Upright & Stowed

To Everything Turn Turn Turn (dateline 10/31/09)

My seasonal preference, in order:  Summer, Fall, Spring Winter. 

My fantasy seasonal recalculation:  Summer (5 months), Fall (3 months), Spring (3 months), Winter (1 month). 

While I wait for global warming to turn my fantasies into reality (or move to South Carolina), I will continue to enjoy living in a place with four fully distinct seasons.  It’s one of the things I missed most during my years in San Francisco.   

I revel in the change of seasons: Different wardrobes … the move from indoors to out and back again … the changing light … the shifting moods.  Nothing captures the exhilaration of seasonal change more than autumn leaves.  This weekend I headed up the Hudson River Valley to Cold Spring, a charming New York town that is a launch point for a breathtaking hike.  I made the trip with my friends Bob, David and Jeff.

 Ahhh, the thrill of fall.   Ooooh, the thrill of it all.

 

 

The Journey of Friendship (dateline 9/23/09)

There are ways in which getting older sucks, and ways in which it doesn’t.   Wisdom and perspective are the great gifts of experience, and they make growing older a little less tough.

One of the things I’ve learned along the way is that friendships change, and it’s futile to try to keep them as they were at any special moment.  I have been abandoned by some friends, and I have chosen to leave others.  But mostly, I have worked hard to keep my friends in my life in some capacity. 

Here are two pictures of me and my friend Danny.  We first met in 1982.   We were friends for years before becoming boyfriends in 2001.  The first shot is taken that year, on a particularly perfect New Year’s Eve.   This was also the year that we took a solemn hike on Marin County’s Tennessee Valley Trail, stunned after a day watching the events of September 11^th unfold.    The second picture was taken when I was in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, and nine years later.    We were on that same trail, where we marked the anniversary and had a wonderful day.  In the intervening nine years our friendship, like so many others, has changed.  In good ways and hard ways.  But here we are, still making it work.  :-)

Whatever path you’re on in life, it’s a lot richer when filled with friendships, old and new. 

The Last of a Generation (dateline 9/17/09)

While I was at Burning Man a significant milestone occurred in my life.  My Great Aunt Doretta (in this photo, with me last year) passed away, at 86.  She was the last of my great aunts/uncles, and her death marks the passing of the final member of my grandparents’ generation.   Kind of weird to think about an entire generation of your immediate family being gone.   For me this generation loomed large … they were omnipresent in my childhood, served up guidance and wisdom throughout my life, and were my window to America in the mid 20^th Century.   Happily, most of them lived long and rich lives, mostly in the Midwest. 

I’m not a big believer in afterlife, but I like the idea that all four sets of my grandparents’ and all their siblings are now reunited… somewhere.  The thought is especially sweet in the case of my Grandpa Max, who lost brothers and sisters (and many others) in the Holocaust.  If your grandparents, great aunts or great uncles are still living, why not reach out and let them know how much they mean to you.  I bet it’ll make your day, and theirs.

If We Knew Summer Was Gonna Be Like This...

I scanned this image from the paper the other day.  It shows NYC temperature and precipitation deviations from average for the past 10, 30, 90 and 365 days.  I post this as NYC has its first true hot spell of 2009.

Looking at the chart above, I'd like to draw your attention to the "90 Days" vs. average line.  The one where the temperature is on the far left (way below) of average and the precipitation is on the far right (way above) of average.  Yep.  That pretty much sums up the summer 09 in the Big Apple. 

Knowing what I know now, I might have chosen to spend the summer in, say, fog capitals like wintery San Francisco or chilly Seattle, since both have enjoyed unusually delightful summers this year.  But I stuck it out in NYC, as I always do, and I've enjoyed the real riches of summer in the city:  a never ending performance of street theater, more cultural events than you can shake a stick at, and my garden, which has never looked better.  A great summer so far ... though I'm rooting for hot and sticky dog days before it all ends.

Reeling in the Years

If you’d told me in 1978 that I would be attending a Steely Dan concert in 2009, I’d have looked at you funny.  Who can imagine being 48 years old when they’re 17?  Who wants to think about a favorite band – at its peak – playing well past its prime?  And who, at that time, would allow that Steely Dan would ever perform live again, given their move towards becoming the ultimate in-studio recording artists?

But there I was last night – in 2009 – with my college friend Rob (acclaimed music critic and Brown freshman year dorm mate from 1979) listening to Steely Dan play the entire Aja album (in order), plus 15 or so other classics.  This most fastidious of studio bands delivered a terrific live set, with all the complex jazz, rock, R&B and other influences sounding as smooth as I remembered.  Donald Fagan’s vocals were painfully strained, but his enthusiasm and commitment made up for it.

Memories of another time in music flowed:  Listening to an album as an entire composition … reading lyrics on the record sleeve … sitting in my bedroom with my Sennheiser headphones on… anticipating a band’s new release.  

What do ya know?  Thirty years later and there I sat, reeling in the years.  It felt good.

The Power of More Than One

"Try to remember that you are part of a huge community that produces its most creative and important works through collaboration.  You don't have to do it alone ... and will achieve more by letting others in, listening, giving, staying open."

I wrote these word to myself in 2005 from the Black Rock Desert at the end of Burning Man.  A friend passed out postcards to everyone, had us write messages to ourselves, collected them, and mailed them to our homes about 6 months later.  The idea was to reconnect us to whatever we were feeling at the end of this amazing event.  The picture above is a Burning Man art installation called "Crude Awakening," featuring a set of huge metal sculptures (one praying figure for each continent) in thrall of the mother lode of oil.  The derrick was blown up and set afire on the last night.  See the mind-blowing video here.

The creative collaboration that made this artwork possible is the same idea that Netflix is tapping into in its much praised @4 million contest to improve movie satisfaction predictability by 10%.  Here's a great article on the power teamwork, inspired by the Netflix project.

This week I made my official decision to return to Burning Man at the end of August.  I am beyond excited.  What I most look forward to is – once again – being inspired by the awesome creative power of man, especially when we come together to create as a team.

Recent Absence

I started Upright & Stowed at the beginning on 2006 as a way of encouraging myself to write, to think broadly, to embrace the spirit of travel, and to share my ideas and opinions with friends, family and whoever else who might be interested.  

Some things have changed since 2006.  Most significantly the political landscape has changed.  My frame of mind shifted from Bush-era pondering, plotting, talking, sighing, strategizing, decrying and disbelieving … to Obama-era imagining, hoping, dreaming, agonizing and finally celebrating.  In some ways it was easier for me to write when I was angry and seeking change than in my current state of blessed relief.

Another huge change during my blogging years has been the explosion of social media.   The rise of Facebook has been jaw dropping in both speed and impact.  It has changed the way we engage.  And while my contributions to Facebook are short and  shaped to grab attention, there’s no denying that one brief status update on Facebook is seen by more of my friends than any longer, carefully crafted blog entry.   That instant feedback is pretty satisfying, if you’re trying to connect.

Finally, I have been doing far less travel in the past 6 months than ever before.  Since Upright & Stowed is meant to use travel and globalism as a filter for everything I write here, my stationary state has had an impact on my writing inspiration.  My hope is to be traveling a lot, and soon. 

So there’s the explanation of my summertime writing absence.   I feel change a-stirring … and I expect to ratchet up the writing soon.  Stay tuned.

Note Bene:  That's my new nautical star tattoo, by the way.  Even though I'm not smiling in this shot, I love it.

She's So Ghetto

I've always loved the insane creativity of ghetto names.   In fact last year I suggested that my friends Howard and Laura name their son Uniqua.  Alas, they chose David.  Given my enjoyment of crazy baby naming, you'll understand why the above YouTube video has had me laughing out loud for days.  Genius.

A Rose Calls

Hope springs eternal, and spring springs hope.  Hope for warmer days.  Hope for sun on weekends. Hope that you get to keep your job that suddenly doesn't seem as bad as it used to.  Hope for a little lovin.'  And hope that life will keep things interesting.

This is a picture of my first rose plant.  I bought it at a nursery in Jersey this weekend (along with $375 of soil, pots, plants and other goodies to make my deck beautiful), and I can't wait to take care of it and make it bloom.  It's what I'm most hopeful about right now.  In fact, I think this little rose is going to be my beacon of good things to come.  Happy spring!

Greenbriar Goes Down

I've been too busy watching the world fall apart to post with any frequency lately.  Jobs lost.  Bailouts super-sized.  Broadway shows closed.  Philanthropies Madoff'ed.  When will the madness end?

I think I know.  We've reached the bottom.  Today.  The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia – gorgeous and storied resort, but also one enabled by lots of corporate and individual bloat – has filed for bankruptcy.  Sad, but true.

I visited the Greenbrier on my drive back to NYC after my three years in San Franciscos.  I have little doubt that, like Tara, she will rise again.   But the rebuilding of its finances, and America's, is gonna be a long and painful struggle.  Lordy be.