| Trance workshop at East West Bookstore |
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| 10:53am 02/06/2009 |
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If you know anyone in the South San Francisco Bay area who is interested in trance work--
On Thursday evening, June 4th, from 7:30-9:30 p.m., I will be presenting
a workshop on trance at the East West Bookstore in Mountain View.
This will be a live introduction to the skills covered in Trance-Portation.
For anyone interested in learning how to move into altered states in a controlled,
safe and effective way, the workshop will be an opportunity to try it out with
some backup. This would be especially good for anyone who wasn't able to get into the trance class, but would like to work with the book.
Those with more experience are welcome to share techniques. If you are in the trance class, you can come and kibbitz.
The address is 324 Castro St., Mountain View CA 94041, and their phone
number is 800-909-6161 if you have any questions. The event is free.
I'll look forward to seeing some of you there. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| Baycon – already? Wow! |
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| 04:38pm 18/05/2009 |
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mood:  amused
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Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess. This spring has certainly whizzed away. First I was busting my buns to finish Sword of Avalon, and then Turquoise Scepter started eating my brain, not to mention the manual for the Troth Clergy Program. And there was Pantheacon, and recovering from Pantheacon, and a trip to LA and a workshop in Chicago….
All of which I should have reported on, but I was too busy doing them.
And now it’s time for Baycon.
For some reason, they have put most of my events on Sunday. That’s all right, I’ll take the laptop that Lorrie refurbished for me and work in the room. Or maybe even go swimming on Saturday…
Anyway this is where you'll find me at the convention.
The Friday night meet the guests thingie, and maybe some of the dances...
Birds of a Feather: Westria
As it happens, I have been working on the sequel to The Golden Hills of Westria, even though I don’t have a contract. Because it HAS TO BE DONE. Since they don’t seem to have given me a reading, I’ll probably read something from that. The working title is The Turquoise Scepter. The book does start in Westria, but a lot of the action takes place in Elaya (southern CA), and Aztlan (Southwest), especially since I just got back from a trip to LA for the Nebulas, and some lovely days staying with Bonnie and Tim Callahan, old friends from the Mythopoeic Society who are expert in southern California geography, geology, and flora. (Sunday, 10:00 AM)
The Ecology of Cloud Cities
I get to moderate this one, which means if I don’t have any ideas myself I can ask lots of questions…. (Sunday, 11:30 AM)
I Kissed a What!?
No this is not about my love life. I have the interesting task of moderating a panel on the resurgence in supernatural romance, a subject on which I haven’t written anything myself (unless you count gods). But my son Ian’s on it too. Does this mean I get to find out what he’s been kissing? (There are some things mothers were not meant to know) (Sunday, 5:30 PM)
Writing for the Long Run
Having just seen Star Trek, I’ve been thinking about what happens when earlier books constrain what you can do with later ones. My brother-in-law Paul Edwin Zimmer solved this problem by writing a series of prequels. Tolkien just kept revising. Ideally, you have a story arc with room enough for surprises. (Monday, 1:00 PM)
Reading?
I notice that only a few readings are listed. If they do end up giving me one (they haven’t sent out panel announcements to the authors yet), I will be reading from Sword of Avalon, for which I just turned in the revisions. This is the one with the sexy bronze-smith in it.
And don’t miss—
If they haven’t given me much to do, at least my nearest and dearest are well–represented.
Jon DeCles, aka ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jon_decles.
When the Last Paper Dies (Saturday, 1:00 PM)
Reading – Probably from Storm Wars, which is just out. We’ll have copies.
DonJon reads really really well, so be prepared for a treat. (Saturday, 5:30 PM)
Iron Poet – this should be fun…. (Sunday, 11:30 AM)
Ian Grey aka grendel_todd
It's Not Cancelled, It's a Comic (Saturday, 5:30 PM)
I Kissed a What!? See above. (Sunday, 5:30 PM)
The Light and Dark of Superheroes (Monday, 10:00 AM)
Lorrie Wood, aka lwood (For Lorrie’s inimitable comments on these panels see her blog)
The Zombies Are Coming! (I thought that was after Trothmoot…) (Saturday, 11:30 AM)
When the Last Paper Dies (Saturday, 1:00 PM)
Floating Islands and Lost Cities in History and Literature (Monday, 11:30 AM).
See y'all there.... |
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Read 1 - Post |
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| Got a question? |
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| 08:52pm 10/11/2008 |
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mood: cheerful
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We have answers....
If I am going to put this in my blog, I guess I need to provide some explanation for the many who will have no idea what I'm talking about.
Way back in 1990, I started working with the survivors of the first rune class to recover the oracular practice of the Viking period, known as spae or oracular seidh. I worked out a ritual based on elements from the Eddas, the account of such a ritual in the Saga of Eric the Red, and the journeys to Hel described in Saxo and elsewhere.
A year later, we tried it out at Ancient Ways, and we've been presenting this as a service to our larger pagan community ever since. We work every year at Pantheacon and four times a year we have smaller gatherings at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists hall, on the corner of Cedar & Bonita in North Berkeley (on Cedar between Shattuck and MLK). This is near the Downtown Berkeley BART station, and the 7, 9, and 18 local AC Transit lines.
As in ancient times, people ask questions about relationships, livelihood and decisions, as well as ancestors or the gods.
Tomorrow evening, Tuesday, Nov. 11th at 7:30 p.m., we'll be there. If you are in range, or know someone who would be interested, encourage them to come.
You can find out more at our seidh-related website, seidh.org.
- Diana |
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Read 8 - Post |
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| Research |
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| 09:50pm 09/11/2008 |
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A number of years ago I was at a SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) cocktail party at some convention—one of those affairs where we all stand about with drinks in our hands either complaining about our publishers or trying to sound more successful than we are. I fell into conversation with a (male) science fiction writer who shall be nameless, mainly because I have forgotten his name. What I do remember is his observation that of course I, as a writer of fantasy, didn’t have to do research. Presumably unlike science fiction writers, who regularly write about faster-than-light travel and societies which have somehow retained contemporary military ranks centuries into the future, on an unlimited number of earth-like planets. I forget what I replied—I think I was too stunned to say much—but the conversation ended shortly.
So let me tell you about the research that as a fantasy writer I don’t have to do. I particularly noticed this today because my upstairs ethernet is not cooperating, and in order to access the internet I had to tromp down two flights of stairs to the office machine.
In order to write half of Chapter Seven (of SWORD OF AVALON, which takes place at the end of the Bronze Age), in no particular order, I needed to know:
--The native range of cedar trees
--The location of prehistoric copper mines in the British isles, and the dates during which they were worked.
--The date of the earliest European coinage.
--The shapes into which early tin ingots were cast.
--The types of ships built and used in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic littoral, and the British Isles.
--the names and characteristics (if known) of pre-Celtic Iberian cultures
--the language of Tartessos (related to no known European language, by the way)
--early trade routes for copper and tin
--how ingots were packed for shipping
--the contents of a bronze-smith’s toolbox
I already knew what Penzance and St. Michael’s Mount look like. I’ve been there.
Even five years ago, that much information would have required a search through the bookshelves in our library (which currently is filled with my nephew David's furniture and inaccessible anyway) and a trip to the UCB library, and several points at which I would have waved my hands and hoped, or decided I didn't really need to include that detail anyway. In fact, many of those details won't appear in the book because they would result in what I call "creeping footnotism", and bog down the narrative flow. But in order to know what information not to include, I have to know what it is.
Did I mention that I love the internet? |
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Read 18 - Post |
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| Liberty and Justice for All |
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| 12:57pm 30/10/2008 |
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My, what an exciting week. Samhain and Elections - as Swedish musician Erik Ask-Upmark observed at the Draam concert last night, it's hard to say which is the most scary. There is, however, a way to combine them--
As you call on the ancestors this Samhain, pay some extra attention to our American heroes and heroines, who fought for liberty and justice in their various ways, and surely have an interest in preserving them.
At the Spiral Samhain celebration next week (Tuesday Nov. 4, at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Fellowship hall on Cedar & Bonita-- Spiral observes the quarter and cross-quarter festivals at its "Gateway" series, on the first Tuesday of each month), Charline Palmtag and I are going to be calling on the Founding Fathers and a selection of other American notables from Abraham Lincoln through Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King. Just because they're dead doesn't mean they can stop working. Unfortunately today's conflicts are actually evidence of continuity in American culture. The moment the British left, the factions that are still fighting sprang into being. Washington's genius was his ability to balance them. So as the American ship of state wallows through the currently troubled waters, hang on.
The immediate problem, of course, is the election--not so much who is going to get the most votes, but whether all those votes will be correctly counted. I'm willing to bow to the will of the People, but I want to make sure that the published results in fact express it.
My plan for the next week or so is to spend some time every evening visualizing Lady Liberty shining her torch across the land. As that light penetrates every dark corner, it banishes fear, confusion, and deception. I ask her not only to inspire people to vote for the laws and candidates that will be best for the country, but to illuminate the vote-counting process so that the true will of the people is known.
If you like this idea, spread the word. The more of us who hold that image, the more powerful it will be.
God(s) bless America. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| Hard Times |
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| 03:51pm 10/10/2008 |
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mood: amused
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It's a song and a sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door.
Hard times, come again no more.
Stephen Foster
It's been awhile since I've posted-- I apologize. I meant to continue with reports on the Greek trip, and I do intend to get back to that, but I am most motivated to write here when there's something I need to say. As I watch the stock market tumble and my savings diminish, the chorus of the Stephen Foster song keeps echoing in my head, I always thought that was a Depression song, but it goes back to the 19th century. Hard times come in every era, and eventually good times return. The trick is to make it from one era to the other.
Those of us who were raised by parents who grew up during the Depression already have a clue about how to survive. For those of you whose parents grew up during the 50's and 60's, here are a few thoughts on the subject.
Of course, today, Global Warming and the Energy crisis complicate the issue. Or do they?
The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that the remedies may be complementary. Whether we are trying to save money or the environment, we need to make the most efficient use of resources that we can, and support our local communities. Buying locally not only cuts down on the carbon load, it keeps the money circulating here. Given a choice, buy from companies that have not outsourced all their jobs.
But an even more basic strategy is to cut down on consumption across the board.
Instead of replacing appliances and other useful items, retain, recycle, re-use, repair. We can use our communication resources, such as LJ and chat lists, to find people who do need the things we can no longer use. People who know how to fix things are about to become very popular. Let us know who you are. We can decrease our dependence on the cash economy by trading skills.
The same energy- and resource-saving moves we were already making for the sake of the environment will also lower living costs. Getting more of our protein from vegetables and learning creative uses for leftovers will lower the grocery bills. Rather than driving somewhere to go hiking, I want to do more shopping by walking to the local grocery, which will support local business, save gas, and give me some needed exercise. Trade clothes instead of buying new. Repair and remodel - would anyone be interested in a class on mending?
I am currently being inspired in this quest by the discovery of a new goddess, or rather a new path of a Power I already knew about, Oshun Ibu Kolé. This is the path of Oshun whose peacock plumage was burned into that of a vulture when she flew up to beg Olodumare to lift the drought with which he had punished everyone for thinking they could do without him. She appears as an old woman by a muddy river, also associated with sewers and toilets. She is the one whose white dress yellowed because she washed it so many times. Her name, depending on the translation, means "Spirit of the River who Transforms", or "the one who takes out and brings back the trash and dust". In other words, she's the perfect deity to invoke for recycling.
The other day she and I had an interesting exchange. I was going to get a new piece of cloth to wear when I danced for her, but somehow, I couldn't quite make up my mind to buy it. It occurred to me that I ought to ask her what she wanted. The information I got was that I should recycle some other garment, like the fringed scarf I inherited from my nephew David, who just passed away, and add a little decoration. When we had finished that part of the discussion, she told me to go down and empty the garbage.
What I didn't know was that the refrigerator repairman had arrived to try to fix the freezer so we wouldn't have to buy a new one, and my son had taken out all the packages of food that had been freezing and thawing for variable amounts of time. Including quite a lot of meat. So when I got downstairs I was presented with a bucket full of such packages. These days, the Berkeley recycling system allows us to put food scraps in with the yard trimmings. Thus, the immediate sequel to my conversation with Ibu Kolé was to hand over several pounds of spoiled meat for composting. I cannot imagine a better offering for the Oshun the Vulture! Sometimes the gods make themselves very clear.
Vulture beak, vulture beak,
Doing what you must,
Takin' out the trash, recycling our sorrows,
Beauty from the dust.
Burning wing, burning wing,
Fly and bring the rain.
Old witch woman, by the muddy water,
Give us hope again. |
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| Don’t Fall Off the Mountain |
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| 10:47am 04/08/2008 |
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(with apologies to Shirley Maclain, who wrote a book with that title, in which it referred to her trip to Peru in search of enlightenment)
The thing that nobody tells you about Greece is that it is vertical. Culturally, the country may be ancient, but geologically it is very young. Most of the coastline rises sheer from the sea, with occasional beaches that shelve off steeply. It is easy to believe that these are the mountaintops of a drowned land.The country consists of mountain ranges with plains between them. Here is what the Argive plain looks like from the mountains between it and Lakonia.
The flat, arable land is limited, and over the centuries the Greeks have gotten very good at terracing, sometimes on extremely sheer slopes. If you flattened out the mountains, Greece would be the size of Europe. Here's our little car in front of the mountains farther in. If you look closely you can see a herd of goats, the animal that makes the best use of this terrain. From a distance the landscape looks a lot like places in Southern California and the Southwest, but on closer examination the vegetation, though equivalent, is different.
( Read more... ) |
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| Never on Monday |
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| 11:30pm 27/07/2008 |
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mood:  accomplished
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(It has been brought to my attention that some of you may not be familiar with the film Never on Sunday starring Melina Mercouri. In that case, do go out and rent it. It will be a good introduction to the Greek spirit as well as explaining the title of this post.)
So, as those of you who have friended my husband already know, we spent a month in Greece. Since he is reporting as a sequential narrative, I’m going to try and extract the essence in some essays. If you want the chronological version, you should friend him at-- jon_decles
For the most part things went well. We saw:
- 30 temples,
- 11 acropoli (cliff with citadel atop it, as in “The Acropolis”)
- 3 battlefields
- 5 stadia
- 7 theatres
- 9 museums
Greece has a lot of museums, and many of them are open. The major archaeological sites have museums attached to them, and many towns have their own museums as well. Because they mostly close on Mondays (I suppose the staff have to rest sometime), it helps to have something else to do on that day. Go to the seashore. Not every exhibit has a label, but they are in both Greek and English. Mostly. For some museum reviews and pictures, see the rest of this post.( Read more... )
Things We Have Learned about Greek Museums, #1:
- Most museums are closed on Mondays.
- Most sites close at 3 p.m.
- Many small museums may be closed. Period.
- Most museums will let you photograph the exhibits without flash.
- Some museums will not let you pose with the statues.
- Museum snack shops charge double what you would pay in town, but the food is usually good.
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Read 8 - Post |
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| Westria sings! |
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| 12:29am 28/05/2008 |
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mood: artistic music: Jewel Songs
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So, we're all back from Baycon at the new site in Santa Clara. It was a pretty good Con-- interesting panels, amusing GoHs, good Art Show, and an astonishing array of booze at some of the parties. Although in most ways the hotel was quite good-- especially the free and abundant parking and the restaurant, the rooms were a surprise-- apparently furnished from IKEA, measurably smaller than those at the Doubletree, with double instead of queen beds and miniscule closet and bathroom space. Trying to fit the Greyhaven contingent in was...interesting.... only made possible by the fact that Elizabeth (my daughter-in-law) can sleep anywhere. We hummed "Norwegian Wood" a lot.
I had asked for a "birds of a feather" space to do a release party for the new CD. This turned out to be the patio between the pool and the barbecue, which could only be reached through the bar, so many people never figured out where it was. On the other hand, it was nice to be outdoors in the sunshine. Margaret and Kristoph were there, and did some of the songs. We had an amusing moment when Kristoph sang "Are you the meadowlark..." just as an airplane flew over. Guess I'll have to write another verse for the song!
This is the CD I've been burbling about periodically all spring. Margaret and Kristoph have done a wonderful job. My favorites are "Marana", which has some very original and evocative harp accompaniment as well as Margaret's lyric soprano, and "Bird of My Heart", in which she sings descant to Kristoph's excellent rendition (without airplanes). The "College of Bards Choir" comes through very well.
I have copies of both Jewel Songs and The Wandersong for $15 each, postpaid. If you'd like one, let me know. Expect to see more here soon--MP3's and sheet music to download, liner notes to peruse, and maybe even a more efficient way to order it!
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Read 5 - Post |
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| Westrian wanderings |
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| 05:38pm 05/05/2008 |
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mood: ecstatic music: The Wandersong
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For the past month I've been doing my best to immerse myself in the Bronze Age, but lferion came to town for CostumeCon, and since she is one of the most enduring and dedicated of Westria fans, talk naturally turned in that direction. In fact she came up with a character who will undoubtedly appear in the sequel to The Golden Hills of Westria, which I really must get started on one of these days.
Did I mention, by the way, that the remaindered hard copies of The Golden Hills of Westria did arrive? They are available for $20 (includes postage). I'd be happy to send you one (really happy, the boxes are still stacked in our front hall because I can't figure out where else to put them). Send me a response with your address and I'll let you know where to send the money.
I also finally got the CD's for The Wandersong printed up, which is worth the $15 for the cover alone, featuring donsimpson as Silverhair with Mt. Tamalpais in the background. Those are also available, same deal as the book. Margaret and Kristoph are almost done with the sequel Jewel Songs (songs from the four Jewel books, featuring the College of Bards Choir). They just sent me MP3s of some of the songs, and this one will be even better. Margaret has the perfect voice for some of the more lyrical pieces, and Kristoph sounds like Silverhair. I am working on putting the sheet music up on the Westria website.
Speaking of which, the other thing that lferion did was to ask if we could go to the Kingdom of the West's Coronation Tournament to see Elis step up as Queen. Given that Westria is where I turned my energies when I realized it wasn't fair to use real people in the SCA as my artistic medium (I had this odd idea that my characters would be easier to manage), and given that one of the premises for Westria is that a lot of SCA people would have survived the cataclysm and contributed to the resulting culture, going to a tournament is rather like visiting Westria, especially when it is in Mendocino, one of my favorite parts of California.
The site was gorgeous, the weather was gorgeous, the people were gorgeous, and I had a wonderful time. A lot of old friends came out of the woodwork to honor Elis, so it was something of a reunion as well. I took some pictures there (and on Hwy. 1, which we took north), and was sufficiently inspired to actually process them and get them up on the Westria website. In fact I got so inspired that I went through all my photos for the past two years and added quite a number to the galleries for Seagate and Las Costas. Have a look and see for yourself!
In the course of digging I got to the shots from a roadtrip with our houseguests for this year's Pantheacon across the southern borders of the Royal Domain to the sea and found this, which may be the best photo I have ever taken.Enjoy!
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| Return to Fernwood |
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| 09:02pm 25/04/2008 |
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mood:  grateful
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As many of you already know, Steve Abell got the ball rolling to go down to the old Fernwood campground for an impromptu minimoot on Earth Day weekend. The grandkids really missed those campouts, so we loaded everybody up and trundled down. To our relief, the improvements, far from destroying the site, have actually improved it, being much more esthetic than the old trailers that used to be parked beside the meadow. Our old sites by the river had not been disturbed at all, except that the decaying BBQ pits have been replaced by nice iron ones. The new cabins cannot be rented yet, because the camp failed to get permission before building them. If they ever are, they might actually make the site *more* usable than it was before, as they have electricity, kitchenettes, and enough beds for at least 4 people each, if they're friendly. Thus they would be able to accomodate people with "nose hoses" and visitors from out of state.
Most remarkable (beside the temperature, which, with wind chill, made the fires VERY welcome), was the welcome we got from the spirits of the place. I think we all had a deeper connection with the place than we knew, and it felt like coming home.
For pictures, see the gallery on the Hrafnar site. |
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| Teahouse of the April Moon |
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| 10:48pm 21/04/2008 |
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mood: calm
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Those of you who know my husband, jon_decles -- will probably at some time have heard the saga of the once and future teahouse that he has been building at his place on Cobb Mountain in Lake County. Jon has been studying tea at the Urasenke School off and on for about forty years. Along the way he has collected a number of certificates and an amazing variety of tea equipment (and tea ceremony surpasses any avocation I have ever encountered in the number and variety of tchotchkes one must collect to properly play). He started building the teahouse when he and Kelson moved to Lake County, and work has proceded in stops and starts for many years.
But as of April 17th of this year, the teahouse is officially open. My grandson Evan and I drove up for the full-dress kaiseke (food) and tea (thick and thin) ceremony that formally inaugurated it. It was quite an experience.
The building is tucked away among the manzanita and pines, and though the color scheme is evocative of Frank Lloyd Wright, the details are a graceful amalgam of native Californian and Japanese. Despite the red plaster work, the building is remarkably serene. Evan wants to build one in the back yard.
Jon did a heroic job of putting the event together, especially since his helpers were unable to be present, and he had to cook, set up and serve the entire 14 item kaiseke feast alone. Working our way through this took all afternoon. We had an intermission to allow him to reset for the actual tea ceremony. By the time this was ready it was dark, but we got in some portable lights that gave a very chiaroscuro quality to the room, which added to the solemnity of the occasion. The tea was in two phases. In thick tea, the powdered tea is mixed into a frothy substance about the thickness of a smoothy, which tastes sort of like green tea ice cream without the sugar and cream. It's an acquired taste. This was followed by thin tea, which is a little more familiar. Each, of course, requires a different set of implements and bowls. All were beautiful.
By the time we were finished, it was a quarter to ten. But the tea kept me wide awake for the two and a half hour drive back to Berkeley. Thank you, love, for a beautiful experience.
For a full set of pictures, go to my gallery of teahouse photos.
With luck, Jon will find the time to write up his own account of the day, or at least give me the proper names for all the utensils.
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Read 9 - Post |
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| They're Young But They're Daily Growing |
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| 06:03pm 05/04/2008 |
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mood: contemplative music: Happy Birthday to You
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Today the twins (my grandchildren Michael and Arael) turn twelve. Their brother Evan is thirteen and a half. How did this happen?
Seems like yesterday they were in a playpen, following the action around them with an alert stare that always reminded me of the velociraptors in Jurassic Park. Not evil, just very, very intent. Now every time I turn my back they seem a little taller. I, of course, have not changed at all.
At birth, Arael was sweet and smiling and Michael frowned. Today, his ambition is world domination and hers is apparently to become a pirate. Perhaps at Wendy's Lost Girls Pirate Academy. They can do more things with a computer than I can.
No one is perfect, but I can say that on the whole they have been a joy to live with, mostly cheerful, reasonably cooperative, and capable of carrying on intelligent conversation. They've been great children. Adolescence looms-- even now I get the occasional glimpse of the teenagers they will soon be. My prayer is the prayer of any parent or grandparent-- grow safe and strong, grow into your potential, try not to blame us too much for making such a mess of your world.
Michael and Arael, Happy Birthday to you !
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| Appreciate Your Local Freelance Writer ? |
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| 04:55pm 06/02/2008 |
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mood: amused
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So, someone left a big fat calendar book here at Greyhaven that gives you all the historic events, birthdays, etc. that have occurred on each day of the year. The natural response is to look up one's own birthday and then the day on which one is reading the book.
Which is how I discovered that February 6-10 is "Freelance Writers' Appreciation Week". This appears to have been cooked up by the Public Libraries. At least they are the ones with a website about it--
http://papercuts.tscpl.org/2006/02/freelance_writers_appreciation.html
Exactly /how/ one is supposed to express this appreciation is not clear. My suggestion would be to go out and buy a book, or maybe visit a library and encourage /them/ to buy books from your favorite author. Maybe I'll trot down to our local branch library tomorrow and give them a chance to appreciate me .
Actually, I did get a little appreciation yesterday at the voting booth, where the sweet young thing at the the table looked at my name and asked, "Are you /that/ Diana Paxson?" Turns out her mother reads my books. She herself is specializing in Victorian Literature and doesn't, but she had me autograph her Survey of Literature book. Probably the only way I'll ever get my name in one! |
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Read 17 - Post |
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| In Search of a Green President II |
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| 11:07am 04/02/2008 |
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Tomorrow is "Super Tuesday". I've been waffling about who to vote for. A black man or a woman - both smart, liberal and politically correct. How do I choose? Do I go for the candidate who is the most likely to inspire the nation with new ideas, or the one who knows how to work the system in Washington but may be stuck in old patterns? Do I go for the one with the Kennedy blessing or the one with Johnson's political skills? (those of you who were around in the later 60's will understand what I mean)
As those of you who have been reading my blog know, this year I have simplified my decision-making by focusing on a single issue, Global Warming. My stand is that it won't matter what else we do if we don't have a livable environment to do it in. Fortunately I am on all sorts of conservation-minded e-lists run by people who are happy to provide information. The California League of Conservation Voters sent me some this morning, a set of responses to questions they asked all the candidates. You can find the answers on http://ecovote.org/answers/
In a nutshell, of the Republicans, McCain is the only one with any environmental track record at all. None of the Republican candidates answered the questions. Both Democratic candidates did. Both of them have their hearts in the right place from my point of view. But as you will see if you look at the answers, one candidate answered with general statements and the other with clear detailed descriptions of what to do and how to do it.
If Barack is elected, I expect he will put together a brain trust of people who will advise him on strategies. But Hillary already knows how to tackle the problem.
She gets my vote tomorrow. |
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| Environmental changes |
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| 10:49pm 15/01/2008 |
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At Greyhaven we've managed a number of environmentally friendly changes this year.
1. Got the house re-piped so we don't have to run the upstairs water for a half hour to get it warm.
2. Got the south side of the house reshingled and repaired, so less cold air gets into the basement.
3. Did more shopping at the Berkeley Bowl, where they have recycled napkins, paper towels, and toilet paper, as well as locally grown produce.
4. For most of the year subscribed to the Full Belly Farms program that delivers local produce every two weeks.
5. Gratefully participated in the new Berkeley recycling program that accepts food waste as well as garden trimmings.
6. Got two new low-water flush toilets.
7. Stopped using paper plates for most of our house events.
We had already switched most of our lights to flourescents, and we've kept the thermostat at around 60 for years. Supporting a household of 9 people on one car, washing machine, dryer, etc. also saves some energy, I hope.
Things we should do in the future.
*Fix the rest of the outside of the house and insulate the basement.
*clean the heating ducts.
*replace the other appliances with energy-efficient versions
*buy more local produce
*buy carbon credits when I travel |
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Read 11 - Post |
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| Looking for a Green president - warning, political |
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| 12:50pm 15/01/2008 |
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I'm signed up for a number of liberal e-mail lists that periodically ask me to send messages to senators and the like regarding whatever this week's worthy cause may be.
The latest, from Move-on, points out that during the last year, reporters have asked the presidential candidates 2,679 questions. The number asked about global warming was the same as the number asked about UFOs.
Since I happen to agree that Global Warming is the great crisis of our time, I signed their petition to encourage reporters to ask about this question. Anyone else who would like to do so can find it at:
http://pol.moveon.org/climatequestions/?r_by=11906-2344697-49Nehl&rc=confemail
IMO, it doesn't matter if we get free health care, out of Iraq, or the rest of it, if our planet becomes unliveable. The US is not the only source of pollution, but it's the country we're responsible for. To organize the US to make real changes will take an effort something like fighting the Great Depression. Which of the front runners has that much dedication and charisma? Which one cares? |
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Read 20 - Post |
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| The Greyhaven New Year's Eve Ball |
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| 12:58pm 04/01/2008 |
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mood: satisfied music: Strauss waltzes
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A friend on an e-list I'm on wanted to know about the Greyhaven New Year's Eve Ball, and I thought you all might appreciate it too. Other members of my family who are also on LJ are welcome to add their perspectives....
The Annual New Year's Eve Ball at Greyhaven is partly the fault of the house itself. How we got it is kind of a story, which you are all now going to hear because it's an excuse to delay bringing up the file for SWORD OF AVALON and actually work.
Way back in the late sixties, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was young, I fell in love with a guy (he writes as Jon DeCles) who had read too much Heinlein and was in a blood-brotherhood relationship with several others. We all ended up starting the SCA together, and when we got married, one of the others, Paul Edwin Zimmer, also got married and we all set up house together with Paul's (and Marion Zimmer Bradley's) mother.
When the landlady wanted the house we were renting back, we started looking for a new place that would be big enough for us, our children, and the other people who always seemed to end up living with us. My sister-in-law found this big house that was something of a fixer-upper, going in an estate sale-- for $48,000. This was in 1971, before real estate prices started soaring, but even then, for a 15 room house, a bargain.
"But Tracy," I said, "to buy a house you have to have money..." At that time she and I were both working at low income jobs while Jon and Paul tried to sell their writing. However as soon as the word got out, people started volunteering to loan us money for the down payment, and a couple who were charter members of the Berkeley Coop recommended us to them for a mortgage. When someone tried to outbid us by by-passing the real estate agent, he mortgaged his own house to give us a second mortgage to up the bid.
So we really got it through a series of miracles, and it has since become clear that the gods wanted us to have a place where we could hold large rituals for them (the living room is about 30' by 15'and easily holds a circle of 40). The next year, we found ourselves without an invitation to a New Year's Eve party, and decided to give one ourselves.
Since then, many things have changed. Mom and Paul have died and Tracy moved out. My husband lives in Clear Lake, though we are still lovingly married, and the third generation at Greyhaven is now represented by my grandchildren, who live here with my son and his wife. But we always seem to have 8-10 people living here, connected in various ways.
And we still hold the New Year's Eve ball. It's a great opportunity to muck out the entire downstairs. Fortunately we usually get some house guests and other volunteers to help. We move all the furniture out of the living room, wax the floor, wash the crystal drops on the chandeliers and invite everybody we know. We have tape recordings for six hours of waltzes, and a surprising number of people do dance, especially in years when Jon is working Dickens Faire and can recruit from Fezziwig's. Over a hundred people come and go during the evening, dressed in everything from full Victorian drag to jeans. My husband wears a tuxedo. This year I wore a boned bodice and full skirt in black and silver with a cobwebby shawl knitted by my friend Lorrie. People dance, munch, and talk; children of various ages run past.
Just before midnight, we put on the Cinderella waltz (Prokofiev) which includes the bell chiming midnight, and count down the seconds. At this point, everyone is on the dance floor, holding onto their beloved, in couples or trios or more, sometimes with children or dogs in arms. When the moment has come, the music changes to the Carousel waltz and the champagne and Martinelli's come out and are passed from hand to hand. At this point we also put out a big ham.
It is a very liminal moment, an affirmation that our community has made it through another year and we will survive the next one. And though we send out invitations, so many people know about it, we'd probably have to take out an ad in the Oakland Tribune to stop the party.
BTW--any of my LJ friends who don't already join us are hereby invited for next year... |
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Read 10 - Post |
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| An Extended Family Christmas |
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| 11:12pm 27/12/2007 |
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mood:  exhausted
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My mother and father both came from large families, but I was an only child. I used to envy the big families I read about. Then I had the fortune to marry up with three other people who were also effectively only children and wanted community. Which is how I ended up cooking for 23 people this Christmas. At least we didn't try to sit them all down at one table as we do at Thanksgiving.
And at least it was intentional community, not the kind of relatives you endure from duty rather than love. I actually *like* all the people who were here. The Greyhaven Family Tree often leaves people blinking in confusion. When drawing a sociogram, we've had to invent some symbols to represent the connections. Blood relations are the simple part-- my autistic younger son, and my older son Ian and his wife and their three children. Beyond that, it gets more complicated. There's my husband Don, and his adopted son Jon and his wife and their lover and the two children. And my daughter-in-law's parents. There's my sister-in-law, and then the lady who replaced her as Paul's Significant Other when she left, and their daughter.There's Marion Zimmer Bradley's son David, who qualifies as a nephew by marriage, sort of. There's the lady who used to live with him, who now lives with Don Simpson and Kitty Crow, who was a part of our household in the SCA, and Julie, an old friend from the Faire who used to live with us and now lives downstairs from David. Kitty's daughter (Sabre), who is my grandson's godmother, came by later, and so did the other two couples who have been living in our basement off and on. The house really seems to like being filled with happy people.
I had this lovely cooking schedule posted, printed in red and green. Only the 21 lb. turkey somehow cooked faster than expected, and we had to scurry (thank you Tracy and Kitty) to step up the schedule for the mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, Brussels sprouts, and salad. It turned out pretty well-- I always depend on inspiration for the stuffing, so I can't post the recipe. And Chris brought bread and ice cream and my in-laws brought pie. But between all the cleaning and washing up beforehand, and during, and then after, by the time dinner was on, being the gracious hostess was a fantasy. All I wanted to do was sit down. There have been years when I was actually able to do a little Yuletide meditation during the holidays. But not this one.
I have dreams of running away from it all, but I suppose it's like childbirth. Let a year go by and you forget the pain.
And gosh, there's a whole week to recover between X-mas and the New Year's Eve ball. But at least for that one we will only be cleaning (although the cleaning is pretty Herculian, involving moving all the furniture from the living room and waxing the floor), with minimal cooking. If you like to dance, and are in my area, and didn't already see the invitation on one of the lists, consider yourselves invited too.
I shouldn't complain. Be careful what you ask for-- you may get it. And I always wanted a big family. |
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Read 7 - Post |
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| GOLDEN COMPASS REVIEW |
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| 03:27pm 14/12/2007 |
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mood: excited
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There's been a lot of discussion in the media about whether the new film of Pullman's THE GOLDEN COMPASS is anti-Christian. What no one seems to have mentioned yet is how heathen it feels.
Some Christian groups are up in arms because the villains in the piece belong to the hierarchy of the "Magisterium". In the film their faith is not mentioned, although the book makes clear that this is a rather odd evolutionary development of the Catholic Church. But really, the Catholics shouldn't be upset, as in Pullman's version, the Church did away with the Pope some time ago. The Protestants shouldn't be upset, as this kind of oppressive hierarchy is exactly what that good German revolutionary Martin Luther was fighting. In fact no Christian who truly follows the guy who got a reputation as a rabble-rouser for criticizing the Pharisees should have any problem with this film at all.
Nor do I think those who objected to the deletion of religious elements should complain. Any film that attempts to convey an entire novel has to simplify and select. In my opinion, this version did a pretty good job of retaining the essence of each episode, although, as usual in an adaptation, some of the complexity of character and plot development was lost. The deletion of all kinds of elements was pretty even-handed, and in any case, though we don't get much detail, the moral and religious conflict is clear.
And there are many reasons why pagans in general and heathens in particular should like the film. For one thing, the basic conflict is between people who believe that some people have the right to impose their views on what's best for humanity on the rest of us, and those who believe in the sanctity of free will.
Much of the story takes place in the far north. Heathens will particularly enjoy the Armored Bears (the Panzerbjörne in the book, whose original title was NORTHERN LIGHTS). Like vikings in white bear suits, they follow the old heathen virtues. The witches swoop through the air like valkyries. Even the daemons, external souls in animal form, bear a strong resemblance to the fetch as recorded in Scandinavian folklore.
THE GOLDEN COMPASS would be worth seeing for the cast and the spectacle alone. The technology for creating wholly believable landscapes, animals and other creatures has clearly arrived. Showing us new and exotic scenes is what cinema does best. If only the new BEOWULF had been filmed with this technology instead of World of Warcraft style CGI, it would have been a great film. COMPASS also has a world-class cast, including Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Derek Jacobi and (briefly) Christopher Lee. Ian McKellen's voice animates Iorek Byrnison the Bear.
All-hail the Panzerbjörne! |
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Read 21 - Post |
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