A GAY MARRIAGE

While I was living with Don Cherry’s family in Tågarp in Sweden I went back to visit in the communal house in Älmeboda where I had been living the year before. The local weekly paper was lying around and I picked it up. It contained normally only a few items of local interest, but this one had a story that made me chuckle:

A justice of peace in Nevada had married a gay couple trying to make it possible for one of them, who was not an American citizen, to legally remain in the United States. A local homophobe demonstrated his disapproval of gay marriage by going to the judge and asking to be married to his horse, but the judge turned him down on the ground that his horse was underage.

I really loved how cleverly the judge warded off the attempt at discrediting his act of marrying a gay couple.

A few years later I was in America and my lesbian friend Sylvia asked me if I could help a gay friend of hers who was threatened with expulsion by having him for a while at my place in the mountains. I remembered the story and I had a hunch that this was the same person as the one who was married in Nevada and whose story had found its way into Älmeboda’s local rag. And sure enough it was he, still on the run from the American immigration, which of course had not respected the marriage.

OPTIC ILLUSION

You don't need to do anything but look and it'll start moving.

ONE MORE PAINTING

Here is my last painting. Pretty crazy!

TAI JI

This cool picture was in the dance studio in Ukiah. Try to move backwards and forwards while looking at it. Do you see something?

Let’s talk about nothing.

Nothing is really interesting to discuss.

It’s a question whether nothing does exist?
Is nothing something and is something nothing?

I simply believe nothing does not exist.
In reality it’s nothing.

I wonder if nothing is worth discussing then?
I hope so, since nothing is being discussed.

Enough of that.
Forget it, it’s just nothing.

MORE FROM UKIAH

Mario

Reflections in the pond

Hills

This young deer was hanging out near the house and let me get quite close for a picture

DANCE CLASS IN UKIAH

June and Diansu.
June is my friend from Japan who is visiting America at the moment.
Diansu is brother in law to Ibro Konaté who was my teacher when I first was in Guinea, West Africa in 1995 and 1996.

DAVID

A boy I knew in Paris a long time ago.

ERIC MASSART

Flute player

Toreador

Torso

Plate

Table

Eric Massart is a 45 year old artist who lives in Alès, a small town near Nîmes in southern France. Here he has a workshop and showroom for his colorful art that includes works in many materials, not only paintings but also ceramics and furniture. I am very impressed with his work and urge you to visit his website.

'ROUND THE HOUSE

The blue bicycle and the frame that was put up last summer for the children to climb on.

Melanie doing laundry.

and hanging out colors.

Eric back home from drumming on the beach.

A peep at the street.

Thanks for the visit!

ANOTHER PAINTING

This is another painting from last week, all watercolor.

MATH

I found this French blog, Matooblog, that is interesting, very intellectual and also, it seems, very popular. There was a post that began: “Math totally gives me a hard-on.” about Poincaré’s conjecture which after nearly a century of efforts has been solved by Grigori Perelman; some higher mathematics that I only vaguely understood. I read it and the 29 commentaries that ranged from further examples of mathematical intricacies to humorous acknowledgements of complete lack of understanding.
One Jarûd told this story:

During a mundane dinner the conversation spins out and stretches to the religious concept of the Trinity: the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, one divine person in three and so forth.
A lady turns to Einstein: “But you as a brilliant scientist, doesn’t it chock you that three entities, whose existence cannot be proved, could be one?”
Einstein answers: “Not at all, my dear. Take exp(i.Pi): none of the three are real and yet the result is 1.”
(in fact that’s in absolute value)

NEW PAINTING

One of my favorite things to do, on one of the evenings when all my friends are out partying, is to dedicate a pipe to the green goddess, then put on some jazz or African music and start painting, just playing with colors and forms and doing whatever the mood tells me.
This is what came out the last time!

JOSHUA REDMAN

Tonight I enjoyed my birthday present from Tony: a show of my choice. We went to Joshua Redman's trio with Reuben Rogers on bass and Eric Harland on drums at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.
In that same location I saw Joshua's father, Dewey Redman, when he was here with Don Cherry about 25 years ago.
Jazz is totally alive today and in better health than it was in then. This generation of jazz musicians is amazing, each one seems to be a master on his instrument and they play with such devotion to each other that they can weave the most subtle rhythmic tissue of sound together. Their music has everything: sweetness, excitement, humor and an irresistible groove.
We are blessed here in Santa Cruz with a jazz center that has special connections to some of the best jazz musicians in the world.

SNAKE STORIES

I love snakes. When I was 12 or 13-year-old in school we were all assembled in the gym and someone gave a talk, but all I remember was that he had a snake that he let pass around from hand to hand. It was about five feet long, thick and smooth and copper colored and I fell in love with it. In Denmark there are not many snakes and it wasn’t until I lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains that my encounters with snakes became frequent.

The first time I heard a rattlesnake, I was walking with a small boy. The sound carries a strong message: “Watch out!” and my immediate reaction was to tear the boy away from the sound, so we didn’t even see the snake.
Sometime later I was sitting in our primitive kitchen when I heard the sound again right outside. I went out to check and there was our cat facing a rattlesnake. The cat lifted the paw to strike and the rattler sounded his warning. The cat lowered the paw and the rattler stopped rattling. This went back and forth a couple of times and I thought it would be better to break it up before something happened, so I stepped up and lifted the cat right out of the situation. While I was still standing there with the cat in my arms, the snake turned around and slithered away peacefully. That confirmed my belief that rattlesnakes are essentially peaceful.
I had been living in a tipi and later I vent to the site where the plywood floor was still lying on the ground to look for some papers I had lost. When I lifted one of the sheets I found, instead of papers, a hibernating rattlesnake. I thought it would be nice if it were living in my garden and helping me to keep the population of rats and gophers in check. I had a plan. First I made a stick with a loop of string that could be tightened and then I prepared a new home for the snake in the hollow stump of a tree I had cut down. There was already an aperture in the side of the stump and, after I had provided it with a roof of plywood, it made a perfect snake home. I picked the snake up with the stick, placed it in a bucked, and brought it to its new home. Unfortunately the snake didn’t agree. When I checked up on it the next day it had left its perfect home!
It may have been the same snake that moved into my friend’s house. She called me for help: a rattlesnake was lying curled up right inside her front door. Armed with my stick and bucket I came to her rescue. I soon had the snake outside but the loop around its neck wouldn’t loosen up. I had to work a pair of scissors in under the string next to the snake’s head and cut it loose. All this the snake accepted calmly until I tried to coax it into the bucket with the stick; then it lost patience and struck once at the bucket, but I got it in anyway and carried it away from the house and let it go.
One curious thing happened. I was walking up a path when I heard the rattle and saw a snake. I stopped and looked, but there was no rattle at the end of its tail. When I moved again, it produced the sound by whipping its tail against the dry leaves; it was a gopher snake trying to scare me away by imitating a rattlesnake!

For facts about rattlesnakes check here

THE CHILDREN

at Dunun Village