Angy's Tea Room

No, I'm not in a tea room but that would be dandy. Instead, I'm in a coffee shop trying to catch up with email & all manner of things. There's a heat emergency in most of the States, including here in DC. And. For the first time since I've had a computer, the internet is down for a considerable time. And no, that is not a good thing. I will not read more books or anything. It is a tremendous inconvenience & I have to make what living I can with the internet.

I was going to urge everyone to visit Angy's Tea Room ages ago & life intervened. I just noticed that the Angy of the Tea Room is on The Sartorialist today. She's just darling. Also, though I follow the blog, I did not know it was a Blog of Note until two minutes ago. Sorry Angy.

Back as soon as I can.

xoxo/Susan

(photograph of Angelica Ardasheva by Scott Schuman)

Get Off of My Cloud

Thursday, 27 Jan 2011 Update - Due to massive snowstorm, Julie & I decamped to an undisclosed location. Will post winter break news after we dig out. xo/S.

Tuesday, 1 Feb 2011 Update - We're still not home. More ice on the way. Go watch Egypt (& Tunisia) news...more important than us:)

What to do about: spammers, hacking attempts, people in the followers list who are suspicious, maybe enable the follower gadget, it's just a mess. So creeps, in my best Mick Jagger sneer - Hey you, get off of my cloud.

On a more pleasant note...for sheer delight, check out Jeff Bridges's great website. Any admirer knows that he draws, loves his Widelux camera, & plays music. He's much more than that, though. He's a spokesperson (& co-founder in 1983) of the End Hunger Network. Read all the way down that link about his thoughts on how charities alone cannot end hunger. The series American Masters recently broadcast The Dude Abides about guess who & it was super.

I'm new to Indecision Forever, a site run by the entertaining wackos at The Daily Show. If you will be watching the State of the Union Speech tonight (SOTU to us wonks), you might want to check in over there. I'm weary of the post-mortems. Wait, you say. It hasn't been delivered yet! I know, dear. You must not know that speeches are dissected before they're given nowadays.

Out I creep into the freezing apt. to heat up some soup & run back into the bedroom. Julie is asleep after playing with my braid & taking off my sleep mask about 5,000 times last night. OK, about 100 times. I'll be back to post a suitable photograph (s) for the break.

Week's End - Strangers in the Night

Well, this works on a few levels. (See previous post, sleep clinics) Have a terrific weekend. There are oodles, yes oodles, of great links on this page, Julie's blog, & just keep on clicking to those blogs. Over & out, cheeky ones. (photographs from Truman Capote's Black & White Ball, 1966/via LATimes & Cup of Jo, second is by Harry Benson)

Saturday update - Liberty London Girl is having a London Fashion Week giveaway that is just wonderful. It doesn't say for UK readers only, so I left a comment. It might be though. There are several lovely Brits who visit here & I thought you would be interested. Cheers. xo

Update - the computer is acting up again . One program says, "A-OK, ma'am." The other is flashing weird red signs & I expect a siren to start up any moment. &^*I*^T^! Anyhoo, if you leave a comment & it doesn't show up, I am not ignoring them. Must take laptop to be spot-cleaned, washed, fluffed & folded on the weekend. Someone invent a Virus-Designer-Dudes-Be-Gone spray. Or something.

A Tea Party

"Of all the silly nonsense, this is the stupidest tea party I've ever been to in all my life"--Alice

Oh good grief. The news is so absurd that if it weren't so very dangerous, I might laugh.--a little. If you don't know what I'm talking about, congratulations. You have been in a dark theatre watching a totally cool (or dorky) film marathon. Here's what I'd like to know: what is your excuse for not inviting me?

Cheers to Maria Caterina who gave me early birthday gifts yesterday that are so super, I'm still dazed. I am indeed very fortunate--in spades.

I'm having computer problems, just in time for the laptop's first birthday. Of course. Deep breath. xo

Against the current, ceaselessly

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..."
The Great Gatsby

It's F. Scott Fitzgerald's birthday (see here for novelist Leslie Pietrzyk's tribute & a bathtub gin recipe); he's buried not too far away. It's sad beyond measure. I resist dipping into an abundance of photographs--personal & otherwise--to illustrate reckless, careless people. I do possess some common sense, no matter what I've written (or allowed to be quoted publicly--in print--for crying out loud) the past several years.

Instead, I will be at the new farmer's market near the White House. (Thank you, Michelle Obama., I love you.) While I'm riding the rails, I will muse on a newly-acquired phobia (& how to exorcise it). I'm convinced that my much-anticipated, first laptop will connect itself, without my assent, to the neighbor's wireless service. Before it has its configuration day spa outing at the local Office Depot. "It" has already indicated a willingness, nay, an eagerness to zip over & grab the hot spot. I will have a cow & kittens if this happens.

Friends have queried, why isn't the DSL working yet? Why not the wireless? Have you even turned the freaking laptop on after spending months researching it & driving us crazy with questions? Well, OK, man, geez. This, this...thing was delivered on September 3. It is September 24. The evening of the 19th, after 4 hours of looking at it (not full-time!) on the coffee table, I turned it on. It fully charged & the mess called "Vista" loaded. I activated the anti-everything -bad programs. Then I turned it off & Julie the Cat returned to lounging upon it. I feel this was a major success but have been told otherwise.

I am reminded that...I was unaccountably afraid of a chainsaw in my Washington, DC garage. (If an inanimate object can be accused of lurking, it lurked. This is why I avoid horror films, books.) Friends thought it hilarious then & still do. This is not helpful, people. You want me to communicate faster, better, watch those YouTube thingies...& even do things for you (ahem) that require resolution of this problem. So maybe razzing me--no matter how amusing--isn't the way to go. (No, these are not careless & reckless creatures...though they've re-enacted my in vino veritas chainsaw confession to others. For which I will never forgive them. OK, I will.)

Photographs are from a series by Frenchman Yannick Vigouroux. He's part of a cellphone photography (photophonie) group. Eh, bricolage. Yannick's project is called Au coeur des pixels. Which I love. I stress that these Parisiennes-on-the-Métro are not careless (insofar as I know).

Session over; carry on.

Blue Solution

So no one has advice on laptops. Well, I could just buy an Olivetti & be done with it. A blue one. This photograph is via alexkerhead's flickr set Cameras, Typewriters, Telephones, & Radios. Very cool.

Horse Sense

"A friend asking "Lady Wonder," the talking horse, about important decisions." Richmond, VA, December 1952, by Hank Walker.

A new low. Even for me. But that's what came up under "decisions" in the LIFE archives. Seriously.

If I log on Thursday (this being written on Wednesday) & haven't made a laptop decision, I'm going to flip out. If you see this, tell me. But not to get a Mac -- I'd love to. I can't. Don't tell me your horror stories about the evil laptop that ruined your life. Just give me some ideas. My eyes are crossed. I'm on the verge of polling complete strangers because my friends don't want to discuss it anymore. I don't blame them. Help!

Crossing the Street

Paris, rue de Rivoli, 30 juin 2009 by Yannick Vigouroux

I'll add to this later. But it's already July? Yes, everywhere on Earth. Patterns, unfortunate: my shriek of surprise when it's a new hour, a new day, a new month.

Crossing the street is something I do several times a day & almost always it is fraught with danger most would associate with life in....well, elsewhere. I adhere strictly to proper ped behavior--89% of drivers at the closest intersections in my neighborhood do not. (Yes, I stand out there & conduct surveys.) Family & friends have been instructed time & again: you know that I always follow the rules. Therefore, sue like there's no tomorrow if I get hit by a car & I can't do so myself. Then have huge party. Or something. This is a way of steeling myself to once again, go out there.

And yes, I'm running behind on both blogs. And everything else.

This photograph is with kind permission of Yannick Vigouroux (in Paris); an all-round terrific guy who is now taking photos with his phone & playing around with distortion & so on. It was perfect for today. Plus I love stripes, les rayures & it would be oh-so predictable of me to post gorgeous photos of those patterns in clothing, interiors. Not that I won't revert to predictability any time now.

Happy Canada Day to my friends up north. Had a devil of a time procuring meaningful-ish photographs for your day (in time). Unless I scan a red maple leaf (on a board to my right) & post that, I can do little honor you today. I have low standards at times, I know, but that would be truly disgraceful.

[Thanks to cher Yannick as always, go here for his varied flickr sets]

Week's End - Tricolore Window

...a pull of the curtains* (for now). I'll be be offline for awhile; perhaps by a miracle, it will be less than three weeks. I saw this photograph in Robert of Toronto's Antibes flickr set & thought, there it is, a bricoleuse arranged that window. Please go here to see the full photograph because the detail in the Provençal fabric is marvellous.

I will leave all feeds on for everyone's blogs to come through while gone. That means, I cannot monitor whatever the Dept. of Worlds Collide & Troublemaking-in-Style [right sidebar] gets up to. I cannot bring myself to unlink. (But I will check in from elsewhere, when possible, to see what's going on, you devils). If I can come back & see comments & read your blogs tonight or tomorrow, I will surely do so. [Friday morning update: I'm taking off the feature that shows only 10 blogs...it might shock you how long since you've updated! (hint)]

More crazy thunderstorms announce their most-unwelcome-presence in Washington, DC...ciao-for-now, amici

*le drapeau tricolore: the French flag
[impromptu flag by Robert of Toronto/used by permission]

Cleaning House

Literally & virtually. Must publish one post per day on each blog. Discipline.

The more serious thing: I'll probably be off-line as of Friday, a few weeks (I hope not that long). No, it's not a trip to the beach or Rome or Crete or Santorini. You would definitely hear about that. It's serious because of work-I-need-to-do & necessary e-mail, & I love the radio all day but sometimes, you just have to watch Supernanny or Sherlock Holmes Mystery on PBS. And I still can't do that because I remain unsuccessful in fashioning an antenna out of the cat. You know, to bring in the digital-signal.-that-would-change-our-lives. (Julie is willing, I swear. No PETA spamming please. It's a joke.)

Speaking of jokes, I'm furious at Dave L's forced (I'm convinced) apology to "that woman." Yes, I cringed at a few of the jokes....I knew he'd get slammed & I'd like to talk to some of his writer-guys. Still. Get over it. BTW, do people look at their Googley-Analytics? I try to avoid except very occasionally because it creeps me out. But finally I'm going to type it: Wasilla, Alaska . Five straight weeks. Are you kidding me? Well, all residents can't be fans of their former mayor, The Woman Who Made Me Crack My Tooth (via Stress). [better title in the offing]

No comments (yet) such as: "Oh yes! I'm going to re(read) Gatsby, or look at Shirley Hazzard books, get over my unreasonable fear of Naples, or -- this would be my dream come true-- "I performed Molly Bloom's soliloquy in a junior high school talent show & everyone fell faint, except one fabulous (silently applauding) teacher. I had one of those...Ms. Hughes. From Real Ireland. No, I didn't perform the soliloquy...how I wish.

ciao

[Photograph by Yael Joel via LIFE Googley archives, 1953]

On the phone with Suzy...

No, she didn't say that...she did? Well, that's creatively passive-aggressive of her.. .we'll sort this out tonight, OK? Ciao.

It's so very hot & sunny here. My favorite hat is crumbling. I hate to take her out but I'll fry if I don't, supermondosunscreen nothwithstanding. Julie the cat is passed out in front of a fan, paws over her eyes. I wish I had a dress like Suzy Parker's (from myvintagevogue). Actually, I do have one -- it just doesn't fit me (right now). I have to put in the hilarious photo of this Australian lady & her wacky cat (look into his eyes). It's from the New South Wales library archives that have so held my interest.

Hope you're well wherever you happen to be. Some places, friends are going into winter; others are like here. In yet others, it's just hot year-round, with gradations of hellishness. Oh to be in Santorini...mimph (that's a sigh-grumble thing). Here's to a better week than the last. Ciao.

Week's End - Tangled up in blue-black ink...

Update: At 12:07EDT, it's definitely Week's End for archival purposes. Hoped for amusing photos like last Friday's & the time/energy/computer cooperation to do something with them. Not happening. Good weekend to all, wherever you are.

Apologies to Bob. I hate doing that...was gonna use some really obscure Dylan line but I took the easy way out. Not week's end yet...(Waterman pen by Phil/ShutterSparks who has the coolest stuff)

A Soldier's Good-bye & Bobbie the Cat

I've been captivated by the State Library of New South Wales recent uploads of Australia-in-the-1930s-1940s. These are A Soldier's goodbye & Bobbie the Cat. (I've used three different NSW/Sam Hood images on the Giulia Geranium blog,as well.)

I do hope that Sam Hood, the Australian photojournalist, is a character such as I have imagined. If not, I'll just make something up. Hey, it works for other writers. I'd never compare myself to Michael Ondaatje, but a clipping about Almásy & the Royal Geographic Society sparked The English Patient (I think). My preoccupation with that time period/content/images is all Hazel/Clever Pup's fault--she started it. I didn't count on Australia popping up, though.

No time. No kidding. Storms on the way (again) & the computer is actually making weird noises now. Shriek. Talk about creativity under pressure....will have to add "under pressure" to an already-existing label.

Taxes & café crème

Yes, I waited too long. You would've too if you had this computer. Hope to see you later today. Snarl, growl. [original post from GG] Café crème by Glynnis Ritchie, all rights reserved/used with permission of the photographer

Week's End - Marguerite in Black & White

Picture collection only, sadly. So it should be this, as I am flower-mad. Hope everyone has a great weekend. (I'm typing this on Tuesday morning, so not sure when I'll "see" you next. Hope it's soon!) xo (photo by lovely Miki**)

Week's End - Listen to the Radio

Computer crisis. It's not like I can have it fixed or anything else & I don't have another office to go to. This is it. I find this photo appealing, not just because of the cat & the radio but because it's Depression-era. The First One. Because it definitely feels, to one on the edge already, that the Second is on its way. There's a camping ground in a Sacramento parking lot (I saw on the still-working TV) that grows daily; it looks dreadfully like an updated photo from the DPA archives. It's happening all over America. ( If you don't know what the DPA photographs are, do a search. You'll know immediately.) It's coming to a parking lot near you, if it's not there already. (Cat sitting on a radio in 1930s Sydney credit)