littlelotte

So Dan and many of his friends really like Nick Cave--and by "really" I mean they're obsessed. There are songs of his that are incredibly intoxicating to me, but in general I'm not a huge fan. Dan made a mix CD for the trip up to Grand Rapids yesterday and I'm suddenly obsessed with this one:

Lovely Creature
Nick Cave

There she stands, this lovely creature
There she stands, there she stands
With her hair full of ribbons
And green gloves on her hands
So I asked this lovely creature
Yes, I asked. Yes I asked
Would she walk with me a while
Through this night so fast
She took my hand, this lovely creature
"Yes", she said, "Yes", she said
"Yes, I'll walk with you a while"
It was a joyful man she led
Over hills, this lovely creature
Over mountains, over ranges
By great pyramids and sphinxes
We met drifters and strangers
On the sands, my lovely creature
And the mad, moaning winds
At night the deserts writhed
With diabolical things
Through the night, through the night
The wind lashed and it whipped me
When I got home, my lovely creature
She was no longer with me
Somewhere she lies, this lovely creature
Beneath the slow drifting sands
With her hair full of ribbons
And green gloves on her hands

Dan and I both love our work and our industry. Given that, we talk a disproportionate amount of "shop." Last night he was thumbing through one of my bar books (The Art of the Bar--click the title for the webpage) and discovered it talked about a bartender's mise en place (which he thought was amusing and implied that a mise en place is a cook thing only :-P Be certain that I set him straight on that). Somehow, while I was explaining how the art of mixology is rather like a mix between cooking and chemistry, he started talking about cooking eggs. I really can't tell you the contents of the conversation past his remark that "Eggs can smell fear."

He was utterly confused by my laughter and subsequent, "Since when did eggs become sentient beings capable of knowing when the person cooking them is terrified of destroying them?"

I'm not sure I will ever let him live it down.

Now it's time to finish getting ready for work :-P

...I just watched one of my top ten favorite movies (I bought it a couple of weeks ago) you get quotes...and me harassing you all that you need to watch Conversation(s) With Other Women...because it's theatre on film and it's absolutely brilliant.

--

Woman: You know what? I'm very reliable.
Man: You never used to be.
Woman: You know what? Suffice it to say, there are lots of things that I used to be, that I am no longer. And mind you, there are lots of things I've never thought of, either, that I unexpectedly am.


Woman: God, you put that champagne flute in front of me. I so knew what was going to happen. I looked at that glass and I thought, "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck." [Man laughs] No, it's not funny. I am married to a well-respected cardiologist, and I so try to do the right thing, but there's something about you that just sends me in the opposite direction. It's not gonna turn out well. There are no happy endings in our future.
Man: I know that.
Woman: Do you?

Man: Should I ever call you if I'm in London?
Woman: No. No way. You wouldn't recognize me anyway.


Woman: I was in hospital for six months.
Man: You were alone.
Woman: Yes.
Man: You shouldn't have been alone.
Woman: I wanted to be alone.
Man: You should have called me.
Woman: I thought of calling you. I almost called you.
Man: You should have called me. I would have come.
Woman: I know. I knew. I liked knowing that.


Man: If I told you I still loved you, that I always loved you, that I loved you to distraction, would you leave him?
Woman: No.

--

And now I have other things that I have to do or else I'll be annoyed with myself later.

I forgot how heartbreaking this movie is, and just why it's one of my absolute favorites. The first time I saw it was my junior year of college, less than a year after Dan and I had started dating. I didn't even get through the first twenty minutes before I nearly lost it and almost couldn't keep watching. It was so beautiful, though, that I had to. Not to mention, I never would have heard the end of it if I had to stop watching just because it just hurt too much to imagine losing Dan like that.

Is that kind of an occupational hazard of soul mates? One's not much without the other?

I guess this is why it's been so long since I last watched it. I'm only not a wreck right now because I'm also doing laundry and typing on this and keeping myself otherwise occupied.

-Sometimes when you win, you lose.
-Sometimes when we lose, we win.

--

I want it all, as long as it's with you.

For anybody who hasn't read the novel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Dreams_May_Come

And the movie:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Dreams_May_Come_%28film%29

Edit: Speaking of heartbreaking movies that I can't handle watching...now I have my Lost in Translation DVD in, and the previews are playing. Have any of you seen 21 Grams? Brilliant movie that I will never be able to watch ever ever again because it just hurts too much.

*falls over laughing* Lifetime is playing Frasier episodes. One of my favorites is currently on--when Roz wins a ski resort weekend and gives it to Frasier. Frasier, Niles, their dad, Daphne, Daphne's friend Annie, and the ski instructor are all staying there. It's pure bedroom farce complete with doors slamming all over the place, and it's absolutely hysterical.

http://www.frasieronline.co.uk/episodeguide/season5/ep14.htm

Of course, one of my favorite exchanges from the episode isn't on there :-( Ooh! Found it elsewhere!

Niles and Frasier talking about Annie...
Niles: I grant you she's comely, but don't you find she's a tad--what would the polite euphemism be---stupid?
Frasier: Niles, she's just unschooled, like Liza Doolittle. You find her the right Henry Higgins, she'll be ready for a ball in no time.
Niles: Leave it to you to put the "Pig" back in "Pygmalion."
[...Annie and Daphne enter...]
Frasier: Look at that vista, it's stunning! Puts one in mind of the Matterhorn, doesn't it?
Annie: Oh, I wouldn't know. I'm not very musical.

The episode where Niles and Frasier air-violin to the Brandenburg concertos at the end is rather hysterical, too. I think that's the episode that really won Dan over and left him laughing for about five minutes after.

I just started Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler and was hooked by the first lines. This really has to be the most brilliant first chapter ever written, and one perfect for any true lover of books...

In the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for. Following this visual trail, you have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of Books You Haven't Read, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres and acres the Books You Needn't Read, the Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading, Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written. And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of the Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid maneuver you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too. Eluding these assaults, you come up beneath the towers of the fortress, where other troops are holding out: . . .

*giggles*

The entire first chapter. I insist you take ten minutes to read it if you love books:
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/winter.htm

This icon has never been more appropriate ;-)

So one of the artists I really enjoy, but never get around to buying the album, is Kiran Ahluwalia. I heard her a couple of years ago on NPR. She sings gazhals (an old form of Indian love songs), and has an absolutely stunning voice. I just happened to be listening on her site and reading lyrics, and I wanted to post this one...

Saaqiya (Wine Bearer)

Ghazal
Music: Traditional
Lyrics: Mustafa Zaidi

Lyrics:
Saaqiya jaam utha saaqiya mai pila
Raat dhalti rahai daur chalta rahai
Rindh madhosh ho ho kay girtai rahain
Pinay walon ka armaan nikalta rahai

Dekh kar unki zulfoon ko rookhsaar par
Jee uthi phir tamana tarko jigar
Yun hi chehre pay zulfain machalti rahain
Chand chup chup kay yun hi nikalta rahai

Talkhiyeh zindagi is kadar badh gayee
Talkhiyeh mayn ka mainay sahara liya
Warna thi itni phursat jahan may kisay
Yoon bahakta rahai or sambhalta rahai

Translation:
Wine bearer, lift the goblet, pour the wine.
Let the night flow, let the wine glow.
Let the drinkers get inebriated, let them lose their footing.
Let the drinkers satisfy their desires.

Looking at her locks gracing her cheeks,
my feelings for her have again been stoked.
Let her locks remain falling off her face.
Let the moon keep playing hide and seek.

Bitterness of life has so increased
that I have come to rely on the
bitterness of wine for recompense.
Otherwise, who had such leisure in life
to stumble and to regain footing again and again.

Translated by Professor Saleem Qureshi

100% for me on the management part of the September secret shop. Win! It was the first time one of my stores got shopped while I was the manager on the floor.

I'm loving His Dark Materials, and I'm on the final book. Also, I bought another Italo Calvino book--If On a Winter's Night a Traveler...I can see he's going to be an addicting one. Essentially, this one is ten separate stories, all of which end at a moment of suspense, that "together...form a labyrinth of literatures, known and unknown, alive and extinct, through which two readers, a male and a female, pursue both the story lines that intrigue them and one another." Now that I can afford to again, I've gotten back in the habit of actually buying books. I like owning things more than borrowing them from a library. I like writing in the margins and highlighting too much ;-)

A couple of striking HDM quotes...

"We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not...or die of despair."
--The Golden Compass

"What do you mean, a paleo-archaeologist? Archaeologists already study what's old; why do you need to put another word meaning 'old' in front of it?"
--The Subtle Knife (hehehehehehehehehe)

Also, this will just sound silly to most of you on my f'list, but some of you will get it. I feel like the gods are pushing me towards something, but I'm not sure what. It feels like it's supposed to be a more mystical turn, but I don't even know what I should be looking for or where to begin. The most mystical I've ever really gotten (except for my silly teenage Wicca days--yes you can laugh :-P) is my tarot deck--and admittedly, I do pretty well with it when I read for people. Unfortunately, I'm a little concerned attempting to use my deck to figure it out for myself, as I obviously have blinders on when it comes to myself and my life and what I would read in the deck in a reading for myself. I've been feeling like this since I got out to Sterling, actually, but I was too unsure to mention it before. Since then the feeling has just gotten more nagging. I find it difficult to try to figure it out through reading, as I am moving so much and don't have reliable access to libraries that would have the books I'd be looking for (and I don't even know what I should be looking for in the first place)...and nothing specific seems to be calling out to me at the moment. I am very lost and very confused and I know I'll have this hole until I figure it out...help? Dreams have given me clues that are either very obscure or I forget by the time I wake up. I'm pretty certain Hermes is behind it, though--it's pretty blatantly his energy and his "voice." Of course, I'm also not completely sure, as that could just be him acting as messenger for someone or something else entirely. Bah! I'm hoping mentioning it will bring something clearer to light.

Finally, Hendrick's Gin is awesome. Just awesome. If only I had a refrigerator to keep a cucumber in for it...

Now it is 1:30am and I work at 10am in the morning, probably until about nine or so. But I want to read more! But I must sleep. *pout*

O Sam no, I could never walk away from you.


I just finished Only Revolutions and I'm a little bit heartbroken. It's one of a very small number of books that made me cry at the end. And I finished it in public and just wanted to sob. But obviously I couldn't. Seeing the bookmarks with nowhere else to go hurt a bit, too.

I obviously want to reread it, but I don't know how long it will take me before I can pick it up again.

And suddenly the world turned, warmed, and was worth it.

Now I get the inscription MZD wrote in my book. It was the perfect thing to see after I finished, at least. It made the fall (ha) a little bit easier to handle.


O Hailey no, I could never walk away from you.

And that which I can't believe I'm saying, and anybody should have known was coming...I adore this book. In fact, the book I was so terrified that I was going to be disappointed by has eclipsed House of Leaves.


...those Green eyes with flecks of Gold...

Not all is dead here. Thereupon a scorching ridge, flanks frosted, head lifted--my horse!...offering me his back mane and gallop off. Which I refuse. By holding onto Hailey. So leaving behind all of me. Higher on to alpine meadows--groves of powder...oblivious to all, to all promising oblivion. Hailey's my oblivion. For once. And allways. Beyond even Time's front. Because now We are out of time. We are at once.

I didn't even try to format that to the book, because I'm listening to the KGB Bar reading and did it from there.