Fri. July 25, 2025: Some Good Work Done, In Spite of the Heat Grumpies

Friday, July 25, 2025

Waxing Moon

Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Mercury Retrograde

Hot and humid

(Note: that is not one of my cats in the photo. It’s a stock photo).

Another week gone, and it’s going to be a rough day today, weather wise. Of course, the company has done nothing to replace the stolen Breeze Boxes.

Rollercoaster times, isn’t it?

Workmen are replacing the deck on the ground floor of the house. If they had actually communicated with us, I would have moved stuff from our back balcony, but you know, that would mean actual organization. Instead, when I went to change the water in the hanging birdbath, I was told I can’t be out there all day. And that the “furniture could be replaced.” By whom? Again, if they had told me, I would have moved things off the balcony last night. If it collapses and I lose all my enchanted garden stuff, I will not be a happy camper. Update: It did not collapse. I will see what it feels like when I go out to change the water and water the plants this morning.

So sick and tired of incompetence.

Columbia University caved further to That Thing, and is letting the administration decide if they admitted enough white people. You can read about it here. So much for Columbia being viable for anything anymore. Itchio is banning certain content at the behest of payment companies. It makes me glad I never bothered trying to use Itchio as a platform for my work. I kept being urged to do so, but the very thought of it was too exhausting.

Then there’s the South Park episode. Good for them, doing what they want, integrating the new material instantly, getting paid by Paramount to do it, even though Paramount bribed That Thing, and then fired Colbert at That Thing’s behest. Let’s see how Paramount deals with this. The deal with Skydance should never have been approved in the first place, but bribes happened, and here we are.

This is why art matters, and why fascists try to stifle artists. Because there are those who will take risks anyway.

There’s a lot of talk about Murdoch planning a takedown of That Thing, too, but remember that Murdoch can’t ever be trusted. I suspect this is as much of a performance as the “feud” with that other egomaniac billionaire.

Glad to see Sidekick Cracker mocked on Nantucket, but whoever rented the place to him should be run off the island permanently.

I considered skipping my time at the Clark today, but realized if the balcony was going to collapse, me being here wasn’t going to stop it. So off I trotted.

I sat with the catalogue for a bit (I am definitely investing in it, a few ghostwriting payments down the line). The research and scholarship that went into the exhibition is wonderful. I sat with some of the pieces I had enjoyed last weekend, and found new things to appreciate by other pieces. Anna Airy has a large painting, “Aircraft Assembly Shop, Hendon” where the faces of the individuals working are indistinct, but the body positions are detailed and reveal character traits. It’s so fascinating. There are three women at a table, in the lower right corner, and I want to know what they are chatting about. (Wasn’t that where I started with WOMEN ON THE BRIDGE?). I have to be careful not to repeat myself.

I also visited the Isamu Noguchi: Landscapes of Time exhibit. Quite a contrast. I always think of art as a three-way conversation between artist, piece, and viewer. The women in the exhibit downstairs are fairly realistic or somewhat fantastical in their representations, and there are layers of involvement the viewer can dig into. There’s the immediate representation, and one can be satisfied with that. Or one can dig deeper into details of light, shadow, construction, symbolism. Or go even deeper into societal and contextual meanings. The Noguchi work is much more abstract (or maybe it’s conceptual?) and it requires more immediate work from the viewer, which is interesting.

Anyway, I was very glad I went, and I left as it was starting to get crowded. It’s amazing that the road construction isn’t keeping crowds away at all. The staff must be exhausted, with the 7-days-a-week-open of summer right now.

Finished reading AGONY HILL by Sarah Stewart Taylor, her new series set in Vermont in the 1960’s. It’s very well done, especially the character work. I’m looking forward to the second book in the series, HUNTER’S HEART RIDGE, which comes out next month.

Dealt with a bunch of admin. Tried several arrangements of embellishments on the textile piece to make decisions before I actually sew them down. Rehearsed my sections of the poem. Dealt with some admin stuff with the ghostwriting, before I could actually settle into the ghostwriting.

I had a good work session on the ghostwriting, and am almost caught up to where I hoped to be by this point. That makes me look forward to today’s session.

Heated up leftovers and then read two scripts for WAM, and then called it a night, going back to reading the book about the evolution of Talking Heads, which is really a social history of the music scene/CBGB.

We managed to keep it bearable inside, between the fans and the dehumidifier, having gotten it down to 72 in the morning, and then closing everything down. It was still a little uncomfortable, but not too bad.

Overnight, I used my arctic cooler for a little while. Charlotte was delighted. I woke up at 2:30, hot and cranky, moved to the couch, couldn’t get comfortable, went back to bed, ran the cooler for a bit, and went back to sleep until 6. The cats were not amused. I’ve only been able to get the temperature inside down to 80 this morning, which will make it rough when the temperature soars outside.

And yes, I will be contacting the company to ask where the F are the replacements, and why haven’t I gotten any information that they shipped and are on the way?

Breakfast, yoga, meditation, journal. While I try to find excuses not to do the morning yoga, actually rolling out the mat and doing it makes me feel better and sets me up for a more settled meditation session.

I should get out a newsletter today about the events happening over the next few weeks into August. I have to do the weekly grocery shop/library run. I have to work on the textile project, work on the ghostwriting, and read two more scripts. I need to rehearse the poem. I should get the book review written and out this morning, too. It’s due on Monday, and I like to stay a little ahead. It’s a difficult book to review, so I had to have it roll around in my head for a few days to figure out the best approach.

My friend’s elderly dog has surgery, so let’s all send best wishes that it goes well and there’s a speedy recovery.

Worked out what I think will be the new climactic sequence for VICIOUS CRITIC (finally), and did some pondering on ANGEL HUNT, which needs to get back on track.

Today’s poem from DAILY RATTLE is “In Praise of Pyrex” by Paige Gilchrist, as part of their Tribute to Food Poems issue. I really loved the poem, and hope to read more of her work. She doesn’t seem to have a website, or I’d link to it.

Tomorrow is dedicated to the textile project and maybe a little ghostwriting. Rehearse the poem. Read the final script for next week’s meeting. Sunday, I’ll work on the textile piece in the morning, and then I’m off to The Mount in the afternoon for the poem. The performance itself is at 5, but we meet early enough to rehearse it once before we actually do it. Since there are 32 of us, and it’s the first time the poem is put together as a whole.

Monday’s focus is finishing the textile project (which I hope will be done well before that), and then dropping it off at the gallery at 5:30. I’d like to go see a colleague’s talk over in Williamstown that evening, but it depends whether or not I’m on top of the ghostwriting.

Next week has the ghostwriting deadline, the installation and opening of the group show, and yoga. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but actually is.

Have a great weekend, and we’ll catch up on the other side!