Miscellaneous

I'm not quite sure what this post will be about. I just felt like writing. But I don't feel like writing fiction. I've started a novel (one that I really hope to finish but knowing me, that chance is pretty slim....) Anyway, it's about a homeless girl. Why? I have no idea. I walked into work one morning and sat down and thought, hey why don't I write a novel about a homeless girl. I'm about four chapters in and it's going surprisingly smoothly. However, I can't write every day. I can only write when I get weird flashes of inspiration and then I'll write for about 4 hours. It's like I enter this vortex and to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite heroines, Jo March, I know that "genius is burning." If I were to try to tackle the novel now, I know for a fact I'd write like shit. Mindless inanities that I'd just have to go back and delete later.

On to another subject. My parent's 30th anniversary was on the 15th. I surprised them with a nice dinner at the Ritz in Laguna. I feel bad that neither of their daughters could be there to celebrate with them but honestly, all I do when I'm home is make the poor woman cook for me. Anyway, Loraine is setting up another (extremely belated) surprise gift for them. I got our family friends to write out my parent's names in chinese and big sis is going to work that into a frame for them. Should be very nice.

Mad Men. WHAT a show...it's like popcorn, I can't get enough of its salty, buttery goodness (?) Don Draper is the sexiest enigma. Fringe. Meh. It's good, I'll continue to watch it but it's definitely a dumbed-down Lost. It also tries too hard to be x-files-ish but the goofy soundtrack takes away from it and the dialogue is nowhere near as riveting. Walter Bishop is a fantastic character, though.

Been listening to a lot of electronica. No, not that crazy techno/trance shit but stuff like Hot Chip, Aphex Twin, Milosh, Styrofoam, Fischerspooner. Great stuff to walk around the city to.



Last but not least, Marcos, Suz and I met Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords!!

Wonderful

"I'm jealous of anyone who makes a lightbulb flash on in your head."
"How wonderful. That's love."

~UE

Cuz it helps to laugh

Duma Key

Duma Key is one hell of a story. Edgar Freemantle has it all, a loving wife, two pretty daughters and a successful construction company that has made him millions. One fateful day, his car is crushed by an incoming crane and Edgar is severely injured, losing an arm and apparently some of his sanity. After attacking his wife, she files for divorce and Edgar retreats to Florida to heal and lick his wounds. On lonely Duma Key, Edgar returns to his childhood pasttime of painting and finds that his t...more Duma Key is one hell of a story. Edgar Freemantle has it all, a loving wife, two pretty daughters and a successful construction company that has made him millions. One fateful day, his car is crushed by an incoming crane and Edgar is severely injured, losing an arm and apparently some of his sanity. After attacking his wife, she files for divorce and Edgar retreats to Florida to heal and lick his wounds. On lonely Duma Key, Edgar returns to his childhood pasttime of painting and finds that his talent is both limitless and awe-inspiring. He meets some friends who eventually become some of the most important people he'll ever meet in his life. When things start to get- for lack of a better word- weird, those friends carry him through the worst part of it.

Oh Stephen King...you have rocked my world for well over a decade. As an ardent admirer of SK's work, I have been privy to how his writing has matured over the years. Not to say his earlier works such as "It" or "Pet Sematary" aren't great...it's just that clearly SK has refined his brand of "horror" so that in truth, his writing has become an exploration of human emotion. I noticed this in Lisey's Story, but much more so in Duma Key. Edgar's journey to both physical and mental recovery was oftentimes difficult to read about but I found myself so drawn to his character, that I rooted for him every step of the way.

SK's especial talent is how clearly he exposes the roots of relationships. Whether it's a relationship between friends or lovers or relatives, SK has this knack for bringing out the idiosyncracies in a bond between two people...and it's those idiosyncracies that truly bring a relationship to life.

Duma Key now ranks up there with The Stand and Hearts in Atlantis. Lastly, in SK's acknowledgements, he ends by thanking "you, Constant Reader, always you."As if I wasn't already crying hard enough by the end of the book..

oh my...

This cover of the latest New York magazine makes me blush. I had to turn the magazine face down because he was actually making me nervous. (??) Can't wait for the Open next weekend!!

wordplay

A Star War's wiki site: Wookiepedia.com

A diner in NH: "The Live Free or Diner"

A 24-hr seafood restaurant called "Cod-All-Nightie"

A: "He showed up with a big black eye!"
B: "Wait, what?? He showed up with a big black guy??"

MPPA

So I was introduced to Matt Pond PA a few years ago...not personally (I wish!)...and I've discovered over the years that he puts out consistently good and polished music. Yeah some of it can be a bit too poppy but songs like "New Hampshire," "Honestly," "Summer is Coming," and "People Have a Way" are just so compulsively listenable. (that's not a real word but I like it so deal). He's an incredibly prolific musician and he's able to employ a wide variety of tempos and instruments in his songs, which is pretty impressive. Some of the songs from my favorite bands, deathcab, rhcp, etc. all tend to sound alike after awhile. But not Matt Pond PA. At least not to me.

Perhaps another reason I'm so taken with mppa is because his music reminds me of new england. Specifically new england summers. Driving through quiet countryside, the hot, sticky air humming by, glimmers of lakes promising cool dips...nighttime providing a faint chill, tanned happy faces around a bonfire, mosquitoes by the hundreds, inside jokes, laughter, skin still warm from the day's sun...