Was in 20's last night - I fear for cherry, magnolia, peach, forsythia , and daffodil blossoms, only open 4 days. Color is magnificent while it lasts! Magnolia, most fragile - oooh hate to see them turn brown again this year.

Had a little Film Fest this weekend. "Down by Law," "Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill," "Baran," (Persian) and "A Mighty Wind." Enjoyed!

About 25 (we lost count) people showed up E. Thompson dinner. Made huge amounts of pesto and linguine. Grads brought stuff so only ran out of dishes and silverware. (We went to plastic utensils and bowls.)

Friday's Junaluska full moon #6 walk was all wind, laughter, and talk. Perhaps more about it later.

Enjoyable times - these days. About 5 weeks of classes and intensity left. So much to do and yet here I am doing this! Back to "work."

Metta -

Cast: Sun, Earth, Moon, Clouds and Earthlings

they cavorted across the sky
in celestial seek and hide
nimbus shrouds and
dazzling drama
queen moon

queen moon
a drama: a darkness
in her diskness grew 'til
it filled her fullness and she
glowed in shade-burnt umber

At play: 3 Planets, 33 Clouds, 3 Humans (Heads Upturned)

"New Yorker" arrived yesterday with Peter Schjeldahl's review of the Whitney Biennial. Am vaguely flattered (usually disagree with Schjeldahl's reviews and think he's pompous! -He came to WCU to speak once, met him, and he was). Schjeldahl said about the same things I did below - comparing Biennial to New Museum's Un-monumental show and noting many of the same artists.

"Contemporary Landscape" show - at Asheville Art Museum with students (years since my last visit) included interesting piece made of pins on wall in shape of French Broad River - by Maya Lin. It was so ethereal - at a distance it looked out of focus. So simple and lovely, perhaps that's the hallmark of all her work, whatever its scale. Video by Laurie Anderson seemed to be a poetic, female version of Matthew Barney (engrossing but beyond full left brain comprehension). J suggested I have grads write reviews of the show - an excellent idea.

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C paid a guy to work on our pond a couple of weeks ago. Guys with big toys tearing up the earth...now we have a monster mud hole in the back yard. Think it will probably be okay with some work on C's part and might even be a fun project.

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Last night heard peepers for the first time this year. In C's mud hole? Maybe. Frogs and their sounds - such welcome things. Weeping cherry is about to burst! If all goes well - we'll have great full moon cherry blossom viewing for the first time in several years. It usually snows and kills the blossoms before March full moon. We'll see this time.

Okay, now back to my to-do list. Oooh rolling thunder just now...

Metta

During spring break last week we decided on a last minute trip to NYC for first look at Biennial, arriving the day it opened. I love Whitney Biennials - tho this year's was not a knock-out, there were some faves. One was Daniel Martinez's "Divine Violence." He filled a room with hundreds of gilded plaques carrying the names of terrorist organizations, from Al Qaeda to tiny nationalist and religious groups. Very scary and powerful.

Other memorables were Sherry Levine's bronze undersized pregnant female torsos - scary also, a video juxtaposing a war vet's experiences in Iraq, Germany, and being interviewed by a movie crew about it (Omer Fast), a concrete chain-link fence sculpture (Ruben Ochoa), Charles Long's linear plaster and refuse abstract sculptures formally based on bird poop (!), and John Baldessari's paintings.

I thought overall it was a bit dreary, un-monumental - like the show of that name that continues at the New Museum.

Cai Gao Qiang at Guggenheim was dramatic. His early conceptual underpinnings - (explosives and peace) are formally and conceptually inspirational. In one, he sat in center of concentric dynamite circles while monitoring heart beat and brain waves as it detonated. His recent work including the Toyotas with LED's seems mostly show and makes me wonder if he's lost his edge to $'s. Will be interesting to see what he does at the Beijing Olympics opening.

We also saw Wack! at PS1 - feminist art in the 70's which was surprisingly...dull! We were selective about Chelsea Galleries. (Somehow always find most of the work there tedious.) This time it was more interesting - and yet only recall one I liked - a landscape show.

"Avenue Q" was funny a sort of X-rated, honest about life, yet still sweet - Sesame Street with - Buddhist themes - one song was titled "For Now." Here's some others -"Everyone's a Little Bit Racist," "The Internet is for Porn," "If You Were Gay," "It Sucks to Be Me," "The More You Ruv Someone (the more you want to kill him)." Ha, well, perhaps Buddhist in sense that a total view is presented. Also saw "August: Osage County," an intense, worthy production.

The more I go to NYC, the more enjoyable it is. There's no end of interesting culture, places, neighborhoods, and restaurants.

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So now am overwhelmed with stuff to do at work. What's coming up and what I'm responsible for doing, hosting, etc is LOOMING. Got to remember to make it fun...

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today a peach blossom opened
cherry buds turned crimson
daffodils were ready while
nine day lilies bloomed
and withered

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And a lotus flower from a friend:

"So...I think, in some strange way, that this situation, while causing some pain to both of us, is actually a gift (along with the book.)...I truly am looking forward to not only repairing, but growing, our friendship."

"The strange resonant word "instar" describes the stage between two successive molts...for as it grows, a caterpillar...splits its skin again and again, each stage an instar..."Instar" implies something both celestial and ingrown, heavenly and disastrous, and perhaps change is commonly like that, a buried star between near and far."

-Rebecca Solnit "A Field Guide to Getting Lost"


The celestial full moon eclipse of Feb. 20 was amazing, dramatic, and surprising! Strings of words written after each full moon walk, have not happened this time. Seems I want to write about everything else but that - and so I have.

Heard from friend in Mysore doing Ashtanga yoga with Pattabhi Jois for three months. Oh, it sounds so fabulous. He has easy laid-back days filled with good vegetarian food, study (Sanskrit, yoga), meditation, and friends, days beginning at 3AM and ending 7PM. Am thinking: leave of absence...

Yet more critiques this week. Grads are obviously working only in their "comfort zone." Nevertheless, I've a final hope - get them out of easy zone and rid of rigidity. One of my cherished beliefs is that everyone can be creative if we drop those things - a belief that may itself get dropped!

As for my own comfort zone - there's a colleague at work who for years has pushed me out of mine. He drives me crazy! I HATE certain qualities he has. Everything he does with students (and faculty) is based on whether he likes them or not. He's a patsy, a kiss-ass, and incompetent. Someone called him "Step-and-Fetchit" recently. AND he's deluded!! Am having fantasies of saying truly awful things to him.

There are times -well, as I think of it - most of the time - when I can't even vaguely remember what the issue is with him or why I care. Judgement and struggle pass. At other times, I worry I've hurt his feelings.

Is this my skin (or mind) splitting?

So it comes and goes. What puzzles me is why him? And what's the big deal? There are plenty of people like him in the world, and I accept them without a fight. (Cheri Huber might say - "Are those qualities ones you don't accept and that cause discomfort in yourself?")

Near and far; heavenly and disastrous - the stage between molts.