i have an awesome life

–i have amazing friends.  really.  journalists, writers, filmmakers, artists, hustlers, students, teachers, n americans, europeans, africans, revolutionaries…and we have a great time together, we laugh, we cry, we drink, smoke, stay up too late, laugh some more, dance at 3 am, fall asleep on couches and mattresses and floors, paint walls, ride taxis, motobikes, and microbuses, talk politics, sex, music, history, writing, and bullshit. really, sometimes when we are all together, i just stop and look around at us and think, damn, we win.

–aza blows my mind.  today she was doing cutouts, yesterday was she was making collages.  she tells me wild stories and comes into the office so she can massage my shoulders and bring me drawings.  her birthday was a week ago and she got gifts from her grandparents but also from lewis, the 23 year old auc student (paint and canvas) and malte, the 21 year old german painter (a ‘diamond’ ring).  these are the kids she considers ‘friends’.  she is so confident and self assured.  so determined and attentive to others.  so into explaining everything that is happening around us.

–i have a new studio space.  grey blue walls, multiple rooms, high ceilings, when you speak there is an echo…will be great for recording in.  the studio still needs a name (any suggestions?).  and i still need to move a few things into it.  but i have dreams about artist collectives, showings, movements and revolutions swimming through this studio.  (will post pics soon)

–i am writing this because i forget.  i forget how awesome life is.  i forget how i live a few blocks from the nile river.  and how i hear the call to prayer 5 times a day.  and how i am witnessing the movements of revolution and counter-revolution up close and personal.  and how cal and i have made a good balance together.  and how it is spring in cairo, and how the birds start their day before dawn, and how i get to experience this life that is so good.