closer to fine

Last week I had a last minute chance to go to a concert. The concert was in celebration Progressive Magazine’s 100th anniversary and had Catie Curtis, Melissa Ferrick, Dar Williams, the Indigo Girls and Ani Difranco. I could have gotten a ticket months ago, but I was a little overwhelmed by the line up. I’m [...]

Read Full Post »

running soundtrack

I just added it up, and so far this year (the month of January, that is) I’ve run 28.4 miles! Holy crap! Considering I ran, oh, ZERO miles during January (and Feb, March, April, May, June, and July) last year, that’s something to be proud of!
It doesn’t surprise me that I love running. I always [...]

Read Full Post »

happy happy joy joy!

You remember that from Ren and Stimpy, right?
So thanks to the online world of journal publishing, my first publication surprised me by coming out today! It’s on the journal’s website as an “online first” article, and I downloaded the pdf and it even looks like a publication. In a real journal. That people will read. [...]

Read Full Post »

my elliptical mix: from ABBA to Blues Traveler

Today I managed 3.25 miles on the elliptical trainer in 45 minutes (level 6). That’s the best I’ve done so far, and I finally feel like working out every other day is paying off. I don’t know that I’m ready for full-fledged running yet, though. I tried running a couple weekends ago and found it [...]

Read Full Post »

I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!

Yeah, for those who recognize the title of this post, we saw There Will Be Blood last night.
Now I’ve been looking forward to seeing this movie for months. The coming attractions made it look great. Other people I know told me they loved it. And one of my favorite films ever is Magnolia, another by [...]

Read Full Post »

significant age

2 conversations this week:
1) In the front office where I work, trying to figure out why the printer wasn’t printing.
[undergrad guy who works in the office] Oh, yeah, someone else was looking for those print outs and took them. I don’t know her name.
[me] (name of person I work with)?
[undergrad guy] Maybe that’s her. Is [...]

Read Full Post »

lists of eight meme

Flicka Mawa tagged me for this a while ago, and since I am back in Madison and back to the boring day-to-day routine, I thought it was more interesting than anything else I could post right now.
8 passions

trees
photography
traveling
the ocean
snow
reading
books (yes, these are two distinct things)
dark beer

8 things I often say

holy crap!
jeezum freakin’ crow (a Maine [...]

Read Full Post »

overrated and underrated: the Christmas edition

It’s the Saturday before Christmas, and as a result of some big stuff that came up this week, I am here in Madison for Christmas, instead of in Maine. While I am exactly where I need to be (and I am thankful not to be part of the Christmas traveling nightmare) I am sad that [...]

Read Full Post »

I do science!

First of all, if you’ve never seen The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, go out and rent it now. It has to be one of my all time favorite funny films. You might have to have an appreciation of old b&w science fiction movies to truly get everything out of it, but I think it’s hilarious [...]

Read Full Post »

Saturday music meme

I’m out of material here, folks. My sister is bugging me to blog, and well, I’m just feeling tapped out.
So I googled around for a meme, because its been a while since I’ve done one of those. And they’re kind of fun exercises– and probably more interesting than the usual grad school or Harry Potter-themed [...]

Read Full Post »

order of the miserable phoenix

I’m on to the 5th Harry Potter book– The Order of the Phoenix. I absolutely adored the last one. The Goblet of Fire might be one of the best books I’ve ever read (of course, I do kind of say that a lot, but you get the idea).
I’m deeply into the whole Harry Potter story [...]

Read Full Post »

where have I been?

I had to write a short review this week of this book. It was the least “academic” book I’ve reviewed so far, so I wasn’t sure what I would actually write about it (or even why I was reviewing it for an academic book catalog) but I read/skimmed through it quickly anyway.
And it was a [...]

Read Full Post »

sticking up for the Beaver

Let me go on record as a huge fan of the show Leave it to Beaver.
With all my interest in gender studies and feminist theory this might seem like a contradiction, but this show gets way too much unwarranted flack, in my opinion.
Yes, the show idealizes (to some extent) the non-existent happy 1950s suburban lifestyle. [...]

Read Full Post »

putting up a good front

Although I’m putting up a pretty good front (relaxing, watching movies, reading and what not), I guess my subconsciousness is a little more worried than I thought about prelim results. Here’s a couple examples from my last 2 nights of sleep:
In one dream I am sitting in a class and I’m being assigned all kinds [...]

Read Full Post »

guest post by Amazing Sister

So my sister asked me to guest blog. What should I guest blog about? As you all know, I graduated from Clark University this May and am going to graduate school there next year. One thing my sister didn’’t mention was I had the stomach flu for graduation, and my family had to pack [...]

Read Full Post »

time time time what has become of me?

Today I bought a (vintage?) Nintendo system at a yardsale, complete with such great games as Tetris and Super Mario 3. All for $30. I felt like I was 11 and it was Christmas again– I was so excited I could hardly get home and play! I also spent a good deal of time fondly [...]

Read Full Post »

a strange dream

Well, I said I probably wasn’t going to blog again before going to Maine, but here I go, blogging anyway.
I spent the weekend working frantically as planned. I’ve coded so much I think my eyes will fall out of my head. I still have more to do. I did take a few breaks. Mostly to [...]

Read Full Post »

the week in review

Movie Reviews:

The Lady in the Water: Given my great dislike for the director, I shouldn’t have even bothered watching this movie. It was terrible. Really, really terrible. Actually, if I didn’t know how full of himself the director is, I would think it was intensionally hilarious. If it wasn’t so hard to sit through, I’d [...]

Read Full Post »

okay…okay…I admit it…

okay… I love the L Word. Love it. It only took 3 seasons, the 3rd particularly terrible, for me to warm up to the show. This last 4th season has been great. I guess they got a new director, which makes a huge difference. And there are some new very likable characters (Jodi, Page), some [...]

Read Full Post »

February and the mercy of the fallen

My very aggravating week at least ended in a much needed way.

Dar Williams was, of course, wonderful. I can’t believe I’ve listened to her for so long and have never seen her live. I can’t remember ever melting into tears at a concert before, but “Spring Street,” and “Mercy of the Fallen” brought me to [...]

Read Full Post »

(it’s where we came from, you know, and sometimes I just want to go back)

It seems like I spend at least the first 4 days of each week this semester irritated. I don’t remember ever being so irritated about so many different things. Each day feels like I am running on some treadmill I can’t jump off of.
Monday I ran from one place to the next, arriving late to [...]

Read Full Post »

Pan’s Labyrinth

We just got back from seeing Pan’s Labyrinth.
Wow.
What a magical, crazy, enchanting, fucked-up, awesome, incredible, breathtaking film.
Can a movie be all those contradictory things at once? Well, this movie managed it. I shouldn’t be surprised. I remember being simply mesmerized and blown away by del Toro’s earlier film, the Devil’s Backbone. I’m going to have [...]

Read Full Post »

hit, miss or maybe

Yesterday we had our big New Years day brunch. It lasted 7.5 hours and was tons of fun– bagels with lox and cream cheese, great company, lots of laughter, yummy mimosas etc. I’ll leave out the rest of the sorted details of my New Years’ day shenanigans. Let’s just say I’m still recovering.
Anyway, we’ve been [...]

Read Full Post »

opening pandora’s box

I’ve blogged before about my music rut (here and here). I had pretty much given up on finding anything new. I am incredibly picky about music. Not only must the music be really good (some kind of folk/alternative/how would you describe Bjork?), but the lyrics must be excellent as well. And the lyrics must be [...]

Read Full Post »

KO, my hero

In case you didn’t know already, I really love Keith Olbermann. Yes, I also watch, and adore, Jon Stewart and even Bill Maher, but Keith just really takes the cake. I think both J. and I have little crushes on him. (I wonder how he’d feel about donating sperm…)
Anyway, just watch this, okay?

Read Full Post »

secret confession

A while ago someone suggested I might want to watch the season premier of Project Runway with them. I thought that certainly they must be crazy and they must not know me very well at all.
I care about fashion about as much as I care about football (which is pretty much complete blissful ignorance). I’ve [...]

Read Full Post »

knock it off

There are 2 filmmakers who just shouldn’t make movies any more. They should knock it off already. Really. Please, just stop. Enough already.
Lars Von Treir and M. Night Shyamalan
Let’s take Lars Von Treir’s movies first:

Dancer in the Dark: I wanted to like this movie, really. I adore Bjork and I really thought I could see [...]

Read Full Post »

faces and places

As you might already know from reading this blog, Jo and I are big fans of the show Columbo (and yes, LI readers, we do concur that the whole cast and director must have been stoned when they filmed Last Salute to the Commodore). Columbo is brilliant- he has a similar brilliance to that of [...]

Read Full Post »

don’t kill your television

You know what bumpersticker really irks me? Well, the Bush/Cheney '04 stickers still lingering do come in first, but another bumperstick definitely takes second place.
Those "kill your television" stickers.
They bug the hell out of me. I am so tired of all that "television is evil" crap. Maybe this makes me a bad lefty-liberal, but I [...]

Read Full Post »

a real weekend

Weekends are usually all about getting work done- usually tons of writing. Pretty much every weekend this past semester has been like that. 
So naturally going into this weekend I imagined getting a lot of work done. Slowly, and as always with me, painfully, that idea died as the weekend went on. Saturday we went to [...]

Read Full Post »