Thursday, July 30, 2009

"A Better Way To Go"

Had a birthday and got feted, free-lunched, fully loved upon the earth. But within a week or two, I was kind of blah, holding back a certain low-level despair, appalled to see political machinations drag down progressive ideas, kind of pissy, not sleeping too well, feeling creatively stymied and generally feckless and fatigued.

Then my old friend Peter Stein sent me a link to this guy, Peter Mulvey, who will kill you softly, telling your whole life with his words, as it were, and playing the absolute ass off his guitar. Dig it:

I'm robbing two Peters to pay back an appall. And whaddya know, I had a little breakthrough on a script idea I've been wrestling with. Found a better way.

If only it were always so easy.

Friday, July 10, 2009

The Book of Love (and Anniversaries)

Here's a lovely vid my sister made for her wife, Pam, on their 5th anniversary (today). Why didn't I do this for my darling spousette on our 14th, mere weeks ago? Because I'm a deadbeat. Get off my back. Plus, I'd never heard this beautiful song until last week. Peter Gabriel's voice just slays me.

Happy 5th Anniversary! from Joy Howard on Vimeo.


The E.E. Cummings poem toward the end is what I read at the wedding, though the version I read from had a typo and I remember mildly wigging out when I got to it, trying to make sure I got the line right. Pam's brother read the Dr. Seuss story, "The Sneetches," which had a huge resonance for this only-recently-legalized event.

My sis posted the video along with a quote from Margaret Marshall, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage in the state: “Marriage...bestows enormous private and social advantages on those who choose to marry. Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family…Because it fulfills yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life’s momentous acts of self-definition.”

Congrats, oh my sissers. I love you both.