Shel Graves' Sensorium

Was the Worst Moment When...?  Or, Stolen Moments  Was the worst moment when I stood in my black velvet pantsuit and my pink Trample the Patriarchy t-shirt featuring a defiant unicorn — and realized nothing would be trampled — except me. Was the worst moment when you and I realized we were now in Seattle at the worst party ever, when The Stranger did its sad balloon drop, when the sympathetic man next to me said, "It wasn't about misogyny." — but it was. Was the worst moment when I talked to my matriarchs, when my aunt emailed, "I am in mourning."; when my mother said, "I'm scared."; when our mothers feared for their Medicare and said they wanted to protest — and they may. Was the worst moment when I watched despair spilling through my friends' Facebook feeds... Was the worst moment when it wasn't over... Was the worst moment when I turned off National Public Radio and drove to work in silence and stopped checking the front pag...

Senses of 2016...  Worst of 2016:  Taste:  None! (It was just a delightful year in taste, I recall nothing unpleasant!) Sight: A wine glass broken: the stem separated from the cup; blood-smeared and shivering in pain Smell: a stale peopled room Sound: "That's just logistics."; "Does that make sense?"; Snog - "Corporate Slave" Touch: aching heel, plantar fasciitis; a scraped shoulder, scraped knees; painfully vibrating bass; the rollercoaster on the Santa Monica Pier, eyes squeezed shut (and, yet, those last two kind of fun!) Extra: failing in multiple ways to make pancakes; smug and brutal cardiologists; a terrible minion Worst of the year is inspired by Molly Tenenbaum's "Ode to the Ugly Colors," in The Cupboard Artist by Floating Bridge Press

Best senses of 2016... Fiction of the Year: "That's the horror, the most awful thing: to have a child the world wants to destroy and know that you're helpless to help him. Nothing worse than that. Nothing worse." — Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country — my review here Also, I read a number of excellent novels toward the end of the year and am still soaking in their goodness: Arcadia , Lauren Groff Hag-Seed and The Heart Goes Last , Margaret Atwood, age 77 and she gets better and better Memoirs of a Polar Bear , Yoko Tawada Too Like the Lightening , Ada Palmer Nonfiction Books of the Year:  "You should eat more fruits and vegetables as if your life depended on it, because maybe it does." —   How Not to Die , Dr. Michael Greger,   nutritionfacts.org  —   my book review  "It is these undeniable qualities of human love and compassion and self-sacrifice that give me hope for the future...we fight, we kill. But we are also capable of the most ...

Best senses of 2016... Quotes of 2016: "We have to get to know each other better...it makes us understand one another better, trust each other more, and live together more peacefully." — buddy-baer.com   Why animal activism? "Because it's the magic bullet that fixes everything...famine, ocean acidification, cancer, heart disease, zoonotic disease, rainforest, ebola, climate change are all linked to animal agriculture." — Moby on the Rich Roll Podcast  "Utopia is on the horizon. When I walk two steps, it takes two steps back. I walk ten steps and it is ten steps further away. What is utopia for? It is for this, for walking." — Eduardo Galeano  "Some commonly expressed themes in utopian writing include the following: social harmony and justice meld symbiotically with personal freedom peace and love overcome war and hatred material welfare is achieved for all without recourse to greed or exploitation work, if it exists, is almost alway...

Best senses of 2016...  Touch of 2016: I discovered trail running — what a hoot:   running up a trail over rocks and roots leaping over a stream - Grand Ridge Trail and ran the Seattle Marathon over the I-90 bridge in the wind and the rain. Also: paws, whiskers, soft fur, the cat's belly — Mary Shelley smooth fruit shakes spring air and petals  an apple that fits perfectly in the palm of your hand dance church - touching shoulders ocean breeze

Best senses of 2016... Smells of 2016:  morning forest and autumn leaves after light rain — trail running! waffle cones , trdlo, milano cookie — the scent of the streets of Prague glühwein - anise, cloves, cinnamon, merlot — from Leipzig to Cafe Flora

My best of senses for 2016...  Sounds of 2016: One of my favorite parts of training for my first marathon was all the time I spent outside, so this year my sounds of the year are birdsong and Icicle Creek, which I ran along and listened to while running my the Leavenworth Oktoberfest Marathon. When we traveled to Germany and the Czech Republic and walked all around Berlin, Prague and Leipzig I also asked, "Where was the birdsong loudest in Tiergarten (Berlin), on Petřín hill (Prague) or Clara Zetkin Park (Leipzig)?" Also: the Rich Roll podcast, " Peace + Plants " friends' laughter purring, meowing via Mary Shelley "something to amuse the palate" — our server at Cafe Flora's Thanksgiving  "Turn up the bass, the bass, the bass..." — Johnny Rotten at WGT a magical concert: Peter Murphy acoustic at The Triple Door jangling medals: Lake Washington Half, Anacortes Art Dash pickle, Seattle Marathon clapping, cheering  during the L...

My best of senses for 2016...  Sight of the year: On Nov. 1, 2015   we adopted Mary Shelley, a tortoiseshell cat, from the local animal shelter and I rather thought she might dominate some senses in 2016. At her first visit to the vet, the vet told us her coat and tail would fill out and she would become quite beautiful. I was offended — she was already perfect! But, of course, the vet was right and Mary Shelley is even more lovely and loving now. I adored: her bright yellow eyes, her red sparkly ball, a playful cat, her mouth stretched wide, her sharp teeth, shadowed ears, a paw slipped beneath the door, the cat's chin and — pounce! She shows up in many other senses, too.   Also: Buddy Bears fields of yellow rapeseed (Brassica napus) Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon in Beach Party — thanks to No Bones Beach Club the Baker Butte trail sun rising over the mountain along Icicle Creek and Ponderosa Pines the Santa Monica Pier Guillermo del Toro's books...

My best of senses for 2016...   Taste of the Year: passionfruit (passiflora edulis) gelée - the final flavor of a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner at Cafe Flora  Also:  dates - eaten on long runs, half marathons and full Wayward Vegan Cafe's Alfredo Sauce and new purple kale the Drunken Mushroom at Araya's Place vegan thai  lavendar flavor in the Rocket to Russia at The Highline and in ice cream at the now closed Seattle Cookie Counter  Nocino, walnut liqueur, originated in Northern Italy, made by Skip Rock Distillers Dr. Jekyll's Bio Beer tasted at Vegan Oktoberfest in Los Angeles the coconut mojito, buffalo tofu, hula pie with macadamia nut sauce at No Bones Beach Club

Senses of 2016...  Best moment of the year:  Sometimes there are magical moments and 2016 contained one of them: on our last night in Prague my husband and I continued to walk all around the town well into the evening, down to the park on Střelecký Island in the Vltava river. It grew dark as we were walking over the Legion Bridge. I felt a magical feeling come over me and I believe I said at one point, "Now all we need are fireworks." I certainly thought it. And then there they were — beautiful fireworks over the river. We did not know why this magical moment had happened or what had occassioned this gorgeous display of light. We soaked in the moment. Later, we learned that the fireworks were in celebration of the 700th Anniversary of the birth of Czech king and emperor Charles IV. It was the perfect close to an idyllic trip filled with love, music, friends, adventure, beauty and much delicious vegan food. Other fantastic moments of 2016: anytime I was holding hand...

Whale-Oil by Sylvia V. Linsteadt Why it springs to mind : The idea of the souls of whales and seals being tethered to streetlamps in San Francisco.  Where read : Beneath Ceaseless Skies online , April 28, 2016; recommended by writer Maria Haskins on Twitter Summary: A boy can see what others cannot — a magical world in which float the souls of whales. Memorable : a balloon of whale souls; San Francisco named for Saint Francis of Assisi; a unique take on San Francisco earthquakes Quote: "That night, Altair did not sleep at all. His tiny bedroom was thick with a fog of whales. He dreamed, though, swathed in those benthic phantoms—of dark cold water where the weight of it pressed stars into the brain; of songs more beautiful than any he had ever heard, sieving through the salt and waves; of great distances underwater and the way the moon pulled, and roads only whales could see, and then, terrible: harpoons, the keels of whaling boats, the pain of a body wrenched up dan...

My writer's journal of outstanding senses... Taste: Golden Marala Chai Sight: a frost-covered spiderweb hanging from the awning Sound: jangling medals Smell: masala Touch: simmering spice; cloves burning cloves the back of the throat; below freezing Extra: a poor minion; Whale-Oil by Sylvia V. Linsteadt; "...with light and star-like, for there is no place/that does not see you. You must change your life." — Archaic Torso of Apollo, Rainer Maria Rilke   "Poems can have a numinous power that transforms our experience of, attitude toward self and reality; refreshes it, changes it, deepens it, broadens it, mystifies it, clarifies it, shakes it up." — Dana Levin  Grateful for: a beautiful story, a cat companion, a warm reading room, being home

This is my usual writer's journal to keep track of the senses and not part of the Space Explorer 365 story (365 words of story for 365 days from March 20, 2016 to March 19, 2017) ... Taste: Zippy's clove-y dirty chai; cinnamon sauce, pepitas, caramel, pumpkin, anise Sight:  your husband at the end of a marathon Sound: "something to amuse the palate" Smell: cloves and cinnamon Touch: whiskers tickle; creamy; running over the I-90 bridge in the wind and the rain Extra: how little of my time I spend thinking about pangolins; a warm comforting jasmine scented tea handed to you by monks in a mason jar decorated by spikes of white flowers with one purple petal tip and a hint of red; a house with 16 beds; a wolf head-a wolf mask Grateful for: moms