Shack Update

The Shack exterior and interior was completed November 24, 2009 just in time for arrival of Thanksgiving week visitors Abbie Longero and Julie and Charlie Malinsky-Adams. 3 cords of wood were unloaded onto the porch and under the deck. I've settled in and enjoy making my morning coffee on the stove, writing in the loft and sunsets thru the westward facing windows. More pictures to come.

Shack Chic

My dream get-away would look a little something like this. It would be surrounded by trees, have electricity, but no plumbing, lots of light and a wood burning stove.

At Home Everywhere

Sometimes I feel most at home in motion...trains, planes, bikes, on horseback or clicking my heels down the streets of NYC. Life is good. The rolling stone...yada yada...

Counting my Blessings

My dear sweet NYC friends are taking such good care of me as I move back and forth in my gypsy year between Madison and NY.

Eating my way around the USA

Former LeapFrog Colleague Lunch, SF

Mirsada's Too Much Parsley Goodness, The Tenderloin, San Francisco


Liney's First Papusa, The Mission, San Francisco


Erich's Blueberry Birthday, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin


The Best Enchilladas Ever, Green Chilis and Spicy Ground Pork, Thank you, David and Jordan, Santa Fe, New Mexico


Grandma's Picnic Table, Sunset Grover Beach, Homemade soup, jello salad and pork tenderloin, Central Coast of California


Tartine, Patisserie Extra Ordinaire, $60 Breakfast, San Francisco


Kosher Chinese, Chinatown, SF


Enough Said

Grand Central Market, in the old hood, Downtown Los Angeles


Best Cappuccino EVER, Cafe Henri, Long Island City, Brooklyn, NY

Kyle and Don's Wedding

These brave and beautiful men were happily married on July 25 in San Francisco, CA. Many tears and toasts to the great State of California for honoring love between any two people.

Marin with the Fayzinator

To Grandmothers house I go...

An Amtrack down the coast from San Francisco to Grover Beach to see my good old totally Americana grandparents. A mile from the beach and my favorite grove of eucalyptus trees....So sweet it is to have

Los Angeles, Baby, Baby, Baby

My loveliest friends are reproducing...and the world is a better place for it! Welcome Elijah and Dylan! Gorgeous and Gorgeous, a combination of their divine parents!

Thursdays with Daphne

Look at this sweet little being of light! Proud to say my sister made her. This might be as close as I get to my own...From April to August I've had the great joy of following this tiny person around the town of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. Walks to discover dogs and birds and flowers, mostly, a few of her favorite monosyllabic repetoire. She is a peaceful, watchful wonder bug.

A Surprise Saturday in Salt Lake City

Lindsay, Lindsay, Lindsay....sing to me!

The Ghosts of Leadville, Colorado

Drove the back roads, the 17, the 24, up from 7500 ft. elevation to 10,200 to the historic and haunted Leadville. The center of the Silver Boom of 1880 and a setting for my father and my book 'Passing', this was a long awaited trip for me. My former Marin County roommate Julie drove up from Denver to meet me for a weekend of research and discovery. We stayed at the Delaware Hotel on Harrison Ave, built 1886. We went to the Baby Doe Reading Room at the Library, clad in red velvet. We found a book with description of 'Stillborn Alley', the appalling tell-all of where the prostitutes ubiquitous with the times through their miscarriages and unwanted babes. The cribs still line the back side of what was 3rd Street. The dirt still mingled with blood, semen and tears. Julie and I were spooked, 1000%. We had the good fortune of being able to take in a silent movie at the Tabor Opera house on Sunday after a horseback ride through the mountains. The pieces of my grandmothers stories are not any clearer, but the setting is.

Santa Fe Vaccay... Sept. 1-14, 2008 Zozobra and 'Dance Camp' National Dance Institute

The National Dance Institute Teaching Excellence Teacher training workshop was a wonderful, albeit challenging and exhausting two week experience. I'd wanted to go last year but a wedding and my father's recent cancer diagnosis held me back. Good to train with these fine folks and dance with the beautiful children of Santa Fe. NDI-NM provides performing arts training to the children of New Mexico. They have a sister organization here in NY, the origianl NDI. It is a rote pedagogy used to inspire excellence and a sense of acomplishment in public school children grades 3-5. Keep on doing your magic, NDI. Perhaps one day I will join your ranks.

While I was there I was introduced to a local holiday called Zozobra. It is the annual burning of a 5 story effigy of a boogie man type character. It originated with the historic repossession of Santa Fe by the Spanish from the Native Americans. Today, the Zozobra represents the evil spirit the city dwellers want to annihilate to keep the city of Santa Fe safe and evil at bay. Children and adults chant 'Burn him! Burn him!" in primordial rounds before the growling puppet is tourched by fire dancers and little goblins. Very much like Burning Man, but local and public, the Zozobra is stuffed with little pieces of paper with items the community wants to rid from itself. They are collected prior to the burn at banks and grocery stores and go up in a firework filled explosion. The two items I tried to give up were written on a piece of paper that I'd folded my gum into earlier that day and akwardly would not burn when I tried to take a bic lighter to them standing there in the field as Zozobra burned to the ground. I met a lot of beautiful Santa Fe sisters that night wandering to some house parties on Artist Road. "Que Viva Las Fiestas!"

"Y Que Viva NDI-NM!"

Road trip for The Amazing Race

So my film maker friend, Andrew Bloomenthal wants to get on The Amazing Race. So we're putting his demo reel together during our cross-country ride to his potential race partner in St. Louis. I have a cameo and get my belongings hauled to Madison for my winter retreat. Good luck, Andrew!!

Inescapable Art

Art, art everywhere....

First time up...

It really does give one an entirely different vantage point of Gotham city being on the 86th floor Observation Deck of the Empire State. New York...wow. Always good to be a part of it.

And then there's the Riley Tavern...

You never know what's going to happen or who you're going to meet just going down the road...Did someone say Jager bombs and a ride in a Bucky Badger dune buggy? Ah, summer in Wisconsin!

Devil's Lake Camping....

Complete with friends and family, beer cozies, the Fox Trot, wading through low lying water, a gas stove and a ride on a Harley, twas a weekend to remember.

Independence Again

Back in NYC. Re-energized from visits with my East Coast possee. PS1, Saun Kuti at Summer Stage on Sunday, dinner in Long Island City, roof top fireworks,(why do I always cry on the 4th of July?), closing down Satsko at 4am, Wall-E, new restaurants, old friends, chance encounters, subways, video making and iphoto workshop. Back to the third coast and fields of fireflies. See you all again in August.

Dear Old Dad

Dad and I are chipping away at this book. 140 pages, no plot and no character development, but a fantastic outline and many days enjoying 'research tangents'.

Pool opening in Wisconsin weather

Wisconsin weather is nothing to brag about. 100 inches of snow last winter left the pool cover at my folks' place heavy with water. Our family got together to have a communal work day. Severe thunderstorms and tornado watches aside, we got that cover off. The best part was this cake designed by my nephew's wife.

Goofy Doofy, Duph-a-la, La La..

Getting cuter everyday, this magic little being of light seems to have learned bird calls before English. "Owl, whoo" was one of her first words and she chortles with the birds in the morning and at sunset. Her latest natural sound is thunder, or as Daphne says 'der' and points to the sky.