Wednesday, July 1, 2009

7/1: "Not tasty."

-I went to see Ice Age 3:Dawn of the Dinosaurs with Cordell, Lorelai and Eric. There was a great, terribly offensive transphobic joke: The British, one-eyed weasel who leads the mastadons, the sabertooth tiger, and a couple of possums into the dino world, tells them, "Let me tell you about the time I used a sharpened clam shell to turn a T. Rex into a T. Rachel." Unfortunately, the anecdote ends there. Needless to say, I spent a good chunk of the movie mulling this over--presumably, the procedure was simple castration; so does a lack of male genitalia equal female identity, in this film's frame of reference, and thereby to society at large? Then the baby mastadon got born, and I went all teary. Damn the baby bag.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

6/26: "Revival"

-After my job interview, which went mostly okay, I hope, they gave me a really good chocolate oatmeal biscotti. I hope that's some indication of how things will go.

-I made yaki soba with stuff from the garden: broccoli, kale, beets, carrots, cilantro. I ate it and listened to Farhad's mix and wrote him a postcard, then retired to my couch-bed to read The Pickwick Papers and fall asleep at the embarrassing time of 11:30 pm.

Monday, May 11, 2009

5/11: "Just give it an extra squeeze for me."

--I saw the last half of "Examined Life," which Josh was screening in Tishman. Though I accidentally sat next to an ex and her new boyfriend and felt like some shifty character in a nostalgic-for-the-sixties movie made in the eighties, the film itself was okay. Nothing too revelatory got said, though the last bit of Cornel West's discussion was exactly about what my senior show work is about (pixxx soon.) More importantly, though she was talking about the many possibilities and capabilities of The Body, Judith Butler has tiny T. Rex arms, and I'll bet it makes a) doing push-ups really easy, and b) hanging paintings very difficult.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

4/17: "And they each sank into the quiet calm of the open road."

Long weekend has been a lazy paradise. Highlights:

-Constant baking in the Townhouse, including but not limited to, cinnamon raisin bread, oatmeal pecan cookies, lasagna, chocolate tartlets, basically anything that can fit in our oven.

-Rebekah took me on my virgin trip to the Manschesthair outlet stores. I tried on a bunch of chinos (I got an email Friday from Admissions saying I am not in fact hired for the summer, which has sent me into a job-searching, business-casual-shopping frenzy,) but, of course, even the 30x30s were gigantically baggy--I looked like I was wearing scrubs. The overly friendly middle aged woman tending the dressing rooms asked me if I found anything, and when I said no, they were all too big, she said, "Better start drinkin' more milkshakes!" Sometimes I really like Vermont.

-To add to the list of drunkenly-proposed bands that I hope against hope will actually happen: a late-nineties alternative rock cover band, featuring Dave Bow and myself, plus possibly others, called "pen island." Possible hits include "Teenage Dirtbag" and "Heaven is a Halfpipe." Some imp of manic energy inspired me to look up the tabs for "Iris" last night, and I think I'm going to perform it, pen island or no. And generally, Maggie's introducing me to sadsteve has sent me into a shame spiral of middle school music nostalgia.


I had totally forgotten that this video had any connection to a Jason Biggs movie.

Plus, highlights from The Aeroplane Flies High:

A Night Like This, in which James Iha out-Robert Smiths Robert Smith.

You're All I've Got Tonight, in which Billy Corgan out-Ric Okaseks Ric Okasek.

Ugly, in which Billy Corgan out-Billy Corgans himself.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

4/8: "The Israelites had to peace, and that's why they couldn't leaven their bread."

-After a fairly rough/busy day of giving tours, assembling sculptures with finicky epoxies, and then being too high and brain-dead on spray enamel and glitter glue to answer questions sensibly in Annabel's class, I went back home for an amazing Passover dinner: sensational brisket, homemade gefilte fish, asparagus, kugel, and all the little trimmings. We were going to do the full seder, but things fell apart a bit: Asher started reading the Haggadah from front to back, Rebekah accidentally sang the Hannukah blessing for the wine, and Elijah's Manichewitz was served in a Miller Lite pint glass. But G-d, was it fun.

-I took a long shower and went right to bed afterward, one of the most satisfying small things a single person can do.

Monday, April 6, 2009

4/6: "I just don't want you to be a train wreck!"

-Though I will describe something good that happened today, it was by and large a bust. I babysat a kiln all night until 6:30 in the morning thanks to a certain individual's lackadaisical firing schedule, I went home and slept for two hours, went to the therapist and was told that it wouldn't be prudent to start hormones until I "get settled" somewhere, which is a) total bullshit and b) not something I'll likely do until I start transitioning, I had a series of embarrassing cries in public, I ran out of cigarettes, I spilled coffee all over my white sweater, I lost my favorite bandanna, I'm on the rag, I walked home in the rain and got completely soaked. If anyone was considering doing something nice for me, now would be an appropriate time.

-Emma and I shared stories about being wild in middle school, though her's were far superior to my daily games of spin the bottle and once stripping in a camping trip game of truth or dare.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

4/1: "I hate Mondays."

-What a classically "bad day." Between waking up late, working doggedly, and turning in an EPIC FAIL of a paper to Annabel, it started raining, and that thing happened where a car drives through a puddle and splashes you with gross water while you're walking down the sidewalk. But then, dinner was amazing (salmon and mac and cheese), and we had a totally whiz-bang Silo meeting.