While remembering those who have served honorably...

...let's not forget to include soldiers with Gulf War Syndrome. Earlier this year, the VA finally recognized it as a real and pernicious physical illness.

One soldier's perspective:

http://www.cfids.org/cfidslink/2010/020304.asp

Gratitude and sorrow:

Between continued failed attempts to contain BP's spill, the Israeli military's immoral and stupid attack on the ship bringing aid supplies to Gaza, the gunman who killed 12 in a Pakistani hospital and now the tropical storm in Central America that's claimed 115 so far, the news today has been a fucking horror show.

I feel grateful for all I have and awful for those who are suffering.

Where's my parade?

This past week, I finished another chapter of final draft, had another pitch accepted and explained Twitter to both my parents.

Strange but perhaps fitting symmetry...

...that birth and death each result in lack of sleep.

In fairness:

Bumbershoot has amended its original and asinine plan re graphic design artists and the festival's logo. (See my May 24th entry.)

Update:

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2010/05/bumbershoot_abandons_logo_comp.php

And now, perhaps the most diametrically opposite links ever:

1) The Wall Street Journal's meticulously detailed account of the staggering ineptitude of BP and the Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704026204575266560930780190.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter

2) Bad Postcards, via actor and writer, Stephen Fry, who is a delight to follow on Twitter:

http://bad-postcards.tumblr.com/

Side note: when I worked in publicity at the Seattle International Film Festival in 1998 and Fry was one of the guests in conjunction with his lead role in the gorgeous and heartbreaking Wilde, he got my name right on the first try. There are still people in my building who mangle it.

Let's wrap this fucker:

If you haven't already, contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell when the full Senate votes on it in June.

And House of Representatives? High fives on last night's 234 to 194 vote. Ponies and snowcones, Speaker Pelosi.

My new Seattle Weekly feature on the Inside Out Jazz Awards is online and on stands now:

Really enjoyed writing this one!

David Pierre-Louis, owner of Lucid Lounge and the event's organizer, is wholly invigorating. All proceeds are going to Haiti and I got to speak with the legendary Clarence Wilcox:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-05-26/music/206-swing-at-inside-out-jazz-awards-show/

State Department, I'm on it:

Starting a fund to get Kim Jong-Il some Paxil and a blowjob in the hopes it will calm him down.

Who's in?

Today's "what the hell?" moments:

1) Bumbershoot, one of the best and most kaleidoscopic arts festivals in the nation, apparently sees no contradiction in profoundly disrespecting graphic design artists:

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2010/05/bumbershoots_logo_contest_has.php

2) Last week on Facebook, a forum in which I usually generate scads of comments, I posted that BP executives should, fittingly, be boiled alive in oil. No response. Zilch. I'm sorry: does someone have a better idea?

Fell asleep uncharacteristically early tonight and...

...awoke later with horrific nightmares.

No way to understand how relentless and all-encompassing grief is until you're in it.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's new book, Nomad:

Compelling review of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's new book, Nomad, and an examination of the corrosive and misogynist effects of Islam--or any religion--carried to the extreme. From Tunku Varadarajan at The Daily Beast:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-22/ayaan-hirsi-alis-new-book-nomad-reviewed/?cid=topic:mainpromo1

Just received a small but fun accolade from Smith Magazine:

Sort of the literary equivalent of a Frango:

http://www.smithmag.net/sixwordbook/2010/05/21/broke-my-toe-watching-american-idol%E2%80%94the-best-six-words-of-the-week/

Friends; calzones; Woody Allen before he was openly pervy:

Capped off a stressful and sad week with dinner last night at Via Tribunali. Companion and I cracked each other up, ran into a writer friend I adore, too, and I scarfed a calzone the size of a baby who'd eaten its twin.

Will be writing all day and again tomorrow, but between Xander's death, several deadlines and having all the windows in my unit replaced yesterday as part of a building-wide project that's been run as smoothly as the Warren Commission, I will induldge in two more hours of respite.

Love and Death, which I've seen scads of times and was lucky enough to first view at a Woody Allen film fest my folks took my brother and me to as kids, and I will be nestled in bed for the next two hours. And my unopened box of Dilletante truffles might get deflowered.

Too late. It's a grown-up now, but I was suitably gentle.

A fun little jaunt:

Cab driver this afternoon, unprompted: "The Greeks! All they do is talk! And ruin the world's economy!"

Then I told him my nationality.

Xander 1998-2010

Had to euthanize my beloved bunny, Xander, at 4:30 p.m. today.

In the last day and a half, he'd lost use of one of his hind legs and it would have be spectacularly cruel to let him suffer. Also, once I got him to the vet, it turned out the little guy had fluid in chest cavity, which is a sign of cancer, so as my vet said, "You read the signs perfectly." Xander was 12, literally almost 130 in rabbit years and he had a wonderful life. He was the last of his three siblings and a deeply sweet and brave creature. Also, in light of TJ's death--the atomic bomb nonpareil of my life so far--as deeply as it hurts to lose Xander, I've got perspective.

Turning in early tonight.

So, there's that:

The world's economy is built on quicksand and the weather has tenor-like mood swings, but at least the Napolean Dynamite craze has finally died out.

My father and large swaths of my extended family on both sides...

...grew up without the right to free speech. It's rarely far from my mind that half the things I write would land me in jail in vast chunks of the world.

Horrified by the ongoing abuse and torture of journalists in Russia. From today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/world/europe/18impunity.html?hp

Environmentalism or laziness?

My newest piece for KOMO4.com's Capitol Hill blog is up:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/environmentalism-or-laziness-0

So:

This week will make seven and a half months and it makes no more sense now than it did the second week of October. The worst of the shock has subsided and there are now scattered moments when I don't feel I'm screaming inside, but still.

Had a wonderful lunch yesterday with a newer friend who is one of the most intelligent, engaging, caring and funniest individuals I've known. Feel very lucky she reached out to me after he died.

Just turned in a piece for KOMO4.com's Capitol Hill blog and am working on my Seattle Weekly feature re the Lucid Lounge jazz club and Inside Out Jazz Awards due Tuesday. Maintaining traction on the novel and am quite pleased with the past week's output.

Momentum both in spite of and because of myself.

A few from Goodfellas spring to mind, too:

Really want to tell an editor her mother sucks the devil's cock in hell. Disturbing when lines from The Exorcist are totally apt.

More headway:

Yesterday one of my doctors showed me the latest newsletter from Johns Hopkins. It was devoted to CFIDS and the newest research breakthroughs.

Today a feature in the Guardian U.K. effectively illustrates the more pernicious aspects of the illness. (Note: in the U.K., CFIDS/CFS is frequently referred to as M.E., for Myalgic Encepholopathy.)

As most of you know, it's what I've had for the past 19 years and thus far, despite enormous progress as to its etiology (the Centers for Disease Control announced in April 2006 that five genetic markers had been isolated in those of us with CFIDS; it appears almost certain the trigger is the XMRV retrovirus or another, similar virus) there is still no effective treatment.

Fingers remain unendingly crossed.

The Guardian U.K. piece:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/may/13/me-chronic-fatigue-syndrome

I caved:

Fuck it. Here goes. Follow me on Twitter @LitsaDremousis.

Illuminating one of the many reasons Lena Horne was singular and great:

The headline is misleading, but this piece by James Gavin is one of the better tributes to Ms. Horne I've read so far:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-10/lena-hornes-stormy-past/

A 48 word recap of the past 24 hours:

Enjoyed splendid Mother's Day; bantered with brother; was pleased by Elena Kagan's nomination then saddened by Lena Horne's death; read devastating NYT piece on backsliding AIDS crisis in Uganda; had more nightmares; wrote most of today in pajamas while birds trilled soothingly outside window; am in massive pain.

And, also, because she's learned to navigate the Internet...

...with ease and her customary intelligence and never sends my brother and me emails with clip art drawings of hearts with bows around them and "jokes".

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Finding Adam Kellner:

A FB friend of mine just wrote this piece about her friend's adult son, Adam Kellner, who vanished from his mother's home in Stevenson Ranch, California (30 miles north of Los Angeles) three years ago. He disappeared without his wallet, license, keys or medications. (He has schizophrenia but was functioning well, under the circumstances.)

My loved one was missing four and a half days before his body was found and I can't fathom the even lower depths of hell in which Kellner's family has lived for three years.

Please help get the word out:

http://www.jewishjournal.com/gina_nahai/article/family_still_asking_where_is_adam_20100505/

Also: serf tossing

Britain's election just yielded a stalemate in Parliament between the Labour and Conservative parties. Possible tie breakers: scone eating contest; tweed scavenger hunt; rapid-fire mocking of French.

Again with the odds and sods:

• Had dinner at the Tamarind Tree and saw the A Guide to Visitors show last night with some delightful friends and colleagues. Fantastic meal and company and AGTV, per usual, was stellar. Also, at one point, the house manager's dog, Zack, curled up at my feet while I stroked his neck. More performances should include ridiculously sweet canines traipsing about.

• I've got another piece on KOMO4.com's Capitol Hill blog. More so than anything, I'm enjoying interviewing familiar faces in the neighborhood and shedding light on some of my favorite venues: http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/broadway-market-video-succeeding-netflix-era

• I am so fucking sick right now that Glenn Beck could walk through the door, go on a tirade then raid my fridge and I wouldn't react. Okay, not really on that last part, but you get my point.
  

Slightly in advance of Mother's Day, a fraction of the excellent things my mom has said or done:

• She (and my dad) read to my brother and me nearly every night from as early as I can remember.

• She taught my brother and me how to roller-skate.

• When she went back to school when I was ten and George was eight, she logged two years of a 4.0 at North Seattle Community College then transferred to the University of Washington for her next two years and graduated summa cum laude. And she helped us with our homework each night before she even got a chance to start hers.

• Her homemade lasagna remains unparalleled. I'm certain it could end wars if everyone just got a slice.
  

• Because she was raised in a traditional Greek household (code for "sexist as hell"), she taught me I could be anything as long as I devoted myself to the task at hand. And, of course, never let my slip show.
  

• Once when my brother was in high school and didn't want to help in the kitchen, she told him, "Just because you have a penis doesn't mean you can't unload a dishwasher."
  

• We laugh about it now, but when I was a junior in high school, she said she knew times were changing and she'd understand if I had premarital sex, "if, for instance, you're twenty-seven and engaged."

• When George and I were in junior high, she decided we were old enough to see R-rated movies, but she wanted our first to be a good one so she took us to see The Shining.

• She taught us "the N-word" was the worst word we could utter and, more importantly, taught us why.

• When she was a deputy prosecuting attorney, I frequently visited her office and encountered several defense attorneys who said Mom had repeatedly and thoroughly trumped them in court, but they liked her anyway because she played fair and was a class act.

• She instilled in me a lifelong appreciation of Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
  

• Many years ago, she put a Maniati (Spartan) curse on someone who broke my heart. Subsequently, his career went off the rails.
  

• She taught me this same Maniati curse that has been passed down for centuries. I, too, have used it sparingly, but to great effect.

• My father is equally wonderful, but Mom will always be the glue.
  

My new favorite sentence:

"But it is also true that the mega-dosage of reality programming has lowered the lowest common denominator to pre-literacy."--James Wolcott, Vanity Fair

This sounds all goopy-sweet caramel sauce but...

...I could not be more fucking sincere: it's only noon and I've already had three delightful and meaningful encounters with some of the world's most loving individuals and I'm reminded again how fortunate I am.

I always enjoy Dick Cavett's NYT essays...

...and this one is especially compelling if you're prone to vivid dreams of all stripes and, in particular, to nightmares:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/dreams-let-up-on-us/?ref=opinion%20&ref=opinion

Because, Part II:

Because we don't know why we're born or when we'll die and North Korea, Iran and Pakistan are in a potato sack race to see which can annihilate humanity first, let us find respite in the joy that Pomeranian puppies bring.

Because...

...today is hell and this is one of my favorites. March 2009, Red Rocks.

When you actually have to explain to your ob-gyn...

...how stress from grief can affect one's cycle, you shouldn't have to pay for the appointment, right?

And shouldn't the doctor have to bake you cupcakes or something just for being such a dumbass?

I know the calendar says it's spring...

...but assuredly, it's not.

Human skulls and Nixon stickers and vintage Steinbeck:

My newest KOMO4.com Capitol Hill blog post, an interview with the owner of the delightful junk shop, the Anne Bonny, is up now:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/anne-bonny-proud-member-dying-breed

Here's a fun one that in my shock and horror six months ago, I didn't anticipate:

There are ostensible friends who will bench themselves during the early stages of your grief and then return half a year later, either because they have a hangnail or some stupid shit like that or because they think that icky death stuff is over now and want to hang out again.

Sorry, children. That's not how this works.

No drama. No discussion.

We're done.

Seven years into this war, its overriding characteristics remain "futility" and "heartbreak":

From today's New York Times, "In Army's Trauma Care Units, Feeling Warehoused":

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/health/25warrior.html?hp

If you haven't heard back from me, please don't take it personally:

Since noon today, I've received substantively bad health news from two very close friends. Nothing fatal, but nothing minor, either. Each is so massively kind-hearted and loyal and wonderful, I hate that anything bad has found them. And while Mom is taking a few more steps each day--hooray!--she needs the walker to do so and is still mostly in a wheelchair. (Our whole family, including Mom, obviously, feels quite fortunate the outcome wasn't worse. But, you know, it's not exactly a jamboree right now.)

I'm meeting my deadlines despite, as noted a few days ago, I've been back on the cane the past three weeks. And I've been far sicker than this and have still never missed a deadline. This is the first time, however, I've been in this situation while deep in the grief zone and while taking care of others. Also, I don't want to go into it, but I will be having surgery in the next month.

None of this is a bid for sympathy. It's just a reminder that I'm dozens of emails and phone calls behind and am unlikely to get caught up soon. Personally and professionally, for everyone's sake, I have to assess things in a triage manner for the time being.

So again, please, oh please, don't take it personally if I haven't gotten back to you yet. We'll get into mischief sometime soon, hopefully. Promise.

Like really bad reality TV. But sadly, real:

Apparently Oklahoma has opted to duke it out with Arizona and Virginia for the title of Most Backwards State. I'd rather drink paint thinner than reside in any of them.

More:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/20/oklahoma-abortion-bills-r_n_543964.html

Odds and sods:

• It is quite nice to get phone calls from Mom and see her and Dad's number and not that of Swedish Hospital or Leon Sullivan Physical Therapy Center on my caller I.D. The planets seem slightly more aligned when your mother is back home. Hooray!

• If we know each other, there is a good chance I owe you an email. The past month has been full-tilt nuts: Mom in the hospital; several deadlines; the six-month anniversary of TJ's death (still awful and surreal); and I've been back on the cane for the past three weeks, which eats ass.

• My most recent KOMO4.com Capitol Hill blog pieces are here:
  

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/volunteer-park-after-hail-unexpected-pocket-tranquility

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/baguette-box-unique-comfort-food

In response, may the Justices' dogs piss on their robes:

Does anyone else think yesterday's Supreme Court ruling that "crush videos" (films in which small animals are crushed under a woman's stiletto for the sexual arousal of the viewer) are once again legal has as much to do with the Justices' views on protected free speech as the fact they have no idea how information is currently transmitted?

Forget an ideological litmus test: Obama's upcoming nominee should submit proof of high-speed internet and smartphone use.

After 23 long days...

...Mom will be going home tomorrow.

She continues to regain her strength and while she isn't yet completely ambulatory, she's moving in that direction and is taking a few additional steps each day.

Thanks again, everyone, for your kindness and help. Immeasurably appreciated.

Okay, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell:

You say Confederate pride isn't about slavery.

So what's it about? Tasty cornbread and baked beans?

Your progenitors fought and lost a war roughly 130 years ago so that states would have the right to own people.

At this juncture in history, the Confederate flag is a snazzier, more subtle version of a pointy white hood.

Posies concert recap! (Replete with sibling japery; tasty spring rolls; unexpected bathroom vermin; leaking pipe water; and pleasant encounters):

• My brother, George, picks me up at 9:15 p.m. I notice his very nice blazer and ask if he's teaching a seminar during the show and, if so, if he'll be handing out a syllabus later.

• Without missing a beat, he looks at my cane and says, "You're the one dressed like Mr. Belvedere."

• This is our way of greeting one another. Each of us would be disappointed if it were otherwise.

• We have opted to skip the opening bands and grab dinner in Belltown instead, a few blocks away from the show's venue, the Crocodile Cafe. We find free on-street parking our first try and like Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, we smell victory.
  

• At one of my favorite restaurants, we imbibe splendid phad thai, spring rolls and white jasmine tea. And because it is one of my favorites (the food, service, and ambiance are consistently wonderful) I will not mention its name when I note the furry creature that scurried behind the waste basket when I turned the light on in the women's room. After I return to our table and spritz with much hand sanitizer, George offers me one of the two packs of Pez he is sporting in his aforementioned nifty blazer.
  

• It is raining during our walk to the show and I unfurl my umbrella, which is met with stares slightly less hostile than might greet a Klu Klux Klan hood. It should be noted that said gawkers uniformly have straight hair, thereby disqualifying their opinions here.

• At the will call desk, a guy asks for my I.D. (the tickets are in my name), finds us on the list, stamps our wrists and waves us through. He looks puzzled when we don't budge. "You stuck my license in your clipboard," I point out and he sheepishly returns it. I have squelched his burgeoning drag act. Or maybe he was just tired.

• George and I can hear the Posies onstage and make our way into the main room. They have just launched into their upcoming disc, due in September, that they will begin recording in Spain in 48 short hours. Ken S. and Jon A. harmonize beautifully, per usual.

• After completing the new material to enthusiastic response, the band steps backstage for roughly two minutes.

• When the Posies return, they tear into their seminal Frosting on the Beater in its entirety with the ferocity of a bull goring a downed runner. George and I saw them play Frosting several times contemporaneous to its release and agree they fucking slay with the same maniacal energy they brought the first time 'round.

• Halfway through this set, I feel a large glob of water splash on my head. At first, I think it is an errant drink rivulet, but then I'm splashed again and realize the pipe above me is leaking. My umbrella cannot save me now. I step aside and the guy in front of me inadvertently gets wet. Which will make for a lively answer when each of us eventually gets asked, "So, how did you get hepatitis?"

• A few feet ahead, I spot my pal, Chris Burlingame, of the excellent music site, Three Imaginary Girls. We chat a bit and I introduce he and George to one another.
  

• Shortly thereafter, I realize George and I are now standing by Eric Corson of the Long Winters, a band I've written of roughly a thousand times. Pleasantries ensue.

• Near 1:30 a.m., the Posies wrap up their encore and the audience applauds heartily for an evening well spent.
  

• Ken S. has asked me to say hi after the show and I do and introduce him to George. Which is fitting, as George introduced me to the Posies in 1989.
  

• George drops me off around 2:00 a.m. I write this now while I'm still cogent, knowing I might be immobilized large portions of Sunday. (See "cane".)

• If you missed it earlier this week, you can read my Seattle Weekly Posies feature here:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-04-14/music/the-posies-revenge-of-the-wimps/

Worth remembering:

"The world breaks everyone. And afterward many are strong in the broken places."--Ernest Hemingway

Some good news:

Mom is now able to take a few steps with a walker, unassisted by physical therapists. Also, she can now sit up in bed by herself. She remains determined and, knock wood, continues to grow stronger.

Three possible diagnoses, but nothing firm. None are excellent, but none are grave, either.

Our whole family is deeply grateful for everyone's unfettered kindness. Cheek kisses to each of you.

My new Seattle Weekly Posies feature is online and on stands now:

Ken Stringfellow was in the studio in Bejing, Jon Auer was in the studio in Seattle, and Mom was in Swedish Hospital while I was interviewing KS and JA for this one. And everyone still made it work. If I don't see you at Saturday's Crocodile Cafe show, there is a chance we are not really friends:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-04-14/music/the-posies-revenge-of-the-wimps/

"I think the Vatican, they've got more to talk about than the Beatles."--Ringo Starr

From today's New York Times:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/ringo-unmoved-by-vatican-praise-for-beatles/

Thanks, all, for your kind wishes re Mom:

I've relayed them to her and she's touched.

Surgery no longer imminent, but still a possibility: we've got three of the best specialists and three different diagnoses. (None of them great, but none of them grave, either, we should note.) She still can't walk again, but with help, she can sit up and her spirit remains strong. Also, she's in a physical therapy center now and not the hospital.

XO, folks!
Litsa

P.S. I'm going to try to resume posting frequently 'round here. We'll see.

Update:

Today is the eighth day Mom is in the hospital; surgery imminent. Please keep her in your thoughts.

Again this week, I won't be returning messages that aren't personally or professionally exigent, nor will I be updating here.

Reminded again I have incomparably kind and insightful loved ones and colleagues and that insurance companies and many nurse's aides are a step below the corn found in satan's shit.

Hey, all:

The past week has been the strangest (not the worst, but the strangest) since TJ died. And that's saying something. All news has been incredibly wonderful or massively stressful with nothing in between.

I'm signing off for the next week and will only be returning exigent personal and professional emails.

In the meantime, if you want, you can read my newest piece for KOMO 4's Capitol Hill blog, this one an interview with Summer Robinson, the thoroughly engaging owner of Pilot Books, Seattle's only bookstore to exclusively carry independent titles:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/pilot-books-successfully-champions-independent-publishers-authors

XO and the good stuff,
Litsa

Idea for super-cheap reality show:

"Tea Party Spelling Bee".

No prize money awarded ever.

I don't know which are worse...

...the dreams in which he's alive or the ones in which he's dead.

This is hell.

Stalin didn't tolerate a lot of megaphones, dumbfucks:

Hey, Tea Party protesters who met in Iowa City yesterday outside of where President Obama was speaking to scream that he is "a communist" and that the U.S. is now a totalitarian nation, you realize, don't you, that if this were true, you'd be in the gulag right now?

Tea Party-ers are well within their rights to protest, of course, but their inability to grasp facts or recall history would be laughable if it weren't so potentially dangerous.

WaPo's feature on a day through the eyes of Tea Party-er, Randy Millam, 52, illustrates this point. Telling quote from Millam, "I'm not ready for outright violence yet. We have to be civil as long as we can."

"Iowa man joins protest against Obama and health-care reform":

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032503849.html

Is he sorry? Or sorry he got caught?

Chris Reichert, 40, is one of the Tea Party-ers who, in protesting health care reform in front of Representative Mary Jo Killory's district office this past weekend, berated a former nuclear physicist sitting near the crowd with a sign proclaiming he has Parkinson's Disease. Reichert proceeded to hurl dollar bills at the physicist and screamed in the man's face.

Now, in an interview with The Columbus Dispatch, Reichert apologizes profusely. And indeed, he sounds genuinely contrite. But is it because he has re-evaluated his deplorable actions? Or is it because they were captured on video, have spread throughout the web, and were entered into the Congressional Record by Representative Killroy?

Does a 40 year-old man really disavow his purportedly deeply held beliefs in the period of a few days?

More:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/24/dollar-bill-throw.html?sid=101

This was never intended as a Woodward and Bernstein-type...

...report. It's not as if I set out to blow the lid off the fact sun is nice. (Nor is the headline my original one.)

Still, it contains a dollop of joy and one of my favorite photos I've taken, that of a Black Lab splashing in Cal Anderson Park's fountain. And as today it's 15 degrees cooler and mordantly gray, it's useful to be reminded the clouds do part, literally and metaphorically.

My newest piece for KOMO 4's Capitol Hill blog:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/its-whole-different-world-sun

Unfettered hoorays!

I found out yesterday one of my friends won the Central Park of writing awards (Central Park being enormous and awesome) and discovered today one of my closest friends has been nominated for the Washington Square Park of writing awards (slightly less enormous; equally awesome).

Goddamn, it's nice when the world gets it right.

A stellar example of why Andy Borowitz remains one of my favorite scribes:

"Poll: Majority Favor Earlier Bedtime for McCain:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - In the wake of several cranky public utterances by Arizona's senior senator in recent days, a new poll shows that a majority of Americans favor an earlier bedtime for John McCain."

More:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/poll-majority-favor-earli_b_512309.html

Important:

As a result of my pointing out illegalities re the disabled and federal law within my building, a neighbor is harassing me and calling my editors and making false and defamatory statements about me.

All three editors, because they know me, respect the quality of my work, and like me, have called to let me know of her illegal behavior and have been hugely sympathetic.

If she contacts you, please let me know immediately.

Thank you.

And now, I have just read what is perhaps my favorite headline...

...of my life so far: "Obama Will Sign Health Care Bill Within Two Days".

Congrats to all who have worked so hard to bring this to fruition. Of course, I'm including the huge swath of individuals I know--myself included--who continually called and emailed their elected representatives this past year.

Much, much work remains, of course. But still, what a hell of a start.

So far, no elected Republican has denounced the extreme and appalling...

...behavior of certain Tea Party members who hurled the n-word at members of the Congressional Black Caucus and gay slurs at Representative Barney Frank yesterday in D.C. Which is pathetic morally. And moderate Republicans don't think and act like this.

Are they going to stand idly by while their party is hijacked by lunatics?

More:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/20/AR2010032002556.html?hpid=topnews

Self-publishing author succeeds on own unusual terms:

My newest piece for KOMO 4's Capitol Hill blog went up yesterday:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/self-publishing-author-succeeds-own-unusual-terms

Kind of amusing...

...I'm on two deadlines today while the temperature is approaching 70 for the first time this year.

Still, vastly better than the alternative in either case.

I'm cautiously optimistic as the House heads into...

...its health care vote on Sunday, but even in writing that sentence, my stomach lurched eight or nine more times.

I keep thinking one day our nation will look back and find it inconceivable that a president, a large swath of Congress, and most citizens had to engage in such a protracted and bitter fight to convince the remainder that universal health care is imperative morally and financially. I don't mind, of course, that it's been difficult--sweeping reform shouldn't be enacted lightly or without meticulous attention to detail--and reasonable individuals, obviously, can reach differing conclusions. But from the false accusations of "death panels" to those that reform is a cloak for "slavery reparations", there has been a level of surrealism to the past year's debate that would be comical if it weren't, in fact, real.

History is on our side. Let's hope the vote is, too.

Alex Chilton R.I.P.

I discovered Big Star via the myriad of R.E.M. interviews I started reading back in 1983, in which both Michael Stipe and Peter Buck would tout Alex Chilton as a huge influence. And those two, for being in the same band, could almost always be counted on to cite musicians on opposite ends of the spectrum. So their collective praise sparked my interest and it grew from there.

Some people should be alive and some should be dead and Chilton belongs with the former. I just found out via a pal that Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen (D) honored Chilton on the House floor today and at first I was skeptical that it was mere political theater. Then I watched Cohen's tribute to his friend and found it comprehensive and moving and sincere:

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/ID/221212&start=1596&end=1715

Kind thoughts to Chilton's loved ones.

Burritos: a recession-proof investment?

My newest piece for KOMO 4's Capitol Hill blog is up:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/burritos-recession-proof-investment

Adults who tout getting drunk on St. Patrick's Day...

...are missing the point of adulthood: you don't need an excuse.

Next they're going to brag about eating pizza for breakfast and staying up waaaay past bedtime.

Apocalypse (almost) now:

My fourth piece for KOMO 4's Capitol Hill blog went up yesterday:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/apocalypse-almost-now

If you can get through this without at least cracking a smile...

...chug that gallon of weed killer because you're already dead.

From BlackBook, "Flight Attendants Decline Passenger Scrotum Exam":

http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/canadian-flight-attendants-show-profession-still-has-dignity-refuse-to-atte/16939

More evidence John Edwards' dick has spectacularly bad judgment:

Rielle Hunter's hypocrisy, neediness, self-centered kind of New Ageism, and ultimately, self-loathing remind me of someone I was friends with years ago: after I'd helped her through a series of protracted medical tests (bringing her dinner, listening for hours on the phone, dropping off videos, et al), she didn't come visit me after a complicated surgery because she had just started seeing a new guy but said, "I sent you healing thoughts while doing yoga." I ended the friendship shortly thereafter and several others who viewed this as the final straw also told her to fuck off.

Too bad John Edwards lacks the same sort of bullshit detector:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/the-mistress-of-john-edwards-speaks/?hp

R.I.P. Slats and kind thoughts to his loved ones in their time of grief:

My third piece for KOMO 4's Capitol Hill blog went up yesterday:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/slats-longtime-seattle-musician-and-capitol-hill-denizen-has-died

Obits of this sort break your heart. And I feel fortunate my editor let me run it the way I chose, without bothering his loved ones in their agony.

My second installment for KOMO 4's Capitol Hill blog went up...

...yesterday:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/captiol-hills-whimsy-full-bloom

It's probably the easiest assignment I've had, but fun nonetheless and I like my editor a lot. And while my health stays in remission, I've been sending out longer pieces to larger venues again. So this is a tasty side-dish while I continue to whip up entrees.

For her loved ones' sake...

...I'm glad her body was found:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/87615727.html

But still. Everything about this is haunting and sad.

Thinking of her friends and family.

I write and take pics for KOMO 4's Capitol Hill blog now:

My first piece for the Capitol Hill blog on komonews.com is up now:

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/dusk-taskent-park-boylston-ave-east

So part of what I do here and on Facebook, I now do for KOMO 4's site. I'm about to turn in my second post and am enjoying myself so far. (Very friendly editor helps.)

Feel free to send me Capitol Hill info that might be relevant.

Haiti, two months later:

I've known since he died five months ago that I've been incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by ceaselessly, unfailingly kind family and friends and that, also, I'm grieving in a part of the world in which I have access to ample food, clean water, a safe home and freedom of speech. (A large swath of my family lived under Nazi occupation; when my father's mother died when he was six, he had no grief counseling because, indeed, he had no food or shelter.)

So I keep returning to Haiti again and again. Like everyone I know who is in a position to donate to relief efforts, I've done so repeatedly. But I keep thinking of the 1.2 million displaced individuals who are grieving multiple loved ones without privacy or even basic sanitation.

Liesl Gernholtz of Human Rights Watch writes for the Daily Beast on the particular horrors in the quake's aftermath endemic to women, many of whom of have been raped in the resulting breakdown of any infrastructure:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-03-09/haitis-rape-crisis/

Ian Urbina writes for the New York Times on the particular hardships of Haiti's elderly, who survived both Duvalier regimes and Haiti's continuing AIDS crisis only to face the quake's nearly unfathomable devastation at the end of their lives:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/world/americas/12elderly.html?hp

Ah, the majesty of nature:

Tragically and horrifically, she is now the sixth climber or hiker to die in the Pacific Northwest since TJ died 22 weeks ago:

http://www.kptv.com/news/22803873/detail.html

Long story; inside joke:

Neal and Jack.

Thank you, internet...

...for introducing me in one week to two opinions so earth-shatteringly stupid that their proponents should be flogged then sterilized: 1) Kathryn Bigelow had an Oscar in each hand, "but no one to hug." 2) The Who "aren't in the pantheon with the Beatles and the Stones."

I have to live in a world wherein TJ is dead but these cocksuckers draw breath? Holy fucking jesus goddammed christ.

Hand-off!:

I'm on deadline. Read Eric's wickedly funny Vanity Fair breakdown of last night's Steve Martin/Alec Baldwin pairing:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/03/steve-martin-vs-alec-baldwin.html

This is the first year since 1992...

...he and I won't be betting on the Oscars and it's one more thing that feels horribly awry.

Still it's easy for me to choose my favorite films of 2009: the myriad we saw together while he was alive.

Greetings and salutations:

Like most sites on the web, The Slippery Fish has Sitemeter software installed and has had so for several years. I've always kept the Sitemeter logo displayed on the bottom left (scroll all the way down) instead of electing to hide it, as is the more standard practice, because it's fair to let readers know I can see their IP number, ISP, city, state, country, page hits, searches that preceded their arrival here, searches they conduct once they are here, whether they email an entry and if so which one, the entries they click on, the duration of each page view, the duration of their entire stay, if they have the site bookmarked or search for it individually several times a day, etc. As I said, nearly every web site features Sitemeter or equivalent software. This is common knowledge in 2010.

As with everything I write for public consumption, it is, in fact, for public consumption. I don't reveal secrets here, i.e. while much of the content is personal, none of it is private. So for the tiny but persistent band who still routinely searches for any shred about him here, and in some cases repeats this action daily, by all means, continue. I won't reveal your names. But keep in mind I'm not searching the web (or anywhere else) for information about him.

Because I don't have to.

Okay, this is a tough one, but we're at the 72 hour mark now:

One of my closest friends was in France when the massive storm, Xynthia, hit three days ago and none of us have heard back from him yet. Much of France is still without power so we're hoping this or something equally benign is the tripwire.

Still, the good thoughts would be appreciated.

[Postscript 2:15 p.m. My friend is fine. He wasn't checking email so he never got his brother's messages. Also, he didn't realize the extent of damage to the country and that President Sarkozy has declared a state of emergency in France. I.e. my friend had no idea there was reason for a number of us to be worried.]

Thanks to all involved! Also, high five, Canoe Club. And yet:

Felt bisected last night: really enjoyed telling another story as part of the A Guide to Visitors salon and, as always, loved working with the AGTV producers; spent time w/ excellent friends in attendance; was tickled by the capacity crowd; found everyone on the bill compelling; and am groovin' on the new(ish) Canoe Club venue. Overwhelmingly wish my story had been about anything else, though. But what other story is important now?

More on the Canoe Club:

http://canoesocialclub.com/

I've had rabbits for twelve years...

...and can attest, as can anyone who has lived with them, that they are highly intelligent and social companion animals. It's one thing to eat them out of exigency, another matter entirely to ingest them by choice. The New York Times feature briefly touches on this issue, but largely avoids it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/dining/03rabbit.html

Eating rabbit is akin to eating cat or dog.

Ten hours in and...

...so far, March seems scripted by Edgar Allan Poe after a large pot of coffee.

Some days, all you can do is breathe and keep writing.

A Guide to Visitors, 8 p.m. Tuesday March 2nd at the Canoe Club:

Pleased to announce that a month ago, I had another piece accepted to A Guide to Visitors, the story-telling salon. The evening's theme this round? "Seattle Stories".

Details:

http://agtv.org/calendar.html

More on A Guide to Visitors (for the uninitiated, no, it has nothing to do with tourism, guiding or visitors):

http://agtv.org/press.html

Striking, saddening reports and video from the devastation in Chile:

One of the more evocative and comprehensive pieces I've read so far. Scroll down for video embedded on the lower left side:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/world/americas/28chile.html?hp

As if I haven't encountered enough hyprocrisy from skull-dented, Bible-thumping lunatics in recent months:

Yesterday a woman called me from a listed Seattle number, relayed the name of her Bible group and asked, "We're in your neighborhood and with everything going on in the world today, I wondered if I could read you some Scripture passages?"

It's axiomatic that extremists in all belief and/or philosophical systems fuck things up for everybody. Still can't decide whether or not to post the group's number, though.

Yippee! More good news re the Smith Mag book:

Smith Magazine's newest book, It All Changed in an Instant: More Six Word Memoirs (HarperCollins) in which, as previously noted, I am included alongside some of my very favorite writers, is featured on Huffington Post today:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/26/six-word-memoirs-james-fr_n_466011.html

I'm watching the bipartisan health care summit at Blair House...

...and among other inanities, I don't understand how Senator Kyl (R-Arizona) has deduced that President Obama's health care plan is a "job killer". Besides the pesky fact it's inaccurate, Kyl's pronouncement is designed to terrify the very populace, the middle class and the lower income, the bill helps the most.

A year into the president's first term, ninety-nine percent of Republicans have made it abundantly clear they are going to declare him a big-government favoring, tax-increasing socialist regardless of what he actually favors. He could provide each American home with free gas for a year and the G.O.P. would still maintain the president hates the nation's cars.

Enough already. Reconciliation it is.

Though I'll be avoiding them henceforth, natch:

You know how with certain individuals it's impossible not to conclude that in lieu of gray matter their brain pan is stuffed with layer upon layer of dead flies?

I had the pleasure of interacting with two such specimens yesterday and I'd like to take this time to thank them for providing future material.

In case there weren't enough reasons to think RNC chairman, Michael Steele, is a complete tool:

Excerpt from today's Politico.com feature:

"Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress.

Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck's local crew to cater the RNC's Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii.

For some major GOP donors, both decisions were symbolic of the kind of wasteful spending habits they claim has become endemic to his tenure at the RNC. When Ken Mehlman served as the committee chairman during the critical 2006 midterm elections, the holiday party was held in a headquarters conference room and Chic-fil-A was the caterer.

A POLITICO analysis of expenses found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, the committee’s payments for charter flights doubled; the number of sedan contractors tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000."

More:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33324.html

My newest (very) short story, 'Jess' Expiration Date' is...

...at Six Sentences now:

http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/2010/02/jesss-expiration-date.html

Part of a larger, forthcoming work.

And not just "fun under the circumstances", but actually fun:

Holy fucking hell! Thank you, everybody, for a birthday party last night that was more fun than sunshine and puppies and spaghetti combined! Here's to a glorious year for all!

With the love and the hugs and the loving hugs,
Litz

Along with the jammies corollary:

Looking forward to tonight, which will be the largest, though not the last of the birthday gatherings.

I must be presentable, cogent and witty in a few hours, however, but once again, I've barely slept. And I'm afraid if I close my eyes now, I'll zone through the festivities, which would be poor form. Though I'm unsure how I'll be presentable, cogent and witty unless I get some sleep.

Great thing about my friends and family and among the reasons I love them so? Everyone is fully cognizant of the circumstances this year and if I arrived with a pillow in tow, their feelings for me wouldn't change.

Hope not, anyway. Because we might be testing that theory in a bit.

Um, Seattle?

While it has been delightfully sunny these past three days and all of us welcome the return of chirping birds, might we stipulate the pervasive tank tops and sandals are a wee premature?

It is a mere 50 degrees Fahrenheit, not even "warm" unless one has been bred from penguins.

A fine salute to a fine man and writer:

Roger Ebert has always been one of my favorite film critics because of his vast knowledge, deft wit and sense of fair play.

Incredibly sorry he's enduring cancer, much less such a pernicious form. I know he wouldn't want my pity, but he'll always have my respect:

http://www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310

Link via my dear friend, Jade Walker.