January 27, 2008
Reconsidering Augie March
No, I don't mean the book by Saul Bellow (which I should really read some time). I mean the Aussie band. I first stumbled upon them 3 years ago through the House of Leaf and Lime, where Jim posted 2 songs from Strange Bird. I loved the songs enough that they graced several mixes and I went in search of the album on ebay. But after a cursory listen, I dismissed the album after burning a copy for Tanker, who had received one of the aforementioned mixes. Over the years, though, I would frequently get an earful from him about how I was missing out on this band and that he just couldn't believe that I didn't love it, etc. I got so tired of hearing about it that I recently decided to give the album another chance. In doing so, I discovered this little gem of a song (that now frequently gets stuck in my head).
So maybe I was wrong in completely dismissing the album. They really are so much better than I gave them credit for at first. For Christmas, I bought Tanker their new album. I didn't want to make the same mistake this time, so I've been listening to it more. Here's my favorite:
January 24, 2008
How I See the World
I think I experience the world mostly through the windshield of my car. At least, in the winter when it's sooo cold outside that I don't exactly feel like going for a walk in the park. While January may be dreary in general, Tuesday morning was really quite lovely. And I felt a strange sense of contentment while driving to work. Everything seemed picture-worthy and beautiful. Here are some pictures from that morning drive.
And what else is there to do at a red light but take photos of myself?
And some pictures from the evening (actually, I think these are from different evenings... I can't remember. I'm always taking pictures as I'm driving around and the days all blur together).
Puzzle Pieces
I love these puzzles put together from pieces taken out of 40 different puzzles. There's just something whimsical about them. I might have to do something like this on my own.
{First seen on swissmiss}
January 23, 2008
Sundance!
Despite being a native of Salt Lake, I've never had anything to do with the Sundance Film Festival. I blame it on the fact that for most of my adult life, I've been outside of Salt Lake City. I was either up in Logan for school or in Indiana (again, for school). So this is the first year that I've been in the thick of things.. Well, kind of. For me, being in the thick of things has consisted of attending one screening.
My friend, Alene, volunteers for Sundance and works at the Rose Wagner Theater. She sneaked a couple of us into the film What Just Happened? (I can't say this title without raising my arms, shrugging my shoulders, and cocking my head) on Monday. I was pretty excited to hob-knob with some stars. Turns out, they pretty much all stick to Park City. Or at least, there was nary a star to be seen while I was there. Still, I felt kind of like a star when I got to slip in past all these people lined up at the door and get an awesome seat.
I had mixed feelings about What Just Happened? (cue: shoulder shrug and cocked head). When we first left the theater, I was "meh." But after I've sat with it a little, I think it was better than I first gave it credit for.
Seeing pictures of all the movie stars that people (like Ashley) rub shoulders with made me want to sneak up to Park City, but with work and everything, I don't think I'll be able to. Next year, though.
January 22, 2008
Location, Location, Location
I've been watching the marathon of Jane Austen movies each Sunday on Masterpiece Theater. I did not like Persuasion one bit. I can't think of one redeeming quality, so I'm going to skip right over it and rave about Northanger Abbey for just a minute. First of all, I think the book doesn't get as much attention as it should. Sure, sure, it's not as socially incisive as Pride and Prejudice and won't answer as many AP English essay questions, but I think it speaks to a concern of its time - the act of reading novels. In fact, I'm going to go back and re-read it with that framework in mind before I write any more about it. But watching the film adaptation of it, I kept thinking about a book called Female Quixotism (and I just noticed the fantastic subtitle: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant Adventures of Dorcasina Sheldon) that I read in the most horrible class ever at Purdue. The book talks about how reading novels ruined the life of an otherwise perfectly eligible young woman. It's actually a really funny book, for being written in the 18th century. I might go back and re-read it, too.
But I'm totally getting off track here. The point of this post was that while watching the movie, I was taking notes about places and things to do when I visit England, and of course, a beautiful castle-like abbey is going to be on the list. I looked up the location on IMDB, though, and guess what --- everything was filmed in Ireland.
January 20, 2008
Sampled
I wrote over a year ago about how to cure a bad day. After a little private dance party to some Girl Talk this morning, I discovered it still works.
January 17, 2008
Remember this?
It was just a couple of months ago that I posted the youtube video for the song Another Holiday.
Well, since then I often get the song in my head, especially the lines:
Distant lands are not so far away. I don't know why we can't go.
Their meaning must have seeped into my subconscious and made any kind of travel seem possible, which is why I just bought a ticket to visit Kristy in England for two whole weeks. Now I just have to somehow make it through the next five weeks before I leave.
January 16, 2008
Old School
You know those Sci-Fi movies and books where technology advances so far that there is a revolt and people revert back to Medieval ways? I think I've reached that point with music for the moment. I'm just so tired of everything. The other day I started piping some Beatles through the radio. Man, these guys are good! And I know this song is probably overplayed and if I'm going to listen to the Beatles, I should at least listen to some rare stuff to keep my indie cred or something, but I can't help it. I've listened to it approximately five times today. It just really hits the spot right now.
January 15, 2008
Career Highlights
One of the things that I actually like about my job is researching out-of-the-way places and learning more about them. I don't get to do this very often, but I was just looking up more information about Ramsey Canyon in Arizona and read about this man, Dolan Ellis, Arizona's Official Balladeer. I've never heard Mr. Ellis sing, but I have to say, I really like his style right now. I like that he's been doing his thing for over 40 years and just look at this list of career highlights. Pretty amazing.
And I know I can sometimes come off as sarcastic or ironic, but I just want to say that I'm being very genuine about this. Reading about his life just a few minutes ago made me really happy because it reminded me that there's still so much more of it for me to live. (At least, I hope so.) It's been a hard couple (or six or seven or however many it's been) of months as I struggle to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. It's just nice to get a reminder every once in a while that I don't really have to know. Opportunities will come up if I'm just doing what I really enjoy doing. Now I just have to figure out what that is.
January 14, 2008
High School Reunion
One of the best things about Christmas time is when old friends now living in far off places like Rhode Island, Pittsburgh, LA, and Lehi come to visit. Emily hosted a lovely gathering at her house a couple of weeks ago where I snapped a couple photos. It's always so fun to meet up with everyone. It never feels like it's been ten years since we were schoolmates. Now most of my friends have families of their own. Look at these cute babies!
{Cybill and Jason's red-haired, chubby-cheeked Lia}
{Alison and Adam's big-eyed Eleanor.}
Those were the only two that came, unless you count those in the oven (and there were two of them!). But just think about this - if all the kids came, there would be around 15 little rugrats running around teasing Emily's puppy. That's a far-cry from high school. Still, the conversation included politics, movies, tv, pop culture, and more. I like being part of such an educated, interesting bunch of people. Here are some more pics.
{Brynn and Steve}
{Jason (holding Lia), Cybill, Emily, and Brynn}
{Kerstin, Natalie, and Nick}
{Alison (holding Eleanor) and Brynn}
Not pictured: far too many people. I forgot about my camera for most of the night. I wish this didn't happen only once a year.
January 10, 2008
The Utah State Capitol
The Utah State Capitol has been under renovation for I don't even remember how long, but it recently reopened to the public. Tanker and I decided to visit it.
It snowed on yesterday morning. When I looked out the window and saw my car absolutely covered in it, I groaned. Am I just not used to Utah anymore or have we had a lot of snow this season? My windshield wipers broke on Sunday so my car was in the shop all day Monday and Tuesday. I was glad the snow waited until they were fixed. Then as I drove to work, my attitude changed. The roads weren't bad (at least, not down here, though my friends up north had a hard time), and I saw patches of blue to the west. Everything was crisp and white. The trees were lacy. I just wanted to keep driving. It may also be because I didn't want to go to work. After 8 hours, I walked back outside and the sky was beautiful.
This was the saddest thing I saw all night.
The "For Rent" sign outside of Tanker's apartment because he's moving to Seattle at the end of the month.
I cheered up more when we got to the capitol. All sorts of people were touring it, like Boy Scouts:
And a private reception was taking place, too:
The funny thing about that private party, though, was that I found out my roommate Judy was attending it right before we got there. Too bad we missed her, though, because the food looked good and she probably could've sneaked us some.
The capitol is no stranger to fancy events. For example, my junior prom took place there. (I didn't go, even after I helped plan the whole thing because I was a Junior Class Senator. I totally got cheated. Then when some of my other friends that also didn't get asked and I decided to support our friends and face humiliation by going to the promenade, we had to PAY to get in. I'm so glad high school is over.) But you know who else had prom there? Melissa Joan Hart and Adrian Grenier partied there at their prom in the 80s-throwback high school movie, Drive Me Crazy.
The capitol was just as grand as I remembered it.
We got to tour the Utah Supreme Court and the House of Representatives, too. I can appreciate that the representatives want to give their desks some personality, but I just don't trust adults with stuffed animals on display at their place of business.
They sure do get a nice view, though.
It's nice to have the capitol back, and I'm looking forward to the cherry trees that were just planted blossoming in the spring.
January 05, 2008
Handy Tip
Here's something you probably don't need to know about me: I only use a bottom sheet. I toss and turn a lot while I'm sleeping, and I can't stand how the top sheet gets all twisted around, so many years ago I just gave up on it. Now I only have to buy fitted sheets, which is much easier on the pocket book and saves room in my linen closet. At least, supposedly. The problem was that I could never remember how to fold a fitted sheet properly, so I would always just roll it up. This afternoon as I've been doing laundry and a much needed room clean-up and reorganization, I was confronted with my now clean fitted sheet. Rather than make up a folding technique, as usual, I remembered that the Internet has all sorts of handy things on it and chances are there was a good instructional video on how to fold a fitted sheet. Turns out, there are a lot of them. I liked this one:
It worked quite well, and that's a very good thing (as Martha might say).
(I can't believe I just blogged about folding sheets. It's been a slow month so far.)
January 01, 2008
Reflecting on 2007
It's a time where reflecting comes naturally. But I'd rather do some blog-reflecting than self-reflecting at the moment, so here's a look back at some favorite experiences from 2007.
January
Visited the Children's Museum in Indianapolis
February
The snow storm of 2007.
March
My best friend had a baby!
April
Peter was born!
May
I finished my thesis and graduated!
Toured around the Adirondacks with Erica
And cooed over my month-old nephew in North Carolina.
June
I moved back to Utah. And started settling back into life without school. Got my first post-school job.
July
Returned to Montana for a quick visit.
With another quick trip to New York City to visit Emily.
August
Quit my first job. Went to several shows (and finally got to see The Rentals)
Boated the Pineview Reservoir with my new job
September
Lots of marvelously ordinary days in September.
October
The leaves changed, like they do every year.
And the weekend getaway to St. George came just in time to escape the coldening weather.
November
Took a trip down memory lane while visiting Logan with Kris.
I got older. bleh.
And went to New Orleans for Thanksgiving!
December
My car was broken into.
And I spent a cold and rainy but wonderful weekend in Seattle.
I guess it was a pretty good year after all. All the same, though, I'm looking forward to starting something new. Welcome 2008!