PicoBlog

One divinatory tool has unexpectedly caught my fixation for its ease of use, brevity, and pointedness: astrology dice, or astro dice. They're a set of three D12 (12-sided) dice, the first die having the 10 modern planets and the North and South node, the second having the 12 signs, and the last being numbered 1-12 for the houses. They're great for answering direct questions and they often refer directly to your personal placements in your natal chart, and they're quite inexpensive (~$6 on Etsy and Amazon).

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t thought about much else this week besides Regina King. The beloved actress is reemerging into the public eye to promote her new film Shirley, two years after her son Ian, a musician and DJ, died by suicide at the age of 26. She first spoke to Harper’s Bazaar (“a smile doesn’t always mean happy”), then Jimmy Kimmel (“right now, I’m good”) and, most recently, Robin Roberts for Good Morning America (“grief is love that no has no place to go”).

I recently visited the East Coast of the United States for the first time in my life. I have been to many cities and countries but never the other side of my country. As expected, I was dazzled by New York City. The most dazzling aspect of it all was how remarkably safe and vibrant the Big Apple felt at all times of the day. Back home in San Francisco, the relatively vacant Market Street area has long been uninviting after hours.

Death and life are the same thing, like the two sides of my hand, the palm and the back. And still the palm and the back are not the same. They can be neither separated nor mixed. — Ursula K. Le Guin I was driving my son Cary, age 10, to a small gathering where some buddies and I do our cold plunge in a frozen pond. We were discussing safety.

Hello from Osaka! On Saturday morning, I was out walking before anyone else was awake.  I’ve been trying to break a pattern in our family, which goes a little like this. I (lark) wake at 5am, and then begin to get impatient around 9am for H and Bert (owls) to get up. My impatience builds after they wake, and slowly feel their way into the day. By 11am, they are maybe considering getting dressed, and I, six hours into my day already, am snapping at their heels to get out of the house, because it’s nearly lunchtime for God’s sake and we’re going to waste the whole day if we don’t get moving.

From an interview with Tennessee Williams, conducted by James Grissom, 1982. Photos below by Roddy McDowall and Kenn Duncan. “What the world will do with us queers is unfathomable while being entirely visible, persistent, allowed. You bring up [The Rose] Tattoo, and I should be thinking of Maureen [Stapleton] and Eli [Wallach], and that verdant season, but I remember this beautiful, exuberant child named Sal Mineo. He was right on the cusp of manhood [Mineo was twelve, in 1951, when he appeared in Williams’ play], and he was beautiful and sweet, and already a victim.

Today, I’m sharing a Q&A (and many cringe photos) with my friend, author, and former #bossbabe Emily Lynn Paulson. I met Emily through the online recovery world years ago, but until 2020-ish, I had no idea that she worked in network marketing or an MLM. And Emily was not just part of one; she was one of the winners: a very small percentage of folks who actually made a profit. When we became close, she had just left hers and was becoming adamant about talking about the predatory behavior she witnessed and participated in while there.

Kim and Tyler Malek, founders of the beloved ice cream brandSalt & Straw, are bringing their ice cream to New York City this summer, opening two shops: one in the West Village [540 Hudson St] and a second on the Upper West Side [360 Amsterdam Ave].  To celebrate the summer opening, they are popping up next Friday April 26th outside their West Village store on the corner of Hudson at Charles and scooping their Cannoli ice cream from 1pm-3pm.

In reflecting on the life of Jimmy Carter as the former president approaches his 100th birthday, God bless him, I came across an extraordinary event that took place on the South Lawn of the White House in June 1978. Carter hosted a jazz concert to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival. The concert was part of Carter’s initiative to honor various American art forms. It is this week’s reason to smile.