Atlanta, GA

Beginning of June already, the minutes sometimes seem to last forever when separated from the person you most want to be with, but the days fly by.  Atlanta this week and flying Delta.  Not my most frequented airline so no status, no TSA Pre-Check (I really need to go apply for this in general), and no upgrades.  Bummer.  But since I'm moving to the east coast I may become one of their better customers.

I got to see a well known and long time BGA this week, friends at The Milner Group.  I'm here with Whit Milner,

and Greg Ragan, both who I've known for over 20 years, and both who are now Grandfathers, so we had plenty in common to talk about.

Then back to Houston to start packing my office.  It seems there are boxes everywhere I go these days.

The most interesting activity this week, dare I say avant garde, was attending First Friday which

is the oldest poetry reading series in Houston, held on the first Friday of every month since 1975.  This is held in a small house built around the 1930's in the museum district - one block from the Menil, and about a mile from where I live (how am I just finding out about this???).  I knew it was going to be something different given the eclectic group of people that arrived and each one carrying some mixture of scent of pot, alcohol and/or tobacco, ranging in every age, color and background.  The featured reader was Kenan Ince, a rising fourth-year Ph.D student in mathematics at Rice.  

The attendees filled the chairs set up in the parlor, and then overflowed in to the kitchen area and even the steps leading up to the second floor to hear him speak.  He was confident and casual, without guile.  His poetry didn't have the typical rhyming quality but was more a stream of consciousness with a social/political bend and some gay and sexual overtones to certain pieces.  He read over 15 poems he's written which took about an hour and each was thought provoking.    How is it that someone who's in to knot theory and randomly triangulating Grotzsch and Teichmuller rings using software and conjecturing certain things about that can also get poetry?  It's a mind mystery but his poem about a certain Houston neighborhood battle taking place for over 10 years leaves no doubt he also has a sense of humor.  

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2014/06/a-poets-take-on-controversial-tower-rise-ashby-rise-block-out-the-sun/#18972101=0

Last stop this week  at the Menil, Rothko Chapel and the park. 

 I'm gonna miss this place.