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:

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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.