For the love of cats (the animal not the musical)

I grew up in the country but we lived on the main highway into town. We always had cats as pets, well once we had bunnies and another time chickens, but mostly cats and they didn't tend to last very long (neither did the bunnies or chickens). It was the country so some of them got eaten by coyotes or sometimes large predatory birds (hawks and eagles), but most of them got hit by cars on the highway. We knew the likelihood that our cats weren't long for the world so we didn't tend to get too attached to them.

We had one cat that had a litter of kittens just before she got hit on the highway. By the time we found them most of the kittens had died, all but one in fact. Our cats were random mixed breeds (barn cats really though we didn't have a barn), but this one was definitely part seal point Siamese (she had dark grey spots though instead of brown and the darker spots were tabby striped). She was super cute. My brother fed her milk with an eye dropper and he named her Nikki (we were both a little obsessed with the movie Who's that Girl at the time and before the kitten got big and developed some dark spots on her tail and ears her fur was sort of peroxide blond colored, like Madonna in that movie). Nikki was most attached to my brother but she was really affectionate with all of us. She was way more of a people cat than most cats.

She lasted a lot longer than most of our pets, probably because she kept closer to the house. My dad got attached to her to so maybe he let her inside the house more than some of our other pets too. Longer for her though was only a couple of years and while the loss was a little harder than the others we'd still always known, in the back of our minds, that Nikki would come to the same kind of end as the others. My dad took it harder, he didn't want to have pets for a long time after that, he still fed all the random cats that were around, but they were no longer our pets just stray cats we fed.

We had a cat at my mom's house too and that was a much less dangerous neighborhood for pets to be outside, but when I was 12 we moved to the city and had to give the cat to a friend because we couldn't bring her with us. That separation was a little traumatic because we'd had that cat for a long time, 6 years I think, but she didn't die...I mean eventually she did but by that time she was someone else's cat.

Now I have two cats. I got them shortly after I moved out on my own and I was in the city so They've always been indoor cats because I'm afraid of letting cats out anywhere near busy streets. I've had them for 9 years and like all good pets they are like a part of my family. I realized recently, for the first time, that these cats are going to get old, and possibly sick and then die, of natural causes. That prospect has me a little worried. I've never had a pet that lived a normal lifespan and died of natural causes. I don't know how I'll handle it.

They're really cute cats, one orange and one black. The black one has a meow that sounds like she's saying "me, me, me". I think she strained her voice by meowing non-stop for the entire hour and half drive home when I picked her up. I think her voice just never developed after that. The orange on the other hand slept the whole time when I brought her home but she's very vocal now. She likes ice cream, she won't touch any other people food but every time I eat ice cream she hovers around hoping to get to lick the bowl. I've had them both since they were tiny little kittens. The first night I brought home the orange kitten she kept following me into the bathroom and it's become a habit for her, she always wants to be in the same room as I am in and that includes the bathroom. I used to have a console television and the black kitten ran immediately under it when I brought her home and wouldn't come out. She still likes to hide under things, mostly whenever new people are around. She's afraid of new people. They have personalities and I've gotten to know their personalities.

I've always been an animal lover. I'm pretty sure I bent the axle on my old car because I swerved to avoid hitting a squirrel and hit the curb instead. The mechanic that looked at it that first time said it wasn't bent but the CV boots kept cracking. When their was an animal in the street that I couldn't avoid hitting (an opossum) I cried. I used to volunteer at the Seattle Animal Shelter (walking dogs and matchmaking cats). So, I've always loved animals but I've never been quite so attached to any as I am to these two. In fact, my relationship with these cats is longer than any other I've ever had (with the exception of my family). I'm not sure how I'll handle losing them.

So BA in English

This is a fairly winding train of thought so I won't blame you if you don't follow it entirely.

A while back I read an interview in the New York Times with Lou Reed and he referred to one of his own comments as "so BA in English" which he has. This week's guest on Elvis Costello's new show Spectacle was Lou Reed and it brought back to mind the comment about his BA in English (which he mentioned in this interview as well).

Last night I went to a the Seattle Women's Chorus winter show at Meany Hall (which was great by the way). Lou Reed and Meany Hall made me think about my own BA in English.

Meany Hall was the scene of my graduation from the University of Washington English department. I mean my main graduation from UW was at Husky stadium (in the freezing, pouring rain), but I also went to my department graduation and that was at Meany Hall. Graduation ceremonies are more for the parents than the students and I went to both of mine for my parents like most student, of course, but the memory of my department graduation is a surprisingly fond one. It turned out that I had a professor or two in that department that had a significant impact on me.

I took a big chunk of time off between my sophomore and junior years in college, and changed majors a bunch, so by the time I declared my final major (English) the requirements had changed and I had to take a core requirement, a linked writing and literature class, that normally would come earlier in the degree progression.

At first it annoyed me to have to take the class. It reminded me of having to take Washington State History in night school because I transferred school districts twice between 8th and 12th grades. At my first school State history was a 9th grade requirement but I transferred to a new school for 9th grade, in my new school district it was an 8th grade requirement so I'd missed it and when I transferred again for 11th grade I'd missed it in that district as well so I had to take it in night school my senior year in order to graduate. The linked lit/writing course at UW was just like that at first. It was just the requirement I'd missed and had to take in order to graduate. Then...well...there's an idea that college is where people go to become independent thinkers and this class made me feel like they wanted me to think for myself only if I thought like them, like him (the professor) so it annoyed me on that level too.

Over time I started to like that class a lot. I suppose that was in small part, or possibly large part, to the huge crush I had on one of the guys in my discussion group. He was, undoubtedly a much greater influence on me than the class itself or the professor and at the time that completely overshadowed the fact that the class and the professor did have an influence on me. But Lou Reed and Meany Hall have got me thinking.

I don't know if reverse psychology was the plan, but that original annoyance I felt with the class translated into my becoming more antagonistic than normal, which is saying something since "for the sake of argument" is kind of my motto to begin with. I said all sorts of stuff in the discussion section of that class just to get people's ire up, just to get arguments going. That class reintroduced me to that part of myself that looks at things from all angles. If I'm honest about it that class did exactly what it was supposed to do. Maybe it didn't teach me to think for myself, because I had a pretty good handle on that already, but it helped me to get back to thinking for myself.

Television and the Gospel of Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello recently joined the ranks of television personalities and said, of working in television, "For every frustration, for every idiotic suggestion that you get when you work in television, the great moments far outweigh the minor frustrations,". When you're Elvis Costello and your executive producer is Elton John and your show is airing on the Sundance Channel I would imagine you have a lot less idiotic suggestions and a lot more latitude when it comes to taking them than others, with less clout, might have, with shows airing on the major broadcast networks, but I want to believe that the sentiment will hold true for them as well.

You see, I think television is the best medium for storytelling. Costello's show, "Spectacle", is primarily a talk show, or you might call it a variety show since he interviews musicians and occasionally they play some songs. Maybe you wouldn't call that storytelling, and maybe there are plenty of great venues for interviewers (magazines definitely give television a run for its money when it comes to interviews), but he's making a statement that echos the complaints of all my favorite storytellers when it comes to working in television.

Joss Whedon was fed up with television after his experiences with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" and who can blame him. Aaron Sorkin put his annoyance with network interference right back into his shows and, perhaps not coincidentally those two shows ("Sports Night" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"), while just as good if not better than "The West Wing", didn't last very long. Sorkin does a wonderful job with stage and film projects as well, most recently with "Charlie Wilson's War", but even so, I can't help but miss his presence in the television landscape. Whedon too has done well in other mediums, "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" proved the viability of programing straight to the Internet, but his presence is also sorely missed on television.

Elvis Costello said that the good outweighs the bad though and if Elvis Costello said it I have to believe it's true. I only hope that Sorkin and Whedon (and others like them) take that to heart and keeping pitching television shows so they make it back to my airwaves as soon as possible.