she's got blood in her eyes for you

[walkingshadow]

Aieeee! My poster, it is AWESOME. I forget how much darker my monitor is than everybody else's, so at first the pictures all seemed too light, but after I got home and put away the perishables I cleaned off the living room table and spread it out to look over slowly, picture by picture, and they all look so good! *jumps up and down with glee!* There's a thumbnail behind the cut, and if you click on that it'll take you to a version twice the size. If, you know, you care.


The parents get to frame it for my birthday. There's basically no border, so I'm not sure how it's going to work; perhaps matted first and then framed a little bigger or custom-sized. Hey, I'm worth it omg.

Still haven't emailed E. with the bibliography. OY. Wanted to watch Agassi's match at ten, but can't in good conscience. Oh, who needs a conscience. *drizzles chocolate over the cricket and munches*

I did make it to class today: we fought the Boer War, whose only virtue is that it rhymes and is therefore fun to say. After class I picked up a super-thick blueberry smoothie from Zia and took the 12 bus out to Target Copy to get the POSTER, then took the 34 back with a layover in the middle at Publix for milk and fruit and soup. In my travels I ran into three people: one fellow member of the Cambridge trip, one former roommate, and one girl from several of my linguistics classes whose name I seriously do not know. Weird week.

My hard drive can't really stomach any more music, but I went music-blog-hopping last night and EVERYTHING was good. The best was Andrew Bird's "Fake Palindromes" of which Sean said,

Preamble aside, I'm not qualified to talk about Andrew Bird. I only heard of the guy last week, when this tune, "Fake Palindromes," made its way to my ears.

But gee whiz - gee whiz! - is it a good song!

First of all, it's only two minutes and fifty-two seconds, which is a very good sign. Also, I don't think the lyrics contain any palindromes. But we're putting the cart before the cattle (is that an expression?). We need to cut to the meat of the matter in a patented Said the Gramophone run-on sentence. The song's clear and obvious claim-to-fame, the wet and beating heart, the energizing whip-snap, is that killer fiddle hook, that four-note earworm, that vivacious blast, that indian sneer of strings with the thunderstomp of drum-and-shaker.

And if you don't fall in love with the tune in the first two seconds, you will when Andrew Bird drawls "coulda died... shoulda died". Or when you notice the weird electric guitar that's stalking through the briar in the back, with long long legs. (Is it a "monster that walks the earth?") Or when "Fake Palindromes" ends (it ends!) after a scarce two minutes and fifty-two seconds. "I want to drill a tiny hole into your head," he sings. Well sign me up - just let me hear this thing again! Put it on a whirling repeat in a purple room with the blinds drawn. Run through that barrage of images, the formaldehyde-swap, the singles ads, the blood in her eyes. And then open the wardrobe and loose the violins, the super strings, the brown swooping things what lift me out the closed window and straight to the moon.

And I actually left a comment saying I did fall in love with it in the first two seconds, and then just sat there with my mouth half-open, fingers stilled over my keyboard, for the next two minutes-fifty. It's been following me around all day.

One of the few tracks I downloaded and didn't keep was the Kidz Bop version of Modest Mouse's "Float On." I was expecting something like Schoolchildren Singing Particle Man, which is like every elementary-school play you ever performed in or attended, complete with one dinky piano, warbly, childish voices, out-of-sync handclaps, and a scratchy, staticky recording. The Kidz Bop kids are the singing version of child actors: polished, produced, and precocious, and where "Particle Man" is charming, "Float On" leaves me empty and kinda creeped out.

In other news, I have hooked malelia_honu on The Archer. Insert maniacal laughter here. When I called her back today in response to the plaintive voicemail she left last night, she said she needed to get work done! "But you want to know who the Archer is, don't you?" DON'T YOU. She said she forgot for a moment that we were actually looking for someone and that there was an actual plot, but I think that happened to most of us after Chapter 16. By the way, Chapter 45 has gone live (in which it is possibly going to be just that easy), and there was also more of peter_and_fran posted to the internets (in which Sean doesn't want to do this again, and Viggo sends found objects through the mail).

In other, other news, the internets is one of my favorite phrases to hear or say. There is the lexicalization of typos (see icon) and also the lexicalization of speech errors, and both when used in the proper context absolutely tickle me. silentfire says my great big linguistics dorkitude is SHOWING.

Comments

[isilya]

Absolutely gorgeous poster; you have real talent for graphic design. The colours are wonderful, and I love the way you've made some images two-up; it really makes the eye work instead of just skimming.

I'm thoroughly jealous! Woe, that my Europe trip was pre-digital cameras.

[walkingshadow.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, thank you! I worked a very long time on it—frankly, I'm horrified at the blog where I got the instructions, which said it would take 20-30 minutes to make; and the impression I got from people posting comments was they weren't arranging the pictures at all and the thought makes me ill. I worried so much that I was going to look at it and see I'd done something stupid, or that it wouldn't come out right, but it DID, confirmed now by TWO people who aren't me (including the guy at the counter at the copy place who asked if I'd set it all up on my own).

Seriously, thank you. *grins like a fool*

Woe, that my Europe trip was pre-digital cameras.

Well, I think the obvious solution to that is to do it again! Let me know when you're going. ;)

[tenebris.livejournal.com]

YAY! for great big linguistics dorkitude! And ooh, pretty poster, too.

...though at this point, being on the night shift for a hotel? Sounds really nice...

(Like I'd EVER be able to stay away.)

[walkingshadow.livejournal.com]

Linguistic dorkitude is the best kind! (And thank you!)

Dude, the night shift at a hotel sounds fantastic. But yeah, I don't think it's quite in your future, however horrific your comps get. Good luck!