December 2006 Archives

I just finished reading Half-Life, the new novel by Shelley Jackson (a former teacher of mine) and I really enjoyed it. As a loyal ex-member of her class you'd think I'd have gotten to it sooner, but I read the first half before my Fall semester began and had to wait until classes were over to finish it. Though I suppose adding this additional layer of halving was appropriate.

Though this may be a strange thing for me to take away from the novel, there is a Burl Ives' song "What Kind of Animal Are You?" quoted in the book, and this song was written by my grandfather. I hardly knew him and don't know that much about him, but when my grandmother passed away and I went to clean out her apartment I discovered a box filled with 10 cent checks, royalties still coming in for the one song he wrote with lasting value.

Anyway, I really loved the book and know at some point I will go back and re-read it so I can attempt to decode the moments where the narrator's second head might be interfering with the narrative. (Did I mention that the novel is about a two-headed woman? No?) The writing is wonderful and I am so impressed by the way it explores the links between self and language while still managing to be incredibly entertaining.

After cutting my hair I use less shampoo and conditioner as there is, in fact, less of my hair. But I also use less face soap. Which is odd, because - despite my recent hair cut - my face remains roughly the same size.

I've lived in my apartment for over a year and they (they = management) finally fixed the doorbell. Not having a working doorbell hasn't been my biggest concern, but it has caused some trouble. Despite the fact that I taped a "DOORBELL BROKEN" sign over it, every delivery person ever to come to my door tried to ring it. So a notification of a delivery in my apartment amounted to a faint clicking noise. Over the months I became very attuned to this subtle sound, able to discern it over the noise of the television, the radio, or even my white noise generator (which exists for the sole purpose of blocking out such sounds).

The new (working) doorbell provides relief from this constant pressure to achieve super-human hearing. But it comes with its own problem: it has been installed upside-down. Upside-down? Yes, upside-down. Instead of making the sound "Ding Dong" like every other doorbell, it makes the sound "Dong Ding." "DONG DING!" While that may not make much sense in text form, come to my apartment and ring my doorbell. You'll understand what I mean.

Vertigo isn't so much a stream-of-consciousness novel as it is a stream-of-association novel. I enjoyed reading it, I suppose, though sometimes found it difficult to keep my focus on the divergent narrative, my own thoughts picking up threads and veering off on their own. Anyway, I haven't been much in the mood to blog lately, so I'm just going to leave it at that. I read it for my last MFA lit seminar. I've got one more semester to go, but it's all thesis work. No more assigned reading!

My building superintendent has been replaced.
The old superintendent was named Izzy.
The new superintendent is named Ozzy.

From Izzy to Ozzy

Does anyone else find that amusing?

As an extravagant holiday present to my girlfriend, I decided to buy tickets to all three Lincoln Center performances of the new Tom Stoppard trilogy. I only have a cursory knowledge of what the plays are about, but Tom Stoppard is one of my favorite playwrights and I've been meaning to see more theater while in the city... You can see how this is a great present for my girlfriend, no? Actually, Ethan Hawke is in the show and she has a special bond with him since one time they hung out together at a 20-person party. But that's not the point of this post. The point is that after buying tickets for Part I and Part II I discovered that there are NO SEATS LEFT for Part III! Nooooo! I am not at the Coast of Utopia, I am at the Coast of HELL!

My roommate is going to try and use the power of his platinum AmEx to get me some post-2/21 tickets for the third part, but I may just have to watch parts I and II and then read the script for part III or something. If anyone happens to have an extra two tickets to part III, let me know.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well. Sorry for neglecting the blog for so long!

<<<<<------ UPDATE ------>>>>>

GREAT NEWS SPORTS FANS!

Due to popular demand, The Coast of Utopia has been extended until May!!! I now have two tickets - center orchestra!!! - for part III!!! Can I use more exclamation points!?!?! NO!!!!!!