Weekend Wrap-Up

feliz cinco de mayo, amigos! who has the tequila?

walking in the "woods"
i did a lot of schlepping this weekend. the weather was beautiful in houston and while i'm not usually one for sunny skies and warm weather... i do enjoy it from time to time.

i walked memorial park twice this weekend... and while the eye candy was below average, it was still nice exercise.

more importantly, however, i finally experienced the houston arboretum down in memorial park. not a bad little trek.

i did experience several flashbacks to into the wild and i told my friend if we got lost i'd probably have a panic attack.

"i'll be goddamned if i'm gonna die in the wild," i told him. and we did get turned around once or twice...but found our way back.

for some reason, we kept freaking each other out by talking about snakes and just being a bit twitchy at every rustling sound we heard in the brush. i know, fags....

but the moments of fear with every breaking twig or strange looking leaf/bug on a tree, was overshadowed by the beauty of nature... especially one pond with over a dozen turtles swimming about for us to watch.

it was nice to commune once again with nature.... not something one has a chance to do much in h-town.

thinking of you
i have a friend going through a very rough patch right now... this is my shout out to him...just to let him know i'm thinking about him.

thinking of me
awww...thank you.

i had a very nice call from a good friend on saturday. she just wanted to let me know that she was thinking about me and knew i was having some difficulty lately. i assured her i was not swinging from the rafters (afterall...how could i have answered the phone?) but i was really touched by the call. i'm very fortunate to have such friends.

R.I.P.
and this is why i hate horse racing....

for those of you who have not heard... eight belles, the only filly running in this year's kentucky derby, broke both ankles after crossing the finish line on saturday. she was put to death while still on the track.

i hope all those motherfuckers in their fancy hats cried into their mint juleps and will only remember the horror of seeing a beautiful animal put to death in front of them from this weekend.

these horses are whipped and forced to run these races... and then they get hurt and are put down. i fucking hate horse racing.

and the circus. jesus! don't get me started on the circus!

just checking...
is this entry kinda boring? it feels boring...

the brilliance of bergman
i watched ingmar bergman's the virgin spring over the weekend. it is one of his films i had not seen before and it has immediately catapulted its way to the top of my bergman list.

what a brilliant, haunting film.

the movie is filled with the long silences that are hallmark to all great bergman films. and like most of his films...the storytelling is simple but the characters and their emotions are complex. conflicted feelings over god and death and good and evil.

i hesitate to give away much of the film but if you rent it from netflix, i'll give away nothing that is not written on the sleeve of the movie.

set in 14th century sweden, a young virgin is taking candles to church in honor of the virgin mother. along the way she is brutally raped and her father then seeks revenge on her attackers.

the rape is raw in its realism. a horrifying scene of the girl fighting her way through twisted branches as the three men claw their way after her.

i will give away nothing more but to say the final few minutes of the film are, perhaps, the most beautiful moments i've seen in any film. a simple, powerful image that moved me to tears.

if you are a film lover... or just a lover of fine storytelling, check out this masterpiece from 1960.

its images will haunt you.

happy birthday!
my friend james turned another year older on saturday. happy birthday, old man.

cooking therapy
i love to cook... and i haven't done much of it lately except to make some very simple dishes.

this weekend i knew i needed to experience the happiness i find in cutting up vegetables and pulling together a recipe. does anyone else experience the bliss of cooking?

i made two dishes on sunday.... a peanut tofu dish for lunch chock full of veggies and a southwestern stew sunday night that is spicy and delicious.

not sure what it is about the repetition of cutting veggies but it soothes me. and pulling together the delicious aromas of ginger and soy in one dish and cumin and cilantro in another... my apartment smells delicious.

anyway.... all in all, a good weekend. for some reason, i wanted to share.

e.

coda
i cannot wrap my head around the nearly 4,000 killed over the weekend in myanmar. some officials estimate the death toll could top 10,000. i can't even imagine. it's terrifying....