I Am Not Hamlet

Trees arc up and ex- plode in colors of white, magenta, and green. Fuzzy red ma- ple buds stretch out like fingers too long curled in winter; yellow birch catkins aren't ashamed to obey gra- vity. Magnoli- a petals undress and leave a mess un- derneath. Soon, the co- lored conflagration will occur below our necks. And the trees only crown green. 1st drafts shouldn't be published! 2nd draft 4-30

In a moment of distraction this weekend while attending the generally enjoyable Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, I wondered about sexual or gender equity. My question is this: if society were to truly value and honor some positions that are intrinsic to women, namely mother and wife, would women (some of the complainers anyway)be less clamoring to become say, priests or police officers, or any position typically seen as "man's work." Yes, one could argue everything in the past was seen as man's work, that isn't what I mean. I'm thinking of positions TODAY that when thought of one almost always conceives a man performing the position. Just a question.

Which Battlestar Galactica Character Are You? More on Battlestar Galactica . Created by BuddyTV

I've got to get back to reflecting on creation--my paper on sustainable ag. is almost finished.

Last Saturday, Hillbilly Holmes and I saw our third Eels show at Detroit's Majestic Theatre. The first, back in 05, the "With Strings Tour" has to be in my top 10 of best concerts ever. Then the "No Strings Attached Tour" in 06(?) was good, noisy, entertaining, but nowhere near the level of brilliance as the first show we saw. This latest incarnation was stripped down even more. Just E and The Chet, no bass player again, playing piano, pump organ, drums, guitar, pedal steel, mandolin, and percussion. Usually concerts so stripped down are about as entertaining as plywood. Eels can pull it off. What's really fascinating is the different versions of songs played. For instance, "Flyswatter" a noisy, creepy rocker from the "Daisies" album was rocked with only piano and drums. With a gimmicky, but nonetheless entertaining switch by E and The Chet on their two instruments the originally short song was lengthened by about 4-5 minutes. ...

Sarasota Jungle Gardens--Sarasota, FL 28 March. After trekking through miles of wetlands the Martin children defeated some, but were eventually conquered by Alligator mississippiensis . They shall be missed.