Nostalgie de la Boue

I was having a drink in New York with a friend—I open with, because it makes me sound far classier than I actually am—and catching up with his whereabouts for the past 9 months. It was very spur of the moment. Very fortuitous. Very New York.

And after that drink and promises to keep in better contact with one another, along the walk to the subway, he called me by my old nickname, “Iowa.” I had met one of his friends years ago, after I had just transferred down from the University of Iowa. One thing, of course, led to another. For some reason, Midwestern states stick to people. But it was just the hearing of it, the Atlantis-esque part of myself that quickly rose to the surface from dormancy. I couldn’t believe that he remembered this part of myself that I had forgotten.

You Can Stand Under My...

I bought an umbrella today. I wish it looked like this:

cause that would be super cool.

But really, it's just a regular, sad, umbrella-ella-ella.

In the Eyes of Morbo

Good news!

Well, not really. I’ve just been watching too much Futurama. My favorite are the newscasters, Morbo and Linda. I just get a kick out of Morbo always yelling “Puny humans! I will destroy you all!” and Linda’s only response is polite, newscaster laughter. Plus I think it sort of brings me back to childhood a little bit since Maurice LaMarche, the voice actor of the Brain from Pinky and The Brain, is the one who does Morbo.

My favorite runner up couple would have to be Lrrr, from Omicronian Persei 8, and his lovely wife Ndnd.

Anyway, my colleague Tamra Martin and I started a co-blog, entitled Writers’ Chai, so I’ll probably start using that for my professional gains and whatnot. This leaves my current blog for personal stuff :)

Prepare for random gibberish and whatnot.

Also, I’m defending my thesis on Wednesday. Very exciting. I’m actually kind of a nervous wreck about it, but I’m pretending not to be. I also got into two Ph.D. programs and I’m currently trying to decide between the two. (Correct answer: whichever one will provide the most financial aid.)

I Want Cupcakes

Happy Valentine’s Day!

There’s a comic I wanted to post, but it’s at home, in my external hard drive, and I’m at work, terrorizing young adults.

So, instead, on this day midway through Black History Month, I leave you with a quote:



Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. ~Zora Neale Hurston

Maneurs

It’s recently come to my attention that I love Chloe Sevigny. And not the actress famous for her portrayal of a transgendered man in Boys Don’t Cry, oh no. (In fact, I haven’t seen it. But it’s on the to-do list of things to watch after I climb out from under the rock that is graduate school.)

I’m talking about parody artist Drew Droege, and his flawless life and fashion updates in the (uncanny) likeness of Chloe Sevigny. Here is one of my favorites of such videos.

I learned something today: not to hog the disco snow. You can learn a lot from YouTube.

A Slice of Beauty

I was raised Protestant. But, there are two things that cause me to cross myself in the same light as a devout Catholic: the mention of Borders, bookstore extraordinaire, and the mention of Mr. Sisters, an ephemerally exotic—and exotically ephemeral—gay nightclub between the university and downtown.

(Allow me to stop and mention here that the gay bars in Orlando are all in the general vicinity of downtown, with the exception of a leather bar off Edgewater. Meanwhile, there’s a straight bar directly across the street from the university. And, probably three more that line the pavements of the main thoroughfare that connects UCF with City Beautiful.)

These were my haunts, my loves. My brand loyalty is through the roof. And once I find a roofing company that I like, I’m sure this won’t be so disconcerting. But it was back when Borders was operational that I found this exceptional novel, Little Bee.

Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, was sitting on the shelf of the top sellers list. I was, at the time, picking out top sellers for an independent study course. (My course director said to me, “choose the books you want to read and send me the list and I’ll approve it.” I nearly fainted. I thought, This is what graduate school is supposed to be like. This is academic heaven. I have arrived.) I stared at the cover. I flipped it over to the back and saw nothing in terms of plot description. I thought, what the hell. I brought the book up to the register. The girl, about 19 and built like a highly proteined concrete wall looked down at me and said, “Have you read this yet?”

And I looked up into her acne pocked face, at her dark brown eyes, and said, “No I haven’t. I was thinking about getting it for school, but I don’t know what it’s about.”

And she said, “I just finished it. I’m not going to tell you what it’s about. It’s really good. You won’t regret buying this book.”

I had felt uncertain, up until that point. But with the fervor and the finality that she suggested I purchase Little Bee, I relented. Maybe I was afraid that if I didn’t, she would backhand me across the counter and send me flying. Maybe underneath it all I felt like she was a fellow reader suggesting a book that had changed her life and would change mine too. Maybe I was too lazy or too embarrassed to take the book back to the shelf. But one way or another, I bought it, and after reading it, I can safely say the same.

I’m not going to tell you what this book is about.
It’s definitely awesome.
You won’t regret buying this book.










R.I.P. Borders and Mr. Sisters.

You will be missed.

About SOPA

Dear Government,

Don’t you have something more important you should be doing...?

<3
Sherard