Dubai Layover

The Burj al Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. We watched the fountain show, hilariously set to the song "Take a Walk on the Wild Side," and then toured the Dubai mall just two days before the month-long Shopping Festival. We ate shwarmah behind a mosque and marveled at the Bentleys, Porsches, and Ferraris as they drove up for roadside service. Our friends Becky and Roy gave us the insider scoop as we basked in their unparalleled hospitality. In our delirium, everything is impossibly glossy.

We board our next flight in moments. Next stop, Uganda.

Upcoming LA Show - Art & Gratitude

I'm proud to be involved with an exciting evening featuring art and performances to benefit UgandaProject (UP), an organization that is very dear to my heart. UP provides free education, housing, mentoring, and basic needs to students who have been orphaned, many due to the AIDS epidemic. I first traveled to the village of Ndejje outside of Kampala in May of 2010, and I am thrilled to be returning this coming January to continue building friendships with the students I met there a year and a half ago. This art show in Los Angeles will hopefully help raise the necessary funds to keep our students in school and well cared for. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to share our students' stories with the LA community: with a performance by Broadway star Shoshana Bean and sponsored by actress Abigail Spencer, it promises to be a star-studded evening!

Art Opening Tonight!

Please join us TONIGHT -- Friday, October 7th -- for an art opening highlighting the work of artist Scarlet Ravin, who culminates her six-week residency at The Detached Garage with a fantastic exhibit and celebration.

Hardest Hue is a collection of boudoir-inspired sculpture, chandeliers, and heart-felt hand creations by artist Scarlet Ravin. While in residence, Scarlet transformed the interior of the garage, gilding organic matter like skulls, antlers, flower stems, tree branches, and feathers. She then embellished these natural materials with wire, glue, paint, crystals, and origami. The resulting collection is a lush, expressive journey into the heart of Scarlet's spirit and personal point of view.

Don't miss it!

The Detached Garage
3530 Clayton Street
Denver CO 80205
6pm - 10pm open house
* food and drink available for a suggested donation

The Merc

Fuel for the creative tinderbox.

The Scientist

Sometimes I forget my own name.

I forget my own name

Until he says it out loud.

I hear it bloom from his mouth

Like an exotic flower

Like the red Latin ribbon

Wrapped round an insect otherwise ordinary

Speyeria idalia

Sweet dreams, Andrea

And I don’t know who he means,

What golden-eyed girl his whispers

Are rushed toward.

I am frightened to blink

Frightened I’ll think it to death

A breath, and I’ll flutter away

While he scrambles, pleads

Stay.

So I hover on faith

While he sketches me slowly

Into a scientific journal

A little lined diary he keeps in his pocket

While strolling this island

Of beetles and tortoises

Lizards and finches

Long, lava trenches

And high mountain vistas

Vast pebbled beaches

And low lying mist.

He kissed me like he was planting a flag

And I thought

I want him to name me

I want him to claim me for his own

To peel me like a smooth-skinned grape

To slice me wide open from navel to nape

Then pin me limb by limb

Heart by lung and head by tongue

So pink and proud

So bright and loud

But crushingly silent.

I want to be violently exposed

And told what I am

How I fit into life

By a man who makes and unmakes me

With a pen and a knife.