The Misadventures of a Native New Yorker

Nearly titled this entry "Girls Just wanna have lunch," as every time I try to consume food in the office, suddenly everyone everywhere (be it near or far) MUST TALK TO ME IMMEDIATELY.   I think they forget sometimes that I'm an actual human with biological needs, and not some magical being who grants wishes.

Trying to decide if I want to see <i>Moana</i> or <i>Arrival</i> more if j_bkl and I head to the movies on Friday.  I guess it will be dependent on mood and where we are when we head to see it.

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There has been entirely too much death in 2016 to begin with, but the last week alone has been kick after kick.  People close to me have lost loved ones very suddenly in the last few days.  And of course, I lost a bona-fide icon yesterday.

I never got to meet Carrie Fisher in person.  My wish was that she'd hear me say something really snarky, turn to  me and say something  to the effect of, "Oh, you're MEAN. Let's be friends!"  There was so much to admire about her.

First, there was Leia.  Wee, tiny me was exposed to Star Wars and saw this incredibly beautiful woman who would beat the everliving crap out of you if you were in her way, sass you if you underestimated her, and do whatever she needed to do to save you if she loved you and you loved her.  My mother carefully curated much of the tv/film I was exposed to without seeming to - and I usually found myself in front of strong (and occasionally smart-mouthed) depictions of women, like Leia, Uhura, Wonder Woman, Laverne & Shirley, Murphy Brown - the list goes on.  But Leia forever warped my vision of what a princess was.  Yes, she could be a pretty girl in a pretty dress, but she was also going to be the one with a blaster who was going to take charge and save the day if needed be.  She didn't need anyone to rescue her, thanks.  In fact, if you were lucky, she'd rescue you.  That left a dent.

Then, as I got older, I started seeing Carrie pop up in other favorite films, like <i>When Harry Met Sally</i> and <i>Drop Dead Fred</i> and countless others.  Then, I found out she was an author.  (Yes, I know I need to read Postcards from the Edge.  I own it.  I keep picking it up and meaning to). I adored <i>Wishful Drinking</i>.  Word of her prowess as a script doctor also filtered back to me.  But it wasn't just her accomplishments I came to admire - it was the way she refused to be ashamed of her failings.  Or even think of them as such.  She'd probably shrug and say it's all part of the package.  Addiction? Mental illness? Whatever, buddy - you must be this tall to ride.  She would never, ever be ashamed.  And that's what I admired the MOST about her.  She seemed to go through life without any embarrassment about who she was.

She died bathed in moonlight, strangled by her own bra - but we were the ones left heartbroken.

This fucking year, man.  I swear.  

So, I finally watched Roadies. I get why my friend who works on stage crews was angry. There are two levels of supreme badness in my mind - so bad I was angry, and so bad that I was impressed. So bad that I was angry, well, that just shows me how much opportunity was missed on a potentially good concept. But this was the latter - the premise was likely a dog from the start (although I think would make a great documentary if you spoke to actual road crews about their experiences and day-to-day), and things just went downhill from there. Cameron Crowe’s “women problem” is writ large here - you have three female characters, all that fall into the archetype of Mother Figure (Carla Gugino, who still manages to be good in this somehow), Maniac (the stalker girl, who was Penny Lane tipped into psychotic parody), and the Moron (the Wide Eyed Manic Pixie Blonde Dreamgirl [WEMPBD] we’re supposed to align ourselves and root for). Every next turn of the story had no interest in credulity - and when it attempted to step into those waters, the turns of plot were impressively dated (likely back to the 1980s and the last time Crowe was part of a tour as a journalist). The male characters weren’t much better - there was the POC there just to provide Wisdom to the WEMPBD,there was the sad manwhore who just can’t manage to do his job, some guy with a man bun who I think was supposed to be edgy, and the dude who had a fake British accent because funny? Maybe? And of course, everyone get ready to boo and hiss at the EVIL BUSINESS DUDE who wants to make sure THINGS ARE PROFITABLE! WHO WANTS TO DO A JOB TO MAKE MONEY, AMIRITE? ISN’T IT ALL ABOUT FEELINGS? (I mean, I know that’s why *I* go to work everyday. Not the paycheck that allows me to pay rent or anything). Roadies took the most eye-roll-inducing moments of Jerry Maguire (ones that you wrote off because you figured it was Tom Cruise Cruising) and Almost Famous (which you wrote off because you figured it was a nostalgia piece from the perspective of a 15-year-old), and mashes them together into a giant saccarine stew. (They accuse the old road dog of a horrendous, horrendous crime, but the WEMPBD feels bad for him getting fired and indicted because of his comb over? I nearly threw my ipad across the fucking room.)

While Vinyl had the potential to be good but was squandered by egos, bad writing and the most spectacular overacting this side of William Shatner (Bobby C, I love you mang, but what works on stage does not work on the little screen), Roadies is, in my mind, one of the most spectacular train wrecks of the year. I will likely watch a few more episodes just to see how much worse it gets. Because it’s horrible, terrible, no good and very bad. So bad that I want Showtime to get a few road crew members together to comment on it during episodes in the style of Statler and Waldorf (or MST3K, whichever is your pleasure).

As my friend lwoodbloo so wisely quoted Dorothy Parker, this is terrible with raisins on it. The special terrible.

So there's a lot of things I can't get enough of lately.

I've been into St. Vincent since they first exploded onto the indie scene in 2006 or so.

I've never been a huge Nirvana fan. I definitely like them, though. It's taken years, but my appreciation has deepened. Though I will always probably be a bigger Foo Fighters fan at heart, I totally get why Nirvana was huge and so many are so devoted.

I also love the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I wish I could just livestream the whole thing and I think it's utter bullshit that they didn't get to do the jam this year. (also, do not even get me started on how they inducted fucking Cat Stevens when The Stooges have not been inducted. Or so many other more important artists.) HBO does a pretty good job with the broadcast, though.

So, this year, Nirvana was inducted. Totally right on. Michael Stipe gave a great speech to induct them, and they were able to perform 4 songs. And, in a genius decision, they decided to invite 4 incredible female artists to stand in for Kurt, gone lo these 20 years. (Christ fuck, I'm OLD.) And it was awesome. Joan Jett shredded the face off of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Kim Gordon blew the doors off of the Barclays Center with her rendition of "Aneurysm" (though I didn't care much for the song itself). I've had Lorde's twitchy, bizarre-yet-awesome David-Bowie-Meets-David-Byrne version of "All Apologies" in my head ALL BLOODY DAY. But the best of the four, in my biased opinion, is Annie Clark's take on "Lithium." "Lithium" was (and still is) my favorite Nirvana song. (I always saw it as proof of Kurt's sense of humor - and I loved how bizarre the lyrics were). Plus, it had that amazing bass line. Kurt's version always sounded a bit snarky to me (which I loved!), but Annie's version feels like she's inhabiting the narrator completely, and I can't stop listening to her version. I do not WANT to stop listening to her version. So, naturally, the only one I have available to me is the one recorded from the special on my dvr. Thankfully, digital recording allows for lots of rewinding without worrying you're going to destroy the recording or the recorder.

I also think all four of these women should head out on tour with Pat, Dave and Kris and play Nirvana songs. It can be a limited tour if it has to be, but hot damn. Whoever said that they should get these artists to step in for Kurt was a genius. The songs sound better on them, somehow.

(It's funny, but when they announced that Nirvana was getting inducted this year I joked to j_bkl that they should have Courtney sing them. Mostly because it would make the heads of SO MANY obnoxious fans that blame Courtney for every hangnail that Kurt ever had explode.)

The powers that release stuff need to get these performances on iTunes yesterday.

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In two sleeps, I get to see Welcome to Night Vale live. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast. To the uninitiated, I describe it as Lake Wobegon as written by H.P. Lovecraft. Over the course of almost 50 episodes, I've experienced this weird and wonderful world, voiced by the mellifluous Cecil Baldwin as only an old-time radio drama can be. It's bizarre and brilliant and free. So, if any of this sounds vaguely interesting, go download the first episode and get listening.

*****

Supernatural is completely meta at this point. It found a place on the fuck-it plateau in crazytown and built a house. And I'm loving every damn minute. Fuck the haters. (and Mark Sheppard is going to be a REGULAR next season. I know he's the Spike of the SPN-verse, and I'm 100% okay with that.)

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Also, there's this show called Orphan Black that everyone needs to watch. It's hands down the best sci-fi anything that I've seen in so long I almost didn't know how to react when I first saw it. Granted, it takes a large chunk of the first season to find its feet, but once it does, its off to the races. Tatiana Maslany plays half a dozen clones and they all feel like completely different people. She's a marvel and deserves all of the awards.

Fargo is also fun, and worth watching.

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A few months back I went with blergeatkitty and teany to a club in Greenpoint to watch a band play nearly all of the songs in the Beatles songbook. They were trying to break the record of the most Beatles songs played by a single band at a single gig. (Not quite all, and that's fine. No one needs to hear Revolution 9 or Why Don't We Do It In the Road live anyway). The band was great, the experience was amazing, and I've been on a MASSIVE Beatles kick ever since. Massive. A few years ago my wonderful husband bought me that amazing box set of all of the remastered releases, all of which are now on my ipod. I have discovered that:

1. I still am only meh on Let It Be.
2. The White Album has its moments, but it will never be my absolute favorite.
3. Holy Shit why doesn't anyone talk about how AMAZING With The Beatles is? Maybe it's because I never listened to that one as much as Please Please Me or whatever franken-albums were released in the US in its stead, but it wasn't until this boxed set that I got to hear about fucking off the chain that album is. The Beatles are more confident than their first album, but they're not as polished as on subsequent albums. It's a feisty record.
4. They're good. They're SO good. They still manage to sound new.

It's the fiftieth anniversary of A Hard Day's Night in July, and they're bringing it back to theaters 4th of July weekend. I'm going. I'm so going.

Hey look! I'm posting!!

Hopefully I'll be doing more of this. I want to do more of this. Either way, have a recap of last year.

( Year in Review )

After two hours, FOUR grocery stores, and a farmer’s market I STILL do not have all of the items I need in order to attempt to make a soup recipe I was interested in making. Exasperatingly enough, some of the employees didn’t even know what barley was. I only wish I were kidding. Looks like it will be tuna casserole tonight, even though awesome husband of excellence is going to attempt to find me some instant barley and ground ginger. So perhaps soup might happen, even if in leftover format.

"However, you should know I disagree with a lot of traditional advice. For instance, they say the best revenge is living well. I say it's acid in the face - who will love them now? Another old saying is that revenge is a dish best served cold. But it feels best served piping hot, straight out of the oven of outrage. My opinion? Take care of revenge right away. Push, shove, scratch that person while they're still within arm's reach. Don't let them get away! Who knows when you'll get this opportunity again?"

--Mindy Kaling, from Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? (and Other Concerns)

[thanks to quasisonic for the loan. Loving this so far!)

Originally posted by cantarina1 at post

It should surprise no one when I say that I love the internet. It's brought me so many wonderful things into my life. I've made some of my best friends through here. I've learned about shows, movies, books, art, and music that have changed my life for the better. I've watched with pride as this insane, disparate group of pixels swells together and achieves real things.

Which is why I'm so frustrated and disgusted by SOPA and PIPA. What are SOPA and PIPA?

They are two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. These bills would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA, because of the crushing limitations they would place on creativity in one of the last great creative frontiers. What's more, all of the companies whining, crying and complaining that they need these bills to fight piracy already have PLENTY of tools to do so. They are just trying to influence policy with their lobby dollars because that pesky pesky due process just takes too damn long. What's more, pirate sites can still be accessed via their IP addresses - but SOPA and PIPA hand over blanket controls to do more than advertised.

Wikipedia is under a blackout but still has links to a wealth of information about both bills.

zekejojo posted a fantastic video that I feel breaks it down perfectly:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

On a lighter note, the Oatmeal also has a fantastic comic that explains the problems with SOPA and PIPA.

I urge everyone reading this to call your congressperson and senators and voice your opposition of this bill. It's dangerous to the internet as we know it and love it, and won't really achieve the objectives intended.

So, yesterday, I saw my doc for the follow up. And I got the full prognosis/report.

Things are not nearly as positive as I'd hoped/thought.

For starters, there was a LOT more wrong with the ankle than just shards of cartilage everywhere. My mom swears that she and the doc explained this to me after the surgery, but did agree that it was entirely possible that information wasn't permeating my drug-addled state.

So basically the situation is this. Yes, the cartilage broke and flew every which and painful way possible. What's more, is that a big ass piece of bone also broke. And was also bouncing around amidst the cartilage, having fun with all the nerves and things you find in an ankle. There's even pictures from the surgery! The doctor had to remove the chipped-off section of bone, and drill holes in the remaining bone to promote blood flow and stimulate the regrowth of the chipped section. I'm also on Glucosamin for that purpose.

That's the good news.

The not-so-good news? Crutches. For six weeks. No weight on the left leg. For six weeks. Doc took the dressing off, but made it abundantly clear that the foot can't hold weight. It can be used for occasional balance (like showers) but nothing much more.

That also means no subway. And just trying to get from my apartment to the car on the crutches is an ordeal. Forget trying to go three avenues and two blocks to the express bus. Not to mention that gettng into the bus itself would not work. To say that I'm not great on the crutches is an understatement. Sunday night I almost broke a toe on the side opposite the broken ankle because I swung my leg into the crutch. (Doc said it wasn't broken, but it's bruised and hurting almost as badly.)

So I called work. I told them the deal and said that I would be happy to either work from home or come in if someone wanted to send a car for me to do so. HR was not interested in this. (I'm sure on crutches I'm a Workman's Comp claim waiting to happen). So it looks like I'm going to have to take some short-term disability time for the next month or so. My bosses were pretty understanding about the whole thing, surprisingly. I guess no one wants this kind of thing to happen to them, so there's no point of giving someone crap about it. One boss pointed out that me being exhausted from traveling and in pain every day might not be the best thing, and maybe it's just better for me to get better and come back after.

She's not wrong - I am in pain. Today was the first day I didn't really need the painkillers the doc prescribed for post-surgery. Naturally, I felt guilty about not feeling so badly. My brain says all sorts of nasty things to me unless I'm absolutely cross-eyed with pain. It wears on you after awhile. The brainweasles actually convinced me tonight that I could probably stand up and be just fine, since laying down didn't hurt anymore.

Brainweasles are not smart animals.

It hurt. Very much. I stood by my couch for a second - just stood! - and saw stars. Ankle has been yelling at me about this poor life choice for an hour or so now. Ankle definitely hurts again. ::sigh::

I love time off as much as the next guy, but I'm tired of feeling useless and helpless. j_bkl has had to do so much for me the last few days that I'm actually concerned about him going back to work tomorrow. I hate that I have to feel this way. And that for the next 5 or so weeks, I'm going to be this damn way. I'm someone who cherishes their independence and self-sufficiency, and all of that is pretty much out the window right now. It's going to be hard not to be depressed about it.

That's pretty much the lay of the land right now. Home for the next month or so. Not happy about it. Not really much to do about it except catch up on some movie and tv viewings and maybe do something creative, too. We'll see. I'll be doing whatever I have to do in order to get better and not go insane in the process.

Man, I can only think of a handful of years I've been as happy to see the back of as I was 2011. This was a bad fucking year. It was a year of pain, of heartbreak, of disappointment, and so much death. So many people close to people I care about (and by extension, close to me) lost their lives this year. People broke up, people got fired, and mostly did their best to wade through the river of shit that this year threw at us. All in all, it was pretty miserable.

There were bright spots, though. Almost all of them people. My friends, my family, and most of all J, who reminds me in all sorts of little ways on a daily basis why I am so very, very lucky to have him in my life.

2012 has started out pretty well so far. Rang it in at a friend's house surrounded by music and good people. Then today another friend threw a super fun brunch that involved mimosas, great food, and snark. A fantastic day all around.

I'm a little apprehensive because I'm having surgery on my ankle on Thursday. For those of you who haven't heard, the cliff notes are that I twisted it back in the big Christmas blizzard of 2010. My jerky former ortho sent me for 10 weeks of PT before he thought an MRI might be a good idea, and then after finding out in said MRI that I chipped off cartilage, he suggested a cortizone shot. Said shot had me in abject pain and on my back for a week in June. He shrugged me off when I called to complain. So I found a great new ortho. He had previously fixed quasisonic's knee, so he comes recommended. He did that funny thing doctors do when they want to call another doc an idiot but can't for professional reasons, and explained to me why surgery was the way to go. So that will be done thursday. And I am scared. I don't like the idea of being put under anesthesia, or the fact that I don't know how helpless I'm going to be after the fact. J has taken several days off of work in order to be here and take care of me, and I"m in the process of cooking and trying to have things in the house in order for when the day comes, but there's really only so much you can do to prepare. SIGH.

2012 is going to be a big year for me. j_bkl and I are getting married in May!! And I'm hoping there will be lots of other positive changes in my life, too. We shall see what the year holds.