A Sweet Unrest

Tight Knit

Maybe I'm remembering this all wrong because I haven't seen it in at least ten years, but in the movie Like Water For Chocolate there is a scene where a carriage starts off down a dusty road and you see it leaving from behind, and out of the back unfurls an impossibly long blanket that the main character has knit out of her grief and sorrow.  It trails on forever in the dirt behind the speeding carriage.

It's a funny moment, and I get it.  I learned to knit many, many years ago when I was still very young and it was definitely not the cool thing to be doing like it maybe kind of is now in some DIY circles.  I learned at a time when I was a little bit lost, from someone who was incredibly good to me in so many ways, and I feel all of that love return to me each time I pick up my needles.  She gave me much more than the time and patience it took to instruct me (not a fast learner!).   Knitting suffuses my world with a sunny peace when I'm happy.   But more crucially, it steadies me through sorrow.  It's a way of enduring sadness, a place to put it, and when I come out on the other side I've made something hopefully pretty but in the very least useful.

So I knit a lot.  Thank goodness I now have children to foist it all upon!  I don't know what I'll do once they start refusing to wear and use all the things their crazy mama makes, but right now it's wonderful.  The baby can't protest, of course, and the elder... well, the elder continues to disarm me by actually asking me to make him things and seeming rather pleased when they are finished.  

Wending my way to what got me thinking about all this in the first place, I know it doesn't sound very rock n' roll but knitting is closely tied to listening for me because it gives my hands something to do while my head gets lost in lyrics and music and the gorgeousness of it all.  The past two weeks on the Contrast Podcast have been all about new music and I really enjoyed both 'casts (listen here and here).  I played a song by Phoenix but I flirted with the idea of submitting this one by Vetiver.  It's from their most recent album Tight Knit which I've grown attached to as it's full of lovely tunes and this one is catchy and infectious and has much more bounce to it than I somehow expect from them and it's very frequently on repeat over here, no matter what I'm doing.  

Vetiver - More Of This

Could I Look Into A Book...

I've enjoyed reading the answers to this meme that's been going around (here and here) so I thought I'd play too.

1. Which author do you own the most books by?

I had to count and the answer surprised me: Colette!  Mystery series and things like that I tend to borrow from the library unless I'm traveling or find them used, so I don't have any nice sets.

2. Which book do you own the most copies of?

Just one of each, though I do have three different collections of Robert Burns.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?

No.

4. Which fictional character are you secretly in love with?

James Fraser.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life?  (Excluding picture books read to children.)

Completely against my will- The Great Gatsby.  We moved a lot when I was growing up and whenever I landed in a new school system they were inevitably just beginning to study it.  Then there was college...

But for pleasure- Wuthering Heights, Gaudy Night, Swann's Way (different translations and I also made an ill-fated attempt with the French), Weetzie-Bat, Practical Magic.  

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?

The Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Egypt Game

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy.  I'd never read anything by her and she's so popular so I decided to try it out.  It was god-awful and I didn't finish.

8. What is the best book you've read in the past year?

Still thinking.

9. If you could force everyone tagged to read one book, what would it be?

I'm more of a live-and-let-live kind of girl.

10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?

I'm American so I don't think I'm allowed an opinion.  

11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?

None, they never do them justice it seems.

12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?

As above. 

13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book or literary character?

If we expand writer to include songwriter then I once had a lovely dream in which I danced under the stars with Francis Reader.

14. What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?

Learning To Fly by Victoria Beckham.  Also lots of nonsensey fashion books with pretty pictures (VB has also written one of these but I haven't read hers.  Yet.)

15 What is the most difficult book you've ever read?

The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvior.

16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?

If we change this to 'the most obscure place you've seen a Shakespeare play' then I have a story to tell because I once saw Romeo and Juliet in the woods of Wisconsin.  Pure magic.

17.  Do you prefer the French or the Russians?

The French.

18. Roth or Updike?

I'm not qualified to answer.  I've read very little Updike (and haven't liked that) and no Roth.

19. David Sedaris or David Eggers?

Neither.

20. Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer?

What?

21. Austen or Eliot?

Both.

22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?

For the biggest gap, see question 20, or my entire blog.  But I'm not embarrassed about it,  I'm actually pleased I've made it as far as I have.

23. What is your favorite novel?

Wuthering Heights

24. Play?

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

25. Poem?

When I have fears that I may cease to be, A red red rose, Words wide night

26. Essay?

On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion, nearly anything by Walter Benjamin.  And Judith Thurman's fashion pieces in the New Yorker.

28. Work of nonfiction?

Heloise and Abelard by Gilson, and I think this is more creative nonfiction (which I have no patience with as a rule) but I thought Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje was beautiful.

29. Who is your favorite writer?

It's impossible to answer, I like different writers for different reasons.

30. Who is the most overrated writer today?

Who am I to say?

31. What is your desert island book?

Won't I be too busy listening to my desert island records (and drinking rum from a coconut) to do much reading?

32. And... what are you reading right now?

I can only read in two-minute increments right now so I am still meandering my way through the March issue of Vogue.

Dracula

I'll be honest, maybe this one caught my eye because my nights have become one sweet blurry Buffy marathon thanks to my newborn baby and a friend with an awesome DVD collection who let me borrow the first four seasons.  I'm set through at least the first few teeth!

I like that it's kind of sensuous and secretive, and I like the juxtaposition of the dream with reality.

Dracula by Salwa Al-Neimi

Protruding, rebelling against the lips, 
the long, pointed, ill-fated fang stared at me, 
(in spite of awkward attempts to hide it). 

Stealing adolescent glances, 
I dreamed it pierced me, pushing deep in the base of my neck. 
I bit my lower lip, flushed, 
but not before blushing under its spell. 

Yesterday, 
Yesterday when he smiled at me, with teeth in perfect alignment 

          (dentistry can work miracles),

I turned my apostate face, 
and squinting, pretended to watch passersby. 

This poem was originally written in Arabic, and the translator's note about the challenges of rendering it in English is fascinating if you are at all interested in just how differently languages can work.  

Happy Easter

I get a kick out of Peeps.  I mean, I would never actually eat one because I don't like marshmallow but they make me smile.  Easter is my favorite holiday and the dazzling bounty of cheerfully packaged candy has a lot to do with it.

I'd like to believe that if I were just a tiny bit less sleep-deprived I could think of an elegant transition from Peeps to poetry.  As it is, I will jump in with two left feet.  I like this one a lot and while it isn't about Easter, it does seem to fit somehow.

To Be Alive by Gregory Orr

To be alive: not just the carcass

But the spark,

That's crudely put, but...

If we're not supposed to dance, 

Why all this music?

Let's dance. 

Peeps photo from here.

Contrast Podcast - Eggs

This week's Contrast Podcast is all about eggs.  I have to admit I couldn't think of very many songs that fit and I was wondering how it was going to work out.  But a glance through the track list shows another great mix of tunes and I can't wait to listen.

Before making my selection, I briefly considered a Wu-Tang Clan song.  It isn't worth posting here but it did remind me of one of my favorite Chapelle's Show skits:

Chappelle's Show
The Racial Draft
comedycentral.com
Charlie Murphy Videos Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs Black Comedy

And coming back to music, somehow that skit inspired this.

The mind reels.

Paul Haig Day

(photo by umjanedoan)

Thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, The Vinyl Villain, many music blogs are using Monday, April 6th to celebrate Paul Haig.  You can read all about it here.

I'm setting this to post a little early, on Sunday, because of the time difference.  It just means we Californians get to celebrate longer!  I'm sure I can't say anything about the great man's music that the real music bloggers won't say better, but I think it's wonderful that he supports music blogging.  

I am so incredibly, incredibly grateful for all the amazing music blogs out there.  I personally spend much more money on music now than I did a couple years ago, and that is because I am exposed to so much more great music.  It's not as easy for me to get to shows as it once was in my carefree youth, and I can barely stand to listen to radio because it's all commercials and the same 10 songs over and over again, so I was getting in a real music rut.  But I still love and need music as much, or possibly even more, than I did when I was 15 or 25.  Since discovering music blogs, all the sudden there is no shortage of new- or new-to-me- music that has become essential to my life.  I support the artists I like by buying their albums (and seeing them live when I can), and I know that any real music fan does the same.

It's nice when when an artist sees this value in music blogging.  So here is the track that Mr. Paul Haig has very kindly made available:

mp3: Paul Haig - Reason

The Contrast Podcast - Arms

I've been trying to get this posted since Tuesday, but I'm on new baby time over here.

This week's Contrast Podcast continues our series on the human body with an episode all about arms.  The song I picked was done originally by Sam Cooke and was in the movie Houseboat.

"

Houseboat is not my favorite old movie but you could do much much worse than Cary Grant and Sophia Loren on a long, lonely late night.  

Sophia Loren recorded a version of it too, in true torchy, bombshell style.

Sophia Loren - Almost In Your Arms

But what I've really wanted to say ever since last week, is congratulations to Tim and the Contrast Podcast on three years.  I've been involved for a little less than a year now, but it is something I look forward to every week, whether or not I am contributing myself.  There is something so great about hearing everyone's stories and music selections each week, I honestly don't know how I got by without it.  I hope there are many, many more anniversaries to come!