Poppy Z. Brite's Blog, page 81

PZB eBay Auctions

So, having brought my office under some semblance of control, I'm dipping a toe into the long-neglected waters of eBay auctions again. I've just listed four items, all signed and (if you like) personalized by me:

- The Value of X first edition hardcover

- Rare Stay Awake chapbook (copy 264)

- Seed of Lost Souls chapbook

- Zombies anthology edited by John Skipp - includes my "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves" as well as stories by King, Gaiman, Bradbury, Bloch, and dozens more (this book is 699 pages long...

The Horrors of Nature

I try not to let the little murders and atrocities of my garden get me down. Nature, after all, is red in tooth and claw. But on Wednesday I noticed that one of our bonanza of black swallowtail caterpillars had decided to pupate on my most beautiful, nearly-ripe cucumber:



I had been looking forward to eating the cucumber, but being a big softy, I figured I'd give it a few more days and, if no butterfly by then, I'd cut the cuke below the chrysalis. But this morning -- THIS APPALLING MORNING --...

Telephone Call From Istanbul

Yesterday I took marquisdd and his soon-to-be-husband Ben down to Shell Beach. I guess I hadn't adequately explained that Shell Beach has neither shells nor beaches, or I thought they'd memorized Soul Kitchen, or something, because they brought towels and sunscreen, and Ben had the quote of the day: "I wore my bathing suit to a construction site." It wasn't a construction site, but an oil cleanup staging area. I don't think we were even supposed to get down to the end of the road, but the lad...

Bears in the Lot

The newspaper kicked my ass this morning -- oil on the Mississippi coast; Coast Guard enacting a 65-foot "safety zone" to keep media and the public from seeing the cleanup; Grand Isle racefail -- and I texted Chris about it, which I had sworn I wouldn't do. He needs to get away from this shit for a few days, enjoy his family, luxuriate in a nice temperate climate, clear his head. Afterward, I berated myself and texted him to disregard it all, but that's like telling myself to disregard the da...

Plan

Doing much better. Self-improvement so far has included blowing the shit out of some shit at the shooting range, eating excellent Moroccan food at exciting new restaurant Little Morocco on St. Charles, and sitting and watching the birds in the Audubon Park lagoon for an hour or so yesterday evening. I needed to remind myself how much beauty is still here. Nesting was in full swing with the usual suspects: Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Tricolor (Louisiana) Herons, Black-crowned Ni...

"This a lotta shit," someone said, but Ignatius ignored the voice.

It hasn't been a good week.

Last Monday (a week ago yesterday, I mean), the shit just kind of hit the fan. I woke up to a front-page news story about BP cleanup workers on Grand Isle running over tern nests and chicks, complete with a picture of two dying chicks in a tire track. That same day, I finally worked up the nerve to call the only trans-friendly local doctors I've been able to get a line on, but found out they weren't accepting any new patients until at least mid-August. As Chris poin...

"God help us all"

I never got to visit here, but it was the main beach of Chris' childhood.

Grand Isle Pictures

I tried to upload some photos from one of our more recent (pre-oil) Grand Isle trips, but Flickr doesn't love me tonight, so here is a link to the set from my 40th birthday trip in 2007. I'm embarrassed by all the shots of me in a bathing suit, but goddamn it, I was a crazy fucking junkie channeling Kenneth Halliwell at the time; looking cute was one of the few things I still had. Some of it -- the pelican skull, "I felt like taking pictures of dead things" -- is hard to look at, but oh, that...

Gulf Coast: Couple of Things

Friends have contacted me asking about volunteer opportunities on the Gulf Coast, especially with regard to cleaning or otherwise helping wildlife. I also run across comments saying things like "If I could, I'd be down there rescuing and washing pelicans," which does my heart good. As far as I know, there are still enough wildlife professionals and volunteers already trained in this area to clean the birds and other animals being captured. A brown pelican has a nine-foot wingspan and can easi...

Gulf Coast Seafood Is Safe

I meant to post about this earlier, and right now I feel like reading my book (Sir Vidia's Shadow by Paul Theroux, AGAIN), but I'm getting sleepy and Chris is off for the next two days and if I don't do it now it won't get done.

This article.

No, I don't know what's up with the LOLcat headline either, but this article makes me despair. (And plan never to eat at Sake Cafe again.) Pretty much everything makes us despair these days. I think it's hitting Chris harder because he works with the seafo...