Fiddling while Rome burns
I've been enjoying myself today. I feel so guilty. People are fucking dying, and I'm ENJOYING myself?
I got my iPod this morning, via Airborne Express, and then I went to lunch, came back, did my laundry (that took some time), and then did some reading.
I'm reading W.P. Kinsella's The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, a book with a voice and a theme as magical as the one he used in Shoeless Joe, even though they're really different books, at least to me.
Kinsella is a magical storyteller. Really. Those of you who've never read Shoeless Joe should (a) be ashamed of yourself; (b) go to Powell's, stat; (c) buy a copy, preferably a worn, beat-up one, since that enhances the experience; (d) start reading, and let yourself finish it in an afternoon the way I did. If any part of "Field of Dreams" moved you -- keeping in mind that Kevin Costner is about as uninteresting an actor as ever existed or will exist -- you should read this book. If you have any interest in the Midwest, or baseball, or the magic of summertime, you should read this book. And if you just love a good read, read this book.
Then, you can read The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, the newer book of the two (by far).
But enough of my literary life. Let's talk about other things. I went and had a nice, mercifully brief dinner, and then went to see an exhibit called "Small Wonders: Worlds in a Box," at the campus art museum. It's these photographs of old '50s/'60s-era toy sets, you know, the ones with soldiers or schoolteachers and all that, and he's assembled them and photographed them up close, so that you feel like they're real. It was amazing. Andrea (who lives down the hall from me) and I had so much fun, we went together, and we enjoyed it so much, that we asked the security guard to look and see if they had any extra posters. They did, and we took some, and we were so excited! It's a great poster. I wish they'd had postcards or something, I'd send one to each and every one of you.
It's funny, how much she can be like me, sometimes, though. I mean, we were talking about the postcards, and I realized, I'm not the only person who stashes that sort of thing at museums. And we had so much fun with Bosco at our study sessions for European Civ... This is a fun person. I hope she comes back to live here next year. I should ask her sometime.
Umm.
I don't have anything else to say. Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle... can you smell the Iraqi buildings burning, do you feel the guilt of knowing that it's the government that claims to represent you doing this? I feel even guiltier knowing that I was having fun while we were bombing the living daylights out of Baghdad.
I hate war, I hate violence, and I especially hate the Republican Party, right now. I'd make them unconstitutional if I could. Or kill them. Or let them kill themselves for me, even better. Anything, if it could stop this worthless war.
I got my iPod this morning, via Airborne Express, and then I went to lunch, came back, did my laundry (that took some time), and then did some reading.
I'm reading W.P. Kinsella's The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, a book with a voice and a theme as magical as the one he used in Shoeless Joe, even though they're really different books, at least to me.
Kinsella is a magical storyteller. Really. Those of you who've never read Shoeless Joe should (a) be ashamed of yourself; (b) go to Powell's, stat; (c) buy a copy, preferably a worn, beat-up one, since that enhances the experience; (d) start reading, and let yourself finish it in an afternoon the way I did. If any part of "Field of Dreams" moved you -- keeping in mind that Kevin Costner is about as uninteresting an actor as ever existed or will exist -- you should read this book. If you have any interest in the Midwest, or baseball, or the magic of summertime, you should read this book. And if you just love a good read, read this book.
Then, you can read The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, the newer book of the two (by far).
But enough of my literary life. Let's talk about other things. I went and had a nice, mercifully brief dinner, and then went to see an exhibit called "Small Wonders: Worlds in a Box," at the campus art museum. It's these photographs of old '50s/'60s-era toy sets, you know, the ones with soldiers or schoolteachers and all that, and he's assembled them and photographed them up close, so that you feel like they're real. It was amazing. Andrea (who lives down the hall from me) and I had so much fun, we went together, and we enjoyed it so much, that we asked the security guard to look and see if they had any extra posters. They did, and we took some, and we were so excited! It's a great poster. I wish they'd had postcards or something, I'd send one to each and every one of you.
It's funny, how much she can be like me, sometimes, though. I mean, we were talking about the postcards, and I realized, I'm not the only person who stashes that sort of thing at museums. And we had so much fun with Bosco at our study sessions for European Civ... This is a fun person. I hope she comes back to live here next year. I should ask her sometime.
Umm.
I don't have anything else to say. Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle... can you smell the Iraqi buildings burning, do you feel the guilt of knowing that it's the government that claims to represent you doing this? I feel even guiltier knowing that I was having fun while we were bombing the living daylights out of Baghdad.
I hate war, I hate violence, and I especially hate the Republican Party, right now. I'd make them unconstitutional if I could. Or kill them. Or let them kill themselves for me, even better. Anything, if it could stop this worthless war.