[dar-list] Updating from Oregon

[Suzi Steffen]

Ah, Darlings.
I was going to post, but to say what ... I love the Pacific Northwest with a
passion, but I really miss the folk scene of the East Coast and Midwest. If
not for Jess Byers and her concert producing acumen, I'd probably miss it
even more (of course, I have to travel to Portland to get to the concerts,
but that's nothing new since I never seem to live in actual cities). I ran
into Jess briefly at a Kris Delmhorst concert a month or so ago. It was
packed and successful  good job, Jess! Now bring on some Dar ...

I went to a Peter Mulvey/Patty Larkin concert in Eugene the other night and
Peter made me nostalgic for the camaraderie
 of Falcon Ridge and the Darlist of, oh, 1997-2001 or so. I tend to go to a
lot of classical music concerts now (they're more available than folk, and
it's part of my job besides), and while I enjoy them quite a lot, I don't
experience anything like the emotional journey of a Dar concert. Something
about that mid-concert bliss and relaxation and deepening into the moment
that just doesn't happen even when I know the music (say, Bach's B Minor
Mass) quite well.

Speaking of my job, I've been working as an arts editor for my local
alt-weekly for two years now. I love it, and I work a lot, which definitely
leads to less posting. And I write freelance stories too  sometimes about
local food (I would NOT have expected to become a canning & preserving FOOL
when I moved out here, but such is life) and sometimes about theater and
sometimes about politics. Listening to "My Friends," which came up on my
iPod the other day, I perked up at the lines, "I have a friend in a bright
and distant town / She's found a common balance / Where you do your work and
you do your love / And they pay you, and praise your many talents"

Not to brag on the talents part (or to describe Eugene as "bright" though
it's definitely distant from NY), but I finally feel like this applies
pretty well. I get to teach a few classes a year at local community colleges
and the UO, and I get to write about theater, visual art, dance, music,
books, the war, the environment and other topics (usually ones I pick), and
... I get paid! (Which is good because I have a BIG BUNCH of student loans
to pay back.)

Friday night IRC folks will remember Linus the cat (I'd have to take breaks
to shovel paths in the snow for him during those Iowa winters), and I think
I posted extensively when he died in October of 2002. My partner's
almost-21-year-old kitty isn't quite as energetic, but she's hell of cute.

Um ... I just joined Facebook, giving in at long last. I see several Dar
communities there, but I haven't joined any yet. Should I, Darlings?

This summer, I'll head to England to visit my mom  maybe I'll finally get
to meet Ellen, Paul and so many others. Would be exciting!

That's the 10 o' clock news ... good night.
Oops, good morning. (At least on the West Coast!)
Yrs,
Suzi