A while ago I mentioned that a movie was being shot in my neighborhood, and that the movie people had converted an empty store into a very convincing hardware store for the shooting. Well, the movie folks are long gone, but the hardware store isn't--or rather, the contents of the store are gone but the storefront is still there.
This bothers me. Not just that the signs are still there, but that they're deliberately designed to look old--one of them even since "est. 1957." I don't feel any particular nostalgia for the actual old store. It was a liquor store with these ridiculous, semi-phallic bottles painted over the front glass. But still, it was really there; I'd been to that liquor store, it was real. This 1950s hardware store never existed. And yet the sign still hangs over the sidewalk, and the plate-glass window announces a totally fictional sale.
It's just not...real. It creates a false sense of what this neighborhood was, and has been; even if it's creating the image of a nicer, more charming and homey neighborhood than this actually is, it still isn't what existed, what was. And I've started to resent it. And to resent the Bigshot Hollywood People who didn't see fit to remove the sign they'd put up in my own neighborhood.
Okay, that last sentence was overstated, but after all hyperbole is a rhetorical tool. Effects are created. Just like 1950s hardware stores can evidently come into being ex nihilo in 2007.
Why is this bugging me?
(It's not bugging me a lot, or anything. It just feels weird to walk past this manufactured bit of "history." Someone moving into the neighborhood would believe that Hal's Hardware, A Good Place For Tools, had in fact been there in the 1950s and had maybe only recently closed. It's easy to imagine that story eventually coming to replace the real, if totally uninteresting, story of that particular shop.)
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Epoisses
The promised cheese blogging!
Epoisses de Bourgogne is an unpasteurized cow's-milk cheese from France. It comes in a little round wooden container like a camembert. It is creamy and soft, with a fine orangey rind.
It's described as a "pungent" cheese, but I don't think it quite fits with the stinky-cheese variety. The smell to me is vaguely ammoniac, but in a pleasant way. The taste is kind of dark and musky. It's mild but full; it's hard for me to describe what it tastes like, exactly, but it's feeling in the mouth is really wonderful--so cool and creamy and big, somehow. It tends to coat the tongue and teeth.
I've eaten about 1/4 of it now...so one round should yield a full week of cheesy enjoyment!
Epoisses de Bourgogne is an unpasteurized cow's-milk cheese from France. It comes in a little round wooden container like a camembert. It is creamy and soft, with a fine orangey rind.
It's described as a "pungent" cheese, but I don't think it quite fits with the stinky-cheese variety. The smell to me is vaguely ammoniac, but in a pleasant way. The taste is kind of dark and musky. It's mild but full; it's hard for me to describe what it tastes like, exactly, but it's feeling in the mouth is really wonderful--so cool and creamy and big, somehow. It tends to coat the tongue and teeth.
I've eaten about 1/4 of it now...so one round should yield a full week of cheesy enjoyment!
I cannot be satisfied
I've been in the library for 2 hours (2 to go!), and I am freezing. Freezing! The brassy 92-degree heat outside is looking kind of appealing....
Oh, and do people not keep their voices down in libraries anymore? I just had to listen to a woman pace around the stacks talking on her cell phone for the last 15 minutes. And now I hear some other, rather shrill voice--although judging by the level of shrillness, it might be that of a small child. Still. As a small child, I was told to shut up in libraries. Or is it because it's the summer and no one thinks that anyone else is around?
--Okay, I just spotted the child, and she's like 7. Unacceptable!
Oh, and do people not keep their voices down in libraries anymore? I just had to listen to a woman pace around the stacks talking on her cell phone for the last 15 minutes. And now I hear some other, rather shrill voice--although judging by the level of shrillness, it might be that of a small child. Still. As a small child, I was told to shut up in libraries. Or is it because it's the summer and no one thinks that anyone else is around?
--Okay, I just spotted the child, and she's like 7. Unacceptable!
A List
Okay, I seriously need to get some stuff done today. Here is my list:
- mail recent ebay sales (I made...um...about $15 on this batch! Whooo!)
- spend AT LEAST 4 hours at the library. I need to get started thinking about this conference paper I have to write, and look into some more texts for one of my courses. The annoying thing is that I'll have to go home for lunch--or perhaps I should bite the bullet and pack a lunch? Or a snack, minimum? Then I can really hole up in there. Luckily it's going to be oppressively hot again today, and the library is air conditioned (unlike my apartment), so perhaps I'll feel less of an incentive to leave than I usually do.
- wash my breakfast dishes
- download "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Come on Eileen" and maybe have a little dance party in my living room
- make a pile of stuff to sell/give away via the grad student listserv
- blog about that cheese I bought yesterday--Sisyphys and Hilaire demand a description! Which is forthcoming, I promise!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The current state of affairs
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that I wrote my Highly Successful Toast in the car between the wedding and the reception. No one can accuse me of over-preparing! Even if I am already thinking through my lectures for the fall!
I have returned to my apartment, and the subletter left it in...okay condition. It's tidy, and he washed the sheets and stuff, but the bathroom was not in very good shape. In the last 2.5 hours, however, I have cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed, washed the bathmat, made the bed, unpacked, put away groceries, and straightened up all the things that were slightly misplaced in the last two weeks (yes, I'm very uptight about my living space. That's just one of the things that makes me such a pleasure to live with).
It's extremely hot. My apartment is roasting. Once my laundry is done, I'm seriously considering stripping down to underwear.
Not sure I feel like cooking, either. It might be a beer and cheese and fruit kind of night. Beer, cheese, fruit, and TV.
Speaking of which, I bought an $18 piece of cheese today. It's an Epossies. Anyone who likes cheese must eat this cheese! It is delicious. So very delicious. I had it last week at a beer and cheese tasting I got to attend for free, and it was splendiferous. So when I was in the grocery store today, I considered buying it, rejected the notion, and then thought: Hey! My dad just gave me some money for my birthday. All of that money is going to go into necessities. But perhaps $18 of it should go into a piece of cheese?
And yes! It did!
Of course, because it was so expensive, I might postpone eating it. Which will eventually mean that I will have spent $18 for a piece of cheese that I never got around to eating.
Or perhaps I will eat some of it tonight?
I have returned to my apartment, and the subletter left it in...okay condition. It's tidy, and he washed the sheets and stuff, but the bathroom was not in very good shape. In the last 2.5 hours, however, I have cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed, washed the bathmat, made the bed, unpacked, put away groceries, and straightened up all the things that were slightly misplaced in the last two weeks (yes, I'm very uptight about my living space. That's just one of the things that makes me such a pleasure to live with).
It's extremely hot. My apartment is roasting. Once my laundry is done, I'm seriously considering stripping down to underwear.
Not sure I feel like cooking, either. It might be a beer and cheese and fruit kind of night. Beer, cheese, fruit, and TV.
Speaking of which, I bought an $18 piece of cheese today. It's an Epossies. Anyone who likes cheese must eat this cheese! It is delicious. So very delicious. I had it last week at a beer and cheese tasting I got to attend for free, and it was splendiferous. So when I was in the grocery store today, I considered buying it, rejected the notion, and then thought: Hey! My dad just gave me some money for my birthday. All of that money is going to go into necessities. But perhaps $18 of it should go into a piece of cheese?
And yes! It did!
Of course, because it was so expensive, I might postpone eating it. Which will eventually mean that I will have spent $18 for a piece of cheese that I never got around to eating.
Or perhaps I will eat some of it tonight?
Monday, June 25, 2007
My Brother's Fabulous Wedding
I'm back! And my brother's wedding was, indeed, fabulous. As this was the first time that I myself was actually in a wedding (I'm 31 and no bridesmaid's dresses--surely this is some kind of record?), I'm pleased to add that I didn't screw anything up, either. No small feat, given that it was a Catholic service and my family is not Catholic. As the maid of honor, I had a lot of sitting, standing, walking this way, standing here, facing that way, holding hands with the priest, embracing the best man, etc. etc. to do, and I spent fully half the ceremony worrying that I would forget when I needed to re-collect the bouquets. Fortunately the priest, who is naturally rather experienced with such ceremonies, muttered stage directions to us pretty much the whole time. So it went off without a hitch, and my little brother is married! And I have a splendid sister-in-law!
But, as is usually the case, it was the reception that truly made the wedding. First of all, the weather was perfect. Low seventies, sunny, very little wind, and clear clear clear. The reception was outdoors, in a beautiful spot on a hill beside a river, and behind the river were low mountains; the setting was glorious and the climate cooperative. It was a biggish wedding, with about 180 people in attendance (most of them on the bride's side), but (wisely) the couple had decided to dispense with most of the Traditional Reception Activities in favor of something much more their style. So, after the (brief) introduction of the wedding party, the bride and groom danced their first dance to a song performed by my dad and stepmother, who are excellent musicians and sounded great. Then there was an open dance party and much drinking and eating before the toasts--one of which I made. Yes, almost as big a milestone as my brother's getting married was this, My First Toast. People laughed when I wanted them to, so I was pleased. And here's a picture of me giving my toast (it's silhouetted, so I can post it). Note the admonishing finger:
The truly fabulous part was the second half of the reception, though. My brother in particular is very musical, and so are a lot of their friends, so they basically opened up the microphone and dance floor to various performances for the rest of the night. There was Irish step-dancing, an African dance, some kind of Irish fertility play (or something), and folk/rock numbers, including covers of a Tom Waits song and James' "Laid". My brother and his wife also performed a bit, since Brother plays guitar (among other things) and SIL sings. And, for the grand finale, my dad and my mom's cousin played some music the Mustang Sally genre, finally joined by my step-mother on vocals and my brother on guitar. Here's a picture of them playing (faces blacked out;* from left to right, we've got my cousin, my brother, my dad, and my stepmom).
Oh, and they served a huge stack of pizzas a couple of hours after the real dinner.
It was great--entertaining and moving and just plain fun. SIL's family rocks, too, so it was nice to hang out with them a bit. And now I'm back in BoyfriendCity, waiting for my subletter to leave my apartment (tomorrow!), and recovering from the excitement--as well as a cold I seem to have picked up along the way. Luckily it didn't hit me full-force until yesterday, when all of the work was done. Or most of it; we still had to clean up from Friday's rehearsal dinner. But now that's done, too, and I'm so so tired...with so much Homer left to read....
*I mention this just in case you thought they naturally had big rectangles for heads. Oh, unnecessary verbiage!
But, as is usually the case, it was the reception that truly made the wedding. First of all, the weather was perfect. Low seventies, sunny, very little wind, and clear clear clear. The reception was outdoors, in a beautiful spot on a hill beside a river, and behind the river were low mountains; the setting was glorious and the climate cooperative. It was a biggish wedding, with about 180 people in attendance (most of them on the bride's side), but (wisely) the couple had decided to dispense with most of the Traditional Reception Activities in favor of something much more their style. So, after the (brief) introduction of the wedding party, the bride and groom danced their first dance to a song performed by my dad and stepmother, who are excellent musicians and sounded great. Then there was an open dance party and much drinking and eating before the toasts--one of which I made. Yes, almost as big a milestone as my brother's getting married was this, My First Toast. People laughed when I wanted them to, so I was pleased. And here's a picture of me giving my toast (it's silhouetted, so I can post it). Note the admonishing finger:
The truly fabulous part was the second half of the reception, though. My brother in particular is very musical, and so are a lot of their friends, so they basically opened up the microphone and dance floor to various performances for the rest of the night. There was Irish step-dancing, an African dance, some kind of Irish fertility play (or something), and folk/rock numbers, including covers of a Tom Waits song and James' "Laid". My brother and his wife also performed a bit, since Brother plays guitar (among other things) and SIL sings. And, for the grand finale, my dad and my mom's cousin played some music the Mustang Sally genre, finally joined by my step-mother on vocals and my brother on guitar. Here's a picture of them playing (faces blacked out;* from left to right, we've got my cousin, my brother, my dad, and my stepmom).
Oh, and they served a huge stack of pizzas a couple of hours after the real dinner.It was great--entertaining and moving and just plain fun. SIL's family rocks, too, so it was nice to hang out with them a bit. And now I'm back in BoyfriendCity, waiting for my subletter to leave my apartment (tomorrow!), and recovering from the excitement--as well as a cold I seem to have picked up along the way. Luckily it didn't hit me full-force until yesterday, when all of the work was done. Or most of it; we still had to clean up from Friday's rehearsal dinner. But now that's done, too, and I'm so so tired...with so much Homer left to read....
*I mention this just in case you thought they naturally had big rectangles for heads. Oh, unnecessary verbiage!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Gone for a bit
I'm off to my mom's for all the Brother's Wedding Hoopla. Probably won't blog until next week as I won't have my laptop with me and am loath to blog on my mom's computer--you know, for security reasons. Right?
Plus I'm going to be pulling weeds for the next 72 hours in preparation for the rehearsal dinner, and I expect my hands to be a withered mass of blisters. So, no typing.
See you next week!
Plus I'm going to be pulling weeds for the next 72 hours in preparation for the rehearsal dinner, and I expect my hands to be a withered mass of blisters. So, no typing.
See you next week!
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