Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
noms de plume
Eamonn iterations:
The Fusser
Fuss
Fuss Parker
Fuss Fusserberg
Bowseefuss
Fussbudget
Mister Fussy Budgets
He's still going off like an alarm between 6:30 and 7:30 every night.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
best customer comment in a while
An older fella with an Amish beard and his wife wander in.
Guy: Oh....this used to be the book store!
Wife: It still is.
Classic.
Guy: Oh....this used to be the book store!
Wife: It still is.
Classic.
Night of the Living Fusser II: The Pukening
Eamonn waxed fussy last night but the wife fell on the grenade, hefting him to the living room so I could sleep.
This only delayed my grim reckoning.
The wife laid him on my chest early in the morning, as is our habit.
He promptly vomited everywhere.
Then he rubbed his face in it like a tiger cub in a mound of catnip, snorting and roaring.
Emergency rags were broached and we contained the spill.
Much shushing and patting ensued, finally easing him into dreamland.
Only to wake with a start five minutes later to spout again, Old Faithful-esque, into the pristine vale of my hairy bosom.
I threw in the (puke-soaked) towel and got up to take a shower.
This only delayed my grim reckoning.
The wife laid him on my chest early in the morning, as is our habit.
He promptly vomited everywhere.
Then he rubbed his face in it like a tiger cub in a mound of catnip, snorting and roaring.
Emergency rags were broached and we contained the spill.
Much shushing and patting ensued, finally easing him into dreamland.
Only to wake with a start five minutes later to spout again, Old Faithful-esque, into the pristine vale of my hairy bosom.
I threw in the (puke-soaked) towel and got up to take a shower.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Updates
The Fusser has forged boldly into some new developmental zone.
He's pretty good at holding up his head and is looking, looking, looking.
He stared at me for four minutes without blinking in the car, then his eyes fluttered and he was instantly asleep.
He no longer requires constant tending at night.
We can both sleep at the same time, sometimes for more than an hour.
This is only a good thing compared to the previous two months.
The wife was worried he hadn't pooped all day.
Her concerns were soothed by an evening mudslide that would have swept away a good sized Guatemalan village.
The storms of howling are less prevalent the past few days- it seems he really doesn't like mommy putting milk on her cereal.
He still goes off like clockwork in the evening, but the front pack has been a reliable failsafe.
The cleaner guy transformed the carpet at the new place from animal shelter throw rug dirty to student living apartment move in dirty, a shocking improvement.
It still needs replacing (we're eyeing bamboo), but the situation is no longer desperate.
He's pretty good at holding up his head and is looking, looking, looking.
He stared at me for four minutes without blinking in the car, then his eyes fluttered and he was instantly asleep.
He no longer requires constant tending at night.
We can both sleep at the same time, sometimes for more than an hour.
This is only a good thing compared to the previous two months.
The wife was worried he hadn't pooped all day.
Her concerns were soothed by an evening mudslide that would have swept away a good sized Guatemalan village.
The storms of howling are less prevalent the past few days- it seems he really doesn't like mommy putting milk on her cereal.
He still goes off like clockwork in the evening, but the front pack has been a reliable failsafe.
The cleaner guy transformed the carpet at the new place from animal shelter throw rug dirty to student living apartment move in dirty, a shocking improvement.
It still needs replacing (we're eyeing bamboo), but the situation is no longer desperate.
Paul Newman 1925-2008
What other actor had classic roles in five different decades?
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Hud (1963)
Slap Shot (1977)
Color of Money (1986)
Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
RIP to one of the greats.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Hud (1963)
Slap Shot (1977)
Color of Money (1986)
Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
RIP to one of the greats.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
music: Congotronic
The range of styles that huddle together under the loose mantle 'world music' are ones I typically disdain.
As with anything there are exceptions, and hybrids I enjoy, but it rarely moves me.
These cats are different.
Their instruments look post apocalyptic and they play them with an abandon rarely encountered. Whoever thought of electrifying that thumb piano and adding a little fuzz should get a Nobel Prize.
There are three in the series and all the music is recommended.
If you only get one you want volume two, with a bonus DVD that will blow your mind.
Although this is flat-out the greatest title in the history of music.
As with anything there are exceptions, and hybrids I enjoy, but it rarely moves me.
These cats are different.
Their instruments look post apocalyptic and they play them with an abandon rarely encountered. Whoever thought of electrifying that thumb piano and adding a little fuzz should get a Nobel Prize.
There are three in the series and all the music is recommended.
If you only get one you want volume two, with a bonus DVD that will blow your mind.
Although this is flat-out the greatest title in the history of music.
post swimming dialog
devra: Good night, thanks for the wart freeze!
Megan: Yeah, thanks for the milk and peanuts!
Megan: Yeah, thanks for the milk and peanuts!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Night of the Living Fusser
The wife decided the whole 'cutting out milk' thing was a dead end and climbed back on the dairy train.
Last night the Fusser writhed and howled until the wee hours, a scenery-chewing extra from a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Dante's Inferno.
Coincidence?
I THINK NOT.
Last night the Fusser writhed and howled until the wee hours, a scenery-chewing extra from a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Dante's Inferno.
Coincidence?
I THINK NOT.
Monday, September 22, 2008
more measures of nerdliness
A pal from my boxing forum plays the most powerful character in this goofy web based video game which has 1.8 million players, and is attending her 4th straight KoL convention.
I am a paragon of normalcy in comparison!
I am a paragon of normalcy in comparison!
ongoing
We turned in the we're moving paperwork last week, which concretized a lot of my inchoate mental churning, as when mom's death certificate finally arrived. Even though we've been cleaning out the other house and moving over this and that for the past month, the lights are brighter and the focus is sharper.
I've lived in our tiny nest longer than anywhere besides the house on 11th street. It's been a character in our lives, the place I've been happiest and leaving is surreal. A startling vastness has unfolded beyond its comfortingly verdant walls, a rocketship emigration from Earth to Venus.
Which is par for this year's course.
We passed the keys to our friend Kirstie Sue, so it will be in good hands.
The feral hedges and shrubs have needed taming and she's a talented groundskeeper.
I've lived in our tiny nest longer than anywhere besides the house on 11th street. It's been a character in our lives, the place I've been happiest and leaving is surreal. A startling vastness has unfolded beyond its comfortingly verdant walls, a rocketship emigration from Earth to Venus.
Which is par for this year's course.
We passed the keys to our friend Kirstie Sue, so it will be in good hands.
The feral hedges and shrubs have needed taming and she's a talented groundskeeper.
welcome SALLY
My old book cohort Sally discovered the baxblog by means unknown and dropped a link in the comments. Now she's a married college prof with two darling little ones- click over and check out her e-home, where David Foster Wallace is treated with greater reverence than within these darkened walls.
I'm tempted to temporarily rename this place The Virtual Counter Picnic.
I'm tempted to temporarily rename this place The Virtual Counter Picnic.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
real nerds
In response to a scurrilous, baseless accusation in the comments I deny charges of being a nerd.
In a world with degenerates like this, I am clearly a cube-dwelling squarejohn straight arrow.
Knowing this thing is a reproduction of an Imperial Steam Tank does not make me a nerd!
Even my arcane genre knowledge doesn't tell me what the hell is going on here:
Something tells me this guy's codpiece stays on 24/7:
Pet abuse!
quake before Garoth, Dark Priest of Fenr!
Post your fave finds in the comments.
In a world with degenerates like this, I am clearly a cube-dwelling squarejohn straight arrow.
Knowing this thing is a reproduction of an Imperial Steam Tank does not make me a nerd!
Even my arcane genre knowledge doesn't tell me what the hell is going on here:
Something tells me this guy's codpiece stays on 24/7:
Pet abuse!
quake before Garoth, Dark Priest of Fenr!
Post your fave finds in the comments.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Attn Nabokov Fans!
His Nabs discusses Lolita with Lionel Trilling.
part one
part two
And here I thought Youtube was only good for ancient music videos and refugees from America's Funniest Home Videos!
part one
part two
And here I thought Youtube was only good for ancient music videos and refugees from America's Funniest Home Videos!
Friday, September 19, 2008
I Am Not Strong Enough for Costco
Another trip, another savaging of the wallet.
2 disc Citizen Kane set, the film and the excellent PBS documentary for eight bucks?
How am I supposed to pass that up?
And I needed gin- the plinth-sized bottle of Bombay Sapphire barely costs more than the small one at TJs.
Which forced the wife to browse the wine- they have this fantastic J. Lohr Cabernet for 10 bucks, cheap at twice the price.
We stocked up on Britta filters for the year and replaced all our mangy old bath towels, both easily defensible in Judge Wapner's Purchase Court.
The five pounds of chocolate chips and 8 pounds of roasted peanuts are on shakier ground, but I'm confident the evidence will be gone by the time they bring us up on charges.
In my defense, I passed on the two giant bottles of Worcestershire sauce for five bucks, didn't even look at the electronics and talked the wife out of a pair of pants.
Costco has many fine product categories but their clothes radiate a shapeless genericallity useless for anything but passing unnoticed in the Midwest.
While in the neighborhood we swung by WAMU to close out one of mom's accounts.
Their Investments kiosk was being disassembled, and a box of tissues was sitting on the stand where the monitor used to be. They had been stripped of anything larger than 20's, so we ended up with a cheerfully and deceptively fat stack.
Participating in an honest to goodness bank run was sort of exciting, even though it wasn't my account. Bailey Building and Loan they ain't.
2 disc Citizen Kane set, the film and the excellent PBS documentary for eight bucks?
How am I supposed to pass that up?
And I needed gin- the plinth-sized bottle of Bombay Sapphire barely costs more than the small one at TJs.
Which forced the wife to browse the wine- they have this fantastic J. Lohr Cabernet for 10 bucks, cheap at twice the price.
We stocked up on Britta filters for the year and replaced all our mangy old bath towels, both easily defensible in Judge Wapner's Purchase Court.
The five pounds of chocolate chips and 8 pounds of roasted peanuts are on shakier ground, but I'm confident the evidence will be gone by the time they bring us up on charges.
In my defense, I passed on the two giant bottles of Worcestershire sauce for five bucks, didn't even look at the electronics and talked the wife out of a pair of pants.
Costco has many fine product categories but their clothes radiate a shapeless genericallity useless for anything but passing unnoticed in the Midwest.
While in the neighborhood we swung by WAMU to close out one of mom's accounts.
Their Investments kiosk was being disassembled, and a box of tissues was sitting on the stand where the monitor used to be. They had been stripped of anything larger than 20's, so we ended up with a cheerfully and deceptively fat stack.
Participating in an honest to goodness bank run was sort of exciting, even though it wasn't my account. Bailey Building and Loan they ain't.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
variations on a theme
Visited the fam last night and the were witness to one of the Fusser's howling fits.
The brother in law opined that the burning undead hog had also swallowed a cat, and I could not disagree.
The brother in law opined that the burning undead hog had also swallowed a cat, and I could not disagree.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
suggestions
Neil and Patty's famous Halloween party is looming and I need INSPIRATION.
With the runaway success of my previous two visionary costumes I'm feeling oppressed by expectation. My costuming creativity seems to have been short circuited by the tumult of the past year. The best I've come up with is a skanky teen mom, using the fusser as a prop in the front pack. Ugg boots, mini-skirt, goofy hairdo, glittery makeup.
My backup idea is Wendy O. Williams, which would only require a mohawk and some electrical tape for the ol' nipples.
Clearly I need help, and I am turning to YOU, my beloved readers.
Sound off in the comments.
With the runaway success of my previous two visionary costumes I'm feeling oppressed by expectation. My costuming creativity seems to have been short circuited by the tumult of the past year. The best I've come up with is a skanky teen mom, using the fusser as a prop in the front pack. Ugg boots, mini-skirt, goofy hairdo, glittery makeup.
My backup idea is Wendy O. Williams, which would only require a mohawk and some electrical tape for the ol' nipples.
Clearly I need help, and I am turning to YOU, my beloved readers.
Sound off in the comments.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Fusser Updates
In essaying a description of last night's wailing I settled on calling it "the sound of an immense undead hog being set on fire and prodded through cobbled streets by a mob bristling with pitchforks".
It fails to deliver full impact, but provides a whiff of the aural apocalypse that transformed our formerly peaceful living room into a psychic abattoir.
His habit when hungry is to wave both fists in front of his face, which makes giving him what he wants a challenge.
This morning the wife enlisted my aid constraining his rogue limbs.
We each grasped an arm and pulled down.
He paid off into his diaper like a slot machine, in perfect synch with our actions.
If I hadn't been half asleep I'd have shouted JACKPOT! and charged around the house shouting for a giant plastic bucket to hold my winnings.
It fails to deliver full impact, but provides a whiff of the aural apocalypse that transformed our formerly peaceful living room into a psychic abattoir.
His habit when hungry is to wave both fists in front of his face, which makes giving him what he wants a challenge.
This morning the wife enlisted my aid constraining his rogue limbs.
We each grasped an arm and pulled down.
He paid off into his diaper like a slot machine, in perfect synch with our actions.
If I hadn't been half asleep I'd have shouted JACKPOT! and charged around the house shouting for a giant plastic bucket to hold my winnings.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
True Customer Tales
fat little guy in shorts and ballcap:
I don't like to read, what would you recommend?
me:
Netflix.
I don't like to read, what would you recommend?
me:
Netflix.
David Foster Wallace 1962-2008
A supposedly fun thing he'll never do again.
Irreverent comments from the peanut gallery:
DT:
The Wife:
My readers, ladies and gentlemen!
They'll be here all week!
Irreverent comments from the peanut gallery:
DT:
My bro said he left a suicide note, but to date the police had only gotten thru page 387
The Wife:
Guess he should have called it Finite Jest
My readers, ladies and gentlemen!
They'll be here all week!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
pix
I've posted some new flickr bait.
It's all basically the same few pictures re-staged with different costumes and lighting on the same set.
He doesn't do much as yet, so he's either in his buzzy chair or someone is holding him in the glider or he's asleep. Still, I feel compelled to document the stasis.
People assure me this will change soon enough and having been around the Fiend I believe them because she changes weekly. We're too close to the Fusser for that kind of time lapse. I can tell he's bigger, because he fits in the carseat better and his head sticks up over the top of the front pack, but he doesn't look any different.
Today we were staring at each other and I realized the sturm und drang of these first few months will be largely forgotten, the same way we've mostly eradicated the terror and misery of that week in the hospital. We'll remember his wisdom of the ancients gaze and comical noises and the sense of universal wellbeing coming off him in waves when he sleeps and forget the shrieking fits in the middle of the night and the gallons of curdled puke and crapping in the middle of diaper changes.
Everything fades eventually and we ply our feathery erasers on the worst offenders, finally reducing parallel ranks of engraved stone monoliths to smooth beach sand.
It's all basically the same few pictures re-staged with different costumes and lighting on the same set.
He doesn't do much as yet, so he's either in his buzzy chair or someone is holding him in the glider or he's asleep. Still, I feel compelled to document the stasis.
People assure me this will change soon enough and having been around the Fiend I believe them because she changes weekly. We're too close to the Fusser for that kind of time lapse. I can tell he's bigger, because he fits in the carseat better and his head sticks up over the top of the front pack, but he doesn't look any different.
Today we were staring at each other and I realized the sturm und drang of these first few months will be largely forgotten, the same way we've mostly eradicated the terror and misery of that week in the hospital. We'll remember his wisdom of the ancients gaze and comical noises and the sense of universal wellbeing coming off him in waves when he sleeps and forget the shrieking fits in the middle of the night and the gallons of curdled puke and crapping in the middle of diaper changes.
Everything fades eventually and we ply our feathery erasers on the worst offenders, finally reducing parallel ranks of engraved stone monoliths to smooth beach sand.
parties
Attended our first party with the Fusser last night.
I took the handoff from the wife and installed him in the FRONT PACK.
Its magic was such that he passed out for the duration.
It was a nice break for the wife and he was a was a guaranteed icebreaker.
Note to self: next time bring a sun hat to guard against crumbs and gin and tonic condensation.
I took the handoff from the wife and installed him in the FRONT PACK.
Its magic was such that he passed out for the duration.
It was a nice break for the wife and he was a was a guaranteed icebreaker.
Note to self: next time bring a sun hat to guard against crumbs and gin and tonic condensation.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
flashback
In response to a question about the venerable Baxblog URL I present this lifesized reproduction of our our original banner, discovered in a long buried folder on the work box.
One of my favorite book covers of all time.
Appropos the blog, the way the graphic stood in stark contrast to the title seemed emblematic of the political climate...and is unfortunately as applicable today as when I originally posted it.
One of my favorite book covers of all time.
Appropos the blog, the way the graphic stood in stark contrast to the title seemed emblematic of the political climate...and is unfortunately as applicable today as when I originally posted it.
no sleep til los osos
The Fusser was ascendant last night.
The wife handed off the baton around 4am and I took a few laps around the track, bleary eyed, wheezing and tripping over hastily tied laces.
He sleeps like a fire burns, in need of constant tending.
Three spots only meet his high standards of comfort- your chest, the Baby Bjorn or his buzzy chair.
Anything else earns piercing high volume scorn.
No method is perfect.
First, we're both side sleepers.
Next, you need to keep moving for the Bjorn to work. You sit down, he wakes up.
The buzzy chair is best, but requires ceaseless attention.
He'll sleep, fitfully.
Daring to lie down yourself guarantees plaintive wailing within 20 minutes.
This dismay can be short circuited if you catch it early.
He stirs, he groans- you reach out with your foot and gently bounce the chair.
He settles back into his cocoon of blankets.
This happens every 15-30 minutes for 2-3 hours.
Then his hunger and discomfort need assuaging and the ritual resets.
The silver lining is a 24 hour all-you-can-watch movie buffet.
Fusser wrangling isn't conducive to reading but does provide nearly infinite face time with the teevee.
The wife handed off the baton around 4am and I took a few laps around the track, bleary eyed, wheezing and tripping over hastily tied laces.
He sleeps like a fire burns, in need of constant tending.
Three spots only meet his high standards of comfort- your chest, the Baby Bjorn or his buzzy chair.
Anything else earns piercing high volume scorn.
No method is perfect.
First, we're both side sleepers.
Next, you need to keep moving for the Bjorn to work. You sit down, he wakes up.
The buzzy chair is best, but requires ceaseless attention.
He'll sleep, fitfully.
Daring to lie down yourself guarantees plaintive wailing within 20 minutes.
This dismay can be short circuited if you catch it early.
He stirs, he groans- you reach out with your foot and gently bounce the chair.
He settles back into his cocoon of blankets.
This happens every 15-30 minutes for 2-3 hours.
Then his hunger and discomfort need assuaging and the ritual resets.
The silver lining is a 24 hour all-you-can-watch movie buffet.
Fusser wrangling isn't conducive to reading but does provide nearly infinite face time with the teevee.
Booker Prize Shortlist
Clicky.
I've mined several authors the wife loves from the Booker Prize rolls (Barry Unsworth, Anne Enright, John Banville, Colm TóibÃn, Penelope Fitzgerald, Sarah Waters), now I have a new batch to keep an eye out for.
I've mined several authors the wife loves from the Booker Prize rolls (Barry Unsworth, Anne Enright, John Banville, Colm TóibÃn, Penelope Fitzgerald, Sarah Waters), now I have a new batch to keep an eye out for.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Kick Down for the Pelf
It's a good cause.
Now that's a good blurb!
And read the author's plea!
Also it's (very loosely) based on the road trip to Vegas we took before Bobo's wedding, so it's got that whole roman a clef thing going for it.
“David Lynch, Amy Tan and The Man Show collide in FREAK STORM…. Matt Pelfrey’s new one-act about the inscrutability of those we love juggles macabre comedy, relationship drama and political incorrectness….
Pelfrey is undeniably talented, demonstrating a flair for bilious ribaldry.”
David C Nichols, Los Angeles Times
Now that's a good blurb!
And read the author's plea!
Also it's (very loosely) based on the road trip to Vegas we took before Bobo's wedding, so it's got that whole roman a clef thing going for it.
naming of things
We're both namers, the wife and I.
Or re-namers.
Transformation is one of my old survival mechanisms & the wife's poetic nature similarly reinvents the mundane.
Our house is the Secret Garden (at least until the end of the month), our car is alternately The Panzer or The Lucky Turtle. The down comforter on the bed is known as The Bouff. Falling prey to its siren song of comfort is known as getting Bouffed, and usually blamed on an outside party- "you Bouffed me!" My niece was The Fiend before Teresa had birthed her.
Teresa herself is The Burl.
Complicating things the wife is also known as Burl, among her many other names.
When they converse Teresa is Burl and the wife is Other Burl.
Not even something we named originally is immune.
Eamonn has been re-christened The Fusser.
As a newborn he briefly bore the unweildy title Irish Character Actor, but it was doomed by length. For a while he was The Fella, serviceable but not tremendously descriptive.
This latest sobriquet springs from his extensive nightly readings of the seemingly endless Litany of Complaints. Dietary adjustments have been implemented, but Fusser has sunk its roots deep and he may be stuck with it.
Time will tell.
Or re-namers.
Transformation is one of my old survival mechanisms & the wife's poetic nature similarly reinvents the mundane.
Our house is the Secret Garden (at least until the end of the month), our car is alternately The Panzer or The Lucky Turtle. The down comforter on the bed is known as The Bouff. Falling prey to its siren song of comfort is known as getting Bouffed, and usually blamed on an outside party- "you Bouffed me!" My niece was The Fiend before Teresa had birthed her.
Teresa herself is The Burl.
Complicating things the wife is also known as Burl, among her many other names.
When they converse Teresa is Burl and the wife is Other Burl.
Not even something we named originally is immune.
Eamonn has been re-christened The Fusser.
As a newborn he briefly bore the unweildy title Irish Character Actor, but it was doomed by length. For a while he was The Fella, serviceable but not tremendously descriptive.
This latest sobriquet springs from his extensive nightly readings of the seemingly endless Litany of Complaints. Dietary adjustments have been implemented, but Fusser has sunk its roots deep and he may be stuck with it.
Time will tell.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
today's hot book tip
One of the many books out there that look like nothing and sell for (relatively) big bucks.
I used to find copies out in the world with regularity, but the supply dried up once the internet let anyone do a price check. When I started out it was a $40 book. When online book sales were still limited to the proprietary Interloc network we were selling it in the shop for $95. Now, you see where it's at.
It's an anomaly because the internet absolutely crashed the price of most similarly 'scarce' books- suddenly, people could find them and in most cases the new ocean of supply drowned demand in Biblical fashion. The business is full of books that used to sell like hotcakes for fifty dollars plus that I wouldn't price over ten, or even bother buying.
The Face of the Clam just kept going up.
It's a novel about a local Utopian collective called the Dunites who lived in Oceano, a funky little place on the coast that now generates annual ATV-related deaths on the very dunes where the Utopians once squatted.
So very American.
It's a book that breaks one of the cardinal rules of internet bookselling, that any nonfiction title on a given subject is much more salable than any fictional treatment. I see the Dunite book regularly, the copy of Face of the Clam I just moved is the first one I've run across in a couple of years.
My amazon listings are ninety plus percent non-fiction, the few exceptions are either hot of the presses or collectible anomalies like this one.
I used to find copies out in the world with regularity, but the supply dried up once the internet let anyone do a price check. When I started out it was a $40 book. When online book sales were still limited to the proprietary Interloc network we were selling it in the shop for $95. Now, you see where it's at.
It's an anomaly because the internet absolutely crashed the price of most similarly 'scarce' books- suddenly, people could find them and in most cases the new ocean of supply drowned demand in Biblical fashion. The business is full of books that used to sell like hotcakes for fifty dollars plus that I wouldn't price over ten, or even bother buying.
The Face of the Clam just kept going up.
It's a novel about a local Utopian collective called the Dunites who lived in Oceano, a funky little place on the coast that now generates annual ATV-related deaths on the very dunes where the Utopians once squatted.
So very American.
It's a book that breaks one of the cardinal rules of internet bookselling, that any nonfiction title on a given subject is much more salable than any fictional treatment. I see the Dunite book regularly, the copy of Face of the Clam I just moved is the first one I've run across in a couple of years.
My amazon listings are ninety plus percent non-fiction, the few exceptions are either hot of the presses or collectible anomalies like this one.
attn IVAN
A Hessian who labors at the record shop one door down bought a copy of The Great Metal Discography.
Unremarkable, except he was wearing your Sword tee.
I resisted asking him what the suspiciously penile garlands around the neck were.
Unremarkable, except he was wearing your Sword tee.
I resisted asking him what the suspiciously penile garlands around the neck were.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The Costco Rule
It has a $100 minimum.
If anyone has ever escaped for less than a C note, impart to me the secret ritual.
We re-upped today for a couple of very good reasons.
One, cheap diapers.
Two, the new place has a garage so bulk buying is viable.
Checkout delivered $125 reminders why we'd let it lapse.
When you look up 'slippery slope' in the capitalist dictionary there's a picture of Costco.
"Oh, look how cheap this bale of diapers is! And we need more wipes. The lid fell off our Brita pitcher...and this one comes with two filters! Say, this Parmesan cheese looks incredible..."
etc etc etc.
I think we need to make a list at home and then pay some kid in the parking lot $5 to hit the store and fill it for us. I'm not strong enough to shop there!
If anyone has ever escaped for less than a C note, impart to me the secret ritual.
We re-upped today for a couple of very good reasons.
One, cheap diapers.
Two, the new place has a garage so bulk buying is viable.
Checkout delivered $125 reminders why we'd let it lapse.
When you look up 'slippery slope' in the capitalist dictionary there's a picture of Costco.
"Oh, look how cheap this bale of diapers is! And we need more wipes. The lid fell off our Brita pitcher...and this one comes with two filters! Say, this Parmesan cheese looks incredible..."
etc etc etc.
I think we need to make a list at home and then pay some kid in the parking lot $5 to hit the store and fill it for us. I'm not strong enough to shop there!
trial balloon
baxblog podcast:
if I figure out how to do it, who'll listen?
Hudson is already on board, anyone else up for it?
if I figure out how to do it, who'll listen?
Hudson is already on board, anyone else up for it?
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
chatting with bobo
in the middle of a discussion about how convinient it is listening to the iPod at work:
me:
how lazy are you when burning a CD sounds like too much work? =(
Bobo:
its not lazy because its not necessary!
thats like saying its lazy to not make your own cheese!
me:
how lazy are you when burning a CD sounds like too much work? =(
Bobo:
its not lazy because its not necessary!
thats like saying its lazy to not make your own cheese!
Literary Deal Breakers
We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility.
full story.
Maybe this is a big problem for for lit majors from liberal arts colleges back east, but can't say literary taste has ever played a role in my failed relationships.
Not the case for the wife, who dumped one fellow for insufficient adulation of Nabokov.
And my literary tastes are decidedly lowbrow.
I've improved significantly the last few years, to the point where I'll read straight fiction if the wife is really over the moon about it, and I genuinely like everything I've read by Michael Chabon.
But I'm happiest with genre slop skimmed off the top of the SF/Fantasy bucket, leavened with the occasional mystery.
My problem is the more 'real' fiction I read the less tolerant I am for the kind of linguistic butchers who hide out in the genre stacks, camouflaging pre-school school prose with phalanxes of elves and spacemen.
I've historically had more trouble with musical tastes.
One ex, who's entire collection consisted of Jimmy Buffet cassettes, caused me no end of consternation. She literally had no opinion on anything, everything was "ok".
Except Jimmy, who she adored.
That was rough.
And I knew it would never work with another gal when every song on the mix tape she made me provoked groans of dismay. I just have no room in my heart for low fi indie pewp like Sparklehorse, Palace Brothers and Sebadoh. I lack the gene to appreciate them...sorry Jamesy!
Although I didn't actually hate Neutral Milk Hotel. Maybe there's hope for me after all.
Also, I just realized that I'm old enough to have gotten mix tapes, fossils my YOUNGFRIENDS (tm) recognize only because they saw High Fidelity on DVD.
One Month Reflections
At the pediatricians I glanced at an open file on the receptionists desk, a little girl named Emma was having seizures and they'd prescribed a range of medications. Eamonn disdains sleep and sings his arias in the middle of the night, but he's a solid package of ruddy good health. We're both suitably thankful even as we plead with him to abandon his dream of singing Wagner at the Bayreuth festival.
I go to work, clean house, cook, shop, do the dishes and get ready for the move- normal life stuff.
The wife meanwhile is at the beck and call of an inarticulate dictator who communicates via the fluctuating volume of his screams and who must be fed every few hours lest his displeasure end reality.
I've got the easy job.
When he came out everything about him was unexpected.
That hasn't changed, every day is a fresh amazement.
Babies have an unmatched purity of expression, fully embodying their emotions. Calm he looks like a small orange Buddha. Gazing at such depthless placidity is to forget the chaos of the storm, until he reminds you.
Given his heredity we shouldn't be surprised by his size, yet we are.
We've broached the cask on his 3-6 month wardrobe.
He doesn't seem fragile any more, he radiates. He's such a bundle of life it's like holding a forest fire in your arms.
The suff you worry about when they're pure potential doesn't signify once they incarnate. Things need doing, you do them. So far it all seems inevitable and right.
It's tremendously grueling, but that was in the brochure.
I am glad I put in all the work I did to prepare the ground and get comfortable with the idea of family. It would be a nightmare if you weren't 100% on board and dedicated.
I think about my parents and their shotgun wedding and shudder, but when I hold him and look in his eyes I can't see the path either of them chose.
I go to work, clean house, cook, shop, do the dishes and get ready for the move- normal life stuff.
The wife meanwhile is at the beck and call of an inarticulate dictator who communicates via the fluctuating volume of his screams and who must be fed every few hours lest his displeasure end reality.
I've got the easy job.
When he came out everything about him was unexpected.
That hasn't changed, every day is a fresh amazement.
Babies have an unmatched purity of expression, fully embodying their emotions. Calm he looks like a small orange Buddha. Gazing at such depthless placidity is to forget the chaos of the storm, until he reminds you.
Given his heredity we shouldn't be surprised by his size, yet we are.
We've broached the cask on his 3-6 month wardrobe.
He doesn't seem fragile any more, he radiates. He's such a bundle of life it's like holding a forest fire in your arms.
The suff you worry about when they're pure potential doesn't signify once they incarnate. Things need doing, you do them. So far it all seems inevitable and right.
It's tremendously grueling, but that was in the brochure.
I am glad I put in all the work I did to prepare the ground and get comfortable with the idea of family. It would be a nightmare if you weren't 100% on board and dedicated.
I think about my parents and their shotgun wedding and shudder, but when I hold him and look in his eyes I can't see the path either of them chose.
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