my family, reading, etc.

Patsy and Ham II
Originally uploaded by madabandon.

I am resting at home with my family. They cooperate sometimes. Other times Hammy wants to play. His favorite game now is chewing. My arm, that is. His teeth are very sharp. But he chews gently.

I did do some more painting, touching up, and I have to say the results are excellent, even if my sinuses are truly suffering. I miss swimming, but am following my doctor's orders and am avoiding it. I have taken long walks and hauled lots of cans of paint from the hardware store, and I am doing my exercises at home.

I am reading an excellent book, EASTER EVERYWHERE by my former neighbor Darcey Steinke. Fiercely intelligent, she writes with needle-nosed probity about a challenging childhood (and beyond). Many things in her upbringing ring familiar to me. We used to be neighbors here in Brooklyn when we both lived in a run-down building (down the street from my current home) with a benevolently neglectful landlord who favored artistic types. The entire time I lived there he barely raised the rent on my spacious one-bedroom apartment. It had a huge kitchen where I would spend most of my time (when not practicing). Tuna, my beloved Tuna, would sit on the table and keep me company. Or else he'd sit in the living room window and passersby would speak to him in admiration of his substantial bulk and handsome visage.

Then she divorced and moved to another part of Brooklyn, but I ran into her in the Whitney a few years back and we chatted for a bit. She has also written several novels: SUICIDE BLONDE, her first (and something of a literary sensation) and JESUS SAVES. Religion is big in her work; her father was a Lutheran pastor during the tumultuous 1970s. I'm glad to read this book by another true artist who is addressing something substantial in her work. I wonder what she thinks about the current "gilded age" mentality that is pervading Brooklyn these days.