Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Return of (to) Old Songs

Old Songs 2006 was this past weekend, so a-roving we went. For roving, it was pretty directed, actually, we just drove to Altamont, NY, camped for two days, and drove back. I have discovered that two days of good weather is just about the perfect amount of camping for me. Fun without being taxing, and the ice in the cooler lasts about that long. It's just long enough to make me long for a real bed and a shower without making me all grouchy. Two days in bad weather is another creature entirely. Cool at night is a must.

Awesome things from this year:
Michael Cooney- a folk festival all by himself. Got up for his mainstage bit, with no intro sang the Simpsons version of the "Do, Re, Mi" song from The Sound Of Music. It was fantastic.
Finest Kind- sometimes accompanied, sometimes a capella, always some of the tightest harmonies I've heard.
Potato Pancakes.
The nice soap lady- Overhearing my mention of knitting, she asked me to help her turn the heel of a sock. She was having trouble, not least because she was trying to go from step three to step five. Gave me a free soap for my help. Mmm, lanolin soap...
I got the four-CD Utah Phillips Starlight on the Rails songbook. Dozens of Utah Phillips songs, each preceeded by an intro/explanation by Utah himself. I had always wondered why it's called Stupid's Song...

I missed Faith Petric, I wish she had been there. Also Christine Mangsen. But discovering new people was also good.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

The Little Brown Dress That Could

I am fascinated by this project. It sounds so simple: Alex Martin made a dress. Now she is wearing the dress every day for a year. But then I start thinking about it. Could I do that? What does it mean? What would I learn? What would I do differently if I couldn't change my clothes?
Reading her blog is great. She constantly questions her reasons for doing the project, as well as the things she's learning from it. She has mostly received positive comments from people. She's looking forward to the project's completion on July 7th, but she also seems pre-nostalgic. The dress has become a refuge from decision making, from time spent on fashion, from her own poor self-image. I think the most interesting blog entries will be the ones after the un-dressing party.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Wreck and Roll!

We went to the roller derby! Which was a lot more fun than you might expect. It's kind of like racing (Going in circles really fast! Crashes! Pile ups!) and kind of like hockey (Fist fights! Body checking! Crashes!). I expected to be vaguely amused for a while, and then just sort of tolerate it. But it was awesome! I got really into it. There may have been cheering involved. We were sitting in the first row right by where they start. Due to our position at the exit from a curve, we got crashed into a lot. Which was surprisingly controlled. Anyway, it was lots of fun.
Then we went to Denny's. Which was even worse than I expected. I had not eaten at a Denny's in years. I still have not eaten at a Denny's in years. We went in a little before nine o'clock. There were eight of us, and we were seated in two tables of four. With different waitresses. Table 1: John, Mary, Steve, Maggie. Table 2: Fuz, myself, John, Susan. Now, Susan is eight months pregnant. So she was very hungry when we came in. She was also very hungry fifteen minutes later, when the waitress finally deigned to take our order. She was also very hungry (as were all of us at Table 2) at nine thirty, when Table 1 had already finished eating and our food had not come. She was still hungry and also very angry at nine forty-five, when she decided that we were going to leave the restaurant, because our food had not come. Table 1 paid, and the rest of Table 2 meekly followed Susan to the front. The manager was quite peeved at our declaration that we were leaving and had no intention of paying for food we had not received, until he noticed that our check was timestamped with 9:06, and it was now 9:45 and, okay, he'll just void that out, so sorry.
There is a lesson here, y'all.
Do not keep food from the pregnant lady. She will totally walk out and go to Taco Bell.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

A Modest Proposal

Here is what we're going to do, okay?
1) We are going to pretend that the travesty known as X-Men: The Last Stand was never made.
2) We are going to stuff Brett Rattner into a tiny, tiny box and mail him to the desert.
3) Whoever is In Charge of these things is going to hire Bryan Singer to do X-Men 3.
4) He is going to make a wonderful, wonderful movie.

I can't wait until X-Men 3 comes out, how about you?