Sorry for my absence of late. I’ve been redecorating my office, or rather, Alan has. Also, I have nothing to say, but a lot on my mind, meaning not much to write about. (Although I drafted and trashed three posts in the last day.) So I’m taking the rest of the weekend off, and I’ll be back with pictures late Monday.
In the meantime: I’m very pleased with my new room. It no longer has even a hint of Baby. The walls have changed from lemon yellow to a cool, mind-soothing sage, and we installed the two-inch wooden blinds I’ve been coveting. I hung my framed “Nighthawks” poster, and the Russell Chatham poster, and my fellowship diploma/group picture and a bulletin board. Needless to say, we got new electrical outlets and switchplates, too. I took a close look when I turned on the new ceiling fan today.
Both screws were aligned perfectly vertical.
My man.
Back in a few. You all have a good weekend, too.
alex said on July 28, 2006 at 7:38 am
Good goin’, Nance. I still haven’t exorcized Barbie from my guest room. Actually, as you pointed out to me, it’s really more of a Pepto-Bismol than a Barbie pink, but when I first toured the house it had an antique four-poster with a bunch of dolls snuggled up in it. And the switchplates have the most god-awful girlie-child motif I’ve ever seen. By rights someone really should paint over these.
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Dorothy said on July 28, 2006 at 7:42 am
Can’t wait to see your pictures. We’re doing a sage green in our bedroom after we do a sunny yellow in the bathroom. But plans to paint this weekend are put on hold since Mike has to work OT. Crap. I’m rarely in a gung-ho mood to paint. But I’d make a mess if I started it on my own. I can always start the taping process. I figure it’ll take me at least two hours to tape the 3 door ways, big mirror and all the baseboards in there. We’ll shower in another BR for the next week to keep down the moisture quotient. (don’t want all that tape to come loose.)
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Nick said on July 28, 2006 at 8:07 am
I spent a year working with my uncle who is an electrical contractor. He stressed the vertical screwhead alignment to me my first day on his truck. “When you’re done it should look like somebody cared about it.” To this day when I see a crooked screwheads it makes my teeth itch.
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Danny said on July 28, 2006 at 11:10 am
OT question for you readers. What do you all think of the beat writers? On another board I frequent there is a discussion of Naked Lunch.
I haven’t read Burroughs, but I’ve read some of his compatriots: Kerouac (extensively), Ginsberg, Thompson, Kesey and even a bio of Kerouac (Fallen Angel?) when I was a teenager. It just didn’t do much for me. I figure this life is full enough of grief without bringing it on oneself (as these fools obviously did).
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alex said on July 28, 2006 at 11:47 am
Danny, I tried to read Naked Lunch some years ago after reading about it in a scholarly book on censorship. The story behind the book is far better than the book itself, I must say.
Stream-of-consciousness writing was a literary device employed by Faulkner, Joyce and others to skirt around censorship and it’s sort of interesting as a historical artifact but I don’t think of it as great writing except insofar as it got one over on the authorities. In the case of Naked Lunch, a whole bunch of academics and public intellectuals rallied behind it and testified to its artistic worth in court, and Burroughs ultimately prevailed.
But the book itself? Stinkeroo. Or at least not as enjoyable or engaging as the acid trip it’s supposedly recreating. Frankly I didn’t think much of it, but I’m glad that today we live in a country where people can pretty much read or write what they damn well please without fear of retribution from church or state.
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Carmella said on July 29, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Screw heads always had to be horizontal in our household growing up.
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alex said on July 30, 2006 at 1:11 am
Screw heads in my house are wherever the last turn of the screwdriver takes them before shit starts torquing and breaking.
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Dorothy said on July 31, 2006 at 9:38 am
Yessss Alex! Same here. I’ve cracked a few of them and then got pissed that I had to buy new ones.
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