Michel and Sarah's Excellent Adventures

Yesterday Michel read some of "Paradise Lost" Milton. I really enjoyed it. Then he told me that in all Epic poems the writer begins by calling a muse for inspiration.  I told him that every Sunday he and I should read our favorite thing of the week to each other. I just read Earnest Hemingway's first short story. "Up in Michigan" which he wrote in Paris in 1921.  It's was like a slap in the face.  I think it speaks to the truth about how men are different from women in love and life. And that maybe every young woman should have this read to them as a bedtime story. 

There is a Kerry James Marshall show until September 25th at the Museum of Contemporary Art, it features several of his paintings. I saw the above painting about 20 years ago at the Museum of Contemporary Art.  I loved it immediately.  The show features the video below where the artist explains his process.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2bmHE7MRQU Now I'm even more of a fan after hearing him talk about his art. This artist should be known by everyone in my opinion, and he lives in Chicago.   https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions

The great salon of 2016. (Actually pretty small)(Great..I'm just saying, in my opinion) I hosted a small poetry and short story reading last weekend. I only invited a small number of poets, writers and poetry fans due to my own nervousness and because of my small house. My parents were invited and as always, brought their A game. This blog post is mostly to record the readings for my own posterity or any attendee that could not hear. We started the salon with a reading of Jack Helbig's play "Mildly Depressed Man". Many of the good natured guests were hired on the spot by my dad to play roles from his good friends peice. Giamila Fantuzzi read a poem in Italian by Gabriele D'annunzio entitled "The rain in the pinewood" http://www.lifeinabruzzo.com/the-rain-in-the-pinewood-la-pioggia-nel-pineto/  She gave us the English translation to read while she read. My mom told a story about an old friend Irene Keller and then read a few of her poems. Her...

I just took a 4 day intensive class on CranioSacral therapy.  A Doctor of Osteopathy, Upledger, discovered that there is a rhythmic flow of cerebro-spinal fluid between the cranium and sacrum.  The flow can be felt and even manipulated to relieve pain. This has been something I've wanted to learn for a long time. Some of my teachers at both acupuncture and massage school loved this type of therapy and gave dramatic demo's often leading to a crying student. Crying but feeling better. The therapy is very very light so the crying was a mystery to me. The class was taught by a man that, to my great surprise, I had worked with at a clinic in Chicago ten years ago. He used to eat my snacks while I was in a room with a client. I'd come out of the room and find an empty bag.  He lives in Iowa on a transcendental meditation commune where the residents meditate for world peace. They must share snacks. There were several volunteer teaching assistants. They all introduced themse...

I went to a poetry reading last night http://myemail.constantcontact.com/May-9-at-The-Buzz-Cafe--Molly-s-features-Timothy-Yu-and-Donna-Vorreyer.html?soid=1103180195612&aid=QRNC3gtxue4 I went with Jean, one of my nine or so muses. She is a poet and has had several poems published. Jean in the foreground and Donna Vorreyer reading in the background And I read a poem I wrote about my boyfriend Michel Ode to Michel (my bell) Michel was a black and white picture. Even taken with color film. Achromatic and anachronistic it turned out he spent most of his life looking into old books and reading older texts. So many that he too was black and white. His hair made up of black or white letters, a language lost today. His eyes periods.. His smile in quotes. His front teeth old tablets. Perhaps of Moses. His skin Papyrus, only sees the sun when running from one book to another He told me he was reading The Aeneid by Publius Virgilius Maro, in Latin. He told me that ...

James and I with his painting above I awaited James in the “Buzz Cafe”. It had been more than 25 years since I had seen him in person. To say he was a friend in High school would have been an exaggeration, probably. For the most part I saw him through the smoke at parties in the late 80’s where many teenage boys with long hair and “Iron Maiden” shirts converged to “get fucked up”. I was a young woman who would not leave the side of my dream-man Dave. I followed him everywhere. Even when his band practiced, I was sitting there. I should have been studying. When a party was happening, one person would always get on the phone, the 80’s phone, the one in which the receiver is a couple pounds and you need to use a rotary to dial 7 numbers. Someone would call a friend and say, “Dude you gotta get over here.” He would name the people and I was always just “Dave’s girlfriend”. It used to bother me a little but I was nearly silent at all times, and when I attempted speech, I stammer...

Tom Palazzolo with photograph of "The tattooed lady"  photo by Joseph Bryll Tom Palazzolo’s gritty City. My hero and dad has a show of hi s photos at the Ed Paschke Art Center. Hi s talk was sold out on 2-21-16. The show is up until March 6th http://www.edpaschkeartcenter.org/Module/Event/EventDetail/Tom_Palazzolo's_Gritty_City?id=28 Tom Palazzolo has been an experimental and documentary film maker, painter and photographer of Chicago for more than fifty years.  His subject matter has included the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where he was tear gassed ; i nteresting people in Chicago, for example, Jerry, a 1960's deli owner who would yell at his customers ; and Mary Ellen, a little person who ran a "midget bar" where little people would walk on ramps. These and so much m ore. I really liked seeing several of his photographs blown up and well framed. He told funny stories about each photo around him. Jack Helbig  did a gre...

Michel and I just saw the opera Nabucco by Verdi. Just when I thought most Opera plots were "The hooker with a heart of gold" We stumble upon an Opera with no such heart of gold.  This opera is based the historical and biblical figure,  Nebuchadnezzar   known for sending many Jews into exile to Babylon. Plot: Nabucco starts Jewish exile, decides he's also a God, God hits him with a lightning bolt as a lesson, Nabucco becomes special needs. His power hungry daughter takes control. Nabucco prays and all his faculties are restored.  Every time we go to the Opera, the two same older men are sitting to our right. One sleeps most of the time. Michel refers to them as the old men from "The Muppet Show".  The other seats are taken by Chronologically advanced regulars that seem to express surprise to find each other still alive and at the next event.(Michel's joke). Michel has adapted to living with me, who might swear on occasion, and or burp. The onl...