nasty, brutish, and short

This Saturday, darling_moon and missytas joined sorenlundi and I for the first time for band practice. I'm really excited about how much cooler things sounded with the addition of tambourine and recorder on the songs we tried stuff out on. After practice, we watched some episodes of UFO, which is this old british sci-fi tv series. It was made in the 60's and set in the "future" 80's. The show is not that good, but the design and costuming is pretty entertaining in itself. Also, the cast seemed to be confused as to whether the world UFO should be pronounced "U.F.O." or "you-fo", which is pretty funny.

I saw my parents on Sunday. Their visit went pretty well. We went to the Dale Chihuly exhibit at Phipps and to Frick Park to wander around since it was such a nice day.

After my parents left town, I went to see Peeping Tom at the Reagent Square Theater w/ jess_s. It was pretty awesome. The cinematography was great, and while I wouldn't say that it was very scary, it has aged very well for a horror film. It did a really good job of developing the characters enough that you actually care what happens to them. In fact, the creepiest thing about the movie is how likable the main character is, despite the fact that you find out he's the killer in the opening credits.

Last Sunday I attended a surrealist tea party at darling_moon's place. Tea parties are a sadly underutilized social gathering. They offer excellent opportunities for dressing up, drinking tea, and the consumption of tiny, adorable foodstuffs.



Oh, the tiny cakes! Seriously, the food at this party was amazing. jess_s and I made the pistachio rosewater cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The flavor combination sounded somewhat suspicious, but I thought they would be pretty and interesting if nothing else. I'm pleased to report that they were delicious as well. sorenlundi made lemon-basil mini-bundt cakes, tea sandwiches, and scones. darling_moon made chocolate-wasabi and lime-almond-coriander cakes. I cannot even express how good they were.

Aside from that, not much is going on. Soren and I have enough songs done now for a short set, and I hope that we're going to have the opportunity to play out sometime soon. If you're having a house party (Halloween perhaps?) and would like to have a live band play, let me know.

My parents are visiting next weekend. Why does it seem like there is never a convenient time for parents to visit?

Last Sunday I met jess_s for brunch at the QS, and she informed me that it was a RAD day and several of the museums around town had free admission. We decided to check out the National Aviary. It was nice to ride around the North Side listening to the new M.I.A. album on a sunny end-of-summer day. The aviary has expanded and added more open exhibits since the last time I was there. On multiple occasions I saw a senior citizen share a bench with a large tropical bird, each equally disinterested in the other. Watch out for the birds in the amazon room, though. If you stand between them and the food dish, they will dive-bomb your face. As Jess observed, "that is some Hitchcock shit."

On Monday the Phipps Botanical Garden was free, so I went with iole200 and finally saw the Chihuly exhibit. It was ok. I mean, when you go to see something by Chihuly, you know what you'll be getting. But I feel like his schtick kind of suffered from the location. In a museum or a hotel lobby, his big, crazy glass sculptures seem really organic and whimsical. But next to a bunch of weird plants, they just look like big, crazy, gaudy glass sculptures. He was upstaged by nature.

But at the same time, he's perfect for the venue, because his art is completely atopical and inoffensive. It's not like the botanical garden is going to invite some conceptual artist to do the same thing. Can you imagine a Damien Hirst instillation at the Phipps? A tank, containing a shark suspended in formaldehyde, floats in the middle of a pond full of water lilies. Meaty, dark red cross sections of horse stand among the spiny cacti in the desert room. In yet another room, orchids spill from the eye sockets of a bejeweled skull nestled in the crook of a tree branch. Children hide their faces in their mothers' skirts, sobbing loudly.

On Thursday night I went to see Golem, a folk-punk band, at Gooski's. It was a good show. The band was very charismatic and got everybody dancing. Here are some terrible pictures I took w/ my phone:



Can you make out the dimly-lit fun everyone was having? Good times.



I am a total sucker for eastern european folk music. I'd be tempted to try to learn the accordion sometime, if I weren't afraid of the amount of work it would take to be semi-competent at it.

Klingons vs Furries Bowling in Midtown

ATTN Pgh Horror Movie Fans:

Suspiria is playing at the Oaks tonight at midnight.

Pittsburgh people, is there a body shop in the area that you have used and like? I need to get some work done. I'm not paying for it, so I'm looking for quality, not necessarily the cheapest price.

It's my mom's birthday, and I want to get her a book. But I haven't been keeping up w/ new fiction, so I'm not sure what's out now that's good. She likes "books about people" and her taste aligns pretty well with Oprah's book club. Has anyone read anything recently that she might like? It doesn't necessarily have to be a new release.

Poll #702902 One question. Answer immediately.
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Vampire or werewolf?

Is anyone interested in going to this show?

If you are in that 'Balkan Beat' mode and you like Gogol Bordello and Devotchka you may want to check out Baltimore gypsy punx MADAGASCAR. wearemadagascar.com
They are also a bit along the realms of the Constellation Records bands (such as the Godspeed/Silver Mt Zion side project Black Ox Orkestar)

Tuesday March 14 8 pm $5 all ages
with Spynda and Wilk (of Air Guitar Magazine) and The Pimps Up Hoedown
Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Avenue

Ok, so this is more like "word of the week" than "word of the day". I haven't been on lj a lot lately, what with the move and such.

Abject:literally, thrown away
A transition from the literal to the figurative, and from cause to effect, has occured in the meaning of abject. Ab, meaning "off," "away," and jacere, meaning "to throw," were combined in Latin to form abjicere, "to throw away," with a past participle abjectus, "thrown away." Directly from this source came the English word abject, which was formerly not only an adjective but also a verb meaning "to cast off," "to throw down," and, with a figurative application, "to degrade." It is this latter meaning that survives in the Modern English adjective abject which characterizes one who has been cast off or degraded and who is therefore low in condition or cast down in spirit.

I kind of forgot about Picturesque Word Origins for a while. Here is the next word. There's no picture.

Abeyance:Waiting with gaping mouth
Something "held in abeyance" may cause some anxiety or impatience, but it hardly suggests "open-mouthed expectancy." Yet that was originally the literal meaning of the word abeyance. It comes from the Late Latin badare, "to gape," "to look with open mouth," "to expect." From this was derived the Old French abeance, literally "a gaping at," but used metaphorically to express "expectation" or "longing." This is the English abeyance, a legal term used of rights which were suspended, "held in abeyance," awaiting a proper claimant. Its meaning, however, has broadened in general use to denote any kind of suspension or temporary suppression.

Caliban's had a box of free books outside today, and I picked up a book on word origins.

Abet from the baiting of wild animals

From the ancient sport of bear baiting, the English language has taken a violent word and applied it to men rather than animals. Abet goes far back to an old Teutonic origin that conjures up a picture of hardy men going to the chase with their packs of hunting dogs. Our English verb bite appeared long ago in a Low German derivative bëtan, meaning "to cause to bite", "to make bite," as, to make dogs bite the bear, and so to send them out to hunt the bear. Icelandic beita meant "to feed," "make bite," and also "to hunt" with dogs. The French adopted both the sport and theTeutonic name for it, making the Old French verb beter, meaning "to bait" a bear, and abeter, " excite," "incite," which we have taken into Engilsh as abet. No longer applied to the hunt, it now means to encourage or incite persons, usually in an evil enterprise.

I've started thinking about buying an acoustic bass. While I was looking for info online, I rediscovered this bass picture archive. If you care about guitars or design, these travesties will make you laugh. Or cry. Or both.

<td>You are a Kitchen Knife.



You are a very aggressive person, not hesitating to make a fatal move in order to succeed. You are always aware of what is going on around you, though other people aren't. You are over-protective of some of your valued possessions, though you gamble to gain more. If someone gets in your way, you kill them. If you hate someone, they die. Well, not literally. People fear you for your skills and envy your success, but you don't care. You liked to be feared in order to gain reverence. You are the most powerful of all silverware, and cut up peoples souls. I mean food.

Most compatible with: Toothbrush.


Click here -- What Random Object Represents Your Inner Self?
</td>

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Your score: 34

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I don't have recurring dreams, but I'll have the same type of anxiety dream for long periods of time. Right now they are always about missing my flight at the airport.

I have a cold. I left the house twice this weekend. I spent most of my time parked on the couch in a cold-medication induced drug haze, watching ungodly amounts of tv. I think I'm getting better, but now my inner ears itch. That can't be good.

Sadly, this was about an average Valentine's Day for me. I've had worse. But then my best Valentine's Day experience was going to see a performance of No Exit with my parents. So, um, yeah.