conversational snippet

"Italian ham, English roast beef, German mustard, Swiss cheese, Jewish rye --

It's Europe in my mouth!"

-the sammich aficianado

oops.

I missed out on My Brightest Diamond (what a voice) playing at Strathmore tonight (with Decemberists). It could have been interesting - after all, it's an interesting choice of venue - usually hosting classical music and the like. Nice room, great acoustics.

I've only been there twice - to see Sigur Ros and Dead Can Dance. The former was one of the best concerts of my life.

Time to be more organized...spring and fall are high season for shows and tours.

Fauteuils D'orchestre

(the American trailer is here. And the American name is Avenue Montaigne.)


I adored this movie. (And normally I don't even care for anything potentially classified as of the chick flick genre.) What city offers better romantic escapism (excactly what you'd like from a movie sometimes) than Paris? I may not want every movie I see to be so sentimental, but I can't help falling for a love letter to a charming city.

And it's just begun playing a full run at the Charles, so you should definitely see it.

Merci, ThinkFilm.

As if the beginning of better weather (and a couple more bits of happy news) weren't enough...

This might be the year.

The year I've been looking forward to for years.

The year of the Vespa.

Beloved stop-motion holiday program or accurate descriptor of the fluctuations in Baltimore weather?



You make the call.

then and now

Recently spied on the Avenue in Hampden:



I don't know whether this stripped down facade was a recent unveiling by way of renovation, or whether I just hadn't ever noticed it before.

And then less than two minutes of sauntering later...



A glance into an antique shop's display window reveals the Ideal Theatre's former splendor circa nineteen-forty-something.

Every once in a while I'm reminded that this brokedown city has a lot of beauty to it, if you're open to seeing it.

random quote

"Man is the symbol-using animal, inventor of the negative, separated from our natural condition by instruments of our own making, goaded by the spirit of hierarchy, and rotten with perfection."


-Kenneth Burke

Baltimore Free University is about to start its Spring 2007 semester. You can thank the JHU Center for Social Concern.

I'm a little intrigued by "Anarchism for Beginners", myself.

Views from New York

The snowy MoMA sculpture garden.



Looking out into ******* Alley.



Red Velvet cupcake in Bryant Park.


It isn't about how much fun I had.

It's about when I can return.

Do you love the Venn diagram as I do?

Despite a sucky day, all was well in the world when the Thermals played Pillar of Salt as their second to last song.

February 2007 - the books.

The Gift of Fear, G. De Becker (re-read)
An Amateur Marriage, A. Tyler
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, M. Chabon
The Glass Castle, J. Walls
The Blind Assassin, M. Atwood
The Secret History, D. Tartt (re-read)
The Art of Civilized Conversation, M. Shepherd
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, J. Berendt*

Two books this month were re-reads. One useful for all women to skim through, the other an old favorite I wanted to revisit.

No science books this month, unless you count my Genetics textbook. But I don't.

by the way

My very favorite thing about this SNL commerical parody is the primal scream at the end.

"Taco Town!"

conversational snippet

"You need to quit [doing that] asap."

"Yes, asap- At Some Arbitrary Point."

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

-Pablo Neruda

do you remember what the music meant?

One of my very favorite bands is Pretty Girls Make Graves.

And.... they're breaking up. Le sigh.

Good thing there's one more tour. Here's hoping El Jefe commemorates the occasion one last time.

Resolute.

I've been meaning to do this for years. 2007 is the year I'm actually keeping track of how much I read.

January 2007:

Endless Forms Most Beautiful, S. Carroll*
Bird by Bird, A. Lamott*
The Life and Loves of a She Devil, F. Weldon
The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, M. Bank
A Year in Provence, P. Mayle
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, M. Kundera
Love's Executioner, I. Yalom
Lives of a Biologist, J. T. Bonner
The Shipping News, E. A. Proulx

I spy with my little eye....

some very chic champagne flutes, no?

I love this video. It never gets old.

Time to put some stamps on the new passport.

florida.

Beach sand. The number one enemy of pedicures.