believe it or not new england, it’s finally spring. the past few weeks we’ve had (as noted) pockets of wonderful melty niceness– walking around in a sweatshirt, getting crushes on people, rolling down hills. of course soon after that a bitter wind blows in again and the ground’s all hard again and everything’s snow dusted and looking like a fried dough. well, officially anyway, spring is here, and with it as always, a modicum of rebirth.
to that end, a few words, and if we’re lucky, a song, from the aztec god of spring, “the red smoking mirror”, “the night drinker”: xipe totec, “the flayed one”. he appears here in his traditional aspect– skinless but wrapped in the hides of others. please remember that though sacrifices were definitely made to this princely fellow, it’s not entirely fair to say that he “demanded” sacrifice. although at the same time, not to be a creep, but if, sometime between now and 20 days hence, if you were to get into a mindless scuffle or scrape, if blood were to be drawn or a bruise formed, and you opened the bruise up to let some of the bruise blood come out to show them, as maize seeds lose their outer layer before germination and snakes shed their skin, that would be, uh, honorable.
congratulations to our old friend polina, blessed with an amazing mind governed by a charitable and open and magnanimous personality and topped with an astounding amount of hair, now also blessed with a wee baby, currently nameless. actually, the baby is not wee but tall and large, which is certainly auspicious. hooray!
also as a wheel turns, i am sad to say we have recently lost a friend, edwin, a hound dog as ornery as they come. i lived with edwin for a few months, and i found him to be sharply opinionated, irritable, drooly, a little menacing, and impossible not to love. he just turned 14 a few weeks ago, which in dog years is 98.
maila nurmi (vampira) passed away thursday. she was 86 years old. she was not the first person to conflate sex and death, but she was the first person to make the union of the two fun.
What she had in abundance was the ability to focus a long and apparently rambling argument in a sudden, blazingly dramatic gesture.
if you want to pay credit where credit is due, somewhere, today, shriek.
I dont know how much Worcester kids know about Boston Folk Lore figures, but Mr Butch passed away today. He was involved in a scooter accident ( he had recently bought a vespa, I know, right). Mr Butch was a great street person, complete wingut, musician, bum, hobo, tramp, punk rocker, soul man, artist, booze hound, guy who stands on the corner yelling, busker, and friend. He will be missed. There will be a memorial on Monday, the 16th of July on Harvard ave infront of Regeneration, 155 Harvard Ave. 8pm
mr butch was for a period of time the security guard at regeneration, HBML’s sister store in boston. i only met him once, he was laughing and yelling, real happy, and crossing the street. god bless.
(with videos)
UPDATE- the memorial has been postponed- see comments for more info.
saturday there was a big party for the 13th anniversary of the collective house i used to live at. the party was fun with a lot of great folks and dancing and carrying on and spilling drinks on people who are moms and getting your feet really stomped on and discovering really dark bruises on your ribs the next day that you can’t remember what they could possibly be from. dan wars made a mix tape, matt smith rented a car, the curtin brothers were there, it was a good time. of course, in the same breath i should say that there were a number of conspicuous absences, and with less of a connection to migratory crusties and general weirdodom at the house, there was a pronounced lack of “wild cards” as psibs put it. no greasy carharts, no facial tattoos, no forestry names, no one in a circus, stuff like that. come on, go go, shake off that anti-faustian 13 year old fuddy-duddiness and embrace real diversity- up the funners and creative scumbags!
i should add that i like everyone at the house, even the people who have careers (which is almost everyone). also i should say that today mcoe told me that him and ML and gran turismo had a roman candle fight in the woods- that gives me hope. ATTN more weirdos: move to worcester!
long time readers may recall my fascination with the cargo cult of john frum, based in the island nation of vanuatu- after the second world war, islanders began making their own airstrips and engaging in military drills, thinking that these actions brought cargo planes in the past, and they’ll work again. more . i have tonight read an from earlier this year stating that vanuatu is to get an aid package of 72 million dollars. way to go john frum! mission accomplished!
