9 Moons Ago

Still recovering from my slight relapse of mania. The nurses and doctors that I talked to said that as you get older, the episodes of mania can be more severe and take longer to recover from, but I feel lucky to have such a good support team of family and friends around me. Some people aren’t so lucky and they don’t get the help they deserve.
I’ve got a lot of emotional instability at times, but I can usually center myself pretty quickly. I don’t defeat too easily… and it takes quite a bit to bore me. So, I have a good imagination and I try to use it well each day. I am planning future artwork and writing when my vision is slightly impaired and my concentration is shot. I form the ideas and tuck them away for future use.
There are really really good and productive days, and then there are days where I feel like nothing is going right and I cry quite a bit. I don’t want to hide this from anyone, because I know that talking about it empowers other people in the same state.
I want to draw a self portrait today, but if I find I can’t, I always have an alternative: my camera! My camera is one of my lifelines, as is the music I listen to daily. So, in lieu of a drawing today, I’ll give you a photo. (When I get the self portrait done, I’ll post that, too.)

Usually I don’t like clowns. This is the exception to the rule!

Ingrid Michaelson “The Way I Am”

While I’m at home in my own little corner (my own little room), back here in my parents’ house in the U.S.A., recovering from a relapse of my bipolar disorder and some other life-changing events, I have found myself once more smitten with R.E.M., just as badly as when I first saw them on a video in 1991, and sat bolt upright at the edge of my parents’ bed, watching MTV back when MTV played music.

I have been following all the latest press (what I can without being too silly abt. it) and today I heard the whole new album on iLike, which I recommend highly. It gives you a chance to preview the tunes, see if you want to purchase them..and is up till the album release I think, on April 1. I’m going to buy the CD on April Fool’s day, because, although I use my iPod, I like the tactile nature of an album in the hand! Plus, I can listen to it in the car.

I think the album is tremendous. I’ll admit I wasn’t as thrilled about their last two albums, though I really liked the songs. This album is different…It’s got a really good energy behind it, and the messages are strong, positive and invite change, be it political, or personal.

So, though I am perpetually smitten by John Michael Stipe -as you probably already know- I am falling head over heals for this new album and ALL the musicians behind it. (Mike’s vocals are a welcome return!) Please, go have a listen and decide for yourself. My opinion? It ROCKS!

Within a smattering of days of being home, I realize how much the politics of this country have shaped such a huge debt and depression, that out of it there is growing a groundswell of art and music that are quite inspiring. I’ve been out of the country far too long. But, coming home with a fresh perspective, I can see that people are not afraid to speak out for their needs. It’s a revolution not unlike that of the 1960s, to my uneducated eyes. I could be wrong, but that is the sense that I have… I believe this country and it’s people are not too far gone that we can’t pull ourselves and our environment back from the brink of demise.