Itinerantdaughter's Blog

wed wet war wad was wave waves waved ere err rad red ref rev rate rates rated race raced races rage raged rages tar tad tear tears teared tare tares tread treads treaded tag frat fat fed fad fads few fade fades faded fare fares fared fart farts farted fear feared fears ferrets ferret frats free freed face faced faces fast faster fastest facet fact facts fax faxes faxed feast feasted feasts fate fates fated gas gassed gat gad gate gated gates garret garrets gave get great greater greatest grate grates grated graft grafted grafts tree trees tress tresses sea seas seed see set sets sat stats stat state stated states seat seats seated stag cease ceased ceases sad sadder saddest read reads reader reds rear rears area areas steer steers steered stare stared stab stabbed beat beats berate berated beret berets brat brats barter bartered barters steed geese grease greases greased greed bare bared bread bad bed bar brace braces braced beet beets barf barfed cede cedes cat cats scat scats scared scares cares cared far wager waged wages swag sage sages cast casts casted crater craters caveat caveats cravat cravats vase vases sever severed veer veers veered water waters watered weeder erase erases erased era eras ear ears eared tear tears teared trade traded trades trace traces traced tee teed trader traders raw drawer drawers draw draws dare dared dares dead sew sews tesseract wars warred bear bears watt watts swat swats swatted vet vetted save saved stave staved swerved swerve swerves serve served serves vest vested vests date dated dates fret fretted frets facet facets faceted fact facts refracts sewer sewers seaweed taser safe safer safest

I could go on but it’s time for me to leave work now, and spend my time doing better things 😉

A list of meals enjoyed (or considered) by New York Times writer Amy M. Thomas while in Paris:

1. creme-filled pain aux raisins

2. the Cornet Vegetarien –– a sandwich of fresh greens, grated carrots and fennel, marinated onions and thinly sliced avocado, dressed with olive oil and honey and dusted with chives and lime zest

3. Sauteed squid with oranges and green olives and a “delicious” bottle of Cotes-du-Rhone

4. A dollop of mozzarella dusted with black pepper and vanilla

5. Pear crumble served with buckwheat ice cream and grapefruit compote

6. Oyster tapioca with blood sausage and dried duck meat

7. Smoked herring marinated in olive oil and served with pickled onions

8. Steamed cod and baby spinach

9. Bespoke millefeuille

10. Rose, chocolate and pistacho macarons

11. Endive, walnut, Stilton cheese, apple salad

12. John Dory with coriander, lime, and tomato compote

13. Black cod with daikon

14. Brochettes of Parmesan covered salsifis

15. A melange of banana, passion fruit, rum, granite, and cream

Good band name, eh?

A list of trinkets Flaubert brought home from the Orient, courtesy of biographer Geoffrey Wall via idol JT:

“Hashish, ‘something specia’ from Cairo.  One small crocodile, Nubian, embalmed.  Ten feet of gold-embroidered fabric (wool and silk) from Beirut.  Rosaries, eight dozen, from Jerusalem.  One rose, ditto, blessed on the Holy Sepulchre… Marble from the Temple of Apollo, one piece… Flowers, for Louis Bouilhet, picked from just by the door of a brothel in Pompeii.”

For a great juxtaposish, I should put the list of things Biggie had on him when he died right here.  But I won’t.

My friend and I sometimes play the tabs game, meaning we list all the tabs open on our computers and try to see what they say about us.  Here is her list today:
1. http://www.housingistreatment.org/home
2. http://www.aidsnet.org/newmain/mainpages/executive.html
3. gmail
4. ugandan newspaper article about how there’s no water in a healthcenter because they havent paid thebill
5. another ugandan newspaper article about how a presidential candidate promised to sell the presidential jet to develop the country (http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1076680/-/cjwu01z/-/)
6. Off The Rails: The Year In Fox News Misinformation (http://mediamatters.org/research/201012210005)
7. NPR- Download The Best New Music Of 2010- http://www.npr.org/2010/12/21/131333323/download-the-best-new-music-of-2010?sc=nl&cc=mn-20101221
8. Effects of Dermal Exposure to Nicotiana tabacum (Jean Nicot, 1560) Leaves in Mouse Evaluated by Multiple Methods and Tissues (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jf101477z)
9. LET IT DOUGH http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/let-it-dough/#preview
10. MY GOOGLE READER BLOGS
11. http://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/qe2-and-africa
12. http://dcfar.med.miami.edu/x84.xml (BIO AND contact info from this AIDS researcher at University of Miami)
13. Hell on Earth – Systematic Rape in Eastern Congo from the journal of humanitarian assistance
14. play RB wants to see on the 27th but so expensive! http://www.bloodybloodyandrewjackson.com/theater-info.html
15. other option for a play http://www.daisyonbroadway.com/?gclid=COGgyIC2_KUCFUpJ2godyT5lXg
16. tickets– so expensive http://boxoffice.broadway.com/boxoffice/pohinv2.aspx?oi=20373153&ox=9406D74F-8187-4403-843C-3111FF16CC4E
17. other ticket seller- also ridiculous and doesnt have plays i want – http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/discount-tickets/ will close this tab now, thank heavens for this exercise
18. http://www.teamsportswear.com/personalized/basketball/jerseys/mens/category.php — idea for an aids activism activity- people want to make jerseys that say “team obama” and make signs that say, obama dropped the ball on aids…
19. nytimes, front page
20. google news search on terrorist attack in nairobi
21. http://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g275/p34383- profile for lady i talked to on phone this AM who i might work for in nairobi
22. http://ros-lehtinen.house.gov/SinglePages/SinglePage.aspx?NewsID=578- i want to get a white house tour!
23. http://wassermanschultz.house.gov/AppropsFY11.shtml – wanted to see if my congress woman had the same white house tour thing as the other lady bc i technically dont live in her district and dont want her to deny my request for a white house tour on those grounds!
24. google search – linda bales
25. google search – alexander mcqueen (couldnt remember his first name)
26. sparklehorse- couldnt remember his name — for your genius suicide column thing
27. wikipedia– list of suicides (curiosity!)
28. wachovia- how much money do i have?
29. google search – marianne williamson- this lady paul just went to see
30. google search- did inventor of atomic bomb commit suicide
+ 4 tabs on nicotine induced skin damage (for my mom)
+ chromeo — i could be wrong on stereogum
+ facebook

Her tabs indicate that she is extremely socially conscious.  Mine, right now, are this blog, obvi, and my Gmail, which do not indicate such a thing.  Also I’m having posting deja vu… have I done this before?

I have picked up a tiny gig transcribing interviews about the nineties music scene, namely garage, ska, surf, swing and “mod” rock.  Below is a list of bands cited in the interviews.  I’ll give you a metaphysical xmas gift if you’ve heard of any of them:

The Insomniacs

The Toasters

The New York Citizens

The Creatures of the Golden Dawn

The Nomads

The Lord High Fixtures

The Cellar Dwellers

The Omega Men

Tell Tale Hearts

The Misanthropes

The Mount McKinleys

The Space Cossacks

The Cave Four

——-

Follow up: which of those is the BEST band name?  I know my vote…

My craftiness having been honed as a result of being unemployed, I went yesterday to test a website for a software company (something like that) and was rewarded with a $35 Amazon.com gift card.  I use part of it to buy a few (bad) books I need for research but have ten dollars remaining.  I don’t want to let the money languish on the card lest I forget I have it, so the question remains: what to buy?

My on-going to read/buy list:

Books to Buy/Read/Read Again

Tatjana in Color

Lost in the Cosmos

McLean book

Lucia Joyce book (In the Wake?  Dancing in the Wake?)

Edna Saint Vincent Millay bio

The Lives of the Saints

A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears

fear and loathing in america: gonzo letters 2 by hunter s. thompson

can somebody shout amen?  (patsy sims)

coma

frankenstein

Dracula

Sophie’s world

Confederacy of Dunces

Anna Karenina

Silent Twins by Marjorie Wallace

Thy Neighbor’s Wife by Gay Talese

When Marina Abramovic Dies by James Wescott

Mein Kampf

I Jan Cremer by Jan Cremer

flying to america by donald barthelme

wind-up bird chronicles by haruki murakami

the lost weekend by charles jackson

rings of saturn by w.g. sebald

vincent van gogh’s letters to his brother

this warhol book i can’t remember the title of

les enfants terrible by jean cocteau

the naturalist

catch 22 by joseph heller (can you believe i have never read this?)

peeling the onion and

the tin drum both by gunter grass

look homeward, angel by thomas wolfe

books by ingmar bergman (he wrote a bunch!)

collected works of wallace stevens

strangeland by tracy emin

the immoralist

the long sonata of the dead by michael robinson

diane arbus’ biography

in the labyrinth by robbe-grillet

darkness visible by william styron

suite francaise by irene nemirovsky

the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime

margarita and the master bulgokov

autobiography of a face by lucy grealey and

truth and beauty (her biography)

“TO PACK AND WEAR:

2 skirts

2 jerseys or leotards

1 pullover sweater

2 pair shoes

stockings

bra

nightgown, robe, slippers

cigarettes

bourbon

bag with:

shampoo

toothbrush and paste

Basis soap

razor, deodorant

aspirin, prescriptions, Tampax

face cream, powder, baby oil

TO CARRY:

mohair throw

typewriter

2 legal pads and pens

files

house key

This is a list which was taped inside my closet door in Hollywood during those years when I was reporting more or less steadily.  The list enabled me to pack, without thinking, for any piece I was likely to do.  Notice the deliberate anonymity of costume: in a skirt, a leotard, and stockings, I could pass on either side of the culture.  Notice the mohair throw for trunk-line flights (i.e., no blankets) and for the motel room in which the air conditioning could not be turned off.  Notice the bourbon for the same motel room.  Notice the typewriter for the airport, coming home: the idea was to turn in the Hertz car, check in, find an empty bench, and start typing the day’s notes.

“It should be clear that this was a list made by someone who prized control, yearned after momentum, someone determined to play her role as if she had the script, heard her cues, knew the narrative.  There is on this list one significant omission, one article I needed and never had: a watch.  I needed a watch not during the day, when I could turn on the car radio or ask someone, but at night, in the motel.  Quite often I would ask the desk for the time every half hour or so, until finally, embarrassed to ask again, I would call Los Angeles and ask my husband.  In other words I had skirts, jerseys, leotards, pullover sweater, shoes, stockings, bra, nightgown, robe, slippers, cigarettes, bourbon, shampoo, toothbrush and paste, Basis soap, razor, deodorant, aspirin, prescriptions, Tampax, face cream, powder, baby oil, ,mohair throw, typewriter, legal pads, pens, files and a house key, but I didn’t know what time it was.  This may be a parable, either of my life as a reporter during the period or of the period itself.”

~ Joan Didion, “The White Album”