What I'm Listening To #53

andybeybb&b, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

On an absolutely gorgeous last day of May evening in the nation's capital, I've pulled me out some Andy Bey to chill with this evening. Andy's voice is visceral. He can make those low notes hummmmm deep within your chest and then just as suddenly hit a falsetto rift with a clarity that makes you worry about your crystal. All with an intimacy that has you half expecting to turn around and find him playing your own piano. What a great way to end a nearly perfect day.

Sunday Funnies #22

What I'm Listening To #52

lilyalleninmiy, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Lily Allen's "It's Not Me, It's You" is a breath a fresh air. Grand lyrics; playful, dance full, joyous tunes. And so FUCKING PC! Touché, Lily!

My Quilting Ways #15

quiltcircle3, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Ever start something without knowing where it's going?

You do it just because you gotta get into it, and you have an inkling of an idea, an incomplete thought, a fragment of a concept percolating in your head. It's bursting against the limits of your creative brain cells, so you remove your thumb from the dam and welcome the deluge. That's kind of how this project is evolving.

Here's a third patch of circles on circles and I now see it as not simply circles, but portals. Windows into time and space and other worlds of possibility.

This is now my inspiration. It gives me a focus and sense of mission in this quilt, as well as, a working title: "Portals Into Other Possibilities." It's still clunky, still a work in progress.

My Quilting Ways #14

2newquiltpatches, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

At it again, this time applique cirlces on circles...... Wonder where tis one will lead?

Birthday Buds

29JanuaryBDay, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

It is utterly entwined in our DNA as human beings to seek meaning. We have been given brains that demand eschatological systems within which to work and play and breath and judge the rest of our world. And I for one thank the Heavens for this, because it has led us from a world based of superstitious causal relationships to one rooted in scientific discovery.

And still there lingers a certain fascination with things of chance and magic and unscientific systemization. We play the lottery. We read our horoscopes. We proclaim meaning in chance and coincidental events. And it gives us a different, perhaps more primordial comfort as we do. And so it’s to this end that I share with you some of the people who were also born on my birthday. We form a sort of fellowship of humanity based solely on the accidents of our birth. Therefore, there’s no real relationship at all, yet there remains a question of “meaning”. And a platform from which each of us is free to determine whatever meaning we want—at least those of us who are still alive!

At the very least we can wish one another well. And I do.

FROM TOP TO BOTTOM/FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

R1.C1 ~ THOMAS PAINE (1737 – 1809) American Revolutionary, born in England, confirmed intellectual who seized upon the possibilities presented by a new nation to promote Enlightenment Ideas in written works like, “Common Sense” (1776), “Rights of Man” 1791, and “The Age Of Reason” 1793-94.

R1.C2 ~ HENRY LEE, III (1756 – 1818) American Revolutionary from Virginia who signed the United States Constitution, served as Governor of the state of Virginia, represented Virginia in the newly formed House of Representatives, and was the father of confederate Civil War general Robert E. Lee.

R1.C3 ~ WILLIAM McKINLEY (1843 – 1901) 25th President of the United States

R1.C4 ~ ANTON CHEKHOV (1860 – 1904) Russian playwright and author of “Uncle Vanya,” “Three Sisters,” and “The Cherry Orchard.”

R2.C1 ~ FREDERICK DELIUS (1862 – 1934) German born English composer of classical music: operas, concertos, symphonies, etc.

R2.C2 ~ W. C. FIELDS [nee: William Claude Dukenfield] (1880 – 1946) American Vaudevillian performer, actor and comedian.

R2.C3 ~ BARNETT NEWMAN (1905 – 1970) American Abstract Expressionist painter.

R2.C4 ~ TOM SELLECK (1945 – present) American actor.

R3.C1 ~ OPRAH WINFREY (1954 – present) American philanthropist, TV talk show host, actor.

R3.C2 ~ GREG LOUGANIS (1960 – present) American athelete and AIDs activist.

R3.C3 ~ SARA GILBERT (1975 – present) American Actor.

R3.C4 ~ ADAM LAMBERT (1982 ~ present) American singer, American Idol runner-up 2009.

Late May Gardens #5

container01, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

I'll close this thread with this picture of one of my many container garden: Lush, rusty, lemony...full of verdance.

Late May Gardens #4

stofthedigitalis, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

To look at images from my gardens, you'd practically get the impression that I live in coastal Oregon or Washington and not Washington, D. C.'s suburban Maryland! It's just been a wonderfully wet spring. Everything flourishes today...Foxglove and St. Francis.

Late May Gardens #3

californiapoppy01, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Back when I lived in Kentucky on the crest of a palisade at the edge of the prairie I planted California Poppies. I was enamored with their frilly unconventional foliage and brilliant yellow-orange blossoms. They loved the sun there and rewarded me by reseeding and returning annually to wave in clusters in the summer sun.

And therefore, it was an act of nostolgia that drove me to buy and plant a dozen of them in my moist, humid and shady backyard. Would they bloom? I had no way of knowing.... So, imagine my surprise this afternoon at the advent of this blossom: A peachy, variagated circle of creamy light against a bed of pale blue-green filigree. Will wonders never cease?

Late May Gardens #2

pathwaygarden, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

I have this narrow garden in the backyard that is sandwiched in between the walkway and the back stairs down to the basement. When I first bought this place it was somehow filled with tomato plants full of fruit! Quite a trick, I've never gotten tomatoes to even bare a blossom there for general lack of light.

Each year I plant a trinity of flowers in the bed and this year the combination includes: Pineapple Sage (back row); Choleus var. "Henna" (middle row), and white begonias in the front. It's the most interesting partnership of plants I've every attempted there...time will tell.

Lily Allen Phenomenon: OR, Perhaps FUCK Is JUST A Four Letter Word!

After posting my previous vid of this song I discovered that it--the song, has spawned a host of fan inhabited videos. And I say BRAVO! The GLBT community has a new anthem, and it's no longer somewhere over the rainbow. Thank you, Lily!

Random Quote #106 (Today's Sermon #next!)

abrahamlincoln, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

"Anyone who thinks he knows the mind of god is simply arrogant."

~ Abraham Lincoln, 1809 - 1865

Arthur Erickson, RIP

arthurerickson, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

I didn't know his name until today, but I often witnessed his genius.

Arthur Erickson was the architect of the Canadian Embassy here in Washington, D. C. It's a powerfully amazing and iconic structure. My recent visit there to see the exhibit of documents, paintings, and prints to celebrate the colonization of Canada by Europeans was my first one. It only enhanced my awe of the place. It is a building well designed and well placed. Bravo, Msr. Erickson--may light perpetual shine upon you.

FUCK is not a 4 letter word.

It's a fact of life!

Mid-May Gardens #5

fluer-de-lis, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

A trio of volunteer blue iris', just stunningly indigo.

What I'm Watching #198

AJihadForLove, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Is a documentary by Parvez Sharma that traces the lives and experiences of gays and lesbians in the Arab world. Men and women who love Islam, who love Allah, and who wage a war daily with both because they have the audacity to love themselves, too. This is their personal "Jihad".

The film adroitly opens their individual worlds to you, warts and all. So whether we're witnessing the trials of the only openly gay Imam in South Africa or the triumphant introduction of a lesbian's lover to her mother in the rural highlands of Turkey you feel compassion and empathy and hope. And in some vinettes you wish you could intervene as in the case of the four young men from Iran who escaped certain execution in their homeland to become wards of the United Nations with no control over their future, and no guarantee that they won't be sent back to Iran.

The only shame is that the only people who are likely to see this film are the denizens of independent and glbt film festivals.

It's Our Turn

courtcartoon,jpg, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Or as one Republican noted back in the Bush days, "elections have consequences."

Finally, Republican members of the Senate's judiciary committee are stepping up to the plate and acknowledging this reality. Until now, members of the "so called" liberal press have been acting like some legal views of potential nominees to the Supreme Court would be, nay ARE, controversial. Chief among them the idea of abortion.

Give me a break! Abortion as a concept is as old as man, and as a legal right in the United States the law of the land for nearly 30 years. You don't have to like it, but the clock moves one, the page has been turned: This is NOT a litmus test for membership on the Supreme Court. To harp otherwise only confirms that it is a very SLOW news day on FOX(FAUX)News.com!

So, it was refreshing to learn that the leading Republican on the Judiciary Committee in the Senate gets this, too. In today's New York Times, Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama stated, "Everyone up here can see the political pieces on the board. No one is talking about the possibility of defeating any nominee, barring something coming out of left field.”

I can only hope that would be something criminal and NOT ideological.....

My Gardens -- Mid-May

foxgloveoffsunporch, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

A quick share of this amazing Foxglove off on my sunporch. Such a fascinating plant!

What I'm Watching #197

drhorriblesingalongblog, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

So given my just completed comments on WIW #196, let's talk funny.

This is some funny shit.

Confession: I hated "Dougie Howser, M.D." and by extension, Neal Patrick Harris. But then Dougie got canceled, and NPHarris disappeared... well, sort of. Little by little he re-emerged and re-invented himself almost just AS himself. And that takes balls.

In this iteration he's amazing. The whole concept is simply delightful. And today, I learned that he will be hosting this year's Tony awards. Well done, and Bravo! -- NPH! I can't wait for your next project.

What I'm Watching #196

superbad, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

I have a new teacher this year who is simply dynamite. She brought this film in for me to watch declaring that it was the "funniest film I've ever seen!" -- OUCH. I watched it. I did!

I reminded myself afterwards that I'm twice her age + 2 years. And it isn't that this movie is bad or unfunny. It's, in fact, charming at times--times after it ceases to be simply vulgar, or utterly predictable in an adolescent way. Like 2 minutes into the thing, I had basically written the rest of it myself. Where's the funny in that? Super Bad? Hardly. More like super sad...