Author Archives: Alan Ilagan

Happily spent from two nights of dining with our dear friends Eileen and Raph, I stumbled into the house well after 10 PM last night and heard the following music emanating from the local classical music station. It was mystical music, carrying calm and beauty and a sliver of mystery to it – shards of whispered secrets sounded across every pluck of the harp and strum of the guitar string. It was spring music, imbued with hope and a bit of tension, the way cold could still creep into the night and shock in the sunniest of mornings. Entitled, ‘The Spirit of the Trees’, it went perfectly well with the photos of our coral bark maple tree just coming into its miraculous chartreuse splendor. 

Here we are already at the end of April, one more day of the month to go before the glory of May arrives, in apparently rainy fashion. Spring rains are somehow more maddening than the rains of fall – less depressing perhaps, but more bothersome. We waited all winter for some relief – it’s like stalling and hesitating and pulling back when you’re ready to go, go, go… 

A little rain – or a lot of rain – won’t stop the show of the coral bark maple leaves. They will shine brightly even on the grayest days, brightening their corner of the yard with this magnificent shade, accenting themselves with that striking red bark. This fresh hue will last for a while, carrying its clarion call into the start of summer before ripening into a slightly deeper shade of green. Then, come fall, the reversal of fortune occurs, as the leaves turn bright yellow before fading to a ghostly pale cream color. By winter, all that will remain are the coral stems, which will burn through the months of slumber until they recreate this spectacular show all over again. 

This little squirrel decided to share a lunch-break with me as I sat at the counter in Stacks earlier this week, drinking my decaf Americano and nibbling a cookie. He or she or they munched on a peanut left for their friends in a nearby park. Not mad about this sort of company. Peaceable companions are the best. 

This time around I felt it before I confirmed or knew about it. There was an uneasiness in the air, a slight shift of the spring trajectory we had been on, and when it finally came across someone’s FaceBook feed it was almost a relief to see it. Mercury is in retrograde. A relief, and then a worry, and then something in-between.

Sitting down for a daily meditation, I watched as the wind brushed through the thuja hedge, touching on the Japanese umbrella pine before scuttling out of sight. A spell of rain began soon thereafter, and the chill in the air signaled we had not yet crossed the frost-free date in upstate New York (last time I checked that happened the first week of May). 

Now that I know Mercury is in retrograde, I can relax a bit, and lean into the mayhem and mishaps to come. It’s a more peaceable way of dealing with life in general, a reminder that when we roll with the punches it’s sometimes easier than going against the flow. 

The bane of lawn purists around the world, this little dandelion is too often seen as a pesky weed, but if they were less hardy, less common, and less unrefined they’d be cherished as garden plants. It’s all a matter of perspective, and a shift in the way we view the world is always a healthy exercise. 

The flowers themselves are radial works of sunshine and wonder, their seed-heads the stuff of childhood whimsy and wishes. The jagged leaves are handsome in my eyes, but I like a leaf that looks like it could bite. When you learn to appreciate something like the dandelion, life is so much sunnier at every step. 

Officially announced as the Commencement Speaker for this year’s SUNY at Albany’s graduation ceremony, DB Woodside has a formidable entertainment portfolio that goes back to the 90’s. As an actor and director, he has appeared in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, ‘Single Ladies’, ‘ Parenthood’, ‘Lucifer’, ’24’ and ‘The Night Agent’. SUNY’s commencement speech will bring him back to his alma mater (he earned his BA from SUNY and a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama) and this earns him a Dazzler of the Day crowning. 

Having been a loyal customer of Sephora for well over a decade, I frequently made use of their semi-annual sales for their loyalty customers, the latest of which took place from April 14-24. I’d been eyeing the new Tom Ford ‘Soleil de Feu’ which was auspiciously released a few weeks ago, and on the first day of the sale I went to make use of it, only to find out the item was suddenly ‘Out of Stock’. I clicked on the ‘Notify me when available’ option in the hope that it might be online again before the sale ended. 

Yesterday the sale ended at midnight, and this morning I got notification that the item I wanted was suddenly back in stock. This was the same thing that happened a while ago on a previous Sephora sale, which came and went without me being able to order the item I wanted. I reached out to the Sephora help chat and was told they cannot honor the sale on out of stock items. Strange how the timing worked out for this again. It’s left a sour taste in my mouth for continuing to patronize the company. I can find discounts on cologne more regularly, and more consistently, at fancier department stores, with more decent treatment for loyal customers, so perhaps that will be where I go next…

For now, Sephora, I’m disappointed with the poor customer service, and this is the second time your loyalty sale has proven unusable.

UPDATE: After several e-mails and this blog post, someone from Customer Service go tin touch and told me they would discount me 20% for this purchase. When I plugged the code in it rang up for 10% but rather than push it I took it, and modified this post. 

One of the lessons I learned early on in the 20-years-and-counting run of this website was that not every blog post can or should be profoundly moving or earth-shattering. A good blogger is lucky if they manage that feat once a month – though I did aim for at least one epic post per week, a dream that I still don’t usually manage to achieve, but it’s inspiring to have a goal. In between the big events were the filler posts – the ones that sustained anyone’s need for a daily fix of the nonsense they may have come to expect from my inane ass. These were the posts that largely became the driving force of a blog – the day-to-day doldrums that dropped a few fun hints of drama or tragedy or hilarity that life threw at all of us. Taken together they form the voice you are hearing now – the one that often represents the unguarded and unedited version of myself, of the voice that runs throughout my brain during every waking moment of the day.

This inner-narrative finds expression in a public way that’s clearly not for everyone, but it has been a boon to my mental state in allowing me to vent and release whatever is on my mind. Sometimes simply getting a thought down on electronic paper is enough to acknowledge it and let it pass without much trouble. Too often the main problems in life are caused by bottling them up and keeping them to ourselves. There is greater strength in letting them out and expressing oneself, even if it leaves you out here alone, vulnerable and bare for all the world to see. 

So here’s to the filler posts, and to everyone who gets through an average Tuesday. There is glory in all of it. 

Such a dreary start to the week gets reshuffled with these charming columbine pics, and a recap of what ended up being a caffeine-fueled rollercoaster of delights and bedevilment. We shall wait no further time getting back into it…

Rode hard and put away wet – the way I always feel in the glorious spring. 

A peachy fizzy thing to lift the spirits. 

Pink or green: which witch would you be?

Lilliputian beauties defying their stature.

Women’s empowerment according to my niece. I believe the children are our future – teach them well and let them lead the way. 

My visual contribution to the week of 4/20.

The surreality of social media.

A dear friend celebrates her birthday – you remember JoAnn!

This caffeine-and-sugar-fueled Saturday night experience was documented in real time on the blog, and it was a shit show. 

Carving out a simple safe space no matter where you are.

Last night was complicated.

Dazzlers of the Day sparkled through the likes of Miley Cyrus, Bruce Springsteen, Noam Ash, Patti Murin, Ali Franco and Will Taylor.