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Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
Wilkommen Bienvenue Welcome...
Guess I really am moving. Got a job and everything. One of my friends sent me the lyrics to a Frank Sinatra song "Chicago is my kind of town..." and ended her e-mail with *turning cartwheels*
Tonight I went to the Barnes & Noble in Ann Arbor (suburbs) and I got completely engrossed in the music section . I was remembering more about the people I worked with at the one in Virginia. All this music, especially The Pixies, Beth Orton, and Moby (which used to play in the store constantly) came back to me.
Eventually, Music Section Guy came up to me. "Can I help you?" he said.
"No thats okay, I'm just kind of wandering around looking at different things."
"I just wanted to make sure you weren't getting lost."
"No, I was just listening to all this music I used to listen to when I was younger and I was kind of getting lost." (contradicting myself)
"Yeah I know what you mean. I haven't listened to Pop music in years actually. I mostly listen to classical and music from shows. But sometimes I'll go back to something I listened to in 7th grade and it takes you back to that time."
I wanted to say ,"Actually I'm listening to music I listened to when I was 22 and working in a Barnes and Noble it takes me back to NOW!" But I just said "Yeah, exactly," and left. I could feel my face getting hot for some reason. Then I thought, "Wait, I used to listen to Cabaret alot too!" Oh well I was already in the parking lot starting up my car.
When I came home, and put on the Pixies, I couldn't seem to reproduce the same feeling/effect it had on me. Por quoi??
I think when I went skating, it was more like 5 years ago.
Tonight I went to the Barnes & Noble in Ann Arbor (suburbs) and I got completely engrossed in the music section . I was remembering more about the people I worked with at the one in Virginia. All this music, especially The Pixies, Beth Orton, and Moby (which used to play in the store constantly) came back to me.
Eventually, Music Section Guy came up to me. "Can I help you?" he said.
"No thats okay, I'm just kind of wandering around looking at different things."
"I just wanted to make sure you weren't getting lost."
"No, I was just listening to all this music I used to listen to when I was younger and I was kind of getting lost." (contradicting myself)
"Yeah I know what you mean. I haven't listened to Pop music in years actually. I mostly listen to classical and music from shows. But sometimes I'll go back to something I listened to in 7th grade and it takes you back to that time."
I wanted to say ,"Actually I'm listening to music I listened to when I was 22 and working in a Barnes and Noble it takes me back to NOW!" But I just said "Yeah, exactly," and left. I could feel my face getting hot for some reason. Then I thought, "Wait, I used to listen to Cabaret alot too!" Oh well I was already in the parking lot starting up my car.
When I came home, and put on the Pixies, I couldn't seem to reproduce the same feeling/effect it had on me. Por quoi??
I think when I went skating, it was more like 5 years ago.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Wo ist my old ice pal??
Recently I attempted to e-mail my old friend/ B & N coworker from Virginia, Brian Kahn, to tell him I might be relocating to Chicago. He had some family there. I wonder if he's been watching any of the Olympics.
Brian loved writing and poetry, martial arts, standing on his head, and playing hockey (among other things.) He worked at an ice rink and drove a zamboni.
He also taught me how to ice skate! Once in my life, I flew around an icerink. It was probably about 4 years ago and I have not skated since. I should. Its long overdue. But...arrgh! His old e-mail address no longer works! California has swallowed him up somewhere.
So, here is a song for the guy who taught me how to skate on ice.
Brian loved writing and poetry, martial arts, standing on his head, and playing hockey (among other things.) He worked at an ice rink and drove a zamboni.
He also taught me how to ice skate! Once in my life, I flew around an icerink. It was probably about 4 years ago and I have not skated since. I should. Its long overdue. But...arrgh! His old e-mail address no longer works! California has swallowed him up somewhere.
So, here is a song for the guy who taught me how to skate on ice.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Vashon
Onct upon a time when I lived on Vashon isle...
there was a tetherball in the backyard by a creek with skunk cabbage in it.
Skunk cabbage. Native to the Northwest. My mother's boyfriend's mother, who lived in Des Moines (WA) had immigrated to America, from Norway, at an early age. When she came to Washington someone played a trick on her "see those pretty flowers? go smell them." But I think she just laughed when she told us that story.
The first house on Vashon had several acres of land and a beautiful view of the water. After we moved in I went out into the backyard and screamed at night but I knew my screams would be muffled by woods and blackberries and salmon berries and no one would hear or care and I thought it was fun and funny. I was finishing fourth grade.
Down the hill, a guy who had retired from Boeing had a farm which had Siamese cats and drafthorses. We often saw (or heard) them clop clop clopping by. The horses I mean.
It was different from the apartments we'd lived in in upstate New York (in Latham and Watervliet)or the old woman's house we first lived in when we moved to Washington State in 1986. The old woman's house was in Renton. She was a recluse and she'd died in that house before we moved in. We found old black and white photographs and some old books of hers in the garage (the door between it and the house would often mysteriously open). Some of the photos were from the wars over in Europe and were quite scary. In Renton, we lived by some mean dogs. There were also blackberries in the back yard. I learned to play tetherball at school and read all the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Shortly after we moved to the island, I got up early one morning and went for a walk. I walked several miles, until I got a bit scared, and then I turned around and walked back. Mostly I remember flowers and grass and trees. That was really great.
In the early 90s my mom and sister and I were a part of the Vashon Cohousing group, but we pulled out before they started building, and then we moved to Northern Virginia. When I was looking at the Vashon Cohousing group website and I noticed that a lot of people in it were from New York. Both upstate and NYC.
I think that one day I want to be able to have a place in NY state and a place on Vashon Island. Even if its just a piece of land with a tent!
there was a tetherball in the backyard by a creek with skunk cabbage in it.
Skunk cabbage. Native to the Northwest. My mother's boyfriend's mother, who lived in Des Moines (WA) had immigrated to America, from Norway, at an early age. When she came to Washington someone played a trick on her "see those pretty flowers? go smell them." But I think she just laughed when she told us that story.
The first house on Vashon had several acres of land and a beautiful view of the water. After we moved in I went out into the backyard and screamed at night but I knew my screams would be muffled by woods and blackberries and salmon berries and no one would hear or care and I thought it was fun and funny. I was finishing fourth grade.
Down the hill, a guy who had retired from Boeing had a farm which had Siamese cats and drafthorses. We often saw (or heard) them clop clop clopping by. The horses I mean.
It was different from the apartments we'd lived in in upstate New York (in Latham and Watervliet)or the old woman's house we first lived in when we moved to Washington State in 1986. The old woman's house was in Renton. She was a recluse and she'd died in that house before we moved in. We found old black and white photographs and some old books of hers in the garage (the door between it and the house would often mysteriously open). Some of the photos were from the wars over in Europe and were quite scary. In Renton, we lived by some mean dogs. There were also blackberries in the back yard. I learned to play tetherball at school and read all the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Shortly after we moved to the island, I got up early one morning and went for a walk. I walked several miles, until I got a bit scared, and then I turned around and walked back. Mostly I remember flowers and grass and trees. That was really great.
In the early 90s my mom and sister and I were a part of the Vashon Cohousing group, but we pulled out before they started building, and then we moved to Northern Virginia. When I was looking at the Vashon Cohousing group website and I noticed that a lot of people in it were from New York. Both upstate and NYC.
I think that one day I want to be able to have a place in NY state and a place on Vashon Island. Even if its just a piece of land with a tent!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
O Canada (?)
So, I think that there might be a band with this name ("Canada"). But I haven't found it on the web. Last night, I was driving around, feeling a little stressed, and I turned to a local Ann Arbor, MI radio station. A bunch of guys on guitars were playing music, and it was oddly stress-relieving. "That was music from Canada" the announcer said when they were finished. But I don't know if that actually was the name of group. Maybe it was some band from Windsor or something. Its kind of a special experience when you hear music that has that effect on you.
Not that it has anything to do with Canada except for those Canadian ice skaters, but I decided that Sasha Cohen must engage in special meditation/visualization practices, and she probably has special esoteric treatments done on her spine, in order to make her so flexible. I imagined her as a kind of secretive spiritual searcher. Was she really practicing triple axels up in those Italian mountains? Sure, all her website says about her is that in her free time, she's mostly into fashion and going "shopping." Perhaps it is a cover up for her real mission...
Not that it has anything to do with Canada except for those Canadian ice skaters, but I decided that Sasha Cohen must engage in special meditation/visualization practices, and she probably has special esoteric treatments done on her spine, in order to make her so flexible. I imagined her as a kind of secretive spiritual searcher. Was she really practicing triple axels up in those Italian mountains? Sure, all her website says about her is that in her free time, she's mostly into fashion and going "shopping." Perhaps it is a cover up for her real mission...
Saturday, February 18, 2006
TV watching initiates cultural breakthrough
I've been seeing a lot of the cute Canadian figure skating couple on USA. I've also been watching some of the coverage of the Olympics on the Canadian TV channel.
Click here to see a map of Canada.
Despite the fact that I have lived for much of my life within a relatively short driving distance of another country (in the states of Washington, New York, and Michigan) I still do not remember, ever, even once in school, looking at a map of Canada like the one in the link. I mean, with all the provinces in different colors and set apart. I've see that sort of map of the U.S. at least a hundred times of course. Canada was always sort of a dull brown mass hovering over 48 shades of pinks blues yellows etcetra.
I mean I'm not saying that they never showed it. I moved around and was absent a lot. Maybe I just missed those days!
So anyways, as a result of watching the Olympics, I decided to finally find a political map of Canada online and look at it just as I've been looking at maps of the United States my whole life.
And there it is! All by itself in pastel colors. Uncanny...
Click here to see a map of Canada.
Despite the fact that I have lived for much of my life within a relatively short driving distance of another country (in the states of Washington, New York, and Michigan) I still do not remember, ever, even once in school, looking at a map of Canada like the one in the link. I mean, with all the provinces in different colors and set apart. I've see that sort of map of the U.S. at least a hundred times of course. Canada was always sort of a dull brown mass hovering over 48 shades of pinks blues yellows etcetra.
I mean I'm not saying that they never showed it. I moved around and was absent a lot. Maybe I just missed those days!
So anyways, as a result of watching the Olympics, I decided to finally find a political map of Canada online and look at it just as I've been looking at maps of the United States my whole life.
And there it is! All by itself in pastel colors. Uncanny...
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Hey America
Is Idaho kind of like the Vermont of the the West?
I've never been to Idaho but it seems like it might be...
I've never been to Idaho but it seems like it might be...
Monday, February 13, 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006
Stolen Ohio
My friend works for this website...
www.petchannel.com
I believe this may be a sample of the sort of news he retrieves...
Stolen Ohio Returns Home to Massachusetts
www.petchannel.com
I believe this may be a sample of the sort of news he retrieves...
Stolen Ohio Returns Home to Massachusetts
Girls Gone Mild
On my Chicago trip I discovered that my friend's roommate and her brother had come up with an idea for a satirical revision of "Girls Gone Wild." The video would be called "Girls Gone Mild" and it would feature attractive women in very non-revealing clothing doing seductive things such as reading in the library, knitting, etcetra. I thought it was pretty funny and orginial. However, lo and behold, I see that someone else on the internet already came up with a similar idea....
http://www.anti-drama.com/girlsgonemild.htm
Very cute.
By the way, after I clicked on the photos, I couldn't believe they were in college! Some of them look like they're about 14 years old to me. Ah, the lovely process of feeling oneself ever so s-l-o-w-l-y m-a-t-u-r-i-n-g.... (hah)
http://www.anti-drama.com/girlsgonemild.htm
Very cute.
By the way, after I clicked on the photos, I couldn't believe they were in college! Some of them look like they're about 14 years old to me. Ah, the lovely process of feeling oneself ever so s-l-o-w-l-y m-a-t-u-r-i-n-g.... (hah)
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Today
I paid bills and wrote a letter about water conservation of the Great Lakes and called the insurance company about my car accident and ate pizza for lunch and now I'm eating pizza AGAIN.
Stained glass windows are cool.
I should pick up the clarinet again one of these days.
Stained glass windows are cool.
I should pick up the clarinet again one of these days.
"Home"
Here's an apt description:
"I love home. I consider it a vastly superior place to any other. At the same time, I have moved, on average, once every 9 months over the past 34 years. I am also an immigrant, and before I was an immigrant I was migratory. I am quick to accept a place as home. A motel room, after five minutes, is home. Home means relief and privacy to me. I often think about the places I have lived, and the places people I know have lived; I never quite understand why we don’t all still live there. But I’ve been happy everywhere. Each state I have lived in has engaged and stimulated me. Emigration is like dying and being born again: everything is a bonus though sometimes not quite real."
Taken from an interview with M. Byrne at http://www.chicagopostmodernpoetry.com/mairead.htm
"I love home. I consider it a vastly superior place to any other. At the same time, I have moved, on average, once every 9 months over the past 34 years. I am also an immigrant, and before I was an immigrant I was migratory. I am quick to accept a place as home. A motel room, after five minutes, is home. Home means relief and privacy to me. I often think about the places I have lived, and the places people I know have lived; I never quite understand why we don’t all still live there. But I’ve been happy everywhere. Each state I have lived in has engaged and stimulated me. Emigration is like dying and being born again: everything is a bonus though sometimes not quite real."
Taken from an interview with M. Byrne at http://www.chicagopostmodernpoetry.com/mairead.htm
Thursday, February 02, 2006
The El
Yesterday, I visited Chicago for the first time. Well, I went once when I was 12, actually, and I've been in the airport a few times. I walked past the Sears Tower, the art institute and the El.
When it came rumbling by, all the cars on the street below started honking. This happened because the train's vibrations set off the car alarms. Oh, the mighty El.
;-P
When it came rumbling by, all the cars on the street below started honking. This happened because the train's vibrations set off the car alarms. Oh, the mighty El.
;-P