Monday, March 9, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Week in Seven Words #247
assuaged
The restaurant feels impersonal, all the furniture spare and made of metal, but they serve rich comfort food.
barred
When I see the number of missed calls that have accumulated in my cell phone, I'm glad I kept it on 'silent.' Otherwise, I wouldn't have had the morning to myself, to explore as I like.
enchanting
Plum-colored houses with white picket fences. Cobbled lanes and sunken gardens.
gratifying
Tourists licking ice cream in the salt-flavored air.
singular
A lonely giant on a charcoal ledge looks away from the moon.
soaped
Back-to-back episodes of Shark Tank, the TV flickering in a dark room. My mind gently wiped clean of the day's emotions.
tenacious
His wife strikes me as hard and bright, a woman who's difficult to get to know but worth knowing.
The restaurant feels impersonal, all the furniture spare and made of metal, but they serve rich comfort food.
barred
When I see the number of missed calls that have accumulated in my cell phone, I'm glad I kept it on 'silent.' Otherwise, I wouldn't have had the morning to myself, to explore as I like.
enchanting
Plum-colored houses with white picket fences. Cobbled lanes and sunken gardens.
gratifying
Tourists licking ice cream in the salt-flavored air.
singular
A lonely giant on a charcoal ledge looks away from the moon.
soaped
Back-to-back episodes of Shark Tank, the TV flickering in a dark room. My mind gently wiped clean of the day's emotions.
tenacious
His wife strikes me as hard and bright, a woman who's difficult to get to know but worth knowing.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Dragonballs: Harry Potter as a much different movie...
Not only is this funny, it's also a good example of excellent video editing skills.
Week in Seven Words #246
brevity
Head fogged with a light fever, I open the door and hope that, for once, she'll say nothing and leave quickly.
etiolated
His parting emails, echoing an earlier confusion about what he wants and how he means to act in a relationship.
gritty
Pencil shavings in a pink pencil case.
laugh track
They watch the episode again, this time to revisit all the parts they found funny the first time around and see if I'll laugh too.
neural
The fourth and fifth fingers burn with a muffled electricity, as if they're stuffed with poorly insulated wires.
precocity
The persona she adopts to protect herself is the bright girl who doesn't have patience for adult silliness. She knows everything and let's every taunt roll off her. That's what she wants you to believe, so that you don't look more closely at her.
spacey
She writes a sentence, stops, stares at the book spines, forgets how she meant to continue. She crosses out the sentence, begins again, stops, stares at the far wall, the pencil tip wobbling on the lined paper.
Head fogged with a light fever, I open the door and hope that, for once, she'll say nothing and leave quickly.
etiolated
His parting emails, echoing an earlier confusion about what he wants and how he means to act in a relationship.
gritty
Pencil shavings in a pink pencil case.
laugh track
They watch the episode again, this time to revisit all the parts they found funny the first time around and see if I'll laugh too.
neural
The fourth and fifth fingers burn with a muffled electricity, as if they're stuffed with poorly insulated wires.
precocity
The persona she adopts to protect herself is the bright girl who doesn't have patience for adult silliness. She knows everything and let's every taunt roll off her. That's what she wants you to believe, so that you don't look more closely at her.
spacey
She writes a sentence, stops, stares at the book spines, forgets how she meant to continue. She crosses out the sentence, begins again, stops, stares at the far wall, the pencil tip wobbling on the lined paper.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
18 songs that lift my mood
Not all of these are happy, but in one way or another they lift my mood. I've listed them with the preferred performer for each song.
Autumn in New York - Billie Holiday
Black Rat Swing - Precious Bryant
Brave - Sara Bareilles
Dance Me to the End of Love - Madeleine Peyroux
Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
Feeling Good - Nina Simone
Goodnight, New York - Vienna Teng
Impossible Dream - Andy Williams
Jumpin' Jack - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Kind and Generous - Natalie Merchant
A Little Less Conversation - Elvis Presley
My Funny Valentine - Ella Fitzgerald
Nobody But Me - The Human Beinz
Non, je ne regrette rien - Edith Piaf
On the Sunny Side of the Street - Ella Fitzgerald
The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel
Tightrope - Janelle Monáe
Upside Down - Paloma Faith
Image credit and license: Wikimedia Commons
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Week in Seven Words #245
found
Sometimes I'll walk somewhere without any particular purpose, and I'll find something I didn't know I needed. In this case, it's a book, and its contents are so relevant to me I spend most of the day carrying it around and peeking into it when I get the chance.
lashed
In a moment of childish temper, a middle-aged woman strikes another older woman on the back. People gasp. She pretends not to notice their dismay, but hurries out soon after, her face tight with the knowledge that no one will ever see her the same way again.
leaping
Light-headed elation as sunset draws the day down.
muffle
Bundled up on the sofa while the clock ticks and traffic murmurs.
patchouli
They're back - the spindly, perfumed twins who dress like they've stepped out of a steampunk novel. The backs of their hands betray their age, but in other ways they're young; they share a seat and adjust each other's hair.
pervade
Feet clad in cold damp tights. A chill seeps through the door.
trickle
Cold rain snaking into the sleeves of my poncho.
Sometimes I'll walk somewhere without any particular purpose, and I'll find something I didn't know I needed. In this case, it's a book, and its contents are so relevant to me I spend most of the day carrying it around and peeking into it when I get the chance.
lashed
In a moment of childish temper, a middle-aged woman strikes another older woman on the back. People gasp. She pretends not to notice their dismay, but hurries out soon after, her face tight with the knowledge that no one will ever see her the same way again.
leaping
Light-headed elation as sunset draws the day down.
muffle
Bundled up on the sofa while the clock ticks and traffic murmurs.
patchouli
They're back - the spindly, perfumed twins who dress like they've stepped out of a steampunk novel. The backs of their hands betray their age, but in other ways they're young; they share a seat and adjust each other's hair.
pervade
Feet clad in cold damp tights. A chill seeps through the door.
trickle
Cold rain snaking into the sleeves of my poncho.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Four short stories for an unromantic Valentine's Day
Title: How to Talk to Girls at Parties
Author: Neil Gaiman
Where I Read It: Fragile Things
This reads as a twist on the tired idea that men and women are from different planets. Two teenaged boys, one of them shy and the other one more confident, wind up at a party where the girls are literally aliens - intergalactic travelers, countless galaxies in their eyes. One girl is a living poem containing the essence of a people whose planet died. Intimacy can be terrifying, what with the universe we each have in our heads.
Title: Legal Aid
Author: Frank O'Connor
Where I Read It: Legal Fictions
In Ireland, two young people fool around, the girl gets pregnant, the boy is weak-willed, the boy's father objects strenuously to the idea of marriage, and finally it's up to the girl's lawyer to try and resolve the situation out of court where it's made its way in a paternity suit. The story is full of sly humor and spot-on observations about social pressures and people's petty foolishness. It also compares people's messy actions and motives to the tidy narratives they try to spin in court - where they become 2D figures (paragons or fiends) in a staged drama that has little to do with justice. One lawyer has to choose either to destroy his target in court the way he's been paid to do or to recognize her humanity and the all around fragility and shabbiness of the situation.
Title: Liars in Love
Author: Richard Yates
Where I Read It: The Granta Book of the American Short Story
Love in this story is a temporary word, used when convenient to express a short-lived need. Play-acting at love is a way to fight off loneliness. The main character is on a scholarship in England and on his own for a while. He acts like someone else and steps into a life that isn't his. It's an intense but hollow fiction. And if he can express love as a lie so neatly during this brief, unusual interlude, what does it say about his feelings the rest of the time when he's back in his "real life?" Throughout the story, there's the sense of people engaging in the mechanics of a relationship (sex, cohabitation, meeting the partner's family), but without real intimacy. They clutch at each other for a while and remain lonely.
Title: The Littoral Zone
Author: Andrea Barrett
Where I Read It: American Short Stories Since 1945
Two scientists studying marine life have an affair. Both are married. When they're apart from their families, their relationship makes sense to them, and they think it's worth the betrayals and upheaval. But what will they discover about themselves, years later? What made sense at one point in their lives might no longer apply, and what they live on now are stories they tell to try to justify and redeem what they've lost.
In oceanography, the term 'littoral zone' refers to the part of the ocean nearest the shore (it also sounds erogenous). It's an unsteady place, subject to currents, winds, the tide, the shape of the shoreline and other sources of influence. Creatures that thought they'd learned to thrive there might find themselves gasping on dry land or thrashing around in unexpected turbulence. To keep living, they need to adapt, even if circumstances are now less favorable than they were before. To survive, they can't turn on each other. The stories they tell regulate the tension in their relationship and preserve a certain environment that allows them to both keep breathing.
Author: Neil Gaiman
Where I Read It: Fragile Things
This reads as a twist on the tired idea that men and women are from different planets. Two teenaged boys, one of them shy and the other one more confident, wind up at a party where the girls are literally aliens - intergalactic travelers, countless galaxies in their eyes. One girl is a living poem containing the essence of a people whose planet died. Intimacy can be terrifying, what with the universe we each have in our heads.
Title: Legal Aid
Author: Frank O'Connor
Where I Read It: Legal Fictions
In Ireland, two young people fool around, the girl gets pregnant, the boy is weak-willed, the boy's father objects strenuously to the idea of marriage, and finally it's up to the girl's lawyer to try and resolve the situation out of court where it's made its way in a paternity suit. The story is full of sly humor and spot-on observations about social pressures and people's petty foolishness. It also compares people's messy actions and motives to the tidy narratives they try to spin in court - where they become 2D figures (paragons or fiends) in a staged drama that has little to do with justice. One lawyer has to choose either to destroy his target in court the way he's been paid to do or to recognize her humanity and the all around fragility and shabbiness of the situation.
Title: Liars in Love
Author: Richard Yates
Where I Read It: The Granta Book of the American Short Story
Love in this story is a temporary word, used when convenient to express a short-lived need. Play-acting at love is a way to fight off loneliness. The main character is on a scholarship in England and on his own for a while. He acts like someone else and steps into a life that isn't his. It's an intense but hollow fiction. And if he can express love as a lie so neatly during this brief, unusual interlude, what does it say about his feelings the rest of the time when he's back in his "real life?" Throughout the story, there's the sense of people engaging in the mechanics of a relationship (sex, cohabitation, meeting the partner's family), but without real intimacy. They clutch at each other for a while and remain lonely.
Title: The Littoral Zone
Author: Andrea Barrett
Where I Read It: American Short Stories Since 1945
Two scientists studying marine life have an affair. Both are married. When they're apart from their families, their relationship makes sense to them, and they think it's worth the betrayals and upheaval. But what will they discover about themselves, years later? What made sense at one point in their lives might no longer apply, and what they live on now are stories they tell to try to justify and redeem what they've lost.
In oceanography, the term 'littoral zone' refers to the part of the ocean nearest the shore (it also sounds erogenous). It's an unsteady place, subject to currents, winds, the tide, the shape of the shoreline and other sources of influence. Creatures that thought they'd learned to thrive there might find themselves gasping on dry land or thrashing around in unexpected turbulence. To keep living, they need to adapt, even if circumstances are now less favorable than they were before. To survive, they can't turn on each other. The stories they tell regulate the tension in their relationship and preserve a certain environment that allows them to both keep breathing.
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