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As You Were

Aries 11° (April 1)

 

I took two cars in to get inspected and our old girl needed all new brakes, basically. That will be a pretty penny. There is no rhyme or reason (feeling) to life these day; rather all seems rather random. And depressing I might add. Have learned that a close friend has been going through it; I had no idea. I am learning from experience that success isn’t necessarily a contributor to happiness. People are a mess and that is a result of some carefully tailored propaganda. We have to fight back, first and foremost, by not falling down deep holes. I write a few sentences and then I’m distracted today. I don’t think it’s just me. I’m finding that most people seem super scattered and incapable if any kind of commitment or follow through it is becoming a bit insane. People also seem more high maintenance than they used to. I think I blame social media for that. Everyone wants to be a star without doing the work, paying their dues. They want the perks and none of the process. The profit not the progress. And this has been a rapid change, I find in my line of work, over the past seven or so years. Oh, and everybody thinks they should have a podcast if not there own TV show.

Someone I know, and know personally, (we are actual friends) who has a very big job at the top of the food chain at a major media network contacted me in December saying they wanted to create content for me and I should (immediately—hurry up) put together a bio for their team. As I said that was December. So what you going to do? You can’t push people. Maybe they are feeling themselves (or their cocktails) when they reach out and touch others in that way. It doesn’t matter. No judgment. You still have to love people. At least that is my view. Then again I’m not as hard on people as I see them be on others (including myself). I am trying to move the needle which we call moving the spoon. Our ancient car which was supposed to come back today isn’t. I had such high hopes that my new mechanics wouldn’t work on Cape Cod time but alas. Today really feels like spring finally here—crocuses and daffodils are doing there thing. I made a minted pea soup that we ate over last couple of days, with tulips on the table. If that doesn’t make it feel like spring I don’t know what does. Lamb probably. But one really has to separate the animal from the meal in ones mind, which for some reason is easier to do than when it comes to veal. Though it shouldn’t be.

I’ve been doing a lot of casting this week which really wasn’t the plan but in the end turns out to be the right thing. Things are rolling along I’d say. But I would like to keep the drama to as minimum as possible. One more sentence or two and then I’m going to take a shower. I don’t not believe in just writing anything. I find it’s like putting down mulch or fertilizer. It mightn’t be the thing you want to see grow before your eyes but it does create an environment from which things can spring. I have lists upon lists to go through and I hope to get to some of them today. I am looking for the magic in the ordinary, always. I saw Heather Mattarazzo beamed in on Instagram. I wish I was better at social media. One can always hire someone but what does that say. I need to remind you I’m writing a bunch of these al at once. Let’s just say it is 4:31 in the morning and I now have four of these episodes to write à la meme temps. Nan wrote to say that I seem to be getting younger; I promptly pointed out that I don’t post recent pictures. I am concerned (as all telegenic narcissists are) that I’ve let my manner slip a bit but that is what April is for. Someone I know lost eleven lbs in thirteen weeks on Noom. I would try that but I don’t like the name.

I think Amy Schumer’s new comedy special is fantastic. I find Tig Nogaro (sp.?) completely unfunny. I might try my hand at all this myself in the coming year. I mean isn’t that supposed to be what this is all leading up to? I will first need to make certain sacrifices. I’m ready to do that. I don’t have any family of my own in either chronological direction; and I find the New England contingent to be conditional at best, save for my parents-in-law who are truly divine beings, in spite of their Yankee eccentricities or indeed due to them. I’ve always wanted to write the phrase or indeed due to them.

 

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

Guess What It Can

 

Aries 10° (March 31)

 

The ride from JVB’s in Athens back to the Cape was strangely short and smooth. Thruway to Mass Pike down 495 and over the bridge. We stopped for very few groceries and some flowers and otherwise hightailed it back to catch up on our stories. I made a simple anchovy onion parsley sauce for some lentil pasta, which isn’t the greatest, though it isn’t a guilt trip. And we watched what we call Schitts, Will and Toodles, Rupie Dupie and Bill Maaaah. Still, being the type-A characters we are: We unpacked fully and pretty much cleaned the house in the process. I feel a wreck from all the moving around and really need to catch up on a number of things I’ve let lag, like this bitch called my Blague.

The world is so fucked up that I think I have been succombing to a form (or more) of depression myself. As I sit here I am hearing reports about Alaska dealing with changes unseen for thousands of years. I don’t know why people (Republicans) don’t understand that they are making themselves and their own children and grandchildren extinct. I cannot believe theat there are so many stupid, venal people on this part of the planet, specifically. The problem is taking it all in and punishing oneself by trying to escape what’s happening. That is only them winning all the more. We can’t let them win that is the main point. And why should I make myself sick trying to anesthetize their bullshit?

I am excited to throw myself into my projects. It has been Spring for over ten days and it’s still bloody freezing out. I really am so fortunate to live where I do, don’t get me wrong; so no complaints. The more time I spend with other people the more I realize how sane and functional I am. Until I’m not. Which is often. I simply can’t watch the news anymore. Which is probably what the hard right wants. They have the guns. I can’t believe this is America. I don’t think I can live here anymore if things don’t dramatically turn. Why are we talking about Joe Biden kissing people on the forehead when the president so-called is a rapist. We are being run by a terrorist mob. All those last fifty years thinking it could never happen here.

 

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

Daytripping

Aries 9° (March 30)

 

So as it turns out, came a text from the other room, we will indeed see Parker today which will be so nice. We have this funny way of meeting up with her. Honestly I thought I would see her again on lower Fifth as I did last time but apparently she no longer lives in the city but here we will see her after all which is a little cosmic blaguey.

 

The town is super cute and right on the river and the air is filled with ions. We met the roomate this morning who is very young and cute. All I could think was I hope I didn’t snore and keep him awake. We were basically sleeping in the same room. Tonight in fact, without the towel draped on the door and jammed into the jam, it will remain ajar and it truly will feel we are in the same room. I guess everyone drinks and drives upstate because everyone seems to come home around 1:30 from a town fifteen minutes away in a car after being at a bar-lounge. One more reason to love a walking town.

 

We had a little breakie, not much and all took showers and then headed to a sort of flea makret in Coxsackie (I think that’s the town). Viv bought some stuff we did not. Then we headed to Hudson for lunch and to meet Parker who greeted us with hugs on the corner and promptly guided us to her car where she had lamps for Viv. Only V. didn’t want any of her lamps even though Parker tried sweetening the deal by saying, not without irony, that they had belonged to Ryan Adams. She forgot her wallet so had to drive back to Ghent to get it—also she had to feed Gracie the dog. We had a lovely lunch at The Maker—chickpea smash sandwich—then did a bit of shoppage. I bought nothing but S. got some a gorgeous ring and perfume.

 

I read a few pages of Parker’s book that was lying around in the morning and was pretty hooked. At The Carousel, where S. P. and V. all found things to buy, the shopguy asked us did you read Parker’s book. I said I just started. He said I told her it was tedious. You did what now? That wasn’t nice. We also went to Marine P.’s shop. Her baby dady who was represented by a naive painting looked super familiar. I have to find out who he might be. We tried to think about dinner but it made people cranky so we went back to the house and just sort of chilled. As someone who makes dinner at home most every day of the year I couldn’t manage the thought of finding food let alone cooking it so it was decided, and not by me, actually, that we would take us al out to the little hotel on the corner at the river in Athens. I wish I knew its name. It was delicous in fact and we had a lot of fun and laughed our snoots off.

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

You Wanna Make Something Of It?

Aries 8° (March 29)

 

Finally I feel as if I can get some value momentum moving. I know I have to be unabashed in the process. Unapologetic. I know one of the themes has been the re-reading of old works. I have to go back and remind myself how many days it will take I did the math. Something like I’ve written four years so thats something like 1500 Blague entries (oh good lord) so it would take me 150 days to read and reorganize ten Blagues a day so that’s five months which isn’t terrible but it isn’t exactly great either. Still it needs to be done. And I’m just the man to do it. I’m the only one in fact. I hated sharing a room with my sister when I was small in Jersey City. I did it until I was eight years old. I guess we were poor. I had no idea at the time. My parents always made me feel we had money until they were older when they made it just as clear they had none. I love the fact that a “whistleblower” can be called Newbold. It turns out that the youngest of the Pritchett children has globs of talent. Veronica Webb randomly started following me on Instagram.

So trailing clouds of guilt and regret I venture forth to Athens to see my gangstah friend Viv. I will drive as far as I can before realizing I probably shouldn’t be driving at all and then my lady wife will take over. I am anxious because Viv has two cats and I am deathly allergic but apparently there is a room where the cats don’t go where I can sleep. The irony is that I love cats and would own a hundred of them if I could. Viv will show me video of an English cat lady and I realize I’ve seen the video before. We will also watch Pen15 which I didn’t realize meant penis until it was explained to me. We had a little snack and then V. took a shower and we took a walk around the town. I really do kind of like it. The cats Pinky and Leather are totally cute. I realize that my room is connected to Viv’s roomate’s room by a door that is shut, it seems, by virtue of a towel being caught in the jam. Caught in the Jam. That sounds like a good title for something. We had a lovely dinner with Pete the other night, I don’t know if I said that. I am happy they are moving to Wellfleet and I psychically (or nearly) guessed which house. I want to be in love today.

It’s all I can think about and yes I can’t be so codependent. And I have to think about death which will indeed part us all. It is awful to think how perfect everything has been so far and to know it will end. What is the purpose of this life if it all ends in sadness. I’ve become terrified of things. Of people dying mainly. It’s just such a mental trap. I really should find a therapist. I will do that today. Only I won’t. I don’t know what today will bring. I only know I have to bring it, whatever it is. The lack of a better word is running out. I remember meeting that actor, what’s his name, Shawn Hatosy, at the Gansevoort in, what, 2006. It is now 2019. Although all day long I thought it was 2020. I was looking for a document I was keeping on artists for casting purposes and I kept searching Artists 2020 and was fretting that I might have lost the file but actually I was just in the wrong year.

We had lovely salmon that Viv made and a baked potato which I haven’t had in one hundred years, plus green beans and salad which nobody seemed to eat. This made me self conscious as I made the dressing. I reached out to Lea Delaria when she first bought the new The Club in Provincetown but didn’t hear back. Now I realize (of course) that all our friends (and one enemy) will be performing there. I don’t like (him).  And though I can’t control it I wish people would wise up to this disaster boy. He feeds people heroin and yet people don’t think he’s a problem. So codpendent. He has this creative partner—they perform together—who is the most look down your nose type of person. She judges everyone (look who’s talking) and yet she will put up with this drug pusher person because of the coat tails she is riding late breakingly. These down and out pseudo bohemians make me sick, cuz you know they would be the first people to have gold toilets. Case in point the Hitler in Chief. Oh well, it doesn’t help me to know the stuff I know I have to somehow transcend it all. New favorite drag name: Sinobial Fluide.

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

Part One Of

Aries 6° (March 27)

 

I must have some kind of inner ear thing happening because I am not myself, especially when driving. I have long had a thing about being on bridges, inherited from my mother. I’ll go into it in time. I understand Parker Posey, the way she wrote her book. Also it’s often easier in snippets. Thinking about the next chapters as places where the same elements will be deposited. Not doing things in order. How Scorpio really. I do love the book. I don’t know if S. has contacted her. Since we saw her over the weekend. Wow I am developing a different relationship with punctuation.

I will and should read my past entries more objectively. Don’t think about performance. Imagine if it would make a good reading. This is a funny way of writing for me. It’s bringing up memories. Of being at a clairvoyant’s house in Bradley Beach, New Jersey. There is a question mark in that experience. His hands were small and not clammy but cool. Those were the days. I don’t think I could have ever then appreciated what my body could get away with. And now I have to relinquish all this pleasure and send all desire to my brain (very Taurus to Scorpio) which is fitting since we will have spent the weekend with Parker and Vivian.

I feel compelled to tell you that this has yet to happen but I need to shut the fuck up. The whole point is to write the next several entries all at the same time and fuck with Time. I am aware that I used the same word twice in one sentence and made one upper case and one lower. But that’s me. S….that’s all she wrote for that sentence. I must not get angry, agrivated, frustrated. I must remain Galadriel. I am so hard on myself.

I like Athens better than Hudson maybe? I dunno. I get drained easily. We drove in today. Yes today and my nerves were off the charts. Advanced what? Can I rehabilitate from this. I will do the best I can. Only I mightn’t. I have been doing things, crazy things. Well, crazy if you’re very sane. That’s the thing about me. I’m kinda random. And that, I’m told, can be a good thing. But I am really struggling. What’s going on isn’t good. I feel like a boiling frog. And I’ve just spent another day admitting I’m not Marjorie (played by Natalie Dormer).

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

Paradoxical Signpost

Aries 5° (March 26)

 

A lot on my mind today. We have two regular clients in the afternoon and it’s always fun and best to see them in person. I will spend the morning getting my head around the quick trip to NYC and what should be accomplished there. The day will end with a lazy elevator down to the restaurant in the building. No strain or stress. Just focus on the work at hand which is way more than enough. I have books on the brain as we sort out the agent situation. After leaving William Morris Endeavor several years ago I swore off approaching or even thinking about agents, and we focused solely on the parts of our consultancy and brand where we had decision-making power; and since then I’ve said to  myself (and aloud to one person) that if I were to work with an agent again that they would have to already know and like our work.

Recently a friend of whom I am very fond decided to make a third-act career change and become an agent as he was familiar and friends with folks who headed an agency—an agency that one of us (not me) had been eyeballing for some time and which, I later learned, had an agent whom (not me) had reached out to contact with no response back which is so typical. Our friend thought of an idea he suggested to his agency for a book on our general subject; and though it was an interesting notion it really wasn’t on brand and I had said what it was I wanted to pursue in book form, next, and that I had this giant proposal that I needed to work through with someone. As this career path is new to my friend and because I’m sure his focus is really on getting something to catch on his end I don’t think the idea we had on deck was something he was super excited about. And then out of the blue another friend said: you should work with so and so, an agent a friend of hers was signed with. An introduction was made and that desired response came back that she knew our work and was a fan and desired to meet us. Funny how the thing you say you’re holding out for can take years to materialize.

And there would be another synchronicity: We had a meeting with a top publisher at a house that would be perfect for us back in September when we were staying at the Lowell. The publisher said they did a book with these witches we know from Salem. It will turn out that the publisher we meet tomorrow will be the representation for this and other books of the same ilk. (But I don’t know that today.) We will have a lovely meal at Uni which is always such a treat and will watch a documentary on the women of Palestine and get some semblance of sleep before heading off in the early a.m.

 

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

À La Moules

Aries 4° (March 25)

 

Notre petit coin at All Too Human in Boston

Notre petit coin at All Too Human in Boston

We embark on a wee trip today, first to Boston, then to New York, then upstate to visit a friend whose new house we have yet to see. We have an event this evening in Boston at this terribly chic concept store where we will do “quick-n-dirty” astrology readings for the invitees. I actually enjoy these sorts of events as I find it very good exercise for our astrological minds, having to come up with a profile for person after person who sits with us for a few minutes each. I’m feeling this general uptick in interest in the Starsky + Cox brand—we seem to have become something of a “classic” for readers, especially, within the astrological community. There was a recent article in New York magazine where they asked a slew of well-known astrologers to name their top favorite books and we made it onto the list, chosen by our peers, which is extra special. Recently the site Refinery 29 “interviewed” us (and this piece is meant to appear this week). And I just did a search to see if it was posted yet and saw an article from last March pop up in the Guardian (UK) that was about how millenials are turning to astrology. We are not mentioned in the piece per se; however at the very end they list “the (astrological) app”, and “the (astrological) podcast”, and so forth and we, or rather our book Sextrology is labelled “the book” which is fairly fantastic. Anyway it’s just a vibe but I feel that there is a new momentum, resurgence, happening in our astrological world. I mean, we have plans on that score which are self-started but I’m feeling external forces rallying too—I suppose there is a connection between the two. At least that is a long-held belief and one which we proliferate. It would seem I am writing this entry to day in real-time installments—but am I? Hmmmm.

It was an easy drive up from olde Cape Cod with zero traffic and only a one or too zany Boston drivers almost crashing into us which is fewer than usual. It’s nice to have the Longfellow bridge open again so we can zip right across to Cambridge where I typically drop S. for her usual appointment there and then I sneak via Norfolk Street back to Massachusetts Avenue to cross the bridge and swing around to the Eliot aka home away from home (or one of them anyway). I have a great many ideas brewing in any case and, as with cooking, driving always inspires the going off of cartoon lightbulbs above my head, only, unlike when cooking, I can’t exactly jot anything down; so I just hope that I can remember all that’s coming up during this drive. The room was ready when I got there which is always a great boon and I packed in such a rush this morning, taking more than I need (and probably not enough in some cases) that I look forward to seeing exactly what I ended up chucking into my baggage. It will be a long night and I must pace myself today. I don’t have time for a proper meal before the event so I’m hoping that there will be some lovely finger food.

There was no food, finger or otherwise at the event. The only thing one might consume is champagne and watermelon juice, both of which will send my spiking and only one of which I will sip sparingly over the course of the evening. I wonder if you can guess for which I opted. We were early and I was wearing the only one “outfit” that I can squeeze into after this rather sedintary winter. Unlike the great S. I have not used the dark months wisely when it comes to the management of one’s weight. Oh well, I am a master illusionist at hiding the one area where all my hibernative intake takes the hit, working proportions via short square cashmere tee shirts and a buttonless, cardiganesque Margiela jacket (so-called) with its distinct non-label label designed to spark notice in the fashionisti that will assemble there, starting with the shopboys, one of whom said “I love your blazer” within the first five minutes of being in the store. Is the word blazer now literally back in fashion? It has been fifteen years at least since I even remotely resembled someone who might have a clue as to what was in vogue.

We saw a great many people all in quick succession and I was struck by how young and successful this particular succession was. It was mostly women which is typical, but there were young business owners and artists and designers and photographers and influencers and it made me realize how much Boston has changed. In our generation anyone with such ambitions wouldn’t have stayed in beantown but have high-tailed it to New York City or, perhaps, Los Angeles the second they finished school. But this group of kids have chosen to stay put here and, in our now virtual workplace, are making waves from this provincial northern perch. It cooked up some creative food for thought that’s for sure. A few of our own clients came to catch our eye, which was pretty much the extent of the interaction we could have with them as there was a queue of folk to flop down in front of us onto a pink cushioned footstool flaked with fuzzy pink pillows. All these prop elements had tags on them which, because I wasn’t thinking, I assumed meant they were for sale; it later dawned on me that they were tags from another store–Target, Marshalls, Nordstrom Rack—where they were likely purchased just hours ago as set pieces for the event and the should-beremoval of the tags was lost in the last minute shuffle. Thinking Edina Monsoon leaving the entire production of a fashion show to the last minute, day of. How fashion. To be fair I think the lovely owner of the shop, who has immaculate taste and has really created something special in Boston where nothing like this any longer exists (since Louis Boston shut down), would have just returned from a whirlwind buying trip in Paris and probably Milan. Anyway the event was triumphant and she did a great job. A tenth (what she offered clients as a discount) was being donated to my non-profit Glow (“A Moveable Festival”) and I know that even the clients of ours that showed made some pricey purchases, so I look forward to seeing what kind of donation will come our way.

We stayed later than expected as people had waited so long to see us. Many people took cards from us and I have a feeling we might have a few new clients coming to see us in the weeks again which would be wonderful. Nearly nine o’clock and thank goodness we made a reservation at La Voille because I was feeling pretty faded walking back up Newbury Street—nothing some moules frîtes couldn’t cure!

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

How Many de Havilands?

Aries 3° (March 24)

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I was supposed to have known what I was going to say before I sat down. Typically I write early in the day before the bric-o-brac of quotidien life takes it’s toll in distraction; and especially on a day like today, the day before embarking on a trip for which I have neither packed nor prepared. And now we might be singing day is done and I’m just now here, after hitting myriad marks, multiple places, lastly in the kitchen, where, as is always the case, I get my best ideas and breakthroughs, mini or large. I like the word stout because it sounds like what it is. It’s onomatopoetic and that’s always tops with me. And I did get a newsflash while sautéeing oninion and brussel sprouts with chili flakes, anchovy and spanish almonds that I had the perfect entrée into today’s Blague, which has been on my mind writing since I hadn’t done this morning. Yet somehow in the journey up the stairs to my office so-called I lost that entry point and, I know myself, I’m not going to remember what it was. Correction: I”m not going to try to remember what it was. There’s little point in so doing.

Meanwhile, yeah, I’m heading into Boston tomorrow for an event at this terribly chic shop called All Too Human in the Back Bay. It’s the only real fashion and concept store in town and we are doing these “quick-n-dirty” readings for customers who get a discount that gets donated to the newer leg of my non-profit, simply called Glow (tagline: “A Moveable Festival”) that is hinged on creating a circuit (starting) in New England where we can present our “family of artists” so that these talents have more regular gigs in the region and we find and elevate audiences in places where our progressive performers have never gone before. I’m into it! Sorry it’s hard to concentrate because of the (non-) findings of the Mueller probe, also so-called. Oy. One must now completely not give a flying fuck.

I am now in reggae heaven listening to the radio. It strikes me that the men singing, song after song, seem to be so in love with god with whiffs of narcissism; that is to say, knowing how misogynistic the culture is, the primary relationship with men (at least how I interpret their song) is with (what maybe they don’t realize is their own) higher power. Ja.Women are relegated in the culture and one has to wonder why. I think the interpretation of sex by the male has been one of domination because they enter in; when the position of the female is, as the great receptor, the prime mover who needs a second sex as fertilizer. Even a no bull-shit man isn’t wont to define himself as such. Still there is something so special about good reggae that makes it the best mood music in the world. I could really sink deep into miasma of it—very good Pisces word, miasma. I will have to use that later when I’m revisiting some Pisces material I’m working on. Just one of those pin-in-that thoughts that arise and one writes with regularity in this forum.

From Boston we will continue on to New York this week, where professional meetings await but, also, where some long overdue social time will be had. Coincidentally a Belgian friend from S’s Dries Van Noten days just emailed her to say any chance you’ll be in town as she and her Italian husband will be visiting without their children and could we possible. Well, yes, indeed we can. We will be staying at our home away from home there and it has a marvelous downstairs lobby bar and restaurant that gets very busy; but we can reserve a space I imagine. And, oh, the Belgian connection. That does bring me back to the top of today’s Blague, reminding me what I was going to lead with: In a sleepless night last night I wanted to turn on the TV. Let me begin again: I’m a sucker for overblown historical drama TV series, the likes of which appear on Starz—”White Princess”, “White Queen”, all the ancient white people, “Pillars of the Earth” and anything with a Merlin or a Louis or a Henry in it—but I’ve run out (and I draw the line at something like Spartacus because it’s really just softcore gay male (or straight women?) porn.

But I did happen upon something called Maximillian which is about the eponymous son of the Holy Roman Emporer and his relationship to Marie de Bourgogne. Anyway it is in French and German and Flemish with English subtitles and so I can watch it with the volume on one or even zero (though I do require at least hint of sound—that goes for porn, too) so as to not disturb the one lying next to me as I binge from two to five a.m. Much of it is set in Ghent, the seat of Marie’s duchy, and the sets are perfectly that breed of ornate, gothic, minutely detailed architecture that one encounters in Flanders and I was brought back to our days in Antwerp at the summation of our youth feeling and sowing our wild Belgian oats. And I was musing on the people we met and thinking about all the friends S brought into our lives from her time at Dries. And then voila, out of the blue, this person wrote this same day, someone we haven’t seen in near exactly twenty years, to say that she will be in NYC then same few days we shall be this week which I love.

The funny thing about time: Olivia de Haviland is 102. So it is really just five Olivia de Havilands ago that, in the 1450s, Maxmillian and Marie were born. And it’s only a score and twenty Olivia de Havilands ago since the advent of the hippy prince of peace. Perspective people.

 

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

Eighteen and Up

Aries 2° (March 23)

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So I went to get my hair cut first thing in the morning which is the only way I can since my barber is open from 8-11 o’clock, only, five mornings a week. The early-bird crowd gets there at 7:45 or even 7:30 sometimes so they can be first in line—the haircutter extraordinaire takes his time—and the early-bird crowd is impatient and can get cranky and besides, like me, they’ve already been up for hours. As a tiny cosmic joke (French: blague) Neil Young’s Old Man was playing as I entered today, as I always do, with notebook or other would-be work in hand to keep me busy during the longer waits. Today there was just a guy in the chair and nobody waiting so it was an unusually speedy affair. I love this place, and the man in charge, and I leave at least a fifty percent tip each time which still means I pay twenty five dollars for a haircut that is the best I’ve ever had. Sometimes he gets phonecalls while I’m in the chair and speaks in an elegant Cuban Spanish to loved ones while looking at me apologetically in the mirror; but he never rushes off the phone either. Time is not this man’s master. And if he has no clients by ten o’clock he is out of there, in the warmer months, heading to the beach to go fishing, presumably for dinner. I have often fantasized about secretly getting a barber’s license and then spending time here sweeping up for free, trying to get my biorhythms to align with his so that when I am in my (I think late) eighties, I might have a steady cash income and every afternoon off to, well, probably not fish but who knows…maybe.

One of the aims of this daily Blague is to illuminate the extraordinary in the ordinary. (When people say life is boring or banal I wonder to what they are comparing it.) It’s all about perspective and surprising moments alone in places such as this with people such as the master barber, going at his signature pace, sweeping up himself between clients who are divided into two distincet categories: those like me who come prepared to work or make some notes or journal or meditate; and those who fidget and audibly sigh and moan or leave without a word. The times that has happened when I’m there, the master will shoot me a smiley look in the mirror as if to say “can you believe this guy” combined with “his loss” and “some people will never understand.” I understand. I love being here. We greet each other when I arrive. We shake hands when its time for me to take the chair. He never asks “so what do you want to do”, so if you don’t want to do the same thing he always does it’s on you to speak up. I can say I want something between a trim and a cut and for some reason that makes him laugh but not in a snarky way. Leon Russell, The Moody Blues, Journey and an otherwise mixed bag of “classic rock” will play on the radio (it used to be a current pop station with “funny” DJs and terribly overproduced current music with tons of trilling and no sustained notes) and I’m grateful for the solid musical choice. There are signs (zoom in on the photo) that tell you all you need to know for this or the next time, like “please come with clean hair.” Taped onto the counter in front of you, or rather diagonal to you—he keeps you at an agle—is his name written in magic marker onto brown craft paper that is taped down with the masking variety.

One time a chatty customer who was waiting while I was in the chair realized he might have been too verbose and apologized saying, “sorry I don’t want to distract you,” to which the master responded, “I can cut his hair with my eyes closed,” which sent a multiple message that I was a regular, that he was a pro (who could not be distracted) and, mostly, that he had an intimate relationship with my head with its double cow-licks and other idiosyncracies. Angled as one is forty-five degrees counter-clockwise from the mirror, one can sometimes stare out the window in a silent daze. Here there is no compulsion to talk, a rarity in this converted master-slave relationship; the experience is never lacking conversation for us; we like each other all the more because neither of us needs to fill the air with speak which, in this setting, is always so male-posturing and staccato. I will hear other clients ask pointy or rhetorical questions to which he will respond with polite economy. But we don’t need to pretend he and I. If I think about it it makes me laugh just how rough he can be. Maybe rough is the wrong word. Let’s just say he is completely unapologetic in the way that he pushes my head down or side to side, like a parent tiger keeping its young in a desired position, primally letting it be known who, exactly, is the boss in this relationship.

I had been going there for years before I remembered that my paternal grandfather, with to whom I had the most wafer-thin exposure (never mind anything resembling a relationship), was a barber. I remember getting my first haircut ever in his shop in downtown Jersey City in the 1960s, being plopped into the child’s “chair” which was a carved wooden horse of sorts, like a Medici version of the kind of plastic horsey you could ride outside the Food Fair by dropping a thin dime in the pay-mechanism, or the ones on springs you could jolt back and forth on at day camp or at some random park, some of them having lost their tension, causing you to flop too far to and fro and thus, undesirably, also, side to side. I don’t remember getting my hair cut at my grandfather’s shop more than once or twice because I didn’t; my tiny grandfather who was fresh off the boat from Calabria was immaculately tidy and wore a blue (I think) barber coat and had a back room—sort of an apartment really—where I’d rather play. (I have not thought of this since then, until now.) There was a narrow dark hallway leading back from the shop into a room that in my recollection was a sort of kitchen. I only found out this past year from a first cousin of mine, who is always the bearer of bad news, that it was something of a front and that the whole family were each, in their full- or part-time ways, bookies.

A world away, here, is this present operation. A formica and linoleum palace of blissful peace and silent understanding. The cape is unsnapped at the neck, the talcum scented brush does its usual thing, the large oblong hand mirror is stationed behind me with a smile that says I can’t say anything but “perfect(o)” or, preferably, probably, just nod while making the acceptable male version of a yummy sound. Today I said perfect with an almost Oprah affection. These thoughts of acceptability are in my own head. I could probably preen and pucker my lips in the mirror and say “oooh, fabulous” and he wouldn’t bat an eye. Instead his would smile at me as they do each time I enter and depart.

 

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

Teeing Up

Aries 1° (March 22)

 

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You really must read the previous Blague (if you haven’t) before you delve into this one because I am in some ways picking up here where I left off there; also there is a certain energetic set up, I feel, where no matter what I put down here today (and trust me I don’t know where this is going) I literally just wrote the previous one (ironically starting this new astrological year a little late) and so they might end up being, energetically, part of a piece. To be fair, as you’ll see from the previous entry, I had some thinking to do about how I got to the point of embarking on writing a fifth year of this daily Blague, including how I started the first year exploring the Sabian Symbols (the corresponding link to the first year Blague on the Sabian theme will be provided below, all year long). So today is really day two of year five of the Cosmic Blague, and the previous entry also tells you everything you need to know to understand what this thing is, has been, at various intervals, over the past four years, while I try to give focus to what this new year should bring.

I had one thought of reading ten previous Blagues a day which means I would nearly read a full year’s entries in about five weeks a year. This means that it would take about twenty weeks—five months— to catch up to where we are now, today, and then another fortnight to catch up in total. The reason for this being that: Comes a time when I have to have even a vague archival understanding of the body of text four-plus years can create; and to sort of earmark the many entries for various written purposes, heading into the future. There is a wealth of material (along with a lot of slog and drivel) accumulated now in this most Cosmic Blague. And I wouldn’t be (literally) getting the most out of it If weren’t to mind and mine it at some point. This next half a year seems as good a time as any and, here’s the rub, it should inspire the daily writing of the new Blagues moving forward. The gods help us all.

I have to work these things through you see (as little Edie as that might sound).

I remember back in the early 1980s I went to see a “Music and Lecture by Robert Fripp” at the Paradise on Comm. Ave. in Boston. He was already playing music when you walked in, electric guitar, and recording it. Then he would play back the recording and play over it and record that. I don’t know how many times he looped around adding layers, but surely several. I get it. I do want to write more material every day and yet it is so important to know what I’ve said before, what might be material for books, performance, lecture or entrepreneurial projects. I know I recorded near every thought. So it makes sense to take inventory of, and to react to and thread through the last four years for the riches and the ditches, if you will. I’m sure there are many stories upon which I can improve. And you’re likely not going to read every Blague so someone has to do it.

That said, I want get to this leg of the process for at least till the end of the month. Which was the goal: To finish up loose ends before month’s end. Then starting April 1, start this creative taking of stock, here, with the Blague, but also just, of myself, in general. At the same time, I will begin to institute some daily rituals and such in regard to promoting this pet project, something I’ve yet to do in all the last four years. Otherwise I’m drafting some books and casting some performance festivals and series and otherwise seeking to express my dual nature as thespian priest, blending performance with certain piety of a decidedly pagan variety. Promises, promises. That’s the trick you see: to creat the right kind of structure to inspire the output of your creativity, some scaffolding on which to build a real or metaphoric (as ere the twain shall meet) body of work. Tall orders always in my world; but something about me has to be towering.

 

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 list the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance) 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

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