The Burrow

Actually, we stumbled over that and settled on laughing as I said "We've been friend for a long time." We fell into one another's arms the way you do with a woman you used to see several times a week, in and around town, at meetings and doing good deeds with our daughters, at parties and on girls' nights out in the city. We all left Marin when our kids finished school there; since then we've kept in touch on the interwebs. But she was traveling with her husband and their son, for business, and they'd be in Tucson on Thursday.  A plan was made. I saw her sitting at the table in the lobby where wares are hawked.  I noticed and disregarded the customers. I pushed aside a folding chair, and listened to her describing us as old????? friends....ugh. as we hugged, and looked at one another, and hugged and smiled and got teary all at the same time. Our girls are mothers themselves, now.  We, of course, haven't changed a bit.  We were so very glad to se...

I went. I learned. I ate . I laughed. I'd never seen Lucha Libre before.  Masked Mexican wrestling is an art form best appreciated if you are a 13 year old boy, I think, or, perhaps, if you love the Three Stooges. According to the program, , Chris Hack, aka The Prophet, has been  a living legend in the world of Lucha Libre for 20 years.  He and his opponent invited boos and ooohs and gasps as they flung one another around the ring.  They didn't stay within its confines, either.  This was a interactive experience, with high fives and snarky attitude on all sides.  It's not something I need to see again, but I'm glad I got to experience it once. And that's what TEDX is all about, really.  Snippets of life in another person's universe.  Here are some of them: Kevin Justus, PHD, an independent scholar of Louis XV (how's that for an occupation?) challenged the audience to  make your favorite room a portrait of yourself. ...

The artist was dressed as you'd imagine he'd be dressed. He had a big belt and a fancy neck adornment and a cowboy hat that was just this side of too much.    He smiled as passersby discovered the contents of their junk drawers, on display, transformed, causing them to stop and stare and go deeper and deeper in to something that is either profound or profoundly absurd.  Whatever it is, I stood there a long time, listening and staring and taking pictures with my new phone. There were so many parts on which to focus, so many options on the phone itself, but the artist was generous, enjoying my conversation with the inanimate object in my hand.  I walked on, admiring the art, smiling at most of it, until I came to this.   It's an aging hippie.  The look on his face spoke to me.  We communed for a while before the artist wandered over.  We laughed and sighed and then he turned and showed me his favorite piece.    T...

Under two long tents and in between them, there was a lot to see.  Unless, of course, you've been there for two days, after which  the magazine is more interesting than the adult conversation. I went early in the morning, before the heat and the crowds. There was time to stop and listen to the music, to pause in the shade and admire a tented wonder, to marvel at the proximity of the parking to the event. The artist wanted to show her piece in the light. I took some time to stare back at this face. There were many faces on display,   some creepier  than others. There was whimsy  in all sizes. There was a fox canoe with oddly coiffed oarsmen, and a table to put it on.  And these are just pieces whose creators I didn't talk to. Tomorrow, I'll share those.

The commercials made me drool.  The colors jumped off the screen and so did the performers.  They leaped and twirled and spun as their costumes flared around them.  We missed them last year.  I was determined to go this year.  When I saw that the performance was on my birthday, I bought two seats on the aisle. They were not inexpensive. Billed as a response to the Communist Chinese Government's position that this spiritual heritage ( was) an ideological threat,   a threat which they took so seriously that they,   for decades, tried to destroy these traditions, artistic director D.F. brings his company to venues all across the globe.  The advertising was sublime - people testified to seeing it 7 or 10 times, of having it change their outlook on the world, of being transported. For TBG and me, not so much.  There were two narrators - one speaking English, one Chinese (I suppose, since I speak no Chinese myself) - who introduc...

The Rogue surprised us on Saturday afternoon. We left laughing, smiling, feeling good about the world in general, after watching Hunter Hnat inhabit the role of Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. To call it triumphant is to understate the sorrow nestled inside.the story.  Christopher can't bear to be touched.  Loud noises send him into a tizzy.... I've been thinking about describing it and that's the best I can do.  He's uncontrollable and inconsolable and angry and hurt and scared and furious all at the same time.... and you watch his Mom and his Dad hold their breaking hearts together... barely. He undertakes pragmatic projects, like passing his maths A levels three years earlier than most, and personal projects, involving trust and distance and doing what he doesn't think he wants to do at all.  There's never a moment of pity.  There's frustration and aggravation and terror and annoyance riding right alongside the love a...

Among the wonderful things I did with dear friends last week, there was this: The Tucson Museum of Art was free, the final days of their special exhibit complementing the artisans gathered outside,  beneath tents, hawking their wares in a Thank-God-It's-Not-Raining-Today mood. Dress Matters: Clothing as Metaphor  was, at times, heavy-handed. Here's the description of this dress. And yes, it says Fare Well atop the bodice. And those are not pearls, they are tiny lead weights. How very Virginia Woolf, we opined, and moved on. Beatrice Colon's Fashion Statement is cut from the paper traditionally used to wrap tamales. Every stripe had meaning(s).  We walked some more and ate some more and talked a lot more, then I went out into the fair, again, where there were lava stone bracelets just begging to be dosed with essential oils and earrings none of them with any metaphorical or political or any other underpinning I could disce...

It was a mess. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) Scarlett and I had a leisurely ladies lunch at our most recent default restaurant, Culinary Dropout.   It's not Sam Fox's best effort, but it seems to be where we are when we're hungry in the middle of our adventures.  The food was good, the service even better, and my parking space was both close and in the shade.  There was hardly any traffic, we parked easily in the free-on-weekends lot, and strolled to Centennial Hall.  The sky was blue, the air was sweet, the temperature was in the upper 60's, and the company was good.  Scarlett, the least likely terrorist suspect on the planet, stood watching her purse undergo the most rigorous inspection of any bag ever inspected by any inspector. I'm big on security.  This was ridiculous. Our seats were 10 rows up on the aisle.  They were perfect until the players took the stage; we couldn't see half the chorus.  Part of the allure for me was the presen...

YarnBomber  is coming to Tucson. Stephen Duneier, the YarnBomber, is a true polymath.  This, from his website, is what he does when he's not covering the mountains around Santa Barbara with yarn: He  teaches  Decision Analysis and Behavioral Investing in the College of Engineering at the University of California,  publishes  independent research,  coaches  the world's most experienced and successful institutional investors through  Bija Advisors,  and  give talks around the world on macroeconomic related topics, as well as how to improve performance through a more mindful approach to decision making. He also does a special motivational talk just for K-12 students entitled, "Bija: Seeds of Dreams" All that, and he had time on Saturday night to Skype with Tucsonans at TedX's gathering of collaborative fiber artists... part of the Dreamer creative team....  even if we didn't know we were worthy of such a designation unti...