Em’s Neighborhood

Kordan - Shinjuku Kordan 1 comment Discography [Jul 2009] Fantasy Nation EP [Feb 2010] The Longing Read More Kordan http://weheartmus... I was deeply impressed that Cut/Copy personally asked them to open up for them on the first secti...

 01/02/2010 21:38:20 ♥ lara (/lara206.vox.com) ♥ kordan.tv ♥ myspace.com/kordantv 

I'm not making any specific resolutions for 2010. If I make resolutions they are intended to be ongoing, not subject to annual election. I am however giving myself a challenge.... well, two challenges:

1. WRITE EVERY DAY in 2010 (novels, journals, blogs, limericks, letters, stories, haiku on napkin... they all count)
2. Keep a photo journal. Somewhat daily, no specific content requirements... I will cross-post from flickr for ya.

Beyond that, I have some general principles that I am working on, regardless of what year it is...

Do more. I want to spend more of my time actively engaged in doing, whether it's washing dishes or doing yoga or writing or reading or vacuuming or working or playing games or going for a walk. This means less passive media consumption and internet snurffing.

Make something. A stew, a collage, a painting, a novel, a website, a film. Whatever. Always have something in progress.

Be healthier. More exercising, less drinking, more raw vegetables, less takeout, etc... This month I am doing a detox diet coupled with experimenting with a gluten-free diet.

Participate. Find ways to work with others on projects I find interesting, take classes, get involved in community action, and think of other ways to engage with other people in active ways.

In terms of goals... they are in flux. I still have many of the same goals I did last year at this time and most of them have barely moved forward... or moved sideways. The problem with most goals is that they require a financial foundation that I simply don't have right now. Grad school, travel, starting businesses... all require some sort of investment. In February I will find out whether the freelance work for my old boss will come through and tide me over for this year. Until then, I am trying to organize my options in some sort of sensible way in order to understand what they really are and make a rational decision about what to do next.

One of the best parts of being in Ohio is that we have reconnected with Ben's (huge) clan of family. I've known them for over 14 years, but from a distance. I was a bit slow on getting all the names right and the spouses and the kids. When I saw one kid I'd known as a little kid (now late teens) I did not recognize him to everyone's amusement.

How could I not know Hunter?

The clan has been together in the same area of Ohio forever. The 14 years Bens been with me in Californa never really took him out of the family loop. Now that he's back here, it's almost like he never left. I have to say I love being part of the "clan".

Today Ben's aunt Bobbie (Barb) had everyone to her home in Mansfield for "pigs in a blanket." (pork and ground beef balls with rice wrapped in cabbage in a soup of tomato and spices and sauerkraut. Thick chunks of bread and butter  and mashed potatoes finished the meal. All served straight from the kitchen to whoever showed up, whenever they showed up. The pot had been cooking for over 10 hours - started the day before and then reheated today so the flavors blended and mellowed. It was so unbelievably good and satisfying. We all ate wherever we could find a spot  while the tv played one of many football games. Ben helped this cousins set up his mom's new speaker system to go with her new tv. Ben and his cousin Lonnie worked together on the project - joking and teasing each other. Honestly they are as different as night and day, but underneath the "types" the connection - the family tie - is obvious. Ben- his tight black jeans, pink and black sneakers, red and black flannel topped with a black biker jacket, tatted and pierced, blue hair, goofy humor - in the snow, Ben makes snow men. In the snow, Lonnie waits for hours with a gun or bow for his prey to pass close enough for a clean kill. Lonnie with his home full of stuffed and mounted animals, deer watch his tv from behind his chair - the black bear comes out of the wall behind the tv. The turkeys and peasants are flattened into wall hangings. Lonnie - in his camo pants and loose muddy boots - hair trimmed short  - buff  - while Ben is a computer whiz who does art for a living. Lonnie works at a correctional facility. He is big and tough. I'm sure on one messes with Lonnie. Different. Wildly different. And yet I've watched them getting closer with each gathering.

Ben's family accepts each other 100%, Can't say they accept everyone - or every type - but once someone is in the family "clan" everyone has their back.

Every time we are with Ben's family - I feel - like I am a part of something.
It's wonderful to feel this much love - from them all and for them all.
 
And Ben.

I watched that film, It's a Wonderful Life, pretty much every December - sometimes two or three times - from as far back as I can remember. I liked the movie a lot as a kid, and although I rarely watch it anymore (saw it last year, but not this year).

I liked it when I was a kid because it was funny. Both the George Bailey character and Clarence are adorable clowns. I like it as an adult because it is a fitting parable for the particular misery of living hand-to-mouth.

The film does not have a happy ending, in my opinion. It is certainly a nice, uplifting ending, reminding us of the comfort of friends and family. But none of the problems that had led George Bailey to attempt suicide had been solved. Sure, the immediate financial crisis was averted, but George Bailey was left to continue with a life that at least part of him hated.

But he was supposed to have learned an important lesson. A lesson that the viewer can swallow like a harmless sugar pill: Your own desires are not important.

Did George Bailey make the right choice when he decided to take over the building and loan instead of seeing the world? The film asserts that he did. If he hadn't been around, Bedford Falls would have turned into an amoral and over-developed hellhole. His choice represents an interest in a good greater than his own happiness.

Frankly, I don't buy it. I think the players would have done fine without George and his affable generosity, despite the potential of Pottersville. I was always rooting for George Bailey to get the hell out of there, and I still am. 

You watch New Years Rockin' Eve and the only person you recognize is Dick Clark.

Who's Afraid of Y2K? Looper Discography [1999] Up a Tree [2000] The Geometrid [2002] The Snare Read More Looper http://weheartmus... Formed by ex-Belle & Sebastian bassist, Stuart David and his wife, Karn in the late 90s, they fir...

It's hard to believe that it's been a decade since Y2K.

In 1999, the doomsayers predicted the end of the world as we know it - in the form of computers all over the world crashing because of the so-called millennium bug. It never made sense to me, I mean if it were a problem, couldn't you just change the date ?

I spent the New Year's eve in Vietnam, away from civilization. The next day, nothing changed. Not even an incident. All that scare were for thing. But it wasn't all for nothing, the Y2K bug inspired quite a few things - among them, music, televisions, and books.

WHO'S AFRAID OF Y2K?
geometrid.co.uk ♥ myspace.com

There was a period when I tracked down all the projects that were related to Belle & Sebastian, including The Gentle Waves/Isobel Campbell and Looper. Looper was was basically B&S's Stuart David and his wife, Karn, who actually met via penpalism (as told by their song, Impossible Things).

They did garner a bit of fame through "Mondo '77", a really great catchy "binary"-video gamey song (it's been featured in Vanilla Sky, video games, and anti-drugs commercials). But unfortunately, their third (and final?) album, The Snare did not have any really catchy songs. The ruder and darker themed album was due to David's book The Peacock Manifesto (whos character also appears on the cover and songs of The Snare).

Anyway, in 1999, Looper released a double A-Side called Who's Afraid of Y2K? and Up A Tree Again, which I picked up, among other singles, at a Flaming Lips show (Looper was opening up for the band).

Both are excellent songs, although there were two remixes of "Up A Tree Again". I normally don't like remixes, but these were pretty different from the original album (which actually sounds pretty stale compared to these upbeat mixes). The "singles mix" of "Up a Tree Again" was interesting to say the least, focusing mostly on the "la-na-na-na" section and DJ-scratches, while the Chocolate Layers remix was pretty much only the "la-na-na-na" section.

Looking back, I suppose "Who's Afraid of Y2K?" song was a bit of novelty. Ironically enough, the song was awashed in electronic quirks and beats - all the things that Y2K would've destroyed supposedly.

Currently, Looper's on hiatus. I haven't heard much in terms of a new David novel or Looper release. Most of the recent releases were made free on their website, geometrid.co.uk.

BRAVE OLD WORLD
dccomics.com/vertigo

I thought the concept behind this William Messner-Loebs-written Vertigo mini-series was interesting enough: a group of computer hackers working on a solution to the Y2K bug at the end of 1999 - only to find themselves in 1900.

The series explored some interesting concept, like what would you do, if you had all this computer/understanding of technology, only to be trapped in a world that still operated via candlelight? The women in the comics had it worst, let's face it, women didn't exactly have freedom back then. And if you were doing something strange, you're a witch and killed, etc.

So what's the group to do to try and back to 2000? They had to build a computer, by "inventing" their own technology.

Like I said, a very interesting concept. It sort of got a bit boring towards the end (by the last issue, I didn't really care for the characters so much).

Vertigo comics has yet to collect this in a trade, I suppose after the Y2K fiasco, it probably wouldn't be worth reading. I mean, we all know as fantastic as going back in 1900 would be, it didn't happen - just like the Y2K didn't happen. Still, if you want to re-live what it was like, or what Messner-Loebs was thinking back in 1999.

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR Y10K

Chances are, I'll be dead, so I wouldn't care so much what would happen. Wikipedia thinks it's a problem, but I suspect by the year 10,000, that our computing technology would be so advance, it wouldn't amount to anything.

Until then, have a great New Year. Take care of each other. I'll see you in 2010.

 12/31/2009 22:29:36 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

Happy
New Year!

Thank you and good night. I've complete the challenge. Sweet!

Boyfriend and I will be leaving for Catalina Island tomorrow.  We will be celebrating New Year's at the Casino, and at midnight we will be standing beneath an avalanche of balloons.

On later days, we will tour the island, looking for bison, deer, quail, eagles and foxes.  We will play miniature golf, with the local cats s-link-ing behind us.  We will enjoy yourselves on that petite, happy island.

Isle Be Seeing You In 2010

So while I'm away, behave yourselves - do - this New Year's.  I did receive some money for Christmas, but certainly not enough to post bail for the lot of you.

The Nation's Swinginest Playground

This is not the last post in the 104p52w challenge. Tomorrow I will post the last one in the challenge and then wait for Dabysan to start proclaiming victory and whining about how I need to send him a pie. Of course, he's wrong, but what can you do? If I didn't have to pay a mortgage, I could make it my life's work pointing out to Dabysan all the times he's been wrong and will be wrong. But, you know, I got shit to do.

What that shit is, I'm not sure.

Since it's New Year's Eve Eve I'm feeling a little reflective. 2009 passed in a sort of boring blur, which is a damn shame. I have only myself to blame though. Only boring people get bored, right? My resolution for 2010 is to be less boring. I need to start carpeing that diem.

Viva la 2010!

Debbiesick

I coughed and wheezed all night long. No more "i'm ok, it's just a cold." I drive my mess down to urgent care.
Yes, I have a cold - and that cold has camped out in my lungs. Now it's bronchitis. I got a whole mess of meds to take and an shiny new inhaler. My script called for me to get a vaporizer and other non rx stuff and then to up my vitamin c, liquids, and REST. He asked if I needed a note for my empoyer so I could get out of working for a few days till the anibotics and steroids - whee.

Once I settled in on my second pot of tea I watched SHAKES THE CLOWN. Wow, I loved it. Bobcat rules.

Nym headed in to the vet today too. Like mommy he has a infection in his ears and in his nose. He's beside me right now on his part of the couch. Me, I'm on my end with my feet up watching tv for the 6th day in a row. But I don't want this to get worse - so - I'm resting with the steam of the humidifier filling the room with the scent of vicks.