Return of the Red-Eye

It feels like New Year's is old already, but here are my best wishes for 2010, courtesy of Paloma and Bing. This is yet another gem from one of my kitty-exploiting photo shoots, at least 10 years old since Loma P. (her rap name) is no longer with us. What a great friend and teacher she was--and I've never known another cat who could simultaneously run and meow quite the way she could. It was all modulated, like I can run and me-ow-e-ow-e-ow-e-ow

And Bing, well...the red-eye effect is entirely appropriate here. Note the scale of cat to champagne...did it fool ya?

P.S. Red-eyed-meezer-on-VH1 alert! If you caught the premiere of this season's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, you may have noticed the Siamese cat (looked like a relatively big meezer, too) in the childhood photo of Mackenzie Phillips, who was shown (I think) standing next to her father, who she sez taught her to roll joints and shoot heroin. I know that's a sad note to end on for a New Year's post, but it goes to show that everything's connected, in all sorts of ways.

P.P.S. Inspirational thingie that made my week: The kids in the jazz-hip hop class I help out in were split into two groups, so they could watch each other perform the combination. One student (she's 9 and insanely delightful), shouted out the following unprompted advice to her fellow classmates: "Listen, everybody! Pretend that Michael Jackson is watching you. It makes you really super good!" It's not like we were dancing to MJ or anything.