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Natalia, second installment, May 2006

Natasha just suprised me with another batch of new photos- she's been prolific lately, which is just delightful.

There's something she does with light in some of these shots, and with texture in others, that reaches out to me, makes me want to spend less time working and more time creating something of value, something more interesting.

Here you go, enjoy, and don't forget to send her a mail if you like what she's doing here.

Serbia and Montenegro

Everyone raise a glass for the two newest countries in Europe. Looks like the country of Serbia and Montenegro will probably now become the country of Serbia and the country of Montenegro. I think everyone saw this one coming- this represents the last of the six original Yugoslav republics to fracture into their own independent states. It's not quite a done deal yet though. The referendum on independence passed in Montenegro with a 55.4-percent vote in the population, just over the 55-percent threshold the EU suggested when neither Serbia nor Montenegro could agree on what the percentage should be. That number is not necessarily legitimate though, since with the exception of Slovenia, the Balkans are still outside the jurisdiction of the EU. The Montenegran parliament has yet to declare independence. And there are already calls among pro-union factions for a recount, but thankfully no violence so far. This is looking more like the Velvet Divorce between the Czech Republic and Slovakia than the horrific explosion that tore through the Yugoslav shatterzone in the early and mid-90s. There are also questions about how viable an independent Montenegro can really be, with a population of only 670,000 overshadowed by some very large neighbors. But Luxembourg pulled off a similar trick and is doing quite nicely, so who knows? And I also think a country with a name that translates to "Black Mountain" sounds pretty badass. Here's a Q&A from the BBC that explains a little about what's going on.	From BBC
	From CIA World Fact Book

New Photo Page from Natasha

I've been sitting on these for a while, but have finally been able to get some more of Natasha's photos up. I'm happy I've finally had a few minutes free to work on some art. (Or more accurately, Natasha's art).

Take a look, it's good stuff.

Good news bad news

Good news - I just heard on a "Meet the Press" podcast while doing the dishes tonight that Bush the Lesser is leading the Republican party into the mid-term election season with the lowest approval rating of any president in the history of polling... Heh. I only wish I was working in DC right now so I could savor the smell of panic.

Bad news - I'm still skeptical the Democrats will take back either house, because when it comes down to it, they still don't have a credible message and when the Republicans start campaigning on flag burning and gay marriage in August and September, I'm afraid middle America will do what they've done for the last six years and vote the moralist ticket. Fucking depressing.

Good news - I'm finally settling into the new apartment, most of the essential systems are hooked up (computers, network, library, whisky cabinet, in that order), and all I really need to do is unpack a few straggling boxes, at least until it comes time to remodel the kitchen and entranceway in August.

Bad news - My LaCie external drive appears to have been hurled down the stairs at some point during the move. I should have hand-carried the thing but I thought it was packed pretty tight. Now it's making weird noises though and crashing intermittently (with all my music on it, which is pretty scary). Not sure I'll be able to back up everything from the iPod if the drive blows completely, but I'm too busy to burn everything to CD. Worst of all, I refuse to pay exorbitant Scandinavian prices for technology but It'll be Boston in July before I'm back in the States to do a tech shopping spree.

Good news - The geography of my new apartment cuts literally an hour off my commute every morning and every night. Which means I get five to six hours of sleep every night instead of four to five. I'm into my second week of getting kind of enough sleep, and it feels amazing. I didn't realize how bad off I was.

Bad news - My body is reacting to the extra sleep so I've had a lot more physical energy, but my brain is still fried like the egg in that anti-drug commercial from the 80's. So I've been walking around in a state of twitching, frenetic madness lately. Just like this post, the last couple of weeks have been completely manic.

Marcella on the web

Hey everybody, give it up for Marcella's MFA show, starting May 11 and up for 10 days at the CCAC campus in San Francisco. If you're not in town, you can get a little bitty glimpse here...

2006 MFA Fine Art Thesis Exhibition

I just think it's cool that she based her MFA thesis on horror movie backdrops. I'm WAY behind on horror movies lately.

Down

Amsterdam was such a great trip- got some good work done, made connections with our international marketing people (I love when we all go out to a restaurant and I can listen to the riot of different languages and accents- that's what it sounds like when it's working). I only wish I could have stayed longer.

Got back to the apartment Friday night and spent the weekend with Cecilie furiously trying to pound the place into shape--still a long way to go but now I'm back at work again, and just came down sick with some kind of spring mung. Disaster because I'm crazy busy and can't afford the down time, but also it's so gorgeous outside that it feels stupid to be ill. It's been a long winter.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm thinking again about getting a writer's group together for a weekend. We have access to a summer house on the coast, and a pack of expat writers, well, either prospective or failed writers depending on how charitable you feel. We have good food and liters of Scotch. All the ingredients for a writer's holiday. Must plan and consider.

But first, will go take some medicinal whiskey and lie down for a few hours/days.

Amsterdam

Landed in Amsterdam earlier this afternoon, Thomas Dolby was on the iPod, the little seven-three's wheels touching down on the word "design" in the line "Etch out a future of your own design/ Well tailored to your needs..." Later, walking through Amsterdam Schiphol towards the baggage claim, Ladytron was singing "She checked her bags at Amsterdam," and on the Metro later an old Berlin song came on "Riding on the Metro..."

Day started out terrible, panicked trying to find the normal travel things (things like, well, shoes...) in the riot of unpacked boxes in my new apartment. Taxi went to the wrong train station so I was 20 minutes late for an all day marketing meeting- rushed from the meeting to the airport, feeling harried and forlorn.

But then passed out on the plane, woke to turbulence, the jet working it's way through heavy cloud on the descent, then in Amsterdam, and this... This feeling again.

I hadn't been looking forward to this trip. Too much else to worry about. But now that I'm here it comes to me how much I love being in Holland. That kind of intense sketchiness and laid back-ness at the same time. San Francisco is the only other city I know that feels like this. The streets full of people as the metro goes by, and suddenly, like a surprise, that feeling of awareness, an inner stillness.

I've been so exhausted for so long lately that I'd forgotten about this part.