cape celebration part TWO

CHERRY AMES:  The classic nurse cape! I've seen these, and they're usually very well constructed and far more practical than the white dress she's got on. 

WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST: rustling black capes are the best for menacing intruders from Kansas, don't you think? 

SNOW WHITE: Who wears it better? Snow, seen here getting an assist from her bird friends, or...

EVIL QUEEN:  surely she has a name besides "evil queen," like maybe  LADY OF THE CAPE. She knows how to majestically swoop around a throne room, I tell you what. (she and Darth Vader would probably have a lot to talk about when they weren't trying to kill each other with poisoned apples/ jedi mind tricks.) 

WONDER WOMAN: I was trying to avoid the whole superhero cape subgenre, but obviously there has to be a Wonder Woman exception. This is how you cape when you're not an evil queen, people. 

LYNDA CARTER IS WONDER WOMAN IS A JIGSAW PUZZLE: that really says it all. I do like her over the shoulder cape swirl going on here. 

BETTE DAVIS: she wears capes so well people come out of their staterooms to see how it's done. She is the cape whisperer. "Could I ever wear a cape so well," wonders Dinner Jacket Guy. IN YOUR DREAMS.

VALENTINO FASHION CAPE: from 1969. I love the whole mod-cape look. She looks like a Bond girl who has quit the Bond girl racket and therefore can go about fully dressed, which of course includes a cape. 

FLORENCE WELCH: Like a huge beautiful moth, I expect she is going to fly away imminently. 

DIANA ROSS:  Seriously. This outfit was a pulsating red/orange in the color pictures I found but none were as nice as this one. It's raining but Diana doesn't care! 

BIANCA JAGGER:  cape for rock festivals/ camping/ everyday fabulous. Does she also have a walking stick? I believe she does! 

JANELLE MONAE: cape for walking around town.

JANELLE MONAE: cape for work.

DITA VON TEESE: flawless modern cape wearing. She looks put together and powerful, like she's about ready to stride into a boardroom and take over the company with a few well placed words, then turn around and stride back out. (cape swirling on the turn! but not too much. Just the perfect amount.) 

STEVIE NICKS: perfect example of mystical and ethereal yet rock and roll cape deployment. 

ELIZABETH TAYLOR AS CLEOPATRA: The sparkly gold lamé best. 

cape celebration part one 

last leaves before the rain

Happy November! We had one last wonderful day here, and now it looks like the rain is here to stay for a bit. It's fine, I like the rain.



but the leaves sure were pretty.

(photos from a week or two weeks ago.)

cape celebration

COUNT DRACULA: I mean, really. The cape, the eyebrow, the staircase - he's working it.

ELVIS PRESLEY: glamorous muttonchopped firebird JUMPSUIT CAPE. Why have a little razzmatazz when you can have a lot? Button down shirts suddenly seem very boring.

RUFUS THOMAS: Cape genius, rocking the casual shorts cape and the more elegant arms-through style. (note the incredible pointed collar on both!)

LIBERACE: There was no dearth of Liberace cape photos on the internet but this one with the red and the candelabra looked the most like a super-fabulous spangle Dracula - since it's October that's what I chose.

LANDO CALRISSIAN: Now there is some fluid cape ACTION.

DARTH VADER: I wasn't going to do two from the Star Wars universe, but seriously - this is some MAJESTIC CAPE BILLOWING.

JAMES BROWN: the Godfather of Soul, the KING OF CAPES.

ADAM ANT: Are you kidding me? This is the best.

THE COUNT: For vampire symmetry and for counting.

next time on cape celebration: capes for the ladies! 

october outing

WINERIES! Which is nuts if you know me since I'm not much of a drinker, but my aunt and uncle are visiting from Florida and my uncle looooooooves wine. And guess what? it turns out that even to a not-wine-drinker,  wine culture is very interesting. It just is! The mechanics of it, the biology of it, the artistry of it. Deal with it.

Anyway, Oregon has a bunch of wineries in Yamhill county - they produce all sorts of wine, but the region is especially well suited for pinot.  This particular day (a Tuesday) was particularly well suited for going on a little driving tour since the weather is/was a delightful October surprise: sunny, warm, AMAZING. The grape leaves are gold against the hillside and FIVE MOUNTAINS (Hood, Adams, Rainier, Jefferson, St. Helens) were visible from the Bald Peak ridge. Five mountains! Of course mountains are hard to take pictures of, somehow. There was a bit of haze in the air, which was like a peek-a-boo invisibility cloak. Hold the camera up, no mountain! Take the camera down: MOUNTAINS LIKE CRAZY.

These photos are all from the Penner-Ash winery, which is a beautiful building beautifully situated on the top of a hill. In my lottery fantasies, one of my houses would be similarly situated. Top photo is from inside looking out. (wine report: uncle says "that's good wine.")



One of the views from outside - the yellow stuff past the tall grass is grapevine turned to gold. Those chairs are made from wine barrels and actually very comfortable - there's even a notch for so you can let go of your wineglass. Mt. Hood was visible to the left but not visible in this picture.


looking back from my barrel chair. This is the exterior to match the first, interior view.


grapes on the way out.

The whole outing was lovely, but I wish there was a way to turn a car into a helicopter or to take a secret tunnel or something because it felt like it took a million years to get home.

autumn days

trees are turning! These trees are the prettiest part of an ugly strip mall situation way out on Halsey. Does anyone know what kind of tree the red one is? They give a really nice dappled shade in the summer.




Dahlias are almost gone by - this plant was a really bright hot pink/orange in the summer. The cooler temperatures and other end of season realities have faded new blooms to this pinky/yellow. I still think it's beautiful. (note to self: more dahlias next year.)



Green man! There are a bunch of heavy (so heavy!) plants that spend the summer outdoors but have to come inside for winter. One in particular (epiphyllum) has unruly leaves/fronds/tentacles like a giant octopus, so in the fall I put it on top of a tall room divider/bookcase that's got a lot of air space. (I'm not sure what this plant's leaf-span is, but it would be measured in feet.) Anyway - I have to lift it way up and it is HE-AVY, not least because it's in a giant ceramic pot. This year, I repotted it into a nice looking featherweight pot. (un-heavy planter technology has come a long way.)  Long story still pretty long, this green man guy has been living in the giant ceramic pot with the epiphyllum for years. As I was repotting it* I noticed a nail in the siding above the table, so he's going to hang out there for a while. The green man can keep an eye on the waning tomatoes and the giant spiders who live among them.

*on the new potting table which I built with my own two hands**. It's wobbly, but sufficiently sturdy for repotting which is all I ask.

**My sister Bec and I reverse engineered it from the old potting table which had rotted into a pile of boards that were hanging together in a vague table shape out of habit.

Naked in Death by J.D. Robb

Naked in Death - the first of the Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb thrillers set in 2058.  It reminds me of future-world Criminal Minds crossed with old-school Greek Billionaire Harlequin. The grisly crime bits are grislier than I like to read, but I’m curious enough about the world to read more. (There are like, FORTY books in the series and counting.)

The above is what I wrote right after reading this (in March) - I've yet to read any more books in this series, but other things have brought it to mind -  more on that in a minute.

Eve Dallas (our heroine) is a NYC police detective, but of course in 2058 that means something different than it does in 2013 - or for that matter 1995 when this book was written.  Like many fictional cops, she's tough but vulnerable, smart but not without her blind spots. (mainly she pushes herself too hard and fails to see how great she is so the rest of the characters have to remind her all the time which does get tiresome.) When we join her in this book, she's suffering from nightmares and what sounds like PTSD after a case that ended badly. Roarke is an Irish billionaire enigma who is supposed to be a suspect in the murder case Eve Dallas is investigating, but if you've ever read anything about any of these books (or seen a movie or read any other book, ever)  you know as soon as you clap your eyes on his single name that he is the love interest and is certainly not jetting around New York killing prostitutes, no matter the circumstantial evidence. (but it does give Eve something more to fret about - she digs him on a cellular level and he conveniently owns half of the city, but why do all these people getting murdered have connections to him? JESSICA FLETCHER SYNDROME.) He's high-handed and bossy, throwing his influence around -  if that's the kind of thing that bugs you be forewarned. (Eve's more than a match for him in all of these areas, so it doesn't bother me too much.)

Robb has built an interesting future world - it's clear she's got an idea from the very first book how the law works, how people get around in their flying cars (I honestly can't remember if there are flying cars or not, but let's say YES), politics, money, etc. The prose is not up to the level of the ideas, but the book is plotty I just sort of threw myself into the mystery and went along for the ride. As I said before, some of the crime parts were graphic and grisly which is not something I generally enjoy, but there's enough else there for me to return someday. I'm in no hurry.

THINGS I'VE THOUGHT ABOUT in the months since I read this:

• pseudonyms - was it well known when this first came out that this was a book by Nora Roberts, famous romance author? She's best known for her contemporary romances and this is quite a departure. Is this a similar style-distancing tactic as used more recently by J.K. Rowling/ Robert Galbraith, or was it more a matter (ala Stephen King/Richard Bachman) of being so prolific? Or some other thing? Marketing? Breaking into a new genre?

• There are nearly 40 of these books now - whatever she's doing, it's working for a lot of readers. Men as well as women? I don't know why not. There's certainly a romantic element, but the main channel of the book is CRIME. Violent crime. Crime in the future. Crimes against fashion, for sure.

I think this would appeal to readers of urban fantasy although there is no magic, no werewolves, no vampires or faeries - only future-tech police work, a vast fortune, many billionaire/cop smoldering glances, etc. (Also a fantasy, but one that doesn't depend on the full moon or a curse!) Also to people who like grisly serial killer style crime fiction and people who love long-running series  - if you start now, you're not going to run out of these books any time soon.

what I liked: the imaginative noir-ish world building
what I didn't like: serial killer, graphic crimes against women.

late in the day

I was thinking about what to title this blog post and wondering if maybe I should just number them or something (no) and then I thought about how it's late and I need to go to bed, and then I thought "it's late in the day" WHICH THEN reminded me of this song:



which made me happy because I haven't thought of it in a long while and I like it. I'm very susceptible to getting songs stuck in my head - how about you? It doesn't take much to make my brain radio switch on. Most of the time this is fun and fine but sometimes... sometimes it's terrible. (Why my brain retains any REO Speedwagon will forever be a mystery to me.)

In other news, something I've been thinking about a lot lately due to working in a library and being surrounded by books and people who read books (it's lovely) is that I need to improve my quick book description/assessment skills. It's often difficult for me to articulate what I do and don't like about a book in concrete terms. I think about them more in terms of a mood or vibe which is fine if I'm just thinking about them in my head or describing them to someone who knows what I mean when I say "remember that time at that place when we saw that thing? And how it was amazing/awful/hilarious? This book reminds me of that, but with ghosts"  - but sometimes people want to know WHY DID YOU LIKE IT? and I need to practice getting that out in 5 minutes or less. So I know I've been saying for a million years that I'm going to write about books more, but I really am going to write about books more.

But now that it's so late in the day (I had to say it again to counteract the specter of speedwagon), I'm just going to put on my pajamas and go to bed.

reading from both ends of september

taken on September 3 - the weather was still nice enough to sit outside under a tree and read and read and read. (my favorite!) On the left is the September book for my non-fiction book group, on the right Aimee Bender's new collection of stories.




taken today on September 30 - the weather has shifted so the reading has moved inside. (also my favorite!)  It's been raining A LOT lately - we're getting the  dissipated ends of a typhoon that's come all the way from Japan and it's been dumping down rain for days. Once again, the book on the left is for non-fiction book club and the book on the right is for meeeeee.

There were other books in the middle of September, but I didn't take pictures of them so they'll have to wait.

pink and orange

(I've blogged this photo before but I love the colors so much I have to blog it again.)

things I picked up today

Horse chestnut casing



tomato that's been through some things

Unrelated: It's been one thing after the other this late summer, but I think that things are mellowing out and I should be able to write here more frequently. I want to - I've read SO MUCH good stuff and less good stuff lately and I want to talk about it all. All of it! Fair warning.

sharpie advice

from 2010


from last week

I sense the same hand at work, despite the varying message.  It's sort of a "two sides of the same coin" thing, don't you think? Or can you Chillax and Adventure Now at the same time? So many questions.

deep into summer

These are from Tuesday. I went walking the park, which is something I used to do all the time and for whatever reason quit doing. I've missed it! It was fun and helped becalm my BRAIN ANTS. I've had so many brain ants lately, I can't even tell you. Internal brain ant investigations are underway. It will be okay.



Typical Portland lawn by this point in the summer. I know it might look weird to people from other parts of the country, but our summers are usually dry and most don't water their lawn.  Every other season is WET, so we get plenty of green grass time. (exception: the neighbors water their front lawn, but they've got two little boys who run around all day long. There are sensible exceptions to brown grass predominance!)



I have probably taken 100 pictures of this tree. I still love it.

in list form

1. I have 9 different nail polishes on 6 fingers.

2. I'm reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling. I like it! She has such a gift for description and I'm enjoying the slow unspooling of the story.

3. Sewing, sewing, sewing. Not as fast as I'd like, but that's entirely my own doing.

4. Do you ever have one of those snakeskin moments where you just want to shed whatever stupid thing you've cloaked yourself in and start all over? ME TOO.  It's fine, though! Great, even. If you stop evolving what's the point?

5. I miss mixes - Leslie made me a Prince one (which is fantastic), but it just underlined how lacking in mixes my ears are! So I'm working on one. It is so ridiculous it makes me laugh whenever I think of it. HahaHA. I don't even care if I get caught laughing to myself is how much fun it is!! Do you still make mixes in this ipod age?

6. In the Questlove book (which is excellent) there is a section about roller skating with Prince and it is everything you would hope a memoir retelling of roller skating with Prince would be like. Read this book!

7. Speaking of books, I recently read a romance novel that was written in the 90s. Oh, man. That was a long time ago - the culture has changed dramatically and some things did not age well. It was hard to finish, but I did. I mean, it wasn't quite 45 year old Greek Billionaire who "romances" his 18 year old ward/secretary but it was written so long ago that OJ Simpson was a minor character as a sports guy. (!) (I'm just going to let "so long ago that OJ Simpson was a minor character" stand in for all the things that bothered me. It's enough.)

8. There was more, but now I am TIRED so I'm going to bed.

9. I love sleeping!! Not an inordinate amount or anything, but I'm an enthusiast. WOOOOOOO, sleep!

summer evenings with spiders and bats

This summer has been BUSY so far - so busy I haven't uploaded any new pictures mostly because I've barely taken any new pictures. (this one is from a few summers ago, but from about this general calendar time.)

Tonight after work I went outside to read because it's hot inside but conveniently breezy and still light enough outside. Hooray! In the non-hooray column, spider webs are almost impossible to see in the twilight hours. Spider season is in full tilt - they build webs EVERYWHERE, which I'm sure seems like the thing to do if you're a spider, but as spokesperson from humankind I'm not a fan of the ones hanging at face-height.

(TRUE STORY: The neighbors have caught me talking to the spiders more than once - "Spider, I thought we talked about this! This is a terrible place for a web, I'm going to break it every day!!"   The first time I was so embarrassed I went in the house via another door rather than go near the fence between us. Since then one of their kids got a drum set for his birthday - if I can deal with that, they can deal with a little exasperated spider talk.)

But on to the bats - once it was too dark to read but still a little light, I saw a bat! They're really cool, especially when they're in the air doing their bat thing. (which I hope is eating mosquitos.)

another sun day

I'm still getting used to my schedule and can never remember what day of the week it is. Last night, I was sure today would be Saturday BUT NO.

anyway - we're having a sunny but not too hot summer here in Portland and it is lovely.  Tomatoes are out of control (good way). The rest of the garden is out of control (less good way, but the bees don't mind).

In other news, my sister gave me a bunch of fancy sewing patterns for my birthday and the first one is coming together nicely. Excellent. (Mr. Burns hands.) I'm almost done with the tunic but I want to make a bunch of dresses because it's so easy to wear. Pockets!!! (although I'm probably going to take the pockets off the tunic because they hang down below where I want to hem it, which is not the look I'm after.)