The film festival ended tonight, and I was sitting in my second-to-last-film, when my phone vibrated with voicemail. After the film, I checked it, and C. & M. had an extra Laurie Anderson ticket if I could make it to the Pabst by 8:30.

Checking the phone, it was 8:05. I could make it. I called back, had them leave the tic at the will-call window, and zipped downtown. Parking was surprisingly easy to find, and I rushed in with my ticket a few minutes before the show was set to start.

Laurie was more politicized than normal, with only a few of her witty observational zingers. Set design was awsome and minimal, and I was a bit taken aback that she read from handheld cue cards for most of the performance. Not sure what I think about that. You'd think as a performer that she'd rehearse.

Went to the Palomino afterward for a wonderfully deep friend dinner, and caught up with the boys. Quite the enjoyable evening, all spur of the moment and impromptu.
  ¶ 15:16

 
In case you missed it, the aurora borealis over Milwaukee was lovely shades
of red and green on Sunday night. When I heard that it was happening, I was
anticipating driving north of Mequon to see it, but as I walked out of my
apartment in the middle of the city, I could see green bands of light
shimmering across the sky.

I only needed to drive about a mile to the lake, set up a tripod and start
snapping pictures. Some amazing stuff!

Check out my gallery.
  ¶ 02:45

 
Happy birthday to me!

It all started with the obligatory birthday brunch with M&D, with a Hamilton in the birthday card. Normal conversation, with them asking tech support questions I couldn't answer without seeing the computer and stories about relatives I'm not all that thrilled about meeting.

Told them I was planning on getting my birthday tattoo, and they pretty much freaked out. Well, M. freaked out. D. asked which meridian I'd crossed.

Actual question: "You know that's permanent, don't you?"

In the parking lot, M. was practically in tears as she regaled me with her story that when I was born, and they brought me to her, "...I unwrapped that little bundle and you were so perfect. You don't need anything added."

Whatever. I'm 38. I think I can make up my mind on that. Oy.

So I called J. to find out if she wanted to accompany me on a tattoo visit, but she wasn't around. Second choice, M. was, and she joined me at the parlor just in time to see the touchup on Saturn. I added a few splashes of watered down color, and white UV ink in the white spaces. Under blacklight, there's a halo of light opposite the shadows. N-I-C-E.

M. & I decided to go see "I (heart) Huckabees" after that (pretty mediocre, wait for the video), and then off to see Ira Glass at the Pabst (thanks for the tix, M.!).

An incredible show. He explained the secret of his radio show--tell a story, and then analyze it. Whether it's the narrator or the storyteller, the formula requires that someone give an analysis of the story in a greater context of the storyteller's life or the world we share to make it archetypal. Very interesting concept. Itching to try it.

Dinner afterward. All in all, a pretty decent birthday, though I wish I coulda run into G.
  ¶ 23:55

 
Art offers an opening for the heart.
True art makes the divine silence in the soul
Break into applause.

Art is, at last, the knowledge of
Where we are standing--
In this Wonderland
When we rip off all our clothes
And this blind man's patch...

You will find yourself knew-deep in ecstasy
When all your talents to love
Have reached their heights...

True art awakes the
Extraordinary
Ovation.

--Hafiz, 14th century Persian Sufi  ¶ 16:29