January 1, 2010
Friday kitty new year
![[IMAGE] cats](/blog/blogpix/upsidedown.jpg)
…about the musicInterpettzo.
Ok, snapped with my iPhone in low light, but still, Smudge and Moses, butt to butt, seem to appropriately represent “out with the old and in with the new.” Like a gravity-defying circus act atop my heated kitchen floor, they remind me that cuteness can still survive in a topsy-turvy world.
Here’s to a new decade, filled with soft fur and the ability to blissfully ignore any rind shavings and vegetable trimmings that may unexpectedly fall on your head from life’s countertop!
Tom Brennan said,
January 2, 2010 @ 4:57 pm
Where is the “like” button?
Glenn Buttkus said,
January 4, 2010 @ 6:35 am
Of the many pics you’ve snapped of Smudge & Moses, this one is the greatest! It looks like you had to stage it, kind of an Op Art look to it; more than an image, into the realm of symbolism and metaphor. I had two weeks off, and we flew to Texas to visit in-laws. My wife broke her foot for Christmas. Seemed odd for me to be traveling while you stayed to home for the moment. You have another traveling agenda ready to impliment I’m sure. Loved the mp3, Intermezzo for Clarinet & Piano @ 1:12; just the right kind of gentleness to start the week and the new year.
I also adored your pragmatic and unique perspective on the excesses of Christmas, with its roots in Germanic pagan rites, Judaic history, and Christian double-speak. Here is the Shapiro poetry that rose out of the prose like a phoenix:
Paths and Windows
Everyone has their own reaction to the end of the year.
Inescapable holidays. Unstoppable chronology.
Opportunities gained, and others lost.
Family, friends, loneliness,
or just peaceful solitude taken at home,
while the rest of society swirls
in a mad dash of annual tradition.
I start and stop with Thanksgiving; beyond that,
no other holiday captures my time or heart.
I count myself among many who view Christmas
with a cynic’s raised eyebrow
Some people truly adore their families
and anticipate the yearly holiday gatherings with delight.
For others, the odd discomfort of being artificially thrown
into a food-infused petri dish with people
simply due to a shared a strand or two of DNA,
speaks only to the absurdity of social expectations.
While I have little emotion for what December represents,
I do love January. I love the new year.
I have a birthday soon after.
I love getting older, racking up more experience,
filling my life with more emotions and people
and musical discoveries and mistakes and joys.
It’s all real and it’s all vibrant and passionate.
Each New Year’s is my time to hope
and envision and dream and plan.
And and and.
There is always more that tugs and invites.
I see this time of year as a series of paths and windows.
Directional choices made and yet to be determined,
and views to external and interior landscapes
defined by my heart and its frailties.
This is what has meaning to me.
Alex Shapiro
And of course, as the planet revolves to the perfect point of entry for wee Alex,
happy birthday soon!
Glenn
V. said,
January 4, 2010 @ 12:46 pm
Too funny. They need a blog of their own. 😉
James Bazen said,
January 18, 2010 @ 9:33 pm
You have wonderful cute cats. I have wonderful hip cats. Hope this link works:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=9366599&id=827265712
We could learn a lot from cats and animals in general. First lesson: RELAX.
James Bazen said,
January 18, 2010 @ 9:35 pm
Oh. And i forgot to point out that the jazz standard “Cheek To Cheek” takes on a whole new meaning here!
Ed said,
January 22, 2010 @ 9:12 pm
A fun Yin & Yang — the symbol in cat form: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taijitu
Enjoyed the “interpettzo” -both music and pun immensely.