Abattoir Blues

Years ago, when I was dating a bass player (like we all haven't done the musician thing at least once, my excuse is he took up bass a year afer we started going out) and a fellow band member said something about my liking the Velvet Underground. I really can't think why. Unless I was really into Stan Ridgeway at the time -which I was at one point. Saw him live at Slim's. Great show. (Oh now I remember. It was something about the singer Nico.)

Anyway, I decided to stop at the DDE* tonight and so picked up some discs. One of which is The Velvet Underground Gold.I'll have an opinion later. All I can say is it started at track 12 and after a day of 8 year old would be commedians was not the best place to begin. Venus in Furs is pretty fun though.

I also aquired a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 2 disc (I knew not to start with Nick. Has anyone else read And the Ass Saw An Angel? Brrrrr), one Cure, Staring at the Sea-the Singles, and a Sigur Ros (what is it with these no name releases?!)

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It looks as if Marie-Paul, Paul-Marie, Laurence and Michu are headed for the guillotine after being framed for burglary and arson. ***CV

*Dance Disc Emporium

The BBB

Well Balzac seems to be of the theater generation. He creates his stage very paticularly, sets all the props in meticulous order and places each character within their unique context and then the actors and actresses begin the performance. Wow. I had to pick up another of his works even though I am only on part two of A Murky Business : Corentin's Revenge. I now have an edition of the Wrong Side of Paris
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I also discovered another collection of Borges, this time some nonfictions.
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While perusing the Bobbed Haired Bandit I couldn't help but admire the shoes Ms. Cooney wore. Why don't they make such fun footwear anymore? There was one illustration circa 1924 that I am so tempted to try and put on a jean jacket or embellish onto a cheap 3/4 coat. :)****CV

Moll mauls mall

Scott Westerfield as writen several teen society oriented books. Stories that are oriented towards social as well as societal issues. Two I can think of are called Uglies and Pretties. After reading the flap summaries of these two I am reminded of the Twilight Zone episode: Number 12 Looks Just like You. I believe a very young Sissy Spacek starred in it - or else a close relation.

I fininshed Westerfield's story Peeps on Saturday. It deals with parasites - every other chapter outlines a real life parasite and its charateristics. The other chapters follow the life of a person infected with a parasite and his quest to track those he has unwittingly infected. The tale is cleanly told and not overly embellished which I appreciated. It's a book I would reccomend especially if you have any curiousity about plagues or salem issues.

This afternoon I finished reading Mimus written by Lilli Thal. As an alternative look into a Jester's "career" - say you thought Danny Kaye's versions were realisitc, it was spot on. Lots of references to the chrisitan prophets which surprised me though really I can't think why. Jesters were part of the premedieval era and so was christianity.

People are not nice to each other in this story and yet it has a fairy tale flavor. I'll be interested to see what other works this author produces.

Today I picked up 5 new books. Four are for a class related event and one is just for me :) Care to guess? Really it's pretty obvious.

Dr. Seuss: American Icon

The Bobbed Haired Bandit

Oh say Can you Say?

Dr. Seuss Young author and artist

Dr. Seuss

***CV

fruit juice commandos

I am hot drinks gal. I found this out one sad day in Texas when I was having dinner with my family. We stopped at a restaurant and after ordering our meals decided to have drinks as well.

Since I had never had a margarita before so I decided to try one. Bad idea. Apparently my body is so addicted to processing carbs, any kind of carbs, into fuel, sugary drinks take first place in the processing lineup. Within two minutes I knew I was wasted. Not only wasted but angry: 'cause I think getting wasted or not should be a choice.

My choice had been taken from me by the tuity fruity, umbrella sombrero wearing, overly iced drinkie. I glared at it with vidictively inebriated eyes.

I can drink hard cider cause I know how to pace myself. I can drink chocolate martinis cause I know how to pace myself - but fruit juice commandos? Yeah now I can pace myself. How? Just say NO!

I always try to learn something form every experience good, bad, or ugly. What I learned from this is why spiking fruit punch is so popular. Cause it works. ***CV

remember the margarita

Cinco de Mayo: a holiday manufactured in order to boost Chicano studies over thirty years ago: fact or fiction? Considering that it is not a celebration of Independance - that happens in September, and is in fact commemorative of an event more like the Alamo then the 4th of July? I think fact.

So if that is that case should it be celebrated in a school? Is it not more like St. Patrick's Day: an excuse for partyers to go out and party rather than a holi-day in which one contemplates the noble reasons for setting aside a specific day to honor particular events?

We made gods eyes and Mexican flags but that was more of a craft activity. I'd rather use my time and energy towards events that have meaning other than margarita mayhem.*

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When I purchased the yarn for the gods eyes I was asked if I was making christmas socks. The Mexican flag is after all green, white, and red.***CV

*I cannot drink margaritas. I've tried. It's not pretty.

Give a finch a marble....

Tweeter the bullied finch has laid an egg. Yep. All by her lonesome in her nest.
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I love my parental community :)
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Maybe this is why May and June are so challenging. Not because it's the end of the year and the sun is out and eveything wants to move, move, move, No. It's becaue I know that beings I have spent concentrated amounts of time with will be moving on. They may come and visit but it won't be the same.
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I recently made a comment in a forum dedicated to a book I enjoyed. The comment was about certain fanfic interpretations of the story's main characters. I honestly expected to get somewhat slammed for my remarks, however true they were. What I didn't expect was to have the author post after my comment (within 20 minutes) with her own entry. Wow.

My observations were correct :)

*****CV

Amigo secreto ocho

Secret pal 8

Kha the constrictor

Saw my first albino cobra today and my first copperhead. What beautiful creatures. Though only 18 inches long the cobra had a loud hiss and was not white but dusky pink and cream :) I kept admiring the patterning on the snakes, from diamond back to python, and as I did so cable patterns continued to emerge.

I watched a chameleon change from happy happy orange to an angry moldy brown and Gila monsters are such chipper looking beings :)

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Peeps by Scott Westerfield, a book about a disease that turns its hosts into vampiric creatures, Mimus, about a prince forced to become a jester in order to save his father and a book of Oregon plants for the garden.

Hopefully good antidotes to stilted reading syndrome.

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I am meeting with the adults in charge of the child and the child tomorrow. Wish me coherancy ***CV

lemony v. Fyodor

Let me state for the record: I do not like a series of unfortunate events.

I do not like them in my house, I do not like them on my shelf, I do not like them on a bus, I do not like them anywhere. What really bothers me? aside from the fact that there was a 40+ pervert trying to marry a 12 year old girl in a children's series in the very first volume of the series?? It's the constant explaining of words in every. single. paragraph.

Look: dictionaries were made for a reason. Bah! to artistic device and clever marketing ploys.....grrrrr. I happily wander in my own world of context dependant clarity and avoid spoon feeding whenever possible.

Still I read so that I can sensibly present my case as an adult reading a book selected by a child.

Is there a Dostoyevsky in the house? ***CV

donna gato

The finches have an admirer :) Apparently a family moved nearby recently and brought their kitty with them. We thought she was a stray at first because when we saw her two weeks ago she was clean and then a week later dirty and noticiably thinner.

One of the staff decided to adopt her and took her to the vet where she was scanned and found to be chipped. Her owners were contacted and didn't appear overly concerned that their feline had been wandering the new neighborhood and hadn't been home for what they said was two days but what appeared to be a week. *sigh*

Kitty was returned to the family and guess who came visiting today?and sat in my lap for a half hour?

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Purchased: Pride and Predjudice by Jane Austin and the Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snickett (the class lit group's choice not mine)

***CV

slug a bed

Over the weekend I finished The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd and Transmission by Hari Kunzru. The aspect I enjoyed about Cheese Monkeys was the in class critique. They were completely and utterly scathing. As vignettes they made the book worthwhile. The rest of the story struck me as filler.

There is one scene where the instructor assigns his students the task of creating an attention getting sign. A phrase or image that catches and holds the viewer. Stops them in their tracks so to speak. They all arrive the day of, all set to dazzle him, when he bundles them into a bus and drives off the campus. It's winter by the way.

So they arrive at their destination, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, they all get out and the bus drives off. They are graded on how many cars it takes before they each are picked up. 1=A 2=b etc. All they are provided with is a white board and some sharpies. The best part? The instructor had to do it too.

Transmission was fun as a slice of life from the dot com virus era.

Interestingly both books had branding (as in marketing) as a key theme.

***CV

oh Rhett

Today I was shown the cutest stage near where I work. If only I had known about it during all those afternoon rehearsals. Oh well. Now I do :)

In answer to carrie: yes it was a child and yes this has been happening all year. We're working on it; but I think you might understand why I know there are only 30 more days left 'til summer break.

So guess what? Oh c'mon. Guess.

The finch got loose again today. Excuse me while I find a nice brick wall to hit my head against. Thus, right before lunch it was "I do not want anyone trying to catch the finch." "Catching the finch is not a work." "It does not matter what happened last time. No one is finch catcher." Where did I leave that wall?

The finch actually returned to her former cage and was sitting atop it. The other finches promptly began to feed her through the bars.

I really don't think anyone believed me that if we all simply did our afternoon work the finch would return to her cage on her own. So I sat near by until one of the community needed a lesson with a material and as I was presenting the finch *voila* entered on her own. I should mention that the lesson recipient was the one who had collapsed on the floor in utter frustration at not being allowed to do Finch catching.

La! My community would give Miss Scarlett one serious run for her money in the melodrama department. Must be why I love them so :)***CV

hungry I

So today I was told that I was being selfish by talking about myself (this is in the context of I statements such as I feel sad when I see...) I looked at the person and said "So it would be better if I talked about other people?" He said Yeah. "Ok. So then when I see people standing up in front of an audience during rehearsal trying to make the audience laugh while everyone else is trying to rehearse that person is looking foolish instead of smart."

He looked at me then said, "I think you should talk about yourself."

"Ok."

When children want to be treated like adults but are children and act like children they cannot be treated as an adult.

Somebody got a koan for that? ***CV

Birdwoman of Portland

I finished the Book Thief in time for Holocaust Rememberance day. From the beginning of the story you know what happens to the main character. It is, after all, set in Germany during the rise of the Nazi party, and narrated by Death. There really aren't too many ways it can go.

Oddly it reminded me of Stones From the River by Ursula Heigi. There is a really good book. Not happy. No. Not perky. Very well written. It is also set in Germany during WWII.

I am still reading A Murky Business but that is my carry around reading. My go to sleep reading is now The Cheese Monkeys. Irony get y'r irony here :)

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Today two of the finches decided they didn't like the other one. Did we have another cage? Oh that would be too easy. So we put together a box, punctured it with some airholes, got the finch -lost the finch, got the finch again and put her in the box (with a bowl of food and a bowl of water) found a location for her .... when someone decided she needed nesting material and can you guess? We lost the finch again *sigh*

We caught her and she spent most of the day in her box in the loft while we arranged to borrow a cage. So, in the afternoon I'm alone trying to figure out: is the finch alive? dead? She has spent a whole day in a covered box, albeit one with airholes.

I untape the box and whzzz!whzzz! Ok. Alive. Now. How do I get the bird into the cage when the box opening is larger that the cage gate but not big enough to cover the cage gate securely?

So we know what happened right? Lost the finch again.

At that point a friend and I decided to chat while Ms. Finch smoothed her ruffled feathers hanging out on the bullies cage. After I finshed talking where is Ms. Finch? Inside her new cage checking it out.

It's only Wednesday right?

**CV

Ruby Slippers

Thrift stores: you either love them or leave them. I love them.

Where else can you find velvet jackets and 1920's dresses for less then 20 dollars? OR fabulous fringed suede jackets (in black and in red) or enough cheap but gauzey scarves and shawls to decorate ones abode in early Aladdin?

Today I found a pair of fabulous red shoes! They tap, rap, and snap and they are higher heeled then my SoM mary janes.

I shall Flamenco to my next show - but not Ministry I think. Moshing in heels? Someone might get hurt :) ***CV

Secret Agent Fouche

knock! knock!

who's there?

banana

banana who?

banana banana

knock! knock!

who's here?

banana

banana who?

banana banana

knock! knock!

who's there ?

orange

orange who?

orange you glad I didn't say banana?

as told to me by Krisitine (4.5 years old)

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Yes! one more sock completed. Now I just have to do two to complete the pairs.
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Almost finished with the Book Thief. And, in A Murky Business Michu has revealed himself to be on the side of the Royalists. Everytime Fouche is mentioned I see Patrick McGoohan (but I don't know why)****CV

Betty is watching

Speaking of fanfic. There was a rather interesting link in Neil Gaiman's Journal about just that subject.

It would seem there is a woman who wrote some Star Wara fanfic and then decided to self publish and put her work up for sale on Amazon. Hmmmm. She used specific characters from Star Wars: Copyright violation? Possible plagarism? Oh my! I went to amazon to see what it was about and as people can write reviews on self published works .... well the critics were not kind.

It would seem that fan fic is a type of plagarism no matter how homage like it may be intended. It simply is a case of whether a particular author views the fanfic as free advertising, flattering or harmless. Which I would think it was until it enters the marketplace.

There was a similar brouhaha regarding a fan site for Twilight in which the creatrix took another sites information and moved it over to her site: no permission asked for or given. Honey in a store that would be considered shoplifting.

Early last week I had a conversation in which a child asked me what plagarism was. And it was not the broad definition but the moral one which made sense to him. Then a day or so ago I came across one explanation which makes sense to me about why plagarism is wrong. It is not the using of another's idea. Ideas are what human beings are having all the time: there's bound to be some repetition. It is the taking someone's enactment of an idea; their interpretation; and claiming it as one's own.

That is like taking someone's homebaked bread and saying you baked it. Or taking a patented idea and claiming you thought of it first.

Be warned: if you make a cake mix attribute it to the manufacturer or face the wrath of Betty Crocker.

**CV

tri tres trois

Monday's child is fair of face

Tuesday's child is full of grace

Wednesday's child is full of woe

Thrursday's child has far to go

Friday's child is loving and giving

Saturday's child works hard for its living

the child that is born on the sabbath day

is bonny and blithe and good and gay

Mother goose

So that is thing one I wanted to post.

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Thing two: There are some really, and I mean REALLY, creepy people posting blogs out there. (Yeah I know what cave have I been hiding in all this time?) *shiver* So yeah 'tis a free country in which we can express our opinions but *shudder* don't come visit my site 'k?

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Cheerfulness:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, in which a child is taken to the Cemetary of lost books and told to choose any book he wants.

Angel Sanctuary #5 ('nuff said)

The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd, in which an art student winds up in a graphic design class during the 1950's (and it really is much better than the premise sounds)

Wordstock tomorrow :)

***CV

Mondream

I've been glancing through fanfic sites lately and I am slowly coming to the conclusion that reviewing this type of site is a really good means of gaining insight into a particular book's readership.

One site specialises in Fitzgerald. Almost all the fanfic (90%) is about Gatsby. There was one about Bernice from Bernice Bobs her Hair (1!). The Oscar Wilde section obssessed with Dorian Gray and in the Gormenghast arena it is all Steerpike and Fushia. In Twilight 90% is Bella and Edward. And a skim though HP seems to tend towards Harry and Hemione.

There is a Wuthering Heights area, Poe, Gaiman, Charles Dickens and Poppy Brite as well.

So this is a limited conclusion because it is dependant on those who write fanfic and not all the readership of a particular book or series (there is even one for Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys).

I'm tempted to start a Huysmans category. Or Angela Carter :) Now that would be interesting.

***CV

Who would you write fanfic for?

tyger tiger tigre

Suphanaka is done! :)

99 skeins of sock yarn to knit

99 skeins of yarn

one pair down pass it around

98 skeins of sock yarn to knit

**CV