Diary of A Man Out of Time - The Witchy Women of Halloween Week No. 2
Cypress Gardens Water-Skiing Witches, 1954.
This Bettmann Archive photo was taken on October 27, 1954 at, where else, Cypress Gardens, in Winter Park, Florida. The original caption reads …
In suitable witches raiment (and lovelier witches it would be hard to find), two sorcerers of Cypress Gardens switch from broomsticks to broomskiis (and this is not to say it is an invention of the Russians) to herald the dawn of Halloween.
yyyyepSyd Barrett of Pink Floyd (tokin’ again)
Sweet Melissa Wilson and I did some aerials at the Georgia Aquarium on Saturday night, and by some, I mean two hours in the air. It was tiring but fun. Kyle painted our faces extraordinarily lovely-ly — watery blues and greens with bubbles, like an early pink floyd show. I have to say the best part of the night was when it was over and we got to go up to one of the windows into one of the big tanks and see all these amazing creatures, including Trixie, the whale shark who was easily 25 feet, maybe 30 feet long. Whale sharks are gentle giants and really just eat plankton (which is bad if you’re plankton, I guess). But they don’t attack other fish or people.
That to say, personally, I think if you’re at the aquarium you should be looking at fish instead of aerialists, but it paid good $ so I’m thankful for that.
playnice:robot-heart:Alexander Milnes (via Wild Things’ Forts! - BOOOOOOOM!)
Where The Wild Things Are
The movie is so super cool, true to the book, and yet delving into a deeper meaning, the universal feeling of being a kid and navigating through family and friends, and the difficulties of personalities that collide; and even when we can live our dreams, there’s always something that eludes us.
The music was beautiful too — but wondering what it all would’ve sounded like to Kyle’s soundtrack (named for a line in the book, especially to hear it read aloud by President O., above).
julie and i made paper yesterday in our kitchen. these will eventually be incorporated into the artwork for maps and transit’s upcoming cd ‘songs for divining’. these were made from recylced magazines, maps, pages from hynmals, and photocopies.
So Pooh Pooh Kitty came home from the emergency vet on Sunday morning (they were really wonderful to her there — it’s the one in Watkinsville). It is good to have her home, my time with her now infused with a sort of preciousness. I snuggle and hug her and kiss her a lot.
When I was grappling about whether or not to let her go over the weekend, the vet, Dr. Zimmerman, told me that she lets the animals tell us when they’ve given up, and that Pooh didn’t seem to be there. That’s Pooh — I wouldn’t say she’s a fighter really, but more a spirit that embraces the world. Kyle and I were talking about how she’s totally not skittish and we haven’t ever even seen her shy away from anything (even big dogs) but instead approach it all with her own little sort of wonder — and if there’s something we can learn from her, certainly it’s that. Approaching life as Pooh Pooh Kitty seems a happy way to live, indeed.
But as for her current state: worrisome. I can’t help it. I’m watching her sleep now, and in between really deep, seemingly dead-to-the-world sleep, she goes through intense, scary muscle spasms that shake her body. We visit our regular vet tomorrow — though without tests, I doubt we’ll find out much more. The good news is she can walk better; the bad news, even though she’s eaten and lapped up some water, she hasn’t used the box at all today.
So we’re in limbo. Over the last year or so, I’d been trying to come to terms with her age, but until death stares us down, we just can’t get our minds around it. These last few days I’ve been overwhelmed with love for her, and while I knew that feeling was there, seeing the loss come close makes everything different.
I was thinking about how sad it is that we don’t feel this way about our loved ones all the time, but maybe it’s for the best. If we were overwhelmed with love all the time, we might not get much done.
Then again, what would be so bad about that?
via theslowlearner: malloreigh: (via tephs:knottedthread)
it’s true; but i kind of think that’s part of the beauty of it, that the writing has a life of its own and isn’t really within our means to control.
pretty bummed right now. had to take pooh kitty to the emergency vet tonight. she fell off the bed (i think she tried to jump but found her legs didn’t work), and when I went to see what happened, she couldn’t stand up, and kind of made a sad little circle on the floor.
they’re doing tests, she’ll be there overnight and the vet said it’s definitely neurological. so we’re just waiting. she’s 15 or so.
she first came to visit back in the fall of 94 when i was living in the yellow house on waddell street. she’d wander over whenever i was out on the back steps and trot up to me with that very engaged look she has with people, like she really would have a chat with you if she could. i finally started feeding her around christmas, b/c i stayed in athens that year, and noticed she didn’t seem to be interested in going “home” — wherever that was. plus that’s what you always want to do when you start to fall for a friendly creature that comes around — feed it. i let her inside and she thought the place, crappy as it was, was just fine, and started sleeping at the foot of my bed. it’s then that i realized she’d adopted me as her own and i was very happy.
i’d always called her the little pooh kitty, like pooh bear, and while emily pointed out that she probably had a very elegant name, pooh pooh kitty just stuck. she indeed has her daintiness, but sometimes can be rather clumsy and downright silly, too.
soon after she moved in (and killed and eaten a few birds right down to their feet), my friend carla said, “julie, that cat is pregnant, look at her belly, it’s round and hard.” and so she was.
the night pooh gave birth, i stayed up with her the whole time, from when her water broke (girls just know these things), till she’d pushed kitten no. 4 out of her very tired little body. it was an amazing thing to witness and i felt really empowered by her, and all the while i kept coaching her through it as best i could telling her to breathe and that she could do it. i mean, i just don’t think humans could give birth to a litter like that without any help at all. I guess they have and they used to, but still. when she began delivering the first kitten (which i’m pretty sure was jimmy), her scream sounded totally human. it spoke to the depth of pain she was enduring.
the kittens were a delight, of course — i named them out of the gate and even got their sexes right: jimmy, zooey, isabelle and sylvester. pooh was a wonderful mother. i’d never been able to watch an animal care for its young that way, licking their pee and poo until they were big enough to use the litter box, and feeding them incessantly.
jimmy loves her so — he’s the kitten who stayed. he’s easily three times her size, but he still thinks he’s her kitten and nuzzles up to her, asking to be licked on the head. she obliges, a little put out sometimes, but mostly she just seems content. i often walk into my bedroom to find him with one big paw draped around her. i always try to take pictures, but b/c they’re both black and white, it’s hard to see where one begins and the other ends.
so here i am, thinking about pooh, wondering if she’ll make it for another few years. it’s something, how we live with animal creatures, communicating with them so much even though we speak different languages, and sharing the sweetnesses in life, as simple and meaningful as a snuggle. we can’t ever really understand each other on the physical and mental level, but i think we connect in a deeper place together. and i don’t know, but i think it’s the only thing that explains god, really — that love and that kind of connectivity that exist between us all. it’s proof of an infinite, and in that infinite, a goodness that makes life worth living, despite the constant reminders of all the horrors in the world.
i know even if not now, i’ll have to let pooh go to that place in the infinite; and i know with just as much certainty that i’ll be connected to her when i go to that place, too.
for now, though, i’m just sad that our lives as we’ve known them together for 15 years are coming to an end.
(via lovegifs)
(via suicidewatch)
Canopy’s Pirate show is coming up soon — Nov. 6-8 — this is good inspiration for my piece; I’ll be one of three flags and we’ll be hoisted up and suspended from Spanish Webs, spinning ad nauseum. I am building up the spinning tolerance now, eating lots of ginger. We are very excited about the show; the ACC Library will be having a kids’ craft-making class outside on the loading dock, teaching how to make pirate hats, so everyone can come to the show in costume. We can’t wait!
the slim thug interview is HILARIOUS; interview with “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” amazing, inspiring.
