Music, Radio

K-HiTS 106.7 has been playing their entire catalog A-Z. It's making me very happy, I'm so sad it will end today. I've been listening to more commercial radio in the past week and a half than I have since high school, probably, when I was devoted to... shit, what was that station that we all mourned so much? REV 105, but even before that I was devoted to an even poppier station... & DJ Kevin Cole who apparently is in Seattle now. I only remembered Kevin... somebody and googled kevin indie radio minneapolis... hah! Anyway--found the poppy alterna-station I loved in high school: KJ104. In a wikipedia entry about the history of REV105 which is pretty interesting, actually.

Anyway K-HiTS 106.7 is "oldies," which now is 60's and 70's although in my youth it was 50's and 60's. I think K-HiTS might be fudging the time span on either end, but I wouldn't put money on it. Anyway the list of all the songs they're playing is here. (If anyone wants to investigate the actually span of years covered, let me know, I'm curious. But my "25 things you didn't know about me" for facebook just takes precedence, sorry. Gotta have priorities.) This morning I heard "Whole Lotta Love" backed with "Who'll Stop the Rain?" which was beautiful. Deep, too. This afternoon, less beautiful, even excruciating, in fact: "You're the One That I Want" followed by "You've Got a Friend." Groan.

P.S. Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up," was released in 1957. Aren't we all glad to know that?

P.P.S. Do I win for most pointless blog entry? Probably not. But I hope I might be setting a record for myself, at least.

fluorescence

I'm at the Stumptown on Division. A cute boy just left. He was wearing so much fluorescent clothing! I was very impressed. The jacket was mostly green and yellow, with touches of pink; the scarf was all colors striped; the sweatshirt had a patchwork pattern and patchwork fluorescence... wow. Also he was blond, which made it all that much better.

He was probably twenty-two; it's so ironic to him--whereas to me it's just junior high.

Still packing again.

Right now I have only culled nine books. That's probably out of a grand total of... definitely over five hundred, I'd say, by rough estimate. Including the Algers. Those damn Algers.

But I'm looking at my other useless books: Bright Ideas for Entertaining by Mrs. Herbert B. Linscott, 1905; Etiquette Problems in Pictures by Lillian Eichler, 1924; Medical Compend For Commanders of Naval Vessels published by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Under the Authority of the Secretary of the Navy, 1944; all those textbooks on The Body's Needs, Emergencies, Foods for Home and School, Davison's Health Lessons--how could I not just move them across town one more time, when some of them have already gone from Seattle to Bard to Portland to NYC to Syracuse to NYC to Portland, and all of them have gone at least from NYC to Portland? (I don't buy nearly as many useless books as I used to, I just have a hard time parting with the ones I already own.)

So I pick up Phunology; A Collection of Tried and Proved Plans for Play, Fellowship, and Profit, by E.O. Harbin, MCMXXIII, thinking maybe I can get rid of this one at least--but I open at random to the second page of a section entitled "Open Air Bible Dramatic Evening." The subheadings are "Bible Plays" and "Games." Under "Games" E.O. Harbin suggests, "If desired and practical a few games could be played."

1. Bible Characters.--Pin names of Bible characters on the backs of the guests. They must discover whom they represent by the remarks that others make to and about them. As soon as a player discovers his identity he reports to the committee and receives some award.


I am not getting rid of Phunology. Instead, I am looking forward to playing Bible Characters at my next shindig. My new housemates might be slightly taken aback, but then they might just join in the fun!

Tenant Rights and the OED

I am not keeping up with my Oxford English Dictionary word-a-day list, but this morning I read some back email and caught up on the past week's words. Wednesday's word this week was "plan," and--holy shit, I never learned about the Irish National League's Plan of Campaign! Yay tenant rights! (A subject dear to my heart always, and especially right now, as my landlord is gouging me!) Anyway, details about the Irish Plan of Campaign are available at Wikipedia, of course.

The OED definition follows, with the usage quotations (which are the best part):

2. c. plan of campaign n. (b) Irish Hist. a manifesto (published in 1886) for a campaign against landlords who refused to reduce rents, proposing that tenants should offer to pay what they considered to be a fair rent, and that this money, if refused, should be paid into a central fund for the support of evicted tenants; the campaign conducted (from 1886 to 1890) on the basis of this manifesto. 1886 United Ireland 20 Nov. 272/2 The ‘Plan of Campaign’ as laid down in United Ireland of October 23rd. 1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 24 Nov. 2/1 The plan of campaign is..the proposal that whenever a landlord refuses to settle at the abatement proposed by his tenants..the reduced rent of all the tenantry is to be banked with an unknown individual, who is to act as paymaster and dole out weekly allowances to such of the tenants as are evicted by the landlord for non-payment of rent.

The things we take with us

I am moving again, though I am staying in Portland. I am moving into a house with two housemates. I will save over $500 a month, and I will be closer to several of my friends (though farther from several others) and somewhat closer to work, so my commute will be shorter. There will be less highways in my daily life.

I am culling belongings again. I'm selling some furniture, all of which I either carted cross country or bought just six months ago. And I've filled two big boxes with clothes. I moved some clothes I didn't wear in NYC, thinking I might wear them here. I also moved some clothes I wore in NYC but didn't expect to wear here. Now I know. But I knew that before I could be sure about some things I had to settle into Portland life: weather, daily living, being a teacher here, all of it.

And I am only keeping four useless t-shirts that I never wear! Emilyn is going to take my Wellstone shirt, which means I have to move it, but I think that's okay. These are the four shirts I'm keeping:

1. My Tough Girl Performance Project t-shirt from Lauren, faded and stained with something rusty brown across the front.
2. My favorite t-shirt from fifth grade, which used to be black and is now gray. It has a huge image of Albert Einstein's head on it, and it says, Imagination is more important than knowledge ALBERT EINSTEIN. So dorky, and I loved it so much. That was essentially my motto, or at least what I lived by, at least until I started college. Northern Sun still carries one, slightly different but essentially the same. I used to love going to Northern Sun with my dad.
3. The Children's Theater Company/Moscow Musical Theater Company Petya and the Wolf June 1986. The Children's Theater Company (CTC) was so important to me growing up, and I have a picture of me in this shirt holding the first (and only) fish I ever caught.
4. My red t-shirt from Lourdes. It was too small when I bought it, a child's 14, but it was the coolest one so I decided it fit. Megan and I looked at every t-shirt in Lourdes, I think, and spent a lot of time on our t-shirt decision. And there are a lot of t-shirts in Lourdes. Also a lot of mugs, handbags, postcards, and other items. Lourdes must have more gift shops per capita than just about anywhere else.

I am keeping lots of other useless things. Books, mostly. The sparkly 70's peacock blouse I've had since Seattle back in 1997. That's MORE than ten years. Geez.

More to follow, I am sure...

Smoke-free bars...

I was at Angelo's playing Indiana Jones pinball, and one of the guys playing dominoes moaned loudly, "I want a cigarette! Ya can't smoke any damn where!"

Stumptown again.

Two little boys sitting at a table waiting for their dad to get coffee, the older one maybe six, with control of the hand-held video game. The littler brother might be four, avidly watching the screen of the game, but it's held out of his reach.

The older brother makes sound effects: "Reeeeeeee--chow!" Then he announces, "Delicioso!"

The little brother echoes him: "Delicioso!"

Older brother continues playing.

Little brother pinches his ear.

Older brother disregards, keeps playing.

They get up and wait in line with their parents, older brother's eyes still on the game, little brother distracted.