perpetual huddle: 11

have you seen?

i'm lucky to come from a large
and unabashedly geeky extended family.
its traditional for us to stay in touch
by sending each other
manila envelopes full of clipping,
with no letter, but maybe a post-it
saying something like
"thought you might be interested..."
the uncle nicknamed "uncle fun"
(collects wind-up toys, introduced
us to the secret life of machines)
has kept up the tradition digitally,
sending me two great videos
in as many weeks,
luckily, both embeddable.

Have you seen the PythagoraSwitch video? It's twelve minutes of delightfully ingenious entertainment. "PythagoraSwitch" is a Japanese kids program. This video is a compilation of the Rube Goldberg machine type segways used during the show. The soundtrack is the show's theme song and the phrase they keep singing is Japanese for "PythagoraSwitch." I came across a couple recordings of the show on You Tube and found it clever and engaging -- it really challenges kids to see the world in different ways and to think logically and, at the same time, creatively.

Have you seen these amazing Windwalkers?

owls in the roadhouse

after a huge thanksgiving dinner with
my favorite sister's roommates
we migrated to her boyfriend's house
for a twin peaks marathon.
it has been ages since i've heard
the watery sound and glitching
of a well-worn vhs tape,
but in this case it was perfect that
the tv itself seemed possessed.

mario & danny

this week's episode of the soup
included clips of both mario lopez, dancing up a storm,
and danny bonaduce, self-destructing,
without any mention of the good old days
when they were onscreen pals and chatty co-hosts
on the man view, (officially: the other half).
the boys were constantly "consumer testing" beds
by jumping on them in silk pjs, or hot tubs
by stripping down to their bannana hammocks
and splashing around. enjoy this classic clip
in which they take off their shirts
and do a little good-natured boxing
for all the ladies out there.

incidentally, joel mchale, host of the soup,
used to be a regular on my hometown's
very local sketch show almost live!
as you may have gathered,
this post is a case study
in the horror that is
not having cable.

impeccable

the velo rouge cafe was screening goldfinger
just as my best friend was getting off work.
i only caught the beginning, but let me tell you
i am seriously disappointed in the internet gods
for giving me hundreds of copies of this photo,
but not one picture of bond
in his stunning poolside ensemble:
a baby-blue terrycloth jumpsuit,
with a gold zipper plunging
from collarbone to navel,
ending in baby-blue terrycloth short-shorts
not only short enough to expose the full length
of those luxuriantly hairy thighs,
but even short enough to hint
at the enticeing possibility of a glimpse
of 007 scrotum. did i mention the belt?
well, the outfit has a slender belt,
described by judith timson
of the globe and mail as "prissy."
oh judith, you may say "extremely unfortunate"
but i say "timeless classic."
they just don't dress 'em like they used to.

rolling stone

jon stewart and stephen colbert... is an o.k. interview, made laugh-out funny by the subjects' savvy & rapport.

Q: A fake news show, "The Daily Show," spawned a fake commentator, Colbert, who makes his own fake reality defending the fake reality of a real president, and has government officials on who know the joke but are still willing to be mocked by someone fake. Your shows are like mirrors within mirrors, using a cycle of fakery to get to the truth. You've tapped into a sense in society that nothing, from reality shows to Bushworld, is real anymore. Do you guys ever get confused by your hall of mirrors?

STEWART: I didn't know we were going to have to be high to do this interview.

COLBERT: I think we see it less as a hall of mirrors and more as one of those slenderizing mirrors you can buy that you see in catalogs that make you feel good about yourself before you go out the door.

sascha baron cohen --the real borat-- finally speaks is billed as a peek at the "man behind the mask" but the whole thing plods along over a blow-by-blow of the evening in a pedantic "what it really means" call-and-response that isn't resisted one bit by its obviously exhausted subject.

But the America that Borat discovers on his cross-country trek here -- rife with homophobia, xenophobia, racism, classism and anti-Semitism -- is all too real.

"I think part of the movie shows the absurdity of holding any form of racial prejudice, whether it's hatred of African-Americans or of Jews," Baron Cohen says.

A waiter places a complimentary appetizer in front of Baron Cohen.

bertha jorkins

my fabulous~furs; the finest faux fur
catalog is "celebrating the season of gorgeous!"
how do i know 'tis the season to be gorgeous?
i, several months ago,
under yet another pseudonym,
went hogwild at catalogs.com,
ordering every free catalog
i could get my cursor on.
for a few items and some fun copy
check out my flickr slideshow.

a very small pleasure

let me loose in a library to browse
and slowly but surely i'll gravitate towards
the books about small living spaces.
today i sat in the aisle
on one of those rolling stools
absolutely transfixed as i flipped
through the photos and blueprints

in the very small home,
i'm not particularly interested
in architecture, design, or decorating,
but little houses suggest the joy of forts
home as snug, self-built, & self-contained,
as a cosy and livable survival-cubby.
the maggie b.

then again, the ones that make it into these books
are very cosmopolitan too, "all open and communicating".
i like them with false floors of transluscent white material,
with strangely-shaped windows, spindly chairs
and state-of-the-art showers. very spare,
clever, without room to be fussy.
mon oncle

much of the charm, of course,
is imagining a pefect little self
who'd fit, content and put-together,
in the perfect little home.
in reality, i'm sure i'd be cramped
in any of them, and i'll have a new favorite
with the next book i run across,
but for now if i had my pick
i'd settle for life in this ingenious house,
built on a narrow strip of land
that used to be a driveway.

having fun kiddies?

watching valley of the dolls
and plucking my eyebrows.
whoo!! saturday night!!

is that all there is?

my is that all there is? station over at pandora
turned me on to clare fader's johnny,
a smutty little song in all the right ways,
so i gave it the quick thumbs-up,
but the new station it spawned
is all just sinantra hits. pandora, you're such a tease.

what is your well-being total?

life coaching is simultaneously
vaguely appealing
and extremely creepy,
right up there with cults
and pyramid schemes.
this clean sweep assessment
hits the helpful/ominous
chord just perfectly.
I have just the right amount of sleep.
I use well-made sunglasses.
I do not suffer.

that's my girl!

Preparing children to become citizens of a democracy requires recognition of the different ways in which children learn about politics. Kids in the United States currently spend most of their lives in controlled situations such as schools where the dependency they experience in their homes is reinforced. Besides teachers -- books, films, television, and video games influence how children think about democracy. Interviews and surveys of children during three Presidential elections and two non-Presidential years show how some sixth-graders in a Vermont town react to the political issues raised in those elections. Besides presenting the children's voices, Sugarman also examines some aspects of the media and of the school situation to see how they effect the children's thinking. Changes that might improve the children's understanding and knowledge of democracy are also suggested. This book should be of interest to parents, teachers, those involved in media literacy, popular culture, or child development, and the imaginary readers of self-invasion/perpetual huddle.

"if kids could vote; children, democracy, and the media"
now on sale at lexington books!

i am no longer bored

i forgot how thoroughly harpers
trumps the new yorker,
especially in the small bits.
i will subscribe as soon as i can.
this diary entry from a teeny-bopper
ginsberg is fantastically bombastic.

does this mean comics are homo prose?

graphic novel tease
one day in one of my writing workshops
a student known for his spoken-word
showed us a piece he'd actually
taken the time to type up.
when asked to read it aloud
he said "i don't usually do
readings of my page poetry."
my teacher asked "so, page poetry...
can i add that to the list with
acoustic guitar and snail mail?"
although i now know that page poetry
doesn't strictly qualify as a retronym,
the literary example i ripped out
of the the guardian this morning
blows it out of the water anyway.
the ad that seems to be
clearly for a really bad
(in my adventures, by now
i should have lost a leg, an eye,
and my sense of fun.)
graphic novel,
but, look carefully,
in the small type
at the very bottom
there's a disclaimer:

STRAIGHT PROSE --
but you'll picture every page for yourself.

once you pop you can't stop

in the entire tube of pringles prints music trivia
the only chips that i answered correctly were,
(without ever having heard of the singer in question):

Q: Does Kaci Brown prefer Lipstick or Lip Gloss?
A: Lip Gloss

Q: What is singer Kaci Brown's favorite color?
A: Purple

Q: What is Kaci Brown's favorite style of jeans?
A: Low-rise

and finally
Q: What is Kaci Brown's website called?
A: www.kacibrown.com

i visited, and she makes
the mandatory popstar slide
from total christian to total slut,
in record time, as you can see.
somebody should tell her
that the pros take it slow.
getting there is half the fun.

creature comforts

turn the volume up
to help with the accent.
as he talks about being a dad
this little clay mouse
will make you cry.

dad is funny

in lieu of leaving comments
my dad modifies the images
from my blog in photoshop
and emails them to me.
the mods are meticulous,
goofy, and perfect.
see them all here.

sasha my love & a pair of schlubs coming to blows

he knows what a girl needs.
please give me a tv, a remote,
a red dress, and your heart. thank you.

my best friend and i invested $22
to see borat: cultural learnings of america
for make benefit glorious nation of kazakhstan
with the saturday night masses at the multiplex.
watching the scene (below) with the humor coach
in a theater full of stangers, all laughing
until they couldn't breath anymore,
all laughing for different reasons,
or the same ones i don't really know,
was the most uncanny and postmodern experience
i've had since i watched my sim play the sims.

afterwards we headed to chevys
for a little fresh-mex
and some prickly pear margaritas,
where we happened to have the pleasure
of witnessing two very drunk and very middle aged men
get in something vaguely resembling a fistfight,
spitefully ripping off each other's caps,
clawing the air, and high kicking
to shame the very rockettes themselves.

i'm taking a break before "a prayer for owen meany"

the world according to garp
was a good introduction to john irving.
i ended up liking the messiness of the book,
the unfinished, sprawling quality of the writing,
e.g. the weird short story (the pension grillparzer)
plopped wholesale in the middle of the novel.
many scenes seem longer than they need to be,
as far as i can tell, just because the author
gets carried away with the fun of the details.
for example, read these three paragraphs,
an endearingly superabundant description
of squalor, especially great-- the cat and the pantyhose.
i have to admit though, by the time i finished the hotel new hampshire,
i was tired of all the half-trained bears loping around
and ready for something a little more disciplined.

blog this!

I'm Always Up For Some Commitment

Every time I see an attractive, single woman walk down the street, I've got just one thing on my mind: cultivating a loving, fulfilling,...

when i went to the onion site
to cut and paste the url of this article
(not the strongest headline
but classic and worth
reading all the way through)
i didn't have to, because
there was a handy little
link to embed a photo and blurb
into your blogger template.
they sure know their audience!

perpetual huddle

Thursday, November 30, 2006

have you seen?

Thursday, November 23, 2006

owls in the roadhouse

Sunday, November 19, 2006

mario & danny

impeccable

rolling stone

bertha jorkins

a very small pleasure

Saturday, November 18, 2006

having fun kiddies?

is that all there is?

Thursday, November 16, 2006

what is your well-being total?

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

that's my girl!

Monday, November 13, 2006

i am no longer bored

Sunday, November 12, 2006

does this mean comics are homo prose?

Saturday, November 11, 2006