Sagittarius 19° (December 11)

So we went out for a little sushi last night which was nice and got enough sleep I suppose. It snowed overnight so I had to go down and scrape off the car and we set out at a pretty decent hour. There was no traffic and it was a bit like driving inside a snow globe. We were meant to meet Alice at this tea today but we got a request to have lunch in J+N’s suite so we had to redirect. Got to the Pierre around noon and of course our suite was incredible. Life seems to offer wonderful things and terrible things all in the same day. We didn’t realize exactly what was lying in wait to ambush us this day but it would be devestating and the effects would last for days on end. Whenever we get broadsided like this I lose my ability to keep this Blague going. I have to say I’m at the end of my tether with this specific thing. I will have to address this whole thing at some point and I will figure out a way to do this I suppose. But then what happens is that I risk the relationship with the agent. I really feel that I’ve worked so hard on our relationships with the new folks at our publisher but something is dogging us. I am hiding the lead a little bit here perhaps but the fact is this day ends on quite a sour note (and then a little bit of silver lining). We quickly unpacked and then made our way over for lunch. We had brought a little bit of chocolate as a gift and were handed presents upon arriving that blew ours out of the water. Such is the way of things. We had a lovely lunch (Caesar salad for me) and then went and got ready to meet A. Just as we did S. said there is an email and it isn’t good news. Which it wasn’t. It seems the editor who kept us for two and a half hours wasn’t going to be offering us anything at all. We were so hoping everything would have been flushed out but instead things were rotten in Denmark. Macmillan: F,S+G, Picador, Thomas Dunne. S+S: Howard, Scribner, Touchstone. Anyway, we went to meet A. and the Lowes and talked about how we can do these things on our own. I’m still going in and out of depressive feelings. I would like to get to the bottom of why it is this is still happening, when, in fact, it is so, so long ago. I suppose we must also come to grips with the fact that this might not be our direction. Still I will explore every route possible and that can include small press, electronic only and other entrepreneurial paths for the writing. I was tempted to cance going to dinner but we decided to follow through on plans to go to Café Lux. And there we got a little bit of a sign.

We were at the host station when this man approached and asked S. if her earrings were Ted Muehling, which they were. He is an opera singer at the Met but he is also a goldsmith and a jeweler with a home base in Stonington, Maine. That would be super on target as you know. Anyway we will meet him when wecome back in the Spring, which is going to entail a tour of New England, anyway, exploring all the options. I am going to put my attention into the investment operations and put on my big-boy pants and pull up the old bootstraps. Had some lambchops and frites and some so-so Priorat and tried to word notes to M.T. but I couldn’t come up with anything even remotely salient. I definitely want to catch up on all that needs doing. And yet here I am having to recover and somehow field the feelings that will come and go and come and go. Everything in life is so up and down on this score. It would be nice to get to a place where we don’t have to be in such a state of flux, but I do believe that is up to me. And we need to relax, regroup, and recalibrate so to meet the chanllenges before us. I decided I am not calling or writing J&L. If they want to drive us from Edinburgh that will be great and we can split the cost of the rental no problem. But I am really a bit in need of taking the proper status. The view from the thirty-ninth floor is spectacular at least thought it bothers me that I cannot ever fully enjoy the fantastic things in life. I feel, too, that I might be hitting a bit of a wall with what I’ve considered fun enhancement in the past. I honestly do feel at my very best when simply relaxed and meeting life on life’s terms. I will need to find a way to address the toxicity still lurking in that particular well. I think I have to give myself the gift of being finished with today’s entry.

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

Sagittarius 18° (December 10)

Happily we will get off the sea spiral today and make our way to Cambridge for the evening. I woke at four thirty and went upstairs to my new private Bikram studio. Why didn’t I do this sooner? Someone whom I’ve referred to as D.D. surfaced via my so-called meditation (it isn’t not one); and I may reach out and make another positive statement in that direction. Then again I may not. And two hours later had some breakfast, watched a little news (all bad), got packed and hit the road. After two stops on Newbury Street I dorpped S. in Cambridge and set off for Mount Auburn for yet another meet up with my doctor. I know that sound ominous but actually it’s all very good. I have been an adult this year and have been addressing certain issues, none of them too terribly serious, and am well on top of all that is happening in my world of health. Whenever I am alone I can totally Zen myself places through a series of side streets. Thus I popped out right in front of the hospital. I was early and thought I’d e in and out but I deceded to indulge some of my more hypochondriacal thoughts, which only resulted in my being prescribed more stuff. I’ve arrived half an hour early back on Broadway to pick up S.. My hunger is out of control, and even though we are eating lunch in just about twenty minutes, I had to have a little piece of gluten-free vegan cake and some tea known as honeybush, whatever that is. It’s mainly younger guys sitting around working on their laptops; I’ve lost the ability to judge whether someone is college age of thirty five. I suppose that comes from getting to the advanced age at which I currently find myself. I’m not thrilled with the way I look naked in the mirror doing my home Bikram practice. I know this is the most un p.c. to say but my chest resembles that of an f2m person. I would get hate mail for saying that if I had a readership—thankfully I do not. Anyway this place is called Barisma and it’s super Cambridge in a scruffy cool way. It has a very straight vibe which I suppose shouldn’t surprise me. I suppose I have been living in and around Provincetown too long. And by way of the West Village, so there is that. I was thinking I would knowck some emails off my list but this place doesn’t have wifi. Nor do they give receipts. It’s that kind of place. There is a child’s table with an actual child sitting at it. I was going to at least research stome steampunk looks but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now either, which is fine. We will head from here to Whole Foods to get a little bite. There is a very bearded guy with a man bun outside walking dogs. He might be a dog walker or he might just be a guy. It’s kind of hard to tell. Back in the day people around the age of people working here would be working at fancy lunch places where Harvard professors and other ladies who lunch would shell out a lot of money for house salads and chicken paillard. How anyone could make money working behind a counter serving coffee is beyond me. I left a dollar tip on six dollars only because it saddened me that the tip jar was empty. Plaes in Cambridge always have plants in the window. It is nearly time to go.

After a little bite the plan is to do a little thrift shopping at the Garment District. Some of the folks in coffee shop staff are leaving and they wear clear framed glasses and have noise-canceling headphones. i’m going to keep my eyes open to the possiblity that everyone around here wears noise-cancelling headphones. People everywhere probably wear noise canceling headphones. It’s probably a thing. The tea I’m drinking has no caffeine. I asked what is honeybush and the girl behind tha counter said it’s a (insert word I didn’t understnad, something like roijin). This assumed I had some knowledge of tea which I do not. This place has a bulletin board and no character whatsoever. It’s distinct lack of character or the remotest statement through decor is kind of freaking me out. The generation that populates the staff and customer base seem not to have much personality. I think they may be millenials. Their hair doesn’t look partciularly clean. Although there is a sense that people do their own highlights, at home. I’m looking forward to having some real food tonight for dinner. The plan is sushi whichcould be good. I will finish this (today’s) boring Blague later this afternoon. It is a grey day which isn’t adding much to the flavor of the moment. There is something about Cambridge, anyway, that suggests the early nineteen eighties. It makes me slighty nervous. It’s like Boston radio stations. They seem to be frozen, for the most part, back to the time I went to school here. I’m glad I went to school in this town though. Had I gone to school in New York I might be dead or ill.

Bought a shirt and a tie and don’t think they are great or right; S. bought a kilt ironically. It’s the real deal, made in Scotland, with the buckle and the giant safety pin and the whole schpiel. I will regroup next week and see what’s what. After checking into the hotel we went to Burdick for spicey hot chocolate and bought some candies for our hosts at the Pierre. We came back to regroup. We have a corner room at the Commander and it overlooks the parking lot with our car. It’s supposed to snow tonight. I keep wondering what’s what with the agent. I should already be getting my brain around this not working out. Life is a series of beds. This is something we used to say back in the day. I will save my depressing rant for tomorrow.

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

Sagittarius 17° (December 9)

12/12: The Full Moon in Gemini, today, also known as the Cold Moon, is the last Full Moon of the year and, indeed, the decade. The Full Gemini Moon urges us to focus on the “small picture”—all information at hand and situations right under our nose needing notice. Attention to detail is of utmost importance—connecting necessary dots, tying off loose ends, and clearing up disinformation, especially with siblings and intimate friends. Communication is queen, now, and we do well to clarify our principles and positions. Ruled by planet Mercury, named for the winged messenger and trickster god, Gemini governs our thought patterns as well as our nervous systems, faulty thinking giving rise to would-be anxiety. We are now cosmically assisted in getting our noggins out of the gutter of negative grooves and embodying the Gemini superpower of positive thinking. If our thoughts really do have wings, then we must be most mindful of what we now let fly. Chiron, “the wounded healer” is also going direct today, 12/12—twelve being a number of completion and cosmic order—helping to usher in a new epoch of well-being and individual resolve.

12/13: Thought to have once been a planet that was pummelled by asteroids and thus “disabled” the celestial body known as Chiron signifies the healing that grows out of pain, loss, suffering and all forms of disenfranchisement. Think of the French word blesser, meaning “to wound”—it is, paradoxically, from which the term blessing is derived. Chiron now direct in the sign of Aries inspires each and every one of us to make lemonade out of the particular lemons life has has handed us. Moreover, we are urged to be that much more appreciative, humble, functional and compassionate in the process, seeing our own vulnerabilities, and the hits and hard knocks we’ve endured, as catalysts for personal healing and evolution. On this first full day of Chiron’s forward movement since July, we have extra celestial power to release resentment, disappointment, regret, grudges and self-pity and to put our noses to grindstone in making the best of every situation. Who says Friday the 13th isn’t your lucky day?

In many ways the astrological signs provide a check and balance on the excesses of those that come before it. Case in point: The reserved energy of Capricorn can be a necessary correction to the more abandoned aspects of Sagittarius. Where Jupiter (Sadge’s ruler) is expansion, Saturn (Cap’s ruler) is restriction. Capri-corn means goat horn, specifically the cornucopeia, horn of plenty, suggesting a container of said bounty. In a disco analogy: Where Sagittarius screams “more, more, more,” Capricorn suggests that “enough is enough is enough,” (Donna Summer was a Capricorn). Capricorn quality over Sagittarius quantity: containment determines purity and superiority, just as a nature reserve preserves the environment, or a reservoir safeguards a water supply. Sagittarius folk are expansive, gregarious, adventurous and generous, but they can be overly risky or abandoned. Capricorn people are self-contained, reserved, private and respectful, though they may be all too cautious, exclusive, guarded and superior. We all embody the range of energies associated with our signs; it is our challenge to accentuate the shining aspects and keep the shadier sides in check.

As has been one of the themes of our live holiday shows, we don’t subscribe to the notion that Jesus is a Capricorn but rather a Pisces. There are a number of explanations—two months were added to the calendar since his time; also it made certain sense to move the advent of his birth to coincide with the existing celebration of the pagan festival of Yule, the Winter Solstice. The only thing is: Yule isn’t the happiest of holidays. It’s when the young Oak King vanquishes the old Holly King. In ancient Greece it was associated with Saturnalia, named for the old, vanquished king of the gods, Saturn, who rules the sign of Capricorn, that begins on the solstice. It is also associated with the old goat god Baal, and involved the ritual of loading up an old goat with people’s old real and metaphoric burdens—the proverbial scapegoat—and sending it off from the village; it’s where we get the notion of New Year’s resolutions—out with the old, in with the new. If anything, in a Judeo-Christian line of thinking, Capricorn is the sign of Moses, who climbed a mountain and returned with commandments, Saturnian rules and restrictions, “shalt-nots”; Moses also told his flock to make a temple of goat hair, probably because it is duraable, enduring, like the energy of Capricorn. Nope, Jesus isn’t a Capricorn. He’s a Pisces, the Jesus fish, and many a Pisces man—George Harrison, Jack Kerouac, James Taylor, Kurt Cobain, Lou Reed, Roger Daltry, Victor Garber—have followed in his archetypal footsteps.

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

Sagittarius 16° (December 8)

People must do their jobs and I must let them. I’m also not at all interested in the self-promotion that happens in this world. We all need to promote our business(es) and that I can respect. But this look-at-me culture in which we live is a depressing prospect even at its best. I watch all of season three of Maisel and the show has gotten better, funnier and more poignant. I am asking myself these days, though, whether I actually need television in my life at all; or most of technology for that matter. I’m looking very much forward to the change of scenery and the anonymity that it might bring. I sent another message to the Hotel Flora in Venice to see what’s what. I was thinking, too, once we figure out getting into Myddleton Square, that we could contact local Air BnB places and be able to stroll over and check out places in person before renting willy nilly. I’m a bit all over the place and today will be a day where I actually check myriad things off myriad lists. I’m not quite sure I know what they are but I trust that, over the course of the next few hours, that the list shall reveal itself. I don’t know why I feel like crying a bit today. There is no real reason except for the fact that I seem to be not blocking my emotions in any way shape or form. I suppose I’m feeling a bit more than usual. Not sure if that’s true but whatever the reason it is a bit upsetting and at the same time strangely life affirming. I do seem also to be losing some blub, however it is making it obvious where the general thickening is. I can’t help but imagining supersized organs taking up way too much space in my body, but I’ve alway been a little overactive in that department. I have to be all over the place today—it really is the only way to cope. In the morning hours, hopefully by 11am I will have sent travel suggestions to my friends and worked my way into my astrological work on the plate today. S. announced that the word of the day (I think from Dictionary dot com) was Ology. Of course it was. Maybe that’s why I feel like crying. Again people have to do their job. And I will have to do mine. And so, amid procrastinative peeks at real estate and resturant menues, at ten-thirty this morning, just two minutes away, I will hunker down—safe in the knowledge I have already had my breakfast, prepared lunch and dinner, made a grand to-do list, whitened my teeth and sorted out some packing choices for my week in NYC.

There is something funny I have learned about life. I wrote that sentence earlier and never finished it. That figures doesn’t it. Well I didn’t overachieve today, or this weekend, really, at all. But I did get a little something done. And the teeth whitening is underway! Weird how I can be intimidated by doing something so simple. Tomorrow I shall attempt to get into a little yoga by around ten AM. I get up at five pretty much every day so it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch. I will watch yet another series finale. I have a list of things to do. And there are still seventeen days left until I hop on a plane and get the ef out of here. Half that time I will be away, so I really have to watch my behavior over these next two weeks otherwisse I just might meet with an epic fail. Everything on the actual blackboard behind my head must go into a new document of the same name. I’m not really sure what happened yesterday working with Gary who is this guy who also works for people like the Edge (yay?) and Kanye West (yikes?); anyway he is a computer whiz and is helping me set up my new laptop without dragging over a bunch of old crap. At leas that’s what he said. I don’t think anybody has a clue as to what is going to happen to all the stuff we’ve created and stored on backups, hard-drives, other devices. Where will all this stuff go when we die? I guess: who cares, right? there doesn’t seem to be much of a legacy when it comes to it so I don’t think I should worry myself all that much, one wy or another. I want things to take. I’m not some born-rich guy nor am I some scrappy kid who had to make a mint. I’m just myself and I’ve plodded along as best I can, expressing myself as an actor, a writer, a journalist, an impressario, a producer, a performer (yeah I did that too); I’ve done a lot of things I suppose and could do a lot more. I didn’t give up on dreams like others have. I just wrote a killer proposal for a new book and if the people who were supposedly waiting with baited breath for it don’t bite in the end than I suppose I will have dodged a bullet. Any meeting that takes longer than forty-five minutes will typically not result in anything; never mind a two and a half hour meeting, being held hostage, by someone who speaks in babytalk.

I am rounding the corner. I am coming up on meeting myself in the hot room. I am not where I want to be (quote unquote) size wise, but I’m feeling happy and healthy and determined to keep that energy going. Not to say I will deny myself the usual pleasures but having done so for awhile now (as an experiment) I am noticing the ways in which one doesn’t immediately snap back as one once did and how I’ve been laboring under the delusion that I would. So I have some work cut out for myself. But it isn’t so insurmountable as all that. And I will look on the bright side that the first layer of excess has been lopped off and I’m now free to focus on a very managable (and largely unnoticeable, or, at least, easily hideable) “situation.” I’m sad about the losses; but I get said watching some animal show on “Nature” where one of a pack of wild dogs gets hit by a Land Rover and causes all the other dogs to sniff around it making sad noises before moving on with their lives. We are all wild dogs. Just this week a number of Provincetown people left us and, though none of them was anyone I knew very well, there is still this sense of predator death lying in wait for all of us. The only thing to combat these great inevitabilities is to do good work and to do good works.

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

Sagittarius 15° (December 7)

First things first I need to put some Paris notes together for the next half hour. (Only it took a couple of days!) Gardens, Parks and Places.

Promenade Plantée.As part of a 12e outing. A sort of Paris Highline, following a defunkt rail line. Begins at the Bastille Opera. Nice views and benches to rest and follows above streets filled with arty shops.

Parc Montsouris.On the edge of the 14e, created by Emporer Napoleon III. English garden, small lake and waterfall with puppet theater.

Jardin des Plantesin the 5e. Endlessly fascinating botanical garden with Natural History museum filled with endless assembled skeletons. Other smaller museums and greenhouses. And there’s a zoo which we don’t go to because we don’t like zoos. The jardin is near to the end bit of boulevard St-Germaine and Diptyque, Chez René, Iode (see below).

Parc de la Villette. Dries used this place for a fashion show back in the day. Huge park with a science museum and music halls and outdoor art. It’s on the edge of Paris in the 19e.

Jardin Albert Kahn. Just outside Paris in Boulogne-Billancourt. Part of the Albert Kahn museum of historic photographs. The garden is a mix of Japanese, English, French with a mini Vosges forest reconstuction.

Jardin du Luxembourg.for those who have never been there is also a must. We like to visit all the statues of les Reines de France that punctuate the park.

Churches and Palaces

Sacre Coeur. If you have to go (and if you haven’t been you really do need to) then try to go toward evening when the crowds are leaving and attend Vespers which is typically 6PM. One of the better strolls up the hill would begin at the Moulin Rouge. You can keep the Café de 2 Moulins as a landmark in mind (it was where Amélieworked in that film). You might want to breeze through the Cemetery. There is also the I Love You Walland the Place du Tertre. There is still a windmill—the Moulin de la Galette and another famous cafe, La Maison Rose. If you use all these as landmarks it will make a nice jaunt!

Eglise Saint-Gervais. As I’m writing this in unlinear fashion I’ve already said it’s our favorite church. It is south of rue du Rivoli in the 4e (not technically still Marais but close enough) and the area is all beautiful shops and cafés-resto. We end up here a lot just to sit. And we try to time it with the singing masses which are beautiful. Don’t be put off by the homeless people camping around. The church is incredibly charitable and they disenfranchised do flock there.

Sainte-Chapelle. boulevard du Palis in the 1e. It is in the Palais de la Cité on the Île de la Cité. Gothic royal chapel dating to the 13th century, chapel of the French kings.

Palais Royale. Opposite the Louvre in the 1e. The galleries are filled with designer shops. Make sure to walk around the entire thing. Gaultier, Ric Owens, Jerome Dreyfuss,Pierre Hardy and Didier Ludot’s famed vintage store. A must do. As is strolling through the Gallerie Vivienne to the north. Colette’s residence is in this quartier too as is the Grand Colbert restaurant. You don’t have to eat there unless you’re Keanu Reeves and Diane Keaton in that sappy film. Go west to Place Vendome, go east to Place des Victoires.

Additional Strolls

Louvre through Tuilleries to Grand Palais and Petit Palais.

Marais north into the 3e around Arts et Metier then east to Republic and back down near Merci and Place des Vosges.

Hotel de Ville to Left Bank to Pantheon (near Cafe de la Nouvelle Marais) through the rue Mouffetard and Place Monge to Jardin des Plantes and to the eastern start of boulevard Saint Germain.

Pont Neuf to Left Bank up rue Dauphine, passage Dauphine, rue de Buci, rue de Seine, rue Jacob toward the 7e becomes rue de l’Université “rue de l’U” through the Place du Palais Bourbon all the way to the Tour Eiffel.

Of course along the Seine and the quais on the Left Bank. The Dries store is on the quai Malaquais and Shakepeare & Company bookstore is quai Saint-Michel. Just keep dipping up and down the “side streets” leading up from the river. Many art galleries.

Lesser Trodden Museums: (Buy a Paris Museum Pass in advance which will allow you to skip the entry lines. Go to parisinfo.com Check individual museum hours. With the strike on many museums will be closed.) *means prioritize!

Musée de l’Orangerie. If only for the rooms containing Monet’s giant Water Lillies. (With the strike on now it seems that these are the only rooms of the museum open)

*Musée Nissm de Camondo. A beautiful intact home cum museum of decorative arts. The family were like Rothchilds of the Ottoman Empire and their story is fascinating and tragic. Built in early 20th century to house Moise de Camando’s obsessive collection of 18th century furnishings, art and collectibles. Right off the Parc Monceau.

Musée Jacquemart-André: Also near Parc Monceau. A private collection of Italian Renaissance masterpieces. Thinking Jacquemart and André are a couple.

Musée Eugène Delacroix. rue de Furstenberg, 6e. Tiny museum in house where he lived in a pretty square with a garden and his atelier.

*Musée Mormotton Monet. Once a private (Empire) home of Mormotton the permanent collection (the room of tiny portraits is a fave) features Monet and Berthe Morisot. Right now there is a showing of figurative Mondrians which rarely get featured anywhere. It’s on the edge of the 16e and you can walk down a path right into the Bois de Bologneon a mild day.

Musée Maillol. rue de Grenelle in the 7e. Work by the sculptor plus pieces by Kandinsky, Matisse, Cezanne, from the private collection of Dina Vierny.

Musée de l’Hommeand the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoineare in the Palais Chaillot, across the river from the Eiffel Tower. The first is a museum of the evolution of man (Cro-Magnon jewelry!, carved mammoth tusks!) and the second feature plaster casts of the countries greatest monuments.

Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, avenue du President Wilson in the 16e. Bonnard, Modigliani, Braque et al.

Musée de Cluny(Musée Nationale du Moyen Âge). 28 rue Sommerar in the 5e. It is dusty and damp and dank and delicious (“for those who like that sort of thing that is the sort of thing they like”—Miss Jean Brodie). If only for the Unicorn tapestries.

And the  obvious:

Musée Picasso-Paris. rue de Thorigny, in the 3e just north of Marais

Musée Rodin, rue de Varenne 7e. (Eat at Josephine Chez Dumonezon rue du Cherche-Midi)

Shopping

Le Bon Marché. rue de Sèvres, 7e. Quite possibly our favorite store in the world. And maybe the first ever department store on the planet (don’t quote me). Now owned by the LVMH group it remains a wonder. Beware: you can lose track of time in here.

Flea Market. There are many marchés des pucebut with limited time you should go to the Marché Paul Bert Serpette which is at Saint-Ouen, “world’s largest antique and decor market”. Closed Tuesday-Thursday. It is within the larger flea market but you want to go directly there. Have lunch at Le Biron, 85 rue des Rosiers, or (where the market owners go): Le Paul Bertrestuarant.

Merci. On the Boulevard Beaumarchais. Just northeast of Places des Vosges: Concept store with designer and other fashions and beautiful home items. A delicious plant-driven restaurant (La Cantine) downstairs. Their (Le Used Book) café library, where you can also eat—great for a late breakfast.

Ailleurs. On rue Saint-Nicolas, a stroll east of Bastille along rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine in the 12e. Lighting, furniture, glassware, textiles, ceramics et al.

Azzedine Alaia. Women’s obviously but is like visiting a temple. rue de Moussy, Marais.

Art-Depot(great vintage shop—I bought 60s Persol sunglasses) and Lambert Lambert(antique furniture).They are both on the rue des Barres (also rue Pont Louis-Phillipe, just opposite our favorite church Église Saint-Gervais) in the 4e near the river. There is also a Papier Plusshop and the Abbey store(at least that’s what we call it) associated with the church which sells things made by monks and cloistered nuns. The Eau d’Emeraude is something we always buy—it’s made by the same monks that make Chartreuse—and it is a healing miracle.

Diptyque. When you’re back in the hood near Chez René and Iode and Jardin des Plantes you can dip into (get it?) this original flagship store. It’s pretty beautiful.

Eating

Chez René. In a Paris world where most of our favorite traditional restaurants have faded into memory, this place has come to represent one of the last great hopes. It serves things only French people will eat (kidneys and brains and other organs) but you are safe with the coq au vin or boeuf Bourgignon. Funny, charming waiters in the full kit and apron. Shiny dark red banquettes and a small zinc bar and exhibition posters fill the walls. At the very end of boulevard Saint-Germaine in the 5e near La Tour D’Argent. Reserve for sure: 43 54 30 23.

Bar à Iode. Also near the end of boulevard Saint-Germaine in the 5e (in case you haven’t noticed it’s one of our favorite areas). Delicious oysters and other raw shellfish and perfectly cooked fish dishes. A youngish couple opened this about five years ago and made a great success of it. Service can be slightly slow but definitely worth the wait. The decor is bright and simple—long blonde wood tables with colored metal chairs. Very Loic and Rob (Canteen) looking.

Café de la Nouvelle Mairie. rue des Fossés Saint-Jacques. This is our happy place. We go for tartines and bowls of coffee in the morning. We go for plat du jour or soup and mackerel rillette for lunch. And we definitely go for dinner at least twice a week when “living” in Paris. The food is simple and fantastic. The wine list (many organic reds) is superb—in fact it is mostly billed as a wine bar. It’s small and slightly cramped but always in a congenial way. The servers might seem aloof when in fact they’re super chill. Attracts many Sorbonne professors, philosophers, writers. Feels like the modern equivalent of an authentic 19th century cafe experience. Even some of the wait staff look like they’ve stepped out of Lautrec paintings. We tried to keep this place secret but word has definitely gotten out.

Vivant. This place is super special too. The chef/owner is the son of the owner of the clothing line A.P.C. but he is the real deal and totally committed to this “experience.” It is a tiny place. Most seats are actually at the bar (which we prefer). You have to reserve well in advance as there are few seats. The number they give doesn’t look like a landline +33(0)967499626.The bar is best, too, because you can see them making everything. The bar is basically also the kitchen. The walls are lined with cases of wine. The somelier is top notch. Everyone looks young enough to be your grandchild. It is beyond delish.

Josephine Chez Dumonet. rue de Cherche-Midi 6e. Surely as good if not better than Chez René however the Goop crowd has found it (thanks a lot Gwyneth) so it can be filled with people who are quite full of themselves. But it is a wonderful bistro. Prolly more relaxing for lunch (if you just have a soup for dinner). You would need to book. 45 48 52 40. I would definitely eat things like a terrine (made in house) and steak tartare and pidgeon and other authentic things here. The chef is Jean-Christian Dumonet and he knows a lot of New Yorkers.

Pizza Chic. When you just want a pizza and a salad but you still want to people watch and maybe spot a French film star or two this is the place. Probably among the best pizza restaurants anywhere. 13 rue de Mézierères 6e.

Le Voltaire. 27 quai Voltaire. when you’re also feeling very flush and French. Try to get seated in the back room with all the vraie Parisien.

Cafés/Wine Bar (other than Nouvelle Mairee)

Le Petit Fer Au Cheval. rue Vielle du Temple in the Marais. It looks like nothing. I always have lunch solo in the back. Great Plat du Jour. Or sit at the tiny bar and order the cheese and charcuterie plate which is enough for four (but I’ve also polished off myself). It’s a bit unkempt with a horrid toilet. But the real deal.

Le Pick Clops. Maris also on rue Vielle du Temple. It’s a holdover from the eighties (kind of kitsch Americana in style). Still I find it very neighborhoody and authentic since it’s been here foreover. Open till 2am.

Le Rubis.It can be intimidating both in terms of the space and the food but it is worth pushing through anxiety and claustrophobia as this place hasn’t changed in an age. Great for a rustic lunch not for the faint of heart. If the downstairs is full, the barman will expose a sort of secret door and stairway up to “à l’étage” to a small room of tables. It is very meaty (lots of sausage, pig trotters and such served on lentils for instance) but really so delicious. Stuffed cabbage, herring salad. Amazing wine (despite its ancient look it is noted as a genuinely lauded contemporary wine bar!). You can also hang outside for drinks and use the barrels on the street as tables. rue du Marché St-Honore in the 1e. (After a stroll in the Tuilleries!).

If choosing between Les Deux Magotsand Café Floreyou should do the latter. But both have become kind of tourist traps where the servers put French people in one area and the rest of us in another. I go here on “French Day” when I pretend to decided frogginess!

Have Fun! XX

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

Sagittarius 14° (December 6)

Woke up at three-thirty once again but there is nothing to be done but just start moving and use the time wisely. I have furthered tidied my office—or rather let it tidy itself as I prepare for the grand exodus. I’m not overachieving right now and I don’t feel that I have to. got some writing done and contacted the Venice hotel as I said I would. Prepared the kitchen for the day and am soon to set out to get some errands accomplished. I need to see if my barber is in residence, first and foremost. Then I will slide down to UPS drop off and get some coffee ground at the factory and pick up some sicky supplies (cough drops and tissues et al) then do a breeze through Vintage In Vogue if they are open, which they are meant to be. I got on the phone to the conflicting doctors, too, and hopefully straightened all of that out. There are just over two weeks now until the grand exodus and I’m feeling fairly prepared to make said exit. I will set off soon and when I come back I will put together all the notes regarding Paris and have a lovely time musing on that while I let my choppers brighten. I’m not going to worry about the car right now as there seems no point in doing so. That said I could just give a call—which I did—and same old message as always: that he isn’t it. I will have tried many times. I will stop by there tomorrow after I make my morning dump run. All my errands went well; in the meantime we had a note back from the agent and there is no good news yet to report.

I said I felt okay about that but the truth is that somewhere I do feel the manifestation of sadness. I understand where one is coming from when they say they would like a win. I too would like a win. I’m not going to write back today because I just can’t bear it really. One of us will have to but I really don’t want it to be me. What can one do. All one can do is keep trying. People who work in publishing are, on the whole, a miserable, victim type individual. They dart around their flourescent lit halls, avoiding real work, then collect their paychecks. They’ve never had to have been creative in their whole entire life. They, like most lawyers, agents, managers, lie for a living. It’s fairly ridiculous. We shall continue to keep a positive attitude. When you make a deal with a publisher you are suddenly working for someone in a sense. And, at least for right now, we don’t have to work for anybody. That is the boon of being who we are. I will work today till around four o’clock and then I’m going to check out and just watch some movies or new Netflix series or some such. I am not here to overachieve. I am here to work my magic as best I’m able and that I can do without much muss or fuss. We are very fortunate. And most likely there will be a deal but if there isn’t one with the person in question than I believe we would have been saved from something. I know one thing is for sure: for wahtever reason we are not being given the easiest of rides in this journey; nor are we having the most difficult either. The most important thing I’m learning at this juncture is that I am capable of pulling myself up by the bootstraps and, moreover, that I have the ability to self moderate, even if that means more abstinence than temporance for awhile. Mainly I don’t want to be bothered by upset, nor do I want to be plagued by overwork. I want to take a light touch and I want to work some magic for awhile. It is about focusing on relationships and that means taking responsibility for those that didn’t serve me in the first place. I have to admit my part in those instances and all I can do really is concentrate on being my best self. It is too easy to be disappointed. Disappointment is a luxury I can ill afford. I wasn’t born into homeless poverty living on the streets of Calcutta; nor was I plopped into some lap of luxury. I grew up poorer than most, for sure. And I want to say I’m proud of that. I need to steer clear of others (anybody!) who equates their material wealth with some sort of superiority. If anything it is a recipe for the opposite being true. I just want to keep my side of the street clean, if not to myself.

I know what I’m doing is right I know the way I’m approaching my days just now is exactly correct. I have faith in my abilities and if people don’t seem to “get me” or my work or my brand or whatever it is you want to call it that’s also fine. I am going where the love is. And the main place that love is coming from is from me. I have no reason to flaunt that fact. I am not taking to social media every day (like so many others) putting up photos of myself. Sure, I am writing about my life and posting it on a Blague that is public, but you don’t seem me promoting the fact. I don’t believe in that. This is my way of being invisible in public which is one of my more favorite things to do slash be. I think that’s why I used to love smoking pot so much in my youth. I would smoke and it would relax me and I would be out in public, even in crowded places, and feel so cushioned and so beautifully alone. It lasted into my thirties. Then it backfired and instead of feeling cottony and chill and part of some invisible, silent fabric, I felt that there were alarms going off in my head. I still love the way it makes me feel, mentally. I love the ideas that it brings to light if not to life. But I cannot stand the way it feels in my body. It’s like little demons getting trapped in my blood or nervous system, that something is going to give way, that I’m going to have a stroke or something. I would never happen because  really what’s going on is some form of panic attack; and in truth pot aint the pot that I grew up on which just made me feel tired and slightly headachy or then, when the green stuff came along, sort of crystaline like the buds themselves, bursting with clarity and flavor. That was the stuff of my college life when that amazing superior bud was first introduced. I could smoke a tiny pinch, a crumb I would call it (didn’t we all) and be high for hours listening to records in my room which I would deconstruct. i had few clothes and I had fewer friends and I liked it that way. I either ran everywhere—to classes or workstudy, which was a deep sadness (having to work in the cafeteria or some such when none of my friends needed to do likewise); or I would ride my nineteen-sixtees no-speed, pedal-break red Columbia bicycle. I was all alone and loving it. I didn’t need another living soul on the planet. I just needed enough for some double cheeseburgers from some cheap place and I don’t think I needed to eat more than once a day. I remember the summer of 1983 living in an M.I.T. dorm and working at the B.U. School of Theology (basically I was the Registrar for the summer while the real one was away) and I know I went to lunch and had those cheeseburgers, which I would bring to my friend Chris’s where we would smoke put and eat them and watch The Monkees on re-runs. But I have no concept of ever eating dinner. Just like I have zero notion of ever being lonely. Who was I then. I know I didn’t have stresses because everything was ahead of me and I just assumed I would be, well, not rich and famous, necessarily (I never thought in those terms) but happy leading a creative life and fulfilled. I’m not quite though am I; although I’m not far off either. I just have a little negotiating to do. A little adjusting.

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

Sagittarius 13° (December 5)

We have a client this morning at seven. I woke up at three because S. was coughing. I haven’t gotten back to sleep. I won’t re-start my practice today. Instead I will try for a hair cut and I will also attempt to get all loose ends tied. We have to go over colors and stones which is fine. And I will put together a Paris brief for Pete and Ted and Tim and Billy (The new Bob and Carrol and Ted and Alice?) which is mainly going to be something we slap together for ourselves. During the client session I will jot down notes as occur to me. We have a new solar return chart for our morning session which is always an easy thing to focus on for ninety minutes. In any case I’m pleased to have the clients I have and I’m actually in the mood to beef up the clientele a great deal over the next two years while everything else gets put into play. I’m also really happy to take inventory of my friends, lovers and other strangers. I was going to be really good food-wise today but I am really jonesing for a delicious bowl of pasta and so that is what I will do. I ordered a coat from Harris Wharf for not a lot of money. Hopefully it will be big and roomy enough that I can work it fairly hard. I did get the contract conversation moving with the Art House. I am waiting on word from the other A.R.T. house. We sorted out all the stuff we needed to pharmacy wise. My primary has still as yet not sent information to Cape Cod office so I can schedule my procedure in April which I am definitely going to do. I have a tarp to put on the car for when we are away so I can at least postpone the whole conversation about water getting in. It doesn’t matter come Spring because I will work that car into the ground until such time as I get another one, which I hope will be by June. I want something really nice. And I will be able to protect it, now in the cold months, so that is all a boon. My desk is clearing slowly but surely and I will also have the house in working order and will actually begin to get all my costuming and actual wardrobe into place for the trip. I mean it when I say that I am not bringing a lot. I know I don’t need to. If the new brown coat work then that will be all I’ll need. Otherwise I will work my old A.P.C. cotton coat. These might all be private thoughts but honestly I don’t have many of those left. And I have no trepidation in letting anybody know it.

So I am making a sort of modified carbonara—sautéeing onions and turkey bacon which makes an incredible carmelization, with black pepper; four egg yolks, a good parmesan, fresh parsely, more pepper, pasta water and that’s it. I have to say it was better than the “real” carbonara with pancetta and wine. Absolutely fulfilled my pasta woolly and I will have gained a pound but it was worth it. And tomorrow I will be super “saine” and just eat some fish, vegetables, salad and soup. I also need to start whitening my teeth. I’m jealous of S.’s system which is just an hour at a time. Mine is four to six. And I loathe doing it overnight, so I have to find a block in the day. It’s good in that it keeps me from doing any kind of grazing whatsoever. I have set up my little yoga studio in the room next door and am going to get that process underway. I’m happy to get out and get some additional shopping under my belt today. There really is no substitute for checking things off ones list way before one might actually need to. I don’t think I have my brain completely around how to promote the books and such. I do think it my duty to start the outreach for the larger plan that I want to put into works, regarding Glow and all that it can be. I think that might be a very worthwhile operation, especially in regard to funding a Cambridge existence. It wouldn’t really take very much to put a prospectus together. And so it goes on the list! It is definitely time to diversify because we cannot count on the future remaining anything even remotely like the past. I am very much into this fasting concept I can tell you that much and just another twenty-five days of this sort of thing should hold me in quite good stead. I will be doing both yoga and teeth whitening at the same time tomorrow, the yoga eats up half of the whitening time in any case or should do. I should be able to stomach doing it at night in any case.

Oh lord I really am on a tear of offering up way too much personal information. But you know what that’s okay. Tomorrow I will dedicate most of this to putting together the Paris infor for my friends who are traveling there while reminding myself of what’s what in the process. My goal is to make friends while I’m there, bone up on my study. I think I might bring a bunch of easy French books with me that will keep us fresh and juicy and anyway speed the plow a bit on our education. I have those two French grammar books and a bunch of little novelettes. I think those would be the perfect things to bring with us as we can always mail them home to Brad. I am feeling a little less claustrophobic I think. And I will need to write to Laura and make sure she knows that I wasn’t really blaming her. I will also call Jeff at the glass company to make a little appeal. Or I won’t. It might be time to let the whole thing go. I will keep plugging away and I will be scrubbing my entire upstairs existence. That is not a metaphor that is me saying I actually have to clean and clear out the upstairs portion of my house, here, which has become my office in effect. I wonder if I shouldn’t pay rent to A/C in effect for the coming year. It won’t add up to much but it will add up to something. I don’t know. I mean probably better to take no salary and to keep the overhead low. By the same token I’d like to set a new preedent that we actually get paid for the things we do. I can’t say I’m grateful that there is no book right now but there is benefit to the fact. I promise to start making these entries actually mean something sometime soon.

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

Sagittarius 12° (December 4)

Wow the strangest dreams again last night. We have been falling asleep by nine and getting up by five the latest for many days on end now and I have to say it feels amazing. I am feeling rather caught up on projects and today will be a rather simple affair of doing some writing (including this) and catching up on banking (including a trip to do so in person in Provincetown) and completely cleaning up my desk and straigthening up the entire office continuing to make and run down the requisite lists in preparation for the grand departure. It is nigh on nine o’clock and I have done a bunch of busy work and communicated with T-S on follow up to yesteday’s conversation and I have prepared a soup and some roasted carrots and will ready myself for getting things to discard along the way into town today. Carbage is what I call bits of rubbish I can gather up and throw away locally without having to go to the dump. It isn’t strictly legal but if you know that process via which our kitchen has to function in order to separate the plastics from the glasses from paper from the rubbish. A compost bin was installed on the property soon after we moved in however someone (not us) dumped cooked food into it and completely ruined it; up till then I was giving scraps to chickens and composting and all of that but I just had to give up because our efforts were for naught in the end. So right I will put together the entire list of what needs to happen over the next four weeks and begin to tie off as I go, all the while trying to promote, mainly, the new year astrology books, to everyone within earshopt. Everything else will have to wait until our return in the Spring. Ah, the beauty of missing the entire winter on Cape Cod I cannot tell you how joyous a thing that will be. And I’m alreay envisioning the Paris apartment as a regular base.

So we headed into town and, I don’t know if he lies in wait or not, T. was at the post office as he often is when we go there. Today of course he knew we were coming. He suggested a coffee and I reminded him S. not feeling well and that we really can’t talk—we spoke for an hour yesterday he and I; and I put together minutes which he probablly will not have read (neither would he have read S.’s notes)—he is always on to the next subject: I will speak and try to make a point or a suggestion, and I can tell he’s not listening; all he is ever thinking about is the next thing he’s going to say. And points never land. He starts every sentence with “you know what I just thought of?” and one never gets any kind of resolution on what one has oneself said. It is very frustrating and it may very well be the deal breaker in the end on any further work-related ensembleness. We shall see. If we were to move forward, in any case, it would have to be me leading the way. It can’t be S. because she can’t have any more on her plate; and it can’t be him because he isn’t capable of focusing, forever struck by the next shiny object of thought in his brain. And anyway it doesn’t matter. It is a fine vanity project; and it will take off; but I’m not really going to do anything about it until February in any case because everyone will be on holiday.

The things on my plate: talking to doctors which is underway. Getting everything to lawyers which is also now tied off. I did some research on the factory landscape of Rhode Island and came up with some interesting leads I think. Bookmarking as I go. I am now going to do a little online coat shopping.  I am resigned to doing home practice of my yoga for now because there just aren’t enough hours in a day. We got some rain shoes and put them back in the box as they were flimsier than anticipated. I just went to Huckberry and saw the same shoes for a lot less so I’m wondering if we should just order directly from there (the same shoes) or laisse tomber. Nice drag king name: Les Tombay. I think I can move on for today….

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

Sagittarius 11° (December 3)

Ah, the sign of Sagittarius with all it’s wild abandon. I don’t know how it is I feel yet today. I have been awake for two hours and it is only just past six in the morning. Today shall include a trip to town to get some food in, and a quick breeze through the vintage shop if it is open. I had crazy dreams full stop last evening; all I really remember is some weird kind of threesome set up (the sex part of which didn’t happen) and that I was going to sell my old car because I already had three others. We watched the Candy Darling doc last evening which was enlightening on a few levels. Anyway I am looking forward to even the tiniest outing to Orleans this morning do to simple things like visit the fish shop and so forth and then I get to CVS where (I won’t go into details) I end up telling the rude as shit pharmacist to go fuck himself. So much for my idyllic sojourn up Cape this morning. It is absolutely a joke. Honestly I feel that if I were six foot tall I wouldn’t have to deal with half the bullying crap I deal with. And then these fuckwads are always so surprised when I don’t take their projectile shit. I moved my prescription back to Provincetown so we shall see what happens. I hate being a person who needs a prescription in any case but what are you going to do. I was so upset I forgot to visit the vintage store which was the main reason I was going in that direction in any case. Oh well there are worse things. I am really trying to enjoy. I did make a complaint to the store manager whom I called. She kept me on the phone for hours using the same phrase (in the title above) over and over to describe how she was going to let the pharmacy manager (of sixteen stores) know. I later saw a message that she called. I’m going to say this.

First of all I have been getting my prescription filled at this CVS for years. And for some reason, at least a half a dozen times, over the years, my information falls out of your system. So I have actually taken that into account and whenever I go to the store I leave extra time. Sure enough I got there and Amy was working the counter. She said there was no prescription ready. I said that I received a text. I had my existing bottle of pills with me as I said I was prepared. She typed it in and said that okay yes she could fill it. I waited about twenty minutes—as I said I left time. All the while casually chatting with Amy and other customers. Meanwhile I can see the pharmacist very sour faced doing his job and noticed he was huffing and puffing a lot, frustratedly. One older woman came in and said she wanted a flu shot. The pharmacist overheard and practically yelled from behind his counter that “I’m not doing flu shots…we are too understaffed.” Meanwhile there had been about three other customers, including the lady, in the last twenty minutes. The old lady said that she had called and them man told her it was ok. The pharmacist overheard this and said “ok I’ll give her a flu shot since she called but nobody else.” Finally he had filled my prescription and when Amy ran it up it $15.99 which is not the price I pay. I say I only pay five dollars. She looked in the system again and saw my previous pickups and that indeed yes indeed I only pay five dollars but she said that somehow my insurance information had quote-unquote fallen out. I told her that this wasn’t the first time—that it happened often. I gave her my card and she put it in again. And said the price was now right. But the register wasn’t processing it for some reason. She kept trying. Finally she asked the pharmacist for help who was extra huffing and puffing and making it obvious to everyone that he was being put upon. I waited another ten minutes or so.

By now I’ve been there probably 30-40 minutes and he suddenly yells out William I can’t do this today it will have to be tomorrow. I said excuse me why is that. And he said very pointedly at me “because you JUST NOW gave us your insurance information and it takes a day.” I said well that’s not true, you’ve had my insurance information for years. It keeps falling out of your system which is not my fault. And as I’m explaining he literally throws his hands in the air and mumbles “I can’t do this” under his breath and disappears behind his work station. Amy looks at me. I look at her. And I said you know what you’re being very rude. He comes out saying I’m not being rude. You just now gave us the card information and there is nothing I can do. I said you are being rude. And I asked for his name. He said Nelson. Then some old man then pipes up and says to me that Nelson really is a very good pharmacist. And I said well that might be true but he’s acting like a rude bastard. At this Nelson raises his voice to say that I am permanently banned from this CVS that he will not fill my prescription today or any other day and that I should leave and never come back to which I said you know what Nelson go fuck yourself. How dare you treat a customer like this. I have been waiting patiently for forty minutes good naturedly and you tell me you can’t fill my prescription and accuse me of being the reason why and then when I try to explain you literally throw your hands up and mumble something under your breath and walk away. If that’s not rude I don’t know what is. So don’t act like suddenly I’m the problem because I’m calling you a rude bastard. And yes you should do exactly what I suggest which is go fuck yourself and in the meantime I’m going to complain about you so that you n ever treat another customer like this again. And so I went to the front desk to ask for the manager and was told she wasn’t coming in for another hour. So I got her name and said I’d call. I walked back to the pharmacy and asked an older woman worker who had newly appeared how to transfer my presription to another pharmacy. She told me what to do. I called Stop n Shop in Provincetown and moved my prescription there. I am very connected here on Cape Cod. I run a non-profit arts agency. And I have a very big presence on social media. I have yet to share my story publically as I thought that first I would have this discussion with you.

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

Sagittarius 10° (December 2)

Got up so early. Stella was already awake as she has inherited my dreaded cold. We cancelled the lot and just worked as best we could for as long as we could in front of the fire. Word that another targeted editor took a pass. We are baffled since the praise was glowing. It went like this “My apologies for the delay in getting back to you on this one and thank you for keeping me in the loop. Starsky & Cox’s proposal is fascinating, fresh and has the perfect mixture of thoughtful advice, mystical thinking and emotional resonance. I hadn’t thought much on the ways that self-help and personal growth and astrology intersect up to this point, but astrology remains a thriving part of the zeitgeist and rightfully so as I found their theories incredibly interesting. And beyond the initial concept, the advice in the proposal resonates in a way that I think many people already seeking a more mindful life will come to. Nevertheless, I just didn’t connect with the more prescriptive tone of the proposal in the way that I’d hoped and felt that it was reminiscent to other projects on the market or soon to come. Without that clear vision for how to best to break this book out, I’m going to have to pass on this one on behalf of [redacted]. I hope you will find the perfect home for the book.”

Right cheers thanks alot. Rejection letters are never fun but especially not when they seem so, well, accepting! Anyway, onwards and upwards (yet another expression people say when they want to make it clear that the relationship/collaboration is over (even if before it began). Turns out that publisher is all up Gwyneth Paltrow’s behind. It is time to take full stock of who we are and what we’ve done. I think it will make a lot of sense to publish various books, going back to decide which books have had their [redacted] expire, so that we can publish them under our own steam. I can publish the complete works of Shakespeare I think. These are questions for our lawyer. Or lord Mary, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m just going to have to be brutal about all of this and let the chips fall where they may. It wasn’t a busy day per se. The weather is rotten. I made a fire so that we could work together in the living room for, at least, a part of the day. I am resisting all urges. I am doing what is necessary. I am drinking tea and sucking on cough drops and hoping for the best and preparing for the not so great. I aim to be in the ot room in the next two days. I think it might very well be possible. I would like to put down some minutes from our meeting with Tim today as I think it will be important to do. I am also having to write up some things for folks to enjoy while on their trip to gay Paris. I’m not really sure what it is I suggest these days. I will ask the expert and see what she comes up with. Some brief minutes from the meeting:

Hello I thought I would just jot down some highlight “minutes” from our meeting today so that we have a record. And so Stella, who was feeling poorly, can catch up on what’s what as she resurfaces. I thought of at least one thing I neglected to say so I put those thoughts in bold to fill in any gaps….

I launched into the chat today, saying that on the Starsky + Cox front that I would be leading on the jewelry initiative. And that there were two parallel avenues I was going to be spearheading, one being sussing out with Alice what would need to be done and info-gathering from her on what design and production might entail; the other avenue being the putting together of a comprehensive agreement between Starsky + Cox (Wheel Atelier Inc.) and Tim-Scapes that would emcompass what we were already doing together while covering all that we potentially plan to do. On the Alice front I reiterated that she had the design illustrations from Tim and she imagined a two-full-day process of turning the illustrations into viable jewelry design drawings. Also that she was thinking about a Turkish production facility where sterling silver (or gold plated silver or both) designs could be made; and that there was mention of 100 piece minimum per (twelve) design. I mentioned that we would have Alice explore more options, either with that facility or others, and try to work out the possibility of smaller minimum per design; and also to give us some kind of rough estimate of cost. For Alice to do pretty much anything more that what she’s already done (eyeballing the designs and making some inquiries) we would have to pay her a fee for this two-full-day’s worth of work, culling any and all information, and getting the designs in readiness for sampling. What I forgot to say (although Stella may have already mentioned this in a previous chat) is that rather than being paid beyond that two-day stint, Alice would prefer toreceive a small percentage of the business (profits) along with us. This would also need to either be worked into our agreement, or as an addendum to it, or as a separate agreement.

I mentioned, in any case, that Marilyn suggests a simple two-page L.O.A. to replace the contract we now have in place as that contract is “overly complicated” and is actually more of a licensing agreement. And that I was thus going to lead on putting all the wording together, as best I can, in some semblance of would-be legalese, such that Marilyn could eyeball the agreement and make any changes without spending too much of her time (which is our money) on the document. As information came in from Alice, and based on our discussions together the three of us, here, on our end, I would be putting the pieces of the agreement together over time. There was talk of the new split for everything being 50-50 S+C/T-S (keeping in mind whatever cut we agreed on with/for Alice) to make the split uniform for all our collaborative projects/products. Whereas Tim spearheaded the tee-shirt collection, putting out $$ for production, we discussed the fact that Starsky + Cox would be spearheading the jewelry and funding the production of that. As such I mentioned that in that scenario we envisioned production costs being paid back first, off the gross, before the split would kick in—in comparison with the tee-shirt formula where the split happened from the first sale and production costs were deducted from the gross on a unit by unit basis. (We also reiterated the fact that the jewelry collection would have a double margin of wholesale and retail such that, even when sold direct to customer, it was at the full retail price, allowing us to wholesale the jewelry to other stores, unlike the formula we currently have in place for the tee-shirts.)

On that note we then discussed and reviewed the myriad aspects of the existing Astro-Scapes collaboration. We talked through the various scenarios of paying back production costs and aired our feelings and trepidations about the various methodologies. In the phone call (and subsequent email chats today) Tim decided he would continue to pay out 50/50% on the net as the intake for production cost per unit (@ $17 a unit) was indeed adding up to paying off (paying Tim back) what Tim paid out initially for production. But, in future, Tim will pay-off production first in the same manner as S+C would pay off production first in the manufacture of the jewelry. Doing things in like manner will help to streamline that bit of wording in what will be our comprehensive letter of agreement. In terms of the Astro-Scapes tee shirts, vis a vis other Tim-Scapes product in the Provincetown store, the tees aren’t proving to be as lucrative an inhabitant of the real-estate allotted them in the shop as other Tim-Scapes products are (at least at this juncture). So Tim will likely make some changes regarding display of the product in the store in 2020. We discussed stepping up the promotion of the tee-shirts, over time, online and via social media, which is happening in any case. And we also revisited the notion we had discussed all together this past Spring/Summer of creating more of an Astro-Scapes world to give in-store customers more opportunity, beyond tee-shirts to buy into the astrological product. In the end we seem to be in agreement that, though not selling like gangbusters, the tee-shirts are finding their way and with hardly any promotion as yet to speak of (beyond what little Q has done) they are still moving at a steady pace and that their appeal and success is enough to build on as we enter into their second six-months of existence. Tim is going to play with concepts of what additional product could be added to the “Astro-Scapes” world and S + Q will continue to outreach to influencers, bloggers and the like, along with traditional press focusing on the collaboration and the appeal, particularly, in the gift-giving season, etc.

We decided to put a pin in the jewelry (a bit) or at least to let it sit on the back burner, continuing to info-gather on the subject, while allowing some more comprehensive ideas concerning Astro-Scape world bubble up to the surface. We all agree that we are happy for the collaboration and that communication remains key in juggling the business partnership with friendship and letting the ideas come and the collaboration unfold without added stress or forcing any outcomes while making necessary adjustments (like it’s in-store presence) so that it doesn’t hinder other aspects of the Tim-Scapes product from selling. We agreed to go off and brainstorm a bit, to enjoy the holidays, and our trips away, and to come back together with some fresh eyes, new information and ideas and decide what the next best steps are for the existing tee-shirt line, for new product “ephemera”, and, ultimately (and hopefully) the jewelry collection, informed by more collection of data and more creative thought and a continued proliferation of promotional materials about the Astro-Scapes collaboration!

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