spiderville, tomato towers

This photo is from the 22nd, but it's still feeling pretty true today. These spider ladies have built elaborate webs going every which way ALL OVER my tomato plants. I try not to disturb anyone, but it's not always possible. And let's be honest - they're not worried at ALL about disturbing me. They don't even like tomatoes! I think they're just messing with me, honestly.

more books

Hello again - here are a few more recent-ish (mostly from July because I am behind) book impressions.  What are you reading? Do you dig it? My up to the minute book update is that I'm reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Ugh, it's so good. People at work are tired of hearing me talk about it. ("oh, it's fiction? Nevermind." OR "never heard of it" OR OR OR I could go on but I won't. I just reassert its felicity at every freaking opportunity and hope someone will eventually take me up on it.) 

Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick  by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky Read July 16

Love, sex, comedy, funny, Queen, crime, color, library, hating your job, loving your job, financial crisis, sex fascists, sex comedy, one cool trick

Explicit but big hearted. Funny.  Surprising. A perfect meld of writing and artwork. 

                                 

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill  Read July 19 - 20

Epistolary, marriage, language, depression, infidelity, fidelity, sometimes the city is not your friend, short, wild animal feelings in your chest

if you enjoy reading about complicated human feelings including ones that are not always positive and if you can tolerate a journey that reaches a stopping point but doesn’t feel like the end (because complicated human feelings keep on shifting and turning and don’t easily resolve), try this book. The writing is beautiful and it’s short!

the two covers: I prefer the one on the right but the library had the one on the left so that's what I read. The insides are the same! 

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch  Read May 26 - 28  

Constable Peter Grant discovers that there’s a lot more to London policing than he thought: trickster ghosts, magic, wizards, and a lot of other urban fantasy stalwarts. My favorite parts (I tore through this book and couldn’t wait to get back to it when I had to put it down), dealt with the Rivers of London that give the series its name: they’re an ancient, powerful, embodied, bickering blended family and have chosen Peter to keep the peace.

 

Adults with jobs, nobody gets kidnapped, no misunderstanding, their siblings get married, when it clicks it clicks

It Happened One Wedding by Julie James Read in July 

I usually don’t read contemporary romance novels unless they’re funny, but someone mentioned this on twitter so I gave it a go. I liked it! It’s only funny incidentally, but I enjoyed it regardless. Our couple consists of an investment banker and a FBI agent. The closest thing to hijinx is that their siblings are getting married and they’re thrown together in situations with religious parents where they have to pretend they’re not doing it. What sets this apart from many contemporaries is that while they have a little friction at first (because someone is a bit of an asshole), they enjoy each others company! They are equally successful in their jobs! And despite one of them being in the FBI, nobody gets kidnapped or shot. Despite one of them being an investment banker, nobody gets thrown out of the family business. Grown ups in love acting like adults!

this is planet earth

it is finally raining! Only a little, but I'll take it. Everything is crispy and dusty. If I was in charge of the weather, it would rain (gently) for a week and then resume sun. (NOTE: I am not in charge of the weather.)

golden afternoon light

There has been so much going on I don't know where to start, so I will start with the Duran Duran Unstaged viewing that Bec, Ms. Tara and I went to. GOOD TIMES. This was a "one night only" theatrical showing of the youtube collaboration between Duran Duran and David Lynch from a couple of years ago. Basic premise of the original: special concert that was broadcast live with a layer of Lynch on top. Some might find it a curious collaboration but it makes perfect sense to me: David Lynch is fluent in visual non-linear dream language and Duran Duran songs are often lyrically oblique and musically nocturnal. (Playing right now in my headphones: Night Boat.)

ANYWAY - it is a concert film, an art film, and a good weird time. Special guests Kelis, Beth Ditto, Mark Ronson, and Gerard Way all seemed genuinely stoked to be on stage with the band and it was just really fun. Would watch again!



Here's the teaser trailer. You can't really tell, but that's an egg in a rubber gloved hand.


Here's Planet Earth with Gerard Way. (Couldn't find any other full songs on the internet. Gerard Way is an adorable tiny moppet.) I think there was some editing between the time it originally appeared on the internet and when it appeared in theaters for ONE NIGHT ONLY (plus some other nights) because in our showing, Gerard Way had bright red hair shining through the black and white.

Here's the sign after the movie with the marquee turned on!

why not do it today?

Today is Internet Slowdown Day. This John Oliver piece is from a while ago, but his description of the net-neutrality issue is the most passionate yet informative (and hilarious) that I've seen.  Anti-Cable Company Fuckery INDEED.

Write your representative! (or call if you can, phone calls count for more somehow.)

supermoon spider bites

I think a spider bit me on the face or near-face region last night during the SUPERMOON which seems like it should give me at the very least a minor superpower.  (do supermoons feel super at all now that they happen 3 months in a row, etc.?)  Nothing yet, I WILL KEEP YOU POSTED.

Zinnias are wonderful and no one will ever convince me otherwise. So if you've got some problem with them keep walking pal. 

RANDOM FOUR (OR FIVE): 

•I'm sad that So You Think You Can Dance is over for the season, for this was a very good season! I loved this take on the show and how it has changed for the better. The author of that piece has stronger feelings about Adam Shankman than I do, but I 100% agree about the fabulousness of Cat Deeley. She's the best! 

•spider season - I have to admire the optimism of the spider that builds a web across the front door every day. 

•this is the part of summer that is hard. It's still summer in spirit, weather, and fact but the days are getting shorter, the kids are back in school and wah. Winter is coming. 

•Finally watched Season 2 of Game of Thrones. I enjoy it, but it's really murdery.  I have to turn my head a lot. 

•I found a bunch of local garden blogs and am now filled with ideas and a sense of inadequacy! Woo! But I don't mind feeling inadequate to a task (some tasks, I should say)  - it takes the pressure off, somehow. 

Same Zinna picture but different.

and now to bed - I'm sleepy!