Yet another day of almost record heat here, and once again I have the sprinklers running on the garden at night. I honestly do not remember this kind of just oppressive demoralizing heat this time of year. On the other hand, it is doing wonders for my garden (and causing fresh hell on my water bill). The combination of the daytime sunlight and heat with my night time watering, as well as the raised beds with no weeds choking out nutrients and the all organic, pesticide free soil, and I simply have never seen plants grow so fast. On top of that, my tomato plants have leaves that are a deep, lush, almost bluish green. They look so vibrant and healthy, and when I was pruning today, I noticed that the scent of tomato from the oils on the leaves was richer than anything I ever remember. So, I guess, Dr. Earth soil is the real deal.
Watched Master Chef tonight, and unlike most of these competitions, I really don’t like many of the contestants. Obviously I love Christine and Monti and Felix, and Becky is a super-trooper, but the rest of them just seem like such douchebags. What kind of dickhead gives the blind girl a live crab. Jeebus. I guess at the same time, I only like a handful of the contestants on the Next Food Network Star.
I’m so disgusted with WV Democrats I just can’t even comment on it. I guess this is what I deserve. I was a Republican jackass my whole life in a Democratic state, and the moment I become a Democrat, my state goes wingnut.
Not sure what to do with the rest of my night. You?
wvng
Sue Thorn is good.
Violet
Next year put your tomatoes in a different bed and avoid putting nightshades in the bed in which you’ve got tomatoes this year. Tomatoes have a lot of diseases and put those diseases into the soil. If you want those same fantastic results year after year, practice crop rotation.
Raven
The third night of conferencing and then dragging my ass up and down the streets of Savannah. It’s still amazingly cool here for this time of year but the walking is a bitch.
danielx
Need you even ask? It sounds like precisely the kind of prank that Willard Mitt Romney would find hilarious.
lamh35
Anyone else like watching the Olympic trials. Here’s a link to the television schedule for the US Olympic trials.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1227456-us-olympic-trials-2012-tv-schedule-daily-listings-nbc-coverage-and-more
Steeplejack
I am reviving somewhat after feeling sort of out of it all day. Went over to my brother’s new house early this morning to supervise carpet-laying while he and his partner were at work, and when I got home at midafternoon I just felt wiped out, for no good reason. Something feels wrong with my energy system.
It was hotter today than it has been–the weather has been beautiful the last week or so–but I am dreading tomorrow and Thursday–projected highs of 97° and 99° here in NoVa. Ugh.
But I’ve perked up a bit, and I’m sort of half-watching the NBA finals. Maybe a good night’s sleep will help.
Steeplejack
@lamh35:
Thanks for that; I bookmarked it.
beltane
@lamh35: Thanks. In some ways the Olympic trials are more enjoyable than the actual Olympics-more action and less Bob Costas.
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
Hope your air is working in expectation of tomorrow. I am not looking forward to that.
Been meaning to ask: did you ever read the Paris Review interview with Garcia Marquez? It was quite good.
Alison
BREAKING: Living at home as an adult can be crazy difficult to navigate sometimes. FILM AT ELEVEN.
Also, I remember the vegetable gardens we had when I was a kid, and the scent of the tomato plants was one of my favorite things about it :)
tofubo
don’t drop the sopa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc&feature=player_embedded
Yutsano
I made a random comment on Book of Faces tonight. I stated some ambiguity about going back to Seattle cause truth be told I’d miss my parents’ dogs. I rumbled something about getting my old job back but doubted it would happen. My old boss happened to see it, and he mentioned he’d love to have me back. Not only that, the position is open they passed me on last time. I’m very seriously considering it. I like gubmint work, but my expenses are just too high. Plus I used to work for some great folks (the boss who messaged me is a hilarious Brit) and miss a lot of that crew. I decided to sleep on it.
Cacti
In another proud moment for the Grand Canyon State, an Arizona wingnut radio host calls the President a monkey.
Not just once, but three times.
Do we have a pool on when someone finally calls him a ni-CLANG?
I’m picking late July.
Tata
JC – do you have rain barrels? One at each corner of your house will make a ginormous dent in that water bill.
lamh35
@Steeplejack: @beltane: I actually watched the NCAA track and field championships this past Saturday and I was engrossed all afternoon. I’m really looking forward to seeing which of the “kids” I saw will actual make in on the team.
Plus the trials is really the only way I will be able to figure out who’s who when the Olympics does start.
I’m def gonna be watching T&F, Diving, Swimming, and Gymnastics.
Soonergrunt
I have IT call after hours at the hospital through Friday.
Every time the phone rings, I log onto the hospital network from home and fix something. Every time I do this, I get paid time and half for two hours, and the average fix is about 10 to 20 minutes. If they don’t call within two hours after the last one, the clock resets, and I get another two hours of time and a half.
I’m on the third such call tonight.
I’ll just take this moment and let that sink in for the taxpayers.
I love you guys!
Don Beal
Just the opposite in Oregon. It has bee cool and rainy all spring. For the last two years we couldn’t grow corn in the summer (I am 68 years old and that never happened before). Only planted early girl tomatoes this year and they are not happy with all the rain. We used to grow tons of heirloom tomatoes of the 110 day variety…no problem.
lamh35
Hmm, so I see from my television guide, that Marco Rubio will be on TDS w/Stewart. That might be interesting if Stewart is in good form. Colbert is always in good form, but he has some “random” actress on it (not so random, I like Olivia Wilde)
Soonergrunt
@Yutsano: Remember, nothing beats our benefits and retirement package. Even after the republicans gutted the CSRS and gave us FERS. And there are Federal jobs in Seattle, too.
Whatever you decide, you’ll do great, I’m sure.
General Stuck
Blast from the past, to take the edge off. Was first posted on BJ, maybe 3 years ago by I can’t remember who. I stumbled across it a few days ago on Youtube.
Hot as hell here as well, and so dry you can step out of the shower, and dry off before you can even grab a towel. The rainy season is a couple weeks off, to maybe cool us down a bit, and lesson the likelyhood of forest fire. Still not near as bad as Tuscon or Phoenix, so not complaining too much.
Politics is a complete mind numbing enterprise.
lol
Surprised there’s no mention there of the CFPB’s public complaint database, especially since the banks are screaming bloody murder about it.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: Are you still on a work sabbatical?
Alison
@Yutsano: Funny how life works sometimes, eh? Where do you live now, curiously?
kc
I guess this is what I deserve. I was a Republican jackass my whole life in a Democratic state, and the moment I become a Democrat, my state goes wingnut.
I like that you are appropriately remorseful.
Mike in NC
Ryan comes across as a major creep and probable psychopath. He’s unemployed, likely still lives with his parents, and might have human body parts in stashed in the freezer.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
I just looked it up and will read it later. It’s from 1981–that’s 30 years ago! How time flies.
You have inspired me to dig up my copy of The Moviegoer and start rereading it. It will be interesting to see how it holds up.
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
good luck with whatever you decide! :)
Punchy
Just finished teaching physical chemistry to college seniors. HooBoy is that…..uh….um….”fun”.
danielx
Also, too…I plan to spend a half hour or so drinking a Corona mit lime (or two) and decompressing now that the spousal unit is asleep. Get up in two hours to give medication….
Notes to me about what they don’t tell you at the hospital about caring for a hip replacement patient – and yes, this falls under the “in sickness and in health” category:
1. Caregiving is a full time job, to all intents and purposes. If you think you’ll work a more or less normal schedule if you work at home, forget it – will not happen. If you work away from home, be prepared to either pay a caregiver or take some vacation time to do it yourself unless you have family who can help. Patient needs someone there 24/7.
2. You will not get an uninterrupted night’s sleep for a couple of weeks, because you will be getting up every four hours to give meds and/or help someone get out of bed to pee. You’re going to be tired and irritable all the time.
3. Getting someone out of bed to pee and then back in it is a 15-20 minute evolution for the first 10-14 days.
4. Getting a hip replacement hurts – a lot. The patient needs drugs, and a lot of them. Even then you will be treated to lots of moans, groans and an occasional scream, sometimes accompanied by tears.
5. Physical therapy is torture. Forget waterboarding, turn someone over to an enthusiastic physical therapist and in a half hour they’ll cop to being the Hillside Strangler and Jack the Ripper all wrapped into one.
6. This is for a patient in mid 50s; I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like for someone in his or her 70s.
7. Family is important, they’re the ones who give the caregiver a break to do minor stuff like buying groceries and doing laundry, also buying exam gloves – lots – and hand sanitizer.
8. Think carry out. The local Chinese restaurant is your friend right now.
9. Laundry – lots. Lots of sponge baths since the patient can’t get this huge ugly incision wet for a couple of weeks. Plus towels to wrap ice packs etc etc….
10. Sponge baths suck, as do bedside commodes.
11. Surgical tape can actually blister the skin, leaving actual burn-type blisters which then…let’s just say salve and nonstick dressings besides the incision dressing.
12. Cleanliness is good, infections are not. If they’re giving intravenous gentamicin prior to surgery as a precaution, they’re really concerned about infection. Wash your hands a lot.
Did I mention family is important? Friends too because they help you maintain your sanity.
One more bump in the long road, and it will get better….
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think this would be kind of embarrassing…
…even if the contestants didn’t include a certain “Alaska businessman”. Care to guess who it is? Hint: It’s not Maurice Minnifield of Cecily.
MikeJ
@Yutsano: Yeah, yeah, just because we won’t build you a stadium. :p
geg6
@Mike in NC:
Heh. At the very least, he comes off as one of those loser guys Amanda Marcotte writes so honestly and well about over at Pandagon. The kind that think they are great catches and cannot understand why we women run from them, screaming. And then blame it on the women because there couldn’t possibly be anything wrong with him.
Yutsano
@Soonergrunt: That’s why I’m sleeping on it. I have two other possible jobs in government in the works (one IRS the other with the VA) but I also don’t believe in random accidents. I’ll get my next step in September but the stress of the current gig is flat-out killing me. There’s only so much yelling I can take in one day.
@Alison: Seattle. I’d have to move 200 miles southeast of there but that would be easy to do since a lot of my family lives here. Arranging my condo lease termination (lease ends in September) will be difficult because I also have things to fix there. I’m gonna give it the night for now.
Linda Featheringill
Hot as heck today and not that much better now. Humidity is up to here. Yuck.
What in the world am I going to do when summer gets here?
All of the animals are hanging out in my room because I have an air conditioner going in the window. We are all striking poses meant to pick up the maximum amount of cool breeze. I think they are just lying around and shedding.
The air conditioner is trying to give us some relief but it just isn’t enough.
On the plus side of today, I had strawberry shortcake tonight. Very, very nice. Life goes on. :-)
cbear
I’m cooking…
1-inch thick pork loin chops, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and paprika—lightly floured, seared—then braised with capers, mustard, cabernet, and chicken stock for 30-40 minutes….
Served with parsley new potatos and a spring mix salad w/ yellow peppers and my homemade gorgonzola dressing.
No way I’m getting Chopped with this dinner.
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
their interviews are fantastic. I was trying to find an old one of Nabokov done by James Salter which is a delight but couldn’t find it. I recommend the Borges one too.
And I will soon start reading The Moviegoer (hopefully by the weekend) and look forward to picking your brain about it :)
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
Yeah. Doing a few freelance software things and eating into the nest egg–slowly, thank God–while I figure out what the next big thing is.
Whatever happens, I have no regrets at all about leaving the terrible job at the bookstore. That was killing me. I realize that even more after six months away from it.
Yutsano
@cbear: Chopped no. Laid quite probably.
opie jeanne
I have a question: What has caused my RW Mormon cousins to suddenly post statements that say they will tolerate no disrespect of Mitt’s wife (can’t think of her name… Anee?)?
Has there been some perceived attack on Anne Romney?
Valdivia
@danielx:
glad to know you have a support system.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
it is embarrassing.
Linda Featheringill
@danielx:
Take care of yourself, too, dear. [[hug]]
opie jeanne
@Yutsano: Hi Yutsano! How are you feeling?
gbear
It was hot and muggy in the Twin Cities today too. I stayed in the house all evening. Had a CD waiting for me in the mailbox – Dim Stars, Bright Sky by John Doe. Unfortunately the room with the stereo is the warmest room in the house so I haven’t listened to it tonight. Instead went on to Amazon again and ordered Here I Stand by the Oysterband. I have really good luck ordering used stuff from the Amazon Marketplace vendors. Can usually get CDs I want for $6-10 including shipping. I’ve only gotten burned a couple of times in what must be close to 100 orders.
I’m driving up to Grand Marais, MN for work tomorrow. It’s been raining like crazy up there so all of the north shore waterfalls should be amazing. It’s supposed to stop raining for my thursday meeting with a high temp of 66. The meeting is probably not going to be fun, but I’m glad for the chance to go to the north shore in a company car without having to rush in either direction.
Time to finish packing and head off to bed.
Perfect Tommy
Are you an egalitarian communitarian or a hierarchical individualist? An interesting look at the division between climate change deniers and believers ….
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1547.html
Soonergrunt
@opie jeanne: Romney and his people are trying to set her up as some platform from which they can launch attacks but which cannot be attacked herself.
Witness the recent interview where she said that she and Romney wouldn’t take so many overseas trips (implied that they were wasteful, etc) and would instead spend time with grandchildren.
There’s also the RW victimization routine they got going on all the time.
Fuck her. She’s a grownup fully bought-in member of a political team, just like her sons.
Alison
@Yutsano: Ah, I see. Letting it marinate sounds like a good idea – sometimes decisions sort of make themselves for us if we let them :)
Valdivia
@Soonergrunt:
I think she is just like he is, even worse. Entitled and clueless and petty and mean.
/rant over
cbear
@Yutsano: lulz. Hope springs eternal here at my place, but I’m doubtful of my luck tonight since my girl is about 14,000 miles away over in BKK.
PurpleGirl
New York should be starting a hot spell tomorrow. I’ve already used the ACs a few times so I know they work.
On the vibration problem: the last few days have been devoid of vibrations. The vent fans and motors were supposed to be inspected today. The acoustics engineer had also suggested some anti-vibration padding to me. I bought a small-sized sample and have used the pieces on the floor this evening when I felt a little vibration (which did go away fairly quickly). I will get more of the recycled rubber mats for a few places just to be on the safe side. So far, so good.
MikeJ
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ouch. I flew into Little Rock to hack mod_perl for him.
trollhattan
105 here Saturday, used the A/C for the first time this year. 100 Sunday then blessed relief with a cool-down. Supposed to be back to 100 tomorrow. Whatever else, it triggered the tomatoes to blossom, so there’s that.
Guess it’s summer.
Scuffletuffle
@Soonergrunt: Ebil gubmint drone! {shakes fist}
burnspbesq
Listening to some new records. Currently “Kin,” the Rodney Crowell/Mary Karr collection. Then Shawn Colvin. Then Bela Fleck & Marcus Roberts. And if I’m still going after that, Dr. John.
amk
So what’s the end game of the criminal issa’s ‘lets impeach holder’ show ? The thugs blow some smoke and make a fool of themselves, arrest holder and frog march him ?
Punchy
What happed to Rubio on TDS? He bailed? Anyone know?
Paula68154
John, I feel your pain. Being a democrat in a deeply red state is fustrating! Our Obama campaign office seems akin to an AA meeting. New people who come in are shocked to find they aren’t alone.
Yutsano
@opie jeanne: The back pain is starting to morph from internal trauma pain to back muscles haven’t moved in weeks pain. So I might just be healing decently. Other happenings I mentioned above. And I wanna drive again dammit.
@cbear: There is absolutely nothing wrong with self-love. This meal gives you extra permission.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Punchy: Oh, htat’s interesting. I guess he didn’t want to talk about all that internets chatter that he’d been dropped from the Veep list.
@MikeJ: I like Wes Clark a lot. THat’s why it bothers me.
freelancer
@opie jeanne:
I’m gonna paraphrase Cacti from last night.
She pays a dude to make a horse dance. Then her accountants find a way to make us pay her back. Fucking moocher.
Steeplejack
Valdivia @36:
Here’s a Nabokov interview from 1967, but the interviewer is Herbert Gold.
Here’s the Paris Review interview with James Salter, in which he talks about interviewing Nabokov.
I used to have a couple of volumes of collected Paris Review interviews. All extremely interesting.
William F. Buckley, of all people, did a good interview with Borges on his Firing Line TV show way back in the ’70s. I remember sending off for the transcript. (Here’s the only snippet I could find on YouTube.)
Borges made the very interesting point that he thought English was a “strong” literary language because there are always (at least) two words to describe something, one from the Latin and one from the Anglo-Saxon, and because the emphasis in most English words falls on the “content” syllable—e.g., “slow-ly”—whereas in Spanish the emphasis often falls on an “empty” syllable—e.g., “len-ta-men-te.”
Ash Can
Get shitfaced.
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
Thanks! You read my mind. I had just printed that Nabokov interview because the one I read by Salter is in some box of books in a storage locker in upstate NY and I can’t find it online. Wish I had it handy that way I could send it to you. It was really great.
I too had bought a few collections of the interviews (one of only latin authors) which I really like. It seems they have a lot of it online now which is great. A quick read to dip into from time to time.
And I love that Borges comment on accents and the force of different languages. He was an anglophile of the first degree, so much so that he fell a bit into the caricature of Argentinians that they are Italians who think of themselves as British.
On Selected Shorts (NPR) they had a program last February on Bolaño and the authors he loved. They read a story from Borges, one from Marias (Javier) and one from Bolaño. Really good. I think you might be able to find it on their podcast site on iTunes.
khead
I have been feeling this vibe all day and I don’t even live there anymore.
BTW, we have plenty of room in MD. Make it Western MD if you need mountains.
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
ps not that I think there is anything wrong with Borges’ anglophilia, just very rare specially for a Latin American writer.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack:
That’s what I was wondering about, thanks.
shortstop
@Steeplejack: That is an intriguing point. It could be argued that having the stress on the “empty” syllable is preferable for certain literary ends. And it’s interesting to think about how that plays out in spoken vs. read literature.
General Stuck
@amk:
Issa is a fucking idiot. I don’t think he plans anything past taking a morning shit. Flying by the seats of his dumb ass, hoping to get a medal, or something. But it won’t be from frog marching Holder. With Holder not being able to prove a negative. Holder has said he has given everything that the DOJ, IG has signed off on. The rest has never been open to congressional clowns, for all sorts of legal reasons. Long standing ones, some under separation of powers status. Hell, the Gonzales and Mukasi DOJ wouldn’t turn over the time of day to dems after 2006. They think they can get away with this brinkmanship for the same reason they tried to bulldoze Obama over the debt ceiling.
with the presumption that white majority voters will give them whatever slack they ask for, and they likely will, up to a point. But arresting the sitting AG, would be a huge constitutional crisis, that a sane party would not do. Especially as Holder has cover from the DOJ IG, not mention being the first black AG
They have been trying to back Obama out onto the same ledge, to try and force him to do something impeachable, but Obama has wriggled out of the trap, set by idiots, every single time. Sometimes turning the scam back on them.
I suspect Holder will do the same with Obama having his back.
Mnemosyne
Plugging away on a baby sweater for one of my co-workers. She’s not due until December, but I need to do it now while I’m enthusiastic about it or I’ll be handing it to her when the kid graduates from junior high. Stupid ADHD.
cckids
@danielx: Hang in there! As an almost 30-year caregiver myself, I can say; you are doing great work. Hopefully your patient/family member will continue to recover. The degree to which our healthcare system depends on family members taking over nursing-level care is sometimes scary.
JCT
@Punchy: Lord, that course almost killed me at Cal. Why, as a genetics major did I take that course? I have no clue.
And then I turned around and married a theoretical physical chemist from Cal so maybe I knew what I was doing?
shortstop
@Mnemosyne: I don’t have ADHD and I couldn’t make it past the first row, so you’re doing fine.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
Hilarious! And I’ll look for the Bolaño podcast.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
Thanks for your interest.
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
Must confess the Argentinian joke is a bit of a hemispheric sport :)
Odie Hugh Manatee
I got to spend the evening removing a defective Chinese part from our car and then replace it with another defective Chinese part just to keep the car running while I order custom parts that I will have to machine to fit our car. I noted the minimum dimensions while I had the car apart tonight and am ordering the parts in the A.M. The custom parts are made in the good ol’ USA so I have higher hopes that they will last longer than the 480 miles of their Chinese counterparts. Nobody makes the actual part here any more, why do so when they have cheap replacement parts in China?
“Cheap” defined as poorly made from poor materials and then resold to people like myself at an inflated price. Good thing I caught the problem before the leaf springs departed their frame mounts while I was out on the highway.
At least it isn’t their cat food.
Phylllis
@Raven: Heh, not quite the forced death march of visiting DC, but mighty close. Try to make time for E. Shaver’s book store On the squre behind the DeSoto Hilton. And the fried chicken and mashed potatos on the buffet at the Pirate’s House are to die for.
Steeplejack
@shortstop:
I think it plays out in ways such as the fact that Dante could knock out the Divine Comedy in terza rima because every other word in Italian seems to rhyme. English just doesn’t roll like that, which makes it very hard to translate Dante and also leads to other verse forms being more “natural” to English.
dr. luba
@danielx: Just went through this with my mom (79 years old). She went to rehab post-op for just these reasons (a nice local nursing home). she had round the clock help available, and convenient daily physical and occupational therapy. My dad never could have taken care of her (he’s 86 with heart disease and an indolent cancer).
We had initially planned to take care of her at home with help from an aide of some sort, but were talked out of it by friends who’d been through this. best decision ever. My mom loved the rehab center, lots of people to talk to and help, it kept her busy and the staff kept her medicated and comfortable.
shortstop
@Steeplejack: Mmmmhmmm, but here I was thinking specifically of differences in stresses, rather than of general variations in languages.
Mnemosyne
@dr. luba:
I’m sure this is a real medical term, but it cracked me up. I picture the cancer laying in a hammock in the back yard saying, “Yeah, I’ve really got to get to work, but maybe I’ll have another glass of iced tea first.”
But I guess it’s miles better than having an ambitious, hard-working cancer.
BGinCHI
@Steeplejack: Shit, just catching up! (watching Bottle Rocket on the dvr…)
Italian is a rhyming language par excellence, because of the terminal vowels. English as a Germanic just can’t do that. So the poets in the 16th C abandoned trying to follow Italianate forms of the sonnet and chose another path.
What Borges says is also true, as English is the great, gigantic (biggest vocap), hybrid language. In Shakespeare’s time it was the intersection of many languages and dialect forms and was far richer. People think it’s Shax who had the big vocab but that’s not the right way to think about it: it was the language (the discourse, technically) that had all those resources.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
Everybody has to make fun of somebody.
My brother’s partner is from Ceará state in Brazil, and the other Brazilians make fun of his alleged “redneck” accent in Portuguese.
shortstop
Valdivia, are you Argentinian?
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
@BGinCHI:
This is one reason I have deep deep respect for those who translate Spanish (or italian or french) poetry into English, I have tried my hand at it, it’s not an easy feat.
@Steeplejack:
Indeed, Argentinians are made fun of because they are considered stuck up, but after being in Buenos Aires I think they have every right to be. What a city!
Yutsano
@shortstop: Could be worse. Could be Japanese which has no stress rules whatsoever.
handsmile
@Valdivia:
As I see you are here tonight, I want to thank you for your recent recommendation of works by Bioy Casares and especially for the link to the Paris Review interview with John Berger.
While my attention to Berger’s work has drifted, at one time he was immensely important to my intellectual/professional development, introducing callow handsmile to Walter Benjamin and Marxist cultural theory. My last sustained encounter with Berger’s writing was a few years ago, reading what was then his current novel, From A to X. Written as an epistolary novel with entwined themes of political passion and personal intimacy, I found it morally engaging if not aesthetically successful.
Perhaps at some point, we should consider taking Tea at the Palaz of Hoon.
shortstop
@Valdivia: Okay, I just answered my own question.
@Yutsano: I might find that strangely freeing. Maybe.
Valdivia
@shortstop:
:D No!
I am actually from Costa Rica and we are called the Argentinians of Central America because they think we are very stuck up too.
shortstop
@Valdivia: Oh, you are not. I love ticos. Love Costa Rica. Where are you from exactly?
J.W. Hamner
Been messing around with HDR photography a little lately… going so far as to bring my tripod up Beehive in Acadia this weekend. It was overcast so none of the pictures are overly dramatic with the HDR thing, but they’re kind of fun regardless I think. Would welcome any constructive criticism from the photography peeps (or anybody really):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24644315@N04/sets/72157630198699856/
I have to admit I’m a little uncomfortable with the whole “tone mapping” thing. Feels a bit like cheating.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
I’ve always wanted to visit Buenos Aires. From the pictures I’ve seen, it looks architecturally interesting. You must have some great pictures from there.
Valdivia
@handsmile:
You’re so welcome. I should tell you another time about a conference of Benjaminians I went to at Brown University. Truly interesting and much better than the Lacanians in South Carolina :)
Tea at the Palaz sounds perfect. I was just reading today his poem inspired by Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell. So good.
Valdivia
@shortstop:
Totally tica indeed. I am from boring San Jose, but boy do we have nice places in the rest of the country! Glad to know you like us :)
@Steeplejack:
It is, to my mind, the most spectacular of Latin American cities. Very much like Europe but with little touches of Latin flair. And the architecture is wonderful, very grand. When I went I wasn’t really into photography (I only started last year) so now I am dying to go back and go shooting.
dww44
@lamh35: @Punchy: According to Stewart, Rubio cancelled;Jon didn’t say why. Dennis O’Leary was the replacement and was giving John a hard time about it. I’d guess that given the kerfuffle over Obama’s Executive Order and how it effectively undermined/made unnecessary what Rubio was going to do, and the fact that everyone says he’s not on the Veep short list, it was not the time. Heck, knowing how in lockstep every elected Republican is, Rubio was probably told to cancel.
Valdivia
@J.W. Hamner:
Know what you mean though the shots are wonderful. I follow (on instagram) a lot of people who are heavy into the HDR thing and taken to the extreme it just feels like something other than photography. Please take with a grain of salt since all I use is my iPhone.
shortstop
@Valdivia: I don’t find San Jose boring…do prefer your stellar parks and wild places, though. We’ve had a lot of fun on your trails and rivers.
Speaking of parks, fantastic photos, J.W. Makes me want to visit Acadia more than ever.
Time for this girl to be in bed. Enjoyed this mellow thread.
BGinCHI
@Valdivia: The Lacanians at SC?
I went to Buffalo so I know from Lacanians. Don’t make me name names.
Brown for undergrad? Are you an academic? Do tell.
ETA: I know the early mods at USC, so not sure who else we’re talking about….
workworkwork
@danielx:
I’m doing this for my wife. She has MS and last year was diagnosed with scoliosis. We decided that we’d rather deal with one set of symptoms than two so on the advice of her doctor, she got spinal fusion surgery.
She came home about a month and a half ago. She’s in a power wheelchair and needs someone with her at all times. I’m working part time but for the rest we work with a caregiver agency.
She’s incontinent (courtesy of the MS) and needs assistance transferring from her chair so I got a kitchen timer and set it to wake me up every couple of hours during the night so I could put her on the commode. A night ending with a dry bed is a very good night, but I don’t get a lot of solid rest.
I’m not complaining. We’ve been married over twenty years and I knew she had MS when I first met her so there were no illusions with regard to her long-term health prospects and my role in that. I love her dearly and have ever since we first met and I don’t regret a moment with her since.
I’m just writing this as a fellow caregiver who is now aware that while patience and compassion are finite resources in the short term, they are infinitely renewable.
handsmile
@Valdivia: , @Steeplejack: , @BGinCHI:
It seems most of the political kiddos have gone to bed, leaving the place to the insomniac readers….
How capricious is the notion of a Balloon Juice Fiction Reading group? I was still newish to the community here at the time of Anne Laurie’s (?) selection of Nixonland as a group undertaking. On the subsequent The Reactionary Mind threads I was an enthusiastic participant, but that endeavor was abruptly and inexplicably dropped by DougJ.
I believe you three are grizzled veterans of this blog and so can chuckle at my naivete, but does such an idea have merit or any reasonable prospect of being organized?
Valdivia
@BGinCHI:
The Lacanians at SC I encountered only for a conference and I have to say: that was enough. Though on the occasion I had the pleasure of seeing Toril Moi disavow Lacan and Zizek (who was in attendance) go into a fit and almost attacked her across the table in the seminar room.
But now I have shared you too have to name names!
The thing at Brown was also a conference. I took the scenic route to an undergrad which I finished in Emory many years after I started in a completely different place. Long story for when I am +at least 3. :)
Let’s say I am a renegade academic and though I have spent a lot of time following LitCrit it wasn’t as part of my field, more like avid intellectual curiosity. I also have to confess I am not a huge fan of Lacanians in general or the folks that published Sokal.
BGinCHI
@handsmile: Depends what you want to read.
I just tried Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” for example. Giant rec from a smart friend. It’s seamlessly written, but it’s just too damn clever and full of characters I just don’t care about.
On the other hand, I’m 20 pages into “Bring Up the Bodies,” the sequel to “Wolf Hall” and it’s fucking riveting. What a great writer Hilary Mantel is.
Best case Cole pays for us to go to Gstad to talk about books and we take the waters.
Valdivia
@handsmile:
oh I would so be up for that!
So raises hand in complete enthusiasm.
@BGinCHI: I have to say I am with you on all the cleverness of some of the modern fiction that gets recommended and is all the rage.
Wolf Hall is on my cue next to my bed. I am a total sucker for historical fiction. Did you ever read An Instance of the Fingerpost? Massive but excellent mystery.
BGinCHI
@Valdivia: The Lacanian crowd is nuts. Period. I studied with Joan Copjec, Zizek, and others. Great place to learn but you either take the blue pill or the red pill.
The only authentic dude is Bruce Fink. Complete smarts and fully nice person. Aces. Ditto some of the others but let’s stop there.
Five years in analysis taught me that the Lacanian world was right, but that the practice ought to rule the theory. I get my highs now from Shax and other pure sources.
BGinCHI
@Valdivia: It’s good. Lots of great historical fiction, of course.
Criminally underrated: The Chivalry of Crime.
Best Jesse James novel you’ve never heard of. And it you’ve never read Russell Banks’ novel Cloudsplitter, well….get the fuck busy. And of course Cold Mountain. Beautiful prose.
You’ll love Wolf Hall.
Yutsano
@Valdivia: Not to mention the food. The food culture of Buenos Aires is probably the most sophisticated in Latin America. And Argentinian beef is still world renowned for its flavour and tenderness. It sounds like too wonderful a place sometimes.
Valdivia
@BGinCHI:
did you know the biggest community of practicing Lacanians is in Argentina?
One of my closest friends in CR is a Lacanian who studied with Krysteva. He is whip smart about literature and a great therapist from what I hear so I totally respect that. But the scene at that conference left me very freaked. Zizek in particular seemed mad, like he was ready to strangle Moi in front of everyone.
@Yutsano: and the wine. And the clothes. As well as the cultural abundance. Truly an amazing place.
Valdivia
@BGinCHI:
made note of those. Read Cold Mountain but not the other two. See I think we should definitely get a little fiction reading club going here :)
BGinCHI
@Yutsano: I would totally go on a B-J gay cruise to BA.
I best Mrs. BG would give me a hall pass for that.
Wait. Check that. I can’t go.
/takes off velvet blazer and thong
BGinCHI
@Valdivia: Yes, I did know that. I used to be right in the center of it. I’m not exaggerating.
As I said: nuts. Best thing is to learn and then find your own place away from them.
As Lacan said, I’m a Freudian. I’m a Lacanian in that same spirit: I don’t hang with the others, I just work with the man’s thinking. It’s brilliant stuff. Read Bruce. He’s got the goods.
Valdivia
@BGinCHI:
Good on you BG. My friend in CR is like you and it is my treat every visit to spend time with him, erudite, menschy the real deal. Will check Bruce out.
ETA: that image of you and Yutsano on a gay cruise is too much for a girl. I must go to bed. :)
BGinCHI
@Valdivia: What’s CR?
handsmile
@BGinCHI: @Valdivia:
Sorry, bedtime ablutions….
Of course you’re right, BG: selection would be the obstacle. Serious readers of fiction can be so damned particular.
Okay so here are three suggestions:
Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald (read it upon release; very much wish to reread)
The Bell, Iris Murdoch (never read [hangs head])
The Prague Cemetery, Umberto Eco (been a while and I find the premise fascinating)
And about that trip to Gstad, just how much clout do you have with Cole? Perhaps we could negotiate something closer, say Lake Louise? Sante Fe?
BGinCHI
@handsmile: No Murdoch. Jesus.
Maybe the Eco.
Get thee to Wolf Hall and read that and then we could do that plus the new one. Trust me: it’s gorgeous and smart. Plus I know a shitload about the Tudor period, but not in a douchy way.
Let’s get Santa Fe in the mix. We’d do the reading group at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame.
Night All!
Steeplejack
@handsmile:
My impression was that the Reactionary Mind thing possibly got derailed because the author bridled at the Juicer commentariat’s objections to his not universally accepted reading of Nietzsche, the subtext being that maybe the discussion got, uh, a little too rough-and-tumble for him. But I don’t know for sure. As you said, it just disappeared abruptly and was not mentioned again.
I would be up for a group read of some work of fiction. The problem is that, despite its very big tent, Balloon Juice is primarily a political blog, or at least that is its organizing principle. I don’t know that you could attract enough people, or get them to agree on what to read. There are a lot of fiction readers on Balloon Juice, but they’re somewhat split among various genres. How would you pick a book that would appeal to enough of those disparate tastes?
What I could see working, maybe, is one pre-scheduled post on a certain book, e.g., “Three weeks from tonight we’re discussing Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies.” (Or The Hunger Games, for another example.) Then it’s just one thread that uninterested people can skip, rather than a weekly series of two or three chapters each.
The more I think about it, maybe informal discussions are better. Valdivia and I talked about Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer the other night, and both of us are starting to read it. I first read it in the early ’70s, and it made a big impression on me (living in Alabama at the time) as the first novel I had read that offered a picture of the “modern” South I recognized around me—that is, something after William Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor. More urban than rural. (Plus it’s a great portrait of New Orleans, a city I love.) Oddly enough, the other writer who hit me that way was John D. MacDonald with his Travis McGee novels. He is like Carl Hiaasen’s literary grandfather in his depiction of a Florida of grifters, felons and nonconformists. But I digress.
Maybe, if you’re interested, pick up The Moviegoer and see what you think. That might be someplace to start. But I’m open to discussion. Just blue-skyin’ here.
handsmile
@BGinCHI:
Cloudsplitter, oh my yes!! (In fact earlier this year I read W.E.B. DuBois’ biography of John Brown.)
Russell Banks’ latest, Lost Memory of Skin could be an option as well.
Steeplejack
Hmm, too much time composin’, and now everyone has gone to bed.
I could see doing Wolf Hall or Bring Up the Bodies.
@handsmile:
I love Sebald, but I would agitate for The Rings of Saturn.
Yutsano
@BGinCHI: Ahh we can skip the gay part. I’m not picky.
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
No some of us are still up and appreciated the long composition :)
@handsmile:
Sebald or Eco. Or as Steeple suggested Wolf Hall which I am dying to read.
Valdivia
@BGinCHI:
Costa Rica :)
handsmile
@Steeplejack:
That’s where I’m heading right now. Thanks for your replies and I’d like to do them justice a few hours after sunrise later today. G’night!
JoyfulA
@danielx: I’ve had two hip replacements and am now supposedly recovering from my second knee replacement. Knees are worse; they hurt more, especially this second one. The doc just reformulated my pain pill regimen; I’d tell you what all is in it, but I worry that my house would be broken into for the pills’ street value.
And still I have to go to the physical terrorist every other day and do all sorts of Yoo-approved exercises that cancel out the benefits of the pain killers. BTW, the pain killers don’t kill the pain; they just knock it down a notch so I can go to sleep and get back to sleep after every trip to the bathroom.
And what’s with all the nocturnal bathroom trips? I have to schedule a couple of extra hours of sleep to account for all the waking up, walkering to the bathroom and back, and getting to sleep again. It isn’t as bad as my last hip replacement, when for a couple of weeks I had to have a bedside commode and learned about Depends because I couldn’t count on getting from the office to the bathroom 10 feet away; I suspect I had an oversize catheter during surgery and had a very stretched out urethra, and I’m extremely glad it wasn’t permanent.
I had a hip replacement in my 50s, and everyone in the medical-surgical system made a point of how young and healthy I was for this procedure. I was living alone in a highly accessible house at the time and didn’t have any assistance with ADLs beyond parental chauffeuring and soup—but in those days, joint-replacement patients went to a rehab hospital for a couple of weeks before going home. Now it’s 2-3 days in the hospital and then home. I prefer going straight home, with visiting nurse and PT for 2 weeks, but I couldn’t have managed it on my own and am grateful for DH, who’s much better at nursing than I would have expected.
I’m self-employed in my home office, and I’m working about half-time now, 3 weeks postop. My ROM is great, but oh, this pain!
Thanks for the distraction and commiseration, and I’ll now go back to bed. PT in the AM!
ruemara
@Yutsano: Does he need a graphics person? I’m willing to move.
Tonight? I’m trying to lift the black mood that descends when I contemplate that I need $550 to repair my old car. To put things in perspective, that’s 2 weeks pay. Or 1 month’s rent, plus storage space rent. I’m hoping this weekends swap meet thing will put some cash in my pocket, but I only have a couple of days to work out what to tell the mechanic. I know you’re supposed to stay positive and shit, but this has been such a suckfest of an existence. If I didn’t have pets, I’d probably commit suicide, but the little guys need me.
ruemara
@workworkwork:
@danielx:
You are both really great people. Your respective spouses are in good hands.
RadioOne
Rural voters have left the Democratic party completely since George W Bush was elected. West Virginia voted for Clinton twice, and even voted for Dukakis. It bugs the hell out of me we aren’t winning these voters backs, given the fact they were fucked by Wall Street, and Goldman Sachs and the US Chamber of Commerce is now giving millions to Romney.
jak
Install a drip irrigation system. It saves a lot of water and puts the water where it is needed. Very little waste.
BGinCHI
If anyone comes back here, let’s do talk books again soon.
Wolf Hall is excellent, and I’d LOVE to reread The Moviegoer.
Steeplejack
@BGinCHI:
I usually always check back until I’m sure a thread is really dead.
I thought Handsmile was going to come back with a morning post, but apparently not.
I have started rereading The Moviegoer, and Valdivia is about to read it for the first time. Go ahead and reread it, and we’ll commandeer a thread in a couple of weeks.
handsmile
@Steeplejack:
Yes, yes, I’m just finishing it up now and should have it posted in a few minutes. (waylaid by a morning chore)
But I’m glad that I checked here before posting, as I can discard the paragraph on The Moviegoer, which seems to be the consensus. Read it years ago, and while it would not have been my choice to reread at the moment, I’m enthusiastic about participating in a fiction group here.
Steeplejack
@handsmile:
I don’t know that The Moviegoer is a consensus pick, but at least two of us are reading it, so it has a bit of momentum.
And I’m not saying it’s the greatest book ever. Originally I brought it up as one of the books on my “reread” list. It did have a big impact on me when I first read it, for the reasons I gave above, and I’m interested to see how it holds up. And I’m interested in “Southern” fiction, which Juicers en masse may not be.
handsmile
@Steeplejack:
You are absolutely spot-on that Balloon Juice is a “very big tent.” If politics is the main attraction, however, there are significant acts involving gardeners, pet owners, and college sports enthusaists. Fiction readers might be thought of as the clowns that come on to entertain between set changes.
Also as evidenced by last weekend’s two threads related to books (“favorite book of all time,” “recent reads”), there is a wide range of genre preferences. Sci-fi/fantasy seems to predominate, in fact, and those are genres in which I have no interest whatsoever. So indeed, “pick[ing] a book that would appeal to enough of these disparate tastes” would be a considerable challenge.
On reflection, your proposal of a “pre-scheduled post on a certain book” may be an inviting way to initiate a BJ fiction reading group. I gather that would involve the cooperation of a FPer, and who among you, Valdivia and BG has the juice to approach one on this idea?
The more informal discussion among a handful of commenters thus may be the most expeditious way to proceed. I await further instructions….
So pleased to learn of your enthusiasm for Sebald! Perhaps the only reason I did not propose The Rings of Saturn is that I reread it only a few weeks ago, inspired by seeing the lovely documentary on the book, “Patience (After Sebald).” If at all possible, seek out the film.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/29/patience-after-sebald-review
On The Reactionary Mind: Author Corey Robin did seem to take umbrage with one commenter who badgered him about his interpretation of/insufficient credit to Nietzsche. Overall, I found the threads’ exchanges notably insightful and congenial (like many threads here, the quality and topicality wavers towards the end). Robin’s participation was appreciated and his comments illuminating, but I’m disappointed that it was deemed essential to continuing discussion of such a worthwhile book.
And now to open some boxes to find The Moviegoer….
Valdivia
@BGinCHI:
@handsmile:
and @Steeplejack
I am totally into talking books again. Are we going to pick a dead thread and stay there to talk :)
Ok, now I am going to read all the comments and see what you all talked about.
handsmile
@BGinCHI:
And if like Dirk Kuyt you check back here and care to take a moment’s time, I’d be curious for you to expand a bit upon your enigmatic, epigrammatic appraisal of Murdoch, viz. “No Murdoch. Jesus.”
I’ve read maybe three or four of her novels over the years, but always found them to possess engaging narratives and a nimbleness with interwoven philosophical themes/ideas.
I believe the customary phrase here is YMMV, but you’re a pretty good mechanic.
Valdivia
@handsmile:
Having never really read sci-fy I too find myself not really drawn by the genre.
I love Seabald and would happily read anything by him or Wolf Hall. As
@Steeplejack: mentioned I started reading The Moviegoer and plan to hound him to talk about it since he recommended it so we could use that as our first book.
I was also thinking that it would be great to re-read some classics. Or encounter classics never read before. I am a total bookworm so once you guys get me talking about books I may never shut up. :)
I would volunteer to write to a Fper and see if they give us a thread in a couple of weeks. Weekend afternoon, late night weeknight? What would be better?
And last but not least: I know Steeple is here in the area of DC and you Handsmile are in nyc right? And BG is in Chicago. Just thinking if there is a central place for all of us to have a BJ book reading group throw down that is not in Gstad ;)
handsmile
@Valdivia: , @Steeplejack: @BGinCHI:
My offline life beckons, so will check back here upon my return. (A proud Luddite, I have no mobile devices.)
Should it become an easier option hereafter, here is my email address: [email protected] [pssst…this is only for you guys :)]
One advantage to selecting Wolf Hall as the Book-of-the-BJ Club might be that it would provide costume ideas for the inevitable meet-up.
handsmile
@Valdivia:
My reply to your #133 lurks in moderation limbo for some reason. I assume it will appear at some point, but I must now skedaddle. Will check back here this evening. Cheers!
ETA: Yes, NYC is where I’m doing time, but hopefully I’ll be released soon for good behavior.
ETA 2: Yes to classics!! I’m not getting any younger, only more feeble.
Valdivia
@handsmile:
ha ha. you are serving time in nyc? Best way to put it I guess. I often come back, must be the terms of my parole ;)
will await the moderation limbo and see what you wrote.
Valdivia
@handsmile:
Sorry there is no way in hell I am wearing those fluffy empire waist line dresses. I am six feet, those look ridiculous on me :)
@Steeplejack: @BGinCHI:
shall we all email handsmile and get a thread going to figure it all out?
mainmati
Rainwater harvesting. Get some plastic barrels and stick them into your downspouts. All kinds of stores sell them now. At the bottom is a spigot so you can attach a hose or pail.
In this era of climate change (yeah I know it’s a hoax), we’re going to have to do a lot more adaptation. I live in MD, so I know you get a lot of rain in WVA .
Also serious composting and working that stuff into your garden soil keeps soil moisture a lot longer. And the plants love it. Kitchen veggie wastes mixed with other crap (no meat). Fish bones.
Finally, growing different plants at different times. Chili peppers and tomatoes and pumpkins like the heat. Lettuce and peas like the Spring and Swiss Chard and Kale definitely likes WVA. And nowadays will last way into winter.
Mediterranean herbs will do well in a sunny spot. Go for it.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
I’ve got to dust off my pseudonymous e-mail address and find the password. Hmm . . .
Valdivia
@Steeplejack:
I know! So hard keeping those things straight right? I did email @handsimle so hopefully we can all talk about the books gathering soon :)