Herding Chaos

I loved this paragraph so much that I stenciled it on my door in college. Now I find out that the original text (from the scroll of On the Road versus Kerouac’s novelization) goes as follows:

the only people that interest me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing … but burn, burn, burn like roman candles across the night

It’s not that different, however, the wonderful ending was added later.

…exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!

The NYT has some terrific examples of the covers of On the Road in other countries. Some places really got it, others not so much.

Even better than making a list of the books I read, I’ve decided that I need a little reminder of what they were about and if I liked them. Here’s what I read in July and even though the month just ended, I’m having a hard time figuring out if I’m missing anything.

Women Who Run With the Wolves - Clarissa Estes
She restates her thesis over and over again, but this was a pretty interesting book. Estes looks at myths and archetypes and deconstructs them to illustrate how they were built to teach lessons on being an “authentic” wild woman.

Good Fairies of New York - Martin Millar
I picked this up in a bookstore in DUMBO when I went to Brooklyn last month. I thought it sounded cute and light and Neil Gaiman wrote the intro, which I thought might mean more than it did. Fairy wars in NYC, some predictably odd humans, eh - I can’t really recommend it.

Waiting - Ha Jin
I had a good long sob when I finished this. Communist Chinese culture wrapped around a love story that was sad, slow and sweet.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
While Book 6 made me cry, this one was just way too predictable and neat. I was reading this during our trip to the west coast and a lady at breakfast mentioned something about Potter dying. I thought she might be spoiling it and was fairly impressed that it might really end that way. Sadly, no.

Tears of the Giraffe - Alexander McCall Smith
I like these books. This one had fewer investigations and more detail about Precious’ life, but that was OK.

The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl
Pearl used fictional characters to investigate the last 5 days of Edgar A. Poe’s life, the details of which are apparently not known. This was a little bit Devil in the White City and a little bit Alienist, and I liked those two books better than this one. To the book’s credit, I am now much more interested in picking up some Poe, especially the Dupin stories, since I love me a good detective story!

I love it when I can feel like a real photographer: http://www.dcist.com/2007/06/15/the_weekly_feed_4.php

Brian and I saw Helvetica last night. If you ever need to be inspired that words (literally the *words*) have power, this is a brilliant example. This film was a love letter to and a rant against helvetica and it totally inspired me to be more conscious of the fonts I choose.

Sadly, I can’t think of the last time I used helvetica deliberately. It was the standard font of my Mac youth and when I was given the opportunity to choose between several fonts, tired old helvetica got the shaft. When I swapped back and forth from Mac at home and PC at work, I switched over to arial, which seemed “newer” me. (And after reading this article I think that that part of my life is better left forgotten.) Eventually, even arial seemed dull and I became enamoured of verdana for everyday use for both screen and print, Tw Cen MT, when I felt “modern,” and garamond when I was feeling pretentious.

Now I say, Viva La Helvetica!

Today I got a late start because I couldn’t figure out how to pump more air into my tires than I was letting out. I managed to get the tires to the point where I wasn’t riding on the rims (rails?) but both were still semi-flat the whole way to work and I had to stop a few times to add more air.

The ride was fairly uneventful: I got confused twice and I only had to walk the bike up one hill towards the end. I suppose if my tires were completely inflated it would have been a bit easier… Total time from front door to desk (including showering and getting dressed): 1 hour 3 mins.

I have a new favorite web site: Suicide Foods. Happily, someone just posted my favorite DC-based trio from Metropolitan Meat, Seafood, and Poultry. They make me smile and they make me think…mmm…lobster….

I’m the first person to make my chicken or turkey “dance” before preparing it or to stage an elaborate battle between me and the crab or crawfish or lobster before pounding it with a mallet and tearing it to shreds, but I feel funny about advertisements seducing me with anthropomorphic veggies and animals calling out “eat me, Hallie!”

It’s been a good ride for us Red-Line-from-Van-Ness-UDC-to-Metro-Center-transfer-to-Orange-Line-in-the-
direction-of-Vienna-to-Virginia-Square-GMU, but I writing to say it’s over. This morning was the last time that I will squish myself into a a car and fight my way to the middle amidst protests from all the “doorkers.” (Yes, I even picked up some of your phrases during our relationship.) This morning was the last morning that I will run with hundreds of other people to the one escalator that takes us downstairs to choose our fate of Virginia or Maryland.

I know I owe you an explanation of what’s changed… Don’t worry - - I still love you and all the things you’ve let me do: read lots of books, not have to worry about a car, not have deal with driving in DC traffic… And no, I haven’t sold you out to the suburbs, I’m still a city girl and we’ll be seeing each other, just not every day.

This summer I’ll be enjoying a city retreat. I’m swearing off my underground commute to the freedom of a bicycle on the wide open paths of the C&O Canal,Capital Crescent Trail, and W&OD trail.

Yes, I’ll lose a little in convenience, but think of what I’ll gain - more shapely legs, a healthy heart, and the pomposity that comes with knowing that I am not contributing to global warming.

I’ve got it all figured out:

Humans are getting fatter.
This has been happening at an accelerated pace for the past 20+ years.
The earth is getting hotter and the seas are rising.
This has been happening at an accelerated pace for the past 50+ years.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Fat people are more buoyant than skinny people.

Up next, gills, blow holes, webbed hands and feet. Just call me AquaGirl

I’m in the middle of reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, which I stole from Brian’s shelf when I thought I’d have to sit in the dentist’s office for hours waiting for him instead of assisting the dentist during his (Brian’s) emergency root canal.

If it wasn’t 1000+ pages, it would be a quick read. It is essentially a thriller/spy novel - the pacing is quick, and even though it’s heavily referential, the references are in-your-face obvious. (or maybe I’m not geek enough to pick up on the references–ha!) It’s a big step up from Dan Brown, but not even close to Pynchon or even DeLillo, who always seem to get pulled in for comparison’s sake.

While Snowcrash is an essential part of the literate web geek’s canon, this book moves into the hacker realm. I am not a hacker, a programmer, or anything close to that. I do not get “root” jokes even though I can tell you why they should be funny. In fact, I suppose it’s significant that one of the character’s names is Root, but eh - I’m only half way though the book - if it’s obvious to me now, then I almost hope his name has no significance. That’s too “over the head with a brick” for me. I like subtlety.

Take this passage, which made me feel really cool that I knew exactly what he meant, and then really lame & obnoxious for being taken in that easily:

They take seats across the head of the table which is wide enough for a Last Supper tableau. In the Jesus position is a really big chair. It is the kind of thing you’d get if you went to a Finnish designer with a shaved head, rimless glasses, and twin Ph.D.s in semiotics and civil engineering, wrote him a blank check, and asked him to design a throne.

Still, it’s good beach reading and since I’m in Florida at the moment it’s only fitting.

This gets me thinking…it’s been a good 10 years since I’ve approached Gravity’s Rainbow. I’ve read the first few pages so many times that every time I think about it, I get a craving for banana pancakes (apparently I’m not alone). This summer maybe…

I’ve been consistently keeping track of the books that I read for almost a year now for the sole reason that sometimes I forget what I’ve read and buy the same book (or checkout the same book) twice. Midway through the first chapter I realize that it’s all sounding familiar. Sometimes I make it halfway through the book and then all of a sudden it clicks. It’s pretty lame when I realize that I’ve wasted a good day or two on re-reading something.

I’ve found that the monthly list helps me remember what a book was about - the season helps trigger the recollection of what the weather was like, where I was when I was reading, who I talked to about the books, etc…

I’ve been managing all of this on my backpackit site, but I don’t pay for that site and the page limit restriction is hassling me, so it’s time to clear up some space.

My book list