Stacy Horn's Blog, page 187

Twitter Followers

I haven’t really made an effort to gather Twitter followers, because there’s only so much effort one can put into getting people to read you, listen to you, link to you, like you, follow you, etc. Either they come across you and like what they see or read or they don’t. Period.

I have a book coming out however, so I have to give it a little more thought. The first thing I notice is how many people have thousands of Twitter followers and I have, well, a few hundred. SO embarrassing. If anyone has advice about how to get more followers I’d love to hear it.

I started trying to change the look of my Twitter page, but I’m having technical difficulties. Of course. Moan, groan, nothing is ever easy, blah-blah-blah.

Some performers at Union Square. I was sitting on the steps behind them so I couldn’t hear what they were saying to the gathering crowd. It seemed like they were basically saying or doing (and wearing) anything to get people to watch. Given the topic of this post, featuring them seems appropriate.

Thomas Jefferson You’re Breaking My Heart

I am absolutely shaken and freaked out about this article in the Smithsonian magazine about Thomas Jefferson the slave-owner. You have to read it to the end.

It is well known that Jefferson owned slaves, slept with his slaves, etc. But he has always been portrayed as a reluctant, mostly benevolent slave owner, who abhored the situation, but was kinda trapped and always trying to figure a humane way out, and apparently that wasn’t at all true.

Not only was he cruel and allowed horrendous cruelties to continue, and specifically barbaric treatment of children, it was in order to continue to make profits, and profits over and above what he needed. When offered a way out—the money he needed to free his slaves and to be able to continue to maintain his house and life style—he declined.

Maybe someone will come along and refute this research, but it’s horrible on the face of it. I have to completely revisit everything I thought I knew about Jefferson.

One World Trade Center minutes before I heard there was a tornado watch in New York City. (End times.)

We Need a Different kind of Pet Death Book

Yesterday afternoon I finished reading Wallace Sife’s, The Loss of a Pet. Actually, I mostly skimmed it, and while it was very well done and there was some good information in there it wasn’t for me. It was very sensitive and earnest, and I need a more straightforward presentation. Something along the lines of:

For the first week you can barely breath. If you’re like me and agnostic you almost wish God existed so you can find him and rip his throat out for inventing this whole death thing. Assuming God has a throat. Because wouldn’t it be just like God to not have a throat, to have nothing for you to rip out? I mean, this is the person who made death possible. Jerk.

You don’t want to tell people, even pet people, just how deeply bad you feel because then they’d know you are insane. And you are insane. I mean, come on. It’s the only natural response to losing something so wonderful in your life. How on earth are you supposed to be able to breath again in a world without your pet in it. It’s unthinkable that they’re no longer here. This can’t have happened.

Yes it will pass. No, you’ll never quite recover, but life will be happy again. Also, get a new pet.

Actually, I think I wrote something very much like that in Waiting For My Cats to Die. But I still think there needs to be a more blunt book that is only about coping with the death of a pet. My Waiting book is about many other things in addition to losing a pet.

I get so sad when Bleeck inserts himself into the spots that were formerly occupied by Buddy. Buddy was always the one to lay on my work. There’s a lot of evidence of this in my Buddy tribute movie, which is almost done. But I need to let Bleeck be Bleeck, to claim his spots in the world and in my heart.

So, there’s more to be said about this transition phase, when you start to feel okay again, but still are capable of crushing, choking sadness. Also …

… what on earth is more precious than tiny kitten tongue?

The Emmys

I love The Emmys even though they are utter bullshit (Buffy never winning, for instance, although I think it won something for the episode with no sound or dialogue). I don’t think I’ll live blog the Emmys this year. Buddy was always curled up with me for that and well, the idea of doing it this year makes me sad. Maybe I will change my mind, though.

On an entirely different note (although still sad), I just read that suicide has surpassed car accidents as the number one cause of injury-related deaths in the United States. I mean for the love of God. From the article I linked to:

The top five leading causes of injury-related deaths were:

Suicide

Motor vehicle crashes

Poisoning

Falls

Homicide

Seen on Elk Street, as I was leaving the Municipal Archives.

Tomorrow is a Month

A month since Buddy died. I’ve got two more months of mourning before I’m officially a crazy person, according to the pet bereavement counselor. Thanks to Bleeck though, I’m officially out of the woods. That makes me feel bad. Like, I took a drug instead of giving Buddy his full-mourning-due. He earned it.

Every day though, I cry about something Buddy related. Yesterday it was about magazines. I always had to put my magazines out of Buddy-reach because one of his ways of getting me up quicker in the mornings was to shred my magazines. At night I had to remember to put them on a shelf or in the morning I’d hear rip-tear-rip, a never-fail method of getting me to jump up on command/shred. Buddy was so smart. I had to child-proof the refrigerator and the cabinets because he could open them all.

Isn’t it funny how these really annoying things become the most tender memories? I don’t have to put magazines out of reach anymore. I don’t have to lock up the refrigerator. I’m crying again just typing about it.

A poet in Union Square. Note the typewriter.

Did Jesus Have a Wife?

By now you’ve all heard about the papyrus fragment from the 5th century [TBD] which refers to a possible wife of Jesus, recently presented by Dr. Karen L. King, the Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard. Interesting! But even King says this doesn’t prove anything, but it does indicate that in the 5th century, some Christians possibly believed Jesus did have a wife, and maybe he did. The Bible doesn’t offer conclusive evidence that he didn’t.

I think it’s important because if it’s genuine, it appears to at least indicate this woman’s importance (who may be Mary Magdalene). The article is interesting, just for the quick history it gives. It’s amazing how misconceptions (and lies!) about Magdalene persist.

I passed by a wedding yesterday, and everyone was so attractive I thought it might be a photo shoot, but the photographers all looked like regular people, there weren’t any special lights, etc.

Closing the Kitten Proximity Zone

Bleeck: Hmmm. So close to the comforter of Heaven. Plus, I’m bored.

Finney: WTF? You’re kidding me, right?

Bleeck: I’m just going to lay down right here, on the edge. You won’t even notice me.

Bleeck: Yeah, that wasn’t too hard. What can I destroy next?

Finney: Kill the kitten. Kill the kitten. Kill the kitten.

Bleeck: Well, maybe I can actually get on the comforter of Heaven.

Instant: The Story of Polaroid

Instant: The Story of Polaroid, definitely goes into the category of: books I wish I got to write. But Chris Bonanos, who writes for New York Magazine, (and who married a friend of mine) got to write it and as far as I can tell he loves Polaroid and the story as much as I do, and he did a great job, so … okay. Congratulations, Chris!

“Edwin Land was one of Steve Jobs’s first heroes, and this book shows why. He created a startup in a garage that grew into a company that stood at the intersection of creativity and technology. This is a fascinating saga, both inspiring and cautionary, about innovation and visionary leadership.” — Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs

Bonanos also has a truly great blog for the book which includes links to all things Polaroid and information about The Impossible Project, which is bringing Polaroid film back. There’s also a link to a special edition of the book which includes SX70 portraits of some of the people mentioned in the book.

I passed by a film shoot, for the show Law and Order I was told. Who is this actor? It’s been bugging me. I don’t watch Law and Order (sorry) but I know I’ve seen this actor in other things.

Update: Thank you, Renee Tobin! It’s Chi McBride. I should add, even though he looks like he wants to kill me, he was incredibly kind to the fans who asked him to pose with them. He took a few minutes to do this, and leaned down and talked and joked with everyone. You should have seen their smiles.

Junk DNA Discovery or as I like to say: Science is Pretty Fucking Exciting

Excuse my language, but come on. I just finished the Times article about the junk DNA/Dark Matter discovery. My heart is pounding.

I remember when I first heard the term “junk DNA” and the idea that it served no purpose. That’s ridiculous, I thought. They just don’t know what the purpose is yet. I’m no genius and now I’m thinking I must have misunderstood the term, because who could have come to the conclusion that it served no purpose. We don’t know what it does so it does nothing?

In any case, WOW. Please read the article. The implications are far reaching and astounding. A great use of federal funds. Thank you government and science!! Congratulations!!

And now for lots of cute. First up, Bleeck’s belly. Painfully, painfully cute.

And, evidence of progress. Bleeck is successfully shrinking the allowable kitten proximity zone. For comparison, the previous allowable kitten proximity zone follows.

See? Progress. The last cute shot is of a new puppy in my neighborhood …

I’ve seen him twice now. He’s, like, movie star adorable. He’s very very tiny. I wish I had included something for scale.

Learn Something New Every Day

I just read an interview with Michael Grunwald, the author of The New New Deal, a book about the history of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the Stimulus bill) and in it I learned about what Grunwald calls the Silent Green Revolution and this new government agency, ARPA-E. Why don’t I know about this already? From the article:

“After receiving an unprecedented surge in funding for renewable energy courtesy of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Chu set to work hiring big names from the nation’s top research laboratories, in order to staff a new agency called ARPA-E, modeled after DARPA, the R&D wing of the Pentagon. In just three years, ARPA-E has made more than 180 investments in basic research projects in renewable energy, and that’s in addition to grants issued by the Department of Energy proper, like the one that funded the Ocean Power Technologies project in Oregon …

“The argument is that everything you think you know about the stimulus is wrong. It was not a pathetic failure. It helped prevent a second depression and end a brutal recession in the short term; it was a huge down payment on Obama’s campaign promises to transform the U.S. economy for the long term. But clean energy was the real outlier, getting $90 billion when the U.S. had been spending just a few billion a year. There were unprecedented investments in wind, solar, and other renewables; energy efficiency in every imaginable form; a smarter grid; cleaner coal; advanced biofuels; electric vehicles; the factories to build all that green stuff in the U.S., and yes, clean energy research.”

A young drummer who was playing the car, the street, the sidewalk, everything he could find.