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"maybe it's the weather or something like that" home write to me currently reading: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy currently listening to: Under Cold Blue Stars by Josh Rouse OED Word of the Day yesterday's news: the regulars: druzblog that you new topography fuzzy sweater lot vogue que sera sera meaningless my next trick mighty girl sarah hepola distraction amusiac catwoman slatch text obscured affordable justice every little thing electric honey a girl named bob this fish complete square helenjane shampoo solo randomness wheelbarrow le petit hiboux inspiration geese aplenty the safeword urban ephemera pink and fluffy markand(erson) pineapple? the 3rd rail roxy the whit with crayons pretty teeth meet george dictionary captions further reading: open letters the morning news mcsweeney's pitchfork tomato nation me head fametracker tv without pity pindeldyboz bust onion useful info: words grammar movies music city search spanish soundtrack: le tigre sleater-kinney belle and sebastian lucinda williams white stripes bjork gillian welch elvis costello elliott smith radio radio: morning eclectic this american life national public radio wnyc
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Friday, August 31, 2001
I took off the mood indicator. It annoyed me to have to update it all the time...and they didn't have options like 'loopy' and 'spazzy,' which I wanted to use. Besides, you're all probably smart people who can figure it out from my entries anyway. And, if you're not, well, then that's your problem now, isn't it?
Wednesday, August 29, 2001
There have been children everywhere today. First, there was the big group of them in Bryant Park today, just a few feet away from where Stewy, Sour, EB, and I were eating lunch, all in matching green backpacks and program T-shirts. And now a co-worker has brought her adorable little curly-haired boy in to the office.
I like kids...from a distance. Especially smart kids, they're the best. If I could be guaranteed I would have a smart, cute child incapable of ear-splitting shrieks, I might be willing to put myself through pregnancy sometime in the (far-off) future. Unfortunately, most kids do not fall into the aforementioned categories, and so are scary and/or annoying after about five minutes. I remember working at an after-school program with Fairweather during college. The kids would climb all over me, using their sticky fingers to adhere themselves to me, like so many little Spidermen. I would walk (very slowly) over to Fairweather, children hanging from each arm and leg, and say, "Help," in this tiny voice. And she would take pity on my obvious inability to exercise any sort of authority over them, and pluck them from me one by one, until they were all sitting in a circle mesmerized by some story or game she had invented. I mean, there are exceptions. There was Audrey, the girl I babysat for all through high school. I would have done it for free, she was such a cool kid. I would let her stay up an hour past bedtime, so we could sing songs and she could make up stories. I think she will be starting college this fall...I am getting old...
Summer hours end this week. No more half-day Fridays, sigh. Not that I usually left as early as I was supposed to anyway, but still...
Tuesday, August 28, 2001
How did I get so behind on my concert info?! I somehow missed the fact that Le Tigre (one of my favorite bands ever to see live) is playing at the Knitting Factory this week, and now of course they are sold out. And I almost missed out on PJ. See what happens when you don't pick up the Voice for a while....
I've been slacking about posting and I'm probably going to continue to slack for the next couple of weeks. I'm sick (who gets sick in August?! Me, apparently) and work is insane until launch, and Stewy is in town from Chicago (yay!).
I still love you though, I promise. Friday, August 24, 2001
According to this site, I should be living in one of the following cities:
Portland, OR Providence, RI New Haven, CT Eugene, OR San DIego, CA Orange County, CA There were 18 more, but those are the top 6, and they will suffice. Most of the rest were in Oregon or California too. The one that made me go 'huh?' was Little Rock, Arkansas...and the one that made me go 'yay!' was Honolulu. Um, yeah.
My throat hurts. This is annoying, as I do not wish to be sick right now. I have important things to do--like go to a 'pirates and wenches' theme party tonight.
I got PJ Harvey tickets! Everyone be excited with me. And then be sad because I had to pay $7.50 per ticket in Ticketmaster fees. How is it that they are allowed to charge that much?! I mean really, didn't Pearl Jam take care of that for us a few years back?
Thursday, August 23, 2001
Note to self: consuming multiple beverages containing both vodka and an energy drink called Hype after midnight on a school night is maybe not the best idea. Drunk and jittery is not a state I aspire to, but the drinks were free (ah, the joys of promotional parties) and it was sort of fun for a little while. There were lots of friends. There was much dancing. There was "Into the Groove." There was falafel at 2 a.m. There was not, however, sound sleep, and so now, there is coffee.
Wednesday, August 22, 2001
I wish I were still on vacation.
Thanks to McViking for the vacation photos. The picture linked above makes me laugh because it looks as though Rufus (the puppy) is strategically placed to cover my bottom half, when in fact he's not. (This is not that kind of site :)
My local grocery store may have discovered the secret to customer satisfaction: a good soundtrack. They play lots of old soul, as well as classics by the Beatles and the Stones. It makes for a pleasurable shopping experience. Every time I'm in there, I encounter shoppers singing to themselves as they look over their lists, children dancing in the aisles--one time, I even heard the boy stocking the dairy case humming.
I wonder if it's a chain-wide thing or just this particular store. I could make it an experiment, visiting various Key Food stores throughout the city to see if they all play similar stuff or if it is only 'my' store that has figured it out.... Tuesday, August 21, 2001
Tee hee, I'm going to see American Pie 2 tonight. At Cobble Hill Cinemas, which is my new favorite movie theatre...especially since they have half-price Tuesdays. Have I mentioned I've been feeling particularly poor as of late?
Monday, August 20, 2001
Yes, I'm obsessed, I know....but I like this description:
New Pornographers, "Mass Romantic" (Mint) Put five guys from Vancouver in a band that would rather be Oasis or even the Small Faces in their arty period -- or the Beach Boys topping "Good Vibrations" or, why not, the Beatles -- together with someone doing a good imitation of Phil Spector crinkling up tinfoil, bring in Bloodshot country singer Neko Case and watch a smile spread through the room, and then watch it soar into the sky like a balloon, and Case fly through the air like Supergirl, or anyway Helen Slater, who will do. "The song, the song, the song that's shaking me," Case warbles off her feet in "Letter From an Occupant"; I couldn't make out the next line, but the boys' "woo-woo-woo-woo, wee-ooo's" were clear as day. Then came the opening shots of "To Wild Homes," and I found myself applauding. In the car, in the fast lane. From last year, and for good. (Courtesy of Real Life Rock Top 10)
I like the idea of this site. And, after reading a few lists, I discovered my friend Jeff posts there :)
Friday, August 17, 2001
What I've read on my vacation (so far):
highway signs An Invisible Sign of My Own the Sunday New York Times menus at 2 Italian restaurants 2 issues of Newsweek (a couple of weeks old) As She Climbed Across the Table trail markers Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World Premiere (the one with Elijah on the cover) instructions (various) sunscreen packaging
I'm at my parents' house now, after a week of lake life. I like being near water. And sun. It makes me calm and happy. I need to have a house on a lake or an ocean someday, so that I can just get up every morning and be near waves lapping. I am one relaxed chickadee.
Friday, August 10, 2001
McSweeney'swas actually quite funny yesterday, which was a nice surprise, since it is mostly not very good these days.
While waiting in the sweltering subway station for the (very late) train to arrive, Red and I were talking about the movie Summer of Sam, and how it was emphasized that the summer of the Son of Sam murders was the hottest on record in New York City. I was saying that I was beginning to understand how the heat might have contributed to Berkowitz's craziness. Then, when I was looking at the NY Times online today, there was this article.
Thursday, August 09, 2001
The 'hot' on my mood indicator is meant to indicate temperature as opposed to something else.
The powers that be have actually turned the AC down fairly low today, after sending around a mass email asking us to turn off all unnecessary electricity-using things in order to conserve power. They've even dimmed the lights, how nice.
Can you imagine what your life would be like if everywhere you went there were a group of people waiting around just to shake your hand?
I met Bill Clinton just a little while ago. A division of my company is publishing his memoirs, so he was here, and the building was abuzz with the sound of secret service men pressing earpieces closer and muttering. Yes, I joined the mass of co-workers in forming a gauntlet through which he walked, shaking hands and saying hellos. There is an art to doing the handshake/small talk thing, and he has most certainly mastered it. He was shorter than I would have thought, but otherwise as I expected--ruddy, charismatic. He looks people in the eye, remembers where he has left off in the greeting line. His handshake was not that firm, but then I thought about it and realized that if you were shaking that many hands and shook them all firmly, you'd probably end up with carpal tunnel syndrome.
I would love to sit down and have a conversation with him (and no, as I have had to explain to everyone I've said this to, 'conversation' is not a euphemism for something else, thank you very much). I just think he's a smart guy. I will be interested to read his book, years down the road. It's funny, because usually I avoid taking part in such scenes. When I saw David Bowie at an Elliott Smith show a while back, I just gawked a little from a distance. But there was something compelling about meeting (if briefly) the former president.
I haven't slept much in the last week, due to the fact that I live on the top floor of a brownstone with no air conditioning, and it has (as previously noted) been quite hot here. I have at least managed to get a little relief by showering before going to sleep and then turning the fan on full blast and flopping in front of it. The problem is that the fan seems to have been exhausted by my constant usage, so last night it decided to give up. 100 degrees, top floor, no fan. My definition of hell. I went and slept downstairs on the guest bed, where it was 95 instead of 100, but still I think I only managed to sleep for a couple of hours. Don't people go insane when they don't sleep?
Wednesday, August 08, 2001
And then you get commentary like this:
"There's folks out here getting overheated. It's dangerous," said Madison County coroner Jimmy Cornelison. "If you walk out there right now and you're doing strenuous work and you don't compensate with fluids, you're asking for trouble. It's hot. It's bad hot." Thanks for the info, Jimmy.
I think the fact that it has been so f-ing hot has inspired journalists everywhere to pull out their thesauri (is that even the right plural?) and try to find as many cooking-related verbs as possible. Broiling, boiling, baking, frying, they're all in the front page headlines...why not sauteed? Or poached? Maybe blackened? Just thought I would try to help them out...
Sometimes, when I am riding on the subway and I have forgotten to bring a book, I read the signs lining the top of the cars. I particularly like to read the ones in Spanish, as I feel like they are good practice for my formerly decent/now near-pathetic foreign language skills.
Other times, when it's a long ride and I have exhausted all the signs, I stare at the floor in the hopes of avoiding eye contact with creepy strangers. With all that looking down, I have been noticing people's shoes and/or feet. Men are usually boring. Typical black or brown leather business shoes or sneakers. Sure, there's the occasional pair of motorcycle boots or the like, but for the most part, not that interesting. Women, on the other hand, put anything imaginable on their feet. Shoes with puffballs or dangly accessories attached, shoes that force the foot into shapes it should never have to fit into, pointy shoes that could be used as weapons, shoes that barely qualify as footwear, so flimsy are they. All this shoe-gazing has led to an observation: There are all these women who wear tiny little shoes in the attempt to make their feet look beautiful and dainty. Okay, fine, if that's what you're into (I, personally, would rather just wear flip-flops all the time)...but then they have to cover their feet in band-aids from all of the injuries such shoes cause. Here's a hint: Your feet don't look beautiful and dainty anymore when they are covered in wounds, so maybe you should reconsider going for that effect. The only people who can get away with wearing these shoes are people who don't ever have to walk anywhere. This has led to the conclusion that the more delicate the shoe, the more money the wearer must possess (unless she is one of the aforementioned band-aid fiends), because in order to be able to wear those shoes and not destroy one's feet, one must be able to take cabs everywhere and then immediately sit down upon arriving at one's destination. Tuesday, August 07, 2001
Um, could someone tell me why I'm still at work? Oh right, it's because I'm going on vacation all next week, and, in order to have one week of relaxation, there has to be two weeks (one before and one after) of nonstop long hours and ridiculous workload. I forgot for a second.
I cannot get enough of this album. It's so poppy, and at first I thought I was going to be annoyed by it (like I am by other powerpop groups, like Bis), but now I can't stop listening. I put it on every morning while I am getting ready for work. It's better than caffeine. The only problem is that I am bopping around with "Letter from an Occupant" in my head and I think people are starting to look at me funny :) Read more about them here if you so desire.
Monday, August 06, 2001
Music obsessions as of late:
Gorillaz (along with everyone else, I know) New Pornographers Daft Punk (this one has been going on a while now) the new Basement Jaxx
Friday night, the scene was a party in a courtyard behind a co-op in Fort Greene. The cast of characters included The Neurotic Host, The Travel Companion, Sour, The Boy (Sour's not-date), Elusive Boy, The Freak (the host's roomate), The Freak's "Ghetto Friends" (her words, not mine), and a slew of supporting characters I didn't talk to enough to come up with nicknames. It was a blissfully tame, but quite entertaining evening. EB and I drank whiskey from tiny plastic cups and then joined Sour in her quest for a midnight snack. Turns out next to nothing is open past 11 in Fort Greene. Many blocks later, we found a deli with a huge shelf full of individually packaged Little Debbie products. I had a Star Crunch and Sour had an Oatmeal Creme Pie. Mmm, I love food that reminds me of childhood.
This weekend was all about feeling like I was younger than I am. Yesterday Sour, EB and I drove to Jones Beach in EB's convertible old school SUV. We found ourselves doing things like calling shotgun and listening to the classic rock station...and loving it. I took photos on the highway of Sour and I looking all windblown and EB driving and laughing at us. Later, we ate french fries and drank Coke and I fell asleep on the sand while Sour and The Boy (who we ran into) played in the ocean. Then, there was sushi and a bad TV movie about James Dean...and then sleep. Mmmmm, sleep.
Yes, I know that the lists do not have equal numbers of words, nor are they completely coherent with one another, nor are they necessarily all that funny or interesting, but I like them anyway. So there.
Adjectives infrequently (possibly never) used
in book flap copy, that I would sometimes like to use, but probably will not be allowed to: hellacious rad nifty neat-o unbearable Friday, August 03, 2001
Adjectives underused in book flap copy
(and recently used by me or the editor I work for): lucid trenchant caustic disquieting
Adjectives overused in book flap copy:
luminous intriguing compelling heartbreaking unforgettable riveting elegaic
The sky is on the verge of rain. It looks like dusk outside, and I don't feel as though I've fully awakened yet. Or else I feel as though I have already been through an entire day. I was up until three getting high with my roommate and his friend from out of town. I haven't done that in sooo long. It was sort of fun. But now I'm sleepy (she says, swallowing the last drops of coffee #2 for today).
Tonight is a party at Mr. Frank's place. He is going to Africa and is afraid he is going to die there, so he has half-jokingly billed it as "Possibly my last party ever." I hope he's taking lots of Xanax with him.... Mmmm, and then tomorrow is the beach again. And this time EB is driving. In his convertible :) Sour and I are so excited not to have to deal with trains, and to hang out with EB, whom we haven't seen since Stewy moved back to Chicago. Fun, fun weekend plans...unless of course this grey-sky-about-to-rain thing keeps up. Thursday, August 02, 2001
Can someone explain to me why my archives have disappeared and won't come back even when I republish them? :(
Wednesday, August 01, 2001
Belle & Sebastian are touring in the US!! But why are they only going to be on the west coast?? (*sniff*)
This movie looks amazing. I saw the trailer last night before Made, which was not amazing, but was pretty damn entertaining anyway.
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