conversational snippet

"I'm pretty much my own art house at this point."

Simply delicious.





On both counts.

I am so very lucky to have a friend like you.

House

Today marks two years in this house.

Two years, and so much history.

I'd write more, but I have to finish cleaning.

The realtor is taking pictures tomorrow.

fells point

lost and gone forever:

matisse painted door
toys! sign on the side of a rowhouse
dangerously delicous pies storefront (ok, that was in canton. but close.)
st stans
fleet street cycles
reptilian records
9th life (another life in hampden)

still here:

green cobblestones
brunch at Blue Moon
eastern ave house
peacock mania at eclectic elements
exhibitionist house
A-1 taxedermy
mermaid house
pretzel dogs
13 Broadway

the poet with his face in his hands

You want to cry aloud for your
mistakes. But to tell the truth the world
doesn't need any more of that sound.

So if you're going to do it and can't
stop yourself, if your pretty mouth can't
hold it in, at least go by yourself across

the forty fields and the forty dark inclines
of rocks and water to the place where
the falls are flinging out their white sheets

like crazy, and there is a cave behind all that
jubilation and water fun and you can
stand there, under it, and roar all you

want and nothing will be disturbed; you can
drip with despair all afternoon and still,
on a green branch, its wings just lightly touched

by the passing foil of the water, the thrush,
puffing out its spotted breast, will sing
of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything.

-Mary Oliver

Look what we have here...

even Pitchfork shares my soft spot. Even the snobbiest of snobs are not immune to the charms of Charlie Brown.

cyclical + subliminal

Over the past few days:

It's gotten colder. Makes a girl much more into the idea of staying in, cozying up, developing some recipes, dipping into a well-stocked pantry.

(Enjoying some tea - my box of Pixie Mate is almost cashed!)

Commence the Trader Joe's run.

As per usual, pick up several TJ's items that have not been tried, including one Black Raspberry lemonade.

Get home, try out said lemonade, get blasted to past by distinct memories of your Snoopy Sno Cone Maker and your favorite cherry ice flavoring.



Enjoy nostalgia.

That makes holiday events attended this week better than tolerable. Continue usual tradition of aimless 'holiday shopping'.

Find new remastered copy of A Charlie Brown Christmas at Sound Garden.



Immediately buy and take home. Fall in love (again) with jazz of your childhood. Maybe the childhood I wish I had, but none the less.

Staying in + nostalgia....perfect.

You really just need a guy you can dance with.

Disco pimp styling optional.

An old favorite that deserves another viewing: http://headrush.typepad.com/

conversation snippet

"He's a good looking guy."

"Yeah, but he'd be a lot better looking with a ball gag in his mouth."

You may notice that I've updated the section over to the right.

No, nevermind the wishlists - take a look at Lifehacker, my favorite new website. It's just so.....useful. I'm not quite sure whether it's a testiment to efficiency or procrastination (perhaps overlapping circles in the Venn diagram), but I adore it.

Post-prandial posting:

The only way to properly follow up a satisfying Thankgiving meal is simply to keep on the same decadent, epicurean path. As we discovered tonight after the symphony, some very good dining can be had at Sotto Sopra. Northern Italian with a hint of French influence. Gorgonzola and lamb risotto to die for. ( I know, I sound like a bad rest. review. I'll do better next time.)

Science rock star Steven Pinker sets the Harvard Committee on General Education straight here. Nice.

Black Friday shopping - I'm so not the type that gets up at 4 am for a discount DVD player. But Belvedere Square had a fun evening event. Before dinner and a bottle of pinot noir at the beautiful but untimately doomed Taste, I found some gorgeous Snow & Graham letterpress holiday cards to send to the very nearest and dearest.

And so it begins.

The sea creatures above are from Egg Press.Very cute, no? All the fab stationery I've been finding lately gives me grandiose ideas of starting up my own teeny tiny sophisticated and particular little design firm. Finding the perfect name is half the battle.

grazia

I am grateful for:

• Healthy pumpkin custard and the chinese five-spice powder that makes it so delicious.
• Good friends, whether in person or through email. My priceless network of laughter and tears and hope.
• A fascinating, challenging, ever-changing job.
• A father who just celebrated his 64th birthday in good health, and is persuing a project that makes him the happiest I've ever seen him.
• A mother who loves me with all her heart, and overlooks our myriad differences.
• A little brother that (I think) is now ready and willing to listen to what I've already lived through.
• Roommates that are wonderful 97.5% of the time, and annoying only 2.5% of the time.
• A city that forces me to be humble.
• An affable mechanic who fixed my car for a fair price.
• Down comforters in drafty houses.
• A pretty kickass farmer's market. And Honeycrisp apples.
• Non-profits I believe in.
• The chance to put the dark blue Japanese sauce cup I didn't care for to a new use: to hold the little bar of Lothantique soap that I fall in love with all over again each shower.
• Turkeys. No, not to eat - the real, live, goofy looking, goofy-sounding thing. They never fail to amuse me.
• The ability to put the past behind me. To acknowledge my regrets without allowing them to paralyze me. To disable the intentions of those who wish me harm.
• The many lessons I've learned, from the many mistakes I've made.
• A future I look forward to.
• The love in my life.

New favorite song is actually an previous favorite that I've now returned to. ...Beirut's Postcards from Italy.

There's just something about it.

Listen to it here.

We were pummeled by rain yesterday in Baltimore. The house was dark and cold, even with the window shades open - that dim, ineffectual light that has a primal resonance to hibernation. I had to stay home from work, because with the combination of driving rains, a very old roof, and a disappointingly lax landlord, there were leaks. After each particularly scary moonsoon blitz, I ran from room to room, listening intently for the drip-drip-drip of damage. Worrying that the roof would simply give up and cave in upon my poor housemate upstairs.

All the while trying not to connect the dots in my head, trying to ignore the fact that my creaky, leaky, potentially-falling-apart place of residence is, at times, a very apt metaphor for my life.

(n.b. - Everyone on my block seemed to stay at home yesterday. Either rowhouse renovations aren't what they're cracked up to be, or my personal hiberation urges struck a chord with the Fells Point crowd.)

How the country was won

Very cool, from the New York Times.

Election 2006 Results

mur·mur
n.
1. A low, indistinct, continuous sound: spoke in a murmur; the murmur of the waves.
2. An indistinct, whispered, or confidential complaint; a mutter.
3. Medicine. An abnormal sound, usually emanating from the heart, that sometimes indicates a diseased condition.

My personal anthem

Dart For My Sweetheart - The Archie Bronson Outfit.

You may like it too.

Nike commissioned LCD Soundsystem for 45:33, a running mix. Pitchfork has already reviewed it. When I first heard about this collaboration, I spent a while trying to decide whether it's deridable sellout (Losing My Edge, indeed), or more likely, a little bit cool. Musically, though, it's very good. No superfluous lyrics other than a couple of vocal samples, and plenty of warm-up (~5 minutes)/cool down chillout (~10 minutes) sandwiching approximately 30 mintues of discopunk we all know and love from James Murphy.

Yeah, this will be the soundtrack to my next jog.

too good not to share

I have a natural disdain of (most) Yalies for myriad reasons.

But here's one more, straight from Bizzaroville: Aleksey Vayner. Every little thing he does is magic.

The entire saga can be found here and here.