I'm going to be at Conversations and Connections this weekend. I went in 2009 -- it's a fun conference, and I'm wholly in support of fun conferences. This time around I'll be on the panel for "The Nature of the Digital Literary Landscape," and doing some speed dating for The Northville Review.
Jen Michalski on trying to make sense of the world.
I lived in the DC area for a couple of years -- in Arlington, and then in Oakton. When I lived there, the only thing you could see along the Dulles Toll Road was trees. I was angry and stressed out a lot of the time. I bought nature sound CDs so that maybe I would sleep at night. It worked, sometimes. We stayed two years, then moved to Connecticut where we've been ever since.
DFW's self-help library (long, but worth the read).
My parents had lived in DC twenty-plus years before. My dad was a naval officer stationed at the Pentagon. (Fun trivia: I was born in Bethesda Naval Hospital.) They stayed in DC for about as long as their daughter and son-in-law did. My mom wasn't crazy about being there, either.
I'm less bitchy about DC than I used to be. My degree is long finished and the university advisor who gave us extremely bad advice is long dead and we no longer have neighbors who don't warn us when they're having loud parties and in general I'm a little more accustomed to being a grownup. I still really hate the heat and especially the humidity.
I miss the food. I still remember some meals over a decade later. (Even the nonspectacular ones. There was a pizza chain that offered $5 pizzas on Fridays for a while. We'd load up and eat like kings. All weekend, I kept a plate next to my computer and played DOOM.) I miss all of the choices. I miss pho.
I've linked this before, I'm linking it again.
DC is how I know that eel is pretty good if it's cooked properly. DC is also where a Starbucks barista laughed at me for wanting flavored coffee. Who's laughing now?
I want to read this book. I also want to play its video game.
I miss the Metro. I miss how I'd duck out of 98 degree sunshine and get blasted with air conditioning. I miss the alien buzz of the trains. I miss the 1970s design perception of the future.
Speaking of the 1970s, I just saw this: All My Children will end in September. Even though I'm sure Susan Lucci isn't going to want for anything, this makes me so sad. My mom was a lifelong AMC devotee. You did not mess with her between 1-2pm on weekdays.
I watched it, too -- from about fourth grade through high school, thanks to VHS. I'm sure All My Children is how I got so opinionated on matters about which I'd otherwise have minimal background experience.
Literary blurb translation guide.
While I'm partial to Erica Kane, of course, my favorite plotline was Janet throwing her sister Natalie down a well so that she could take over her life. Even for a soap, it was over the top. Finding that clip, I got lost in a bunch of other ones. Greg and Jenny! Kelly Ripa as a goth!
I also used to watch Another World, Ryan's Hope, Texas, and occasionally Santa Barbara. Anne Heche, Christian Slater, Harley Jane Kozak, Robin Wright and Jessica Alba...I remember you for other things.
Being in a Largehearted Boy Book Notes is serious bucket list stuff for me.
I keep thinking of the sentence that Roland the gunslinger uses to describe situations like this: The world has moved on. When I started babysitting, the first thing I saved for and bought was a phone for my room. Now, I rarely use the phone. I can't remember the last time I bought a pair of pantyhose, ate Jello I'd made myself, took film to the drugstore for developing, typed on a typewriter.
Amber Sparks on Steve Himmer's The Bee-Loud Glade and on why not to dance on Borders' grave.
The last time I watched All My Children was with my mom, probably a little over a year ago. She had to explain all kinds of things. She told me Stuart Chandler had died, which made me sad because another thing I used to love was watching Adam Canary play Stuart pretending to be his brother Adam. If I go looking for a clip of that, I'll never finish this linkbucket.
In case you've ever wondered, writing these sections between the links is always the toughest part of a linkbucket.
Happy birthday, Beverly Cleary!
I'd rather listen to other people because I get tired of listening to myself.
Lavinia Ludlow on band geekdom.
And finally: I saved this, so here you go.
