Saturday, September 02, 2006
I had three dreams about flying last night. (I have never dreamed about flying before.) The first one was wonderful, and I woke up right afterward feeling really happy and wanted to remember it, but it was the middle of the night, so I didn't want to get out of bed and write it down and get all woken up. So I didn't, and I don't remember it very well.
Posted at 12:20:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
But in it, Bob Dylan had just died, and Dean and I were flying in Tango over all these stadiums, and they were all playing his music (different songs, not all the same one); we could hear it way up in the air in the plane. It was surreal and glorious.
In the second dream, I was trying to fly a plane (why??), but it was completely out of control and was zipping all over the sky like a popped balloon, with me hanging onto the yolk for dear life. Only, I wasn't even inside the plane--it was like I was waterskiing behind a runaway motorboat, but in the sky, with the plane up ahead and me being pulled behind it, trying to catch up. Very cartoonish!
I was driving my car in the last dream, on the way to Eastford, and I saw a plane flying low overhead (I think it was a glider) and felt really happy. When I was almost to the Gs, I passed the Gingers with Jan and June (the ages they are now), going the other direction. They didn't know exactly when I was coming, so they were slipping out to (somewhere, can't remember the details) first. But we intersected instead, and it was grand. There were lots of trees.
Posted at 1:02:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
My favorite part of Heat is when Buford mentions coxcombs. He calls cockscombs "rooster crests." I was very excited by this and even marked a line with my fingernail in the margin (bad thing, since it's a library book).
Our new chock is very premium. Dean was the builder guy (and painter guy) and I was the sticker guy. It's summer squash colored. Doesn't it look just like a giant chock-shaped squash?
Friday, September 01, 2006
Posted at 6:16:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Because I don't have a heart.
(Caption by Dean, response by Laura.)
And no, cod don't really look like that (they have a lot more finny appendages), but oh well.
Silly drawing is from Win-Fro's last night. I have no idea why we call Win-Fro's Win-Fro's, but we do. (I also had a lobster spring roll, but my lobster picture is kind of bad.) Spontaneous Block Island trips are fun.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
[Airplane Notebook:]
Posted at 11:45:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Terrible!! So long to the Altimeter guy. (Best ATC ever.) We're racing another plane to 2B3. They're gonna get our table. Dean: "No! Not our table!" Niner thousand! Don't think I've ever been this high. Beyond the Horizon. (2 Miles High.) Diving under clouds = super fun. I wonder if clouds taste like cotton candy? There are some little blackberry-flavored ones off my wing. The horizon's a great shade of turquoise, like my shirt stripes. [Vein-colored sky!] I wonder what flav clouds those are? Pearly medium grey. Caviar clouds. [Beluga.] Clouds are great. Dean: "It's neat when there's clouds--it's fun dodging them." Laura: "Yeah!! ...Look at that rainbow!"
[end of airplane notebook!]
Modern Times sounds great in the car. Last night I was trying to listen to it on my iPod and it was all running together. Resonating inside the space of my Beag, it's lovely, full, with separation between the tracks. I'm starting to really hear the words today, and I'm amazed what a religious album it is. I mean, it's not like it's hidden, really, but none of the reviews/reactions I've read mention it. It's not in-your-face or preachy, so you could not pick up on it, I guess. But, wow. I was listening to "Beyond The Horizon" on the way to the airport and it hit me that he's not singing to a girl. "When The Deal Goes Down" could be a hymn. And some of the lines in "Thunder On The Mountain"--ha!
I don't like Modern Times as much as I do "Love And Theft," but it makes me really fond of Dylan in a way that I've never been before. I've always had a very hard time finding him lovable. But with MT, that RS interview, and occasionally Themetime, I do. [Edit: With L&T I feel fondness (I hesitate to use the word "affection") toward the songs ("Po' Boy" and "Mississippi," for example) but with MT it's for Dylan in the songs, if that makes any sense. I don't know; it's a fine line and probably can't really be articulated. They just seem more intimist or something. And I don't know if it's good or bad; it just is.] Oh, and 50 episodes of Themetime??? YES!!
[Edit: Official Modern Times listening photos I took this afternoon while I was waiting to drive to the airport: meer and chaise. Mostly I took them because I like my new soft wrinkly airplane cushion-colored shirt (consignment store, natch) and my hair was making me happy. Oh and my favorite thing is the messed-up sounding piano at the beginning of "Spirit On The Water"--that's really endearing.]
This week's Boonstra headline is from "Please, Mrs. Henry." Got to love that, even if the line is "drinkin' too many kegs."
Posted at 3:50:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
It's so weird, it's felt like fall since the 22nd. Even on sunny warm days like today, it doesn't feel like summer sunny-warmness, it feel like a nice fall day. I wonder why? And it's not even September. It's not as if it looks like autumn yet, or anything like that. Although I did notice a few orange leaves on the maple tree at the end of the road, this afternoon. Yikes.
Mead, Mead, Mead, Mead. Why?? She's been out all season, since early spring (I brought her in nights, until it grew warm enough), through the hot long days of sun, sun, sun--and all that time, nothing. Until now. Now, she's starting to grow a new frond! Mead, you'd better hurry up, that's all I can say. Because I highly doubt you've got enough sunlight left.
Posted at 1:37:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
The Lethem article is great. I read it in bed last night.
I think Mod Times is, for the most part, car music, not iPod music.
The other day I was thinking about this question: for which fruit is the difference between an okay instance (i.e., a "normal" instance; i.e., a grocery store instance) and a fresh, perfectly ripe, homegrown/fruit stand instance the most dramatic, the most intense? Today, I have my answer: the tomato. Grocery store tomatoes are, for the most part, not even worth eating. Occasionally, if it's the right season and you are very lucky, you will get good ones. But even the very best grocery store tomato, the tomato that you think is good and are impressed by because it's so much more flavorful than a standard grocery store tomato (and this is an extreme thing in itself), is NOTHING, NOTHING (x 10,000,000) compared to the very best real tomato, grown in the Gs garden or bought at the Suder Stand and counter ripened until it's perfect, sweet and complex, room-temperature warm, bursting with redness. The taste of that tomato, cut crosswise several times with a sharp knife so it opens like a flower, eaten straight, sitting on the back steps barefoot with a bowl in your lap and a spoon slicing at the wonderful juicy wedges, makes the best very grocery store tomato seem like a tasteless mealy lump of pulp.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
I am fixated on "Spirit on the Water."
Posted at 10:24:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
And I keep thinking about today's sky looking like steel wool. Not steel wool, but steel-colored sheep's wool. Brushed steel. Pewter. Not solid, but lighter and darker strands mixed, textured like wool, covering all the sky. Rain falling and falling, all day. But not nasty rain, not too cold or too hard rain. Rain that's real rain but doesn't require an umbrella as long as you don't mind getting a little wet. Rain that isn't noisy, but rises up into smoke-like clouds off the road from the car in front of you and makes everything sound so enveloping, so rich and heavy. I guess the sky looked like smoke, too. Thick billowing smoke.
The coolest thing about today was hearing all these songs for the first time. For each single one, not knowing what was coming. Hearing the opening bars, the little musical intro before Dylan starts singing, and being highly aware that I'd never heard that sound before. Not knowing the names of the songs (avoiding looking at the CD cover), although for most of them I could guess while listening because I've seen the titles here and there online, out of the corners of my eyes. Not knowing any of the lyrics, but trying to sing along anyway. I've listened to the whole thing once, but I've listened to "Spirit" about six times.
You got the key to my brain
Posted at 2:50:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Despite countless temptations, I managed to remain unspoiled, and it's even better than I imagined. Steel wool sky, rain falling lightly, silver streaks across the windows and through the air. 64°. Sounds so good. Keep turning up the volume, notch by notch. Stopped at SBUX after song #2; so quiet in the store, one of those perfect rainy coffeehouse afternoons; Mod Times on display! (Did not buy it there.) New SBUX card too, just released. MT colors, matte. "The Weight" (SS version) over the soundsystem! I'm the only one here. The cashier started looking at me odd, so I had to explain, "I love this song; that's why I'm grinning." Too hard to get into all the other reasons why. Bob uses the word brain a lot on the new record. So far. Back out now, for songs 5-10. This is fantastic.
Monday, August 28, 2006
All right! Another vote for Lowly as an earthworm (from Rachel W): "I've always thought of him as an earthworm.... He's brown after all." My feelings exactly. I also think the fact that he's slippery in that bath scene is a big clue.
Posted at 6:59:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Meanwhile, June says, "I'm going to have to say he is definitively NOT an earthworm. Where's the clitellum?! It's a very distinct earthworm feature." I have to admit, I wondered about that myself. But he is a pretty anthropomorphized worm, so I figured that explains it.
Come on, Lowly fans! Weigh in! What kind of worm is Lowly??
Ha! Bob Reichers just e-mailed me: "Dylan day tomorrow--are you ready ??????????" You bet I am. Drove around playing "Love and Theft" at full blast (it really doesn't seem like five years), and picked up the new issue of Rolling Stone mag (Jonathan Lethem Bob interview!!!) with the cool photo of Bob on the cover (and even cooler photo on page 74). The cashier at Big W said to me, "He's playing at Rock Cats Stadium!" "I know! Tomorrow!" "I'm babysitting for somebody so they can go." I hope it doesn't rain.
Posted at 4:44:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I have a huge headache today, but I'm ignoring it. Got a big pile of tomatoes at the Suder store. And some succulent-looking local blackberries. (The roe of fruit.) I think it would be a good idea for Bob to stop for coffee at the Rocky Hill Starbucks tomorrow afternoon while he's in town. :-)
Sunday, August 27, 2006
This lip injury is driving me crazy. It feels like someone punched me in the mouth. (Well, maybe not--I don't think I've ever been punched in the mouth in real life, so how would I know?). It's swollen and slightly bloody and keeps rubbing against my crocodile tooth. But I don't even know how it happened. Maybe I hurt it eating a lime popsicle last night. That's when I first noticed it anyway, because the popsicle kept getting little red patches on it. How could someone hurt herself eating a popsicle? That's just silly.
Posted at 8:23:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Lowly update: June suggests, "Since Lowly is always driving around in his Apple Car I would assume that he's an apple worm [1, 2]. I'm not sure if inch worms or earthworms have occassion to eat apples also, but this certainly makes the appleworm a contender for the Lowly identity."
Posted at 3:47:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Hmmm. Good thinking, but I still think he looks more like an earthworm. Here's a picture of Lowly nude, as evidence. After I showed Dean, he admitted (reluctantly), "You're probably right." I don't know. Whatever he is, Lowly is an awfully large worm.
Dean says my new watch is "Premium." It's exactly like my old watch, but with a different band. I got it out of my watch kanban. Too bad the battery is dead, so it's permanently 2:59.
Posted at 3:22:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
