Hi everyone. I still exist. Apparently I am taking a small blog break! I didn’t see it coming or I would’ve announced it. But I’ve been doing some more travel, I’ve been having work meetings, I’ve been recuperating, I’ve been working on various categories of things, and somehow haven’t been feeling bloggy.

I think a lot of people’s hearts have been bleeding a little bit on account of the National Book Award/Lauren Myracle kerfuffle. I very much enjoyed/appreciated/admired Myracle’s own explanation of what happened, and agree with everyone else that she’s a class act. Good on you, Lauren.

Here’s a post I read recently and liked: “A ‘Cowboy and Indians’ party is just as bad as a blackface party,” at Adrienne K.’s blog Native Appropriations. I also appreciated her more recent post, “Representing the Native Presence in the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Narrative“. There’s always something interesting going on on Adrienne K.’s blog!

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for now… but those photos of my trip out west are in the future. Also: If you ever have the opportunity, see the show War Horse. Here’s a single moment that expresses only a tiny part of why this show is amazing: during a battle scene, one of the horses dies on stage (not a real horse — a life-sized puppet operated by three AMAZING human artists whose work you also get to watch, in addition to watching the horse itself in action). When the horse’s body finally goes still — and I really can’t express how dramatic and beautiful these horse scenes are — the three humans roll out together, stand up, and back away, backing offstage. In other words, you watch the horse’s spirit leave its body, in the form of the puppeteers. If I could re-see only one of the many Broadway shows I’ve seen, this would be the one.

Bye for now :o)