Outside, the grape harvest began: each grape was as sweet as a full can of "grape pop," at least in my memories. I spent a lot of time as a kid worrying about which brand of grape pop was best: Grape Crush was the obvious favorite, but Welch's Grape was surprisingly pretty good, given that they worked with real grapes, supposedly. But really the favorite, simply on account of its rarity, was Fanta Grape, which I just learned (via Wikipedia) was invented in Nazi Germany.
Of course it should go without saying that all grape pop is horrible and loaded with literally tons/multiple tablespoons of sugar. It's kind of a miracle I survived my childhood obsession with grape pop, actually, when I consider how much sugar I consumed. Anyway, life goes on and the grapes are delicious, especially when you wet them down and roll them around in some white sugar. (Just kidding!)
In other garden news, the crossvine (bignonia, a native trumpet vine) finally bloomed. It's nice to look up and see large pink/orange clouds in the sky.
Inside, Clio continued to adjust to life with three much-older cats, just as they continued to adjust to her. There's been less hissing and chasing, but there's still quite a bit of watching, as you can see from the above. There's been no touching, however, which raises the important question: who exactly will be "the bridge" to Clio? Let's find out what people have to say.
"I thought I might be 'the bridge' to Clio," said Dante, "but sometimes her enormous eyes freak me out...So I guess we'll see."
"I might be 'the bridge' to Clio," said Zephyr, "but I'm not exactly sure what a 'bridge' is."
"I would obviously never vote for any Republican, but I'd rather have Donald Trump than any of those other idiots."
Elsewhere, a phalaeonopsis contemplated the cats.
While the sunflowers -- always political -- gathered to discuss campaign finance reform.
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08/15/2015
ORDER HERE
A RADICAL NEW MYTH ABOUT SEX, FAITH, AND THOSE OF US WHO WILL NEVER DIE
A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an uorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet inspired satire—#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world. With each turn of the page, #gods will leave you increasingly reborn.
Praise for #gods
“#gods is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory—and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature—it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance.” —Mark Doten, author of The Infernal
“Matthew Gallaway’s #gods is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn’t stop writing OMG WTF I <3 THIS SO MUCH in its margins. It’s rare to find a novel that so dazzlingly reinvigorates age-old meditations on faith and f&!*ing, art and eros. Luminous, enterprising, and sublimely cheeky, #gods tells the story, the myth, the dream of the human soul in all its glorious complexity.” —Suzanne Morrison, author of Yoga Bitch
“Matthew Gallaway’s storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry.” —Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
“If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #gods is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming.” —Jacob Bacharach, author of The Bend of the World
'It’s to the credit of Matthew Gallaway’s enchanting, often funny first novel that it doesn’t require a corresponding degree of obsession from readers, but may leave them similarly transported: the book is so well written — there’s hardly a lazy sentence here — and filled with such memorable lead and supporting players that it quickly absorbs you into its worlds.'
-- The New York Times
Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine
Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.
Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past
Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.
Video: The Chaos Detective
The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.