what is a floordrobe?

n. A pile of discarded clothes on the floor of a person's room. [Blend of floor and wardrobe.]


found on word spy.
image snatched from here.

bats and swallows blog

i feel sad i haven't been able to keep up with my blog as usual as of late. i want to give you something to try to make up for it. this is a pretty lovely place, and so is airform archives, a place i've been wanting to share for a while. and then there's woolgathersome, which i've mentioned in the past, all lush with stuff. wish i had more time to knock around there.

aren't there better things to do?

Scientists breed world’s first mentally ill mouse

lisa kokin– an artist after my own heart and self proclaimed "anthropomorphologist"

lisa kokin's online portfolio is brilliant. her pieces are made with found materials and sewn photographs and buttons and things. and then there's the matter of her "dogumentary" entitled "heavy petting," in which she fashions several wonderful costumes for her chihuahuas and takes them out for walks and to parties and museums. i guess you probably have to be a dog person to get the maximum amount of enjoyment out of it, and particularly a dog person who has felt that compulsion at some point to dress up your dog. but i recommend that everyone watch this little film. it's plain wonderful.

thanks to bb for the link.

do you need a few green living ideas?

because if you do you should go straight here. i've been doing an internship with thse guys for the past month or so, writing articles like a fiend. the site went live last week, and though it will eventually be a more comprehensive site for learning about every way you can think of for living more sustainably, there are plenty of good topics to read on right now, and the best part is that some of them were written by me! except you can't tell which ones, because the articles have no bylines. my specialty is in the food and cuisine category– so almost all the ones there are mine.

but really, this is not about me. it's a little plug for a good place to visit and get good information about a good many things. the site also features "green talk radio– for down to earth information on environmental issues," and you can listen to the podcasts on everything from hastings nebraska as the greenest city in america to the future of electric cars.
now i've got to get back to writing.

there are delicacies in you

"there are delicacies in you
like the hearts of watches
there are wheels that turn
on the tips of rubies
& tiny intricate locks

i need your help
to contrive keys
there is so little time
even for the finest
of watches"

~earle birney

pictures from bastille day

the gardens at copia are a lovely place to spend your birthday,
when there's an edith piaf cover band



















and hat-sized hibiscus

















and flowering artichokes

















and your best friends, and wine, and a wacky food museum upstairs













































and eleanor

natasha klimchuk does nice portraits

i know i should be working, researching the horrors of conventional milk. but first, a flickr fix.



1. *, 2. *, 3. *, 4. *

why i love fish

everyone knows fish is cool. but working there is a special pleasure. yes it's a hectic restaurant and i'm tired at the end of the long days, but i just love so much what they stand for. and i've never worked with so many lovely and kind restaurant people in one place.
i scribbled down a few of the items on the fish 2007 wishlist which is taped to the office door:

kickass dessert program
swim!! shave!!! dance!!!
rooftop greenhouses
placemats dammit
convex mirror for the corner
new artwork
field trips
topless dancers--all male please
private label wine "you'll thrill for our swill!"
cookies: bigger, better, stronger, more like elvis

go to the website and click on the fish cam. maybe you'll see me.

idea for a tattoo

visit the original images here: 1. fox sparrow, 2. 0091

comparing postures

visit the original images here: 1. baaba004, 2. girlattable

list of rages

this page has a list of different types of rage. trolley rage and wrap rage are my favorites. i am labeling this post under "capitalist ennui," because i believe that this may be at the center of our various rages.

julie turns 41

hey, it's my palindrome year– 41 on the 14th. growing up i was always looking for these kind of secret connections. it made everything seem even more significant. in this way everything was the only occasion of its kind, casting a magic spell that could always be conjured somehow, by some configuration. i believe that there are so many of these that you can live out a good long life and always have one to apply to whatever age you're turning.

i borrowed this sparkly bastille day photo from here.

loved verses unloved

i've been so busy with work i haven't had time for my favorite flickr pastime of photo pairing. so tonight i made these small assemblages of loved and unloved chairs.

you can see them on my photostream with the proper links to the photographers.

ren·der (rndr)

tr.v. ren·dered, ren·der·ing, ren·ders
1. To submit or present, as for consideration, approval, or payment.
2. To give or make available; provide.
3. To give what is due or owed: render thanks.
4. To give in return or retribution:
5. To represent in verbal form; depict.
6. To represent in a drawing or painting, especially in perspective.
7. Computer Science To convert (graphics) from a file into visual form, as on a video display.
8. Music
a. To perform an interpretation of (a musical piece, for example).
b. To arrange: rendered the composition for string quartet.
9. To express in another language or form; translate.
10. To deliver or pronounce formally.
11. To cause to become; make.
12. To reduce, convert, or melt down (fat) by heating.
13. To coat (brick, for example) with plaster or cement.

i've always been fascinated by the process of rendering, how meaning is rendered, how flavor becomes concentrated by rendering. however, i have only recently learned the sinister side of rendering, what goes on in the dark dark world of rendering plants, and why it is important not to feed your pets commercial pet food.

a little more nina

the pollywogs and the egg: "artificial insemination,"










and her chilling book spine story: "a day at the beach."

"no signifier does justice linguistically." ~chris higgs

each sign in a language is a union of a signifier and a signified.






chris's beautiful and innovatively structured story,"mother: a deconstruction with critical apparatus" from which the above quote is taken, published in the most recent and "all-fiction" issue of diagram, pertains to the inherent fragility of this linkage. if you enjoy it half as much as i did, you will enjoy it very much.

somehow, nina katchadourian's mended spiderwebs (passed down to me via bb) align themselves perfectly with the notion of the tenuous associations we have with language. the image haunts and haunts me. for writing, too, attempts to repair the rents and ruptures in the texture of days.

but interestingly enough, nina has found that the spiders tend to undo the work she's done, leaving the red threads in a little heap below the web and fixing it themselves.

i wonder, could this be a signifier for literature itself?

quintessential

go on over to into wine and read my article about quintessa winery's whole biodynamic production. i even got a photo of one of the owl houses.

i hope everyone's day is filled with sparks.

apropos

cartoon by dave walker at we blog cartoons.

you can also go here to read his "dullest blog in the world." its entries are all to the tune of "I was standing at a central point in the room. The walls were all at approximately the same distance from me. I continued to stand there for a few moments." believe it or not, i found them rather interesting. and apparently i'm not the only one. one comment of the 254 on a single post reads "This is so fascinating to read. How have I missed it before?? This site isn't dull. It rocks!"

via the illustrious bb.