I'm live blogging the debate.
9.26.2008
9.23.2008
Native American Powwow
Be there or be square!
The 17th annual Austin Powwow and American Heritage Festival is on Saturday, November 1st. I am pretty sure Mom dragged us to the first one - it was in some tiny middle school gym, about a hundred people or so. Now it is huge. It's fun, they sell a lot of cheap crap, but the dancing, costumes, and drumming are great. So is the frybread. I'll probably be there at 10 AM to see the Grand Entrance dance which is neat. I think they do it more than once. I love the old men that sing and drum, they are super adorable with their old man faces and braids. Old men should always have braids. Or beards.
I'm doing a lame job describing this, but I'm ready for bed. Trust me! More info on their website.
9.21.2008
I absolutely love
the chairs. I adore them. I need them in my apartment.
BAH-GCH. Ba-ug-ckuh. tam-ber.
Bruno's like, Clavichords, la-ti-da. Gould is all, Step off, motherfucker.
9.20.2008
Bjork and Antony: Dull Flame of Desire
Love this video, especially the second part. The third part is freaky, but great.
9.16.2008
which reminds me...
Tracy Chapman reminds me of Joan Armatrading. You guys know her? LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish I could sing like that. But I'm a silly white girl with weak vocal chords.
Another good song from same taping, Show Some EMotion (I used to sing this with my pops!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yqgqd4nkoc
And she reminds me of...Nina Simone.
Watch this when you have 11 uninterrupted minutes, watch this. I had never really heard this song until I watched this. Her face, her talk, her piano playing - she goes Chopin all over that song - are inspiring. To me.
Songs that made me cry when I was 7
Nostalgia, people. It's a strange thing. For years I would think about this song as being one of the most meaningful songs of my childhood. My dad would watch MTV constantly in the 80s, and when this video came on, I was riveted. Hearing the song in the car, in the grocery store, watching the video, I would cry. Lots of tears, lots of staring out the window.
The song was a sort of hit, so it was off the radio and MTV within a year or so. I never knew the name of the song, nor did I know the band. Only the chorus stayed with me. Then, 11 years later, senior year in high school, I was reminiscing about favorite songs from childhood with a friend, and she new instantly the name of the song. Watching it now, it still made me cry BECAUSE I AM A LOSER. Okay, the song doesn't move me anymore, but my memory of my experience listening to the song is very strong.
Read on to see what it is. Be underwhelmed. Laugh at me. Then let's see if we can figure out why the song got to me.
Apologies, you have to go to the url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSyRFLlYnWI.
So, WTF? I have a few ideas about why it made me cry: the lovers across-time theme. I actually thought the refrain was, "I know you're out there somewhere/somewhere, out there/I know you're out there somewhere/somewhere in eternity out there." In reality, the refrain is: "...I know I'll find you somehow/and somehow I'll return again to you."
Now that I think about it, I know exactly why the Moody Blues' song made me cry. Just a year or two that song was released, I was sobbing like a fool in the movie theater because of this:
Oh. My god. Don Bluth was an evil monster. Mystery solved: sadness and fear about being separated from family becomes sadness and fear about being separated from loved one.
Here's another song that had me in tears every time I heard it in the car:
Fast Car also came out in 1988.
Hell hath no fury...
like a horny rabbit.
Last night Stuart got friendly with my neck roll (the little pillow I have to help reduce neck strain/pain). It was on the floor sticking out from under my bed. Stuart straddled it and was going full steam ahead. Crazy FULL STEAM AHEAD!
I was at a loss. I haven't seen him engage in such a lustful act, and this time it was so desperate. Painful. I tried to gently slide the neck roll out from under him, and he held on with his front paws. So I pulled hard. I tossed it on the bed, and Stuart gave chase. I sat in my chair, pulled my feet up. He stood on his hind legs and peaked into my hands. He thought I still had it. He ran around the room for a bit before settling in Cottontail Cottage. Phew.
9.06.2008
Colostomy bags and photos of Europe
You guys, I went to see Lillie today (yes, that's her real name, I think it's fine to use it), and she had a colostomy! I haven't been to visit her in several weeks, maybe a whole month - August sorta kicked my ass - and so I finally went to see her today. She didn't recognize me, which I expected, but she was very agitated. She's always been such a sweet, happy person, always laughing. This was not normal.
I asked her how she was, she showed me her hand (which she fell on last November and hurt pretty bad - I guess it still gets achey), her stomach (right by her belly button she's got a little pouch of fat - she's gained weight since she's been there), her leg (also hurt in the fall), and touched her forehead and said "high blood pressure." This is all normal, but usually she laughs about it and forgets and we talk. This time she wouldn't let up. She talked about how she wasn't supposed to be there, she's 80, she should be somewhere with old people. They don't give her medication, they don't take her to the doctor when she's sick, they just give her a pill, she can't sleep because they're too loud, etc, etc. She was very distressed.
This was shocking to me. There was a wheelchair at the foot of the bed that I sat on while she talked to me. After about 10 minutes of this, I reassured her that I would be talking to someone about her situation. Then I pulled out my pictures from Europe and went through them and talked to her about it. She laughed quite a bit, smiling, made a few comments (she really liked the picture from Cinque Terre with P and the cat). Then I said goodbye. I just emailed her care manager, and I should be meeting with the both of them next week.
As I was walking out, her roommate asked if she could see the pictures. Her sister just went on a vacation to Greece, so she was interested to see those. She is a woman in her 40s (I think) who is bedridden. She doesn't seem to get confused, she can carry on a conversation, but she does a lot of exclaiming. "Oh, that's so beautiful!" "Oh my gosh!" She has a very soft southern accent, and I can imagine that if her situation wasn't as it was, she would be somewhat of a southern belle. She seems to be quite a flirt, wears her heart on her sleeve. In fact, she was really taken with the pictures of A! A new question for every picture of him. She asked me if that was my husband, I said no he was my boyfriend; she asked me if we were still together, I said no we broke up in March; she asked if there was any hope of getting back together, I said no, I was the one who ended it. The picture of him standing against the railing over a canal in Amsterdam (which is one of the better pictures I took), she said, "Oh, there he is again!" And the picture of him on the train to the airport, WITH A MULLET, the light streaming in behind him in a very angelic way (another good picture), she said, "Oh Laura, he's gorgeous!" HA HA!
So that was my morning.
9.04.2008
I went swimming this morning...
after so many months of not going. It was very nice, I split a lane with a really slow girl.
9.03.2008
...teleport the whole planet here through music.
I just requested this at the library. Can't wait to watch it! Afrofuturism! Crazy jazz! Science fiction! *LOVE*
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