thoughtcrumbs : january 2000

Book recommendation

I'm desperate for something engaging to read. Ennui has overtaken my every attempt to start something new since finishing that NLP book a month ago. My reading moods are fickle, so right now I'm looking for a novel of substance with really clever phrasing. Something akin to Everything is Illuminated, Middlesex, or White Teeth. I want to laugh and cry and fantasize about marrying/being the author. Suggestions?

A week without Google

Jonathan gave up Google for a week just to give the overly-punctuated competition a try. His results? "I found what I needed, it just took longer."

Rent. Plus nice people in Pittsburgh.

Walking up the hill after Rent on Forward, I couldn't stop musing about the abuse of CG in the outdoor scenes. So many overt wispy breath vapors that didn't match realistic singing exhalations! (Underlying message not so subtly conveyed: It's cold. These people have no money. But they love each other enough to sing for three minutes in sleeveless lycra and patterned green tights on snowy East Village sidewalks, frostbite be damned!) But otherwise, the movie was an enjoyable complement to the stage version.

Sean and I wandered into 61C, where met his friend Jason. Jason later wrote in his blog, "CMU is behind some sort of conspiracy to draw into the pittsburgh city limits exactly the kind of people I find most awesome and brilliant." I couldn't agree more. (Sorry, Berkeley!) I love how you can meet someone briefly and then learn all about their fascinating life from their blog--Margaret is an excellent case in point. Wish we'd exchanged more than twenty words the first time we met. And David, too. Life lesson learned: Talk to people more face to face. You can learn how great strangers are the way people used to learn these things, pre-Web.

Disclosure begets disclosure. And consequently, trust. Lots of psych literature says this. So, at least blogs offer a way to reveal your inner thought processes (convoluted, of course) without fear of rejection by new friends. Which leads to further reciprocity. Sometimes I want to draw all of my favorite bloggers into a big room and get everyone to talk to each other. But I fear we'd be all awkward and quiet in person. So, at least the web offers an alternative way for us to be garrulous and candid. Maybe one day we'll all be singing sleevelessly on streetcorners for each other, too.

Thirty years of Richard Scarry

Over on Flickr: Images of Richard Scarry's "Best Word Book Ever" from 1963 and 1991. In one of the best uses of Flickr's region annotation tool (those rectangles with captions that appear when you hover), kokogiak points out changes since his childhood. Some of my favorites: "pretty stewardess" is now "flight attendant" and the addition of a yellow ribbon to the back of the head of an ambiguously-sexed pig banging a drum. (Voilà, girl drummer.) Thanks, Daniel!

And I'm eating pumpkin pie right now

Yesterday was my first Thanksgiving away from home, and the first time I successfully synchronized more than three dishes to be ready and hot at the same time. Pictures are up. It helped that Mukesh and Matt came over to chop and really, stand around, since there wasn't that much to do--the previous evening's snowfall trapped me inside with nothing to do except start on the chutney. Matt has an astounding knowledge of all things culinary, from sage substitutes to Graham Kerr, which he abashedly attributes to TV. We also had our very own Iron Chef competition second-place winner, Hao, in the house.


On our turkey-less menu:

• Acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, hazelnuts, and cranberries
• Waldorf salad with fennel
• Cranberry pear chutney
• Green beans with tarragon
• Yams with brown sugar and ginger
• Greek salad
• Basmati rice with saffron and cinnamon
• Pumpkin pie
• Cheesecake

While it's still novel

Mom, this is exactly what the snow looks like right now:

Things I'm thankful for. Just from yesterday.

Yesterday started out as a crummy day (didn't notice the PM light when setting my alarm clock) but got progressively better. Various reasons:

• Emails from people participating in a disaster-relief research project I'm on, saying things like "God bless CMU."
• Reading the blog of a new friend and discovering we're ridiculously similar, but different enough to still recommend music to each other.
• Praise from my advisor.
• Surprising revelations over mediocre coffee with a friend.
• The silly left hand gestures-as-conducting of David Effron. Oh, and the way he squinted at the first violins.
• Muffins and chocolate tea with Cristen and Dave. And the beautiful bouncy ball video.

Darren on cold weather

"Did your breath turn into icicles? And did the icicles turn around and stab you in the eye? No? Then it's not bad weather."

Automaticity

This morning I went into the kitchen to feed my cat breakfast. I opened the cupboard and poured her a bowl of Cream of Wheat.

Karaoke moment and top tens

Scott and I had a little moment during karaoke last weekend. The scene: A big group singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." The others were riffing on "they just wanna . . . they just wanna-uh-uh" and one line on the monitor read "(ha ha)." Scott and I chimed in on that hiccuppy "ha" that Cyndi Lauper does, perfectly in sync with each other. Not many people could do that.

We decided that musical confluence like that deserves the sharing of top ten lists. Top ten albums ever, and top ten recent finds. Thought I'd share them here, too. These are in no order. And I'm leaving out the obvious ones (Coltrane, Beatles--Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, etc.):

Top ten(ish) ever:

• Quiet is the New Loud - Kings of Convenience
• Grace - Jeff Buckley
• Power in Numbers - Jurassic Five
• Hang on, Little Tomato - Pink Martini
• Castaways and Cutouts - The Decemberists
• Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five
• Wind from the South - Claudia Acuña
• Dulcinea - Toad the Wet Sprocket
• XTC - Wasp Star
• Latenight Betty - Pepe and the Bottle Blondes
• Songs in the Key of Life - Stevie Wonder
• Rent - Original Cast Recording
• Poses - Rufus Wainwright

Top ten I discovered in the last five years:

• The Ditty Bops - The Ditty Bops
• Built on Squares - The Starlight Mints
• Careless Love -Madeleine Peyroux
• French Café - Putumayo (collection)
• A Friday Night in San Francisco - Al di Meola, Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin (thanks, Jeff!)
• Get Away from Me - Nellie McKay
• Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins
• Gilmore Girls (soundtrack)
• Garden State (soundtrack)
• Puzzle - Tahiti 80

Since limiting this to twenty is painful, I'll refer the avid listener to the artists on my last four compilation albums.

What are your favorite albums?

Unix and the single girl

$ man find
$ man date
$ man mount

These commands make me giggle. Unix is kind of dirty.

Ruth on candy

"What's the point of fun size? That's not fun."

Maira Kalman illustrates "Elements of Style"

An illustrated version of Strunk and White. Really. I can't wait to see Maira Kalman cover such gems as "omit unnecessary words." I'm envisioning brightly-colored letters floating in space, looking sheepish and unwanted.

Kalman, in a way, has already inspired some great literary art. I remember many nights babysitting, reading "Hey Willy, See the Pyramids" to Max and Eve, and later opening my Norton Anthology to doodle Kalman-esque renditions of The Wife of Bath's Tale and Beowulf. My favorite was a suggestive sketch of "'You've bearded him!' said handy Nicholas." I'm really excited (salivating, really) to see more Kalman.

Somebody's fantasy

On my way to school today, I looked in the window of the Apple store and saw the reflections of the Victoria's Secret mannequins from across the street. It was a rather striking image of scantily clad women amongst the iPods and Powerbooks.

Straight lines and waterfalls

Went to Fallingwater over the weekend. Pictures are up. It's one of the Kaufmann family's seven homes, this one designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Interesting factoids from the tour:

• Since it wasn't their primary residence, the walls were adorned with their lesser art. You know, just a Diego Rivera and a Picasso. Oh, and the Rembrandt in the servants' quarters.
• The Kaufmanns treated their servants well. They hired additional local workers (meta-servants, heh) to clean the servants' quarters.
• Wright considered the house a work of art and so had no tolerance for complaints. When the Kaufmanns told him they counted fifty leaks, he told them to buy fifty buckets.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Wright. Too many heavy, horizontal lines. In fact, I'd like to see him duke it out with Viennese artist Hundertwasser, who favors more organic curves. From Hundertwasser's manifesto against rationalism in architecture:

"This jungle of straight lines, which is entangling us more and more like inmates in a prison, must be cleared. The straight line is godless and immoral. The straight line is not a creative line, it is a duplicating line, an imitating line. In it, God and the human spirit are less at home than the comfort-craving, brainless intoxicated and unformed masses."