Archive for February, 2008
It’s snowing again here. I’m not complaining; I still love the white stuff. It’s just that I don’t think I’ve ever lived somewhere with as much snow as we’ve had this year. I must say it makes me really, really glad for the pair of Merrell Polartech boots I snagged on clearance sometime last year. Expensive? Maybe. Worth. Every. Penny.
And I do love to snuggle up at home on a snowy afternoon or evening and watch hours of mindless TV. Without cable, that’s kind of tough. But I’ve been able to find enough drech (as the Scots say) to watch on Hulu.com, a site that offers a limited number of TV shows with “minimal commercial interruption.” I think I’ve blogged about it here before, but Hulu is to blame for my watching the entire first season of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares back to back over the course of a weekend. Talk about love-hate.
Now, talk about love-love…Hulu just added most (though not all) episodes of one of my all-time favorite TV shows, NewsRadio. It’s always strange to watch a show you loved what seems like a lifetime ago and you get this almost nervous-y feeling that it won’t hold up. But NewsRadio’s been a treat — still funny, still kooky. Makes me nostalgic for the days when Andy Dick wasn’t yet completely drug-addled-mental; when Dave Foley was fresh off The Kids in the Hall, still young, cherubic and funny and not, say, hosting poker shows on Bravo; when Stephen Root had not yet achieved cult status as The Stapler Guy in Office Space; when Joe Rogan was actually mildly entertaining and not yet the grating host of the awful Fear Factor; and, most of all, when comic genius Phil Hartman still walked among us, breathing life and hilarit into the preposterous news anchor Bill McNeal. The latter alone is worth checking out the show, even if the technical quality of the episodes isn’t the best.
February 29th, 2008
Not only didn’t I win an Oscar again this year — in truth, I’m not sure I was even nominated — but I didn’t get to watch the broadcast. Still, I’m thrilled to bits to learn that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won Best Original Song for the gorgeous, melancholy “Falling Slowly” from the lovely, melancholy uber-indy flick Once. I’m such a sucker for the little guy (and gal, in this instance) winning bi and it’s really nice to see “real” independent musicians and singer-songwriters triumphing over manufactured Hollywood power ballads and Disney Instant Soundtrack Hints.
Although I didn’t actually think that the Academy Awards performance of the song was the best (I caught it today on YouTube), with the full orchestra treatment overshadowing the spare ballad’s simple beauty, I thought that Glen Hansard’s acceptance speech was sweet and genuine. Even classier was John Stewart’s bringing Marketa Irglova back after the break to give her acceptance speech after she was cut off by the orchestra. Well played, Stewart. Well played. (Both Hansard and Irglova’s acceptance speeches are in this clip from, yep, YouTube.)
February 25th, 2008
I don’t normally buy stuff from Anthropologie. They make beautiful, beautiful things that I love to look at, most of which fit neither me nor my budget. But a couple of week ago, I followed a link to their website sale section and discovered these lovely cups, which are actually just my size and on clearance.
They’re such cheery colors — which is, I admit — a little unlike me and I love their retro feel. Plus, they stack together beautifully to conserve cupboard space, another plus. And they were a shockingly low $2.95 each. Last I checked, they still had a bunch in stock, so if you dig them, dash on over and grab some. I must say they are making my morning coffee infinitely brighter.
February 25th, 2008
Last weekend, my niece Olivia did just that. And it looks like such fun, doesn’t it?
Here she is, on the right, with her little friend Kylie, at Olivia’s Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. They hugged and held each other practically the whole day and when they whispered secrets, their noses pressed right up against the other’s cheek. Isn’t pre-inhibition friendship the sweetest thing on earth?
Building on the sweet theme, a tray of girly-pink cupcakes.
Clearly delicious.
Oh. My. God. SPARKLY DRESS UP SHOES! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?????
Back at home, Olivia was kind enough to share the spotlight with her uncle Chris and her sister, Rebecca.
For a brief moment, anyway.
Since Olivia’s a wee bit of a ham, it was no trouble talking her into a fashion show featuring the skirts I’d made her for her birthday. First, the girly-pink flowery and hearty one, accompanied by her current favorite “double peace sign” pose.
Then, the one that started as the fabric above. Don’t know if you can see it, but it’s “Olivia” fabric designed by children’s book author Ian Falconer, who pens and illustrates the gorgeous Olivia the pig series.
And wound up as this skirt. Clearly, it works for the model.
February 24th, 2008
We don’t make a particularly big deal out of Valentine’s Day in our household, partly because it’s such a silly affair full of expectations and pressure — and partly because it was usurped in our family six years ago this day by the birth of my niece Olivia. Really, a far more important matter to celebrate.
Still, my husband is not fool enough to let today pass without at least a small gesture of a simple bouquet, my favorite kind. And there’s something just so clean and perfect, so compact and magnificent, about white tulips that I thought you might like to share them.
Speaking of my niece Olivia, I’m not confirming that the fabric above was purchased specifically with her birthday in mind. I’m just showing it to you, is all. It is, the astute observer will note, based on Ian Falconer’s famed and adorable children’s books about Olivia the pig. I’m not sure many children are equipped to really appreciate the beautiful simplicity of Falconer’s work — nor do I think my niece has really reconciled with the idea of being associated with such a porcine figurine — but I just think there’s something heart-breakingly sweet about said piggie and her exploits.
We’re off to Indianapolis tomorrow for a quick weekend trip, in which we will celebrate Olivia’s birthday (belatedly, of course) and Chris’ birthday on Sunday. One of them will be celebrating with a Saturday afternoon bash at Chuck E. Cheese’s, but I shan’t tell you which.
February 14th, 2008
As with most things, I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while. I really like, as a general proposition, small gestures that can make a big difference in the long run. In that vein, my sister just signed my two youngest nieces up for UPromise accounts and the whole thing seems very cool to me. UPromise lets you save money for college for your relatives or even yourself by allocating a small percentage of purchases made with registered credit or debit cards, using certain grocery or retail store loyalty cards, eating at participating restaurants or shopping online at a vast number of websites.
Since I do a fair amount of shopping and eating, I’m already stocking away a little bit here and there. A couple of my favorite restaurants in town will earn me from 4%-8% on my bill. My Kroger rewards card earns me cash when I buy certain items. And when I shop on line, as I am wont to do, I get a little bit of cash into my account. It’s not like I’m saving tons at this point, but my sister and other family members are also doing this for my nieces. It adds up and by the time the girls are college age — they’re 6 and 9 now — I suspect whatever we’ve socked away will be useful.
Even cooler, you can link the money to 529 savings accounts — which let you save dough for your kids for college — and put it in there with the click of a button. I’ve sent links to my friends with small kids encouraging them to start UPromise accounts and invite their friends and families to participate. As my sister said, her kids have enough crap, so it would be really helpful if, on their birthdays, the money that my family spends on gifts went into their UPromise and/or 529 accounts.
When my sister gets 529 accounts set up for my nieces, I can even make a small, automatic monthly contribution that could add up over time. College is stupid expensive these days, so I can’t imagine how much it will cost even for a basic in-state education when my nieces go. (And, yes, if they wind up dropping out and going into food service, you can withdraw the money that wasn’t spent on college.)
February 14th, 2008
As you probably know by now, Barack Obama triumphed over Hillary Clinton in the ever-important Virginia primary. A couple of days before the primary, my sister-in-law Julie Carey — a veteran reporter for DC-area NBC affiliate Channel Four — sat down for a one-on-one interview with Obama. You can watch the interview, in two parts, on the NBC4.com website. Sadly, the camera never pans to Julie, but the most important part remains: I’m one degree of separation from Obama now.
And lest I get accused of currying favor, I’ve also been meaning to provide a link to this story, which ran last week on NPR’s Day to Day. It’s an interview with legendary political activist Robin Morgan, whose 1970 essay “Goodbye to All That” became a famous text in the drive to end politics as usual in this country, particularly where gender issues were concerned. Morgan has since penned a follow-up essay, entitled “Goodbye to All That (#2),” which calls for another look at the double-standard that exists in this campaign between the way women politicians are covered in the media, compared to their male counterparts.
One of the most jarring incidents Morgan points to in the NPR piece is the heckling of Hillary Clinton last night during a speech in the beltway. The senator was disrupted by a man who called out, “Iron my shirt!” As Morgan points out, the incident was covered and repeated — often with amusement — in the media in the days that follow. However, Morgan posits that there would have been a vastly different reaction had it been Obama on stage and a heckler cried out, “Shine my shoes!” It’s a simple illustration of a really salient point — that we, as a nation, will tolerate gender discrimination when a similar inicidence of racial discrimination would have caused riots.
As evolved as we like to think we are, Morgan’s new essay — which has been widely circulated via email — is an important one for our times. It’s uncomfortable — and perhaps especially so for women — to be reminded of and to acknowledge how far we haven’t come in the area of gender and politics. You don’t have to be a fan of Hillary Clinton’s to appreciate what Morgan’s essay has to say — merely a proponent of equality along gender lines.
February 13th, 2008
Okay, it’s not quite on par with the possibility of getting to meet one of your writing idols — and I don’t normally post about these things — but I just read online that there is officially an Arrested Development movie in the works. I’m wary enough to know that TV shows rarely translate well onto the big screen, but if they can retain even a fraction of the smarts, quirk and humor that made AD one of the best TV comedies of all time, then it’ll be a rollicking success. Yay!
February 4th, 2008
I’m giddy with excitement. This week I sent in my registration for the Bear River Writers’ Conference. Normally, I spend a week during the summer at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival but I had mixed feelngs about returning this year. I’m not sure how much I got out of last year’s workshop, although the real indulgence is a week spent focused on writing, reading and the discussion thereof.
Last year, when I was taking a fiction course in U-M’s grad school, our esteemed instructor — and accomplished author — Nick Delbanco, pulled me aside and mentioned the Bear River Writers Conference. He thought I might be interested in it because this year’s guest is…Amy Hempel. My jaw dropped. I can’t really think of another writer who had such a direct and powerful effect on my desire and decision to become a writer.
When I read Amy Hempel’s short story, “In The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” in high school, it was what made me want to be a writer. Up until that point, I knew I loved to write, but I wasn’t making an emotional connection to the male-dominated texts we’d been reading for years — Dickens, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Conrad. That’s not to say that I didn’t appreciate their work, just that it didn’t speak to me on the level that moved me to say, “I want to do that.” Amy Hempel did.
During the short story revival of the eighties, Amy Hempel was one of the many young female writers who emerged to well-deserved critical praise. Along with writers like Lorrie Moore and Mona Simpson, she redefined the short story and blazed a path for writers of all ilk, but especially young women. Now “In The Cemetery” has been anthologized to death but still stands, I think, as one of the great short stories of all time — beautiful, spare, poignant and funny. If you have dealt with loss or grief or, hell, even just thought about it, it will make you laugh and weep and wonder how on earth someone can do all those things without delving into melodrama, without taking it over the top. In other words, if you haven’t read it, do.
All of that is my long-winded way of trying to explain why I’m giddy to be spending a week at Bear River in early summer in lieu of going to Iowa this year. The conference takes place in Northern Michigan — a really beautiful part of the world — at Camp Michigania, the U-M alumni camp. And while Hempel is not teaching an actual workshop, I’m hoping I can bribe Nick Delbanco to broker a very brief introduction so that I may drool all over her and perhaps have her sign the gorgeous hardcover anthology of her collected stories, which Chris bought me last year.
The fiction workshop leaders for the week are Delbanco and Elizabeth Kostova, the local writer who sky-rocketed to fame and best-seller status with her vampire tale, The Historian. So while I’m not really into fantasy writing, I signed up for Kostova’s workshop as my first choice and Delbanco as my second, because I figure the latter has probably seen enough of me and I don’t want him to think I’m stalking him. Plus, a different perspective is always good.
Now, how long until May 29?
February 4th, 2008
After the rush of getting my MFA application in place in December, January feels positively leisurely. I’ve had a few work projects to take care of, but I’ve also had more free time for doin’ a little crafting. Here are some of the recent fruits of my labor. The bird coasters above were a gift for my friend Margaret’s birthday, using a ‘dorable birdy design from Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching book.
After buying a blue rug for my office, the brown pillow covers on my futon seemed out of place, so I’ve been plotting their replacement for a few weeks now. I decided to take a stab at free-handing an embroidery design. I doodled an homage to (some might say rip-off of) the beautiful fabric designs of Kristen Doran. I love, love her work but it’s a tad out of my price range. It was a pretty fun project, taking me just a couple of hours total for the embroidery and the pillow itself is my first attempt at an envelope-style pillow. Trust me to master putting in zippers (which I’m glad I know how to do) before learning this much easier method.
Then I made the above pillows for my futon, all from clearance fabric I found at JoAnn. My previous pillows were all solid fabric, which is fine and dandy, but I’m really enjoying playing with combining fabrics, colors and textures. And I think the cats, who spend the majority of their time on the futon, really really appreciate the time and effort I put into these things.
I made the above pillow for the Morris chair in the living room and it is, if may say so myself, just perfect.
Aren’t these retro fabrics wonderful? I ordered them from Repro Depot, of course. People I know keep having babies and I just love these gender-neutral textiles and the possibilities they offer me. I still don’t know what they want to be yet, but I have some ideas and some time.
A close-up of the green fabric, which just might be my favorite. Enjoy.
February 2nd, 2008
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