bibliogal

Historic and euphoric

Although I was asleep long before midnight, and missed the chance to cheer at the courthouse, I drove by today and wept for joy. A hundred million things wrong with the world, but this one thing is right. Gays were legally married in Massachusetts today. Whatever ambivalence I've had about assimilation be damned. The world changed today, at least a little bit, for the better.

Whatever happens should this come to the polls--and I am, for the short term, pessimistic--we will in our lifetimes see gay marriage legalized and accepted in the U.S.

I can now go back to being depressed about everything else happening in world events.

Oh, and writing the Spenser chapter. It's coming along. You're not losing me forever, if I haven't already lost you. Back soon, juiced and verbal.

Spenser

Forgive the sparse posting over the next few days. I'm trying to wade through the morass that is The Faerie Queene and write the 4th chapter of my dissertation. I am feeling distinctly unequal to the task.

Good riddance

In other exciting news, I've been sticking religiously with my Eat No Crap and Move My Ass plan. Got on the scale this morning and realized I've lost 9 pounds so far. Yippee!

Synchronicity

Wow. I just realized. Completely oblivious to the date on a conscious level, I nonetheless got this tattoo--my tattoo of dance and motion and freedom and change and being at home in my body--a year to the day after P. and I broke up.

Weird. And cool!

After

Here it is! A bit shiny at the moment, but you get the idea. Isn't she lovely?

During

Tattoo me

Before:

More later

A really wonderful weekend, including the trip to Providence, the new tattoo (!), and Mother's Day on the New Hampshire coast with Aaron's family. But too drained, partly by travel and mostly by world events, to fill in the details. Maybe some prose tomorrow; a photo of the tattoo at least. It is perfect and in the right place. You will see. But for tonight, some reading, and then some sleeping.

Fire Rumsfeld

From MoveOn.org

In the wake of revelations of torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners, John Kerry has launched an important petition calling for President Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld. Getting rid of Secretary Rumsfeld would be a huge step forward for all of us who oppose the Bush war policy, and Kerry needs to hear our support. To sign on to the petition, go to:

http://www.johnkerry.com/petition/rumsfeld.php

Never

Never in my life have I been so disgusted and horrified to be an American.

Where your vote really counts

Looks like it's 4 votes for the arm and 3 for the leg, so far...but I think I'm still leaning towards the leg anyway. Talk me out of it. Or into it. Before 9AM tomorrow, please, when we leave for the tattoo shop in Provincetown. Gracias!

Bonnie and Smoochie

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 44-year-old woman who told police she robbed a string of banks to raise money to pay for surgery for her cat pleaded not guilty to larceny in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Monday.

Catherine Kaczanowski, who was arrested last month, said she set off on her crime spree after learning her stray cat Smoochie had a cancerous tumor and needed surgery, police said. She is accused of hitting five
banks near her Brooklyn home and making off with a total of $7,500.

Kaczanowski pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, petit larceny and robbery.

Police say she slipped notes to bank tellers demanding money and saying, "I don't want to hurt anybody."

When arrested, the frail 5-foot-3 (1.6 meter), 100-pound (45 kg) recluse told police she was desperate to save Smoochie, a stray she adopted as a kitten nearly three years ago.

Smoochie had the surgery, which was successful, the New York Post reported quoting a law enforcement source.

Kaczanowski told police she got the idea of robbing banks after reading about other successful bank heists. Police said Tuesday they had been unable to verify her story.

But where?

Biblioposse, I need your fashion advice once again. I did, as the popular will demanded, die my hair burgandy (well, I tried to dye it burgandy, but I left the color in a wee too long, and it's rather more aubergine, or rather nearly black, at the moment. But it will wash out over time. The voice of the people has been heard).

And now the time comes for your input on an even bigger decision: where to place my dazzling new Mucha tattoo. There are various considerations involved for me: the location of my other (upper back, left arm) and possible future (lower back? lower arms?) tattoos; the necessity of getting tenure and hence having at least moderate discretion; the way that it will look on my body. I'll have to sort through this rather complicated calculus, somehow, between now and Saturday at 1PM. But your thoughts/instincts/gay eye for the tattooed girl would be welcome indeed. There are really just two options for this one. Let me know where you think I should ink.

And just to clarify the options: the tattoo will be, I hope, about 5-6" long, and it will be in full color (my other two are basically black only, though one has a couple of spots of color). Option 1: If I put in on my right upper arm, it will face outward, and occupy the negative space that the left arm tattoo doesn't fill. In other words, the two will be staggered, not mirror-imaged, and their shapes would be nicely complementary. One benefit of placing it here is that I won't need to change how I dress, really, on days when I have to cover up--anything t-shirt length or more will do the job, just as it does now. It would look damn good, and I'd get to see it easily, and it would aesthetically balance the rather chunky, bold tattoo on the left arm. However, it would make me a bit top-heavy and maybe too symmetrical, with one tattoo on my upper back and one on each arm.

Option 2: If I put it on my right leg, it will go on the outside of the leg, somewhat above the ankle bone. It will hurt more, but whatever. It will balance things out nicely (upper left arm, upper back, lower right leg). There would be a nice congruity between medium and message: the design is Mucha's "Dance," and it implies movement, and so the leg would kinda make sense. The negative of this placement would be that on days where I have to cover up, I'd have to cover up more of me--now we're not talking only t-shirt, but t-shirt and boots, or opaque stockings, or pants. Bibliogal does like to trounce around in skirts. But on the third hand, there is something less--confrontational? aggressive?--about a tattoo on the lower leg than on the upper arm. So maybe I decide not to wear sleeveless shirts/dresses to school, but not worry about the leg, at least after I've been there a few months. For really, who would object to one feminie tattoo above the ankle? It's a piece of art, after all. And what's the point of getting all these lovely tattoos if I'm only going to hide them?

These, my friends, are the considerations. I have 48 hours to decide. You can help. Please vote!

Where should Bibliogal place her next tattoo?
	Right arm (upper)
	Right leg (lower calf)
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Name that spam

The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.

I'm the artist formally known as Beck. I have a genius wig. When I put that wig on, then the true genius emerges. I don't have enough hair to be a genius. I think you have to have hair going everywhere.

At first you think it's going to be selling viagra. Then you think it must be selling wigs. In fact, the spam's subject line was for Adobe Photoshop. But then, some people do like hard, hairy software. Or something.

Pin-ups

A couple of the photos I took at the Marlboro poetry reading are up over at Mark's blog. Check 'em out.