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Work can only be universal if it is rooted in a part of its creator which is most privately and particularly himself.

--Tyrone Guthrie

*New-York*

In case I haven't mentioned of late, it's totally stellar living in New York. Knowing at any given moment the best of the best is outside my door is sublime. We're talking about the best from every walk of life:

Politics and the UN

Broadway and off-Broadway

Best museums on the globe, the Met, MoMa, Whitney, etc.

Must-see music from every genre

David Letterman

Best cuisine in the entire world

In addition to pizza, falafel, shawarma, etc.

Opera and the Philharmonic

Clubs

Spoken word

etc.

All this and much more is just waiting for me to enjoy.

*Lord's-Jester*

A woman who's enjoyed my stuff in the past recently got a bottle of my perfume Selene. First of all she said that watching the evolution of Anthea was amazing for her to witness; secondly, she added that Selene would be giving Anthea a run for her money. I think these two are my strongest perfumes. It makes me very happy to know that there are people actually wearing my perfume. People love wearing my perfume, from Portland to Phoenix to Tampa, to Europe and Australia, and soon to Japan. I know that it's my particular style that gets people going.

One blogger, from Grain de Musc, wrote me about Dionysus; she was not able to get a handle on what's in there. I responded that it must be the ambergris or Africa stone--and to that she responded in the affirmative. Here's what she wrote on her blog:

"I can barely type these words. My 2-year-old spayed Siamese girl Jicky is weaving figure-eight circuits around my keyboard, trying to catch, lick and devour my left wrist. I’ve sprayed it with Adam Gottschalk’s Dionysus for Lord’s Jester, his submission for the Mystery of Musk operation, a celebration of the Natural Perfumers Guild’s fourth anniversary. Jicky is now twisting on her back, mewing and purring like a truck. I first noticed the effect when I caught her mauling the blotter on which I’d sprayed Dionysus--have you ever tried evaluating a fragrance soaked in cat spit?"

Lisa A said:

"Dionysus opens with a strong spicy wine note (allspice or clove? cognac?) that starts to dissipate almost as fast as it appeared, leaving behind an earthy, wet, smoky (hay?), musky, animalic (hyraceum?) aroma. The initial spiciness was an olfactory jolt but Dionysus moves seamlessly into a smooth, sexy, sweaty, animalic extension of my own body scent. The hyraceum (?) jumps out and dips back into hiding again and again. There is nothing timid about this perfume. It is fleshy & raw and develops into something sweet & balsamic (peru balsam?), yet still very primal. There's something floral but I can't pinpoint what it is. Dionysus gave me at least 2.5 hrs of its time and the spiciness lasted the duration, albeit on a softer scale. This perfume is pure heat.

One word: sex."

*China*

Once, when I was traveling in mainland China, I kind of messed up: knowing what I knew about foreigners staying in hostels/hotels, I ended up staying at an underground sort of a guesthouse; it wasn't fancy, but had just the right equipment for travelers, hot water, noodle stands out front, etc. No, the owner came to me after I'd checked in, foreigners were not allowed to stay there. He was sincerely apologetic--he wanted my money terribly badly! It was not meant to be. The guest-house owner offered to pay me back; I chose not to do that--the amount he'd charged me only amounted to a few cents!

When I left, he was extremely apologetic, especially knowing the monstrosity where I was about to show my face. He saw me off, which didn't amount to much, being that my assigned hotel was only a hop-skip-and-a-jump from my erstwhile place of habitation. Hotel manager was pleased I didn't take his money, beaming as he was from ear to ear. I don't think he had any idea what I was in for: this new hotel was the worst of the worst, totally mainstream, single-family dwellings, classic dry-wall style. Yuck!

This place, however, was accustomed to foreigners, and had the right answer when I asked how much it was going to cost me (about three to four times as much as the first place I'd tried). Totally bunk. At least a half hour's walk to any noodle stands; I guess they assumed foreigners (being rich) would hire a cab. I made one attempt to get myself out of there, but it was no use: I'd be leaving again in the morning, and there just wasn't any time to be spending at least an hour getting to dinner. I went to sleep early that night.

*Quotations*

Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.

--Eugene Ionesco

Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.

--W H Auden

We find the pure, simple, childlike people of paradise. But we ourselves are different; we are alien here and without any rights of citizenship; we lost our paradise long ago, and the new one that we wish to build is not to be found along the equator and on the warm seas of the East. It lies within us and in our own northern future.

--Herman Hesse

I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger than reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.

--Anais Nin

Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.

--Christopher Reeve

To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life.

--Czeslaw Milosz

Give me golf clubs, fresh air and a beautiful partner, and you can keep

the clubs and the fresh air.

--Jack Benny

Work can only be universal if it is rooted in a part of its creator which is most privately and particularly himself.

--Tyrone Guthrie

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history, for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

--Aristotle

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

*Music*

Run Wolves Run, Sean Hayes. This is a very lo-fi affair. While it retains some of the rootsy stuff Hayes is known for, I think this might be his best record yet. While Lunar Lust, Alabama Chicken, Big Black Hole and the Little Baby Star and Flowering Spade might contain his formative work, rockers like When We Fall In, Powerful Stuff, and Gunnin from this album go down in the history books.

Letters from a Flying Machine, Peter Mulvey. First of all, let me say that Mulvey performs four letter-poems as a part of this recording; letter-poems are just about my absolute favorite forms of poetry, so he's got a big fan here. These are letters he wrote to various family members, all younger than he; that's where we get "letters from a flying machine." In addition, here are presented in-the-pocket renditions of a number of originals, including Some People, Dynamite Bill, and Mailman. A really nice journey from Mulvey.

Peace love and ATOM jazz