Leo 0° (July 21)

Our bags were outside our cabin door this morning I can hardly believe it. Weirdly, we sort of feel like meh, whatever, which is weird, considering I was so freaked out at first by their loss. I happened to have a picture of the luggage which really helped the agent find them in the chaos of where they were just strewn in the airport at Corfu. Strangely, I almost resent the amont of stuff I took as I’ve been managing fine on less. To boot, all my stuff looks so old and a bit irrelevant, almost, at this point. And I feel like I’ve had a fling with my new clothes and now my steady relationship has shown up in the form of my luggage. That aside, I had a wee omelet and I unpacked my things very quickly so that I was all finished with that bit before getting in the tender for Vouliagmeni where a Mercedes van meets us and takes us all the way to the acropolis to meet our today guide, whose name I never caught. It was very interesting and though it wasn’t overcrowded, according to the lovely guide lady, it was still packed with people who stopped on the crowded, slippery stairs, to take selfies or photos of each other, which at times felt very dangerous but, boy oh boy, was it ever spectacular and we learned quite a lot from her, as we did from the guide yesterday.

After leaving the acropolis we headed over to the natural history museum where the guide stayed with us and kind of sped us through from point to point which was great. We didn’t have to see everything. She simply pointed out the highlights of every point in the archaelogical history. At one point this girl with sort of pinky hair inserted herself into our group, the notion being she recognized the most notable of our order and wanted some kind of proximity to rub off on her in some way or other. Animalistically we all started to form a ring around our friend, edging the intruder out with subtle shifts in weight and closing up any gaps between us. But she continued to follow the guide with us until at one point I whispered to her, “we are a private tour group” and she quietly slipped away. There was another family too who did a less dramatic thing of this sort led by the recognition of the father. The museum and the whole day, and yesterday too, were truly enlightening. One thing of note today was that there was a sort of first-analog computer, with multiple gears, which may have belonged to Archimedes, found in a a shipwreck. It worked off three separate calendars, one (Babylonian?) I don’t remember and two Greek ones and it was used to create a Zodiacal dial to help, we assume, in festivals and surely the Olympics which would have to coincide with the Full Moon, specificially. The suggestion here being that these ancient folks were storing data over a long period of time and making computations with it.

So after that we hopped back into the van and headed back to the Acropolis to a fancy restaurant overlooking it. The waiters were all in uniform and we orded a bunch of starters for the table—seared scallops, olives and bread (seeded sticks—yum!), vine leaves, Greek salads—and we each had a main. I had a lamb shank that was braised? in lemon. It was light and delicious for something so typically dense. We ordered a rosé from Northern Greece which was light and minerally. And all the while I was wearing my own clothes. We decided to skip dessert and just go back and have tea on the boat and we also decided not to stay in Athens and head directly to Mykonos overnight as planned; instead we decided to sneak in another island. S. suggested Hydra which actually worked out geographically and the Captain A. made the necessary inquires to changing the itinerary which would have to be approved by some authorities. By the time we got back to Vouliagmeni to meet the tender the changes were all set, and just after tea (I didn’t have the apple strudely thing, just tea thanks) we aimed to boat for Hydra which would take about two and a half hours. I went up top to do this bit of writing. And as the island approached we realized just how much more arid the landscape was becoming as we sailed south to these islands. We gave our hosts some tee-shirt gifties we brought for them which we meant to present on arrival.

Hydra, which is where Leonard Cohen had a place, and I think where Rufus might still visit, is also the home base of a jewelry designer that S. follows on social media [name TK]. After anchoring of the island, where there are no cars but five hundred donkeys, we took a dip off the boat and wow was the current every moving quickly. It felt fairly scary I have to say and I kept very close and held onto the orange line attached for fear of drifting off to Egypt or some such. The water is absolutely navy blue and very salty and it is possible to stay afloat without so much as treading it at all. We took a quick hot tub, showered, and went down for drinks. Negroni please. And the canapés today were charcuterie and olives and these huge divine oysters from the Bay of Biscayne (I think that’s what the chef said). I was among the greedy who ate most of them. They were ever so slightly milky, and nearly muscle like, but delicious despite not being terribly ocean-y like their Wellfleet cousins….

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox

Leo 0° (July 20)

Today was pretty extraordinary I must say. Woke up still feeling a bit squiffy but had just half an hour to grab a something to eat and hop in the car. The boat has traveled overnight to Dephi. I am in Delphi I can hardly believe it. We are going to the ruins and the museum and I’m sort of beside myself with excitement. We breezed through the museum first with our guide who (I think) was called Theodore and then we headed up the hill a bit to see what we could see. It was pretty extraordinary I must say. We returned in time for lunch which was venison skewers and turkey meatballs with a certain teriyaki twist and rice noodles and egg plant and a bunch of other yummy things. We had some Sauvignon Blanc and there was a plum sorbet. After lunch I tried to nap but didn’t. I read some Noble Rot; S. did fall a sleep for a very short bit. I think she thinks she slept longer than she did; I’m not going to break the news to her that she didn’t.

We made our way to Corinth and through the canal which was really cool and powered on to Athens, passing some major cargo ships along the way. I had skipped tea time because I really wanted to get some things in the can, which I’ve sort of done. I sent a whole bunch of links to Neil following up on the songs we sang last night but I can feel that I’m getting some kind of throaty type thing post the blocked ear problem I’ve been having. I already feel a bit bloated and need to slow down on the food intake and start using the gym for starters. But I think I will get there, realistically, by Monday, when I can settle into something of a routine; and then I’ll still have a good eleven days from that point to totally chill into a process of bringing in the last bits of money while assembling the sample chapter portion of the proposal—business as usual, while still being away on a boat sailing the Mediterranean, which should be none to shabby.

I arrived for drinks earlier than usual to find people were already cocktailing it up so I orded the requisite Negroni and just chatted with everybody which was really fun. The canapes were crab in philo cups and beef with pomegranate, which I can spell, surprisingly. Everyone on the boat is nicer and more interesting than the next with strong personalities which is great. With an online glimpse I see, back home, that JVB has performed The Club in Provincetown and I have homo, which is fomo, Ptown style. I had a text/picture from Matt Ray at Long Pond. I do need to contact the short list of folks that Alex at Joe’s Pub has suggested to replace Matt who will be performing with Taylor Mac this year instead of doing shows with JVB and S+C. We headed into dinner which was halibut (delcious) and I think the sorbet was something blood orangey perhaps. We played Scabby Queen which was really fun and of course Euan lost because we had a big drama over dinner about how the loser of the game would have to jump of the boat which is something he is determined not to do. I do not blame him. This was the dinner which begain with us wearing masks. Then everyone went ashore in Vouliagmeni to take the dog for a stroll. I decided to grab a cashmere blanket and try to get some sleep on the upper deck. I managed to stay up there till 3:30 AM but I could tell my throat was having none of it and that I’m getting a bit sick which is a bummer.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox

Cancer 29° (July 19)

Woke up feeling ever so slightly crappy and quite vulnerable actually. Went down for breakfast of fruit and lovely zucchini fritters and did a bit of writing. Hoping for some news of our bags today but also just feeling like I need to put it out of my mind. It wasn’t long then until lunch which was delicious flatbreads, some with mushroom and veggies, some with lamb and pomegranate, some with smoked chicken, and there was a lovelyh tomato salad and a squash salad and a salad salad. I will definitely need to get a little bit of work done but I’ve just arrived and I’m preoccupied and I need to get some rest and then everything will feel so much better than it does right now. After lunch we headed into Paxos and I bought a couple of shirts and S. got several dresses and a bathing suit. The store owner actually gave me some trousers. I had no luck finding a suit myself but the plan was to go back into town later anyway. So after we came back for some Persian love cakes, which were absolutely delicious. I had an iced earl grey lemon arriving back on the boat and then I had a proper cup of tea. I’ve learned that people are coupling up on the boat which is awfully cute. Dave and Chrissy are actually engaged so it really is like being on Noah’s ark suddenly. Anyway we went back into town and had a real nice stroll along and I took everyone out for drinks which was lovely. And I did find a bathing suit.

Getting back on the boat we learn that our cases have been found—they are now in Corfu. But they will have to make their way to Athens now, somehow, by bus apparently, in the next two days. It’s such a shame as they weren’t very far from us but I did see a picture of them and fingers crossed they are ours. So the day after tomorrow we will have a wardrobe once again. I am having ear and throat issues which I hope will resolve themselves in the coming days. Starting tomorrow I hope to catch up on some work and thus be able to just do maintenance. It will be just a week now until we are back in Albania slash Corfu and we then head to Sicily; in the meantime we are going to do Greece until Friday on a very accelerated schedule. For canapes tonight we had these sort of vegetable wonton thingys. I ended up have three negroni all told (one in Paxos and two on the boat) and then another boatload of wine. Euan (I think that’s how to spell his name) stayed up really late playing guitar and singing which was super, super fun. I don’t know what time it was when I stumbled back to my cabin but apparently I snored so bad that S. needed to seek refuge elsewhere. I really need to slow down as I’m not going to be able to keep up this pace. But I do feel relieved that our bags are going to make their way to meet us. Gods I hope so.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox

Cancer 28° (July 18)

So after the deep dive and Fran not showing up I went over to where S. was getting her blowout and she was nearly done. Again, having been up since 5, and not yet having any kind of pub experience in London this trip, I said I’d go next door for a beer and wait for her. I tried about five different beers until I found the one I liked. And then Build Me Up Buttercup came on. This song is arguably my first ever favorite song (possibly after A Little Bit of Soul). While it was on, and I was singing every word, S. entered and we set off back to the butcher. I had explained that I wanted to check out the GAP if it still existed in Islington, but S. wasn’t going anywhere near that area. Anyway they didn’t have th style I was looking for in a shirt so I was in and out of there and met S. back at the butcher corner and headed back to make burgers with a sort of home made catsup. Otherwise it was something of a blur. I brought the bags down to the living room. No. 4 was watching Love Island and tweeting. I tentatively told her a bad Betty White joke. I slept in the spare room and I had some kind of coughing jag in the night. Anyway I put the towel into the hamper. Good thing I had remembered where I shoved m robe etc. I forgot to remember to check the windows in the living room I ccan only hope that I closed them. I did end up writing Matt to remind him to check. But I couldn’t know whhat I was in for today, which ended up being a tiny catastrophe.

So we called a luxe Uber to take us all the way to the airport after all which wasn’t my decision but it was a good one in any case. We breezed through but the conveyor belt wasn’t working when we checked in our bags. Foreshadowing. I had the full English breakfast and some bloodies on the plane and then we arrived in Corfu. Only our bags did not. We were hopefully standing at the carousel not realizing that everyone else we recognized from the plane was queing up at the lost and found. Such a bummer. They let the man through who was waiting for us and he was as helpful as he could be in the circumstance which, it was dawning on us, was dire. We got into a snit with each other as a result as the driver took us to meet the ferry to Albania. We had to go to Albania because people aren’t allowed to get on our off boats in Greece anymore due to the refugee problem apparently. It is such a mess. So we met the Scottish couple friends of J. and N. at the dock of the ferry for Albania and it was just the six of us on the actual boat which was weird and kind of cool. It only took half an hour. Panic was setting in as my bloodies were wearing off. Someone took our passports from us at that dock and put us into a car that took us to another dock where the boat was and the crew were assembling on board. Captain Al was unrecognizable as he lost a ton of weight spurred on by the fact he had a benign tumor on his pituitary gland. He stopped drinking and made a ton of other changes apparently and he now looks like a totally different person. Apparently he was featured in an issue of the South African Men’s Health magazine.

We had a refreshing drink of watery juice or juicy water and then just hung out. Everyone else went to unpack. I made a joke like how dare you change clothing when they all emerged in new outfits. The boat headed to Corfu. We had canapes of quail egg and potoatoe with caviar and people mainly had Manhattans and Old Fashions. I have a Negroni. Okay I had two. Then we had a lovely dinner of Beef Wellington (there was Turbot too) and vegetables and potato and there was a sort of cake which I’ll have to have someone remind me what it was exactly. I had a bunch of red wine and we played Cards Against Humanity and laughed our snoots off and stayed up rather late. I might have talked about my eleven-year-old experiences (I did) which was likely TMI but there it is. I don’t really think I made a mistake in so doing but you never know how these things will go. I am feeling very upset about the luggage thing but I do think I’m hiding it well.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox

Cancer 27° (July 17)

I hope to sneak in a little something today, that is my hope. Yesterday I awoke feeling pretty fresh I suppose (or so that’s how A., whom I love anyway, described me); we popped out in the a.m. to the coop to get some breakfast (fruit and yoghurt) and salad fixings, the idea being we would grab a whole chicken later. A. arrived promptly at 10 and we worked for a solid three hours before heading to lunch, which we didn’t plan. We ended up getting a table at the little sister restaurant to Moro. We had some fried aubergine and minced lamb something or other and octopus and crispy prawns where you eat the whole thing and then some other stuff. Then we strolled up Amwell Street and I made a hair appointment and the guy Gents of London was a bit bitchy. I said I wanted a trim and to have my hair/neck cleaned up and he was like are you sure that’s all you’re going to want as if I was trying to fool him into giving me more for less. He was so bitchy in fact that I went back to say him: “I hope that was just your humor,” and he was incredulous but got the point. I am not not a scary godfather. We then went to the butcher’s and then back to the house to work for a few more hours which was truly, truly fruitful. I’m beginning to see the collection come to life and it is really, really happy making. Myddelton Square is ridiculously beautiful. I slept in Henry’s room last night and it was so breezy and no wailing woman lamenting Arlene or Ari or Ollie or whatever the fuck she’s saying.

I got up this morning at five and got some mojo going on the fundraising. Last night, after A. left we went back to the butcher’s for some chicken stock, which they had “downstairs” then we went the other way around and passed a fantastic wine shop where we got something fizzy and a bottle of Chinon (our current fave)—I am so glad I drink. Then next door to that was the most incredible vintage/designer shop, so expensive but oh my grrr, I bought this wispy Burberry cardigan that was made for a tall thin male model but still it was the right weight and I’ll end up rolling back the sleeves but it is so so feathery and perfect. Right as I was purchasing it, S. noticed that the back was sort of worn slash pilled. And so it went from 80 to 50 pounds, still a fortune, but worth the money to know I have it. We strolled back and No. 4 came home and helped me understand what setting on which to put the oven. We roasted a chicken and I sautéed onions with thyme in olive oil and chicken stock, and did some basmati in water and chicken stock as well, made the requisite dressing and we had our coop salad. We had a jolly time all of us outside. S. drank very little and No. 4 had just one glass, which meant I basically drank two-thirds of two bottles. Oh well, I’m on vacay. Not really. I never not work. And as I say I got up at 5 today to make headway on the festival fundraising.

I went for my haircut at 10 and Greg was very nice indeed. It was pricey for a trim but I feel so much more confident for the cut. S. had already too’d and fro’d getting more salad fixings and going to the bank to pay A. back for having had my jumper fixed (in Cornwall). Post-cut, I met the two at Ground Control and we went back to the house to work. I thought I was going to have to do solo-work on what will be the pendants but they reminded me that that wasthe work today so we sat there and banged out the “twelve estates;” which was brilliant and inspiriting and, again, I am so, so, so excited about the collection I can’t even stand it. Fran came just as we were beginning to do some cleaning up. She asked if we could hang around to flush the English draino she was “popping off” to get once she’d put it in and it was left for half an hour. She never came back. Which was so stressful. I set myself up in the living room, which was very hot, such that I had to add ice cubes to my water—I never use ice cubes—and I was trying to get the timing right on bathing and Fran (who I still thought would show up) and being ready to meet S. after her blow-out. I was doing a deep dive into the whole former Yugoslavian thing, trying to figure out the history, which was so fuzzy. That’s how I was procrastinating and not doing any more festival work. Between yesterday and today we had all our laundry done and we were ready to head to Corfu, then Albania, to meet the boat.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox

Cancer 26° (July 16)

After arriving at Liverpool Street yesterday, we had the yummiest, I mean the yummiest Szechuan meal at My Old Place. The only negative is that the chef’s sit outside to smoke, which wafts into the place and I had to ask for the doors to be closed. We got a car back to the house to regroup for a few minutes then set right out again to the Barbican on foot for the Lee Krasner. The show was so good I can’t even put it into words. We walked back, bathed, and it was already time to head to Brawn for dinner. We all arrived perfectly on time and the host moved the lingers at our booked table outside. M. had a beer, S. and P. had Lambrusco and something white, unfiltered and fizzy respectively. I had a Negroni which tasted like Compari on the rocks, so I sideled up to the bar and asked them to mix more gin into it and it returned with the balance just right. I had a crab, artichoke and walnut salad in a delicious creamy dressing followed by an aged sirloin with grilled romaine and those hammerwhatever potatoes. I don’t really care what the others had, although the cucumber-almond soup M. had looked deliciouso. We had a love carafe of Gamay. And M. was saying how he found out that Crispin Blunt and his boyfriend/husband who are big fans of his work are big fans of his work in large part because they met at a talk M. gave. He brought them together, in effect.

I’m going to lead with a little to-do list so that I can regroup my thoughts before the day begins and A. arrives to work with us on the collection. P. is setting back off to Suffolk and going directly to work in Woodbridge. I will find out from M. what he might like to do tonight for supper. S. thinks we should find a place that has an already cooked chicken and we can maybe make a salad and get some sides already prepared. The idea is to work with A. from ten to two then break for a late lunch and then work for a few hours more all the while getting clothes washed and repacked for the flight to Corfu. Okay back to the to-do list. First its about writing to the would-be sponsors to whom I’ve already written where I will say something simple like Dear So and So, I hope summer is going (often literally) swimmingly so far. In our Afterglow world we are just eight short weeks away from presenting our ninth annual festival. I’ve tried this year to be more hands-off (read: less pushy and annoying) than I’ve been in the past in regard to fundraising which hasn’t paid off, so here I go enter back into brash and strident mode: [new graph] We are still need to raise a good deal of budget to put on and pull off this annual festival as we continue to keep non-commercial, progressive performing arts alive here in its actual and spiritual birthplace. This can only happen non-profit. Our costs of doing this have more than doubled since John Cameron Mitchell and I founded this festival nine years ago, which only makes us more determined to fulfill our mission of providing sacred stage space in Provincetown to emerging and experimenting artists of all ages and persuasions. In the intervening years we have helped some seventy odd live artists get their creative works on their feet and some of whom were complete unknowns have gone on to great success and renown. In the process we’ve championed Provincetown’s heritage as an incubator for live performance—in some ways Afterglow is as much about Provincetown’s historical preservation as it is sustaining its artistic legacy—while fostering the artists themselves. The festival indeed enriches the town’s cultural landscape and, as we are now nurture a new crop of mainly totally unknown performers (as well as directors, poets, musicians, dancers, solo playwrights, sometimes embodied all in the same individual) we don’t expect the same kind of audience turn-out as we would for those aforementioned artists we first introducted to town (Bridget Everett, Justin Vivian Bond, Lady Rizo, Cole Escola, John Early, Erin Markey, Our Lady Jay, Taylor Mac, Drew Droege and so many others, including John Mitchell).

Not all the people of great wealth who have come to town since 2011 are as generous to Afterglow as you have been. There are some very famous folks in town now who ignore our attempts to gain their sponsorship. I guess what I mean to say is that gentrification (which is so extreme in Provincetown) has not only sent all our costs skyrocketing but it has also created a much more us-and-them dynamic where, unlike our well-heeled sponsors who have traditionally mixed and mingled with all the Ptown population, many of these new residents of note are rather unreachable if not untouchable despite having second, or sometimes third, homes here. And so we must work all the harder to garner the support of those who live and own businesses here and who benefit, not only culturally from what we do but financially as well. We drive all our audience and our artists, first and foremost, to those Provincetown establishments who happily support us. Anyway, I can rant endlessly on the importance of all this but I will close by saying: If you continue to believe in the value of the Afterglow Festival and would think it a shame if it were to go poof in Provincetown, please give as generously as you can to help us keep on doing what we do.

And the other thing I have to work out is the whole Sparkler set up. They can get the same or similar schpiel as above but I need to hit whom the fact that I tried a new, less proactive (read: pushy) approach to inspiring small Sparkler donations from people this year and it has decidedly not paid off. So I’m back to being strident (read: rather annoying) in my approach to move the fundraising needle. Typically around this time, (it’s just eight weeks out from the ninth annual festival) Afterglow is boasting scores of Sparklers. So far this year we only have a few. So forgive the blatant tagging but we’ve got some major funds to raise.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox

Cancer 25° (July 15)

Awoke yesterday feeling pretty good. We had a formal-ish breakfast outside of eggs and sage on toast with some leftover veggies from last evening. I did a bit of writing before lunch which was a little private birthday affair for M, who somehow got up and played a tennis match. These people are made of iron. Anyway, even though I’m trying not to eat bread and pasta (I’ve already been eating bread at every meal) I was super excited that we were having pasta—tagliatelle with courgette and beans direct from the garden seasoned with lemon and tarragon and chive—and a huge salad. I’ve been the dressing maker for all the meals. There was an encore of birthday cake and coffee and then M. opened his prezzies. For the man who has everything we got a tee shirt from Hatches Fish Shop and Produce in Wellfleet. Now his life is complete. After lunch No. 1 and her friends set off back to London and we took a much needed walk in the country with the doggie. I was explaining Provincetown to Gbf and in the telling it sounded absolutely insane which of course it is.

Today marks eight weeks until festival and I have to laser focus on getting some money in. The first thing that requires is some working wifi. Anyway I will have to plug away for an hour at least per day and come up with some clever ways of cajoling people into place. If I go down the list now and try to get the usual suspects on board at least the next three days then I can probably leave off it for a few weeks. That means I can solely focus my morning writing ritual on the beautiful chapter sample at hand and if I get just a page of draft down a day I will have over ten pages to play with upon my return. And then I can spend an hour or so a day refining those pages while focusing fully for six weeks on optimizing the festival experience, getting the press release out and such, so that by the end of that six week period, both projects will have come to fruition.

Back to yesterday: After our nice walk which was seriously rural, walking through some tall grass in parts where the path was grown over, we returned to the house and everyone went there own way for an hour or so. P. made a slew of sandwiches which she wrapped in brown paper and tied with red-white bakery/butcher’s string—Parma ham, salami, cheese and some other meat—as they were setting off on a multi-eastern-European-country trip, starting with a crossing to Copenhagen, first thing in the morning from Kings Cross. I suppose they will have slept in our beds, never mind. Little No. 4 was in charge of making supper—the aformentioned charcuterie items with toasted bread, green salad and then aubergine steaks with white rice and soya sauce. First, P was drinking a faux g&t while I had real one and some open red with the meal. M had come down looking like he was setting off to work which wasn’t not true. He was basically bathed and dressed in what he would wear the next morning to work, driving back to London (with Nos. 4 and 2 along with her Gbf), directly after dinner, just to take off his outfit long enough to sleep. I must remember to tell N. that M. knows one of the members of Fat Cops.

With everyone gone we cleaned up a bit and watched the first episode of Sexual Education which was really charming if totally unlikely, but really good fun. I slept in a separate room, again, in advance of what surely would have been a night of snoring; I can only guess. And feeling a bit rough this morning I pounded flat and fizzy water and had a whopping three coffees. No. 3 took us to the train station in Diss in time for a train that was cancelled and now we are on the next one and P. is taking us to a Szechuan place for lunch which I’m super excited about. I wrote Jacks back last even and hit all the marks she raised in her text. We will see the Lee Krasner exhibit at the Barbican this afternoon and then we have a rezzie at Braun in Columbia Road. I am very aware as I’m typing this that I am communicating in British fashion both in language and in the accent in my head. This morning Anne, the housekeeper asked me if I was from London. I am such a chameleon in this way and always have been and I make no apologies for it. Sometimes (especially for a Libra) are truer self is the abstract self that we direct in becoming, not the self that would reflect our inherited lot, origins and early childhood conditioning.

There seem to be a lot of well-heeled hippies in this part of the world. There are a number of people, men and women both, with their hair up in (mostly gray) buns. As it is, England has that scruffy chic thing going on. But I’m getting a kind of vibe akin to what I imagine Cornwall might be like. It’s good that today is purely social I must say, and that tomorrow can be really more exclusively focused on work. P. has some great ideas about the collection even if only in so far as it is reminding me of things I want to do. Someone is listening to music on the train without headphones which is obviously meant to annoy. I just shot him a look and he, a boy, really, shot one back that said: yeah, I’m actually doing this to annoy people. It’s working. Oh well one must choose their battles in life and I’ll take this as an opportunity to let myself be exposed to new trends in music. P. just showed me No. 1’s cartoon for Tortoise. I have to really dig in there and see what that publication is all about.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox

Cancer 24° (July 14)

Today is M.’s actual birthday but yesterday was the celebration. I did manage to fall back asleep yesterday morning which was a godsend otherwise I would have been a total mess. I woke up just in time to shove some toast and coffee into my gob and jump in M.’s car to Woodbridge which looked like a lovely town of which I wished I’d seen more. We went to see P.’s new shop and have lunch at New Street Market. And then we immediately drove back listening to a bunch of songs in the car including some Millie Jackson which sent me down a rabbit hole when I got back. We had an hour off so I tried to create a musical score for “You Never Cross My Mind” which M said was his favorite. I thought maybe I’d sing it for him, so I spent a couple hours on that and then got dress for the evening and went to help with the food prep. It was quite an operation and I didn’t have much of a role except for drinking some local sparkling wine we brought and making dressing and helping others get their various jobs done. E had arrived with her friends Becks and Ellie and the kitchen was quite abuzz. E. has this habit of bending down and making a screwed up face when she bids me hello and goodbye. It makes me feel like a weird, elderly and slightly odious figure. I made an achouaide and then crushed some cumin seeds into dust with a mortar and pestle.

The Newlands arrived next and the ritual barbequing began. All the girls were in the kitchen and the boys were around the Webber. We cooked the lamb first then set it in the Aga, which is turned off for the summer, so really we were just hiding it. Then we could some haloumi and some vegetable kebabs. Last to arrive were Ben West and his girlfriend Andrea Arnold which makes this a very cosmic blague indeed. You see she is the director of season two of Big Little Lies and just this very day the internet was lighting up with controversy about her versus the producers of the show. I didn’t realize our meeting was exactly timed with this kerfuffle; I only know that I had been watching the show until we left the states and had told her I was really enjoying not realizing that much of the conflict centered on the fact that (she claims) she was given complete create control over the direction of the season—she’s an Oscar- and Cannes-winning director so I’m sure she wouldn’t have taken the job if she hadn’t—HBO, I learned later looking online is standing by her not Marc Le Valle or whatever his name is who did season one and who seems to have re-edited her work. (There are calls to release her director’s cut.) Anyway this is going to make her name much more well known. But I have no idea of any of this as I’m sitting next to her (of course) at dinner. She mentions her daughter just did a performance on queer/transgender theme at Soho Theater. I tell her I run a festival which I founded with John Cameron Mitchell—I figure given the Nicole Kidman connection (he directed her in Rabitt Hole) that she might now him and of course she does and she asks how his mother is doing and so forth. She does seem a bit, how do you say, cut and dry (turns out she’s an Aries) so I stop trying to engage her in conversation and see if she pursues me which she never does. So I focus on my buddies seated at the end of the table with me, Martin and the birthday boy.

Martin is living in Vienna doing a certain kind of conflict resolution thingy, something to do with the Saudi’s, I don’t really get it but I never really get anything like that. You can explain it to me ad nauseum and I simply won’t absorb. Anyway I always love speaking with him just as I do Matt. We had a delicious meal followed by a chocolate cardamon cake that No. 4 made. And a good amount of red wine following the champagne. A.A. was having a “dry July” but I don’t wonder if her initials aren’t more telling. I was under the impression she and Ben were staying over but they left soon after we all sang happy birthday and cut and circulated the cake. (I think we were nineteen for dinner.) But suddenly they were leaving and I asked Ben why and he said “I do what I’m told” to which I replied something cheekly like: “Oh I see what this relationship is all about..” Soon after, the other Ben and M. and their brood of four headed out. B. is one of my favorite people on the planet. Actually my list of favorite folks on the planet is pretty much peopled by members of this family. I cannot tell you how much more focused and centered I feel being in the midst of all of them and it ups the priority for me to rub up against them a lot more often.

We were all cleaning up while topping up our glasses and I said to M.: Would you slip away with me to the living room so I can sing you a special song. He said we should have everyone come in which may go some way to explain why it is I fucked up the song so bad. The youngies came in with S. and me to do a quick rehearsal which was no help at all. S. suggested we just wing it. I requested another glass of wine and we gave it a whirl but I guess the wine and my nerves sent my careful plan for the song out of my head. For starters there were supposed to be spoken bits which, for some reason, my brain decided I should sing which was not a great idea. Anyway, I got through it. And then we just sort of attempted a sing-a-long which was equally bad. I actually went to sleep, purposefully staying behind so I could snooze for a bit in the living room and give S. a break from what would definitely be a night of snoring, given the rural setting, red wine and feather pillows which add up to my night congestion.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox

Cancer 23° (July 13)

We arrived in Diss where No. 3 picked us up at the station. We wanted to get some good wine/champers so asked him to take us to a decent place; he had no gas in his car so we filled it up and went off the Wickendon or some such. It’s where the farmers market is and we’ve been their a few times before. I haven’t been taking any instagram photos but I will start doing once a day. H. drives way too fast and S. was a bit panicked. Anyway we arrived back to find No. 2 and her German boyfriend, whom we hadn’t met, taking natural light photographs of product for the website and such for the new store, simply called PASCALE which we shall go and see tomorrow. Something I’m looking very much forward to. Suffolk is beautiful and the house is beautiful and the kind of loveable mess I miss—a painter on a ladder doing his bit in an overall redecorating scheme, cupboards having been emptied out, their contents stacked (along with stock for the store) into what used to be a sort of kids computer/games room. No. 3 made himself a sandwich leaving his plate, and oversized ketchup bottles and mayonaise and pickle jars on the table. The photography team were getting wonderful shots which I caught in glimpses as I passed by their laptops. Little Reg (the dog) was so adorable when we arrived and genuinely remembered us which was so cute. He stationed himself on the top step to the landing where our room was waiting looking lovely.

I forgot how much I love gin tonics with cucumber oh my my. P did come home looking very stylish indeed and caught us up on the store plans in bits and bobs while we made drinks and toured the garden and helped her cut some sweet peas as No. 2 and German boyfriend shifted from photography to cheffing and No. 4 collected courgettes. We caught up on some family and friendly gossip, Reg underfoot, and otherwise entertained each others with stories old and new. We lay the table, we cleared the kitchen islands, we made another round of drinks, we put flowers into vases, we ground spices, we laughed and it was suddenly ten o’clock when we sat down to eat, M. not yet arriving from London. An eggplant curry with spinach and rice and sautéed chickpeas. We made a plate for M. who did arrive an hour into it after more stories about our dreams and favorite films and sketches. Kate McKinnon’s ears were ringing. More deep belly laughs and anecdotes and then a half-assed attempt at cleaning up and then off to bed where I apparently started to immediately snore so S. has taken refuge in a nearby bedroom of which there are surplus; and I’ve been awake since five as, instead of poor madwoman screaming (M. thinks it was Arlene) I have been roused by an embarrasment of wood pidgeons (you can’t call it) cooing (as it is way too loud) right outside the window, where they seem to be inhabiting the vegetation growing up the stone exterior. I’m exhausted and will have to try and find a way to nap this afternoon. Apparently No. 3 leaves his bedroom window wide open and one of these giant birds has flapped its way indoors

P. is coming back to London with us on Monday which I hope means we’ll have a lovely meal together just the four of us. I do want to find a way to talk to E. about doing some illustrations. We are meeting Susie regarding our Paris accommodation and I’ve had word from JLL, who seems to be struggling on the family front, regarding our NYE plans already if you can believe it. Well do believe it because things do happen rather quickly and snap your fingers and before you know it. I do want to find an accompanist for Christmas show but I don’t want to have to wait to put the band together. Or I suppose I could let it go. That might be hard to do. Surely we can find somebody talented we can work with. Who knows we might even alight on a better situation then what we’ve had in the past, but I seriously doubt that as we’ve been working with the best now year on year.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox

Cancer 22° (July 12)

So after chatting with Freddy I did need to prioritize bathing and shaving and otherwise trying to feel like some semblance of a human being. The plan was that I’d do all that and we’d go for a walk before M. returned to take us all to dinner. Well I came down stairs once again fully dressed, now, to go out. But we sat, the two of us, in the garden, mustering the strength before deciding to go all the way back up to take another nap instead. S. definitely did but I’m nost sure I actually did but it was restful all the same. And then I descended the staircase just as M. arrived home; he ushered me to the garden for a chat before we had to leave to stroll to our reservation. We has a little bit more of funny chat, picking up from the morning; and already I’m feeling like I’ve been here several days, not that I’ve just that morning arrived. Then we four set out to dinner where we would be met by E. the eldest of this household’s particular brood, who lives in a flat in Shoreditch, which would be about equidistant to the restaurant as it was for us.

We wove through that bit behind Sadler Wells and down to stroll along the canal where, given the time of day, was strewn with runners and bikers and people partying a bit and hanging out. Well heeled people having drinks at cafe-bars and more riverfolk looking types sitting along the water drinking and spliffing a bit. We saw in the water two swans and three cygnets a short distance away and then, with a shout (what I assued to be) the male swan took flight toward us and then sort of ran along the water, flapping and then landing with a very impressive diplay indeed. It really was quite something and I thought it was a show of preemptive aggression toward anyone who was going to mess with his mate and three gray fluffy babes. We left the canal and continued our stroll and ended up at our destination, Sardine. It is P’s favorite place apparently and it looked very cool and casual and on a Provencal theme. They had a cookbook a stack of which greeted one upon entry. We sat at the back near the loo. E. arrived we ordered drinks and they brought some tapenade on toast. They only had one onglet left which I know M. intended to have but, in signature generosity, he offered up to Freddy for whom it was promptly reserved. I had a plate of tiny clams and then some pork with beans and I’m guessing escarole. It was nice. We all shared one bottle of wine and I skipped dessert. My stomach was in extended travel mode and I wasn’t feeling that great when we returned.

As you may know English people don’t use window screens nor do they have storm windows. So in winter it’s always quite drafty and in summer I never know how far to open a window. There is no air conditioning, nor has one typically needed it. But as you ready for bed and open the window you cope with a few things. One is the fact that you hear everything from the street, even in what might be a sleepy square like this one. The other is this fear that something is going to fly in at any given moment. A nocturnal pidgeon, a bat. I get very used to it in a day or so and come to love the open window but at first I feel a little panicked and thus keep the window nearly closed. And it’s been hot. Anyway I was feeling sweaty and very full, swollen really, like my entire digestive system shut down operations. And there was the usual street noise which is always kind of like a Shakespearean lullaby. But last night there was this crazed young woman, homeless I’m  assuming circling the square in the middle of the road shouting to herself. I looked out and she was sort of swirling about and mumbling very loudly and looked up and even said hello. But it wasn’t a friendly hello it was rather kind of menancing. And then there were large, loud circling helicopters that sounded like they were going to come right through the window. I did manage to fall asleep finally and was pretty dripping with perspiration for much of the night which was marked by fitful sleep.

Then around four o’clock we started hearing this loud wailing. It seems the woman, whom I’d yet to confirm was the same woman, was making her way back she was crying and screaming and shouting the name of what sounded like Ali or Ami or something of that sort. It got very loud and very intense and I looked and and sure enough it was her; and at that moment four very large police women began circling and actually tracking her and she started to walk away. They followed and suddenly everyone was out of sight. Five minutes later the four policewomen started walking back and they were laughing with each other and almost as loud as the wailing woman had been. It wasn’t even four thirty. It was shocking how loud the whole crazy night turned out to be. And yet I still fell back to sleep even after that, waking a couple of times, having brief conversations with S. who set the alarm for eight thirty, which was when the carpet man was meant to arrive. We awoke from the alarm and I shot up and looked out the window and saw a man downstairs with an open trunk (boot) of his car so I ran down the five flights that feel like ten and let him in. And then I had to run up and get S. to come down as he was going to be soon blocking the stairwell; so I fetched her we went downstairs, found some yoghurt and a few blueberries to eat and planned our journey to Suffolk which entailed jumping in an car to catch a train from Liverpool Street station to Diss which is exactly what we are now doing.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
Copyright 2019 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Get your HAUTE ASTROLOGY 2019 Weekly Horoscope ebooks by Starsky + Cox