Monday, March 2, 2009

TASIA MacARTHUR: I HAVE RETURNED.

Okay, okay. So it's not as dramatic as that, but I'm back...and I'm glad I am. I have a new laptop, bought at a price that almost made me cry with joy. Dmitry kindly found me this cheap Toshiba on NewEgg, and it was so unbelievably inexpensive that I was actually able to pay cash for it. Amazing! I just loaded Firefox and Thunderbird on it, and all is froody. Go Mozilla!

I hope everyone has been well, and that February treated you kindly. I had a pretty eventful and fun month. Before I get to that, how do you like the new banner and logo? Aren't they the dog's bollocks?

My friend Bill designed the banner. Bill is a multitalented man; he's a great graphic artist, but he's also a sa-moooooooookin' guitarist. He's got an exquisitely developed feel for music, a tone that few musicians possess, and chops out the yin-yang. He also loves cats and has a great sense of humor, so I'm a sucker for him. He's been an online buddy for three years; we have not actually met, but I hope that will change soon.

Here's a shot of Bill at a Yesfans gathering (a gathering of fans of the music of Yes, that is!) in Boston a couple of years ago:



My friend Jen designed the logo. She's another one of my massively talented friends...she's done caricatures and cartoons of Yes and Rush that have made me laugh until I'm in agony. We share the same sarky wit, except she's even more brilliant at it than I am. Here's an example, taken from a conversation we had in Borders yesterday morning:


Jen: T, check this out: The New York Times reported that the Catholic Church has brought back indulgences! Can you believe that?

Me: What?! I wonder what the Vatican's said about it. You think there's anything posted on the Holy See's website?

Jen: (without missing a beat) Yeah. A Paypal button.


I roared laughing. I'm still roaring laughing over it, even though I later learned that the Church meant plenary indulgences, which aren't sold. So what? It's a phenomenally beautiful bit of wit. I love dat goil. You can see more of her artwork at DeviantArt, under "edgyspice". One of my favorites is a great pic she did called "Fish and Elf", which shows Chris Squire and Jon Anderson of Yes getting stoned. Classic.

Here's Jen channeling Neil Peart on Halloween:




So, here was my February: my husband Matt didn't go on tour with Circa: after all; the tour was canceled. In any case, they are interested in working with him again, so I'm glad for him.

Here's the big news of the month: my ex-roommate, maid of honor, and dear friend Scheila Gonzalez COPPED A GRAMMY!, along with the rest of Zappa Plays Zappa, for Best Rock Instrumental: their cover of Peaches En Regalia. She's over the moon about it, and I'm so psyched for her. We had dinner a couple of weeks ago and she just grinned from ear to ear while telling me what it was like to just---simply---win that little gilded gramophone. So, here's a video link to my homegirl; it starts at :37....





Matt and I went to see ZPZ on Saturday night at the Ventura Theater. Don't miss it, if you have a chance to go. These people play their asses off.


News flash on the diabetes front: last Saturday I had my eye exam, and the good doctor informed me that I've had no diabetic damage to my eyes in the space of a year. Yay! The uncontrolled blood glucose level visual blurriness I had back in December has resolved itself, too. That said, I became a good deal more myopic over the last twelve months. Funny---I thought myopia improved with age. Guess this is just Nature's way of keeping me young, heh heh heh.


What else? My kittyboy. Most of you know I have three cats, but I'm not sure if you know about one of them: my big, bouncing Brooklyn. He's a humongous black cat with a white patch on his neck and another on his tummy. He's a smooth talker; I call him The Reverend Al Green. He loves women. He immediately hooked me when I saw him at the shelter: a skinny, starving half-grown kitten who walked right up to me and just about said "Heyyyyyyy, bay-beh..." before he jumped, purring, into my arms. I adore him, and I am honored beyond any description that this wonderful creature loves me right back.

Brooklyn and I share something very important...we both have our own incurable chronic conditions. Whereas I have diabetes, he has feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This disease of the heart is characterized by a thickening of the cardiac muscle, and will eventually kill him. In the meantime, Matt and I take him to UC Davis' Small Animal Clinic for his workups and ultrasounds, so we can keep track of the disease's progress. It's a long trip, but his care is dramatically less expensive this way than if we were to see a feline specialist here in Los Angeles. The only therapy Brooklyn has is to take atenolol, which is a beta-blocker, twice a day. He also gets lots of love, fresh water, good food, sunshine, grooming, gentle play, and the company of cats and humans. We always pay attention to his breathing and gait; panting could mean the beginning of heart failure, and limping could indicate a blood clot.

Matt and I took Mr. B up to Davis for his exam two weekends ago. We were worried what we might learn because we've been so broke that we couldn't afford to commit to the usual quarterly visit and were only able to bring him there once since 2007. However, we were overjoyed to learn that since we'd been to the clinic, there was no significant progression of the disease.

There are evenings during which I lie in bed with Brooklyn among the blankets, and I look into his green-gold eyes...and the moment becomes a timelessness that almost brings me to tears. For me, there's no "What if?" or "He's going to die too soon", or "I can't believe I have diabetes", or "Someday I will probably go blind from this disease". And for Brooklyn, there's always the present moment, no matter what. So we cuddle together, and there's just him and me and our eyes looking at each other, and we are both so happy to just be together right then. Each of these moments is a perfect little universe for us, and there's no room for fear or anything else.

If ever I had a Zen master, it is Brooklyn.