Fishing Guide to the Stars starting: 5.17.2012

“Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot;
Some airy devil hovers in the sky.”
Shakespeare’s The Life and Death of King John [III.ii.3-4]

May 19, 1603: After King James appointed Shakespeare’s Company, the name was changed to the “King’s Men.” Fitting, a moment’s reminiscence while Venus turns way backwards in Gemini. Incidentally, perhaps the earliest surviving film adaptation of Shakespeare’s work is a 1899 short, a silent version of King John.

Taurus: A little late but good, none the less. No, really. I’m serious. It’s good. It’s not great, but this is a benefit, as there are the two influences, twin influential aspects, and that’s material that you can carry with you the rest of the week. There’s a very old picture of me on the website, a very early morning with me, and fish, and the back of the boat, and what I always liked best? The image captured the boat’s night-running light. Means it was obvious that it was in the dark. Before summer sunrise. Really, it was in May, most near a decade ago. The image itself, accidental yet well-executed, it shows the bait, the fish, the back of the boat. Me, smiling. This is material that’s almost a decade old, yet resurfaces, time and again. This isn’t about a picture of me fishing, this is about recycling something old, or new, and using it again. Over and over.

Gemini: “astrofish.net is my co-pilot.” (It’s why you’re lost, fool Gemini.) I warned you about this long ago, but the brunt of the implications of the Venus in apparent retrograde motion just kicks in now. There’s the added bonus from having the Sun (Mercury and Jupiter) start this time period in Taurus. (Venus = Taurus).

This is a battle that you, as the Gemini person(s) you are, you can’t win. Not today, not this weekend. Maybe next week, but that’s doubtful. You know you can’t win, so why start the fight? Very simple and elegant way to approach this problem. Don’t engage. It’s not you, it’s them, but then, there are more of them than you. If you can’t win the fight, don’t pick the fight in the first place.

Cancer: I once stayed in a building on the sixth (top) floor, place was Lubbock. Might’ve been Amarillo, but I think it was Lubbock. Could practically see Mexico, looking south. I always wondered why Montana got the nickname “Big Sky Country,” when clearly that was better served in the West Texas Plains. The area around Abilene, TX, also claims the “Big Sky Country” moniker. Applies there, rather well. While the original goes to Montana, I still wonder about the efficacy of the appellation. I see brilliant skies ahead for Cancer. The moon-child gets what you want most, but this is a shared item. Like that title, “Big Sky Country,” the hottest, most desired thing this week? For Cancer? I’m pretty sure you’ll have to share it. Or the title.

Leo: Whimper-boom. Like that. Not the other way around. Time for something to happen in Leo, and to make that occur? Whimper. Not a Leo-like noise. My old cat used to have the most plaintive wail I ever heard. In single meow, there was pain, loss, suffering, the kids who abandoned her (her only litter), the litter box, my choices in trailers, and her desire to hunt birds (bats and large insects, too).

I’m thinking that there’s a whimper, then the boom. Whimper like that cat used to. So sad, the blues, the toil, the trouble, no rest, so on and so forth. Now, the boom part? Gets here next week. Maybe not Monday but before the new scopes roll out, or it should land before then. I’m thinking of a boom like a cartoon “boom,” and something is inside the “boom” bubble. Make it something good.

Virgo: We had, four, five guys in bay boat. Not uncomfortable, but a little tight for my tastes. Of that, the rookies and amateurs were crowded down at one end, clustered, around the boat’s motor, dropping dead shrimp into the bay’s water and pulling up black drum. Good eating, strong-fighting fish, much fun. The fish were clustered around a single spot, as were most of the fisherman. I was at the other end, hurling live shrimp, free-lining them, much further down the bay’s channel. For every three or four black drum they caught, I’d get a nibble of red drum. I caught two to their twenty. However, as I’m always happy to point out, my two required much skill. We all dined, that night on delicious, fresh-caught black drum. My reds didn’t make it. As a Virgo, who had more fun? As a Virgo, you can join the crowd, or you can go your own way, which is what I suggest.

Libra: Some years ago, I purchased a set of three reading glasses, cheap stuff, less than ten bucks. Three pair of reading glasses, like, in a Costco or similar warehouse store. I liked the glasses, and over the years, as my vision gradually deteriorates, the glasses have been increasingly effective. I used to just use them at night, but more and more, I need them during the day, the fine print has gotten so tiny. Since I still have a few pair of the decade old reading glasses, I figured another, similar deal would be as good.

Bad call on my part. $20 for three pair, and the first pair disintegrated almost as soon as the plastic wrap was off the package. The second pair took a tumble from being pushed up on head, and the last new pair is precariously alive on the desktop. Physical desktop, that is. I was trying to recapture the essence of something gone by that can’t be duplicated any longer. I know, reading glasses, not a big deal, in and of itself. Really, it isn’t a big deal. It just seemed to capture the essence of what I was trying to get across, about not being able to capture the past.

Scorpio: “Once you go trailer park, you can never go back,” should be a T-shirt. Thinking about, it was, even though I don’t live in a trailer park now, once I started dating girls from trailer parks in Texas? Never went with anything else. There’ a certain lack of pretension. There’s a certain lack of hang-ups. Certain lack of inhibitions. Turns out, in a certain trailer park in Austin, I’m quite the catch. Who knew? (Who knew standards were that low?) As long as the planets are thusly arrayed, think about your Scorpio standards. Think about lowering them. Or merely adjusting them to fit better in t trailer park.

Sagittarius: With Venus in apparent retrograde motion opposite Sagittarius, there’s a time when tastes go from bad to worse. Hard to imagine that in my case, that it can’t get much worse than my current aesthetic inability. “Know thyself,” intones the masters. Yeah, and I know that Sagittarius, we have many fine qualities, but good tastes in artistic matters? Not really. With Venus doing this to us, the next best answer to the unasked questions, the way to work this to our advantage? Do nothing. No choices. You can pick number one, number two, or number three. Pick, “I’ll choose later,” and then, what I would normally do? I’d find a Libra or a Virgo, or even a Scorpio with better sense than me. Let them help with the colors. Design. Look. Let them make suggestions. An aggregate would be the best way. Design and choices by a committee of non-Sagittarius.

Capricorn: One of my fishing buddies invented a fishing lure. It’s a bass lure, flipping jig, really, only it doesn’t look like anything that occurs in nature. The color is watermelon seed, with pumpkin-colored legs, three legs on each side, and a lizard tail. I think he’s still selling them online, but I haven’t looked lately. It’s a totally unnatural looking creature-feature lure; however, it’s also a proven performer. The ugly, improbable-appearing creature looks enough like something so it works. Looks like a lot of somethings, mutant, infected, digested, spit-out, diseased-looking critter. Ugly, too. However, as duly noted, it works. Ugly works as the water temps, and the summer season, starts to heat up. Ugly is the way to go. It’s less about looking good and more about what’s effective.

Anyone? Ferris?

Aquarius: The Moon Phase, New Moon Taurus/Gemini, in the next couple of days? Venus backwards, and the Capricorn (Pluto) trine Virgo (Mars)? All of that suggests, to me, that you, Aquarius, look for some new ideas. Expose yourself to some new material. Gain exposure to fresh, new stuff that you wouldn’t otherwise see. Doesn’t matter what town town I’m in, but in both San Antonio and Austin, I’m the default tour guide. What I’ve found, though, is hanging with tourists helps me look at the same old stuff with a new set of eyes. Always keep that sense of wonder alive. You are going to be exposed to new ideas. New theories, new material, new hypothesis. Test, enjoy look at the old stuff with a tourist set of eyes. You’ll be surprised how well that works.

Pisces: Happened before, and the more I looked, the more I kept thinking about this one time. One time, I was waiting on a girlfriend to get ready to go someplace. Fancy place. Show, probably. She came out in one outfit, “How’s this look?” She asks. “Fine,” says me.

She makes a snorting noise, evocative of derision, that also includes scorn and exasperation, all in a single breathe. This process, more or less, is repeated three more times with two more outfits. Finally, the original choice is chosen, and we’re ready to go, but not without the subtext that I wasn’t paying proper attention. I did note that it was the same outfit, right where it started.

I let it go. No sense making my position any worse than it already was. I was playing a game on my phone, patiently idle, the whole hour. Wasn’t a Pisces, in the example, but could very well be. What happens this week, you’re not going to feel pretty (ruggedly handsome, whatever) in your outfit, and the audience doesn’t agree. But what do we know? Change, change again, then change a third time, and the fourth time, back to where we started. Is that all necessary? Kind of depends on the individual Pisces, but I’d guess not. However, as a prudent male, the advice is the let them change and make sure you look before you answer, “Sure, looks fine.”

Aries: “Free!” and “Free Offer!!!” and “Get $50 FREE!!!” I like the excessive use of exclamation marks. All of those offers, especially the ones with the word, “Free” heavily punctuated? Usually, nothing is free. Depends, of course, on what the offer is, or what the fine print says. Still, the advertising push is like that. I can’t do anything about it. I will warn my pretty little Aries friends, though, there is nothing free. Won’t get you anything, not for free.

There’s a hook, a catch, a cleverly hidden ruse to prod you into taking some kind of action, that you’ll probably regret. The problem is your good sense, or your usually good sense is on vacation. Common sense is taking a break. Since your common sense is on vacation, see where this is heading?