And here's one I thought of

If I Were a Rice Man


I'll tang of mao when mai ears become unclogged.

The Official Beijing Olympics Fakebook

PMSubject: Beijing Olympics Fakebook The Official Beijing Olympics Fakebook (Thanks to Dave for the Compilation)

A Stranger in my Own Home Tong

A Whole Lhasa Shakin' Goin' On

Beijing the Beguine

Canton Races

Commie Irresponsible

Dimsum On the Ceiling

Ginseng in the Duck

Gong With the Wind

Great Wall's Afire!

Hello Dalai

I'm Getting Sent a Mai Tai Over You (Bronze Medal)

In The Coolie Coolie Coolie Of The Evening

If You Knew Suey Like I Know Suey

It Might As Well Beijing

It Was Szechuan of Those Things

Kimono My House

Mao Swell

Ming To Me

Mr. Sampan (Bring Me a Dream)

Oolong Has This Been Going On?

The Mao I See You

The Suey With the Fringe On Top (Silver Medal)

Tibet Is Yet To Come

Tickee To Ride

Wokking My Baby Back Home

Wonton-a-Mera

Yangtze Doodle Dandy (Gold Medal)

You Gotta Acc-U-Punc-Tu-Ate the Positive



(The bolded ones are my faves and the winner is stated)

Worn out, washed up, played to death

dolls.

Summer cleaning, mother grieving
Fourteen is a time of leaving
magic marker eyelined
painted henna hair steaked
amputeed
plastic pretend.
And packing up
played to death dolls.

A fun and stressless summer project

while I wait for decisions. Rather than starting a new project, this summer I have decided to do something for pleasure unadulterated by any form of stress. I am going to casually revisit my old mss that need revision. But right now I need to work on fun. Just fun. It will reflect in my illustration.

And while buying required US Poet Laureate for my daughter's AP Senior English Summer homework assignment (she chose Billy Collins) I found a collection of William Carlos Williams. So for inspiration I snatched up this last copy (sorry seniors...you'll have to place an order) and will take a few poems and illustrate them. Potential portfolio pieces perhaps. And if something comes of it...so be it. But right now I need a mind tickle , in the worst way.

Saying goodbye to a van

a van. I almost cried as my 12 year-old van was towed off the drive way today. It is just a van but man... no it is not just a van. This has been thru the mill...a thunk, a tow and new transmission, scads of new batteries and memories of me waiting for AAA and the happy battery man. Hitting a deer on our way home from Vermont (those damn hunters), a blown air conditioner and hot summer with fresh air and wind-blown hair. Two rear enders but a strong non-dent-able bumper..."is everyone all right? Yeah, everyone except the car behind us!" A car accident with a thunderstorm and heavy rain and three kids balling forever while we waited for the damn cop to appear...and two appearances by me in court and I represented myself and I WON!! HA HA. Oh, and the carpooling, and Charlotte learning how to drive and me holding on to the seat so hard I though my circulation would quit... and my breathing, as well.

But the tree smashing this van was the last straw..I suppose.

So I get all choked up over something so stupid (I mean we could have been IN that car when the tree fell on it. The deer could have gone through the windshield and impaled us. The transmission could have dropped mid-highway, Triple AAA might have been unavailable in this neighborhood, I could have lost the case. But this van took all the heat (we did last year,too)and finally succumbed to the weight of a tree. 

This van held more than people. There is a story here. I hope I have illustrated it.

Gotta take a test drive on

my husband. Not necessarily a no-no, either.  My toughest critic...in more ways than one. Gottschalk gots the thumbs up..finally. It helps to have a fellow musical being to evaluate the rhythms and onomatopoeic sounds I used in this biography. And he said what I believe. That if "I just read the manuscript and didn't read it as it would appear in the dummy with the illustrations, I wouldn't get the full effect. But now it does, and the way you've handled the writing works. If this doesn't sell it is no reflection on the writing, dummy or art." 

Gotta believe this. 

You say tornado...I say today no!!

Tornado

today no!

Afraid so

those winds blow

Let's call the whole thing awful.



A tree falls in Montclair. On my car and over my front lawn. The power goes out. My backyard looks Third World for all the electrical wires entangled, and strewn with various straggly limbs and stumps. No power, no school, severe internet withdrawl. Who cares about this week's food supply melting in the fridge. We want internet and we want it now.