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Pastry Dreams and the Sweat House

Bob and I got our tickets to Paris today. I am so ready for the apple pastry and croisssant aux amandes at my favorite patisserie on the Rue de Rivoli. That croissant is one of my favorite things. The almond filling infuses the pastry like a custard. And the apple pastry is impossible to describe because it is unlike anything else. It just is, apples and flour and butter transformed into oral pleasure. I need to escape into sensation. And raw-milk cheeses.

Bob’s mom leaves on Saturday morning. I look forward to having my chilly house back. Tonight at dinner sweat dripped off my nose, my shirt was soaked–even my knuckels were sweating. I can deal with an 80 degree house only if there’s a beach outside.

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Timmy Timmy Coco Pop

Last night Big Chris and I asked Tim over to watch Six Feet Under with us. What a sweetie pie. Inspired by his recent self-portraits, and one specific swirl of back hair, I’ve asked if I could photograph him in May. I’ve been making disjunct portraits of various furry folk, rather than studies of one specific person. I need to give BC a break. One of our last sessions involved him stradled atop and between two ladders with hot lights nearly frying his muff.

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Jesus Break

Okay, we haven’t had dessert yet, but I had to sneak down to my studio and chat a bit. As inevitably happens, the conversation at dinner turned to the supernatural (Bob’s aunt astral-travels, and his brother was visited by.. well, they’re not sure if it was the Virgin of Guadalupe or Loudes. “Well, were there kids with her or was she surrounded by flames?” I asked. Blank expressions). Bob’s mom recently had a dream in which Jesus appeared to her–white light and everything. I asked her if he had any message, and she responded, “It was so REAL. I couldn’t get away from him, I kept trying to wake up!” So much for Our Savior of San Diego.

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Bonjour, Paris!

I’m going to learn French in 60 days, uh 54. This time really. Bob’s cousins have offered him the use of their apartment in the Marais for the month of June, so I’m hitching a ride, escaping into fabulous pastries, long chats in cafes with burly French intellectuals, once-a-week-showers, perhaps a trip to the south, at least one Michelin 3-star restaurant, revisiting my favorite gardens, the Arab baths, and those incredible museums. I’ve been there several times over the years, but would love to hear of your favorite sites and experiences.

My French tutor, Chris (pronounced “KHLEEES”) is adorable, straight out of French Vogue with that just-got-out-of-bed-hairdo and five-day stubble. The most important phrase thus far, “I’ll have two of those, please.”

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Dim Sum and da Vinci

Big Chris and I met Su-Chen for dim sum at Ton Kiang this morning, and then visited da Vinci’s Lady with the Ermine at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. It’s part of an exhibition called “The Splendor of Poland,” which includes many paintings from the Polish court which fail to illuminate anything close to splendor, except for an exceptional early work by Ingres which indeed splendidly depicts a man’s torso, connected to a gorgeous face no less, with a full head of wavy hair and wispy mutton chops. The flesh is like butter, translucent and soft, melting, but also with a solid muscularity. The other paintings just disappeared from memory, though, upon encountering the da Vinci. Were the Palace of the Legion of Honor my museum, I would put the one painting on display by itself and allow one person at a time to spend an hour with it. The tension is in its simultaneous perfection and awkwardness.

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Beach, Grouper Sandwiches, and Hot Wet Teens

Saint Pete Beach and grouper sandwiches at Philthy Phil’s today with Bruce. I have a red square burned into the center of my back, where my hands couldn’t reach to apply sunscreen. Not feeling at all proud to be American these days, a red square seems to fit. Tonight I went out with my nieces, Megan and Aimee, with sister Sue, and Brucey, to see the senior projects of the local Arts Center High School students. The high school is a magnet school with an emphasis on the performing arts. Tonight’s productions included excerpts from Seussical, featuring a humpy little Horton, a Thai version of Margaret Cho (Megan’s friend), a real female Hedwig and her Angry Inch, an utterly astounding version of The Producers, which I still can’t believe was put on by teenagers, and a sad, if not heartfelt version of Cabaret (the actress portraying Sally Bowles channeled aloofness and joie de vivre into weariness).

On the way to the theater in Clearwater, we listened to Megan’s compilation of Disney tunes. When a base-thumping low-rider pulled up next to us at the stop light, and with Bippity Boppity Boo cranked up and all of us singing along, Sue remarked to Bruce, “This is what you get when you don’t have problem children.”

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Is Anyone Listening?

Here are some excerpts from a news item on Sen. Byrd:

The oldest voice in the U.S. Congress rose on Wednesday to offer a final pre-war warning that President Bush’s march to battle is dangerously misguided.

“Today I weep for my country,” said West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd. “No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. … Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned.”…

“We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance,” Byrd said, adding: “After war has ended the United States will have to rebuild much more than the country of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America’s image around the globe.”…

“The case this administration tries to make to justify its fixation with war is tainted by charges of falsified documents and circumstantial evidence,” Byrd said.

Despite administration suggestions to the contrary, Byrd said, “There is no credible information to connect Saddam Hussein to 9/11.”

The senator said, “We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason. This is a war of choice.”

Byrd said that instead of negotiating, Washington demanded obedience or threatened recrimination. “Instead of isolating Saddam Hussein, we seem to have isolated ourselves.”

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Caladisi Island

A few pics of the sunset last night, obligatory, and from my trip today to Caladisi island. Caladisi is a small undeveloped island about 15 minutes by ferry from Dunedin. My sister Carol, her husband Bruce, their friends Howard and Nancy, very sweet people, and I hiked around the island, through mangroves, a pine hammock, beautiful groves of palm trees, which rustled musically in the breeze, and past many wild flowers and blooming cacti. I love the heat, and sweating, and not wearing a shirt, and all the new smells wafting up to my nose from below somewhere on my body. My skin is all moist and glowing. Everyone here is scantily clad and brown, with little beer bellies, pink faces, and happy dispositions. I haven’t seen a queen in days, or a real bear, only of the hairless variety. Sigh.