would you be an outlaw?

I am so tired, but in such a good mood! The tired I get (my sleep schedule has gone wonky -- SLEEP! I miss you! please come back before 2 AM), but the good mood I have no explanation for. It's a mystery I'm willing to live with, however.

this & that:

crafty: ( side note: I always think of that Beastie Boys song She's Crafty whenever the word "crafty" comes up, unless it's "hello, crafty" in which case I think of Hello Nasty, also by the Beastie Boys. I don't know why this is.)

I can't knit. I mean, I can knit a plain regular stitch (I don't even know what it's called!) scarf or something, but anything more complex is beyond me. It looks like magic when people clack those needles together and actual PATTERNS emerge! (Although one time I did knit ONE slipper but when it came time to do the other one (years later) I had no memory of what I should do or how I even completed the first one. It was like an out of body knitting experience.) I would like to learn some day, but until then I will content myself with...

crochet! It only takes one tool, which is a hook. A HOOK! I can say I have a hook hand, which automatically makes it appealing. Plus it's easier. I'm only slightly more skilled at crochet than knitting, but it feels like a skill I can improve fairly quickly. I just made a simple (but adorable) scarf out of The Happy Hooker in one evening! (of course it was one of those evenings when I stayed up WAY TOO LATE, but let's focus on the positive, which is that I finished it!)

Willamette Week (portland's alt weekly newspaper) just did a cover story on the craft movement in this city. Crafts (both the furniture making and sweater making kind) are big here, which is very convenient if you like that sort of thing... and I do. In the past 2-3 years it has blown up and there are more and more places to buy/sell/admire handmade items and the supplies necessary to make them. It's an interesting piece which tackles some tricky grey areas of traditional women's work, third wave feminism (just because you're under 40 and making granny squares does not automatically make you a some kind of rebel or political feminist, in case you were wondering) and yarn acquisition.

a song stuck in my head: Thirteen by Big Star -- I think I first heard this on the Gilmore Girls soundtrack (which is v. good, IMO), but most recently while listening to a Big Star collection. It just guts me with its beautiful quavery vulnerability. I don't think these feelings are limited to the age of thirteen, but maybe thirteen's around the last time they are presented so unselfconsciously. "Won't you tell me what you're thinking of/ Would you be an outlaw for my love/ If it's so, well, let me know/ If it's no, well, I can go/ I won't make you" It has a lot of my beloved lalalala's, which doesn't hurt, either.

movie I can't wait to see: I'm Not There by Todd Haynes. I've been hearing little bits and pieces about this for ages and have been all atwitter waiting for it to arrive. This excellent piece in the NYT Magazine has shifted my atwitter to aflutter, which comes right before hopping up and down. I love that it promises to make no linear sense, but to make sense in a bigger, more holistic way -- which seems to me the only way you can properly take on a subject like Bob Dylan. Anyway, I hope it makes its way here soon because I can only take so much anticipation.

music video I still adore, even though I see snips of it several times a night in an oft shown commercial: Feist's 1, 2, 3, 4. This entry on Quiet Bubble, which breaks down the whole video in such a smart and interesting way, proclaims it "one of the best movies I've seen this year." I think this is a fantastic blog post, and not just for use of the word "ramshackle." (although I have a ramshackle soft spot.)

I ran out of time: I have more to say (always!) but time has gotten away from me. I forgot that Blondie's picking me up in half an hour to go see Ira Glass. Ooops! and also Hooray!