11 posts tagged “qotd”
I have considered this numberous times, in fact made a game of it at some point, A co-worker at Topps many moons ago named Mark got my best effort - I thought his auto bio should be called "Mark, My words."
Mine however would more closely reflect the spirit rather than the content of my life. Some samples:
- Autiobiography of Well Meaning Autodidact.
- Autodidactics, Automobiles, Autonomy and Personal Autarky: An Autobio
- Table for two, Kingdom of one: My Life as an Autocrat.
- Autonym: They named me Leslie, but you may call me Peaches.
- The Little Engine that Could, but Just Didn't Feel Like It: Confessions of an Underachiever.
- Am I Still Smiling? My Life as a hard working Optimist.
- I Lied, It Sucked, (the truth about Leslie)
- 29 Great Years and Then Some other Stuff.
- Peaked in High School: A memoir
- Most Hated: A failed attempt at becoming notorious.
- Don't Stop Loving Me!
- Moisturizer, Music and Medication: Unnatural Living with Leslie
- My Autobiography: The Great American Pamphlet
I fear becoming that person who starts too many sentences with the phrase "Well, when I lived In New York..." as it throws off this air of both accompishment and failure. No matter how earnest whatever comes after, the antecedent sets up the premise the speaker assumes some sort of earned worldliness based on having lived in Manhattan, as I did for 14 years. However, we're talking restaurants here, and since I've lived in two of the best cities for dining out, I have to go there. I don't have a single favorite locale for dining.
For VIP treatment and feeling slightly chic, I love Pastis. They treat me like a princess, the food is stellar and this is an odd favorite dish to have at any eatery, but their green beans are what I want to eat when I'm in heaven, if it exists. I have also had the good fortune of dining at what is arguably the USA's finest restaurant, the French Laundry in Napa and the hype is well deserved. Best Crab and abilty to blur space and time while dining goes to Crustacean, (SF) and the best old school carnivore delight is easily House of Prime Rib (SF). It doesn't hurt HoPR they have a superfoxy bartender who mixes a kickass Manahttan, either.
But my life is not one of chic boites and evening gowns, so I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the sheer joy that is West Side Sushi (9th Ave at 49th St, NYC), The Olive Tree on MacDougal (NYC) which makes the best hummus in the world, and back to the west coast for El Farolito on 24th and Alabama in San Francisco, which has the ambiance of a Tiajuana truckstop and for 5 bucks makes a burrito the size of a baby's arm that is positively unparalleled for freshness and yum factor. I also find myself missing Cho Dan Gol, which makes their own Muk Gul Li and Kimchee and takes Korean food to a whole new level. (NYC, 36th between 5th and 6th).
Detroit is the land of the Coney, and while there are several beautiful places to eat here, I have only found two that really grabbed my attention, in dowtown Royal Oak. A Belgian place, and it may say something about either them or me I can not remember the name. The second is a vegetarian place that is so well thought out and inventively menued you don't even notice it's half veg half vegan and that's Inn Season, a long time local legend.
You've been through the desert on a horse with no name. Except your horse does have a name. What is it?
Thirsty. Because the desert is dry, get it? Oh my cleverness always ceases to amaze me.
In other news, today I learned that if you swear at all in Radio Shack, you are immediately attended to by a manager. The employee calls the manager over and repeats what you said to the manager but where you swore they say "Swear word" instead. For example, if you were to say "I would not be fucking exchanging it if it worked," they say to the manager "This customer said she "would not be swear word exchanging it if it worked." Then the manager will ask you, even if you look sleepy and are standing very still and leaning in a non threatening way on the counter:"M'am, is this a stuation that may escalate?" At that point, you might want to say "No, but I applaud your careful following of the training video," because that will leave them both completely flummoxed and frightened you are a mystery shopper or someone from corporate and then the staffers will quickly do anything you ask, including square dance with you in the iPod accessories aisle.
QotD: Reach Out
Is there a friend who you owe a phone call or email? What's stopping you?We were supposed to go to the movies about a year and a half ago. She emailed me early that morning saying she didn't feel well, sorry. It was our third reschedule, and unsure if I was being blown off or if she was ill, I wrote back "Just let me know when you want to reschedule."
That was the last of our communication. You know how some of your friends are tied through other friends? Well, I had just made friends with another woman through her, and since I never heard back, I started to assume that I had been excised from the friend pool. Ordinarily, I'm not afraid of confrontation, but this person is, so I waited, and waited then waited some more. Nothing had happened to change the long standing friendship, I just figured she needed - whatever. Anyway, fast forward to too much time passing to get back in touch with either, me feeling like I should have done more because I knew she never would, even if she wanted to (we take our friends with and in spite of their faults and I have been forgiven for many). To this day, I wonder. And it makes me really sad, because the last time I actually spoke to the person? It was at their wedding, and I felt really close to them that day, and within three months o that day, I was out a close friend and will likely forever live wondering what I did wrong or if I should have just tried harder. I also regret hanging the other friendship off the first one, because it cost me two cool friends, a currency I don't think anyone should squander as I did.
Thanks, vox for drawing out my proudest moments!
What's your favorite way to keep in touch? Phone, snail mail, email, text message, Vox, _____ ?
#1 with a bullet for me is the phone.
#2 is email.
After that, all things are equal, although I don't IM anymore. I may again soon, but I never really got comfortable with IM. The phone I love. And unlike everyone else in the known universe, my land line is about 300% more efficient to get me than my cell phone. I never hear my cell, and I use it almost exclusively for outgoing calls when I'm out of the house and need to connect. Which is code for "I often forget to keep it properly charged."
What is your favorite cover song?
Question submitted by Ray.I'm enough of a nerd that I can't really point to a single song and say yes, that one is it. There are the covers that are better than the originals - like Real Wild Child by Iggy Pop (which is cover of a 1958 Johnny and the Deejays song) or the Clash's I fought the Law or Metallica's cover the Budgies Bread Fan.
Then the covers you think are the originals - like Santana's Black Magic Woman, which was actually a cover of a two year old Fleetwood Mac song. Same with Dolly Parton's most recent hit Shine which is a Collective Soul song. She did things for the song they couldn't. Or two of my favorites - which are both Springsteen Covers - Greg Kihn doing I Came For You in a real heart ripping style that brings a lot more passion than the original, in the same way the Beat Farmer's version of Reason to Believe highlights the real gruesome nature of the lyrics while managing to be a great dance tune.
Which brings me to the sentimental favorite - Under Pressure by Crooked Fingers with Bachmann vocals - Bachmann who is so my imaginary boyfriend of all time, and you get a song that goes from, in the Bowie/Queen version giving the feeling of genuinely being under pressure - like a deadline, a speed asked for, a perfomance anxiety; while the remake gives you the pressure of a heavy heart, forgiveness at risk and examining the road not taken in way that actually makes me a little misty after over 1000 listens. Pure effing art. The whole album of covers from 2002's "Bring on the Snakes" from whence this song hails is lovely for those who feel like they want more after listening.
Damn, I didn't even get to the fIREHOSE and K. McCarthy covers of Daniel Johnston's Walking the Cow. It's never over.
The oldest thing I own is actually part of a necklace - I have a Ming Pottery shard that was cobbled into a necklace by a silversmith ho put a frame around it o showcase the original design, which shows a blackbird. I kind of love it a lot, but the story is less momentous. I liked it, I bought it, I wear it, the end, Que sera sera. It's from the 8-11th century by date. Take that Ming, that's what I'm doing with your dynasty! I just have a shard, but I'm taking it to rock shows and family barbecues, I hope you don't mind.
The most surprising thing about my bloodline is that I'm actually 1/16th Cherokee. For someone as pasty white as me, it doesn't even seem possible, the last traces fo swarthiness reside in my mother, and then, solely in the form of sandy colored hair and a slightly longer tolerance for direct sunlight.
The rest is far less surprising. The rest of me is all American Appalachian, from the hills of Eastern Kentucky. I come from a shame addled bloodline (crime and alcohol), and my great grandparents eventually left Appalachia during Andrew Carnegie's heavy recruiting of the south so my great grandfather - Paw Shira could work on the Lancaster - Pennsylvania Railroad, where he was killed, like so many others breaking their backs during its construction. My great grandmother, whom he married at 16, and their cow, Estelle, a wedding present for the happy couple moved north and never looked back, in an effort to shake off what was at the time an even less savory reputation than Appalachian people currently enjoy. My Mee maw - Great Great Grandmother, remined in Kentucky with the rest of her 12 children and the family split in half - hard drinking gun toting felons, and snake handline religious zealots. They lived next door to one another all their lives, so visits were always a study in contrasts.
My Mee Maw was alive until I was 4, my great grandmother lived until I was 20. Having your babies early makes for an extended family that has a chance to meet.
The men from the ketucky side of the family are a colorful lot, none of whom I have remained in touch with, and whose stories I tell very selectively, but the names all sound straight out of the social register, or from the rolls of an animal house frat, because given names in Appalachian culture are based on last names, and nicknames are usually based on unfortunate mishaps. So there's a Twoey and a Jackie (short for jackson) and a Butler, and host of Logans, but there's also a Fret, Bucky and Seesaw. The history mirrors the history of labor and justice in America - the Brookside strike, the Harlan mines, the rise and fall of the company store, and I used to be a little embarassed about it until I was old enough to understand that distance isn't always measured in miles and hours, and just how subjective and arbitrary opportunity can be.
Oh and the last name? It's German, but I have no biological relation to anyone with that name. My last name came from my grandmother's third husband. Technically, I'm a Ballanger by bloodline. Wish we could have kept that name, but alas, not to be.
So basically, I'm reading these because this is on my mind. This and fixing up my house, but I'm way past the point where books will help me with remodeling.
I don't know anyone who's done it, I worry about the part where I have to give them back. I have a hard time saying goodbye when I petsit. And a kid is the wrong place to solve my attachment issues. But there's no plan for action for at least a year, this isn't the kind of decision one should make in haste and when one is still getting settled in a new town. Once I get the house together, get the dog trained (get the dog, period) and have better info, then progress. Now, just info.
