Sassafras Patterdale's Blog, page 18

Roving Pack was reviewed on Huffington Post! Roving Pack was reviewed on Huffington Post!

I’m still a bit in shock that our incredible Europe tour is over. It was wonderful to get home to my dogs, but very very strange to wake up this morning in our house and realize that the incredible tour that we spent months and months planning and was so beyond all of my wildest dreams was over.  You know what helped with the readjustment?  Getting home to emails from Universities looking to book me to come to campus this spring, and my mind being filled with really solid concrete plans for my next novel Lost Boi which I intend to begin writing in 2013. You know what makes the letdown of tour ending even easier to swallow?

Roving Pack  getting reviewed on Huffington Post!!!! 

I had no idea this review was coming until tonight when it was posted and HOLY CRAP!!! Not only was it reviewed on the site but it was a good review. No, I take that back it was an INCREDIBLE review!  ”Sassafras Lowrey’s Roving Pack is much more than just a star; it’s a guiding light in the darkness of the false binary illusion of gender we’ve been too lazy to address….” check the whole review out for yourself here 

 

 

 

Europe tour days 9, 10 & 11

Day 9: Amsterdam & feminism

Kestryl got back to the hotel in the morning and we went out adventuring. We found our way to a local pet shop where we acquired another toy for the dogs, and poked around in a toyshop that was right across the street. We walked a lot today and explored little streets and neighborhoods we passed along the way- like the Amsterdam cheese museum. I spent a lot of time looking at the canals and the hooks at the top of houses that are used with a pully system to get things like furniture into the upper floors because the buildings are so narrow.

Our gig was in Utrecht a city about 45 minutes outside of Amsterdam at Savanah Bay- Hollands oldest feminist bookstore! I love feminist bookstores in general and one of my favorite things about touring with Kicked Out and now with Roving Pack had been having the opportunity to read in some of the last remaining feminist bookstors. I got my start as a writer in Portland’s In Other Words bookstore and have always since that time had a strong affiliation for the indie and particularly feminist bookshop. The event was fantastic – both Kestryl and I were very well received. The bookstore had sold tickets for the event which had sold out over a week in advance! We had had people sitting on the floor and filling every available space to get in! There were snacks and drinks and mingling after the reading and i sold out of books I had brought to the store!!!

Day 10: Redlight, stamps, Trans Film

It’s hard to believe that this was not only our last full day in Amsterdam, but also the last day before traveling home. Im very excited to see our dogs of course, but if I’m honest I’m also not ready for tour to be over. We spent most of our day walking around. We started walking and found ourself in the Red Light district which was…..complicated for a variety of factors that I hadnt really expected since my community at home is made up of many current/former sex workers. I think what really stood out for me was the realization of how much trafficking exists which is very different than what I’m used to in the states. We kept wandering along the canals- I saw swans and kept staring at all the buildings – I haven’t gotten over how OLD things are! Never in my life have I seen such old buildings!

Kestryl met up with hir girlfriend in Amsterdam for one last visit and I wandered about on my own through an outdoor market that was nearly entirely tulips and tulip bulbs! Then I decided to do something brave- most purchases are things that Kestryl has been handling for us but I saw a souvenir stand with lots of postcards a sign that said “STAMPS” – now I’ve been sending postcards to my little friends and queer family each stop on the tour and I had a lot to send from Amsterdam and I thought i would be brave and take care of this on my own. Of course I ended up getting scammed – I was trying to buy 6 international stamps and ended up getting …….god knows what- basically some very old stamps from before they were regulated across the EU- and in really odd amounts . Let’s just say that this last batch of postcards is going to be written on the plane home and the stamps….. Well at least they will look good in my scrapbook.

I had a bit of a stress meltdown in route to our venue- tears in a snack bar the whole thing. It was a lot today- learning a writer and activist at home in NYC had died in the night, doing the kind of poly related growth and stretching that hits my triggers hard especially when I’m tired but ultimately is the kind of powerful personal whale leg (see old blog posts for a definition) that I’m really committed to be doing. Im far from perfect, but I’m working hard at becoming the kind of boy that I want to be. Im so much further along than I was even a year ago- but still sometimes growing involves pain. The meltdown was eased significantly by Kestryl finding me a salad at a grocery store – somehow even I hit my limit of greasy food, and having some quiet time to write and self process in my journal.

Our last event of our tour was at Trans Screen – it was a late show after the screening of a documentary about the DSM and the way it regulates trans bodies in the states – was to see lots of Trans activists we know from home in it! The last Roving Pack reading went incredibly well – I went with some new material for this reading because many folks in the audience had already been to our event Thursday in Amsterdam- I went with a part of the book where Click goes to church with one of the gutterpunk street kids and his grandmother and hilarious gender mismatching occurs and then another part of the book I’ve lovingly dubbed “fags and femmes” where Click stumbles through messy polyamory and sleeps with a femme for the first time ever. The whole evening was great and within moments of Kestryl’s performance ending and folks beginning to head to the bar I’d sold out of books- as in for the event and also for the entire tour!!!! This means that every single book I carried out of NYC post hurricane and lugged through Europe have found their way to new homes!!!!.

Day 11: Is it really over?!

Right now I’m sitting in the Amsterdam airport waiting to board our flight to Dublin and then onto NYC. I miss the dogs terribly – and have pages in my travel smash book dedicated to the dogs I’ve seen here but that aside I’m really not ready to go home, I’m just not ready for our tour to end its been an amazing 10 days – a total whirlwind in a lot of ways weve been in 4 countries traveled by air, train, sea and it’s been incredible and gone incredibly quickly. I was probably the only person ever who had to be dragged — so many tears to agree to go on tour to Europe. In the end I’m so grateful that I decided to do this! Its been an incredible experience to get to meet queers halfway around the word. We’ve had the opportunity to make amazing connections and friendships and I feel so honored that I have been able to share Roving Pack with everyone here – and that it was so well received.

There’s so much more I want to say- I don’t think I quite have the language yet to talk cumulatively about what the tour has meant to me personally and creatively – I think that won’t be able to come until we’re back home and ive had time to sift through the memories.

I’m so grateful for everyone who came out to each of our 10 events and to all the organizers and volunteers who made everything possible for us to share our art with folks across Europe! I’m especially grateful to Kestryl without who none of this would have been possible – ze handled all the travel logistics and did a ridiculously good job of guiding an anxious me who had never left north America through airports, train stations, and multiple cities. I am……… Not an easy boy. I’m incredibly high maintenance and anxious and I’m just so grateful for even bit of work ze put into making sure that I was taken care of and contained even in the most stressful or whale leg moments of tour.

We board in a few minutes and I want to finish my scrapbook of adventures so I should go but expect more blogs soon as I get settled back home!

Please forgive spelling/grammar/typos this was written on my iPad

Europe Tour: days 6, 7 & 8

Day 5: London Calling!

We left Paris super early in the morning – a little brutal the morning after a late night gig but hands full of French pastries I was looking forward to getting to explore another new city. We arrived at Kings Cross station and took a little detour to visit The famed platform 9 3/4 ! I’m a bit of a Harry Potter fan and tried my hand at pushing the luggage cart rig through the brick wall as though I were in route to Hogwarts! After checking into our hotel we set off into London! First stop was Kensington Garden. This is where I confess that something I’ve been looking forward to for months was the chance to see the Peter Pan statue that sits in the garden. Peter Pan is one of the most magical texts for me and my next novel draws upon it heavily so I was in horn when amidst the chilly London drizzle I finally got to see the statue. – it definitively didnt disappoint! We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering in and out of shops – finally finding a pet shop with a good selection of dog toys and picking something (an awesome grunting pig) to bring home to the canine pack. After a quick rest in the hotel it was time to walk over to the famed Bar Wotever

Bar Wotever calls the Royal Vauxhall Tavern home and it’s a beautiful old building with a great stage and before long the room began filling up with queers who were quite excited about our work! I had lots of great queer conversations about community, love of dogs, my mission to try interesting flavored crisps (as they call potato chips over here– a very sweet boy even went out and got me some unusual to me flavors!) and of course the election back home. Roving Pack was a huge hit – folks seemed to really get into the characters and stories and were a fantastically responsive audience. We didna mini Q&A mostly focused on the power of community and the importance of queers creating art and telling our own stories. It was such a great community event made even better by selling out of books!!!!!

Day 6: relief, adventure, boat!!!!

We woke up briefly at about 5 am our time to the relieving news that Obama had been reelected! Talk about a HUGE relief. When we woke up proper we got moving right away – its our last full day off while on tour and our only chance to really explore London! First we went to London Bridge where of course I sang the London bridge nursery rhyme song and after that headed over to Shakespeare’s Globe Thester, followed by Big Ben, Gays The Word bookstore and a whole lot of other exploring we were able to squeeze in along the way including a vegetarian version of an english breakfast and lunch in a pub!

Soon we had to go back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head to the train station! We took a train out of London to a harbor where we boarded a big ferry boat and got settled into our cozy cabin for the overnight journey to Holland! The boat was huge nd it was lots of fun to wander around and then curl up in our cabin looking out the porthole. If planned to stay up late looking for sea monsters, but tour caught up with me and I was asleep before we even set sail.

Day 7: Amsterdam

We awoke early and got off the boat to catch our trains into Amsterdam! We arrived in the late morning left our bags at the hotel and went out exploring. Im straight edge, and straight edge themes appear within Roving Pack. Even though I know that XXX is the abbreviation of Amsterdam, I really have been enjoying seeing XXX everywhere around the city! We went walking and poking into shops for quite a while, then met up with Kestryls girlfriend who lives in Holland for coffee. In the late afternoon we ventured out briefly ion the streetcar to a flea market where one of the most amazing things ever happened. Kestryl and I were walking down a street when a woman on a bicycle shouted “Sassafras Lowrey!” she jumped off her bike and said that I didn’t know her, but that she knew my work and that I was performing in Amsterdam tonight and Saturday!!!! It was WILD to be recognized by a stranger as an author on the street! Its haopened a couple of times in NYC but definitely never on tour- and in Europe no less!

We performed at de peper a vegan anarchist restaurant and event space. We ate dinner at the restaurant and had a chance to talk more with the organizer and local queers! Roving Pack went over really well I think- many good conversations after the reading about how folks saw themselves and their communities in the characters nd wee excited to read more—which is how I came soooo close (one book shy) of selling out of copies at the event- and I sold the very last copy of Kicked Out I had on tour!

For those following along on my potato chip adventures I ended the evening eith w snack of spaghetti flavored chips last in the hotel room as I uploaded TONS of picture to facebook of our adventures and Kestryl has an overnight date with hir girlfriend. We also have started a little ritual for the last few nights of tour- Kinder eggs are something i discovered on tour ( you can’t get them in the states because they are considered a choking hazard) so for the last few nights of tour were opening one each night – Kestryl gets the chocolate (ewwwww) and I get the toy inside – today I got the cutest little miniature rhino whose all fuzzy!!!!!!!!!

Day 8: Kestryl will be back to the hotel soon and were going to spend the first part of the day doing more exploring in Amsterdam and then will take the train out to Utrecht to Savanah Bay Feminist bookstore where we have a sold out event!!!!!

Please forgive spelling/grammar/typos I’m blogging from my iPad

Europe Tour: days 5, 6 & 7

Day 5: London Calling!

We left Paris super early in the morning – a little brutal the morning after a late night gig but hands full of French pastries I was looking forward to getting to explore another new city. We arrived at Kings Cross station and took a little detour to visit The famed platform 9 3/4 ! I’m a bit of a Harry Potter fan and tried my hand at pushing the luggage cart rig through the brick wall as though I were in route to Hogwarts! After checking into our hotel we set off into London! First stop was Kensington Garden. This is where I confess that something I’ve been looking forward to for months was the chance to see the Peter Pan statue that sits in the garden. Peter Pan is one of the most magical texts for me and my next novel draws upon it heavily so I was in horn when amidst the chilly London drizzle I finally got to see the statue. – it definitively didnt disappoint! We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering in and out of shops – finally finding a pet shop with a good selection of dog toys and picking something (an awesome grunting pig) to bring home to the canine pack. After a quick rest in the hotel it was time to walk over to the famed Bar Wotever

Bar Wotever calls the Royal Vauxhall Tavern home and it’s a beautiful old building with a great stage and before long the room began filling up with queers who were quite excited about our work! I had lots of great queer conversations about community, love of dogs, my mission to try interesting flavored crisps (as they call potato chips over here– a very sweet boy even went out and got me some unusual to me flavors!) and of course the election back home. Roving Pack was a huge hit – folks seemed to really get into the characters and stories and were a fantastically responsive audience. We didna mini Q&A mostly focused on the power of community and the importance of queers creating art and telling our own stories. It was such a great community event made even better by selling out of books!!!!!

Day 6: relief, adventure, boat!!!!

We woke up briefly at about 5 am our time to the relieving news that Obama had been reelected! Talk about a HUGE relief. When we woke up proper we got moving right away – its our last full day off while on tour and our only chance to really explore London! First we went to London Bridge where of course I sang the London bridge nursery rhyme song and after that headed over to Shakespeare’s Globe Thester, followed by Big Ben, Gays The Word bookstore and a whole lot of other exploring we were able to squeeze in along the way including a vegetarian version of an english breakfast and lunch in a pub!

Soon we had to go back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head to the train station! We took a train out of London to a harbor where we boarded a big ferry boat and got settled into our cozy cabin for the overnight journey to Holland! The boat was huge nd it was lots of fun to wander around and then curl up in our cabin looking out the porthole. If planned to stay up late looking for sea monsters, but tour caught up with me and I was asleep before we even set sail.

Day 7: Amsterdam

We awoke early and got off the boat to catch our trains into Amsterdam! We arrived in the late morning left our bags at the hotel and went out exploring. Im straight edge, and straight edge themes appear within Roving Pack. Even though I know that XXX is the abbreviation of Amsterdam, I really have been enjoying seeing XXX everywhere around the city! We went walking and poking into shops for quite a while, then met up with Kestryls girlfriend who lives in Holland for coffee. In the late afternoon we ventured out briefly ion the streetcar to a flea market where one of the most amazing things ever happened. Kestryl and I were walking down a street when a woman on a bicycle shouted “Sassafras Lowrey!” she jumped off her bike and said that I didn’t know her, but that she knew my work and that I was performing in Amsterdam tonight and Saturday!!!! It was WILD to be recognized by a stranger as an author on the street! Its haopened a couple of times in NYC but definitely never on tour- and in Europe no less!

We performed at de peper a vegan anarchist restaurant and event space. We ate dinner at the restaurant and had a chance to talk more with the organizer and local queers! Roving Pack went over really well I think- many good conversations after the reading about how folks saw themselves and their communities in the characters nd wee excited to read more—which is how I came soooo close (one book shy) of selling out of copies at the event- and I sold the very last copy of Kicked Out I had on tour!

For those following along on my potato chip adventures I ended the evening eith w snack of spaghetti flavored chips last in the hotel room as I uploaded TONS of picture to facebook of our adventures and Kestryl has an overnight date with hir girlfriend. We also have started a little ritual for the last few nights of tour- Kinder eggs are something i discovered on tour ( you can’t get them in the states because they are considered a choking hazard) so for the last few nights of tour were opening one each night – Kestryl gets the chocolate (ewwwww) and I get the toy inside – today I got the cutest little miniature rhino whose all fuzzy!!!!!!!!!

Day 8: Kestryl will be back to the hotel soon and were going to spend the first part of the day doing more exploring in Amsterdam and then will take the train out to Utrecht to Savanah Bay Feminist bookstore where we have a sold out event!!!!!

Please forgive spelling/grammar/typos I’m blogging from my iPad

Days 4&5

Day 4 – Wall, Zine Fest, Hauntings, Train

Our last day in Berlin. One of our new friends who is a tour guide invited us to join him on a tour of a concentration camp. On one hand as a queer and someone of partial jih heritage I wanted to do, but as hard as it was to admit, I also knew that in the midst of tour I didn’t have the emotional stamina to experience that. It was intense to be in Berlin hen we were preparing to check out of our hotel, I read a plaque on a partially standing building -we’d been staying in a hotel the was literally across the street from what had been a train station that deported 9,000 people to concentration camps. Berlin is such an incredibly haunted city.

In the morning we walked around neighborhoods close to our hotel and found ourself at Checkpoint Charlie. I remember watching the news as a kid when the berlin wall fell – and attended schools with outdated maps that showed it still standing long after ’89. It was surreal to be there to see the places where it stood and think about what it was like.

We met up with Emma the amazing activist who set up both of our events in the city ate lunch and headed over to the second annual Berlin Zine Fest! As most folks know my background is as a zinester and I attended and tabled at the Portland Zine Sympodium for years though it’s been about 7 years since I was involved in zine community and it was really really excited to see what the culture was like in Berlin! The fest was great- it was held in a great old building covered in spray paint. There’s something I really love about this part of Berlin, the way that the spaces feel so much like how u remember the crustier parts of Portland 10 years ago- all underground punk kids creating and building spaces and communities- definitely nostalgia generating especially being here with Roving Pack (and knowing that unlike new York – no bedbugs). I’m trying to be careful about how much I get but couldn’t resist picking up a few zines- one of “badass my little ponies” and another hand stitched comp German/English zine of queer femmes.

We ended our day by saying goodbye to Berlin and settling ourself into our overnight cabin on a train bound for Paris! The compartment was super cute – we stayed up eating potato chips and gummy bears but all too soon the excitement of the past few days set in, and we drifted off to sleep staring out the window at stars and the dark shadows and lights of German towns.

Day 5: Paris! j

We woke to views of the French countryside as our train whizzed it’s way toward Paris- something I never in a million years thought I would ever see. We arrived into Paris around 9 and found our way through the metro to our hotel. The transit system was. Jch less accessible than Berlin and I got to really flex my author muscles lugging two suitcases primarily full of books up and down subway stairs. After we got our bags to the hotel we set off on some adventuring! We started walking along the Seine and suddenly looking up I realized we were waking towards the Eiffel Tower!!!! We had cheese crapes and took pictures in its shadow before continuing down the river. Our next stop was Notre Dame Cathedral where we got to go inside. Seeing both of these sites was perry mind blowing – they were both so huge! I couldn’t get over how beautiful the cathedral was! I feel really blessed everyday but some days, like one spent wandering Paris I feel extra lucky to have the life that i have but being on tour here is a whole nother level of gratitude. Im so grateful to Kestryl who is good at logistics and has kept me from being horribly lost. Im also just so grateful for the chance to be here in Europe in general- and then even more so to be here as an artist is pretty over the top for me. I never have had a passport until this trip and never ever thought I’d come to Europe!

Our gig last night was at La Mutinerie a dyke bar/feminist library/cultural center/performance space. Huge thanks to the organizers and everyone who came out!

Don’t forget to find me on Facebook for TONS of pictures from our shows and adventures! And if you missed it: days 1-3 of tour

Day 6: we’re up early and waiting o take a train to London!!!!! We’ll be exploring mist if the day then performing tonight at Bar Wotever. Hey folks in the US please vote today! Kestryl and I submitted our absentee ballots before leaving on tour.

Please forgive spelling/grammar errors – I’m blogging from my iPad

Europe Tour Days 1-3

Day 1: Off on the robotic pterodactyls

I think im still a little bit in shock that we actually got this tour started. I’m starting to write this at 37,000 feet somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean a little beyond Nova Scocia. It seems like everything had been pointing towards delay of the tour after the last few days of anxiously watching hurricane news and having all the airports close and stay closed. As Sand hit we were stressed and worried first and foremost about our home, friends, community and our city. Not far from our minds was the question of if we’d even make it out of the city. In the end JFK opened and we were the second flight from our airline that made it to out of NYC to Europe and thanks to some dear fried with a car and 2/3 of a tank of gas they were willing to use in the midst of the citys gas shortage we even made it to the airport (it proved impossible to get a car to agree to schedule a car to get us to the airport). It was surreal to be flying out Thursday night- everyone at the airport seemed shocked to actually be there. I don’t think I was prepared for what it would actually be like to fly in the midst of storm recovery – as we took off looking out the window all I could see was darkness. I’ve flown out of JFK many times and it was unlike anything Ive ever seen. Intellectually of course I knew that most of Long Island and big parts of Queens were still without power but I definitely don’t think I was prepared for what it would look like to see from above.

Day 2: Berlin!!!!

Hard to believe that it was yesterday when we left home, mostly it just feels like its been one very very long day. I slept pretty well on the flight from NYC to Dublin. The best part of the flight was a few of the times that I woke up and looked out the window it really looked like I was flying amongst the stars! Our airline even served dinner at about midnight – little bits of my favorite tillamock cheese and tofu! We landed in Dublin about 4am and had a couple of hours to explore the airport find some breakfast and postcards and look at the candy that’s different from the states.

We landed in Berlin and Kestryl who is good at all things navigating got us through public transit to our hotel and then we managed thai food for lunch and walked around a little bit before we could actually get into our room. I had a lily it of a meltdown in the room – exhaustion of traveling for nearly 24 hours and sleeping on a plane combined with feeling like everything was different and I couldn’t quite get my bearings. After a shower, a good cry, setting up all my special little dinosaur and my little pony toys and some major love and support from Kestryl and texting

On our way to the venue we stumbled upon a dog food store - they had a meat counter!! Dog freak that I am I took pictures and have been totally fascinated!

My reading took place at an amazing punk and feminist queer space in Berlin called Faq. It had a wood burning stow for heat and the walls were covered with art, posters for protests, events, and handwritten signs of folks looking for roommates in communal houses. It was an amazing space to be in especially with reading from Roving Pack. Walking around the space I knew that all of the Roving Pack characters would have LOVED being there and felt right at home. The evening was called "Home Truths" and I got to share the event with two increrdible local writers Margret Steenblock and Tanja Abou who's work is also focused on homelessness, rejection by and of biological family, and the creation of chosen family.

I was a little nervous about how folks would respond to Roving Pack. The book is still so new and Im gauging audience responses and not only was this the first time sharing it with an audience in Europe but it was also my first time in Europe! I was grateful to have been warned ahead of time that in general audiences in Germqny were not particularly responsive during readings and for the reminder to be sure and read slowly as the bulk of my audience wast a native English speaker, and the plan to translate e section I was reading unfortunately fell through. It was incredible though to see what happened-- it really felt like everything read- the nuance of queer and punk communities and even the Portland specific references- after the reading several folks approached me talking about having wanted to move to Portland in the late 90's because of riot grrrrl and zines!

Also, did I mention that I got to be interviewed by a unicorn?! Emma out amazing event organizer wore her kigarumi which of course made me miss my dinosaur one!

After the show we got dinner with some great queers a couple of whom we'd known in NYC and others from all over the world but who are calling Berlin home. It was incredible to talk art and creativity kink and queer ness with that group!!!

Day 3- Playgrounds, gummy bears and gender

I think that we managed to beat jet leg and slept like logs in our hotel. Woke up nice and and early to go find breakfast and then began adventuring!!! We found an amazing playground with a huge slide and a zip line (both of which were of course tried out). In NYC you cant go into a playground without a kid so it was a nice treat! Then we stumbled upon an open air market – so fun!!! We got to see all kinds of food and crafts and people watch a bi. We also seemed to find ourselves in a bit of a gay district with a flying leather flag outside one businesses (a gay fetish hookup club) and lots of rainbows. We did lots of wandering and hit a grocery store to look at things! I found potato chips shaped like teddy bear heads (I’m on a mission to try interesting chips)! Also got gummy bears and a kinder egg which had a little toy car inside! We ended up wandering a really long way from our hotel but it was great to just be able to take in a little more of the city.

In the evening we headed to a great queer/trans organization Triq that was hosting Kestryls show! Ze was amazing despite my somewhat botched attempts at running tech for XY(T) and afterwords we had an amazing time talking gender with folks! We stayed out incredibly late getting dinner and talking- not getting back to the hotel until 2am but it was so worth it!!! It was amazing for me to hear what other people’s experience with gender and transitioning has been. In conversation I talked about my experiences going on/off T and the way my gender has shifted over time- it was really interesting for me to hear firsthand about how medical transitioning works in different countries and to get to really sit down with folks and talk about the complexity of how gender works and is enacted in each of our lives. One of my favorite things about touring always is the

People I meet and the friendships and connections that develop through shared queer experiences- not surprising that’s holding very true for touring in Europe as well.

As I mentioned we didn’t get back to our hotel until 2 am – on the way in we saw three rabbits playing in a field!!!! Then i curled up in bed with my iPad and a package of gummy bears it was far far past my bedtime so I Didnt manage to stay up for long since I was getting warnings over Facebook about German monsters under the bed that eat little boys who stay up too late

Day 4 – we leave Berlin tonight via train to Paris but I can’t wait to see the adventures we have before we leave town!

There are tons of pictures on Facebook – if we’re not friends please add me Facebook.com/SassafrasLowrey and I wrote this on my iPad so please forgive spelling and grammar mistakes!!!

EUROPE here we come!

ROVING PACK HURRICANE SALE!

So in his most recent address the mayor of NYC just encouraged us all to stay inside and read books! Thus I’ve been a little inspired and decided that Hurricane Sandy is clearly the ideal time to have a little special Roving Pack sale!

Here’s the deal: buy online @ www.RovingPack.com and you’ll get your copy mailed out as soon as the storm clears (and before I leave on tour for Europe)  BUT you’ll also get a a PDF ebook copy emailed to you right now!  so you can read your way through Sandy and find out what the wacky Roving Pack kids did when they were bored and stuck inside — hint it involved making a porn zine using a gorilla suit….

fine print: offer remains good so long as the NYC power holds and i can send email

Always take time to play

Ok so i’m in the process of working on some longer blog posts all about identity, life, family and the ways in which we make our worlds real, or at least how I do and the kind of transformative personal growth that’s part of that. I was working on one in particular about letting life transform you, about being present in the moment and how all of that for me is really intimately connected to being a boy and the ways in which that’s central to who I am and how I strive to live a life filled with fun, and playfulness and magic and how for me that’s an innate part of who I am, and also part of what I want to be bringing to the world.

Anyway I’ve been writing a bit about that and I’d planned to get a blog up this morning and then…. well I got caught up LIVING what I was writing about and spent my morning PLAYING  instead. Really though, isn’t that what it’s all about? I sure think so.  If I can live every day taking time to actually play, and be silly and little and present in who I truly am and be in that moment without focusing on worry then I know I’m on the right track, that i’m my most authentic self, living the kind of life that I’ve been building, and the kind of life that I want to live. So what are you waiting for, GO PLAY!

 

Curious….

Help?

Charlotte wins.

 

I’m so excited about bringing Roving Pack to Europe!