esprit de l'escalier

Still internet-less at home

I had a really great weekend. My friend Amanda was in town. (I'll post a couple pictures soon.) It was ridiculously hot here. The weather has gone from 0 to 90 in about 2.5 seconds, so to speak. Amanda is always good company, partially because I'm usually laughing and partially because she's not real people and will gladly agree to accompany me to the Container Store and then oversee the reconstruction of my room. (Which is set up and very cute, though I still need to get my prints up on the wall. I finally have a room larger than a closet! It's been many years since I've been able to spend any amount of time in my room awake. Now I have seating!) We ate and ate and ate and explored the new neighborhood. We went down to the old 'hood, Wicker Park, and did some hipster hunting. We went to the Field Museum, which wasn't the greatest idea to do on Memorial Day weekend when the King Tut exhibit opened, but dodging children has always been a favorite pasttime. (I can't wait to see King Tut, by the by.) We went to see the movie Brick, which was great. It's highly stylized like a Dashiell Hammett novel, but set in a SoCal high school. I thought it was a lot of fun and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was excellent as the gumshoe. The weekend ended with a further clearing out of the old apartment. Natasha and I (and perchance my brother, but I'm not holding my breath) are cleaning the place for good tonight and handing over our keys. We already miss our old landlord, who will probably be the best landlord we will ever have. (And our washer/dryer.) But the new place is feeling like home and I'm already adjusting to the commute.

In which I finally learned my lesson

This morning I woke up on that euphoric brink of exhaustion. Eric, Natasha and moved our big furniture from the old apartment into the new last night. Moving went well, except for the rocky start. The first thing we moved was the couch, which we promptly wedged into the stairwell. Then freed it. Then wedged it again. Just as we thought it was hopeless, there was a lot of grunting and cursing from my brother to cut the legs off the couch, he rammed into it and it popped out of place. Luckily that was the only difficulty we had the entire night. Plus everyone remained in good spirits and the couch easily (well, it was heavy and there was some strain) went up the new stairwell. Though I learned my lesson about moving. All at once. None of this drips and drabs and death by a thousand cuts. I promise. This was my first move with actual furniture, so I plead naiveté. Before I could always fit everything into an overstuffed minivan. Sigh. I am reminded of the garbage lady in Labyrinth and fear I will be saddled down with all of my possessions. (And yet at the same time I have great nesting instincts. Such is one's quarter life, I suppose. Things are in limbo.)

All I can say is that I was very happy to have such a helpful brother last night. Although we were helping him get his remaining furniture out of the apartment, ours was the more cumbersome and it was really great having his help. Natasha and I would have never gotten the couch up or down on our own.

Anyhow, I've got a busy couple of days ahead (with a friend in town) and still no internet at home, so have a lovely long weekend everyone!

Thanks all...

Thanks everybody for all your kind words about Miss Ivy. It's been harder than we all realized. You get so used to a little presence always there.

Also sorry for keeping a sad post front and center for so long. We have begun the moving process in earnest on Sunday (thanks to the help of some wonderful friends-- Bird, Sharon and Ellen). We still have some of the big pieces left. As per usual, I have not organized ourselves in a way that makes sense. I think this might be an example of some sort of underlying masochism in both my and Natasha's subconsciouses (how does one make that word plural?). Apart from being very sore (and still not yet done), Natasha's got a cold coming on and I have a couple of miniature mountains that have broken forth on my chin as if to say, "Guess what time of the month it is?" (Note to self: next time plan moving around one's cycle; I'm grumpy enough as it is.)

Last night, through the beauty of Craig's List, I was able to get rid of some furniture that I inherited from a previous roommate. And we didn't even have to carry it.

I think posting is still going to be sparse. I've got a research paper due June 6th (yikes!) and a friend in town this weekend (yay Amanda!), plus no internet in the home. Hope you are all well.

My good little pooch

My lovely little dog passed away last night; she was just shy of 18 years old. I received her for Christmas when I was 7. She was all wrapped up in a blanket under the tree one day when I came after school. I had had a dog previous to her, Daisy, but she got too big for our suburban backyard, and we gave her to our friends who lived on a farm. Thinking now, I don't know why I alone got her, I guess I had asked. (Which was a big thing in those days, as I had difficulties telling people what I wanted or felt.) She was such a friendly dog and everyone who met her was enamored of her. I had several friends through the years threaten to steal her away with them. She had this calm way of looking at you, with her little brown eyes. She was really quite regal. She only barked to welcome people, and to get treats. Her bark was a trilling one, almost a little howl, I've never been able to describe it well. She would bounce as she barked, her flowing tail waving madly. She was with me through the struggles of adolescence and was privy to all of my tearful confessions. She had a way of getting comfortable in the middle of my bed that explained to me that I was the one who was going to have to sleep to the side. We have countless pictures of our poochie, but one of my favorites remains the one where she is playing cards with Eric's friend Michael, when we were about 12 or 13. Michael staged it so that Ivy's hand was laid out in front of her, and he was staring sadly at his own hand. She's looking at him as if to say, "Gin." It's hilarious. She was our little dustmop come to life and we are all going to miss her terribly.

I'll leave you with some wisdom from my mother that I received this morning with the sad news:

I have always thought humans were so lucky to have these marvelous creatures to have as friends and companions in life. The happiest humans out there are those who love their pets, great and small. And I, personally, have cast a beady eye upon those who don't get it. A part of me stands suspicious of them, sensing something missing.

The taxonomy of music

I went to a town hall like event this evening with Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, the online radio station/program that I use (you can see my latest favorites at the bottom of the sidebar on your right). I was invited because I guess I'm one of the early adapters in the Chicago area. (Who knew I'd be an early adapter to anything?) Tim also had Kurt Hanson, the founder of Chicago-based AccuRadio, a similar online radio service (though it's based around genre and Pandora is around the music genome project).

It was a really enjoyable and interesting two hours. Tim, who looks sort of like Peter Krause, told us a bit about his background and how Pandora came about. (There is a great interview with him and Tiny Mix Tapes here, read that if you want some more specific info.) I stupidly left the house without pen or paper! (I was using a new bag that has yet to be properly outfitted for use-- it doesn't even have chapstick in it yet!) I had a slip of paper with the address in my bag and I kept borrowing a pen from the guy sitting next to me, so I was able to jot down some of the ideas that really struck me.

One thing, he talked about how the web is like a "viral hurricane" when it comes to spreading things by word of mouth. Which is rapidly becoming such a truism, but I liked the way he put it. He also described the blogosphere as an alternative universe, which also made me laugh.

Anyhow, back to the topic of the evening, which was music and the future of online radio, predictions, things that hold it back, etc. Thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), things like Pandora can exist without having to pay licensing fees to every record company. Unfortunately, this is the only law like this in the world, which has limited Pandora to a US-only service (though people seem to get around this by putting in phony ZIP codes-- 90210 being the favorite). Tim spoke with regret about not being able to pick up on the great dynamism in music in Europe. In general, he said, American music tends to be fairly generic. Plus, he admires the respect that Europeans give musicians and music. He cites busking as an example. In Europe if you see a musician on the street people think "artist" and here people think "bum," which I think is fairly accurate.

One thing that he talked about, which he said wasn't his phrase but that he liked it, was his hope in helping to establish a musical middle class. The whole idea behind Pandora is to expose listeners to musicians they may have never heard, or alternatively giving musicians a wider audience. Tim thinks that people are musically starved and have forgotten what it's like to discover new music. Part of finding larger audiences is Pandora's simple interface. Any level of computer user can go to the website and with a few clicks can be listening to music. This simplicity was always important to Tim, who said that the problem with a lot of things that come out of Silicon Valley is that they aren't built with the general public in mind. There is no bigger turn off, for me at least, than coming upon something that was built by engineers for engineers to make them feel smarter than everyone else. Think Thoreau and simplify, simplify, simplify! (That was Thoreau, right?)

What I really loved about tonight is that there were about 50 people in attendance and it was about half male-female (I started counting, as I was early and didn't have a book). I think that's fantastic, especially because the web and music geekery are thought of as male realms. Though in my Gender and Identity in New Media class I'm learning that is becoming untrue on the internet. Plus I read on the Broadsheet the other day that MP3 players have made it less intimidating for women to purchase music. According the the Guardian, women in Britain are becoming the driving force in the music industry. (I read something a while ago that the UK consumes the most music in the world, so I think that speaks volumes about trends.)

In the course of the evening I realized that my modus operandi was a poor one. I had been jamming one station with lots of different artists, but I think it confuses Pandora. (Pandora chooses songs based on your choice of artist or song and then plays other songs that are musically similar.) I need to break down my musical tastes a bit more.

Check out Pandora; give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

Night of rats and rain

Is it sad that the saddest I've gotten about moving out of my neighborhood was tonight when I had to cancel my account at my snooty movie rental place? Glen, the manager, was his crusty self to me tonight. He told me to have a nice life and I'm going to really miss his curmudgeony demeanor.

Also, there is an abundance of rats out tonight. One actually ran across Natasha's foot, which creeped her out understandably. She thinks it's because the sewers are full. We saw several on the street and a couple dead.

The apartment is full of full and partially full boxes. Soon, soon, soon it will be over. Right? I just hope the rain ends before Sunday!

Live in the layers

Stanley Kunitz died on Sunday at the age of 100. What a wonderful, long life, with so many beautiful poems.

I don't read enough poetry, though I probably read more than most. (Work just did a study about poetry for the Poetry Foundation, although I'm not sure if the results have been released yet.) Reading (and listening to Kunitz read his) poetry makes me want to run to the nearest used bookstore, load my arms and hole myself away. Natasha is a very good poetry reader, and is constantly passing things on to me. Sharon forwarded this NPR interview with Mr. Kunitz in 2001. Have a listen. His dry, crackling voice is warm. When Robert Siegel asks why he doesn't use a computer, he said it made him feel too mechanical. For, "the poem is born of the body of wisdom of the body."

He reads his poem "The Layers."

The Layers

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written,
I am not done with my changes.

Quick trip home

Okay, my picture from the plane is a nod to Mav at Port2Port, but it isn't as nice as any of her pics. BUT, that thing? Sticky up from the fluffiness? The Sears Tower. I thought it was cool enough to explain to the 7 year old girl sitting in front of me. I couldn't tell if I scared her by being a stranger talking to her. Oh well.

I had a great time in C-bus, visiting with some old high school friends. I stayed up too late and drank too much, but man, things are so much cheaper there! I realize this everytime I go out in Ohio (which admittedly isn't much), but anyway. I hilariously had to describe "hipsters" to Rich and Amanda. Since I live in Hipsterville (at least til the end of the week), I felt the need to explain. I took pictures, but there is lots of red eye and towards the end my pupils look like saucers. (I am a lightweight in my quarterlife.) Well, here's one of the UA crowd (with a guy who poked his head in the back of a lot of the pictures-- our very own hey, what about that guy).I didn't get to see one friend, mostly because I am a poor planner when I come to town. Which is a lousy excuse. Oh well.

Sunday my parents and I went up to see my grandparents, which was nice, because I have missed the family get-togethers of late. I got caught up on how some cousins are doing, etc. and saw some aunts and uncles.

I think I am going to be blogging sporadically the next week or so. I'm cancelling the phone tonight, so goodbye internet, and there is no telling when we'll get it set up in the new place. (I'll have to light some candles at the telecommunications god's shrine.) Plus the next two weeks are sort of crazy and I've got a 30 page research paper looming in early June that I have only scratched the surface on. (Dammit, I hate ending sentences in prepositions.)

Before I leave, though, let me put a question out there. How do people feel about Phoenix? My sister may be getting a job offer there and I don't know much about it, except the dry heat, desert and sprawl. I'd love some insights...

Home again...

Today was a day for my galoshes, but I didn't realize this until I was out the door. It has been rainy and cold all week and according to weather.com, the weather is going to hold this way til well into next week... Tomorrow I am going home for the weekend. A friend from high school has been living in Copenhagen and she's home for the next couple of weeks for her sister's wedding. I thought I'd come home and be there for Mother's Day as well.

Tonight has become one of those slightly loopy nights where I drink most of a bottle of wine before the roommate gets home. Then she comes in and finds me laughing manically at The Office. Actually, my brother came in to us cackling and howling with sympathetic joy and pain at the end of tonight's episode. It made us sad and happy. (Somehow I lost one of my slippers. It was there when I sat down on the couch, and now it's not. My poor foot, it's cold.) For some reason there has been a persistant tapping from the apartment below us... tap tap tap... tap tap tap...

The American Office is so American. In the original version, though there was tension and flirtation between Dawn and Tim, you knew if they ever got together it would be doomed. They were just ports in a storm to each other. The American version is not as painful to watch. Steve Catrell is an awful boss, but he is more sympathetic than Ricky Gervais' character. And you know that it's just not bored flirting that brings Jim and Pam together. That hopefulness and optimism is what sets it apart from the original.

I've got to pack. I have an 8:40 flight, which means I've got to get up very early... At least I'll be in Columbus in time to have lunch with my mom. I haven't been home since Christmas and I'm really looking forward to it. Yay for old friends! Plus I get to snuggle with my little, elderly pooch.

A couple of NYC cabbie blogs

For the last couple of months I've been reading the New York Hack on a semi-regular basis. She's a female cabbie/blogger in NYC. I heard about her through Salon's Broadsheet and have really enjoyed hearing of her cab-related tales. (She also just recently landed a book deal, which is fantastic.)

Through her, I found Famous Fat Dave. I've been reading him for a week or two now and just love him. He writes mostly about his cabbing experiences through the different foods he discovers. He also has some heart-rending stories (and some funny ones) about some of his fares. (He also gives food-related tours of New York. Sounds fantastic though I already feel a little bloated thinking about it.) I don't recommend reading his blog unless you have recently eaten or are about to, because his posts usually leave me starving.

Check them both out.