A somewhat goofy mini-collection of stuff I’ve been reading, stuff I’ve been thinking about and oh, some completely random crap.
Basically the stuff that never gets mentioned here because I’m not the kind of person who can just make some teeny little point. Not into the whole brevity thing, as the Dude would say.
Actually, I’m under the strict compulsion to write ten pages about anything on my mind. So this is me. Practicing brevity.
Remember when I went on emergency vacation? Well, I’m doing it again.
It’s not so much an emergency. More of a yeah I really need to get out of Berlin situation.
Luckily, the internet is continuing to be interesting. So yeah. Items! Exclamation points! Hi.
Item! Post No. 35 in a series that continues to amuse me even when I am unexpectedly in Denmark.
Item! Not that I was just in Denmark or anything.
Actually, I am in Denmark right this second.
But this would still be funny if I weren’t.
Oh, advertising agencies! Really the only thing more funny is … making fun of advertising agencies. I’ll take it.
Visit Denmark: “We want people to go to Denmark and have a positive association with their memories from that trip.”
Agency: “Can we use vikings?”
Visit Denmark: “No, vikings are played out. And really…’can we use vikings’…really?”
Agency: “Okay, how about Amsterdam.”
Visit Denmark: “Amsterdam isn’t even in Den…look we’ll call you.”
Twitter: From @mekanism and found via Casey who is @Casey_Cole.
Item! Are you obsessed with light sabers?
Because you should be.
I try not to be. But it’s pretty much a lost cause.
“First of all, I have heard of this new device being considered reminiscent of a lightsaber (hence the picture), but I don’t think anything that can’t cut an arm off should be in any way compared to a lightsaber. “
Warning: time suck! Time suck! Glorious time suck! You might be here for days. Maybe save it for the weekend?
But there are squirrels with light sabers! And one of the post tags is pew pew pew.
I might be in love. And you might find everything about this site highly inappropriate. Blame Jenny!
Via Jenny the Bloggess who is @TheBloggess on Twitter.
Item! San Francisco Motorcycle Club Elects First Female President!
Whooooo!
Meet Madam President Tegan Hetzel-Dobbins
As Amanda said: Yey go girl zoom!
I read about it here.
Also, you really have to listen to the Sparkletack episode about the history of this Club. I have been somewhat obsessed with the San Francisco Motorcycle Club ever since it got sparkled.
Actually, go for the pictures and stay for the episode.
Via my friend Amanda who is @ClusterLuck12 and (finally!) on Twitter
Item! Like rubbing your tummy and patting your head. In an anti-gravity chamber.
Nice post from Briana called “I’m a contradiction“.
About all this stuff she’s learned about her patterns through doing my Dance of Shiva wackiness. Super interesting.
You know what’s funny? I’m constantly trying to describe Shiva Nata and I can’t.
And then she shows up and just nails it:
“You basically combine specific arm and leg movements in certain sequences and it feels a little like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head. In an anti-gravity chamber.
While also trying to memorize an international telephone number. And some annoying person is shouting random digits in the background. In Chinese. Or something nothing at all like that, but even more confusing. “
Awesome.
And if you read her blog, you’ll notice that the whole thing is full of shivanautically-inspired insights.
She’s @tweetbri on Twitter.
Item! From the duck scarf chick!
Remember when my duck got her second scarf? That was Romilly. I adore her.
So Romilly wrote about some of the realizations she came up with during the workshop I taught in North Carolina workshop
“I need more space and comfort in my life. The state of my studio has become priority number one for a while.
I also need to trust myself more and realize that when my intuition takes the time to tell me I need to do something, it’s not because it likes the sound of its own voice. LOL”
Nice!
She’s @deRomilly on Twitter.
Item! I’m supposed to tell you something and I don’t remember what it is.
Way before people started sending my duck new additions to her wardrobe, Naomi and I did a thing.
A very excellent thing. And it was about how to make the monies even — especially? — when things are recession-ey and horrible. Or when they’re not.
It was full of brilliance because Naomi is a genius and I am a deranged pirate. And we both have strong opinions, which is probably not as charming as we think it is, but still very useful.
That was back in March or something.
In the meantime, she’s always off moving to England or moving back from England, and I’m in Copenhagen even though I’m supposed to be in Berlin, and between her emotional breakdowns and mine, it’s kind of hard to keep track of these things.
So we’re doing something with this and I’m so tired that I don’t even remember what I’m supposed to tell you about it.
But I’m sure she’ll post about it soon and I’ll feel like an idiot.
Item! Comments!
So it was really cool the other week when I got to work on my practice of how I ask for stuff and you guys gave me the best reading recommendations ever!
So I’m going to try it again.
Here’s what I want:
- Things you’re thinking about.
- More lyrics.
My commitment.
I am committed to giving time and thought to the things that people say, and I will interact with their ideas and with my own stuff as compassionately and honestly as is possible for me.
Even though asking for what I want still feels awkward for me, I’m just going to remind myself that this is a thing I’m practicing.
That is all.
Happy reading.
And happy Blustery Windsday. See you tomorrow.
I’m thinking about how to function better in my own life. I’m happy in my marriage, happy with my kids, but unhappy in how I move through my days – I feel very ineffective and kind of lacksadaisical, which drives my systems-loving brain utterly mad.
So I’m making lists, and freewriting, and doing Shiva Nata, trying to dig out the what questions (what can I do to move from here?) because as much as I love a good why, they aren’t always helpful questions.
I have a Leonard Cohen lyric stuck in my head lately ‘I’ve been where you’re hanging and I think I can see how you’re pinned.’ It always reminds me to identify with other people and where they’re coming from, and I thought you might like it.
I don’t have any reading recommendations, I’m afraid. Too wrapped up in my own brain at the moment.
Too funny, pew-pew lasers and squirrels lightsabering each other. Just when you thought the internet was full, along comes something that makes your head explode.
My word for the day is “unapologetic.”
.-= Barbara J Carter´s last blog ..New little-bitty painting “Dots 12 (Open Grid)” =-.
Ok I just couldn’t pass up the chance to post MY favorite Leonard Cohen lyrics…
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
I’ve tried to make it a practice to look for the light whenever I see a crack- and boy are there cracks!
.-= Liz´s last blog ..Size Matters– Why Big Goals are Different from Small Goals =-.
Ok, I was going to put up the lyrics to one of my favorite songs, but they look really odd sitting on a ‘page’.
here is the audio of it on you tube instead! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_yWCHrtJrQ
Damien Jurado- Paperwings
I came to post some Leonard Cohen for you, Havi, and then discovered that Liz had beat me to it! I quoted the ineffable Mr. Cohen in my blog post this very morning. I love it when a good lyric makes the rounds of human consciousness…
.-= Tracy´s last blog ..Retrospective: Stitching Broken Into Whole =-.
I’m an item! Wow!
And isn’t it interesting that when you and your intuition agree that something needs to take priority, all of a sudden lots of other things stick their heads up and yell, “me too!!! me toooo! Don’t forget about MEEEEE!” Or is that just the cats?
Lyrics… hmmm.
I don’t have any off hand, but I just tracked this down, and if you don’t know the wonderful, funny, late Anna Russell, you should… Anna Russell explains the Wagnerian Ring Cycle on her farewell tour in the 80s… http://bit.ly/ouCcq
If you prefer Gilbert and Sullivan, her albums also have “How to write a Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta” instructions. 🙂
.-= G. Romilly´s last blog ..Beach Blanket Beledi =-.
Yea, Copenhagen! Have a wonderful time in Denmark, Havi. I think you’ll get a kick out of Christiania. Enjoy!
.-= Catherine Cantieri, Sorted´s last blog ..The curse of "awesome-ism" =-.
ooo! ooo! something great to read! and it has pictures.
An Awesome Book by Dallas Clayton. I think It is perfect for those of us that hang around here. Its a quick children’s book.. all the pages are scanned in on his site.
http://www.veryawesomeworld.com/awesomebook/inside.html
This is my favorite song/video from my favorite album of 2009, thus far.
“My Girls”
by Animal Collective
There isn’t much that I feel I need
A solid soul and the blood I bleed
But with a little girl, and by my spouse,
I only want a proper house
I don’t care for fancy things
Or to take part in the freshest wave,
But to provide for mine who ask
I will, with heart, on my father’s grave
On my father’s grave
(On your father’s grave)
I don’t mean to seem like I
Care about material things,
Like a social status,
I just want
Four walls and adobe slats
For my girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zol2MJf6XNE
.-= Joel Corriveau´s last blog ..Music, Growing Up and Giving Back =-.
I wanna light sabre umbrella. Except I think people would all think I was trying to attack them when really, I’m just trying to duel.
Lyrics which seem oh! so apt right now because they absolutely mirror something I’ve been thinking about lately are Lily Allen Lyrics to “22”:
When she was 22 the future looked bright
But she’s nearly 30 now and she’s out every night
I see that look in her face she’s got that look in her eye
She’s thinking how did I get here and wondering why
It’s sad but it’s true how society says
Her life is already over
There’s nothing to do and there’s nothing to say
Til the man of her dreams comes along picks her up and puts her over his shoulder
It seems so unlikely in this day and age
She’s got an alright job but it’s not a career
Wherever she thinks about it, it brings her to tears
Cause all she wants is a boyfriend
She gets one-night stands
She’s thinking how did I get here
I’m doing all that I can
.-= Wormy´s last blog ..A Most Terrible Word… =-.
I’m going to combine the things I’m thinking about with song lyrics! Because every time I start to think about what I want to be when I grow up (or do with my business in the next six months, or whatever), I end up thinking of this particular song lyric…
“To have ambition / is my ambition.”
Yeah. It’s SO like that.
.-= Amy Crook´s last blog ..Films about Ghosts =-.
Hmmm… lightsabers… and song lyrics…. anyone else geeked out enough to care about the *sound effect* of the original lightsaber?
Just in case, this is excerpted from wikipedia:
“The lightsaber sound effect was developed by sound designer Ben Burtt as a combination of the hum of idling interlock motors in aged movie projectors and interference caused by a television set on an unshielded microphone.”
Who knew? Wishing everyone GOOD FORCE! 🙂
.-= Erika Harris´s last blog ..Can you love “possibilities” too much? =-.
One (of the many, possibly innumerable) reasons I am totally head-over-heels in like with you is your gratuitous references to Vikings. And pirates. Now if you’ll just burn down a barn with me I can totally be like Nebuchadnezzer. (Huh? It’s not him? Are you sure? You know, they prophecy guy? Crap. You’re kidding… Fire the fact-checker. What do you mean I can’t fire somebody I don’t pay? I’ll fire anybody I damn well feel like firing. Tomorrow, I may just fire Fridays just out of spite. Or Mondays. They really get on my nerves.) Apparently, I meant Nostradamus. Just checking to see if you were still reading.
Anyway you and Naomi are among two of my favorite people who aren’t me.
Do light-sabers come in smaller versions? Like light-daggers, or even light-butter knives? Maybe light-cheese spreaders? Or even the dreaded red light spork? (The force is wrong with this one…)
And right now the only lyrics I can come up with are: Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, wonderful Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, marvelous, Spam… well, you probably can guess the rest of the song. Just don’t try to eat it. Or make sculptures out of it.
ilikered, I just bought the Awesome Book too! And it is awesome!
Have you ever read Kon Tiki? By Thor Heyerdahl? He was Swedish, but in love with Polynesia, so he’s right in line with needing to be in Berlin, when you’re in Denmark. If you’ve read it, you’ll understand. If you haven’t, but decide to do so, don’t tell Selma what happens to the parrot. For some reason, Kon Tiki is my book to go to when I’m wandering aimlessly trying to listen to myself. Wherever I am, I have to have a copy. I have a remarkable number of cheap paperbacks with bad black and white pictures of lunatic men on a balsa wood raft.
Lyrics….
Today, for me, I am what I am from La Cage aux folles, the Broadway version. I am having a hard time remembering who I am, when I have a lot of well meaning people telling me what I should be, just because I could be.
I am what I am
I am my own special creation.
So come take a look,
Give me the hook or the ovation.
It’s my world that I want to take a little pride in,
My world, and it’s not a place I have to hide in.
Life’s not worth a damn,
‘Til you can say, “Hey world, I am what I am.”
I am what I am,
I don’t want praise, I don’t want pity.
I bang my own drum,
Some think it’s noise, I think it’s pretty.
And so what, if I love each feather and each spangle,
Why not try to see things from a diff’rent angle?
Your life is a sham ’til you can shout out loud
I am what I am!
I am what I am
And what I am needs no excuses.
I deal my own deck
Sometimes the ace, sometimes the deuces.
There’s one life, and there’s no return and no deposit;
One life, so it’s time to open up your closet.
Life’s not worth a damn ’til you can say,
“Hey world, I am what I am!”
@Wormy re: lightsaber umbrella – Google “Rain Glo Umbrella”. Verrrry tempting 🙂
The lyric I remember most often:
“I don’t expect to be treated like a fool no more; I don’t expect to sleep through the night.” – Paul Simon
This is a brief but excellent description of adulthood, especially after kids. I also love his vision of “angels in the architecture, spinning in infinity” – a joyous thing to think about, depending on the angels you have in mind…
I like the lyric, “I like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve ..” The band is not coming to mind though.
And those Leonard Cohen lyrics – yes! I quote those often.
Oh, why can’t I see squirrels with light sabers in the park. That would make my day, week, month, year. I can just picture them turning on the pup and charging en masse. Wait, maybe I don’t want to see squirrels with light sabers.
.-= Elizabeth´s last blog ..it’s a weimiversary! =-.
Oh, the light sabers. I was looking at them in the dark dining room when my 4yo son, who should have been asleep, silently tiptoed in and tapped my shoulder. I’m certain I caught air off my chair, and the shock probably took years off his life.
Song lyrics?
http://www.danzanes.com/flash/video6.shtml
Denmark! That country is so on my list to visit someday, even though Amsterdam is not in it. (But who needs Amsterdam, anyway, especially if you’re running from Berlin.)
The lyric that is currently stuck in my mind, which is really only one line, is:
“Let’s me and you fill up our diarieeeeeeees!” Followed by images of bathtubs filled with rrrrum and a duck on the edge.
Bonus points if you knew straight away where the line is from. It’s from Annie, the song is ‘sign’. And I know the bathtub was actually full of gin.
Item!
I love this stuff.
Thanks for the lyrics, you guys. And I am very happy that I’m not the only one who totally makes a fool of herself over light sabers.
Somehow that’s very reassuring.
@Gilbert – I adore you. Let’s get this barn-burning party started.
@Wormy – damn you for planting the light-saber-umbrella in my head. Now I will go mad until I have one. Sigh.
@Inge – *blows kiss*
I love that description of Dance of Shiva. This morning I tried to actually speed things up, and…does anyone remember the Simpsons where Bart and Lisa are arguing, and they both close their eyes, and he says “I’m going to wave my arms like this, and if you get in the way…” And she says, “I’m going to kick like this, and if you get in the way…”
I kind of felt like both of them at the same time. But, you know, nonviolent.
Then I think I hit myself in the head…or something did. It might not have been me.
Musically, I’ve been carrying around some Led Zeppelin in the car (Houses of the Holy…always reminds me of country-driving high-school days…the good ones), also digging on a friend from my hometown, Tommy O’Donnell (of Something Bros and Spelunkers near-fame), and his record “Pioneer Maintenance.” …”She never says her goodbyes. She’s already slipped into a disguise. She’s a specter, lonely specter, floating down a hillside…” Plus, there’s a tune called “Waking Up Wearing a Batcape.” Yeah.
.-= Emily´s last blog ..Why Not? Wednesday =-.
I have lots of favorite lyric sources, but one of the best is the Weakerthans (http://www.theweakerthans.org/). (And their music rocks, too.)
Sample line: “In love with love/And lousy poetry.” And “Circumnavigate this body of wonder and uncertainty/Armed with every previous failure, and amateur cartography” (From “Aside.”)
And all of “Plea From a Cat Named Virtue.” And all of “Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961).” Both from “Reconstruction Site.”
Etc.
Go to their site, then Discography, then click on an album, and you’ll get a track listing; each one links to the lyrics.
Love love love!
.-= Heids (@moonheids)´s last blog ..God the octopus =-.
*Blush, blush, blush, blush* And also, I drove from Seattle to San Francisco yesterday, about 13 hours in the car alone, so needless to say: no internet access. And here I come out from under my rock to find I’m an item! Universe, you blow my mind. Havi & Selma, you guys are the sweetest. Hope your emergency escape to Denmark is delightful.
.-= Briana´s last blog ..Perfectionism scramble (with a side order paradox) =-.