c'mon

i wrote a long-ish entry the other night, and checked on an uploaded picture and lost it. as if it was written on sand instead of pixels.

so here's what i have been up to since i arrived:

• landed in d.c. on sunday albeit late.
• met mike and barb at their home.
• went swimming with them and their pals mark and sarah.
• in the pool, we played with the communal noodles, and talked about floyd landis' testosterone and israeli kibbutz and summer camp.
• we ate a nice al fresca meal at the italian treasure on conn ave.
• barb helped me get into mindy and mary's.
• i met tracy and the children for a dance party/video shoot with guster. (if you click, make sure that you read their journal entry of 08.01.06. reese is the blur of pink and riley is in the black shirt with camo bottoms). the guster fellows--especially brian the drummer, and joe--the longtime companion, were totally pleasant and kind and sweet and talented. i have a new favorite group of guys.
  
• we rocked hard for a few hours for the greater glory of pancake mountain. and we sweated it a lot, but it was such fun. this is what we looked like when it was over:

• that night i joined casey at fort reno to hear the evens. i can find an urban planning link with almost anything, but this one was obvious to me and perhaps to others: post-punk bands on a pallet in the middle of a field at twilight. casey and amanda mackaye were a little on (straight) edge because some of the youth were smoking and possessing with the intent to distribute. um. hello. positive force. this is exactly the wrong crowd to do that stuff with. it's a super tenuous this event, and all-volunteer effort. and amanda, who does the bookings, evidently really sees this as an event for the youth of today so that they can hear good music without worrying about rides and curfews and parents. paul strauss, the d.c. shadow senator stood up at the beginning and made an impassioned plea for voting in the d.c. this election cycle because so much hinges on it. it is easy to be disineguous and hyperbolic in sitches like that, but i did agree with a lot of what he said about the importance of neighborhoods and kids and the power of the vote. and when ian mackaye and amy farina came out, between songs, mackaye railed against the war(s) in the middle east and the powers of peace. it was a fun show. my favorite image of the night was a group of teenaged boys...in what rennie would call a celibate circle jerk...flipping these enormous arrows around as though they were frisbees or hackeysacks. they must have lifted the arrows en route to the show; at their previous posts, the arrows had been pointing the way to condos starting in the low $300s.
• i went to sleep content, but a little rueful that i switched my voter registration.

• tuesday brought a pretty chill day all in all. i did some work on my august project. a series of small gestures on ella watson and lost d.c. i think that they will be good fun and very subtle. i hope, at least. i am waiting to hear from buvana on ella, but i think i will procede.
• i read some magazines, and some work at the georgetown pool. i began fretting over and reworking writing from earlier this summer, but what's done is done. for now. i need to turn my attention to an article that is due in september, but i enjoyed reading far too much about katherine harris and duke cunningham in vanity fair. favorite line of the article went something like this: they made a big mistake trying to buy off katherine harris because she is too stupid to bribe. (she took money and then flubbed writing a senate bill that would have been beneficial to her buyers). i mean, allegedly.
  
• miri volunteered her GIANT bike. even without the bike, i love miri so much. so much that i sat in front of their home for half an hour last night after yoga with faith at flow hoping to catch a glimpse of them. (evidently, i left my phone in the changing room at the pool earlier in the day).
  
• because i am who i am and because it is d.c. and 100+ degrees outside, i had a long chat with miri, tom and madeline's neighbor, shawn, the neighborhood alcoholic. leave it to me. i finally walked him "home" to the steps of a local church and caught the G2 to dolcezzzaaa for gelato. last night, mint chocoalate chip.
• i haven't checked googie's blog yet, but i am hoping that he has posted a GONE! note for members of the school board in kansas.
• and what about castro? i am not sure what to think, but i hope that elian will be okay. is it true that there is talk of a u.s.-backed move to install him after the death of fidel? really?