The Poindextress

London Reading List

2011-12-16T00:06:00.000-08:00

I read a lot of books while I was in London for four months. Here they are.

The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje (I love his imagery.)
The Eyre Affair- Jasper Fforde (Very fun book, going to try others in the series when I can)
Slaughterhouse Five- Kurt Vonnegut (Oh Vonnegut.)
Breakfast of Champions- Kurt Vonnegut (So full of beautiful sentences and kind cruelties.)
The Cinnamon Peeler- Michael Ondaatje (The book that made me start writing poetry again)
Cloud Atlas- David Mitchell (Toes the line of too much wink-nudge and won me over anyway)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles- Thomas Hardy (So much more depressing than I remember.)
Demons in the Spring- Joe Meno (Still my favorite collection of short stories possibly ever)
The Little Prince- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (In french and english. Adorable.)
Maus- Art Spiegelman (Yeah, I'd never read it before. So glad I finally did.)
Candide- Voltaire (Funny. Anachronistically, uproariously, wisely, unpretentiously funny)
Habibi- Craig Thompson (Can that guy DRAW or what?! So many lush pages.)
Art and Life- John Ruskin (So began my induction to the cult of the pre-raphaelites)
Oblivion- David Foster Wallace (Insanely talented writer.)
How We Are Hungry- Dave Eggers (Also dang good, but a little too winky/desperate at times)
The Lamp of Memory- John Ruskin (More Ruskin genius)
Stepford Wives- Ira Levin (Short, but chilling and very slickly written)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius- Dave Eggers (Entertaining and ANNOYING.)
Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugenedies (A gripping read but also kind of heavy-handed and clumsy.)
The Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot (Dude was a genius.)
The Road- Cormac McCarthy (Grim and oh so pretty.)
All the Pretty Horses- Cormac McCarthy (Not as grim, but beaauuutiful.)
Letters to a Young Poet- Ranier Maria Rilke (Basic life truths from a thoughtful poet.)

I've also started Gilead by Marilynne Robison and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John LeCarre. I'm going on a cruise with my family next week and have decided to try and read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace while I'm on the boat. We'll see how that goes.

What a dream.

2011-10-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

Just some things Tom Waits said about his wife.

"We've been married for eight years (in 1988) and we're partners. Kalhleen's a great collaborator She's quick - she can catch a bullet in her teeth. She has a pet snake, reads The Wall Street Journal, has a '64 Caddy, and loves periodicals. She's from Johnsburgh. Illinois; that's the last place you can get margarine before you cross the Wisconsin border. No one makes me laugh like Kathleen. She got me listening to Frankie Laine, Rachmaninoff, and John McCormick. We write together, and she wants to do a two-character drama about a singer and his giant bald-headed limo driver who has a US Road Atlas tattooed on his head, wherever he itches his head that's where they play next. She's great in emergencies and she's brutally honest. Her own writing - her stories - is strange, bizarre and wonderful. Tragic and very Irish. She's real black Irish. Kathleen has a great sense of story and of the architecture of a story. I have a tendency to go back over familiar ground, and she's much more of a pioneer."

"Who wrote the Mule Variations songs? TW: My wife Kathleen and I collaborated on just about all of them. Of the sixteen songs that are now on the record, we wrote ten or eleven together. We've been working together since Swordfish... I'm the prospector, she's the cook. She says, "you bring it home, I'll cook it up." I think we sharpen each other like knives. She has a fearless imagination. She writes lyrics that are like dreams. And she puts the heart into all things. She's my true love. There's no one I trust more with music, or life. And she's got great rhythm, and finds melodies that are so intriguing and strange. Most of the significant changes I went through musically and as a person began when we met. She's the person by which I measure all others. She's who you want with you in a foxhole. She doesn't like the limelight, but she is an incandescent presence on everything we work on together."

"I trust her opinion above all else. You've gotta have somebody to trust, that knows a lot. She's done a lot of things. I'm Ingrid Bergman and she's Bogart. She's got a pilot's license, and she was gonna be a nun before we got married. I put an end to that. She knows about everything from motorcycle repair to high finance, and she's an excellent pianist. One of the leading authorities on the African violet. She's a lot of strong material. She's like Superwoman, standing there with her cape flapping. It works. We've been at this for some time now. Sometimes you quarrel, and it's the result of irritation, and sometimes it comes out of the ground like a potato and we marvel at it. She doesn't like the spotlight. She's a very private person, as opposed to myself"

I want to be that kind of woman someday.

If you haven't listened to his first album in 7 years, get on it. Bad As Me. It's great.

Bookshelf update

2011-06-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

Books I have read/listened to since last I posted. One sentence reviews.

The Book Thief- Markus Zusak

Wonderfully descriptive, explores WWII from a unique perspective, and you learn mild German swear words along the way.

Cosmopolis- Don DeLillo

Don DeLillo's a great, lyrical writer, but I found this book a little -too- disaffected.

Against The Day- Thomas Pynchon

This book was hugely overlong sprawling hilarious genre-mashing mess and I loved it.

House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski

This book is terrifying and also deeply, deeply romantic- a must-read.

The Age of Innocence- Edith Wharton

This story really resonated with me despite its being written in the style of a much more boring Oscar Wilde.

Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger

So much more relatable than I remember it being when I was ten.

I'm currently working on Atonement by Ian McEwan and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.

Reroute

2011-06-03T00:37:00.000-07:00

Cleaning out old images on my hard drive.

Trailerspotting

2011-06-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

New or newish trailers presented without necessary endorsement.

Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Don't know that I'll see it (those books!), but it looks terribly stylish and that Karen O/Trent Reznor cover of Immigrant Song is pretty powerful.

X-Men First Class. I'm bored of superhero movies, but this one might be worth seeing for all that WWII imagery (Same with Captain America.)

Adventures of Tintin. I love Tintin but 3D mocap gives me the wig.

Tree of Life. Of course I want to see this movie. It looks beautifully shot and overly preachy. I'm a pretentious art kid. Match made in heaven.

Music for Clouds

2011-06-01T23:57:00.000-07:00

A playlist of songs that make me feel like I do when it's raining.

It's been raining a LOT lately.

Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL - Sufjan Stevens
Someone You'd Admire - Fleet Foxes
Brackett WI - Bon Iver
Leave (Live) - The Swell Season
Chandeliers - Sleeping At Last
My Body Is A Cage - Arcade Fire
Anywhere I Lay My Head - Tom Waits
Lemonworld - The National
Train Song - Feist and Ben Gibbard
Vivid - Greg Brown
Romulus - Sufjan Stevens
Mouthwings - Mountain Man
Go Long- Joanna Newsom

Explanation.

2011-05-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering.

Here is what I've been doing.

Building dinosaurs

Framing art

Trips to Salt Lake

Teaching a drawing class

Having a boyfriend (!?)

House of Leaves

Against the Day

Friends' band practices

100 block art projects

Cooking with friends

Sons of Anarchy

Game of Thrones

Sewing jobs

Sunday afternoon teas

Planning the Eurojaunt

Not spending much time online

If that explains it.

untitled

2011-05-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

Old song-poem, trying to rhyme, failing on several fronts.

He whispered that night when he kissed you at last

Forgive me my dear for this small trespass

I fear for this role you have been poorly cast
Your lips may be steel but your ribs are blown glass

He treasured the smile on your shattering face

On your skin of tatterdemalion lace

And all of your flattering helpless grace
Was semaphore-patterned, hope cast into space

I need to post here more. Not things this irrelevant, though.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

The Lanyard by Billy Collins.

This pretty much explains it all. Chuck Palahniuk once wrote "Your folks are like God because you want to know they're out there and you want them to approve of your life, still you only call them when you're in a crisis and need something.” Forget that noise! I'm going to try to give more back to my mom in the next year. Well, here's hoping that I can someday be as awe-inspiring as the lady that raised me. Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

My friends make music.

2011-05-04T01:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some of them.

Cody Rigby is starting to work with an expanded band, and is writing some really fantastic new stuff with them- very uptempo 60's inspired stuff. He's also a great cook, personal stylist, pixel artist, and all-around witty guy. Go to his website and listen to "Calling Out My Name" (you definitely won't regret it). Heckuva songwriter.

Adam Hochhalter is Apt. Rap as a genre doesn't usually appeal to me, but Apt writes some pretty fantastic, complex stuff. It's more poetry than anything else I could compare it to. His performances are steadily gaining steam in the form of swagger, and I fully expect (DEMAND, ADAM) great things to come from and happen to him in the near future.

Scott Shepard, Ciera Black (not video'd, boo), and Emily Brown make up Book on Tape Worm. I know I never seem to shut up about these guys, but their music has firmly lodged itself somewhere in the region of my left ventricle. I love it, and them, to the very bottom of said shriveled little heart. They're in the process of recording their first album right now- if you'd like to contribute, head over thisaway. I can't stress enough how much this music needs to exist in a material form.

Brandon Robbins and Mark Garbett make this transcendent sound-stuff under the new name "The Moth & the Flame" (formerly Norther). I don't know that I can describe how beautiful this sounds in person. Expect an album from them soon (never soon enough).

Oh, how do I start with Emily Brown? She's a sweetheart with a golden voice and a taste for fine literature and fine songwriting. Her newly-released album, This Goes With Us, is selling like hotcakes (and for good reason). You should really be listening to it all day every day. She's coming to London with me in the fall, and you'd better bet we're going to figure out a way to do a mini-international tour. She's playing a few ditties to open for The Madison Arm and Fictionist at this free show this weekend. If you're near Provo, you should be there.

More friends with insane talent levels:

Neon Trees

Cory Mon & The Starlight Gospel

And, while I don't know them personally, you should do your best to help get Fictionist on the cover of Rolling Stone. If you're not convinced, come see them play a free show at the aforementioned Rooftop Concert Series this Friday!

Wishful Thinking

2011-05-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

I wish it were spring. All I want is to lie on the grass in the park and read a book.

Word Wednesday: Part Sixteen

2011-04-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

Out Loud edition.

Words that sound good when spoken aloud.

catamaran (kat-uh-muh-RAN) noun- A boat with two parallel hulls, joined by a frame, or a quarrelsome person, especially a woman.

stentorian (sten-TOR-ee-uhn) adjective- Loud and powerful. In Greek mythology, Stentor was a herald in the Trojan War and noted for his loud voice. In the Iliad, Homer described his voice to be equal to the voices of fifty men. He was put to death after his defeat by Hermes in a shouting contest.

orchidaceous (or-ki-DAY-shuhs) adjective- Of or relating to orchids, or Showy.

diaphanous (dy-AF-uh-nuhs) adjective- Transparent, light, or delicate, Vague or hazy.

legerdemain (lej-er-duh-MAYN) noun- Sleight of hand, a display of skill.

savant (sa-vahnt) noun- a person of profound or extensive learning; learned scholar.

vitrine (vih-TREEN) noun- a glass showcase or cabinet especially for displaying fine wares or specimens

A story

2011-04-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

I just finished finals last night at ten, and then slept for fourteen straight hours. I woke up, read one chapter of House of Leaves, and decided I'd better write this short story before I fell into it entirely. I used to write short stories a lot, but now I'm terribly out of practice.

(blatantly derivative of Joe Meno, whose book Demons in the Spring is a new favorite. Warning: one of the reasons I love his stories was for their lack of resolution)

.......

You meet her on a blind date, in one of those mid-size mid-range restaurants that everyone in this city seems to love and be bored by. You are bored yourself, which is why when your friend gave you a scrap of paper that his new wife quietly pressed in his palm that morning, you called the number written on it. "I've met her" he said, "She's a great girl." Understanding this to mean that she is ugly, you listened to the ringing on the end of the line, half-hoping there would be no answer. A voice did come through, unexpectedly low and soft, and although you can't remember now what she said in that ten-minute conversation, you do remember your mental image of her fading to nothing. You decided to meet here, tonight; a week-night, because blind dates don't mean anything, because they don't warrant having to make a reservation somewhere you don't really want to eat.

You meet her, and you decide wrongly that she is exactly what you expected- tall and quietly pretty, her thick brown hair cut in a fringe and falling loosely over her shoulders. She looks like a girl that once had gawky arms and awkward knees, that grew into herself later than most. She looks like a girl that now sits silently behind a desk at an office or art gallery, her ankles crossed demurely, staring wide-eyed at nothing with a pencil between her teeth. This is what you think as you pull out her chair for her, as you unfold the silverware from your napkin, as you apologize for your lateness. This is why, when she tucks a fall of hair behind her ear and a wren peeks out, you are not startled. When a starling cocks its head at the menu from the curtain of her fringe, you understand that it is the most natural thing in the world for this girl to have birds in her hair.

She notices you watching the chickadee nesting at her temple and smiles crookedly, her pale grey eyes large with an unspoken apology. She explains that the first sparrows hatched when she was thirteen, that they would swoop away at the sight of a brush or comb, only to return once her locks were smooth and shining. Turbans and hats would be pulled to ragged pieces for nests. Cardinals would preen at her crown no matter how short a cut she'd get. When she moved to the city after college, the flock drawn to her hair were the only birds she would see for months at a time. Eventually (she tells you while stirring the limp salad with her fork) she learned to like the company. She asks you, her small square chin set determinedly, to talk about yourself.

You want to ask her if fat grey seagulls gently untangle her salt-stiffened hair as she lies on the beach, but you describe instead your childhood in coastal Oregon, speaking softly of tide pools and thick yellow slugs on fallen trees. You want to hear if, in high school, hummingbirds would dart and flicker with the mercurial passions of a teenage girl, but you talk about your youthful dreams of being a great photographer. You want to know if the small warm bodies of larks and orioles help to calm her through bad dreams, but instead you tell her about your short career as a hotel pianist and your graphic design degree. You ask her about her favorite art, film, music- when all you want is to watch the finch that pecks gently at the single dark mole on her long white neck.

Your food comes and goes, and exactly as you decide she is the most beautiful woman you have ever met, she absolutely insists on splitting the bill. She says suddenly that it is very nice to have met you, handing the waiter her credit card with a smile, a bluebird drowsily settling itself at the hollow of her throat. She tells you in an unexpected burst of city-girl psychobabble that she just went through a terrible breakup , that she doesn't feel emotionally centered enough to date just now. This makes you wonder if a whippoorwill has been singing her to sleep each night. Taking her hand, you ask her to call you if she changes her mind. She agrees sincerely, clear eyes looking straight into yours, and says she really must catch her train. As she strides confidently away, a swallow looks back at you, alertly perched in the heavy sway of tresses at the small of her back. You know you will never see her again. When you sleep that night, you dream of the girl. You stand on the cold, cloudy beach and watch her sweep over the sea on the back of an albatross, wind and salt spray licking at her bare ankles. She laughs, and a V of geese follows the dark ribbon of her hair as it vanishes over the waves.

Be a nice guy, not a "nice guy"

2011-04-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

I read this recently and although I don't agree with everything the author is saying, I think there are a couple points of his on which I would like to extrapolate. This is mostly because the number one thing I hear from both genders here in Happy Valley is a variation on this old song- "I'm a nice person. Why aren't other nice people ever interested in me? Why did they turn me down only to date that jerk/skank?" I've had this conversation so many times that I figure I'd rather write it all down and save myself the trouble of repeating it ad nauseam. I'm as guilty of this routine as the next repressed Mormon with a social circle of also-Mormons, but all I can readily do is speak for myself. I have been called on many occasions- to put it mildly- "opinionated". Feel free to be offended or to disagree with me in the comments section- after all, I'm only speaking from my own (admittedly limited) personal experience. I'll endeavor to be honest, and only self-edit for my mom's sake. If you aren't single, or don't live in Provo, I don't know that you should bother reading this.

Personal experience time.

The guys that ask me out, that do the active pursuing around here- they do catch my attention. Of course it's flattering to be pursued. But time and again they end up being emotionally manipulative, closeminded, thoughtless, shallow, or otherwise the stereotypical "jerk". It's exciting for maybe two dates, and then I realize that the person sitting across the table from me is only interested in two things- whatever they can get from me, and the sound of their own voice. I don't have the patience for that. In the immortal words of Garfunkel and Oates (look it up), "My self-esteem's not low enough to date (them)." Those relationships don't last very long, and the guy ends up moving on to the next pretty little thing without much emotional turmoil.

When I'm interested in a "nice guy" here in Provo, it turns into a months-long circular non-flirtation that leads to absolutely nothing. They can't decide whether or not it's worth it to them to actually ask me on a date. In a best case scenario, it becomes a great, mutually-beneficial platonic friendship. Worst case? It's a waste of both our time and I end up feeling embarrassed for cathecting so wholeheartedly. These "nice guys" (whether consciously or not) can keep me on an emotional string for months at a time before I get fed up with their indecision. More about that particular plague later.

I'm not putting all of the problems here on the men, mind you. I'm just speaking from personal experience and I'm strictly heterosexual so I'm afraid I can't give much of the opposing view. Anyway, I think most of the advice in the article I'm about to quote works for people of sound mind in both genders, especially because it focuses on the self- the only factor we can actually control. So, why do nice people finish last? Let's have a look, shall we?

Ask yourself this question: All these nice, thoughtful things you do for women you have crushes on, do you do them for all of your friends? Do you remember everyone’s favorite pizza topping? Listen to them complain about work? Tell them when you see something neat on ThinkGeek that you think they’d like? Getting extra attention from someone who’s generally nice is flattering. Sitting under the laserlike niceness focus of someone who’s usually oblivious is actually pretty unnerving.

I really liked this idea. The "jerks/skanks" of the world do none of these things. The self-proclaimed "nice guys" do these things only for the object of their affection. Truly nice people are inherently kind, patient, and thoughtful. Maybe that's you, maybe it isn't. Genuineness reads as thoughtfulness reads as attractive. So say you are a genuinely nice person. What does that mean?

For some reason, you think “nice” means “completely devoid of sexual energy.” When you’re attracted to someone, you treat her like you’re her brother. Her brother the priest. Her brother the elderly Victorian priest who is actually a large stuffed animal. Then when some guy comes along and does a little thoughtful flirting and actually gets her attention, you think “Man, that guy’s a jerkface.”

Hello Provo. Do I need to add too much to this? There's being a gentleman/lady and then there's being totally incapable of expressing your interest. It's not easy for most of us to read the opposite gender. Make your intentions known! The thing about "bad boys/girls" that captures the interest is their transparency. They know exactly what they want and make no pretense about it. I'm not recommending that, mind you. I'm recommending everyone shoot for... translucency, maybe. Let the person you are interested in know that you find them attractive and/or interesting. People like to feel attractive and/or interesting. It honestly doesn't make you as vulnerable as it feels like it does. What it does is give the person you're interested in a clear idea of your intentions. None of that will they/won't they nonsense promulgated by romantic comedies. Straightforwardness reads as security reads as attractive.

On to the third and last point on which I will pontificate. This is the problem that plauges Provo. INDECISION. There are so many attractive twentysomethings in this town that none of them end up dating each other. The options are too open. Say Provo is a restaurant. (Not too much of a stretch, considering all the "ward menus") The "jerks/skanks" are gluttonous buffet patrons- dishing up bits and pieces of everything without getting to savor any particular flavor. The "nice guys" stare a the menu for twenty minutes and end up either going hungry or reluctantly ordering the same thing they had last time. Don't be paralyzed by the multitude of choices. Make your decision- whether through prayer, opportunity, or gut intuition, but don't play all sides at once. If you want a rich, fulfilling meal or relationship, you have to ask for just that. You can't put seven different dishes on your plate. This metaphor is getting out of control, but the point is this- we're a generation riddled with the triple threat of introspection, insecurity, and indecision. Decisiveness reads as confidence reads as attractive.

Yeah fellows, there are crazy cheating lying messed up girls out there, but for the most part a lady around here will go out with you at least once if you express your interest. And if we don't, It's probably not intended as a personal slight. Men, picture this: a chubby, homely, very very very nice lady friend of yours asks you out. Would you reject her right off the bat? How many excuses would you make? How many dates would it take before you said something like "You're a great friend" or "You're like my little sister." Both clear messages and things no girl wants to hear, and the sort of thing we find ourselves having to say all the time. Rejection sucks, but it goes both ways. C'est la Vie.

I propose that we stop saying "You're a nice guy, but..." just to soften the blow. It lessens the value of being a "nice guy", and we could really use more of those around. Eventually being the right kind of nice guy (or girl)- Genuine, straightforward, decisive- will serve you well. Or at least, I choose to believe it will.

Disagree away.

New Work

2011-04-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

Poorly shot. I need to get this stuff photographed by someone who knows what they're doing.

This is an encaustic-on-wood piece that's meant to be arranged like a catholic shrine... in a shape similar to a mandala. I'm in the process of framing this piece right now and it'll look much more polished when each of the 51 panels are in their right place.

Detail shot. (I'm not all that happy with the next three. Word of warning.)

Oil and encaustic on wood- this piece is the result of thinking about funerary rites in hominid cultures... and blatantly ripping off Mantegna, of course.

A Pieta. Mother Chimpanzees often carry their infants' bodies around weeks after death.

Haha. This one's dumb. The annunciation to Galileo, father of science. Based on Fra Angelico, if the angel were a telescope.

On the left you have the original twelve disciples as they are canonically depicted, and on the right you have twelve famous evolutionary biologists. The beards are not dissimilar.

I do a lot of scientific imagery depicted in a religious, semiacademic style, so I thought I'd do the opposite- a big loosely drawn chart of a religious ritual.

I was reading about Lazarus Taxons- species that are only known from fossil records, or are otherwise thought extinct and then are rediscovered as living animals and plants... So I thought I'd do a piece on resurrection. These are lazarus taxons and "living fossils" painted in oil on panels, then covered in a layer of wax and gauze- kind of preserving or mummifying them. The image in the middle is the stone of the sepulchre.

Detail shot.

Deeeetail shot.

This is a Lucy-as-Madonna icon painting. Thought it would be interesting to do a predella with depictions of her excavation. The circular panels in the top are portraits of two of Lucy's discoverers. Oil on panel. (This photograph is especially horrible. This is my biggest painting so it's hard to shoot.)

Monkey puzzle tree, a "living fossil" species. Oil on panel.

Candles formed into the shape of teeth.

Cheap storebought candles, carefully heated, sculpted, and carved, then dipped in a beeswax/resin mixture.

They took a while. I like the idea of a tooth (the longest-lasting, toughest thing in the body) being made from a soft, impermanent, expendable material like wax.

I need to elaborate on the idea of a catholic votive. I also need to make more scientific diagrams. And take better photos of this stuff. Anyone know a good painting photographer? This is more than my terrible grainy little Powershot can handle!

Olek

2011-04-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

"A loop after a loop. Hour after hour my madness becomes crochet. Life and art are inseparable. The movies I watch while crocheting influence my work, and my work dictates the films I select. I crochet everything that enters my space. Sometimes it's a text message, a medical report, found objects. There is the unraveling, the ephemeral part of my work that never lets me forget about the limited life of the art object and art concept. What do I intend to reveal? You have to pull the end of the yarn and unravel the story behind the crochet. "

Aesthetically, I don't like her use of camo prints... but I think her work is pretty interesting.

Word Wednesday: Part Fifteen

2011-04-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling a little horse-sick recently. Here are some equine words+pictures.

Stalking Horse - noun: Something used to mask the true purpose. After the former practice of bird hunters of hiding behind a horse (or a decoy) until he had reached within close range of prey.

Tattersall - noun: A pattern of squares formed by dark lines on a light background, or a cloth with this pattern. After Tattersall's, a horse market in London, where such patterns were common on horse blankets.

Mine That Bird's unbelievable Kentucky Derby win from 2009

desultory - adjective: Marked by absence of a plan; disconnected; jumping from one thing to another, Digressing from the main subject; random- From Latin desultorius (leaping) pertaining to a circus rider who jumps from one horse to another.

HARDCORE Jumper course, incredibly athletic horse here

Cavalier - noun: A mounted soldier; a horseman. A gallant man, one escorting a woman adjective: Arrogant; disdainful, nonchalant, carefree, or offhand about some important matter.

A team of Belgians helps out a truck, all spook at a mouse at 0:23

Harridan - noun: An ill-tempered, scolding woman. Perhaps from French haridelle (worn-out horse)

Spavined - adjective: Old; decrepit; broken-down. From the equine affliction spavin, a disease involving swelling of hock joints.

I rode horses for over ten years... and I really miss them now.

BOTW: Fight Club/ Dear American Airlines

2011-04-05T22:38:00.000-07:00

Fight Club- Chuck Palahniuk

The Chuck book that launched a thousand more. I liked Fight Club, although not as much as some of his other books. Although it's dark, it's more tightly written and efficient than some of his other books. For some reason I like it when he rambles.

Dear American Airlines- Jonathan Miles

Speaking of rambling. This is a wandering, lovely, sad, terribly funny narrative. Almost poetic in its phrasing. The narrator was fantastically funny and dry, which I think helped a lot.

I'm almost done with "The Book Thief" and then I think I'm going to tackle a Russian great.

---

2011-03-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

Friends "The Moth and The Flame"- Album due soon.

"No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the  sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that  you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you  rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying  attention." Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

Sing-song

2011-03-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

I was singing to myself on the drive home tonight and this came out in a lilt:

So sharp hung the sword of Damocles

so quick moved the words of Isosceles

said your angles are drawing you near to me

said your anger will rust you to verdigris

in the meanwhile

your eyes bright, hair wild

all about you the flowers wilt prettily

I figured I might as well save it. I'm so tired that it feels like I'm under anesthesia.

BOTW(s): So uh

2011-03-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

My new job means that I go through about three books a week. Here's what I've read and/or listened to since last time. I'll give 'em ratings out of five stars.

Perdido Street Station - China Mieville ***

East of Eden - John Steinbeck ****

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami ***

Blankets - Craig Thompson *****

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess ****

Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk ***

Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk ****

The Pearl - John Steinbeck **

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ****

Diary - Chuck Palahniuk ***

Choke - Chuck Palahniuk ***

Some Maths

2011-03-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

168 hours in a week

minus 20 hours working my new job

minus (6x4=24) hours in classes

minus 8 hours teaching/grading

minus (8x7=56) hours of sleep (optimistically)

minus 12 required studio hours

minus 4 hours of readings/papers

minus short mealtimes (7x3x0.5=10.5)

minus daily chores/personal hygeine (7x3=21)
minus 4 hours of church meetings

Eight and a half hours of free time per week.

I've never been good at math, but I seem to find that sleep suffers.

Book (on Tape) Worm

2011-03-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

I feel like everyone who has heard Book on Tape Worm play has a story about how they saw them; the show when the stage was filled with clouds and rain, the Valentine's dance, the slumber party with a venue-ful of blankets and pillows and people in their pajamas, the unexpectedly beautiful open mic performances, or the time the lights cut out at Fork Fest and they kept playing, hauntingly, in the dark.

I think it's because that's what Book on Tape Worm is all about- stories. My story with the band goes back to about a year ago, when I met Scott Shepard (under strange and serendipitous circumstances) and he invited me to his show the next week. One thing led to another, and today Scott, Emily, and Ciera are some of my favorite people and closest friends. It doesn't hurt that I'm consistently blown away by the music they make.

Their songs are redolent with shades of forests, ghosts, clouds, love, longing, books, and poetry- one of my friends calls them a "Lullaband" and that description is more than apt. Their voices and instruments weave together like a hammock custom-made for lying blanket-wrapped and wide-eyed beneath a clear, starry sky.

That's why I'm so excited to say that they are, at long last, making their debut album. They're using Kickstarter to fund the (intimidatingly expensive) recording process, and if you can find it in your music-loving heart, head over to www.bookontapeworm.com to pledge a little bit towards the recording of their album. You'll be amply rewarded with delicious music for your heart and ears. They're absolutely deserving and tons of fans have pitched in already- make yourself one of them. I love them and I love you and the combination could be magical.

Let's be Irish for a second here

2011-03-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's  opinion, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

- Oscar  Wilde

Happy St. Patty's day.

Word Wednesday: Part Fourteen

2011-03-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

Short edition.

Maw- the mouth and/or throat of a dangerous animal; a gaping hole

Limn- to portray in words; to draw and paint in outline

Kip- to nap or sleep; or a place to sleep

Ort- a scrap of food left after a meal

Birl- to rotate a floating log by running on it in place

Lee- shelter, or the sheltered side of a ship- the side away from the blowing wind

Tor- a rocky exposed hilltop

Lief- willingly, gladly, readily

Fen- a low land covered in water; a marsh

Say it Right

2011-03-14T00:46:00.000-07:00

I used to say, firmly, surely- "I have never been in love". That's perhaps only a half-truth. I think that I have loved; that the stirrings of fierce loyalty for a friend- bewildered sadness, thundering, unexpected joy, or even the dim longing for the presence of another are at least the embers of that great poetic unknown. If that is the case, then I have loved. No need for impatience or loneliness- there's more than enough beauty in that for me, for now.

In absentia

2011-03-10T22:56:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted in a long time. This is probably due to the fact that I'm home for an average of six hours a day (and I mostly try to spend that sleeping).

The reason for my sudden overwork is this: I got a new job! I now work for a company that moulds, casts, repairs, and mounts dinosaur skeletons for display. They needed some sculptors and I'm trying my hand at it for a probationary training period. We'll see if it sticks, but for now I get to work with real fossils every day. I don't know if you know this, but I used to have a huge thing for dinosaurs.

I'm incredibly excited about this job, but working 8am-12pm and then going to class 1pm-7pm and THEN working in my studio from 8pm-2am every day this week has been exhausting. I have a few mid-process paintings to show for it!

Here's a song to close out the night. I have papers to grade, and sleep to catch so I can wake up in time to make breakfast tomorrow.

Listen

2011-03-01T23:52:00.000-08:00

Ladytron- Ace of Hz

so much softer

2011-02-26T01:20:00.000-08:00

A few of my favorite "a softer world" comics as of late.

Half of the joy is reading the mouseover text on the site. Sometimes that's the real punchline. On the comic above, it says "Anyway, I have TWO new boyfriends. So."

Basically, just go read them on the original site. (occasionally nsfw-language)

I love their weird poignancy.

Double Standard

2011-02-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

I won't play Beauty and the Beast again.

Don't give me mud and expect porcelain.

Artist: Jules de Balincourt

2011-02-24T20:55:00.000-08:00

Jules de Balincourt came to visit and lecture at my school today. He was born in 1972 in Paris, transplanted to California very young, and studied at the CCAC in San Francisco before getting his MFA from Hunter College in 2005. He now works out of a studio in Brooklyn, and has been exhibited at several prominent international galleries and museums including Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, PS1 in New York, and Palais de Tokyo in Paris. His work is in quite a few big collections too, including the Oppenheimer and the Saatchi Gallery. So it was kind of a coup for BYU to be able to bring him out to talk.

His work is wonderfully inquisitive, semi-naive (although I hate to talk in those terms) painting that concerns idea of human fragility and false utopias- truly great stuff with much more depth than is initially apparent. His work is from the perspective of an observant outsider, peering in on the complicated machine of society. One of the things that he mentioned was that when he moved back to New York after a stint in Germany, he bought a building and turned it into a community center. That made perfect sense to me- he spent all of his time concerned with ideas of utopia, but functioning as an outside observer. The community center gave him the opportunity to contribute to a kind of micro-utopia within his own neighborhood- to connect with that earnest, naive ideal. I loved that. So many people looking at society seem jaded and sneering, but the fact that he was enough of an optimist to try to run such an ambitious community center was pretty heartening.

(The above painting- "Blind Faith and Tunnel Vision" is probably my favorite of his)

He was one of the best visiting artists we've had in my time here- on a level, if not surpassing the coolness of Audrey Flack. I'm very glad I got to know his work a little better today.

Word Wednesday: Part Thirteen

2011-02-23T02:15:00.000-08:00

German loanwords edition.

weltschmerz- noun: World weariness; pessimism, apathy, or sadness felt at the difference between physical reality and the ideal state.

gotterdammerung- noun: Complete destruction of an institution, regime, order, etc.

zeitgeist- noun: The defining spirit of a particular period: the general cultural, political, intellectual, and moral climate of an era.

weltanschauung- noun: World view; philosophy of life; a framework through which to interpret the world.

clerisy- noun: The well-educated class; the literati; the intelligentsia.

ersatz- noun: Being an imitation or a substitute, usually an inferior one; artificial.

lebensraum- noun: Adequate space in which to live, develop, or function.

wunderkind- noun: A child prodigy or person of remarkable talent or ability who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age.

leitmotif- noun: A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element- or a dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel.

kitsch- noun: Art or artwork characterized by sentimental, often pretentious bad taste. The aesthetic or mentality in which such art is conceived or appreciated. Culture or civilization in a degraded state of sentimentality and vulgarity.

This makes twenty-two

2011-02-22T00:11:00.000-08:00

(Still writing every day. Late-night broodings on disaster, best read aloud.)

Last night I saw now and then

in the flickering movements of bodies

(sweaty, joyful, exuberant with youth)

the strangest ghosts

their forms torn by bullets

misshapen, brick-crushed

to those they brushed past

they were just numbers

scrolling headlines

black strobe-symbols on a white screen

counting down lives

counting down hours

until the next seismic wave

the next nation's changing government

but those who felt that move

that sensation

life lost, fast-gone

the creation of new specters-

those few stand slack

suddenly abject

heavy-shouldered

no longer emboldened

by their own immature immortality

now, unsteady-glancing,

afraid of where their eyes will rest next

on the dead or the dancing

the world is burning

put down your fiddle

there is small solace in strings these days

Music for Getting Things Done

2011-02-21T15:08:00.000-08:00

It's President's day, and d'you know what I'm doing?

Chores!

Here's the mix that gets me through any set of tasks in exactly one hour.

Tightrope (Feat. Big Boi)- Janelle Monáe

None Of Dem (ft. Royksopp)- Robyn

Heartbeats- Grum

Heads Will Roll- Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Tricky Tricky- Royksopp

Evil- Ladytron

Atlas- Battles

Going On- Gnarls Barkley

Hand Me Down Your Love- Hot Chip

We Used To Wait- Arcade Fire

Jique- Brazilian Girls

I Can Change- LCD Soundsystem

Armistice- Phoenix

Keys and keys and keys

2011-02-17T17:16:00.000-08:00

I really miss having a piano.

Word Wednesday: Part Twelve

2011-02-16T10:08:00.000-08:00

Metaphor edition.

Pieter Breughel - Landscape with the Fall of Icarus c. 1558.

cloud-cuckoo-land- noun: An idealized, unrealistic state; a place out of touch with reality.

bread and circuses- noun: Things intended to keep people happy and to divert their attention from problems.

paper tiger- noun: One who is outwardly strong and powerful but is in fact powerless and ineffectual.

Old Man of the Sea- noun: A tiresome burden or person from which it difficult to free oneself.

Sword of Damocles- noun: An ever-present threat; an impending disaster.

Toronto blessing- noun: A form of religious rapture marked by outbreaks of mass fainting, laughter, shaking, weeping, fainting, speaking in tongues, etc.

Bristol fashion- adjective: In good order.

Glasgow kiss- noun: A headbutt on the nose.

Boston marriage- noun: A long-term, intimate friendship between two women, often sharing a household.

Kilkenny cats- noun: People who fight relentlessly till their end.

BOTW: Steve Martin

2011-02-15T18:36:00.000-08:00

Shopgirl represents Steve Martin's first foray into literary pursuits, and my first foray into Steve Martin. It's a love story of sorts, but really more of a life story in the end. The Shopgirl in question is the pretty/dysfunctional/not quite jaded girl Mirabelle, who sells gloves at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills. It's difficult to talk about the relationships she develops over the course of the book without spoiling the plot, but suffice it to say that they're both interesting and ordinary.

The Pleasure Of My Company is Martin's second novella and has a similar structure- it's a bildungsroman-type story about a young man with OCD and his trajectory through the world.

They're both beautifully written books. The characters (even in the very short distance between front and back covers or beginning and end of audiobook) wholly form themselves in your mind. It's impossible not to care about their fates. That's what I was most surprised by- how much I cared. It's hard not to get annoyed with the characters in any book, but somehow in both Shopgirl and Pleasure, they maintain sympathy even when they are acting unpardonably. If you like books with a dryly funny narrator and lonely overtones, these are definitely worth your time. Shopgirl's probably a better book, but read Pleasure first if you think you'd be put off by, uh, dalliances.

Music for Valentines

2011-02-14T00:31:00.000-08:00

At Nick's suggestion, I made you a mix of a few of my favorite love songs.

Mushaboom - Feist
I got a man to stick it out/ And make a home from a rented house/ And we'll collect the moments one by one/ I guess that's how the future's done

Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
We laugh until we think we’ll die, barefoot on a summer night/ Nothin’ new is sweeter than with you

No One Like You - Greg Brown
There's real tall girls as smart as hell/ Ones who ring out like a bell/ And they know they do/ Ah but there ain't no one like you, honey/ There ain't no one like you
(The best compliment is this. You are unique, and flawed, and I love every part of you for it.)

Birds - Kate Nash
Well the stars up in the sky/ and the leaves in the trees/ all the broken bits that make you trip up and grassy bits inbetween/ all the matter in the world/ is how much that I like you

two doves - Dirty Projectors
Kiss me with your mouth open/ For your love, better than wine/For your cologne is really fragrant/ Call on me

And You Give - Matthew Barber
Then came fall babe and we fell hard/ Bruised our bodies, skinned our knees and our hearts

Samson - Regina Spektor
You are my sweetest downfall/ I loved you first, I loved you first/ Beneath the stars came fallin' on our heads/ But they're just old light, they're just old light/ Your hair was long when we first met

Vivid - Greg Brown
Vivid flowers/ raggedy yellow red and blue/ Smell of rain and summer/ Vivid, just like you

Jersey Girl - Tom Waits
So don't bother me 'cause I got no time/ I'm on my way to see that girl of mine/ Nothin' else matters in this whole wide world/ When you're in love with a jersey girl
(Jersey Girls aren't anything special. But he loves his girl so fiercely that the sweetness shows through)

Godless Brother In Love - Iron & Wine
Godless brother/ As far as I can tell/ And I won't compensate the blight/ She looks lovely/ As lightning all

England - The National
Someone send a runner/ Through the weather that I'm under/ For the feeling that I lost today/ Someone send a runner/ For the feeling that I lost today
(So begins the portion of our programming that I call "falling out of love")

Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Wait/ They don't love you like I love you/ Wait/ They don't love you like I love you

No One's Gonna Love You- Band Of Horses
And anything to make you smile/ It is my better side of you to admire

Low Rising - The Swell Season
I wanna take you to the rock/ I wanna jump right in/ And see what that big ocean´s got

Arabella - Mountain Man
Shift across sheets/ lost mothers, instruments, and metal fruit bowls/ tell me/ my eyes are hungry/ babe, I haven't eaten for a while
(I saw Mountain Man in concert last week, and all of their songs have a haunting sort of wisdom to them.)

Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens
In the morning through the window shade/ When the light pressed up against your shoulder blade/ I could see what you were reading/ Oh the glory that the lord has made/ And the complications you could do without/ When I kissed you on the mouth

Only Skin - Joanna Newsom
But I'm starving and freezing in my measly old bed!/ Then i'll crawl across the salt flats to stroke your sweet head/ Come across the desert with no shoes on!/ I love you truly, or I love no-one
(I had to resist the urge to copy all of the lyrics on this one. Joanna Newsom has written a lot of gorgeous love songs, but "Only Skin" is her most ramblingly poetic; about a complicated, memory-laden relationship. I put it last so you can listen to it as an "optional" track. But please take that option.)

Word Wednesday: Part Eleven

2011-02-09T22:05:00.000-08:00

Miscellany.

skeuomorph- noun: A design feature copied from a similar artifact in another material, even when not functionally necessary. For example, the click sound of a shutter in an analog camera that is now reproduced in a digital camera by playing a sound clip.

clou- noun: A major point of interest, or a central idea.

perendinate- verb: To put off until the day after tomorrow or to stay at a college for an extended time.

borborygmus- noun: A rumbling noise caused by the movement of gas through the intestines.

polyhistor- noun: A person of great or wide learning.

Dol- noun: A unit for measuring the intensity of pain.

Mora- The unit of time equivalent to the ordinary or normal short sound or syllable.

Panopticon- A building, as a prison, hospital, library, or the like, so arranged that all parts of the interior are visible from a single point.

myopic- adjective: 1. Nearsighted; unable to see distant objects clearly. 2. Shortsighted; lacking foresight; narrow-minded.

termagant- noun: A quarrelsome or overbearing woman. The word comes from the name of an imaginary deity that Christians in medieval Europe erroneously believed was worshiped by Muslims. It was represented in morality plays as a violent, overbearing personage. Over time the term became generalized to apply to any brawling person, and eventually only to women.

pasquinade- noun: A satire or lampoon, especially one displayed in a public place. People used to complain publicly by publishing pamphlets and posting flyers. One such tradition was posting anonymous satirical verses and lampoons on an ancient statue in Rome. The locals named this statue Pasquino after a shopkeeper near whose place it had been unearthed. Over time the term came to be applied to any work of satire publicly displayed.

eonism- noun: Adoption of female clothing and manners by a male. After Chevalier d'Éon (1728-1810), a spy and soldier who lived the second half of his life as a woman.

BOTW(s): More catch-up

2011-02-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

I really have been reading, I swear I have. Here's what I read/listened to since last time.

Neuromancer- William Gibson

I really wanted to like this book, but it never really grabbed me. It fell too far into the sci-fi trap of technical jargon. For some reason that always feels dated to me.

Catch-22- Joseph Heller

Crimony. This was long and dense and HILARIOUS. Utterly sane and utterly ridiculous- This is probably Stanley Kubrick's favorite book. I was a little tired by the end but liked it a lot.

French Milk- Lucy Knisley

This is actually a graphic novel- beautifully drawn and written, I might add. The author might come across as a bit spoiled at times, but trust me- this is a great book. It makes me ache for Paris- or really, just for travel and the wonderful food that comes with it.

Einstein's Dreams- Alan Lightman

Now this is a lovely little book. The tiny shape and pages drew me to it initially, but as it turns out it's filled with beautiful semi-philosophical prose-meditations on the nature of time.

Kraken- China Miéville

I've heard this isn't the best Mieville book, but it's the first I've read and I loved it. Haphazard, literate, witty, bizarre, with a supernatural twist. His writing style is really intelligent, and I cannot wait to read more. Maybe Perdido Street Station?

A Wild Sheep Chase- Haruki Murakami

Speaking of love, MURAKAMI! New author crush (thanks to Scott). Totally absurd, non-linear, unsatisfying, vague, and gorgeously written. I listened to this, and the narrator was perfect.

The Crying Tree- Naseem Rakha

My dad lent this book to me, and I just finished it today. It was a thought-provoking story with moments of wonderful writing.... But for the first hundred pages I kept wishing for subtlety. It gives off the aura of those Book Club Books that Have A Very Important Controversial Message. I ended up liking it, and liking the Important Message, but I wish it had been handled a little differently. Read it if you liked "The Secret Life Of Bees".

2011-02-07T22:54:00.000-08:00

I trudged up to that old brown house

In a gust

a bluster of snow

I came to see you off

The last time was some time ago.

My memories are older still-

clothespins and walnuts

from the box in your room,

from the tree in your yard.

Beside the door stood a table

filled with half-remembered fondnesses.

A goldenrod-checked apron

A blanket sewn from Don's uniforms

long after the war was done.

Blurry photographs of your sons.

Most familiar to me,

a painting of your family home

stone-faced, green-roofed

Your walnut tree to one side.

I half-expected you to be in a box of that same tree

dry, dusty, dark with age.

Instead

a pretty gold-trimmed cabinet

laden with carnations

Inside

a woman I did not recognize.

You were nowhere in that face

None of the things I knew of you.

None of the sunshine

popsicles

clothespin-animals

round green walnuts

from that old tree

stomped underfoot

staining the ground

staining our fingers.

These things are wrapped in your name

But not in the face I saw

Not in that tiny woman

swaddled in emerald green and white.

Hair tightly curled

Hands gently folded.

The last time you saw me

you didn't remember my face.

The last time I saw you

I couldn't remember yours.

June

Bone-cold winter

2011-02-03T21:50:00.000-08:00

Spent most of today at Sundance with my dad, then went class and art openings. I'm staying up at my Grandparents' cabin tonight so we can get on our way to Snowbird early tomorrow morning. We're encased in snow and ice, and the huge woolly trophy-heads of bison and elk peer out over every room.

Word Wednesday: Part Ten

2011-02-02T16:08:00.000-08:00

____'s ____ edition.

God's Acre- n. A cemetary, especially one next to a church. Loan translation of German Gottesacker, from Gott (God) + Acker (field). The allusion is that the bodies of the dead are sown in the field in hope of resurrection.

Occam's Razor- n. The maxim that the simplest of explanations is more likely to be correct than any other. Why razor? Because Ockham's razor shaves away unnecessary assumptions. "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."

Morton's fork- n. a situation involving choice between two equally undesirable outcomes. After John Morton, a was tax collector for King Henry VII. To him is attributed Morton's fork, a neat argument for collecting taxes from everyone: those living in luxury obviously had money to spare and those living frugally must have accumulated savings to be able to pay.

Hobson's choice- n: An apparently free choice that offers no real alternative: take it or leave it. Hobson had some 40 animals in his rent-a-horse business and a straightforward system: a returning horse goes to the end of the line, and the horse at the top of the line gets to serve next. He had good intentions -- rotating horses so his steeds received good rest and an equal wear, but his heavy-handed enforcement of the policy didn't earn him any customer service stars. He could have offered his clients the option of choosing one of the two horses nearest the stable door, for instance, and still achieve nearly the same goal. More recently Henry Ford offered customers a Ford Model T in any color as long as it was black.

Achilles' heel- n: A seemingly small but critical weakness in an otherwise strong position.

After Achilles, a hero in the Greek mythology. When Achilles was a baby, his mother Thetis dipped him into the magical river Styx to make him invincible. She held him by the heel which remained untouched by the water and became his weak point. He was killed when the Trojan prince Paris shot an arrow that pierced his one vulnerable spot: his heel. After him, the tendon in the lower back of the ankle is also known as the Achilles tendon.

St. Elmo's fire- n: An electrical discharge visible at the surface of a conductor, as a ship's mast or an airplane's wing. After St. Erasmus (mispronounced as Elmo by sailors) who is regarded as the patron saint of sailors and an electrical discharge on the mast of a ship is believed to be a sign of his protection.

Fool's Gold- n: Something that appears valuable but is worthless. Another name for pyrite, also known as iron pyrite or iron sulfide. Its shiny yellow luster has many fooled into believing they have struck gold while holding a mineral of little value.

Mug's game- n: A foolish or futile activity. From mug (slang for a fool), from Scandinavian word mugg/mugge (drinking cup). In earlier times drinking cups were adorned with grotesque faces, which resulted in the various senses of the word, nouns (face, dupe, thug) and verbs (to assault, to make faces)

Dog's age- n: A long time. Referring to the typical age of a dog: 10-15 years.

Mare's nest- n. A confused mess, or a hoax or illusory discovery. The original sense of the term was a false discovery since clearly a mare doesn't have a nest. Nowadays the term implies a confused situation.

Sheep's eyes- n. Shy amorous glances.

Cat's paw- n. Someone used as a tool by another. The first sense of the term comes from the fable in which a monkey uses a cat to pull roasting chestnuts from a fire. The monkey gobbles up all the nuts while the cat is left with a burnt paw.

Buckley's chance- n. No chance at all (or only a very slim chance).

Pandora's Box- n. A source of many unforeseen troubles. In Greek mythology Pandora received a "gift" of a jar which she was told never to open. Her curiosity got the better of her. She opened the lid, and out came its contents: all the evils of human life.

Job's comforter- n. A person who tries to console or help someone and not only fails but ends up making the other feel worse. Originally there was not just one, but three Job's comforters. In the Biblical story these people tried to console Job, an upright person, that his troubles must be divine retribution for his sins. There are Job's comforters in current times as well: soon after any disaster these TV preachers are ready to explain how the afflicted had offended gods and brought it upon themselves.

Buggin's turn- n. Assignment to a position based on seniority or rotation, instead of merit.

Pele's hair- n. Thin strands of volcanic glass, formed when lava is thrown into the air by the explosion of a volcano.

Deadman's hand- n. In a game of poker, a hand containing two aces and two eights. After Wild Bill Hickok, nickname of James Butler Hickok (1837-1876). Hickok was a legendary figure in the American Wild West who worked variously as an army scout, lawman, and professional gambler. He was shot dead while playing poker, holding a hand that had two aces and two eights.

Bum's rush- n: A forcible ejection from a place.

Devil's advocate- n: One who argues against something for the sake of argument, for example, to provoke discussion and subject a plan to thorough examination. From Latin advocatus diaboli (devil's advocate). The Roman Catholic Church used to have a person appointed as a devil's advocate to argue against elevating someone to sainthood. The person arguing for the proposition was known as God's advocate (advocatus dei).

Widow's walk- n: A railed platform atop a roof, typically on a coastal house, that was used to look out for returning ships. In the 18th and 19th centuries sailors' wives used such platforms to look for signs of their husbands returning home.

Busman's holiday- n. A holiday spent doing things as at work.

Friar's lantern- n. A phosphorescent light seen over marshy ground at night, caused by spontaneous combustion of gases emitted by decomposing organic matter. A synonym is foxfire, especially for luminescence produced by fungi.

Curate's egg- n. Something having both good and bad parts.

Widow's peak- n. A V-shaped hairline at the center top of the forehead. From the former belief that this feature in a woman was an omen that she'd outlive her husband, as in those days a widow wore a mourning hood with a pointed crest.

Shank's mare- n. One's own legs. Also known as shank's pony. From facetiously referring to one's legs as a horse, a shank being the part of the leg between the knee and ankle.

Gresham's law- n. The theory that bad money drives good money out of circulation.

Cook's tour- n. A guided but cursory tour, covering only the main features.

Davy Jones's locker- n. The bottom of the ocean, especially when regarded as the grave of those who perish at sea.

Murphy's Law- n. The facetious proposition that if something can go wrong, it will.

Russell's Paradox- n. A paradox of set theory in which an object is defined in terms of a class of objects that contains the object being defined, resulting in a logical contradiction.

Parkinson's Law- n. Any of several satirical observations propounded as economic laws, especially "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion."

(most phrases courtesy of A.Word.A.Day)

National Blog About Ciera Month

2011-01-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

I am blogging about Ciera Black.

She is an art historian, an avid musical instrument collector, a living cartoon character, an all around class act... but she'd never been to IKEA. Scott, Adam, and I decided to remedy this.

Equipped with a tape-measuring gameface, we set forth to conquer.

Ciera's mom is aptly dubbed "Fancy Nancy". Traces of her legendary wiles were revealed in her daughter over the course of our visit to the store.

Snake-wrangling...

Shark-charming...

You can't tell, but in this photo she is plotting the downfall of empires. Or maybe just the demise of (thing you could awkwardly encounter in a living room at IKEA).

She got so excited she actually disrupted the magnetic field of all nearby digital recording devices. Note the subject's joyful vibrations in the above photo.

Dear reader, that Saturday was filled with delicious cake, arctic bread, astounding cheese, star-veiled blanket forts, cute-animal-videos, and chinese food.

Tagline: Ciera Black brings the magic back.

Word Wednesday: Part Nine

2011-01-26T23:58:00.000-08:00

Color Edition, inspired by one of Umberto Eco's essays.

"Blood On The Floor" by Francis Bacon

Filemot- The color of a dead leaf

Incarnadine- Blood-red, flesh-colored

Fuscous- Of a dusky brownish-grey

Glaucous- Of a grayish or bluish green white color

Taupe- Sandy grey-brown

Testaceous- Brick-red or baked clay-colored

Tawny- Orange-ish light brown

Puce- A deep red to dark greyish purple

Cerulean- Sky blue/Azure

Grizzle- Dark grey or grey-flecked

Sienna- Clay-brown ranging from yellow to orange tones

Nankeen- Pale yellow or buff

Gamboge- A strong, highly saturated yellow

Sinopia- A red-brown pigment

Solferino- A purplish red

Ecru- Pale brown, as unbleached linen

Russet- A strong, saturated brown

Sorrel- A light rusty red color (as in the coats of sorrel horses)

Umber- A natural brown

Chartreuse- a clear, light green with a yellowish tinge.

Capital-T Truth

2011-01-23T23:33:00.000-08:00

I really love this commencement speech that David Foster Wallace gave:

......This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship

Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship--be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles--is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings.

They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing.

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving.... The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing......

Blind+Blind=Blind

2011-01-20T23:55:00.000-08:00

Thinking lately.
What have I done to reach this moment?
To earn this life?
I've invested so much into education
drenching myself in learning
surrounding myself with beauty...
but that's all for me,
all about me.

The world is not me;
I exist within it
but
without me
It would roll on.
It would exist with all its richnesses and beauties,
the people I love leading their lives.
I am not indispensable.
I am owed nothing.
Every conversation I've had
every person I've loved
and every mistake I've made
every experience
has been a gift to me.

So why are there moments I don't remember?
Days that I waste?
Why don't I value every precious thing that falls into my hands?
Why don't I pass those things along to others?
Why don't I spend more time with those who are funny
and brave
and curious
and kind?
Why don't I more carefully avoid those who are petty
and vain
and selfish
and thoughtless?
Why do I ever destroy when I could be building?
When I could be learning?

Someone once told me
you are who you can live with being.

That's terrible.

Who wants to just live with themselves?
Doesn't everyone want to thrive?

Word Wednesday: Part Eight

2011-01-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

Social Animal Edition.

"The Four Seasons"- Bartolomeo Manfredi (ca. 1580 - 1621)

Panegyric- n: a formal or elaborate oration in praise of something or somebody

Nebbish- n: a pitifully timid or ineffectual person

Agnosia- n: the inability to recognize people, objects, sounds, etc.

Cathect- v. to invest mental or emotional energy in an idea, object, or person

Encomium- n. Glowing praise of another

Sequacious- adj. unthinkingly following others

Deplume- v. to deprive someone of honour, position, wealth, etc.

Heteroclite- n. a person (or thing) that deviates from the ordinary rule or form

Super

2011-01-18T18:24:00.001-08:00

Things that have happened

2011-01-17T22:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend.

Breakfasts/Lunches/Dinners/Days/Nights with the BFF.

CUAC pARTy bus/ Performance Art/ Opening

Andrew Glenn being, well... Andrew Glenn.

Post-Classic-Skate Denny's. Adam's hair. Kristina's secrets.

Patrick refusing to laugh on cue. Pearl doing her best to change that.

A near-death maple-syrup-based experience. Patrick giggling.

Candy cigarettes.

Fog.

Eva's

2011-01-14T23:42:00.000-08:00

The most delicious calamari I've ever had.

Cosmos

2011-01-13T23:27:00.000-08:00

You've probably heard by now- Astrology's been turned on its ear. They've added a new sign.

Lake Tahoe Milky Way Night Time Lapse from Justin Majeczky on Vimeo.

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

I've always preferred Astronomy to Astrology myself. Besides, I'm still a Virgo so it's hard to get up in arms about it. I'll be in Salt Lake for the next couple of days- should be fun.

Velvety

2011-01-12T00:44:00.000-08:00

Feeling a very different vibe for winter, which can be summed up in this Kramskoi painting:

Slightly ugly, slightly sensual, rich and warm with a hint of masculinity.

So consider this my moodboard or style guide or whatever for the winter.

Pensive

2011-01-10T23:54:00.000-08:00

I really love these guys recently. I've been listening to "High Violet" on repeat for weeks.

"Et le choix que chacun fait de sa vie  et de lui-même était authentique puisqu’il se faisait en présence de la  mort."

Jean-Paul Sartre

Translated: "And the choices that each one made of their life and themselves was authentic since it was done in the presence of death."

Loopy

2011-01-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight? from NPR on Vimeo.

Word Wednesday: Part Seven

2011-01-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

Lachrymose edition

Serein- Fine rain falling from an apparently cloudless sky, typically observed after sunset.

Pluvial- Of or relating to rain, especially much rain.

Virga- Rain or snow that evaporates before hitting the ground

Lachrymose- 1. Tearful. 2. Relating to or inducing tears.

Moirologist- A hired mourner

Nimbus- 1. A rain cloud. 2. A halo around the head of a person depicted in a work of art.

I've been very sick and very busy for the past couple of days... but I wouldn't miss a Word Wednesday, would I? Now if only I could keep up as well with Book of the Week posts... I have been reading, I swear!

New

2011-01-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, belatedly. I'm trying to squash all my Christmas acquisitions into the same suitcase I came here with- and failing miserably. Whoever came up with Delta's luggage restrictions will probably burn in their own special hell.

Annual

2010-12-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

Things I did this year, in cheesy list form.

Radically changed my hair color and art in the same month
Skied twenty-three times
Crossed some unusual items off of my bucket list
Started reading for pleasure again
Went to parties and concerts on my own
Made some friends (good ones)
Made some food (good food)
Went to California with my best friend
Went to Tonga
Learned Tongan
Fell in love with Tonga
Had to leave Tonga
Mourned
Spent countless hours in the sunshine
Returned to Provo, which now feels like home
Went to bed too late every night
Woke up too early every morning
Lost seven pounds
Finally became a duogenarian
Started to dance just for the fun of it
Started to kiss just for the fun of it
Did exactly what my heart told me to do
Got my heart broken
Learned how to quietly move on
Learned how to be careful
Learned how to be reckless
Improved my French
Improved my guitar skills
Improved my art
Ate many wonderful meals with friends
Had many valuable conversations, mostly after midnight
Listened more than I talked
Laughed more than I cried
Cried for more than just myself
Brought adventures upon myself by accident
Rode a train in Colorado
Rode horses in the snow
Drove for hours on end
Pissed off some important people
Made peace with some others
Made mistakes, and grew to not regret them
Made plans, and went through with them
Wrote terrible poetry
Wrote a self-indulgent blog
Became jaded and disillusioned
Got over it (mostly)
Fell back in love with having friends
Fell back in love with being myself
Fell back in love with my family
Fell back in love with my life

Did I mention "fully embraced sentimentality"?
Happy New Year's Eve. Tonight I will be eating Asian fusion, going to Beethoven's 9th at The Fox, and partying into the wee hours of the morning, all with my best friend.

(Tradition!)

It will never stop snowing

2010-12-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

Maybe, just maybe, I'll get to ski today. On a borrowed pass and borrowed gear.

Oh maaaaaan.

Word Wednesday: Part Six

2010-12-29T09:32:00.000-08:00

Skin-Deep edition.

Dizen- to attire with finery

Lentiginous- covered with freckles

Acnestis- the place on one's back where one cannot reach to scratch

Omphaloskepsis- contemplation of one's navel

Moue- a purse-lipped pout or grimace

Sylph- A slender, graceful young woman

Prosopagnosia- an inability to recognize familiar faces

Xanthodontous- having stained or yellow teeth

Pogonotrophy- the act of growing a beard

Tatterdemalion- a person in ragged clothes

Labrose- having thick, fat, or large lips

Papuliferous- covered in pimples

Scurf- Scaly or shredded dry skin, such as dandruff

Unguinous- oily, greasy, unwashed

Gauche- Lacking grace; tactless; awkward

Giglet- A pretty, giddy, frolicsome, flighty girl

Xanthrochoid- a person with light hair and pale skin

Falling(frozen)water

2010-12-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

It snowed again last night!

I never get tired of it.

Whoa dang thanks

2010-12-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Spokane and the inhabitants thereof-

Why, yes, I DID dye my blonde hair red- Exactly one year ago! What, you didn't notice when I saw you for a month over the summer? Or over Thanksgiving? You hardly recognize me, oh how I've grown? I'm so used to having red hair that people remarking on it feels surreal.

(This summer. Red)

Thanks for saying I look like Christina Hendricks, though. That is SERIOUSLY flattering.

I mean, I don't think it's any truer than saying I look like a young Meryl Streep (which I've gotten quite a few times) but dang! Still cool.

Is the world teaming up to make me feel as awesome about myself as possible? If so, I'll take it. Spokane is doing wonders for my ego.

Favorite Albums: 2010

2010-12-26T11:53:00.000-08:00

I'm no good at top ten lists, so here's an indeterminate number of albums released in 2010 that I found myself listening to, in no particular order. These aren't THE BEST ALBUMS- I can't make Pitchforkesque grandiose claims like that. I just listened to these a lot.

Arcade Fire- The Suburbs

It will never replace Funeral in my heart, but it's a dang fine record. DANG fine.

The Morning Benders- Big Echo

I was in love with this album this summer. It was a passionate, sensitive, bittersweet affair.

First Aid Kit- The Big Black and The Blue

A charming folky autumn album, with songs to hum along to under the breath.

Jesca Hoop- Hunting My Dress

Oh Jesca. How I love thy voice and ragged lyrical oddities.

Julian Lynch- Mare

Music to space out to on a balmy summer evening.

LCD Soundsystem- This Is Happening

Oh so good, oh so cool, oh so hip and fresh and happening.

Joanna Newsom- Have One On Me

Probably my favorite album of the year. iTunes says I've listened through all 2 hours 27 times.

Robyn- Body Talk (pts 1 and 2 and 3)

Unabashed girly dance-pop music, PERFECT for exercise and for life in general.

Sleigh Bells- Treats

Noisy, poppy, catchy, noisy, energizing, did I mention noisy? Also: great.

The Head and The Heart- The Head and The Heart

I saw these guys on tour. They've captured my heart with their infectious northwestern folk.

Tired Pony- The Place We Ran From

Sad fernweh-provoking alt-country. One of my favorite songs of the year's on this album.

Vampire Weekend- Contra

Finally, an album as blindingly white as I am! I joke. But only a little. It's out of love.

Sufjan Stevens- Age of Adz

Okay, this one took me a while to warm up to. But I'm awed by "Impossible Soul".

Here's a little playlist for you, with a song from each album. I picked short, palatable ones, rather than the songs that are necessarily my favorites.

Happy Boxing Day!

Christmas day

2010-12-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

Today will be full of Æbleskivers, family, present-giving, and lazing about, so I'm setting this up to autopost. I'm excited about the things I'm giving this year... for whatever reason, it's way more fun for me to carefully pick out presents for people and see how they're received than it is for me to get things from others. It's like I get to place an object in its perfect home every time I find a great gift. What an odd form of anthropomorphism! But yeah.. I love gift-giving.

My parents already got me a sewing machine(!) and sent it to my house in Utah. I'm so excited to get back and use it! ETA: OMG FOOD PROCESSOR EEEE. I am so domestic in my christmas wishes, but DANG YES I can blend/process to my heart's content now!

For Realsmas

2010-12-24T12:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, yesterday's post was a little... unorthodox.

Here are a couple of spoonfuls of sugar, just for Mom and Dad.

I do have the holiday spirit, see?

PS:

Track Santa here.

The Night Before the Night Before Christmas

2010-12-23T18:01:00.000-08:00

Nicholas Was...

older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.

The dwarfish natives of the Arctic caverns did not speak his language, but conversed in their own, twittering tongue, conducted incomprehensible rituals, when they were not actually working in the factories.

Once every year they forced him, sobbing and protesting, into Endless Night. During the journey he would stand near every child in the world, leave one of the dwarves' invisible gifts by its bedside. The children slept, frozen into time.

He envied Prometheus and Loki, Sisyphus and Judas. His punishment was harsher.

Ho.

Ho.

Ho.

(by Neil Gaiman)

Word Wednesday: Part Five

2010-12-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

Mythology edition! I'm sure you've heard many of these words before, but here are the stories and mythologies behind them- because I am a huge nerd for this stuff.

Achates- A trusty friend or companion. In Virgil's Aeneid, he is a close, intensely loyal friend of Aeneas; his name became a by-word for an intimate companion.

Adonis- An incredibly handsome man. He's got a long and typically torrid Greek origin story. Aphrodite compelled Myrrha to commit incest with Theias, her father, the king of Assyria. When Theias discovered she was pregnant, he chased her with a knife. To avoid his wrath the gods turned her into a myrrh tree. A wild boar opened the tree with its tusks and freed the child, who was so beautiful that Aphrodite sheltered him, and entrusted him to Persephone, who also became smitten and refused to give him back. The dispute was settled by Zeus- Adonis was to spend one-third of every year with each goddess and the last third wherever he chose. He always chose to spend two-thirds of the year with Aphrodite. That is why two-thirds of the year are youthful and green- everything dies in the winter, when Adonis went into the underworld to live with Persephone. This went on till his death, where he was fatally wounded by a wild boar. When he died in her arms, Aphrodite sprinkled his blood about, and anemones and roses sprouted where it fell.

Aeolian- relating to or caused by the wind. Aeolus was the ruler of winds in Greek mythology. He lived on a small rocky island in whose caves the winds were imprisoned. Aeolus, directed by the higher gods, let out these winds as soft breezes, gales, or whatever the higher gods wished. When visited by Odysseus, he presented him with a bag containing all the adverse winds, so that his friend would reach Ithaca with a fair wind. Odysseus did as Aeolus told him, but in sight of his homeland he fell asleep and his curious men opened the bag of winds, which, when released, blew the ship far off course.

Bacchanalia- a drunken feast or orgy. The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals, originally held in secret and only attended by women in worship of Bacchus/Dionysus, the god of the grape harvest, wine, ritual madness and ecstasy, theater, and epiphany.

Cornucopia- An overflowing store; an abundance. The horn of Amalthea, a goat who raised Zeus on her breast milk, in a cave, on Mount Ida of Crete. Her horn was accidentally broken off by Zeus while playing together. The god Zeus, in remorse, gave her back her horn with supernatural powers, which would give whoever possessed it whatever they wished for. The original depictions were of the goat's horn filled with fruits and flowers: deities, especially Fortuna, were depicted with the horn of plenty. The cornucopia was also a symbol for a woman's fertility. The story is said to be a predecessor of the Unicorn and the Holy Grail stories.

Elysian- Blissful; delightful. In Roman mythology, the Elysian Fields were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous. It was passed into the Christian lexicon as a bit of a bittersweet word for Paradise.

Gordian- Highly intricate; extremely difficult to solve. King Gordius of Phrygia tied a knot that defied all who tried to untie it. An oracle prophesied that one who would undo this Gordian knot would rule Asia. Alexander the Great strolled into town and simply cut the knot with one stroke of his sword. Hence the saying, "to cut the Gordian knot" meaning to solve a difficult problem by a simple, bold, and effective action.

Gorgonize- to paralyze, petrify, or hypnotize. This is after the Gorgons, any of the three monstrous sisters Euryale ("far-roaming"), Sthenno ("forceful"), and Medusa ("ruler"), the only one of them who was mortal. The Gorgons are monstrous creatures covered with impenetrable scales, with hair of living snakes, hands made of brass, sharp fangs and a beard. Whoever looked at them would be instantly turned to stone. They live in the ultimate west, near the ocean, and guard the entrance to the underworld. A stone head or picture of a Gorgon was often placed or drawn on temples and graves to avert the dark forces of evil, but also on the shields of soldiers.

Halcyon- Peaceful; carefree; prosperous, the idyllic past. Halcyon was a mythical Greek bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was said to breed around the winter solstice. It nested at sea and had the power to charm the wind and waves so that they became calm.

Hermeneutic- Interpretive or explanatory. From the Greek hermeneus (interpreter), after Hermes in Greek mythology, who served as a messenger and herald for other gods, and who himself was the god of eloquence, commerce, invention, cunning, and theft.

Jovial- endowed with or characterized by a hearty, joyous humor or a spirit of good-fellowship: "pertaining to Jupiter," from L. Jovialis "of Jupiter," from Jovius (used as gen. of Juppiter) "Jupiter," Roman god of the sky. The meaning "good-humored, merry," is from astrological belief that those born under the sign of the planet Jupiter are of such dispositions.

Mercurial- sprightly, volatile, quick. From supposed qualities of those born under the planet Mercury, probably partially by association with quicksilver. Mercury was the son of Jupiter (king of the gods), the result of an illicit union with Maia, goddess of the clouds (as well as one of the Pleiades). His many adventures made him the patron god of travellers and thieves. Wednesday was his day of the week. This day the Romans called "Mercurii dies", which survives in the names for that day in many of the Romance languages, such as the Spanish, "miércoles".

Morphine-An analgesic and sedative. From Morpheus, the son of Hypnos, the god of sleep. Morpheus has two brothers, Icelus and Phantasus. In Greek mythology, dreams were sent out to man passing through one of two gates: a gate of horn from which true dreams came; and a gate of ivory, from which passed dreams that were false. Icelus gave man dreams of birds or beasts. Phantasus gave man dreams of inanimate objects. Morpheus had the capacity to assume the form of any and every human being. His father Hypnos sent him out into the night to appear as a loved one in mortal dreams.

Narcissism- inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity. Narcissus was a handsome Greek youth who had never seen his reflection. The nymph Echo had been punished by Hera for gossiping by being cursed to forever "have the last word". Echo had seen Narcissus walking through the forest and wanted to talk to him, but because of the curse she wasn't able to speak first. When Narcissus became thirsty and stopped to take a drink, he saw his reflection in the water for the first time. Not knowing any better, he fell in love and started talking to it. Echo had been following him and started repeating the last thing he said. Not yet understanding reflections, Narcissus thought his reflection was speaking to him and became more engaged. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away at the pool and changed into the flower that bears his name, the narcissus.

Panic- A sudden overpowering fright. From Pan, the god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, and his music could cause contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.

Pleiad- A group of (usually seven) brilliant persons or things. After the Pleiades, the seven daughters of the titan Atlas and sea-nymph Pleione in Greek mythology. These seven sisters were Maia, Electra, Celaeno, Taygete, Merope, Alcyone, and Sterope. In one version of the myth, they killed themselves out of grief over the loss of their half sisters the Hyades, and were turned into a group of stars. In another version, they were placed among the stars to protect them from the hunter Orion, though he too became a star to continue to pursue them. Only six of the seven sisters shine brightly in the Pleiades star cluster. The other one is supposed to be Merope, hiding in shame for falling in love with a mortal.

Promethean- One who is boldy creative or defiantly original in behavior or actions- Prometheus was the Titan entrusted with the task of creating mankind out of clay. He came into conflict with the other gods while trying to improve the lives of his creations. Firstly, he tricked the gods out of the best portion of the sacrificial feast, acquiring the meat for the feasting of man. Then, when Zeus withheld fire from mortals, he stole it from heaven and delivered it to mankind hidden inside a fennel-stalk. As punishment for these rebellious acts, Zeus ordered the creation of Pandora (the first woman) as a means to deliver misfortune into the house of man. Prometheus was arrested and bound to a stake on Mount Kaukasos where an eagle would fly to him and eat his liver. Every night his liver would grow back, and the next day the eagle would return to feast again.

Psychopomp- a guide of souls, one who leads departed souls into the afterlife- Charon, in Greek mythology, is the ferryman of Hades, who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. It is from this practice that placing coins on the eyes of departed loved ones stemmed. Those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years. There are many psychopomps in the world's mythologies.

Pygmalionism- a state of being in love with an object of one's own making- Pygmalion was a sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory. According to Ovid, after seeing women prostituting themselves he was not interested in women, but his statue was so fair and realistic that he fell in love with it. On Venus' festival day, Pygmalion made offerings to her and wished for his ivory sculpture to be changed into a real woman. When he returned home, Cupid, sent by Venus, kissed the ivory sculpture on the hand and it became a woman.

Pyrrhic victory- A victory won at too great a cost.- After Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who suffered staggering losses in defeating the Romans. Pyrrhus replied to those who congratulated him that "one more such victory would utterly undo him."

Sisyphean- Endlessly laborious or fruitless- Sisyphus bragged that he was cleverer than Zeus, and defied him by reporting Zeus' sexual conquests and indiscretions. As a punishment from the gods for his trickery, Sisyphus was made to roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he could reach the top of the hill, the rock would always roll back down, forcing him to begin again day after day for eternity.

Tantalizing- arousing or stimulating desire or interest, mockingly or teasingly out of reach
Tantalus was uniquely favored among mortals since he was invited to share the food of the gods. However, when he invited the gods to a banquet of his own, he served them the dismembered body of his own son. When the gods discovered the trick, they punished Tantalus and restored his son to life, replacing the shoulder that had been eaten with one made of ivory. Tantalus was punished by being immersed up to his neck in water for eternity. When he bent to drink, it all drained away. Luscious fruit hung on trees above him, but when he reached for it the winds blew the branches beyond his reach.

Terpsichorean- Of or relating to dancing. From Terpsichore, one of the nine Muses of ancient Greece. Terpsichore is the Muse of dancing and the dramatic chorus, and later of lyric poetry (and in even later versions, of flute playing). According to some traditions, she is the mother of the Sirens.

Vulcanian- Relating to a volcanic eruption; volcanic. The word is coined after Vulcan, the god of fire and metalworking in Roman mythology, who is a direct grab from the Greek Hephaestus. Known as the lame god, Hephaestus was born weak and crippled. Displeased by the sight of her son, Hera threw Hephaestus from Mount Olympus, and he fell for a whole day before landing in the sea. Nymphs rescued him and took him to Lemnos. It was on Lemnos where he built his palace and his forges under a volcano.

True Grit

2010-12-21T16:31:00.000-08:00

I got to see a screening of True Grit a week or so ago, and I just got around to watching the original last night- just so's I'm qualified to write this here review.

I don't say this lightly, but the new version (via the Coen Brothers) blows the old one out of the water. (Here are both trailers, because I love you and want you to see this movie)

I loved the original. The premise is simple enough: Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl, persuades the volatile, alcoholic marshal Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn to track down her father's killer, Tom Chaney. John Wayne as tough old Marshal Rooster Cogburn and Kim Darby as the sharp-witted and sharp-tongued Mattie Ross out of Yell County are a memorable pair of characters. Yet (and I can't believe I'm saying this about The Duke) they are utterly outdone by Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld in the same roles.

This may be in part to the altered feel of the film. The Coen brothers said they wanted to stay true to the darker, grittier feel of the original book, and the characters shifted to fit. While Wayne was tough, drunk, and affable, you can almost smell the waves of saltiness rolling off of Bridges' Rooster. He's a guy who's killed his share of men, and we believe it. Hailee Steinfeld is even more believable. She was thirteen when True Grit was filmed, but has the poise, diction, and confidence of a much older actress. She deftly steers Mattie Ross away from being too precocious- showing just enough childishness through her clever, businesslike facade to be plausible as a frontier girl.

The rest of the cast is just as good. Matt Damon is appropriately under the radar as La Beouf, and plays him at just the right level of smug and overconfident. His character's interactions with Rooster provide the best laughs of the movie (and this is a surprisingly funny movie). Josh Brolin's role as Tom Chaney is brief but effective, and the supporting characters are all filthy and funny-looking with just the right old-west drawl. If not for all the practice I've gotten listening to my grandpa, I wouldn't be able to understand half of what was being said.

I guess my favorite thing about True Grit was that it lived up to its name. All of the characters look well-worn right down to the details; ink stains on the writing-hand of a merchant, Mattie's progressively frazzled braids, Rooster's too-small vest and the the rein-rubs on his riding gloves... even the horses are perfect. Look at 'em. Of course La Boef rides a cute little brushed-up Appy, while Rooster's got a mutty-looking, big-muscled Quarter-horse cross with a winter coat and raggedy tail. Whoever does the casting must also choose the horses, because that is some genius pony-picking right there. And whoever does the stunt riding for Hailee Steinfeld has a heckuva seat.

Okay, all horse-nerd talk aside, this is a great western. One of the best I've ever seen. While it's the Coen brother's first PG-13 in a while, it is both gritty and bloody. There are a few startlingly gory scenes. It's no sepia-toned walk in the park. What it is is a funny, dark, perfectly-acted, beautifully-shot western adventure story. In fact, I'm having a hard time coming up with any complaints at all, other than that it left me wanting more. It comes out tomorrow. Take your dad! I know I'm taking mine. 9.5/10

Tron: Legacy

2010-12-21T15:28:00.000-08:00

So I saw Tron last Saturday-

And, okay, maybe it's not for me to judge.

I liked the original, but it wasn't my favorite movie growing up or anything. It was fun and visually innovative and had a nice 80's straightforwardness to it. It was almost a straight net neutrality parable, come to think of it.

And while this movie is just as visual (packed with gorgeousness in every frame, in fact) where it falls on its face is in its plot. I don't even know how to explain it, but I don't feel like that is my fault, or that I wasn't paying attention- just that the film was muddled and incomplete. Tron: Legacy tries too hard to be about way too many things at once (identity/racial genocide/evil corporations/parental expectations/responsibility/wabi-sabi) and ends up being about none of them, and too self-serious to boot.

At least, I think it's too serious. It felt serious. But then there were moments that just did not sense, and not in the good what-is-that-blue-lady-doing-fifth-element kind of way, more like that OH WHAT NO JAR JAR BINKS IS A SENATOR kind of way. I see you there, Michael Sheen. You and your albino mullet. Gah, I don't even... it was just awkward. And dumb. There's enough stilted dialogue in this movie for a half-dozen MST3Ks.

Let's look at some positives. Jeff Bridges, even in his digitally enhanced fountain-of-youth Clu-state, is fantastic. He (and the CGI) perform admirably and convincingly. (A small side note/pet peeve- why is it that even with mocap, CGI characters cannot raise their arms above their head convincingly? There's something about the compression of the shoulderblades that never works...) The range of characters that he plays in this film is pretty impressive as well. My friend went through the whole film questioning whether Clu, 80's Flynn, and Flynn were even played by the same actor.

The film's design was stunning, the actors are all very photogenic indeed, and the action setpieces are heartthumpingly quick and bright. It's a joy to watch (if about 20 minutes too long) for its visuals alone. The 3D dims everything out, and the film is dim to begin with, but it is used effectively in fight and chase scenes. The soundtrack by Daft Punk is so good that the movie sometimes feels like a music video, driven by the score alone. There were tons of adorable inside jokes- nods to the original film that made the old fogies in the audience smile and laugh, and that weren't distracting to the kids. It was a perfectly serviceable sequel in a lot of ways.

I just couldn't help but feel annoyed and bored by the last little bit of the film. I didn't go in with ridiculously high expectations, but I left disappointed anyway. Like Avatar last year, this movie could've done so much better with a halfway decent script. Like Avatar, it's a beautiful, digitally-innovative masterwork with a tendency towards missing plot opportunities. At least this film steps in the general direction of originality without wallowing in the stilted, cliche-morality of Avatar. It just stumbles along the way. I'd recommend waiting, and renting it on Blu-ray. I'm sure it will be almost as beautiful as in theaters, but that way you won't regret spending $10-$15 on a movie with no direction or significant characters to speak of. If you love the original, it might still be worth it. 6.5/10

I want to do this.

2010-12-20T22:25:00.001-08:00

Superior, Speed Fly from Marshall Miller on Vimeo.

Slow season

2010-12-19T02:36:00.000-08:00

I've seen Tron and True Grit in the past week, but I want time to watch the old-school films related to each before writing reviews. Maybe Monday/Tuesday I'll type those up.

I'm having a great Christmas break so far. The past few days have been full of good food and better people... but that doesn't necessarily keep me from getting a little melancholy.

I reckon that's not such a bad thing. It's is a rich, bittersweet time of year.

Packing

2010-12-16T15:00:00.000-08:00

Finals are over... but I wish I was more organized. I've got two hours to pack for break.

Word Wednesday: Part Four

2010-12-15T08:29:00.000-08:00

Gallimaufry edition!

Gallimaufry- a hodgepodge or jumble

Mondegreen- a word or phrase that is misinterpreted as another word or phrase, usually with an amusing result

Ventifact- a stone that has been shaped or polished by windblown sand

Sedulous- involving great care, time, and effort

Onubilate- to cloud over, obscure, darken

Orison- a prayer, a beseechment, the oratory of priests

Fluvial- of or relating to streams and rivers

Sidereal- relating to the stars

Desideratum- something considered desirable or necessary

Quiescence- a state of rest, inactivity, or quietness

Jejune- dull, insipid, boring, lacking maturity or substance

Old favorites

2010-12-14T18:04:00.000-08:00

Just looking through some of my old youtube favorites.

There are some gems in there. This is the riff-raff.

Yep

2010-12-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

The Game Has Changed

2010-12-12T15:04:00.000-08:00

Instructions for a lifechanging experience:

1. Load this video.

2. Pause and mute the video.

3. Queue up the Daft Punk Tron: Legacy Soundtrack (crappy online version here)

4. Start the music.
5. Start the video.
6. Put it in fullscreen mode.
7. BLISS OUT, SPACE-STYLE.

You'll thank me later.

Durango

2010-12-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

Around this time last week, I rode a train. It seems like years ago, but I guess seven very busy days can stretch into eternity as much as any other measure of time.

Thanks to Nels & Michelle, Carter, James, and of course Annie, Emily, and Scott for making this a wonderful trip. Even if it seems so very long ago....

Finals are murder. Privileged educational murder.

The rest of the photos can be found here.

Word Wednesday: Part Three

2010-12-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

Foreign, silly, beautiful, mostly untranslatable words.

Kummerspeck- German- "grief bacon", or the excess weight one gains from emotionally-motivated overeating.

Uitwaaen- Dutch- the act of walking in windy weather for fun.

Mokita- Kiriwana- A truth that everyone knows and nobody speaks.

Koshatik- Russian- a dealer or seller of stolen cats.

Uovo di Colombo- Italian- A simple, obvious, idea that doesn't occur to the person who could use it the most.

Waldeinsamkeit- German- the feeling of being alone in a forest.

Mamihlapinatapai- Yaghan- a look of unspoken desire shared by two people who each wish that the other would initiate the thing that they both want.

Ya'aburnee- Arabic- "you bury me"- a declaration of love, a hope that you will die before the other person because you would have no desire to live without them.

Fernweh- German- farsickness, an aching need to go away- the opposite of homesickness.

Schlimazel- Yiddish- a chronically unlucky person, especially prone to Murphy's Law.

Torschlusspanik- German- the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.

Cafuné- Portuguese – the act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.

Litost- Czech- a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.

Toska- Russian- a sensation of great spiritual anguish, a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning.

Tartle- Scottish – The act of hestitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.

We should have some of these in English, don't you think?

Going

2010-12-03T11:28:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be on one of these bad boys tomorrow. Provided I can get this paper edited.

I'm a horrible procrastinator.

Wait for me

2010-12-02T23:49:00.001-08:00

Hero.

Okay, maybe I should explain my love of Tom Waits a little better. I know his voice isn't everyone's cup of tea. I was playing Bone Machine in my studio last year and another student came in all alarmed, asking "What IS this? It's the most horrible noise I've ever heard!" Sure, maybe he sounds like Louis Armstrong's been chainsmoking for 87 years and just got run over by a gravel truck, but I love that. His voice has years of hard living to make it wise. His lyrics are deeply, gravely romantic. His music is visceral in a way that makes my nerves sing.

From the achingly nostalgic "Hold On"...

...to the funny, gritty smirk of "Heart Attack and Vine"...

...and the spine-tingling soulfulness of "Come On Up To The House"...

How can you not love this man's music?

Hero.

PS: He's seasonally appropriate!

Word Wednesday: Parte Deux

2010-12-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

French phrase edition!

Presque vu- the intense, near-despairing feeling of being at the brink of a great epiphany without fulfillment.

Têtes à claques- a person so annoying that he or she might deserve to be slapped.

Bête noire- an object, person, or abstract idea that is particularly disliked or avoided.

Ennui- a feeling of utter weariness, boredom, discontent, and lack of interest.

L'esprit de l'escalier- French term meaning "staircase wit", essentially to come up with a witty retort far too late- when you're already on the staircase.

L'appel du vide- "the call of the void" or the instinctive urge to jump from high places, to do rash things on an impulse regardless of consequence.

Chantpleure- to sing and cry at the same time.

Dépaysement- The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.

I feel like this collection of phrases says a lot about the French as a people.

Man oh Matadors

2010-11-30T23:00:00.000-08:00

Wow. I need to get back to Spain, as soon as possible.

(via The Sartorialist)

Respect

2010-11-27T23:57:00.000-08:00

I just watched My Fair Lady with my little sister for the first time in YEARS. I'd forgotten how much I hate the ending. LOATHE IT. I loved the whole movie immensely up 'til then.

This song especially bothers me. I know it's supposed to be funny and show the character's blindness and ignorance, but it just reminds me irresistibly of the time a guy came up to me in undergrad and said "Ugh, you know? I just HATE feminists. They're so whiny."

I mean, WHO SAYS THAT? (Especially to a woman. Seriously, dude?) Furthermore, who isn't a feminist? "Oh, no, I believe women should be repressed, disallowed fair pay and voting rights, and be viewed as inferior to men!" Nobody in their right mind thinks this way anymore, and yet people still think of feminists as bra-burning, man-hating lesbians. I don't understand this.

Feminism isn't about superiority, it's about equality. It's about demanding respect, not necessarily seizing power. There's nothing threatening about it.

But the establishment's scared of the underdog, to mash together some cliches. Any upstarts are quick to be put back in their place.

That's what happens in My Fair Lady, and I hate it.

I'm a feminist, you see.

Gratitude

2010-11-26T01:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's a little past Thanksgiving, but I just wanted to say...

I'm grateful for a lot of things this year. I'm grateful for my family, which stays the same no matter how much it changes, and for my friends here in Washington who've known me longest. I'm grateful for the big, stupid, messed up art world, and for graduate school. I can't believe how lucky I am to be doing what I love in an environment that encourages and challenges me. I'm making work. I have wonderful friends that fill up the days and nights with good conversation. I have health, opportunity, education, a modicum of intelligence, and all the time in the world to make of my life what I will. I'm not exactly starry-eyed with expectation, but I think the next decade will be a great adventure. What more could I ask?

Most of all, I'm grateful for how much I've changed in the past year. I'm stronger, and definitely more bold. I've taken more chances, and taken the consequences. I don't regret any of this year's joys, risks, mistakes, and heartbreaks, but I hope they've made me wiser. More importantly, I hope they've made me kind.

To all those who've shown me unexpected, unconditional kindness and love in the past year: Thank you. You don't know how much you've changed me.

I want to be like you.

From the very bottom of my heart:

Thanks.

Word Wednesday: Part One

2010-11-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

Words I have loved- some recently found and some long in use.

Palaver- to talk profusely and idly, to babble aimlessly.

Susurrus- a soft rustling, whispering, murmuring sound.

Schadenfreude- To take pleasure in another's misfortune.

Gezellig- The comfortable, pleasant, cozy feeling of "being at home".

Duende- the ability to attract others through irresistible attractiveness or charm; in reference to the arts, the heightened state of emotion that comes from a transcendent artistic experience- often feelings of abandon, excitement, exhilaration... It's what gives you chills.

Saudade- The feeling of longing for someone or something you have loved and since lost.

Lethologica- the inability to remember the word that you need- "on the tip of your tongue"

Language is my lover.

So it's almost Thanksgiving

2010-11-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

....and I haven't posted pictures of ANY of my adventures over the past month.

Dinner parties with lovely ladies...

A Halloween of truly epic proportions...

Guy Fawkes Night celebrated the good old-fashioned way...

...a delicious soda-tasting/Tim-Tam-Slammin' soiree with some wonderful women...

Not to mention Velour shows, Muse sets, The Criterion Collection, late-night Hi-Chews, BKDG, many illuminating conversations... and a lot of painting. I can't wait to catch up.

New(ish) Trailers

2010-11-21T21:14:00.000-08:00

Jane Eyre (March 11, 2011)
Directed by Cary Fukunaga, Starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender

Source Code (April 15, 2011)
Directed by Duncan Jones [aka Zowie Bowie], Starring Jake Gyllenhaal(!)

Cowboys and Aliens (July 29, 2011)
Directed by Jon Favreau, starring Daniel Craig(!)

What are you excited to see? I can't wait for Tron, Black Swan, True Grit...

Warshington

2010-11-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

Notes and occurrences from my first two days of break in Spokane:

1. I feel so healthy here. The air is clear and crisp, like the perfect drink of water.

2. A woman at the gym heard me sneeze and said "God bless you" with a lovely shy smile.

3. A dreadlocked couple with an adorable dog were the best tippers at the Rocket Bakery.

4. It is COLD, and will get colder. Seven degrees and lower by Tuesday.

5. The "5" key on my laptop keyboard is distinctly wobbly. Gorilla Glue isn't helping.

6. My profs from undergrad are the same as always. It makes me a little nostalgic.

7. Selling work to the right people is definitely worth it, even if the price is less than ideal.

8. As of next week 15 of my drawings will be in Whitworth University's permanent collection.

9. Harry Potter is best seen with Harry Potter nerds. Especially if those nerds are my siblings.

10. Watching chubby dachshunds run down flights of stairs might be the funniest thing ever.

11. It is dark by 4:00 here. Buuuuuuuuuuggggggeeeerrrr it aaaaaaaalllll.

12. Sopressata is pretty delicious, especially served straight-up Tuscan style.

13. It's a lot easier to make good curries with all the supplies in my parents' pantry.

14. When did my little sister get to be such a college student?

15. When did my little brothers get so tall?

Week-end

2010-11-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

I love weekends, but sometimes the feeling I get when they're over is so....wistful.

Tour of Six Flags - New Orleans, abandoned since Katrina.

The past few have been so much fun that it's even more tangible than usual.

Remember Remember

2010-11-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

Today's full of hair-gambles, painting, art openings, and effigy-burning.

Happy Bonfire Night.

Around

2010-11-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Daft Punk's "Around the World" by Michel Gondry

Bespoke

2010-11-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

I love classic fall Menswear.

De los Muertos

2010-11-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

Bad Things That Could Happen from This Is It

BOTW: Brideshead Revisited

2010-11-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

One thing that I've noticed recently is that a lot of the books I've read resemble each other. I'm not talking about literal plot points. I don't think it has to do with the sorts of books I choose, either (I've been drawing from a pretty wide list of what are considered classics) but books like Brideshead Revisited definitely remind me of others. Waugh feels like a sort of British successor to Fitzgerald in a lot of ways, and their novels are set in very similar sorts of places. Waugh, however, feels much more British- more restrained, dry, humorous, and despairing than Fitzgerald ever did. When dealing with themes of lost love, lost youth, and moral struggles, The Great Gatsby was full of vivacity where Brideshead Revisited had its wistfulness. Not that the latter lacks extravagances, of course: it's full of the Wodehousian patois peculiar to a certain generation of the upper-class set. Waugh makes so many references to genteel turn-of-the-century painters and renaissance sculptors that one is instantly dropped into the parlor of a great house or the late-romantic wing of a museum. It feels very elitist and stuffy at times, but that's made up for by the fact that it's a beautifully true tale about friendship, youth, loss, and, peculiarly enough, the nature of religion.

Great if you like (beyond all odds) both Bertie Wooster and bittersweetness.

All Hallows

2010-10-31T19:42:00.000-07:00

What a glorious Halloween weekend!

Adventures were had, photos to follow.