Internet is back on at home but now Hurricane Irene approaches. And a tornado watch. Because an earthquake on Tuesday wasn't enough. Sigh. I'll be decamping (with Julie) to a friend's house, probably tomorrow, because the power will go out for who knows how long. I'm on Twitter until the power goes. Stay safe!
Perhaps this should be about the Biblical Ten commandments. After all, we had an earthquake yesterday. Those of you who are used to tremors & earthquakes: enough with your alternate giggling & hands-on-hips annoyance at the attention it has received. It felt stronger than a 5.8 in other areas. Something about the geological formations here in the eastern U.S.
Also, those of us in the New York & Washington, DC areas are on edge because of the tenth 9/11 anniversary. Shaking buildings = terrorist activity. We were relieved that there was an earthquake, actually. I have a funny story to relate at another time. Briefly: I was outside with a friend in a high-activity urban area & made up reasons why the earth was shaking that had nothing to do with an earthquake. My imagination is intact, if not in evidence on the blogs lately.
Anyway, locusts are here, the heat wave is in a break but it's been horrible. The first real threatening hurricane to the east is on the way (Hi there, Irene). Boils must be next.
The internet crisis, along with my health problems, continues. Julie the Cat's near-death two weeks ago (while I was house-sitting in northern Virginia) was so upsetting I can barely relate it. It is her asthma again. We spent most of the day at the emergency vet, after a taxi ride from N.Va to DC (yikes) & back. Lots of meds & she's still on them. She feels better, finally, after quite a long time of not knowing if the medicine was effective. The chronic nature of the illness is really worrying, though.
To the post title: here is an excellent summation of most of what I feel lately (& always) about blogs. I have some items to contribute but that will have to wait for now. Mrs. Monologues is hilarious. I haven't been able to keep up but I think I'll follow her on the ol' tweeter.
Big thanks to Australian bloggers Simon & Julie for their continued support in more ways than I can catalogue here. xo
Finally, I am able to tweet most days from a coffee shop. So join me if you like. I'd love it.
(Claudia Cardinale via Almost Famous Cats via Pinterest)
Try to stay cool & calm if you're under the same weather as here - that is, very hot & beyond-belief-humid. Trying to catch up with much & the internetz are not cooperating. Check out the underwater photography of Elena Kalis. I'd love to be standing there right this minute.
Update - Tuesday. I'm having trouble w/internet at housesitting gig. It comes & goes w/out rhyme, reason. I am a jinx:( But I am able to hang out on Twitter. Join me, won't you? Lots of blogger peeps are there.
Tuesday - 16 August 2011 - I have hopes for internet access at home tomorrow (Wed.)
Wednesday - 17 August 2011 - My hopes are dashed. Leaving coffee shop dejected. Growl.
Sunday - 21 August 2011 - As the kids say, OMG. I've been here all day trying to post & cannot form cogent thought out of swirling mini-thoughts. Plus: Julie the Cat has been very sick. Verizon is on strike & I cannot get the internet re-installed. I am hoping that news this a.m. re: strikers returning on Monday while talks continue bodes well. I shall return tomorrow.
(photograph by Elena Kalis via Tangerine Tangent as seen on automatism)
If I don't leave this coffee shop now, I'm going to have a public anxiety attack. It's nuts here today. Also, I haven't slept well & Julie (the Cat) & I are leaving to house/cat sit tomorrow. It's going to be like a vacation - I am so ready to be somewhere else even if it's in the DC-area.
I read many interesting things today & saw wonderful photographs. However, balky bandwidth & several inexplicably crashed sites are making it more-than-difficult to construct anything worth posting. I think I better get home to pack & decompress.
Summer Travel Galleries refers to a search on LIFE. If you aren't interested in Vladimir Putin's Manliest Moments, you might find Speedos: Gift or Curse? a hoot. (Three guess what I say about them. Oh gawd. I had a boyfriend not too long ago who insisted on wearing one. He's neither European nor an Olympic swimmer. These are the two categories I will accept--grudgingly--in Speedo sporters.) There are many more summer photo galleries for your viewing pleasure. Have fun.
I'll check in on Friday night (US East Coast time) if all goes well. And I'll respond to email, comments, & blog postings ASAP. I'll be in a better mood, too. I promise.
(photograph is from LIFE but I've wasted nearly an hour trying to find the credit. Phooey.)
Isn't this lovely? I adore fashion illustrations, modern & vintage which reminds me that Shabby Apple's dare to design competition 2011 is open for another week. You don't even have to sew the darn thing. Really. Maybe I should give it a go.
Check here for the details. Listen, someone has to win. Why not you? Pass it on to anyone you know who might be interested. Here are some free online drawing & painting tools that might be helpful.
(illustration by genius René Gruau for Dior via automatism)
I'm fooling around with this virtual makeover thingymabob. Ads pop up - you're warned. I know what looks good on me & so don't really need to do this but it's fun. The only problem is the photo available on my laptop has Julie the Cat in it. She looks great with red bangs (fringe for UK, Australia, etc)
Mad Men is now available on Netflix Instant for those who have it. (Drop in at Basket of Kisses, a Mad Men blog for all sorts of analysis, etc.) I got half-way through the pilot but it slowed down too much. And a guy near me kept looking over at a Don-&-Midge love scene. Euwwwwwwwww. Gave him the stink-eye to no avail. Must work on threatening looks.
No more of ceiling talk unless it's about Fred in Royal Wedding. (If you have Netflix Instant, it's available.)
The vote passed, there really was no choice. However, I am furious at the cuts that will be exacted upon the backs of those who can least afford it. My screech on that will be written next week when I have enough bandwidth to research properly.
(photograph via Fred Astaire Annex)
Thou vain sheep-biting malt-worm!
Thou spleeny hell-hated puttock!
Thou dissembling rump-fed jolt-head!
Thou saucy ill-nurtured bum-bailey!
That will get you started. But then visit the Shakespearean Insulter for more taunts & disgusted (& amusingly disgusting) descriptives.
I've been using it on Twitter (along with virtual cream pies). Because truly I need to blow steam. I am ready to burst due to the insanity here in DC. (And really, elsewhere, it's not just here).
In a coffee shop. Yes, I'm still here.
(photograph probably by uncredited still photographer Bob Penn/The Taming of the Shrew)
Faking it. Still a valuable skill for the modern girl.Laughing, laughing. The guy next to me in the coffee shop is shrinking the other way. Read this short (very short) story in list form by Jennifer Egan on The Guardian's website. I didn't get to the other stories because now I'm making up captions for comics. The kind of stuff that will ensure gainful re-employment. (Maybe? Someday?)
Will be back tomorrow. Cheers.(illustration via Comically Vintage - which is hilarious. I spend far too much time there.)
I could not resist these. When I saw the second photograph (& more on Nonesuch via swissmiss), I thought of a line in a Leonard Cohen poem: /because your eyelashes/are the spines of tiny fragile animals.
That's all. But hop over to the link & see the other lashes. Very cool. (Jean Shrimpton by Brian Duffy via We Heart Vintage. More here on a GG post last month)
Midway through Manhattan & I thought of New York Movie by Edward Hopper. This link is to the National Gallery (in Washington, DC). Put your mouse over the numbers for interesting details/explanation.
I'm having such an urge for ice cream (the good stuff) but I'm in a Starbucks & not giving up my side table away from the riff-raff. I ran this yesterday on Giulia Geranium; David Lebovitz makes such gorgeous ice cream & he does it here without a machine. I'm so going to do this when I house/cat sit next month. Although I think they do have a machine. Well, I'll set up a little comparison then. I've not made ice cream in donkeys years.
And now I really should go back to writing. Mimph.
(Françoise Hardy & Sylvie Vartan are the ice cream girls)
Russian artist and photographer Irina Istratova is having a lot of fun with her camera & Photoshop. Via My Modern Met post.
While I'm overwhelmed by...a lot..I'm mooning over photographs taken this year by a flickr contact, Liivia. Rome to Naples (& more but I'm focused on those presently). The top two are from Napoli, the third from Procida (an island in the Bay of Naples). If you have a love-hate relationship with Naples, welcome fellow maniac.The Bay of Noon, by Shirley Hazzard is a wonderful book set in Naples. I urge everyone to read her, if they've not. Or to re-read her if it's been ages. I am indebted to a friend's mother who set me to reading Hazzard's books when I was a freshman in high school. Here's an interview with Hazzard in The Paris Review
(For the rest of the Italia 2011 set, see here.)
In my head, that is. I'm leaving the coffee shop at 3pm but putting up a calm, beautiful photograph by Daniel Farmer via automatism. Of some help today: headphones + Ultimate Ocean Waves via iTunes playlist. I said "some" help. Have a great rest of the weekend. xoMonday update - thanks everyone. I'll be back tomorrow (Tuesday) with comments & another picture. While I try to get my life straightened out (a little). Oof.
Before I leave for the day. Here's an encouraging article about writing in coffee shops. I'll have to take his word for it. I am not having a good feeling about this. A guy just walked in with a talking bird. I tweeted, "Dude, this is not L.A." Also, mean email from friend. Also, my laptop is now infected with viruses/spyware. Sitting here letting the scan run before I pack up & go home, defeated. At least for today.
Update - and a Saturday defeat. I am just leaving the coffee shop now at 3pm. As the kids say, OMG. I brought headphones today & that helped. But mainly this is a nightmare. Will try Panera tomorrow or Monday It seemed quieter & parrot-less yesterday when I stopped in. Meanwhile, cherish your internet-at-home, peeps.
(photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson)
...to my French friends & my Francophile friends. Sitting in a café is driving me mad. (Very loud. I need earphones.) I have to keep moving & that means posting no-matter-what. I was out & about yesterday at appts. & could not bear to drag the laptop with me in 100 degree heat (though there was free wifi). Back in my neighborhood (& cooler for the next two days), I am resisting a strong urge to see Midnight in Paris (money, you know). But I can see the theatre from the café's front door. Hmmm.If you've been thinking about Twitter, please give it a try. If nothing else, it is one more skill/tool to learn. I really love seeing updates in real time around the world. I know it seems nuts if you've not tried it, but I find it comforting to be connected around the world & in my back yard. It can bring you material goods, as well. I recently won the whole line of L'Occitane's wonderful new angelica facial products. More on that (& Twitter) at a later date. I hate not being able to log on the last three nights & ask "Did anyone hear jets scrambling? and sirens? Was that on the news, in the paper? If so, I didn't see it. Anyone?"Anyone gets back to you in less than 30 seconds. I like it.à demain...(ooh..there's an almost-handsome man having a video chat in French not 6 feet from me...hmmm again...*fluffs hair*)
PS: The Eiffel Tower site is really fun & in many languages. There are great ideas for children, games, etc. That third photograph is from an interactive design on the site. I made it for Julie the Cat on a GG post. Pass it on.(photographs via Eiffel Tower & Martin Soler)
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)
Brando is even cooler than I thought - if that's possible. Thanks to Lori for highlighting a recent NPR piece on Brando's conga drumming. I knew that he loved drums but I did not know he was an inventor. There's a terrific video clip of an interview he did with Edward R. Murrow. Brando plays congas with Jack Costanzo. (The photograph the article uses is wonderful, too.)
(photograph of Brando with his grandma's dachshund by Edward Clark for TIME/LIFE)
Internet is back on at home but now Hurricane Irene approaches. And a tornado watch. Because an earthquake on Tuesday wasn't enough. Sigh. I'll be decamping (with Julie) to a friend's house, probably tomorrow, because the power will go out for who knows how long. I'm on Twitter until the power goes. Stay safe!
