Novel Eye

Came across this in a newsletter that was sent to me. I'd have stopped a) because I stop for people who play well and b) for people who play music that I like and play it well, but I probably would not have recognized him, and I probably wouldn't have given money. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html I am not at all surprised at the results.

Watched the first episode. More on that as I digest it. Don was reading Frank O'Hara. I have a small book of O'Hara poems (not the one in the show) which my poetry teacher encouraged me (made me) read because I do not write like him. I like some of it--and I like it more than I did 15 years ago (how impossible that seems) now. Poem Instant coffee with slightly sour cream in it, and a phone call to the beyond which doesn't seem to be coming any nearer. "Ah daddy, I wanna stay drunk many days" on the poetry of a new friend my life held precariously in the seeing hands of others, their and my impossibilities. Is this love, now that the first love has finally died, where there were no impossibilities? -Frank O'Hara, 1956, Lunch Poems (For Matt, who is NOT writing about coffee and may have thought I had not noticed) 100 days to the election.

Heh , so it turns out that this week was not the last episode of Doctor Who, it was the last episode but one. My big rundown on how Doctor Who both does and doesn't have to follow the A to B scenario will have to wait until next week. Mad Men starts tomorrow, against the end of Foyle's War. Thank God for multiple channel taping.

So I saw this T-shirt , and then I attended a seminar on SEO and realized that it's only true if you're not a spider. :) And if that were not enough: http://www.flashninjaclan.com/zzz2013_Gates_vs_Jobs.php

I ate a salad with chopsticks tonight because it was too hot to do dishes.

Twice in the last week I've heard 'Every Breath You Take ' on one station and flipped to another to hear the end of 'Don't Stand So Close to Me' (The Police--late 70s, early 80s). Should I be worried that I'm being stalked? Is it a sign that I should stalk someone? ^.^ Today I heard 'Can't Stand Losing You.' Oh, well. EDIT: Of course, it could be simply attributable to the fact that The Police are back in town next week. Also heard 'King of Pain.' Gotta love 25 year old songs.

what I watch? Aristotle's Poetics defines the essential ingredients of drama as: Plot, Character, Theme, Speech, Melody and Spectacle Greater minds than mine have debated and discussed these points and what they meant in the time of Aristotle and what they might mean in terms of today's drama at length, and will certainly continue to do so as long as there is drama for entertainment. I'm only going to use them as a guideline for what I look for in a story, any story, and here specifically in television shows. Most of the shows below are character driven. House certainly, Bones and Medium are a small cast of characters, L&O is more plot driven, although in CI the resolution certainly hinges on the characters of Goren and Logan in their respective episodes, CSI can be a mix, although I watched it primarily for Grissom and maybe Warrick, but also for the plot. Since Warrick died and Grissom is leaving I wonder if it will still hold the same appeal as I never managed to be ...

and kicks butt. And was a dark as Satoshi Kon in places and as imaginative as Miyazaki in places, and you know I don't say that lightly. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes anime --well, the whole series, but like FMA : Shamballa , it stands on it's own as well. Oh, and it paved the way for at least one other movie--we shall see if it happens--I mean, once you've saved the world a little adventure to save someone's mother looks like chump change, but I remain hopeful. Happy Fan Girl dance now.

So, Avatar is ending tonight in a big two hour movie. Avatar is a cartoon on Nickelodeon . It's been running for three years. I'm sad it's ending, but it is inevitable. Ang , the Avatar, is the last air bender in a world where there are benders for the four elements. He already knew air, first season was water, second season was earth and now, tonight, he has to defeat the Fire Lord who has conquered the world. He has to bring balance. Avatar is an American cartoon made by people who (apparently) love Anime . Really, really love Anime . It looks like anime , it breaks with reality into chibi or SuperDeformed like anime , where in the midst of serious battle a character will have the anime sweat or the throbbing vein on his forehead. I can't find any good pictures of this, unfortunately. It's generated a lot of cosplay which should tell you that it's been embraced as anime . I've dragged my husband into being a big fan of the show. It's well written f...

Have you noticed how many British actors are playing Americans in shows? It's really an epidemic. There's most famously Hugh Laurie in House but also Jake Weber in Medium, Linus Roache in Law & Order, Damien Lewis in Life, Jonny Lee Miller in Eli Stone. And those are just the ones I watch and know about because I've tracked all of their pre -America careers. There was also another Trainspotting alum, Kevin McKidd in the short lived Journeyman (I guess famous from Rome which I never saw). Jack Davenport is in that summer filler Swingtown . Rufus Sewell is going to be in an American remake of a British show (that originally starred Patrick Stewart) called Eleventh Hour. Oddly that was one British show I didn't like, despite Patrick. In addition, of course, there's the other British remake of Life on Mars which I liked until the ending--wonder what they'll do about that... Again, I think there are some others that I'm not remembering. Strange to h...

Two of my favorite shows are ending between this week and next. One for good and the other for an extended hiatus. I am rather sad about this. Mad Men begins in a week--which is exciting but there is something inherently tragic about Mad Men which makes one feel as if one is watching too much Eugene O'Neil. So, I would like to take this time to talk about what I watch and why. I watch too much television, I know that. And I realized as I went through things that I can track my life in other people's milestones--the shows I watched, the albums I bought, the clothes that other people designed. I can also track some of my life in shows that I've done, friends that I've had, jobs I've tried--so I'm not so helpless as some. In this year I've watched pretty faithfully the following: Bones House Medium Law & Order (which got good again), L&O: SVU (which sucked a bit), L&O: CI (with two detectives for the price of one) CSI (but NOT CSI : NY or CSI : Mi...

http://redqueenday.blogspot.com/2008/07/art-of-day-is-persistence-it-does-take.html So after a good week of vacation, where I sorted many things and put away some things IN THE ATTIC... You will remember that they were working on my roof while I was on vacation. Now, I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but the we have an attic space accessible by a low door. It's not finished, but there are pieces of vinyl on the floor and two lightbulbs and the previous tenants had fastened a bar, about 4 1/2 feet off of the ground, some 10 feet in length and I presume they hung clothes there. So, since closets in old house pretty much suck, I have hung the bulk of my clothes on this bar and use the attic as a walk in closet. The first month or so I covered them with sheets, but as nothing seemed to ever be on the sheets, I had stopped bothering. Monday morning , first day back going back to work, I go in, get an outfit, leave. Tuesday morning, step into attic, feel something sort of crunching...

Husband sent this to me from the Wittenburg Door site. Love the blog speak. http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/noahs-blog

We went to see Wall-E. Wall-E, the eponymous robot, has his little collections too. Amidst skyscrapers of trash. I loved it, and I teared up. I think the tag line for Dumbo was "You'll believe an elephant can fly," and last year's tag line for Ratatouille was "You'll believe a rat can cook." Well, you'll believe that a robot can love, even if it's to a tune from "Hello, Dolly." I have to admit that " It Only Takes a Moment, " has always been one of my guilty pleasures (including the pleasure of watching a gawky Michael Crawford). { Ok , I have to stick in one of the lovely and talented John Barrowman since it's over there-- sqee a little} Anyway, I really loved this film. The ability to make "faceless" machines tear your heart--well, Pixar has always done that. Plotwise I'd have to say I'm still leaning towards Ratatouille and The Incredibles since the plot is a little obvious, but the wordless be...

...without a ding dong thing on my mind (I have this on an album sung by Rowlf , the Dog from the Muppet show--I'm not sure who wrote it) Anyway, continuing. The big thing that I needed to sort/weed was a box of paper torn from magazines. I have been keeping a file of images, mainly fashion, since I was 12 or 13. It's all in a filing cabinet and I hadn't kept up with my filing for awhile. I'm ashamed to say how long--let's just leave it as approx. two boxes of paper and move on. Again--I was torn with the thought that I should simply throw it all away and move on with my life. After all, to actually do something is better than simply moving paper, but I knew there were things in there that I didn't want to lose. Somethings had been in the file, but had been pulled out as research or inspiration for designing shows, or window displays or clothing and been put back in the pile rather than being refiled. Part of the difficulty was that in our last apartment...

...I will feel a glow just thinking of you... I've been off work this week and the first part of the week I was off without my husband which meant that I was able to focus--plus they were working on the roof of the house which made me get up and get going--rather than lie in bed listening to the banging on the ceiling. Which is not to say that I don't work when my husband is home, but the way we distract each other is a post for another day. What I got up and did was to go through a lot of paper. I sorted my paid bills. I made a decision on the unsorted receipts--to stuff them in a box marked with the end date of June 30, 2008 and to go forward from here. I went through magazines I'd been keeping. Now, as an organizer I would have advised a client to throw them away (recycle) sight unseen, and I almost did, but there weren't that many so I did a fast skin--pulled out a few pages and put them out with Wednesday's recycling. More on that in a bit. I also went thr...