Frankly



I don't appreciate having to line up for 25 minutes for my regular fruit shake when I've only got half an hour for lunch. Where were all these people in the dead of winter when I shivered in my slacks and trudged through snow because I take my being a loyal customer seriously? (Plus, the fruit lady puts extra fruit on top of my shake) Jeez. Well, it's going to rain tomorrow, so all of you people in my fruit line better stay in and eat at your desks; you might get wet.



{Natural Anthem, Postal Service}

Kinda shoulda sorta



1. Easter week-end = hotel + gift shop-bought swimsuit + first barbecue of the season + walking across the railroad tracks at South Amboy.



2. If you aren't already all perky-chipper-spring-like, this will cheer you up to no end. (Trust me on this.)



3. I finally saw all of Seven Samurai the other night. I watched it once in college during a finals night and fell asleep somewhere in the recruitment process. Well, I was an idiot because it is an excellent film, and no one should ever have to fall asleep in the middle of watching Seven Samurai.



4. Tonight's dinner: Shrimp (It's amazing how quick you can cook shrimp. You just have to literally dip them in boiling water with a pinch of salt), and the eternal mushrooms with garlic and olive oil. For dessert, my co-worker Mahendran's (whose wonderful three-syllable Indian name with a rolling R has been shortened to the vanilla "Moe") chocolate bar from Germany. Mmmhmm. The Germans make pretty good chocolate.



5. It really is no wonder everyone's raving about the Postal Service. The wistful, sometimes dreamy music and electronic beats are oddly infectious in an endearing kind of way. "Sleeping In", my instant favorite, has a shameless 80's feel to it. Come to think of it, their synthesizer-infused music may very well be 80's-inspired. Although I am a staunch Death Cab for Cutie fan, I did try to be more objective, to no avail, as I am now in love with Postal Service as well.



{Sleeping In, Postal Service} - Don't wake me, I'm planning on sleeping in.

Clouds got in my way



Suddenly, I'm seized by a strong urge to get my life in order. It's 2 am and I'm balancing my checkbook.



{Both Sides Now, Joni Mitchell} - I really don't know life at all.

A girl is a verb



The apartment still smells of salmon a little bit. I've been lighting incense like crazy and we opened the windows, so it's been better. We had the cousins over for dinner. Had mushrooms with garlic, salmon and swordfish, stuffed peppers. Ten minutes before they arrived, I had to run to the corner to get dessert - black forest cake - from the little French pastry shop. It's wonderful having everything so close. I've a newfound interest in cooking, usually involving mushrooms and bacon.There's a thrift shop a few blocks away that we've been frequenting, and where most of our "new" furniture comes from. They have really good, sturdy pieces though. Incidentally, I'm also very, very broke.



A friend from high school visited some weeks ago. Mario was my seatmate. He and I and the other guy in our row called ourselves M Cubed because our names all start with M, and I was M sub 1 and he was M sub 2. God. Our Science teacher had a soft, soothing voice and I'd usually sleep and ask Mario to wake me up when there were new notes on the board. So I was very glad when he emailed me and said he was going to be in Rhode Island for a month (He's doing experiments for a study on tropical diseases. How cool is that?) and that he was going to spend a week-end in New York. So we went to Madame Tussaud's, had dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant in Chinatown, and watched Rent, as much as we could cram into a day. After the show, we just stood in the middle of Times Square and basked in the light of the signs.



I didn't like Rent as much as I expected to. I found the plot a little disjointed. I didn't like the set too much. I thought some of the songs didn't quite hit it. I thought the characters were charming, though. I can see how it was such a breakthrough when it opened back in '96. Jonathan Larson, who died just days before his show opened takes controversial topics - drugs, sex, homosexuality, AIDS, not your typical Broadway show theme - and talks about them through the mouths of relatable characters. By the way, Taye Diggs seems to be coming up a lot lately. He was the original Benny in Rent, I saw Chicago a few weeks ago where he played the bandleader, and I just saw Go again, where he plays Simon's (one of the main characters) friend.



I just read from Ramon's blog that Leslie Cheung killed himself. He played Tony Leung's lover in Happy Together. And I just happen to have rented Happy Together (which I haven't seen) and now I'm dying to watch it eventhough it's 1 am and I was planning to call friends up in the Philippines. Oh well. I guess I can pay off my sleep debt tomorrow.



{Girl, Frente}

Salam



lives in Baghdad.



{Rudderless, Lemonheads}