Mrs Jarvis,
Actually, Nevada Day is tomorrow, but never too early to celebrate.
Some quotes about appreciating life:
Well, I got me a fine wife, I got me a fiddle,
When the sun's comin up, I got cakes on the griddle,
Life ain't nothin' but a funny, funny riddle,
Thank God I'm a Country Boy!
-John Denver
Just like Michael Haverty!
But I had a good uncle, my late Uncle Alex. He was my father's kid brother, a childless graduate of Harvard who was an honest life-insurance salesman in Indianapolis. He was well read & wise. And his principal complaint about other human beings was that they seldom noticed it when they were happy. So when we were drinking lemonade under an apple tree in the summer, say, & talking about this & that, almost buzzing like honeybees, Uncle Alex would suddenly interrupt the agreeable blather to exclaim, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."
So I do the same now, & so do my kids & grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, & exclaim or murmer or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."
-Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country (2005). I'm planning on sending this book to Barbara Lee, Berkeley's representative, & Nancy Pelosi, when they win next week, especially if Pelosi is the new House Speaker. He says our country has been taken over by people without consciences. Because of our government, one of America's great writers in his old age has given up on the human race, like Twain & Einstein before they died, & now Hawking! I also plan on sending Richard Pombo (R-Stockton) an e-mail saying "I hope you die poor!" Can I get arrested for that?
When it will be questiond "When the sun rises do you not see a round disc of fire somewhat like a guinea?"
"O no no I see an innumerable company of the heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty!"
I question not my corporeal or vegetative eye any more than I would question a window concerning a sight. I look thru it & not with it.
-William Blake, A Vision of the Last Judgment.
You know, I just went with "Brian Aha" (Cuban guy I lived with in Slonim 11) to a Halloween party full of gay lawyers, & you were the first person he asked about. I guess you impress a certain fine film on people's memories. Ah memory, my theme, that wingéd host that soared about me...
Diet of champagne not beer... Hardly stops one adding weight, but keeps the scrotum crisp.
-Professor Veen, in Nabokov's Ada or Ardor.
Well, a happy 27th to you & 145th to Nevada!
Peace & Love,
Mr Welsch
Posted on the New York Times Caucus Blog as a comment on "Nancy & Denny: Hanging the Drapes in the House", today:
James,
Sounds like a lovely way to spend the quarter century mark. While being around others is great fun, I
always need a little time for reflection when I round anoter year. I believe I celebrated with a bellini
that night, which is a mimosa except with peach juice. From what I can remember twenty five was swell. In
fact, it was my first time as an adult in San Fran... Speaking of that lovely city, if we had the resources
and a job waiting we would move there in a second. While perhaps we saw only a portion of the city, and
spent way too much money on the amazing food and drink, I can imagine it could be just as lovely on a
smaller budget. That said, as we were dreaming of moving there, a new Walmart opened in Oakland and
there was an article about the throngs of fairly educated folk beating down the door trying to get a
job. But we did love the city, saw lots of performances, went to the Asian, modern and mechanical
toy museums, ah, it was incredible. That said, I think I have decided not to attend grad school, which
makes the possibility of moving there even slimmer. I'm actually fairly happy in this city and we've
finally started finding a place in the arts community here.
I'm in a show right now at the Center (for puppetry arts) which is incredible fun. I'm part of a piano
trio of sorts for the show and we get to play and sing great music but also create some of the foley and
narrate the stories. We perform Mr. Ghost Goes to Town, The Blob!, Danse Macabre, Funeral March of the
Marionettes, the great song from the 1920s called "Creepy" among others.
So you're singing sacred harp? We performed a few songs in that tradition for Michael adaptation of
Gilgamesh. He's singing in a group regularly here so we went to the Southeastern conference. The sound was
just incredible. Have you seen the documentary? It's called Awake my Soul: the Story of the Sacred Harp.
It's a little low budget but tells the history of the music and the southern tradition quite nicely,
although they do point out a few too many times that the form defies any classical notion of musical
structure.
Well, I should go as I need to start the day. Before my call tonight we're going to the last weekend of the
Lakewood junk/antiques fair. It's this incredibly huge fair set on an old fairground in the middle of
the city quite near our house. You can find pretty much anything there. They are tearing the beautiful
and quirky location down to make way for condos. I hope you the best for your 25th year.
With love,
Kristin (Jarvis)
(I've kept my last name because I am quite fond of it
and Michael seemed to have no objections. So,
officially, I guess I'm Mrs. Jarvis, although when you
attach the Mrs. it sounds rather odd...)
To: | [someone I don't know on MySpace]
|
|---|
| Date: | Oct 23 2006 5:30 PM |
| Subject: | The Mimosa's Witnesses |
| Body: |
[_____],
Well, I've been trying to get Lisa Rybovich Cralle, our mutual friend apparently, back out here to have a Mimosa's Witnesses "service", an organized semi-religious event for our semi-religious organization, the Mimosa's Witnesses, which congregates & transubstantiates on Sunday Mornings, & occasionally, but not yet tangibly, goes canvassing evangelically, with platters of champagne & orange juice, you see. So, if you have any interest in our secular cult, our tithe is low (only 9% of your income!), & the rewards are high (earthly paradise, at least on the Sabbath), & services are held regularly (I'm trying to spearhead an initiative this weekend) in Berkeley your home town! & postings thru YourSpace.
Peace, The Archpope of Transubstantiation
|
Maude and the Triangle of Death
Get you copper kettle & light up a fire,
Crewman Steven Slater spent many an hour in flight,
Posts
Mrs. Haver-jar (?)
Hmm, what is your last name(s)? I always address my e-mails to ex-Bonnie Whiting as "Mrs. Smith", the last thing she wants to be called, love of her husband notwithstanding.
What are you up to?
Thanks for being one of two (the other: Melinda Rice) who sent me a birthday note. I was alone in a bar at midnight, & I got a free drink for answering a quiz question correctly (Only sports star who makes his own bed at hotels? I deduced "Tiger!") Sorry, it actually wasn't depressing, nor am I lonely, but it's an easy style of self-deprecating birthday-humor. Also, incidentally, I just re-read our last correspondence so as not to be redundant in this one, & there was a bit of miscommunication: I wasn't harrasing you for not ever visiting Tahoe, I was just describing why moving to the bay area had its advantages. In two months, I've been visited by a staggering amount of old friends.
I could be commissioned, by the way, to write a series of arguments, if you're ever at the point when considering pros of moving here. It's expensive, for instance, but I have a totally-super-sweet-ass apartment (huge, central location, 1905 building) for only $1k/month. But that's just bragging. Ha ha ha, suckers! I've also yet to find employment, but that may not be wholly the economy's fault.
Politics: Don't vote for warmongers / war-profiteers - the general sentiment in Berkeley, so I'm told. Jenny's working as a peace-canvasser. Is the situation hopeless / beyond our democratic control?
Beer: Boont, a brown ale from Mendocino, I think; Abbey Cat, & others from the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka; anything made by Anchor Steam, in SF.
Literature: Nabakov, Vonnegut, & the Death's Jest-book (1829, a strange neo-Jacobean play by late-Romantic proto-absurdist mock-gothic Thomas Lovell Beddoes). I might be writing a secret sensational novellette in my free time, but can it be sensational if it's secret?
Music: The bay area is amazing. I've already seen an opera & several concerts for free. I've been playing at an open mic every tuesday & singing sacred harp every monday, both good practice, for something. As for "popular" genres, I can't figure out why, 40-years since Dylan plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival, people have yet to figure out how to mix live rock music. & hip-hop is even worse! These are genres not only about volume, but about lyricisim & lyrics, & you can never hear what they're saying & you ears hurt! Bah! It's frustrating, having a classical training, & always trying to see as much various music as possible. But the two days of live free bluegrass in Golden Gate Park, every year, last weekend, was incredible - Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Freakwater (who you should "check out" if you've never heard of them), five stages, &c.
I hope you're well. I should have some new pictures digitalized soon. I always love seeing yours, of puppets, &c. "Halloween show"? "Exotic ghosts?"
Peace, Love, Roberta Joan Anderson, by Jo,
James