July 2009 Archives

This totally made me smile.

OK, I am COMPLETELY recovered from my previous skepticism of Facebook and now embrace it wholeheartedly, and here's why: a discussion of tractors, gila monsters and criminals.

In a discussion of hair in high school yearbook photos, one of my friends gloated over the truly huge hair sported at his high school, adding, "Go Tractors!"

Tractors? Did I read that right, I wondered? Tractors? I had to make sure. "Your mascot was the tractor?" I asked.

Turns out my friend went to Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. FHS was started with a generous gift from Fordson Tractor Company--hence the name. But apparently the unique, interesting mascot has been a source of embarrassment rather than pride. I couldn't find an image of the mascot on my own, though someone was good enough to provide a link to this picture.

I'm a fan of funky mascots. Everyone knows about the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slug, and yeah, that's cool, but there are even BETTER mascots out there.

I think I have suffered irreparable psychological harm after looking at these photos of very strange tattoos: someone actually had Bald Britney permanently etched on their body. And the one of Patrick Swazye as the SNL Chippendales dancer/centaur will haunt me forever. In other words, you MUST check these out.

Here's what I've done so far today:

1. Woke up and got out of bed at 5:30 a.m., which is about 90 minutes earlier than I usually get up. However, it's also three hours later than I got up yesterday, so I was happy. Furthermore, even though I tossed and turned last night, even though I was bedeviled by strange dreams and woke up often, it was a chemical-free night. That's right: no sleep-inducers, not herbal, not prescription, not OTC--not even liquid! I try to vary what I take during a really bad stretch of insomnia so I don't become too dependent on any one thing, and a really bad stretch of insomnia is what I've dealt with for the past few weeks. But I hope that after last night, it has broken--I hope, anyway. I HATE being awake in the middle of the night and exhausted during the day.

2. Read this really awesome piece in the NY Times magazine about our interactions with whales. It was moving and interesting and profound, and after reading it, I thought, "Well! No matter what happens during the rest of the day, at least I've read this, and that will salvage this entire day, and overall, I will count today as a good day." Ha!

3. Went for a nice long walk while the humidity wasn't grossly intense and the temperature uncomfortably high and the sky overcast and gloomy. Which was another reason I figured today would be a good day.

4. Tried to feed my cat, who had most of her teeth removed on Tuesday.

Something that surprises me is how surprised other people are to learn that I have been a devoted fan of Lily Allen for several years now. OK, I acknowledged months ago that my music collection is dominated by earnest British dudes, but what, I'm not allowed to have nuances and layers?

"I just thought you'd find her a bit...young. And frivolous," one friend said. "I thought I'd be able to convince you eventually that you'd like her, but I never imagined you would've discovered her and grown to like her on your own," another told me.

But I did. I was intrigued by the reviews I read of her first album, Alright, Still--it kept showing up in all these "Top Ten Albums of 2006" lists. So when it was finally released in the US, I bought it, 'cause what the hell else was I going to do with twelve dollars and change?

And I LOVED it. OK, there were a couple of totally stinky songs on it that frankly I prefer not to think about. But overall, the album was so...cheerfully foul-tempered. So seriously frivolous. So innocently filthy. I loved the contradictions.

I would have said that NO ONE could ever improve on the way the Smiths would match really poppy, happy, upbeat music with totally dark lyrics, but Lily is pretty good at it in her own way. "Alfie" is my favorite song on the first album, an aggressively happy, boppy song sung to and about her little brother, Alfie, who sits in his room all day smoking and doing drugs. It has this really annoying grammatical redundancy (my mon frere), but I can forgive that, 'cause I just love the song SO MUCH.