Archive for the ‘Lists’ Category

A List, by Sontag

February 20, 2010

4. Random examples of items which are part of the canon of Camp:

Zuleika Dobson

Tiffany lamps

Scopitone films

The Brown Derby restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in LA

The Enquirer, headlines and stories

Aubrey Beardsley drawings

Swan Lake

Bellini’s operas

Visconti’s direction of Salome and ‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore

certain turn-of-the-century picture postcards

Schoedsack’s King Kong

The Cuban pop singer La Lupe

Lynn Ward’s novel in woodcuts, God’s Man

the old Flash Gordon comics

women’s clothes of the twenties (feather boas, fringed and beaded dresses, etc.)

the novels of Ronald Firbank and Ivy Compton-Burnett

stag movies seen without lust

From “Notes on Camp” 1964

Advertisements in Harper’s Magazine

December 3, 2009

Iceland (Tourism.  Duh.)

The Balvenie –– the Hand Crafted Single Malt

Books, including but not limited to: Reading Jesus by Mary Gordon, Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party by Max Blumenthal, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literary and the Triumph of the Spectacle by Chris Hedges, New York Revisited by Henry James, You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America by John R. MacArthur, Euonoia by Christian Bok (see below,) Asylum: Inside the Closed World of the State Mental Hospitals by Christopher Payne (with an essay by Oliver Sacks), Why We Cooperate by Michael Tomasello (synopsis: Understanding cooperation as a distinctly human combination of innate and learned behavior. (my analysis: yawn!))

LOTS of clean energy stuff

A biographical documentary about Joan Baez (biodoc?  Is that a genre?), as seen on PBS

StoneSoup, the literary magazine by children.  (Ms. calls it: “The New Yorker of the 8-13 set.”)

Diva-licious, a compilation of songs by female jazz artists like Diana Krall, released by NPR

David Morgan Purveyors, whose catalog includes, “Northwest Coast and Celtic jewelry, Akura pure fur felt hats, Filson outdoor clothing and much more.

Pajama-grams, which are pretty much exactly what they sound like

The Kindle!

$14 European berets

Delta

Rosetta Stone

Small text ads in the back:

“Form a real relationship with someone in extreme poverty.  Transformation through friendship, understanding and help.”

“Without doubt, the finest domino sets you can buy.  Great gift, with engravable [sic?] brass plate.”

“Philosophy of Heterosexuality –– Politically-incorrect ideas of a cigar-smoking old man.  http://www.philosophyofheterosexuality.com”

“REDEFINING RECOVERY.  Navigating the downslope of Peak Everything.”

“WHAT CORPORATE AMERICA IS REALLY  ABOUT: Read my true account at celinem@aol.com”

a nudist colony

a ghostwriter

A dating service exclusively for “graduates, students, and faculty of the Ivies, Seven Sisters, Stanford, U of Chicago, and others.”  (Others?!  Any others?  DeVry?)

Upton Tea Imports –– Purveyor of the World’s Finest Tea

“Unorthodox Erotica” Catalog for $2

“The Ultimate in Spanking Erotica:

‘Spanking Girl’s Backdoor Man’ starring Madison Young, Tom Byron, and beautiful Snow, includes every sex and spanking thrill.  $48 minutes.  VHS or DVD.  $24.95.  Color spanking brochure collection $5.”

Questionnaire

October 19, 2009

My roommate’s birthday was a little while ago, and so I wrote her a Questionnaire/Poem, because she told me once she used to write them for herself when she was a child and fill them out.  It’s sort of fun!  Send your answers back to me and I will respond with an essay (minimum three pages) detailing your psychological make-up, sexual proclivities and chances of dying in a natural disaster.

For L, On Her Twenty-Sixth Birthday

A little poem/game I like to call

A or B

Please circle one of the following:

1.     black        or    white
2.    day        or    night
3.    up        or    down
4.    chocolate    or    vanilla
5.    fiction        or    nonfiction
6.    early        or    late
7.    fur        or    leather
8.    hot        or    cold
9.    empty        or    full
10.    the chicken    or    the egg
11.    my way     or    the highway
12.    walk        or    talk
13.    big        or    little
14.    Ben Affleck    or    Matt Damon
15.    city mouse    or    country mouse
16.    fat        or    thin
17.    whiskey    or     rum
18.    the long     or    short of it
19.    diamonds    or    pearls
20.    spring        or     summer
21.     stop        or    go
22.    nurture        or    nature
23.    left         or     right
24.    DVD        or    VHS
25.    sweet        or     salty
26.    life        or    death
27.    rock        or    hard place
28.    same        or     different
29.    French        or    Spanish
30.    top        or    bottom
31.    bed        or    breakfast
32.    winter        or    fall
33.    child        or    adult
34.    apple        or    orange
35.    World War I    or    World War II
36.    Chinese    or    Japanese
37.    rich        or    poor
38.    east        or    west
39.    fork        or    spoon
40.    crossword    or    Sudoko
41.    haiku        or    epic
42.    oil        or    watercolors
43.    salt        or    pepper
44.    coffee        or    tea
45.    cash        or    credit
46.    burial        or    cremation
47.    meth        or    crack
48.    in the body     or    attachment
49.    work        or    play
50.    book        or    movie
51.    silver        or    gold
52.    silence        or    noise
53.    crazy        or    sane
54.    round        or    square
55.    feast        or    famine
56.    war        or    peace
57.    The Beatles    or    The Rolling Stones
58.    Freud        or    Jung
59.    laughter    or    tears
60.    Yankees    or    Mets
61.    ballet        or     modern dance
62.    socialism    or    capitalism
63.    style        or    substance
64.    ocean        or    lake
65.    baroque    or    modern
66.    yourself    or    someone else
67.    caterpillar    or    butterfly
68.    blood        or    sweat
69.    moon        or    sun
70.    toasted        or    untoasted
71.    religious    or    secular
72.    butter        or     jelly
73.    rhythm     or    blues
74.    birds        or    bees
75.    walk        or    bicycle
76.    Los Angeles    or    New York
77.    the past    or    the present
78.    love        or    hate
79.    slap        or    pinch
80.    easy        or    difficult
81.    gay        or    straight
82.    water        or    wine
83.    fingers        or    toes
84.    shower        or    bath
85.    Superman    or    Batman
86.    stars        or    stripes
87.    meat         or    potatoes
88.    North Pole    or    South Pole
89.    Cinderella    or    Sleeping Beauty
90.    question    or    answer
91.    dumb        or    dumber
92.    taste        or    touch
93.    can        or    bottle
94.    dirty        or    clean
95.    paper        or    plastic
96.    tattoos        or    piercings
97.    cook        or    delivery
98.    grateful    or    dead
99.    fate        or    chance
100.    beginning    or    end?

Words Of Which I Always Forget the Meanings

October 14, 2009

…or get oh-so-slightly wrong.

Tautology

Teleology

Scatalogical

Trope

Apotheosis

Apotheopesis

Apostate

Apostolic

Polity

Pedagogy

Want to Raise a Handsome Rogue?

September 23, 2009

According to the still-venerable baby name book Beyond Jennifer and Jason…

“Good looking names for boys can be divided into two categories: nice guys and not-so-nice guys. The nice guys are sensitive and sweet and tend to offer a goodnight kiss at the door; the rogues don’t call the next morning, although women usually wish they would.”

Handsome Rogue Names

Plus some free association, by me. Obviously. It’s my blog. I get to say what I want. Fuck off.

Addison

Ash

Austin

Bailey

Beau

Brady

Brock (Hudson? Gay, right?  And by Brock I meant Rock.  Sorry, D.  You know all the gay idols.)

Chad (Will never be the same after that election)

Clay

Clint (Eastwood.)

Cody (My mind immediately thinks Gifford, and that’s always funny.)

Dallas

Dalton

Darcy (Do these count if they’re last names, too? I think of Pride and Prejudice. My roommate hearts Mr. Darcy like woah.)

Davis

Denver

Devon

Dylan

Flint (A lot of these names are old guy names)

Gavin

Gray

Hart

Hunter

Jackson

Jasper

Jefferson

Jesse

Judd (Nelson)

Keil (I’m still thinking about Cody Gifford. Ahhhhhahahahahahaha.)

Lex (Luther?)

Logan

Luke

Quinn

Rex

Sebastian

Shane

Wiley

Wolf (Grrr!)

Wyatt

Zack

Zane

Red Flags!

September 13, 2009

This is one of my favorite lists to make! When you meet a person who does/is this, run in the other direction…

Has two first names

Is a Roman numeral (John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith the III)

Is a Doctor, and calls him/herself “Dr. First Name”

Speaks about him or herself in the third person

If he/she is on a television show and is speaking English but has subtitles any way

For girls (dating): men really into Freud

For guys (dating): women really into Grey’s Anatomy

People who “can’t get a vein”

People who enjoy hearing their own voice tape recorded

blink too often

talk a lot about their workout regimens or dietary habits

swear in foreign languages

have an accent that does not correspond with where they GREW UP (and yes, Madonna, I’m talking about you, and if you didn’t exhibit this red flag, you’d be screwed any way. See two prior.)

There are about eight million more, but I needed to publish this so I could start drafting another list. It irritates me when there are too many unfinished drafts…

Titles of Poems I Will Probably Never Write

September 2, 2009

“It Is So Nice For Me That You Are a Stranger Now”

“Lullaby for Marlon Brando”

“Thoughts Upon Watching Reruns of Sex dnd the City”

“This Can Be the Piece That Suffers”

“My Laundry List”

“The Teaspoon and Co.”

“What They Told Me About You Is True”

“Cemetery Drive-Bys”

“The Nonexistent Book”

“Tiny Baroque Villages”

“Overwhelming Radiation”

“Things I’ve Lost to Water”

“Template”

“Where Have You Gone, Madame Bovary?”

“Belvedere Palace, Circa Now”

“Bourgeoisie Horror”

“Ten Thousand Reasons Why I Hate the Continent of Africa In No Particular Order”

I’m Registered at…

August 30, 2009

My friend E is getting married (Mazel Tov!) and while I enjoy weddings immensely, E’s latest email has alerted me to a large problem with the entire institution of marriage: the registry.  Registries are so FUCKING boring!  I mean, honestly, never in my life do  I want to give someone a set of pans as a gift, nor would I ever endeavor to ask someone to buy me salt shakers.  How impersonal and totally lame.  Here is my hypothetical registry for those who plan on coming to my wedding (in ten years or so), which is going to be rad, you may be able to guess…

Diamonds –– big ones

First editions of books

a pet turtle

bongos!

exotic fruit

statues of horses or birds

Koi fish (and a pond to put them in)

good wine

pay for my mound of dry cleaning

write me a love letter

classes to brush up on my scuba diving skillz

a piano (you know what, any sort of musical instrument will work, save the tuba.  no interest in the tuba whatsoever.)

any sort of art…well, I’d like to take a look at it first…in case it’s heinous…but if you’re coming to my wedding you ought to know what my taste is.

subscription to The New Yorker or Harper’s or Vogue

An assistant

New ballet slippers

God, this is fun.  I could go on for ages.  But I won’t.

Great Excuses

August 19, 2009

I actually began writing a book of excuses, hopefully to be sold as a novelty text at like Urban Outfitters or in the Humor section at Barnes and Noble, but then I saw exactly that at UO!  I was pretty devastated.  Still, I think mine would have been better because it was going to be a practical book; essentially, you could flip through and open to a page and find yourself an appropriate excuse!  “Sorry I can’t come to your son’s brit milah tomorrow…I just found out I’m on duty for neighborhood watch.”  Etc.  This book I saw was a tiny, pretty thing with a section for famous excuses from history and clever categories like that but mine would have been much more systematic…less “In Praise of Excuses” and more “Excuses You Can Use!”

Here are some that I like to call Universal Excuses, ones that can serve as the scapegoat for any sort of general shittiness…

El Nino

Santa Ana winds (specific to California I GUESS)

Hormones

The Economy (sub-excuse: “I’m broke”)

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

“Family Problems”

Dissociative Fugue

Studying for a big test (LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, Realtor’s License, etc.)

Religious conflict

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

Bored?

August 6, 2009

http://jacksonpollock.org

www.freerice.org

Watch Mike Seaver proselytize:

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/watchepisodes.shtml

http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/

www.findagrave.com

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/all/

These are the only things I know on the Internet. But I guess if you’re here, you’re probably already bored..

Thanks to my constant, B, for pointing me in the direction of many of these websites, and being more technologically savvy than I am.