August 15, 2008

Talk of the Nation's Science Friday represents all that is good and right about the world.

I have really missed NPR these past eleven months.
August 5, 2008

We had stopped at a gas station, under the sign of Pegasus, and she had slipped out of her seat and escaped to the rear of the premises while the raised hood, under which I had bent to watch the mechanic’s manipulations, hid her for a moment from my sight. Being inclined to be lenient, I only shook my benign head though strictly speaking such visits were taboo, since I felt instinctively that toilets- as also telephones- happened to be, for reasons unfathomable, the points where my destiny was liable to catch. We all have such fateful objects- it may be a recurrent landscape in one case, a number in another- carefully chosen by the gods to attract events of special significance for us: here shall John always stumble; there shall Jane’s heart always break.

[Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita]

“The only good thing about falling down is how much pleasure it brings other people.”

[More Nico Muhly, here.]

“Is there anything more heart-rending than seeing somebody walking a dog, and the dog is carrying the leash in his mouth? I feel like that moment operates on a variety of different levels, but the one most touching to me is the dog taking an implicit command of his confinement. My experience, though, is that dogs who have this habit are happiest not to run away with the keys to prison, but to happily trot on with a sense of pride. I like it.”

Nico Muhly, here.

Once i saw a man walking a beagle in my neighborhood. When the man stopped at a café to have a drink, he parked the beagle on the sidewalk next to a tree, folded the end of the leather leash and placed it on the beagle’s nose. I was passing right as this happened, but at the next corner i looked back, and the beagle was still sitting there, facing the café, balancing his leash on his nose. It made me a little sad.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Caetano Veloso - “Billie Jean/ Eleanor Rigby”

Strangely enough, “Billie Jean” seems to be my brain’s go-to song when i’m humming or whistling unconsciously.  I think this cover is lovely.

August 4, 2008
Eighty-four degrees at two o’clock in the morning.  The forecast for tomorrow includes four hours of sitting by the swimming pool, three cold showers, two bottles of lemonade consumed by midday, and a wicked case of heat rash.
Eighty-four degrees at two o’clock in the morning.  The forecast for tomorrow includes four hours of sitting by the swimming pool, three cold showers, two bottles of lemonade consumed by midday, and a wicked case of heat rash.
July 26, 2008

“Hello, we’re talking about language!”

[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]

July 24, 2008

“Yes, man is mortal, but that would be only half the trouble.  The worst of it is that he’s sometimes unexpectedly mortal- there’s the trick!”

The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov

Look what was in my inbox today. Simultaneously the best and creepiest email i’ve ever received.  I haven’t a clue who this person is.
Look what was in my inbox today. Simultaneously the best and creepiest email i’ve ever received.  I haven’t a clue who this person is.
July 21, 2008

Jenny- Flight of the Conchords

[I recently made the mistake of mentioning in a conversation with a Kiwi friend that i didn’t know about Flight of the Conchords.  He was appalled, and insisted that i go watch all of the Flight of the Conchords videos on YouTube RIGHT NOW.  And so i did, and i admit they’re pretty brilliant.  This clip is worth the seven minutes.]

July 20, 2008
I stuck my head out the window this afternoon, and was met with an unexpected thing: complete silence.  It is so hot, and the sun so fierce (i can feel myself burn, as if i’d touched something metal fresh from the oven), that the people completely clear the streets in the middle of the day.  It’s really quite eerie- i’ve never not heard shouting, sirens, car horns, children, radios, etc.  Just a million air conditioning units, all humming the same note. (For the record, i don’t have air conditioning.  I’m coping the old-fashioned way, by taking off all of my clothes and developing a bottle-a-day lemonade habit.)

I stuck my head out the window this afternoon, and was met with an unexpected thing: complete silence.  It is so hot, and the sun so fierce (i can feel myself burn, as if i’d touched something metal fresh from the oven), that the people completely clear the streets in the middle of the day.  It’s really quite eerie- i’ve never not heard shouting, sirens, car horns, children, radios, etc.  Just a million air conditioning units, all humming the same note.

(For the record, i don’t have air conditioning.  I’m coping the old-fashioned way, by taking off all of my clothes and developing a bottle-a-day lemonade habit.)

The public library branch closest to my house is full of these chairs, which are apparently famous (at least according to this person on Flickr, whence came the picture).  I had no idea i was sitting on a piece of furniture art until i stumbled across that photo on FFFFOUND!.  Unfortunately, it’s a pretty uncomfortable chair- the seat is angled steeply towards the back, which makes standing up a ridiculous-looking maneuver, at best.
The public library branch closest to my house is full of these chairs, which are apparently famous (at least according to this person on Flickr, whence came the picture).  I had no idea i was sitting on a piece of furniture art until i stumbled across that photo on FFFFOUND!.  Unfortunately, it’s a pretty uncomfortable chair- the seat is angled steeply towards the back, which makes standing up a ridiculous-looking maneuver, at best.
July 19, 2008

A series of wildly improbable events.

A ten-word review of The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton:

Enough deus ex machinas to choke a horse.  That’s all.

July 18, 2008
Simon’s Cat.  Perfect, except that the cat would immediately want to go back outside again.  (I’m looking at you, Guinness.)
July 17, 2008
Evelyn McHale, here. [Via FFFFOUND!]

Evelyn McHale, here.

[Via FFFFOUND!]