Masks and Miyata

It’s a month of masks and disguises when secret sides emerge. Our not so secret passion is the work of artist, Jacqueline Miyata. Jacqueline works in semi-precious gemstones and metal. She specializes in unique, organic designs inspired by the beauty of the natural world. Her versatile pieces are truly a blend of technique and inspiration. What we love most, though, is her chain work. We’re not sure how many feet, yards, miles of handcrafted chain she’s produced, but we know all of it is exquisite and we’d happily deck ourselves out in nothing but that! Jacqueline Miyata’s work is available through the artist or at one of her exclusive Open Studios.

Leafy Sea Dragon

Check out the sexy little seahorses at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We could learn a lot about romance from them. Seahorses court with color changes and synchronized swims, often holding tails and slow dancing for hours. When they’re ready to make the big commitment, they release their hold on the sea grasses that anchor them and rise upward, nose-to-nose, in elegant spirals. The courtship doesn’t end with parenthood either. Did you know it’s the male seahorse that carries the eggs in his pouch? The newly slim female swims away, but she returns to visit her guy every day and the romance continues. Colors changing, they whirl around holding tails in their very own version of a Viennese waltz. In 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the species, the male releases the oh-so-fragile fry. They drift away on the current, hopefully to mature and find their own dance partners one day.

Che, churro! Translation: Hey, sweet stuff.

Mamita, que linda que sos! Translation: Little mama, how beautiful you are.

Si Adan se comio una manzana por Eva, yo por vos me comeria una fruteria. Translation: If Adam ate the apple for Eve, for you, I’ll eat the whole produce stand.

Por ti, pequeña! Translation: Here’s lookin at you, kid!

Back by popular demand from Buenos Aires for two weeks, Camille will be appearing at the San Francisco Museum of Performance & Design (September 29)and the Larkspur Library (October 1). Details on both events: www.camillecusumano.com

Chocolate Reveries

We love Bill Keener’s poetry … and he really knows his chocolate. He has a new book out: Gold Leaf on Granite. Sample his work with this:

Taste the Heart of Darkness

In the hall of the mountain chocolatiers,
I saw their creamy magic, stared down at
giant shining paddles dipping in tandem,
churning great vats into a molten brown

river flowing beneath me. Smooth, raw
liquid chocolate was pouring into itself,
forever folding, beating the hot reek of
roasted cocoa and sugar into fragrant air.

This extravagant supply, the long-sought
source of all that was good and warm and
sweet and heavy in my 12-year-old world,
stirred endlessly, hypnotically as I leaped

the railing, cast myself on the viscous rush
to float in ecstasy so thick my milk-skinned
body was a boat sucked up the dark river
back to its beginnings. Up the deep

luscious current of chocolatey mud through
a ferment of tropical aromas to forests of
cacao flowering in dense steamy ranks,
a rain-dripping Eden of rich ripening beans.

Now I stand in line to buy an ebony bar,
tear the paper, tear the foil, hold the treasure
on my tongue, until the river flows and
I swallow darkness slowly once again.

[first published in Switched-On Gutenberg,
www.switched-ongutenberg.org - copyright William Keener]

•    Reconnecting with your sensual self
•    Revealing your full self
•    Remaining YOU in relationships

on Thursday evenings from monthly. They culminate in a Sensual Symposium on January 14th.
For dates, cost and to register, check the website.

“Often, the piano has been my only lover, silently waiting for my touch. The best compositions spring from sources of searing inspiration: lost love, longing, and dreamy romantic musings. These are the songs that most resonate with my listeners, the songs I do not sit down to willingly create, but that come to me unbidden in the night like a phantom lover climbing softly into my bed.
—Tiana Andreas, composer/pianist

“Butterfly In the Snow is a must for lovers of powerfully emotional solo piano that can also be very delicate and fragile. This is a keeper! It is available from www.tianapiano.com, cdbaby.com, amazon.com, and iTunes. Highly recommended!”
—Kathy Parsons, MainlyPiano.com

We like our hot chocolate too, but we also love it in bars and truffles laced with things like lavender and liquor and chipotle spice. So we adore Bittersweet on College Avenue in Oakland. Where else can you sit and chat with friends while you see, smell, eat and drink chocolate in a room full of chocolate? The wall of chocolate makes us crazy!

If you have trouble steaming up the page, this is the workshop for you. Spend a day with poet, travel writer and novelist Linda Watanabe McFerrin loosening up and learning the techniques for adding spicy, sensual, and sometimes funny sizzle to your work. The class is full of quick free-writes and entertaining exercises that will have you moving from comfort to erogenous zones in no time. Linda’s workshops are a starting point for many successful writers. She’s the founder of Left Coast Writers® and co-editor of the Hot Flashes: Sexy Little Stories and Poems series.

The workshop fee includes, champagne, chocolate, a delicious lunch and a sexy potluck.

Linda is the perfect teacher for this class and topic. She treated us with enormous dignity while maintaining her brilliant sense of irreverence.
– A.B.

Great to get the juices flowing.  Safe, fun, sassy.  I would like to take this class again.
—L.K.

Excellent, quite delicious and informative.
– C.S.

Yummy!
– M.F.