July 12, 2019 at 5:12 am (Conversations, Lists, Places, television, Weather)
Tags: "The View", California, causes, CNN, elections, news, politics, summer
California light is harsh. There are no subtleties between light and dark.
You’re young and then you’re suddenly old. It just happens.
We’re at the very middle of summer. After tomorrow, the days will get shorter. Self is sorry that she didn’t enjoy the summer as much as she should have. The weather every day was so unsettling: some days cool, like early spring. And then, the very next day, intensely hot.
She loves watching CNN: that succession of animatronic talking heads. The best moments of the Democratic Campaign so far have been: 1) Pete Buttigieg being confronted by a crowd of angry black citizens of South Bend, asking him if he believed in Black Lives Matter (“Are you asking me if black lives matter?” Buttigieg asked. “Of course they do.” A woman yelled: SAY IT. WE WANT TO HEAR YOU SAY IT. High drama, self loved it. Buttigieg did not back down. 2) Michael Bennett’s speech highlights, shown this morning before he came on The View. Until this morning, she barely registered a thought about him. WOW, that speech they aired this morning was a scorcher.
Both Buttigieg and Bennet are long shots, but they each represent a uniquely American energy. Which is COMPLETELY LACKING in the GOP.
She watched both Democratic debates. She was not enthused by Kamala’s unleashing on Biden. Self means, someone had to go after Biden, and no one was doing it, good for Kamala for having the keenest ambition of all the candidates. But really, it felt almost too easy. She won’t find it that easy to go after POTUS the same way.
Self tries to imagine a presidential debate between Trump and Kamala. She doesn’t think he’ll go for creepily stalking her across the stage, as he did with Hillary (Or maybe he will. Who knows? He’s clearly used that tactic before. On someone. Alas, Hillary was completely unprepared for the grotesque gesture)
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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July 10, 2019 at 4:37 pm (Flowers, Links)
Tags: California, Cee Neuner, flower photography, Garden, happiness, seasons, summer
It’s always a good day when self can participate in Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. This week, it’s 5+ Items:
Simply make sure there are at least 5 items in your photo.
Without further ado:
Backyard, Yesterday Evening Around 8 p.m.
Front Porch: Self has about six potted hydrangeas.
One More from the Front Porch
Love summer. Love flowers.
Stay tuned.
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July 4, 2019 at 7:39 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Holidays, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers)
Tags: California, essay, favorites, Latin American writers, reading lists, Rosario Ferré, second reads, translation, writing process
HOME: 4 July 2019
Today self finished Stephen Westaby’s Open Heart and began a re-read of the Rosario Ferré collection The Youngest Doll (University of Nebraska Press, 1991). Some pieces are memoir, some are nonfiction, some are magical realist.
- Being a writer . . . one has to learn to live by letting go, by renouncing the reaching of this or that shore, to let oneself become the meeting place of both . . . In a way, all writing is a translation, a struggle to interpret the meaning of life, and in this sense the translator can be said to be a shaman, a person said to be deciphering conflicting human texts, searching for the final unity of meaning in speech.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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June 26, 2019 at 10:50 pm (The Economist)
Tags: California, essay, news, politics, summer
from Texafornia Dreaming, p. 7, The Economist:
One in five Americans calls Texas or California home. By 2050 one in four will. Over the past 20 years the two states have created a third of new jobs in America. Their economic heft rivals whole countries’. Were they nations, Texas would be the tenth-largest, ahead of Canada by GDP. California would be fifth, right behind Germany.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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June 13, 2019 at 6:46 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Links, Memoirs, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended)
Tags: California, history
Excerpt, Chapter XXIII, America Is In the Heart, a memoir by Carlos Bulosan:
When I went to the kitchen to wash dishes to pay for my food, the woman threw her hands up and said: “That is enough! Go home! Come again!”
I went again and again. But I had no home that winter. One of my companions died of tuberculosis, so Mariano burned the cabin and left town. The nights were cold. Once in a while I could hear church bells ringing, and I would say to myself: “If you can listen long enough to those bells you will be safe. Try to listen again and be patient.” They were my only consolation, those bells. And I listened patiently, and that spring came with a green hope.
I went to Seattle to wait for the fishing season in Alaska.
And that was where Carlos Bulosan died, a victim of tuberculosis.
Stay tuned.
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February 27, 2019 at 8:57 pm (Food and Drink, Links, Places, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: California, Cambridge, Cee Neuner, indulgences, literary festivals, London, restaurants
Self missed last week’s Fun Foto Challenge. But this week, the Challenge is SMOOTH.
Here are: a sidewalk near Fleet Street, London (smooth sidewalk); a canal in Cambridge (smooth, tranquil boat ride); and sweet potato fries and an assortment of (smooth) dips!
London, Near Fleet Street: 20 November 2018
And here’s Cambridge University, during last November’s Cambridge Literary Festival:
Cambridge, England: 25 November 2018
And here’s a dish from Coupa Cafe, whose owner might be Venezuelan because there are a number of Venezuelan items on the menu:
Sweet Potato Fries w/ an Assortment of Dips: Coupa Cafe, Los Altos, CA
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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February 11, 2019 at 4:06 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Places, Recommended, Sundays, Weather, Women Writers)
Tags: California, English writers, Mendocino, novel, reading lists
View from Main Street, Mendocino, Today (It rained all day yesterday but today was glorious)
“And hadn’t the Kraken been nothing but legend, until a giant squid pitched up on a Newfoundland beach, and was photographed in a tin bath by the Reverend Moses Harvey?”
— The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry, p. 144
This is self’s first Sarah Perry book. She’s quite enjoying it.
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January 25, 2019 at 5:41 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Links, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: California, Cee Neuner, Fridays, Hotel Amerika, Literary Magazines, teaching, TransGenre
Must be on a roll! Participated in two Fun Foto Challenges in one week!
The theme of this one is BLACK AND WHITE. Self took these pictures just a few minutes ago. Thanks to Cee Neuner for the always-wonderful prompts!
Self is teaching a three-day writing workshop in Mendocino in February. Here are some of the materials from the last time she taught this class, in 2016:
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January 4, 2019 at 11:48 pm (destinations, Links, Places, Traveling, Weather)
Tags: Annaghmakerrig, artists residency, California, Cee Neuner, Fridays, Garden, inspiration, Ireland, photography, Redwood City
Cee Neuner has very interesting prompts. This week’s is MONOTONES. Love it.
Lake Annagmakerrig: 4:30 a.m., 8 November 2018 (Just realized that it’s too light in the photograph for 4:30 a.m. DUH! The photo is time-stamped for California time, which is eight hours ahead of Ireland. The actual time in Ireland when self took the picture was 12:30 p.m.)
It amuses self to think about how the first color that usually comes to mind when one thinks of Ireland is green.
Clouds, Annaghmakerrig: 7:30 a.m. (California time, which means 3:30 p.m. in Ireland), 7 November 2018
Fatsia, Backyard, Redwood City: 11 a.m., 26 September 2018
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