Summer of Fun: 2009

Back in the day, when we were living in Ardmore, Kelly, Marion and I would write out long lists of all the crazy things we wanted to do that summer. They varied from the ridiculous — "model nude for an art class" — to the simple and fun — "visit Jenkins Arboretum."

Now that I have no longer have school to worry about (although the impending student loan payments are starting to make me nervoth!), I hereby declare this to be the SUMMER OF FUN 2009!

So far, the following fun has been had:

Seeing MC Chris with Justine and Matt at the First Unitarian.

This was just so rad. I had never seen MC Chris live before, nor had I ever been to a "nerd core" show, so imagine my delight when there were people dressed up as Stormtroopers and Chewbacca, to say nothing of the guy creating a ruckus wearing a Cobra Commander hood. Oh, nerds. MC Chris himself was, of course, hilarious, great and fun. We were all dancing and singing along. But my biggest love for MC Chris came when he kicked two guys behaving like assholes right out of the venue. He stopped the show, publicly humiliated them for their drunken smack-ass behavior, and then had security escort them out. And then when one of them snuck back in, MC Chris did it again, nearly reducing said asshole to tears. Awesome, if only because I have to put up with That Guy at all shows I go to, and it was so nice to have someone call them on their behavior.

We got to meet MC Chris after the show too, and he was nice enough to sign our stuff and pose for pictures. I love how MC Chris and Matt are SO TOUGH and I'm all la la la butterflies in that shot.

Start of 2009 Softball Season

I actually missed the first two games of the season because I was finishing school, but the weather has caused a number of postponements, so I was able to go to their third game where they trounced the other team 19-7, inciting the mercy rule and ending the game in the 5th inning. I can't wait for future games and the inevitable photo-taking that will ensue.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!

Quiet Kate and I have a joke about how all Katies are similar in this certain intangible, yet awesome way. We called it "A Kate Thing." We even had the beginnings of a theme song Ain't Nothin' But a Kate Thing, set, obviously, to Snoop Dogg's and Dr. Dre's Ain't Nothin but a G Thang. Never in my life, however, did I feel like the "Kate Thing" was so true than when I went to Wales and met another girl named Katie from DC. Turns out she and I have been living parallel lives — right down to our dumb boy troubles. She and I clicked instantly, discovered freakish 6-degrees-of-separation-like links in our friends, and promised to keep in touch after the conference.

So you can imagine how pleased I was when Kate invited me to come up to New York with her for a day and see the new Coraline musical. Uh, YES PLEASE. So this past Saturday I took the Chinatown Bus up to NYC (ticking off something on my to-do list, as I've wanted to do the "Dragon Express" for ages), figured out the subway with moderate success*, walked around in circles in the East Village (seriously, Bleecker Street intersects with everything, somehow), window-shopped, took some photos with my new HOLGA, and of course saw Coraline. We also ate lunch at Jekyll and Hyde where we were charged $4.50 for the entertainment, and got lost trying to find the hidden bathroom.

As for Coraline, I liked it a lot, but I also had Issues with it, because I'm an picky theatre person. I blame my brother for this entirely. The acting, the music, the songs, the set: All fantastic. I had one issue with the set (which is static and doesn't change): two long florescent light bulbs that ran floor-to-ceiling stage right at different angles, and in my opinion, caused some needless viewing obstruction. Although, when they came on, the lighting effect was cool. I just think there was a better way to do it. I had issues with some of the writing, mostly, though. It's a bit uneven. The play narrates too much of itself, in my opinion. Lots of Coraline saying things like, "I'm outside now," or "Later, in a dream..." Things like that. I guess the play does this to help little kids make the leaps in the imagination needed to see things (the show asks you to stretch your imagination a lot, which I actually loved), but I would have rather they figured out a way to SHOW us these things via blocking, lighting effects, whatnot than TELL us. I guess the main problem I see with the show is that it doesn't quite know if it's for young kids or adults. It's a fair problem, given the source material, but the show needs to decide. I also feel like this show came together rather quickly and possibly could have benefited from another month or two in workshop to address these problems. As is, it's a good show — with many brilliant elements — that could have been an AMAZING show. So close.

Still, I loved many things about the show and it's a great story regardless, so I was glad I got to see it and doubly glad I got to see it with such cool people. If you're in New York, I recommend checking it out, because despite the problems I mentioned, it's still a good time.

*They're doing work on the F line and if you're headed downtown, it switches over to the A line. Which I didn't realize until we were nearly in Brooklyn. Whoops.

BBQ FUN

Christopher had a BBQ on Sunday and Deb and Brian had one on Monday night. I am all about these, people. Hand me a glass of white wine, some grilled corn on the cob and I am SET. Also, Christopher's BBQ had the fun of Fat Kid Badminton (we were all so full!) and successful and amazing grilled S'more pies. Oh! And Renee was there, visiting from Chicago. Good times!

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Still to come in THE SUMMER OF FUN 2009:


Cinematic Titanic @ the Troc

Oh man. I cannot tell you how stoked I am for this. Those MSTie kids are doing a live show in Philly, and Stephanie, Henry and I are going. The squee will be infinite!

The New York Dolls, also @ the Troc

Oh, HELL YES. Also going to this with Stephanie, because we are just that cool.

Midsummer

Nothing overly exciting, I'm just looking forward to it.

Mermaid Parade at Coney Island

Kelly was the first one to come up with this, and every year we forget to go. It's the day after Midsummer, though. I am still hoping that we can figure out a way to do it, though it might be a bust.

Blobfest 09/Bastille Day 09

This one is tinged with a bit of saddness as this will be my first Blobfest without Renee. Still, Mikey Likes It is willing to take up her mantle, so off we go! As you can see by my pictures from years past, what a silly great time that is.

Same weekend is of course Bastille Day at ESP, which I'm game for some storming and beheading again.


Herbal Workshop

Finally! I can learn how to plant properly and all kinds cool uses for herbs and how to make teas and such. I think this is going to be fun.

NJ State Fair

Oh yes. I can feel the heartburn starting in anticipation, but I shall not let that thwart me.

Photography, Photography, Photography

I have no excuse for not doing it now. Also, Jim and Stephanie like to spoil me and gifted me with a HOLGA, and I am super excited. I'm thinking about taking a photography class of some sort, so I can better learn what the hell I'm doing. If you hear of any, let me know.

Zineography

So I made a zine as part of my thesis, and I'd like to do more stuff with it. Expand it, distribute it, do another issue, something. More on this in another entry, hopefully.

Summer Reading

You know something great? When you're done with grad school, you can read whatever you want! I've just begun Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is just as ridiculous and silly as you can imagine. I've also begun the Preacher series, which honestly, I'm having trouble getting hooked on. I'm surprised, given how much awesome I've heard about it. I'm going to stick with it though, and see where it goes.

Visiting Renee in Chicago

SO GEEKED FOR THIS. I can't wait. I've never been to Chicago. This will be fun. Not only will I get to see Renee, but also Joe! and Wildman. RAD.

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I'm sure more will be added to this list. There are other random things happening: strawberry picking, tubing, roller skating, and street fairs. WELCOME SUMMER, WELCOME!

Damn it feels good to be a Master

I sort of can't comprehend that I'm DONE with school, for good. Or at least for awhile, so I can pay down some of these damned loans I've accrued over the past 2.5 years.

Somewhere in my head, I keep forgetting that it's all over and that I don't have to register for classes or schedule my social life around school work. I forget that I won't be heading to Rosemont 2 or 3 nights a week and I can watch TV like a normal person.

Graduation was nice. Thankfully, the rain held off so my extended family could attend the ceremony. I hid cookies in my pointy sleeves and shared some Irish coffee with Shawn. Our speaker was good, or at least better than my undergraduate speaker, who sucked royally and told us we were all over-privileged snots.

So...now what do I do with myself? I'm not sure. The obvious thing is to move forward in my career somewhat. I saw the Doc, Dr. McCormick* and Dr. Frechie last night and one by one all of them asked, When are you getting your PhD?

Currently, I have no desire whatsoever to write a dissertation. Nor do I know what I would get my PhD in. So I think I'm done with higher education. But never say never. In 5 years I could get itchy britches and suddenly might find myself hankering for another degree. We'll see what happens.

The rest of my weekend was spent housing people at trivia, helping out the Doc, crashing dinner parties, and seeing Star Trek, which I loved.

This morning when I came into work, I found my cube decorated with balloons, Congratulations streamers chris-crossing my chair and a cake on my desk. In the Production room there was a large banner reading "Class of 2009, To the MASTER: Congratulations!"

I'll say it again: Damn, it feels good to be a Master.

One real photo in my cap and gown:



*Dr. McCormick is LEAVING Cabrini and headed back to Texas! I'm heartbroken!

Recaps and Reassurances

So, to sum-up: My thesis is done. My woes with financial aid are sorted. Come Saturday those suckers at Rosemont will be conferring a degree upon me and you shall all have to call me "Master." The only thing slightly troubling is that as of this afternoon, I'm still showing an "incomplete" for my thesis. But as I have to go to the school tomorrow to pick up my cap and gown (!), I'll pop in on my adviser and make sure everything is in order.

I'm feeling better, by the way. Not 100%, but getting there. I'm not sure what my issues are, exactly, but having a lot of stuff to do helps me plow through them. Being busy never hurts. And maybe that's been my problem these past months: I've been busy, sure, but it's been a solitary, stationary busy instead of my usual running around like nuts busy.

I also came to the realization that I've been pretty hard on myself lately: I've been feeling bad about being mediocre and psyching myself out about how untalented I am and whatnot. I don't know what spawns this, but I basically gave myself a mindfuck. I compare and contrast myself to other photographers, or writers, or designers and sabotage my work before I even begin.

But then, good things happen: I designed a few pieces for my thesis and I really like them and feel good about them. I finally finished a zine, which is something I've wanted to do since 2005. I had an excellent photo session with Made in China, I'm so so pleased with how crisp and sharp those photos came out. And I just spent the last 2 days getting trained in Dreamweaver, and now I'm all kinds of inspired to create beautiful websites for you all*, starting with a Dalek-Hippo site for Renee.

So everything that happens will happen today. And tomorrow and the day after that, too.

*Once I, um, get a copy of the program for myself.

Made in China

BRÚIDIÚIL It's the Irish word for brutal. Fierce. Harsh. Severe. It's a knife fight in the street. Rats in a cage, clawing to get out. But even in a brutal world there can be a ray of hope...















Set in a completely re-imagined Dublin underworld, Made in China involves martial arts, snack foods, rogue cops, and savage low-lifes. A dreadful accident causes a violent tug-of-war between two criminal foot soldiers over the loyalty of a thrid. Self-loathing, guilt, and loneliness emerge in this frenzied narrative, which culminates in a blistering battle for survival.

*Contains strong language and violence.

Made in China by Mark O'Rowe
Directed by Tom Reing

Starring Mike Dees, Charlie DelMarcell, and Jered McLenigan.

May 12–24

The Playground at the Adrienne
2030 Sansom St.
Philadelphia, PA

Tickets available here or by calling 215-454-9776

(Also starring Charlie's hair)



(and Mike's legs)

It's my birthday, but I'm giving you a present

Apropos of nothing. Just makes me giggle.



My God, I'm 28. I'm celebrating my birthday by finishing my thesis.

Beltane, Depression, and Religion Switcheroos

(Photo above from the amazing Beltane Fire Festival of Edinburgh, which, wow, how much to I want to go there someday?)

Beltane was on Saturday, and for the first time ever, I took an actual role in the ritual, reading the antiphonal chant for the east. Marge had specifically and pointedly asked me if I would like to volunteer, and antiphonal chant seemed like something that would be hard for me to mess up.

I'm glad I did it — it's a good stepping stone for further volunteering for rituals and establishing myself in this community, other than just "that girl that shows up at the opens."

However, Beltane has a habit of bringing me down a bit. It's not supposed to: we're ushering in the summer season, celebrating the fertility of the earth, and it's a time of purification and unity. But let's face it: It's also about sex. The May Queen is crowned and she chooses her May King, someone who is equal to her in strength, intelligence, and affection. The May Queen and King are usually represented at the ritual by a couple, and this year's were particularly wrapped up in one another.

While I know that this is (again) a time for me to focus on myself and unifying the aspects of my personality so I can better unify with others around me, or whatever, that doesn't stop it from being lonely. I couldn't help but remember every dastardly breakup, every ghastly and humiliating crush, all the doomed romances in my failed life.

Part of this is the depression I've been dealing with lately. I can't seem to shake myself of my winter gloom — I'm convinced this due to my impending graduation, among other things. Graduating from college was daunting to be sure, but graduating from graduate school is a whole other ball game. Because, now what? It's not like college graduation where my adult life was waiting to begin. I'm still stuck in the same place, albeit $25,000 poorer and with a fancy piece of paper to show for it. The next logical step would be marriage, or buying a house or something equally grown-up. I'm obviously not ready for any of those things, and as someone rapidly approaching 30, I feel kind of like a mess. A failure. Which, I KNOW, is ridiculous and wrong. I think I've come to the root of my greatest fear though, which is: I'm afraid of not changing or growing and becoming stagnant.

ANYWAY, Beltane brings this into sharp relief for me, somehow. The summer is coming, everything is changing and growing, and while I'm completing this milestone and thus, changing myself, it doesn't feel like that to me. Single again, no longer in school, I regained any weight I had lost, and the constant drone of work, bills, and blah is bringing me down.

Clearly, I'm a head case and must get control over my fucked up notions.

Still, I did have a really good time at Beltane. We danced around the Maypole, which is always good for a laugh. It always looks so easy on TV and whatnot, but in reality, it's tricky because you're trying to weave the ribbons together, not just spin around the pole. So there's a whole over/under dance and when you've got 30 people, inevitably you end up getting confused, knocking into one another, and giggling like loons.

We also did the spiral dance, which is one of my favorites and which we haven't done in ages. Plus, there was a lot of May wine to partake in. And! I made a new friend. You can't ask for more than that.

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Time has an interesting article on "Church Shopping," the act of changing faiths.

First of all, I love the image that accompanies that article. I love how the young priest is giving the How you doin'? look to those two hot pew babes. LIKE THAT EVER HAPPENS. Snort. Priests these days are not that young, trust me. Given the way every church I've ever been to begs for vocations each time during Prayer of the Faithful, young men are not entering the priesthood.

Second, as someone who is also shopping around for religion (If I am even "shopping around" any more), this confirms my theories that religion doesn't matter so much as spirituality. I felt more connected to the Divine last Monday during a new moon ritual than I did last Saturday at Billy's 1st Communion. Do I think that both religions set out to achieve the same things and are, ultimately, worshiping the same deity? Yes. But people relate to God in different ways*. What should it matter if I do it by dancing in the moonlight or by praying the rosary?

Being a long-time student of the Doc, I can tell you that religion is vernacular. Even the most dedicated strict Catholic performs rituals unsanctioned by the Church. Take, for example, the Catholic superstition of burying a statue of St. Joseph in your yard when you're trying to sell your house. My cousin Robin and I were discussing this last week and she chastised me, "Don't discount your saints!" And while I don't discount them in the slightest**, there is nowhere in the catechism that tells us to do that. No priest has ever advised that. It's purely a vernacular practice, a personal ritual and spiritual belief. It has little to do with the religion itself.

Which, I guess is my long-winded and poorly illustrated point. Religion < Spirituality.

And then, today, I heard possibly one of the most brilliant, touching and beautifully written essays. Go take a listen to TAL's latest show, and go to the 39:00 minute mark and listen to Dan Savage's piece on his mother and Catholicism. Brilliant, perfect, and true. I don't think I will ever leave Catholicism behind me — as Pagan as I become, it will always be a part of me. I will always find comfort in the motions, the colors of the stained glass, and the smell of incense.

A Catholic Pagan I will always be.

*Or in the case of atheists, not at all. And yet, even atheists I believe are highly spiritual, finding faith not in a higher power, but rather themselves. Take, for example, my two favorite atheists, Jim and Stephanie. (With whom I've had many conversations about God, usually whilst drunk.) While not believing in a God, they have a strong sense of morality and ethics, having the utmost respect for all living things (hence their veganism). If that behavior isn't showing a spiritual connection to the world around them, then I don't know what is.

** I've always had a fascination with the saints. I used to have this book of saints that I would spend ages pouring over. Even now, I feel an affinity with so many of them, and take comfort that there's a patron for everything: from television to beer, from eye afflictions to motherhood.