None But Eagles | 28 February 2010

You can find me at popscratch.tumblr.com.

Bedroom chair | 30 January 2010

Postcard | 16 January 2010

At the end of Anthony Powell’s The Acceptance World, Nick Jenkins contemplates a postcard from Jean arranging their rendezvous. The postcard portrays a woman sitting on a man’s lap on a red velvet chair in a bedroom, exchanging “ardent glances … evidently on the best of terms.”

One could not help thinking how extraordinarily unlike “the real thing” was this particular representation of a pair of lovers; indeed, how indifferently, at almost every level except the highest, the ecstasies and bitterness of love are at once conveyed in art. So much of the truth remains finally unnegotiable; in spite of the fact that most persons in love go through remarkably similar experiences. … The matter was presented as all too easy, the twin flames of dual egotism reduced almost to nothing, so that there was no pain; and, for that matter, almost no pleasure.

……

The fact remained that an infinity of relevant material had been deliberately omitted from that vignette of love in action. These two supposedly good-looking persons were, in effect, going through the motions of love in such a manner as to convince others, perhaps less well equipped for the struggle than themselves, that they, too, the spectators, could be easily identified with some comparable tableau. They, too, could sit embracing on crimson chairs. Although hard to define with precision the exact point at which a breach of honesty had occurred, there could be no doubt that this performance included an element of the confidence-trick.

And the last line of the novel:

Perhaps, in spite of everything, the couple on the postcard could not be dismissed so easily. It was in their world that I seemed now to find myself.

The drinks of the new year | 1 January 2010

Nows | 31 December 2009

Forever — is composed of Nows —
’Tis not a different time —
Except for Infiniteness —
And Latitude of Home —

From this — experienced Here —
Remove the Dates — to These —
Let Months dissolve in further Months —
And Years — exhale in Years —

Without Debate — or Pause —
Or Celebrated Days —
No different Our Years would be
From Anno Domini’s —

— Emily Dickinson, c. 1862

Lamps | 29 December 2009

One of our many lamps; this one sits in the corner between two sofas and lights my book when I read on the old blue couch at night.

Do you mind? | 24 December 2009

We recorded another video on our American Thanksgiving road trip (see last year’s), this time to Robbie Williams’s “Do You Mind”. We are, as Scott mentioned, dorks, and apparently unashamed of it.

(I’m posting this now because my website disappeared for 24 hours and even though no one noticed and it really didn’t matter at all I feel like I must do something to welcome it back. Also I’m worried that the holiday spirit will overtake me shortly, via eggnog, from which I do not plan to emerge for another eight days or so.)

Do You Mind from SDH on Vimeo.

Sexy new chair | 24 October 2009

Acrylics | 20 October 2009

Happy birthday, luvvy.

Sunset after rain | 4 October 2009

The new place, empty | 1 September 2009

50 years | 31 August 2009

All that decor | 27 August 2009

A sponge on the rampage is a formidable foe. It has no central nervous system, not like us.

“It’s not like us,” says Chris, from the top of his condo, where he has gone with his binoculars to reconnoitre. Amanda clings to him fearfully. What a shame this is — they just bought the condo, in which they had great sex in Chapter One, and now look. All that decor gone to waste.

From “Three Novels I Won’t Write Soon” in The Tent by Margaret Atwood

So much wine | 25 August 2009

Cottage week with family | 25 August 2009

Looking forward | 22 August 2009

Some tangible reasons — that have everything to do with a sense of entitlement to a limited definition of living well which seems to come with the ability to afford it — why I’m so excited about moving from our current rented apartment into our very own owned condominium in two weeks:

• Windows in the bedroom. I expect them to help greatly in my daily battle to remove myself from bed.
• Enough space in the kitchen for both Scott and me to prepare food without multiple scratches and bruises resulting.
• In-home laundry! No more laundromat full of crazy people and loud televisions!
• Underground parking! No more terrible busted-up driveway or parking availability/snow removal worries.
• Separate bathtub!
• An entryway separate from the living area and thus far enough away from any hallway noise, which is extremely unlike our current place where we can hear every footfall on the stairs and every opening of every stairwell door.
• Minimal street noise, unlike currently where bus after bus screeches past and trucks rattle the stove and light fixtures.
• Huge closets!
• No leftover money to squander on things we don’t need anyway!

In a few months’ time, I will share just how badly I have been disappointed. Already I know that I will miss the wonderful light, the non-functional but lovely fireplace and mantle, the window in the kitchen, the separate TV room, and the shoji blinds.

A list | 1 August 2009

• Today I had my hair cut very short, shorter than I have ever had it before. It’s liberating to look boyish. Yes, I’m donating the 17 inches that were chopped off to people who make wigs for cancer victims.
• I turned twenty-five a few days ago. I’m almost old enough now to be unashamed of being so young.
• We bought a condo and will be moving in September. I don’t think I could overstate how excited I am about this, if only because there are so many ways we could arrange the furniture.
• We celebrated our three-year wedding anniversary with what is now a tradition of eating and drinking ourselves into a stupor.
• I’m taking a Shakespeare course this summer wherein one of our assignments was putting together and acting a 10-minute scene from one of the plays. My three-woman group did Measure for Measure, and I played Angelo. It was actually pretty fun — not the merciless torture I expected acting to be.
• I’ve had classes two nights a week non-stop since January. My one-month break starts next Thursday night around 9pm, a couple days after which we’re off to a cottage for a week of shenanigans with my extended family.
• Only then will I be able to start reading Thomas Pynchon’s new novel Inherent Vice, which I managed to buy early from a release date–defying bookstore, and will also try to read other novels to make up for more or less ignoring them wholesale for months, given a certain lack of free time.

P.S. In case you don’t know this already, you can follow me on Twitter, see my sadly infrequent photos on Flickr, and read Scott’s version of events on erasing.org and his Twitter.

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