hopefully now that I did all those tasks and things and went and drove and housesat and things, and got caught up with work and things, now I can just work some light days and get some rest and my complexion will improve and this rattling in my chest will subside along with the nasal congestion and I can get back to what I do best, which is have parties in a normal, regular way.
I washed my face just now in the kitchen sink which is where I wash it, and then moved to the bathroom and shaved which I sometimes do at night, and as I was shaving, tugging on my face and noticing things, getting the skin in the right shapes for the razor, checking my work and repeating, it occurred to me what a strange kind of access to have to a body. how strange to go around with this one body and shave it and things. no one else can, unless I asked someone to shave me or, more likely, paid someone. it is an amazing thing to have this constant access to one and only one body. and strange. the body is a stranger. it is what one is, as far as I can tell, but when one looks at it, it’s a stranger. or not. not always a stranger. I mean, I do things in the presence of my body that are quite personal, but nonetheless in the mirror it is often as strange a stranger as ever was. it is the only one to which I’ll have this kind of access.
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what follows is the text of an email I received today, which I think is a very effective event announcement:
Please come celebrate poets, CAFÉ, and their life together, on Thursday July 2, 5-8:30, in the café at The Phillips Collection, Washington DC. Poets Lee Ann Brown, C.A. Conrad, Mel Nichols, and a host of other will be on hand . . .
Dear Poet,
When poets met CAFÉ, it was love at first sight. Soon they moved in together. The romance goes on.
Poets sit, read, eavesdrop, write, or hide in CAFÉ; CAFÉ’s mood is set by its poets. Words are skimmed, penned, typed, exchanged, gathered and discussed.
Come and do what poets do: read, eavesdrop, play, eat, write, hide, or – whatever you like. There will be no requirement to read or to listen, and no open mic. There will be plenty of poets and opportunities to be poetic.
We also invite you to bring a book for donation to our BOOK collection: poetry or not, whatever you’d like to read in a café.
Please RSVP to db@dbfoundation.org if you can come, and we will put your name on our POET list.
Yours,
dBfoundation
If you can’t make it on July 2, but would like to donate a book, please write to db@dbfoundation.org
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At The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st Street NW, Washington DC 20009, Phone: 202.387.2151. $-FREE-$
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About CAFÉ:
CAFÉ operates inside, outside, and alongside the establishment. CAFÉ is considered responsible for the birth of Romanticism, the Enlightenment, the Encyclopedia Project, and the Stock Exchange. It has helped fan the flames of countless insurgencies, while also providing a day-to-day refuge. CAFÉ is built in the space between: between art and institution, structure and idea. It is a place for the development and cultivation of living ideas — not nostalgia, but unformed notions and half-conceived plans. It is an invitation to contemplation, and each of its elements is a means to examine a broader question. CAFÉ is both the work of art and the scaffold used to build it.
CAFÉ [this is not that] starts with the intersection and commingling of four basic but mutable artwork-elements created by dBfoundation members Annabel Daou, Elaine Tin Nyo, Greta Byrum, Danny Snelson, Kareem Estefan, and Tom Russotti:
WALL bounds the space with posters that are and yet are not reproductions of works in the museum, including the artwork CAFÉ.
FOOD explores ideas of desire, possession and satisfaction, offering items available and unavailable for consumption.
BOOK reaches outside CAFÉ to writers and thinkers, inviting them to join the conversation inside by sending books.
GAME bends the rules of play, offering newly invented board and parlor games that players may change along the way.
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CAFÉ is open: Tuesday-Saturday 10AM-5PM; Thursday 10AM-8:30PM; Sunday 11AM-6PM.
The first Thursday of each month an evening is dedicated to one of CAFÉ’s elements.
A calendar of all events and more information can be found at the following sites:
www.thisisnotthatcafe.com
www.dbfoundation.org
www.phillipscollection.org
dBfoundation is dedicated to creating and fostering imaginary edifices and intangible sculptures.