*****

Well, went away from internet for a while, came back, and got a little bit shocked in several different arenas. Then I got a call from a friend. Mr. J.P. tells me that Mr. Oh is going nuts with random marriage proposals to strange women and raving about the end of the world. And I, for some reason, simply must come out and help this situation. Me: "Are you lying?" J.P.: "Do I lie?" Me: "Well, you've been known to stretch the truth." J.P.: "Do any of us really know the truth?" Well, I guess I will make a trek out.
Sidenote: Spring is here. Flowers are very important. None of us would be here without flowers.

Recent memoir read

A View of the Ocean by Jan de Hartog.

Old Songs

These songs are like being a kid in the back of a car my Dad was driving around in part of upstate NY near West Point. Caribou, I mean, Carribean Queen by Billy Ocean, and I Ran by Flock of Seagulls. Little did I know that soon I'd be tossing french fries in the air for the seagulls on the West Coast at Ivar's. (Good grief, those birds sound squawky.) And I didn't know that soon I'd be seeing what my sister would call "Mountain Reindeer" all the time. (Well, on clearer days.) Or do what seemed bizarre in summertime--walk on the mountain, through snow, wearing sunblock and shorts. Or tag along on shopping trips to REI. Or lose a jelly shoe in the stony bottomed river running through the Hoh Rainforest. Or do all the cool stuff at the Pacific Science Center. This song is off the record my mom's boyfriend gave to us, maybe for Christmas, before we went to Seattle: Abiyoyo. Also, he gave me Johnathan Livingston Seagull to read sometime in the winter, before we left. Besides reading Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and some book by Shel Silverstein, I remember listening or singing along to One Grain of Sand and I thought it very beautiful, in the off-and-on flooded basement in the old woman's house in Renton. The song has been made into a book.

Happier

Got reacquainted with the movie Orlando (that was a favorite movie when it first came out) and watched it with two friends. Now, I should try reading the actual book. Interesting: Calendar House Knole

The other day

Found out what happened to Amalia. Then, briefly looked at a novel about Chinese prostitution in San Francisco. Went home, ate yogurt, and somehow cut two of my fingers without noticing (maybe it was the metal peel-off lid). Bandaged them. Went back and looked at A Writer's Reality, which is by the author of "Amalia." I liked some of it but I wasn't so crazy about parts about striptease and also some accounts of a brothel. I felt rather disturbed; as if some people just relate to things in a rather cold, intellectual way, and I let myself be bothered by that. I was thinking, I can't let that bother me so much. As I was washing my hands in the bathroom, someone opened a door that said "Out of Order." She said "Did you see this?" and I didn't want to go over because I could make out some stains on the walls but she pointed with her yardstick expectantly. Red smudges and lines (in rather neat, stacked rows, reminiscent of I-Ching symbols) were all over the stall. "Oh my god," she kept saying. On my way out, there was a notice on the bulletin board that leapt out at me, about helping children. I could feel the cynical how do they know if they're really helping them thoughts I didn't want to feel, and I tried to look at an art brochure, but people were talking about a "crazy lady" and loudly (over the whir of a cleaning machine) "she killed herself!" I thought, "no, she didn't, she just tried to but she got some help..." Then the yardstick wielder sang out, "we're closing now!" So then I left again. Eesh.

A Good Girl

Also a little while back, I noted that Ruchira Gupta struck me as happy and admirable and at peace with herself in Holly Morris's series. Which directed me to watch another work by a conscientious twosome or actually, a groupsome. Schaumburg, Illinois public library, I miss thee!!!

Literary Confusion

A while back I read a short story from Spanish Short Stories 2 called "Amalia." If I remember it correctly...well...I wondered, what the author thought might have happened to the title character of the story in the collection, after what occurred. I thought, how did he envision Amalia's future? A sojourn in a mental hospital? Pills, stitches down her wrists? Maybe she got very lucky and met some nice curandera, who taught her how to distinguish between "survivor" and "victim?" Or, perhaps she could have found some nuns and developed a very special relationship with Mary and Jesus. And it's very strange, because, it's supposed to be a chapter from this book but I was trying to find more about it online (I don't have the book in front of me now) but...I've been searching...it's nothing like that. Its been a while...I'm just so very confused with the author of The Bad Girl.

Have I ever seen dandelion dew

waterwaterwaterwaterwaterwaterwater

Yesterday

Went for a walk and watched Water by Deepa Mehta, with a friend.

Recreational Choices

Ways to feed your head tomorrow.
Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine at Politics and Prose in DC
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland in Middleburg
Ted Garber entertains lovers of discounted beer in NOVA
Big Green Purse at Borders/Bailey's Crossroads in NOVA

Medicine

Medicine should do the work of medicine. Drugs and pills should exist to alleviate suffering and not be used in ways that could make one think that accidentally burning one's foot with a hot poker, for example, would, by comparison, be a joyous experience. (But...what about firewalking?)

Text message

Fr: Enrique
Enjoy the eclipse.
It will a long while till the next one.
Look up.
~~~~~~~~
(Me: So, that's why the moon was looking so interesting and pink, earlier.)

Air

Universal Traveller
Run
Alone in Kyoto

thoughts

respiratory system, no smoking bans in bars/restaurants in other states, virginia tobacco farming

More good times

In the eat-to-be-healthier mindframe today, I tried some No Chicken Soup, which I liked better than actual chicken soup, and some of this Echinacea liquid bottle stuff. Kids like them when they're sick; so do I.

Good times

Reading quotes from a research project sample site. Poor old T & E!

recent reads

Reading...
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver,
and those lyrics to the song that continuously plays on the website for the documentary I'd like to see. Kind of an interesting song to put on the backdrop of a film. It reminds me of how I felt, a long time ago, when I just got back from Peru, and I was just back in the States, and yes, I liked the comfy airport seats, and such, but after I got home I opened a magazine and saw a picture of a model wearing a zillion dollar dress.

Hmmm.

Apparently, this page about bicycling, the Netherlands, Vermeer, the Victorian era, a low glycemic index diet, and the burqa, also has something to do with Thoreau and Emerson.

Nuevisma calm

To remember: Be happy if you can be the eye. In a hurricane, that is. When the hurricane passes over, be happy for what is still left standing. If you can't make the world's problems, or sick people, as well as you want to, right this instant, see an opportunity to practice cultivating love & compassion, and if/when needed, compassionate detachment. Breathe. How? Maybe a deep breath, or a shallow one but with a slow out breath. Be thankful for those times when you come into contact with teachers you know are more powerful or advanced in some way than you are, and be compassionate when you see suffering, even if that suffering causes you some kind of stress. And if you didn't always act as compassionately as you could have, don't dwell on it in a harsh way, but do try to remember for next time. Embrace opportunities to open, expand, heal. Pay attention to how you breathe.

flickr & sound mixing & flickr again

Leaves
leavesleavesleavesleaves
Concertina
Original
Remix
Flowers
herehereherehere
Random Coincidence
I clicked on the featured photo because for some reason it sort of reminded me of the Metro, which I rode this morning to ye olde job interview. (Note to self: find any way possible to avoid inevitable queasy feeling on early morning Metro rides and try not to envy those who apparently can read, ride backwards, etcetra.) Then, while browsing through photographs of lotus flowers, found these by the same photographer.
And, ye olde picture of a melon.

Something like minutes

Hey guys, I was going to play Eye of the Tiger on my computer and look over my goals but my key card doesn't work so I'm locked out and I decided to call in. Sorry, am I interrupting anybody? No, thats okay. Well one of the things I have to do is take Nena out more. Nena? How do you spell that. N-E-E-N-A-H. Oh, Neenah. She needs to be more socialized. She's supposed to exercise 45 minutes to an hour each day. Wow. Why don't you take her to that one place? Well, pitbulls don't do well in dog parks, but she's the sweetest pitbull you could ever meet. She's a pitbull? Have you ever thought about changing the spelling of her name to K-N-E-E-G-N-A-W. What? How dare you desecrate an Indian name. Ha ha. So blah blah blah punctuality fitness mindfulness healthy holistic dog food with no by products etcetra. Say something before you sign off. These are J.P.'s goals brought to you by H.'s phone. If you're on the go, get Oh! I'm making a note of it. Hey, I remember that time when he finally showed up at a restaurant clutching a gigantic bag of change. "Sorry, I couldn't find a Coinstar."

Book covers!

There's this site that reviews books (in a kooky, fun way) and scans all sorts of book covers that I remember. Such as: Island of the Blue Dolphins, Jacob Have I Loved, Then Again, Maybe I Won't, My Darling, My Hamburger, and Little House In the Big Woods!!!!
(Well, I suppose that last one's not too rare of a book cover.)

Storytellers & The Healing Lodge

Just thought of a book that my mother bought me when I was 13 or so, and I read to the point of ruination (I read it in the shower) without understanding why. I felt compelled to reread it a while back. It was Tree By Leaf by Cynthia Voigt. NY Times Review of the book. Also, I've liked every film I've ever seen by this guy so I am interested in this documentary: Words of My Perfect Teacher. Also found out about this: The Healing Lodge.

Bicycles, bicycles...

Just imagine if these were all cars filling a parking garage.
Bicycles near Amsterdam's Centraal Station
I guess thats how they work off their french fries served with mayonnaise and Indonesian peanut sauce!
("Mayonnaise" is a word which is surprisingly difficult to remember how to spell.)

detalles, detalles

If only every phone call were filled with mostly good and joyful ones...

canseeohnays babble

A few: Plainfield Blues by Rev. Peyton et al, Brave New Baby by the now-retired Mary Prankster, Strange Lover and All My Tears by Julie Miller, and older songs: Dreams, Rhiannon, Edge of Seventeen.
The '80s and Stevie Nicks:
Some songs remind me of a Missy I knew. Famous for her red hair. Boys stole street signs for her. She smoked heavily, and used paper towels to show us how brown her breath was. "Don't you kids ever start!" Candidly discussed her boyfriends and passion for Van Halen while introducing us to eyeliner and eyelash curlers. Defiantly turned the stereo up as loud as possible; she declared that she wasn't afraid of neighbors calling the cops. She tested me, too--could I truly sing all the lyrics to Edge of Seventeen? When I could, she acted like I was the smartest child she'd ever encountered. Aside from her, several times, when I was perhaps eight or ten, I remember an older girl taking me aside and confiding in me about her problems and telling me I was very "mature for my age." I don't remember such exact details of the conversations, only that I enjoyed them. But then, there was also the tremendous and responsible Maria (pronounced MAHrea), who played games with me, laughed through her nose like she was going to sneeze, and lived in a big house with a swimming pool. Which was very fortunate for me, because, thanks to the Watervliet Arsenal swimming pool lessons--which included witnessing a simulated drowning that I was too young to understand was only simulated, and my father tossing me in the water unexpectedly (I recall myself sinking in a daze of bubbles and pale blueness, and thinking, wow, I'm going to die now...until he came in and dragged me out)--I wasn't the least bit interested in learning how to swim. But at Maria's parents' house, they let me hang out in the shallow end, and probably taught me some basics, until one day, she and her sisters convinced me to go under the ropes and touch the ladder in the deep end. And so I learned to swim. And later on I had a lot of fun, with my father and with my friends, at the arsenal swimming pool, too.

Boo slash yay

Boo for losing the cell phone today; I hope I find it. Maybe it's in the library bookdrop. Yay for last night when I met with AKOI. (Yes, there is meditation and now AKOI.) AKOI (which stood for Ass Kickers of Infinity-I can't remember who coined it, but I was not geek chic enough to come up with that name!) was a group of friends that got together when we were in our early 20s to discuss life goals. But then a bunch of us went off and did other things for a while. Now that pretty much everyone is back in this area again for some reason, we decided to reconvene. There is more to discuss and that's fun. We also get off track a lot but I like that! Actually, now I have a kind of fun side project to participate in b/c of one of the "off track" conversations. Yay for cold weather and stars in the sky when I'm driving home. But I hope I find the cell phone. Later-I also hope that the ability to watch DVDs will be restored to my computer! Hello, technology. I guess it's time for me to either take a break or pay up.

Cositas

I've decided to dedicate a portion of time to helping people with illnesses, a portion to writing, and a portion to having fun. Also, learn more about HMR. Also, learn more about interior design. (I noticed a bunch of different kinds of light fixtures today, due to a conversation with an interior design student.)

So snow....it's melted now

I was thinking: "tomorrow you will get to go to meditation class." This area has a special reaction to snow, but anyway, just because the building is dark and the parking lot is deserted, it doesn't mean everything is canceled! Right. Scraped more snow off the car and got slush in my shoes. Thats okay, just wait it out! Soon the other cars will show up. Then, a loud crash on the roof. Maybe a tree branch, or ice. Move the car to a different parking spot. Okay, why not get out and check and see if theres a sign saying whether or not the class is cancelled? Stepped into a bigger puddle, hesitated, and then also noticed my two gloves floating in it. Alright, that's it.

Up, up, up.

"I just wrap it up in a little package and let it just float up."
Vegetable Orchestra Live

And once again

ANOTHER TRIP TO THE HOSPITAL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Trois Couleurs

Blue
Blue finale
White
White ending
Red
Red
Red
Red

Billboard recently seen

What made Gandhi Gandhi?
Soul. Pass it on.

Elderberry wine

is incredibly good. After work last night I met up with some friends, including a few identical twins (there are four girls in the family--2 sets of identical twins--how often does that happen?) One arrived with a voice hoarse from attending a protest in DC. Her sister's husband supplied wine made from berries picked on the W & OD Trail. Four of us sipped it and watched Legend: The Director's Cut in a small apartment. We all fell asleep shortly after "the quintessential elderberry wine scene." After I woke up and accidentally got myself lost (which was sort of fun--only in the wee hours of the morning can Northern VA even look like it has "backroads") I listened to some poets reading on "apostrophe cast" until I noticed the sun was coming up and went to bed. Also, I looked at some pictures of these.

More colorful art

Mandalas!

Musing (not too deeply) on musical influence

I somehow managed to stumble across this story shortly after I attended a friend's Christmas party, and I decided to dredge deep back into "Important Musical Influences of Childhood." Don't Wait On Me,Elvira,He's A Tramp, and (even though I didn't watch it in German) the We Are Siamese song (German version). This one was loved: You're So Vain. However, Margaritaville was reviled (some guy down the hall apparently played it way too many times in Korea.) Everyone seemed to like to sing Wraggle Taggle Gypsies and Jingle Jangle Jingle in music class at an elementary school in Washington state. Take On Me was cool, especially when I first watched it on TV when I was about seven or eight and living in New York. I also feel like Pachelbel's Canon in D made an impression on me and was on television--maybe in a light bulb or lighting commercial.

Colorful/Peaceful

I think I will post something peaceful yet colorful at the same time. I saw her once: jai jai Mata Amma I do think its a bit difficult to always be like that...

Dactyls

My new calendar says that today is dedicated to "legendary Greek women who invented metal craft." However, when I tried to look them up, this is what I just found! Kind of confusing.

Songs heard in the public sphere

The songs heard in the public sphere are often by boys...
Satellite
Amsterdam
Tired of Being Sorry
FF7 Tired of Being Sorry AMV

Cool places

Just for fun, I thought I'd post some links to a place that I thought was really fun & cool when I was about eight years old or something like that.
Howe Caverns
Howe Caverns 29
Howe Caverns 33
Secret Caverns sign
Waterfall in Secret Cave
Ice Cave Sign
And someday, maybe I'll go back there, or have another cool experience elsewhere.
Secret Cavern
Ice Cave in Glacier Gray
The Ice Cave's Mouth
Snow cave and creek
Top of the world
Ferry and island at sunset
Purest of Waters
Wolf Point Sunset
Sunset from Echo Cove
Flickr is fun.

New Year's Resolution

Make better use of your gifts. Everything is a gift. Those credit card bills: gifts. The student loan bills: gifts. Dental or vision? Gifts. The interest-free loan from Grandpa for the car and the Christmas check from Grandma: a gift! And, finally--the sound of those squirrels clawing their way around on the roof, chewing through wood, waking me up multiple times in the night, many nights, finally worth a hundred bucks off next months rent, harkening me back to a time when I lived elsewhere and listened to rats running around on the roof of a shack--priceless. I can hear them now. Gifts.

Water Crystals

Water Crystals Clip

2 random viewings

Admittedly, quite a long clip.
"Wisewoman tradition"
But also, kind of lively and interesting!
Is it pseudoscience...Is there something there?
Also Ladies Against Feminism(?) website. (I must say, I don't get it. If they are against feminism, why would they even make a website?)

Kind of p-r-e-t-t-y music

Half Gifts by Cocteau Twins
Maybe a little excessively depressive seeming at the end...

zen of song & video watching

So I was watching some song/videos.
Kinda "angry" song.
Kinda "sweet" song.
Kinda "sad" song.
Order is bound to shuffle around from time to time.
So now I am inspired! To watch:
The Zen Mind

Bicycle Tree

Found a picture of the
Bicycle tree and other assorted photos!
Estuary with old boat
A salmon berry photo
A ferry docking photo
Autumn floats
"The soul has this shape"
Interesting photo. We shared a house with that guy for a while.
Vashon fence
Trees & clouds
Old pier & rope swing
Famously corny sign
Heron at sunset
Clam and sound
Thanks, flickr.

Tourism & class

In scenes from some movies! Especially adored these two when I first saw them in highschool...
A Room With A View
Intro/?
Without a Baedeker
"Where are the good men"
Letter at the piano
Howards End
Trailer to the film.
The misplaced umbrella

Interesting article

From Muhammed Ali to Grandma Rose by Polly Shulman

Agave nectar

The sweeter alternative to sugar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_syrup

Women & reading

Art!
Garden Parasol and Woman Seated in a Garden by Frederick Carl Frieseke, The New Novel by Winslow Homer and ?? by ??, The Reader by Albert Joseph Moore, Rembrandt's Mother as the Biblical Prophetess Hannah and Serendipities - The gender of reading(3)
Also interesting, though a non-reading subject: Interior with a woman seated by a hearth by Jacobus Vrel.

Song about musing

Caribbean Blue by Enya

It has poems, it has pictures, it has illustrations

I'm re-reading an old book I must've first read when I was maybe ten.
My Searching Heart by Crying Wind.

How do you suppose

a sand artist decides what to draw?
Sand Art - Yahav
Sand Art - Cako
Colorful Sand Art - Yahav
Sand Art - Yahav again

sobre 1 noviembre

Well, according to my calender, its a half moon at 5:19 EDT.
Old Farmer's Almanac Moon Phase Calendar
Also, the calender on my wall says:
Day of the Dead (Mexico)
All Saints Day (Christian)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today I decided to watch:
La Soledad by Pink Martini.
And some videos accompanied by Weezer songs.
Say It Ain't So (At a reading festival? Oh nevermind, thats a place called Reading in the UK.)
Across the Sea in American Sign Language.
Tired of Sex karaoke.
Undone--The Sweater Song
Island in the Sun

Spiral Dynamics

I attended a lecture on this topic a while back (when I lived in Illinois.) Maybe I will try to look more into it.
About Spiral Dynamics

In the mail

A nice thank you note arrived from my friend, Linda Ha, for a little (just $10) contribution made to the Make a Wish Foundation of New Jersey.
She participated in a walkathon and surpassed her fundraising goal by almost 5 times the original amount. I thought that was pretty cool.

More foriegn music

Una notte a napoli
Wish I understood Italian!
Una notte a napoli again.

One of those songs

I got from my mother's boyfriend's CD collection.
Subterranean Homesick Blues

Something cool

I heard that last night a baby girl came into the world. She might've been born in November, but she came in October, which made the family very happy. Since her grandmother and great-grandmother have October birthdays, she's set to inherit all the opals in the family. Her ancestry is half-Thai and half, um, Central European/Anglo-Saxon, I think. But her aunt says she most resembles her mom. Guess what her name is?
Another Pink Martini song

3 songs

Across The Universe
Hallelujah
Hang On Little Tomato

Duets

One Too Many Mornings
Big River

Poems about lots of people--I like them! Mipoesias
Here's more about Amaterasu again at lyricalworks.com.

Kind of interesting & angelic

Adults can act in all sorts of different ways. But one person I noticed the other day was a little boy with blond hair who came in wearing a Spiderman shirt. Actually, I didn't notice him at first, but he had a huge family with him and they all made such a big deal about me noticing his shirt. They said he would be very disappointed if I did not notice him and he acted incredibly happy when I did. And even to say that, seems like a big understatement. And when they left and he saw me, he acted incredibly happy, again. He stood out, to me. Adults can act in whichever way they want, they can offer their lessons, they can feel good, or right about these choices, or do whatever, but you can't make a little kid act that way. This Spiderman-shirt kid was very genuine and happy. He wasn't old enough to act otherwise.

Art by some artists

Equus
Amaterasu-Epona
Future Myths

Cute songs

Us
The Letter

Funny movie

I saw Bam Bam and Celeste the other day.
It was pretty funny. I wasn't sure if I'd like it at first.
But I did. Maybe even enough to buy it.

Major feats of athleticism

What a good horse video.
I like how they make it all about the "dominant male."
(Take heed, "bachelor stallions.")
After all...who needs girls?
Who?
Who?
Who?
Thank you, Big Eyed Cat!
Que lindo/a, Sotano de las golondrinas.
Meow, Snowboarding.

Miranda July, and music

Forgot about Miranda July.
I think I want to get back into looking at her stuff a bit more.
She seems very talented and jack-of-all-tradesy.
She had a book of stories published, recently.
She made a movie with a flashy intro.
Later
I found some of those Blonde Redhead songs I used to listen to.
(When I was driving around upstate NY.)
Melody
Messenger

2 poems & blog

I really wanted to find a certain version of Caught a Lite Sneeze on youtube. The video has a feminine character dressed as a kind of Japanese Samurai. Unfortunately, I can't find it. However, I found some poems, such as:
Peter Quince at the Clavier
(rather seductive, but also disturbing), and
The Emperor of Ice-Cream
which I remember studying in a poetry class at Mary Baldwin College.
Also, I stumbled across this blog:
Emperor of Ice-Cream Cakes

Oooo, Japanese music. ;-)

Flower of Japan
Maybe this year, my Halloween costume will be: a Japanese ghost writer.

other musical offerings

Calm Music Nice Car
Is that nice? Maybe it came from this commercial:
Nice Car
Maybe these are better:
Hypnotize yourself with some calm music
Clifton Handbell Ringers
Instant Relaxation
Relaxation Meditation Nature Sounds
Havasupai Indian Waterfall

Does this sound kind of Russian-y?
Velvet Revolution

news item

I got to this news item via an article about Russia marking Sputnik's anniversary, which I was not looking for but which came up in my search engine anyways...

Musica

This whole album by Susana Baca, is, I think, really good.
http://www.luakabop.com/susana_baca/
I meant to link it to the pink flowers by the ear one.
I want to listen more to the others, too, though.

C'est une femme

She keeps being good at encouraging me to believe in a kind of genius.
Fool on the Hill/Horses
Caught A Lite Sneeze Live

Order of watching some things

today
Cloud On My Tongue
Pancake in Paris
Pancake & Ohio
Pancake looks like a mermaid in a wig
Space Dog
Bouncing off Clouds
Bouncing off Clouds PS22 Chorus Rehearsal
Father's Son PS22 Chorus

Kind of funny clips

Limited Dreams Margaret Cho
Ask A Ninja, Question 35, Ninja Poetry
Crazy girl Mel running around from Flight of the Conchords(??)

Otra musica

La peruana
Susana Baca
Valentin

Randomlings

Tonight a girl sang something from Tosca to me in a restaurant; that was quite fun. My aunt sang "Happy Birthday" in German over the phone. I think that in literature, getting inspired from heartbreak is interesting, like we all like Dante, but its also interesting to wonder what could be inspired from friendship? Solitude? Etc. I went to a library and saw a book entitled Girls Gone Mild, I had to pick that up. I found an interesting quote: "I would encounter this contradiction over and over again. Emotional, dreamy girls are a thorn in our side, but when boys are romantic, their every tear is precious. It was a mystery to me." (page 90) Thats not to say that either one is not valid, of course, but I just thought it was an interesting quote. I like this song: Caught a Lite Sneeze I almost always lived with a piano in the house when I was growing up, but never really learned to play it--it was my mother's instrument. She had been playing it since she was a child and had been a music teacher before I was born, but the strange thing was, she played it very rarely. She got busy with other things. Although I don't know if she'd agree, sometimes I think that while I was growing up I learned more about music from her boyfriends, husband and my own friends. But I do not think it was because she did not have a lot to teach me.

Birthday

So, tonight my friends and I went to see Kathy Griffin, who sold out the Kennedy Center. Hmmm. Well, it was kind of weird. I wasn't totally in sync with her humor. I guess I am not up on all of the celebrity stories. I think when I saw Margaret Cho a few years back, I liked her show better. The best parts of this one, honestly, were: the beginning, with the music and anticipation, and when she ran in on stage, and at the end, when she ran off. She has a lot of energy, thats for sure. But it was fun to be with my friends. We went to our work place afterward (it's near a Metro and it kind of sucks you in.) Just before I left, I made the folly of pointing out we were only a few minutes from Sept. 21st, so then they made me stay until midnight. They sang "Happy Birthday" and said I should drink 30 shots. I did not want to do that. So then one of them got the bright idea of wacking me with her long pink and orange umbrella thirty times. Yup. Me: "Stop it, you're giving me a fetish." Them: "24, 25, 26, 27...why is this taking so long? Oh yeah, because YOU'RE TURNING THIRTY!" It was very exciting. Actually though, since I was born at something like 5:40 pm, I think I am not yet 30. I think I still have a few hours left to feel my twenties slipping away, leaving them behind, forever!!

Old Letter

I might be going through a rambling phase. Not surprising; I am anticipating working on "dollar pint night" which is practically my least favorite thing ever. So here we go again...I found this really old typewritten letter which also looks like something you'd send to your shrink, but I believe this letter (which I did not write myself) is both weirder and a lot more interesting...I will preserve the miss-spellings:
Dear Alison--I am enjoying your letter, I am tickled you have fanatics at home. I washed my hair with beer this morning. Just got VCR working; it was called plugs it was. Part one of "The Singing Detective" is running and blasting right now. The time is a quaryer to nine and I'm procrastingating; have to email my professor, to give him my email ostensibly; it has taken me all week avoiding this, because he is a lawyer and I am a huckleberry. He could kill me, pick me and eat me. His real world accumen passes right through me, It's a bad scene. I enjoyed the insanity you speak about cinnamon Pop Tarts. Einstein told everybody time is not for fascists. You want to believe in cinnamon Pop Tarts you run with that. I'm not captain health like Andrew Weil. We're all fascists, we keep it in, it's a soul, it's not a big deal; violence is elsewhere where lawyers like to live. What's an airconditioner, don't tell me. I missed a punctuation. I was catching a musical number on my movie. The Singing Detective is my movie. You know who's dead? Dennis Potter's dead. You know who else? Einstein. Move finger through air across neck. Spell accross better, that a boy. Driving? I can't pull an engine -any v number with my teeth. I can puff my liver up and sit down until it makes Apollonian man noises like raindeer hooves pad snow. No eyes, black nose, where a rifle can crack and bounce all it wants evergreen bark makes good scratching. Phillip Marlow's hospital neighbor just flatlined in my movie. The nurse gives Phillip a candy. It's good, he weeps. The credits roll. Part one is subtitled "skin", part two is subtitled "heat". I have to write Professor Pensky. Professor Pensky. First I will rewind part one. I have to be careful not to write anything stupid. I don't like real people because they don't know how trivial their words are. I don't like poker because it attaches trivia to robots. I like a good dirge, just for the sound; gravity lapping appropria endings. (I missed it)
Thats it. I found it tucked away in a "Chakra Healing" book. I wonder if I should throw it away. But its so interesting. Maybe I should go tuck it in another book as a kind of feng-shui-ing-of-the-information-I-collect-and-own exercise...

Humor

I've decided these guys are pretty funny. And they have cool accents!
Song For Sally
Bret you got it going on
She's so hot...Boom!
This is another comedian that my friends have got me tickets to see for an upcoming birthday present.
Red-Headed Oprah
Today I found out that my sister has a new boyfriend. She didn't actually tell me herself, however. Instead, she got my mom to leave a message. While I was at work. (Where I can't pick up my cell phone.)
K.G. In Afghanistan
Like, maybe he's in the video somewhere.

Artsy kinds of things

Today I went with a friend to the National Art Gallery and we saw an exhibit about Edward Hopper. The last painting we saw was Sun in an Empty Room. This painting, she told me, always makes her smile. If I remember correctly, the description on the side of it said that when he was asked what he was trying to "get at" in the painting, he said, with a rather wry smile, "I'm trying to get at ME." Also saw a film about him and it talked a little bit about his wife, which prompted me to later look up and read an article entitled Man and Muse. Which also prompted me to think, man, if thats the life, I hope they were able to reincarnate into another one that was a little more peaceful. Then we had pho.
Later, at work, a friend of mine was telling me about a wedding she went to in upstate NY. I said "speaking of weddings, whatever happened to that guy who was dressed as a Care Bear?" "What guy." "Remember, there was a guy who came dressed as a Care Bear?" She frowned at me, as if she couldn't remember. "And his father was the guy who wrote that book, We Were Soldiers Once And Young?" "Oh YEAH." Her face lit up. "Thank you for remembering that! I didn't even remember that he came dressed up as a Care Bear. We don't have any pictures of him in it..." She said, "Well he's doing really well. He lives in Texas now, and he really likes the community and his family lives there..." "You mean, his mom." "No, his dad lives there." I said, "I thought that they didn't get along." She said "Well, they didn't used to, but actually they reconciled." I said, "You know, thats really nice to hear."

An impression and a memory

1) Impression: There's a kind of grouchy, 1950s father type, who sits in the basement and wears glasses and he's working on something scientific. He tries to make connections with wires and that sort of thing. His son sits on the floor of the basement and he (the son) watches him being all grouchy about it. And he's got a very sort of White Anglo Saxon Protestant work ethic. An "I must work to be a good person and I must be grouchy while I'm working or its not real work" attitude.

2)I have a memory of visiting a dusty playground at a Jellystone National Park somewhere in upstate NY (like around Albany, probably) when I was about six. I was rather surprised/horrified when I saw some other little girls on these small plastic toy horses on metal springs, tilting the horses back and forth, so that the noses of the horses touched the ground all the way. It seemed kind of dangerous and grotesque to do that to those toy horses. Later my friend and I ate some multicolored (probably red green and yellow) candy which was shaped like a folded up umbrella and I went on these tilting spring horses too, but, in truth, I didn't really like it and was always rather uneasy about it.

Memories of childhood playgrounds might be good to write about.

Kinds of "Fun"

So. I've been thinking about how some people like to fill their time with different types of activities. And some people are very passionate and dedicated about being successful at their specific chosen activity. I think, at certain times, it can be good for sort of, how should I say, for lack of a better understanding of expression, "gung-ho types" to consider that just because you currently have the opportunity to go skydiving and really feel like going skydiving, it doesn't mean that you have to be all like: I know that skydiving is the coolest thing ever, and you are obviously stupid for not thinking so. Now, just watch while I have the most fun skydiving that it is possible to have. And by the way, I hope it makes you feel sorry that it is something which you aren't ever going to do. Ever! to other not so skydiving-ish people. Maybe the other person is either going to be more into skydiving some other time, or is currently more into another activity. Like deep sea diving. Would it mean that you couldn't be happy for them if they go down and get to see lots of cool tropical fish? Or something.

redorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet

As of today, I've decided. Its about time for this whole dizziness / lower back / 1st chakra / multi- chakra / issue / whatever to improve, cease, heal and/or subside. Preferably more rapidly than gradually, but I'm still not quite sure what to do about it. (Allopathy? Acupuncture? Acupressure? Diet/Lifesyle change?) A potential new housemate works at a physical therapy/acupuncture clinic; that might lead to something.

Reading

I actually grew up to enjoy reading, in spite of commericals like this one:
Captain O.J. Readmore
Way weird (but fun) to stay up late into the wee hours watching a bunch of '80s cartoons intros in a room full of upper 20s/30-somethings...

Getting my "land legs" back...

Today I walked around beautiful, sunny Green Spring Gardens (no good pictures, just as well, keeps it less crowded for the rest of us!) slowly at first, then a bit more swiftly, with looong breaks of lying down (not sitting) on cool green grass underneath sheltering trees, because after all, what else are parks for? Ah...back therapy...Also heard Junot Diaz read from his novel while standing and/or walking around Borders' music section (because its far more comfortable than sitting is right now). When I was a T.A., one of my classes read his story, "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie." I found a reading of it here at about 34:02. It comes after an introduction about the history of "How To" books and then a rather long story about giving a woman driving lessons around Chicago...Hmmm, I just read in Wikipedia that the author was stunned when he was accepted at a certain school because his then-girlfriend applied there for him. That reminds me of a story a Moroccan guy at work told me. His then-girlfriend entered him into the lottery, without him knowing, and so he came to the U.S. She did not. How many of those stories are there out there? Are there any where the boyfriend did that for a girlfriend? C'est la vie... Speaking of French...FouxDaFaFa Some of my friends at work think these New Zealand guys' songs (like Business Time) are funny...yeah, maybe... ;-)

Two endings

Though I don't mean to ruin it by showing the ending...
Silent Waters
Central Station
(In Portuguese, which I don't understand, but I know whats going on.)

Recovery

Today, without muscle relaxers or narcotics, I drove to the closest bank, deposited my paycheck via the ATM, ate a virtually tasteless chicken salad (at the closest diner), and then, as fast as my little legs would carry me (NOT FAST!), walked over to the nearest store, just to see what was up. It didn't take very long for my languid shuffle to attract some suspicious attention. Northern Virginia is not the South. *smile, shrug* "Can I help you?" an employee asked, without the faintest trace of genuine concern on his face. (NOVA is not the South.) I laughed, "Oh no, that's okay, I'm just walked slowly because I hurt my back recently." He looked as though he didn't believe me. "Well, just let me know if you need anything," he said, with a really nervy, piercing, intense stare...I decided that he was the universe's way of telling me to go back to bed and take my muscle relaxer. So I drove home, and that's what I did. However, I established further contact with the outside world by watching JETSET. If you watch it long enough, you'll not only learn about couchsurfing websites and the religion of Google, you'll also get to see clips of the Central Park roller bladers! I myself saw them only a few short years ago...I have recently come to believe that the passage of time between ages 18 and 20 (2 years) feels roughly equivalent to the passage of time between ages 23 and 29 (6 years).

Kamosh Pani Silent Waters

Really bored

I managed to drive to the store on just an ibuprofen this morning. Unfortunately, nothing I bought tastes particularly great. Maybe because of medications. However, I got a free classical Indian music CD from a "Kitchens of India" dinner.

This crazy summer

Much illness in the family. Plane rides and roadtrips through many states. Unfortunately, I can't drive six hours to see family on a trip I'd planned for tomorrow. After straining my lower back (and passing out when I did it in the hot shower yesterday) I'm in a muscle relaxer/narcotic half stupor. Sooo...let's watch Talula.
Prescription drugs: I like and don't like them simultaneously.

Music tonight

A Peruvian/Bolivian/Andean panpipes kind of music is being played outside, quite loudly, perhaps it is coming from the football field of Thomas Jefferson Highschool. So I lit a candle (tall, pink, faintly rose-scented "Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe") and I turned out the lights, and then I found this Peruvian dance. I didn't listen to the music, I already had music to listen to coming in from outside, but I was quite entranced by the dance, and I thought, can I go back there sometime? According to the person who posted it, this particular one "is about some secret love, where the only way the guy and girl can meet is if he is disguised as a girl." As of 9:30 p.m., it sounds like maybe the marching band is trying to play the music...

Hello, little video.
Somewhere over the rainbow by Iz Kamakawiwo ole

DC excursion

Saw this film, Brats, tonight with a friend; we met in high school and found out that we'd played together on an army base when we were two.
Also, visited the Sackler and Freer Galleries, the Museum of African Art, and the Folklife Festival!

Inanna

Inanna or, a cool clip about the making of Boys for Pele.

Excerpt

Currently reading Stones From The River by Ursula Hegi, an author from Washington state. I somewhat avoided reading her when I was younger but in the back of my mind was always planning to read her work. Here is a book excerpt. (What a strange word, I wonder what the etymology of "excerpt" is...)

the appearance of waterfall as wedding veil

see the end of Bjork's Isobel

chanson le weekend

So this weekend my highschool prom date (a girl) got married! (To her boyfriend.) The wedding was in a park on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria, behind Olson's Bookstore. Shortly after the ceremony this song came on, and I liked it very much. But the music video of it is a little weird. Not quite evocative of that nice hot and drowsy sitting in the wedding tent feeling. The song is Across the Universe, covered by Fiona Apple. So, here's another version a girl did on youtube. All hail the sun salutation...Nothin's gonna