• 11 Nov, 2025 *

yesterday i was grateful for yoga with anne...

today i am looking forward to in person photo salon...

28 degrees when i walked out the door this morning... delicious...

during “yoga with anne” last night something interesting happened... i am not sure why, but i started to imagine that when i inhaled, i was drawing energy in through whatever parts of my body had contact with my yoga matt... and when i exhaled, i was returning the energy to the matt through those same points of contact... this was a deeply satisfying experience... i felt a kind of oneness with the cosmos doing that... i am going to try it again today’s yoga class...

last night, when we came home from yoga, i made striped bass all’amatriciana... it’s one of my favorite ways to make striped bass... i also do a pretty good bucatini amatriciana... i really enjoy italian cooking... it tends to be simple in that the ingredient list is pretty short... 4 or 5 or 6 ingredients... the secret to good italian cooking is technique and the best ingredients possible... i have also been experimenting with vegan cuisine... not because i want to stop eating animal protein altogether... i want to reduce animal protein consumption for both health and environmental reasons... the other night i made vegan mac and cheese... no, the “cheese” sauce, made with butternut squash and raw almonds, did not taste like the cheese sauce i know and love, but it was a very acceptable substitute... and, like the cheese based mac and cheese, it was even better warmed up the next day and came closer to tasting like the cheese based version... i have to make brussels sprouts for thanksgiving, and was thinking i would do a casserole... the recipe i have is cheesed based, but, i am going to experiment with the vegan “cheese” sauce as a substitute... i am expecting it to be quite a good alternative... i will report back after i have done it...

i have begun to work on a photo book... it has been a couple of years since i have felt any inspiration to make anything out of the daily photographs i make... i have been wanting to make a sort of annual catalog of my photographs for a long time... even attempted to do so a couple of times... those attempts collapsed under the weight of too much to do during the times i tried to do it... it feels like i will be more successful this time...

this morning i went looking for other sorts of articles to read besides the doom and gloom news... here is something from maria popover’s blog the marginalian...

Against the Cartesian Myth of Work/Life Balance: André Gregory’s Extraordinary Letter to Richard Avedon about the Nature of Creativity – The Marginalian

Doesn’t the work on the self inform the Work? When we inch closer to ourselves, to who we originally were, who we’re meant to be, doesn’t that serve the work, doesn’t it connect us more deeply to others? Isn’t there value in spreading laughter, love, and compassion to the people around us? … The work changes the life, and the life changes the work.

i would say i my lived experience speaks to the truth of this... i have spent the last couple of years reimagining myself as a feminine man, or, femman... this process was a definitive inching closer to myself... and now, this new intimacy with self is prepared to inform my work... or, rather... i am ready to share the impact it has had on my work... the aforementioned book project will in part be about this new intimacy...

because of my femman reimagining i have spent significant time reading and watching anything that renders the experience of being a woman... in that vein i read this article about Catherine Breillat...

Catherine Breillat’s Provocative Explorations of Girlhood On Screen | AnOther

Catherine Breillat has a great anecdote about Roberto Rossellini from the evening before she began filming A Real Young Girl (1976). Over dinner, the director-elder asked her a question. “What do you think you’re going to add to the portrayal of young girls that hasn’t already been done by men?” Even at 22, Breillat answered with the signature precision that would define her filmmaking. “The gaze of shame. You’re the ones who gave us our shame, and we’re the ones who carry it.

and now for the shit show...

i have been trying to understand the capitulation of senate democrats in bringing the government shutdown to an end... it seems to have been caucus organized, though they are busy trying to convince us it was the work of renegade senators and one independent... curious that none of the democrats are running for re-election... thus they can be the fall guys and gals... progressives are furious... everyone, including conservatives, is scratching their heads on this one... three explanations come to mind... one is that the threat to do away with the filibuster was inching closer to becoming more than a threat... two is that the senate dems got what they needed from the shutdown in the results of the recent off year elections... three is that the representative from arizona will finally be sworn in and the epstein files will be released to the public...

November 10, 2025 - by Heather Cox Richardson

Bringing the House back into session will require Johnson to swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ). Erum Salam of MSNBC reported that Johnson told Republicans on a conference call today that the “first order of business will be to administer the oath to Grijalva.” Grijalva says she will be the final signer on the discharge petition that will force a House vote on releasing the Epstein files. Johnson and administration officials have worked hard to keep those files under wraps, especially since news broke that Trump is mentioned in them.

i will end with a couple of photos from this morning...