MAD WATCH | LIVING UNDOCUMENTED
TARA
Sweet, feisty, cuddly Tara is four months old and available for adoption at Austin Pets Alive!
THOUGHTS ARE OPTIONAL
To which the ancient gurus reply: Bullshit.
Yoga suggests quite the inverse: While logic and reason are indeed helpful tools, it’s only when the mind’s rabid associations quiet down, only when logic relaxes its death-grip on the present moment and the breath becomes much more present, only then can truth, such as it is, reveal itself. Only then can you fully participate in the immediate fullness of Reality-As-It-Is. Only then do the gods shrug in your general direction and you suddenly “get it,” because you finally realize there is nothing, after all, to get.
JACQUELINE WOODSON
. . . was my first writer’s talk in Austin, sponsored by the awesome independent bookstore, Book People. She was as funny, inspiring, thoughtful, and brilliant as one might be after winning four Newberry Honors among many other literary accolades. Many of the literary events are held at the Presbyterian Church in downtown Austin, a great space to gather and listen.
About to read her new adult novel, Red at the Bone. Read her beautiful memoir this summer, Brown Girl Dreaming. If you don’t know her work, run, don’t walk.
THE PUBLIC HUG
we’re leaving the restaurant
and here is an old friend home from spain
we embrace my luncheon companions
coworkers with the surnames of elizabethan poets
stand aside later there are jokes about men
who hug men in public
listen: i hug men
i hug women children cats dogs drunks and uncles
i know the texture of people’s hair
how much weight their shoulders can support
i’m a patter and a toucher and a kisser
once i playfully punched a friend in the arm
he turned unexpectedly and i smashed his glasses
those are the chances you take
we worked together for four years
maybe bumped in a doorway once
scattering dust from those fragile wings
now i’m gone and you’ll never know
whether my hands are hot or cold
so i’ll tell you: hot and getting hotter
Robert Hershon | The Yellow Shoe Poets: Selected Poems, 1964-1999
Juana Olga Barrios | Primitivos, 2018
SARA GIDEON FOR US SENATE
I’ve just donated to her campaign, where she is going up against Susan Collins in Maine. Every bit counts!
MAD WHISK
Here are a few of the dishes Joons + I made this month, plus other food-related articles or videos I found interesting.
Alison Roman’s Chickpea Stew
Barbara Kafka’s Creamy Lemon Pasta
Elise Peterson’s Coconut Black Beans with all the Sides
Adam Rapoport’s Broccoli Bolognese
Jessica Seinfeld’s Sweet Potato + Cauliflower Hash
The Cuban Sandwich Assignment
Finally getting back to my studio. Interesting to see what emerges from being in the beautiful Texas landscapes.