I went to a poetry reading last night. This reading series is extremely well-attended (like, people sitting on the floor and standing in the back and sweating a LOT) and they always get really good people from across the country to read. I was really excited about how crowded it was and gushed at the organizers about it. "It's so great to see so ( Read more... )

My new neighbor yelled at his movers all yesterday and today started vacuuming at 6:30 a.m. I mean, I was just about to wake up anyway, but I feel mysteriously disinterested in befriending this man.

One reason I don't do brand loyalty very much, at least for e.g. shampoo, is because I really dig how disoriented I get when I start using something new. Like, "Who the hell is that sexy-smelling stranger? Oh right, it's me." Even when it's just bland and clean-smelling ( Read more... )

This just in! Martha, the last passenger pigeon, died in the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914, "in a cage she shared with a handful of mourning doves." (credible citation I am too lazy to type out ( Read more... )

Pissed off about the new “don’t be brown in Arizona unless you’ve got your papers up to date (or you are wearing nice shoes)" law? Here’s some stuff you can do, symbolic as most of it may be.

Via Feministe via another  blog: “Where do we go from here? There is a Facebook group to join, a petition to sign, a call to boycott Arizona and Arizona- ( Read more... )

Just found a recording of this pianist I used to know who died in a car crash in 2008. Someone in his posse was driving drunk, the idiots (all of them). So talented. Chewing on my fingers listening.

I just finished the most awesome interview. The woman couldn't go on the record, but at the very end as a by-the-way mentioned she had an audio recording of an event which was closed to most people and which has since become Quite A Big Deal.  My eyes went like OO and my heart thud-thudded ( Read more... )

(P.s. I've gone mostly friends-only. Not because I'm not open to new friends. I just decided to partition my blogging between "public" and "private," and the public stuff is elsewhere. Holler if you want me to add you.)

When I don't feel like I ought to seek people out, when I don't hold the shape of my life up as an object to compare to the shapes of other peoples' lives, I am actually in a very good place. I always wanted time to write. Now I have it, but I easily waste it when I let myself feel pressured to be a social animal and then get depressed and ( Read more... )

The state of Wisconsin owes me a $700 refund. I had to wait 12 weeks after filing my taxes in order to call them and be told that I would have to re-file my taxes and wait another 10 weeks. Or I could pay $20 to e-file and know everything faster, but it galls me to spend money just to get money I'm supposed to have anyway ( Read more... )