brickabrack

I have been struggling with something lately: Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. I feel ashamed to admit this (not that it's stopping me...), but I don't often read "classic" literature. I stick with more contemporary fiction, or theory, or those kind of almost "pop" science or theory books, or whatever. So when I go back and try to read something that doesn't fall into those categories, sometimes it's really difficult for me to make and maintain the connection that turns reading into that almost symbiotic experience where the book is pulling me in and not letting go. This book in particular, with it's amazing sentence construction and detail, is just defeating me. I start reading (and granted, I'm usually at work, which means it's 90 degrees inside and I'm already tired and stressed out or bored), and ten minutes later I find that I'm not making any sense of what I'm reading anymore. Whole paragraphs are flying by without a hint of recognition from my brain. It's frustrating, because for those ten minutes I'm really enjoying myself. The main thing I'd heard from people before was that the book was boring, and certainly plot is not the main driving force of the story. But frankly, I prefer it that way, with a bare minimum of plot. (I almost always prefer the first half of a book, the part before things get all complicated, to the second half. Even in fiction, I'm not fond of change, I guess.) Anyway, I like the book; I just don't have the stamina to get through much of it at a time.
My only other big occurrence of note his week was that I watched the movie Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, based on a 1985 book by Patrick Suskind. The basic plot is that this boy who has an extraordinarily keen sense of smell climbs from the gutter to learn the art of preserving scent and making perfume, becomes obsessed with the scent of certain women (always redheads, for whatever reason), and eventually kills a bunch of girls and mixes their scents into his magnum opus. Up 'til that point, it's just a good creepy atmospheric movie, but the story suddenly diverges in the last twenty minutes or so into completely unexpected territory. I won't say too much, but it's definitely worth seeing, if only for that last little bit.

everything rises

Incidentally, we went back to the doctor and it turns out that Tabitha has pneumonia and bronchitis. We got some different medicine and she's finally starting to improve. I got my first paycheck so I'm not broke anymore, and I haven't felt unwell since my little passing-out incident. I also met Tabitha's dad (the first family member meeting for either of us), and it seemed to go okay :) Not like I thought he'd hate me or anything, but I have a tendancy to be quiet with new people so they don't have very good first impressions. So that's my update.
I'm watching Legend right now, the Tom Cruise movie from 1985 that I somehow missed in my childhood. It's totally worth it just to see him running around in his "armour," which looks like a gold sequined shirt with ruffley sleeves.

d'oh, a deer

It's me as a Simpsons character! If you look closely, my shirt says "Don't have a cow, man" with a picture of a friendly bovine crossed out.

my turn

Weirdly enough, I had my own almost-collapse yesterday. I had to get up early to take a shower before work, and after I turned the water off I felt sick, sat down in the tub, and greyed out. Fun! Suffice to say that I didn't have to go to work, and after Tabitha made me eat half a slice of toast I fell back asleep until 1:30 in the afternoon.
I don't have pneumonia, but I don't really know what did happen. Poor eating habits, sleeping habits, something else? I'm kind of broke and stressed out, so my diet hasn't been very varied and I haven't been sleeping for shit. Or maybe my shower was just too hot. Sigh.
I've been thinking about occasionally eating fish, just for protein content. And actually, I had a tiny bit of tuna last night, the first intentional meat I've eaten in almost five years. I feel kind of conflicted and icky (and like my morals have fallen), but there are times when I think it really would be better for me. Any thoughts?

rearing of ugly heads and a concert

Well, I had hoped to be asleep by now, but the aforementioned drama had to rear its ugly head again and wake me up, so here I am. Yay. The last few days have sucked anyway because Tabitha collapsed at work on Thursday night, and then I spent several angsty hours on Friday morning trying to figure out a cheap but not scary doctor she could go to. Turns out she had a throat infection and didn't realize it so now she has pneumonia, but hopefully she'll be better in a few days, thank god. The fun just never ends around here.
But anyway, Rasputina! That, at least, was good times. I went with my friend Anna (not my ex, but a cellist from Civic) and we had a blast right from the start scoping out all the costumes on the hipster/goth/corset kids. The opening act was... Somebody who's name I can't remember right now. Jena something? She was playing guitar and singing, and I couldn't understand a word she said. But I have to say I liked the way it sounded, even if it was all relatively similar-seeming and hard to hear. In my experience it takes a really badass opening act to make any impression at all, and this just didn't seem to be cutting it for most of the people there.
There was only a short pause between her and Rasputina, which was nice. We found a small table with no chairs in a corner near the stage and sat on it for the rest of the night. The hall was incredibly hot and smokey, and I was thankful I was wearing a dress. Melora Creagar entered wearing a white corset and skirt and movie-indian-style feathers in the back of a band around her head. I couldn't honestly see drummer Jonathon TeBeest, but there was a new second cellist names Sarah Bowman who did an excellent job. Here is, as closely as I can tell, the set list.

Hunter's Kiss
Transylvanian Concubine
Thimble Island
Saline, the Salt Lake Queen
Things I'm Gonna Do
Baraccuda
Watch TV
Wish You Were Here
*? (all I have written down is the phrase "you are the king" which is not a title of any of their new songs)
*Draconian Crackdown
small segue featuring Melora singing the "I like big butts"song
*1816, the Year Without a Summer
*Cage in a Cave
*?
*
*The Infidel is Me
---------
Encores:
Rusty the Skatemaker (Melora alone)
Zodiac
Trenchmouth

I loved all of the old songs and covers, but the new songs... I actually don't at all like watching music I don't know in a live setting. I can't understand the words, it usually all sounds similar, and so on. So I'm sure the new album is loads of fun, but I wish they had interspersed the old and new songs a bit more evenly. They also did a bunch of segues with the new stuff, so I'm not even sure how many new songs there were. But Melora's ridiculous comments between songs were fun (and not as scripted-sounding as the last time I saw them, perhaps because it's only about the second show on this tour), the new cellist sounded excellent, and really, who can complain about rock cello played by cute goth corset girls? Certainly not me.

summary of life in lesbianville

Drama drama drama.
Sigh.
But I saw Rasputina last night and it was great fun, and I'll post about it (including a set list because I'm a dork) probably tomorrow.

8 things

My friend Raquel (she of the excellent cultural reviews, etc.) tagged me for this. I think I've done it before and couldn't come up with 8 things, but maybe I'll do better this time.

THE RULES
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

So eight things about me...

I like to paint my toenails different colors on a regular basis during the summer.

I have six colors right now. I wanted to do a rainbow for Pride, but I didn't have green or yellow (or enough toes, actually).

I can play the string bass decently.

My string pedagogy teacher last year told me that if I ever practiced I could be really good. We had a very honest relationship; I told him I didn't have time, and he told me it was okay but I could have been much better.

I spent two summers teaching english in Poland and travelling around eastern Europe and one summer driving from Tucson to Alaska.

All of which were, at times, better in concept than in practice.

While in Poland, I got wasted with some of my students.

And had to face down a counsellor and deny it while still drunk. Ugh.

I've lived in four houses in the past less-than-three years.

And I'm moving again in October. Damn it.

I spent a summer wearing navy blue cordury knickers.

Rented navy blue corduroy knickers. The joys of Interlochen. And no, Aaron, I didn't like it.

I'm named after a ghost movie.

Before I was born, I was supposed to be Amy. But then some friends of my parents had a baby and named her Amy, so I somehow got Amanda and was nicknamed Ammie after a ghost movie my parents had seen called Ammie, Come Home. I haven't seen it, but I read the book and it was not so hot.

When I get drunk, sometimes I kiss boys.

I'm not proud of it, but there it is.

So... Eight people? I'm not sure I have that many. Here's what I've got:

Erica
Linguist Lauren (maybe post it in both accounts? Does that count as two?)
Poet Lauren
Jesse
Louise (on myspace, I guess)
Sarah
Ummmm... I think that's all I've got.