toastykitten

I have a dentist appointment in about an hour. I hope I don't have any cavities.

Things have been really quiet for me lately. I've been feeling really restless, though, and I feel like I ought to be doing something useful, but I have no idea what. Maybe I should start drawing again. I can't wait until my boss gets back from maternity leave; as soon as she does I am taking two weeks off to go somewhere.

I've read a lot in the past couple of weeks, mostly because I finally started using my library card. Books I've read:

Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler - This book freaked me out. This is the sequel to Parable of the Sower, and it's mainly about the heroine of the first - Lauren Olamina, through the eyes of the resentful daughter she's been separated from for most of her life. Lauren Olamina, in the first novel, starts a new religion called Earthseed, and this second novel is a continuation of that journey. It's classic Butler - stark prose, powerful ideas, and a protagonist who is hellbent on survival.

Butler also has a new novel out, called Fledgling. I can't wait to read it.

Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl - I was actually trying to see if I could find her new book, Garlic and Sapphires, which were about her years in disguise as a critic for the New York Times. This one is a memoir of earlier years, where food helped her cope with everything, from heartbreak to her manic-depressive mother. I think I'd actually read some of the chapters about her mom before, because they seemed very familiar to me. This was a very touching book, but I wouldn't call it great or anything. Reichl writes well, but has a tendency to resort to cliches when she's writing about actual food. I guess it's hard to capture the kind of ecstasy you feel when you're faced with truly sublime food, but maybe I'm just jealous, because she speaks French fluently and had an awesome life. My favorite chapters were the ones about her life during the seventies, in which the politics of her and her friends changed with the economic need, from recycling to dumpster-diving, and she argued to her mother that "ambition was what was wrong with America".

Miss Manners' Basic Guide to Eating, Judith Martin - I am a total sucker for advice columns. This tiny little volume made me feel sooo guilty, but I was also confused by some of the questions she got - like, "My kids are picky eaters and refuse to eat the food I cook for them and always beg for sandwiches. What should I do?" Oy.

The Book of Tea, Kakuzo Okakura - This book is sort of a primer on Japanese aesthetics. Anyway, it's a little bit snarky, surprising given that this was written over fifty years ago, and very elegant, even if I'm pretty doubtful about the accuracy of the information. He talks a lot about the aesthetic of imperfection, of leaving things unfinished so that the imagination can complete them. There's also stuff about Taoism, tea rituals, etc.

Other good things:

I received a t-shirt and print from Yan. I think the shirt fits fine, and I will probably frame the print and put it on my wall somewhere. Right now the walls are blank, and I'm thinking of just buying some canvas to paint on it, or something. Except I know nothing about how to paint stuff, so I might start small.

Demon Days, Gorillaz - This second album is delicious. I'm terrible at describing music, but this mostly instrumental, electronica, hip-hop-ish mash made me really happy and bouncy at my work desk. I'm glad I got it.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, soundtrack - The movie was just totally weird. It made no sense to me and I had no idea what the point was and Bill Murray was the same character he always is. But I thought the Portuguese covers of David Bowie were really beautiful, so I went out and bought this. It's lovely.