I have a friend who "falls in love" every few weeks. "This time this is it", he always reports, "this person is the one!" No one in the past (or in the future) can equal this one this time. And after a while, the bloom fades, depression sets, and the cycle begins ail over again with someone else.
      Nothing wrong with this really if it brings either of them joy.
      With me, it's different. I fall in love dozens of times daily. Often I stay home, afraid to go out because I know that I will fall in love again with someone out there. It becomes unbearable sometimes. Every interesting face has a story to tell, a life to share, adventures, thrills, madness! It's too much. My friends wonder in amazement. How can I do it, how can I fall in love with so many? And I wonder why they cannot. I wonder why they save their love, why they ration their love, why they wait for someone perfect. For me everyone is perfect. Perfectly themselves. Falling in love is simply a way to explore another. I like people. People are more fun than anything. I'll take an evening with someone before the theatre, the cinema, a concert or anything.
      And I never fall out of love. Once someone bas honored me with sharing their life, their love, their energy, their ups and their downs, how can I ever stop loving them?
      Ah love!

      The above is from my book, Everything Is! Soft Manifestos for Our Time (published by Handshake Editions) and available from me at a modest price. Handshake continues...

      This is my second attempt to produce a new newsletter. I completed one the 22nd of July, but Katinka said it was too disjointed. So here I go again. I intend to mount a photograph on high but not sure which one it will be. It could be "Breakfast at A2", taken by Chris Harris some weeks ago, or it cound be "Katinka & Jim" taken some days ago by Alice Berry, or it could be one of me, alone, looking serious...

      Last night I dined chez Cathy Sroufe, a dinner to celebrate Flanagan MacKenzie's and Ali Akar Alizadeh-Fard's birthdays. I spent most of the evening talking with Sarah Mondale, telling her the idea I have for a film. Maybe after she completes a current film project, she will do my idea. Speaking of food, Project Eats continues every Wednesday and Sunday evening. Barbara Steinkeller cooks tonight. Everyone seems to enjoy them.

      This second page was composed the 22nd of July and I will let it be... Dick Gregory is still in Teheran, still fasting. As of the 3Oth of July, it has been 108 days...
      Tomorrow is Barbara Belle Creighton's birthday and Colleen Baldwin's and Leroi Muir's. And the 24th is Lorraine Dillon Cornfeld's, ChantalDarcy Lette's, Dieter Hagenbach's, Gail Percy's, and Robert Graves. The 25th is Mark Dubowy's and Mark Brusse's. The 26th is Mick Jagger's (he will be 37). Garry Davis, Robin Rockinan, and Burgel Langer share the 27th of July. And Paul Prokop, Nicholas Albery, and Rudiger B6hm share the 28th. The 29th is Yoko Toda's, Bettina Jonic's, Didier Baussy's, Lee Michelsen's, and Flanagan MacKenzie's birthdays. I had better stop now. So Happy Birthday friends!

      I did not intend to be in Paris this summer. I thought that I would be in the USA now, but I am here and it has been fun. Lots of delightful visitors. Too many to name here. It would fill the rest of this page, but I must name Bertie Sperber and Angelika Eder, and Gabriel Lanza, Kia Nordquist and Marita Gatte, Gregory Mallozzi, and Mark Dubowy and Almut Klingbeil, and Dona Bolding, and Henk, and Jan and and and and and

      Dear Henry Miller is with us no longer. I am editing a collection of pieces to be published by Handshake Editions. If you would like to contribute an essay, do so. To date I have received items from Jim Campbell, Suzanne Brøgger, Alfred Perlès, Jens Jorgen Thorsen, Philippe Coupey. and Merritt Clifton.

      We have music in atelier A2 once again thanks to Lars Ljungdahl (who fixed the amplifier), to Ali Akar Alizadeh-Fard (who suggested that Lars connect the record player that was down in the basement), to Henk Van de Putte (who said that I could continue to borrow his record player), to Jack Henry Moore (who gave me an audio cassette deck), to Gabriel Lanza (who transported it from Amsterdam to Paris and who connected it) and to Anna Köhler (who encouraged everyone)!!! I will miss the silence, but thanks everyone all the same.

      Ali's "Saga" continues. In case you don't know, he has an Iranian passport. It is not the same as leprosy, but almost. Anyway he is well and happy and living in Paris - so who can complain about that? He can! He wants to be in Chicago. Yes, friends, there are people who prefer Chicago to Paris... Maybe I should check out Chicago. Since meeting Ali and Flan, I have become the cultural attaché for the city of Chicago in Paris.

      I still hope to be in Edinburgh this August for the Edinburgh International Festival - surely the greatest festival in the world! This year Cathy Sroufe, Lisa Markuson, Cathleen Andrews, Danielle Milner, and Lee Michelsen will present their dance company, "Dance Plus". And dear Connie Bradburn will be with them, singing! I think that half of Paris plans to go up for the festival, so many in fact I plan to look into the possibility of chartering a plane. If you wish to join us, let me know and maybe you can fly up with us.

      It looks like I will be in Paris after the Festival to host Jill Diamond. She will be allowed to come to Paris for ten days. In October, I hope to journey to Frankfurt/Main for the Book Fair. Then afterwards another university year will begin. It seems that Vincennes will be closed, but I will continue at a northern suburb called St. Denis. Then in December I hope to journey to the USA and to read at various universities. Katinka is planning to make a date for me at Brandeis, Greta will co-organize (with Liz) a reading for me at Sarah Lawrence. Kathy will organize something at San Diego State, etc etc. So if you would like to have me visit you and to read excerpts from my four "masterpieces", let me know...

      The plumber just left and we have a bathtub that drains once again. We have more debts as a result. But that is ail a part of life's rich whatever. Anyway friends I am pleased to report that I am almost out of debt. On paper anyway, my assets exceed my liabilities. And how many of us can say that? Not me usually. But of course I will go straight back into debt immediately. My dear friend, Jack Henry Moore, is getting me a Betamax videocassete machine, so A2 will be an intimate cinema once again. "Gigi", "Beat the Devil", etc etc anyone?

     We are almost at the end of another page and another newsletter. The last one was composed the 2nd of June, and here I am the 22nd of July, not even two months have passed, pounding away once again. I suspect that I have left out lots of important news items. Oh, yes, I remember I have just been mentioned in a "New Statesman" article (18 July) much to my distress. Too long to explain here and far too complicated... Anyway I will bring this to an end by quoting one of the great philosophers of the 2Oth century (guess who?): "ROOTS" I am an Earthling. Ah human history is mine. Everyone who has ever lived and everyone who is living now contributes to making me "me". My roots extend everywhere. (from Everything is!)
No more space, so goodbye for now.