pink, pink, pink, pink moon

Portland is in a (lovely) no-rain zone right now, which means the full moon is blasting through my windows. It's beautiful.  Space.com says this moon (called the Pink Moon) gets its name because "the grass pink or wild phlox is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring."  All of which are  natural seasonal events, but when I hear the word Pink near the word Moon, I think of Nick Drake's lovely song.

big hair, tight pants

The movie is pretty much what you'd expect from this picture and that's okay 

THE songs listed below are those required for a Rock of Ages (movie) playlist. I watched it with friends and realized that despite my initial thought that these were not the 80s songs of me or my people (new wave anglophiles), I knew them all. And many brought (unexpected) joy! So we determined a proper, original artist rebuilt soundtrack was necessary. Everything from the movie, except for We Built This City which brings no joy to anyone at any time as far as I can tell.

I started writing this several weeks ago but I wasn’t happy with how it was turning out. So I decided some in depth listening was in order. First listen (apart from the short versions in the movie) was over computer speakers while doing something else - obviously this is no good for thinking about any individual song - my established favorites would stand out and everything else ran together. Next was in the car - there are many car references below and this is why - which is great for assessing how the music makes me FEEL, but road noise makes it tough to suss out particulars. After that, it’s been earbuds plugged directly into earholes which is not always the best for everything, but it is great for helping me hear lyrics. I’m generally not a lyrics person (I know), but if I was having an especially good or bad time, I tried to pay extra attention to see if I could figure out why. I’ve got new respect for some of the lyrics, but some remain forever dopey. (Which is true of all songs from all genres from all time.)

(I go back and forth on whether or not I should have included all these pictures. I was going to take them out, but they make me laugh and I seriously scalded my eyeballs finding them - I've seen things I can't un-see -  and don't want that effort to be for naught.)

Night Ranger

1. Sister Christian - Night Ranger (1984): the big thing here for me is MOTORIN’, as I suspect it is for most people. I can endure the guitar solo because it gets me back to MOTORIN. I can’t say that these lyrics really make much sense, but maybe that’s because MOTORIN’ just takes over everything. If I was making up a story from what I think the song is about: Sister Christian is a nun on a motorcycle road trip who rebuffs would be earnest suitors because her love (after The Lord) is The Road. Would-be earnest suitors take it personally when she leaves them in the dust, but they shouldn’t because that’s just her nature. MOTORIN’

David Lee Roth

2. Just Like Paradise - David Lee Roth (1988): There’s no denying the vital energy of David Lee Roth, except this song is 1 minute too long. UPON FURTHER LISTENING: This is one of the songs on the list about happiness (desired or experienced) with a romantic partner. Dave sounds like a confident adult here - he’s happy, and he appreciates it in the moment. Things are good and he’s going to see where it goes. I’m not picking up any weird rockstar mind games from this. Well played and no longer too long. (Read this interview with DLR  - you won’t be sorry!)

Poison

3. Nothin’ but a Good Time - Poison (1988): Ugh, Poison. I’m trying. This is a little better on earbuds, but I put it in my ears and my ears reject it. This should be a fun song but it’s full of false joy and fluffed up machismo. It sounds calculated, which is an unfair complaint because lots of songs are calculated. Calculation is not a crime! Maybe I don’t like it because it doesn’t sound like they’re even having a good time? Maybe I’d like it better if someone else was singing? It bums me out a little because if there is a Poison song that I would like, this should be it.

Foreigner as young wizards

4. Juke Box Hero - Foreigner (1981): bombastic and dramatic but I still dig it. Just going by the title (and hollering JUKE. BOX. HERO at the appropriate moments) I thought this was their version of The Who’s Pinball Wizard. Like, this guy is really good at playing the jukebox! He picks the perfect songs and they play at the perfect times for his personal life drama! Is the tale of a young man who excels at a task requiring coins in a slot one of the seven basic plots? Stepping away from my wizard fever dreams reveals that the titular hero is playing a guitar (in the pouring rain!) and his songs APPEAR on a jukebox. He’s gotta keep on rocking or he will revert to pre-jukebox hero status, which is bad I guess. I can’t help it and I don’t want to help it: I like Foreigner, with or without wizards.

Joan Jett. I make this face every time I hear this song.

5. I Love Rock N’ Roll - Joan Jett (1982): I love this song forever and always. JOAN JETT! Effortlessly badass, aggressively romantic. Roller rink anthem for all time. Dimes in this jukebox forever and ever.

Pat Benatar

6. Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar (1979): BENATAR! I love her take no bullshit tough femininity. Plus her voice is huge. Put up your dukes let’s get down to it. PUT UP YOUR DUKES.

Lou Gramm is waiting

7. Waiting For a Girl Like You - Foreigner (1982): plinky synthesizers, plaintive wailing - I have a hard time believing that he doesn’t say this to all the girls. But relative perceived sincerity doesn’t really matter when you’re singing along with the windows down. Waiting for yoooOOOOOOOuuu.

Extreme leans into the wind machine

8. More Than Words - Extreme (1990): I know this song was a mellow jam for a lot of people in 1990 but it sounds all my bullshit alarms. (Does this mean I have no magic in my heart? ) It presents as romantic (because there are bongos??), but when I listen to the lyrics they back up my vague unease. It’s not about a FEELING that’s more than words, but rather Mr. Extreme cooing that his lady should just shut up and SHOW HIM if you know what he means and he thinks that you do since he’s pointing to his junk. This just comes off as gross emotional manipulation to me. Ladies, dump this loser.

Warrant

9. Heaven - Warrant (1989): I like their notion of Heaven being some kind of happy domestic life, but I can’t stop making the face I make every time he refers to his love object as “that little girl.” UGH (I’m making it now). Compare this to Just Like Paradise above - David Lee Roth is all “holy shit! this is great RIGHT NOW” and this guy is “someday soon it won’t be so bad, probably. Maybe after I get a raise and you reach the age of majority and your friends stop being such bitches.” Major belt-along chorus, though.

Richie Sambora in a  hat

10. Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi (1986): SO MUCH DELICIOUS JERSEY COWBOY DRAMA.

Lou Gramm of Foreigner

11. I Want to Know What Love Is - Foreigner (1984): This is the same in general area as the Extreme song above: I want to know what love is/ I want you to show me, but it does not gross me out! These dudes sound like they mean it, I think because the singer is vulnerable - he’s known heartache and pain! But he digs you, girl! He wants to know what love is! He wants you (YOU) to show him (yr boobs, probably. But still).

Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister

12. I Wanna Rock- Twisted Sister (1984): Simple in concept, enjoyable in execution. He knows what he wants, and what he wants is TO ROCK. The end.

Def Leppard

13. Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard (1987): Okay, so this song is completely unsubtle, made of lyrics cribbed from Double Entendres for Dummies. Take the bottle/ shake it up, etc. There is very little mystery, it’s full of 80s hair metal excess… and yet I like it now and I liked it then! I don’t know what to tell you - is this really better than that Poison song above? Objectively, I have no idea. Subjectively, 1000 times better.

Quarterflash

14. Harden My Heart - Quarterflash (1981): so much SAXOPHONE! Is there a more 80s instrument than the saxophone? But this is a great singalong song. In my mind, she’s singing this to the ’more than words’ dude. “You never had a clue, but it’s time you got the news.”

BENATAR

15. Shadows of the Night - Pat Benatar (1979): I love her voice, and I love her whole take on things - she sings as a cool, wise older sister explaining life to the rest of us. As mere human mortals without Anthem Powers, we make mistakes! But magnanimous Benatar understands and will be there for our belt-along needs. I want this to be playing behind a montage where I turn into a powerful yet benevolent 1980s wizard. My cloak will have shoulder pads and my bangs will be impervious to all weather.

Whitesnake

16. Here I go again - Whitesnake (1987): The lyrics are TERRIBLE like a drifter I was born to walk alone and because I know what it means/ to walk along the lonely street of dreams, but so help me Mr. Whitesnake has a really great voice for this kind of song and I have to give it to him. There’s some weird chimey bits in the background that mark this as egregiously eighties, but I must give it my grudging respect.

REO Speedwagon

17. Can't Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon (1984): AAAARGH. I can’t fight this feeling any longer, either. This song is so dumb! “it’s time to bring this ship into the shore/ and throw away the oars forever” (no oars on a ship, my sister pointed out immediately). But I must admit there’s a dopey sweetness to it.

18. Any Way You Want It - Journey (1980): I used to roller skate really fast to this song, so it’s associated in my mind with that giddy feeling. Hooo-oooooooo-oooooooooo-ooooOOOld oooon!

Poison

19. Every Rose Has Its Thorn - Poison (1988): Even with its cowboys and their sad, sad songs I can only get into this song a little. My guess is that this was the favorite song of whoever held the lighter concession at the arena.

Scorpions

20. Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpions (1984): They just want to melt your face with the power of their guitars. Maybe my eyes will melt first.

Twisted Sister

21. We’re Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister (1984): I appreciate how they state their purpose at the beginning and never deviate from it. They’re not gonna take it, so don’t even try to give it to them.

Journey

22. Don’t Stop Believing - Journey (1981): This song is massively overexposed (GLEE, etc.) but it still makes me happy in its way. (Heaven is a funky moose: a tribute to America)  As a band, Journey is tied to many of the Florida roller rink memories of my childhood and will always have a little piece of my cheeseball heart.

Guns N' Roses

23. Paradise City - Guns N' Roses (1987): Hearing this for the first time in a million years while in a car with road noise meant all lyrics except for the chorus were a mystery. So we’re left with take me down to paradise city/ where the grass is green and the girls are pretty. You’re designing paradise and those are your only two requirements? Done and done! BUT THEN I get home and listen closer and of course it’s a song about social injustice and I feel like a jerk. The song is several orders of magnitude better than many others on this list (::coughPoisoncough::) and has a propulsive quality that may lead to excessive freeway speeds.

momentum in my mind

(the photos in this post are from the PSU farmer's market last week.)

I love this time of year. Winter is over, gardening is not just possible but pleasurable and it feels like there is real momentum for the rest of the year. I know the momentum part is just in my head, but really - isn't that where it needs to be for it to happen anywhere else? Maybe not. I bet runners feel momentum in their limbs. Well, whatever works. 

(if you love kale or leeks NOW IS YOUR TIME!) 

My plan is for the momentum building in my mind to just spill out of my hands and feet and result in a lot of things done. It could happen. I know this may sound cheesy, but I think it's the garden that does it. I love how care and work translate to something I can measure with my eyeballs and I suppose a ruler if I really wanted to. (no duh breakthrough: chlorophyll not required! this is also true for any creative endeavor, although the measure is different and the results may not be so in your face as a plant that grows from seed or root to flowers in a short span. So if you would like some in your face results, consider planting something!) 

(sweet or savory tarts! I had one with a lentil curry filling and it was good. She's also gluten free, which I didn't realize until I was half way through eating it. So get on that, gluten free people who are hungry for a sweet or savory tart.) 

Time to finish getting ready for work!  How do you like Spring? 

in that case, we had better go to Squirrel Island

I was putting some books away today and one happened to be the Red Fairy Book (edited by Andrew Lang) and it opened to this page and... THOSE TIGHTS. Closer inspection revealed a mustache that would be a contender in any Portland mustache competition.

Then I noticed Squirrel Island. I think the next Bond villain should consider setting up on Squirrel Island. Anyway - I didn't read the whole story because I was doing something else, but a quick peek to the Wikipedia entry on The Princess Mayblossom  (and flipping through the book) reveals that this fellow (his name is Ambassador Fanfaronade) with his flashy tights and luxurious mustache is a CAD. But as is so often the case, a very handsome cad - so handsome that she begs him to run off with her. But our girl Mayblossom figures it out in time (well, she figures it out after he tries to push her off a cliff) and pushes him off a Squirrel Island cliff and "over he went and sank to the bottom of the sea like a lump of lead and was never heard of any more." (This kind of sounds like a Lifetime movie.)



The mermaids appear to be having an argument about who has to drag him out of the way. (I did it last time! You do it.)  Maybe they toss him into a ravine at the bottom of the sea.



Here's the whole picture, so you can see the finely rendered rope and the plumed hat. Mayblossom! Wake up! He's no good for you!!! He's handsome, but does he have a quality spirit?

(she was under a fairy curse that lasted until her 20th birthday. After she returned from Squirrel Island she married the prince, who was "a hundred times handsomer and braver than the Ambassador, the Princess found she could like him very much. So the wedding was held at once, with so much splendour and rejoicing that all the previous misfortunes were quite forgotten.")

well, that all worked out then.

I'm bummed about Goodreads/ Amazon

I’m disappointed about the Goodreads acquisition. I’ll probably keep my stuff there because I don’t know of any alternative that does what I want, but I won’t be linking my kindle to it. (This is a feature that apparently a lot of people are excited about, but the thought of it creeps me out.)

Here’s why I’m bummed:

• Because a formerly neutral space is now owned by one of the biggest players in retail. 

• To quote the great Cyndi Lauper: money changes everything

• Because I use Goodreads every day - this isn’t a vague distaste about something I rarely bump up against.

•Because there are book bloggers/ review sites who shrug and say ‘what’s the problem’ about the acquisition but don’t acknowledge in the discussion that they make $$ from Amazon. I don’t think that earning money from Amazon is wrong, I just think people should be transparent about it so their opinions about larger corporate practice can be seen in context.

I’m not an Amazon hater; I have a kindle and I love it. I buy other stuff from Amazon, too - I just don’t want them in every corner of my world. What do you think? 

I halfway feel like I'm being too much of a delicate flower about this, but on the other hand how long before everything is owned by either Amazon or Facebook?

cabin fever thought process

Today (Sunday) featured a cabin fever-inspired DASH TO THE COAST. A let's get out of here and go there be ready in 45 minutes kind of deal. It was excellent.

The photo above was taken through the window on the way out. (you can kind of see a reflection and there are raindrops on the glass.) I would have rolled the window down but it was too cold plus I keep picturing my phone/camera flying out the window.

It was cold and windy with rain stabbing through the clouds at unpredictable interludes. (stab stab stab gust gust gust tiny needles of wind and water all up in your business.) We didn't stay long but it was definitely worth the drive despite the gusting and stabbing and whatnot. I mean, look at the view! Just being in front of it for a few cold minutes reduces cabin fever. 

There was discussion of the failure of imagination of Paradise City (as a paradise OR as a city) as described by Guns N' Roses, but I think now that may be part of a different post tomorrow.

The grass is green and the girls are pretty.  

How is your April so far? 

a good morning

This adorable puppy belongs not to me, but to weird cousin Bonnie (who is weird in the good way). They came to visit earlier this week. He's so very cute and a good natured little dude on top of that.

It's super sunny here right now and it's just lovely. I'm sitting at my desk under the window listening to Tame Impala on the stereo and happy birds out the window. As soon as I finish my current project (rubber stamp FUN TIMES) I may go sit in the sun out on the back patio and read my book.

I hope you're having a lovely weekend!  

bells are ringing

I was reading a little bit about Kate Atkinson's new book Life After Life and it rang a little bell on a string in my brain attached to Lucy Ellmann's Dot in the Universe. I've read Dot, have yet to read L.A.L. (because it's not out yet!) and have got no idea if there is any more in common between them than female British authors whose work I enjoy and reincarnation* - but I look forward to finding out!

*They also apparently share POIGNANCY, according to the jacket copy below. Dot is "a hilarious and poignant journey" and LAL is "darkly comic, startlingly poignant." dun dun DUN. (so excited to read LAL, and it turns out Lucy Ellmann has a new book out this year, too! You'd better believe I'll be reading that one asap as well.)

Here's the dust jackets and the descriptions lifted directly from Goodreads (linked above):

Dot in the Universe: It's your worst nightmare: instead of being dead, you're alive!

Dot thinks she's perfect, with her blond hair, pointy nose, and pink skin. She lives on the east coast of England with her magnificent hubby, cooking him gourmet meals and crashing the car. So one day she decides to End It All. But-Dot BLOWS it!

After a brief sojourn in the underworld (populated by "underaged, underdeveloped underlings all, understated in their undershirts and UNDERSTANDING VERY LITTLE"), Dot is reincarnated, first as a possum, and then as a girl in Ohio. A hilarious and poignant journey through our puny universe, this is a masterpiece of disquiet.





(this is a brief interlude in the middle of the page to keep the pictures from running into each other. I'll also mention that I've had Icona Pop's I LOVE IT stuck in my head all day and I don't even care because I LOVE IT.)

Life after Life:  On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.

Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfactions.

sensible Eunice pipes up

this isn't the edition that I read, but I like this cover!

Since it was a full moon tonight (not that I can tell here in cloudy Portland, but I trust it's full above the clouds), here's a moon quote from Kate Atkinson's Human Croquet (which was so good in the way her books are good):  

On the way home, even Eunice is silenced by the sight that greets just as we turn into Hawthorn Close, for suddenly, without any preamble, the moon rises from behind the roof of Audrey's house. 

Not any old moon, not the usual moon, but an enormous white disc like a big Pan Drop, a cartoon moon almost, its lunar geography - seas and mountains- a luminescent grey, its chaste rays illuminating the streets of trees with a much kinder light than the streetlamps. We’re stopped in our tracks, half enchanted, half horrified by this magic moonrise.

What’s happened to the moon? Has its orbit moved closer to the earth overnight? I can feel the moon’s gravity pulling the tide of my blood. This must be a miracle of some kind, surely - a change in the very laws of physics? I’m relieved that someone else is sharing the lunacy with me - I can feel Audrey clinging onto my arm so hard that she’s pinching my skin through the fabric of my coat.

A moment longer and we will be running for the woods, bows and arrows in our hands, hounds at our heels, converts to Diana, but then the sensible Eunice pipes up, ‘We’re only experiencing the moon illusion - it’s an illustration of the way the brain is capable of misinterpreting the phenomenal world.’

‘What?’

'The moon illusion,' she repeats patiently. 'It's because you've got all these points of reference - ' she waves her arms around like a mad scientist, 'aerials, chimney pots, rooftops, trees - they give us the wrong ideas of size and proportion. Look,' she says and turns round and suddenly bends over like a rag doll, 'look at it between your legs.'
'See!' Eunice says triumphantly when we finally obey her ridiculous command. 'It doesn't look big any more, does it?'
No, we agree sadly, it doesn't.  

from p. 49

roller disco daffodil

It's been SPRING for a couple of days now, which is very welcome - I'm giving the screen two thumbs up, which you can't see but trust me. 

Here are some things that've been going on: 

• I finally picked out a smartphone (Samsung Galaxy s3) - I like it very much - now I can send text messages without laboriously pushing number buttons 11000 times! Wooooo!!!  I'm digging swype (probably like it's 2007!) but Leslie tells me there's some other even more miraculous screen typing thing out there, so I'll probably check that out, too. There are many wonderful things about this phone (the camera is good, the screen is huge but the phone still fits in my small square hands) but I gotta tell you - I miss some ios apps. [edit: from my ipod!] Right now I'm looking for (of all things!) a suitably wonderful MOON WIDGET. I downloaded one earlier but it was a dud. I need to know the LUNAR SITUATION. Are we waxing or are we waning is what I'm talking about. 

• all this phone business has caused me to do some much needed housecleaning on various online email repositories. Hello, email from some ancient early 2000s form of the internet. I've been archiving and deleting like a champ today. It feels good. 

• GOOGLE READER: noooooooooo. I know, I know. There are alternatives. I figured I'd give things a few weeks to settle down. I use Google Reader every dang day and I will miss it. I figure Blogger will probably be on Google's chopping block (ha ha - typed "chopping blog") sooner or later and I don't know what I'll do. I'll figure it out -  it's not like there's no alternative.

• But still. 

So many more things to talk about, but I think I'll leave it here for now. 

bridges and willows

Today was bright but rainy - grey skies that were mostly white along with a constant drizzle. Saturday, on the other hand, was AMAZING in a blue skies and pleasant weather way. 

The first part of Saturday I spent at the Women's Expo with my friend L. I hadn't been to one since the 90s and it was pretty much as I remembered. (awful.) The vendors were roughly divided as follows: one part snake oil, one part boudoir photography, one part home party shopping, one part inexplicable home repair, one part chocolate. The chocolate was good! And to be fair there was one booth with some good looking bags and another from my favorite hippie shoe store. It was fun hanging out with L.,  but the next time someone wants to scratch their crowded convention center itch, I'm going to recommend Crafty Wonderland instead. But all in all = a plus and I'm glad I went. 

After the Expo I got home and my sister asked me if I wanted to go on a walk along the Eastbank Esplanade with her and Anonymous T. I said yes!

The day was gorgeous - bright sun, temperatures hovering around 60. There were people and dogs and bikes everywhere, not that you can tell from any of these pictures. 

These were all taken with my new phone - they're all instagrammed up, which is good for some things but bad for showing how blue the sky was! This is the Hawthorne bridge. We walked over it to get to Waterfront park and meet T. 

I'm not exactly sure which bridge this is - an onramp to the Marquam, maybe? That's a positive ID on the  Willamette river, though. The Burnside bridge is the one you can see through the pilings. (or is it the Morrison?) The sky was the color of the upper left quadrant ALL OVER. 

MYSTERY BRIDGE! The Morrison? Maybe they'll rename it the MYSTERY BRIDGE and I'll feel better about this...

The willows are just starting to turn green. Love these trees. That's the Hawthorne bridge and downtown on the other side.  (this was taken from the Fire Department building on the water. They were riding fire department jet skis all afternoon.) 

the TRUE BLUE SKY and the willow tree. 

stepping around the one million year trap

The worst thing when it has been one million years since I've written a blog post is how I want to say something about how it has been one million years and then I dither for an ADDITIONAL million years and then I'm tired and go to bed.  My strategy this time is to just baldly state it and then get on with it. Will it work? Would it work twice? These are questions that lack answers at this time.

Here is a bullet list of things I've wanted to blog about, but then fell into my one million year trap:

•  12th century French werewolf
• butts of the ancients part 2 
• garden panic!!
• my sore throat and how I hate it and how I hate that I can't write one single thing that doesn't have me whining about my sore throat and how I hate it. 
• Nashville
• Bunheads
• and how I love both of them
• POEMS: are they just the right thing to read when my attention span has contracted to the size of a penny? (I blame the internet, by the way. and when I say that I mean my own lack of impulse control.) 
• Hamlet. Man, that guy has problems AND a ghost, which is also a problem but sort of the least of them. Although it does egg him on a lot. 
• SMARTPHONE. I have an ancient dumb phone (I notice that they are called "feature phones" and that the "features" are things like voicemail and numbers on a keypad.) Anyway - this is probably a bit more info than a bullet indicates, but I think I'm going to go with Ting.com which treats mobile stuff like a utility instead of like some kind of bad contract with Rumplestiltskin deal. You buy your phone outright and then just pay for what you use voice/text/data wise. I'm trying to decide which of their phones I want. It's all android, which is fine. I'm a mac user everywhere else, so I'm finding it all kind of exciting. It's good to learn new things, if only I could make up my mind.
• I keep having this fantasy where someone delivers 3-5k to my doorstep and I can just spend it on electronics. It's BIZARRE as this is not normally the kind of thing I spend too much time thinking about. But I want new everything. I blame the impending spring and that my laptop cursor keeps skipping around. Nothing is dire (except the phone) and I'm just being wanty
• those black ants that are everywhere: my nemeses
• SECRET THING (I can/will tell eventually, just not yet) 
• my favorite podcasts and what kind of thing I like in a favorite podcast and do you have a favorite podcast?
• Remember when Hugh Jackman hosted the Oscars and he was so charming and funny? 
• flickr revival! 

There are more things, but I'm going to read a poem, or read Hamlet stabbing some people and go to bed.  It's raining, which is my very favorite sleeping weather of all time/seasons. 

Hamlet and toy camera mode

Don't those look like toy cars on a toy bridge? My camera has a built-in tilt-shift mode (which they call "toy") so I can make pretend toy bridges out of real bridges simply by turning a dial. I feel like this earns me an evil laugh, so MWAHAHAHA.  BEWARE, or I shall turn my toy-ray on your metropolis.

THINGS ARE AFOOT. That's all I can say about that right now, but I will tell you aaaallll about it later. (it's not an actual toy ray, alas.)

Stuff I can talk about: I'm reading Hamlet! Which I think I mentioned last time, which was last week. It took me longer than anticipated to finally finish the Lhasa book, so Hamlet got pushed down the line. It's so good! I mean, I know it's "good" because it's Shakespeare, etc. Also because I've read it before (a long time ago), but it's also the kind of good where I'm thinking about it (and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) all the time.  ALL THE TIME.

My friend Patty is reading it along with me, and we got to talking about the play within the play (you know - Hamlet's "the play's the thing/ wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King" where he plans to trick Claudius into revealing his murdering ways and wife/crown stealing propensity) and I remembered that I quite liked the version of the play they did in RaGaD. AND THEN I found it on youtube, so here it is. I love Richard Dreyfus as The Player. In the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet (about which I liked many things) The Player was Charleton Heston -- a major letdown. All I could think of whenever he was on screen was him and his soylent green, his damn dirty apes and his cold dead hands. Whereas R. Dreyfus is just perfectly, appropriately rooster-crowing over the top. (Can one be appropriately over the top? If it's appropriate, then surely it's just at the top and not over? I don't know and I don't care.  I love him in this part.) (Plus it has Tim Roth AND Gary Oldman being awesome.)




I love how The Player describes tragedy: "We're tragedians, you see. We follow directions--there is no choice involved. The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means." (This is from RaGaD - I will find some amazing Hamlet-itself quotes for next time.) There is something to be said for interacting with a piece of art where you know it's bad endings for everyone, as opposed to say a fancy PBS soap opera that MUMBLESHOUT SHAKE MY FIST TO THE HEAVENS.


sigh.


Oh! There's this coming up, too!! The Kickstarter's over, but the book will be available to purchase at some point in the future!

up to the minute reading

What a weirdly underwater day. I don't know what the deal is - maybe just mid-winter malaise.

to counteract, a list!

Books I just finished or am just finishing: 

Are You My Mother? - Alison Bechdel: I feel like I should have liked this more than I did. The art is amazing - as good as anything I've seen from her (Fun Home), but I only connected intermittently to the story. This book is about her relationship with her mother and is very meta (a book that's largely about writing the book and how hard it is to write the book and why won't her mother report back on the book and what does her therapist think of the book) and features a lot of heavy duty capital A Analysis.  I can see how it resonates for many, but it wasn't a Love It book for me. The art is really good, though.  (4/5 stars)

Winning the Wallflower - Eloisa James: I've read and enjoyed another Eloisa James book, so when I saw this novella for free on Amazon, I jumped at it. I've been reading it in the middle of the night on my ipod when the cats are having late night cat insanity. She's a good writer but I think the novella form is not for me, at least as far as romances are concerned. There's just not enough time. I should say novellas about a couple I've already read a novel about would be fine - it's just this so few pages with relative strangers to accomplish so much - it was a little wham bam for my delicate middle of the night cat insanity minder sensibilities. (and not just wham bam but wham bam I love you I want you you're beautiful let's get married have children and thwart the expectations of your parents and my odious cousin the duke - in less than 100 pages.)  I will certainly read more of her full length novels, but this was too much and too little all at once. (2/5 stars)

My Journey to Lhasa - Alexandra David-Neel: first of all - check her out - she had ADVENTURES and lived to be 101. This book is concerned with a trip she took with her adopted (adult) son into Tibet in the 1920s. Westerners were not allowed, western women certainly not allowed, so she disguised herself as a Tibetan pilgrim and snuck in. She spoke a lot of languages, thought quickly on her feet, and had an extreme tolerance for hunger and altitude. I'm about 60 pages from the end and she just thwarted some robbers. (!!!) It reminds me of the Odyssey in a lot of ways - they travel and have adventure after adventure (some of them very similar) before finally arriving at their destination of Lhasa. I had a little trouble slipping into the book at the beginning, most of which I chalk up to not being used to her cadences - but now that I'm acclimated it's easy going. Now to finish off the last little bit! This was for book group and everyone liked it. (4/5 stars)

next up: Hamlet (I was having Shakespeare FEVER and decided to start back into it with the play I'm most familiar with - a friend is reading at the same time, so we're having a mini read-along. Although I don't think either of us is past Act 1 yet.)

the springening

I know it's still winter, but I think we've turned the corner here in the pacific northwest. Things are starting to grow. Snowdrops and crocus are coming up, it's almost time to prune the roses AND it's definitely time to plant sweet peas -- I didn't do any last year but I want to do some this year. They smell so good! And they'll bloom well into the summer if you can keep their feet cool. Thing I've learned: plant them in a pot, or at least start them inside because tiny sweet pea starts are a slug delicacy. SLUGS! Ugh. The ugh is built right into their name.

TREE OUT MY WINDOW REPORT: its skinny little tree fingers are starting to thicken up with what will become pink blooms and later red leaves. There are two very busy squirrel nests - residents are always carrying up mouthfuls of leaves and are savvy about not going directly home when there's a tree-climbing cat sitting on the brick wall right next to the tree.

(photo is from a few years ago. You have to soak sweet pea seeds before planting because they have a very tough outer shell.)