My Two-Eared Party was this Saturday, and about 25 people came despite it being a cold, rainy night.
My friends held forth on acts of subversion, the thrills & tribulations of L.A. journalism, the mysteries of Nepal, sleeping on the floors of bus stations while traveling through 48 states to document people in the act of reading, the challenges of living with another person, the secrets of localizing sounds from above and below, the secrets of managing faculty careers, gallery openings by gay deaf artists, unexpected bus-stop encounters decades ago, various novels, and five-month-old babies.
It wasn’t particularly ritualistic. (I wrote about the need for ritual in my blog entry, Rituals of Getting a New Body Part.) I realized, as I put another bag of popcorn in the microwave, that it’s hard to create a sense of sacred time & space when you have to watch the wine bottles and make sure the chips haven’t run out. I think it’s going to take a few more centuries to work out how to do such things.
But it was a great party. And boy, having the second ear helped. It’s a great feeling to sit between two people and hear both of them.
Wow Mike! You are certainly bringing a whole new dimension on what it is like to walk around with two bionic ears. This is certainly encouraging me to get my other ear done!
There sure wasn’t a shortage of topics at your party, was there? 🙂
What a great ‘excuse’ for a party! I’m so glad you finally have “two ears!” You are doing awesome and I’m excited for you, as well as all of your friends and family!