The Metaphorical Magpie

Culture Shock: Vol. 6

2/19: Film: Completing what we're calling the  junkie trifecta; we watched the highly anticipated "Half Nelson." Ryan Gosling's performance is subtly nuanced. Watching his emotions play across his face like the shadow of a tree's branches dance on a wall during a long afternoon reminded me of what actors are supposed to be doing. Put this film into your Netflix queue, people! (The first two films in our junkie trifecta were "Down to the Bone " and "Sherrybaby.")
2/20: Reading: Budget Travel (Mar. 2007) the articles on renting a lighthouse  in Croatia and the dream trip to a Mexican butterfly reserve have me ready to plan a new adventure
2/21: Reading: New York (2/26/07) the spring fashion issue, "Tussie-Mussie: The Language of Flowers" by Geraldine Adamich Laufer. With this guide, I'll be able to put together Victorian tussie mussie bouquets and boutenierres for our wedding. Listening: KEXP.org online Film: most of "Ball of Fire", a highly entertaining romp written by Billy Wilder about a group of stuffy academics studying slang who get mixed up with a gansters's moll played by Barbara Stanwyck. I did miss the beginning which featured my all time favrorite drummer bandleader, Gene Krupa. I'll have to try to catch this one again in entirety.
2/22: Listening:  "Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited" by Various Artists. For the most part, I was not into this. The last track "Those Little Things" by Carla Bruni caught my attention. TV: The Office, 30 Rock. I love this show so much "I want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant" and Greys Anatomy. I thought Grey's was way over the top with the near death experience scenes. Although, I do love me some Denny.
2/23: Listening: I treated myself to a new set of earphones to use at the office. With them I enjoyed on MySpace, I listened to tracks by Silversun Pickups "Lazy Eyes", Imogen Heap, Devotchka "We're Leaving" and Carla Bruni. I love this quote from Bruni's "Those Dancing Days"- "I carry the sun in a golden cup..the moon in a silver bag."  The Leonard Lopate show had the most rousing segment about bread. Really. It was moving. Learn about authentic French bread baking technique and where to get good bread. TV: Real time with Bill Maher.
2/24: Shopping from bridemaids' dresses (AGAIN!) and helping JPo pack gave me no time for media
2/25: Reading:  Domino (Feb. 2007) During the Depression, my Grams and Aunt Dodi lived in Woodycrest in the Bronx. Grams always told me stories about their time in 'the home for the friendless" where she was so well cared for she didn't even know there was a Depression going on. Seeing what Domino and a talented team of designers did to reimagine the space to help other people in need was wonderful. Grams would have been tickled pink. i wish she was here so we could decide which designs we liked best. TV: Barbara Walters interview with Oscar nominees, The Oscars (duh). I actually managed to sqeak by Sweets in the office pool. More on his picks at his film blog The Scout. Stop by and sign up for his weekly email of a pdf version of his Scout page that appears weekly in our local newspaper.  This week he did a comparision chart of the Academy's Oscar and Oscar the Grouch.

Postcards from the weekend

We went for a winter walk. Sweets spent most of his time crunching ice.

He found his own personal pond to skate on. This poor tree must have been weighted down with ice. Some of the branch tips looked like they were capped with ice flowers.

I wanted to go look for ducks in this park. The water they usually hang out in was frozen. When I came upon where they were resting, I startled them and they took flight.

Sweets took some shots of my new haircut. Until his fingers got too cold.

Culture Shock: Vol. 5

2/12: Reading: Martha Stewart Living (Feb 2007)

2/13: Reading: Body + Soul (Feb 2007) Film: Sherrybaby Listening:  authors of "The Film Snob's Dictionary"  on the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC

2/14:  Reading: a stack of seed catalogs Listening: The Story of Chanson. Nothing like Edith Piaf to put you in the mood for love

2/15: TV: The Office, 30 Rock, Grey's Anatomy Listening: KEXP in Seattle online

2/16: TV: Real Time with Bill Mahr Reading: Martha Stewart Living (Feb 2007) Listening: My Valentine Swap CD

2/17: Reading: New York Listening: My Valentine Swap CD

2/18: TV: The Simpsons (which was based on the UP documentary series which we're currently in the midst of watching), 60 Minutes, Extras, Desperate Housewives,  Men in Trees (2/15)

Needless but fun

I'm working on doing a Janet-inspired meme this week. She's pulled 
a letter "C" out of her Scrabble bag in my honor. I'll be posting
 10 things I love that start with the letter soon. In the meantime,
 there is a meme that requires far less thought. My thoughts have
 been rather scattered this week. All you need to do for this 
meme is Google your name and the word "needs". The results are
 pretty funny. I've tried my name and my alter ego, Roxy, who
 usually has more fun than ordinary ol' me. The results seem 
to show that, too. 

Here we go:
Rachel needs to have blush that is very bright and colorful
 (I just bought some from Smashbox, thank you very much)

Rachel Needs Some Good Thoughts (Yes, bridesmaids'dresses,
 haircut anxiety and lack of bathroom facilities at our 
wedding site tends to put me in a dark thoughts mode)

Rachel needs guidance and normal supervision (Especially in
 swimming pools)

Rachel needs to throw more bacon parties (Amen, to that!)

Rachel needs help when she enters Manhattan's meat-packing district

Rachel needs to set her sights a little higher

Rachel needs time to chill out (How'd you guess?)

Rachel needs a new format

Rachel's story needs to be told, now. (Do you have a
few minutes?)

Rachel Needs a Resurrection (Sorry, didn't know I had croaked) 

And here's what my alter ego turns up:
Roxy needs to let you in on a little secret

Roxy needs to get out of the kitchen

the roxy needs u dude

Roxy needs good sex

Roxy needs now most is a loving home

Roxy needs to have more air time

Roxy needs to back that thang up

Roxy needs to learn some responsibility

Roxy needs a potty break during the night

Roxy needs a boy rabbit

My Roxy needs a nail nip and her pooper chute squeezed

I think what I actually really need is about 48 hours 
of sleep. I'm so worn out this week. Tomorrow I've got a
 hair appointment with a stylist I've never used before. 
Then we're going to meet up with Talulah in the city to hand 
off her bridesmaid dress. All of last weekend was spent 
tracking them down for the girls. I had to have T-La's 
shipped from a Macy's in Buffalo, NY. If it doesn't fit 
her we may have to start the dress search all over again. 
I'm crossing my fingers AND my toes. The real treat of the 
day will be seeing Brent. He's been in the city for a 
conference this week. Hopefully, we'll be able to get together
 for a dinner to celebrate lunar new year and hang out.

Now, seriously, I'm off to bed. 

Self Portrait Challenge: B&W #2

You can't really do a month of black and white photos and not slip in a photobooth strip! We ary trying to make boothing a tradition. There are booths in some of the arcades at the Point Pleasant, NJ boardwalk that we've tried them a few times. Usually on a humid but breezy evening when we get the craving to play skeeball and eat giant ice cream cones.

This strip was taken in our vacation to the Pacific Northwest last fall. Before we left, I prepared myself with a list of possible locations. Find a booth near you or where you'll be visiting here.

There's something about stepping into the booth and drawing the curtain. It's only semi-private. THe curtain never closes fully and it's not full length. But for some reason, being in that small space with people you are close to allows you to open up and cut up.  Here I am with the Bad Girl Posse at a booth in Brooklyn, NY.

Last year for Sweets' Valentine's Day present, I made him a scrapbook of our first year together. This is the page with our first photobooth experience together. The page also has a feather that I had included with his present the following year. It cradled a key to the house in a heart shaped box. I'm still trying to come up with something for this year's present. Last year he did this surprise art installation of red balloons suspended from the ceiling. Each one held a slip of paper with things he loves about me written on it. I had to pop a balloon to get the mesage. So I feel pretty pressured to do something cool  this year.  And I'm slightly unprepared. Although I do have at least one trick up my sleeve.

For more black and white self portraits, visit Self Portrait Challenge.

Want more photobooth photos? Check out this book. I have a copy and love going back to it again and again.  or the Photobooth Friday community and Photobooth group on Flickr.

Five Things Swap

Recently, I put together packages for the new Five Things Swap. There are five participants and JEK, the swap hostess. if you make six packages, each participant gets one, including the hostess and yourself. Getting a present from yourself is a bit weird but kind of cool to let you experience what opening your swap is like for a receiver.

The heart theme was perfect for Valentine's Day. While wired on decongestants one night last month, I made an assortment of pendants. Each one is different. They all have a vintage bauble from my enormous stash of my grand Aunt Dodi's jewelry. I've also used glass beads, freshwater pearls, amethyst chips and other bits and bobs. The ribbons they hang on are long enough to put on over the head. Or to use as a bookmark in a larger book.

The pendants are attached to old bingo cards I found at a rummage sale last year. Finding love can rather be like playing bingo.  Life calls out to you "Midwestern" - "Green Eyes" - "Gentleman" - "Artist" - "Breakfast Maker" - "Good Kisser"- "Film Nut" - "Dog Lover" - and you start waving your hand in the air, hopping up in your seat, saying "Bingo, bingo, BINGO. I won!" At least, that's how it went for me anyway.

Each package holds a pendant, a handwritten note that differs for each one , a fold out puffy heart decoration, a copy of the ee cummings poem "i carry your heart" which I've written about here before  and a Valentine's Day mix made by me.

This is the playlist:
Find Love -  Clem Snide   
It's True That We Love One Another  - The White Stripes   
All The Right Reasons  - The Jayhawks   
Don't Do Me Like That -   Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers   
Dos Gardenias -   Buena Vista Social Club   
I Will Keep the Bad Things from You - The Damnwells   
Four-Eyed Girl -  Rhett Miller   
Imaginary Love  - Rufus Wainwright   
L-O-V-E (Love) -  Al Green   
Love Has Found Me  -  Centro-Matic    
Spread Your Love - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Stuff And Nonsense   -  Neil Finn & Friends   
The Origin of Love -  Hedwig & The Angry Inch   
Still In Love Song - The Stills   
The Lady's In Love with You - Glenn Miller   
Think I'm In Love -  Beck   
You've got to hide your love away  - Pearl Jam   
Your Nervous Heart  -  Rhett Miller   
Open Heart Surgery  - The Brian Jonestown Massacre   
I Say I Love You  -  The Mooney Suzuki   
Jersey Girl -  Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band   
In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel   

Culture Shock: Vol. 4- Double Issue

When I began the Culture Shock project, I was curious what I would find. It really adds up when you start to keep track. In the mornings, I've been putting on Queer Eye for a little shot of fabulosity and good vibes. They did a surprise wedding this week that actually gave me some new ideas. There are some shows that I am anxious to see, Greys Anatomy and Extras. Others, ER and Studio 60, may sit on the Tivo for a week or more before I watch them. This week, I decided to let one of them go. I'm feeling a bit pressured for time. I have made a concerted effort to listen to more music. Seeing Alexi Murdoch in concert was a nice treat and I realized it's been far too long since I've been to a show. The time I spend reading poetry or looking at art are small islands of sustenance for the soul.

1/29: Listening: Ben Kweller- "On My Way" and "Sha Sha" Film: "21 Up," the third in the UP series and the best so far. Reading: InStyle Weddings (Winter 07), NJ Monthly (Feb 07)

1/30: Listening: Brendan Benson-"Alternative to Love" (I love the song "The Pledge"), Crowded House- "Woodface", Flaming Lips-"Clouds Taste Metallic" , The Leonard Lopate show on vertical farming, a way to farm in cities and feed thousands

2/1: Reading: David Sedaris' "Holidays on Ice" Sweets tucked this into my stocking. Wickedly funny respite from being sick all day TV: Greys Anatomy, Men In Trees

2/2: TV: The Office, 30 Rock

2/3: Film: "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" Listening: Garrison Starr-"The Sound of  You and Me" Reading:  bird related quotes in  the "Oxford Dictionary of Quotations" which I've owned since high school and poetry by Christina Dante Rosetti in search of readings for the wedding. I think we'll use "A Birthday"

2/4: Film: Pan's Labyrinth TV: Extras, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

2/5: Reading: New York magazine TV: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. We decided this is our last episode of Studio 60. It's gotten beyond tedious. It's not funny and the constant religion bashing is a bore even to a lefty, godless creature like me. I really like the character Danny Tripp but I can't keep giving up an hour a week to this show.

2/6:Reading: New York magazine TV: A few Tivo'd Nigella Feasts episodes

2/7: Film: "Down to the Bone" Vera Famiga, scene stealer from "The Departed" stars in this tale of a drug addicted mother's struggle to get and stay clean  Listening: Daniel Johnston "Continued Story/Hi, How Are You", Leonard Lopate show: interview with "Stealing Buddha's Dinner" author Bich Minh Nguyen. Don't forget about my giveaway.

2/8: TV: ER(2/2), The Office, 30 Rock, Grey's Anatomy Listening: Leonard Lopate show: How to be a Tourist in NYC. Great ideas for places to visit for natives and tourists. Listen here.

2/9: TV: Queer Eye, Men in Trees,   Tivo'd Nigella Bites episode (2/9) Listening: Leonard Lopate show: Amy Sedaris reveals the winner of her googly eyes contest and an explainer on chocolate. Listen here. Reading: recipe browsing in "How to be a Domestic Goddess" - Nigella Lawson. Just reading the recipes satisfies my sweet cravings.

2/10: Listening: Alexi Murdoch, Midnight Movies in concert at Maxwells in Hoboken, NJ Reading: "The Joseph Cornell Box: Found Object, Magical Worlds" a good way to wake up on Saturday with a cup of coffee, a sleepy Sweets, looking at Cornell's "visual poems," "300: The Art of the Film" Sweets brought this book home from work. I quickly became engrossed in it while he drove.  It's really interesting to see how they brought Frank Miller's illustrations to life on screen. Now I'm interesting in seeing the movie next month.

2/11: TV: Sixty Minutes- interview with Barack Obama (our next president?), snatches of the Grammys, Desperate Housewives

the elusive song

Lenny, our friend, contractor and dj extraordinaire has agreed to man the ol' one and two for our wedding. Thinking I had ticked another thing off our list of things to do; he made it clear our work was just beginning when it comes to music. We need songs. Lots of songs. We don't want alot of songs that might normally be at weddings. And definitely none of that electric slide, macarena, chicken dance stuff. I love to dance but I rarely do at weddings because the music is so bad. We have the opportunity  to totally customize the playlist. It can take me days to make one mix tape. This mix is going to be crazy.

Right after talking to Lenny, I put on my ipod and chose something I could have fun singing along to as I drove to work. Soon after this song came on and found itself in "Song #1" position on my wedding mix.

What songs do you think should be played?

"Believer" by Ben Kweller

When you're hurt you heal others.
When you're in need you give.
Because of you I am living the most that I can live.

Oh, sweet darling girl
I'm so glad you found me.
Oh, sweet darling girl
Your power surrounds me.

Remember me, don't forget me,
I have something true.
My path is dark, my steps uncertain, unless I walk
With you.

Oh, sweet darling girl
I'm so glad you found me.
Oh, sweet darling girl
Your power surrounds me.

Your power...surrounds me.

You speak to me without speaking.
You touch so I can feel.
With your strength I am stronger, at last I know I'm real.

Oh, sweet darling girl
I'm so glad you found me.
Oh, sweet darling girl
Your power surrounds me.

Your power...Oh...

Whoa... sweet darling girl
I'm so glad you found me.
I'm so glad that you found me, yeah you did
And your power surrounds me.

Self Portrait Challenge: B&W #1

This is one of my all time favorite photos of myself. It was taken during the summer of 1998. My second summer with Quentin. He looks so weird and young. The past few years his muzzle grows increasingly white.

We lived in this apartment for a short time. May - December if I remember correctly.

I love this photo because I look relaxed. Serene. He looks rather regal. The funny thing is, when I look at this image I think about the colors that you can't see from that summer in that apartment over a smoky bar. The wall behind me was a deep purple. The thrifted settee was a dreamy lavender. Beyond this room, was the kitchen that held a 1950's aqua fridge. We painted the walls yellow and the cabinets orange. Down the claret hall there was the study in two shades of apple and chartreuse green. We even painted the trim these wild colors. Shortly after we moved in and painted the apartment, the building was sold. The new landlord almost swallowed his tongue when he saw our apartment. Guess that's why the first one was surprisingly open to letting my paint it however I pleased.

Beyond our door, traintracks snaked dangerously close to us. The pewter NJ Transit trains streaked by glinting silver in the sun,. The blue and orange logo a mere blur. Quentin and I would go for walks in the neighborhood. Always a right out the door, across the tracks, down past the funeral home, turn right. Plumpish scrappy kids would stream out of their yards to pet him with  finger sticky with unnaturally colored popsicle  juice. On the way back, we would pause in front of a house set way back from the street that had an alee of blue hydrangeas leading up to the door. A for sale sign made my pulse quicken. The want for that blaze of hydrangeas, that swath of green grass, that white house for my own burned my  brain.

That was a long summer full of longings and realizations and a carnival's supply of colors.

For more b&w themed self portraits, visit SPC.

Hanging in

Well, we 've survived the first week of Quentin's cage confinement. There's been sleepless nights, countless spilled water bowls and seperation anxiety. He's starting to put his leg down to balance for a second to lift the other leg when he goes outside. It will probably take about a month before he starts to bear weight on it regularly.

Out of nowhere I got hit with a stomach virus that kept me out of work on Thursday and feeling off until today. Cyndemouse and JPo's mom both had this god awful virus, too. Really, it was something else. For the first time, Sweets got to see me throwing up. Guess I couldn't keep that one from him forever.

The two weekends before this one we alternated having a cold. So we've had a few weekend that were spent bumming around the house.  I was feeling well enough this weekend to get out a bit. On Saturday, I went over to the Salvation Army for a while. I found myself in the baby clothes aisle almost in a trance over how cute some of the things were. I found this white fuzzy suit that would be perfect for a little polar bear costume. Yesterday, we went out to look at suit options for the wedding and wedding bands. No decisions yet but we have some ideas. Then we FINALLY got to see Pan's Labyrinth. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It turned out to be darker, scarier and more violent than I expected. Still thinking about all the allegory and allusions to other fairy tales.

The weather has finally turned definitely wintry and I'm happy to bundle up and go out into the cold. I'm not one of those people that rejoices about 70 degree days in winter. Now it's time to wrap myself and head out. Have a happy Monday.

Self Portrait Challenge: Resolution #3

It's already February but I really wanted to do one more resolution for January's SPC. I didn't want to participate every week  to be careful to not make too many resolutions. I'd rather not make them and then not keep them. Not much sense in that, eh?

The last resolution I'd like to make this year is to pass on some of the sweet things in my life. (Now, I can't really share my pretty donut with you. But if you're near Portland, OR, you can get one for yourself at Voodoo Doughnut.) I'd like to do more nice things for people I know and strangers alike. That could range from bringing cupcakes to the office, sharing flowers from my garden and passing things on that I've enjoyed to others so they can be further enjoyed. In that respect, I'd like to start doing giveaways here at the Metaphorical Magpie this year. It's my hope to do something monthly.

First up is the CD "Moon Over The Freeway" by The Dittybops. Shari at The Glass Doorknob talked them up over the summer, so when a copy came my way at the annual newsroom holiday charity sale, I picked it up. I liked it just fine but not enough to put it into heavy rotation or make room for it in the media cabinet. Having a finite space really makes you think about what you want to keep around. Think you'd like to give it a listen? Leave a comment and tell me what kind of moon you like to see while you're driving on the freeway. Full moon? New moon? On the wax or on the wane?

It's just a few weeks before Lunar New Year, one of my favorite holidays and it's featured prominently  in "Stealing Buddha's Dinner" by Bich Minh Nguyen. To celebrate the Year of The Pig, I'm also going to pass on my copy  with a fun red money envelope to use as a bookmark. I liked this book enormously. That's a very good reason to pass it on. Good books need to be shared and we can't always wait for Oprah to start passin' em on. Although, Nguyen's main thrust is about assimilating into American society as a Vietnamese refugee; I found myself feeling very much like her. I was a bookish kid, too that had more friends in my library books than at school. With parents divorced by first grade, I wondered about my father the way she did about her mother. Back then, I would steal change from around the house to buy coconut covered snowballs and twinkies. Today, I am much more tantalized by her descriptions of her grandmother's steaming bowls of pho and crispy shrimp. It's been a few week's since I finished the book and I keep coming back to it in my mind. If you're interested in it, drop me a comment with a memory of food that comforted you in your childhood.

I'll pick recipents randomly and contact you for your mailing address.

For more from the Self Portrait Challenge posse, visit here.