tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236312632012-01-23T19:36:08.342-08:00That Cagey GirlFrom the producer of "The Blog" comes a story of...stuffkghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.comBlogger28431100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-19749838967353212662012-01-23T17:14:00.000-08:002012-01-23T17:14:51.782-08:00I just spent two hours in the LoC microform reading room looking through three months' of old issues of The Village Voice. I didn't find the juicy review I was so hoping would be there, but it still felt great (apart from me being really hungry, but such is the price of research). It reminded me of being in Ljubljana, made me feel, for a change, like a real researcher, and let me get immersed in kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-65391516087081317102012-01-22T12:12:00.000-08:002012-01-22T12:12:02.416-08:00Our hosts invite us for dinner and promise to serves us spotted dick for dessert. Later that evening, as dessert is being brought out, J. inquires "Is that the speckled cock?"
Classic.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-54329482735302469312012-01-17T18:17:00.000-08:002012-01-17T18:17:25.525-08:00It took me going all the way to Philadelphia to find out that Aivazovsky was Armenian!kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-9233150938015216572012-01-09T20:08:00.000-08:002012-01-09T20:08:51.486-08:00This last Sunday was particularly good on music. The two hymns that stuck with me was an old favorite, 'Tis the Gift to Be Simple and a new favorite I heard for the first time: Find a Stillness. (We didn't sing it this slowly).
kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-79830814298480143342012-01-08T05:02:00.000-08:002012-01-08T05:02:12.816-08:00Yesterday was a veritable whirlwind of intellectual and aesthetic stimulation. I woke up, finished the New Yorker article on Velasquez, and read a bit of The Poisonwood Bible while Josh went running. While getting coffee in the morning, J. and I read the first of the 3 Foreign Affairs articles we'd read together that day. We went to the LoC, got our reader cards, and poked around the Jefferson kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-64650488585576707832012-01-05T04:40:00.001-08:002012-01-05T04:40:32.959-08:00A few days after our return from Costa Rica, it still feels like a weird luxury to be able to throw the toilet paper into the toilet bowl and not the waste basket next to it.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-85501094663266360822011-12-21T18:22:00.001-08:002011-12-21T18:22:54.113-08:00I'm more than a little disturbed that these words are coming out of my e-mouth, but the Christmas pageant at church last Sunday was very nice.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-62249507806070260032011-12-11T21:13:00.000-08:002011-12-11T21:13:35.713-08:00We saw "Shame" tonight. Sex addiction is not sexy. It was an exquisite film, though, in its own way. Also, I *can't wait* to see "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy."kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-80877481333170864382011-12-06T20:32:00.000-08:002011-12-06T20:32:05.861-08:00Chatty neighbor, noticing my hair: Who did that to you?!
Me: Josh did that *for* me, not to me.
According to neighbor, *no one* has short hair (especially in France, apparently) and also, I'm not going to want to be gray. I should just trust her on this one.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-76934189160466888002011-12-02T20:15:00.000-08:002011-12-02T20:15:43.575-08:00Standing outside my office today in the mid afternoon, I saw a greenish-pearlescent object on the ground, glowing quietly in the slanted rays of the 3 o'clock sun. It was beautiful and mysterious -- I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. My guess was a large-ish shell, and I wondered who'd leave a shell on the steps of the National Gallery. It wasn't until I was standing right kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-36982359839899175432011-11-29T19:50:00.001-08:002011-11-29T19:50:42.433-08:00Before I lose the link, here's the time-lapse video of our hot air balloon ride:
kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-1964864440037036342011-11-27T17:59:00.000-08:002011-11-27T17:59:19.204-08:00My "friendship of the peoples" lunch concoction for the week (6 containers, baby!) consists of brown rice with Korean seaweed and az'atar and a cabbage-collard greens-squash-veggie sausage-and salsa stew. I bet by the end of the week, the flavors will sing in one amazing (and also very garlicky) symphony.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-72842607935026057542011-11-22T21:22:00.000-08:002011-11-22T21:22:08.945-08:00For my 1.5 loyal readers: here are the pictures from J's and my balloon flight over the Maryland countryside.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-691076499188121222011-11-16T03:38:00.001-08:002011-11-16T03:38:38.391-08:00Sheldon Conk!Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is back!!!!kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-26546055283556782002011-11-15T20:27:00.000-08:002011-11-15T20:27:43.831-08:00Soviet cartoon music gets its dueКуда идем мы с Пятачком большой, большой секрет!
Nice little NPR story about Soviet cartoon music.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-68074422543868132282011-11-10T04:20:00.001-08:002011-11-10T04:20:53.538-08:00This is a really amazing interview.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-73276050477400935032011-11-08T11:08:00.000-08:002011-11-08T11:08:49.585-08:00"No -- the manuscript does not give me the yearning for the West that you thought it would -- You see my feeling is different --
You see -- I got my feeling alone -- it is one of the things that most satisfies my feeling of aloneness -- I even get a kind of ecstacy from the vast space -- feeling like death -- that is close kin to what the male can give me -- Still I have always enjoyed it most kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-41133588745472014822011-11-07T18:25:00.003-08:002011-11-07T18:25:03.820-08:00Today, due to DST, was the first day when I very suddenly was leaving work in the dark.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-40792085957243804742011-11-03T15:06:00.000-07:002011-11-03T15:06:13.276-07:00We are reading this book for book club (and by "we" I mean other people), and all I have noticed so far is how happy I am that the questions the book raises are simply irrelevant to my life. Frees up *so* much mental space...kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-51702586981597871992011-10-28T20:06:00.000-07:002011-10-28T20:06:47.356-07:00Josh's song was longer and sweeter and prettier than mine, but I can't write it down. Here's my little ditty.
Hey, Jo
He-ey, Josh.
Come out and play a game of squash.
Then we'll play a game of tomato,
And we can play a game of cucumber later.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-66086021711262184422011-10-21T18:50:00.001-07:002011-10-21T18:50:13.710-07:00Gene Pitney, "What a Town without Pity Can Do"
kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-197294687557309292011-10-21T05:03:00.001-07:002011-10-21T05:03:08.944-07:00My hometown NPR station, WAMU, is supported by Monsanto and Northrup-Grumman. I'm pretty sure it's not my good will they're courting.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-20249402944489275472011-10-18T13:30:00.000-07:002011-10-18T13:30:44.706-07:00Woah, I just had a revelation! I realized that there actually is a boundary at which ethics and aesthetics abut each other. It's the moment where you step from "I prefer this over that" to "I must pick this over that." Right?kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-50977723196289854592011-10-17T18:46:00.000-07:002011-10-17T18:46:05.089-07:00Today, I was reminded that I have a really thin skin. By Philip Levine, of all people. Seems both appropriate and ironic. Also, being alone in public will apparently never cease being awkward.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-88320042761772759142011-10-16T15:44:00.000-07:002011-10-16T15:44:42.916-07:00I jogged today outside for the first time since July. The weather was too good not to. I did 2.5 miles in a half hour, which is very respectable given that there was a hill involved. Also, it just feels sooooo good. And running helps me stay sane, counterbalancing my unease about being alone in the apartment. Now I need to find a more regular routine for going to the gym.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-64254545702448618572011-10-16T13:45:00.001-07:002011-10-16T13:45:51.722-07:00Based on my limited experience with two UU congregations, certain hymns are more beloved than others and get sung more often. We sang What Wondrous Love Is This today. I think that's my favorite out of the hymn book so far.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-18414361292685559382011-10-14T19:15:00.000-07:002011-10-14T19:15:47.595-07:00It's actually very rare for me to have a truly, deeply moving experience in a museum these days (though I did love Ostalgia), but today, standing in front of the Van Eyck Annunciation at the NGA, as well as the van der Weyden Portrait of a Lady and a few other pieces felt truly transcendent. I'd forgotten how much and how deeply I love the Northern Renaissance, and it was a wonderful rediscovery.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-24923509766766138692011-10-12T18:57:00.000-07:002011-10-14T19:28:29.264-07:00Elope on a canteloupe (OR an antelope); fly on a blueberry pie; gallop on a scallop; hit the road on a toad; take a ferry on a berry; ride an ape on a grape; take a run on a bun; do some sprints on a blintz; take a stroll on a roll; leave a wake on a cake; take a dive on a chive; start huffin' and puffin' on a muffin; go and skate on a plate; visit the beach on a peach; have a smoke on an kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-88634528653630940982011-10-12T17:49:00.001-07:002011-10-12T17:49:06.485-07:00Today walking home from work, at the Capitol pond, I saw a group of ducks take off and fly around in the rain seemingly for the sheer pleasure of flapping their wings as hard as they can. (They landed may be 50 feet from where they started, so covering distance was clearly not the goal). It was very inspiring.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-43862014761982852842011-10-09T17:20:00.000-07:002011-10-09T17:20:21.207-07:00We totally saw a lady with a dulcimer (and a beautiful singing voice to boot) today. And not in a vision, but at the Waterford Festival, which was an altogether delightful affair in what used to be a Quaker community in northern Virginia.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-11707598599784943072011-10-08T19:29:00.000-07:002011-10-08T19:29:00.348-07:00This utopia of a receipt is so cool!kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-44514176527308513432011-10-07T17:40:00.000-07:002011-10-07T17:40:49.988-07:00At Occupy DC today, we met a woman who bought a one-way ticket from LA to come here and a man who has walked across the entire country with his brother, a former Navy serviceman who was so appalled by the Citizens United decision that he decided he had to go do something about it.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-14754424600829802442011-09-28T12:38:00.000-07:002011-09-28T12:38:48.240-07:00I think that if I grew up with this kind of music, I may be wouldn't have such a hard time with spiritual practice.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-3677765247022748102011-09-11T18:44:00.001-07:002011-09-11T18:44:44.785-07:00Q: Why did the man cum on the sidewalk?
A: He wanted to sement it.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-28219870121179008562011-09-11T14:15:00.000-07:002011-09-11T14:15:31.262-07:00Vegan pancakes on Friday worked out well, I had a really lovely time hanging out with Josh and his parents (the MLK memorial is not amazing, but also not terrible), and the Unitarian church today was an experience that sort of shocked me by how unfamiliar and alien it still feels, but made me think that I want to become a person who feels at home there.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-12925751835921182842011-09-08T11:40:00.000-07:002011-09-08T11:40:14.004-07:00This one is all Josh.
Q: What did the detective say when his Atlantic sea bass disappeared?
A: There's something fishy about this.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-50267734674649050092011-09-07T18:00:00.001-07:002011-09-07T18:00:38.847-07:00How Buttons Are MadeI may or may not have posted this a few years ago. At any rate, it's still awesome.
kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-37307470446222091552011-09-05T09:52:00.000-07:002011-09-05T09:52:08.692-07:00
Lara played this for us.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-11068826371493138402011-09-05T09:15:00.001-07:002011-09-05T09:15:43.954-07:00Thanks to a Facebook friend, here's the anthem of the Bund on Labor Day.
kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-68826406271636279932011-09-04T22:28:00.000-07:002011-09-04T22:28:15.486-07:00Q: What do you a call a group of frat boys doing menial labor?
A: The broletariat. kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-43393052235644255552011-09-02T20:16:00.000-07:002011-09-02T20:16:13.424-07:00Since I'm about to go see the Ostalgia show in NYC and I'm about to start work in a photography dept, this set of photographs from Openspace -- called Our Ostalgia -- is both poignant and fitting. kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-42779257314847284582011-09-02T20:03:00.000-07:002011-09-02T20:03:25.985-07:00Because I've been flying a lot recently and because I have even less will power for self-improvement on an airplane than elsewhere, I've watched a couple of episodes of two currently popular (I believe) sitcoms. One was "Parks and Recreation," the other "Community." What struck me (aside from the now familiar observation that I live in a bubble) is how the frontier of the culture wars has shiftedkghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-64333258274818638202011-09-01T20:20:00.000-07:002011-09-01T20:20:47.389-07:00I fell asleep halfway through it because I was so tired, but A Foreign Affair was an amazing film -- the footage of bombed out Berlin, the very dark humor, Dietrich's singing (which reminded me of Veronika Voss, apparently influenced by another Wilder film, Sunset Boulevard). I really wish I had seen how the film ends -- and sadly, it's not on Netflix -- but this reminded me how much I need to kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-1779210937704208262011-09-01T15:43:00.001-07:002011-09-01T15:43:49.240-07:00There are an awful lot of dogs and young children walking around Eastern Market. kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-84985243666642436952011-08-18T13:37:00.001-07:002011-08-18T13:37:30.522-07:00The Weepies were amazing in concert!
kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-89992043250545332622011-08-17T12:44:00.000-07:002011-08-17T12:44:25.225-07:00Edouard Leve's "Suicide" is one of the most amazing books I've ever read, though I haven't finished it yet.
Sometimes
Sometimes
I want you to trepan my skull
An reach in
To catch that niggling, squirmy, torturous thought.
Or break open my chest
And see the beating, slimy mess of heart
To know how close to you I can feel.
Metaphors can never get at what it is I want to say.
Metaphors are kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-40054219204538234412011-08-17T12:31:00.001-07:002011-08-17T12:31:40.354-07:00kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-16768533926167011482011-08-15T15:57:00.001-07:002011-08-15T15:57:12.771-07:00I love this song.
kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-77237231492576354642011-08-12T18:19:00.000-07:002011-08-12T18:19:25.858-07:00
And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Three years of my life. kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-67940454532926112682011-08-10T18:36:00.000-07:002011-08-10T18:36:47.272-07:00Q: How do two sickle cells get around in the bloodstream?
A: By bicycle. kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-60611022640875224202011-08-09T12:37:00.000-07:002011-08-09T12:37:07.570-07:00I love Emergency Preparedness coordinators. In my (meager) experience, they both do valuable work AND lack a sense of humor to a point where it becomes incredibly funny. There was a silly story on NPR this morning in which the reporter called up various LA officials to find out if they felt prepared for an earthquake or alien/zombie invasion of the kind Hollywood seems to want to thrust upon thiskghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-2907203319685646782011-08-07T17:09:00.000-07:002011-08-07T17:09:02.447-07:00J: I thought of going to the Sam or the Bob, but I went to the gym.
K: Did you have to go to the john afterwards?kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-25475338030392303342011-08-07T14:04:00.000-07:002011-08-07T14:04:59.273-07:00I can't find a version on-line that I like of "My Life Flows On in Endless Song," but I really like singing it today. So far, the three times we've gone to the UU church have all been really moving. Today, I didn't cry at all for the first time.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-66151821660980187532011-08-06T13:54:00.003-07:002011-08-06T13:54:47.879-07:00When Attitudes Become Form
There's some really wonderful footage in here.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-20098657998096943992011-08-06T12:49:00.001-07:002011-08-06T12:49:48.027-07:00Q: What does one beaver say to another as they survey the fruits of their labor?
A: Dam!kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-30783170911924874662011-08-06T12:43:00.001-07:002011-08-06T12:43:29.433-07:00I can't wait to write and then read the two-volume masterpiece "The Lacuna of Desire is A Universe-Sized Toilet" and its sequel, "Don't Be Afraid to Flush."kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-12669267217814014942011-08-03T21:49:00.000-07:002011-08-03T21:55:39.201-07:00Pierce Thy Enemy with Thy Pen
"Proposal for a Monument to the Slovene People" from the March 31, 1965 issue of Tribuna. There's something so wonderful about this...kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-24949675801038269932011-08-03T20:23:00.001-07:002011-08-03T20:23:49.433-07:00The view outside my office window right now looks eerily like the cover of Frederic Jameson's "Archaeologies of the Future."kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-7104799269386810662011-08-03T17:54:00.000-07:002011-08-03T17:54:10.181-07:00Anybody have thoughts about this article?kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-10376557360501503542011-08-03T12:44:00.001-07:002011-08-03T12:44:53.503-07:00K:
Q: What do you call a person who gets naked and impersonates a cross-walk?
A: A striper.
J:
Q: What's the favorite body part of a Catholic who is into self-flagellation?
A: An eyelash.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-40620262494759034132011-08-02T12:38:00.001-07:002011-08-02T12:38:29.608-07:00It took me entirely too much time to track this song (Troubleman by Electric Guest) after I heard it on the radio, but I really, really like it.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-19280370967057451432011-08-01T23:44:00.000-07:002011-08-01T23:44:10.317-07:00Laura
Q: What do you call an AARP convention in Yellowstone?
A: A bunch of old geezers.
Josh:
Q: What sound does an old hippie's body make when it hits an Asian drum?
A: Bong.
Me:
Q: What's a dyslexic pothead's favorite TV show?
A: 24.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-84016691810673148652011-08-01T14:11:00.000-07:002011-08-01T14:11:59.309-07:00Although I don't like much of the self-congratulating/self-pitying tone, this article comes at an opportune moment... It has long been my dream to have relationships in which it would feel totally safe and normal to be silent around other people... Also, I think the true mystery facing me/us at the moment is how two introverts learn to find a balance in the need for companionship and the need forkghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-24781693755187278352011-08-01T12:12:00.000-07:002011-08-01T12:12:57.567-07:00I wish I could know
For more than a few precious minutes,
Tucked away in the crevices of everydayness
Or put behind glass as the most valued mementos
Of travels past,
What it's like to live without fear --
So mundane, it doesn't warrant mention,
Yet so persistent
It syphons off attention
At every turn,
Saps pleasure
From almost every waking minute
With questions that transcend the tiresome.
kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-2322538470489317402011-07-31T14:47:00.000-07:002011-07-31T14:47:53.396-07:00Church, apparently, is where I do all my crying. Today's service on the narrative of illness was really good.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-50489414208718546762011-07-29T20:47:00.000-07:002011-07-29T20:47:48.972-07:00This poem is engraved on a stone plaque hanging in the hallway at work.
Lost Language
by Charles Wright
October, and leaves fall down. One feels the world go by.
First frost. And a licking sound
Just under the earth,
great wheels, or a sluice of some sort.
Sunlight thin as Saran Wrap.
A licking sound, the suck and bump of something against something.
One kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-46710227964223097652011-07-27T21:02:00.000-07:002011-07-27T21:14:20.796-07:00"Хочется бросить все и заняться разведением хищных пони." Комар и Меламид, "Стихи о смерти".
["One feels a desire to give up on everything and start breeding carnivorous ponies." Komar and Melamid, "Poems about Death."]kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-66478514352797146962011-07-27T18:08:00.000-07:002011-07-27T18:08:48.711-07:00The morning (after leaving the house) compounded my anxiety and ennui when I learned how much I'd been charged on car repairs for a car that (financially speaking) is just not worth it... (On top of everything, the mechanics, who I don't think were overcharging me, it's just a lousy situation, kept calling me "Ms. [My Last Name]" and that address unnerves me to no end). But I was so grateful for kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-2319005743451494592011-07-24T14:20:00.000-07:002011-07-24T14:20:15.642-07:00This was my favorite hymn at the UU service we went to this morning, though the lyrics we sang were different (and didn't mention Jesus or immortality, which I rather preferred).
And then the congregation started singing Spirit of Life, which I like a lot less musically, but I started crying really hard because a woman got up at the front who signed all the lyrics in sign language as the kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-71788279669383196692011-07-22T19:21:00.000-07:002011-07-22T19:21:35.909-07:00The Glass Harmonica
I was looking up some basic info on Alfred Schnittke for a footnote and found reference to the cartoon The Glass Harmonica for which he wrote music. This cartoon turned out to be absolutely amazing. What's more, the bit at the end where everyone is flying looks a whole lot like the imagery of Poletevshiy Komarov from Kabakov's 10 Characters, and I was very intrigued to see that Yulo Sooster, whokghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-60215393349614957732011-07-19T19:33:00.000-07:002011-07-19T19:33:21.915-07:00I have a paronomasia of the brain! It's a very punishing condition :(.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-90235809675096186812011-07-18T23:34:00.001-07:002011-07-18T23:34:53.541-07:00The Way It Goes is, unsurprisingly, a gorgeous song.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-3408094859221761632011-07-18T15:02:00.000-07:002011-07-18T15:02:03.257-07:00Many apologies to the person in Kuwait looking for "high qwelity real bollywood sex phto." I am not sure why Google directed you to my blog...kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-34941912114347668442011-07-18T14:09:00.000-07:002011-07-18T14:14:53.060-07:00
In Mexico, we learned about the Molokan sect (descendants of Old Believers) who came to the Valle de Guadelupe in the early 1900s (and most of whom left after the 30s to go the U.S.). There was something jarring about seeing this rather gimicky image in a fairly obscure part of Baja California (not to mention a vastly inappropriate, since the Molokans disavowed and were persecuted by the kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-38528732378762428612011-07-13T14:44:00.000-07:002011-07-13T14:45:57.839-07:00
Strange public art on Catalina.
I guess I didn't say it in so many words before, but snorkeling was an immersively spiritual experience for me. Though apparently, spirituality for me also goes hand in hand with fear of death.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-64533791940462387842011-07-10T18:55:00.000-07:002011-07-10T18:55:06.622-07:00Josh says that the water off of Catalina used to be a lot clearer, and I have no reason to disbelieve him (I suspect it still is quite clear in places farther off shore than Lovers Cove). I think what we did was a good first exposure to snorkeling for me since all things water-related (as well as most things in general) seem to freak me out on first encounter, and I appreciated the fact that we kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-53154742484532309112011-07-07T20:06:00.000-07:002011-07-07T20:07:04.676-07:00
Just watch me totally not make a golden shower joke about this picture.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-28390141523943049492011-07-05T20:22:00.000-07:002011-07-05T20:22:51.027-07:00Rest in peace, Cy Twombly. I happen to love your paintings. But I was also very struck by a description of your work in Philadelphia that a friend of mine sent me:
"There was one room in the Modern wing which was filled with large pictures that consisted of what looked like angry crayon scribbles made in a child psychologist's office, with big jagged letters written across them. It was quite a kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-30327935652899338082011-07-05T17:34:00.000-07:002011-07-05T17:34:10.905-07:00Also, yesterday, after valiant attempts at finding an Armenian restaurant in Glendale (in the process, we found a shop called "The Exotic Cigarettes," a piano sale, and some excellent Korean food), we were told in no uncertain terms that one cannot get Armenian food in an LA restaurant. This, I think, is one of the universe's greatest mysteries. One can get some damn good baklava, though.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-3305459252744959532011-07-05T09:22:00.000-07:002011-07-05T09:22:07.692-07:00Being grateful for being a citizen of a country is quite different from being proud of this fact...
Seeing a dozen or more different firework displays over the city while standing high over it on the Angeles Crest highway made them look a lot more like what they were -- explosions going off. It was quite neat, though.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-61138285798819641192011-07-03T09:58:00.000-07:002011-07-03T12:25:34.810-07:00Friday night we watched the 1968 The Producers. Both J. and I were crying with laughter during the opening scene of the musical, and my diaphragm hasn't ceased up so much from laughing since Borat. Yesterday was truly lovely. It opened with home-made french toast, then LACMA -- we hung out with John and saw a David Smith show I liked much more than I expected and 40 delightful minutes of kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-56052406217837065082011-06-30T22:15:00.000-07:002011-06-30T22:15:12.806-07:00Pudovkin's Chess Fever has some truly hilarious moments, especially with the kittens.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-65141882071269333402011-06-29T11:55:00.000-07:002011-06-29T11:55:25.834-07:00The one of Garrison Keillor is priceless.
Also, going past Glendale on the 134 today, there was a medium-sized leather sofa sitting in the middle of a lane. A half mile or so down the road, there was a white moving truck whence, I suspect, it came. I wonder how it all ended...kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-83457203142423357242011-06-15T20:59:00.000-07:002011-06-15T20:59:17.367-07:00I feel I should preserve this before the Craigslist ad expires because it's such a great description of Honeybone:
"My pet cockatiel, General Honeybone, is a bird who marches to his own drummer. He is very wild and engages much more with the birds beyond our window than he does with the tender whistling I do for him from time to time. He's beautiful, and knows his luscious, variegated coat of kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-62209813788243655322011-06-11T18:02:00.000-07:002011-06-11T18:02:52.708-07:00I just made the most amazing crunchy sweet-n-spicy tofu, if I do say so myself. I'm now a firm (like the tofu!) believer that at least for certain foods, tofu being very much one of them, your cooking is only as good as your equipment... All hail a good, thick metal pan!kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-28052670765767620362011-06-11T16:53:00.000-07:002011-06-11T16:53:38.840-07:00Out of nowhere, I remembered the scene from early on in "Zabriskie Point" in which the protagonist gets arrested during a student protest and in being booked at the station gives his name as "Karl Marx." "Is that with a "c" or a "k"?" the clerk asks him. I don't know why, but I still find that such a brilliant little bit of scripting.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-76039305921632995372011-06-10T10:50:00.001-07:002011-06-10T10:50:21.201-07:00The other day J. goes, "Seeing you in a wedding dress would be like seeing a dog in a Christmas costume." The really funny thing is that I couldn't agree more.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-12568213141295359462011-06-07T00:16:00.000-07:002011-06-07T00:16:02.613-07:00I find this speech by Jonathan Franzen very moving. (If it seems familiar, it ran as an article in the NYT last week, but this version is fuller, more personal, and better, I think).kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-52049752905058902402011-05-31T11:19:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:19:44.975-07:00I discovered just now that on the receipt from the Museum of Jurassic Technology it says on the bottom: "Ut Translatio Natura // Have a nice day" I don't know why, but that really cracks me up.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-46186915696936900512011-05-31T01:19:00.000-07:002011-05-31T01:19:29.178-07:00I didn't hate every last bit of The Tree of Life and actually found some of the family scenes very affecting (if also terrifying in their own way), but it seems pretty undeniable that some of the scenes look like a film version of Mormon art, that the film should go in the dictionary next to pretentious, and that if this is Heideggerrian, then there's one more reason not to like Heidegger. As if kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-92192587349230294832011-05-17T10:51:00.000-07:002011-05-17T10:51:22.894-07:00Also, I watched The Vanished Empire on a whim the other night, and the way it captures early 70s in Moscow has really stuck with me. I keep recalling the city I remember from childhood as it is so vividly captured in the film and wondering why it still hurts to know that it's been lost irrevocably when so much of what was lost were things nobody wanted in the first place... How strange that kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-9856620675795632052011-05-17T09:14:00.001-07:002011-05-17T09:14:43.149-07:00Piazzolla's "Escualo" was the absolute highlight of last night's Piano Trio Voce concert for me. It was sooooo good. Though they didn't have a bandaneon. So this recording is obviously different, but you get the idea.
kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-13388263566447937472011-05-13T13:52:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:52:44.590-07:00From the annals of predoc hilarity:
Isabelle thought the phrase was "it buggers [rather than boggles] the mind." Also, we were joking around yesterday how we weren't disgusting pigs for eating a few more cookies with our afternoon tea -- we were sacrificing ourselves to science to study chocolate chip distribution. Afterwards, Isabelle commented on how we have to go back and digest our results kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-16498560176418028932011-04-28T21:03:00.001-07:002011-04-28T21:03:21.221-07:00A couple of weeks ago, one the security guards and I finally figured out why America is suffering from an obesity epidemic -- it's because the boom-box (and the rollerblades that came with it) have been replaced by the iPod.
And now, Isabelle and I are in our cubicles, hearing as the janitors (who are vacuuming the floors late) yell, "La luz, por favor" when the lights automatically shut off -- kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-19752053505384130372011-04-16T11:30:00.000-07:002011-04-16T11:30:04.254-07:00I watched "Brief Encounter" last night, smth I'd been meaning to do since MasterGote mentioned it a couple of years ago. I liked it a lot -- the way the Noel Coward script was smart without being too clever, the simplicity and true-to-life quality of the situation, the characters, though I did wish that Laura and Alec's kissing hadn't been so melodramatic and borderline violent. The other scene kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-70582291409443412862011-04-15T23:17:00.001-07:002011-04-15T23:17:32.806-07:00Tonight I used up the last of the tahini that I bought while in college (either junior or senior year, can't remember). This is truly an end of an era... Hopefully, the next jar I buy (I do quite like home-made hummus) will not last as long...kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-83713745721160485972011-04-07T18:49:00.001-07:002011-04-08T07:55:00.341-07:00Yes, that memorial really is in Harrod's. And yes, Dodi's shirt really is totally unbuttoned.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-17134901033257719142011-04-07T18:47:00.001-07:002011-04-08T07:47:37.257-07:00The Tower and the Isle of Dogs.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-58366668088009923272011-04-07T18:47:00.000-07:002011-04-08T07:44:06.741-07:00An Oiticica with a Calder word bubble/dream.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23631263.post-18311751452093494532011-04-07T18:46:00.000-07:002011-04-07T18:58:24.575-07:00I loved that little grotesque on the scroll on the facade of St. Paul's. I checked, and the corresponding scroll on the other side of the facade did not have a face.kghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072460903216756695noreply@blogger.com4