new blogs by the dozen & art city ventura
yesterday
i have a more modest dream…using blogs to save the earth… yesterday i helped almost 30 students get their blogs going; i’ll post a link to those links soon. and today (with a little help from some friends) i started Art City’s blog http://artcityventura.wordpress.com
give it some love–it’s just a baby! my second born blog, my middle child, the write alley http://whisperdownthewritealley.wordpress.com got some attention today too–i posted this you tube of Martin Luther King and a portion of his “I Have a Dream” plus I posted the full text of it in honor and celebration of his birth. it sounds really cool if you start it then start the second one going…
prowling all over 3 blogs now…the art predator
lucky in love by my cat lulu
to have one of your own go to my cat lulu’s esty shop.
to make your own v-day cards in socal, lettre sauvage is holding card making workshops starting this weekend
unhabituated: 3:15 Experiment 8/10/05
for the poetry train…
330am aug 19 2005
habituated I guess
is the word for
getting used to
the alarm and
sleeping through it
once and then twice
the night terrors
maybe and maybe
that’s why they get worse
and why they don’t often
terrify me as much
as they used to
last night for example
I woke with a screech
there were large black
ants in the bed
they were after me
you could become habituated
too I suppose to
making love with someone
become so habituated that
you are bored or boring
or both become so
habituated to it as to
not really care to
in the end be a
really terrible lover and
what a crime that would be
to no longer pay attention to
be struck by be moved by
your lover’s scent curves
silkiness
the way your lovers tongue
moves in your mouth moves
you inside moves the
butterflies in your stomach
makes your lips tingle and
your toes curl
to have to remember to breathe
I don’t ever want to
become habituated to
sleep through my lovers embrace
my lovers legs entangle
our thighs scissor together
our arms snug about each other
move feet rubbing together
making fire
you can become habituated to
the breath of a place
but when you
go away to the mountains
you can bury your nose
in a ponderosa to
capture its vanilla scent
sit by a creek and
take in the cool damp air
you can pay attention to the
softness of pine needles
underfoot watch for belly flowers
quiet your voice to hear the
chickadees the hermit thrush
and when you return to the ocean
notice first the air softening
the orange blossoms hanging there
the thickness the heaviness
the denseness of the sea’s
exhalation each time it reaches shore
each day at dusk at sunset
the earth releases its
breath and you can too
the new day starts then
I think with the last
breaths of the old day
and the first breath of
the night
I guess if we can become so
habituated as to no
longer notice something as
important as this as
important as the birds’
morning greetings we can ignore
the injustices we are surrounded
by become habituated to all
the wrongs of the world
give up trying to make right
they say there are 3 kinds of love
infatuation
then something
then habituation
and as we become
habituated we lose all those
lovely feel good days
our brain makes
they say you have to
bring excitement to your life
I see it with the baby
everyday he is so
wildly alive to
everything he encounters
my birthday
yep earth rolled all the way around the sun once more the other day and here i am still, on earth anyway, but away from the cybersphere/blogosphere, up in the mountains in the snow…
yep they gotta get a wifi at that cabin. when they do, i will tell you aaaaallllll about it.
the art predator–a little older, but still on the prowl
the note on my windshield
the note on my windshield was in a sealed taped wet envelope.
i struggled to tear the damp paper but not injure the mysterious note.
the note was folded into a paper from T & T TRUCK & CRANE SERVICE.
when i opened it further i read
01/06/08
DEAR NEIGHBOR,
YESTERDAYS ACTION WAS NOT
INTENDED TO HAPPEN.
THANK YOU,
J.D.
brilliant eh? in my neighborhood, this mysterious note could refer to any number of actions that happened in the previous 2 days which i’d like to think were unintended.
like:
the 2 guys with the dog who threw the tire into the barranca (i called the police; the tire’s still there)
the guy who was stumbling around in the dark rainy night looking for someone named Dick (i said i couldn’t help him and scurried back into the house)
the owners of the dogs which shit next to where i stand to turn on the water spigot (the big monkey took the accumulated shit and dumped at the bottom of the steps of the asshole neighbor who has a dog which shits there but we already know he’s not jd and not going to apologize either)
the guy from casner exterminators who drove into a puddle during a rainstorm and splashed water all over me (but hey, why didn’t they apologize then?? why not use casner notepaper?)
or is this note about something about which i know nothing yet????
i’m left with a now dry mysterious note which i think may be apologizing for an unintended action a party to was an individual named J.D. (at least i think it’s a D). do i call T & T and ask them if they know any JDs? or just keep my eyes and ears open, like nancy drew (or my favorite trixie belden) waiting to see what unintended actions happen next?
if you have a clue, please drop me a line!!
sincerely, the art predator
like an anteater: 315 poem Aug 3, 2001
for the poetry train this week, instead of looking for another train poem (believe it or not, i have more!), i went deep into the 3:15 archives (well, not too deep–this one was from 2001 but published in 2006 in between sleeps: the 315 experiment 1993-2005)
anyway, this one seemed right for this rainy expectant night in 2008…as i sit here in the purple bath with the window open to let out the steam from the dryer (long story)
the watch alarm dashes
the dreams not even
fragments left to explore
no ephemeral ghosts even
just a gray crush of
burning eyes a tight hip
the little dog though
he’s quite awake
excited happy
ready to take on the day
his little black hairs
scattered across lavender sheets
black flea feces and white eggs
his tail tightly curled
he watches for fleas and
zaps them up his tongue
fast and efficient
like an anteater
whisper down the write alley
rain wind in my ears
sycamore shakes drips last wet leaves
good day to blog
THERE’S A NEW BLOG on the block that will have tips on writing and writing for blogs plus lots of links. not much there yet but watch for it to grow in the next few weeks! please whisper your words of wisdom there, too!
sigh, the art predator (who can’t seem to make the formatting she wants happen on her blog yet…ok, it’s only been 2 months and we’re STILL learning…)
writing in a dream: a new poem
in the dream i was a man writing in a cafe.
this morning i could remember the words
i was writing i was sure i would always
remember the words i was writing
but this afternoon i have forgotten
them: they are lost in all the other words
of the day. this is what happens if you
only write down words in a dream. they must
be written down in this world too. they say
we cannot read or write in a dream but
in the last few weeks i have done both. try
it yourself write read remember your words
keep them: write them down in this world & that
the art predator–on the prowl awake or asleep
crab, crab & more crab plus the best scrambled eggs ever
it’s been a coupla crabby weeks around here…
MINI REVIEW PIERPONT INN yes we were a little crabby with each other during the past two weeks, but after we got over that, we had christmas dinner at the pierpont inn where i had wild salmon with dungeness crab on it (the rice pilaf was dried out, but they substituted mash potatoes which hit the spot quite well). the big monkey is such a master at grilling salmon that it just didn’t measure up, even with the dungenous crab piled on top with some sauce full of onions making it too oniony to appreciate the sweetness of the crab). the service is always excellent however, and the view lovely, so i will always recommend it. my other meals there have typically been stellar.
MINI REVIEW: JOE’S CRAB SHACK the next night we decided to go for a walk from our house to the beach and use up a holiday gift card to joe’s crab shack, a place we’d been disappointed with two times before. great location, great winter beer from firestone, great fried calamari and spicy sauce but the crab? not great. ok, but not great, and we really didn’t like the oily BBQ sauce treatment we had on the dungenous. then, they had so much trouble with the gift card, they comped us the meal and gave us the gift card back! so i guess we will be trying it again…
AFTER A FINE DINNER of king crab at home a few nights later, we headed out to montana de oro state park near morro bay for a few days of camping where we had steaks the first night then the second popped a bottle of $4 Big Lots Lorikeet Australian sparkling wine (surprisingly good!), shucked fresh oysters for an appetizer, and then dined on sauteed in butter and garlic fresh off the boat prawns with pasta AND a barbequed pork loin plus a salad…quite the feast!
IF YOU EVER get the opportunity to get fresh prawns, do it, they are so much tastier than the frozen ones you will be amazed. they are so sweet and tender. (i do have to admit that i jumped and shrieked when i looked in the bag and they were moving–they were that fresh!) we have a fishermen’s market here every saturday morning in the harbor (like a farmers market but for fishermen) and i imagine many other coastal communities do too.
SINCE WE PLANNED to go to fishbon’s winter wonderland, we packed up new year’s eve afternoon and drove to los osos where, when we discovered the event was sold out, i bought the largest king crab claws i’d ever seen, some Chandon champagne, some eggs and bread, and headed back to the beach to join our friends still camping there. while we snacked on bread, brie, and pate, we heated up some rice we’d brought in olive oil and butter, we heated butter in another pan, and we put the crab onto the bbq wrapped in foil. when we could smell it, we pulled it off and it was perfectly heated and with just a hint of smoky bbq flavor…ahhh! after dinner we sat around the fire roasting marshmallows until the kids went to bed, and soon we were the last ones at the fire…well before midnight.
TRADITIONALLY IN MY FAMILY on new years day we have what we call sugar muffins–a plain muffin with some fresh nutmeg baked in it and fresh out of the oven, the muffins are dipped in butter then rolled in cinnamon sugar. but i couldn’t make sugar muffins out there camping.
SO HERE’S WHERE the best scrambled eggs comes in: for breakfast, i used the leftover crab dipping butter and sauteed a portobello mushroom in it, then set aside the mushroom and cooked scrambled eggs in the crab butter pan. when they were almost done, i added the mushrooms to the pan with a few chunks of cheese and a meaty chunk of crab i’d hidden away. i served these up with my famous pumpkin pancakes. nope, wasn’t sugar muffins, but the best scrambled eggs i have ever had in my life!
on the prowl for some good crab, some good meals, some good times, and a great campsite, i’m your art predator
btw, let me know if you want me to post my pumpkin corn pancake recipe…
art predator 
