Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Fashioning Felt
{Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum via Selectism}
On display through September 7.
[SUMMARY: And the bleat goes on.†]
I think it's also worth noting‡ that the Cooper-Hewitt also has a children's wallpaper and book exhibit§ going on, even if it isn't so much in keeping with today's knitblog theme.
*************
Kapsule Woody - Karl Lagerfeld
Marin says: This stays very close to the skin, worth noting both because sometimes you don't want to overwhelm a business meeting or a movie queue and because things smell different when you lay your nose right on them than they do if you can get a respectable distance.
The initial tangle of prickly-dry cedar and bitter citrus smelled more like lemon Pine-Sol than it probably should have and I think that's because my nostrils were sealed to my wrists to get more than a vague pleasantness.
Actually, I'd say that's the hallmark of this one for me: a couple of inches away, it's a slightly sweetened woody haze, but up close it's woody and maybe raisiny and seems to have a touch of vetiver.¶ The overall effect is like a tawny port.
It's cosy and sophisticated, but with the lack of sillage it probably won't get any outside attention.#
Karl Lagerfeld†† says: Noble, rich and mysterious - all the refinement of cedarwood$ magnified with velvety plum$ and dense, dark moss.
Hans says: It smells like grapefruit. Like a Mad Dog. What are those things? Greyhound!‡‡
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): That's supposed to be a funny sheep joke. Y'know... for the knitblog thing.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Because beyond all the little things you know about me, I have a pop-up book problem too. So of COURSE I think this is worth noting.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Including several pop-up books. You can even see movies of the pop-up books.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... there's this sort of salty smell that I find smells a little like Play-doh that I've been associating with vetiver. Suddenly I'm wondering if it's actually moss. I'm clearly a work in progress.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): This is not an idictment. It's actually a very good thing sometimes (see: business meeting) when you don't want to clobber those around you. It's also like having a warm little secret all your own. Maybe I'm projecting.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I'm claiming "raisiny" as close enough to "velvety plum."
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): I can't tell you how much I hate this website -- it's one of those webmaster playgrounds where they focused way too hard on style and forgot all about the end user. On the other hand, there's a slidy-squares puzzle of Karl Lagerfeld if you click in the right place.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I had already offered up "bulldog." Hans says we should be bartenders, we're so good at this.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
DNC - Reduce, Re-use, Recycle
I took about 106 pictures.
This is a little less than half.† If you click on them, they'll get big.
They weave their way through the odd maintenance of the downtown fire hydrants‡ and the poorly-conceived parking lot price gouging.§
They tour the media blitz, the tourists and the fervent political pamphlet passers.¶
They skip across the political spectrum from scary to scary on the infrared and ultra-violet ends and a whole lot of in between.
We learned to look at motorcades as our daily due. We watched people hail taxis on street corners.# We watched the blossoming and fading of a whole new world of entrepreneurship.††
Pedicabs came from all over the country. Cops came from all over the state. Helicopters came from... well, presumably from hell and Channel 9.
Downtown was lousy with twinkle lights, bikes, bunting, celebrities,@ senators, balloons, buttons, hybrids, red carpets, pedicabs, riot gear, TiVi cameras, personal cameras, propaganda, flags, signs and just plain people.
Despite all previous apprehension,‡‡ it was a fantastic experience.
My icy, cynical heart is all warm and gooey about the way my city handled this. I was amazed at how polite and cheerful and civilised everybody was.§§ I was grateful the disruptive rioters didn't put up much of a front.¶¶ I was delighted with the energy.##
As dumb as it is, the fact that our very own 'hood, the walking villa with the great restaurants and friendly bars, the mecca of boutique shopping, made national news at more than one outlet for being a "can't miss" slice of Denverana%... well, I'm proud.^
I wanna do it again.†††
*************
Fetish - Neil Morris (Vault) - (edp)
Marin says: This is another one that feels a little like I shouldn't like it -- maybe a little too head shop, maybe a little too amber-and-vanilla. But I *do* like it.
I get a strong undercurrent of patchouli (the dirty kind). The waft is pure amber/incense, but it gets more complex if you get closer. There's a lot going on... copper? Vanilla? Something astringent?
Ooooh, an hour in, there's a good, solid dry wood -- not as sharp and tangy as fresh-cut pine, but maybe a weathered pine log.
Neil Morris says: A warm blend of Myrrh,$ Ambergris, Rosewood, Musk, Oud, Leather,$ Benzoin$ and Patchouli.$
The Perfumed Court says: ...Fetish has notes of Carnation, Benzoin Absolute, Rosewood, Musk, Ambergris, Leather and is a great dark scent.
Hans says: I definitely get a whiff of baby powder, but there's something else. Like... air. Rain air.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): You're welcome.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): A few weeks ago, it was the new locking tops. Then on Monday, they opened them up then went out into the street to do something underground. I think it was very nice of them to test the system before the riots.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Usually $9 a day, the lot jumped to $25 a day. Nobody parked there except a couple of monthly parkers. It was $25 when Hans and I went to lunch. It was $25 when we came back from lunch. By the time we got up to our offices, it was down to $9 again. Lesson apparently learned.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): I collected a LOT of pamphlets. I made a point of it. In fact, some of the pamphleteers were suspicious of my enthusiasm for their products.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): *Nobody* hails a cab in Denver. You call for cabs in Denver. It shocked the hell out of some of the cabbies. By the end of the week, they were responding like pros.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): And more Barack-rock puns than you can shake a donkey at.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): Alicia from the office was stalking celebrities. She had binoculars in the empty office that looks over to the Brown Palace. That's her celebrity sighting board in the pictures.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Read: bitching. Or, as we like to say, "Breezing."
§§FOOTNOTE (whirlwind political tour): People mostly watched where they were going, and when they didn't, they said, "Excuse me." I can't even get that at my local grocery store. It was totally impressive. I'm not a big fan of Obama, but I did feel a twinge of hope all my own.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (fists raised in triumph): More tear gas would have sucked.
##FOOTNOTE (Give us a pound! Make it 'splode!): Like NYC, only actively friendly. And sunny.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Pertaining to America = Americana. Pertaining to Denver = Denverana.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): The fact that it will probably boost housing values is just icing on the pride cake.
†††FOOTNOTE (not as cross as I look): Like a small child on her first merry-go-round ride: "Again! Do it again!"
$FOOTNOTE (on the money): I'm giving myself a lot of credit here. I'm saying the benzoin is the astringent part, the myrrh is a classic incense component and every time I think copper there's leather involved. So maybe two points -- a half for each note. But a full point for patchouli.
Speaking of patchouli, I got a big ol' patchouli roll-on from Secret Pal out of the mailbox this morning. Thanks, Secret Pal!
This is a little less than half.† If you click on them, they'll get big.
They weave their way through the odd maintenance of the downtown fire hydrants‡ and the poorly-conceived parking lot price gouging.§
They tour the media blitz, the tourists and the fervent political pamphlet passers.¶
They skip across the political spectrum from scary to scary on the infrared and ultra-violet ends and a whole lot of in between.
We learned to look at motorcades as our daily due. We watched people hail taxis on street corners.# We watched the blossoming and fading of a whole new world of entrepreneurship.††
Pedicabs came from all over the country. Cops came from all over the state. Helicopters came from... well, presumably from hell and Channel 9.
Downtown was lousy with twinkle lights, bikes, bunting, celebrities,@ senators, balloons, buttons, hybrids, red carpets, pedicabs, riot gear, TiVi cameras, personal cameras, propaganda, flags, signs and just plain people.
Despite all previous apprehension,‡‡ it was a fantastic experience.
My icy, cynical heart is all warm and gooey about the way my city handled this. I was amazed at how polite and cheerful and civilised everybody was.§§ I was grateful the disruptive rioters didn't put up much of a front.¶¶ I was delighted with the energy.##
As dumb as it is, the fact that our very own 'hood, the walking villa with the great restaurants and friendly bars, the mecca of boutique shopping, made national news at more than one outlet for being a "can't miss" slice of Denverana%... well, I'm proud.^
I wanna do it again.†††
*************
Fetish - Neil Morris (Vault) - (edp)
Marin says: This is another one that feels a little like I shouldn't like it -- maybe a little too head shop, maybe a little too amber-and-vanilla. But I *do* like it.
I get a strong undercurrent of patchouli (the dirty kind). The waft is pure amber/incense, but it gets more complex if you get closer. There's a lot going on... copper? Vanilla? Something astringent?
Ooooh, an hour in, there's a good, solid dry wood -- not as sharp and tangy as fresh-cut pine, but maybe a weathered pine log.
Neil Morris says: A warm blend of Myrrh,$ Ambergris, Rosewood, Musk, Oud, Leather,$ Benzoin$ and Patchouli.$
The Perfumed Court says: ...Fetish has notes of Carnation, Benzoin Absolute, Rosewood, Musk, Ambergris, Leather and is a great dark scent.
Hans says: I definitely get a whiff of baby powder, but there's something else. Like... air. Rain air.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): You're welcome.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): A few weeks ago, it was the new locking tops. Then on Monday, they opened them up then went out into the street to do something underground. I think it was very nice of them to test the system before the riots.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Usually $9 a day, the lot jumped to $25 a day. Nobody parked there except a couple of monthly parkers. It was $25 when Hans and I went to lunch. It was $25 when we came back from lunch. By the time we got up to our offices, it was down to $9 again. Lesson apparently learned.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): I collected a LOT of pamphlets. I made a point of it. In fact, some of the pamphleteers were suspicious of my enthusiasm for their products.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): *Nobody* hails a cab in Denver. You call for cabs in Denver. It shocked the hell out of some of the cabbies. By the end of the week, they were responding like pros.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): And more Barack-rock puns than you can shake a donkey at.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): Alicia from the office was stalking celebrities. She had binoculars in the empty office that looks over to the Brown Palace. That's her celebrity sighting board in the pictures.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Read: bitching. Or, as we like to say, "Breezing."
§§FOOTNOTE (whirlwind political tour): People mostly watched where they were going, and when they didn't, they said, "Excuse me." I can't even get that at my local grocery store. It was totally impressive. I'm not a big fan of Obama, but I did feel a twinge of hope all my own.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (fists raised in triumph): More tear gas would have sucked.
##FOOTNOTE (Give us a pound! Make it 'splode!): Like NYC, only actively friendly. And sunny.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Pertaining to America = Americana. Pertaining to Denver = Denverana.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): The fact that it will probably boost housing values is just icing on the pride cake.
†††FOOTNOTE (not as cross as I look): Like a small child on her first merry-go-round ride: "Again! Do it again!"
$FOOTNOTE (on the money): I'm giving myself a lot of credit here. I'm saying the benzoin is the astringent part, the myrrh is a classic incense component and every time I think copper there's leather involved. So maybe two points -- a half for each note. But a full point for patchouli.
Speaking of patchouli, I got a big ol' patchouli roll-on from Secret Pal out of the mailbox this morning. Thanks, Secret Pal!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Fresh Index - Pink Jasmine
This isn't one of my experimental perfumes.†
Fresh makes some of my all-time favourite perfumes.‡ There aren't that many perfumes that have inspired me to buy a second bottle. Fresh makes most of them.
It all started with a Fodor's guide to New York City. Fodor's said that, as far as shopping went, I really had to go check out Fresh's signature Fig Apricot§ in their Upper East Side¶ store. I didn't want to argue with Mr. Fodor, so I did.#
When Fresh finally came to Colorado, I started branching out from my homey, comfy Fig Apricot into Pink Jasmine, Sugar Lemon and Sake.
Pink Jasmine is a nice, light scent. It's probably the lightest scent I wear, and it's one I gladly trot out for summer††
The first spray releases a bright citrus undercut with something slightly sweeter.
After ten minutes or so, the floral notes really kick in. Fortunately,‡‡ the flowers mingle lightly over the lingering orange smell, which keeps them from being too girlish.% And I never get a lot of jasmine -- jasmine falls in the lilac/orange blossom category of florals I find cloying.
Now, the stuff doesn't last long in any full-scent way.§§ Something lingers all day,¶¶ but three hours in, it's mostly a light watery wood with sparks of white flowers popping through.
One of the things I love about it: As it gets less strident, it gets more complex.
Usually my nose gets all a-twitter in the early roll-out, trying to pick out bits and pieces and often smelling nothing beyond the amalgam.## At the end of the day when a scent is all but washed away, it boils down to something simple, usually sweet and warm like vanilla, amber or myrrh.†††
I think I prefer my stronger notes to seem simpler and my more convoluted smells to be lighter.
It's easier on my ego, if nothing else.
Fresh says: "...strikingly beautiful and completely romantic.
Hans says: Light. It's misty. I like it.‡‡‡
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Not anymore.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): And the best, favourite gentle cleanser: Fresh Soy Face Cleanser.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): I'll review that some time in the near future, have no fear. Here's a sneak-peek: Fig... yum.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Yeah, I had no idea how out of my league I was. They were very nice, despite my clear one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other personal aura.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Though we should probably have him arrested for the pusher he is. It was years before Fresh was available in Colorado and I was practically tying off on the airplane every time I went to NYC, anticipating stocking up on the essentials. Y'know... fig and soy. Right after water, merino and this lamp on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): And wear occasionally in the dark of winter just to brighten things up a bit.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Since too much flower makes me feel all pink and shit.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Or pink or cloying or whatever it is I don't like about a lot of florals.
§§FOOTNOTE (just a whisp of scent): Light to begin with and edt to boot. Like how I'm talkin' all jargon and stuff? Yeah, I feel hip.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (two wrists are better than one): Tonight as I'm getting undressed, I'll nuzzle my wrists and find something absolutley indecipherable, just a hint above the scent of my own skin.
##FOOTNOTE (like two aldehydes criss-crossing in the night): Brain Age 2 has a training session that consists of two or three words being said at the same time and you have to pick out each word. I'm not good at that either.
†††FOOTNOTE (we'll cross that bridge when we come to it): With my chemistry, it's a wonder I don't melt in the rain.
$FOOTNOTE (right on the money): Ha! Got one!
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (roll-out): And he does these little hand gestures I wish y'all could see. Polynesian dancers got nothin' on Hans, 'specially when it comes to conveying "misty."
Fresh makes some of my all-time favourite perfumes.‡ There aren't that many perfumes that have inspired me to buy a second bottle. Fresh makes most of them.
It all started with a Fodor's guide to New York City. Fodor's said that, as far as shopping went, I really had to go check out Fresh's signature Fig Apricot§ in their Upper East Side¶ store. I didn't want to argue with Mr. Fodor, so I did.#
When Fresh finally came to Colorado, I started branching out from my homey, comfy Fig Apricot into Pink Jasmine, Sugar Lemon and Sake.
Pink Jasmine is a nice, light scent. It's probably the lightest scent I wear, and it's one I gladly trot out for summer††
The first spray releases a bright citrus undercut with something slightly sweeter.
After ten minutes or so, the floral notes really kick in. Fortunately,‡‡ the flowers mingle lightly over the lingering orange smell, which keeps them from being too girlish.% And I never get a lot of jasmine -- jasmine falls in the lilac/orange blossom category of florals I find cloying.
Now, the stuff doesn't last long in any full-scent way.§§ Something lingers all day,¶¶ but three hours in, it's mostly a light watery wood with sparks of white flowers popping through.
One of the things I love about it: As it gets less strident, it gets more complex.
Usually my nose gets all a-twitter in the early roll-out, trying to pick out bits and pieces and often smelling nothing beyond the amalgam.## At the end of the day when a scent is all but washed away, it boils down to something simple, usually sweet and warm like vanilla, amber or myrrh.†††
I think I prefer my stronger notes to seem simpler and my more convoluted smells to be lighter.
It's easier on my ego, if nothing else.
Fresh says: "...strikingly beautiful and completely romantic.
- Top: red orange,$ freesia, spring lilac
- Heart: magnolia, peony, fresh jasmine, tiare flower
- Base: precious woods,$ velvety peach skin, marsh mallow"
Hans says: Light. It's misty. I like it.‡‡‡
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Not anymore.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): And the best, favourite gentle cleanser: Fresh Soy Face Cleanser.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): I'll review that some time in the near future, have no fear. Here's a sneak-peek: Fig... yum.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Yeah, I had no idea how out of my league I was. They were very nice, despite my clear one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other personal aura.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Though we should probably have him arrested for the pusher he is. It was years before Fresh was available in Colorado and I was practically tying off on the airplane every time I went to NYC, anticipating stocking up on the essentials. Y'know... fig and soy. Right after water, merino and this lamp on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): And wear occasionally in the dark of winter just to brighten things up a bit.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Since too much flower makes me feel all pink and shit.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Or pink or cloying or whatever it is I don't like about a lot of florals.
§§FOOTNOTE (just a whisp of scent): Light to begin with and edt to boot. Like how I'm talkin' all jargon and stuff? Yeah, I feel hip.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (two wrists are better than one): Tonight as I'm getting undressed, I'll nuzzle my wrists and find something absolutley indecipherable, just a hint above the scent of my own skin.
##FOOTNOTE (like two aldehydes criss-crossing in the night): Brain Age 2 has a training session that consists of two or three words being said at the same time and you have to pick out each word. I'm not good at that either.
†††FOOTNOTE (we'll cross that bridge when we come to it): With my chemistry, it's a wonder I don't melt in the rain.
$FOOTNOTE (right on the money): Ha! Got one!
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (roll-out): And he does these little hand gestures I wish y'all could see. Polynesian dancers got nothin' on Hans, 'specially when it comes to conveying "misty."
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Bring the Music
Part I of today's 3-part series on why this was the best birthday ever.
Brother musics. I read.
Not that I don't listen to music and not that Brother doesn't read, but Brother has a music problem and I clearly have a book problem.†
For my 31st birthday, he got me a CD player. I got one for myself for my 20th birthday‡ and it had ceased to work long before.
As dopey% as it may be to get sentimental about a piece of stereo equipment, that 31st birthday CD player brought music back to my life. I probably hadn't listened to six hours of radio and no CDs in three years when he gave me that.
[SUMMARY: *sniff*]
Now, for my 41st, Brother has brought the music again.
He gave me a one-year subscription to emusic. Now, I have an iPod. I've been musically capable all on my own for years now, but this will bring something back I haven't had for a good, long while: exploration.
I've done most of my musical exploration through my brother for the last three or four years.§ He makes me a CD every Christmas¶ and I go buy various CDs or MP3s from the artists on it and I feel very hip and underground.
Sometimes a little dangerous.^
[SUMMARY: I am dork once removed.]
emusic doesn't trade much in the mainstream.#
I'm going to have to listen to a lot of weird stuff. I love listening to weird stuff so long as I have some means of organising the weird stuff. Just going to Cheapo Discs and randomly pulling potential weirdness out of the bins... well, actually, that might be fun once or twice,†† but guided weirdness suits my inner planning Nazi so much better.
So I get 30 tracks a month, with all the joy of musical discovery married to the complete time-suck of Music Maker.‡‡
[SUMMARY: Hey, wait...]
Brother is still trying to take over the world.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): And we will both admit to having video game problems so severe that neither of us will keep games on our computers. Brother once, in an attempt to subvert my powers and take over the world, got me Music Maker for Christmas. This is a musical video game, more or less, that allows one to remix songs, compose songs, distort notes, add syncopation, change keys... in short, I spent 17 straight hours remixing one bar of "First and Last and Always" and had to remove the software from my computer. Later, Brother admitted he really wanted Music Maker for himself but he knew he would be homeless and unhygienic within a month if he had it.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Trust me, this was a hundred years ago. I don't think anybody else at my whole college had a CD player in 1987. Not only am I influential, apparently I'm a trendspotter. I am also pleased and more than a little smug to report that my college boyfriend didn't think CDs were going to last and refused to invest in the player or the media until he was confident they'd be around to stay. I believe he was still running vinyl and cassette tapes in 1992.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Is there an "e" in dopy? Dopey? Dopie?
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): To be honest, my finding The Duhks and Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos was indirectly through Brother, as he was directly responsible for my XM Radio. Just so's you know... I keep a tiny notebook, about the size of a business card, in my car so I can write down bands and songs off obscure XM channels. I am that dork.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): With some odd stuff he thinks I need and often some utterly esoteric circa-1983 thing that's been off my radar for years.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): Y'know... hip hop...
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I tried Rush. No Rush. I tried Sisters of Mercy... *that's* too mainstream for emusic. They do, however, trade in Duhks and Margot, so I know there's something out there for me.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): I did that at Bleecker Bob's in the Village on one of my NYC trips. Cool, but kinda like trying to kill pigeons with a scatter gun. You miss more than you hit.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): *ahem* I probably shouldn't admit this, but the first time I played computer solitaire (1992, for the trendspotter record), I discovered it (while watching the evening news - I mention that so you can get a bead on the time frame) buried in the directory of a DOS-based computer my uncle had given me to take to Antarctica. I messed around with it, gradually figuring out all the key commands (no mouse) and looked up and it was 4:00 in the morning.
No, I've never played Prisoner of Zenda. Now you see why.
Brother musics. I read.
Not that I don't listen to music and not that Brother doesn't read, but Brother has a music problem and I clearly have a book problem.†
For my 31st birthday, he got me a CD player. I got one for myself for my 20th birthday‡ and it had ceased to work long before.
As dopey% as it may be to get sentimental about a piece of stereo equipment, that 31st birthday CD player brought music back to my life. I probably hadn't listened to six hours of radio and no CDs in three years when he gave me that.
[SUMMARY: *sniff*]
Now, for my 41st, Brother has brought the music again.
He gave me a one-year subscription to emusic. Now, I have an iPod. I've been musically capable all on my own for years now, but this will bring something back I haven't had for a good, long while: exploration.
I've done most of my musical exploration through my brother for the last three or four years.§ He makes me a CD every Christmas¶ and I go buy various CDs or MP3s from the artists on it and I feel very hip and underground.
Sometimes a little dangerous.^
[SUMMARY: I am dork once removed.]
emusic doesn't trade much in the mainstream.#
I'm going to have to listen to a lot of weird stuff. I love listening to weird stuff so long as I have some means of organising the weird stuff. Just going to Cheapo Discs and randomly pulling potential weirdness out of the bins... well, actually, that might be fun once or twice,†† but guided weirdness suits my inner planning Nazi so much better.
So I get 30 tracks a month, with all the joy of musical discovery married to the complete time-suck of Music Maker.‡‡
[SUMMARY: Hey, wait...]
Brother is still trying to take over the world.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): And we will both admit to having video game problems so severe that neither of us will keep games on our computers. Brother once, in an attempt to subvert my powers and take over the world, got me Music Maker for Christmas. This is a musical video game, more or less, that allows one to remix songs, compose songs, distort notes, add syncopation, change keys... in short, I spent 17 straight hours remixing one bar of "First and Last and Always" and had to remove the software from my computer. Later, Brother admitted he really wanted Music Maker for himself but he knew he would be homeless and unhygienic within a month if he had it.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Trust me, this was a hundred years ago. I don't think anybody else at my whole college had a CD player in 1987. Not only am I influential, apparently I'm a trendspotter. I am also pleased and more than a little smug to report that my college boyfriend didn't think CDs were going to last and refused to invest in the player or the media until he was confident they'd be around to stay. I believe he was still running vinyl and cassette tapes in 1992.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Is there an "e" in dopy? Dopey? Dopie?
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): To be honest, my finding The Duhks and Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos was indirectly through Brother, as he was directly responsible for my XM Radio. Just so's you know... I keep a tiny notebook, about the size of a business card, in my car so I can write down bands and songs off obscure XM channels. I am that dork.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): With some odd stuff he thinks I need and often some utterly esoteric circa-1983 thing that's been off my radar for years.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): Y'know... hip hop...
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I tried Rush. No Rush. I tried Sisters of Mercy... *that's* too mainstream for emusic. They do, however, trade in Duhks and Margot, so I know there's something out there for me.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): I did that at Bleecker Bob's in the Village on one of my NYC trips. Cool, but kinda like trying to kill pigeons with a scatter gun. You miss more than you hit.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): *ahem* I probably shouldn't admit this, but the first time I played computer solitaire (1992, for the trendspotter record), I discovered it (while watching the evening news - I mention that so you can get a bead on the time frame) buried in the directory of a DOS-based computer my uncle had given me to take to Antarctica. I messed around with it, gradually figuring out all the key commands (no mouse) and looked up and it was 4:00 in the morning.
No, I've never played Prisoner of Zenda. Now you see why.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Photolism
I don't even know what that means, but it sounded cool. In my head, I mean.
And here's my trip to NYC.
Second, I think it's important to note that I finished Yorick for Jeff as hoped. And I know how y'all like FOs.
The only thing I've done every time I go to Manhattan (other than stay with Jeff and Lorree) is visit the American Museum of Natural History.
The latter was basically a bunch of papier-mache critters with narrative explanations on their mythology and, y'know... how manatees looked like mermaids to weary sailors. The only picture I got was of a dragon wing, which was artsy, but not illustrative.%
The dinosaur in the Roosevelt Rotunda you may have seen in "Night at the Museum" or the TiVi show "Mad About You."^
Friday also brought weather I've never experienced before: 100% humidity with reasonably comfortable temperatures. Sleeping was weird and surreal, with fever dreams and kicking the covers on and off and getting up ten or seventeen times to pee and get water. I've never felt anything like it.
[SUMMARY: Not unlike my Amber experience.]
Saturday was, of course, the trek to Rhinebeck.
There were many people.
And fairground-appropriate accoutrement.#
And pretty trees.
This being my favourite.
And a bouncy pirate ship with (wait for it...)
...a skull and crossbones or five.
Sheep.
Goats.
Bunnies.
Outdoor yarn.
Indoor yarn.
Mohair locks by the bushel.
Quiet spaces to go to escape the madding crowd, if just for a few minutes.
And this is very important. A vendor I loved, with lovely Merino and Merino/Silk and CORMO and I somehow *forgot the name of the frickin' vendor.* If anyone knows who this is (maybe from the top floor of the big white barn?), could you please drop me a comment?
I didn't dislike everything about Rhinebeck. I loved the unknown yarn vendor and Spirit Trail Fibreworks. And Green Mountain Spinnery, from whom I got 500 yards of this:
And the horses. I may be the only fibre geek in North America to get this guy from the front.
Sunday, Lorree needed some Lorree time, so I asked Jeff if we could explore Central Park, as I've seen woefully little of it and feel it is necessary to my quintessential experience of New York.
Jeff said, "You're taking a picture of a sign?"
I said, "Yes. Some people might appreciate that there are eleventy hundred baseball diamonds here in the North Meadow."
People who have only seen snippets of the park on TiVi and such may not be aware of its full impact. It's HUGE.
You can hike through a forest reminiscent of Redwood National Park, fording streams and climbing rocks and hills... then come around a corner to the Great Lawn where upwards of 3000 people and their dogs are playing Frisbee and sunbathing.
There is the Pond (smaller than Harlem Meers, but large enough to row on).
There are turtles.
There is a castle.††
Oh, look. There is Jeff 180 degrees from the last photo on the courtyard of Belvedere Castle.
There is a highly artistic shot of the shadow of Belvedere Castle looking up to the south leg of the Great Lawn.‡‡
After rambling around Belvedere Castle, we cut across the park westward§§ to catch Riverside Park home. Jeff lives right by Riverside Park, though a ways north of where we were at the castle.
A barge.¶¶
Looking up Riverside Park.
[SUMMARY: New York!]
Tomorrow: WIP, another FO and Annie Modesitt tells me I was knitting OK all along.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): Maybe. I know she had a garden around here somewhere.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Not that artsy isn't a fine reason all on its own to post a picture. Apparently I was the victim of a rare and impulsive moment of discretion. Enjoy it while you can.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): Where young Paul and young Jamie are on class field trips to AMNH and the power goes out.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): It's too trite to sniff at art, but I actually had a visceral reaction to the bullshit they were dishing. Spittle. Hair on end. Ears hot.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Well, size doesn't count, but I don't want you to think it's maybe six stories tall and could fall into some Christo realm of scale as art.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): I'm nothing if not prosaic.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): When Melissa Etheridge came out, a male friend was trying to articulate why it was so upsetting to him. In my usual succinct way (shut up), I said, "Because you want to believe she's singing the love songs to you." I want to believe the chair in the museum could possibly end up in my living room (maybe as part of the McDonald's Monopoly frenzy of prizes) and I'm not a seven-legged alien.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): With a festive fall theme!
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Belvedere Castle, to be specific.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I think.
§§FOOTNOTE (a snake eats its tail): Right by the Dakota, where people take pictures of the sidewalk like they might be able to catch bloodstains from nearly 30 years ago.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (I think we just ran out of paragraphs): Maybe.
And here's my trip to NYC.
First, I think it's important to note that Jeff and Lorree live right around the corner from what may be the only drive-thru in Manhattan.
I took this from the subway platform.
Second, I think it's important to note that I finished Yorick for Jeff as hoped. And I know how y'all like FOs.
The only thing I've done every time I go to Manhattan (other than stay with Jeff and Lorree) is visit the American Museum of Natural History.
That's the rail on the fence surrounding the Eleanor Roosevelt Garden@ on the northwest corner of the museum grounds.
The Rose Center and the Hayden Planetarium are always worth a peek, and I buy an unlimited ticket to get me into every special exhibit they have going.
This trip's special exhibits were butterflies and mythical creatures.
The former:
The latter was basically a bunch of papier-mache critters with narrative explanations on their mythology and, y'know... how manatees looked like mermaids to weary sailors. The only picture I got was of a dragon wing, which was artsy, but not illustrative.%
The biosphere on the bottom floor with all the tiny fish.
The dinosaur in the Roosevelt Rotunda you may have seen in "Night at the Museum" or the TiVi show "Mad About You."^
And "truly large mouse," just because I think it's funny.
[SUMMARY: Go, museum geek, go!]
Friday, MoMA was ridiculously crowded, and for the first time I got genuinely pissed off at the pretentiousness of a piece of "artwork."†
[SUMMARY: Go, museum geek, go!]
Friday, MoMA was ridiculously crowded, and for the first time I got genuinely pissed off at the pretentiousness of a piece of "artwork."†
I don't like to guppy up to the "my four-year-old could do that" stereotype of the artistic Luddite, but I finally found the thing hanging on a wall that did it: a piece of newsprint -- not very big‡ -- folded in half, in half and in half again, then unfolded and framed.
The accompanying blather said (paraphrasing) "The artist folds the blank paper many times, transcending tradition to create a drawing without ever putting pencil to paper."
No, the fuck he doesn't.
He folded a page in eighths like they used to make us do in the second grade to create a big-pencil-friendly version of ruled paper for us to do sums on.
It's not a drawing.
It's not even art.
[SUMMARY: My four-year-old could do that.]
The art I liked was the art I always like. Every time I looked at a painting I liked, it would be Klimt or Rothko or Dali or Ernst.§
Perhaps I stagnate.
I also love the furniture section. I don't know why an Eames chair should turn me on so, but it really does.
Although I don't like alien furniture... you know, the stuff that was conceived on the artistic construct of "how would a space creature with seven legs whose spine was rigid, but whose knees bent backwards sit?"¶
[SUMMARY: I don't know art, but I know what I don't like.]
Friday also brought weather I've never experienced before: 100% humidity with reasonably comfortable temperatures. Sleeping was weird and surreal, with fever dreams and kicking the covers on and off and getting up ten or seventeen times to pee and get water. I've never felt anything like it.
[SUMMARY: Not unlike my Amber experience.]
Saturday was, of course, the trek to Rhinebeck.
There were many people.
And fairground-appropriate accoutrement.#
And pretty trees.
This being my favourite.
And a bouncy pirate ship with (wait for it...)
...a skull and crossbones or five.
Sheep.
Goats.
Bunnies.
Outdoor yarn.
Indoor yarn.
Mohair locks by the bushel.
Quiet spaces to go to escape the madding crowd, if just for a few minutes.
And this is very important. A vendor I loved, with lovely Merino and Merino/Silk and CORMO and I somehow *forgot the name of the frickin' vendor.* If anyone knows who this is (maybe from the top floor of the big white barn?), could you please drop me a comment?
I didn't dislike everything about Rhinebeck. I loved the unknown yarn vendor and Spirit Trail Fibreworks. And Green Mountain Spinnery, from whom I got 500 yards of this:
And the horses. I may be the only fibre geek in North America to get this guy from the front.
[SUMMARY: Deja vu?]
These are my peeps from the delayed train adventure.
These are my peeps from the delayed train adventure.
Sunday, Lorree needed some Lorree time, so I asked Jeff if we could explore Central Park, as I've seen woefully little of it and feel it is necessary to my quintessential experience of New York.
Jeff said, "You're taking a picture of a sign?"
I said, "Yes. Some people might appreciate that there are eleventy hundred baseball diamonds here in the North Meadow."
People who have only seen snippets of the park on TiVi and such may not be aware of its full impact. It's HUGE.
You can hike through a forest reminiscent of Redwood National Park, fording streams and climbing rocks and hills... then come around a corner to the Great Lawn where upwards of 3000 people and their dogs are playing Frisbee and sunbathing.
There is the Pond (smaller than Harlem Meers, but large enough to row on).
There are turtles.
There is a castle.††
Oh, look. There is Jeff 180 degrees from the last photo on the courtyard of Belvedere Castle.
There is a highly artistic shot of the shadow of Belvedere Castle looking up to the south leg of the Great Lawn.‡‡
After rambling around Belvedere Castle, we cut across the park westward§§ to catch Riverside Park home. Jeff lives right by Riverside Park, though a ways north of where we were at the castle.
A barge.¶¶
Looking up Riverside Park.
[SUMMARY: New York!]
Tomorrow: WIP, another FO and Annie Modesitt tells me I was knitting OK all along.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): Maybe. I know she had a garden around here somewhere.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Not that artsy isn't a fine reason all on its own to post a picture. Apparently I was the victim of a rare and impulsive moment of discretion. Enjoy it while you can.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): Where young Paul and young Jamie are on class field trips to AMNH and the power goes out.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): It's too trite to sniff at art, but I actually had a visceral reaction to the bullshit they were dishing. Spittle. Hair on end. Ears hot.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Well, size doesn't count, but I don't want you to think it's maybe six stories tall and could fall into some Christo realm of scale as art.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): I'm nothing if not prosaic.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): When Melissa Etheridge came out, a male friend was trying to articulate why it was so upsetting to him. In my usual succinct way (shut up), I said, "Because you want to believe she's singing the love songs to you." I want to believe the chair in the museum could possibly end up in my living room (maybe as part of the McDonald's Monopoly frenzy of prizes) and I'm not a seven-legged alien.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): With a festive fall theme!
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Belvedere Castle, to be specific.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I think.
§§FOOTNOTE (a snake eats its tail): Right by the Dakota, where people take pictures of the sidewalk like they might be able to catch bloodstains from nearly 30 years ago.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (I think we just ran out of paragraphs): Maybe.
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