4/9/07
Slow Jog, or Heard Loud and Clear Through iPod
"I'd drive a thousand miles
Haul a trailer of tears
Just to see you smile."
-Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris, "Beyond My Wildest Dreams"
"¿Me estás oyendo...inútil?"
- Paquita la del Barrio, cualquiera canción
"That trailer trash pedigree is calling
It rats you out when you're down on all fours
Me, I like to cast my death on yesterday
Cause what doesn't kill us now just makes us better whores."
-Matthew Good, "Born Losers"
3/9/07
Have I been under a rock???
Oh, wow. Perfect. And, for me, perfect timing. Soothing. Moving. Energizing. Cleansing. American. Universal. Transfixing. Transforming. Story/novel/poetry. Healing, just like Sailing to Philadelphia was seven years ago. One listening and it's in the blood.
2/9/07
Nice bridges
New toll plaza
Zampa BridgeWhen Paula came to visit about 10 years ago, she made the observation, "It's kinda big, but there's nothing here." We thought that maybe that could be the town motto. Now, I think we could change it to, "Vallejo - why we can't have nice things." But there are some nice things...
The elegant Al Zampa Bridge for example, and especially now that the FasTrack Only lanes occupy only the left 3-4 booths of the toll plaza.
And, last weekend the new EastBound section of the Benicia Bridge opened. Driving across is now pure automotive pleasure. Admittedly, I've only been there after 11:00PM and should not wax enthusiastic until I've been on it at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon. Not only are FasTrack Only lanes confined to the extreme left lanes, but drivers do not have to slow down or even pass though a booth. The left lanes are like freeway. The sensor is up high and reads the transponder at speeds as high as 60 mph. Driving fast through that high-tech toll plaza on that new pavement almost feels like being on an autopista in Spain or some other country with civilzed infrastructure.
1/9/07
To blog...the unreadable blog...
Last night:
Not a fan of musicals, I have a soft spot for this one because of the novel that inspired it. This production, described by the actor playing Cervantes as "Our 'garage' La Mancha", charmed me and the rest of the audience with its unconventional staging, casting, choreography and score. Cast members and audience alike were unabashedly shedding tears during the final number. My own eyes stayed dry until I saw one of the characters raise up the prop manuscript of the Quijote... and the spotlight shone on it, revealing it as the true protagonist of this piece.
The small, intimate theater was a huge part of the charm. Playgoers can buy beer, wine and other treats (CASH ONLY!), take them to the seats and sip during the performance. This playgoer could not partake, being inconveniently, yet predictably, cashless.
Other lovable things:
-The post-apocalyptic prison setting
-None of the actors were cookie-cutter types or typecast. Aldonza was a rather butchy African-american woman, for example, and the innkeeper was a stout blond woman.
-The voices were not Broadway quality (thank God) and the music was all done with piano, acoustic guitar and some sort of drum.
-Because the production was not slick, the dialog and lyrics lost some of that sappy, schmaltzy sound they might have otherwise had and we could allow ourselves to get swept up in our own personal dreams of "The Impossible Dream" without sacrificing too much of whatever (real or imagined) hip and coolness we felt surrounded by.
31/8/07
¡Pinche cabrón!
After reading the blogs of CRG, Eve Gil, NY Hack (among others), I promised myself that mine would not become some sort of Bridget Jones' Diary or even very autobiographical...but I feel compelled to write the following rant.
I set out at 7:30ish for RoRo's in order to be present for the 2 hr. window during which the countertop guy would show up to take a template. It's been great to participate in her re-model as she did in mine. Said countertop guy knocked on the door at a little past 8:00 and stood there silent and staring when I opened it. I introduced myself first, making it clear that I was not the owner, but that I would help in any way I could. Mike barely gave his name and just walked past me to the kitchen. "OK, no people skills, but probably quite good at counters," I thought.
I had barely sat down and begun to finally answer some e-mail when I heard sounds of discontent coming from Mike. I walked over to him and he said, "I can't do anything with this." "Why not?" "It's incomplete," he responded, staring me straight in the eye. "What is?" For some reason my hackles went up. "There's nothing back here." He gestured to the space behind the sink under the bay window. "It needs some support, granite's heavy." I waited, suppressing the phrase "No shit." "I really need the contractor or the homeowner to be here. This is incomplete. I can't work with this. I don't know what she wants done under that window." And he's the expert??? I replied, "Um...she wants granite all the way back, it should all be in the work order that Louis at Loew's..." He interrupted, repeating something about the empty space under the window and I said, "Well, there were some 2x4s nailed there, but we took them out...the electrician and cabinet installer needed everything out of here, so when we did the demo, that's exactly what we did."
He looked down and back up all 5' of me (in my unfortunate outfit of thick-soled canvas ripped-to-shit shoes, a short tan skirt and a too-tight black t-shirt bearing the quote, "And this one time, at band camp..."). He said, slowly and icky,
"You had something do with the demo?"
His audibly italicized "you" transmitted disdain, rather than the admiration I'd elicited last week as I told anyone who'd listen about my prowess with prybars. "Um...yeah, I did." I tried to sound challenging as I asked a few more questions, as if it were my own kitchen. After a few more moments of very un-construction worker-like diva-esque behavior, Mike took his spirit level and prepared to leave, giving me only the 800 number of his company before storming out.
Five minutes later, RoRo called to see how things were going. When I checked back with her this afternoon, she'd called that 800 number and asked the company not to send Mike back again. I was absolutely thrilled when she told me that on Tuesday afternoon they will be sending...Anne.
30/8/07 (for real, this time) (de veras, esta vez)
My baby loves a bunch of authors (canción de Moxy Früvous)
Will reading make up for the fact that I'm not writing? It's mostly related reading...some of it is even non-fiction!
Reading now
Un hombre a la medida, ed. Claudia Guillén con la coloboracíon de 10 autoras mexicanas más, incl. Bergua, Rivera Garza, Lazo. La compilación concluye con el mejor cuento, "El caminante solitario" de Gabriela Vallejo Cervantes con su cambio de narrador (3ra a 1ra persona). Esta autora tiene un talento impresionante...semejante a CRG, con respecto a una autora que narra desde el punto de vista masculino, pero con un estilo más claro, más leíble...
And, in a rare turn of events, two non-fiction works are rivals for my attention! (OK, rare on both counts - me reading non-fiction and me having rivals for my attention)
The Subersive Scribe: Translating Latin American Fiction by Suzanne Jill Levine. Not as a how-to manual, but the title caught my eye and it's just amazingly well-written and gives me another way to read said fiction.
A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire
by Amy Butler Greenfield. I bought it as sort of a f-off book (as much as non-fiction can be, anyway), but have a feeling it's going to be put to some academic use in the future.
29/8/07
Las palabras y las cuerdas de voz y de guitarra/Words and chords - voice and guitar
¡Mi primer blog! (RoRo me escribió ése de LaLaLa)
Ayer mientras conducía rumbo al malecón (para correr allá 34 min. en el calor insorportable) tocaron en KFOG "Little Wing" y pensé, "Jimi Hendrix, esa voz y esa guitarra, sí deben ser declaradas Patrimonio de la humanidad."
Y hoy, diría lo mismo de la canción conmovedor e inmortal de Consuelo Velázquez, "Bésame mucho".
My first blog! (RoRo wrote me that one about LaLaLa)
Yesterday as I was driving toward the waterfront (to run, 34 min. in this almost unbearable heat) they played "Little Wing" on KFOG and I thought, "Jimi Hendrix, that voice and that guitar should be declared 'Patrimonio de la Humanidad'... however you say that in English."
And today, I would say the same about that eternally moving song, composed by Consuelo Velázquez, "Bésame mucho".
28/8/07
lalala
It is happy to be lalala.
The mind of the intelligent appreciates proverbs, and an attentive ear is the desire of the wise.
-The book of Sirach
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