This bug's life



So I've been reading this book called Fast Food Nation and it's a very interesting read. It gives you all these little factoids about the fast food industry, and then some. According to the book, carmine or red food color comes from female insects from some island. The bugs feed on red berries and the red pigment from the berries is absorbed into their system.The bugs are then collected, dried, and ground into powder form, and this is what's added to food to make it look red, like in strawberry yogurt, juice, candies, etc. Fast forward to lunch when the fruit cart at Broad Street isn't there and Starbucks is filled to the kazoo and I have no idea where to go for lunch so I just go down to the candy store and get some yogurt and shoving a spoonful of strawberry banana goodness into my mouth, my memory finally catches up. I'm eating bugs for lunch. Cool.



{Song 2, Blur} - Woohoo!

Whoopsie



So where I've been lately is sleeping. And eating. And drinking. Yup, the alcoholic beverage consumption rate is significantly higher this time of year. Come to think of it, maybe it's not so much sleeping as passing out.



{Narcolepsy, Ben Folds Five} - Save meeee... wake me up...

Happy Holidays

Poem poems



It's 11 p.m. and I have this strange headache. I can't remember the last time I had one, and something's telling me it's because I've been in front of the computer for hours. Nine, exactly. But I just had to post this: I think those subway poems are really neat. Inspired by London’s Poems on the Underground, the MTA began posting poetry in subway cars in 1992. I feel like an idiot whenever I'm in a train with a Poetry in Motion poster because I always, always tend to look up and read it again and again. It's like how I always watch the numbers go up on the elevator even if I just get off on the second floor. Anyway, my favorite is last year's Beware of Things in Duplicate:



Beware of things in duplicate:

a set of knives, the cufflinks in a drawer,

the dice, the pair of Queens, the eyes

of someone sitting next to you:

Attend that empty minute in the evening

when looking at the clock, you see

its hand are fixed on the same hour

you noticed at your morning coffee.

These are the moments to beware

when there is nothing so familiar

or so close that it cannot betray you:

a twin, an extra key, an echo,

your own reflection in the glass.



from "Daily Horoscope", Dana Gioia (1950)



Oh oh! And this year's This Is Just to Say:



I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox



and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast



Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold



William Carlos Williams (1962)



{High and Dry, Radiohead} - And what did the two chimps do in the wicker basket?

Strike that



Yay. Watched Flower Drum Song yesterday. It was lovely. I've forgotten how truly beautiful Lea Salonga's voice is. Casting was really good: all the actors (Jose Llana, Sandra Allen, Randall Duk Kim, Jodi Long, etc.) really fit the characters. Alvin Ing, who played Wang Ta in the original Flower Drum Song, played Chin. The only spoiler was that we missed the prologue. My sister's friend, who had our tickets, was stuck in traffic. It was embarrassing, but we were ushered very discreetly to our seats.



I was supposed to see Mamma Mia last Saturday. Unfortunately, I woke up a little late (just as the show was starting), so I wasn't able to make it. Anyway, it was a company luncheon thingy and I was feeling a bit anti-social.



My boss just faxed me additional transit strike info. I hope it doesn't push through. New York's transportation system is really one of the things that makes it work. It'll be total chaos. I'd have to take a cab, a ferry, maybe elbow a person or two thousand at Pier 11, and walk to my building. And 299,672 people will be doing the same. What a perfect time to be not psychic and schedule my day off today instead of Monday.



{Why Can't We Be Friends, War} - Who did the Kodak version?

The Perfect Mix CD



So, I stayed up all night making the perfect mix cd. It took me four hours. Well, I had to arrange the tracks just so. And then I had to drop some and add some, rearrange, and then I'd remember a song that I just had to put in. I actually only wanted 20 tracks, but then it has to end on the perfect note so I snuck one more track in. Oh, I wish I could be like that guy who gives mix cds away to anyone who wants them (you'd think I'd remember to save the URL, but nooo) but unfortunately, I'm not in that place right now (i.e., I'm broke). So here is the track listing and um, yeah, think: DIY



1. Center of Gravity - Yo La Tengo

2. Accident Prone - Boldstar

3. The Shining - Badly Drawn Boy

4. Rollercoaster - Dear Nora

5. She is Staggering - Polaris

6. Je T'aime Moi Non Plus - Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg

7. Give Me A Reason to Love You/Glory Box - Portishead

8. Sweepstakes Prize - Mirah

9. Silently - That Dog

10. Black Bear - Flin Flon

11. Motorbykle - Cynthia Alexander

12. Just Like Henry - Dressy Bessy

13. Look of Love - All Girl Summer Fun Band

14. Mint Car (acoustic) - The Cure

15. She Don't Use Jelly - Ben Folds Five (The Flaming Lips cover)

16. You and Me Song - The Wannadies

17. Drug Buddy - Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield (Lemonheads cover)

18. Crimson and Clover - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

19. Ooh La La - The Faces

20. Why'd You Want Me? - The Jesus and Mary Chain

21. Happy Together - The Turtles



What would you put in The Perfect Mix CD?





{Happy Together, The Turtles} - I love the parts where they go papapa...

This kind of weather is illegal in Florida



Yes, snow, glorious snow. Almost eight inches of it or mid-calf, as my boots will attest to. Funny how I managed to avoid sinking or slipping during the one-block downhill walk to the Rector Street station or the two-and-a-half-block walk home, and yet right in front of my apartment I take one wrong step and voila! Snow boots indeed. Strange, but I also feel a sudden (and I'm sure, fleeting) compulsion to shovel the walk, only we left our shovel in the old apartment and I don't know where to get one at this particular time. Actually, I'm not sure how it works - if we take turns with the other occupants of the building, or if we do a community-effort thing. Most probably, we'll all pretend that it's not there and wait for it to melt. Tomorrow looks promising. I'm rooting for the sun. I know the whole magical snowflakes-that-stay-on-my-nose-and-eyelashes feeling, but I just want to hang on to Fall a little longer.



{Holiday, Weezer} - Rivers Cuomo is a genius!