Dry Bones Dance

What do women really want?

Philip left this question in the comments section of this post:

How about: Women: What do they really want? A discussion on equal rights, specifically women signing up for the draft and parental rights in the case of a divorce where the man is the stay-at-home parent.

I’m intrigued by Phil’s questions, mostly because I detect a teeny bit of subtext behind them of “Women say they want equal rights, unless that’s inconvenient. Then they complain when things are equal. “

First, I must say that, last time I checked, I had not been nominated as the official spokesperson for my entire gender. Not all women want the same thing, just as all men don’t want the same thing. Not all feminists want the same thing, either, so this is just my opinion. I haven’t pontificated all that much lately, so perhaps I’m due

Thoughts on Water

I saw Deepa Mehta’s Water today, and thought it was fantastic. Water is the third film of a trilogy. I haven’t seen Earth yet, but I really really loved Fire .

The movie is centered on the story of a young girl in India in 1938 who is widowed at the age of seven, (yes, seven – child marriage was quite common in India then) and due to cultural and religious dictates, has to go to a widow’s ashram where she is supposed to live out the rest of her days in self-denial. I don’t want to spoil the plot for you in case you decide to see it, but like Fire, this movie pushed all my buttons in the best possible way.

We could use some rain

Southern California is on fire and Joel at Pax Nortona is blogging it, with the cats packed up and ready to evacuate, if that's what it comes to.

Pasadena is fine. In fact, today was a surprisingly clear and sunny day. We frequently have more smog than this on days when nothing has gone up in flames. Unfortunately, over 250,000 households in San Diego County have had to evacuate thus far and more than 100,000 acres have burned, and there are flames in six more counties.

That's a lot of people, a lot of homes, and a lot of firefighters. Here's hoping the Santa Ana winds die down and nobody else dies.

Help Miz Melly have fun in L.A.

I n regards to your suggestions for blog posts, I will pretend that I get out more than I actually do, and give Miz Melly suggestions for visiting the non-touristy side of L.A. L.A.’s a big place, so it depends where you are going to be and your access to transportation, but do not, under any circumstances, take a tour of the stars’ homes. I was forced to do this once, and quickly realized that I do not really care where Justin Timberlake lives. Sadly, you just missed both the Latino International Film Festival, where I once almost met Javier Bardem, and the Eagle Rock Music Festival, which is a tremendously cool, diverse community music festival. (Due to all the aspiring screenwriters, actors, and directors, we have more film festivals per capita than any other place on earth.) I recommend the 24 hour Tofu House on Wilshire in Koreatown if you are hungry at 3 am, and Senor Fish in Eagle Rock if you want good fish tacos. The LA County Museum of Art has a Dali exhibit starting this week that looks good. Across the street from LACMA is this tiny little craft museum that has had some really fascinating exhibits in the past.

I have nothing to say

I was going to blog tonight, but I have nothing to say - at least nothing I feel like posting in a public forum. Leave suggestions for topics in the comments, and I will pick the one that strikes my fancy.

Today's helping of existential angst

I had a conversation with a friend today about how, on some level, we are all alone, even though there are people all around. (There's nothing like starting off the week with some existential angst, is there?) It's not that I'm particularly isolated, even working from home. I have a whole list of phone calls to make tomorrow morning, several in-person meetings this week, and endless e-mails. I went to yoga today and chanted "Sut, Nam" with a room full of people. I'm close enough to smell my neighbor's weed, and right now, I'm can hear how the soccer game playing on the television in the apartment building next door is going. "Goooooooool!!!!" is good. "Pinche Cabron!" is bad.

Good Enough

I have a whole bunch of things rumbling around in my head that I could write about - I'm fascinated with the dark side of Mother Teresa, for instance - but my life is taking a lot of energy at the moment, and that's a good thing. I'm getting more grant-writing work and trying to regain some financial stability. I signed up to be a Big Sister, and met my Little Sister tonight, and I'm contemplating some other community involvement. I started Phase III of the spiritual director training program, and I'm starting to feel like I actually have a life again.