some random favorites of the moment

Blue moon cupcakes
Blue moon icecream?
Medieval well
Mother Moo

Blue Moon

Seattle Blue Moon

Fabric

Last night's sleep included some very macabre dreams. I don't remember there being much of a plot, but one of the dreams included flattened-out dead people hanging in wardrobes (like they were clothes.) It was almost like being in a gigantic walk-in closet in a costume shop, with a lot of variety, styles, colors, etc.  There was also something about a round "manhole" cover on the ground. The cover and ground surrounding it had textures and indentations. People (set designers maybe?) picked it up and transported it like carpet.

I have been thinking about clothes. First, I lost my favorite tank top, and experienced a strong emotional attachment to it. Athough I don't think I pay much attention to fashion, sometimes I do have an interest in fabrics. I have actually fantasized about working in a linen or fabric store many times, but for some reason this has never happened. (Maybe I worry that fantasy would not live up to reality.) I want to learn more about how things are made, and where. Some years ago, on a whim, I rearranged all the clothes in my closet according to which country each item of clothing had been manufactured in .

I went shopping for some dance class clothes recently.

There is nothing in this pile for dance class

Bought some half soles to wear. Because it's more economical, mine are plain, without rhinestones, but I was/am fascinated by the stitching on the bottoms of them. I also ducked into a very nice antiquarian bookshop. I noticed there were some other specialty shops. For example, one store specialized in dolls. I saw a store which seemed to be about girls and skateboarding and thought, hey, they are catering to female skateboarders! I peeked in the window. There was a girl putting away some merchandise, but it seemed empty. I walked away. A boy skated past. When I went home I looked it up. Oh, naive little me! (Why do I never seem to see female skateboarders? I admit, I don't skateboard either. I did find this online: http://girlsthatskate.tumblr.com/)

Also, there was a costume shop. I flipped through the catalog on the sidewalk for a little while. I wonder if that could have influenced my dreams?  I was thinking a little bit about Beatrice D'Este.
A costumer online is quite enthusiastic about the aesthetic details of her tomb.

Here's the thing about empathizing and thinking about the dead people. Sometimes it can be a lot of fun. Like, you think, I could turn this into a creative project someday! Although, not sure exactly how to do that at the moment. Write a novel? That's sort of been done...(The Second Mrs. Giaconda) So then you move on. It kind of feels as if these characters from the past have selected you, and not the other way around. That kind of empathy seems to have almost no place in academia. But, you still get to make choices, right? You can think: Well, I am loving the great outdoors today. If there's any dead people that need to be thought about, I'll focus on ones like Thoreau and Emerson. It would be a hell of a lot more calming than fixating on that old drama with Beatrice the Tragic and Ludovico the Trollop. Ha ha! You think you can be so flippant. But then, maybe you are also feeling a little bit queasy that morning. Not for any particular reason, mind you. Even though you don't really want to think about it, maybe it could have something to do with them. Oh god. In real life, there's nothing funny about death in childbirth or dying in a dungeon. I don't want to be sick. That old drama needs to get gone, somehow. Go, rejuvenate yourselves, become flowers, be happy...

Christine's Nature:

"Nature wanted that new books should be born from me, engendered by study and by the things I had seen. Then she said to me: 'Take your tooks and hammer on the anvil the matter I will give you, as durable as iron: neither fire nor anything else can destroy it; from this you should forge delightful things. When you carried your children in your womb, you felt great pain when giving birth. Now I desire that new books should be born from you, which you will give birth to from your memory in joy and delight; they will for all time to come keep your memory alive before the princes and the whole world. Just like a woman who has given birth forgets the pain and labor as soon as she hears her child cry, you will forget the hard work when you hear the voices of your books."

--NCE, Selected Writings, Christine's Vision

And, just because...

the moon last night

Movies watched in the last week

Alice's Restaurant
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

kind of watery music?

Pencil Thin Mustache
it sticks in the mind sometimes!
~~~~~~
not to be confused with
Why Don't We Get Drunk
or
Boat Drinks

watery music

(Sittin' On) The Dock of The Bay
by Virgo Otis Redding

random library read

Pulled this off the shelf in the library and read it the other day (after looking through a pictoral quasi-kids-book version of the Odyssey, whose author/title I can't remember now) because when I was a kid the name of the protagonist got in my head because I read something like this...

"A great joke, this growing old--but a sad joke, too, in a way. And as Chips sat by his fire with autumn gales rattling the windows, the waves of humor and sadness swept over him very often until tears fell, so that when Mrs. Wickett came in with his cup of tea she did not know whether he had been laughing or crying. And neither did Chips himself."

oh, shirt

Really, really missing that one black tank top I can't find since doing the laundry several days ago.

I thought I had come to terms with the loss of this important item of clothing. (Especially for these hot summer months.) It was almost as if an icy feeling clutched my heart when I realized it had gone missing. Really comfortable, never seemed to look bad with anything. Could be worn while exercising. Or with a blazer. Good to wear while traveling, too. And so versatile. And you think you can just quickly run out and replace a tank top like that? Oh no, you cannot. I found that out! But after combing the car and the apartment and coming up empty (again), I decided that I needed to just accept the loss of what I now realized was my favorite article of clothing to wear this summer.

Then I saw it again. In a picture of myself on my phone. I was wearing it. Looking happy.

That was unexpectedly painful.

I thought I was over it!!!

Watched this to cheer myself up...

a paddlin' they go

Heavy rain

age-related post vacation thoughts

isn't it weird that people your age can actually fly a plane? can be your dentist? can you believe that is actually...okay, stop that...
isn't it weird that people younger than you can put the rover on Mars
then be in a music video
wow
time to go for one of those long nature walks pretty soon...

vacation food...so important....

figs, proscuitto, avocado, goat cheese...other things...

vacation chocolate!

This girl gave me the festive harvest orange Indian/Pakistani dress that I only ever seem to wear on Halloween. In college, she had Pakistani roommates. They put her in a fashion show and she really felt good being in it. On vacation, I asked her what kind of pizza she'd like, and she said, "oh my roommates always used to order a pizza with ground beef, banana pepper, and onion, and it was like, the best pizza I ever had,"
 so we ordered something that was almost like that...





vacation water

vacation dogs



to the stars

"To the stars through the thorns." It's a great quote! found here

oh hey

a part of the world i might never visit? but anyway "In this tiny village almost 400 miles southwest of New Delhi, where women wash dishes in the sand to conserve water, and electricity is scarce, Lakha Khan sat on the floor of a stone hut, legs crossed and white turban in place. There he coaxed a bright, high-pitched, dizzyingly fast melody from his violinlike sarangi." -- Preserving the Passion

so sent this

http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=2001246&gsk&code=EM082112C because saw it on this to a close relative with slightly more cashola...

I don't know why

I'm here

I think
I'll have
a beer

(there must be some reason)

Purple Vegetables

So this is what Rico Suave was up to earlier this year....

Swings

https://justseeds.org/blog/2010/02/call_for_peace_posters.html

"Peace Out"

Hello Kitty Peace Out

Driving directions?

The Californians
~~~~~
a friend on vacation showed that to me...she also said she liked the Sweet Brown song and $#@! Girls Say ONE... and TWO... and THREE...

Picture-y things

By coincidence, as I started this post, I heard about an event (on the radio) that sounded interesting, because I know almost nothing about the topic, but I would not be able to go to it, because I have an appointment to be here instead... So I looked at some peoples' "things" online today and found some pictures. I don't know who this guy is. But I know that his last name means "Christmas" in Italian, because my old school friends told me that, and we had the same sophomore year English teacher. The caption under the photo is about when he gave a photographer "the look." It made me think...I remember a picture in which someone had a "look." This would be the male parent of my step-parent. A military guy. The difference between the two is that one is a photo and the one I used to see was a painting. Also, the guy in the photo is supposed to look mean/don't mess with me, but he looks at you. I feel like you can tell he's got a sense of humor inside. In the parent-of-step-parent painting, I felt like the guy was smiling like he wanted to look nice. But he didn't look at you. He looked menacing. I didn't hear stories about him being mean, or anything. I didn't hear much about him at all...I saw two of my school friends recently. One of them bought two kinds of fresh figs, which I ate for the first time. I enjoy fresh figs...

Sent to me

A Thing To Help You Come Up With Some Things

Kind of neat. Could be cooler if it had more "things."

Best advice heard in the last 24 hours

"Secure your own oxygen mask..."

(And, people who already have their own secured can also be very helpful...)

Authors & Beauty

Sugar Rush


Vogue...


Walking the Walk


Portland Writer/Advice Columnist

Air Travel

LOW POINT: Suddenly feeling quite ill, like you barely want to stand up or leave the bathroom, but you have to board a plane in five minutes...BETTER: Telling yourself angels will help...MUCH BETTER: texting someone who sends you good vibes to get through the flight...FABULOUS: Deplaning for a wonderfully stressfree layover. I was surprised to find out about this. Houston Hobby, your lack of bustle and strong food court aromas yesterday was much appreciated. The exhibition of childrens art was cheerful and uplifting... The neutral tones of the decor were calming, and that soothing clarinet music was also a nice touch...

BEACH

beach
warm
ocean
water

Lushy lushy eve

instead of "starry starry night..."
with old high school friend and some retirees
drinking on a rooftop bar
on a floor below, a band played
(what a great idea...music beneath the floor)
sitting in the morning sun...
later on, more drinks on a screened porch
looking at pictures
talking about an old friend
she says:
"I was there when she drew her last breath"
and, "she liked the show 'community'"
and the radio played
echoes
"dead can dance have returned with anastasis, their first studio album in 16 years"
wasn't that a long time ago?
I remember american dreaming
~~~
and also, about her father
for some reason, they hadn't spoken since she was a teenager
he came to the funeral...

Eclogue

drifting off to a piece...waking up...what is it...
"Gerald Finzi's Eclogue. Peter Donohoe played the piano."
Eclogue
~~~~
hmmm...not sure if it sounds the same when awake...

Strange Reading Moments

Digesting this before midnight:

Catch up on the F*&%ing Old

while being serenaded by this station:

familyradio.com

instead of the local news-saturated classical music NPR station.

Its content just seemed more nocturnal.

might be time for a little golden motif...

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-yellow-fairy-book-lang-andrew/1124746996

missed flight

actually it was just rescheduled because of a delay which would have caused me to miss my connection...texted a friend and found out i could have a place to stay if connection is missed again...and also found out another friend on my short fb list has passed away...i honestly had no idea...she just got married this month...i suppose i would've noticed how sick she was if i'd taken a better look at the pictures during my once-a-week-or-so-fb-check-in...she also had a blog... i think my life is going to be long...but it is shocking to hear...decided to make some scans...stared at this while making scans...

and thought, "geez, heather..."

What Is Nothing

Hollywood

Forever

Cemetary

soon

shall exchange views of west coast palm trees for views of east coast ones...
palms used to seem so exotic...

the future could be strange

Yeah, I felt that--not

"So did you notice anything in the past hour?"
.....
"Congratulations. You have experienced your first earthquake."

Not really.

Was probably watching one of these:

Mary Lou Retton
Dominique Moceanu -- Secret Sister

Hearts in Watts

More sightseeing

Welcome to Watts Towers

Watts Mosaics

The less stressy side of Watts Towers

Visited Watts Towers yesterday.  They were closed on Monday, but there is a "self-tour" (i.e. informative signs) on the side-street. I was glad we found parking on that street, because a rather loud altercation broke out on the other side of the towers, and the sounds of group of people heatedly arguing made me feel a wee bit nervous...

I think the people on the side-street are proud of living by the towers. Many of the homes have their own colorful mosaics and murals and gardens. One had a beautiful mosaic bench in front of the home, seemingly available to passerby who want to sit and look at the towers. I thought about asking if I also could photograph the bench, murals, gardens, etc., but I lost my nerve.

Links looked at after visiting Watts:
Watts Towers
Watts (Los Angeles)
Watts Towers (yelp)
Gangland Tours
White Boys Visit Compton
Woman Speaks Cat
Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles Song
Bad Hairstyles

blurry nice girls



beach tent @ night

earthly travels



Butterscotch!

Unlike some people, I was not in attendance for the excitement of the Mars Rover landing. However, in remembrance of the little 5th grade self who wrote her first illustrated (crayon'd) report on the planet Mars, I wanted to know more about what fascinated me the most back then--which was, is the sky on Mars really the color of the salmon crayon from the Crayola box?

"The first Viking lander images broadcast over TV in the 1970s showed a blue sky, later "corrected" to a pink sky. In addition to uncertainties in the initial image processing, the lander had several color patches to calibrate the cameras, which were partially covered with Martian dust thrown up during landing. However, further analysis of Viking lander data revealed a Martian sky that is generally butterscotch in color, except for the pink or red of sunset and sunrise. In 1997, the Mars Pathfinder confirmed this finding." --What about the Martian Sky?

Oh, well.

Apparently, the engineers have some interesting hair-dos.

pilates mysteriousness

so. there must be an answer to the question of what to do when you keep feeling like you're straining your lower back because your "powerhouse" is um....not so powerful yet
recently dreamed that an aquaintance was asking me about back pain on one side

does it hurt here?
(moves hand)
here?
yes.
here?
YOW!

but back pain was not too terrible in the morning
the beginning of the day is dedicated to researching this topic
~~~~

How about some lateral flexion? I think I like these...very practical, straight forward...nothing too cheesy...no overly weird outfits...

oh, passage-of-time-mysteriousness...

put in an old VHS tape from a belly dance teacher
her website no longer works
this is the last thing I found
don't become too jaded over wispy remnants of the past...

one night about three quarters of a year ago

b/c

Volare
b/c
PHC


Ima Read
b/c
MA


You Won't Want Me
b/c
P & P

b/c You Won't Want Me

 

 

 

Sunny Side

b/c

PHC

Baba

b/c

?

assorted cultural interests of the day (off)

It's a day off & I'm at the beginnings of SO many library books. There is By Hook or By Crook, which teaches me a bit of Welsh in the first chapter: "There are lots of places called Llanfair. Llan in Welsh means 'church'; fair is a form of Mair, 'Mary'...Mary's Church was located by a hollow (pwll). In fact, by a hollow near a white hazel (pwll - gwyn - gyll)...A cobbler from the nearby town of Menai Bridge came up with the fifty-eight letter name:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch

The town council adopted it. It was one of the most successful travel marketing ploys ever."

Speaking of marketing ploys, there's also the French Women... book, with this anecdote at the beginning of the second chapter : "after a few seconds that seemed endless, there in front of my brother and my American shipmate, all he could manage to say to his cherished little girl come home was, 'Tu ressembles a un sac de patates.' ('You look like a sac of potatoes'). Some things don't sound any prettier in French."

And, already liking the introduction of Red, White... wherein the author describes coming back to Southern California to be told by her uncle that the women at her grandmother's funeral have to stand at the back because they get too emotional and might fall or leap into the grave. "I had to resist telling him that we were not in a Bollywood movie from one hundred years ago...I just said quietly and apologetically, because I did sympathize with how the mosque folk would hold him responsible for my insubordination: 'I'm sorry. I can't do that. I am going to stand wherever I want.' She was my grandmother, after all...she would have done the same herself..."

Also had to watch Devo's Whip It (for the first time!)

Because I recently saw the movie Whip It.

Which also included What's the Altitude

Which makes performing certain household chores just a little more entertaining...

BE-cause

I thought about
That Was Your Mother
I looked up
Clifton Chenier

Gymnastics from days bygone...

What Happens When...
The Coolest Move...

85 degrees

That's the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean in the South! I've been told.

Folly Beach

Viking funerals

Someone just called to tell me about them.

Bizarre!

Dirt & stuff

"I mix this black powder with water and I call it the paste," he said. "Then what I do is I base the waste with the paste and then the waste is embraced and encased by the paste that's replaced with the soil that gives food a wonderful taste and space is displaced." Compost guru. Also he has a funny "Go see Cal" reference. I believe those commercials aired in Washington state. 1986 Go See Cal

Sunny song...

Since there's a little girl personality that likes to beat people with a ping pong paddle and gets particularly incensed that losses occur because of differences (in gender, in culture, in religion, etc.) Sorry, little personality. What can I do with you? Send you outdoors to make some sun tea? Sing you a song?

Summer

This summer has been kind of youth-infused....Yesterday some youth asked how old I was, and then insisted that I look at least a decade younger than my years. (Ah, the youth, how refreshing they are...) There's a certain energy that comes off of youth in talent shows too. I looked up some of their song picks:
Someone Like You (Adele)
Unthinkable (Alicia Keys)
Thinking About You (Frank Ocean)
Set Fire To The Rain (Adele again)
However, the only one I knew had a powerful voice and sang over and over:
we live to glorify your name
I couldn't identify it, but I'm guessing it was probably a song about God.