It saves me coming unglued

[raybear]

I just got a text message and it was spam. Like, "go to this website to order viagra" spam. Wtf?

Have I mentioned here that I tried again to read Raymond Carver short stories and at the end of every story, every story, I would think, "I don't get it"? I think this happens to me every couple years, so I wanted to make a note of it. He's such the quintessential short story guy, so this made me think for a long time I didn't get short stories, and while I still think my grasp on them could get better (for my own personal preference), I realized, no, I just don't get Raymond Carver. I'm okay with not liking him, as long as I get him, so I guess that's why I keep going back. Um, that was an accidental joke.

I got dressed this afternoon for work, slightly flummoxed as I was pressed for time and I was trying to gauge the changing weather and I pulled together something and when I went outside to take the dog out, I glanced in the mirror and thought, 'I kinda look like Tina Fey's character.' Definitely too much 30 Rock this past weekend. At least I didn't have pieces of lettuce in my beard.

I had a late big breakfast, and so never really got hungry for lunch, which meant I was starving when I got to work. And dinner was the most uninspiring attempt at fajitas I have ever seen. Stevie Nicks would be so sad.

Comments

[magdalene1.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about Raymond Carver. Maybe it's not that you don't get them. It's that they are often...not that interesting.

[ohsoreluctant.livejournal.com]

one of the very artsy boys i worked with at the vegan restaurant in the west village - told me raymond carver would change my life and he promptly bought me a book and gave it to me.
i was very much unchanged and a bit bored.
but i randomly picked that book up and it became a staple read by the pool for me all this past spring. i suggest mixing him with a lot of sunshine and chlorine.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

i thought of you a couple months ago when i got into a conversation with annie seitz about the book Cloud Atlas. she loved it, and i described how as the book progressed, i liked it, loved it, was annoyed by it, hated it, then found it just okay by the end. except maybe i hated it more than i thought, because when i saw his new book on the shelf at the library, a little shudder went through me.

what are you reading right now?

[ohsoreluctant.livejournal.com]

i'm actually reading "fabric of the cosmos" a book on theoretical physics for lay-people.
it is going ok - much better with the supplemental books i just got at the library.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

oh damn, i love brian greene, because of watching that PBS special on string theory -- twice. i haven't read his books though.

my favorite book to read on the train right now is steven pinker's "the stuff of thought" which is all about how our brains process language and what language means about our brains. .

[unscrambled.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that we talk about books all the time and I still don't think I have a good sense about what you'll like. Actually, I think we've discussed that you feel this way about my musical tastes. I would figure that you'd like Raymond Carver. His stories have a certain kind of economy that I thought would appeal to you. I get the idea that they wouldn't move--to me, they all are about emptiness. Ech. Not so good for this weather, yeesh.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

I like emptiness, but it's got to be wordy. Hello, my blog.

I think its interest how our tastes in both books and music (and movies and TV, too, I think) hover around each other and sometimes connect and sometimes don't, but generally I would say are on similar spectrums. I also think we are both people who have very consistent things we like, but also have lots and lots of exceptions (that prove the rules as well as otherwise).

There does seem to be a theme of things I REALLY like are things you kinda like, and vice versa. Which is partly why I was shocked by your Aimee Mann text yesterday.

[unscrambled.livejournal.com]

>>I like emptiness, but it's got to be wordy.

Hell yes, you do. Hysterical.

>>things I REALLY like are things you kinda like

I agree. I think the Aimee Mann is deeply in the "exception" category in my musical habits. I think my fondness is about how incredibly well that soundtrack works with that movie, and my undying love for the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. So, my love of that soundtrack is also about the way I experienced that particular film--I should listen to more of her music to see if I'm right about this.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

Well, perhaps on Saturday I will bring you a mix of the most magnolia-esque aimee mann songs in my collection and you can test the theory.

[unscrambled.livejournal.com]

I, of course, will accept any mix from you. Please make me burn you some eddie and ernie, some st vincent, some other stuff.

chicken fajitas taste real fine, wouldn't you love to eat them?

[nineinchlovely.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten all about that. Lucy Lawless was just in town too...