Friends

Friends

( 11:55 PM ) Ja'son Styles
Nathan I posted to my own blog how do I alert others that there is something to read there?? yours truly jason

jason.styles@comcast.net #

( 12:15 AM ) Carolyn Pietala
Nathan: Here's the promo poster that the clever person put together for Gothy Old Broads. Can you get it to print?

http://www.darksites.com/souls/goth/gothyoldbrds/ #

( 12:21 AM ) Carolyn Pietala
Back with another lovely link.

http://www.livejournal.com/community/sybarites/10554.html#cutid1

A fan of Miss Manners snagged this article. I share her fondness for it, probably enough to remember from this point that Miss Manners's real name is Judith Martin. These first six paragraphs are particularly wonderful writing. And like the person who snagged the article for her blog, I can't resist the urge to copy it somewhere.

***
(from her June 1st column this year)
Respectable people did not used to appear any the less respectable as a concession to summer heat. They had summer wardrobes made of lighter materials, but these featured the same items as their winter counterparts, including ties and jackets, long skirts and stockings.

Of course, that was back before air conditioning. Now we have desperate and indignant pleas that human survival would be at stake if anyone had to stagger from air-conditioned transportation to air-conditioned buildings wearing more than tank tops, shorts and sandals.

Miss Manners does not mention this out of any yearning for the fortitude of yore. Those people must have been nuts.

But she finds the relationship between the progression of technology and the progression of style to be curious. As the methods of producing clothing went from tedious handwork to mechanized mass-production, tailcoats and embroidered, elaborately draped dresses were abandoned for jeans and basic-black shifts. In architecture, for that matter, increasingly powerful equipment and more flexible materials marked the change from an immense variety of fanciful buildings to the ubiquitous unadorned box.

Ah, well. Miss Manners doesn't pretend that hers is the prevailing taste. If it were, the bustle would be back, and ladies could use their stair machines to practice walking with a train.

All she asks is that some effort be made to conform to the standards of our own times, which still distinguish between dressed and undressed. There must be a summer compromise between running around in practically nothing in order to stay cool and looking dignified while passing out.

***

The paragraphing on my copy looks different than on hers, because I found the article in Miss Manners's archive at the Washington Post. (I like the way the paragraphs break just where one would take a pause for comedic timing if one were reading the article as a speech.) But the community of the Sybarites at Live Journal is more fun than the Washington Post site, hence...

Yes, I'm still typing in odd combinations of my personal interests to see whose blogs they summon. At Live Journal, they also summon small forums. I think I like the Sybarites. So one can consider oneself a Sybarite if one likes Anais Nin, absinthe, chocolate and Cirque du Soleil?

http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=sybarites

Cool. I can go there.
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( 8:48 PM ) Nathan Kibler
Thank you, Carolyn! It has been some time since anyone posted here and I'm glad you've taken the time. I have to admit that I haven't really been able to answer the question in my mind why there seem to be a lot of Blogs out there but none I've really subscribed too. The most interesting time for Blogs, in my opinion, was right after the 9-11 disaster in New York. I found what was on Blogs to be much more moving and real than anything the mass media could provide. #

( 7:02 PM ) Carolyn Pietala
I should have lots of film festival reviews, this being film festival time. But I don't. Decided to come back here because I found a wonderful link:

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/archive/2003_05_01_archive.asp#200235680

This is from (cyberpunk writer) William Gibson's blog on the topic of blogging vs. writing.

This quote in particular struck me:
It's the "conversational" aspect, I think, that keeps this kind of writing from really getting off the ground. You see the initial lift into heightened language, into intent, but when the wings begin to wobble (as they invariably will) there's always the option of safe and instantaneous descent back into a fundamentally informal relationship with the reader. There's no risk involved.

I don't blog, but I do post at forums. And I've done post writing at forums that this quote describes exactly, "the intial lift into heightened language, into intent" -- it may even stay that way for one whole post -- and then I take the "safe and instantaneous descent back into a fundamentally informal relationship with the reader" when someone replies. This is almost necessitated by the fact that the person will be replying to me conversationally. But it is also the case, that if someone asks me to defend a point, that I won't have thought about that angle as long as I did about the original post, and thus my argument will be less articulate.
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( 9:27 PM ) Nathan Kibler
Yeah! This is great writing, Carolyn, and very good to keep your goals in sight. I feel like I may have bitten off more than I can chew right now. After busting out the first two days I have too many words to catch up to. But I love this essay, almost a prose poem. I like the contrast of the specific rituals and the images of the season. Very good. Will you be adding to this subject? Perhaps some childhood memory? Keep up the good work. I want to see more like this. #

( 12:48 PM ) Carolyn Pietala
I am not participating in NaNoWriMo like Nathan. (Look at him go!) [Insert enthusiastic stadium whistle.] But I am using the time to work on my writing. My goal, much less intimidating than the 50,000 words of the novel writers, is 30 essays in 30 days. Nathan encouraged me to post my writings here. And although I don't want all of my scribblings to be out in full public view, I guess I wouldn't mind this being seen.

327 words

S is for Sleep

There have been certain times in my past when I have suffered from insomnia, but this is not one of them. The season probably helps as well. It is autumn. Really autumn. The leaves blaze in fire colors and are trimmed in frost if you get up early enough. But who wants to get up, when it’s warm in the bed and guaranteed shivers when you throw back the covers. The bears know. This is weather for sleeping.

I have my sleep inducing science down to a ritual. It starts with vitamins. Vitamins that claim to improve circulation are best taken at night. When they open up all those veins the effect is soporific, not energizing like one would think. Fingers and toes already started to get cold? This specifically calls for niacin. A niacin flush will bring heat to the farthest tip of icy toes.

Internal things taken care of, time to check off the external. I have a heat register in my bedroom that never gets turned on (too close to the bedding) except for that time before bed. I pull the edges of the covers up on to the bed, crank the dial and wait for the warm air to start circulating into the room, but mostly under the bed. Socks placed on top of the register for a minute, and then put on as bedtime apparel encourage toes to stay warm. A flannel nightgown, one that has been recently washed with that softener smell, is particularly cozy.

Just before getting into bed, I spread the afghan out on top of the covers and turn off the heat. The chill will edge back into the room, but that is a good thing. It is the contrast between the chill in the air outside the bed and the warmth inside the covers that makes one want to stay under those covers and dooozzzze. The bears know. This is weather for sleeping.
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( 10:51 PM ) Carolyn Pietala
Hello, Nathan. I've cruised all my threads. Even gone to forums that I visit only occasionally, and I can't find anything anywhere that I have anything to say about. I NEED TO POST. Need to write something.

Tonight I went to the website for the BBC to listen to the latest edition of my favorite radio show there. It's called The Blue Room. It's playing away now. Need something to do as I listen. There's housework, but what fun is that? I feel a little like the kids in All About Lilly Chou Chou posting about the music as music plays. The programming for The Blue Room is split between two dj's. Last Saturday's show was Rob da Bank. I think I like his partner, Chris Coco, a little better. da Bank goes for stuff that's a little dancier than Coco does. And it almost doesn't differenciate itself from the TON of other dance shows that you can hear on the Beeb. It's supPOSed to be a chill-out POST dance program. This mix of a Felix da Housecat tune that I'm hearing (not listed on the track listing for the show, tsk!) is interminable. Okay, that's it. I'm hitting the "skip 5 minutes" button. Yes, I like Chris Coco better. Although da Bank did just play something that Coco himself put together which is nice.

Is it late? Only a little bit past 10:30. It feels like its the middle of the night. The strange chemical smell is back. Sometimes a smell that's like fingernail polish will come out of the drains. AHAHAHA! da Bank was just talking about it smelling like hotdogs in the studio, he gave an address and said to tell him what it smells like where you are. Should I write and tell him? No, probably not. It sounds so weird. But it really does smell like that.... #

( 10:49 PM ) Carolyn Pietala
Okay, Nathan. I looked at the website. The shade change on the front page isn't really noticeable, as it is still in the same range of color. But I did notice you added icons to the links and those nicely done. That is also quite the photo. You look like Bono from U2.

I read the latest entry on your blog and got a little surprise there when I got to the part about what you spent your money on after you got as drunk as you implied you had. My, we do have more money to throw around now don't we ;-). #

An ongoing conversation between my community of friends.