A few years back, my friends and I for some reason decided to go to the Halloween parade in Chelsea. On our way back to our friend’s apartment afterwards, a beautiful man dressed in a tuxedo (a red rose in his lapel!) biked in front of us. He was holding a white sign that had “I’m sorry” written on it. We all shouted some variation of “What are you?!!” at him at the same time. “I’m… a formal apology,” he responded, and we all swooned as he biked off into the distance.

In any man who dies there dies with him
his first snow and kiss and fight….
Not people die but worlds die in them.

~Yevgeny Yevtushenko, “People”

 tea ceremony with Ken Hamazaki

I was very honored to be in the camp that hosted Ken and a small contingent of Japanese – one fun little anecdote for me was when I was rangering perimeter Saturday night, and they walked by and recognized me and we waved and laughed and hello’d at each other.

Whythenose.com is dedicated to the act of wearing a clown nose, in order to make people smile. It’s really that simple. In a world filled with distractions and distrust, you’d be amazed at how many people (of all ages) have lost a sense of innocence. Or maybe you wouldn’t…

Wearing a clown nose is fun, it’s childlike, it’s easy and it’s free (if you already have the nose). We’re not trying to sell anything, we’re only showing you how easy it is to change someone’s day.

I don’t know that I’ve ever need a quote more than this one.

I went to the worst of bars
hoping to get
killed.
but all I could do was to
get drunk
again.
worse, the bar patrons even
ended up
liking me.
there I was trying to get
pushed over the dark
edge
and I ended up with
free drinks
while somewhere else
some poor
son-of-a-bitch was in a hospital
bed,
tubes sticking out  all over
him
as he fought like hell
to live.
nobody would help me
die as
the drinks kept
coming,
as the next day
waited for me
with its steel clamps,
its stinking
anonymity,
its incogitant
attitude.
death doesn't always
come running
when you call
it,
not even if you
call it
from a shining
castle
or from an ocean liner
or from the best bar
on earth (or the
worst).
such impertinence
only makes the gods
hesitate and
delay.
ask me: I'm
72.
- Charles  Bukowski


This will be it for a while.

I’m a BRC Ranger, now – over half of the people who started the day with me didn’t make it. I could’ve cried. It’s intense. Maybe more on that another time.

I don’t know what I’ll have much to say any time soon. But I’ll try to keep up with any interesting links or photos I find. Like his brief video of the jellyfish.

Hilarious.

Hunger Games 1