open flow

  Memorial Day weekend has marked some big moments in my life.    I moved to my own beloved house on Memorial Day 11 years ago. (Shortly before the housing market skyrocketed!)   10 years ago, over Memorial Day weekend, I shot the pilot episode of the series that to this day remains the biggest creative project I've undertaken. And 5 years ago, in my home country where this isn't a holiday, one of the most important people in my life would be taking her last breaths. Rosy's unexpected departure is still somehow an open wound. Maybe because I was unable to return to take care of her remains according to her wishes, and pack up her things and collect all the mementos she had of our lives together -- because although I was her only family left, the state couldn't recognize us as such.   Haydée, Rosy and I were an unconventional family trio. Haydée had the official title of being my "fake grandma", although she was actually the only grandma I grew up with, and she...

Note: Please first read this short piece on exercising non-binary thinking. It is abundantly clear by now, to many of us, that capitalism creates massive inequality and doesn't work to ensure that the broadest possible amount of people have their basic needs met . In the US, for example - the richest country in the world, currently a late-stage neoliberal capitalist society – we have billionaires. People with millions of millions! People with so much more than they need, we can't even wrap our brains around it. And we have millions of people living on the streets.  Millions of people without access to health care, many of whom suffer greatly and actually die for economic reasons, because they can't afford medical care and/or healthy living conditions.  Entire cities permanently without unpolluted water to drink.  There are hungry people. In the richest country in the world. This system never worked to meet the needs of the vast majority. This is...

We are in the midst of a global crisis, and it is without question a strange time. Journalists and politicians can't help but repeat the word unprecedented over and over. There is an undisputed component of grand-scale tragedy and suffering to this pandemic. This includes justified dread and fear of what will happen to our global, national and personal economies. Uncertainty is all around us, and whatever we feel in response to it is completely valid and understandable. And , many of us are also feeling hope. Many of us are rejoicing in some of the things that are resulting from this moment in history, like the environment showing beautiful signs of restoration, or universal acts of solidarity and care, or the sudden shift in our collective priorities and consciousness. We don't have to negate one reality to validate the other. I'm frankly excited about the opportunity for mass-scale systemic transformation; I've been fixated on the need for deep, structu...

Sunday March 15 th , 2020. Breathe. Every time I see the directive written somewhere, I inhale deeply, surprised by the fact that I can't seem to compel myself to do this without constant external reminders. Breathe. A week ago, here in California we were all just starting to get obsessive about washing our hands, and the inexplicable toilet paper craze was happening. Despite having zero worrywart tendencies, I was quietly worrying about my young teen being forgetfully careless while taking public transportation to school, even though she'd agreed to wear winter gloves while traveling and wash hands religiously upon entering school. And I was feeling unbearably foggy-brained and exhausted, unsure whether it was The Virus or my body's empathic response to intense collective fear and anxiety. (To date I haven't had a cough nor a fever, so I suspect it's the latter, especially considering those symptoms greatly intensified every time I spent time in pu...

Content warning: this article may not be suitable for those allergic to astrological concepts. The next entry is guaranteed to be safe. It all started with Mercury.    I mean: on 1/1 of 2020, my computer up and died. The sudden extinction of my main work tool and archive location for both my translating and filmmaking careers, halfway through a big job, no less, was a definite Event. The great thing is*, when something like this happens to an astrology student (someone who also studies other forms of symbolic/sympathetic correspondence languages), it can be taken as an invitation. Which I did. (Not always an option, but at that time, I happened to have the emotional grounding to do so.) * famous 'search for silver lining' motto of the marvelous Giovannie The big astrological event on the horizon at that moment was the Pluto/Saturn conjunction in Capricorn on January 12. With my still rudimentary astro skills, I discovered this huge planetary moment was landing i...