IT'S ENVIRONMENTAL
I have been sinking into my home environment, like water receding into loose dirt, seeming to disappear but changing the composition of my home substantially. Water and earth were, by the reckoning of antiquity, two of the irreducible elements that all things were variations of the combinations thereof--and all personalities as well. As it turns out, each playfully and beneficially contaminates the other. Only in laboratory conditions can you truly isolate one from the other, and very little life if any will come forth from isolated quantities of either...so, in a sense, there was something intuitively correct in their estimation.
I can think about this as I have the luxury of time. Since I came home from tour, I've been a delighted layabout, a dilettante, wandering to a few concerts (Wolfmother, Mojave 3, Jon Auer/Cheap Star/Paloma), the cinema (I saw _Shortbus_ just up the road from where I live; I also showed _Spirited Away_ to my family at home), to an exhibition of theatre set designs by André Acquart (André Acquart, architecte de l'éphémère, at the Bibliotheque Nationale--unf. I think yesterday was the last day of the exhibit)--Mr. Acquart is our neighbor in this building. I have been reading, visiting a few cafes and restaurants, and of course our local market, the Marché D'Aligre, to buy whatever struck my fancy, regardless of practicality. Dominique stopped me short of buying a whole pheasant, although we did get some feathers for Aden. I've been making tea, taking coffees, sleeping late and/or going to bed incredibly early. I've window shopped, people-watched. Rode the metro. Chatted with a novelist/journalist over lunch for three hours.
I bought and enjoyed immensely Emily Haines' album "Knives Don't Have Your Back". I received a very good record in the post called “sorry machine” by The Subhuman I emptied and filled the dishwasher several times. I had an early morning coffee and croissant with Dom, Aden and Mira Dulok, who came over to watch Jon's show.
I gained and lost 80 pounds in the course of a glance, put on a nice green suit, and also spent almost a whole day in my bathrobe. I took long baths. I spent time with Dom, and Aden. We let her run and jump over and over in a huge mud puddle (we took her straight home for a warm bath afterwards). We had oysters and wine at Le Baron Rouge. Dom and I swapped scarves. And spit. I packaged up some CDs to send to radio stations and never bothered to mail them. I received a box I mailed myself from Oklahoma with clothes for Aden, some DVDs and a book inside. I admired some paintings Aden made. I reseated the screw that holds my strap button on my guitar, which stripped out during the last tour.
I listened to the Bee Gees and Sinatra. I read the Herald Tribune. I took out the recycling and folded clothes. I even picked at writing some lyrics on some Disciplines songs.
More to come. Downstairs my neighbors are listening to the Everly Brothers. It's grey and cold, and probably raining. I am, perhaps, feeling close to happiness. It took a few days to adjust.
Love
KS
Paris
