so one door opens. and there you are. it's teatime. you're no longer in Kansas. come in, then. anything might happen. probably will. after all, why not? if we clear the floor, then maybe you'll find yourself dancing. it's a hall of windows. and we're talking here about, and writing into, and crawling through, all those windows in the 'verse.

it's a glorious myth structure. twelve seasons of story in, and still rolling. the Three Protagonists, even when they're invisible, are always still dancing. what does it mean to be human? or to be Chosen? and what is real? or right? how do the Worlds They Know look through their eyes, and ours, and how are they built, that they can sing to us so strongly?

It's about that space, that bridge, that edge, that moment, when you walk effortlessly through to the other side of something. Maybe it's that one step we waited seven years to watch the Slayer take. Maybe it's that moment Spike knew, burning, exultant. We know it in writing, if not in life. When everything falls away, from sound to silence.

- macha (Thu 2003.09.11 at 05:18 pm EST)

conversation is a process. it doesn't stand alone. it changes, at every moment, depending on the company we keep. as fluid as water, and as hard to hold. connective. also, part of us, human. we built this particular Ford just so you could watch it flow.

Writing as ma, teatime as hashi. The pen, the keyboard, as a bridge. Between me and you. The list and the website. The writer and the word. The word and the world. The distance (closing) between idea and revelation. Between all we are, and all we make. Between this moment, and the next. What falls away, and what is left. Between memory and desire. Between the dream, and the notation of the dream.

- macha (Thu 2003.09.11 at 05:18 pm EST)

you want to know how to navigate? it does have a structure: the House has Wings, and the Wings have Rooms, and the Rooms have Nooks, and the Nooks have Conversations, and inside the Conversations there are posts. all the site architecture is built to house conversations rather than posts. it's Jossian, fractal. it's not built for essay, but for interconnection. the maps are interactive. most of the front page is randomized: press any link on it and just see where it takes you. and follow the Navigation links at the bottom of every post. try topscreen Search if you want something specific. try topscreen Members if you want to follow a single writer. use topscreen New, in "All" mode, to see all the contents. have a good time. {voice fading:} and take plenty of string.

the living list is still flowing in RealTime, but that's not here. this teatime is provided for you as a public service gifted by the members of the private list called tea at the ford with macha, which began 27 may 2003. that living list continues, invisibly, all around you. we're building a durable grammar for structure, story, and style. but here we choose to leave a bit of a record of that list, not quite as it's passing, in the world.

the play's the thing and the tent goes up overnight and the ringmaster speaks the parable, the pilgrim's progress through Sunnydale to the Long Dark and the One Story. but it's a highwire act, all right, make no mistake, no net, a long way down to the ground, and all it needs on any night is just one rope way up at the top of the big tent to slip a little, and the girl will fall and we'll never see the likes of that again. supposed to get easier, isn't it? ach, bread and circuses to burn these days, it's only billed as entertainment but it is clear as clear that it is also art.

- macha, 5.1.3 hope/form/maker, descant descending (Mon 2003.10.27 at 07:15 pm EST)