The Strange Museum Has Moved

After two years of using Blogger, I've decided to move to WordPress.  Blogger has let me down too many times.

The New Strange Museum

- Alex

September Haikus

I've kept on the Haiku Everyday practice. I like how these 30 go together.

9/1/2011
In a scale to ten
You are a gazillion
I pick I'm the judge

9/2/2011
I love to watch you
At night sleeping and dreaming
I'm the luckiest

9/3/2011
Astounded by the
Observations you make
It's a sexy brain

9/4/2011
A calm radiates
As your hands glide over me
Body soul soothing

9/5/2011
We walk hand in hand
Down the crowded city streets
All can see, I'm yours

9/6/2011
When I hold you tight
It's not that I am clinging
I'm recording life

9/7/2011
Such serenity
Existing within our home
Oh awaken one

9/8/2011
What did you see there?
You drifted, looking away
Such green eyes I thought

9/9/2011
A long night away
Turns into a fun escape
White Mountains ahead

9/10/2011
We went in circles
But as always seemingly
The right direction

9/11/2011
I worried all night
Was it a restful night then,
In cold mountain air?

9/12/2011
"I love you" I say
Words are so inadequate
How can I tell you?

9/13/2011
A unit we form
In repose and in response
To a world of hurt

9/14/2011
Words invigorate
Arriving at mid-morning
And carry me home

9/15/2011
Five seven five verse
Written daily for a month
All for you to read

9/16/2011
When patience knocks
You invite her for coffee
Visit as needed

9/17/2011
Silliness abounds
A force that sustains our life
But yields to our love

9/18/2011
Our journeys become
A way to be together
But always be home

9/19/2011
The city noises
Filter up to our small room
It's good to be home

9/20/2011
An off-Broadway play
Feels just like one in High School
Were we really there?

9/21/2011
Do you enjoy cabs?
If we lived here I'd be broke
Some way to travel

9/22/2011
Each moment stays fresh
Like it's to be lived anew
When you are around

9/23/2011
Deftly your hands move
Dance not choreographed
Magic in motion

9/24/2011
When did I last say
That you have been my savior
It has been too long

9/25/2011
I'm much more in now
Since you came into my life
Don't tell the Buddha

9/26/2011
I'm in awe of you
Is there a thing you can't do
I bet you'll speak Greek

9/27/2011
Some days get away
The unimportant takes over
I should stop and write

9/28/2011
The crisp autumn air
Brings me a sense of decay
Your love removes it

9/29/2011
While on the drive home
The anticipation starts
When I think of you

9/30/2011
I can be too much
But your patience with me
Makes me so thankful


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dreaming of Sweaters and Anti-Matter

I had a dream that I was looking at a sweater very closely. I could see the fibers in great detail. It was well-worn but very beautiful. The fibers were so clear. I could almost look beyond single strands, maybe to the actual molecules that made up the elements that wove together to make strands, that in turn came together to make fibers and that finally made up the sweater.

At first, it reminded me of that gray sweater I once had. I had it for ten years, maybe more. It was a soft wool pullover with buttons on the right shoulder. It was an odd design that if the buttons were undone the sweater would fall askew over the shoulder. I never undid the buttons.

But the dream sweater was nothing like it when it draped over my face. It had brown, reddish, and yellow, or maybe green, strands; there was no gray. The strands pulled apart the closer it came to my eyes. The weave opened and between the strands there was a vacuum, like that from space. "Was it a vacuum, or was it anti-matter?" I remember laughing at the thought, remembering that earlier during the waking day we had talked about chemistry and physics.

The sweater vanished as I tried to reach for it. I could still feel the warmth of it, however. I could somehow feel it was there but I couldn't touch it. The dream dissolved into something else entirely and eventually I wasn't dreaming anymore.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Land of Morpheus

Haiku Every Day - Week 2

I made it through week 2, plus. While technically there were days that I didn't write a Haiku, I'm averaging one a day. It's my project and my rules. You can look for my hashtag #haikueveryday on twitter. Unfortunately, there is someone with that phrase for a name, that's his problem. As far as I can tell, he doesn't post a Haiku a day, so it's false advertising.

8/22/2011
Show me what you want
Your gentleness inspires
The night is for us

8/23/2011
Guide my hand, oh Lord
For I want to be the man
That she sees in me

8/24/2011
When you were a child
Did you imagine me here?
Your world is mine now

8/25/2011
Even in silence
We still talk to each other
A waive or smile

8/26/2011
Beautiful face
Curls framing such a smile
Love anew each day

8/27/2011
Your fingers curling
Around the steering wheel
We move through space

8/28/2011
Nervous meeting her
Your friend from long time ago
Not sure the reason

8/29/2011
Hurling through the sky
Has only been fun with you
What's it about you?

8/30/2011
Home is not a place
It's nothing less than just you
You are frowning now

8/31/2011
End of the month now
Away from you for hours
Feels like a small death


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Haiku Everyday - Week 1

For the past week, I've been posting a haiku everyday on my twitter account, with the hashtag #haikueveryday. I don't know how long I'll keep doing it. Here are the seven haikus for this past week:

8/15/2011
A delicious time
That moment when it strikes you
Laugh in abandon

8/16/2011
When I have to rant
You lovingly assure me
That all is not lost

8/17/2011
Even when away
You are thinking about us
How we can be close

8/18/2011
When you are playful
You remind me how serious
I thought you were once

8/19/2011
Holding you so close
Feels like the world unending
You are start and end

8/20/2011
Remember the night
When we were close yet
Thousand miles apart

8/21/2011
Seeing things anew
Your eyes show me more, as I
Get to live again


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What are American liberals to do?

I'm angry. I'm angry at the center and right leaning Democratic party and at a President that sold me a message of hope. I'm angry at a President that gives it and takes it away. He is the President that finally eliminated the ludicrous "don't ask don't tell" but says is "evolving" in the issue of gay marriage. He is the President that signed a health care bill but didn't include a public option. He is the President that has kept the promise to take troops out of Iraq but moved them into Afghanistan. More than all those capitulations, I'm mostly mad because he is the leader of a Democratic party that has absolutely no back bone.

Today's Democratic party is a distortion of the Kennedy-era Democratic party that promised equal rights, progressive ideas and a bright future for America. The party is run by jaded baby-boomers that once had hippie ideas and have morphed into "pragmatic" new agey jerks that lack any convictions. Equal rights are sold out to the far right for a promise to keep them as the other party in Washington. Being called a progressive or a liberal is something they shy away from because they have allowed the other side to change the meaning of it to mean a weakling. Instead of a bright future they have become doomsayers of everything that the far right stands for, but they offer no alternatives at all.

You have to handed it to the "Tea Party" neo-Nazis who have revived a screwed up Republican party with an anti-big government message. No one seems to even realize that the far right stands for a big government anyway; how else are they going to make sure we are praying in schools, teach the bible and stay with our own kind? I don't even have to mention that the far right stands for the largest military any nation has in this planet. Yet, Americans are falling for the lies being fed to them by an increasingly right-wing media led by Rupert Murdoch's FOX.

This week, the Tea Party and the emboldened Republicans held the American economy hostage in a game of chicken against a namby-pamby Democratic party. The Dems folded again, as they have done for a while now, and gave in to what Speaker John Boehner called 98% of his goals. Way to go, spineless hippies!

The President and the weakling Democratic party once again told the American voters that they stand for nothing. They tried to spin this "deal" as a 50/50 win, as the capitulation would trigger big cuts in Defense if they don't work out an agreement when money runs out again. Hey, does anyone want to bet that the Tea Party will once again hold the economy hostage and the Dems will give in? It seems like a certainty to me.

So what is a proud progressive liberal to do? Should I stick with the lame spineless "pragmatists" that stand for nothing because they are the only alternative to a far-right Republican party that wants to drag all of us to the 1800s? Or should I go with some fringe "green-like" party that has no chance of even mount a credible Presidential campaign? Any vote against Obama would be a vote for Michele Bachman/Mitt Romney/Satan dressed as Jesus with a NASCAR t-shirt, right? When should we all stop being weaklings, stop singing "All we need is love," stand up to the right-wing bullies and clean up the mess we have made?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Certainly not Washington, DC.

Vegetarians Travel Too

We’ve been fortunate to be able to do some traveling in the past couple of years. While we love traveling, there is always the dilemma of where to eat. As vegetarians, that is always an issue. We seek out Indian places and other veg-friendly cuisines. The issue is that we are always stuck with the same thing, or worst yet the one vegetarian dish on the menu, usually some uninspired grilled vegetable dish.

Fortunately, we have been able to find some pretty awesome places that cater to vegetarians or vegans, so we can enjoy ordering pretty much anything in the menu. Here is a small list in order of my favorites:

1. Café Flora, http://www.cafeflora.com/ 2901 E Madison St., Seattle, WA. Aside from the inherent coolness of Seattle, this would be reason I’d consider living there. The food here is amazing. I recommend anything and everything.
2. Greens Restaurant, http://www.greensrestaurant.com/ Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA. This is the fanciest most gourmet vegetarian restaurant, I have ever seen. Not only is it a class above vegetarian restaurants, but I’d consider it one of the best restaurants I have ever been to. By the way, I have been to America’s best restaurant, Per Se in NYC, so I think I know what I’m talking about. I recommend it all here too.
3. Ethos Vegan Kitchen, http://www.ethosvegankitchen.com/ 1235 N Orange Ave, Orlando, FL. The simple dishes, organic beer and the always cool clientele, from hip-hop hipsters to hippies, make this place our favorite place to hang out in Orlando. I recommend the Vegan Philly Cheesesteak.
4. Atlas Café, http://www.atlascafenyc.com/home.html 73 2nd Avenue (Between 4th & 5th Street) New York, NY. This Lower East side place has a huge menu. Even carnivores can eat here, which almost disqualified it from the list. However, my punk vegetarian brethren that frequent this place, along with the Lower East Side hipsters, overcome that small flaw in the menu. Don’t expect gourmet; this is veg sandwich heaven. I recommend the vegan chocolate cake.
5. Candle Café, http://www.candlecafe.com/ 1307 3rd Avenue (Between 74th & 75th Street) New York, NY. I know this place has a sister restaurant Candle 79, that is supposed to be it’s fancier version. I have read lots about both, but have only had delivery from this one. I can’t vouch for décor, location or anything of thee sort. All I know is that their delivery is fast and the food is awesome. I will check out both, I promise. I loved their spring rolls.
6. Grasshopper Vegan, http://grasshoppervegan.com/ 1 N Beacon St, Allston, MA. Technically this is not one of our traveling finds. However, given that Boston has nearly no vegan places, I have to list it here. There is one reason above all to visit this vegan Chinese restaurant, the No Name. I can’t describe this gooey, crispy, decadent-for-sure concoction of vegan protein, so you’ll have to visit us and try it yourself.
7. Maos Vegetarian, http://www.maozusa.com/ 1817 M Street Northwest, Washington D.C. Carnivores can keep all their BK Lounges, McDonald’s and whatevers, but we’ll take Maos. It is vegetarian fast food with locations in several cities around Western Europe and North America. We have visited the DC location and nearly visited the one in NYC. Their falafel is fantastic.
8. Dharma Kitchen, 3667 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6R 2B8, Canada. This place has fantastic food. We didn’t like the stuck-up Buddhist waiter and the décor made me think of a Buddhist monastery. Those are not bad things at all, but they seemed rather heavy handed. Regardless, the Dharma Dude, that’s a dish, was pretty yummy.

Do you know of any vegan/vegetarian places we should check out? We’ll be venturing over the pond soonish, so anything in Western Europe or the UK would be appreciated.