ONE) You know one of the things I love best about LOST? they totally score it like an old movie. If you weren't paying enough attention to know whether or not this or that particular time leap or revealed identity was actually a big deal (rather than business as usual in the Jungle of Mystery), the dun dun dunnnnn style music will tell you so! (Is Ben evil? the music says yes! But evil and INTERESTING.)
TWO) I hate those Jared ads so much. They offend me on so many levels my brain short circuits when I try to break down exactly why.
THREE) speaking of mall-quality jewelry, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman's "open hearts" necklace for Kay does not look like hearts. It looks like cartoon butts. So yes, if you'd like to buy your mother or girlfriend or wife a diamond encrusted cartoon ass, I think you can stop looking!
more soon! involving han solo, a tree swing, and my latest minor epiphany.
I should say straight up that this was my VERY FAVORITE puddle picture from the other day. Just as I predicted the night before, there were puddles everywhere. At that point the movie trucks were still at the park but I was over the novelty of those and was focused on these puddles, which thanks to some trick of the light were AMAZING. (Or I'm just crazy, which is a distinct possibility.) It was like Alice in Wonderland or some other mirror world where it seemed like you could jump through into the puddle, but if you didn't get back to your own world before the puddle dried up you'd be stuck there. It would seem fine at first, but then you'd find out about the screaming fire worms or that there's no such thing as chocolate or whatever and wish you hadn't been so "la la la, puddle adventure" hasty. Of course with as much as it's been raining, you wouldn't be stuck in puddle world for long, because exit puddles, bigger and more extravagant than ever, are forming this very minute! (I wonder if you could travel to other rainy locations through puddles? hmm. Puddle Transport Technology. This could be an even better idea than my Underwater Transatlantic Pneumatic Tube People Mover!)
Here's more. I restrained myself and made a little mosaic rather than posting every single puddle picture, even though that's really what I want to do. I think part of what made them so great is how they changed so much as I was moving past them. It was easy to believe that things were moving on the other side of the puddle too. Plus, the light was such that every blossom on every reflected branch was brighter, the green was greener. I could look up by looking down, which I thought was pretty cool.
Yes, I even took a puddle movie with my camera! It's not great because not only am I not a great movie-taker, but I decided to take this one while holding a bunch of other stuff so it's wobblier than it had to be.
I think it rained every kind of rain today. It started just cloudy, then changed from overcast to misty to light rain to persistent light rain to great fat drops hurtling toward the dirt. It curtailed my day of vegetable garden prep, but hastened my day of novel-reading, so I won't complain too much. I was weirdly weepy all day too, but I think that's not weather related so much as due to The Traveling Sadness. (which, while a bummer, I much prefer to The Traveling Dread.) (I don't think they travel by puddle, but what do I know?)
Happy May Day! One of these years I'm going to figure out where it is in this town they have a maypole and check it out. (I think they have one at Kennedy School, which is near!)
I didn't visit a maypole, but I did go for a walk and was BUSTED for leaving flowers around the park by a little old German lady. She was front following me for a long way. I could tell because she kept looking over her shoulder, sitting on benches, and generally lurking around about 100 feet in front of me. Of course I would turn around or look at the sky or play with my camera because she was acting so shifty I wasn't sure I wanted to hear whatever she had to say. (now that I think about it, it must have been a pretty hilarious sight with both of us in clumsy spy mode.) ANYWAY, I thought I'd ditched her (tied my shoe!), but I came around a corner and she jumped out of her car (!!!), which forced me to remove my earbuds and capitulate as gracefully as I could. The first thing she said was "I know it is you. It is you who are leaving the flowers. I saw you before here! I know it is you. Why do you do it?" I don't really have a ready to dispense cogent answer for this so I kind of shifted around and said "because it makes me happy." She wanted to know if it was in memory of anyone. No, no, not really. Are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. I do it because I think it looks pretty. (German "hmmph" in response to this.) WELL, it turns out she was giving me the third degree because she does the same thing at Laurelhurst park!! and was recently busted by someone there. ha ha ha! But she does it in memory of a friend who died, which is touching and makes me feel like some kind of flower/tree dilettante. BUT THEN somehow she made me say that I do it because it a) makes me happy b) I think it's pretty and c) it might make other people happy too. She totally surprised me by saying "I bet the trees like it," which was completely loopy and completely perfect, because of course I secretly hope that the trees like it, too.
Here are some pictures (various years) from the Beltane Fire Society celebration -- it always stirs up some kind of primal feeling when I see these. (Like "thank god the sun is back!") I think it would be something to see in person. Here's the May Queen and her warrior princess court. I think this looks so cool! It's so interesting to compare this May Queen, with her ritual and court and bigass fire with pictures of the many high school May Queens. The Sad Crazy Lady I worked with last year was May Queen at her high school 35+ years ago, and wore a beautiful white dress (still has it, it's lovely), had a court and all that jazz, but it was more along the lines of prom queen or homecoming queen than flat out pagan queen of fertility. They didn't set the gym on fire.
speaking of fire... the Edinburgh festival apparently features a lot of red-painted naked people, which seems as it should be.
And here's some T.Rex! From Ride a White Swan, which features these seasonally appropriate lyrics: Wear a tall hat like a druid in the old days/ Wear a tall hat and a tattooed gown/ Ride a white swan like the people of the Beltane/ Wear your hair long, babe you can't go wrong
Hee hee! I love seeing all those groovy French teenagers doing their teen thing and trying to act cool while mugging for the cameras. Or not moving at all. The lip synching is really bad too, but it hardly matters! It reminds me of the Corny Collins show from Hairspray, but French and with T. Rex.
I'm so tired and need to go to sleep, but I wanted to take a minute to say sayonara to the month of April, which was really a pretty good one for me. It's been busy, but I've got ideas and plots and schemes, all of which are necessary for a kindly disposed to the world Jen.
Amazing links, philosophical thoughts, and photos of puddles coming soon!
p.s. I just got a great (so great!) haircut that I think may actually give me super powers. I'm going to try bending spoons with my eyes tomorrow -- I'll let you know how it goes. It may just be that I have the power of sassy hair, which I promise to use only (mostly) for good.
p.p.s. everyone who is awesome: thank you so much! I really appreciate it even if I don't say so very often. I think it all the time. (If you read this and wonder am I awesome? the answer is probably yes.)
They are filming a big movie somewhere around here this week and my park is full of movie trucks. They go pretty much around two full sides of the park. It's weird but novel and interesting to me. Since I go there almost every day, I can give you ratings on the security guards: The old guys are not too fast and like to sit down but they see it all. (Including cameras -- I got into a huge argument IN MY HEAD about how it was a public place and you fascists can cram it, I can take a picture if I want. Of course they were completely unconcerned with me and my camera, so that was yet another unnecessary brain argument.) Today there were really young security guys, both of whom I think I could defeat in a dazzling war of wits by throwing a rock in the opposite direction. One looked harried and worried, the other was practicing his karate moves and looked like an observe and report style mustachioed sociopath. (I'm sure he's very nice and can probably break a two by four with his forehead.)
Anyway, it's been funny to see how all these little pieces of Things Happening at the park made sense once I figured out what was going on. About a month ago, they put in an electrical meter thingummy so there was a lot more power than needed by little league. About a week before the trucks actually arrived they started marking off parking (it was just the frames but no permit). I thought they were going to repave the road, although I couldn't figure out why they were only going to pave half of it! Then of course I thought they were going to film IN THE PARK and maybe they are, but I kind of think now they're just using it for staging because it's the only place nearby convenient for forty billion trucks full of equipment.
(I am probably totally wrong, but I like to have a working theory.)
In trying to figure out what was going on I found this site, which not only helped me make a pretty good guess as to what movie it is, (my money is on "untitled crowley project"), but also has a lot of pictures of oregon and many tax incentives. Ooh, the "search locations" feature is fun! I just found 8 potential Alien Landscapes (in the "doubles" section), and I've only been to about 4 of them!
It is late and it's raining and this photo is from several days ago, but I think that this is probably what it will look like tomorrow, so it's like a picture OF THE FUTURE from the past. Like that. (it is late! and it's raining!)
My schedule has gone petite bananas for the last few days (lots of spur of the moment "I can be there in an hour" sub jobs), so I haven't had time to post the things I wanted to post, but I did want to say that just yesterday I helped an Abe Lincoln Beard Victim who was only SEVENTEEN and wearing a plaid shirt. (clearly of the pioneer timber town throwback school of abe lincoln facial hair.) He was trying to do the right thing by paying off some fines, and I was trying to do the right thing by not asking inappropriate facial hair questions. We both were successful, and there was much rejoicing across the land.
In other news, I think I might have to make a reading schedule for myself, which feels weird and wrong, but it's the only way I'm going to ever get through Moby Dick (and other long books I wish to read), which is ridiculous because it is completely charming and soon to be completely bonkers once Ahab gets WHALE FEVER. (I suppose he already has the fever, it just is waiting to be reignited.) Whenever I read it I have heart-eyes for Melville, but somehow it is too easy to put it down and not pick it up again.
Anyway, here's a little bit that charmed me regarding my beloved butter and the propriety and pecking order of the cabin table. (Flask is low man on the cabin table totem pole.) "Least of all, did Flask presume to help himself to butter. Whether he thought the owners of the ship denied it to him on account of its clotting his clear, sunny complexion; or whether he deemed that, on so long a voyage in such marketless waters, butter was at a premium, and therefore was not for him, a subaltern; however it was, Flask, alas! was a butterless man!"
Dear Every Guy in Portland Who Has an Abe Lincoln Beard (and there are a lot of you),
At first I thought you were maybe some pioneer timber-town throwback. It happens; I understand. Now I see you everywhere: young, old, short, tall, hipster, redneck, banker, burglar, made of felt. WHY? Is it just fashion, or some unknowable inner impulse? Do you like the idea of a beard but wish to emancipate yourself from the tyranny of a mustache?
The clouds are coming back, which means that this bout of portland springtime sunshine is drawing to a close. It's been a magnificent four days though! People are cheery and the plants have exploded from the ground or winter sticks with leaves and blooms. Daffodils are on the wane and dandelions are on the rise. Grass grew inches overnight. I OPENED THE WINDOWS! Even though it happens every year around this time, it's still like the best kind of surprise.
Now I need to go close the windows and put on some socks, but here are some pictures from yesterday, which was the apex of april 09 sunny days if you ask me.
I love this tree -- it's got a sort of curvy akimbo thing going on.
let's have a picnic! What this meadow picture doesn't tell you is that the horseshoe pit is just over to the right, so it's a picnic at your own risk. (although no one was playing horseshoes, so I say let's go for it.) Dandelions and daisies! this is the perfect spot for reading, too. Theoretically. In practice there are crows who demand to know what page you're on and spoil the ending, curious off-leash dogs, runners, bikes, pickpocket squirrels etc. etc.: dangers of a city picnic, but still worth a try! And unlike country picnics, NO BEARS. At least I haven't seen any yet.
this is a tiny little scrubby tree that reminds me a lot of Dr. Seuss or maybe Sideshow Bob, due to its skinny zig zag trunk and improbable hairdo -- it's one of the loveliest blooming trees I saw yesterday, but it's no showoff. It blooms this way because that's what it does, not because it requires any oohs or aahs from passerby. It makes me happy.
I saw these dappled violets on the way home and it was almost too much! They smell good, too.
Now my bare feet are cold and it's time to get busy on all the things that were pushed aside due to SUN MANIA. All well and good, but I miss the light and gentle heat already. Although I suppose if it were sunny every day, I wouldn't get excited about the prospect of its return.
today's weather was obnoxiously beautiful. more on that soon (maybe even before it starts raining again!), but until then here's some fancy tree and sun video action.
1. fall in (heart) w/o fear [(heart) = drawing of a heart] 2. learn another language 3. Dri Take a gondola ride in Venice 4. kiss the man I (heart) in front of the people watch in Paris 5. See an original Klimt 6. Drive across U.S. 7. Go to the top of the Empire State 8. Write the great Am novel 9. See the great wall 10. learn to cook & enjoy it
This list came into my hands on Saturday -- it was written on an index card and used as a place marker in a library book. One of the pages* who was out shelving brought it over to me at the circ desk and said "it fell out of a book." (you would not believe some of the things that fall out of books.) I'm not sure why she brought it to me, but I'm glad she did.
I think this list, which was written in a scribbly hand with a blue fountain pen, is so... I don't know. Poignant and banal, human and in progress. I have a pretty clear picture in my mind of the person I imagine made this list, but this picture is almost certainly wrong. (I laugh and laugh to think of someone figuring me out from a random 10 list, but the urge to try is impossible to resist!) If only I knew what book it came out of, I would have an even better idea... (if it was a novel, what kind of novel? travel book? self-help book? kick boxing book? cook book?1000 lists to make before you die book?)
*library vocabulary: page = the good people who put the books on the shelves.
Press ONE for EAGLE CAM: on a bald eagle nest in Sidney, British Columbia. There’s more to see during the day, but at night you can hear frogs and crickets.
Press TWO for MUSIC VIDEO: This is creepy/disturbing and beautiful all in one. The dancing ghosts are my favorite.
ION, the sun has been shining and photosynthesis (I ASSUME) has accelerated my spring fever, which means time is bouncing like a super ball and nothing is getting done according to the schedule in my head. But the sun is shining! For now!
Here's how it is right now: the moon is low, yellow, an eyelash less than full. There are several bar patrons on the corner singing one of their own a boozy happy birthday (at 12:01), and I don't know. It's spring. I was looking through a Simic book to find something short and a good fit for the time and season -- I was debating between a couple that were almost right but not quite right for the moon, then people started singing so that changed the search a bit. Then I remembered that E.E. Cummings was big on spring so I pulled that off the shelf and found one with the moon as a balloon and there you have it.
who knows if the moon's a balloon,coming out of a keen city in the sky--filled with pretty people? (and if you and i should
get into it,if they should take me and take you into their balloon, why then we'd go up higher with all the pretty people
than houses and steeples and clouds: go sailing away and sailing into a keen city which nobody's ever visited,where
always it's Spring)and everyone's in love and flowers pick themselves
Now is the season in which we residents of portland must remember to take claritin or PAY THE TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCE. (sneezing, watery, itchy eyes, etc and so on.) There is pollen everywhere.
the camellias are going like gangbusters right now. (gangbusters? what the hell, brain?) They are SO BEAUTIFUL, but then they drop off the tree and make a huge decomposing mess beneath. But the good part is very very good.
I see green! (no, really! it's there.)
this tulip picture cost me .50 in late fines at the library. It's not very interesting, so I will add pirates. I was walking to the library with the intention of taking a walk, returning books due the day before right before opening to avoid fines, picking up some books and walking home. Perfectly ordinary! I tried this last week and just missed it by 10 minutes, which was due to being ready to leave and then deciding to change my socks at the last minute. This time, I felt pretty sure I was going to MAKE IT. Unfortunately for this plan it was a beautiful sunny day, which meant I stopped to take a lot of pictures. There were pirates having some kind of sword fight on the brick retaining wall and I had to wait TWO MINUTES for them to clear out of my way to snap this picture, which meant I was two minutes late, which meant I didn't get my books in on time to avoid the fine. Pirates, you owe me some money.
I love this weeping cherry, even though they give it the same awful dutch boy haircut every year. But from underneath you can't tell.
this is what the sky looked like today. Not raining, exactly, but not not raining either. (it is raining now.)
1) I have spent the last few days painting what seemed like 100000 linear feet of wall, but was actually an average hallway. I'm happy to be finished!
2) based on my 100000 linear feet calculations, I feared I would develop forearms like Popeye. NOT A GOOD LOOK FOR ME. Although maybe it's just what I need for these giant anchor tattoos to make sense.
3) I listened to Ziggy Stardust all the while (minus two hours). I hadn't listened to it in a long time -- is there a bad song on that record? The answer is no! I know it's a crazy spaceman glam rock opera (my eyes are shaped like hearts just thinking about it), but all of these songs -- even those that are crazed spaceman glam rock opera exposition, hang together apart from the larger Ziggy framing device, which is not something every rock opera manages.
4) watching Ziggy-era Bowie videos on YouTube, I have come to the conclusion that Tilda Swinton would look great in all his clothes. Someone build a time machine so that they might play androgynous glam rock SPACE TWINS in a movie, please.
5) I should have painted a crazy spaceman glam rock opera mural in the hallway. Maybe next time.
6) here's a live performance from 1972 of the closing track, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, which sounds like it should be a bummer, but it isn't and I LOVE IT.
"Oh no love! you're not alone/ You're watching yourself but you're too unfair/ ... / You're not alone gimme your hands/ You're wonderful gimme your hands"
Law of Sympathy, i.e. the assumption that things act on one another at a distance through a secret link, due either to the fact that there is some similarity between them or to the fact that they have at one time been in contact, or that one has formed part of the other.
