wow! I esp love the Pete Townshend interview extra
Re-watching Angels in America

Eating
Tempeh, veg and rice
black bean tostadas
red grapes

She took her sunglasses off after five minutes

This is an interview with Patti Smith too good to keep to myself. I've highlighted my favorite parts.



****

Patti Smith on music, politics... and dental hygiene
By Charlotte Chambers
Camden New Journal, 25 October 2007

Grooves travelled to the Jack Daniels birthday bash in Tennessee for
an intimate chat with the punk rock legend.

Legendary punk rocker Patti Smith spoke to Grooves before her gig at
the Birthday JD Set, held at the Jack Daniels whiskey distillery in
Lynchberg, Tennessee. During that hour, she covered all bases: the
importance of dental care; how she was signed after Bob Dylan went to
watch her first gig; the evil of globalisation. (She took her
sunglasses off after five minutes.)

What made you want to take part in the JD set?
Well I thought it was an unusual request and I was really surprised
that they asked me, I thought why would they want me to come to this?
But I thought it would be great for my son Jackson, a really great
guitar player, so I more took it to have the pleasure of Jackson
coming here. And when I've done political rallies, I've played for 40
people in the middle of nowhere.

Why did you do the covers album?
I always wanted to do one. In the 70s, I didn't start singing, I'm not
a musician, I'm not a real singer or anything. When I sang Horses, I
had no track record of being a singer, I didn't want to have a band, I
grew up in a rural area where I never even saw a guitar for real, and
girls really didn't play guitars.

Weren't you a music journalist?
I saw the trajectory of music, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, The Animals,
and then the 60s, all the great music and I really felt empowered
being a skinny, pimply weirdo from New Jersey. I loved rock'n'roll so
much, and then in the early 70s it felt like it was going downhill,
politically and sexually, it was losing its strength, it was getting
glamorous and snotty, so I started writing and performing stuff. Just
hoping to agitate things. To remind people where rock'n'roll was
supposed to be. It was supposed to be grassroots and speak for the
people. In 73. But what really happened was Bob Dylan came to see me
in some shitty little club and he never did stuff like that. For me,
he was like Bob Dylan, you know, I loved him. It got so much media
attention that I got signed. His endorsement got me signed.

What health would you say rock'n'roll's in now?
It's in an interesting pivotal state, I don't think it's going down or
up, it's like imagine if it's like a war, the people are gathering
their forces, they're marshalling their energies so I find it
interesting. I feel like the new guard are experimenting and becoming
more independent. Record companies are in trouble and scrambling. Its
such a mess that its not owned by anybody. Its being redefined. It's
not a business, it's not supposed to be a business. It's a voice. It's
like it's rebirthing itself. I'd rather that than corporatised.

Where do you see your role in all of it? Are you still shaking things
up?
I don't know. I never even expected to be alive at 60 but since I'm
here, I'm really happy, I hope I'm alive another 40 years. At this
point, I know I'm worse at what I do best. I like to perform, and I
like to communicate, and I think I can be trusted because I don't have
any ulterior motives. I like to make people laugh, I get angry about
things. I want to inspire people to get politically involved. But I'd
also like to inspire people to take good care of their teeth, don't
eat a lot of salt or fast food. I'm a mum, I can be very irreverent, I
can still put my foot through an amp but I can help you with first aid
or nutrition. I don't have an image or agenda, I've been here a long
time and sadly have outlived a lot of my friends, so if I can be of
help.. I will.

What's making you angry at the moment?
The illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq by the Bush administration
is the number one thing. All of the exploitation of young people by
corporations, and how young people are being moulded to be the
consumers of the future. This constant advertising that we have
everywhere is becoming people's education.

How does that sit with a corporate gig like this?
Well it's corporate, it's alcohol. I thought about this. I'm very
sensitive about alcohol issues, I've got friends who've died from
alcoholism, but I'm not anti alcohol, I just feel people have to be
educated that too much alcohol.. that alcohol's a bad drug. But
alcohol itself is not an evil thing. I always search myself when I
agree to do these things but I don't perceive it as evil, if it was a
pharmaceutical company I wouldn't be here, because they're evil. But
in the end.. my relatives drink Jack Daniel's, I wanted my son to meet
these musicians, so I was thinking about it in a different way. But
truthfully I didn't agonise too much over it. But I have turned down
the most money I've every been offered in my whole life because a
pharmaceutical company wanted to use one of my songs. It was a lot of
money I could have bought those houses. But we live in a modern
world, I'm not a purist. I just try and adapt.

Do you think musicians have a responsibility to speak out on issues of
human rights?
I believe everybody has a responsibility, everybody has to. But
artists are in a unique position to inspire. They can't make huge
change but they can inspire people to make change, I wish more artists
would come forward. But the Iraq war, trying to get people to speak
out on that.. and the few people that did, we were marginalised. It
wasn't reported in the media. I came to Europe to march. Couldn't
march in America. I know they were afraid because of what happened on
September 11th, but still, you can't forget who you are.

Why is liberal such a dirty word?
The left have been extremely weak. September 11th is one of the worst
things to have happened to my country, and not because of the tragedy
yes it's a tragedy, but when you look at the tsunami that killed
100,00 people... a lot of it wasn't the amount of people that died, it
was the American pride. It's as if we have this magic shield around us
and all of Europe can experience tragedies but not us. It seemed to,
it struck a pall over the country and the Bush administration crafted
everything, so that anything that you said that opposed what he said
was unpatriotic. People got very weak, they completely lost what
patriotism is what they really meant was you are not nationalistic.
The Bush administration are nationalistic and imperialistic, and most
of the American people do not have the sophistication to understand
the difference. The word should be humanist.

Does it feel like a success to be on the bill with diverse and strong
female artists?
I'm really happy about it, I'm happy to be included. I think it's very
interesting to have this idea, of three diverse females with a male
band of session musicians, we're all different mix, we're all
different ages and different sensibilities. I think it's going to be a
successful experiment.

What new acts do you like?
I don't know anybody or anything that's going on! The way I find out
what's going on is through MySpace. My daughter made me a MySpace and
I felt like an intruder: 'They don't want me on the MySpace thing,
that's like a secret club'. And then 200,000 people came to visit. For
a person like me, who sells 40,000 records in America, to see 200,000
people listening to your music is really exciting.
I like Wagner, Maria Callis, Coldtrain and Jimmy Hendrix. I'm not
really up on who's doing what.

Do you think when it becomes so egalitarian it's difficult to pick out
what you like?
That's how things are right now. In the 60s we had all of these gods
of the period, you look at the Rennaisance and you have Michaelangelo
and Da Vinci, well every generation doesn't necessarily put out these
olympian people. I think we're just in a cycle where it is more
equalised. But people will rise, someone who will be extra special,
have extra charisma or a special gift and they will capture a wider
imagination. Right now the playing field is more people orientated.
Maybe not as mystically exciting, but I think for the individual it's
a good thing. Everyone is learning they can express themselves, yes I
can vote, yes I can make change, I can do something for the
environment.

I think of it like in sports. I always hated sports but my late
husband, who is a great musician and a genius, but he also loved
sports and he forced me to learn about sports including golf.

He was from Detroit and he loved his basketball team, the Detroit
Pistons. This was in the 80s, which was a period we'd had so many
great players, like Michael Jordan, he was like the god of basketball.
But then you had the Pistons, who had no god. You had a bunch of
scrappy players, each with their own personality.

You had Vinnie, the microwave, who was like 5'8 and he's a basketball
player. They had Buddha, who was tall and skinny and very meditative,
who would just quietly let everybody else do their thing and then all
of a sudden he would just 'poomf', put it in. And then you had Joe
Dumar, the good guy, the work horse, and you had Rodman, the worm, who
was one of the great defence players.

But none of them were iconic. They were just all of these guys, and
they wound up winning three championships, because they were such a
collective force. Some might have the great one-god guy that sold all
of the t-shirts, and all of America was wearing their sneakers, and
nobody gave as much thought to the Pistons.

But the Pistons won three championships. And I thought there's
something so metaphorically beautiful about this, and it was out of
this atmosphere that my husband and I wrote the song, People Have The
Power, really secretly inspired by the Detroit Pistons. I like to
think that right now, music is in its Detroit Pistons place. We'll see
what happens.

Do you still watch basketball?
No.
My husband before he passed away said to me, because he loved golf, he
was seeing a decline in golf, in the way that almost we're seeing a
decline in music, because all the players were getting too old and it
seemed like the playing field was getting too wide, and too cluttered
and it was getting boring.. And right before my husband passed away he
said 'Tricia we need a young black golfer with a the ability of Jack
Nicklaus' and he said I predict a young black golfer is going to come
and change the whole course of golf history, and then he said, 'and
you're going to have something to do with it.'
So anyway, Fred passed away and never got to see the rise of Tiger
Woods, who of course, did change the course of golf history. But I
always wondered what I had to do with Tiger Woods, until about two
weeks ago. I happened to see in some newspaper, a little article about
him and his birthday, December 30, the same as mine. So my husband was
never wrong.

While we're looking at my camera I will also give you my dental pitch.
As a parting gift, my dental pitch is, I'm telling you something I was
never told because my generation being born right after world war two,
dental care was not a big issue and my generation have terrible teeth.
I'm telling you, please, save your money, and get your teeth
professionally cleaned once twice a year if you can afford it, because
when you get older its such a pain in the ass, its so important. I
never had the money, but it wasn't even the money, I just didn't know.
It will save you a lot of heartache. You wouldn't think that teeth
things were such a big deal but it is such a big pain in the ass.
I worry about people, I do, I want people to come to our concerts and
have fun, I want people to have as much information about things, even
a little thing because if the revolution comes, you don't want to be
with a nerve exposed in your tooth that's so painful that you aren't
ready for the revolution.

You played at the closing of CBGBs last year. Did that feel like the
end of an era or is it just a place?

CBGBs, to me, is symptomatic of one of the tragedies of our modern
world and that is the affluence and the corporatisation of our cities
and advertising, money, condominiums... I'm sure you see it where you
all live. NY city was always such a great city when I was younger,
because it was so cheap, a little dangerous, not so dangerous, but you
could come, get a little bookstore job, live in the east village, meet
a whole bunch of other artists and poets, create a scene and exchange
ideas, and get political ideas and poetic ideas and feel like you were
doing something.(CW sez: Sounds like Buffalo.)

Now its become so affluent and expensive, and they just have come in
really, at such a speed, I can't believe it, right in front of my
eyes, and taken over all our neighbourhoods. Not just some of them,
all of them. And these developers and these really evil people like
Donald Trump, who's like another evil king, and just buy up all these
areas and make condos so expensive so that none of us can live there.

So yes, CBGBs, I feel emotionally sad about losing it physically, but
its not just CBGBs, its the whole thing. And it's not just the whole
thing in NY, its everywhere I go this is happening, everywhere in the
world I go. I was just in Istanbul and kids are saying yeah this is a
cool area but the developers are moving in. It doesn't matter where it
is, it's the globalisation of our world.

To me globalisation should mean everyone can afford health care, Aids
drugs are available to everyone, that no one is starving. That should
be globalisation. But globalisation is not that at all. It's becoming
that the world is just one big playground for people with new
affluence, and a lot of this affluence is made up, because it's built
on credit cards. It's not really built on a real working-class
sensibility where people work hard, it's more to do with how clever an
entrepreneurial you are. And I think that this. I can live with the
equal exploration of the arts, but this equalisation of the world for
the middle classes, the upper middle classes, its such a class
conscious thing. In NY city, I don't have any place left to play any
more, all my band have moved out except for me. Every single place
we've ever practised, they're finished, they're condos, galleries, I
don't know where we're going...

Me myself I'm looking for somewhere to move because it doesn't
represent me any more. I'm giving up. It doesn't matter any more. I
could hold out on my little street, but for what reason? I have no
community. I don't want to be around these people who are basically..
I mean we never had anything, nowadays they've got these stretch
hummers and they're dressed up with cell phones hanging out of their
ears C'mon you know, do something, do something else.

You hit a sensitive nerve, but despite all of that, and despite the
fact that to me, our world seems really fucked up at the moment, and
my country seems in a really bad place, spiritually, socially,
economically, I still believe, and I tell my kids this, we get one
life, one specific life, and we have the right to navigate the dark
sea of the world as well as we can, and be happy and have some kind of
joy and I don't think that we need to be depressed, angry and feel
defeated every day.
I know things are very bad, I know the Bush administration in some
ways has defeated me, but I'm not going to crawl into hole, I'm going
to be myself and I'll be a living thorn, and I'll poke him and poke
him and poke him until hopefully he bleeds. And maybe that's all I can
do, but in the meantime I'm also gonna be happy, and enjoy my kids,
enjoy arts, enjoy nature, enjoy this moment. So for a person who's
maybe the oldest in this room, I'm just telling you that life, even in
its worst, is worth living. There's always something wonderful to wake
up to everyday. It really is worth it. I have seen the bottom, and
even seeing the bottom, I still wanted to come back up. Its great to
be alive.

I don't believe that we all deserve to have a car, or all the
different things that are dangled in front of us, but I do believe we
have the right to be happy. So even if you feel guilty, don't be
afraid to be happy.

Writing to Jeannine

Reading
I Am a Pencil - Sam Swope
Hotel De Dream - Edmund White
My Dreams Out in the Street - Kim Addonizio

Listening
Joni Mitchell

Watching
Finally got The Musician to watch The Philadelphia Story with me--he loved it, of course

Eating
baby carrots
stir fry with shrimp
egg salad

Mariah's Birthday Present


I think it'll suit her, don't you? (More Mariah pics here.)

Reading
My Life, So Far - Jane Fonda
The Half Life of Happiness - John Casey
The Book of Answers - Carol Bolt

Watching
Mulberry
9 to 5
a John Cage documentary which kinda pissed me off

Eating
Pumpkin bread and peanut butter
salmon, rice pilaf, broccoli
homemade dal

Listening
Cassandra Wilson - New Moon Daughter
The Mason Williams Phonograph Album
Cowboy Junkies

From '06

Boom Day

Already can’t remember the name of this place, in South Buffalo near where I used to pick Smitty up from work. She’d never eaten here: I always thought it looked neat. I’m on my own in the window, after a morning teaching one small, mellow special ed class, one energetic enthusiastic big class. All their characters died violently. Oh well. It is a cold and vibrant day in early Spring. It’s Boom Day. Earth warm gardens in South Buffalo. Ice in the wind.

Water in a beer glass. Bar clean and well-stocked. Still a lot of green about. The pepper is brown in its shaker. I read about the history of the First Ward’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. It traces the old route from 1913 or 1916. A guy w/ a pen behind his ear cooks industriously in the kitchen.

I love you more every day.

More MEdia

I was interviewed by Richard Wicka for the Five Minute video series. Here I am talking about drinking, poetry, and Harriet the Spy. (This link will be operational for the next ten weeks.)

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

The Musician and I went to Montreal. It's about an eight-hour drive from Buffalo. In my trusty Honda Civic, Iris, we motored north and stopped overnight in Alexandria Bay, NY, part of the Thousand Islands region. Although Pirate Days was just kicking off, the high light for us was a thunderstorm at sunset.




I know, we look like cousins.

The next morning, after a lackluster breakfast at Chez Paris, we crossed the border and made our way to Montreal. I had visited Montreal for a few days in 1997 in deep winter. This was totally different. Perfect weather, lovely accommodations, superb food.

Our hotel was the small but gracious l'Auberge du Carre St. Louis. Lovely breakfast of bagels, yogurt, fresh fruit and delicious coffee each day. A hot tub, which I didn't visit because the tub in the room was luxuriously deep. I bought a few things at Lush, just blocks away, specifically to enjoy there.

The hotel, on rue St. Denis, was adjacent to a sweet little park, St. Louis.



I immediately discovered a made-for-me shop, Kamikaze, which sold wooden barrettes and exotic socks. Bliss. I returned twice. Dinner was tamales and fajitas on rue Prince Arthur.

The following day, we enjoyed a stroll around the Old Town and Downtown. We stopped in to see the pipe organ at Christ Church Cathedral. We then headed to the glorious Atwater Market to pick up cheese (Oka!) and crackers and wine and produce for a picnic lunch.



Delightful as this was, our best meal of the trip took place a block from the hotel, at Cafe Cherrier. I had quiche and frites, and The Musician had a salad with chicken livers, which neither of us had ever had before but which knocked our newly-purchased socks right off. (I don't know how Frommer's manages to call the food unexceptional.)



We also took a lot of naps.

Our final day, we enjoyed a drive up Mount Royal, and a walk up to the Chalet at the top. This was a definite highlight of the trip. My only regret was not being able to enter the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery, which was under "lock-out." I still don't know the whole story there.



These were the obvious highlights, but mostly I'm left absorbing the vibe and culture of the city, a grand place I hope to visit again soon. More photos here.

Celia White on This Is Not The Apple


I was interviewed last night by Sue Marie on the Think Twice Radio show This Is Not The Apple.

More

Reading
BITCHfest, collection of writings from Bitch Magazine

Watching
Edith Piaf: Her Songs, Her Stories
Time Capsule - 10,000 Maniacs videos

Eating
corn relish quesadillas
fresh peaches
KitKat (US)

Listening
"Scorpio Rising"
The Best of the Lovin Spoonful
Swan Farm, live at Nietzsche's

Reading
Piaf - Simone Bertault
Truck: A Love Story - Michael Perry
Kiss: The Early Years

Watching
Who Are the DeBolts?
Lucinda Williams live at Artpark
La Vie En Rose

Listening
podcasts.
not enough music
Pam Ryder - Soulryder

Eating
garden pesto
Kofta curry

Weekend

This weekend was my 20th high school reunion. We had a cocktail party and a picnic and it was a truly enjoyable time.

At Saturday's picnic, I was stung by a bee on my foot. Wow, did it hurt! I chewed up some plantain and stuck it on the site and felt immediate relief. Last night it swelled and hurt; today it swells and itches if I stand up too long. I'm treating it a variety of ways, mostly with herbs.
The Musician and I dined this evening at Faso's Restaurant on Niagara Street.


More Pictures at Flickr.

Home is good.









More photos at Flickr.

Mark Freeland Remembered

I am taping the WLKK (The Lake) tribute/bio of Mark Freeland, if anyone is interested. It's two hours of interviews, music, etc.

Consuming Consummation

Welcome, readers (if any) of Consumption By Celia.

Reading
The Happiness Myth - Jennifer Michael Hecht. Best book I've read in ages, about opening our thinking via historical perspectives on drugs, sex, enlightenment, and the body. Wonderful to read about happiness, as rendered by a poet-historian.
The Witch Family - Eleanor Estes
The Book of Miso

Listening
old radio interviews I did in the 90's
Victory Gardens - John & Mary
Kenneth Patchen poems

Eating
Saag Paneer
Pesto made from any thriving herb in the garden, gathered between rainfalls
lemon-poppy seed muffin

Watching
Gilmore Girls re-runs
Ahmet Ertegun profile
The Weavers - Wasn't That a Time

Celia reads at the Screening Room, Tomorrow

I'll be reading at the Screening Room on June 20 at 7:30. (After, Joe Rozler and Rob Lynch are playing at Nietzsche's--so make a night of it!)

Here is some info about the reading:

- Celia White, active poet in the WNY poetry scene. Former host of the Tru-Teas poetry readings, now focusing on education, and continuing the Urban Epiphany Readings. She has a new collection, Letter, newly published by Ambient Press. This is a great opportunity to purchase this books of poems new and old.
- With Rose Salley, who we are happy to say, has agreed to share her wonderful words with us this month after facing a challenge back in March, which prevented us from enjoying her words, only for a moment.

Located in the Northtown Plaza Business Center, 3131 Sheridan Dr. (837-0376). Parking & entrance located in area behind Tom's at Bailey & Sheridan across from Orville's Appliances. Admission is $2. Time 7:15 (sign-up) – 9:30.

ps- As we all know, things can change, but we hope not. For your information, we generally start at 7:30, opening with two/three open mic readers, our 1st featured, followed by a few more open mike, then our 2nd featured, closing with the rest of the open mics, ending at around 9:15 -9:30.
The open mics are about 5 min. ea. and our featured(s) are 20 min. ea. As always, we will have an "artist(s) basket" so that whoever would like to, can give a donation, with all the proceeds going to the featured artist(s) and musicians (From time to time BASS and CO. will be in the house)

(Image: an old one, taken by someone I don't know, long ago.)

I made this yesterday, and had it with frozen/heated-on-skillet paratha from SuperBazaar Indian Grocery on Sheridan Drive in Amherst, NY. Really wonderful. I didn't use cream, and I added some onions. It is fast, easy, and delicious.

Saag Paneer

Madhur Jaffrey World of the East Vegetarian Cooking

1 inch cube of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

3-6 cloves garlic, peeled

½ to 1 fresh hot chile, sliced roughly (I use jalepeno)

Paneer (I use queso fresco, got at Wegman's, inexpensive), cut into chunks

salt

¼ tsp garam masala

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

6 Tbs vegetable oil

1 ½ pounds spinach, washed, trimmed, and very finely chopped

3 Tbs heavy cream (optional)

Put ginger, garlic and green chili into the container of an electric blender or food processor along with ¼ cup water. Blend until you have a smooth paste.

Heat the oil in a large, non-stick saute pan over medium flame. Put in the pieces of paneer and fry them, turning gently as they go golden brown on all sides. (This happens fairly quickly.) Remove from pan and place on plate in a single layer. Sprinkle with a bit of salt, the garam masala and cayenne. Set aside.

Put the paste from the blender into the hot oil in the pan (keep your face averted) and fry it, stirring constantly, for about 30 seconds. Now put in the spinach and ½ teaspoon salt. Stir thespinach around for 1 minute. Cover the pan, lower the heat and let the spinach cook gently with the ginger-garlic paste for 15 minutes. There should be enough water clinging to the spinach leaves to cook them. If all the water evaporates, add 1 to 2 tablespoons and continue cooking.

Now put in the paneer and cream, stir gently, and bring to a simmer. Cover, and continue cooking on low heat for another ten minutes. Stir once or twice during this period.

I've been putting up recipes for A LONG time, but have been keeping it from you! Please accept my apologies.

.


My father, C. Patrick White (1920-2007) has passed away at the age of 87. He often said that he'd had a great life and that he did not want to live to be very old. I hope he can listen to some Ella Fitzgerald now.

P.S. for local readers, artist/musician Mark Freeland has also just passed. RIP.

An Invitation

Dear friends,

I'm happy to announce that my collection of poems, Letter, has been published by Ambient Press. There will be a book release party on Sunday, May 27, from 3-5 p.m. at Rust Belt Books on Allen Street in Buffalo. Please come and help me celebrate.

If you'd like to order a copy by mail, please contact me (celia dot white at gmail period com): copies are $10 each, with $2 for shipping.

What I did on my day off

laundry
Premier run
bike ride
Kundalini yoga/visit
made matzoh ball soup
made garlicky carrots and burdock
park walk
mended cloth cover for couch
drank wine
picked out poems for Sunday's reading
made lesson plans for next week
stared down barrel of that wicked work week
talked to Joe in Germany
washed dishes
washed hair
bartered off some medicine bottles for salve
watched The Miracle Worker
called about getting bike shelter made
enjoyed The Wondermints ("Cellophane") and Laura Nyro ("Gibsom Street")
wrote seven lines of poetry

plus the usual:

web
email
chat
chores

This is Awesome!

11AM Lest the Keepers of the Books Wreak a Terrible Vengeance

Homeless guy #1: Damn! I just got kicked out of the library! Damn!
Homeless guy #2: What did you do, man?
Homeless guy #1: I don't know. I don't know.
Homeless guy #2: Aren't you drunk?
Homeless guy #1: Well, yeah. Also, I might have been looking at dirty pictures on the computer.
Homeless guy #2: Aw, that's not so bad.
Homeless guy #1: And they said that I was being disrespectful to the librarians.
Homeless guy #2, freaking out: No way, man! You can never, never disrespect the librarians! Always respect librarians! What were you thinking? Are you an idiot?

Outside Boulder Public Library
Boulder, Colorado

Overheard by: Librarian on break

Overheard in the Office

Fools on Parade

Kristianne Meal and I will be doing a duo-reading at Nietzsche's (248 Allen Street in Buffalo) on Sunday, April 1 at 5 pm. Come and join in the silly, the foolish, the spontanous, with the musical backing of the amazing Anne Phillipone. It's free. Think Spring!

The Schvitz

I finally found a bath house in Buffalo.

When I travel, I seek out a few things: foods I can't get in Buffalo, like Ethiopian cuisine, bookstores (especially used), and bath houses. To me, a place with a jacuzzi , sauna (and steam, but definitely sauna) and cold plunge is heaven.

I've been to bath houses all over the world. NYC's Tenth Street Russian baths, Kabuki and Osento in SF, Sauna Deco in Amsterdam (hands down, the winner), a little Korean place in Chicago, and more. When I worked at UCSF, I'd often spend an extended Friday lunch hour in the gym's sauna. Though this was essential to my sanity, I don't prefer an athletic atmosphere.

I like the variety of bodies, the wet air, the wringing out of the pores, the heat, the salt, the opportunity to lose oneself in a ritual which touches every culture.

Tonight, I went to women's night at Buffalo's own Russian-Jewish baths, The Schvitz, on Kenmore Avenue near Starin. $20 gets you towels, locker, robe, and an evening's access to the facilties. Though I had a short visit, my muscles are loose, my sinuses clear, my spirit calm.

***

I needed that deep heat. I've been working nearly every day (4 gigs in total) and on Sunday I devoted about 10 hours to the project of painting my bedroom, a pale yellow called moonlight. I'm a clumsy painter, and my shoulders and hands ache, but it looks nice. I also grocery shopped, hennaed my hair, made granola, and basically dervished all day.

This week: teaching every day. Expect a crispy little poet on the other end of this week.

Jeff Vincent Benefit

Tyler sez:

Jeffrey just had surgery for a collapsed lung: this means that he had a small chunk of his left lung cut away and then the lung was "glued" it to his chest wall in the hopes that it will not ever re-collapse.

Jeff's recovery has been a little bumpy but he is finally on the upswing. Still, he will be out of commision for a good 4-6 more weeks. To raise a some $ in the mean lean time, he is having a silent auction (which can be quite fun BTW) for (damn near all of) his work at Kepa3 gallery on March 9 (5-9pm).

This is going to be the opportuntiy to get some really great art
while directly helping out a friend in need.

There will be screenprints, drawings, pastels, paintings and a few dolls. Everything will be starting at very low minimal bids.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerlove/409372835/


Celia sez: I'll be there, and I'm telling whoever I can.

Ooh!

My dreams have come true: The Buffalo News has finally redesigned their website. It's readable, and there's content! This alone is an improvement.

Life is work, these days, with some shivering in between. The cold feels cruel.

The Musician is on the wing and I miss him already.

"If television's a babysitter,
the internet's a drunk librarian who won't shut up." - catandgirl.com

Urban Epiphany 2007

The blogging has begun.

Patti tells her New Year's Day, too.

Back Home



Had a blast in New York.


Saw Patti Smith. (SJF says it all.) Heard many poets at the marathon.

Bought many books.

Walked miles.

Wrote a lot in my journal (the paper one). (Surely you didn't think this approximates?)

There are many new pictures up at Flickr.

So very tired, so pictures will have to do.