I live in a soggy city. I have a soggy blog.
I'd rather be a soggy blogger than a soggy frog.
|
|
| The Soggy Blogger I live in a soggy city. I have a soggy blog. I'd rather be a soggy blogger than a soggy frog. |
|
|
Friday, May 16, 2003 Weekend plans.One must always be drunk. Everything lies in that; it is the only question worth considering. In order not to feel the horrible burden of time which breaks your shoulders and bows you down to earth, you must intoxicate yourself without truce -- but with what? With wine, poetry, art? As you will; but intoxicate yourself. And if sometimes upon the steps of a palace, or upon the green grass of a moat, or in the sad solitude of your own room, you awake -- intoxication already diminished or disappeared - ask of the wind, of the wave, of the star, of the bird, of the clock, of all that flies, of all that groans, of all that rolls, of all that sings, of all that speaks - ask, what time is it? And the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, will answer you, "It is time to intoxicate yourself." In order to escape from the slavish martyrdom of time, intoxicate yourself; unceasingly intoxicate yourself; with wine, or poetry, or art - as you will. -- Charles Baudelaire posted by Anne on 1:21 PM | link Mas Musica.Fave CD of the moment: Mouthfuls, by Fruit Bats. Check it. posted by Anne on 1:13 PM | link Kicked in The Shins.Last week I picked up The Shins CD, Oh, Inverted World. I've been extremely happy with my purchase, but also extremely haunted by the song, "New Slang." ...Not because it's a brilliantly wonderful piece of music (which, oh, it so so is...), but because, until this morning, whenever I heard this song, I felt sure that I'd heard it somewhere before. And could not for the life of me remember where. Colin and I have been scraping the far reaches of our brain matter: Was it in a movie we saw? An episode of Six Feet Under? Did one of our friends play it for us? No, no, and no. This hauntingly beautiful song that we love...where had we heard it before??? Well. Via the modern oracle that is Google, this morning I reached into the great grab bag of cyberspace and pulled out my answer: It was in a McDonald's commercial. Some things you're better off not knowing, I think. posted by Anne on 12:54 PM | link The Presidential Production Company.Today's New York Times has a great article about the "selling" of the GWBush presidency to the American public. It's fascinating (and a little pathetic), the lengths these guys will go to. For example: On Tuesday, at a speech promoting his economic plan in Indianapolis, White House aides went so far as to ask people in the crowd behind Mr. Bush to take off their ties, WISH-TV in Indianapolis reported, so they would look more like the ordinary folk the president said would benefit from his tax cut. If it were me, I'd spend a little less time with backdrop and lighting, and a bit more care actually educating the damn guy. You can dress him up all you want, but he's still going to say things like "a non-nuclear North Korean peninsula." (It is unapparent here whether he has never seen a map, or just doesn't know what a peninsula is...) But that's all right. Who needs a smart president, anyhow? posted by Anne on 8:33 AM | link Thursday, May 15, 2003 Baaa...Last night, I was watching What Not to Wear (on BBC America, not the cheap TLC knock-off...), and was introduced to a new turn of phrase: "Mutton dressed as lamb." One would use this phrase when referring to someone (usually a woman, I would think) who is...getting on in years,shall we say, but continues to dress as though she were much younger. It's like a less-sinister, slightly cattier version of our "wolf in sheep's clothing." I really wish I could use this phrase in my day-to-day life. Every now and then, I like to throw a new phrase into my lexicon, and shake up my manner of speaking a bit. My latest adopted bit is "That's a laugh." (Which has to be delivered with a very dry tone, or it doesn't work.) My husband really likes that one, for some reason. So I've kept it around, and dropped it here and there, but I have to admit that I'm ready for something new. The problem with using British phrasing, however, is that it makes you look either (a) ridiculous, or (b) like a poseur. This is because, in order to give a British phrase the heft and delivery it deserves, it must be spoken in a British accent. Hence the ridiculous poseur. (...unless you happen to be Madonna, in which case you are just a ridiculously rich poseur.) There's just no way to pull off something like "Bob's your uncle" in plain old American speak. Believe me, I've tried. Someone once countered with "no he's not." ...That's a laugh. posted by Anne on 9:41 AM | link Wednesday, May 14, 2003 Note.Note to any Soggy City folks out there: Matt, from local blog Defective Yeti, will be interviewed on KUOW's "Weekday" show, tomorrow at 10am. The subject? Blogging. Check it. Also, there's now a Seattle Weblog Portal... Who knew? posted by Anne on 8:14 PM | link Heebie-Jeebies.It's a scary, scary, scary, scary world. posted by Anne on 10:01 AM | link Tuesday, May 13, 2003 Idolatry.Okay, so I finally did it. I watched my first episode of American Idol tonight. ......Does that Clay guy remind anyone else of a crazy Martin Short character? ...............Or is it just me? posted by Anne on 10:59 PM | link Missed the memo.Apparently, I have been walking around with my head in the clouds. Important goings-on have been taking place around me, and yet somehow I have managed to remain in the dark, oblivious to it all. At some point it was decided (perhaps by city-wide vote? I don't know.) that it is no longer necessary for us Seattlites to demonstrate common courtesy to each other, and I missed it. ...I miss all the good stuff. And, thinking back on things, it should have been pretty obvious to me. The recent lack of "please" and "thank you," as well as the sorely-missed "excuse me" should have been the first tip-offs. And it took me a while, but I finally figured out that, while driving, one's blinkers are now used to signal the fact that one is in the process of turning, rather than just planning on it. Also, it's great that we no longer have to take turns at four-way stops. (Driving is so much more exciting now!) But the kicker, the one that I almost didn't notice until it was too late, was the pedestrian cross-walk switch. Under our new rules, the people stop for the oncoming cars, and not vice-versa...Okay, okay, I get it now! Enough already with the honking! I feel so stupid for not having figured this all out before now. Until today, I've been treating people kindly and with that "no, please, you go ahead" attitude that has probably given me away as one not in the know. Well, no more! There's a new me in town, and I tried her out this afternoon... While in the cereal aisle of the grocery store, I noticed that someone ahead of me was blocking my way with both her cart and her person. Instead of politely (read: in an uninformed manner) saying "Excuse me, " and waiting for her to move, I merely stopped just short of where she was standing, and glared. That's it, just glared. And when she said "excuse me" and moved her cart to the side (so at least I'm not the last to know...), I just shook my head and muttered to myself as I wheeled by. I think I could get used to this. posted by Anne on 7:20 PM | link Monday, May 12, 2003 Steve!In the few years before he went off to preschool and then into kindergarten, my five year old friend and I used to watch Blue's Clues every day. Side by side on his family's sofa, we came to be very familiar with the little dog Blue, her owner/friend, Steve, their curiously flat house, and all of the talking little inanimate objects (Mailbox, Side Table Drawer, Shovel and Pail, the Salt and Pepper couple with their baby, Paprika, et al.) that lived within it. It was a comfortable little world, and we liked it just the way it was. But then one day, things changed. Steve left us. Said goodbye to his adoring fans, put our beloved Blue in the care of his (never before seen or even referenced) younger brother, Joe, and went off to college. And as much as we knew it was a good thing for him (for a good education, after all, is priceless), my five year old friend and I were devastated. How could he do this to us? How could he do this to Blue? And who was this Joe character??? We didn't even know Joe! In the weeks following, I was repeatedly asked where Steve was, and when he was going to be back. I tried to explain about going off to college, and sleeping in dorms and whatnot, but this half-answer would not suffice. And after we had the big revalatory talk about "actors" and "characters" (it was very confusing to him that Han Solo and Indiana Jones could be played by the same person and not be the same person), he took to asking, "Well, what happened to the actor who used to play the character of Steve?" But this was a question I had no answer to, for I had often wondered it myself. Until today, when I somehow (while tripping through cyberspace) somehow stumbled upon his web page! I am pleased to announce that Steve Burns is alive and well and will soon be releasing an album of grown-up songs, Songs for Dustmites, that he's been working on with some of the guys from Flaming Lips! And he is going to appear in their upcoming film, Christmas on Mars! This is all well and good and bully for him, you might say, but why did he leave us in the first place? Apparently, he really enjoyed his five year run with Blue and the gang, but felt that it was time to pass on the baton. Says his (former) green striped-ness, "I didn't want to become Crusty the Clown in front of all America." A Simpson's reference?... The Flaming Lips?.... Yes, Steve, I do believe that college was a good decision, after all. posted by Anne on 6:22 PM | link Sunday, May 11, 2003 Good Advice.I walked down to Fremont this afternoon to browse the Sunday Market and take some pictures in the sun, as it is definitely the most gorgeous day we've had this year. As I was sitting near the banks of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, sipping on an iced coffee and watching the boats go by, I overheard a father talking to his young daughter, who had just fallen and scraped her hand on the cement: "Sometimes you just have to be a big girl and let it hurt. And try to remember that, very soon, it's going to feel better. Because it always does." Ain't it the truth, though? posted by Anne on 4:52 PM | link |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|||||
