it's raining, here are some links

this video makes me laugh and laugh and I'm not entirely sure why. I love how irritated they are with each other having this ridiculous argument in a restaurant, yet neither one of them will give way. I haven't watched this show yet (no BBCA for me), but this made me run off to netflix to save it for later. (via the awl)


SO SUPER FUN! I wish more bands made interactive coloring videos. Color one! Do it! You know you want to. The first couple of times I panicked because I wasn't done before the song came on and I thought I'd lost my masterpiece, but now I know that if you watch the charmingly spooky video - which features a sheet ghost (my favorite kind!) on piano - you will be able to resume your project. I like the tarot cards they're using - I wonder if it's the Pamela Coleman Smith aka Pixie Smith (iconic tarot artist) commemorative set. (via fluxtumblr)

mystery solving teens + dubious fogey principal's office + el chupacabra = me laughing and laughing. "We're muscle for hire, in a way." ha ha ha!

butter, garden town after dark, and a video

•This song/ video makes me happy.

•I scored 19/20 on the BBC spot the fake smile test - I know it probably has nothing to do with nothing, but it felt like a validation of my general ability to detect bullshit! (for hints on getting a high score, look at the bottom of this post**)

•it's blood and butter in my veins now: I have discovered the brown butter SECRET for mushroom ravioli. By which I mean I googled "what sauce goes with mushroom ravioli" and was told to make a brown butter sauce with walnuts and sage. I used hazelnuts (Oregon's state nut, aka The Filbert!) and thyme since it was $%^&* dark already when I went out into the garden to pick herbs. (The sage is in an area with a high incidence of slugs, which is a sketchy part of garden town to be avoided after dark even with a flashlight.) ANYWAY: secret recipe is a stick plus of butter (I know! so delicious), which you cook without burning until it turns brown (mine got foamy, but it was fine), add the nuts and herbs, put it on the ravioli and that is the end. It is a happy end.

•As part of Operation Art Supply, I'm sorting and moving things around in the hopes that my life will be less stupid. (I will report back upon conclusion.) I found a big box of nice markers I even forgot I had (the box was in another box, you see) - I had to test them all, which I did on an envelope and now the envelope is so pretty with random bright graffiti, I don't want to throw it away. Signed, Makes Her Own Problems.

** hints for the smile test: check the eyes, natch - but also a genuine smile is more likely to make you want to smile in response. I think it's one of those hard-wired animal instinct things.

some things:

1. Print out some stuff from Feed Your Soul: the free art project via the Indie Fixx blog. Free prints for you to print out, look at, and thereby be cheered if you are cheered by looking at prints. (as I am!) My hands down favorite so far is this sweet swamp monster from Ryan Berkley of Berkley Illustration. (scroll down the Feed Your Soul page to find it.) You know Swamp Monster probably smells pretty bad and will leave fur and mud all over the couch, but he brought flowers and has such charming but nervous yellow eyes...

2. Celebrate summer as it wanes with this awesome mix made at the apex of the season by Kevin Robinson of Viva Voce. It's called "Kevin's Summer Mix," and I love the entire shimmery psychedelic thing, although I always skip over the radio spots. My particular favorites this very moment are Summer by Octopus, Going Down by The Moles, and Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi by Jacques Dutronc. Oh! Also Queen of the Moonlight Wind by Andy Roberts. There's even an old Tyrannosaurus Rex song I didn't know on there! The Who inexplicably sell milkshakes. You listen and you'll see. (via Local Cut ages ago)

3. I have solved the mystery of how zip cars stay clean. (it involves a van filled with New Car Smell and some elbow grease, which is not actually made from elbows and kept in a vat.) Another case closed! (you can imagine me dusting my hands of that pesky mystery OR possibly slamming a filing cabinet shut with a satisfied look on my face while the credits roll on my 70s detective show.)

4. Love this mostly photo tumblr: smut-to-go. (not that smutty, but eclectic and interesting.) love this all poems tumblr: Poetry 365, and this art tumblr: Saints, Warriors, Tigers, Lovers, Flowers, Art. I love having some mostly visual blogs in my feed reader, especially ones like these that are coming from a personal taste place and not a cross-commercial opportunity place.

list of four

Today was weird in a nothing is as it seems kind of way. Not that the patrons were all lizard people or my co-workers giant sentient cats or anything (to be clear), but things were off and I felt awkward and clumsy and late even though I was on time and no more graceless than usual. Bah! I have a lot of half formed ideas about the power of perception and how misunderstandings can be compounded without much effort at all, but I'm tired of thinking about it and ready for it to be tomorrow.

But first, some links!

1. Wordnik is WONDERFUL! I would love to have this implanted directly into my brain. Here's what it is: "An ongoing project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them." It's so much more than dictionary definitions, although you get plenty of those -- there's also examples from books, graphs on usage, pronunciations... it makes my heart happy! Plus, it's still new enough that you can be the first person to look up a word. (it tells you how many people have searched for a word.)

here are two words I looked up today for fun (because it's always fun!): perspicacious, serendipity

2. The video opening for the Beatles Rockband thingummy. I would watch this cartoon every week! I love their long pointy legs and the lively sense of playfulness that pervades the whole piece.

3. The We Love You So blog, which is tied in with Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are movie -- they describe it as such: "This place has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project a reality." I've been following it for a couple of weeks and they often have good stuff and links to other good stuff. Like this little piece on Roald Dahl's writing hut.

4. The World of Kane blog has kindly collected information about the Joann Sfar Serge Gainsbourg biopic, including these wonderful illustrations.

I love Sfar's work in comics (The Rabbi's Cat, Vampire Loves, the Professor's Daughter, Little Vampire), and am intrigued by these life and times of Gainsbourg drawings (more of which you will see if you click the link!). The film is live action and slated to come out in 2010. Gainsbourg's life certainly offers a lot of material, it will be interesting to see where they go with it.

bonus: here's Pitchfork's perfect 10.0 review of Histoire de Melody Nelson.

links for clicking

tonight I worked at a branch of the library that was so busy (until 8pm), there was nowhere to park in the rather large parking lot. People were CIRCLING THE LIBRARY, which is pretty cool. ("I need The Sun Also Rises, and I need it fast! My husband is driving around the parking lot.")

Parking was short because of the big lunar new year celebration, which makes it even cooler. I had to work three hours in a row (!!) on the desk, but it was fine and fun! (Plus, they gave me a 1/2 hour break from the desk, which was quite thoughtful.) The lobby was full of kids on their wheelie shoe-skate things along with people spilling out of the meeting room (where the party was) laughing and talking over the strains of various chinese string instruments. Not bad for a cold rainy tuesday in January!

Anyway -- I keep having this fantasy that I will sit down and write up one of the many things I've been meaning to write up for ages. Tonight is not that night! But here are some wonderful links I've also been meaning to post:

LISTEN:

both from local Cut

first, here's a charming, summery, unreleased song from The Online Romance. It's a sorta stereo-labby, dreaming of summer song, but I'm pretty sure it will be a good straight-up summer song, too. (dig those matching outfits!)

second -- localCut has started a series on classical music (Furniture Music). Its mission is this: "For the entirety of 2009, Willamette Week freelancer Robert Ham is going to focus much of his attention on classical music in an effort to learn as much as he can about it but also to gain some insight into why it has become so inaccessible to common folk like you and me." I am intrigued!


LOOK AT:

A new to me favorite photo blog is smosch.com. Sandra makes beautiful photographs in Sweden, but I first came to her work from a wonderful series she did on vacation in New York. LOVELY!

CONGRATULATIONS:

to Neil Gaiman for the Newbery Award! I read the Graveyard Book right before Christmas, and I enjoyed it so much. He does that rare and wonderful thing that the best authors (of children's books and otherwise) do -- he tells the story, but he tells it with style and wit and warmth. (but not warm in a gross re-heated for kids way.) He never condescends to the reader, which is a major pitfall for many authors who go from writing for adults to writing for children if you ask me -- he writes for people. The beginning of this book is very out-of-the-corner-of-your-eye-creeping-up-the-stairs scary (the scariest!) yet still in language and tone appropriate for young readers. It's a rare talent and I'm so glad he won this award for it.

WATCH:

Speaking of Neil Gaiman, I saw Henry Selick (director/screenwriter of Coraline) at Live Wire last month (how can it only be last month???), and he was so great and obviously one of those people who loves his job. (and now I know the DARK SECRET of the Pillsbury Dough Boy!) I love the Coraline boxes that Laika studios sent out (so cool!), I love to read of people's reactions... it's just a lovely thing. I know it's promotion, but it's so above and beyond -- it's not just about advertising, it's about reaching out and being proud of your work and doing something kind. I know it sounds cheesy, but it makes me happy to know I'm in the same city as people who do this sort of crazy and wonderful thing.

Here's a Coraline trailer -- I'm even more excited to see it now than I was. It's so candy-colored creepy! And I love that every second of it is the result of someone's (many someone's) hands making it happen. (Am I the only one who yells AL SWEARINGEN at the TV every time one of the ads comes on?! Ian McShane does the narration on those or I'll eat my hat.) (direct link to trailer here.)

not a gravy expert

make up your mind, sidewalk! If you're going to dictate my state of mind, at least have the decency to indicate whether it should be THIS (see above), or THAT (see below). Both on the same day. Same sidewalk, even. Good gravy. ( Good Gravy! I don't know what's up with that -- I was overcome by the desire to say good gravy! I'm no gravy expert, but I feel secure in saying that no good gravy ever came out of a can.)



I have to say I much prefer the sunnier hot-pink message of the second photo, so I'm going to make that the logo of my new Good Gravy brand gravy, available at fine grocers everywhere! But not in a can! or a jar! you have to hold out your hands or something. (...still working out the details.) (I realize some hippie has probably already been selling Good Gravy brand gravy that you hold in your hands for 15 years already, so maybe it's time to let those good gravy dreams go to that Some Hippie Thought of it First idea gravy graveyard. Good bye, Good Gravy!)

and now, a picture, some links and a video:

click here to read about this picture -- a picture that should make you smile unless your heart is made of stone or is pumping a gravy-like substance. (it looks like some mad wizarding experiment. I guess it kind of was!)

oh, this made me laugh too! it's a collaborative effort to write an old-school style Harlequin category romance, The Unfeasibly Tall Greek Billionaire's Blackmailed Martyr-Complex Secretary Mistress Bride: chapter 1. I don't know that I'll read the whole thing, but the instructions made me laugh and laugh, as did the following bit of dialogue: "I've got to go, Sasha" he drawled. "I need to be at the airport in thirty minutes. I'm flying to Athens in my luxury private jet for a global hummus conference." HA HA HA! (caveat: may not be funny if you've never read an old-school category romance with an Unfeasibly Tall Greek Billionaire and his Blackmailed Martyr-Complex Secretary Mistress Bride. What I want to know is why I never hear about these global hummus conferences in the news.)

And finally, Stereogum has video of an interview and performance by Feist on the Colbert Report. (it's funny!) Watch the first video to hear Stephen Colbert's advice on what will make your loved ones "twitch with joy," and hear Feist say what I think a lot of us are thinking: "as long as you call me, Stephen Colbert, you can call me whatever you want."

Watch the second video to see her acoustic performance of I Feel It All.

and because I still love it, here's the video for 1 2 3 4.

chainsaw alarm clock (with list)

Someone down the street was having some (major) shrubs removed at the CRACK OF DAWN this morning. At first I thought it was just a leaf blower (annoying enough already -- if there is a more pointless piece of lawn equipment, I'd like to know what it is), but it turned out to be a chainsaw, shortly followed by a wood chipper. (wood chipper!) I know these guys probably have a forest worth of urban shrubs and trees trees to pulverize over the course of an average Wednesday, but shouldn't they wait until at least, I don't know, a civilized hour?? I'm sure they'd probably been awake since 3:30 AM doing lumberjack drills or ironing their plaid shirts (now I have a bunch of black bearded Paul Bunyans in mind, which makes me laugh so I am retroactively less annoyed at wake-up by wood chipper.) (although Paul Bunyan would not have used a chainsaw! He would have instead glared the tree down or used an axe or one of those big logging saws that looks like rusty metal shark's teeth -- all of which would have been MORE QUIET.) Anyway. I will get over it. I'm not one of those "I'll sleep when I'm dead" people; sleeping is nice. Also, the body needs sleep, probably more than it gets! If you don't, you'll contract the Sleeping Madness and Concomitant Maladies. (Americans are notoriously sleep deprived -- rest of the world, I admire your sleep ethic!) I know this is true because Leslie Stahl told me so on 60 minutes.

and now, a list!
Here's a list of some places for keeping track of books/movies/music online. These are all considered to be social media type places since you can interact with friends and contacts and their lists, but even so, these sites do not give me the existential panic that something like Facebook does. (I know, I know. Lots of people LOVE facebook, but it gives me heebie jeebie dread in ways I can't quite explain. I'm sure my vision of what facebook entails is completely lunatic (somewhere between a frat party and Masonic rites), but since I can't even look around without signing up, it will remain in the "here be monsters" section of my internet map.)

All Consuming
Thanks to Martina for tipping me off to this site! I like it because it provided a widget for my blog sidebar so I could indicate what I was listening to/ watching/ reading. (I was always jealous that typepad blogs had this built in.) You can track and assign simple worth consuming/not worth consuming grades to books, movies and CDs. I believe you can also use tags and add comments, although I haven't taken advantage of these features

Pros:
+ dead easy
+ nice widget
+ I really dig the list feature -- you can make your own list or adopt the list of someone else (or the AFI, etc. etc.) and it will keep track of how close you are to completion as you add things. I have adopted several movie lists by director, but it would also be a great way to adopt book lists and so on.
+unlike the others on this list, it's not just for books!
+free

Cons:
+ pulls all its data from Amazon.com. I've got no major issue with Amazon and I realize that it's providing a lot of information, yet it gives me an Andrew Carnegie/Robber Baron But Book Friendly Monopoly Feeling. It's a complex feeling. (robber barons --> teapot dome scandal --> current administration cronyism.)
+ I find it difficult to organize information -- the native format is in the order in which you "consumed" it. You can section it out by type of list (book or dvd or music), and I think by month, but it's not especially intuitive. I suspect it would be easier if I'd use tags.
+ I wasn't really wild about the "consumption" phraseology. I still don't love it (it sounds greedy and not thoughtful, somehow), but this is really a minor quibble.

summary: I will continue to use it! There are a lot of great things about it (music and dvds!), but I don't think I will retroactively try to enter my entire collection. It's more of a Useful As I Use It application than something that has value as a complete record. (at least for me.)

main site
my page

Goodreads
Thanks to Maggie for inviting me to Goodreads! This is a much more comprehensive way to organize books than all consuming. I can (and have) made a million different "shelves" so if I want to see all the books I've listed on crafts or short stories, I can do it pretty easy. This has a starred rating system (1-5), and an easy method of comparing books to others on your friend list. (also really easy if you're scanning someone's list and think "oooh, I read that one!" to add it to your own list.) I find this to be very browsable and easy to navigate. Books only.

Pros:
+dead easy
+nice widget! (I'm so easy to please.)
+free
+easy to do a lot or a little sorting, depending on your level of categorization OCD.

Cons:
+pulls almost exclusively from the Amazon database (see above, re: my robber baron ambivalence)
+things don't upload in the order I put them in. (this is probably due to user error of some sort.)

summary: I can easily see adding all my books (opposed to just those that I'm reading as I read them) to this system. It's easy to use and pleasing to look at.

main site
my page

LibraryThing
I've had my eye on LibraryThing for a while now, but haven't pulled the trigger and listed any of my books yet. I think this one is probably the most versatile and powerful of any of the online self-catalogs. It's the most dangerous to me, and therefore I have been avoiding it! You can "Catalog with Amazon, the Library of Congress or 680 other world libraries," which is pretty damn cool! There's a lot of flexibility, and you can even use a little USB barcode scanner (which they sell) to make cataloging quicker. In the little bit of poking around I've done, I see that you can search for books or titles or authors and LibraryThing will pull up ANY discussion in which they've come up, not just the postings to directly relevant topics. (everyone knows the good stuff is often tangental to what you THOUGHT you were looking for.) And, I know this may be considered shallow, but they have a lot more covers to choose from, so you can get JUST the right cover for that paperback Mary Stewart novel from 1972. (not the one with the girl running across the moors in a white nightie, but the one with the girl in a red dress and killer bobbed haircut.) Anyway, since I only just created an account tonight and have yet to add any books, I can't tell you how it works with with friends and recommendations, but I'm sure I'll have more to say about it soon. Books only.

Pros:
+easy to use
+powerful
+enhanced recommendation skills
+widget! (!!)
+used by lots of off duty librarians
+first 200 books are free.

Cons:
+not entirely free. Current fees (for beta) are $10 year, or a $25 lifetime membership. But the first 200 books are free, which is certainly generous enough to get a feeling for whether or not you'll use it.
+certain to be a massive time-suck.

summary: I sense danger, wonderful bookish danger! I think I'll give this a go, at least see if I can import my goodreads list and see how it organizes differently.

main site
my page (currently empty, but who knows by the time you click?)

wednesday? seriously?

(this charming spotted pony is part of the Portland horse project, in which people attach tiny plastic horses to curbs with horse rings. If you follow the link, be sure to look at the Portland Pony Pictures on the sidebar; there are some very dramatic poses.)

Where has this week gone? I am way behind! It has been hard for me to keep my butt in my chair long enough to write up anything. (sun shining. mind wandering. spring fever imminent.) You know what?  I miss january's blog a day project! I never would have been this far behind back in the halcyon days of JANUARY, when it was rainy and miserable and dark at 2pm.  I am going to have to go to list form. (I love how I make it sound like a list is the method of last resort and not the only thing I would ever do if I thought I could get away with it.)

fun at the library: There was this young guy with tattoos everywhere (including knuckle tattoos: TRUE LOVE) who was ridiculously excited that his book on the history of barbershops was in. He couldn't find his stuff on the shelf (sometimes holds are misfiled or the patron is alphabetically challenged), so I went and got it for him. When I came back to the counter and put his books down he was so happy -- "I've been waiting for this!!" which made me happy because a) it is so random, b) someone else in the system was really excited about the history of barbershops, because my knuckle tattoo guy had to wait.

sometimes you have to adjust your thinking: I went to one of my favorite casual family thai places for work lunch earlier this week. I was originally planning on grabbing a sandwich at the fancy grocery store and going to the park, but it was raining so I decided indoor dining would be better. This place is really good, really cheap and really close to work. Anyway, the first time I went there for work lunch with my book I was seated at one of the small tables along the wall -- no problem, although it was small enough I had to do some rearranging to fit everything and still read. This time the guy took me up to the front and a big table for four. At first I was all hooray! room for my book (it's v. good), but then I became paranoid that this was the next step to making me sit outside; that I was being exiled to the corner. Fortunately sanity returned and I realized that I had the best table in the place! I was facing the window, could see out onto Hawthorne AND I could still eavesdrop on everyone sitting behind me. (they were unfortunately boring, but that's not the restaurant's fault.)

LINKS!

something new every day: Author Marc Acito takes on the challenge of one new thing a day to shake himself out of a rut. I love this idea!

Can you resist?? Werner Herzog and Errol Morris are talking to each other in The Believer. I could listen to those crazy weirdos all day! "Despite all of our efforts to control something, the world is much, much more powerful than us, and more deranged even than us." More deranged even than us, indeed.

sidewalk love: check this out at fluxtumblr. It cheered me tremendously -- I love sidewalk philosophers. (although it seems to be seven signs of love short! maybe it's the first in a series of sidewalk romance epiphanies.)

the fortune cookie to which I aspire: Best Fortune Cooke Ever, via boing boing. I am pleased to say that my fortune cookies have been getting better, although they're not that good yet. After months, perhaps YEARS of "good things come to those who wait. Be patient." and "Acceptance is the key to peace of mind" and other platitudes of patience that made me made me want to stamp my feet (good thing they come wrapped in a cookie), things are starting to look up. Fortune cookies in the last two weeks have included "One who admires you greatly is hidden before your eyes" (hilarious!); and a rare double fortune in one cookie that informed me 1)"you have a keen sense of humor and bring out the best in others" (lame) and 2)"You would prosper in the field of wacky inventions" (AWESOME!)

portland video: I wish I could remember how I came across this Scout Niblett video; it is lovely, lovely, creepy and sweet. It was filmed in portland and features Will Oldham in a skeleton costume, a bridge (steel bridge?), Sauvie Island and much, much more. Youtube video below, link to high-res version here.