The Flying Machine

Joined the ranks today. Is it me or is this essentially AIM for grownups? Productivity may or may not be dropping exponentially as we speak. (can something shrink exponentially? Or just grow? Hmm.) Dispatches from the field, in random order, some by me, some by friends, I'm not telling which is which:

I'm considering butchering my aloe plant. Nothing like sticky plant goo for a hot date!

Hopefully you have a big bed and no couch?

You don't want to make the friend feel like a third wheel... unless you want to have a threesome.

It's sometimes unclear whether what you're doing is bad karma or just kinda stupid.

I like a little artificial structure with my pomo meaningless existence.

I'm laying low from karma right now.
Uh-oh.
It's looking for me like i owe it money

Posted by Sarah at 3:11 PM | Permalink

An old man walks into the office where I work:

Clerk: Good morning!
Old man: Good morning.

Clerk: How are ya today?
Old man: Fair to middlin'.

---

That's one of my favorite old phrases. Making a mental note to use it more often. I'd never really known its origins, though, until now -

From World Wide Words:

Fair and middling were terms in the cotton business for specific grades — the sequence ran from the best quality (fine), through good, fair, middling and ordinary to the least good (inferior), with a number of intermediates, one being middling fair. The phrase fair to middling sometimes appeared as a reference to this grade, or to a range of intermediate qualities — it was common to quote indicative prices, for example, for “fair to middling grade”. The reference was so well known in the cotton trade that it seems to have eventually escaped into the wider language.

Posted by Sarah at 11:33 AM | Permalink

I'd just like to announce to the world that The Weakerthans have a new album coming out! In three months! It has been far, far too long. My friend Pam got to see them perform last night on a boat cruise outside of New York City. So jealous.

Reunion Tour is the title of the fourth studio album by The Weakerthans, scheduled for release on September 25th, 2007 in the USA and a day earlier in Canada. (BrooklynVegan)

Also. The new Interpol leaked and yeah it sounds a lot like previous Interpol records but I happen to like that sound. You know how sometimes you don't realize you've been missing something 'til you hear it again and BOOM it's suddenly the only thing you wanna hear? All day? Yeah.

UPDATE: Let me just add that WEEZER will have a new album coming out in early 2008. Oh yes. Bring it on, R-dawg.

Posted by Sarah at 3:23 PM | Permalink

Goddamn but the last week was a good one. I've been living out here in the Oregon high desert for nearly nine months now, and don't get me wrong - I've been enjoying the hell out of it. But a week's vacation spent in the company of some old college friends whilst road-tripping to San Francisco and living the good life, well, that's hard to beat. I've got some photos and stories for y'all soon, but until then, enjoy this old crunchy-loud-live Uncle Tupelo cover of Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, k?

Uncle Tupelo - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (Live, 1994)

Posted by Sarah at 1:36 PM | Permalink

HI FROM SAN FRANCISCO!

Posted by Sarah at 11:03 PM | Permalink

R and I had pretty much the best day ever at the local thrift stores today. I got my first pair of real Wranglers and a vintage 80's blue and grey silk cocktail dress. He got some stovepipe stonewashed Levi's and cowboy boots... and a Grateful Dead tie-dye t-shirt. Pictures coming soon.

Posted by Sarah at 7:15 PM | Permalink

The next 2 weeks are busy ones, so don't expect much from me on here
(not that you get much anyway, but.. you know).

Tuesday - Thursday: Workshop in Lakeview with the Disaster Dames.
Thursday - Monday: R's in town! (He's en route from DC via train this very moment).
Tuesday - Sunday: Road trippin' to San Francisco and attending the AnderBois wedding aka Dartmouth'05AlumniFest2K7 with Sally!

Posted by Sarah at 11:39 AM | Permalink

Waiting to huck some softballs

I spent a good part of each of the past two Saturdays volunteering at a charity track meet in town. This wasn't some big competitive event with runners in spikes and zealous parents toting oversize cameras, just a charity meet for kids from all over the county to try their hands and feet at running, the long jump, and a softball throw. It was for kids ages 1-14, you know, the pre-serious-competitive-running ages, which meant some good times:

• 1-year olds being asked to "throw the ball to daddy!" who simply carried the ball over.
  
• Unsteady, uncomphrehending 2-year olds with arms out trotting desperately after parents stumbling backward in the 100-meter dash.
  
• A veritable army of ponytailed tomboy girls popping bubblegum and sassing the scorekeeper (me).
  
• Bluster-filled boys all claiming to be able to whup each other.
  
• Crock-pot hot dogs for a dollar and root beer popsicles for fifty cents!
  

I spent my time out on the football field at the softball throwing station, writing down names and throwing distances. These two were my compadres:
 

That's "This is the scar from my tendon surgery" Greg on the left and "C'mon sister, pop me in the nose!" Ronny on the right. Greg and I bonded over the superiority of long-distance running over sprinting. Ronny and I bonded because, well, I'm female.

R: You're new around here, right?
S: Yep! Moved here in October.
R: Married?
S: Nope.
R: In a relationship?
S: Not really. Sort of.
R: ALRIIIIGHT!!

Two LOL moments:
 

L: The way a kiddie race SHOULD be run. Line 'em up and let 'em go however they please.
R: A new use for the big plastic letters implanted into the slope bordering the football field.

Posted by Sarah at 10:39 AM | Permalink

Two weekends ago I made a somewhat spontaneous trip out to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks with Megan. It was, in a word, awesome.

We set off on a Friday with a cooler full of food and cookies and wine and nothing but wide open Idaho highway between us and Wyoming. 7 hours later we rolled into Jackson just in time to catch sunset over the Tetons and wash up and dress up and catch an incredible Italian dinner with my parents (note to self: need to get some prosciutto and arugula for that pasta dish). Next day we wake up to dawn on the Tetons and hit Yellowstone hard - Old Faithful, various other geysers and hot springs and geothermal wonders, hiking, wildlife-ogling, tourist-ogling, spotting out-of-state license plates, and chewing our way through several packs of Bubblicious. We roll back into Jackson exhausted again in time for another lovely dinner at a brewpub, more good times with the parents, and only a few hours' sleep before another long day, this time rockin' Grand Teton. More hiking, more ogling, and then a few hours' rambling through Jackson proper (including a real sweet 50% off Smartwool sale!). Post-Tetons we hit the highway for the strange and wonderful Craters of the Moon, where we make camp on the windiest patch of volcanic gravel I ever did sleep on. There may or may not have also been wine and a few rounds of fortune-telling with M.A.S.H. After a quick tour the next morning of Craters' windy, surreal sights, we book it back to the big O R, exhausted but happy.

In case you want to see some pictures of, you know, the actual sights of western Wyoming in its glorious late-spring beauty, you can check them out:

(Oh, and a few shots from Craters of the Moon National Monument and Arco, ID, too)

Posted by Sarah at 2:39 PM | Permalink

Sometimes you're rolling along through your Bloglines, skimming and clicking and tabbing, and you get stopped short by something that hits you just the right way. I love it when that happens.

From Posie, who always inspires me to get creative:

I put the needles down and didn't pick them up again for several years. When I tried to knit again, this time with a woman in her 70s named Heather who worked at the Yarn Garden, it was a completely different experience. I wanted to make something special for my soon-to-be-born niece, and Heather said, "Just pick something." And I started saying, "But I can't! I'm not allowed! The other teacher said it could only be wool! And she has to do her super-secret recalculations! Are you going to do the super-secret calculations???" And, of course, poor bewildered Heather (having learned to knit at age 7) was like, "Oh, pshaw. We'll make whatever you love. Pick something. What do you love?" And that is why I love Heather, rest her. I think my blood pressure dropped 20 points systolic. And — zing! — I instantly became a member of the club. I felt freedom and joy. I made a little kimono out of the craziest, cutest, bobble-y-ist yarn you've ever seen, and it wasn't easy, but what's so great about "easy"? Easy is relative. You just need a little space and a little time and a little C'mon baby! Join the human race! There is no secret handshake. You just get in there. If one book doesn't work, get another. If one teacher doesn't resonate, get another. It's all part of how it goes. You don't just stop, you go. I remember an old English professor of mine saying a long, long time ago, "Someday you will read something that will blow your mind. You'll be so excited you'll want to read every single thing about that thing, or by that person, or whatever it is. It will happen." And it just amazed me that someone would promise that. I remember thinking, "My God, it's going to happen to me! It's going to happen!" And since then it's happened a million times, and I get up every morning wondering if it might happen, that day, again. You just gotta believe.

Posted by Sarah at 2:19 PM | Permalink

You can never go wrong serving a guy homemade garlic bread.

Posted by Sarah at 9:37 AM | Permalink

If anybody's gonna be - or wants to be - in New York City on the days of July 13, 14, or 15, let me know - I just got tix this morning and while a good chunk of that time will be taken up by time with my C&G girls, I've ALWAYS got time for more friends, especially since this is the only time I'll be both on the East Coast and north of the Mason-Dixon for a long while.

Posted by Sarah at 8:59 AM | Permalink

I'm pretty psyched about the new The New Pornographers track that's leaked.

Posted by Sarah at 4:37 PM | Permalink

Sometimes you have one of those weekends when it is well-nigh impossible to get back into your workaday grind. To fix it, or at least put off the inevitable, here are some sweet links I've come across over the past week or so.

• I think my favorite thing about this Vanity Fair piece on the Wainwright-McGarrigle clan is the title: Songs in the Key of Lacerating. But it's a good read, too, especially if you love those Wainwright boys. Note to self: need to check out the music of the female side of the family. (via.. I forgot)

• A new portrait every day? Photographer Bill Waldman is doing a really fine job of it. Definitely worth a daily visit. (via Coudal)

• Um, I love this lolcat. (Icanhascheezburger)

• Disturbing trends with SCOTUS... (MoJo)
  

  Ginsburg, now the only female Justice since Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement, has gone up against the same five justices (Alito, Roberts, Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas) in both recent dissents. Those five frequently form the core of her opposition, and perhaps not surprisingly, three of these five justices were hand-picked by Bush presidents (Alito, Roberts, and Thomas). The other two were picked by Reagan.

• Is Google evil? I was actually recently checking out Google's job listings on the foundation/nonprofit side, but this article makes me second-guess that idea. (MoJo)
  

  If you are a Gmail user, Google stashes copies of every email you send and receive. If you use any of its other products—Google Maps, Froogle, Google Book Search, Google Earth, Google Scholar, Talk, Images, Video, and News—it will keep track of which directions you seek, which products you shop for, which phrases you research in a book, which satellite photos and news stories you view, and on and on. Served up à la carte, this is probably no big deal. Many websites stow snippets of your data. The problem is that there’s nothing to prevent Google from combining all of this information to create detailed dossiers on its customers, something the company admits is possible in principle.

  
  

Posted by Sarah at 1:24 PM | Permalink

Apparently I sent this text message to one of my friends on Saturday night:

"druuunkkkkk yess oh mao redneck party yesss"

I HAVE NO RECOLLECTION OF THIS.

Posted by Sarah at 11:46 AM | Permalink