Sunday, July 29, 2007

post 364. diamonds are forever.

now that i've finished harry potter - i still can't believe that potter and shelly long end up pouring their entire savings into a huge house which winds up to be a lemon...

wait.

that's not right. that's the plot of the money pit.

anyway. now that potter's done i have returned to my summer of ian fleming, and diamonds are forever, while still not as good as live and let die, is giving me plenty of reasons why i like the series. while i find some of felix leiter and james bond's embarrassingly racist commentary unforgivable (it was the mid-fifties, and people were absolutely, positively stupid about such things...come to think of it many people still are) i find a unabashed glee at good, pulpy lines like ernie cureo's "Golf ain't their game. The only irons they can handle are in their pockets."

but tonight, while enjoying the best vanilla latte on this side of the state (at saratoga springs' uncommon grounds) i was hit with a wonderful chapter involving the budding love between mr. bond and ms. tiffany case. here's what mr. bond says to ms. case:


"'Not necessarily,' said Bond. 'Matter of fact I'm almost married already. To a man. Name begins with M [mr. bond's boss]. I'd have to divorce him before I tried marrying a woman. And I'm not sure I'd want that. She'd get me handling round canapes in an L-shaped drawing-room. And then there'd be all those ghastly "Yes you did - no I didn't" rows that seem to go with marriage. It wouldn't last. I'd get claustrophobia and run out on her. Get myself sent to Japan or somewhere.'"

and while i'm far from being close to feeling the exact same way, the tenor of the statement - while i sat there in uncommon grounds - let loose a torrent of (no doubt repressed) memories about a situation i was in at new oreans' tailgator's cafe with the notorious ms. K___, where a similar line of thinking came to my head. it was one of those moments that you find yourself in books, you know? the reason you keep reading.

so i was having a pleasant synergy of thoughts, ready to plot out a visit to mr. fleming's grave to give him proper respect when, mere paragraphs later, i read mr. bond's thoughts after he made ms. case angry:


"Bond put an arm round her and held her to him. 'My darling.' He knew that nothing but the great step of physical love would cure these misunderstandings, but that words and time had to be wasted."

ah, yes. the old "we shouldn't talk, let's just have sex and things will work out" mentality. i guess, in the end, mr. fleming ain't no shakespeare, after all.

Friday, July 27, 2007

post 363. a day at the beach.


might i suggest the following accoutrements on your next outing? (from l-r) your tanning oil, a bottle of chilled water, an ipod (may we suggest anonymous, the latest from mike patton's tomahawk?), and seneca's on the shortness of life.

post 362. industrial music.

back in my last semester at the university of new orleans, i took the history of the english language, a requirement for all english majors. we had to, early on in the class, define a word that wasn't in the oxford english dictionary. so what did i pick?

by the way: i find typing on loose-leaf, lined paper pret-ty cool looking.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

post 361. buck mountain.

i went up buck mountain yesterday, which was a nice 3.3 mile hike up along the eastern side of lake george.



while the mostly easy-going, slopy trail up to the 2000' wasn't quite the heart-attack of prospect's rocky grade, it still had its moments. why, at one point, it reminded me of...



it's unfortunate, i thought to myself, that i'm not thinking more posterity-wise when i'm on the trails; while playing the end game with this massive beast, i clamored up some sheer rock face to a grassy field and, again breathless and near-collapse, i turned around and saw that i was looking out on the scene above. the first words out of my mouth? "holy shit." tenzing norgay i ain't.

but while at the top i met phil and deshawn, the previous of saratoga's schooling circuit while the latter is of our country's fine air forces. funny thing: even at heights like this, you can still meet someone who has seen shear madness, and thankfully, can offer opinions on where to find good bars.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

post 360. philadelphia.

another benefit of being in shear madness is the two-and-a-half days off a week, giving one ample opportunity to travel around the area...perhaps, even, to philadelphia, where the decemberists were performing a show at the mann theatre with an orchestra, and i got the chance to catch up with an old friend.

ben franklin, liberty bells, and a fine beer prepare me for an evening with joanna, colin meloy, and a slew of well-dressed musicians.

chills with every song. i think i'm the only person who like metallica's s&m record, where they played with the san francisco symphony. so i like orchestras + bands. it makes everything so...wagnerian and big. below, a snippet from the tain:


i spent monday with dad, waiting for mom to go out so we could fam it up. i drove dad's pickup while making our way out to chester county books - in which i spent a good amount of money in their music section - and while noting his fancy new cd player, i asked him where his cds were. without any hesitation, he reached over and pulled the visor down in front of me, effectively blinding me to the wavy pennsylvania road ahead of me. a few flustered moments and several choice admonishments later, we were all right.

back into the heart of philadelphia for another evening with joanna and her crew. we went to tattooed mom's, a nice dive on south street. graffitti, bad brains in the juke box, and ass baskets, a menu selection of which we partook with great satisfaction.

another fab feature of tattooed mom's is the upstairs section, where they have about four or five old bumper cars for furniture. comfortable, good music, and dirty. wonderful. beth here digs.

beth, jo, and tom.

and how about this? cereality, where i spent my time before making a run back to lake george, has every cereal you'd ever want, and allows you to mix them together.

here joanna tries her luck with the menu selection known as "the devil made me do it": cocoa puffs, lucky charms and chocolate malt balls, with an added squirt or two of chocolate syrup.

sounds good, right? actually finishing said concoction of sugar concentrate might lead one to reevaluate one's decision-making process. i myself had the "apple pie a la bowl," which was a glorified apple-cinnamon oatmeal, but went ahead and spent ten bucks on a box of cereal i made myself: cinnamon life, oat squares, marshmallows, frosted flakes, cinnamon toast crunch, and several other cereals i can't remember.

fine times in philadelphia.

post 359. another climb up prospect.

sure, sure. everybody makes it up prospect mountain one the first try. after hearing that i had scoffed at the idea of such a smoker making it up the trail, the charming and delightful ms. westra bounded up on a recent visit.



while heaving and pulling ourselves upward, we ran into several thousand people coming down the other way and giving us hope: "not too much longer now" and "only about twenty minutes more," but when we made our return trip down, now looking to give the same encouragement, we could find no one to give that hope to. jerks.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

post 358. a filthy habit.

since coming to lake george, i've been spending much too much money on itunes; the lack of a good local record store is part of the problem; the other is the irritatingly small f.y.e. (which i never liked anyway) and...what? buy music at target or wal mart? what, do i look stupid? here's what i've gotten so far on my summer vacation:

david holmes, ocean's thirteen soundtrack.
white stripes, icky thump.
queens of the stone age, era vulgaris.
beastie boys, the mix-up.
l.l. cool j, "goin' back to cali."
john morris and mel brooks, "springtime for hitler."
tony bennett, "once upon a time."
crowded house, "don't stop now."
metallica, live from live earth e.p.
crowded house, time on earth.
robert palmer, "simply irresistible" and "addicted to love."

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

post 355. a new no. 1.


you know, i thought to myself as she appeared for the first time in rear window, that grace kelly is something else. then i saw fritz lang's woman in the moon, then mr. lang's spies, and i thought: wow. that gerda maurus? now she's something else. tough, exotic, and de-gorgeous in a pant suit.

post 354. a sight i never thought i'd see.