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Indian Summer.
(AUDIO: Chalo Dildar Chalo by Lata Mangeshkar)
1. I enjoy the simplicity of sleeping on a giant boulder in between the snow bank and river, high above Dharamsala.
2. I enjoy walking the railroad tracks, finding things, junkyards, antique bookstores, and museums.
3. I enjoy taking taxis, riding subways, airports (but not airplanes) and coffee houses.
4. My favorite sandwhich: yellow curry egg salad with mango chutney, on whole grain toast; or turkey, sliced pear, goat’s cheese, lettuce, honey Dijon on croissant.
5. Bollywood music is as good as love, sometimes better (I’m being literal).
6. Patsy Cline is hypnotizing.
7. Tiki-Exotika culture, hotels, hotel design, hotel furniture, 50s Americana, counter-culture, the behavioral study of riots and group dynamic, atomic era design, mountains, ocean (no beach), vintage musical instruments, record players, street cats, beat generation literature, proto-punk, Warhol, Degas, Richard Brautigan, Burning Man, Rome, Jerusalem (Ha Rova), that archetypal proto-slice of New York jazz, alpine architecture, women in wellington rain boots, women in sundresses, women in tunics, women in long skirts, multi-lingual women, intellectual women, literate women, brash women, bratty women, women in many colors, fuscia, beige, black, white, turquoise, yellow, green … these are things I like.
8. I’m related to both Moshe Dayan + Jesse James.
9. I’ve only painted once but I consider myself a painter.
10. I’ve written poetry lots, but am perplexed to think of myself as a poet.
11. Or a writer.
12. Writing is born. Who cares?
13. I don’t believe in their plight. I don’t believe in their prophet.
14. I lost my virginity on prom night (not cool). But the Trinity Sessions by the Cowboy Junkies was playing on my record player (cool).
15. I don’t like buses. Trains are a mixed bunch. Hitchhiking is the most educational way to get from point a to point b. Sometimes drivers are lonely and they talk a lot. Others are introspective Samaritans who are happy to drive but are deterred by talking. Once in a while, I give myself (and people) a new hitchhiking identity.
Literary surnames matched with fascinating first names like Felix, Mordecai, Fred, Jack. Places like Wishbone, Arkanas, or Flowers, Texas. School teacher, maitre d’, mystery novelist, Christian missionary.
16. I’ve been interviewed on the radio twice (re: a magazine i published in morocco), pictured in the newspaper four times (world’s largest pumpkin, hurricane aid, pro-skateboarding demonstration, spelling bee) seen on the news twice (hurricane aid, marrakesh international film festival 2007) and my guitar-playing is featured on a Senegalese hip-hop track.
17. I like the rigidity of Hermane Hesse, the loose current and earnestness of Jack Kerouac, the dark horse wit and anxiety of Paul Bowles, the narcotic sentimentalism of Allen Ginsberg, the sexual overtones of Milan Kundera, the subtle complexity of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and the aloof heroism of Truman Capote.
18. I like climbing trees, especially Baobab Trees. I climb barefoot, or in flip-flops, just as I climb mountains, urban stairwells, and the third Pyramid in Giza, Egypt.
19. I have a nearly flunt comprehension of spoken and written French, but speak only with extremely rudimentary skill.
20. I studied Italian for 6 months while in Roma, and spoke rather well, and read in Italian and made friends in Trasteverini bars. But I forget everything while spending six months in Francophone West Africa.
21. Namaste.
