There's always so much to do, and so many people to talk to while I'm in New York, it's hard to find the time to sit down and put it down.
This trip was bracketed by two comedy shows: Scott Thompson's appearance at Comix, and Cara Kilduff's emcee gig at an AIDS Services benefit in New Britain.
Scott's show was well worth the wait. His material was freshly culled from his personal angle on the shared human experience. He is more freshly faced than any his own age and most who are years younger, and his opinions are as solidly formed as the most stubborn bowel movement you've sat down and stood up again for more times than you can remember.
Is this the kind of compliment I would want Scott to read? Yikers! I really love the man's sense of humor, and I'm in awe of his wit...are the things I just wrote hateful, and if they are, is this a form of passive aggression? and what the hell is "passive agression" really?
I guess part of this opinion was formed after observing his obsession with circumcision, which he exhibits in a piece denouncing the barbarous society which rewards the holy persons who perform these ritualistic acts with cash while sending pedophiles to prison.
Ouch, Scott! Please back up on that last one! There is at least one international group that promotes discussion of foreskin mutulation among adult males and foreskin restoration options. Genital Mutiliation is at the forefront of discussion in Canada, but please, Scott! This is the Land of the Free! We don't allow any mention of PENISES or FORESKINS in this country!!
Personally, Scott, I am with you. I wish I had been given the option to keep my foreskin, but apparently neither of us had a choice. Let's just be happy for the sake of the upcoming generations of uncircumcised males and the men who adore them that this horrible disfigurement is on the decline.
Let's also be happy for the many fans of circumcised penises, shall we?
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Morning Call from the Bride
So I was on the phone with Beaurewong this morning, bright and early. She had already started the day on a rough note, being insulted and disrespected by some girl working in the coffee shop. I told her that it may be she is looking for a fight, and at that time preparing to be insulted and disrespected, and the girl could be having a bad day and the “rudeness” Susan felt directed at her could have absolutely nothing to do with Susan…but no. Susan would own that girl’s bad vibes as her own, and carry them throughout her day.
She repeated the story of Timmy and Lacey's two daddies' drama in which only one survived, and this time she called it murder. I remember these two doggies with fondness, having spent more than an hour in their company on a beautiful evening walk by the Hudson River. They were both extremely aged, Lacey being a small blonde poodle and Timmy being a black standard who was adopted by Lacey's two daddies when his one elderly daddy passed away. Okay, the dog died, sad, and?
She tried to get off the phone with just that, but I had been waiting to talk with her and she had been ignoring my calls since Monday night's adventure when something horrible might have happened to Ed in the bathroom. Oh, no. Don't you dare hang up yet.
We agree that her fearfulness for Ed's safety is no different than the fear that she feels for all of her friends' well being, and this stems from her fear of abandonment.
Susan says that she "knows" she and Ed should get married, because they "love" each other and "take care" of each other. "It's not about money!" "Ed wants me to sign a pre-nup, and that's fine with me because it's not about the money for me!"
I explained that in order for there to be a "pre-nup" there must be the assumption of a "nup" to follow. A contract is a "meeting of the minds" (yeah, Judge Judy) and so in order for two parties to be in complete agreement before signing a contract, they must both understand what is in that contract. A prenuptual agreement is not something that a bride "in love" signs without understanding the legal rights that she is surrendering.
Susan has done her research, though. She's read almost the entire "marriage" entry on Wikipedia.
She said that she felt that people weren't being supportive of her in her decision to marry Ed Wong, but I wouldn't let her get off with cheap tears. I assured her that if I didn't love her I wouldn't care, and wouldn't ask anything of her, but I felt sure that if she and Ed really have thought things through then she should certainly have considered x, y, and z and be prepared to answer questions from those who care about her happiness.
I told her that from what I have observed, the intensely personal and completely loving communication between herself and Ed may be entirely in her own mind: I related back to her a story she shared in which she had called Ed in a frenzy and railed against him horribly, only to be touched by his tender love for her when she called him back twenty minutes later to apologize and he said that he completely understood.
"In fact," I offered, "he may have been paying no intention to you the first time and not heard a word you said, and his understanding tones on the second call may have been nothing more than a trained response to the tone of your voice.
She promised to do her homework, which she set down as "taking a trip to Barnes & Noble" to see if they have any good books on marriage.
She repeated the story of Timmy and Lacey's two daddies' drama in which only one survived, and this time she called it murder. I remember these two doggies with fondness, having spent more than an hour in their company on a beautiful evening walk by the Hudson River. They were both extremely aged, Lacey being a small blonde poodle and Timmy being a black standard who was adopted by Lacey's two daddies when his one elderly daddy passed away. Okay, the dog died, sad, and?
She tried to get off the phone with just that, but I had been waiting to talk with her and she had been ignoring my calls since Monday night's adventure when something horrible might have happened to Ed in the bathroom. Oh, no. Don't you dare hang up yet.
We agree that her fearfulness for Ed's safety is no different than the fear that she feels for all of her friends' well being, and this stems from her fear of abandonment.
Susan says that she "knows" she and Ed should get married, because they "love" each other and "take care" of each other. "It's not about money!" "Ed wants me to sign a pre-nup, and that's fine with me because it's not about the money for me!"
I explained that in order for there to be a "pre-nup" there must be the assumption of a "nup" to follow. A contract is a "meeting of the minds" (yeah, Judge Judy) and so in order for two parties to be in complete agreement before signing a contract, they must both understand what is in that contract. A prenuptual agreement is not something that a bride "in love" signs without understanding the legal rights that she is surrendering.
Susan has done her research, though. She's read almost the entire "marriage" entry on Wikipedia.
She said that she felt that people weren't being supportive of her in her decision to marry Ed Wong, but I wouldn't let her get off with cheap tears. I assured her that if I didn't love her I wouldn't care, and wouldn't ask anything of her, but I felt sure that if she and Ed really have thought things through then she should certainly have considered x, y, and z and be prepared to answer questions from those who care about her happiness.
I told her that from what I have observed, the intensely personal and completely loving communication between herself and Ed may be entirely in her own mind: I related back to her a story she shared in which she had called Ed in a frenzy and railed against him horribly, only to be touched by his tender love for her when she called him back twenty minutes later to apologize and he said that he completely understood.
"In fact," I offered, "he may have been paying no intention to you the first time and not heard a word you said, and his understanding tones on the second call may have been nothing more than a trained response to the tone of your voice.
She promised to do her homework, which she set down as "taking a trip to Barnes & Noble" to see if they have any good books on marriage.
New Home for New (F)Art
From this morning’s Times:
Naming rights for a museum’s grand spaces are part of the deal for valued donors these days. But when the New Museum of Contemporary Art began its capital campaign for a $50 million building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the bathrooms were the first places to be christened.
“I’m 83,” said Jerome L. Stern, a retired venture capitalist, “and I thought it would be nice to see my name in a place where I’m going to spend a lot of time.”
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Words, words, words
I’ve discovered a good reasons to keep my tapping fingers well calloused: my handwriting has gone been so far neglected that I am entirely out of practice.
In days of letter writing, everyone had beautiful handwriting. The more you wrote, the more your handwriting improved. As your handwriting was beautiful, you enjoyed writing and took the time to keep it fun. The process of committing thought to written words took more time and thought than typing.
Now that everyone has a keyboard, thoughts are typed out incredibly fast. Our fingers fly over the keys, but they have lost the ease and ability that comes from using a pen as a writing instrument. The strangeness of a pen or pencil in my hand reminds me of my early childhood, and the sensation of taking a pen or pencil up in my hands for the first time.
With handwriting, too, the written word would have no effect on anyone unless it was read by another, or read aloud to another, or repeated in words written on some other medium…the written word has the problem of being in physical form, must be seen or repeated, therefore must be meaningful to the one doing the reading.
In days of letter writing, everyone had beautiful handwriting. The more you wrote, the more your handwriting improved. As your handwriting was beautiful, you enjoyed writing and took the time to keep it fun. The process of committing thought to written words took more time and thought than typing.
Now that everyone has a keyboard, thoughts are typed out incredibly fast. Our fingers fly over the keys, but they have lost the ease and ability that comes from using a pen as a writing instrument. The strangeness of a pen or pencil in my hand reminds me of my early childhood, and the sensation of taking a pen or pencil up in my hands for the first time.
With handwriting, too, the written word would have no effect on anyone unless it was read by another, or read aloud to another, or repeated in words written on some other medium…the written word has the problem of being in physical form, must be seen or repeated, therefore must be meaningful to the one doing the reading.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
She called me "handsome"!
See, here's the deal, Dollface.
I need info so that I can send tickets to friends and enemies that I might still have in Connecticut.
The Beat of Hartford, Baby, you can hear it all around.
As I began this email, lil' Isabella came sauntering up from under my desk, and let me know that she wanted to come up into my lap...she's just getting comfortable now. There is no way I would DARE leave her alone with Lulu for more than a week, ten days at the very most. My itineraries keep expiring on United.com.
There is a chance that I won't be able to attend the New Britain extravaganza...but I would like to have the chance to see a few Nutmeggers while I'm there, if I'm there. I would like for them to experience Cara Kilduff whether I'm there or not. Hurry up with that info, woman!
So our girl Susan asked me to marry her to Edward...and then revealed that she was only asking me because you had declined, and she hadn't heard back from another girlfriend.
Some sweet woman looked at me tonight, shook her head, and said, "Wow. You think of these things and then say them right out loud. Wow."
Yeah, like, Wow.
I made a bit of a rant at her vis the responsibilities of marrying folk, and the importance of discussing everything no matter how seemingly inconsequential BEFORE tying the knot (there's a reason it's called a knot - knots are not easy things to untie) and I hope it made her think. I am really happy that she and Ed have found love in each other, but I worry that Smiley is not going away - and either Edward is using Susan to poke a sharp stick at Smiley, or he feels that Susan is able to rescue him from Smiley's clutches. Husbands divorce wives all the time (New York State has the most heinous, anarchistic divorce laws on any books, any where in the US) but it is extremely unlikely that a 30-something man will be granted a separation from his mother. It's where you came from, dude. Deal with her.
So, Sweetness, I see that my friend has TWO shows: one at 8 and the other at 10:30. Do you have a preference? I'm so fabulous, I can go to either or both...but some of us girls, I know, have to wake up early to get a grasp of some fecal matter. Wanna shoot me back a dig? I'll take it any way it feels bes to you, baby.
Oh, and by the way, tonight I asked my friend Matt (whom I trust) whether or not I scare people, and he nodded an emphatic "YES!" to which he added, "Not every last soul, but close."
Oiy, veh.
xoxo,
-J
----- Original Message ----yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 7:27:42 AM
Subject: Re: possible NY adventure...
Hey Handsome,
I am yours on the 24th. I do have Beauregard's bridal shower from 5:00 - 7:00 but I don't think I have to stay for the entire time, maybe from 5-6:30. As far as CT goes...the event is morphing into me co-hosting with this annoying retard I went to school with and each of us doing 20 minute sets, plus an improv group, I think. So, it's more performance time for your girl. They also want me to come up in the early afternoon to teach an hour long workshop on comedy. At least I have 2 weeks to prepare that. Oy. I have to find the link for the event to send you...
Have a beautiful day!
xoxo
Cara
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Sunday, March 4, 2007
"Luke747" is born
Luke 7:47 "Wherefore I say unto thee, his sins which are many are forgiven, for he loved much, but for whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."
I'd better double check that quotation.
I'd better double check that quotation.
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