Breakfast.

Yesterday was a nice cooking day. Garrett and I made this breakfast (pictured right); it consisted of an omelet with tomato, mushroom, onion, and cilantro, and covered with tomatoes, cilantro, and a bit of salsa (this dish is affectionately if inaccurately referred to in our house as "chili eggs"); and a freezer waffle topped with bananas and cloudberry jam. The breakfast in question is pictured on the hideous-wonderful plates that somehow ended up in the kitchen stuff from the move away from the previous madhouse of an apartment in "East Williamsburg."

Then later, I made sweet potato soup for dinner. That was exceptionally easy, and now I have my vegan Thanksgiving vegetable stock in the refrigerator and all ready to go, and I had a lunch of soup leftovers. Yep, this journal is turning into nothin' but food porn. Sorry. Just to keep it from getting that way, though, I should tell you -- details are forthcoming on a new reading series, starting in mid-December at the Bushwick Library on Bushwick Avenue. I'll be disclosing the lineup on this blog as soon as I know it in some more detail. Which, given the proximity of the date, should be pretty soon.

I Believe In You

Last night's performance at AUNTS's I BELIEVE IN YOU in Bedford-Stuyvesant was a great time -- lots of very talented and interesting performance art. One of my favorites was Shirotama Hitsujiya's piece, which was, among other things, a criticism of the stereotypical depictions of Asian women. The performance featured a bunny, a bearsuit, a slideshow, an eerily childish voice recording, and a block of ice that encased a book. From Shirotama's website:

She is known for her expressions of human desires, sexuality and violence and the instinct for food, life, and death. Describes a new mindscape of women through their bodies and stages the questions "What are women?" and "Why do we believe stereotypical images of women?".

She was not the only one; many of the pieces I saw were full of unabashed feminist fabulosity and I was happy to be a part of it (thanks Autumn for inviting me). It's a part of why New York is so totally worth it, despite the horrible rents and high cost of existing and rising condos worries about the future and its wormy harvest.

The photo on the left is from one of the two times we performed our piece, and I regret that this photo doesn't feature anyone else but a strangely hunched, Bigfootian version of me, as I was probably the least interesting part of it -- still, my gratitude goes to Mr. Jamie Lee for taking the photo and sending it to me. I should have been taking pictures, but I was too busy watching everyone. Actually, though, this photo is kind of appropriate in that it pretty effectively describes my experience last night -- hazy, people-filled, and heaped with intrigue (and to all the haters who say intrigue can't be heaped, I say wrong, you're wrong, the filthy mixed-metaphor hating lot of you!).

Ritual.

Dear readers, if you're in the NY area, come check me out on Saturday. I'll be performing as a part of this: http://auntsisdance.com/. I am in a group that includes Autumn Widdoes (the writer of the piece) and Jeanie Tse, and although I don't have a timeslot yet, the event itself will be awesome -- there are simultaneous dance performances going on. Please email me for more information if you are interested in going!

Also, I know I plugged it already, but please check out the Teeth Issue of At-Large if you haven't already. And submit for our next issue, themed Airport/Motel and coming out at years-end.

three favorite things

Refinishing (or should I say re-Finnishing) furniture. Last week, I went from owning a totally forgettable bug-brown dresser to being the proud princess who keeps her knickers in the most handsomely detailed cream-red-and-rust luxury bureau this side of Bedford (see picture to left). No more furtive comments of "Hey, uh, are those underwear?" from my embarrassed guests! All the dessous will be obscured as they should be, and all will be right in Bushwick.

The Mountain Goats - Satanic Messiah EP. Listening to this now; subdued, beautiful, anxious. And totally bitchin' diabolical cover art. I bought the physical copy, but you can download it here for whatever amount of $$$ you want. Speaking of the Mtn Goats -- Rohin and I went to the show some days ago; and you can read his brief writeup here. I think he needs a new photographer, though. (Thanks a lot, digi.)

Cordial cherries. I just finished a box. Ok, Garrett helped. But they were the really icky, syrupy, artificial kind -- in my opinion, the only worthwhile ones. $1.69 for like, twelve maraschinos covered in straight corn syrup. It's like a party. Eating these things is like a really tacky party in a ramshackle basement, at which I'm gleefully getting hammered from buckets of bottom shelf booze punch.

november's first notes

Re: democracy: See, enough people can make it happen.

These are the eggs of democracy. You thought they were too old, but they're not. They are actually only from last year; I wonder if they're still full of good egg taste? Just kidding. They contain no proteins -- just little red xmas lights. Which you can't see, since they're not plugged in. This sculpture is named "12 Angry Hen," and it was named by Garrett's friend Bodger.

I wish I had a picture of my Halloween costume. I was a very haphazard mime. It was one of those last-minute-awesome costumes... I wore a 20s corset, a big white petticoat (that Rohin hates -- he says it looks like some kind of milkmaid outfit), and black/white mime makeup. People were afraid to come up to me on the subway because they thought I might have smeared greasepaint on them. This was a good thing because there was quite a crowd... the Halloween Parade attracted lots of people. A conversation I overheard went like this:

Woman: "Happy Halloween!"
Cop: "We're FULLY AWARE of the date."

I hope nobody got shoved around too much. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and there's something to be said for enjoying it if not peacefully then at least without mortal danger. Now go out and have a toast (a tasty wheat one maybe).