Okay, so....Hola, to whoever? whomever? may be reading this.
(giggle -- sounds like the following sentence should be "If you're reading this, it means the monster caught me and devoured me with his slavering fangs. Tell my mother I love her....")
Anyway, I used to enjoy (or I remember it that way, at least) the school assignments wherein the teacher would require us to keep a journal for a week or whatever, and we either had to write a minimum of (2? 3? I don't remember the number...) paragraphs -- OR if you wrote a poem, it counted as a complete journal entry -- per day. I had half entertained using this idea for / as my blog, but then I quailed at the thought of making people bored or something. So many bloggers are so productive, prolific, and witty on a daily basis, you see, or at least a weekly basis...it's intimidating.
However, eff that line of thinking. For one thing, as a friend of mine typed on his most excellent blog The Ramen Stand, "Who cares if nobody reads this thing, ever. This is for me...Never feel as though I HAVE to post. Relieve pressure. This is for fun." So, thank you, Nate Bezner, for inspiring me to give blogging another shot!
So, I guess I'm sort of proclaiming, at least to myself, that writing something in this blog and posting it, hopefully daily but at least once a week, will be mainly what this is all about: writing exercise + therapy. But also, a place to store a few links or lists or random reminders about things, here and there. We'll see.
And allow me to wish EVERYONE a Happy Thursday!
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
I Recommend the Following...
Thoughts in my head one minute, blank slate the next moment...ADD is not helping me be a writer right now.
However, I always wanted to do random things on a blog (a decade or so ago, I dreamed of having my own website - but this is MUCH easier). I wanted to make lists of things, recommendations of things, etc.
Here are a few things I highly recommend that you, dear reader, check out / try, etc.
~ Listen to old radio detective shows, like Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Pat Novak For Hire and Line Up. A) they totally RULE, and B) they are great company / background for when you're doing chores, or walking around the block, or driving, or trying to fall asleep, or wrapping gifts when it's Christmastime, or waiting for an appointment, or whatever. I especially particularly recommend the following Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar episode "The Royal Street Matter".
* Put blueberries in your chocolate ice cream - tastes great, especially if it's dark chocolate flavor.
> Any time you're near a fountain (of reasonably large size - not a water fountain that you drink from), especially if said fountain shoots streams of water in arcs, try to keep your eyes on one droplet of water from the moment it shoots out of the nozzle, up into the air, over the top of the arc, and down again into the pool of water. Of course, you can't really latch your eyes onto just one droplet of water without binoculars - but do try to keep your eye fixated one piece of the water's stream, as specifically as possible, up and over.
This will freeze the water for a surreal few seconds, and it will feel like you're looking at stop-motion photography -- but in real time. Like this!
It may sound goofy, but if you try it, I'll bet you'll find it diverting and possibly even fascinating, as I do.
+ If you like the book Jane Eyre, and you are at all geeky or a fan of fantasy or sci-fi, then you owe it to yourself to read Jane Slayre. It is SO well done, and I really enjoyed looking through both books simultaneously and seeing which parts of Jane Slayre were word-for-word the same as the source material, and which bits were much the same but slighly altered to fit the situation.
Also, if you were always a little (or a lot!) turned on by Mr. Rochester, I suggest you check out the book Jane Eyrotica. Yep, it's what it sounds like. ;D
* Any Bryan Ferry and/or Roxy Music fans in the metaphorical house? You should know, if you don't already, that the Bryan Ferry Orchestra put out a CD of many Ferry and Roxy songs RE-DONE AS 1920s JAZZ TUNES. Yes. They. Did. The CD is called The Jazz Age, and it is SO awesome!
To wit: here is "Virginia Plain", by Roxy Music:
and here is "Virginia Plain, by the Bryan Ferry Orchestra:
So...there are a ton of other things that I notice and enjoy, which I'm not sure that everyone has taken the time to notice and enjoy. I plan to revisit this topic quite a bit. (I'm also one of those people who delights in using a jukebox to play Amateur DJ to the entire restaurant.) When will the next post be? Who can say? To quote Dirk Gently: "Pray God I am not too soon!"
One of the podcasts I listen to and love is called The Great Detectives of Old-Time Radio. I shall emulate the host.
This is Kat Finger, signing off.
However, I always wanted to do random things on a blog (a decade or so ago, I dreamed of having my own website - but this is MUCH easier). I wanted to make lists of things, recommendations of things, etc.
Here are a few things I highly recommend that you, dear reader, check out / try, etc.
~ Listen to old radio detective shows, like Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Pat Novak For Hire and Line Up. A) they totally RULE, and B) they are great company / background for when you're doing chores, or walking around the block, or driving, or trying to fall asleep, or wrapping gifts when it's Christmastime, or waiting for an appointment, or whatever. I especially particularly recommend the following Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar episode "The Royal Street Matter".
* Put blueberries in your chocolate ice cream - tastes great, especially if it's dark chocolate flavor.
> Any time you're near a fountain (of reasonably large size - not a water fountain that you drink from), especially if said fountain shoots streams of water in arcs, try to keep your eyes on one droplet of water from the moment it shoots out of the nozzle, up into the air, over the top of the arc, and down again into the pool of water. Of course, you can't really latch your eyes onto just one droplet of water without binoculars - but do try to keep your eye fixated one piece of the water's stream, as specifically as possible, up and over.
This will freeze the water for a surreal few seconds, and it will feel like you're looking at stop-motion photography -- but in real time. Like this!
It may sound goofy, but if you try it, I'll bet you'll find it diverting and possibly even fascinating, as I do.
+ If you like the book Jane Eyre, and you are at all geeky or a fan of fantasy or sci-fi, then you owe it to yourself to read Jane Slayre. It is SO well done, and I really enjoyed looking through both books simultaneously and seeing which parts of Jane Slayre were word-for-word the same as the source material, and which bits were much the same but slighly altered to fit the situation.
Also, if you were always a little (or a lot!) turned on by Mr. Rochester, I suggest you check out the book Jane Eyrotica. Yep, it's what it sounds like. ;D
* Any Bryan Ferry and/or Roxy Music fans in the metaphorical house? You should know, if you don't already, that the Bryan Ferry Orchestra put out a CD of many Ferry and Roxy songs RE-DONE AS 1920s JAZZ TUNES. Yes. They. Did. The CD is called The Jazz Age, and it is SO awesome!
To wit: here is "Virginia Plain", by Roxy Music:
and here is "Virginia Plain, by the Bryan Ferry Orchestra:
So...there are a ton of other things that I notice and enjoy, which I'm not sure that everyone has taken the time to notice and enjoy. I plan to revisit this topic quite a bit. (I'm also one of those people who delights in using a jukebox to play Amateur DJ to the entire restaurant.) When will the next post be? Who can say? To quote Dirk Gently: "Pray God I am not too soon!"
One of the podcasts I listen to and love is called The Great Detectives of Old-Time Radio. I shall emulate the host.
This is Kat Finger, signing off.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
written before midnight, posted after midnight - and now, goodnight
(Okay...wrote this one actually today, unlike the other two I posted today, which were not actually written today. It appears that I sort of wrote it once before already (entitled I Hope Perfectionism Falls Down the Stairs and Gets Gout). Well, too bad. I wrote it today (okay, technically, since it is after midnight, it was in fact yesterday...) and I'm posting it not-today-but-feels-like-today-because-I-haven't-gone-to-bed-yet.
Ah, OCD...it makes for some interesting sentences.)
So....
I have some things I have to "work
out", personally, and I always mean to get around to writing,
and I think better when I can write it down, so...
"Problem solved!"
It may not be interesting to ANYONE but
me, however, writing it here and there results in
= collecting paper = too much, so am
now going to be doing sort of diary/website/etc
on this blog. Probably no-one reading
anyway; suits me fine if it's just me & maybe a friend or two
peering at it.
The thing is...
when I am away from a screen or paper
(really I hardly ever have written anything on a screen, only some
poems in the college computer lab a lifetime ago --
still, as mentioned b/f, there is too
much paper)
anyway, I come up with insights, minor
"voila"s, etc, bits of things -
so many thoughts and it's hard to hold
them if i don't type with closed eyes they will disintegrate
i will get hung up b/c the thoughts
they are such a tide
so yeah, I was upstairs and having
thoughts i wanted to put into a blog, like
"indecision kills"
Grr - I came straight downstairs and
started typing, with my eyes closed == but I had already lost the
thoughts as I began to type.
I know that perfection is my enemy, and
so is form and expectation (and sometimes self-in(tro)spection)
I wonder if i am the only one who write
(types) "blind" - out of sheer necessity?
i know the distraction element is so
incredible in my mind at any given time
One thing I listened to was radio remix
- tonight's show informed it somehow but how?
I remember that the in between times of
life informed was what i was going to type about yesterday
all swept away now by new thoughts but
what were they? they are leaking out of my head the more seconds pass
that i am away from their original conception
radio the man was talking about bit
bits various flotsam and jetsam and puts them together well that is
what this blog is going to be b/c that's what
it was meant to be
we'll see
but anyway there are things in the
emails to retrieve
and yesterday I was thinking about the
in between moments of everyday life and maybe how I am, when in those
in-between moments? But I can't remember exactly.
GAH! so frustrating!!!!!
I've written a thousand opening
sentences for blogs, in my head, but they never stay long enough for
me to put them IN the blog.
This will be the next blog entry anyway
- screw it.
Free Writing on a Thursday Night Most Likely Months Ago
(this was actually written, I think, sometime early in 2013??? Apparently it was a Thursday)
(btw love MGee & NCIS in general so title is a nod to that)
Blank page - aaaaugghh!
So: Freewriting...
- humidity sucks - "too much information/runnin' through my brain" - what is most and least interesting to write here, what's good enough or not enough? - Fascinating cat : will he wink back? - sky gets dark so fast, once it starts - where do all the thoughts go when you try to chase them around and corral them they dry up, disappear? puff of smoke - if I open up something in my brain just right, a torrent comes out - thought torrent - if it could just leak it directly through the pen but it's not a pen it's my fingers on keys; if only one of my fingers could double as a pen; stupid brain full of thoughts at all the wrong times then they hide if torrent is required! It figures, those klutzes; still better to at least spill some thoughts - they get SO majorly backed up in me then fester yes sit around and mildew- not good precious must get out and shake thoughts loose always think better flows better when I'm moving don't know why - "movin' on from town to town" - aha: all the songs that have moving in the title maybe I'll make into a list; could make another blog called Free Space "watch this space" always a new different list or observation or just random words - btw I highly recommend magnetic poetry even if you have no room on the fridge just attach something magnetic to the wall - "over me, over you/over everybody" - heavy the laptop is, and such a weak battery, so not actually as portable as I'd imagined - still a vast improvement over monitor and stays-in-one-place PC - was listening to a good episode of either Talk of the Nation or Charlotte Talks, on NPR, about technology of maps on phones and soon even in the lens of your glasses; it could cut you off from the world maybe - got to be careful of that - it is so important to walk down to the pond, tiny and polluted though it is, just to see maybe one frog, hear six or more frogs' enormous and eerie voices, and see tadpoles actually jump just a bit out of the water coming to the surface to get food. A better memory would help, in re: how thoughts flow so much better when I'm moving mustn't wreck the car after all when brilliance (okay maybe more like inspiration) hits or when epiphanies occur - still working on the "perfect" dictaphone set-up for car. "Too much information/ drivin' me insane" - how odd, the sheer volume of ideas that someone has already had, thus the feeling 'it's as though this song was written for me!', 'how did he know I'd feel that way?', nothing new under the sun and all that rot yeah yeah, but sometimes it's the juxtaposition of when you hear the song just on the heels of what your see or when you think of the song just as you've heard words the song describes or leads to the words pointing a path down the runway straight into Sting's voice and tight bass and guitar and that perfect sax climbing and dipping over and over.... It's hard to just stream, let all words out, not self-edit especially hard to hit right keys when eyes closed so it's a good thing I took typing in high school (do kids even take typing anymore?) helps to have your hands hover above the board, hit the keys as they were trained to do long ago - my grandmother knew shorthand; looks like hieroglyphics to me - lots of things we're losing as I grow older, as people go away and years pass - we lose shorthand, languages, some arts and crafts - one major thing we are losing or have lost is to take time to do a thing or make a thing - when there was no shortcut to cooking or cleaning it wasn't maybe better quite, but more real - it's so hard to remember to Be Here Now, but, of course, it's not always due to technology...I used to burrow deep inside my own soul not just inside my mind it was like I took my mind and therefore my self down into the pit of my stomach so that only a warm husk of a body was sitting in the seat it was there to hold a place to look at but vacant because my entire soul was locked far within the interior well, sightless no sound no awareness of surroundings of people of furtive looks of snickers - but of course also losing awareness of the good parts I would especially do this when in church youth group functions...funny how much nicer, healthier, less 'dangerous' an environment you can get amongst a bunch of D&D-playing drama-geek gamers than you sometimes do on a youth group mission trip. Satisfaction, that's what I need to work on: yes, work on Being Here Now, and on being satisfied and not always questing after more or better, or wondering if I'm missing something- must get out of my own head more often!
Yikes -- 10 pm and no dinner yet -- so this is the end of this blog. Happy Thursday to all, and to all a good night.
(btw love MGee & NCIS in general so title is a nod to that)
Blank page - aaaaugghh!
So: Freewriting...
- humidity sucks - "too much information/runnin' through my brain" - what is most and least interesting to write here, what's good enough or not enough? - Fascinating cat : will he wink back? - sky gets dark so fast, once it starts - where do all the thoughts go when you try to chase them around and corral them they dry up, disappear? puff of smoke - if I open up something in my brain just right, a torrent comes out - thought torrent - if it could just leak it directly through the pen but it's not a pen it's my fingers on keys; if only one of my fingers could double as a pen; stupid brain full of thoughts at all the wrong times then they hide if torrent is required! It figures, those klutzes; still better to at least spill some thoughts - they get SO majorly backed up in me then fester yes sit around and mildew- not good precious must get out and shake thoughts loose always think better flows better when I'm moving don't know why - "movin' on from town to town" - aha: all the songs that have moving in the title maybe I'll make into a list; could make another blog called Free Space "watch this space" always a new different list or observation or just random words - btw I highly recommend magnetic poetry even if you have no room on the fridge just attach something magnetic to the wall - "over me, over you/over everybody" - heavy the laptop is, and such a weak battery, so not actually as portable as I'd imagined - still a vast improvement over monitor and stays-in-one-place PC - was listening to a good episode of either Talk of the Nation or Charlotte Talks, on NPR, about technology of maps on phones and soon even in the lens of your glasses; it could cut you off from the world maybe - got to be careful of that - it is so important to walk down to the pond, tiny and polluted though it is, just to see maybe one frog, hear six or more frogs' enormous and eerie voices, and see tadpoles actually jump just a bit out of the water coming to the surface to get food. A better memory would help, in re: how thoughts flow so much better when I'm moving mustn't wreck the car after all when brilliance (okay maybe more like inspiration) hits or when epiphanies occur - still working on the "perfect" dictaphone set-up for car. "Too much information/ drivin' me insane" - how odd, the sheer volume of ideas that someone has already had, thus the feeling 'it's as though this song was written for me!', 'how did he know I'd feel that way?', nothing new under the sun and all that rot yeah yeah, but sometimes it's the juxtaposition of when you hear the song just on the heels of what your see or when you think of the song just as you've heard words the song describes or leads to the words pointing a path down the runway straight into Sting's voice and tight bass and guitar and that perfect sax climbing and dipping over and over.... It's hard to just stream, let all words out, not self-edit especially hard to hit right keys when eyes closed so it's a good thing I took typing in high school (do kids even take typing anymore?) helps to have your hands hover above the board, hit the keys as they were trained to do long ago - my grandmother knew shorthand; looks like hieroglyphics to me - lots of things we're losing as I grow older, as people go away and years pass - we lose shorthand, languages, some arts and crafts - one major thing we are losing or have lost is to take time to do a thing or make a thing - when there was no shortcut to cooking or cleaning it wasn't maybe better quite, but more real - it's so hard to remember to Be Here Now, but, of course, it's not always due to technology...I used to burrow deep inside my own soul not just inside my mind it was like I took my mind and therefore my self down into the pit of my stomach so that only a warm husk of a body was sitting in the seat it was there to hold a place to look at but vacant because my entire soul was locked far within the interior well, sightless no sound no awareness of surroundings of people of furtive looks of snickers - but of course also losing awareness of the good parts I would especially do this when in church youth group functions...funny how much nicer, healthier, less 'dangerous' an environment you can get amongst a bunch of D&D-playing drama-geek gamers than you sometimes do on a youth group mission trip. Satisfaction, that's what I need to work on: yes, work on Being Here Now, and on being satisfied and not always questing after more or better, or wondering if I'm missing something- must get out of my own head more often!
Yikes -- 10 pm and no dinner yet -- so this is the end of this blog. Happy Thursday to all, and to all a good night.
I Hope Perfectionism Falls Down the Stairs And Gets Gout
Perfectionism is the enemy, as I pointed out in my First Blog Ever:
"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a sh**ty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Well - sigh - it turns out that I am even more scared of not doing things perfectly than I thought I was, because it's already...
all the things...
is it that I...
[WARNING: VERY LITTLE CORRECT PUNCTUATION TO FOLLOW; ALSO, TREMENDOUSLY LONG RUN-ON WANDERING JAMES-JOYCE-MEETS-E-E-CUMMINGS STUFF FOLLOWS]
dammit got in front of the screen and now can't think of earlier thoughts - why don't I have a better memory?
may thus be making this blog private or semi-private or something to that effect
see i feel hesitant sometimes re: posting pontification / journal entry type stuff; don't want to sound self-involved -- have been advised that... or not advised exactly...it's just that you see SO may negative comments on things you see on the web, anywhere (trolls, etc). one tries to be clever on fb which translates most often into being scathingly witty -- but then if you think about putting yourself out there to be scathed, well........
So I was originally going to do a carefully balanced blog (representative of my scattered nature): sometimes frippery, other times making a point (but never being dull or self-indulgent gods forbid), and some times a list, or here or there a poem - I could see it all in my minds eye; however i have a long history of thinking "i see it in my mind's eye wait a minute the reality isn't looking like my mind's eye aw never mind" however in this case that will simply result in more ruttin' paper cluttering up our condo when I have already have QUITE ENOUGH PAPER already, thank you! (i means i'm not a candidate for Hoarders yet, but there is at least one room of this condo that begs to differ......) Thus the need to keep my diary on screen -- see, I write not really to show anyone but more as therapy. i mean, I do think i'm a good poet and i will show people my poetry usually but for a long time now the only way to try to sort out how i really feel when i am frustrated and flummoxed is to write it out - spill it all out onto the page and then try to make sense of it. Unfortunately, when actual paper is used, you have to physically keep track of the paper, and i am hideously disorganized.
Anyway, it occurred to me that I get enthused about a project or idea or way of living or new personal fad, then it turns out to be harder or take longer or just not turn out to be what i expect so i quit and say never mind - or something overwhelms me and i literally hide in bed or at least avoid - I am very good at mental/emotional dodgeball and it's not good for me.
One of the biggest things that sends me running is stuff along the lines of politics/injustice - such a big messy tangle of things like tons of cat hair trapping dust in loose nests connected by long human hairs and some lint - cat owners can picture it well - JEEZ. Anyway, reading about prison unfairness links to corruption and racism and poverty and selfishness and they link to discrimination and genital mutilation and sexism and repression and it just goes on and on and on......and i get so often torn between wanting to fix it and feeling like i just can't stand to draw another breath if i have to keep facing the awfulness of it looming, so i run and hide & am therefore totally unhelpful in fixing said problem.
P.S. interesting: this spell checker just flagged "pontification" but entirely missed "excpecte" (I type haphazardly when I am trying to type fast). Hmmm.
"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a sh**ty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Well - sigh - it turns out that I am even more scared of not doing things perfectly than I thought I was, because it's already...
all the things...
is it that I...
[WARNING: VERY LITTLE CORRECT PUNCTUATION TO FOLLOW; ALSO, TREMENDOUSLY LONG RUN-ON WANDERING JAMES-JOYCE-MEETS-E-E-CUMMINGS STUFF FOLLOWS]
dammit got in front of the screen and now can't think of earlier thoughts - why don't I have a better memory?
may thus be making this blog private or semi-private or something to that effect
see i feel hesitant sometimes re: posting pontification / journal entry type stuff; don't want to sound self-involved -- have been advised that... or not advised exactly...it's just that you see SO may negative comments on things you see on the web, anywhere (trolls, etc). one tries to be clever on fb which translates most often into being scathingly witty -- but then if you think about putting yourself out there to be scathed, well........
So I was originally going to do a carefully balanced blog (representative of my scattered nature): sometimes frippery, other times making a point (but never being dull or self-indulgent gods forbid), and some times a list, or here or there a poem - I could see it all in my minds eye; however i have a long history of thinking "i see it in my mind's eye wait a minute the reality isn't looking like my mind's eye aw never mind" however in this case that will simply result in more ruttin' paper cluttering up our condo when I have already have QUITE ENOUGH PAPER already, thank you! (i means i'm not a candidate for Hoarders yet, but there is at least one room of this condo that begs to differ......) Thus the need to keep my diary on screen -- see, I write not really to show anyone but more as therapy. i mean, I do think i'm a good poet and i will show people my poetry usually but for a long time now the only way to try to sort out how i really feel when i am frustrated and flummoxed is to write it out - spill it all out onto the page and then try to make sense of it. Unfortunately, when actual paper is used, you have to physically keep track of the paper, and i am hideously disorganized.
Anyway, it occurred to me that I get enthused about a project or idea or way of living or new personal fad, then it turns out to be harder or take longer or just not turn out to be what i expect so i quit and say never mind - or something overwhelms me and i literally hide in bed or at least avoid - I am very good at mental/emotional dodgeball and it's not good for me.
One of the biggest things that sends me running is stuff along the lines of politics/injustice - such a big messy tangle of things like tons of cat hair trapping dust in loose nests connected by long human hairs and some lint - cat owners can picture it well - JEEZ. Anyway, reading about prison unfairness links to corruption and racism and poverty and selfishness and they link to discrimination and genital mutilation and sexism and repression and it just goes on and on and on......and i get so often torn between wanting to fix it and feeling like i just can't stand to draw another breath if i have to keep facing the awfulness of it looming, so i run and hide & am therefore totally unhelpful in fixing said problem.
P.S. interesting: this spell checker just flagged "pontification" but entirely missed "excpecte" (I type haphazardly when I am trying to type fast). Hmmm.
Monday, February 27, 2012
In 3's
A: "In 3's"
Q: What is an excellent Beastie Boys song from my favourite Beastie Boys album, Check Your Head?
OR
What is a useful and effective way for me to list, group, or plan various things?
-----------------
My 3 favourite things from a semi-recent weekend (Friday 2/10/12 through Sunday 2/12/12):
Q: What is an excellent Beastie Boys song from my favourite Beastie Boys album, Check Your Head?
OR
What is a useful and effective way for me to list, group, or plan various things?
-----------------
My 3 favourite things from a semi-recent weekend (Friday 2/10/12 through Sunday 2/12/12):
1. Friday morning: kids and dogs
I began my day as usual, by driving up Sharon Amity Road on my way to work, but soon saw something out of the ordinary. On the sidewalk to my right, I began to see adorable little boys and girls in colorful outfits -- Old Navy-style jackets, hats, and shirts in bright Crayola colours-- first one, then two more, then a lot more...like a very small parade. Perhaps two or three parents walked with probably five or six kids and at least two dogs.
One (very large) dog wore a harness, and a little girl walked along beside him, her head barely taller than the dog's back, with her hand on the dog, as dictated by the buddy system. So very sweet and charming! Oh, and did I mention the dog was carrying her little backpack? It could only have been cuter if one kid had been actually riding the dog with a saddle! The exuberance of the kids, the camaraderie, the sweetness of their two roughly single-file lines, the colourful little outfits -- what could be more wonderful?
Answer: what I saw next, on approaching the intersection with Randolph Road: two more parades of parents, children, and dogs! (I almost expected to see a camera crew, but found out later that this apparently is an event that the local elementary school promotes on occasional Friday mornings.) One group of adults and little kids was gathering at the far left corner, waiting for the light to change, and another group clustered at the far right corner, waiting for their light to change. The kids seemed energized and excited about going to school, which made it all the cuter. At one point the light changed for the group on the left, and as parents and children stepped, strode and skipped across the crosswalk, one young LL Bean-esque mom cradled an impossibly adorable cocker spaniel puppy who wore a bright red harness and surveyed the world, looking very hapless, furry, and loved.
It was as though someone said "what is wonderfulness made of?" and someone said "Here, let me show you!" The words I've written actually barely do it justice. My day had already scored an A+ and I hadn't even been up for more than an hour or so. Hooray!
2. Friday evening: the appeal of pizza, the inevitability of succession
Pizza Peel, at Cotswold Mall, has great pizza and a fun atmosphere, and for some reason, on that Friday, was *packed* with people, particularly families and kids. Three or four separate childrens' birthday parties seemed to be happening that evening, and the very air was festive and merry. I enjoyed dinner with my parents and my boyfriend Eric - munched on some delicious slices of a spinach-and-goat-cheese pizza - yum!
Toward the end of our meal a family was just beginning to get seated directly behind us. The waitress cautioned me to be careful in case I wanted to push my chair back, as they had placed a teeny-tiny little baby, in its carrier, directly behind my seat. Well, I did not push my chair back but I began to get a crick in my neck from constantly turning around in my chair to smile big goofy grins at the sweet little one, doing what has become my usual elastic-faced exaggerated-surprise try-to-get-a-reaction routine, to which the child usually reacts with no reaction at all, just a confused face as if to say "What are you smokin', lady?" To which I make an even bigger, rounder-eyed, higher-arched-eyebrow, more-open-mouthed smile, to which they continue to not respond but instead to simply stare in the most charming way, to which I react EVEN MORE, ad nauseum.
At one time in my life, I used to be slightly embarrassed by how my grandmother (Mema) would walk up to someone with a baby, bend down, and get right up in the baby's face. She'd talk to it, and pinch the cheek, and fuss and coo over it, not caring whether or not she was impeding or delaying the complete stranger, and barely acknowledging the oft-befuddled parents. It always seemed to lag on a little longer than it ought to, and I usually wished she'd hurry up,and not make such a spectacle of herself.
Well, I realized on Friday at the Pizza Peel that I have become Mema where babies are concerned...and I'm not a bit sorry about it! So I'll be getting all up in babies' faces and acting silly, to every one's slight embarrassment, until I'm in my 80s or 90s or even beyond that. Yayyyy!!!!
3. Saturday: "Smiley, spy."
When I was little, I remember my parents taking us to see movies quite often. They took my brother and I to plenty of Disney movies, sure, and I'll NEVER forget seeing Star Wars (episode four, A New Hope - but in the theaters that magical night in 1977, when I was five years old, we just called it "Star Wars"). However, my parents also took my brother and I along with them when they went to see "grown-up" movies like Reds, Gandhi, and Chariots of Fire. Furthermore, my dad showed us (at home, on the Video Disc player) such classics as Three Days of the Condor, The Sting, The Electric Horseman, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and Once Upon A Time in the West.
The upshot of all this is that I have some very fond memories of watching movies with excellent acting and/or atmosphere and which I enjoyed despite being usually pretty clueless and confused. It was often hard to pay attention or completely follow the action, and I missed a lot of stuff, particularly in the movies like The Big Sleep or Three Days of the Condor, where the plot was purposefully mysterious. In the case of The Big Sleep, it took several viewings for me to get a handle on who killed whom, and why, and in what order. But I loved watching it every time -- I've had the General's cricicism of lilies ("their flesh is too much like the flesh of men...the rotten sweetness of corruption") and Bogart's lines about "grieving over [his manners] on long winter evenings" memorized for over 30 years now. The atmosphere more than made up for the stuff that went over my head.
And now we come to Saturday night, the 11th. I have never read anything by John Le Carre, although my boyfriend Eric had recently read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on his Kindle, mainly because of the movie that recently came out, starring Gary Oldman. Eric took me to see Tinker Tailor (I shan't keep using the whole name) at the Manor, and I STRONGLY recommend both that movie and that theater! Tinker Tailor is a spy thriller, although the thrill is not in guns and exploding cars but rather in puzzling out the mysteries, seeing through the veils, and guessing at the meaning of all the things that are not said but only vaguely hinted at.
The atmosphere of Tinker Tailor actually reminded me of Three Days of the Condor, a spy movie that has a similar feel to Tinker Tailor -- hardly any shooting, but lots of thinking, suggesting, hinting, slow unraveling of a complex mystery, and really fine, nuanced performances. And, as I was when watching Condor for the first time, I was confused and in fact almost totally ignorant of what was actually going on until well into the first half of Tinker Tailor.
So I decided that I was going to watch Tinker Tailor as I'd watched so many movies as a 7- or 8- or 9- year old -- with no attempt at deciphering the plot, just enjoyment of the characters, the scenery, the 60s/70s-era cars, the incidental music, and that wholly satisfying atmosphere of mystery and unexplained but vaguely threatening malice. Gary Oldman alone was fascinating in his brilliantly understated performance as George Smiley. So, so subtle -- a very respectable and worthy follow-up to Alec Guinness's portrayal of Smiley in the miniseries that Eric and I are now watching.
I love that I am once again, roughly 30 years later, watching those fascinating stories with someone I love, who appreciates the awesomeness of film noir and intrigue. With any luck, I'll keep cozying up to characters like George Smiley, on the couch with Eric VanNewkirk, for the rest of my life.
I began my day as usual, by driving up Sharon Amity Road on my way to work, but soon saw something out of the ordinary. On the sidewalk to my right, I began to see adorable little boys and girls in colorful outfits -- Old Navy-style jackets, hats, and shirts in bright Crayola colours-- first one, then two more, then a lot more...like a very small parade. Perhaps two or three parents walked with probably five or six kids and at least two dogs.
One (very large) dog wore a harness, and a little girl walked along beside him, her head barely taller than the dog's back, with her hand on the dog, as dictated by the buddy system. So very sweet and charming! Oh, and did I mention the dog was carrying her little backpack? It could only have been cuter if one kid had been actually riding the dog with a saddle! The exuberance of the kids, the camaraderie, the sweetness of their two roughly single-file lines, the colourful little outfits -- what could be more wonderful?
Answer: what I saw next, on approaching the intersection with Randolph Road: two more parades of parents, children, and dogs! (I almost expected to see a camera crew, but found out later that this apparently is an event that the local elementary school promotes on occasional Friday mornings.) One group of adults and little kids was gathering at the far left corner, waiting for the light to change, and another group clustered at the far right corner, waiting for their light to change. The kids seemed energized and excited about going to school, which made it all the cuter. At one point the light changed for the group on the left, and as parents and children stepped, strode and skipped across the crosswalk, one young LL Bean-esque mom cradled an impossibly adorable cocker spaniel puppy who wore a bright red harness and surveyed the world, looking very hapless, furry, and loved.
It was as though someone said "what is wonderfulness made of?" and someone said "Here, let me show you!" The words I've written actually barely do it justice. My day had already scored an A+ and I hadn't even been up for more than an hour or so. Hooray!
2. Friday evening: the appeal of pizza, the inevitability of succession
Pizza Peel, at Cotswold Mall, has great pizza and a fun atmosphere, and for some reason, on that Friday, was *packed* with people, particularly families and kids. Three or four separate childrens' birthday parties seemed to be happening that evening, and the very air was festive and merry. I enjoyed dinner with my parents and my boyfriend Eric - munched on some delicious slices of a spinach-and-goat-cheese pizza - yum!
Toward the end of our meal a family was just beginning to get seated directly behind us. The waitress cautioned me to be careful in case I wanted to push my chair back, as they had placed a teeny-tiny little baby, in its carrier, directly behind my seat. Well, I did not push my chair back but I began to get a crick in my neck from constantly turning around in my chair to smile big goofy grins at the sweet little one, doing what has become my usual elastic-faced exaggerated-surprise try-to-get-a-reaction routine, to which the child usually reacts with no reaction at all, just a confused face as if to say "What are you smokin', lady?" To which I make an even bigger, rounder-eyed, higher-arched-eyebrow, more-open-mouthed smile, to which they continue to not respond but instead to simply stare in the most charming way, to which I react EVEN MORE, ad nauseum.
At one time in my life, I used to be slightly embarrassed by how my grandmother (Mema) would walk up to someone with a baby, bend down, and get right up in the baby's face. She'd talk to it, and pinch the cheek, and fuss and coo over it, not caring whether or not she was impeding or delaying the complete stranger, and barely acknowledging the oft-befuddled parents. It always seemed to lag on a little longer than it ought to, and I usually wished she'd hurry up,and not make such a spectacle of herself.
Well, I realized on Friday at the Pizza Peel that I have become Mema where babies are concerned...and I'm not a bit sorry about it! So I'll be getting all up in babies' faces and acting silly, to every one's slight embarrassment, until I'm in my 80s or 90s or even beyond that. Yayyyy!!!!
3. Saturday: "Smiley, spy."
When I was little, I remember my parents taking us to see movies quite often. They took my brother and I to plenty of Disney movies, sure, and I'll NEVER forget seeing Star Wars (episode four, A New Hope - but in the theaters that magical night in 1977, when I was five years old, we just called it "Star Wars"). However, my parents also took my brother and I along with them when they went to see "grown-up" movies like Reds, Gandhi, and Chariots of Fire. Furthermore, my dad showed us (at home, on the Video Disc player) such classics as Three Days of the Condor, The Sting, The Electric Horseman, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and Once Upon A Time in the West.
The upshot of all this is that I have some very fond memories of watching movies with excellent acting and/or atmosphere and which I enjoyed despite being usually pretty clueless and confused. It was often hard to pay attention or completely follow the action, and I missed a lot of stuff, particularly in the movies like The Big Sleep or Three Days of the Condor, where the plot was purposefully mysterious. In the case of The Big Sleep, it took several viewings for me to get a handle on who killed whom, and why, and in what order. But I loved watching it every time -- I've had the General's cricicism of lilies ("their flesh is too much like the flesh of men...the rotten sweetness of corruption") and Bogart's lines about "grieving over [his manners] on long winter evenings" memorized for over 30 years now. The atmosphere more than made up for the stuff that went over my head.
And now we come to Saturday night, the 11th. I have never read anything by John Le Carre, although my boyfriend Eric had recently read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on his Kindle, mainly because of the movie that recently came out, starring Gary Oldman. Eric took me to see Tinker Tailor (I shan't keep using the whole name) at the Manor, and I STRONGLY recommend both that movie and that theater! Tinker Tailor is a spy thriller, although the thrill is not in guns and exploding cars but rather in puzzling out the mysteries, seeing through the veils, and guessing at the meaning of all the things that are not said but only vaguely hinted at.
The atmosphere of Tinker Tailor actually reminded me of Three Days of the Condor, a spy movie that has a similar feel to Tinker Tailor -- hardly any shooting, but lots of thinking, suggesting, hinting, slow unraveling of a complex mystery, and really fine, nuanced performances. And, as I was when watching Condor for the first time, I was confused and in fact almost totally ignorant of what was actually going on until well into the first half of Tinker Tailor.
So I decided that I was going to watch Tinker Tailor as I'd watched so many movies as a 7- or 8- or 9- year old -- with no attempt at deciphering the plot, just enjoyment of the characters, the scenery, the 60s/70s-era cars, the incidental music, and that wholly satisfying atmosphere of mystery and unexplained but vaguely threatening malice. Gary Oldman alone was fascinating in his brilliantly understated performance as George Smiley. So, so subtle -- a very respectable and worthy follow-up to Alec Guinness's portrayal of Smiley in the miniseries that Eric and I are now watching.
I love that I am once again, roughly 30 years later, watching those fascinating stories with someone I love, who appreciates the awesomeness of film noir and intrigue. With any luck, I'll keep cozying up to characters like George Smiley, on the couch with Eric VanNewkirk, for the rest of my life.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
A little bit lighter now...
So - about my blog in general: as I may or may not have said already, I intend for it to be random - I'm a big fan of randomness. And, although important things are important when they are important, I plan to balance the profound with the trivial. To that end, I present....
Thoughts on The Very Best Cartoons of "my"* Age
I was born in 1972 (thank the gods!!), and although there were many cartoon choices, the best ones shown at the time, and the only ones that are still as wonderful today, were and are the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies-type cartoons: the kind that featured such outstanding characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Sam and Ralph, and Elmer Fudd.
(*I know the aforementioned cartoons were all made way before I was born, but since I watched them as a kid they feel like part of my personal kid-in-the-70s past and therefore legitimately "mine".)
Many of my favourites are probably your favourites - although I've never been able to remember the actual titles of the cartoons, thus leading me to utter sentences like "The Kill the Wabbit one is okay, but the Daffy-Duck-Robin-Hood one is way funnier". Recently, however, I scoured the internet for one particular obscure cartoon which I barely remembered but which has always been one of my favourites, and my investigation led me to create and assimilate the following lists and summaries.
My top 15 favourite cartoons that many people are probably sick of but which still make my day:
1. One Froggie Evening, in which a frog sings songs like "Everybody Do the Michigan Ra-a-ag!", dancing with a top hat and a can -- which will NEVER get old! To no one's surprise, I only know the bits of these songs that the frog actually sings.
2. Hare-Way to the Stars: Bugs, Marvin the Martian, and an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
3. Ali Baba Bugs, with Bugs and Daffy taking a wrong turn and ending up in Ali Baba's cave. I try to work the following lines into every conversation I can: "I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm a happy miser!"
4. Bully For Bugs, with Bugs as a bullfighter.
5. Robin Hood Daffy: "Yoicks, and away!!!" The best part to quote is "Let's see now...somethin' I missed here...Ho, ha ha, guard, turn, parry, dodge, spin....."
6. The trilogy of Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs and/or Daffy: Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck!Rabbit,Duck! (These count as one entry as far as I'm concerned, since each episode features a slightly different wording of the classic "Wabbit Season! Duck Season!" exchange between Bugs and Daffy).
7. Duck Dodgers In the 24th & 1/2 Century. 'Nuff said.
8.The Abominable Snow Rabbit ("...and I will hug him & squeeze him & I will call him George..")
9. Operation: Rabbit ("Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wile E. Coyote, Genius.")
10. A Sheep in the Deep ("Mornin' Sam". "Mornin' Ralph".)
11. Zoom and Bored, the Coyote/Road Runner cartoon with the catapult that appears to have a personal vendetta against the Road Runner.**
12. For Scent-imental Reasons, featuring Pepe Le Peu & the cat who has accidentally had a white stripe painted down her back. ("Le mew. Le purr.")
13. Long-Haired Hare, in which Bugs anoys the opera singer and later makes him hold a note for so long that the opera house cracks and crumbles in on him.
14. Duck Amuck, in which the animator is mean to Daffy, drawing the wrong scenery, or taking away his voice, or erasing his body and re-drawing a monstrous body with a flag showing a screw and a ball.
15. The Rabbit of Seville, which I actually prefer over What's Opera, Doc?, aka Kill da Wabbit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**(Truthfully, any and all Coyote vs. Roadrunner cartoons rock just about equally.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And now for the very best 15 cartoons that you may have missed or at least not seen very often -- if you have not seen them, you should check them out ASAP!
1. Bugs Bonnet: in which lots of different types of hats float out of a truck, landing in the river, on the grass, and on Bugs & Elmer Fudd.
2. Symphony in Slang, the one I was having such a hard time locating, wherein the lady puts on an actual dog and a man is literally beside himself with anger.
3. Hare-Less Wolf, in which the wife-wolf screeches at the husband-wolf to go out and shoot a rabbit for their supper. He keeps forgetting what he's hunting for, and quoting him is so much fun! "Uh, let's see...a wildabeest? No...uh...a raccoon? No, no...uh...water buffalo? No, no...uh...oh yeah, a rabbit!"
4. Bedevilled Rabbit, with Bugs & Taz. I watch it just to hear them say: "John!" "Marsha!" at the end.
5. Transylvania 6-5000, in which Bugs meets a vampire. ("Abraca-pocus! Hocus-cadabra!")
6. A Witch's Tangled Hare: the best Bugs v. Witch Hazel cartoon.
7. Hair-Raising Hare, the Bugs Bunny episode with the mad scientist and the big furry monster & the Peter Lorre-type character.
8. Feed the Kitty, featuring Marc Antony (a huge dog) and Cleo (a cute little cat), in which the enormous dog keeps running around trying to save the little kitten from harm.
9. Pecos Pest: a Tom & Jerry cartoon featuring Jerry's eccentric Uncle Pecos.
10. Tree for Two, with the big dog/little dog combination of Spike and Chester, plus a PANTHER (later copied almost directly with virtually no changes as a cockney version of itself, called Dr. Jerkyl's Hyde).
11. Hyde & Go Tweet, in which Tweety grows monstrous and scares Sylvester.
12. Gorilla My Dreams: Bugs, a drunken stork, & a monkey family.
13. Pop 'Im Pop, featuring Sylvester and his son - who is ashamed and puts a paper bag over his head.
14. Devil May Hare, in which the Tazmanian Devil says my favourite Taz line: "What for you bury me in the cold cold ground?"
15. Bewitched Bunny, the second best Witch Hazel vs. Bugs cartoon, featuring Hansel & Gretel.
Lastly, I must mention a fantastic source of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies info (aside from Wikipedia, YouTube, and miscellaneous search engines):
Thoughts on The Very Best Cartoons of "my"* Age
I was born in 1972 (thank the gods!!), and although there were many cartoon choices, the best ones shown at the time, and the only ones that are still as wonderful today, were and are the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies-type cartoons: the kind that featured such outstanding characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Sam and Ralph, and Elmer Fudd.
(*I know the aforementioned cartoons were all made way before I was born, but since I watched them as a kid they feel like part of my personal kid-in-the-70s past and therefore legitimately "mine".)
Many of my favourites are probably your favourites - although I've never been able to remember the actual titles of the cartoons, thus leading me to utter sentences like "The Kill the Wabbit one is okay, but the Daffy-Duck-Robin-Hood one is way funnier". Recently, however, I scoured the internet for one particular obscure cartoon which I barely remembered but which has always been one of my favourites, and my investigation led me to create and assimilate the following lists and summaries.
My top 15 favourite cartoons that many people are probably sick of but which still make my day:
1. One Froggie Evening, in which a frog sings songs like "Everybody Do the Michigan Ra-a-ag!", dancing with a top hat and a can -- which will NEVER get old! To no one's surprise, I only know the bits of these songs that the frog actually sings.
2. Hare-Way to the Stars: Bugs, Marvin the Martian, and an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
3. Ali Baba Bugs, with Bugs and Daffy taking a wrong turn and ending up in Ali Baba's cave. I try to work the following lines into every conversation I can: "I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm a happy miser!"
4. Bully For Bugs, with Bugs as a bullfighter.
5. Robin Hood Daffy: "Yoicks, and away!!!" The best part to quote is "Let's see now...somethin' I missed here...Ho, ha ha, guard, turn, parry, dodge, spin....."
6. The trilogy of Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs and/or Daffy: Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck!Rabbit,Duck! (These count as one entry as far as I'm concerned, since each episode features a slightly different wording of the classic "Wabbit Season! Duck Season!" exchange between Bugs and Daffy).
7. Duck Dodgers In the 24th & 1/2 Century. 'Nuff said.
8.The Abominable Snow Rabbit ("...and I will hug him & squeeze him & I will call him George..")
9. Operation: Rabbit ("Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wile E. Coyote, Genius.")
10. A Sheep in the Deep ("Mornin' Sam". "Mornin' Ralph".)
11. Zoom and Bored, the Coyote/Road Runner cartoon with the catapult that appears to have a personal vendetta against the Road Runner.**
12. For Scent-imental Reasons, featuring Pepe Le Peu & the cat who has accidentally had a white stripe painted down her back. ("Le mew. Le purr.")
13. Long-Haired Hare, in which Bugs anoys the opera singer and later makes him hold a note for so long that the opera house cracks and crumbles in on him.
14. Duck Amuck, in which the animator is mean to Daffy, drawing the wrong scenery, or taking away his voice, or erasing his body and re-drawing a monstrous body with a flag showing a screw and a ball.
15. The Rabbit of Seville, which I actually prefer over What's Opera, Doc?, aka Kill da Wabbit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**(Truthfully, any and all Coyote vs. Roadrunner cartoons rock just about equally.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And now for the very best 15 cartoons that you may have missed or at least not seen very often -- if you have not seen them, you should check them out ASAP!
1. Bugs Bonnet: in which lots of different types of hats float out of a truck, landing in the river, on the grass, and on Bugs & Elmer Fudd.
2. Symphony in Slang, the one I was having such a hard time locating, wherein the lady puts on an actual dog and a man is literally beside himself with anger.
3. Hare-Less Wolf, in which the wife-wolf screeches at the husband-wolf to go out and shoot a rabbit for their supper. He keeps forgetting what he's hunting for, and quoting him is so much fun! "Uh, let's see...a wildabeest? No...uh...a raccoon? No, no...uh...water buffalo? No, no...uh...oh yeah, a rabbit!"
4. Bedevilled Rabbit, with Bugs & Taz. I watch it just to hear them say: "John!" "Marsha!" at the end.
5. Transylvania 6-5000, in which Bugs meets a vampire. ("Abraca-pocus! Hocus-cadabra!")
6. A Witch's Tangled Hare: the best Bugs v. Witch Hazel cartoon.
7. Hair-Raising Hare, the Bugs Bunny episode with the mad scientist and the big furry monster & the Peter Lorre-type character.
8. Feed the Kitty, featuring Marc Antony (a huge dog) and Cleo (a cute little cat), in which the enormous dog keeps running around trying to save the little kitten from harm.
9. Pecos Pest: a Tom & Jerry cartoon featuring Jerry's eccentric Uncle Pecos.
10. Tree for Two, with the big dog/little dog combination of Spike and Chester, plus a PANTHER (later copied almost directly with virtually no changes as a cockney version of itself, called Dr. Jerkyl's Hyde).
11. Hyde & Go Tweet, in which Tweety grows monstrous and scares Sylvester.
12. Gorilla My Dreams: Bugs, a drunken stork, & a monkey family.
13. Pop 'Im Pop, featuring Sylvester and his son - who is ashamed and puts a paper bag over his head.
14. Devil May Hare, in which the Tazmanian Devil says my favourite Taz line: "What for you bury me in the cold cold ground?"
15. Bewitched Bunny, the second best Witch Hazel vs. Bugs cartoon, featuring Hansel & Gretel.
Lastly, I must mention a fantastic source of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies info (aside from Wikipedia, YouTube, and miscellaneous search engines):
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