For years, I thought I was an unnatural monster. Is that a phrase that means anything? It's the creature of Dr. Frankenstein, created by humans-out of arrogance, out of perversity, out of cruelty-with no destiny other than to fail in its inadequate imitation of life. The creature seeks to destroy the doctor, because the doctor is the only thing in ( Read more... )

I blew way too much money on books last weekend. How marvelous to utter that sentence! To be able to buy books, to buy too many books, to think of buying books as a thing one is capable of doing, to remember to buy books, to remember what books one wants to buy when presented with the chance to buy them, too many, in fact. And the first book I am ( Read more... )

MILLICENT'S VOICE: Look at the night table for a note from Adele.
MALE VOICE: Adele died of lung cancer last night. You may stay on if you like.
( Millicent's final monologue from Synecdoche, New York. )

On Facebook I've been fangirling over the new trailer for the Cloud Atlas movie, directed by Tom Tykwer and Andy and Lana Wachowski. Tywer's made some good movies and one great one, but he's also responsible for the execrable Perfume, which I note was also his last foray into big-budget Euro art films. (Is it on the Hate list? No -- but maybe it ( Read more... )

"To cut off Medusa's head without being turned to stone, Perseus supports himself on the very lightest of things, the winds and the clouds, and fixes his gaze upon what can be revealed only by indirect vision, an image caught in a mirror. I am immediately tempted to see this myth as an allegory on the poet's relationship to the world, a lesson in ( Read more... )

WWPV is the local college radio station. I usually enjoy listening to them, but one time the DJ was so incompetent, he broadcast nearly a minute of dead air, interrupted at the twenty-second mark by the words "dead air." Tonight they found me this, which touches my Western heart.

Click to view

They also play a lot of Crystal Castles.

You may recall that five months ago I could barely skate at all. Tonight I passed basic assessments. Now I can join the league.

I pick up opinions quickly, but I hope this is countered by a tendency to quickly put them down again. It's in this spirit that I want to relate that in my brief initial foray into the world of fitness, I have concluded that the idea of "toning" is bunk ( Read more... )

Look what turned up in my Twitter feed today.

I know all you LJ/DW die-hards are dying for something to read, and now that I've figured out how to post via email to DW and thence to LJ, I may just be able to oblige.

Facebook is sheer tedium. Twitter makes me feel bad. There is only the blog.