Flash

Here's a bit of contrast from Zen Monday. We've had real, actual, pouring rain today, with one good crack of lightning and thunder. Just one. I miss the big, Midwestern storms of my youth. They were as big as they were supposed to be.

This is a good evening for cuddling up with your book, your blanket and your hot toddy, however you choose to make it. I might opt out of the honey and just pour some whiskey in my tea.

I'll sit by the window and sip, hoping for another flash of lightning.

Stress

It's frustrating when other people hold the reins to my horse--other people who don't know how to ride. What I want to do is give my horse a gentle cluck and speed off, leaving the incompetents in the dust.

They say everyone has three jobs: their regular job, the upkeep of their home and the phone calls, paperwork and stress of trying to get other people to do their jobs (cable company, bank, etc.). Right now, the third on this list has blossomed into three more jobs so I'm having, you know, that kind of week.

So yoga class is important.

This expansive, upstairs room at the Pacific Asia Museum is where I practice yoga. It's lunch hour yoga, designed to return you to work refreshed, and without the stinky armpits. The class meets only once a week and it fills up, so get there early if you can. Just try not to stress about it.

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Camelot & Vine will be featured on Free Book Friday this upcoming week. If you'd like to win a free, signed, paperback copy of Camelot & Vine, here's the direct link. From October 12th to October 18th, all you have to do to enter is comment on the post.

I'm giving away 5 copies so it'll be a snap.

Zen Monday: #217

Zen Monday's the day when you write the copy. Just tell us what comes to mind.

I love Mondays. It's so nice to see you all.







For updates on my publishing misadventures and the Camelot Where You Are contest, please read below the asterisks.




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Oh hey! Nice to see you down here. 

I'm forging ahead with the publication of Camelot & Vine, my novel about a failing Hollywood actress who, on her fortieth birthday, gets fired from her cheesy acting job, catches her boyfriend in the arms of his wife, gets drunk on a flight to London, collides on horseback with a Mercedes, flies through a gap in time and lands in the sixth century, accidentally saving King Arthur's Life.

So far, forty sucks. And it's about to suck more.
 
It pains me to tell you I might not have the book ready before the end of this month. So I'm readjusting my hopes, and my fondest wish is to have it ready long before Christmas.

Meanwhile, the rate of receipt of entries for the Camelot Where You Are contest has slowed, which works out because we have the best of both worlds: some contest, some blog. This week I have enough entries, so we'll do the contest. Stop by during the week and check them out. If you'd like to enter, read the rules (or lack thereof) and send in a photo!

Pacific Means Peaceful

Once in a while when I tell you something I'm afraid I'll regret it, because there's such a thing as best kept secret.

Every Thursday, from 12:30-1:30, I take a yoga class at the Pacific Asia Museum, a place with a fascinating history. I like the class for many reasons, not least of which is the walk through the serene courtyard, with its Koi pond and stone lions. At the far end of the courtyard I ascend the stairs and enter a treetop room with huge windows and a high ceiling, where for one hour I practice gentle yoga with a small, quiet group.

At the Pacific Asia, which is a museum of culture and not a yoga studio, instructor Jill Zepezauer teaches a gentle, accessible form of Hatha yoga. Her style is perfect for beginners and older people (I'll acquiesce to being an older person when I'm ninety), and for folks like me making a comeback from an injury. If you're looking for power yoga, well no, not here. Jill's instructions are detailed and soft-spoken but don't be lulled; you don't want to miss the little jokes she tosses in now and then. "Okay, raise your arm," she sing-songs. "It doesn't matter which one. No, not that one."
The price is amazing. I won't even tell you, just look at the first link above. The only place you can get a cheaper yoga class around here is the South Pasadena Senior Center. And that's a decent class. It's just crowded.

I hope the Pacific Asia class will never be crowded. But best kept secrets can only be kept for so long.

Update: I found a free yoga class in Pasadena. It's every Sunday morning at Lululemon. They suggest you arrive early. I haven't tried it but it sounds like fun.

Enlightened Art

Maybe you see Tibetan monks creating a sacred sand mandala every day, but since I don't I found this enthralling.

These monks are visiting Pasadena from the Drepung Loseling Phukhang Khangtsen monastery in southern India. (I just love that a monastery has a website.) The monastery was founded 500 years ago in Tibet, but when the Chinese occupied Tibet, as you may know, the Dalai Lama and his followers were forced to relocate their operations.

The Museum's website says, "...sand mandalas depict the world in its divine form, representing a map by which the ordinary human mind is transformed into the enlightened mind." Here, two of the visiting monks use tapered metal tubes to place colored sand grains onto the mandala. When they're finished with one color, they tap the excess out of the tube and it sounds like clinking your fork against your plate.

These guys are experts. The monastery didn't send the new kids on this job. You can see the outline on the table, a blueprint of where this work is headed.

If you're as fascinated by this arcane art form as I am, you can watch it in action for free at the Pacific Asia Museum, every day this week and only this week, from 10am-3:30pm. I missed the opening ceremony yesterday morning. The closing will be Sunday, when this ethereal work will be swept away at 2pm.

And a happy birthday to my brother Stuart! I don't think he checks here, but I like to say it anyway.

Storm Clouds Over the Pacific Asia Museum

The Pacific Asia Museum was closed today, as were the LA County Museum of Art and other area art institutions. The New York Times said these museums (major ones) were raided by Federal agents looking for Southeast Asian antiquities thought to have been obtained illegally (i.e., looted) and smuggled into the U.S. in an alleged donation scheme that involved defrauding the IRS.

It was noon when I got to the museum. A few agents stood shivering outside. They were friendly, but didn't say much except the museum was closed for the investigation.

"Western" looting of "eastern" artifacts isn't new. Think of LA's Getty Musem and New York's Metropolitan Museum, both of which have recently been caught with the goods and forced to return them. Hell, think of the Elgin Marbles (which won't likely be returning to Greece any time soon). What's new is the crackdown.

A looted item loses its historical and archaeological context. For months now, I've been following a discussion about the importance of of provenance in Archaeology Magazine, which puts it in layman's terms I can appreciate.