I suppose I am really beginning to believe that I have a life growing inside me.  So many miracles happening in our lives.  This one is such a gift, I am humbled beyond words, but hope that in the months to come I’ll be able to express this experience in detail and with eloquence.  Baby deserves that.  Thank you baby, for coming into our lives just when you did.

Well, aside from getting engaged last night ( best Halloween ever! ), the second most enthusiastic news I can share is that we visited the SFMOMA today and I was mighty delighted by the multi-media works of Candice Breitz.  With ‘Mother’, six different video screens orchestrated clips of 6 famous actresses in roles portraying the often difficult mother/child relationship.   It was funny, disturbing, and totally engaging.

Plus, I had a really handsome fiance by my side.

I’ve just returned from 10 glorious days in Kodiak, Alaska for my 20 year high school reunion.  I captured 8 hours of video, wrote 3 new songs, and took scores of photos.  Best of all, I reconnected with classmates and THE WILD.  I can still smell the smoke from the driftwood fires, the fish rotting in the creeks, the salt air cleaning me inside and out.  Here are the lyrics to a song that I penned with my pal, Jennifer Beardsley.  I performed it at our 20 year reunion party at El Chicano’s.  It was written for our classmates, to the tune of a certain Guns ‘n Roses song that we all loved.  89 is FINE!!!!

Julia and Jennifer on the float plane from Larsen Bay to Kodiak, AK. 8/5/09

EVERYTHING AND NOTHING
Lyrics by Julia Francis and Jennifer Beardsley
Copyright 2009 No Shrinking Violet

Shed a tear, I was missin’ you, my class of ’89
It took all my airline miles to get here
Some lost weight and some lost hair, but there’s one thing that we all share
20 years roll back with a shot and a beer

Where were you when you lost it?
Where were you when you tossed it?
All that’s changed is everything and nothing.

Too young for the bar, so we drank Luckies in our car
Cruising the road to Chiniak
She puked on your pants, before the teen center dance
Got the evil eye from Mr. Kubiak

Where were you when you lost it?
Where were you when you tossed it?
All that’s changed is everything and nothing. 

He touched me out of bounds, late one night at the Rodeo Grounds
Straight up now tell me are you really gonna love me forever
He said let’s just be friends, thank God there was no Facebook then
I was a sucker for any guy in leather

Enough Bartles and Jaymes’ and you won’t care what their names is
Coastie says ‘Hey baby, you got a nice rack’
You got spew on your shoe, at the VFW
Tomorrow morning your boat leaves for Afognak

Everything and nothing….changes…
Everything and nothing….changes…

Scorps had a really cool truck, but did he ever get a single fuck
Larry Ledoux tellin me what do to, and I’m breaking own my own curfew
I just want to fit in, I’m waiting for my life to begin
Everybody’s cooler than me, I’m as morose as Morrisey
I want you to see me, I want you to know me
I want you to hold me, just hold me, please hold me…

As I look around the room, I see the story’s the same
We did what we had to do to make it
New friends may come and go, but only you and I know
Our special strength and how this island shaped it

Where were you when you lost it?
Where were you when you tossed it?
All that’s changed is everything and nothing.

I’m headed to Alaska next week for my high school reunion, and am thrilled at the tining of political events, so pleased to know that Sarah Palin won’t be raining on my parade.

Seattle’s Pepper Schwartz has authored a biting and thoughtful blog about the Lipsticked Pig, titled, Why Sarah Palin Fascinates (and Horrifies) Me.  Let me know what you think.

……”I know women are not immune from [narcissims], but I am always startled when I see it. After all, most little girls, including myself, were told to be nice, play fair, and support others. Even those of us who rebelled and went after our own best interests usually retain some of the “people pleasing” aspects of our early childhood personality. When you see a woman who appears to have no desire to please others, unless she is benefits from her actions, it is a bit breathtaking. So Sarah leaves me quite breathless. She is grandiose, high maintenance and extremely selfish and therefore deluded about her qualifications. She is used to charming the socks off of most people (and especially men), and she has a certain contempt for everyone as a result of getting away with it a lot of the time. Her speech about “Not being a quitter” just because she was deserting the governor’s office in mid-term, was a miracle of contempt for her audience. Her desire to stay on the road and in the spotlight without consideration for her large young family, a special needs baby and a teenage mother of her grandchild, is ambition without the slightest nod to other’s needs. She is as ruthlessly self-indulgent and narcissistic as any man ever born. She reconfigures my previous thinking about gender and narcissism….”  Read more.

Well, our East Bay neighbor Oakland has just stepped up and demanded a tax on its medical marijuana clinics. My beautiful homestate’s finances are going down the toilet faster than you can say ‘4:20′, and the idea of fully legalizing and taxing the Weed statewide seems more and more possible.

Might be time to start your own P patch, folks. I mean, if you haven’t been furloughed yet, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll need some way to keep a roof over your head.

And have you heard – we may also soon have 140,000 inmates released from our prisons to help manage the budget crisis. Maybe they can all start their own drug rings and bring in more money for the state!
It was the highest of times, it was the worst of times.
Read on, homies.

Vancouver BC-based photographer Dina Goldstein has created the ‘Fallen Princesses’ series – a collection of dark and funny photos of all the major Disney princesses, living less than happily ever after.

As she explains, “As a young girl, growing up abroad, I was not exposed to Fairy tales. These new discoveries lead to my fascination with the origins of Fairy tales. I explored the original brothers Grimm’s stories and found that they have very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney. I began to imagine Disney’s perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues.”

'Snowy' by Dina Goldstein

Yesterday I visited the Ansel Adams/Georgia O’Keefe exhibit at SFMOMA.  I found great peace in learning how these two artists found so much worth noticing in nature.  I endeavor to foster such focus and reverence in myself, to spend time alone with the elements, seeing with the heart….

There was one particular set of 3 photos by Adams called ‘Snow Sequence I, II, and III.’  He captured 3 different close-ups of snow receding from the earth, and the particular patterns the melting snowline created that mirrored the ground beneath.  These images more than any in the exhibit reminded me that there is beauty everywhere, even (and especially) in the death of things.  I couldn’t find a copy of these images to share here, so instead have inserted ‘Frozen Lake and Cliffs’ – a stunning, subjective, almost unreal image, also of retreating winter.  Joseph thinks this photo would be an amazing backdrop for a theater production. 

Frozen Lake and Cliffs, by Ansel Adams

If you get a chance, check out this exhibit through September 7th.  Also of great interest is the exhibit of Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans’ – all eighty something photos that made up his groundbreaking book. 

Gotta love art.

The protests in Iran are incredible to witness.  The anger in the eyes, the fingers held in peace signs.  I hope with all my heart that violence is kept at bay, and The People shall be heard and respected.

This makes me feel better about my dayjob.  Marketing peeps, enjoy!
Thanks to the Catch Up lady for posting to her very funny blog.

My facebook pals are trading this one back and forth.  I love this crap.  I dare you not to laugh.