Random Links

"You spent an hour debating the merits of your own fiction."

Ronan the dancing sea lion.

My boyfriend (although I wish they hadn't cut out all the movie scenes).

I know I've posted this video before, but I just saw it again and remember how beyond adorable it is!

Pandas are pretty adorable too.

Coffee drinkers: the sophistication of a snob without the pretension of a snob.

What I'm Reading Now -- Insurgent

Insurgent is the second book in Veronica Roth's trilogy.  The first, Divergent, I read a few months ago.  I've been bad about reading again, so I opted for Insurgent once I finished Mark Twain - something that would just keep me going.  (If things continue at the rate they're going, pretty much all I'm going to read is teen dystopian future books!)

Anyway, I'm about half a dozen tracks into the audio version and still trying to catch up with where I left off, but I can tell it will be more of the same and I'm looking forward to it!

Goal #17

Goal #17: clean out my wallet and clean up my finances.

There are two elements to this:

First, I keep lots of receipts in my wallet.  I need to get rid of them.

Second, I now have a regular salary, which means I can actually formulate a budget.  (Sticking to it down the road is an entirely different problem.)

Recap of goal #16: success!  Finally!  I went out last weekend and rode about 30 miles with J, and again this morning.  We started at the same place but rode a little tougher route today - 50 miles with more hills than the last one. 

The Song I'm Loving Today

A Little Bit of Everything (Dawes)

T and I saw a few of Dawes' songs when they opened for Bob Dylan earlier this week (more on that later). This particular song caught my attention and hasn't let go.  I'll be honest, I'm not crazy about either the tune or the instrumentation (and what's left in a song, right?), but something about it has just stuck around.

The link above is to the studio version; the video below is Dawes at Lollapalooza 2012.  It sounds a bit more rock-y and heavy on the instruments, which is how it was when I first heard it.



With his back against the San Francisco traffic,
On the bridge's side that faces toward the jail,
Setting out to join a demographic,
He hoists his first leg up over the rail.
Then a phone call is made and police cars show up quickly
And the sergeant slams his passenger door.
He says "Hey son, why don't you talk through this with me,
Just tell me what you're doing it for."

Oh it's a little bit of everything,
It's the mountains, it's the fog,
It's the news at six o'clock,
It's the death of my first dog.
It's the angels up above me,
It's that song that they don't sing,
It's a little bit of everything.

There's an older man who stands in a buffet line.
He is smiling and he's holding out his plate,
And the further that he looks back into his timeline,
That hard road always led him to today.
He's making up for when his bright future had left him,
He's making up for the fact that his only son is gone,
And letting everything out once his server asks him,
"Sir, have you figured out yet what it is you want?"

I think I'll have a little bit of everything,
The biscuits and the beans,
Whatever helps me to forget about
These things that brought me to my knees.
So pile on those mashed potatoes
And an extra chicken wing,
'Cause I'm having a little bit of everything.

Somewhere a pretty girl is writing invitations
To a wedding that she has scheduled for the fall.
Her man says, "Baby, can I make one quick observation?
You don't seem to be having any fun at all."
She says, "Well you just worry about your groomsmen and your shirt size,
And rest assured that this is making me feel good."
I think that love could be so much easier than you realize.
When you can give yourself to someone,
Then you should.

'Cause it's a little bit of everything,
It's the way you choke, the way you ache,
It's getting up before you,
So I can watch you as you wake.
So on that day in late December,
It's not just some stupid little ring,
I'm getting a little bit of everything.

Oh, it's a little bit of everything,
It's the matador and the bull,
It's the suggested daily dosage,
It's the red moon when it's full.
All these psychics and these doctors,
They're all right and they're all wrong,
It's like trying to make out every word
When they should simply hum along.
It's not some message written in the dark
Or some truth that no one sees,
It's just a little bit of everything.

Autobiography of Mark Twain -- Take 2

Remember how I used to read books, which isn't happening much anymore?  I miss those days.  I can't remember the last time I finished a book.  (I did not, for those of you who remember, finish Sugar In My Bowl - not because I didn't want to, but because it was due back at the library.  I hope to get going on that one again some day.)

So you can imagine my excitement when I again got caught up on my podcasts and flipped over to my audiobooks, and realized I had about a third of Mark Twain's autobiography to go!  Keep in mind that this book, which weighs in at a hefty 20 audio CDs, is merely the first volume of what will be a three-volume set.  I'm happy I finished it, even if it did take three months!

On the whole, I found this book to be quite funny, although also somewhat distracted in the telling.  He tells a lot of stories about other people, and if you miss the beginning of the story, where you find out who this person is and how they're connected to his tale (if at all), it's hard to catch up.  But no matter, each sub-story is entertaining in its own right.

I found one section especially amusing.  In this particular passage, the author is talking about his daughter's comment in her own diary about his "strong language."

"I was so careful during ten years that I had not a doubt that my suppressions had been successful; therefore, I was quite as happy in my guilt as I could have been if I had been innocent.  But at last, an accident exposed me.  I went into the bathroom one morning to make my toilet and carelessly left the door two or three inches ajar.  It was the first time that I had ever failed to take the precaution of closing it tightly.  I knew the necessity of being particular about this because shaving was always a trying ordeal for me and I could seldom carry it through to a finish without verbal helps.

Now, this time I was unprotected, but did not suspect it.  I had no extraordinary trouble with my razor on this occasion, and was able to worry through with mere mutterings and growlings of an improper sort, but with nothing noisy or emphatic about them - no snapping and barking.

Then I put on a shirt.  My shirts are an invention of my own.  They open in the back and are buttoned there, when there are buttons.  This time the button was missing.  My temper jumped up several degrees in a moment and my remarks rose accordingly, both in loudness and vigor of expression.  But I was not troubled, for the bathroom door was a solid one and I supposed it was firmly closed.

I flung up the window and threw the shirt out.  It fell upon the shrubbery where the people on their way to church could admire it if they wanted to; there was merely fifty feet of grass between the shirt and the passerby.

Still rumbling and thundering distantly, I put on another shirt.  Again the button was absent.  I augmented my language to meet the emergency and threw that shirt out of the window.  I was too angry, too insane, to examine the third shirt, but put it furiously on.  Again, the button was absent, and that shirt followed its comrades out of the window.  Then I straightened up, gathered my reserves, and let myself go like a cavalry charge.

In the midst of that great assault, my eye fell upon that gaping door, and I was paralyzed.  It took me a good while to finish my toilet.  I extended the time unnecessarily in trying to make up my mind as to what I would best do in the circumstances.

I tried to hope that Mrs. Clemens was asleep, but I knew better.  I could not escape by the window; it was narrow and suited only to shirts.  At last I made up my mind to boldly loaf through the bedroom with the air of a person who had not been doing anything. I made half the journey successfully."

I find this particular passage hilarious because I have, on occasion, been known to rely on verbal helps when they are required by such an emergency.  I know a few other people who have as well.  Not naming names.

But this is the gist of it: Twain has the kind of classical, flowing language and particular vocabulary which seems somehow to be more suited to the Colonial era, except that he's also wickedly funny and a pleasure to take in.

Quote of the Day

"Some days are for living.  Others are for getting through."
  -- Malcolm S. Forbes

What I Watched -- Osama

Osama is the story of oppressed women, and it's a sad one.  The title character is a young girl in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.  Her father and uncle were killed in various wars; she lives with her widowed mother and grandmother.  The women have no way to support themselves and are on the verge of starvation when they get the idea to disguise the girl as a young boy and send her to work for the family.

What follows is her struggle to fit into a caste in society that isn't hers, to somehow overcome all the rules limiting her gender which she had already learned so well.  And she is so obviously the unwilling hero of this story that you can't help but root for her.

This movie is a tragic reminder, a la A Thousand Splendid Suns, that life for women everywhere isn't what we're used to here.

Bottom line: a sad commentary on both poverty and gender.

The German Symphony

Friday night, T and I attended the second to last of our symphonies for the season -- well, we tried to anyway.  The show started at 8:00, and we left my house about 7:40.  I live mere minutes from Powell Symphony Hall, so usually this is not a problem.  Minor miscalculation.

This weekend, highway 40 was closed for construction work on the Jefferson Avenue bridge.  We missed the start of the show.

This was a bummer, because the three pieces that made up the first half of the show were run together as one piece, so there was no break during which we were permitted to go to our seats.  This was further a bummer because I love choral music, and all the choral music in the performance was happening in the first have.  But the bummer-ness of all of this was mitigated when I realized that, due to the 100% German nature of the performance, they were giving out free beer and pretzels at that particular performance.  (The pieces we missed were Brahms' Song of the Fates, Webern's Im Sommerwind, and Brahms' Song of Destiny.)

We must have just missed the start, because we were the first people in the bar and got the best seat at a table right in front of the TV monitor broadcasting the performance.  Other people trickled in after us, but none had the view of the TV that we did.  And we had all that extra time to gorge ourselves on the delicious Companion Bakery pretzels.  Third bummer of the night: they didn't have any nacho cheese (though whole grain mustard would have been much more in keeping with the theme).

We managed to find our seats for the second half of the show, and it was really great.  Germans, in addition to mechanizing the war machine, are also good at composing music; the pieces we got to see were Johann Strauss's Artist's Life and Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.

I have to say, it is a pleasure to watch Ward Stare conduct.  He's so expressive, even though often you're just seeing the back of his head, or maybe a quarter profile.  He's so expressive, and it's obvious he's putting all of his energy into his performance.  And I think it is a performance for him as much as it is for the musicians.  He's like the title character in a play - if he's great, you can't guarantee that the show will be great because there are a lot of other factors; but if he's not great, the show simply cannot be great either.

Lucky for us, he's great.

Goal #16

Goal #16: ride my bike.

I got out on the road and did 30 miles this morning with J, but I really want to get to Forest Park with my x-bike!  There are just not enough hours in the day with this new job.

But this week, I will load my bike up in my new car and find some time to go for a ride and beat the heck out of myself!

Recap of goal #15: so, how did I do on my very specific list?
- (Start and) finish the meeting minutes that are two weeks overdue -- done
- Buy baby gifts for two showers -- one of them is done; the other I'm going in on a gift with someone, and I'm not sure whether that's been purchased yet;
- Send recipes in lieu of attendance at wedding shower -- done
- Apply to refinance my car loan -- the initial paperwork is done, although I still don't have my original loan paperwork from the bank, so I'm at a standstill
- Deal with the idiots at the dealership when my paperwork doesn't show up because they mailed it to the wrong address -- still a work in progress - they say they've corrected my address, but they won't mail anything because it turns out they can't seem to find the title...?
- Deal with the bank that has my first loan because I'm sure they've mailed my paperwork to the wrong address also -- done
- Investigate the purchase of a new cell phone -- negative
- If I get far enough in the investigative process, purchase and set up new phone -- also negative

So, it was a pretty successful week.  Oh, and I mailed out not two but three cards that needed to be written and sent, so that was progress also. 

Random Links

One red paperclip.

Judge Posner is at it again.

Really?  Who does this to an old woman?

The new Alzheimer's prevention: social life and social spaces.  The idea: the red-wine-drinking walking book group. (What you need: good food, social activity, intellectual challenge, and physical exercise.)

Looking for a pen pal?  Try Juliet.  Yes, that Juliet.

If you like Italo Calvino's brand of magical realism, have a listen to this.

Quote of the Day

"There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves."
  -- Margaret Thatcher

Springtime for StL?

Where, oh where, is the sunshine?

An Unanticipated Wake-Up Call

I have an alarm clock that lights up and makes bird sounds.  Generally it's pretty awesome and I love it.

However, last night I stayed over at a friend's house.  Unlike at my apartment, which is basically bomb-proof, you can hear bird's chirping through the windows of said house.  That was rather unwelcome when it started this morning half an hour before my cell phone alarm was set to ring, because I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was oversleeping!

Goal #15

Goal #15: All the little things.  Again.

Despite yesterday's productivity, today was kind of a bust in that department, so I will again spend this week catching up, but at least I'm laying out specific tasks! Here they are:

Write and mail two cards;
(Start and) finish the meeting minutes that are two weeks overdue;
Buy baby gifts for two showers;
Send recipes in lieu of attendance at wedding shower;
Apply to refinance my car loan;
Deal with the idiots at the dealership when my paperwork doesn't show up because they mailed it to the wrong address;
Deal with the bank that has my first loan because I'm sure they've mailed my paperwork to the wrong address also;
Investigate the purchase of a new cell phone;
If I get far enough in the investigative process, purchase and set up new phone.

Can I accomplish all that?  Not likely.

Recap of goal #14: did you catch that I didn't really set a goal for myself this week?  Good job, astute readers!  I didn't, because I had failed at so many recently that I had some catching up to do!  But yesterday was a pretty productive day -- took R the Wonderdog for a long walk and (much to his chagrin) performed some desperately-needed grooming, cleaned my kitchen, rode my bike to work and home again (without getting in any actual productivity at my desk), did about 300 loads of laundry, swapped out some winter clothes for summer stuff, cooked a bit, and enjoyed my wonderful shower.

What I Watched -- Paper Moon

I had never heard of Paper Moon until Uncle P gave me the DVD for Christmas.  You may have noticed that I haven't watched many movies lately; this one has been sitting on the top of my pile, but I've been so darn busy!  I finally got to it this week and I loved it -- stayed up way past my bedtime to watch it!

I'm not a classic film connoisseur, but I loved this!  Tatum O'Neal (whom I know as Kyra from Sex and the City) was fabulous as Addie, the precocious little kid who always knows more than she lets on.  And she's hilarious to boot!  She's getting upset with her guardian of sorts/partner in crime, Moses (played by her real-life father Ryan O'Neal), who says, "I've got scruples too, you know.  Do you know what that is, scruples?"  "No, but if you've got 'em, it's a sure bet they belong to somebody else!"

The film was shot in 1973 but set in the 1930s.  It has the simple story of an old movie, and it works.

Bottom line: simple but so well done that it's totally worth watching.  Again.

Dinner at Alumni

I've been awfully busy eating out these days, and another one of my recent excursions was to Alumni.  It just opened in the Park Pacific building where my friend M lives, and we had dinner and wine there on Sunday night.

We started out sharing the shrimp and grits appetizer, which had a little bit of spice and I liked a lot.  My main was pappardelle with a mushroom ragu (look at me, with the mushrooms!), and we shared a baked apple brown butter gelato.

The food was good, but the best part is that it's only a couple of blocks away, and I can walk there!  I love this!

Quote of the Day

"Anyone can become angry.  That is easy.  But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not easy."
  -- Aristotle

Brazikat

On Friday night, I had a girls' night with two friends at Brazikat, a fairly new Brazilian restaurant in Clayton.  It's traditional Brazilian in the chain style - salad bar with fancy add-ons like blue cheese-stuffed olives and a bunch of gauchos running around with skewers of meat.

"So," you're thinking, "blue cheese-stuffed olives and skewers of meat.  What's not to like?"  The food, including the salad bar, was decent.  There were a few lovely cuts of meat, some that I could have done without.  Generally it was enjoyable, and oddly the grilled pineapple was one of my favorites.  That's a brilliant idea.

My biggest knock on it was that the service was a bit spotty.  For example, we waited about half an hour past our reservation because of an accident that was holding up traffic.  During the time we were waiting (and I was only there for about 20 of those 30 minutes), between the host and the hostess, I think we were asked four times if we were a particular party, if we were waiting for someone, etc.  Probably some of these questions were an effort to make sure we weren't being ignored, but a little communication (and an ounce of memory) between the two of them would have gone a long way.  Somehow I ended up without a steak knife and had to ask twice before one appeared.  It's hard to eat at a steakhouse without a steak knife.  Little things like that were a bit annoying.

Here's the thing about this type of meal, and why I'm not sure the restaurant will last even if they improve their service: it's not an everyday meal, it's an experience.  You go to see what it's all about (although I had previously been to Fogo de Chao in Philadelphia, which is that same idea -- but better), but you don't go every week for dinner like you might to your neighborhood bar.  People will go to try it out, but probably won't return often.

Goal #14

Goal #14: set manageable goals.

Explain: I'm adjusting to my new and busier schedule.  And as much as I hate it, that means that I'll have to tone down the rate of "trying to get my life together" that I'm constantly working on (aka projects to get myself and my apartment organized).  That's a bummer, but it is what it is, I suppose.

Recap of goal #13: how did I do on my many things?  Let's see:

- Read my back issues (so far only two of them) of New York Magazine -- no, and in fact, I got one more
- Answer unanswered emails -- yes, some of them
- Return phone calls -- yes
- Put away clean laundry -- doing that in a minute
- Vacuum my apartment (the dog has been shedding like a maniac) -- doing that right after I put away the laundry
- Buy a car (or at least pick one out) -- done and done
- Go climbing -- yes

So, all in all, not a bad week.  Still failing on the reading front, and I'm sad about that.  But now that I have a car, hopefully that'll free up my upcoming Saturdays so I can do more fun and/or productive stuff.

Also, HUGE thanks to T who gave up three of his Saturdays to take me car shopping.

So, you wanna see it?

For Your Entertainment

Quote of the Day

I'm generally not much for poetry, but I was in a bookstore in D.C. with K when I found this one and laughed out loud.

Dilemma by David Budbill

I want to be
famous
so I can be
humble
about being
famous.

What good is my
humility
when I am
stuck
in this
obscurity?

Goal #13

Goal #13: get back on the wagon.

The last two weeks have been a little crazy as far as life goes, so this week, I will get productive again.  Things to accomplish:
- Read my back issues (so far only two of them) of New York Magazine;
- Answer unanswered emails;
- Return phone calls;
- Put away clean laundry;
- Vacuum my apartment (the dog has been shedding like a maniac);
- Buy a car (or at least pick one out); and
- Go climbing.

That's a lot of things.  I'm probably aiming too high.  But c'est la vie.

Recap of goal #12: success, I guess, in that I didn't accomplish anything in particular, but do feel a little more together.