Thursday, August 23, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Please donate to the Jimmy Fund
WEEI Boston sports talk radio starts its annual two-day telethon in support of the Jimmy Fund. The Jimmy Fund supports cancer research, but primarily funds children's cancer care and has been one of the most important caner support charities for the past 60 years. It's a _really_ important charity and the only one to which I always annually donate. Check it out here:
http://www.jimmyfund.org/
And if you have the time, give a listen to WEEI (link shown on the Jimmy Fund web page) to hear survivors and medical professionals talk about their experiences with the Jimmy Fund and Dana Farber.
Donate as much or as little as you can. Every bit helps.
http://www.jimmyfund.org/
And if you have the time, give a listen to WEEI (link shown on the Jimmy Fund web page) to hear survivors and medical professionals talk about their experiences with the Jimmy Fund and Dana Farber.
Donate as much or as little as you can. Every bit helps.
Monday, August 20, 2012
True Blood Ep. 59 Running Diary/Recap
9:04: Creepy
Bill wonders around the authority as someone calls out his name, saying “Bill…Bill…it
you suck me I will come.” Surprise, surprise,
it isn’t Shoeless
Joe Jackson, but Lilith instead, who is still doing her best impression of
the inside
of a strawberry jam doughnut (I continue to wonder if they don’t have
indoor plumbing in the vampire afterlife). She tells Bill that he is Anakin Skywalker and
must drink all of her remaining rape-whistle blood (see previous recap) in
order to be empowered to set
his people free. Bill, for no clear
reason, flees from her and the seemingly very thing he has wanted for the past
several episodes.
9:08: Nora
and Salome make-out…did I have any doubt that this was going to happen once
they got within six inches of each other?
No, I did not.
9:10: Bill
says to Jessica “do you think I am an idiot?” in reference to her attempt to
try to trick him into thinking she is willing to make Jason into a vampire. I hate to break it to Bill but all of America
thinks you are an idiot at this point, and it has nothing to do with this
subplot line.
9:12: Nora,
having finally come to the realization that everyone else in the Authority,
except Eric is bat shit crazy, goes to him to confess her sorrow over Godric as
well as her new found enlightenment regarding mainstreaming…they also get-in a
nice nooner, in what I can only deem as the clear front-runner for
Best-Way-To-Deal-With-Extreme-Emotional-Trauma-Over-The-Death-of-Your-Surrogate-Father.
9:14: Sookie discusses
the trouble she is having dealing with being sold to a vampire 300 years ago
and how it is “kind of strange.” I feel
like on a True Blood scale of strange this only ranks around a 3/10. Really, Sookie has been having a pretty low-key
couple of weeks.
9:19: General
Whoever visits the Authority underground and threatens the vampires with
footage of Russell and the Reverend devouring the frat boys form last week’s
episode. Eric strategically murders him
in order to get Nora and himself away from the clutches of the Authority, on
the obviously transparent excuse/mission of glamouring every human who has seen
the footage. I take a moment to think
about what would really happen if humans and vampires were on the verge of
war. Would humans try to institute a
Vampire Registration Act? Would I
support it? Would humans lose a lot of
lives early on but win in the end? Most
of these vampires don’t seem all that bright…I think we could take them.
9:22: Pam
explains to Tara about the religio-political nature of the vampire Authority
and Tara ask her if it’s “like the Vatican?”
I think this was a perfectly good waste of an opportunity for Tara to
say “like the Fangtican?”
9:24: Jessica
comes to Pam and Tara after having successfully escaping Bill’s security detail
and asks them to hide her from Bill/the Authority. I automatically think how cool a Pam/Tara/Jessica
Charlie’s
Angels inspired subplot line about a Sanguinista-fighting vampire gal pal
group would be, though I’m not holding my breath on that one. Being vampires, they probably aren’t either.
9:26: Eric and
Nora stake their captors. Hooray!
9:27: I
officially decide the Faerie elder is amazing based on the following three things
she says to Sookie: “Ke$ha: for or against?”; “that’s the reason that you slut
you heart out to every cute guy out there with fangs”; and “RUSSELL EDGINGTON
IS ALIVE? RUSSELL EDGINGTON IS ALIVE?”
9:33: Alcede
scolds his father for previously stealing money from his wolf pack and asks him
“whatever happened to pack first?” Round
one of this father-son guilt fest goes to shirtless Alcede, who definitely knows
all about putting the pack
first.
9:35: Sookie
and Jason discuss their plans to deal with Russell Edgington, and the audience gets
its first non-creepy use of the phrase “I love you” between a brother and
sister. Nora and Erica; Jamie and Cersei;
and Deb and Dexter, all look on disapprovingly.
9:42: Alcede,
clearly unconcerned by potential brain-cancer-inducing microwave waves, watches
soup warm as a group of vampires attack the outside of his father’s trailer
park paradise. The two finally get a
hallmark moment after Alcede’s father saves his life. I guess that advances their storyline, or
something.
9:43: More
Sam/Luna/Emma storyline that seems to have no real fit with the rest of the
show, but at least a lot of people are naked.
9:47: We find
out that - much like how religion and history have played out in the human
world - in the vampire world, god also has a knack for leading a variety of
different people to believe that they are chosen people. This results in Bill beheading another
Authority member who had the audacity to contradict Bill’s rightful place at
Lilith’s right hand. Bill has officially
lost it and frankly I wouldn't mind if they killed-off his character at this
point.
9:49: Jason
leads Russell and the Reverend to the Faerie night club, where they run around
like puppies chasing cars, until the Faerie elder comes out from the club’s
cloak of invisibility to confront Russell.
This does not go well, as Russell defeats the elder due mostly in part
to Jason’s failure-to-not-get-far-enough-away-from-Russell-after-being-let-go-leaving-him-easily-accessible-to-be-used-as-a-human-shield-moments-later. The Least Stupid Stackhouse Sibling Award
goes back to Sookie as the episode closes.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Christmas in August
I took these a while ago (over Christmas in AZ) and I really like the feel of it. It's so weird to see Christmas lights in AZ, but they really go crazy out there with decoration. Maybe it is because so many people are East Coast transplants who wanted to escape the the snow but maybe not all of the traditions. Anyway, here is a little Christmas in August.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
True Blood Ep. 58
Going, Going, Gone [to Alaska…and Beyond!]
From Jump, Crisis, Part Trois: All five True Blood plants are now destroyed. Seriously, we only built five of these things?
1:00, Takeout Time: With Bill and Eric under lockdown, it looks like this is as close to eating chinese as Sookie is going to get for a while.
1:30, Don't Bring a Gun to a Chopstick Fight: Sookie ices your friendly, neighborhood coroner with her takeout utensils after she inexplicably say yes to his [completely unsuspicious] request to enter her domicile during a period in which murder-by-vampire has increased by 50%. He tells her he’s come “about the body.” She then asks “what body?,” to which he responds “yours,” and proceeds to bite her. He should have said he’s come to ask “about her character arc,” and when she inevitably replies “what character arc?,” he could have said “exactly.”
3:50, In that case, allow me to say: FUCK ALL OF YOU. By my count, Molly is the only vampire at the Authority who hasn’t actually fucked everyone else at the Authority. Her devotion to rationality and abstinence likely stem from her prior involvements with Mormon and FBI institutions. I’ll be sad to see Molly go, but at least she got to go out Madonna style…
Also, does Russell Edgington seem more, or less, like the kind of vamp who would mind wearing something that resulted in a little nipple chaffing? (Choose your own adventure kids!).
5:50, What are you in the mood for?: I was thinking Greek. It is and isn’t what you think. More to come on - or maybe cum on (it is True Blood) - this later.
6:20, That cheeto-haired tramp: Hoyt and his mom discuss his moving out-of the house and to an oil-drilling job in Alaska, wherein she delivers what has to make the top five list of Hoyt’s-mom’s-all-time-best-insults regarding Jessica. Is there a top five list of Hoyt’s-mom’s-all-time-best-insults regarding anything? No, probably not. At least she didn’t have to sell half her doll collection for a bed she disapproves of.
7:12, Well fuck me he can count past five: Says Pam regarding new sheriff Marilyn Manson’s…err, Chris Angel’s…err, Elijah’s ability to count Fangtasia’s nightly haul. Frankly I’m more impressed by the fact that Tara can count that high given the Gus Fringe-inspired head trauma she experienced at the end of season four. Pam must have enrolled her in Fang Start.
They then discuss the installation of Blockbuster video booths in the bar, but Pam prefers to do things the old fashioned way.
9:25, Help Police!: Is it me or does the Lilith’s Blood/Container combo remind you more and more of something your great-grandmother might have taken-back-the-night with?
In other news, Bill and Nora can only keep Eric around for so long, but they can give him more of Lillith’s blood in an attempt to “save his soul” (in the True Blood universe, have all the vampires been cursed by gypsies?). Bill forces Lilith’s blood down Eric’s throat and Nora also takes a drop for herself (these guys sure know how to deplete a millennia-old, irreplaceable pint of sacred blood) in order that they might share a vision of Lilith. It turns out to be a touching reunion between a son, a daughter, a father and a throat-gorging decapitation…so that seems pretty much worth it.
13:25, 3,000age Dream: Russell and Newlin re-define the meaning of “It’s all Greek to me” as they slow dance to Katy Perry and discuss the merits of going solar. Meanwhile, it’s all death to the members of the Greek fraternity they're in, whose bodies lie scattered about dance room floor.
14:35, Lafayette’s Outfit: L!
16:25, We’ll live in the wind: Pam and Tara discuss the Authority’s new directive that 30 new “vampire babies” be created in Area 5 by the end of the year, or the Authority will take Pam’s property and progeny. Tara suggests naming their first two Draven and Layre. Pam - as should come to no one’s particular surprise - is totally cool with obeying orders handed down to her by a shady bureaucratic entity.
17:07, Glamorama: We found it folks - the first well-written, well-acted, emotionally compelling scene in True Blood series history. Ha-zah!
In this scene, between Hoyt, Jason, and Jessica, Hoyt lets his former best-friend and former love know he is moving to Alaska. And he doesn’t want a North Face parka for a going-away present. Instead, he wants Jessica to glamor away all memory of both herself and Jason - as he can no longer stand to constantly stew over the failed relationships with and intimacies between the two of them. He wishes for a truly new start and Jessica gives it to him promising that if he closes his eyes, counts to ten, and then opens them he will no longer remember either. They leave as he counts to ten (Jason welling-up and Jessica choking back [presumably] blood tears); when Hoyt finishes the count he calls for a waitress and a beer.
23:55, Sherlock Stackhouse: This episode of True Blood takes us once again on the ever revolving-door-ride of “Who is the Least Stupid Stackhouse Sibling?” This week’s winner: Jason. The week’s loser: every other Stackhouse relative in this wild, fictional world who asks themselves if this is finally the week to change their last name to Stouse.
In episode 7 of this season Sookie got a message from her Grams through “I ain’t gmail for dead bitches” Reynolds, telling her to “look under the bed” for information related to her parents’ murders. Sookie, being Sookie (or is that too intelligence-insulting a phrase even for her), only looks in a box under her bed. Jason has the keen idea to actually “look under the bed” - i.e. the mattress, the bed board, and the floor boards beneath the bed. Eureka - a strangely written document is found.
25:40, No One Cares: Sam and Luna continue to search for the location where Newlin is keeping Emma. I continue to not care.
27:40, Do Laugh - This Does Happen: The writers of True Blood continue to have no interest in writing dialogue that does not directly conflict with easily checked FACTS.
29:00, Sobotka Eats; LaFayette Wears a Different Headscarf: And scene!
30:35, As your maker I command you: Bill sends for Jessica to come spend some time at Camp Authorityland.
31:30, We Don't Have No Stinken' Secret Vampire Government: Wink, wink. See how clever and meta we True Blood writers can be? Oh wait, we wrote that dialogue at 27:40? Fuck.
33:00, And the Sansa Stark Gullibility Award Goes To: Anyone on the Authority who believed Eric’s speech regarding his new found love of Lilith. Runner-up goes to anyone who saw through Eric but failed to notice Nora’s very concerned there-is-no-way-I-believe-this face.
34:32, Two Boring Mice: Sam and Luna turn into mice and basically continue to accomplish nothing.
35:20, What Seems to Be the Problem Officer?: Oh, just the fact that I screwed your lady and ruined our friendship causing you to take an eraser pad to your mind. Have a good trip bro.
37:50, Vacation Lilith School: Bill expands upon his ability to combine creepy energy with uninteresting dialogue to explore new and wondrous achievements in least-interesting-supposedly-main-character-status.
40:25, I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no baby vampires: But Sherman is coming to burn Atlanta Tara (oh sweet double sarcastic shlock), and Miss Melanie needs you! And Elijah needs you too…to pretend that you killed a drifter and then chop his head off while he’s distracted by a silver blade through his shoulder. NO ONE FUCKS WITH US IN OUR HOUSE!
No one owns any clothes made post 1989 there either.
42:05, Two Briefcase-Escaping Mice: Sam and Luna escape Newlin’s briefcase only to do probably nothing much in the Authority’s lair.
42:25, Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows: Russell Edgington is generally proficient in _not_ sounding like someone who has a Southern drawl. In this episode he shows us that he is also _not_ proficient at imitating an ancient Celtic accent. But he does make up for it. He debuts his ability to mismatch these jarringly incorrect accents between sentences, and even in between words, during the course of a lovely tirade that caps off the Authority storyline for this episode.
In this tirade, Russell finally lets the council know that he doesn’t care about their dumb, jam-covered goddess. He has pretty much just wanted to eat humans with impunity from the beginning, but needed to hide behind the sanguinista movement until it was too late for progressive vampires or humans to stop the vampire tide of picking-up MacHumans in the drive-through lane. This comes as a surprise to _not_the_audience_. Yet, as Russell jets off to find a faery-blood aquifer of his very own, the remaining Authority members stand around looking confused and fang-fallen. #DEJECTED
44:55, Warlow: Apparently he owns Sookie. Oh good, that means she’ll have someone to eat chinese with again soon.
From Jump, Crisis, Part Trois: All five True Blood plants are now destroyed. Seriously, we only built five of these things?
1:00, Takeout Time: With Bill and Eric under lockdown, it looks like this is as close to eating chinese as Sookie is going to get for a while.
1:30, Don't Bring a Gun to a Chopstick Fight: Sookie ices your friendly, neighborhood coroner with her takeout utensils after she inexplicably say yes to his [completely unsuspicious] request to enter her domicile during a period in which murder-by-vampire has increased by 50%. He tells her he’s come “about the body.” She then asks “what body?,” to which he responds “yours,” and proceeds to bite her. He should have said he’s come to ask “about her character arc,” and when she inevitably replies “what character arc?,” he could have said “exactly.”
3:50, In that case, allow me to say: FUCK ALL OF YOU. By my count, Molly is the only vampire at the Authority who hasn’t actually fucked everyone else at the Authority. Her devotion to rationality and abstinence likely stem from her prior involvements with Mormon and FBI institutions. I’ll be sad to see Molly go, but at least she got to go out Madonna style…
Also, does Russell Edgington seem more, or less, like the kind of vamp who would mind wearing something that resulted in a little nipple chaffing? (Choose your own adventure kids!).
5:50, What are you in the mood for?: I was thinking Greek. It is and isn’t what you think. More to come on - or maybe cum on (it is True Blood) - this later.
6:20, That cheeto-haired tramp: Hoyt and his mom discuss his moving out-of the house and to an oil-drilling job in Alaska, wherein she delivers what has to make the top five list of Hoyt’s-mom’s-all-time-best-insults regarding Jessica. Is there a top five list of Hoyt’s-mom’s-all-time-best-insults regarding anything? No, probably not. At least she didn’t have to sell half her doll collection for a bed she disapproves of.
7:12, Well fuck me he can count past five: Says Pam regarding new sheriff Marilyn Manson’s…err, Chris Angel’s…err, Elijah’s ability to count Fangtasia’s nightly haul. Frankly I’m more impressed by the fact that Tara can count that high given the Gus Fringe-inspired head trauma she experienced at the end of season four. Pam must have enrolled her in Fang Start.
They then discuss the installation of Blockbuster video booths in the bar, but Pam prefers to do things the old fashioned way.
9:25, Help Police!: Is it me or does the Lilith’s Blood/Container combo remind you more and more of something your great-grandmother might have taken-back-the-night with?
In other news, Bill and Nora can only keep Eric around for so long, but they can give him more of Lillith’s blood in an attempt to “save his soul” (in the True Blood universe, have all the vampires been cursed by gypsies?). Bill forces Lilith’s blood down Eric’s throat and Nora also takes a drop for herself (these guys sure know how to deplete a millennia-old, irreplaceable pint of sacred blood) in order that they might share a vision of Lilith. It turns out to be a touching reunion between a son, a daughter, a father and a throat-gorging decapitation…so that seems pretty much worth it.
13:25, 3,000age Dream: Russell and Newlin re-define the meaning of “It’s all Greek to me” as they slow dance to Katy Perry and discuss the merits of going solar. Meanwhile, it’s all death to the members of the Greek fraternity they're in, whose bodies lie scattered about dance room floor.
14:35, Lafayette’s Outfit: L!
16:25, We’ll live in the wind: Pam and Tara discuss the Authority’s new directive that 30 new “vampire babies” be created in Area 5 by the end of the year, or the Authority will take Pam’s property and progeny. Tara suggests naming their first two Draven and Layre. Pam - as should come to no one’s particular surprise - is totally cool with obeying orders handed down to her by a shady bureaucratic entity.
17:07, Glamorama: We found it folks - the first well-written, well-acted, emotionally compelling scene in True Blood series history. Ha-zah!
In this scene, between Hoyt, Jason, and Jessica, Hoyt lets his former best-friend and former love know he is moving to Alaska. And he doesn’t want a North Face parka for a going-away present. Instead, he wants Jessica to glamor away all memory of both herself and Jason - as he can no longer stand to constantly stew over the failed relationships with and intimacies between the two of them. He wishes for a truly new start and Jessica gives it to him promising that if he closes his eyes, counts to ten, and then opens them he will no longer remember either. They leave as he counts to ten (Jason welling-up and Jessica choking back [presumably] blood tears); when Hoyt finishes the count he calls for a waitress and a beer.
23:55, Sherlock Stackhouse: This episode of True Blood takes us once again on the ever revolving-door-ride of “Who is the Least Stupid Stackhouse Sibling?” This week’s winner: Jason. The week’s loser: every other Stackhouse relative in this wild, fictional world who asks themselves if this is finally the week to change their last name to Stouse.
In episode 7 of this season Sookie got a message from her Grams through “I ain’t gmail for dead bitches” Reynolds, telling her to “look under the bed” for information related to her parents’ murders. Sookie, being Sookie (or is that too intelligence-insulting a phrase even for her), only looks in a box under her bed. Jason has the keen idea to actually “look under the bed” - i.e. the mattress, the bed board, and the floor boards beneath the bed. Eureka - a strangely written document is found.
25:40, No One Cares: Sam and Luna continue to search for the location where Newlin is keeping Emma. I continue to not care.
27:40, Do Laugh - This Does Happen: The writers of True Blood continue to have no interest in writing dialogue that does not directly conflict with easily checked FACTS.
29:00, Sobotka Eats; LaFayette Wears a Different Headscarf: And scene!
30:35, As your maker I command you: Bill sends for Jessica to come spend some time at Camp Authorityland.
31:30, We Don't Have No Stinken' Secret Vampire Government: Wink, wink. See how clever and meta we True Blood writers can be? Oh wait, we wrote that dialogue at 27:40? Fuck.
33:00, And the Sansa Stark Gullibility Award Goes To: Anyone on the Authority who believed Eric’s speech regarding his new found love of Lilith. Runner-up goes to anyone who saw through Eric but failed to notice Nora’s very concerned there-is-no-way-I-believe-this face.
34:32, Two Boring Mice: Sam and Luna turn into mice and basically continue to accomplish nothing.
35:20, What Seems to Be the Problem Officer?: Oh, just the fact that I screwed your lady and ruined our friendship causing you to take an eraser pad to your mind. Have a good trip bro.
37:50, Vacation Lilith School: Bill expands upon his ability to combine creepy energy with uninteresting dialogue to explore new and wondrous achievements in least-interesting-supposedly-main-character-status.
40:25, I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no baby vampires: But Sherman is coming to burn Atlanta Tara (oh sweet double sarcastic shlock), and Miss Melanie needs you! And Elijah needs you too…to pretend that you killed a drifter and then chop his head off while he’s distracted by a silver blade through his shoulder. NO ONE FUCKS WITH US IN OUR HOUSE!
No one owns any clothes made post 1989 there either.
42:05, Two Briefcase-Escaping Mice: Sam and Luna escape Newlin’s briefcase only to do probably nothing much in the Authority’s lair.
42:25, Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows: Russell Edgington is generally proficient in _not_ sounding like someone who has a Southern drawl. In this episode he shows us that he is also _not_ proficient at imitating an ancient Celtic accent. But he does make up for it. He debuts his ability to mismatch these jarringly incorrect accents between sentences, and even in between words, during the course of a lovely tirade that caps off the Authority storyline for this episode.
In this tirade, Russell finally lets the council know that he doesn’t care about their dumb, jam-covered goddess. He has pretty much just wanted to eat humans with impunity from the beginning, but needed to hide behind the sanguinista movement until it was too late for progressive vampires or humans to stop the vampire tide of picking-up MacHumans in the drive-through lane. This comes as a surprise to _not_the_audience_. Yet, as Russell jets off to find a faery-blood aquifer of his very own, the remaining Authority members stand around looking confused and fang-fallen. #DEJECTED
44:55, Warlow: Apparently he owns Sookie. Oh good, that means she’ll have someone to eat chinese with again soon.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The greatest books...
Have and will continue to occupy the top two tiers of my bookshelf. The first tier belongs to Ayn Rand and a certain series of graphic novels by a Japanese author. It's a weird dichotomy, but they are both woman warriors in their way. And both changed my life.
The second shelf features Rushdie, Eco, Austin (I'm a girl afterall), Steinbeck, Garcia Marquez, Capote, Waugh, Kingston, Golden, Ellis, Orwell, Milton, Simmons, Montgomery, Carroll, and Alighieri. If you haven't read The Satanic Verses, Pale Fire, The Name of the Rose, The Fountainhead or East of Eden I don't want to know you. The others you can get away with...but they're still good.
The second shelf features Rushdie, Eco, Austin (I'm a girl afterall), Steinbeck, Garcia Marquez, Capote, Waugh, Kingston, Golden, Ellis, Orwell, Milton, Simmons, Montgomery, Carroll, and Alighieri. If you haven't read The Satanic Verses, Pale Fire, The Name of the Rose, The Fountainhead or East of Eden I don't want to know you. The others you can get away with...but they're still good.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
La cuisine
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Life's little silver linings:
My favorite verse by Pushkin:
'Tis time my dear, 'tis time. The heart demands repose.
Day after day flits by, and with each hour there goes
A little of life; but meanwhile you and I
Together plan to dwell . . . yet lo! 'tis then we die.
There is no bliss on earth: there's yet peace and freedom, though.
An enviable lot I long have yearned to know:
Long have I, weary slave, been contemplating flight
To a remote abode of work and pure delight.
Day after day flits by, and with each hour there goes
A little of life; but meanwhile you and I
Together plan to dwell . . . yet lo! 'tis then we die.
There is no bliss on earth: there's yet peace and freedom, though.
An enviable lot I long have yearned to know:
Long have I, weary slave, been contemplating flight
To a remote abode of work and pure delight.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Sometimes love don't feel like it should
The composition in this photo could have been better, but I really like the clarity I got in the foreground and how it nicely fades to a blur in the background. I think you get a good sense of the sharpness of the cactus's spines...better to see than to touch, in this case. This image was taken outside of Tucson, AZ in April 2009. There are a lot of photogenic cacti, mountains, flowers, vistas, etc. outside of Tucson - and the city takes a lot of pride in keeping them that way.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Je l'ai voulu
Wanting of,
But not wanted.
Pretending, we are egoists.
On this we pride ourselves.
Kept you from me,
Kept me fleetingly safe,
Kept inside, insipid heartache.
But, me alone, still I am.
Me the one who lies at night.
Me, unloved, who seeks love.
Who wants for the sake of wanting.
Out of boredom,
Out of custom?
Perhaps boredom after all.
Or perhaps misunderstanding:
Of self,
Of time,
Of grace.
One last piece missing?
Still incomplete the puzzle-picture.
Obscured until now,
A chaotic understanding.
I have not done all asked,
I have not been all thought,
Yet, I believed having found you,
To complete all I 'ere sought.
And having it all?
And having you?
Lovely, the constructs faded -
Leaving only a pretty ruse.
But not wanted.
Pretending, we are egoists.
On this we pride ourselves.
Kept you from me,
Kept me fleetingly safe,
Kept inside, insipid heartache.
But, me alone, still I am.
Me the one who lies at night.
Me, unloved, who seeks love.
Who wants for the sake of wanting.
Out of boredom,
Out of custom?
Perhaps boredom after all.
Or perhaps misunderstanding:
Of self,
Of time,
Of grace.
One last piece missing?
Still incomplete the puzzle-picture.
Obscured until now,
A chaotic understanding.
I have not done all asked,
I have not been all thought,
Yet, I believed having found you,
To complete all I 'ere sought.
And having it all?
And having you?
Lovely, the constructs faded -
Leaving only a pretty ruse.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Submachine
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
A Reliable Wife - A Review
For lovers of gothic tales such as Wuthering Heights or The Woman in White...or even the modern The Thirteenth Tale...this book is not for you. Very little happens over the course of its 300 pages. In fact, it could probably have easily been written in 100 pages - as far as plot elements go. I can actually do it in a few sentences.
[SPOILER WARNING]: A mail-order-bride arrives in a small Wisconsin town hoping to poison her soon-to-be-husband in the hopes of inheriting all of his wealth, because she is secretly sleeping with his estranged, handsome son. Eventually, however, she decides she loves her new husband and wants to have the child of his with which she has become pregnant. The estranged son then rapes her over this change of heart and is beaten by the father to the point of almost death, leading him to accidentally collapse into an icy Wisconsin lake and die. The end. [Side note: the father new all along she was at first lovers and in-cohoots with the son.]
Yawn.
The rest of novel is filled with language describing what pretends to be the serious personal-conflicts and inner-turmoils of the main characters. But, it isn't. It's just filled with pretentious, uninteresting and unrealistic drivel. There are a ton of good modern gothic romances out there - this is just not one of them. Spend your money elsewhere.
[SPOILER WARNING]: A mail-order-bride arrives in a small Wisconsin town hoping to poison her soon-to-be-husband in the hopes of inheriting all of his wealth, because she is secretly sleeping with his estranged, handsome son. Eventually, however, she decides she loves her new husband and wants to have the child of his with which she has become pregnant. The estranged son then rapes her over this change of heart and is beaten by the father to the point of almost death, leading him to accidentally collapse into an icy Wisconsin lake and die. The end. [Side note: the father new all along she was at first lovers and in-cohoots with the son.]
Yawn.
The rest of novel is filled with language describing what pretends to be the serious personal-conflicts and inner-turmoils of the main characters. But, it isn't. It's just filled with pretentious, uninteresting and unrealistic drivel. There are a ton of good modern gothic romances out there - this is just not one of them. Spend your money elsewhere.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Digitally Defined
I've driven across the country twice now - this picture was taken sometime in September 2003 (the first trip). The photo was taken in Yellowstone National Park at Mammoth Springs. I was less into photography then (and I had a pretty poor excuse for a camera), but I've always been pleased with it. The image seems to envelop me in its dream-like landscape and I feel the spring's mist warm and damp on my skin. For me, it evokes wistfulness, loss, sadness and/or the insubstantial - depending on the day, that is.
Monday, August 9, 2010
The Forgotten Garden - A Review
This isn't a bad novel. It's readable and salacious with plot twists and jumps in time...the problem is, that if you've read The Thirteenth Tale (which was published first) you can basically predict the entire story because they are basically the same book. I'm not saying this was done intentionally, it's just that the similarities are strong.
My case [SPOILER]: A young woman investigates the past of an elderly woman only to discover a history of unknown/unclear identity. Said young woman travels to a lonely town in England to investigate a mysterious house and legacy. Young woman discovers that an elderly woman once had a sibling that died tragically. Young woman discovers that elderly woman is the descendant of a wealthy aristocrat and a poorer woman. Somehow this all ties into one of the character's ability to tell and create stories. Siblings are involved. Incest is involved. Death at an early age, soon after one of the characters becomes a mother is involved. Did I mention the secret garden/area that is supposed to be off-limits? I didn't? Well, that's the same don't-go-there plot twist too.
Like The Thirteenth Tale, this is a good stab at modern gothic romance...it's just that it's pretty much the same stab. If you can ignore that - read on. I just couldn't, and it kind of annoyed me the whole way through the novel.
My case [SPOILER]: A young woman investigates the past of an elderly woman only to discover a history of unknown/unclear identity. Said young woman travels to a lonely town in England to investigate a mysterious house and legacy. Young woman discovers that an elderly woman once had a sibling that died tragically. Young woman discovers that elderly woman is the descendant of a wealthy aristocrat and a poorer woman. Somehow this all ties into one of the character's ability to tell and create stories. Siblings are involved. Incest is involved. Death at an early age, soon after one of the characters becomes a mother is involved. Did I mention the secret garden/area that is supposed to be off-limits? I didn't? Well, that's the same don't-go-there plot twist too.
Like The Thirteenth Tale, this is a good stab at modern gothic romance...it's just that it's pretty much the same stab. If you can ignore that - read on. I just couldn't, and it kind of annoyed me the whole way through the novel.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Definitions
Gnostical: possessing knowledge, esp. esoteric knowledge of spiritual matters.
Turpitude: vile, shameful, or base character; depravity.
So, then what? A metaphysical knowledge of depravity? Of one's own depravity or of the world's? Of both?
Maybe.
The title for this blog is taken from Nabokov's novel "Invitation to a Beheading," (False Azure was already taken) wherein the main character is charged with the crime of...gnostical turpitude. What this crime actually constitutes, is left largely to the reader's best estimation. Perhaps it is the quality of one who has a depraved disregard for matter; or who gives off the impression of a lone, dark obstacle in a world of transparent souls; or who, simply, has a "certain peculiarity."
It is either one's own disregard for the substance of life, or life's disregard for the substance of oneself - either way, I'm trying to stop disregarding and being disgarded.
I'm not sure what I will do in this space...only that I need to do something...even a virtual something.
Turpitude: vile, shameful, or base character; depravity.
So, then what? A metaphysical knowledge of depravity? Of one's own depravity or of the world's? Of both?
Maybe.
The title for this blog is taken from Nabokov's novel "Invitation to a Beheading," (False Azure was already taken) wherein the main character is charged with the crime of...gnostical turpitude. What this crime actually constitutes, is left largely to the reader's best estimation. Perhaps it is the quality of one who has a depraved disregard for matter; or who gives off the impression of a lone, dark obstacle in a world of transparent souls; or who, simply, has a "certain peculiarity."
It is either one's own disregard for the substance of life, or life's disregard for the substance of oneself - either way, I'm trying to stop disregarding and being disgarded.
I'm not sure what I will do in this space...only that I need to do something...even a virtual something.
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