I haven’t been this fascinated by Photobooth since I realised you could use it to take pictures of your uvula (try it!) but I’ve started using my laptop to take pictures of my roots, as I’m currently in the (super gross) process of trying to grow out my natural hair colour.
I find it weirdly fascinating, kind of like a long, drawn out version of picking at a scab?
I’m so excited.
My boyfriend picked this up for me after spotting it in a charity shop, and I was delighted! God bless men who know that the way to a girl’s heart is via… prose works of the 12th century. I think I speak for all womankind when I say this stuff gets us worked up like nothing else. Although when I tried reading him some of the very first story, Egil’s Saga, he did doze off a bit.
But don’t you love a book that demands perseverance?
I’m so stoked about reading this book though! Apparently the Íslendinga sögur are a precursor to the modern European novel, or a bridge between that form and mythology. I hope that I love it like I loved The Golden Ass, as opposed to finding it difficult, like The Mabinogion. The introduction is brilliant and clever and full of lovely epic terms like “The Viking Age” and “The Saga Age”. It also does a hilariously dry job of calling out Medieval Icelanders on their racism towards Greenlanders and native Americans (nothing too gross but apparently they referred to the two very different cultures by the same nickname). The title of this entry is from that intro.
Anyway, on the topic of Scandinavia, the facebook page for the Fjallraven Kanken backpack has been posting the most wonderful retro images from their 1980s and 1990s catalogue. Here are some examples, you can click through to see the page and some more photos:
Sorry if this post seems a little nothingy. I have about a hundred drafts that just end up getting longer and longer every time I think I’ve almost finished them. But hopefully soon I really WILL finish them, which will be nice.
‘And I recommend you the same prescription …
Let me prepare it for you, if I may …
Strong … but sip it slowly … and drink it sitting down.
Breathe deeply, and adopt a relaxed position’
- Gin and water in The Cocktail Party, Act 1, Scene 1
‘EDWARD: Well, I hoped that you would drink a final glass with me.
CELIA: What should we drink to?
EDWARD: Whom shall we drink to?
CELIA: To the Guardians.
EDWARD: To the Guardians?
CELIA: To the Guardians. It was you who spoke of guardians.’
- Champagne in The Cocktail Party, Act 1 Scene 2
Lately I’ve been making juice. By “lately” I mean “today and yesterday” but it’s so quick and simple that it’s hard not to grow conceited and start thinking of yourself as some kind of juice expert. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really one for mad diet fads, and I have been accompanying all my juices and smoothies with plenty of solid food. So is my dad, who is on a bit of a health kick and wants to combat certain illnesses, and his weight, by getting more fruit and veg in his system.
This one went down a treat with both parents:
It consists of carrot, celery, ginger, apples, raisins and a cup of water. I got the recipe from a book, but I’ve been pretty cavalier about portion sizes and what constitutes “dried fruit”.
See, that’s the main problem with making juices and smoothies: it is very expensive and I’ve been trying to suss out ways to cut costs. For starters, my family don’t have a blender with a juicing function so I’ve been making smoothies, then draining the juice out of the pulp with a sieve. Here’s the result of this round of juicing:
One of the nicest things about making your own food or drink is marvelling at the differences between your product and the stuff you’d get from a supermarket. I love the colour of this stuff, although admittedly I haven’t seen a lot of apple, carrot, celery, raisin and ginger juice at the supermarket. I’d imagine really upscale supermarkets stock that sort of thing though.
There’s also something exciting about making staple foods instead of buying them, even if you COULD buy them. I mean, look at the massive surge in the popularity of baking in recent years, even though it’s not particularly difficult to buy bread or cake. Sometimes (if you have the time) it’s just nice to put in the effort and taste that effort in the resulting food.
Juices and smoothies are also really nice to make for someone who is ill. Again, I am so not advocating Beyoncé style all-juice-and-nothing-but-the-juice diets but it is a nice way to give someone a boost, emotional and physical, if they’re dealing with anything from cancer to the flu.
- For the love of God, don’t use Pink Lady apples. I used Braeburns for this recipe, even though I hate them because in juice you don’t have to deal with that gross sawdusty texture. Seriously, fuck Braeburns. Except in juices and smoothies.
- Use up old vegetables. Your celery might be too soft to eat but it’ll work fine in something like this. Some recipes I’ve seen require broccoli, I say use the yellowing stuff that you left out of your last stirfry because it looked unappealing.
- Only make smoothies and juices once a week/fortnight (once the initial novelty wears off) or on occasions where you already have four out of five ingredients. Unless you can afford lots of fresh fruit and vegetables in which case, good for you and make me some.
1) bruises after a nasty fall on my 23rd birthday last summer
2) new tights with gold spots, £2 in the sale at H+M
Today I came across some great things on the internet, relating to astronomy and astrology. Not just great things, two things that were exactly what I needed to read exactly when I needed it.
First, check out this piece about Bedwyr Williams, an artist who is representing Wales at the Venice Biennale this year with an installation that sounds really exciting and witty and cool. He articulates a lot of the stuff I was trying to say in this post far better than I could. Here are some choice quotes (although I definitely recommend reading the whole thing!):
“Williams’ heroes are amateur astronomers like Phil Shepherdson, who built his own telescope using catering-sized baked-bean cans held together with coat hangers; and Moelwyn Thomas, who built an observatory in his back garden.”
“His serious point in The Starry Messenger is that Britain has lost a valuable hobby culture … What has happened to the great British eccentric?”
“a domesticated cosmos, or domesticity celebrated on a cosmic scale, depending on your point of view.”
Then there’s this horoscope I found.
Leo: This week is a week for getting clean, for getting new, for letting all your bad feelings leave your body through your pores and through your tears. It’s a week for getting rid, as much as you can, of all of the sadness and resentment you’ve carried in your body all winter, for getting rid of all the small hurts that make it hard for you to live. Try, this week, to go forward with nothing but your small self and your weird bravery and no anger but the anger that you need to get by.
I read it here (the other star signs are at that link too). I don’t want to dwell on current situation but I thought it was so pretty and clever and inspirational.
This is quite possibly the most embarrassing song that I actually really like:
Fall Out Boy may have reunited with a frankly astonishing level of success but is it ever going to be cool to like any of their side projects? Surely it’s the failure of the likes of Stump’s solo album that led to the success of the reunion. I do, however, have faith that Stump’s album (which is called Soul Punk) has to be the best Fall Out Boy spin off. I haven’t heard the other stuff but I’m not metal enough to appreciate that Half-Anthrax Half-FOB project and come on, I’m not going to listen to whatever Pete Wentz has been doing. I’m sure he’s still trying to rival Sex And The City’s Samantha Jones with his weird sex puns.
Anyway, here’s a little list of things that are brilliant about This City, and make it such an amazing song to put on when you have to tidy your bedroom.
- In case you didn’t know, Patrick Stump’s city is Chicago. If you listen to the song, it’s not hard to figure out just how much he likes it there.
- Who sings with this much… vigour? I love the fact that Stump sings like he’s drowning and really angry about it. A friend of mine once said that Bryan Ferry’s voice sounds like it’s constantly skirting absolute awful tunelessness and I think the same applies to Stump in spades. It’s almost terrible, but it’s even better for being so close to badness. (I hope that makes sense, as I do mean it as a compliment.)
- You know what, the fact that Patrick Stump sings so intensely really undermines the notion of the “guilty pleasure”. He obviously didn’t feel guilty about working hard on this song, so why should we feel guilty about enjoying it? The amount of effort he puts in is what makes his music so much fun.
- Although his politics are sound (in this song, unless I’m mistaken he’s a 9/11 conspiracy theorist in real life? I don’t know) Lupe Fiasco’s verse in this strikes me as super awkward. “Sorry my brother can’t let you in, cuz the property value might go down to a level that’s not economically sound…” what? It’s like one of those uncomfortable rap songs from Kevin Eldon’s thoroughly uncomfortable new sketch show. Okay, it’s not that bad, just a bit weird.
- You know what, I think my main problem with Fiasco’s part is his use of the word “sadly” in reference to racial segregation in urban areas. Sadness is not an appropriate reaction to racism and poverty, coming from a rapper. Bourgeois white people at dinner parties feel sad about that stuff, rappers should get indignant and enraged and firey. Like Wu-Tang Clan’s Tearz or Kanye West’s Diamonds of Sierra Leone.
- Stump looks inexplicably Klaus Nomi-esque in this video, what with the tall fringe, the new cheekbones with his already pale skin, and the triangular silhouette of his tuxedo. I understand the idea of reinvention, which fascinates a lot of us, especially pop stars but Stump’s new look here just makes me wish his solo work had been more successful. He never really got a chance to grow into it and now he’s back in Fall Out Boy we’re probably going to see more trucker hats and plaid shirts rather than ostentatious shoulder pads and bow ties. We’ll see, I suppose. I mean, don’t all popstars try to be Klaus Nomi these days anyway?
- Yes, yes they do. Though I’d argue most of them don’t know they’re doing it.
- The lyric “you’re never going to take my city away” is so ludicrous that it reminds me of the episode of The Simpsons where they have to move all of Springfield on a load of trucks. It’s so passionate but… is this a real thing that people are afraid of? That they’ll leave their city, come home and find a big pit of empty space where all the buildings and amenities were?
- Only today did I realise that he sings “I was born and raised here” not “I was born on Bay Street”. Patrick Stump really produces the best Mondegreens! And I appreciate the fact that his hometown-love hasn’t yet reached the heights of various Californian musicians who expects us to know the individual streets of wherever it is they live.
- I like Stump’s dance moves, namely, his manner of dragging and stomping his foot in time with his music. He looks like one of those horses that can “count” and “do maths” by stamping their feet. Again, this sounds loopy but is very much a compliment.
- I really love how all the “related videos” are other pop songs, except for one video of David Mitchell. That may just be an indication of the kind of stuff that I watch on YouTube that YouTube memorises against my will, but I like to think it’s because they are both endearingly geeky and have struggled with weight issues and mad fringes.
That’s it. Now I’ve earned the derision of music snobs everywhere, I’ll make one last concession to good taste and recommend that you check out French punk band Sport, whose album is available to download for a price of your choice, and is also very good.
