i sing the body eclectic

Recently:

Johannesburg, South Africa.
Geneva, then London.
Katie starts the MD/PhD program at UNC. Woohoo!
Back to Carrboro and a move in houses to a larger, better insulated place on a quieter street. Loved the old bright pink house, but damn was it loud.
To Brazil. One week in Rio hanging out; one week in Porto Alere with Ricardo de Souza; one week at conference, where I spoke about mathematical models.
Summertime. Working for Michele Jonsson Funk and doing a lot of other stuff besides.
To the Florida Keys! The weather was lovely, but the accomodations stank. Nonetheless, much fun. We saw Grandmere and Grandpere briefly, and then time on the Keys was great. Fun to see spring breakers partying hard.
I presented research at the 12th conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), in Boston. Saw Tamar while I was in town, and brought home bucketsful of Trader Joe's goodies.
Katie is applying to medical school. In the meanwhile, living together is lovely.
Second year of epidemiology graduate school = hard.
After establishing residency here, we drove up to NJ in the old Honda (no AC = big problem) and visited with the family on one of those hoity islands out at the end of Long Island, then back through NJ to Wildwood. Then home via the Cape May Ferry.
Katie moved here! Getting her out of her apartment was a big push, but we did it, stored stuff in Babette's basement.
To Bangkok for this, which was somewhat interesting, but lacked some of the rigor of CROI. Then up to Chiang Mai to visit Ginger. Also, saw Amy C, Melissa, and Bonnie in Bangkok, which was awesome.
An hour after my master's comp, on the road to Washington DC and Aunt Nina's.
Somehow, got through the end of finals. Presented at the NIH on acute HIV infection surveillance, thanks to Chris Pilcher's help. Celebratory dinner at Benihana. Oh year.
Dad and Dale came to visit this weekend. We ate. And walked, and ate. Scallops in apple butter risotto. Mmmm.
Spring Break: to Seattle! Katie. And saffron flan. And Katie. And flan...
The Yale Alley Cats 60th Anniversary concert. The highlight, I think, was the singing in Woolsey rotunda, You Are the New Day. Oooocoustics.
My birthday at the Wine Bar, only two days after Katie came for a weekend visit.
To NJ and NY and Seattle!
Thanksgiving: K came to NJ to stay at Dad and Dale's place with me. A great holiday, and then a fucking TERRIFYING taxi ride to the airport, at 80 mph at 4.30 am.
Went to the Cuntry Kings Halloween Drag Show. Spectacular. With Jamie, Amy, Sarah, Morgan. Some pictures were taken of our collective fabulousness. For those keeping score, the main characters here are "The Devil AND Daniel Webster", "Kinky Betty Crocker", "Holly Golightly", and "Seth Cohen from the OC".
Another year, another hiphop smackdown
Allan Murabayashi through town. He took my picture.
Katie came to visit. She is my favorite.
OK, so, I live in Carrboro North Carolina now and am a student at the Carolina School of Public Health. How did I get this beautiful house?
Max and Sally's wedding! The Whidbey location picturesque; the food amazing as only Pacific Northwest food can be; the ceremony simple and lovely; the mariachi band perfect.
Jennie Dorman defends her dissertation. Great to see her and everyone else, including her family. A nice way to say goodbye to so many lovely people in a way that didn't force me to be the center of the party.
To the San Juans with Katie and her ENTIRE FAMILY this weekend. Eeek.
Spending as much time with everyone as I possibly can. Nancy and Tova and I had a lovely talk and walk today around Capitol Hill.
My farewell party from Mullins Lab was the early peak of the summer. Swimming in the lake, bouncing on the lake-trampoline, wake boarding, the lovely Mullions, and great farewell gifts.
Back to the East Coast II. Eliza and Eugene's wedding, and time with: Steve and Catherine, Liz Klodginski, Melissa and other RHS grads, and other Seattlites; Luke; Mom, Dad, Dale; Michael at his birthday party and scads of others, including Litza Stark, Andrew Grusetskie; dinner with Rob Siegel. Luke and I drove up to Camp Echo Lake, too.
Back to the East Coast. Luke's graduation from Boston University, and I spent time with: Noelle Adamo and Kate Jackman, Michael Bell, Litza Stark.
Dana and I had another hiphop smackdown online, quite a while ago, but I'm just getting around to putting up the links. You can also see the original here.
Moving to Carrboro, NC, in August, to attend the Carolina School of Public Health. Eeeeeek!
Visited Hopkins and Carolina Schools of Public Health, in another whirlwind - it's that kind of year. Red-eye to Dulles, then shuttle to metro to train to shuttle to Hopkins. Saw Stephanie Terezakis in Baltimore, then on to RDU and Chapel Hill, where I hung out with Lynda Wittig and her awesome band (Kickin' Grass) and re-met Tassi McKay (TD 00).
Did lab meeting in Microbiology, based on conference poster.
A whirlwind week in Boston, hanging with the lab and Luke, and Dad and Dale, and Stephen. Boston was -25 degrees Fahrenheit the last night I was in town. Good lord.
Capoeira retreat, on the gorgeous sunshine Coast, on BC mainland.
Seattle is so beautiful right now - 50 and sunny and gorgeous in the middle of January - that's it's hard to take.
A whirlwind last day in the city: lunch with jme3 and Adam Overett, then a showing of Intacto, then pulled an Erdos on Adam Berenzweig (with a problem on enumerating non-isomorphic binary trees), then to Etou Sushi with the cousins: Dave and Cat, Rich and Stacy, Jess; and Luke, too, of course.
New year's with some Alley Cats and Luke to see Chicago and wander around a semi-shut down NYC, then to dinner with Ameer, Ed, and Andy. Then with Michael Bell, party hopping to and fro, from Brooklyn to Queens. The latter was a party at Andrew's gf's house.
Finished applications to grad school. Ooof.
A movie: heartbreaking and beautiful and so full of song and life! Amandla, it was called, "A revolution in four part harmony" about the protest freedom songs of the ANC and the anti-apartheid resistance. So powerful, so sad, so brave, noble, tired, majestic, these songs. Especially the very beginning and last 20 or 30 minutes. In the beginning the clarity and editing and sound were just breathtaking, footage of a man dancing on a roof. And the end, when the revolution starts to really gain momentum, and people talked about how they went to funeral after funeral and they sang at them all, because to not sing means to give into despair and demoralization, which is to lose the revolution. The level of emotion was just amazing, too, the passion. Especially at funerals, wailing and singing and chanting; but everywhere else as well; America is not this way. Hard, hard to watch.
Giorgia Aiello is back in town, and taking pictures of all the barbershops she can find.
Finally getting over the erythema multiforme that has plagued me for a month, now. See the course of the disease for details.
Bumbershoot: Modest Mouse, Sonic Youth. Freaks and Geeks short films.
Luke came to visit, coinciding with a visit from Jess's father. Great to hang out with Luke for a while; it doesn't happen often enough.
Party at Justin's new house in Ballard. Saw all the old house folks, including, remarkably: Libby and Lalena, in town for Fi and Brick's wedding.
Big capoeira roda, followed by the gang back to my place for never enough Thai curry. Laughed over certain PlanetCapoeira.com postings that shall remain unattributed and incomprehensible.
Last day at Microsoft. Two new jobs lined up.
Got the pictures back from the wedding. Luke looks like Sean Penn.
Dropped in on Nancy and Barak and Tova, and Allegra. Sat on the front porch and listened to Allegra play banjo, sang, made redneck jokes, communed with Tova's big, big eyes.
Then Luke came home. Hung out with him and Kate, Dave, others. Lovely time. Wedding itself beautiful: lots of flowers, a good natured cantor officiating, great food, music, dancing. Grandma and Grandpa on the dance floor. Lots of family from far and wide. Great time. On Sunday to Mom's, hung out for the afternoon, then to the airport and home.
Into the city to hang with (in order) Adam Berenzweig, Ameer Youssef, Mestre No and Mestre Ombrinho, Chris Gentile's place with Jeff Michel, Brian Neff, Mike Gallo, Ameer, Stacy; breakfast with Cathy Braasch, visit with Dan Logan; the next day hanging out with Andrew Grusetskie and Michael Bell. Also saw Ms. Wolf and Ms. Longo at the high school.
Home for Dad's wedding to Dale (nee Paskow). Lovely time. Spent some time in Mendham, some time in Basking Ridge with Mom. Dad's bachelor party (surprise!) at the Newark Bears stadium. Cousin Dave was there, Eddie and Mickey, organized by Ed K. Dad was shocked and very pleased. Dad and Dale freaking out.
Barbeques at Jess's house every other time I look. Divine salmon, chicken, shrimp.
Mom visited. Spent a lot of time cooking, then a trip to Victoria. Butchart Gardens quite spectacular, especially the Sunken Garden. Lovely time. Mom and Jess finally met, for an hour, in the airport as Jess returned from the DR and Mom was flying home.
Helped Jess move to her cute new shared house. Then Jess off to the Dominican Republic.
Party at Katrina's. Beautiful late afternoon, sunlight streaming down, great avocado-centric food, politics and public health-centric conversation, terrific people. Heard Ozomatli's "Como Ves" three times, once per mix.
Nancy and Barak have a baby girl! Tova Gaster! Cute as a button.
Saw a great house concert: Allette Brooks, at Laura and Geoff's house. I recommend you check her out, especially her track "Never Was" available in mp3 from somewhere on her site.
Jess and I went to Jamaica for a week with Chris, Heidi, Patrick, Katrinha. Words do not describe.
A long time passes between updates
Went to see Trembling Before G-d at the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Incredibly sad.
Xti's birthday party. Much drumming and a little bit of berimbau. And squash soup. Mmmmmm. Party.
Went to Boston and New Haven. Hung with Stephen Licht, my brother, my mom.
Jessica and I retreated to Port Townsend for the weekend. We indulged in slow food and the entire New York Times.
Warren and Shala got married! A great weekend near Rainier; I shared a B&B room with Karen and Jenny, in which the toilet was in the bedroom.
Went to Brazil for three weeks.
Spent the weekend in Berkeley/Oakland, seeing Rachel Cane, Erika Fricke, Rachel Lipsky, and the Yale Alley Cats! And the alums: Charlie, Dave, Ameer, Chad, Nick. Where's the jazz?
Busy, busy, busy. Much activism. FTAA, abortion gag rule group, Amnesty International.
Weekend on the Oregon Coast with Jess. Cannon Beach! So beautiful.
Capoeira retreat. Mestre Ombrinho in town for this one, out in Port Townsend. A long weekend of working out and bein' goofy.
Crazy capoeira weekend, performing in David Ramos' Nuts n' Bolts four nights in a row, with a demonstration in Woodinville in between. Fun, but too much, all told.
Went home for the holidays. First to Mendham (Dad, Dale), then to Florida (Mom, Luke, the Wohls), then back to Basking Ridge (Mom, Luke) and two feet of snow overnight. I was in New York City with Michael and Chavi for New Year's Eve, at a great Italian place called Carino's, on 2nd and 88th. Spent the next couple days in and out of the city, visiting Noelle, cousin Dave; Jeff and Mary; Andy, David, and Ed; and then the rest of the cousins. Spent the rest of the vacation at home, chillin'. Flight back was cancelled, so we saw "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" instead.
A lovely weekend of capoeira madness, breakfasts of pumpkin-and-ginger-spice waffles at the Honey Bear Bakery, and the MicroProm (that is, the annual dressy holiday ball). Featuring the hip sounds of the Afrodisiacs, a 70s lipsync/cover band.
Jessica and I spent the weekend in Vancouver, a city of blue glass and ParisChic creatures. Highlights include the suspension bridge for its vertigo inducing beauty, and the Free Burma benefit concert, for its cultural archaeology; the layers were incredible. At one point we watched belly dancers writhe to Persian music played by the Brazilian/Klezmer Carnival Band, in the midst of a Free Burma concert, in the ANZA (Australia-New Zealand club), in Canada. Vancouver, Seattle, Sydney: cities with Space Needles, embracing the sea.
Walked the picket line with the Seattle Times. Cancel your subscription! Read the Union Record! Power to the people! Whose streets? Our streets!
Limo races, courtesy of Geoff and Laura. I was in Limo 1 with some marvelous people, including the fabulous Qathi and her fiance Chris, who were dressed as Reindeer, and Geoff and Jane and Muschi and some others. Highlight of the night: crashing an office party in a hotel above the Dragonfish, and taking over a dance floor during most of a karaoke to "Love Shack".
PATH holiday party. I know too many people who work at PATH. Perhaps I am destined to be assimilated there myself one day.
Thanksgiving weekend begins. I'm spending Thanksgiving with Jessica and her mere et frere and some others, and I plan to see a lot of movies.
Things are good. Last weekend I went to Oakland and hung out with Rachel Cane, Rachel Lipsky, and a little bit with Erika Fricke. Great fun. Rachel and Rachel and I went out to the Last Day Saloon in San Francisco to see Nobody From Ipanema, a massively entertaining Brazilian funk band.
Karen's birthday party with a skipping cd player and lavender on the sticky cake. Saw Charlie's Angels with Steve, then to Adam's birthday party at the Morning Moon Gallery on Eastlake. Sunday took Jess to the airport, and then later saw Youssou N'Dour at the Showbox. Great show. Great great great.
Lovely weekend. I feel guilty I didn't Puzzlehunt more, but had a good time nonetheless.
Saturday began with three hours outside planting trees with Albert Kaufman. Then capoeira, and then a mad dash around seeing people and picking up costume components. Then was Elemental Otherworld. I dressed as Miss Teen USA The next morning I had brunch with a friend, and put work into my desk finally.
Saw Circus Contraption and Baby Gramps and Jason Webley at the OK Hotel on Friday night with Anna (back in town from Muncie!) and Taylor. Never thought I'd see the concert where Jason Webley was the most normal of the performers.
In Boston, spent time with my brother Luke (went out clubbing at Embassy), and then dinner with Laura Massie, and then a housewarming party for Dan Murphy and Tania Brief, with most of TD 1998, including: Stephen, Margaret, Neil Inala, Jamie Teevan. OK, so that's it, but Lex was there too, and Alexandra Tekerian and her new husband, and Mark Some-Friend-of-Margaret's-from-DC and some dude from the Air Force. Best exchanges of the night were all very anti-military. Sorry, Jeremy:
- Me: Yeah, I was recruiting for Microsoft.
- AF Dude: Oh, so you're the bad guys, huh?
- Me: Dude, you're the one with all the guns.
Exchange two:
- Jamie: What happens if you quit the military?
- AF Dude: They send you to jail.
- Jamie: So how is that different than slavery?
In New Haven for recruiting. Hung out with Anna and Rachel, talked with Paul Hudak for awhile, hung with the Cats (Al, Shane, Courtney), hung with the other Cats (Matt Kerner, Dan Logan, Chris Gentile, Brian Neff), took the former interns out to dinner, hung with Gentile again (at Rudy's), saw Kate Jackman. Then the second day, had lunch with Lauren Bierbaum, wandered and wandered, did the little MS presentation and handed out bouncy balls. Hung with Dan Logan and Kate Jackman until the wee hours. Went to Boston.
A day of performances. Saw Meet the Parents with roommates, Stephen Licht in town from Boston, and girl-I-was-seeing, whose father was in the Navy for 20 years. Gulp. Then later saw Marcel Marceau perform. Pretty cool. For a mime.
Dangerous amounts of fun being had. My roommates and I volunteered at the Bra Auction to benefit Breast Cancer. A strange culture of glorifying the Mammaries prevailed. Paradoxical.
Stephen Licht is in town for two weeks, cat-sitting for Eva, who is out of town for two weeks. While I am no connector, I still take great pride in having put that little quid pro quo together.
Eimi (egwtmc(tm)) is back in town, too.
Trained for Dancesafe. They do good work.
Went to see Auktyon with Taylor at the Sit and Spin.
It is suddenly fall here in Seattle. Strange. My heart breaks a little thinking about real fall back home. Anna Da sometimes writes, talking about cider and school and pumpkin bread. "And masks." And her summer thunderstorms. Dar Williams says it best in "Southern California Wants to Be Western New York," wanting haunted houses, old plumbing, "autumn days that make you feel sad." I have nostalgia for that which I've never precisely experienced. Pumpkin sails on the Clearwater, for instance.
Home safe and sound after 10 days of vacation.
Laura Massie in town again. Loopy and whipsmart, like most of my favorite people.
Mama Duck is in town. We drove to Rainier and saw the gorgeous wildflowers. We went out for Dim Sum at Top Gun, and to the Sol Duc Hot Springs, where, hiking, I'm quite sure I saw two cougars loping down the trail ahead of us. Much fun. We also went to EMP to see the size of Paul Allen's...guitar. EMP was a blast, with learn-to-play-guitars with finger frets that light up, so to solo you just wander among the glowing frets, and sound, if not great, at least in touch with reality. Even the SkyChurch, with its pretensious-as-fuckall name, was pretty cool. It helped that it was playing The Crystal Method's Vegas, more or less my favorite breakbeat.
Laura Massie arrived by train. Amtrak takes 24 hours to get from Oakland to Seattle. Lord alnighty. We went to Sit & Spin. I drank a smoothie.
Pudding wrestling with the Church, in the backyard of Seventh Maze. So much for a career in politics.
Hiphop smackdown with Dana Hedberg, in front of the flock.
August 5: Beach burn at Golden Gardens, with the Church of Mez. Many beautiful people, spinning poi. Highlights: Taylor dancing in Rachel's Thai silverskirtpants (bought in Zanzibar); Daniel Boxer cutting totally and entirely into space, drunk on vibe as much as wine, shirtless in an army cap, perfectly content to dance dance dance.
Liz Klodginski visited the Haus. Lots of fun to see her again; the first time more than a couple hours I've spent with her in probably 8 years.
My brother Luke visited; we had a great time.
Ameer and Anna visited. They were awed by the Troll and Lenin, and Fremont in general.
Xie and Susan's birthday weekend bash; much fun and wearing of red devil horns. This, in fact, is where the devil horns originated, thanks to Brian Aker.
Capoeira retreat. Spent mostly with Taylor, Rachel, and Anna. We funked the house down afterwards, wandering the abandoned bunkers of Ft. Worden state park.
Lyle Lovett concert, with Bev, on Stuart's ticket. I will marry Lyle Lovett someday: mark my words.
Went camping with Steve Mooney and Catherine on Mt. Rainier over 4th of July weekend. It snowed on us, so we were cold but felt totally macho and badass.
Finally saw Fight Club. Took long enough.
Dancing dancing to Yerba Buena; I must learn to better salsa.
Went log cabining for the weekend with the house minus Melissa, plus Steve, Catherine, and Eva. Much biting of arms ensued. Hiked and scrambled around Marymere Falls, went for a canoe on Crescent Lake, and hotspringed at So(u)l Duc(k).
Last Saturday was fun at a level that seems frighteningly unsustainable. Walked around Greenlake with the roomies and Steve and Catherine (beautiful sunshine day), went kayaking for two hours in the Arboretum, delicious Mexican dinner over the water, went to a beach bonfire until midnight and then the hottub intensive afterparty for another four hours. Sunday was recovery mode; Eugene and Eliza and I went to High Fidelity. Which was sweet and excellent, but hit me (a recently broken up with guy ["Don't be a guy...the world is full of GUYS."]) a little too close to home.
Jon Perlow's birthday!
Passover seders abound. First at Seventh Maze, then at Warren and Shala's, organized by Shala and Jenny Winkler.
Melissa's birthday barbeque tonight, followed by two nights of seders. The first seder, at Seventh Maze, is a vegan potluck. I need to find something to bring that is vegan, kosher, and kosher for Pesach. That is, something with no beef, no pork, no poultry, no cheese, no fish, no shellfish, no bread, no pasta, no milk, no eggs, no cream, no butter, no honey, no lambshank, and no wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, rice, corn, peanuts, or beans not fully cooked within 18 minutes of contact with water. I'm thinking maybe a nice hemp curry, with a side of dandelions. Thanks Adonai for the internet anyway.
Why am I at work on a Sunday?
Eimi, my ex-girlfriend who moved to China (EGWMTC(tm)) back in town today. Nice to see her again. She is now, after 144 dives in Honduras, a certified Dive Master. We had coffee, and four hours later she was on a plane to Alaska for the summer. Naturally.
My dear high school friend Noelle Adamo was in town this weekend, and we saw Tulip Town and some other northeastern Washington beautifulness along with my roommates. We also saw Fantasia 2000 at the IMAX theater.
Got a letter from Nallieli Santamaria, who I've never even heard of ever before, at my Dad's office. I think this goes back to an experiment I ran when I was in Europe two summers ago.
Lovely weekend just passed. Went with my roommates to Bainbridge Island on Saturday, then that evening to Microsoft for the Puzzlehunt with the United Farm Workers. Sunday played Ultimate Frisbee, and then back to Marisa's house for a barbeque and hot tubbing. Mmmmm.
30 March: Actually received the Palm V in the mail. Raucous.
Woke up very early; watched the Kingdome blow up, with Eliza, Eugene, Anne, Eva, Katherine, Brian, Jon, Patrick, Elif, and Ben. Ben took some great pictures of the event.
Sang at Odd Stork 2000, hosted by the wonderful and enigmatic Jessamyn West in the Ballard Oddfellow's Hall. I sang "Frim Fram Sauce", "Lush Life", and "Slow Boat to China". Fun, nervewracking. Other notable acts include: a very pregnant woman standing on her head; a man fitting his entire body through a tennis racket (unstrung); some great guitarists, singers and performers; and a storyteller who told tales of Coyote's exploits with the penises of others.
Won a Palm V. Was broken up with. Strangely, these two things are related.
Wrote an article on Tupperware for Smug.com
Climbed halfway up Mt. Rainier with Ethan, Kirby, and Donna.
Wrote an article about Kangaroo Island for Iagora.com, who didn't publish it, though they did pay me $20
Played bunches of capoeira angola
Received an anonymous postcard with a picture of John Travolta and a big lipstick kiss on it
Various and sundry travel narratives and links.