Linky Links

July 27, 2006 / / 15 comments

I’m terrible with updating my links. I think I’m going to and then I don’t and then I forget who to add and then I look at who I might add and the list is too long so eff it.

Every now and then I add a new blog to the list because I’m bowled over, and very soon thereafter I either start hating the blog and feel guilty about removing it (okay that only happened once) or the blog disappears from the blogverse. So if I add you to my blogroll, heavens I hope that doesn’t happen to you.

Anyway, I added a couple today and also decided to separate Pagan Blogs into their own category. Once I did that, I had Pagan Blogs, Language Blogs, and Blogs. Blogs? Unmodified, undifferentiated blogs? Seems so unfair. But some of those other blogs are feminist and some are political and some are personal. Some combine all of the above. But they longed for a modifier and “other” didn’t seem to do the trick.

So now, I introduce “Bloggy Blogs.” This proves I watch too much Buffy.

Legislating Nature

July 26, 2006 / / 5 comments

Amanda makes a brilliant point:

I’ve never quite understood why we have to legislate and/or use social pressure to force women to behave naturally. I breathe and walk on two feet without society interfering, so why is it that if I, as a woman, have a “natural caution”, then only the fear of being tarred a slut will make me cautious? You’ll see the same argument coming from people who claim that women have a natural love of staying home and having lots of children—because this is our nature, apparently we need to be forced into it by having our reproductive rights stripped from us.

Marking life through Festivals

July 26, 2006 / / 3 comments

I go to quite a lot of festivals. Starwood is an annual event for me, and every June I’m forced to choose between two other favorites: Free Spirit and Wic-Can Fest. Over the years, I’ve attended many others, including Heartland, Rites of Spring, and Pagan Spirit Gathering.

In a very real way, festivals are how I mark my life.

In Bronze Age Ireland, the Pagan Celts gathered annually for a huge festival at Lughnasadh. Over the course of two weeks, contests were held (bardic, athletic, crafts), wares were sold, romances were begun, gossip was traded, and a sense of community was renewed for the coming year. In essence, this is what I feel modern Pagan festivals are. For all the workshops and classes and spiritual experiences, the essence, to me, is the establishment and renewal of community bonds.

I was 21 at my first festival. I got my first tattoo at Starwood. I met Isaac (my ex-husband) at Rites of Spring. I was pregnant at festivals, I nursed at festivals, and now I bring my teenager to festivals. It was at Starwood that I asked Isaac for a divorce. It was at Starwood that I had my first vision, and it was there that I injured my knee (twice).

It isn’t that what happens is good or bad. It’s that what happens is my life. Marked by the passage of seasons, and supported within the arms of my community. That’s festival.

I Don’t Remember My Vacation

July 25, 2006 / / 2 comments

Not “don’t remember” because it wasn’t memorable, or “don’t remember” because of mind-altering substances, but “don’t remember” because I was at peace.

I floated through my vacation. I allowed days to pass into nights and then into days. I left my expectations home. I was One with the experience of festival.

Vacations built on expectations are no fun. Maybe more memorable, but no fun. They are driven by an inner pressure instead of an inner peace. You absolutely wouldn’t guess, knowing me, that I have a clue about inner peace. I get angry, I get snide, I get worked up. But I know about expectation and I know about attachment, and I know how to let go of both.

So I have moments. Hot sun. Parties. Drinking with Kate. Cuddling with Larry. Hugs. Lots of hugs. Cooking the best meal I ever cooked; maybe not the tastiest meal, but the most praiseworthy one. Because I have never cooked for a dozen people before, and they all loved it, even with the restrictions of camp cooking, and I have never felt so delighted.

Since I’m always up first anyway, I had camp coffee ready every morning. By the time the other three coffee drinkers staggered out into the light, My teeth were brushed, my hair was de-scarified, and I was handing them their full cups of fresh hot java. Teh yum. And it felt so good to do that, to be the morning nurturer. Felt balanced, what with Charlie being the evening nurturer.

In the end I came home feeling like I had a wonderful time, but lacking the means to describe that time.

The Second Annual “Things You Only Hear at Starwood” Blog

July 24, 2006 / / 7 comments

I offer the following Starwood 2006 quotes without comment:

“Get your sleeve out of my grog.”
“The Cosmopolitan in my crotch was also your fault!”
“You hardly ever see a bar full of pirates.”
“I’m not hiking all the way down to the Time Machine.”
“Don’t quote me on anything. My ass is really wet and I’m tired.”
“Giant sky-enflaming fireballs.”
“Thank God for that man in the boa!”
“I’m so tired of seeing penises.”
“Undies on the table are right out!”
“Help me adjust my loincloth.”
“I’m not speaking after sundown, I’m just making cat noises.”
“After enough Starwood, women in clothes look sexy.”

Phew, made it

July 23, 2006 / / 6 comments

400-plus miles. Set up camp. 90 degree heat. Sun poisoning. Dress Like a Pirate Night. Viking attacks. Pool. Workshops. Sarongs. Rain. More rain. Break camp. 400-plus miles. Pet cat. Open mail. Where’s my Netflix?

Later.

Sunday Sierrablogging

July 23, 2006 / / Comments Off on Sunday Sierrablogging

AnneLake
Anne Lake on the Silver Divide, John Muir Wilderness.

Fun With Vodka: Pink Peppercorn-Lemon Vodka

July 22, 2006 / / Comments Off on Fun With Vodka: Pink Peppercorn-Lemon Vodka

A few years ago I discovered, to my horror, that my favorite pepper vodka (Pertsovka, made by Stolichnaya) was no longer available. I decided to take matters into my own hands and try making my own infusions. I experimented with various flavors of peppercorns and chiles, and got some really nice stuff.

Then I found a nice honey-pepper vodka (Nemiroff, from the Ukraine) at the Russian deli I frequent. Being naturally lazy, I let my infusion experiments slide and drank Nemiroff instead.

Recently, I started playing around with it again, and made a lovely pink peppercorn-lemon vodka. It’s extremely easy: in about a fifth of vodka, use 20-30 pink peppercorns and maybe 1/2 tsp of lemon zest (more if you want a more lemony vodka…but you knew that, didn’t you?). Let it steep for a couple of weeks, strain out the peppercorns and lemon zest, and there it is.

This makes a really nice V&V1; just use more vermouth than you would with non-flavored vodka, and garnish with a twist.

It’s also really good with lemonade–which obviously has to be made from fresh lemon juice. My recipe, adapted from the old Joy of Cooking:

1 quart water
3/4 cup sugar
3 oz. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. salt

Heat water, sugar, and lemon zest until sugar is dissolved. Add lemon juice. Strain and cool.

Enjoy!

1Vermouth & vodka

The Katherine Harris Show

July 21, 2006 / / 5 comments

The worst thing about all the incredibly crappy ‘reality’ series out there is it didn’t occur to anybody to make the one ‘reality’ series that would be worth watching.

I’m talking, of course, about a series following the Katherine Harris campaign.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving, the train wreck that keeps on wrecking, the catastrophic failure that just goes right on failing. It’s the entertainment event of the century. Because, let’s face it: loathsome + clueless + disaster-prone = Comedy Gold.

All is not lost. Maybe when it’s all over (which could be sooner than November), HBO could turn it into docufarce, in the vein of The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom. (In fact, I’ll bet Holly Hunter could do an hilarious Katherine Harris.) But hell, I would even settle for a sitcom. Imagine the possibilities… » Read more..

Friday Random Ten

July 21, 2006 / / One comment

DiVinyls – Back to the Wall
Social Distortion – Ring of Fire
Go-Go’s – Daisy Chain
Wire – I Feel Mysterious Today
Ennio Morricone – The Ecstasy of Gold
Wire – Two People in a Room
Hüsker Dü – She Floated Away
The Clash – I’m So Bored with the USA
Siouxsie & the Banshees – Christine
DJ Shadow – Organ Donor

Bonus track:
Lene Lovich – Home

So…what are y’all listening to?

« Older Entries   Recent Entries »
zeeReputation Theme