I quilt. Occasionally.

 

My good friend Shannon and I have been making quilts together for, I don't remember how long. (We met in 1991 so sometime between then and 2003.) Here are the most recent paired quilts we made and swapped as Christmas presents to each other. As always, we started with the same fabrics, and the same basic pattern and idea, but then we did our own special design and surprised each other. (Top quilt made by me, now living with Shannon. Bottom quilt made my Shannon, now living with me.)

Downward facing kitty (Clarence) above. He LOVES this quilt.

 

 

They were great fun to make, and now she and I will start working on another quilting project. TBD.

Sunset tonight, from my front steps.

We're supposed to get 4 to 9 inches of snow starting early tomorrow morning so I don't know what all that "red sky at night sailor's delight" business is about. If I were a sailor I don't think I'd be heading out on the Chesapeake Bay tomorrow morning.

Two unrelated items. Or maybe they're not unrelated.

With Mad Men off the air for a few more months, I have no must-see TV these days. Or maybe it's called "appointment TV." But HBO started a new series on Sunday called True Detective, and after Doug previewed a bit of it and deemed it "not too violent" I decided to try it out. (I don't do violent on TV or in movies any more, which is why I don't see a lot of movies or watch a lot of TV.) One of the characters in True Detective has this monologue that really grabbed me by the throat. Here it is. I fear he's right. Screenwriter is Nic Pizzolatto.

"I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in human evolution. We became too self aware, nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist, by natural law. We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, a secretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody's nobody. I think the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal." Rustin Cohle (played by Matthew McConaughey) in True Detective

And this YouTube video is also wise. Quirky but wise.

Patti Smith: A parody. A loving parody.

 

I just finished reading Just Kids by Patti Smith. I loved it, which I wasn't expecting. I've never been a fan or a non-fan of hers. The only thoughts I've had about her for the past 45 years or so involved the one song of hers I know well, Because the Night, that she wrote with Bruce Springsteen, and a brief encounter Doug and a friend had with her many years ago. They were in a coffee shop/sandwich shop in Georgetown in the early(?) 70s and she was there too. Our friend feels he stared her down. Maybe yes, maybe no. For some odd reason, that meaningless little anecdote has always stayed in my brain.

I think my admiration for this memoir is related to my age -- Patti is 3 months older than me -- and also because my very first New York City experiences were in the late 60s and early 70s, exactly the years she covers in the book. I spent many weekends in the city and those brief trips made a permanent mark on me. Even back then, when the city wasn't at its peak -- higher crime rate, near bankruptcy, frequent strikes by sanitation workers, I fell in love with the place. I liked (and still do) the hustle, the attitude, the grit, the eccentricity of the people and architecture, the sense of optimism.

Another person who liked the book posted this parody on Goodreads.com. I thought it was hilarious, right on the mark, and I hope Patti reads it too because I think it will make her laugh.

"I was crossing Tompkins Square Park when I ran into a young man wearing a gabardine vest. He smiled at me and called me "Sister." It was a young George Carlin. Robert hated him because he frequently had flakes of rye bread in his beard, but I loved how he could make me laugh with his impressions of Mick Jagger. On this morning, though, we wept together at the news that Paul McCartney would have to sell his house in Cannes. It was a sort of paradise for us, even though we'd never been. George gave me a feather to put in my hair, and I took it home and pressed it between two pieces of crepe de chine, where it left a ghostly impression. Robert insisted on using it in a construction, and finally I relented, though I knew I'd never get it back. It was a sacrifice to art, the sort of thing Rimbaud would've done."

Full review here.

More about that New York City trip.

The day we arrived it was snowy and brisk, but not exactly blustery.

 

Downtown Brooklyn, which means sort of in the northwest part of the borough.

The young couple at a Mexican place near their apartment.

A block from their apartment, which is in, sort of, central Brooklyn, on the northeast corner of Prospect Park.

Sean and Doug in downtown Brooklyn.

 

 

 

Shots of their apartment, featuring Robert, left, and James.

A legal smile.

Mark Wootten, left, and Tom McCoy purchase marijuana products at the LoDo Wellness Center. Colorado residents can now buy marijuana like alcohol, but purchases are limited to an ounce at a time.

From here.

All my life I've been saying "nope, it won't happen in my lifetime." But there they are! My g-g-g-generation! Look at those geezer smiles.