April 3, 2008
Looking backward
One plus three.
Yesterday Charles and I looked at our paste-colored faces in the mirror and realized that it was time for a walk. Our recent respective deadlines have been slightly absurd, and my backside had spent the last two weeks firmly planted in the substrate of either a desk chair, a piano bench or an airline seat. If I wasn’t so lucky to have the metabolism of a middle-aged hummingbird, I would look like a Beluga whale by now.
And here is where we hiked out to. The sunshine and breeze made our faces far better colored. What a fortunate life I have.
Adding to the sedentary nature of my existence this week is that old American favorite, tax time. Like most people, I can’t stand doing my taxes. I suppose I could sit and do them. But instead, I don’t do them: for many years I’ve had a good CPA who does them for me (and since marriage a few years ago, us). But one still has to round up every bit of the information to the patient person happy to be paid to plow through it all, and thus begins the dance of procrastination. It’s really anti-crastination. Because I’m against having to do this in the first place.
A few years ago it finally dawned on my why, just why, quite specifically, I resist and detest this necessary process.
I hate looking backward.
Truly.
I am a forward-thinking, future-oriented, goal-driven person. Having to face every stupid detail of my past life and finances, incoming and outgoing, over a period of time that now began a whopping 16 months ago, is incredibly irritating to me.
It is completely against my nature.
There. I feel better. My blogatherapy session time is up. Thanks for listening, and now I’m in a better state of mind to spend the evening doing my taxes so someone else can do them.
Doug Palmer said,
April 4, 2008 @ 10:10 am
According to “The Tao of Willie”
Your philosophy resembles that of Willie Nelson’s.
Focusing on the intricacies of the tax code does tend to preclude contemplation of the other inevitable.
Criticizing the government is not a right, it is a duty.
Glenn Buttkus said,
April 7, 2008 @ 7:09 am
So glad to hear that your Virginia trip went off well, and your work was well received, as it should have been. Were any of the military carrying guns at your shindig?
Most of us salivate in our deepest envy as we vicariously take your island beach walks with you. Thank your lucky stars daily that is your regiment, and not the concrete canyons of NYC nor the ticky tacky haunts of LA. You inhabit your very own paradise. How nice of you to share it so generously.
Your svelte body type usually connotates heavy doses of home gym married to perfect healthy eating skills. How neat to know that you are just one of the lucky ones who can be inactive with your composing, travel the globe, and still fit into your skirts, simply because you have the genetic advantage of a terrific hummingbird metabolism. Pizza usually takes you elsewhere on the scale.
When I was single I always jumped right on my taxes. Melva likes to doddle, and wait until the last minute, which makes me uneasy. But she brings in the shoebox of receipts and we always emerge unscathed and a few bucks ahead. The stresses in life do not blow my wife’s emotional skirt up like it does mine, enit?
Doug has been playing with haiku over there on FEEL FREE TO LAUGH, which has kicked pff a flurry of ersatz haiku from me. I whipped off 50 of them the other day, and they are to be viewed on FEEL FREE TO READ. And hey, your old pal, Janet Leigh, left a lovely comment regarding one of the pieces I had posted on you. That pleased the old Glennster. One of the haiku read:
Alex Shapiro
reminds me of Julie Taymor;
only prettier.
I spent five hours yesterday watching and rewatching ACROSS THE UNIVERSE yesterday. Julie Taymor, with her Asian mask mentality, and her creative vision, just sends me to a special place. Her imagination is peerless. The two hours of DVD extras make it a complete experience. All of the turmoil of the 60’s, civil rights, women’s rights, rock and roll, and the Viet Nam War are all interwoven to a book and musical using dozens of Beatle’s songs as warp and weave. Her visualizations and reworking and rearrangements of the classic Beatles tunes are magnificent. I was back there again, in my 20’s, in the Navy, at rock concerts, writing my protest poetry. If you have not seen this film yet, well get to it. Rent it from Netflix, or better yet buy it. You and Charles will be charmed by it. Taymor had Bono, Eddie Izzard, Joe Cocker, and Salma Hayak do cameos in it. Bono was Mr. Roberts and Eddie was Mr. Kite. You will probably recognize the musical composers and rearrangers and the choreographer.
I could not get your musical clip, UNABASHEDLY START, to engage. The body of it comes up, but it does not play. It says it is “buffering”. I wonder if others are having difficulty with the mp3? I adored your photo; terrific composition. When my three girls were young and we beachcombed, I would cut them all kelp whips and they would race about whipping us and themselves until they tired of it. The clams did not seem to mind.
Glenn
Alex Shapiro said,
April 9, 2008 @ 12:22 am
Thanks for your response, Glenn; a lovely letter! As you can tell, not a day goes by that I don’t thank the universe for my great fortune to live in such paradise. I suppose that’s why I’m so eager to share glimpses of it with everyone else; I don’t want to hoard it!
Doug Palmer said,
April 9, 2008 @ 6:44 am
Kelp can also be turned into an oboe like instrument with a few deft slices of a knife.