Spiral

Spiral
Originally uploaded by rbanks.

one of my favorite shapes! I like the blue and the motion. It looks like one of those hypno-swirl things.

Reasonable Number?

I read far fewer books than I used to. This makes me sad. It's not that I'm not reading, but a lot of my reading has shifted to online. I miss books. I read somewhere (online, no doubt) about people setting a goal of 50 books for the year. That's not unreasonable, is it? it works out to a little over 4 per month... I think I'm going to try it, although maybe 30 is more realistic. As for keeping track of what I've read - I usually start off really well marking them down, and then...I don't. So, 50 books (at least) and marking them down! It's only Feb. 1 - that's not too far in the hole to begin. (Although I fully plan on counting every book I read for January, if I can remember.)

concrete silhouette

concrete silhouette
Originally uploaded by k-girl.

so lovely. I really like the sharpness of the shadow.

Miscalculated Risk

Miscalculated Risk: A Kim Aldrich Mystery by Jinny McDonnell

This is from a girl detective series I had never heard of - Kim Aldrich is a secretary at a big New York insurance agency. As you may guess from the nature of the book, Kim is a bit of a busybody and of course gets herself embroiled in a case of fraud, murder, and yes, adoption. Miscalculated Risk is apparently the first in the series. I'm not sure how many there were total, but I know there are at least three. I found the first two at Goodwill and found reference to the third on the internet. I have a lot more to say about the Girl Detective genre (Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Connie Blair, Cherry Ames, etc.) but that is more than I'm up to at the moment. So, more about Kim Aldrich - here's the blurb from the back of the book...

KIM ALDRICH...smart, beautiful secretary for an international insurance firm...living for the day she can become a full-fledged investigator for the firm...action-loving, curious, and courageous. Is it any wonder that mystery, adventure--and romance--just naturally seek her out? This time, Kim finds the money-hungry murderer only after near fatal danger, when she is led into taking a MISCALCULATED RISK

Kim has a lot of the usual Girl Detective traits - curious, headstrong, doting family (with dead mother), etc. What separates her a little bit is some of her particulars - her father is an agent in the FBI, her brother is a war hero and airline pilot, her sister we don't hear anything about in the first book (because Kim didn't need her for anything), but I suspect she will turn out to have some valuable skill later in the series. Kim is probably about 19 or 20, and drives a triumph (yeah, I know Nancy Drew drove a sports car too). This series started in 1972, so it has *some* feminist advances on novels written back in the 40's - for example she has a pretty liberal social life, and has a real job that isn't just helping around the family business. She and a lawyer character in this novel have a romance, but she abruptly cuts it off ON THE LAST PAGE, no doubt to free her up for the ski instructor or whoever awaits her in the next novel. On the other hand, there seemed to be a lot of weird girly deference to her male boss - but maybe that's just because she's so young. I don't know. Reading these books (most of the girl detective books, really) is like stepping into a time machine. Cars are different, methods of detection are so different (for example, having to wait until Monday to go to the courthouse to get information that could be obtained in 30 seconds online now), the kind of 'dressing' for lunch or dinner that was obligatory, not optional -- I find it all very interesting, which is good because it's not like it is hard to figure out who the baddy is in most of these novels.

The covers are really great though - on Miscalculated Risk, Kim is in a wet-suit (sort of James Bondish), and despite the fact that she is in the water and has her mask pushed up on her head, her hair is fluffy dry. There is panic in her violet (yes, VIOLET) eyes as a menacing dark hand reaches out toward her. It's the natural heir of those old 60's gothic novel covers with the governess running away from the big scary masion in her nightie while looking over her shoulder at a menacing wolf on an outcropping of rock. Except Kim would no doubt know some sort of sleeper-hold for large animals that her FBI Dad had thoughtfully taught her just in case.

Perfect Drug

On one of the forums I read a discussion of the NIN song The Perfect Drug came up. Mostly it boiled down to how the song was cool, but maybe it was really the video that was cool. I became obsessed. I had seen the video once or twice way back when and suddenly needed to see it again. All I could remember was that it was all indigo and chartreuse, hedge maze, absinth, freaky spooky house, freaky spooky kid, Trent Reznor engaging in dramatic moping, two mysterious veiled women... ok, I really just remembered that it was "cool and spooky." In the forum there was mention made of how the video was an homage to Edward Gorey, which I also vaguely remembered and made me even more obsessed. I love Edward Gorey (side note: he was a big Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan). Via AIM my sister and I finally found an online copy of the video on the director's website. Mark Romanek directed this one, and it turns out several other videos that I really liked (and he has them all on his site! yay!).

So, if indigo-chartreuse-spooky-Edward-Gorey-homage-look-Trent-Reznor-is upset-again-video sounds good to you, check it out right here.

pinky wall

pinky wall
Originally uploaded by thebaboon.

Love the off center placement of the clock!

floor cloth

I'm making a floor cloth for my bedroom. It was on my list of things to get done, or at least mostly done, in January. So far all I have to show for it is three blisters on my right hand, and a giant pink piece of canvas. But it will get better, for I have bandaids and more paint.

Blondie showed me how to make a floor cloth out of painter's canvas drop cloth, and leftover latex paint. hooray! I have made two prior to this one, so I am hoping to coast by on just left-overs for this project. It is so easy, it isn't even funny. Basically, you just keep applying layer after layer of paint until the canvas resembles a piece of linoleum. You can use whatever weird/crappy colors of paint you may have laying around for the build up coats, and then use the paint you want to show for the last layer. Top with a water-based varnish/top coat, and you're done! The trick is that it takes a lot of paint, and if you want it to lay down reasonably well you really need to paint both sides. I ended up making the second (smaller) one that I did reversable.

I am trying using a dense foam roller instead of a brush. At first I thought it was brilliant since it gets the paint down in the fibers better than a plain old paintbrush would do - but now I am wondering if it is delivering enough paint. If maybe I wouldn't have quite so many blisters if i just used a paintbrush. Once this coat dries, I may switch and see. another exciting day in projectville.

browsing at the library

This afternoon I went to the library to drop off some books and CDs pick up the one item I had on hold (A Mighty Wind). I left with A Mighty Wind, and eight other books (only one comic book!), all picked up while browsing. Why do I do this? I am never going to get them all read on top of what I already have in the to be read pile. Oh well. That's what I love about the library - I can over-shop and suffer no more than a sore arm carrying them home. And potential library fines. Here's what I got. Maybe when three weeks are up I can look back and see what I actually read.

A Time of Angels - Patricia Schonstein - Why did I pick it up? I think it was face out and had a catchy cover. I don't really feel any shame at that, since it's how I shop for books I buy sometimes too. But a catchy cover alone is not enough! The dust jacket had a blurb by Joanne Harris (who wrote Chocolat, which I have also never read) that said "A marvelous novel, written with style, gusto and immense charm. PS manages to capture the colors, sounds, scents, tastes and soul of Italy in this delightfully dark and witty fairy tale, peopled with lovers, Madonnas, angels, demons, epicurians, and ladies of the night." It was probably the words charm, colors, sounds, Italy, dark, witty, and fairy tale that caught my attention (in addition to the cover). We shall see. I paged through it at the library and there was a large section on clocks with eyes that move, so who knows?

Teen Idol - Meg Cabot. Meg Cabot writes about four hundred bajillion different series - including the Princess Diaries. This one is not from the Princess Diaries series (of which I have only read one - I'll get to them all eventually). It looks like it is a one-off about a girl writing an advice column in high school. Meg Cabot has a light touch and a great comic voice. I enjoy her books quite a bit, despite being well past the intended demographic. She also writes as Meggin Cabot, Jenny Carrol (the two series written under this name are really good - 1-800-Where-R-you, and The Mediator), and some other name I can't remember. Patricia Cabot, maybe? Now that the Princess Diaries have really taken off, I think they are re-publishing everything as "Meg Cabot writing as Jenny Carroll" or whatever the appropriate pseudonym would be. I also checked this out because I know my sister will want to read it.

Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career - Herminia Ibarra. Blah blah blah, more job stuff. I doubt it addresses how to go from severe slacking to fulfilling employment, but I keep checking them out anyway. As if he could read my mind, back-jacket blurb-writer Randy Komisar promises that "Working Identity affords us the courage of common sense." And someone else said, "The book's message of hope and possibility -- that it is possible to reinvent careers and lives -- should be embraced by everyone thinking of transitions in today's turbulent world." Maybe it will be good! Maybe it will be terrible, in which case it is no big deal since I checked it out for free from the library.

Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium - edited by Elizabeth Peters and Kristen Whitbread. I love Elizabeth Peters and have for a long time. Particularly for her Vicky Bliss series (art historian who has wacky mad-cap adventures in Europe), and her one-off mystery novels. I like Amelia Peabody too - the first one was hilarious and informative. BUT, I kind of resent Amelia; because she has become so popular, Peters' editors want her to write nothing else. And Peters is getting pretty old. Why did I get this, then? First, I was happy to see a familiar name in an unexpected spot (in the back with the poetry and essays. I think Mr. Dewey Decimal was high, but that's another topic). Secondly, I know that I will read all of the Peabody's eventually, plus Peters (under her real name - Barbara Mertz) has written several history books on ancient Egypt and knows her stuff. The history of Victorian women archaeologists is interesting.

What She Saw - Lucinda Rosenfeld. Another one I picked up because I liked the dust jacket. Actually, I liked the dust jacket for the OTHER one by Lucinda Rosenfeld that I also picked up. But it was number 2 in a series, and this is number one. Here's what ubiquitous book-jacket guy says "Check your romantic illusions at the door -- Lucinda Rosenfeld's acerbically funny and remarkably assured debut novel catalogs the myriad humiliations, compromises, and misconceptions that add up to the history of one woman's 'love life.' This is a book that will make you laugh and wince in solidarity with its sexy, beleaguered heroine."
We'll see if I laugh and wince. Lucinda Rosenfeld is six months younger than I am and has two novels under her belt. Go, Lucinda! (I went to grade school with a girl named Lucinda and I thought it was one of the best names ever, although grade school Lucinda was kind of a spoiled brat. I'm sure she's outgrown it by now.)

Why She Went Home - Lucinda Rosenfeld - this is the one that drew me in because of the dust jacket. Some librarian must have thought it was catchy too, because they had it set jacket out. This is a moddish silhouette (in sky blue) of a girl (boots, mini jacket dress - I'm not making the mod stuff up) against a map. This is the second in the series after the one above, and in this novel the protagonist from the first (one Phoebe Fine) leaves Manhattan and moves to her hometown in New Jersey. Best book jacket blurb on this one says, "Lucinda Rosenfeld writes about all the things everyone thinks about his or her family but is too polite or timid to say. In a voice that is bitingly funny, exacting, and full of astute asides, Rosenfeld considers the question of how much a person's beginning's actually matter in the end." hmmm. We'll see about that! It's like these blurbs are personal challenges! Actually, we'll see if I get around to reading either one of them. But they have potential.

Bet Me - Jennifer Crusie - this is Crusie's latest, and I already read it once from the library when it first came out. It's a quick, enjoyable read and I don't have the paperback yet, and it was just sitting there taunting me from the shelf behind the check out desk. Taunting me, I tell you! Plus, I knew my sister would want to read it again too, and I'm thoughtful like that. Crusie writes very funny contemporary romances - but they're not just funny - she has great character voice too. Even minor characters are done better than some authors manage with their main characters. Fantastic bathtub/beach/airplane/couch/bus/wherever reading.

Modesty Blaise: The Gabriel Set-Up Peter O'Donnel. this is the comic book I was talking about. Except this isn't strictly speaking a comic like I was talking about the other day - it is a collection of comic strip panels that appeared in the Evening Standard. Modesty Blaise is an ass-kicking name-taking super-spy who has been kicking asses, etc. since the early sixties. I was only familiar with her through the Modesty Blaise novels, and had no idea there was a comic strip. I expect I *will* manage to get this one read and will see if she's all that. I suspect she is. Here's a blurb from Neil Gaiman on the back " I fell in love with Peter O'Donnell's astonishing heroine, Modesty Blaise, when I was twelve. She was the smartest, wisest, most beautiful and most dangerous woman I had ever encountered."

Wheee! Now to hurry up and finish reading What's The Matter With Kansas because it is due tomorrow. It's really good.

Central Branch

Central Branch
Originally uploaded by jensect.

this is not my regular branch of the Multnomah County Library, but it is awesome nonetheless.

Goldengrove unleaving

I guess the mysterious sylvan whisperings must have brought Gerard Manley Hopkins to mind. (OK, maybe not). I remember this poem from one of Prof. Westbrook's classes at PSU - the phrase that stuck in my head and keeps coming back is "Goldengrove unleaving". I love the sound of it. Try saying it - it is very satisfying. Anyway, the name of this poem is

Spring and Fall: to a young child

MARGARET, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie.
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

random trivia: One of my great (great?) grandfather's first name was Manley.
More poem-y goodness: This site is a cool resource. It is from the Library of Congress and designed for high school teachers: A Poem A Day for American High School Students. I haven't read all of them, but it is a nice place to zip over and read something if you're in the mood. They are mostly short and really accessable.

mysterious sylvan whisperings

Right now I'm reading What's The Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won The Heart Of America by Thomas Frank. It is fascinating so far, and I will say a little more about it once I'm further in. I didn't want to forget and miss out on the chance to quote this little excerpt, though. Frank's writing style is engaging, but packed. He combines an enthusiastic love of words to topics that could, quite honestly, be very dry. Here's a small example that I had to use because of the phrase "mysterious sylvan whisperings." This is in reference to a fancy-schmancy part of Kansas City.

When I discovered that Mission Hills had been laid out by the same landscape architects responsible for River Oaks in Houston, home of Ken Lay and other Enron execs, I began to suspect that tastefully wooded lawns were some how the culprit, turning good men bad with their mysterious sylvan whisperings.

The rest of the chapter talks about how Kansas's homestead laws make it possible for bankrupt and jailed execs (embezzlers, frauds, tax evaders, etc.) to maintain ownership of these mansions even after they've declared bankruptcy. It really is interesting, I promise.

Neskowin Beach, kelp/seaweed

Neskowin Beach, kelp/seaweed
Originally uploaded by hummanna.

This is gorgeous - I think it looks like a hunk of amber or glass. That it is kelp makes it even more beautiful since it is so unexpected.

comics dabbler 2

Here are a couple more collections that I have read and/or am currently reading. Tonight's selection is brought to us by the letters: Alan Moore.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Alan Moore - I liked the first collection better than the second, but I would have to read them again to remember why. These stories are told in a breathless serial fashion which suits them perfectly. The League is a super-crime-fighting group assembled by the British government. The defacto leader (and one with the most common sense) is Mina Murray (formerly Mina Harker - Jonathan Harker's wife from Dracula). The rest of the team includes Alan Quartermain (from the H. Rider Haggard stories), Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, and the inimitable Captain Nemo, They are headquartered in the British Museum and have many thrilling adventures involving Fu Manchu, creatures from Mars, and the other everyday problems faced when one is part of an elite victorian comics crime-stopping squad.

Promethea - Alan Moore - Promethea is the embodiment of stories. That is to say, she is a mythical embodiment of the imagination, who takes temporary residence within mortal women (only one at a time, and it has to be the right woman). It sounds weird, and it IS weird. But the comics are good. I am not all the way through this series yet. So far there are 4 collected volumes out, and I have read 1-3. Anyway, it started in the late 90's and parts of it are a little dated, but not in ways that keep me from the story. The artwork is GORGEOUS. Currently (where I left off in book 3) , Promethea is following a path in the Immateria (the land of imagination) which leads the reader through little primers on egyptian magic, kabbala, tarot, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and other occult favorites.

El Corazon

El Corazon
Originally uploaded by jensect.

I love the images on loteria cards. Before I knew what they were, I assumed they were some form of fortune telling cards. Knowing that these groovy images are used for playing bingo makes them somehow even more charming.

comics dabbler

Comics rule! Well, some of them anyway. I am a dabbling dabbler, the Duchess of Dabbleton, etc etc. I don't know everything about comics, or even much about them. But still - comics are cool! ( I feel like a 12 year old stating this, but 12 year olds are right about a lot of things).

I started reading comics only relatively recently. Until I realized how wonderful my library is, I thought there was no way I would be able to dip into various stories and see which ones would be a good fit. So, since the library rocks and has tons of trade paper versions of comics, I was able to check out some of the ones that I thought looked interesting.

Mostly, I haven't read many of the iconic comics (say, X-Men, Spider-man, JLA, etc), but that's because there is SO MUCH I can never figure out where a good place to start would be and would go crazy(er) without that backstory. I might be willing to take the time to figure it out for Batman, though. The ones I have read are probably very predictable, but I don't mind as long as I'm getting a good story. I was going to do a whole list thing, but that is too freaking long. So, I'll just put up maybe one at a time (with a list of issues to help me later on when I can't remember what I've read).

Sandman - Neil Gaiman - I finally finished these after waiting to get them in the right order from the library. I thought these were great, although I suspect they had a much bigger splash as they were coming out. This was one of the first comics (graphic novels, whatever) that I set out to read, and the first of this series was very horror-like and freaked me out but good. Certain horror stuff bothers me not at all, but some of it gives me the heebie jeebies FOREVER. I had read somewhere that they got better, and to keep pushing on and I'm glad I did. By the time it came to an end, I was sad but satisfied. And, as much as I'd like to say just skip the first one, you really can't because so many characters appear again. Here's the order to read the collected versions in. (don't worry - it's not some crazy made-up-by-me order)

Preludes & Nocturnes
A Doll's House
Dream Country
Season Of Mists
A Game of You
Fables & Reflections
Brief Lives
World's End
The Kindly Ones
The Wake