STORMY WEATHER

A delightful evening with last night marred only by the incessant weather warnings bleeped across the small tv at the Red Lounge. It was "Dirty Soul Night," but most of the patrons, which were in small number, seemed more concerned with the weather, pacing around the room with worried faces, cell phones in hand.
It's impossible to enjoy a summer storm with today's technology. Every local tv station had suited weather men or women dancing in front of flashing, lighted screens that would make Jackson Pollack blush.
L said she thinks it's all about selling. Keep those people in their seats at home scared to death so they'll be ready for the next laxative commercial.
"Fear" is the control word of the day.
But we survived the storm unscathed and managed to have a wonderful conversation while consuming four blood red margaritas a bacon & tomato sandwich plus a Cuban sandwich.
PAINT, WRITE, EAT, DRINK, DON'T DIE YET!

"EXPERT" INVASION

The world is infected with "experts." But experts are frauds. "Expert" comes from the root word "experience." Experience is a process that never ends. It is "the active participation in events or activities."

Jean Leclercq said about his fellow monk, the famous writer Thomas Merton:
"He was not a scholar or an historian; he Was an expert in nothing. And he knew it and didn't want to be. He didn't want to play the game of an expert. But he was always inquiring about new texts, new publications, asking me to send him books and articles..."

I always began my college classes by telling my students "I don't know a damn thing. You tell me something."
AND THEY DO! luv, yardhog

POPPIN' FOR POPPY

Okay, I admit it, yardhog's in love with Poppy Brite. Ever since discovering this writer of transgressive/horror fiction on a display table at Borders in Chicago I've been transfixed.

It's all a matter synchronicity. I had just come from the Mardi Gras in New Orlean, where I spent several days visiting friends who are in the restaurant business. So, when I spied Brite's new novel "Liquor," and read that it was about two young men who open a restaurant in New Orleans, I couldn't resist. When I got home I looked Brite up on the internet and discovered she had her own Web page, which included a daily journal.

And now I'm hooked... More about Poppy later. luv, yardhog

Sage Advice Addendum - this time Martha Graham

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening
That is translated through you into action.
And because there is only one of you in all time,
this expression is unique.
If you block it,
it will never exist through any other medium
and be lost.
The world will never have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is.
Nor how valuable it is,
Nor how it compares with other expressions.
It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly
to keep the channel open.

You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.
You do have to keep open and aware
directly to the urges that motivate you.

Keep the channel open.
No artist is pleased.
There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.
There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction,
a blessed unrest that keeps us marching
and makes us more alive than others.

KEEP FAITH WITH YOUR VISION AND PASS IT ON!

Martha Graham to Agnes Demille

SOME SAGE ADVICE FROM WILLIAM BURROUGHS

"If one is lucky enough to be born with a beautiful face and the corresponding physical attributes, instead of moaning "Oh, people only want me for my face,'play your face card. Youth plays the cards of youth and vitality -- In youth play your youth cards. In old age claim the privleges of age, and get your snout in the public trough before it dries up."

William Burroughs
The Final Journals