Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Johnny Cash

This is the Johnny Cash photograph by Annie Leibovitz that I loved and bought a postcard of. (from Georgia, where the wrong pic. disappeared anyway)

Which reminds me of going to see Walk the Line. That was almost two years ago, and I have an unfinished post of it. I liked it a lot. I don't know much else about Johnny Cash, but I thought it was a good movie. It was a vivid picture of that scene of rock and roll. I'd watch it again, especially because I enjoyed how they played a lot of his songs, and not just clips or background music. They showed a lot of whole songs in concert. Which was a good decision.

especially June Carter and Johnny Cash singing Dylan, "It Ain't Me, Babe."

Friday, August 24, 2007

sewing

I've just about became addicted to sewing. My sister gave me her sewing machine before moving back to Prague, and when I returned from summer travels, I took it out.
First, I bought all the necessary notions (that's a nice word).

Then I proceeded to make myself a simple, gathered skirt. Which it is.

Then I had to make a dust cover for my sewing machine. And then I made little "pillows" stuffed with balsam fir from Maine, because it smells good. Then I hemmed two pants, and I'm working on re-making an old dress I have. The to-do list is huge.

The first week of work (pre-planning, when I can still leave work at work) I couldn't stop sewing every night. Now, it's not so much. But it just feels right when I do. I feel sorry I never discovered this until now.

My childhood memories of sewing are horrible. I never did thread the machine properly, and the bobbin always got caught. I don't know why it's different now. But I officially have a new hobby.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I wish it would rain

listening...

[i like compiling lists with themes. it's hot here in georgia. no rain.]
  1. (See the Sky) About to Rain - Neil Young
  2. Alabama Rain - Jim Croce
  3. Oh, I Wish it Would Rain - Nanci Griffith
  4. A Hard Rain's A-Gunna Fall - Bob Dylan
  5. Famous Last Words - Billy Joel
  6. Journey through the Past - Neil Young
  7. Raindrops keep Falling on My Head - Burt Bacharach, Hal David
  8. Painting by Chagall - The Weepies
  9. Beauty of the Rain - Dar Williams
  10. Comin' Down in the Rain - Nanci Griffith
  11. No Rain - Blind Melon
  12. Have you Ever Seen the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
  13. Wasn't that a Mighty Storm - Nancy Griffith
  14. Rain King - Counting Crows
  15. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan
  16. Rainy Night in Baltimore - Counting Crows
  17. Rainy Night in Georgia - Hem
  18. Rainy Day Women....that may be a stretch

Sunday, August 12, 2007

once said

Dylan once said that he wrote songs so quickly because he couldn’t envision the world lasting much longer.

I got that from a Paste blog - Andy Whitman.


A very great man once said that some people rob you with a fountain pen.

I got that from Talking New York.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

gull silliness

I'm pretty much ridiculously pleased with this video.* You have to watch it for the last 3 seconds of it.



(besides, this is the first time i've utilized youtube to publish myself. that's exciting)


*key word: ridiculously

Monday, August 06, 2007

Little Tree

I've been reading The Education of Little Tree, for the third summer, enjoying it immensely. If you haven't read it, you should. It's such a delightful book. Which you'll find out.

I love this book (and I assign it for summer reading), but there is a lot of controversy about it, and I'm trying to decide how to view it. (It claimed to be autobiographical, but Forrest Carter was not Cherokee and not raised by his grandparents, and in short, he was total faking it.) Here's a pretty brief and good article about it, which ends like this:
But the mystery of Forrest Carter remains. Was he a racist who broke with his old life and privately reinvented himself as a touchy-feely writer relating old family legends? Was he, as his brother Doug claimed, spinning yarns to raise money for a political comeback? Was he a con-man who found a rich vein to mine? And does it, if the words on the page ring true, matter what he was?
And I'd really like say that it doesn't, because I want to keep on reading it, and keep on loving it. But I'm not sure.

Here's a lovely tidbit for you.

I squatted in the middle of the spring branch and watched one little spider trying to get his cable across. He had determined that he was going to have the widest pearl net anywheres up and down the whole spring branch; and he picked a wide place. He would tie his cable, jump in the air and fall in the water. He'd get swept downstream, fighting for his life, crawl out on the bank and come back to that same fern. Then he'd try again.

The third time he came back to the fern and walked out on the end and laid down, crossing his front arms under his chin, to study the water. I figured he was might near give out--I was, and my bottom was numbing cold from squatting in the spring branch. He laid there thinking and studying. In a minute he got a thought, and commenced to jump up and down on the fern. Up and down. The fern got to rising and falling. He kept at it, jumping to move the fern down and riding it back up. Then, of a sudden, when the fern rose high, he jumped, letting out his umbrella--and he made it.

He was fired up proud and leapt around after he made it, until he nearly fell off. His pearl net become the widest I ever saw.

You see why I want it to be true?