alphabet city and points north

hi kids,

off to pdx and the rest of the northwest.
will return with many harrowing tales and too many pictures, to be sure.

play nicely while i'm gone and don't forget to turn the lights out. i'll have my cell if you need anything.

love,
leslie

hodgepodge

Currently spinning:
Death Cab for Cutie ~ Plans

Secret Knowledge of Backroads

This weekend I went up to the Annunciation Orthodox Greek festival in my epic quest to try Greek coffee.

Yes, they were selling it.

No, they didn’t have anyone there to make it.

ματαιωμένος πάλι !!

Dejected, I trudged to the basement rummage sale, looked at old clock radios and cameras and bought a 70 year-old book and a 50-year-old record.

The merchants (aka volunteer parishioners) were very friendly and a wee bit inquisitive, forcing me to justify my purchases with a series of babbling non sequitirs before I forked over my dollar-fifty.

Here was the exchange:

(of the book)
“Do you speak Greek?"

“No, no...it’s for my parents”

“Oh, do they speak Greek?”

“No, they live in Texas”


(of the record)
“Oh, this is interesting - ‘Music For Expectant Fathers’. Do you know any expectant fathers?”

“Um, oh, gosh, no…I just thought it was kind of cool and kitschy…”

(at which point the her well-groomed twenty-something sidekick lisps)
“Well, that would certainly be a way to tell a guy, hm? Here ya go!”

I giggled, waved my hands to ward off any such notions and quickly backed away with my purchases.


There are hills of green in Ohio. I have seen them.

The weekend also found me making a journey to the Killbuck Sweet Shoppe in scenic Killbuck, Ohio with the eminently affable NMS. He played chauffer and tour guide as we made our indie rock pilgrimage to the place Mr. David Berman name-checked in his most excellent book “Actual Air.”

Not only that, but I had the pleasure of embarking on a driving tour of Amish country – including both the potbellied tourist traps and the beautiful farms tucked away on back roads. NMS even let me in on the super-secret townie hand signal.

Of course, I can't tell you what it is.

So here, console yourself with some pictures.







Currently spinning:
Earlimart ~ Everyone Down Here

Dali's Eggplant

sometimes
nature
is
amazing.



Currently spinnning:
Elliott Smith ~ Either/Or

neon nightlife, vol. one

not quite all neon. not quite all signs. but more to come, promise.














Currently spinning:
Breather Resist ~ Charmer

the end of summer

On the last day of summer I woke from dreams of sledding. My bedroom window was open, the air was crisp, but I was warm beneath blankets. I watched the sun rise through trees and made coffee and took pictures.

Later that afternoon I was leisurely examining pumpkins when I was informed that I had less than an hour left of summer.

"But I thought fall officially started tomorrow!" I wailed.

Nope.

I made my purchase, jumped in my car, rolled down the windows and cranked up my stereo.
Pavement. For various reasons including nostalgia and the sunny sounds of certain songs, I consider Pavement requisite summer music, and have for the past 10 years or so. Gold Soundz, in all its shimmery greatness, is quite possibly my most favorite summer song ever.

I drove by Angel Falls and noticed a boy and a girl engrossed in deep conversation. The boy was wearing a heavy jacket and a red scarf wrapped about his neck. It was 83 degrees.



Fall officially began at 6:32 pm and my housemate, Lisa and I stood out on our balcony porch, toasted summer and welcomed fall. It was oddly, unexpectedly bittersweet. We took pictures with the heirloom pumpkin - Cinderella varietal because I think it's supposed to resemble the pumpkin that turned into a carriage.





Later in the evening we went for a drive. Lisa brought a frozen fruit bar, whether out of defiance for fall or a deep-seated desire for strawberries, I'm really not sure.

We lowered the windows, though the wind was already doing the October shiver through the trees. Dampness in the air.

We listened to Louis Jordan yelp "Caledonia! Caledonia! What makes your big head so hard?" and took pictures of neon signs and reflections and light in the darkness.

Then we came home and laughed at the fact that our dining room was glowing orange from the 70s lamp that sits beneath the oil painting my grandmother made - the only mountains I see these days.

Goodbye summer - cicadas, humidity, ice cream, bicycling out late.
Hello fall - cardigans, cider, crisp air, beautiful colors everywhere.

Currently spinning:
The Mountain Goats mix-o-rama

what informs your life

sometimes i think of something i once read in an album's liner notes:
"all the love in my heart to my friends and family who make my life possible"









i adore rita. she brings me coffee and sushi and tells me beautiful stories of chinese celebrations of the full moon.
(shameless plug: if you're in wadsworth, ohio, please check out her and her husband leon's excellent restaurant, kasai)

Currently spinning:
Velocity Girl ~ Copacetic

On the Nose

adventures in modern cake decorating:



the orange and brown one went, but probably as tailgate party fodder (congrats browns)

In other weekend news, VRT came to town for a wedding. Faced with the prospect of no ride, I offered shuttle service and he raised me breakfast. Over the meal and the miles he entertained me with pep talks and tales of Hell-A (not that I would expect any less from a fellow who is so firmly entrenched in Hollywood that he has an IMDB listing.)

Our brief visit made me wonder if I’ve grown taller since I moved to Akron. Either that or all my friends here are shorter. Which is awesome.




Oh - I’m also happy to announce that it’s bedtime for Mr. Ben Gibbard. I’ve been trying for a while, but he kept getting up, all tousle-haired and sheepish grin, wanting a drink of water or to check under his bed for monsters.

Every time I thought the coast was clear and I could focus on other music, sure enough I would hear him padding down the stairs and it would start all over again.

But all has been quiet for a while, so I think he’s finally down for the duration.

Shhh.

Currently spinning:
Palace ~ Viva Last Blues

(Like my pilot friend Lynn says, a "landing" is really just a controlled crash.)

Token Music Snob Post

There is something
really fucking wrong
about the idea of
Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill
roundly announcing
that someone is trying to get ahold of my ass.

(death to innocence)


Currently spinning:
The sound of me - cough- my slitting my wrists/the universe imploding (take yer pick)

Vitamin Forty-Five'd

the happy list (circa nine-fourteen-oh-five):

+ wet wood and fallen leaves

+ fuzzy caterpillars

+ realizing "oohs" and "aahs" are scathingly brilliant when in a lyrical bind

+ shuffling through brilliantly colored leaves (which means soon i will be blissing out on silhouettes again!)

+ my cat's curly belly fur (yes, it is growing back from the terrible haircut)

+ dreams about finding the perfect amp (geekalicious!)

+ old voicemails from various friends

+ sufjan stevens at the beachland ballroom

+ spelling bee at the lime spider (i am terribly grieved by the fact that i'll be out of town then, otherwise i'd totally be up there defending my third grade poway unified school district champion title)

+ circa 1970s schwinn collegiate bicycles

+ the new shower curtain (see below)





here are some more things to look at:


*(gratitude to LMH for the kitty call)


Currently spinning:
Lungfish ~ Necrophones