I have been busy this summer. I keep reaching for photographs to put here but I can�t quite figure out how to increase the space I�m allowed on diaryland for this sort of thing and since I�m retardo in the html department (and a few others, like P.E.,) I�ve instead continued plodding along in other departments (like The Brass Plum, at Nordstrom, and honey, the juniors� jeans just don�t fit like they used to).

But having big hips has somehow afforded me other goodness. Not that it�s a karmic thing. But let�s pretend.

Brent and I just got back from Chicago after this film festival, Indiefest Chicago where I won second place in their screenwriting competition for a short script I wrote called �The Case of Judith.� It�s about a woman who was in the first day of all of my classes in grad school but only stayed in one. On the first day of our Controversy of Slavery Seminar she said, �I�m a Hollywood screenwriter and I�m here, basically, for material. If there�s material here I�ll stay, if not, then not.� She didn�t stay and it just added insult to injury, I thought, to the slaves.

In Chicago I ate a whole lot of meat and had some chest pains for a few days. It seems having chest pains somehow afforded me other happiness. Again, no karma, but I�ll pretend.

Upon returning from Chicago I went to the Newport Jazz Festival and got to watch Dave Brubeck from backstage. Holy crapmeisters. Unbelievable. And then I got to write about it! (That's part of it... our archiving isn't the perfectest yet). The first night of the festival we watched Eartha Kitt sing as the fog rolled in, perfectly, during her hit �I Want to be Evil.� She isn�t evil at all, it turns out. See how un-evil she is in the freakin� interview (WHAT?) I did with her for the Mercury, here!

Below that you�ll find interviews I did with legendary jazz drummer Roy Haines (The Bird�s favorite drummer), and visionary pianist/vocalist/songwriter Patricia Barber. I do not mean, in any way, to toot my own horn. I�ve just been allowed to do some pretty neat things over the last couple months. Keeeee-riste. Craziness.

I will soon figure out how to put more pictures on my site so I can show you the postcard I got from David Sedaris thanking me for a monkey t-shirt I sent him. No shit!

This entry should bring out the nay-sayers. Go ahead, make my day, I�d say, if my day weren�t already made from this booyakasha summer. It�s a nice change from cocooning.