Friday Fill-ins 01-16-09

Janet is our fabulous host for this weekly event. My responses are in italics.


1. Enough with the Bush administration! Yea!!!!!!!! Four more days!

2. Healthy food vs food I want to eat causes me to be conflicted.

3. I've been craving time at the beach.

4. My girlfriends make me laugh.

5. I wish I could go to the beach next week. In my pure fantasy world, I'd go to the inauguration, but in reality I couldn't take the crowds. I'm there in spirit!

6. War in the Middle East has been on my mind lately.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a quiet evening, tomorrow my plans include cake and games with some friends and Sunday, I want to read!
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Booking Through Thursday - Sing, Sing a Song!

Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks:

Sing, Sing a Song:

What songs … either specific songs, or songs in general by a specific group or writer … have words that you love? Why? And … do the tunes that go with the fantastic lyrics live up to them?

Now, of course, I have that stupid Carpenter's song running through my head, thanks a lot Deb!

One of my most favorite songwriters of the last 15 years or so is Cheryl Wheeler. She writes funny songs, poignant ones, love songs, breakup songs, songs about her cats - attending one of her concerts is like an emotional Space Mountain ride!

Cheryl wrote one of the best love songs ever - "Gandhi/Buddha." My partner and I sang it to each other at our commitment ceremony. Here's the chorus:

I must have been Gandhi or Buddha
or someone like that.
I must've saved lives by the hundreds everywhere I went.
I must've brought rest to the restless
and fed the hungry too.
I must've done something great…
to get to have you.

At her concerts she sings the alter ego version in addition:

I must have been Hitler or Satan
or someone like that
I must have brought death and destruction
everywhere I went
I must have brought torts to the tortured
Drowned some puppies too
I must have done something BAD to have to have you

See what I mean about Space Mountain?

Another favorite CW song is called "Unworthy." It moves along at a pretty good clip and, as you can see, has lots of words. I love singing this song, though I usually have to untie my tongue when I'm done.

I'm unworthy, no matter what I'm doing,
I should certainly be doing something else.
And it's selfish to be thinking I'm unworthy,
all this me, me, me, me, self, self, self, self, self.
If I'm talking on the phone I should be working on the lawn
which looks disgraceful from the things I haven't done.
If I'm working on the lawn I should be concentrating on
those magazines inside, since I have not read one.

I should learn how to meditate and sew and bake
and dance and paint and sail and make gazpacho.
I should turn my attention to repairing all those
forty year old socks there in that bureau.
I should let someone teach me to run Windows,
and learn French that I can read and write and speak.
I should get life in prison for how I treated my parents
from third grade until last week.

I should spend more time playing with my dog
and much less money on this needless junk I buy.
I should send correspondence back to everyone
who's written, phoned or faxed since junior high.
I should sit with a therapist until I understand
the way I felt back in my mom.
I should quit smoking, drinking, eating, thinking sleeping,
watching TV, writing stupid songs.

I should be less impatient when the line just takes forever
'cause the two cashiers are talking.
I should see what it's like to get up really early rain or shine
and spend three hours walking.
I should know CPR and deep massage
and Braille and sign language
and how to change my oil.
I should go where the situation's desperate and
build and paint and trudge and tote and toil.

I should chant in impossible positions
till my legs appear to not have any bones.
I should rant at the cops and politicians
and the corporations-in indignant tones.
I should save lots of money to leave Audubon,
plus all the rocks and animals and plants.
I should brave possibilities for plotting plums of problems
prob'ly blossomed, plausibly from
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah I'm unworthy.

I also think "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is the most perfect song ever written.
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Wordless Wednesday - 01-14-09: Indian Camps

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Teaser Tuesday 01-13-09: The Night Watch

Should Be Reading - Miz B - hosts this weekly event. We throw out a couple of sentences from our current read (without spoilers, of course) to entice you to read the book.


From The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, page 19:

Once he tied one of my plaits to the handle of a door, and slammed it.' She touched her scalp. 'It hurt like hell. I wanted to kill him! I believe I would have, if I'd known how. I do think children would make the most perfect little murderers, don't you?'

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Weekly Geeks 2009-01

Well, we're back at last, and Dewey's spirit lives on in every Weekly Geek post. I had the honor and pleasure of posting the first assignment for the return of WG. And I've been so busy visiting everyone's posts this morning, I haven't even finished mine!

Our assignment this week:

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

Some days I make myself crazy trying to keep up with all the blogs I want to visit. Thank goodness for retirement! and for Google Reader which manages all my favorite blogs and lets me know when new goodies are posted. To think a year ago, I hardly knew what a blog was!

I have several categories of blogs I follow; for this post, I'm limiting myself to three in each category, which is really hard to do.

Book blogs:

• books i done read - Raych writes the funniest reviews on the planet. I hope she wills me her sense of humor. She is so irreverent - a quality I admire in a person!
  
• Tripping Toward Lucidity - Andi was one of the first book bloggers I connected with. She's also very funny and thoughtful, writes great reviews and shares her daily life with us, the good, the bad and the ugly! She's also busy with a few other blogs and an online 'zine. Not to mention teaching and going to school. Sheesh.
  
• Cornflower lives in Edinburgh and has quite a following. She recently separated her book blog from her "other" which has fantastic photos, textiles, recipes and food photos that will make you drool puddles. This link is to her book blog where she runs a monthly book group and writes fantastic reviews. Also hosts a lot of giveaways.
  

Photo blogs:

I've recently become addicted to photography and there are some wonderful blogs and memes out there (my photo blog is now separate from this one). Here are some of my favs:

• Lisa's Chaos - Lisa and her husband are professional photographers and their work is stunning. Very creative and fun stories, too. Lisa hosts one of my favorite photo memes, Macro Monday. I love macro photography!
  
• Spatter - what can I say. Awesome photos. Interesting stories. June travels a lot, so there's a great diversity to her photography.
  
• Heaven in Belgium - Jientje has a lot of fun with her camera and shares tips with us. She's very creative in her photo setups and is, well, just a nice person.
  

Other - writing, politics, whatever:

I think what has astounded me most about the blog world is how people are writing their everyday stories in such creative ways. Whether it's about raising children, moving to a new town, the '08 election or just pondering, this is definitely a new way of finding community and sharing our stories, which is a good start down a road to peace. It's such a wonderful way of connecting and finding similarities and learning about differences. Some of my favorites in this category are:

• Diane's Addled Ramblings - this woman is funny!!! She writes about being a single mom, about writing, politics, dating - all with a style that keeps me wanting MORE.
  
• i am saved by the buoyancy of citrus - this is Raych again, her non-book blog. Again, funny! Everyday. Someday I will ask her where she got such a quirky blog name.
  
• So Not Zen - I recently discovered this blog; another very funny writer about the everyday, the joys and woes of parenting. She's doing a daily gratitude post. She also lives just across the Columbia River from me. And I love the name of her blog. And this bit in her "about me" cracks me up: I want to think like Buddha, not look like him.

Can you tell I appreciate humorous blogs?

Well that ought to keep you all busy for awhile! Now I'm off to see who else has posted to Weekly Geeks. I will have to pry the laptop off my hot thighs by the end of this day. No, not HOT as in buff - HOT as in this laptop is now the temperature of a waffle iron.

Visit the new home of Weekly Geeks and see what others are geeking about.
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Friday Fill-ins 01-09-09

Janet is our inimitable host for this weekly event. My responses are in italics.

1. It's January; time for my mammogram.

2. Organic Valley Eggnog is what I crave most right now. But it’s past the season, which is probably just as well.

3. Cork and wine go together like eggshells in an omelet (if the cork ends up in the wine).

4. A good nap is so nourishing.


5. Let us dare to hope that we can heal our ailing Mother Earth and undo some of the damage that has been done to the US and the world over the last 8 years.


6. Portland is and always will be my home.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading, tomorrow my plans include reading and taking photos and Sunday, I want to read and take photos!

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Wordless Wednesday - 01-07-09

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Teaser Tuesday 01-06-09: Oscar and Lucinda

Should Be Reading - Miz B - hosts this weekly event. We throw out a couple of sentences from our current read (without spoilers, of course) to entice you to read the book.


From Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, page 252:

She swore later that Oscar's mouth dropped open. She described it for him: He was like a ventriloquist's doll from which the ruling hand has been rudely withdrawn, leaving the subject slumped, without a spine, unable to lift so much as an arm.

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The Sunday Salon: Some Things I Learned in 2008

Happy Sunday and Merry 2009! Condolences to those of you who must return to the work world tomorrow. Here are a few things I learned on my reading road trip in '08.

• It wasn't so terribly painful after all to read War and Peace. I even enjoyed it!
  
• And - the next time I read a chunkster like that, I will focus only on that book and not read anything else concurrently. I feel like I missed a lot by interspersing other books with it.
  
• My favorite genre is contemporary women writers (Orange July was wonderful for that reason!) My second favorite is historical fiction. Often they're one and the same (e.g. Music and Silence by Rose Tremain or Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks).
• "Contemporary women writers" does not mean chick lit. (I already knew this, but maybe you didn't.)
• Graphic novels are definitely worthy of the name literature.
• I can read many more books than I ever thought I could. 107 total for 2008. Many more in 2009!
  
• The book blogging community is a wonderful place to learn, connect, laugh, cry, be creative and add too many great books to an already teetering Mount TBR.
• It's quite possible to blog and visit blogs 24/7.
• But then I wouldn't get any reading done.

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Friday Fill-ins: 01-02-09

Janet is our fabulous host for this weekly event. My responses are in italics.


1. The world is going to change in wonderful ways after January 20th.

2. The end was the last thing I said.

3. I wonder "who wrote the Book of Love."

4. Beginnings are at the end of all things.

5. There's something to be said for denial.

6. Right here is where I want to be.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to time with my dad and his wife, tomorrow my plans include driving home and reading and Sunday, I want to read Oscar and Lucinda for Monday’s book group!

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