Quodlibets

Friday Random Ten (NaBloPoMo is over!)

And I'm kinda sad about it.  Anyway, I'm ceasing the posting on the weekends, but I'm going to make every effort to post every weekday.

1. Brian Wilson (Live) -- Barenaked Ladies.  I went through a very long period of love for this album, mostly in high school.  I've never liked one of their studio albums though.  Just this one.  I don't listen to this album much anymore, but I still know all the songs by heart and love them very much.
2. You Were Mine -- Dixie Chicks.  Saccharine-sweet, but excellent.  I love singing along with Natalie Maines.
3. So Sorry -- Feist.  I wish I liked this album better, but I don't.  I don't like this song much.
4. Vito's Ordination Song (Acoustic) -- Sufjan Stevens.  I believe that Sufjan's genius is limited, and I don't think "Greetings from Michigan" counts towards it.  The songs are pleasant enough, but it's just not got the magic that Illinoise has.
5. Some Weekend Night -- The Stands.  One of my favorite songs from this year, All Years Leaving, is from this album by the Stands.  I actually don't think it's a new album, but Sam and I fell into listening to it this year, so for me, it's a this year song.  The whole album is pretty good, and this song is fine.  Not one of my favorites, but certainly listenable.
6. Every Ghetto, Every City -- Lauryn Hill.  You know, she went off the deep end, which is so sad, because her solo album is incredible.  It's one of my Rome albums.  I used to pop the disc into my discman (hey, man, this is BEFORE the might iPod, in 1998-99) and jive down the street to Bibli, to get my email, on the most primitive email system ever.  I think it was through University of Michigan.  Hey man, this was before really good web-based email.  We worked with it though, and this album invariably reminds me of that walk.
7. One of Us -- Joan Osborne.  It's too bad that this song blew up and then became a joke in such a quick time, because it's actually a pretty great album in its own right.  Joan Osborne is still making albums, by the way, though I'm ashamed to say I own none of them.
8. The Diner-The Slant (Live) -- Ani DiFranco.  Shit, this is one of the best live albums I own.  How can you NOT like "Living in Clip"?  You can't not.  Incidentally, I'd always hoped that my sister would get into Ani (she likes chick rock a lot), but I think she was resisting maybe because I like Ani so much?  I don't know, but this year, when she asked for new music, I threw my favorite Ani album in the mix, and I think she liked it.  The next thing I give her?  "Living in Clip".  That said, this is NOT my favorite song on the album.
9. Lightnin Hopkins -- REM.  Anh.  Document isn't my favorite REM album, and this doesn't even come close to being in the top 50 songs by them.  I once made a three-disc Best Of REM, and this didn't make it.
10. Maxwell's Silver Hammer -- The Beatles.  What a bizarro song, right?  Well, and this wasn't intentional, but my cousin has a son named Maxwell.  The problem is, it seems intentional, because his first child is Jude, after "Hey Jude".  I suppose it's better to be associated with the latter song than the former, because you know, Maxwell is a mass murderer.  Not very nice.  I thought it would have been nice to have a little girl and call her Julia (after the song) and they could have been Jude and Julia, but no, no, it's Jude with a movement on his shoulder and Maxwell with his silver hammer.  Ah well, they're adorable boys. 

Now, I may continue these from now on, but I'm not sure.  Depends on how the mood strikes me.

Huzzah for me!  I blogged every day in November, even if some of the posts were pathetically bad.  Now let's all cross our fingers, and hope for prizes for those of us who've made it.  (Congrats Mavis and Kate!)

The wait commences

This entire entry is going behind the wall, so to speak, because I want to talk about these books I just finished, and I'm almost 100% certain my sister will want to read them too, and I just can't spoil them for her.  But I'm DYING to talk about them.  I don't know how interesting this will be to many of you, (probably not caring about vampires and romance and YA novels and stuff), but I'm going to write about it anyway because nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah, it's my blog.  If you're interested at all, click through.  Katie, don't you dare.  You don't want them spoiled, I promise you.  You'll just have to read them FAST so we can discuss them.  (Also, don't read this if you're anywhere in the middle of Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series.)

Sheesh

Do things seem to speed up at the holidays?  I think they do.  And doesn't it seem like anything that can go wrong will?  (See: my sister's big ol' problem.)  Just, yikes.  I think her thing?  Far worse than ours, which right now is a non-functioning thermostat in the bedroom.  We do have the heat, finally, but perhaps infinitesimally worse, we can't make it hotter or colder in the room.  It's like you've got a raw egg without a shell in one hand and a pooping baby chicken in the other.  Both are awful.  Before the heat we were so cold that it was uncomfortable, but last night I woke up at like 1:30 am and thought my skin was melting off.  And the repair of the thermostat?  Uncomfortable, to say the least, considering our landlord, who seems to think that it's not really her responsibility.  I shudder to think how she would handle a problem on the magnitude of my sister's.

And then there are the problems of your own making, such as when you drop a can of diet coke from such a height that it splatters all over the carpet, the couch, and worst of all, the right side of your computer.  I'm not ashamed to say that the couch and the carpet?  In bad shape, because all I cared about was the damn computer, which I immediately turned over and let drain, all over the floor.  Didn't help the floor, but if it saved the computer, amen.  And as you can read, I am using it right now.  I'm still scared shitless, but Sam told me that it's most likely okay if it didn't die right away.  Shite, man.  I can't afford to lose this baby. 

And then there are the problems my body is creating for me, which I'm sort of hoping are ending right this very minute.  Or in process of.  Without being too gross (sorry boys, but I'm not in the mood to talk around this), I've been having some breakthrough (due to...erm...contraceptive measures) and it's f-ing gross and I'm sick of it.  I'm JUST SICK OF IT.  Don't worry, I've talked to my doctor about it, and it's not cause for worry right now.  Give it five days, and it'll be panic central over here. 

Anyway, what was I saying?  Yeah, holidays = problems.  Cross your fingers and hope they all work out.

When your heroes are thugs

I like football.  A lot.  I like watching it, I like reading about it, and I like participating in it through fantasy football.  Unfortunately, I just can't ignore the unsavory things about it.  Don't get me wrong--what happened to Sean Taylor is a tragedy; anyone dying so young and leaving behind a child is bad.  And I obviously don't know him; I don't even know much about him as a player, save what I've read in all the coverage of the incident.  I'm in no position to judge, clearly.  And I hesitate to write these things, except that it's very troubling to me.

The thing is, was Sean Taylor a thug?  There seem to be some problems in the NFL with thug-players, from the jail time served by Ray Lewis to the jail time currently being served by Michael Vick (for two different things, obviously).  And there is so much in between those two things--Pacman Jones and the 8 (or was it more?) different arrests of players of the Bengals in the last few years.  Tank Johnson and Rae Carruth and Fred Lane and Mark Chmura, these are all players that have had problems with the law.  And it seems to me that Sean Taylor's death is just the latest in a string of problems that the NFL is dealing with.  He was arrested for armed assault in 2005, and that wasn't his first problem with the law.  Are the two things related?  Who knows?  But it doesn't look good, that's what I think.

It's not as if as a society we've been ignoring the problems of these young, rich athletes.  I've read more than a few articles about the issue, and if you do a search on google for any combination of athlete, NFL, football player, jail, thug and so on, you get a lot of results.  The question is, what do we do about it?  Of course, we could stop supporting the sports that tolerate and breed this behavior.  There's no doubt in my mind that the NFL isn't doing enough to stop this sort of thing.  The fact that Pacman Jones might play again in the league should be evidence enough that the situation is out of control.  I guess what I'm advocating is a zero-tolerance policy.  You commit a crime, you're out.  I don't care if it's marijuana possession or armed robbery or freaking murder.  Or dog abuse.

I guess there's not really a gray area for me.  I don't think anyone should be rewarded for participating in something that isn't right, no matter how much they protest coercion or ignorance or loyalty to old friends (which is apparently what some of these men argue; that it's some form of ghetto loyalty).  And to me, being able to make millions of dollars playing a game is more of a reward than a punishment, no matter the beating that your body takes.  If you can think of an extenuating circumstance that would make some sort of criminal record somehow look-over-able, please share it.  (To be clear, I'm not talking about problems before the person became a sports star, whether that was in college or later.  I'm talking problems that happen after the fame and money.)  I want to understand how we can overlook these problems without missing a beat.  How we can think winning is more important that ethics.  Because as much as I love the Bears, and I want them to win, I think that the Tank Johnson decision was the right one, even if he could have helped our defense.

Winning--not the most important thing, in the end.  But to the moneymen and the coaches and those people, I guess it must trump all.  It must, if they're letting these guys back on the field.  Tell me I'm wrong.  Tell me I'm making more out of this than I should.  Because I really want to keep watching football, and I'm finding it very hard to be a supporter of the sport right now.

Progress Report Monday #4

Quite a bit of progress this past week, even with the holiday (which was also a non-sewing day for me) and the almost complete lack of sewing on Mon and Weds.  But then again, the Friday holiday sort of made up for that.  Anyway, you can see the structure of the porch taking shape, and by this time next week, I'm hoping there'll be people standing in that doorway.  Unless I really drop the ball, I should get to the oldsters in the door (for some reason, I think they're the Grandparents of the picture).  Also, and you can't see this very well from the picture, which is sort of far away, there are more damn Xmas lights to be put in at the end of the dealie.  All the way across the porch, in fact.  And that means they're all the way across the porch that's yet to be sewn.  I don't know if you can tell from this pic, but I'm in fact working the pattern from top to bottom and then from bottom to top, moving from the left to the right.  It's kind of a weird way to work, I concede.  But it's also a really good way to keep moving from one element to another.  It's pretty boring to do trees trees trees house house house snow snow snow.  I like it better mixed up: house snow trees snow house trees.  You get the picture.  Thus my odd little way of leaving strange unfinished elements around--in front of the sled, and that snowy rooftop, for example--is explained.

By the way, I'm totally not going to stop doing this when NaBloPoMo is over.  Have I mentioned that?  Ah, well.  If I have, now you know it again.  I wonder how high the the number of Mondays will get....

O! Tannenbaum

Well, lookee there.  It's a Christmas tree.  It's my Xmas tree, to be exact.  You can see with much detail any of the ornaments, but if you look closely, right in the middle there's a boy in a pink bunny suit and a leg lamp.  Those would be Sam's "Christmas Story" ornaments, placed in a position of honor.  By him, obviously.  You can also see a silver cylinder on the right side, and that is my new diet coke ornament.  Not joking.  All the best ornaments are facing the camera, of course.  Interestingly, for some reason all the worst ones are on what I conventionally consider the back of the tree.  But from my perch on the couch, and you can see the arm of the couch that I lean on, I can see the "back" of the tree.  And hence, all the worst ornaments.  Next year, I'll be more careful.

You can also see my Xstitch on the arm of the couch, which is something you'll see in more detail tomorrow.  I won't forget the Monday Progress Report.  It's keeping me motivated when I flag. 

Lastly, I'd just like to mention that I am so motivated today (in general) that I woke up and started a soup in the slow cooker.  All day, a lovely tomato soup has been simmering in the cooker, and I'm very excited to eat it.  I love tomato soup.  I think I'll probably do the slow cooker thing for the next two Sundays as well, though I have GOT to find a few recipes that Sam will actually not turn his nose up at.  That's my task for next Sunday.

I Hear a Symphony

Last night, my mom, sister and I went to see the CSO.  It was "Friday Night at the Movies" with John Williams, and while that's sort of orchestra light, it was also really, really enjoyable.  I think John Williams composes some of the nicest movie music out there, and let's be honest, are there very many people who wouldn't recognize "Superman" or "Star Wars"?  It was certainly more accessible for me than the other classical pieces we saw the last two times we went.  Honestly, the two things that got the biggest crowd response were the Star Wars pieces--the basic one, and the imperial march.  But everyone knew Indiana Jones and everyone knew ET and Jaws.  I personally also really enjoyed the selections from "Catch Me If You Can" because the vibraphone playing was fricking cool, and I also really loved "Sayuri's Theme" from "Memoirs of a Geisha".  That latter one was almost 100% strings, and that much string goodness sometimes brings tears to my eyes.  It was beautiful.

As always, I did watch the strings most of the time, focused as I am on their loveliness.  However, I spent a good amount of time watching the percussion.  The percussion section looked so young!  One of the guys looked like he was barely out of college.  I found that remarkable.  And the principal of the percussion section, Cynthia Yeh, had the abovementioned vibraphone solos during "Catch Me If You Can", which like I said, were very cool.

All in all, a very enjoyable night, and I'm kind of glad that I got to see John Williams conduct once in my life.

Friday Random Ten (Leftover Edition)

I'm about to eat some stuffing and potato filling, but before that, here's the day's random ten.

1. On Every Corner -- Ani DiFranco.  An okay Ani song.  Not my favorite.
2. Toxic Girl -- Kings of Convenience (David Whittaker Strings Arrangement).  I love the KoC remix album.  Almost better than their actual album.  But this song is only so-so.
3. Angeles -- Elliott Smith.  I don't love Elliott Smith's music, but this song has always been kind of nice.
4. The Word -- The Beatles.  Is there anything to say about this song?
5. Airplane -- Indigo Girls.  Fair to say that I hate this song.  Almost as much as I hate the song Chickenman, and I hate Chickenman the way I hate assholes.
6. So Hard -- Dixie Chicks.  I don't even know this song.  The end.
7. Where Did You Sleep Last Night? -- Nirvana.  Doesn't everyone who likes rock music like Nirvana Unplugged?  I barely listened to Nirvana before this album, and after?  I've been through two copies of this thing.  That's right, this CD I'm on now is my second copy.
8. Bizarre Love Triangle -- Frente!  I went through a period where I LOVED this album.  Then I put it away and lost it.  And then a few years ago, I found it in one of my brother's CD books and bam! It's back in my catalog.  It's ok.  The first time around, I didn't know this was a cover.  Now I know better, though I still find it charming.
9. (I Know) I'm Losing You -- Rod Stewart.  I really like the album it's from, though I haven't listened to it very much.  I like it, and I'm sure I'll listen to it more.
10. I Love You More Than You'll Never Know -- Blood, Sweat and Tears.  Don't know this one, but I'm sure it's classic rocky.

What a horrible Ten.  Oh well, I don't care.  I'm eating stuffing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's snowing in Chicago.  While I don't want it to impede my travel, I do love the feeling of holidays that involve snow.  There's something about knowing you don't have to go to work, and the beauty of both the holiday, and the big white flakes.  Sigh.  This is all part of the reason I still live in a place that is trying to kill me with the windy coldness.

Anyway, because I did Anti-Thanksgiving, I must do an actual Thanksgiving too.  So here is a short list of some of the things I am grateful this year:

• Stuffing.  I can't lie.  The sausage and mushroom goodness seems too good to be true.
• My family.  No better family exists, I'm sure of it.
• Having enough food.
• Books.
• Sam.
• Sam again.
• My health, no matter if it is slightly wonky right now.

That's all I'm going to list, because like yesterday, I could list all kinds of little things I am grateful for--my car, my iPod, having a home, being loved, etc--and it could go on forever.  I'm grateful for a lot of little things I get to have.  But those things above, they seem to be the most important.  You know, except for the stuffing, which I think I'm just crazy about right now because I know I get to eat it today.  It's all I can think about.  It's taken over my mind.

Anyway, I hope you all have something wonderful to anticipate today, whether it be a turkey, stuffing, or a nice relaxing day.  Have a happy Thanksgiving, readers!

Anti-Thanksgiving!

My dad remembered, and I didn't.  Today is Anti-Thanksgiving.  So here you are, two posts for the day.  All the things I am NOT grateful for:

• Hunger.  The end column in this week's Newsweek by Anna Quindlen was about the food shortage in this country.  Apparently, the government is giving less food out than ever before, so it's even more important that we donate food around these holiday times--but also, all year round.  People NEVER have to stop eating.
• Seaweed and Wasabi.  Damn those two things, keeping me from the eating of the sashimi and sushi.  I hate the gag reflex that happens immediately upon putting those things in my mouth.
• DRM.  It may seem like a small thing, but it's really important, when you think about it.  DRM is CHANGING the idea of purchasing something.  It's changing buying to renting, and it's very dangerous.  What's next?  Clothes that dissolve after 20 washes?  Oh wait, that's the quality of some things these days, the things we clamor to pay less and less for, as more and more people go poor for our want of cheap.
• Laundry.  Does anyone like doing laundry?  If so, I applaud you, because I just CANNOT get excited about doing it, any of it.  Especially the folding.
• Gas prices.  Even driving my hybrid, I'm feeling the crunch.  I know it's our fault, and I know we deserve it, because we built this society that depends on gas so freaking much, but it's still depressing.  And honestly, how much have Sam and I cut our dependence?  We are a one-car household--and a hybrid one at that.  But it still sucks.
• People who don't take care of their animals.  Look, we bred them this way.  We tamed them, and bred them for the docility.  Now we owe them.  We owe them good care if they're a pet, and if a food animal, we owe them the most humane life and death we can give them.  If you can get off feedlot meat, do it.  If you can get off pork and chicken factory meat, do it.  It's not good for the animals, and you know what?  That's probably not good for you.
• Leg cramps.  And various other cramps.  All cramps.  I'm not grateful for them at all.

That's really all I can drum up right now.  Oh, there are thousands of other little things that I'm not grateful for--asshole drivers, assholes in general, asshats, asswipes, you get the picture--but these are the things I'm really coming up with now.

So thanks dad, for reminding me NOT to be thankful.