My weekend was fantastico!

I've had a dear friend in town doing consultations en route to a plum and well-deserved gig in Indonesia. Its been a lovely trip down memory lane - we were together during a particularly - in retrospect - golden period in Manila. We've spent a lot of time catching up, remembering friends, and discussing our expatriate experiences. I've long come to the understanding that I am more comfortable abroad - I've always felt like a foreigner in the periods when I have been in the US. At least overseas it feels right & natural and expected to feel that way. Plus life is so much more interesting -we were lamenting many things about life in the US, especially the lack of a certain kind of culturally rich and diverse of kind of café culture we experienced in other world cities. There were always a multitude of wonderful things going on - often in the course of one evening - friends were opening art shows, restaurants, nightclubs, boutiques and giving performances all the time and one couldn't go anywhere without running into people you knew and loved. Actually, I'm not sure I'd have the stamina for it at this point in my life. Ah well, absence makes the heart grow fonder?

I'm having a great time showing her around DC. I'm sick to death of this place but somehow introducing the city to an out-of-towner puts things in a fresher perspective. After a delicious congee brunch in Chinatown, we did go to Artomatic and had a really good time without being too mean-spirited and catty. I'd forgotten how good the glass work is. (I actually am not into glass art because its just so fucking fragile!). The venue, the former Capitol Children's Museum, is an improvement over the last effort. What are they going to do with the space after they close down Artomatic? The map made absolutely no sense and I could've done without the installation art. Dang, it seems like a lot of the artists have some real issues?  Identity politics can be so tedious! That mess is going to be hell to clean up. Maybe they'll gut it and turn the building into overpriced condos?... disorientating layout, I like the vault-like performing space.

I've been taking care of my deranged but loving pup while my folks are in NYC for a few days. The Kid doesn't do well and gets rattled at Chez Skunkeye and I don't want a lawsuit (canine Tourette's syndrome - he snaps), so we've been staying at the family abode Uptown. When I got home from work tonight he had wet shat messily all over the formal drawing room oreintal rug (even though he has been rejecting most of his food since Saturday) .

And The Kid was noticeably limping as he came downstirs to greet me.  He is not old even in dog years but has broken his leg and hip multiple times so of course I was freaking out.  The Fluff didn't seem to be in pain and clearly wanted to go our for a walk more than anything in the entire universe so I met his demands on the condition I wouldn't have him walk down the front stairs and over hills or anything.  The hobble kind of subsided by the time we got back and after a few frantic phone calls I learned that sometimes he gets gimpy after sleeping all day.  And I had a great time scrubbing up shit lemme tell ya.

The biggest perk, besides bonding with my dog - and after four years away from a piano, discovering that all is not lost and I can still play - of staying at the Family Residence is that somehow the folks got tricked into signing up for digital cable when they came back (I assume its a case of being swayed at a helpless moment by a marketing ruse: they have pretty simple TV needs so I can't imagine why they chose to pay extra. We didn't even have basic cable when I was living there!). I love it!

Man, if I had digital at home I'd rarely leave the house - BBC America, a zillion HBO, Showtime channels and multiple IFC and Sundance - heaven! At any given time there's several independent or foreign films showing on TV. 

Actually, yesterday I didn't really leave the house (except to take the restless Kid out at the crack of dawn) until about 2 PM.  My old room is so cold, and the blankets were so comforting, and I had my McKinley to all snuggle with, and as I was rousing for work I determined I may well be falling ill.  So, I called in and watched digital cable all morning!  I'm telling ya, its dangerous! Highlights include: revisited viewings of the delightful Bread & Tulips (Bruno Ganz is the man!); an Atom Egoyan protegee's much-overlooked The Five Senses (its easy to get distacted by the film's overpowering interior decor sensibilities - I mean hell all these characters regardless of class and income seemed to living in Wallpaper* - Man, I wanna be depressed stylishly in Montreal! There are some nuanced performances - Mary Louise Parker admirers take note - and the themes provide for ample post-viewing musings); on the Soap channel, vintage Another World (how ironic, I used to cut school to watch that!); my guilty pleasure BBC DIY fare and also that new show about improving property for investment and resale (my god I thought DC was horrible - they are just as frenzied about the housing market in the UK.  Yikes I am so priced outta everything in life)...

And I did enjoy The Life & Death of Peter Sellers on HBO - it was quality show as far as made-for-tv biopics go, and the acting was very good- especially Geoffry Rush and Emily Watson. Charlize Theron seemed to have fun as Brit Ekland. (The queen of Starfuckers! Remember her in the Rod "Stomach Pump" Stewart "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" video? And she later married a Stray Cat! Her daughter with Peter Sellers, Victoria, was a pal of Heidi Fleiss and there was talk that she was a prostitute.) Miriam Margolyes made a frightening stage mother - these things always seem to involve overbearing stage mother characters. Oh, and the kid playing Sellers' son was excellent.

At any rate, I grew up on a steady diet of Sellers - I'm a huge devotee - and I think all the folk involved put forth a solid, entertaining effort.