The First Signs of Fall!

Posted on July 30, 2008
Filed Under Blather, craft, knitting, me and my brain | 5 Comments

Okay, I can almost hear most of you saying, “Fall? Girlfriend, it’s just barely summer.” But then, you all probably also know how I think. So yeah, FALL!!

Vogue Knitting Fall 2008

I have taken up my knitting needles again (now you keep hush if you know what I’m working on), AND I got the fall issue of Vogue Knitting in the mail today. Hip. Hip. Hip. Hoooo-ray!!!

The Calamity, a book review with which some of you will disagree

Posted on July 30, 2008
Filed Under Blather, Literary, friends, me and my brain, rant | 2 Comments

A few days ago I finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics. It was a strange book for me, because it was a page-turner (at least, some of it was), but the writing style annoyed me, and overall I ended up really disappointed.


I didn’t believe any of the characters. There’s little in the story that I could relate to my own life–and I don’t just mean in terms of things that happen, because lots of things happen in lots of books that have nothing to do with my life. I feel like the author tried too hard to describe everything so that she didn’t leave room to fill in anything–at least, nothing superficial. Somehow, even after all of that, I felt like the characters lacked any sort of depth. With all the glowing reviews at the front of the book, I would have guessed that the main character would be appealing. She’s not. I found her annoying, not very believable, and pretty stupid for how smart she’s supposed to be. I kept trying to give a lot of characters a pass, because they’re supposed to be smarty-pants high schoolers, but it just doesn’t work. And the adults don’t act like adults, either. The things they say and do with the young people are just totally implausible. Okay, maybe one or two oddball characters would act strangely with kids, but all of them? It just doesn’t work.

And the similes!! No, the LISTS of similes. It was painful.

Shortly before I finished the book, I was talking to Amy, who read and enjoyed the book–though she had some issues with it, too. We were talking about bad similes in books, and she said something about a book she’d read (not this one, or so she thought, anyway) having a ridiculous simile that compared someone’s eyes to olives. Well, lo and behold, toward the end of Special Topics, the narrator compares someone’s eyes to olives. I guess maybe in this case it’s supposed to be funny. It isn’t the worst bit of the book, though. It isn’t even so much that all the similes are bad, it’s that there are too many of them… The author couldn’t just pick a few of the most poetic and spot-on ones or find some other way of describing things.

And all the endless referencing and faux referencing… it isn’t clever, it’s annoying. I hate all that b.s..

For all of the supposed unpredictability of the book, I feel like I totally nailed the ending long before it happened.

It isn’t a painful read in that somehow most of the time it flows (except in the part where the main character is supposedly figuring everything out–which to me felt too convenient and very boring), but her writing is often painful in other ways. There’s something self-congratulatory about it that’s really off-putting. I can’t recommend it. Read Donna Tartt or something instead.

sundial

Posted on July 17, 2008
Filed Under Blather, art, photography, the 'hood | 1 Comment



This one was taken on my Holga (so it’s 120 film). It’s a double exposure, and it’s from my first crack at developing my own 120 film.

More proof that Amy is among the best EVER

Posted on July 14, 2008
Filed Under Blather, art, friends, photography, the interweb | 6 Comments

So dear pal Amy has been tagging some of my flickr photos to Bostonist, which has put them in consideration for photo of the day… and today the first photo in my previous post got the nod! Thanks so much, Amy my star!

I’ll have more for you soon, I promise!

So I owe you…

Posted on July 8, 2008
Filed Under Blather, art, family, photography, wide world of vacation | 1 Comment

I owe you all four pictures–I promised one a day!

I mentioned that I had more pictures of the Rose Kennedy Greenway at twilight to share. Here they are.



These are coming to you all in one batch because we were away for the 4th of July weekend. We visited Simon, Frances, and Eva in Saratoga Springs. Simon and Frances teach at a summer dance program there, and as it’s only about four hours from here and as I lived there during college, it’s always a good place for us to get together. They are staying in a nicely fixed-up old house this year with some other dancers who are teaching in the program. We stayed with them and just had a good time relaxing and catching up.

On the way home from Saratoga Springs we made two previously unplanned stops. For lunch we decided to find somewhere to eat in Western Mass. We ended up in Great Barrington where we had very tasty organic-sourdough-wood-fired-gourmet pizza. Yeah, it was good. Then as we neared 495, inspired by the cool way the place we’d stayed in Saratoga Springs had been fixed up, I asked Ez if he wanted to stop at IKEA for some organizational goodies. He agreed, and we hit the joint around 6:30-ish, so it wasn’t too crowded (though it was ridiculously messy–IKEA has such a tidy aesthetic that it just kinda seems completely incongruous that their shoppers would leave potato chip packages and empty soda cans on displays). We found many practical and relatively inexpensive items for our little home improvement project–which is basically a home organization project. It was a successful tangent!

Yesterday the darkroom at MassArt was closed, but today I spent several hours there. The prints from today are still drying, but here’s one from last week.


Creation

Posted on July 3, 2008
Filed Under Blather, art, music, photography | 4 Comments

http://tercat.muxtape.com/

I made you a mix. That’s it up there. It’s pretty random.


More photos from this little shoot to come.

Lunchtime

Posted on July 2, 2008
Filed Under Blather, art, photography, the pusses | Leave a Comment


Lunchtime, Boston

It’s lunchtime. Suki is very insistently licking my hands and shedding everywhere.

Can she meet the challenge?

Posted on July 1, 2008
Filed Under Blather, art, me and my brain, photography, the interweb | 5 Comments

Every day from now on, I’m going to try to post a photo I’ve taken. It’ll force me to post more often, so likely you’ll get not only more pictures from me, but also more words.

Here’s today’s photo. Kim mentioned it in her comments on a previous post, and it seems to be one of the most successful of my recent self-portraits.

In other news, today I heard from an old college friend I’ve been seeking out for years. I’m thrilled to hear from her. This is why the internet is a good thing. I imagine we would never have connected again without it.

More street photos

Posted on June 25, 2008
Filed Under Blather, art, photography, sports in general | 2 Comments


Kids at Copley Square, after the Celtics victory parade


Shop window, Massachusetts Avenue

Yay! Modern Pastry to manage Soleil Cafe!

Posted on June 24, 2008
Filed Under Blather, dining, the 'hood | 2 Comments

I just walked by Soleil Cafe, as I do pretty much any time I walk home from the T. From across the street I saw that the cafe windows are all papered, and I wondered if the place had closed. It seems like they’d been reducing their hours over time and I always wanted to like their food more than I did. Once I got closer, I saw the little signs in all the windows indicating that the cafe is closed but will soon re-open under the management of the fine people who run Modern Pastry in the North End and Medford! Pastries, gelato, sandwiches, and other delights are promised! Yay!!

keep looking »

Song of the Day

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The Knitting Turnip

On My Needles

Rhapsody in Tweed cabled pullover for Ezra! using Tahki Donegal Tweed in Forest, from Fall 2004 Interweave Knits. I've just picked this one up again, so it's moving up in the queue!

Sweater with Cable Patterns pullover using Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in Mauve, from Rebecca Magazine Number 28

Heather Pullover using Classic Elite Wings in Larkspur, from Rowan’s A Season’s Tale... This needs the knit doctor. I'm going to have to frog back a little bit and redo the shoulder area. Long story.

Hush Pullover using Jo Sharp DK wool in Wine, from Rowan’s Calmer Collection

Recently Finished Projects

In the Groove boatneck pullover using Manos del Uruguay in Black and Cheek (pale pink), from Fall 2006 issue of knitscene. SWEATER IS DONE!

Stash Stealer Scarf for me, using delicious yarn that darling Amy let me raid from her stash. I made up the pattern--a couple of wide ribs rimmed in moss stitch. It's soft and fuzzy and DONE!

Moss Stitch Jacket with Collar for Hope using Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo in Ivy, from Quick Baby Knits by Debbie Bliss. JACKET IS DONE!

Next in line

Brompton cardigan using Noro Cash Iroha in Jewel Green (my name for shade #100)

Eyelet Yoke Pullover using Debbie Bliss Merino Aran

Under consideration

Loads!

More scoop on my knitting endeavors can be found at my home on Ravelry (clicky here).

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