The Byrne Diaspora

All saints' run

Back in the mists of 2005, when Julie and I were living together at Duke, I'd rise at 5:30am to run around the East Campus track. I'd be chugging along, listening to my specially formulated iPod mix of Aretha Franklin and Led Zeppelin, trying to ignore how patently unpleasant running was...when JULIE would come up from behind, having gotten up at 5:00am and already lapping me! She would give a nice sisterly wave and then fly past me, with the same look on her face that Grammy used to have when effortlessly beating me in checkers.

We share many things, but this isn't one of them ;)  Julie has always been BUILT for endurance--first as a national champion swimmer in high school, and now as a runner in the 2009 New York Marathon!!! Miracle of miracles, her number was selected from the lottery, with less than a 10% chance of getting in. Mary, Mark, Pam and Dad will all be in attendance to cheer her on. Report to follow, I'm sure! Godspeed, Julie!  --MCB

Godmother's gift

...aaaaannd it's STILL Donald's birthday! Our brother received a package from our Aunt Francie, his godmother, of beautiful hand-made paper she'd made at a workshop on Martha's Vineyard. It's such gorgeous stuff--I want to sink my pen right into it, and write a nice long juicy letter to someone...then I remind myself that it's Donny's ;)

Here are some pictures of the gifted art...  --MCB

The writing life

I just started The Writing Life by Annie Dillard--a slim volume, good for taking on the road. If I had to write my own essay on the subject, it would go along the lines of: get knocked down, get back up. Over and over. But it's worth it. :)

I have some lovely news: first, that my travelogue will be the cover story of Wellesley Magazine this fall. (It goes out to every alumna in the world--exposure beyond my wildest dreams!) Second, I've sold three of my stories--"Five Letters from New Laverne" to Shimmer Magazine,"Redress" to Gargoyle Magazine, and "The Comedy at Kualoa" to Electric Velocipede. My first play, H.F., is going to be directed by my good friend Jay O'Berski at Manbites Dog Theater next season. (In the meantime, I got a nice shout-out from the head theater critic at the Indy Weekly in this post.) And finally, I was awarded a scholarship to work with one of my favorite writers, Nalo Hopkinson, on my first short story collection. 

Work goes on! I write 3-4 hours a day so that I always have something (or many things) to look forward to, though some nights I treat myself to shows or movies, instead ;)  I'm applying to the Michener Program for playwriting, and a whole bunch of residencies scattered around the world, from Washington State to Latvia. So, all in all, things are pretty awesome.

I'll post here whenever something becomes available, of course... ;)  --MCB 

Making the Rounds

We at Melleray are not the only ones building :) Clare and Stefan have been busy all summer, building a sugarhouse and a greenhouse at their Rounds Road property in Vermont (a street name I was so happy to hear, of course, because of Clare and Mary's piece by the same name). Stefan's brother Andrew even came up for a whole weekend to help. Praise be, for the good work done! Right now it looks like a great cage of whale skeleton...to be built UP. Clare promises further pictures to come, but for now, here's a sneak preview ;)  --MCB

Preying

On Sunday afternoon, while I was putting away the dishes and Nicole was waiting on some rice to cook, Donny rushed into the main cabin and said breathlessly, "Quick! There's a huuuuge...praying mantis...eating a wasp...in the greenhouse!" Nicole and I literally dropped what we were doing and ran over to the greenhouse and crouched outside the door and watched this. Yeeeef! What an Annie Dillard moment!

Who needs TV? ;)  --MCB

The word for moonlight

If I had to think of one word to describe Mary Byrne since birth, it would be "surprise."  How is she a surprise?  Let me count the ways!...No, I could not, except she is ever rounding a corner and taking your breath away.  In dark morning hours in my apartment, the moonlight does that to me, too: I enter a room and there is some silver spill that can only be one thing, but is impossible, every time.  Sometimes I imagine the moon, Mary & me speaking silvery, shimmery words to each other, in a triangle between the sky and our two apartments, twenty blocks from each other on the top floors of Brooklyn buildings.  Maybe the words are something like what Don DeLillo wrote in The Body Artist: "At night the sky was very near, sprawled in star smoke and gamma cataclysms, but she didn't see it the way she used to, as soul extension, dumb guttural wonder, a thing that lived outside language in the oldest part of her."  More likely, less said: "The word for moonlight is moonlight."  And then day dawns; Mary mines for sounds and invites voices home; she keeps seeing more; she doesn't walk the way she used to.  Happy, happy, happy day of birth, MMB.  And thank you for every moment of your wondrous presence among us.--JEB

Still arriving

For my big brother's 40th birthday, I am pleased to present a poem I wrote for the occasion. When I was two years old (as best we can figure), he left for a summer program at Johns Hopkins, and I remember feeling very shy when he got back--I'd heard of this so-called brother, but he was scary in person, and my memory was short, and I hid behind my sisters. Read it here :)  --MCB

Holy cross

 
And now, the Byrne Diaspora is proud to present...Julie Byrne!:

for db3, here's a creation.  it's frame, acrylic, paper, string, and screws.  it's called "holy cross"...after the church in durham where don was baptized, where we went to Mass sometimes during college...but it might really be named after other things, i'm not sure ... ;-). happy day-of-birth, art-making, and art-living, brotherman!

(Click on the pic to see in more detail :))  --MCB

Breakfast 1977

The Byrne Diaspora is proud to present...Clare Byrne:

This week is my brother Donald's birthday! He is only two years and two months older than me, my closest sibling in age. And this year, a particularly auspicious birthday, Donald requested homemade art. So Happy Birthday, my music man! I call to mind that Donald gave some of the first home performances I witnessed--a master of subtlety, rhythm, focus, and consistency at the Byrne breakfast table, back in the day--so this performing-at-home thing is nothing new. All you see here is true. --CSB

Birthday harvest

And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

...Above are Donny's birthday presents, arranged nicely on the wood stove! Aunt Laura sent him a packet full of old letters she saved from 21 Edgewood, written from all stages of his life, from Annville to Milwaukee (what a pleasure!); I got him Uncle John's Certified Organic Bathroom Reader (appropriate on so many levels); Dad got him a wheel of red Trappist Gouda, a box of cigars and two kinds of whiskey, a "Catholic whiskey" and a "Protestant whiskey" in order to conduct a taste test (a concept which Dad and Donny seem rather obsessed with); and Nicole MADE him a beautiful pitcher cloth out of our very own sheep's wool! See close-ups here.  --MCB