Parcels
from Tuesday, November20th of the year2007.
I am inordinately excited about Oliver Sacks’s new book! I love him. One of my favorite thing to do when I travel is to keep a small running list of books on Amazon.com and then have them turn up in time for my arrival back home; I bought the Sacks book, I bought Phoebe Damrosch’s Service Included (as reviewed here), the new Nigella Lawson, and a birthday present for a friend (well in advance!).
Two nights ago we had a dusky walk to the pool with a really spectacular sunset (click to enlarge!). I’m not sure why I am so obsessed with this intersection between something being state-run and it being really clean and wonderful. I guess in my vision of utopia, that’s sort of how things are organized…? I love the weirdness of the municipal buildings in Chinatown, though: the “No Spitting!” sign in Chinese in the post office, the completely surreal video collection at the local library, the old-fashioned spatial organization of the Knickerbocker post office on East Broadway. I don’t think you could get away with such quirkiness in this Scandolovely configuration; I think the weirdest thing you have here is a diagram in the municipal showers with Big Red Dots instructing you where on your body you have to wash before entering the pool. I had thought it was myth, but in October, I actually saw somebody get asked by the Man in the Booth to go back and have a do-over.
An observation: winters in Vermont are windy, sure, but the wind seems to be circular and sort of dramatic/romantic in its paths, whipping around trees and over and through buildings. Here, however, the fact of the island’s existence seems irrelevant to nature; the wind rushes right by, on its way to Norway. It’s a lonesome feeling, but when you get inside, it is that much cozier for it.
I have just eBayed an alto recorder.
I am going to figure out how to make thanksgiving dinner here (which is, no shitting, called þakkagjörðarhátiðamatur), where they don’t have sausage to speak of.
Also: BAA BAA BAA! Did everybody else know this already?
3 Comments
November 21st, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Thanks so much for mentioning the new Oliver Sacks book. What a treat! I love his work and to find something specifically about music and the brain is wonderful. If you go to the book on amazon, there are some video clips of him which are great- I particularly liked, “A Bolt from the Blue”.
November 21st, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Ditto. I just added the Sacks book to my wishlist on Amazon (as well as your CD). I’m enjoying your blog very much.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:56 am
that shit is a lie, everyone knows that song are named after me… SQUEE DA LOO!