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August 31, 2005
shoe club
as some of you know, over the years i've collected many pairs of interesting and colorful shoes. a disproportionate number of them are fluevogs; borns are popular, too.
the borns, the converse, they get worn a lot. they're easy to wear. but the really special ones don't often make it out of the closet, and that's just a shame.
since i returned from chicago with three new pairs of fluevogs, i decided that this should change. i've been wearing my awesome shoes almost every day, and my female co-workers have started to notice.
for many, many years my entire work group was comprised of men, except for my manager, and she wasn't really into fashion. things have changed in the last couple of years, and i feel that i'm not awash in a sea of agressively casual fashion any longer. there are women i work with every day who wear things other than jeans. there are even a few men who wear things other than jeans and t-shirts, but not many.
so today, i wore the pink nuns and while i was sitting in the lab co-worker b. walked by and spotted them and said, "and the cool shoes just KEEP ON COMING!!" she grabbed co-worker a. as she passed in the hall and said, "didja see these??" then co-worker l. came out of her office and said, "are you talking about shoes?"
i kind of enjoyed the attention at first but then it started to freak me out a little. i used to be the pink haired girl at the company and i was self-conscious but i loved my pink hair and it was fun for a while. mostly now though i don't want to stand out like that.
but, i'm not going to let my shoes moulder in a closet. i'm going to push through the self-consciousness and keep wearing them.
the first rule of shoe club is, you wear the damn shoes.
the second rule of shoe club is, you WEAR THE DAMN SHOES.
Posted by lisa at 11:44 PM
BPAL - Envy, Twilight, The Lovers
MORE...Posted by lisa at 11:23 PM
like my basement, only on a city-wide scale.
hydrostatic pressure forces water into my basement from the soil that surrounds it. this interesting lj entry by someone who lived in New Orleans while working for the US Geological Survey's Water Resources Division helps explain how the same thing happened to NOLA.
via comments on jason!'s lj.
Posted by lisa at 03:44 PM
radio, radio
it's funny, i sort of dread doing my radio show, despite enjoying the hell out of it whenever i'm actually on the air. last night was mostly fun. it turns out that i'm a total sucker for ethiopian music, but then, anyone who listens to my show regularly had probably figured that out. i figure no one listens regularly so i can get away with indulging myself to some degree. that, and i'm probably one of maybe three people who are likely to play ethiopian music during their show.
so indeed, i broke out the soundtrack to 'broken flowers', which is on playlist right now, fully intending to not play one of the ethiopian pieces, and dutifully scanned through many songs, and played "yegelle tezeta" anyway.
i played the new eno, too. those who get the reference in my blog name may have guessed that i'm an eno fan. however, at this point i'm more a fan of the man himself than his current work. happily, this new release is not strictly ambient and the track i played was actually really nice.
things fell apart in the last twenty minutes, as they usually do after josh arrives. i like josh a lot and i've rarely come on the air before a more entertaining (and reliable) person, but he can't help but be distracting, and the end of my show is the time when i'm struggling to hold it together anyway. he was nice and tried to help me locate my one request of the evening (a request that helped me understand why i never much took to the grifters.. ugh), but by the time his annoying young companion had arrived and started pounding me with questions about how my show works, i was pretty cranky and probably wasn't super nice to her. i don't think she noticed.
i did receive one fairly entertaining phone call from a man who demanded to know, "is that sid?" after playing a little game of "who's on first", we determined that he thought that a song i played sounded like syd barrett. and the beatles. i was left wondering how an xdu listener could have such a narrow range of reference.
Posted by lisa at 08:55 AM
August 30, 2005
when the levee breaks in the city of new orleans
sorry, but those two unfortunate song titles keep popping into my head when i think about what's happening down south right now.
as ms. pants notes it'll be years before things are right again down there. when i see images of the water, it reminds me of the tsunami footage i saw recently. we have better infrastructure and resources, but if your house is submerged... that's it. game over.
as for what pants writes about the animals... i can't even think about that.
Posted by lisa at 10:26 PM
on air tonight
8-10pm ET. 88.7 if you're local to Durham; wxdu.org/listen if you ain't.
live playlist easily located here.
Posted by lisa at 08:32 AM
The book meme
I told christa she could tag me because I already knew I wanted to do this one.
1. How many books I own:
18 shelves worth. This is the best measurement I can come up with.
2. The last book I bought:
I bought two at once: "Eastern Standard Tribe" and "Someone comes to town, Someone leaves town", both by Cory Doctorow.
3. The last book I read:
"Eastern Standard Tribe". I haven't finished "Someone comes to town, Someone leaves town", and I'm not sure I will.
4. Five Six books that mean a lot to me:
"Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh. My all time favorite book. This book is the source of many things for me: my tomboy side; my love of converse; my love of carrying about gadgets; my love of New York; possibly even the fact that i have many guy friends (as Harriet's best friend was a guy). When I walk over to work on the westy, baggy jeans, sneaks, backpack full of tools, I am Harriet.
"The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom" by Katherine Arnoldi. Written by the mother of one of my best friends in high school, the title says it all. And it is a true story.
"Through the Flower: My Struggle As a Woman Artist" by Judy Chicago. I have probably said this before on my blog, but reading about what women were like in the 70's from the point of view of a feminist artist is very informative for those of us who weren't really around then. She took girls who were trained since birth to have no work ethic and taught them that they could use tools and meet deadlines.
"The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" by Mollie Katzen. My introduction to vegetarian cooking. I also taught myself how to bake bread using the instructions in this book, as well as make pasta from scratch. For many years, this was the only cookbook I owned. Everything about it is comforting and nice, from the way every single letter is handwritten, to her friendly writing style and charming line drawings. Plus, of course, the high dairy fat content of her recipes :)
"The Diary of Virginia Woolf" (Vols 1&2)
"Angry Women" by Vickie Vale and Andrea Juno. A gift from Jonathan. My introduction to Diamanda Galas, Annie Sprinkle and Susie Bright. I also later got to see Carolee Schneeman's film "Fuses", which is documented in this book. It's an amazing film. They've got a copy of it on 16mm over at Duke, or at least they did.
And hey, if I loaned you my copy of Angry Women, I think I want it back now.
5. Five people I’ve tagged: (if they desire to be, of course)
Sarah
Georg
Steph
Stephanie
Joe
Posted by lisa at 12:39 AM
August 29, 2005
What brings you to my web site, O people of India, Canada, Iran, Gilbraltar, Spain, England, Finland, France, Germany, Iowa, and New Hampshire?
Could it be... syllogomania?? (i can't even remember what that means, and it brought someone to my web site.)
Or... orange, cute, chunky shoes??
Maybe... sneaking out of the house (y'all should see the comments I don't publish)
Could be... total dork (you found her!)
Perhaps... high maintenance camo (uh.. ok...)
Also... cute lisa (dat me!)
And I hope you found out what you wanted to about the sad dinosaur.
Oh, and you came to the right place if you wanted to know about a woman's right to shoes.
:|:
the search string game brought to you by the letters E and Y and the numbers 5 and 9.
ps, still obsessed with my gvisit map. Hello, Wisconsin!! Also, hello to all Rosberry and MacDonald people who might be stopping by. I figure Halifax, Nova Scotia is only so big and chances are pretty good that I am related to the person there who reads my blog.
pps, i always feel like it's a big score when Brits and Scots show up. i'm not sure why. but hello Brits and Scots. I would like to visit your countries again some day, maybe soon, but i have to get a new passport and stuff.
Posted by lisa at 11:11 PM
BPAL - Blood Kiss
MORE...Posted by lisa at 09:48 PM
My job description
I'm the person who tells the developers that we don't need to display timestamps that include not only seconds, but tenths of a second.
Posted by lisa at 02:58 PM
August 28, 2005
addams vs. munsters
"Tish! French!" "That's Latin, darling." "Oh. Oh well."
One line synopsis: The Addams Family wins.
The Munsters are the working stiff's answer to odd, the "Married with children" of the 60's horror-sitcom genre.
The Addams Family is eccentric where the Munsters are merely strange. They are refined, educated, with no material cares or wants. They have servants. I realize I'm not being a very good proletariat here, but I like their world better. I like Morticia's fashion sense better, too.
They require a little less suspension of disbelief. In the Munsters, no one in the family realizes that Herman looks strange. The Addams also do not realize that they are strange as compared to the people they live amongst, but thier differences are more aesthetic, less blatantly obvious.
Excepting Cousin It, of course...
Posted by lisa at 04:35 PM
BPAL - Akuma, Jester, Kyoto, Shadow
MORE...Posted by lisa at 10:35 AM
vintage arcade games at the starlite
This completely slipped my mind until yesterday afternoon. The video store is gone from the Starlite, and the back room has been filled with vintage arcade games. I spotted ms. pac man; didn't go in to see what else was there.
now we just need to convince him to carry loco-pops!
Posted by lisa at 09:34 AM
things i ask myself
"self," i say, "self, why did you not go see 'the transporter' when it was in the theater?"
"because movies in theaters are expensive and often inconveniently timed. and i thought it might suck."
actually, a lot of it did suck. but the driving bits at the beginning didn't. i do love driving. if fuel economy were not a concern, my next car would be a mini cooper s— essentially a supercharged bmw that weighs practically nothing. or i'd re-visit my idea of trying to find a vw corrado in excellent condition. or a golf gti vr6.
"self, why do you keep using firefox? it crashes every day!"
"because i don't want to set my bookmarks up again in safari. besides, i'm kind of used to it..."
Posted by lisa at 09:24 AM
August 27, 2005
BPAL - Shroud, Kuang Shi
MORE...Posted by lisa at 05:53 PM
August 26, 2005
BPAL - Persephone
MORE...Posted by lisa at 06:55 PM
now THAT is what i am TALKING ABOUT.
Huzzah! to the weather gods!
what a freaking gorgeous day!
eta: i just realized that i can see the moon, too. having a window office rocks.
Posted by lisa at 10:30 AM
August 25, 2005
loco-pool
it was beyond logical. it was inevitable. a styrofoam cooler, filled with loco-pops, floating in xta's pool.
i cursed the cool weather that made the pool less than completely habitable. me! curse cool weather!
nevertheless, now i feel very relaxed, the way i remember feeling after an afternoon swimming when i was a kid. kind of prune-ey in the fingertips, my hair kind of clumpy and damp.
i do honor the deliciously cool weather with the scent of cherries and cloves smeared on my wrists.
Posted by lisa at 11:23 PM
the thing with calling me at 4:30am
don't.
or at least leave me voicemail so i don't have to be awake in the middle of the night wondering if someone died.
although historically, those calls have never come in the middle of the night. so i'm guessing this was a wrong number.
hope so anyway.
Posted by lisa at 04:45 AM
August 24, 2005
the thing with books
a long time ago, in the salad days of my relationship with boingboing, back when we held hands and sang "tra-la-la" whilst skipping through fields of daisies, when xeni wasn't even a sidebar, much less an editor, a very long time ago indeed...
i thought it was awfully cool that one of the boingboing editors, one of the folks who did that cool blog read by all the people in the know and on the cutting edge, actually published a book. it was called "down and out in the magic kingdom", and eventually, i read it.
it was awful. it made me angry that it was printed. i very rarely have the response, "oh, i could do better," but in this case, i did. the characters were flat and the whole thing was just student grade writing, a vehicle for a set of hip ideas that this guy should have written up as non-fiction. blog entries, maybe.
time passed, my anger faded. i decided to try his other books. i bought them last month for vacation reading: "eastern standard tribe", and "someone comes to town, someone leaves town".
"eastern standard tribe" angered me just as much as the first one. i actually dogeared examples of crappy writing so i could do a proper critique. well, one example:
"Art bought a stale, sterno-reeking pretzel that was crusted with inedible volumes of yellowing salt, and squirted a couple bucks at a panhandler who had been pestering him in thick Jamaican patois but thanked him in adenoidal Brooklynese."
squirted??? ok, i can appreciate an expressive verb. i once read a short story that contained the phrase: "...she snatched a comb through her hair..." and i thought that was brilliant. snatched is perfect– you understand her mood just by that one verb. squirted... fails to acheive a similar effect here. it buys you nothing. and it clearly replaces not a single adjective.
and the whole damn thing is like that.
so reluctantly, i pushed onward to the third novel, a proper novel this time, not a novella in large font, and within the first paragraph i knew that Cory Doctorow had grown up as a writer and this was a real book, a good piece of writing, not student work at all.
The transformation is stunning. I don't know if he just grew, or got a decent editor, or if it's the first book he's written while not holding down another paying job, but it's like a different writer is writing.
The difficulty for me, as a reader, is that this book is quite horrifying. It reminds me a little bit too much of one of the reasons I stopped reading fiction almost completely several years ago– a book that made me want to read less.
I was on a bit of an Orson Scott Card kick– I liked his sci-fi. I didn't know he also wrote horror novels. One day I was plundering the Nice Price sci-fi section and ran across a Card book called "The Lost Boys". It was some kind of pre-market paperback-- a promo copy, without the kind of summary on the back cover that would normally tell a reader what kind of book it was. So I bought it, and I read it.
That book still gives me the creeps. It was one of his horror novels, and it took me a good while to realize where the story was going-- I was expecting sci-fi.
I think my reading habit dropped off a lot after I read that book. It was just... awful. shudder.
Well, "Someone comes to town, Someone leaves town" reminds me of "Lost Boys". Not quite as creepy, but I was unprepared for one of the main characters to be an intelligent, evil zombie. Don't get me wrong, I still think zombies can be PURE. COMEDY. GOLD. But not this one. I think only dumb zombies are funny.
But dammit– I want to keep reading, I want to find out what happens. Just please, please don't damage my psyche in the process! Please don't make it even harder for me to fall asleep.
Damn you Cory Doctorow!!! Why did you have to finally write a book worth reading?
Posted by lisa at 10:47 PM
loco-grill
there's this free gas grill i can have if i can just get it.
westy won't start. weird buzzing noise. i'm baffled. tried jumping it. think i might call MFM tomorrow.
i partially dismantled the grill tonight-- as much as i could. still won't fit in spacepod's hatch. just. by like, an inch.
haven't decided my next move. maybe measure spacepod's hatch and see if xta's crx hatch is wider, since she has kindly volunteered. or call dan and see if i can borrow the exploder.
dangit, the westy was supposed to be my solution to this sort of thing!
:|:
not a total loss, however, was that trip! i happened to pass loco pops on the way home. not one to jump on a sugar-laden bandwagon, i've never been before-- but it sounds like they usually have a sugar-free option.
and so they did, strawberry orange. yummy. i got a large one and made good my escape, it was a madhouse in there. by the time i got home, i wished i'd gotten four more. so deliciously refreshing!
Posted by lisa at 08:17 PM
the sort of choice you don't wanna have to make
like sophie choosing which of her children will die.
like choosing between chocolate and raspberry.
like only getting to have butter OR cream cheese on your bagel.
awesome coffeehouse show vs. VIP night at the starlite. this friday.
the starlite pretty much wins; after all, it is the starlite. and who knows, maybe the rosebuds won't go on until after i get out of the starlite.
but hey. the starlite is really happening. really really. like, this saturday you all who did not get VIP invites can go out there and see "The Dukes of Hazzard" if you want. Which you probably don't...
my man on the inside says the new screen looks great. and notes:
"we were using the 1972 cult classic 'Super Fly' to test
the screen - It's a print that Bob G. had lying around!"
Posted by lisa at 09:08 AM
August 23, 2005
Welcome, people of the world.
Via Steph.
Posted by lisa at 02:57 PM
August 22, 2005
BPAL: La Petit Mort; Sudha Sughara
MORE...Posted by lisa at 11:00 PM
nothing a pool can't solve
i was pondering just today my seeming inability to really relax. hot showers, beers at federal... the usual stuff didn't really seem to cut it. i just felt... anxious.
aaaaaanyway. turns out the solution was pretty simple.
Posted by lisa at 10:55 PM
August 21, 2005
things i should have done this weekend but did not
i had this whole list, see. well, there's always a list. list of things to do, list of things i need to do right away, list of things i ought to be doing in general, list of ongoing things, list of things the house will need done eventually, list of this that and the other.
but eh.
on the down side, i'm totally bored. but very devoted to the idea that i not leave my house very much, especially during daylight hours. spacepod has been shifting funny and for starters, i don't much want to be stranded across town when the heat index is 107. as per usual, i'm having trouble facing up the reality that i probably need to take him to see MFM sooner rather than later.
because he's old now and i am sure i don't want to know what is wrong with him.
i have been reading. i'm told that's a hallmark of intelligence and good brain maintenance and shit. but seriously, to me reading is just fucking around. being slack.
did i ever tell you guys about reading in the cedar closet at my grandmother's house? no? yes? ok, i'll tell you anyway.
the closet was the one really cool part of the house for some reason. the house, a very large farmhouse built around the time of the civil war (or so my childish memory tells me someone once said, and by the foot-wide plank floorboards, i'm inclined to believe it), was wall to wall books. thousands of books. they were pack rats. few thirteen year olds have the privelege of reading all first-edition Tom Swifts, complete with bizarre, racist patois and equally dated gender roles.
uh, so anyway, the closet had a light that would only come on if the door was open. very clever actually, just the sort of thing my grandfather would rig up. so i'd sit inside the cool closet, reading, with my foot propping the door open just enough that the light would stay on.
my granfather was retired from the Navy band, so they had shopping priveleges on the local base. the comissary was like costco is to us today; everything by the case. they'd store extra cases of soft drinks in this closet.
total heaven. sheer indulgence. reading, guzzling cokes. emerging periodically for grilled cheese and eye-rollingly delicious oatmeal cookies.
:|:
so yeah. well i did laundry, i tried to get the westy started (no go). ran a few errands. i'll be getting my butt to the grocery store pretty soon, too, now that the sun's gone down. wouldn't want to like, catch on fire in the direct sun or something. got stuff ready for amvet to pick up tomorrow. keep thinking there must be some way to garner a big burst of energy for myself and rampage through a million tasks, but frankly, i just don't give a damn right now.
Posted by lisa at 07:59 PM
Those meddling kids!
Another genre that I have great fondness for is the dorky, formulaic teen sleuth drama. Who doesn't love Scooby Doo?
Last night I was disappointed to discover that my local Cool Video Store Chain doesn't have The Transporter so I got Nancy Drew instead.
I don't remember watching this when it was on tv. I ripped through every Nancy Drew book I could find as a kid; maybe by 1977 I had outgrown them and had no interest in the show. I imagine the Hardy Boys may have held more fascination for me by then. Yes— I had a crush on Parker Stevenson.
The Nancy Drew tv show is quite different from the books (as I recall them). Bess is not in the show. Ned isn't really Nancy's boyfriend. George, while still a tomboy, doesn't have a boyfriend and has been reduced to the role of Nancy's dorky, stupid, un-sexy sidekick, who never does anything but act distressed and surprised.
While in Indy, Steph and I discussed the new Battlestar Galactica, including some ruminations on how cool the new Starbuck character is— a woman who is pretty damn butch, straight, very sexy, and who actually has sex on screen. Starbuck circa 2005 and George circa 1977 represent the opposite ends of the onscreen tomboy spectrum. I'm with Steph on this one; I like the Starbuck version a hell of a lot better.
The Nancy Drew tv show also has a very, very odd take on alchoholism in one episode. Nancy goes to stay with her elderly maiden aunts, one of whom has a pretty healthy addiction to something that she calls her "cough tonic". The other aunt is clearly disapproving of this habit, but never does anything about it except grumble. There's lots of screen time devoted to the watching the "coughing" aunt fondle her porcelain "tonic" bottle, and in the final scene of the episode, she gives a little fake cough, asks someone to hand her her tonic, and everyone gives a little rueful, knowing smile. Jigga-wha??? Everyone in the family, including Ned and George totally get what's happening, and just play along? Ok, nice message to send all the kids...
That episode is also a little bothersome in that the aunts are shown as sharing a bed, although the house is apparently big enough that Nancy and George get separate bedrooms. I imagine this might have been confusing to any kids who picked up on it; were the aunts supposed to be gay? If so, then congrats to the show, but it would be more helpful if that relationship were clear. And define George's sexuality while you're at it... especially if Nancy's flirting with every single, handsome man in sight...
And yes, for those wondering-- the word "meddling" is used in almost every episode to describe Nancy or her actions.
Now I want to rent some Hardy Boys! I'm sure the writing is just as bad.
Posted by lisa at 11:18 AM
August 20, 2005
movie: The Witches
I find movies about witches strangely comforting. I'm not sure why; maybe because they often take place in the fall, and are also often on the lighter side of the horror genre.
Hocus Pocus is, oddly, my favorite example of this. Bell, Book and Candle is pretty high on the list.
Recently I did a little digging around on Netflix and unearthed The Witches. It looked campy and 60's and promising.
What I didn't know until I watched it was... it's a Hammer film. I'm actually not always all that into Hammer films, but I was heartened. And, as it turned out, not disappointed.
I think if I ever own a movie theater, I'll have to run a series on Creepy English Villages. Open each installment with an episode of The Prisoner, then launch into something like The Witches, or maybe The Wicker Man. I'm not sure why this is, but English villages seem to be inherently creepy. (Although I think The Wicker Man actually takes place in the Hebrides, which are in Scotland, not England. Close enough.)
In addition to some glorious over-acting by Joan Fontaine, this movie boasts inappropriate modern dance moves by the scruffy villagers, a surprisingly, surrealy creepy effect involving a cat in cloth bag, plot holes you could drive a herd of sheep through, and a hat with lit candles, worn by the head witch.
I want one of those candle hats. That would be cool.
Posted by lisa at 09:06 PM
BPAL - White Rabbit
MORE...Posted by lisa at 07:00 PM
BPAL - Blood Pearl
MORE...Posted by lisa at 03:39 PM
August 18, 2005
BPAL - Jack, Moon Rose
MORE...Posted by lisa at 10:13 PM
August 17, 2005
whoa.
Just saw a preview for Linklatter's movie rendition of PK Dick's A Scanner Darkly.
It's rotoscoped, like Waking Life was, except that the rotoscoping effects are much, much better. Very, very, very cool-- I cannot wait.
Posted by lisa at 08:48 PM
score!
first of all, the weather! reasonable temperatures, cloud cover. it was muggy, but that didn't kill my mood the way the blazing sun does. awesome.
second, joe twisted my arm a little (ok, not much) and we went and got coffee late this afternoon. it's a nice way to break up a long, looong afternoon.
third, i was in a good mood all day. kind of nice to know that i can still be in a good mood.
fourth, my first lab order arrived!! I can't really do reliable tests right now, but that's ok. it's still fun that they're here.
fifth, some jeans that i mailordered arrived, too, much faster than i thought. i'm not sure i like the fit, though. i've got that waist gap problem that a lot of women have, and i'm not sure the fit is good in other areas. it's frustrating, because my perfect-fitting jeans from earlier this year are now too small, and i've had to admit to myself that old navy jeans just do. not. fit. me. it's hard to know if washing these jeans is going to help them fit any better. grumble.
still in a damn good mood, though.
MORE...Posted by lisa at 07:01 PM
BPAL SniffFest #2 - Saturday, September 3rd, Caffe Driade
Sarah, Alicia and I will be having our second BPAL Sniff Fest over Labor Day weekend!
It'll probably be in the afternoon sometime, definitely on Saturday, September 3rd.
All are welcome! We will all have many, many new scents, including the Limited Edition, Love in the Asylum, and lots of stuff that we'll be looking to swap or sell.
Posted by lisa at 03:42 PM
August 16, 2005
The good luck day
Today I encircled my bellybutton with a little ring of Has No Hanna. This is an oil that is supposed to bring good luck. 'round this time of the month, it smells awful on me, so i didn't want to be smelling it, but i wanted to be wearing it.
Good things happen every day, but today maybe I was more able to notice them. I don't really believe that an oil or anything else can actually give one good luck, but I think it can focus the mind in a particular way.
So what happened was...
Sarah found for me a full bottle of my favorite scent. I would have missed it if not for her!
It rained! It really rained!
The rain was the best part. Also, I was not very grumpy today.
"Go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script." - on joe's office door.
Posted by lisa at 11:36 PM
August 14, 2005
to be filed under: i should not do this
but...
ok, my few readers. do you think this profile is for real, or a joke?
Posted by lisa at 11:21 PM
wheee!
MORE...Posted by lisa at 05:57 PM
August 13, 2005
strength of ten men soup
i improvised this recipe yesterday. it's yummy and super healthy. it will give you the strength of ten men.
this could easily be made vegetarian, but it will only give you the strength of five men that way.
cook 1-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a soy-citrus marinade. (i used a marinade i got at Wegman's in Virginia, and opted to put frozen chicken breasts in my slow cooker for several hours, to make sure they didn't dry out. if you bake instead, be sure to cover the pan very tightly so you get lots of juices.)
sieve the juices into a soup pot, then add 2-3 cups water. dissolve a tablespoon or so of miso into the broth. after this point, never boil the broth, or the miso's beneficial properties will be destroyed.
thinly sliver:
2 button mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper
a small handful of snow peas
a scallion
the peppers and mushrooms survive nicely in the broth, so add them at any time. the snow peas and scallions should be added just before serving.
chop/shred some of the chicken and add it, too.
yum.
Posted by lisa at 08:46 PM
August 12, 2005
summer
my total and complete hatred of nc summer weather continues unabated. i went out to run errands at around 2pm. i left my windows down for a while just to be obstinate. spacepod said around 100 degrees. i finally relented and turned on the a/c.
i hate it. in case you didn't get that. it makes me want to stay inside, which is depressing. when i go out into it, it's depressing.
however, there is one tiny bright spot (besides planning my wardrobe for fall, and making miso soup). i got my first shipping notice from the lab! it's even a bit early. sadly, i already have two of the six scents i ordered (couldn't wait). but, i'm very much looking forward to the four that will be new to me.
Posted by lisa at 11:30 PM
August 11, 2005
BPAL - Skuld
MORE...Posted by lisa at 09:24 PM
the origin of the spacegrrl shoes
while at the fleuvog store in chicago, the talkative saleswoman told us about the origin of the spacegrrl shoes.
quite simply, john fluevog did an absolut vodka ad, using the bottle as the heel of a shoe. here's the ad.
i believe she said that the original ad shoe is in a museum in Canada now.
which leads me to another thought-- i've come to regard some of my shoes, mostly the fluevogs, as little works of art. i display them, rather than hiding them away in my closet. i like just looking at them.
not that i want to try and rationalize my purchases, but they are becoming a... collection, aren't they? i was just thinking that some day, some young woman is going to get all of those fluevogs and it'll be the coolest thing ever. well, i hope.
Posted by lisa at 09:14 PM
link this!
Hey bloggers-- there's a new Starlite Drive-In web site, starlite-drivein.com.
If you'd like, please link to it on your blog-- that will really help their google rankings!
They are saying a planned opening date of Saturday, August 27th now.
(Note, i was not involved in the making of this site.)
Posted by lisa at 11:06 AM
August 10, 2005
the very strange night; the best rest area ever; i guess i was up for another long trip...
the very strange night
oddly, i awoke at 4:20am today. thirsty, i think. fell back asleep after tiptoeing downstairs for some water. the next thing i knew was banging on the door. stephanie had set me up with a very loud fan-- the white noise was wonderful for sleeping. she tried to tell me something at the door, but i couldn't hear over the the sound of the fan and my own discombobulation. "I HAVE TO GO TO WORK IN FIFTEEN MINUTES," she said. oh. oops. she let me let myself out after she'd gone, and my trip started at 9:30am Spacepod Time.
the best rest area ever
somewhere in west virginia there's a rest area where all the structures are built to resemble log cabins; it's nestled into the mountains, and someone has taken the time to plant an elaborate, showy garden along the walkways. there's a hot snackbar, where i bought a big, soft pretzel, and each picnic table is sheltered by a roof and some charming lattice-work. i settled down with my book, my pretzel, and a diet squirt, and had a very nice break from the drive.
i guess i was up for another long trip...
i kept saying that i'd do the drive home in two days, and stay off the interstate, and that i wasn't up for another twelve-hour drive. but then when it came down to it, i took the interstate the whole way home, in one day. thirteen and a half hours. surprisingly painless.
i am happy to see mr. man* again.
*my cat, not my secret boyfriend. i don't have a secret boyfriend.
Posted by lisa at 11:37 PM
August 09, 2005
chicagoland
on sunday we just hung out in indy, sniffin' BPAL, digging the steak n' shake, and we went to see 'charlie and the chocolate factory'.
yesterday, we went into chicago for the day. my plan, and maybe not such a good one. the drive in was high stress, and we somehow managed to only get to the art institute an hour and a half before closing; i'm still not exactly sure how that happened. still, that was enough time to see the things that i think we really wanted to see-- contemporary american art, which includes the famous hopper 'nighthawks' painting as well as 'american gothic'; i also recall georgia o'keefe, plenty of whistler (of course), mary cassat, and many others, plus some modern industrial design and an architecture gallery that included a frank lloyd wright stained glass window.
we visited the now-famous cloud gate scuplture, the big chrome blob that the city attempted to enforce a copyright on by not allowing anyone to photograph it. they've given up that particular tilt at that particular windmill, so we were able to photograph the small portion peeking out of a giant tarp-covered scaffold and not break any laws. why it was mostly covered, i'm not sure.
we then drove through rush-hour traffic (seriously, i have got to work on my big-city planning skills) and went to the fluevog store. i've been to fluevog stores in NYC, Boston, and Seattle; I've never seen one so large. the Chicago store is easily three times the size of each of those stores, and it was brimming with shoes, most of which were on sale. the saleswoman was incredibly friendly and we were the only customers, so we stayed for a long time and got lots of attention.
steph immediately found a pair of black, could-double-as-dress-shoes shoes for work and such, which she seemed very pleased with. i tried on half the store and came away with an utterly decadent three pairs (two of which were on sale), which i will photograph properly later. stephanie was frustrated; she tried on many shoes, but in the end, the one pair she liked was really too pricey and she decided not to buy them. damn, they were cute though. oh well. fluevogs are not cheap and you had better know you want them for that kind of money.
i got one pair of pink and white loafers that were designed for a woman in chicago called the pink nun. i haven't checked out her website, but she sounds like an interesting character. and damn, those shoes are cute!
anyway, we bolted out of town after the fluevog experience, tired and a little cranky. hit a denny's for dinner in indiana, then i drove us the rest of the way home because stephanie was falling asleep on the dinner table. it was nice driving her beetle, phoebe.
the internet here has been a little dicey with both of us trying to use it, so i probably won't be able to upload and caption all of my photos until i get back home. i'm not a very obsessive photo-taker, however; didn't even bring my big camera into chicago, so don't wait with baited breath or anything :)
today we're going to chill out again, and then tomorrow i'm headed home. i'm not up for another 12-hour drive, so i'm going to take two days to get home.
Posted by lisa at 09:00 AM
August 07, 2005
Let me expand upon that...
I was pretty alert last night, considering that i should have been nearly catatonic after two and a half fairly brutal days, and a total of maybe eight hours of sleep between them. but not up to blogging. (which is saying something, but then i don't have to tell you that, dear reader. you know i blog at the mere mention of the drop of a hat.)
i'm now at my friend stephanie's house, having just slept a solid eight hours all at once without waking up, which is pretty amazing. i think the white noise of a fan in my room helped a lot. well, that, and being tired :)
it's only 6:30am local time, and steph is fast asleep, as she should be-- she hadn't slept at all the night before. i fed lucy the talktative cat so she wouldn't wake her up, and now i'm sitting here, basking in the wireless, and eating the sugar-free yogurt with which stephanie has so considerately stocked her fridge.
:|:
i'm sitting in the living room, a room i helped paint a couple of years ago. i'm happy to see that our paint job is holding up really well. i convinced her to paint the brick fireplace white; we'd painted the walls a pale robins-egg blue, and uncovered the honey-colored wood floors. the heavy brick fireplace seemed out of place. it still looks perfectly crisp and white, like we painted it yesterday.
she's added some furniture and rearranged, and put the big bookcases back up. it's looking good.
i got to see steph's house last night. it's near downtown and over a hundred years old. steph told me exactly how old last night, but i don't remember the exact number. i know the year it was built starts with an 18 :)
it's a renovation project, and not a small one. the heart valve surgery she had to have earlier this year has prevented her from progressing much, which must be immensely frustrating. it's a beautiful old house, and it's good to see someone restoring it back to the way it was meant to be.
last night i also got to see the People Mover... yes, Indianapolis has a monorail!! i wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a photo, if we happen to go near it again, i will.
:|:
i may feel differently after more time passes, but right now my feeling about the art car weekend is that i didn't enjoy it as much as i'd hoped to. i've given some thought to why that might be. sleep, i guess, was a huge thing. not having had anywhere near enough sleep colors the entire experience, i think, and makes everything harder. i had other issues with energy level; the crash that i had friday night was truly one of the worst i've ever had. if sarah hadn't been there to take care of me, i think i really would have passed out at the table.
in retrospect, missing out on the dinner friday didn't help; it was a nice opportunity for conversation, and i hate that we had to leave so quickly.
i am sure the experience would be different were i there with my own art car. as it was, i was in a sort of limbo where i wasn't in the audience, yet also wasn't a performer either (a metaphor that may or may not be apt). and while the webcam shots that i got Friday night were astounding, having my nose buried in a computer screen during both of the parades meant that i didn't really experience the parades fully.
i think that one day, when the westy comes to fruition, while i'll want to take her to events, i'll pick and choose them very carefully. and might just call a moratorium on web camming for a while; it's cool, but it's not worth it if it detracts from the experience. i can use my phonecam to post pics instantly and still get a similar effect for the folks back home.
maybe i won't take the westy to an event without getting the fridge running on propane, so it can run continuously. having some creature comforts there with you all the time would probably make a big difference.
well, like i said, as more time passes i'll probably feel more positive about the whole experience. i think the big lesson is that for me, i've gotta find a way to make the whole thing more relaxed. sarah and i joked a lot about "art car time"... when you get a bunch of artists together, things don't always happen very quickly. "we're leaving right now" means "we'll actually leave in about twenty minutes". well, maybe i need to find a way to get on to art car time. i think in my latter years of going to roswell, i did learn to relax and take it all a lot easier than i did the first year.
sarah also observed that the extra stuff we do takes a toll that the other artists don't have to experience. most of them can just park their cars then hang out. we were having to stay on top of the webcams and bubble machine. although i do love the geeky, interactive stuff, and certainly have some interactive ideas for the westy, i'll approach them with caution.
well, enough about that. i'm not sorry i went. it was very nice of sarah to let me come with her. it's a cool scene, one i think i could fit into pretty well, i just have to learn how to appreciate it more and experience it better.
:|:
last night at dinner, steph asked me what i might like to do while in indy. "Absolutely nothing," was my answer, followed by, "maybe a movie." we're going to Chicago for the day tomorrow, so i think we all need a day to chill. it'll be nice. i think steak n' shake may be involved in some way.
Posted by lisa at 07:31 AM
August 06, 2005
here in indy
is where i am.
Posted by lisa at 10:58 PM
August 05, 2005
too long of a day
wow, i really didn't mean to do this. long, hard day yesterday.. and i only managed about 3 hours of sleep last night. another long day today and i tanked, hugely. sarah saved my ass. i was crashing so badly she had to get me orange juice in the restaurant (dinner wasn't til 10) to help me get my legs back under me. then move heaven, earth, and a yellow submarine to get me back to the hotel. sarah rocks.
feeling a lot better now.. maybe i can actually sleep tonight. i'll try for an easier day tomorrow.
i don't remember a lot from today right now but i do remember that the webcam photos i took at the parade were fucking awesome. large format, and i used the iSight, which has autofocus. i handheld it the whole way to get the shots framed just so. totally amazing.
Posted by lisa at 11:44 PM
now we are in louisville
i bought into this whole idea that the drive was going to take 8 and a half hours because that's what mapquest said.
it was more like twelve, but i'll be quick to add that it wasn't really that horrible of a drive. i've done twelve-hour drives completely solo and having someone to talk to on the radio and at lunch really makes a huge difference. as sarah put it, it's the best of driving alone with the best of driving with someone.
when we arrived at the cinderblock drive-in-- an art gallery in louisville set up as a drive-in for the evening-- we were both pretty fried. i was startled to be mobbed by people wanting to discuss biodiesel (oh, the irony), but these were all fairly clueful people so the conversations were actually kind of enjoyable.
i was kind of amazed at how friendly people were. i'm accoustomed to going unnoticed at social events, especially when i'm completely fried and exhausted, but i found myself talking to a lot of people last night. one of whom, as it turns out, recently read this blog.
lots of questions about the webcams (which i ran during the drive-in event), and even a few about spacepod's aesthetics. in a lot full of art cars, i was surprised to find that spacepod garnered any attention.
in fact, there was one guy who came up and asked me what was up with the luggage rack. "What's up with that??" this resulted in a fairly interesting (if longwinded and one-sided) conversation about how he thinks the new beetle looks like a bloated, sick baby, but that the modifications i've done give it a "tactility" that it needs. he then launched into a discussion of how he wants new cars to feel like old cars when you touch them, though i couldn't get a very clear idea of what an old car is supposed to feel like. sarah got several pictures of him-- she thinks he was probably drunk. at the time i figured he was pretty much just a crazy southern pretentious art guy, but i think sarah's probably right. he was a drunk crazy southern pretentious art guy.
there was another guy who didn't have an art car; he was there with his cousin, who does. he said something like, "if i had a second vehicle, i'd make it an art car," and sarah was quick to point out that one doesn't need a second vehicle; an art car can be a daily driver. "What do you drive?" I asked him. He pointed out a... oh, get this, a plain white minivan. i had to laugh. "Don't come to an art car event with a plain white van!!" heh.
i got to see "wild wheels", a documentary about art cars by harrod blank. they also ran several old car commercials from the sixties-- mostly vw beetle commercials, actually, which i really enjoyed a chance to see. and a mini-docu on the making of various tv cars, like the batmobile and the munsters car. that was the point at which sarah and i decided we couldn't stay a minute longer. they were starting up "repo man", which we both love, so it was sad to leave but we were both beyond exhausted.
the hotel room, i have to say, is pretty priceless. the decor has clearly not changed since the early 70's. i'll definitely be getting some photos before we leave it (today we're moving to a different room so we can get internet access in the room, and it'll be in a different part of the hotel where the decor is less, uh, retro).
i didn't sleep much last night but i have a lot of freedom and i can easily go take a nap if i want to. i'm not going to let it bother me.
i slept on my new hair while it was wet and it looks great this morning! now that is the hallmark of a great haircut!!
i think we're going to bag on webcasting today, at least in the early part of the day. i may suggest it for the illuminated cruise, if i think the cams can pick up anything worth seeing. we're trying to conserve our chargers for the parade tomorrow, which will be the most interesting thing to webcast.
Posted by lisa at 07:57 AM
August 03, 2005
here's the score
i'll be gone for about a week i think, on my little roadtrip. thursday to thursday, unless i get distracted by something on my way home from indy. then i'll be bustin' and chillin' at home for a few days before going back to work.
sarah and i head out tomorrow at o-dark-thirty. or 8am, more realistically, though i'm aiming to be at her house by 7:30.
to get to the webcams, click the packs of gum to the right.
we'll run web cams tomorrow on the drive to louisville, but since we're both driving solo, don't expect continuous coverage. i know these systems well enough to know that the software will crash or the connection will drop, and it'll just have to stay that way til our next rest stop-- never try to reboot while driving. i know this from experience.
we'll run them some on friday and saturday too, but we've yet to figure out when the best times will be. the parade on saturday is a sure thing, i think, and that's from 1-2pm. Stephanie and Steph will be with us for the parade too so I am sure there will be wacky webcam hijinx. Four girls in an art car!
then after that i don't think there will be more webcams, but i'm sure i'll be blogging and posting lots of photos. i upgraded to a flickr pro account so i could go bonkers with the photos on this trip and not have to worry about it.
Posted by lisa at 04:09 PM
August 02, 2005
BPAL: Tulzscha
MORE...Posted by lisa at 05:22 PM
Starlite update
"We can rebuild him. We have the technology. Better . . . stronger . . . faster."
I received an update about the Starlite this morning, my first in a while.
The material that was applied to the screen this weekend turned out not to be suitable for projection. Bob received some bad advice. it will be removed and used to build the back of the screen.
The correct material has been determined and a small amount put up yesterday. Apparently, it reflects beautifully. The new surface is scheduled to be applied next Monday, and Bob has a tentative date of Saturday, August 13th to re-open to the public.
Somewhere along the line, Bob decided to go with corrugated metal rather than plywood. The old screen was made of plywood, but a metal surface will be far more durable and will look a heck of a lot better.
Posted by lisa at 07:27 AM
what i'd really like to say is...
a lot of people ask me questions about the text on the side of my car. i get a lot of the same questions over and over, and some of them are kind of depressing. most people assume that it's a paid advertisement; most people ask if biodiesel is "really that much cheaper?"
sometimes i just want to take the text off and have nothing about biodiesel on my car. but if i replace the text with other text.. this is what i'd really like to say:
this is a diesel car that has not been modified. it runs on fuel made from vegetable oil, called biodiesel. yes, it is really running on that right now. no, this is not an advertisement and "they" have not paid for this. i do not run biodeisel because it is cheaper in terms of money; rather, because it is cheaper in terms of human life and damage to the environment.
but that probably wouldn't be very nice, now would it? a little on the self-righteous side.
Posted by lisa at 07:26 AM
the princess and the pea
i am somewhat of a light sleeper.
this morning i was awakened-- seriously-- by the sound of an insect in my bedroom. i was in REM sleep, it was a full hour and a half before my alarm was due to go off, and sunrise had no yet begun. i even felt a touch of sleep paralysis as i tried to get the light turned on to investgate. i was asleep.
now granted, the culprit sounded large, winged, and a little panicked. it was making lots of noise in trying to... do what, i'm not sure. i never did find it. tried to go back to sleep but it was persistent. i gave up. i didn't need that full seven hours, anyway...
:|:
in other sleep-related news, i was introduced to the term "up the duff" by christa's blog. it actually means that you're pregnant, not sleeping, but it was part of a post about sleep.
:|:
on the up side, i should be able to get my butt into work early, which means i can leave early, which i know i will be anxious to do since it's my last day before my vacation begins!!
Posted by lisa at 06:25 AM
August 01, 2005
BPAL: Baba Yaga
MORE...Posted by lisa at 10:33 PM
BPAL: Sea of Glass
MORE...Posted by lisa at 12:27 PM
BPAL: Hurricane (GACK!!)
MORE...Posted by lisa at 08:20 AM