Mukilteo Musings

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

test

Test post

// posted by Kaley Lane Eaton @ 1:14 PM 0 comments

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Trifecta

Why is it that creating art, making money, and serving the community are mutually exclusive? Will I ever thrive?

// posted by Kaley Lane Eaton @ 10:24 PM 0 comments

Friday, October 04, 2013

Neighbors

9/27

The table in my breakfast nook appears a bit narrow, if you look at it from the bed. But if you look at it from the stove it is perfect. Just above the threshold of the table is the window (when you look at it from the stove). This window looks like a picture frame; within its moulding we have public housing, the Hollywood Hills, and a towering shiny building, a monolith within a meadow of strip malls. This building is like a mirror with an overlayed grid. In it I can see a perfectly symmetrical reflection of the skyline. (“Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.”) Black lines going up and down, crossing one another, as if the skyline were drawn on a child’s graph paper.

They do say this building is haunted, which is quite poignant to find out during my current phase, in which I’m exploring an odd fascination with ghosts. Tonight will be the first night I sleep alone in an apartment that is entirely mine. I can hear the man next door cough and it sounds like he is in my kitchen; perhaps he is a ghost. Funnily I do not mind.

9/30/13

A man with no teeth knocks on my door. “Did you leave me this note?” he says, or, rather, “did you leave me thith note?” I say yes, I had. I’m sorry, I don’t want to be controlling. It’s just that sometimes the TV is quite loud. “After midnight, I try to be respectful. I understand.”

His face grows solemn, and he looks at his feet. His hair is very white like silver platinum and his skin is very black like old wood. “You see, at night, I watch these…” he hesitates. “Movies.” I squirm a bit. “Horror movies.” Alert off. “It will sound really quiet for a while, and then, BOOM! Someone screams!”

Yes, that is the thing about horror movies, I agree, sweetly (to act sweetly is a very complex feminine choice in the presence of strangers). “So. Here’s the thing. I try to keep it down but if it’s loud, YOU CALL ME.” He hands me a crumpled (why is it crumpled?) sticky note with many numbers. Scribbled apartment number, scratched and sketched phone number, all numbers are different sizes and there is no indication that one reads from left to right or right to left.

Oh ok thank you. Again the sweet smile. He lends a toothless one.

Three days ago I knocked on his door when he was clearly home, and no answer. As I stood awkwardly in the hall in my bathrobe a woman my age pranced. “Do you know him?” No, his TV is really loud and I’m going to ask him to keep it down. “Oh. He’s really creepy, he talks to himself and he orders takeout all the time. He never leaves.” I thought of risks, causes, effects. Thanks for telling me, what is your name? “I’m Megan!” She said it as if we were going to be friends. Thanks for the heads up, maybe I will leave a note instead, just to be safe.

// posted by Kaley Lane Eaton @ 6:50 PM 0 comments

Friday, September 27, 2013

X-Streets Wilshire and Rampart

// posted by Kaley Lane Eaton @ 11:13 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Los Angeles

(Hello, friends. I don't expect that anyone is reading this but, if you are, welcome back. I may post from time to time. I figure it is pointless to have my thoughts exist elsewhere, for many reasons.)

I live in Los Angeles now. Los Angeles makes me feel as if I should wear a sign around my neck with directions carved into it, saying, "JUST ADD WATER." A year with 345 days of sun makes all seem insignificant. You never have to struggle to see.

I learned one thing this week: the fringes of palm fronds turn brown and wilt at a peculiar angle when fall arrives. This is not quite like New England fall, where all of history seems to open up, and suddenly it feels like there are no centuries dividing you from Anne Boleyn or John Lennon or the obvious Emily Dickenson.

There is very little poetry here; instead, stucco walls, stained sidewalks, the smell of trash, suffocating mountains wearing celebrities homes like necklaces overlooking an endless barrio. I live in that barrio. There are gangs and stray dogs and needles on the sidewalk. Every day I step over these items to make my way to be with the children, who are better at stepping around them than I am.

Our advisor told us that every now and then, we will have to do a lockdown at the youth center, but not to worry, because the children will be calm and tell you how to go through the procedures.

// posted by Kaley Lane Eaton @ 3:41 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Culture Queen is back!

Many of you may remember my mother plugging my own blog, http://theculturequeen.blogspot.com, a long time back before the whirlwind of her illness hit. After much consideration and a newfound engine-revving of my writing, I've decided to return to my blog, whose goal is to bring classical music and gourmet food together for normal people to enjoy.

I just wrote a "welcome back" post and will have more new posts to come.

As I'm considering a career as a writer in music criticism, it would mean the WORLD to me if you all would follow my new writing - I think you'll have some tasty results from it as well!

My mom loved the idea, and I think its time that the Lane-Eaton hybrid of myself takes flight in my own realm.

So, ladies and gentlemen, thanks for your readership and encouragement of my mom's writing and now my own - and let it continue in a new place!

// posted by Kaley Lane Eaton @ 3:07 PM 9 comments

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Hello everyone!

The Eatons are all safe and sound, back in Seattle after a glorious trip to Germany, Estonia, and Finland. I'll post pictures soon (there's a lot of them, so it will take some sorting out) so you can get a taste of our adventure!

In the mean time, I, in my rebellious, secretive and impulsive way, decided that I would permanently pay memory to my mother on the way home from a concert weekend in Portland with my best friends. We stopped in Seattle on a whim to ink up - here's my first tattoo!

(This is a mirror image photo - musicians, the rest isn't backwards, so don't freak out!)

It's a quarter rest, which, in music notation, means silence for one beat. I love the symbolism of this - that she rests, but music will come in again. There's another spiritual meaning for me behind the rest - in vocal music, a rest signifies a pause as well as a breath in most cases, and in Yoga and Hindu philosophy, "God" is said to be felt at the beginning and end of a breath. Not to mention the obvious significance of a musical symbol, all of these things make it a pretty rockin' thing to have on my body forever...

.. My mom always, always wanted to eventually get a tattoo, and there were times when we'd thought about getting them together someday. I am a huge fan of body modification so I knew I'd get to it - sadly, she didn't, but this one is for her!! She's probably rolling her eyes at my impulse decision, but I don't regret a thing!!

// posted by Kaley Lane Eaton @ 9:15 PM 12 comments