The Amazing Adventures of Nemea

2005-04-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

My New Hair Style by Wendy Simone of Sebastopol!

2005-04-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

My New Office Sign!

2005-04-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Mark & Nemea During Our Wedding Ceremony

Occidental Fools Parade!

2005-04-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

The day started early, with a distinct lack of proper sleep. I got up and started to put the finishing touches on my hair. Mark made me a cup of Maté. All of a sudden Ed was there, in his space suit with a cape, and it was time to get dressed and go! I tied on the beautiful yarn falls I had made and did a sort of slap-dash makeup job, which looked pretty good considering. I will post a picture soon! As Ed & Mark sped to Occidental, I went into Sebastopol to pick up Ted, who emerged from his house with one of his large copper sculptures tied to his head and holding aloft his fantastic copper staffs.
We arrived in Occidental just as the parade was beginning, led by a troop of morris dancers in very silly get-ups. We joined Mark & Ed.
Mark was wearing his precious loud plaid jacket and marvellously clashing accessories, and swim trunks. He had on his head a curly rainbow wig and bowler hat crammed on top. Proffering a bouquet of pink flowers he lunged down the parade route, surrounded at times by groups of appreciative women. He received a citation for being too mushy when he kneeled, presented me with the flowers, and I gave him a bunch of kisses. For some reason I was not cited. ???
So many great fools were there, it is hard to describe them all. The clown who started Silly Day many years ago was there, in a beautiful vintage hippie patchwork clown suit, impeccable clown makeup, playing his accordion. Our gang gravitated to the dulcet tones and we joined in with the silly singing! Later he was apparently crowned King of the Fools!
I enjoyed playing with the fool who was on the phone to tech support, we gave her all kinds of silly advice, like, open your computer case and fill it with jelly! I didn't really say that exactly, but it was in that vein.
Really enjoyed Brino Ism and his pals, but he made my camera battery run down when I took his picture. Briiiino! O no!!!
Jeff looked amazing in his mirrored mask covered with broken mirror bits and the silver ram's horns. My favorite part of his outfit was the tight pink hologram pants. aaaaOOOOga! He was later crowned the Duke of Debauchery. I wonder why?
So we marched up one side of the long parking lot that runs the length of Occidental (about three blocks). When we reached the end, we milled about in the middle of the intersection for a while. I really enjoyed the milling! Then the Apple Tree Morris group, (our pals!) lined up behind a big arch of flowers, and created an archway with their long green foam tubes (water worms) that we all danced under. It was hard to see and hear the crowning of the royalty, but I did some more milling about and picture posing.
Kim Atkinson and his group of samba drummers got a rhythm going later and many fools danced about. Some big video cameras were set up, and the manyt natural hams present gravitated to the front of them. I especially applaud the beautiful stilt-walker who stayed aloft for hours! Ted went wild with his swivel-hips dance!
Later Ted, Ed, Mark & I went to get a bit to eat at Howards Station Café. We were forced to sit outside as our head gear was too large for indoors. It was very jolly, with many fools and near-fools stopping by! It is so great to bring big smiles to peoples faces. I bet most of the regular people there that day didn't know what hit them, but they seemed to really enjoy it, whatever it was!
Later, back at home, I put on some very silly music and we all danced around in the sun like fools!
If anyone has any pictures, please send them to me and I will add some pix to this blog!
And a hearty Thank You to Katryn Price for her vision and hard work in creating the Fools Parade! And thanks to all the other folks who helped out. You are appreciated!
As I always say: Silliness is Next to Godliness!!!

Silly Blessings to all!

Dream: Road Trip With Spinner

2005-04-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Spinneroo,

This is the dream as I presented it to my dream group on tribe.net. I
thought you might enjoy reading about our crazy adventures in my
subconscious!

Love,
~Nemea

I dreamed that my friend Spinner invites me to go on a road trip
with her and we end up in Texas. I realize that I have to buy a new
pair of pants as my old pants are filthy! I think she invites me also
to platonically share her bed or something. In the dream it happens
kind of off-stage, but it is still very nice and intimate and
nurturing even though as an experience it is kind of not. Soon we
arrived in Texas, after some somewhat harrowing driving experiences.
We watch a big SUV driving along the top of a big dropoff to just
barely merge into traffic ahead of a whole bunch of people, including
us, who are all stopped in traffic. We find a parking spot in Texas,
which is a tree-lined suburban sort of place. Spinner has a meeting
and I go to the bathroom in the same building. When I emerge I hear
the sound of a crowd of Texans jeering at a man who lives in a small
cooler, very similar to the little brother in 'Basket Case'. As I
emerge under the trees I notice the wizened arm reaching out from
inside the cooler. A crowd of folks are sitting around in this little
arena-like city park area. Some have brought with them lawn chairs and
towels & blankets to sit on. I find an empty spot and sit down. I
guess I feel rather like a tourist in some barbaric land who doesn't
want to interfere with the native customs, like the Prime Directive in
Star Trek. Eventually Spinner emerges from the building and I join her
there. Then I wake up.

So to me this dream is a bit abstruse, however I think the part of me
that is portrayed by Spinner exemplifies power in the world that still
honors it's roots as a spiritual being, as she is a leader in the
eclectic spiritual community I am part of, and also seems to be
effective in the mundane world as well. This week I am launching my
business as a hypnotherapist, and I am having some trouble with
motivation. I don't have much. But I am doing it anyway, and later I
will deal with those feelings. Otherwise I will get nothing
accomplished. Maybe my feelings are the kid in the cooler and the
jeering Texans are oh heck I dunno....

Hey Nemea-babe,

Thank you for sending this!  I always like reading dreams, especially when I
show up in them.  Thanks for coming along on the road trip; sounds like it
was quite an adventure....  My thoughts or questions, if it were my dream,
would run along the lines of "what part of me is stuck in a box, on ice, in
the cooler, that is starting to come out?"  "what part of me is jeering at
the part of myself that is reaching for freedom?"  "what part of me is
riding on the edge to get ahead?"  stuff like that...

Anyhow, all is well here.  I got in from Denmark last night, and head out to
Boston to see my family this evening, zoomzoom.  Never boring, I'll tell you
that.

Sending you love...


Spinsister,  



  Wow! Hope your travel goes well, and your time with your family is
heart-full! Don't forget to breathe!



   Yup, those are pretty much the questions that come to mind. Right
now I am focusing a lot of energy on the launch of my Hypnotherapy
practice as I have begun to share an office with a wonderful woman
named Maya Bailey, who has generously offered to give me free coaching
as part of my rental agreement. How sweet is that! In addition I am
participating in a class called "Conscious Bookkeeping" that's all
about developing a positive relationship with money & finance.
Also, I am going to be getting involved in Toastmasters, and two local
networking groups. Whew! So I am kind of giving myself an intensive.
This is all about going in the direction of most resistance, so it's
not surprising that I would have such a dream. 



  I think what is in the cooler is the part of me that is assertive in
the world, is visible in the communities I am part of, is a Mover and a
Shaker (where have I heard that phrase before), but who feels very
embryonic, not-yet-formed, and very disconnected (gestating in a
cooler, for crying out loud), but in order to achieve a distinct shape,
must first emerge as he is now. The jeering mob is the complacent part
of me that has internalized the opression I experienced as a child from
my peers. Or perhaps it is a past life memory of the experience I might
have had just before being burned at the stake. Whatever it was, that's
how it feels. So I can shift this by enlisting this group of people to
appreciate and support this new emerging form, so that he can feel
welcomed into the world.



   I love the idea of hypnotherapy so much, and I think I am pretty
good at it, and I also have a longing to work with groups as a teacher,
but the whole thing about using words to create extemporaneously
terrifies me. I feel embarassed and sure to be ridiculed, as this was
my early experience in the collective. I was always sticking my foot in
my mouth and getting zapped for it. 



   The thing about the kid in the cooler is that he is not very verbal,
to say the least, but he is very embryonic. Who knows what he could
become? As a massage therapist I worked masterfully to facilitate
healing through touch. I didn't have to talk much. I could just give
presence and hold that space even during client catharsis. This was
practically effortless for me, mentally, emotionally, but my body let
me know it was time for a change. 

  In a session I received in Hypnotherapy school, I very strongly
linked that body feeling of giving a really great massage into the
experience of giving Hypnotherapy. It is really very similar work
through a different medium. I am still a healer! 



   So now a new adventure!  Thanks so much for coming along!



Love & Hugs,

~Nemea

My web site is back up:

http://home.comcast.net/~nemea/



http://www.drmayabailey.com/



http://www.consciousbookkeeping.com/

Apple Blossom Time!

2005-04-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

Today as I was driving home through the orchards that line the road to my home I was treated to the incredible smell of all the apple trees in new bloom! Sigh!

This afternoon I met with Maya Bailey, my "guardian angel" and new office mate, a professional life and career coach, and in half an hour she straightened me out on dealing with the launching of this new phase of my hypnotherapy business. She said it didn't really matter what name I use. I just need to decide. Nemea Laessig it is! And more... It helps so much to have someone who knows what it's like take an interest in me and be able to help me so well. She & I really click! So for the first time in quite awhile I actually feel good about this new venture. The Conscious Bookkeeping class is also going to help a lot.

I stayed up all night last night beginning the process of updating my old web page which has disappeared off the servers of evoe.com, so here you will find the updated site. The Poetry Chapbook and extensive 'Links' pages are in place! Many of my friends will find their sites listed on the 'Links' page, so check it out and let me know if you like it or not. The 'Links' page is graphic heavy, so I am contemplating a less bandwidth hungry version. Stay tuned!

Tomorrow is the Occidental Fools Parade! News and pictures to follow.

I am having a bit of a 'Traffic' fest at the moment, 'Low Spark' & 'John Barleycorn'.

2005-03-31T13:18:00.000-08:00

Art of long ago...

Pajamas

2005-03-31T13:11:00.000-08:00

Most days I am in my pajamas. I cant seem to get dressed until the last (or after the last) minute. Eating is also a challenge. So here I sit in my pajamas, 'with extremely low blood sugar at 1:11 pm, having not dressed or eaten all day. What is up with that???

Pictures!

2005-03-30T15:14:00.000-08:00

I just figured out how to add them. Whee!!!

2005-03-30T15:11:00.000-08:00

Four Scarves

This Just In...!

2005-03-30T14:15:00.000-08:00

I just found out that the Conscious Bookeeping class I just signed up for is taking place in my new office waiting room! Fate is conspiring...

On it goes!

2005-03-30T13:52:00.000-08:00

Well, at last I am blogging again!

This week I am setting up my new office that I am sharing with a wonderful woman named Maya Baily, who does personal & career coaching. She has offered me some coaching in addition to the office share, so it seems I have not only an office but sort of a mentor as well! I am terrified and excited about all of it. Yesterday I delivered my rent check to Dr. Halpern, the chiropractor that owns the building and has his offices downstairs. The building is a beautiful Victorian on the corner of Main Street (116) and Calder in Sebastopol. I also will have a sign added to the front as soon as I figure out what name to use! Aaaak! Shall I be Diane Nemea Laessig? Nemea Laessig? Nemea Arborvitae? Baak! Waaa!

In other news, after Mark & I spent a romantic weekend in Mendocino staying at Sweetwater, the hot-tub place, I came home with a new hobby, smoking crack!!! Errr...Knitting!!! I have already knitted five scarves and am starting on my sixth. I also passed on this dread disease to my friend Ted.

More later!

Nina in Action!

2005-02-12T00:13:00.000-08:00

Nina Hagen @ DNA Lounge

Jill Tracy & Nina Hagen at the DNA Louge, with an account of a late-night encounter with the Marin police

2005-02-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

Yay!!! I have started this blog!!! I have never had a blog before, so this is very exciting. Here is an account of the Nina Hagen show I went to Wednesday night with my awesome friend Ted.

Listen to the show Here.
Nina Hagen's Site
Jill Tracy's Site

The entire night is archived here including the great DJ mix by Miz Margo, of the fabulous long colorful dreads, before and between sets. Patience will be rewarded with awesome sounds! I recommend starting at 9:00. At about 9:22 you can hear someone's version of the awesome Pere Ubu song Final Solution, the ultimate in Teen Angst. Jill Tracy starts at 9:34. You will also notice the person our group dubbed 'the screamer' screaming away through the entire production like a crazed banshee. Enjoy!

Jill Tracy, dark cabaret chanteuse extraordinaire, was the opening act. Christopher and Brent, two guys I had met a few weeks before at the Edwardian Ball, were there just to see her. Never having sees Nina Hagen before they had no idea what a great treat was in store! Elegant in her black sequined cloche, her white skin glowed lividly under the pale spotlight. She was drinking a huge bottle of throat coat tea, pretending it was a bottle of bourbon, throughout her set, but her voice was wonderfully chilling as usual. That new song Haunted is great, and I can't wait to have it on a CD. She has begun to do more imrovisation on the piano, wonderful flights of dark fancy, at times reminding me of that great old band Traffic(if they were trapped in purgatory). She had her drummer, Randy "The Executioner" Odell and that guy who plays chapman stick have a wonderful rapport and really play well together building the brooding intensity of the songs. Jill joked about the Chronicle calling the chapman stick a 'zither stick'. Anyway, those guys sure can build a mood!

Her setlist:

You Leave me Cold
The Fine Art of Poisoning
Haunted By the Thought of You
A New Song About Drowning
Room 19
Pulling Your Insides Out
Hour By Hour
The Proof

Nina Hagen is a true living goddess!! My ears are still ringing with her imperative!!! She is gorgeous and sexy with a great huge voice & presence, her long black hair up in a cascading top-knot and deep red glittering lips, clad in clingy mis-matched spandex with a clingy black tunic that she kept hiking up around her tits in a most goofy fetching way! As she stalked out on stage she stated her mission, to bring us a message of UNIVERSAL IMPORTANCE!!!! A message of Peace & Love! A celebration of the rare concurrence of Chinese & Tibetan New Year, the beginning of the year of the Rooster!! (imagine seriously rolled Rrrrrrr s here!) Blessings to the Dalai Lama!!! She played many songs from throughout her career, beginning with Let Me Entertain You, but in fact it was so much more than entertainment! Her material ranged broadly across styles from big band to hip/hop with rapping, to her stunning rendition of Ave Maria, when many philistines went to the bathroom, to punk, to soul. Other standout songs were Return of the Mother, LSD, King of Hearts, He Shiva Shankara, Zero Zero UFO, an updated Born In Xixax, where Nina exhorted us to join in a reunion of peace & love, Berlin(I looove this song), the Al Green song Take Me To the River. In between songs, she blasted our chakras with her message of (I paraphrase) Stop Worrying and Get Busy! Also, she pantomimed looking at herself in the mirror in the morning, mugging at herself in a leery sort of way, then reminded us that when loving ourselves we had to start it. In other words waiting for the mirror image to start the loving just doesn't work. Occasionally throughout the night she would strap on a guitar, and at one point, as her keyboard player held the rumpled lyric sheet up she haltingly sang Horse With No Name. Too cute!!! We also learned that Nina is working on a pilot for an American TV show, and then she did TV Glotzer, from her very first Nina Hagen Band album released way back in the dawn of history in 1978, as her final encore! AAaaaaah!!!!

Nina Hagen Setlist

German Song (in English)
Let Me Entertain You
The Return of the Mother
Zero Zero UFO
Fever
I'm Going to Live Life I Sing About In My Song
New York, New York
Horse With No Name
He Shiva Shankara
King of Hearts
Mary (the song by Nirvana)
Giant Step
{She's So Stupid}???
Ska Thing
Born in Xixax
Squeeze Me (Janice Martin cover)
LSD
Berlin
Bang Bang (Janice Martin cover)
Pollution Pirates
Ave Maria
Young People
United Women of the World
Runaway
{How Could I be so lucky?}???
TV Glotzer

If anyone know's what the songs are that I don't know, please share your knowledge! Thanks!

On the way back the Marin police let me help train one of their new officers, a rather grim-faced young woman, to administer their myriad tests for drivers they suspect might be drunk. Now, at stores frequently one is alerted to the fact that someone is being trained, but with cops it's a different story. I went along with the game, albeit a bit crankily. The game began when I noticed a car that followed behind me at what I considered an unsafe distance and of course I slowed down and moved into the next lane. Then they pulled me over. I could not hear the instructions the were calling out to me with their bullhorn because I was suffering from extreme hearing impairment!! Eventually I figured out that they were asking me to pull into the Laz-e-boy parking lot. They told me that I had been driving too slow and weaving! They asked me to get out of the car. Then by the time they got through asking me a million questions and having me touch my nose with eyes open & closed etc. etc. they wanted me to do the walking in a line trick. I just told them there was no way I could possibly do it. I was exhausted and not used to the exercise I had just had dancing around for a few hours after crawling around under my house for two days drilling holes(longer story), and I was shivering with cold in my flimsy outfit, so they had me do another test or two instead, then I got to blow through a tube. I passed all their tests. Ted was just sitting in the car with all his goodies stuffed under the seat! I guess we didn't get home til about four in the morning!

The whole next day I was in an ear-ringing stupor, but still managed to drag myself to work. Whee!! Dimitry at work reminded me that we had recently been discussing getting pulled over by the police and I was bragging about hardly ever being pulled over. Ironic, isn't it!

Tonight my husband Mark & I go to visit our friends Pat, Jeff & their daughter Freya. Freya is Marks Goddess-Daughter, so I guess she is my Goddess-Daughter in-law or something. Hmmm... Anyway, she seems to like me very much! Freya's mom Pat recently had her brakes fail on a big hill and rolled her car into a vineyard, causing catastrophic injuries to her lower body. She will be recuperating for many months now, but will walk again. I am so glad we got to keep our Pat! Please send her prayers & healing energy! She is already doing much better! I'm sure it helps to get away from the hospital!

Love and Many Blessings,
~Nemea