Shakespearean Insult Kit

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)

To Do List

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.)

Tiny Fragile Animals

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)

Hopper at the Movies

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.

Reasons To Be Cheerful

I was just listening to Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 (here's the video) & decided to watch Manhattan. In a coffee shop on the corner. I don't know if this is a sign of cheerfulness or desperation.

Apologies to anyone who is tired of my using Giulia Geranium pictures & vice-versa. It's the best I can do under these circumstances. Hope you're having a terrific Sunday (or Monday - hi Aussies!). Back to the movie....

xo/Susan

(Manhattan stills credits)

Ice Cream

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 Fairy Tales

Russian artist and photographer Irina Istratova is having a lot of fun with her camera & Photoshop. Via My Modern Met post.

The Bay of Noon

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.)

Saturday by the Sea

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. xo

Monday 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.

Can I Get A Witness?

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)

Happy Bastille Day!

...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)

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)

Brando's Beat

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)

Simple Pleasures

Certain labels draw me back over & again. Lori's label simple pleasures is a favorite. I'm not alone, judging by the comments. There is nothing simple about the rest of life. But boy are there plenty o' simpletons around. *Clears throat*

PS: If you're on Twitter, remember President Obama's first tweet-up at 2pm EDT. Hashtag #AskObama

(photograph by Susannah Conway)

Happy Fourth of July

Have a happy & safe holiday if you celebrate it. If not have a great beginning to the week.

A few things:

I love these photographs from the White House last year. I only saw them today. The first is so sweet!

I want to make this Swedish cream cake. Add a few blueberries & it can be Fourth of July cake or a Bastille Day cake.

Speaking of Bastille Day..thanks to a French friend who has made it her mission that fireworks are on my dance card tomorrow. Many bisous to her (& her family). It will be fun to be with these leetle kids...there's even a 7 month old. Squeal! (That's me squealing, not the baby:)

I'm trying to post again regularly but things are muddled. I do post regularly on Giulia Geranium & if people think they'll comment now & again, I'll enable comments after 2 years. Please let me know what you think; I've had a "considering it" note over there for a few months. Thanks so much! xoxo

(photograph by Benoit Paillé)