i've never been much into regular holidays, growing up not celebrating them helped with my indifference. but, odd holidays, are something different. my thought, everyone should pick a holiday, make a card, and send it to a friend. they'll be so happy to have something to celebrate on an otherwise random (and possibly dreary) march day.
March 1 is . . . . . National Pig Day and Peanut Butter Lover's Day
March 2 is . . . . . Old Stuff Day
March 3 is . . . . . I Want You To Be Happy Day, Peach Blossom Day and National Anthem Day
March 4 is . . . . . Holy Experiment Day
March 5 is . . . . . Multiple Personalities Day
March 6 is . . . . . National Frozen Food Day
March 7 is . . . . . National Crown Roast Of Pork Day
March 8 is . . . . . Be Nasty Day
March 9 is . . . . . Panic Day
March 10 is . . . . Festival Of Life In The Cracks Day
March 11 is . . . . Johnny Appleseed Day and Worship of Tools Day
March 12 is . . . . Alfred Hitchcock Day
March 13 is . . . . Jewel Day
March 14 is . . . . National Potato Chip Day
March 15 is . . . . Buzzard's Day and Everything You Think Is Wrong Day
March 16 is . . . . Everything You Do Is Right Day
March 17 is . . . . Submarine Day
March 18 is . . . . Supreme Sacrifice Day
March 19 is . . . . Poultry Day
March 20 is . . . . Proposal Day and Festival Of Extraterrestrial Abductions Day
March 21 is . . . . Fragrance Day
March 22 is . . . . National Goof-off Day
March 23 is . . . . National Organize Your Home Office Day and National Chip and Dip Day
March 24 is . . . . National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day
March 25 is . . . . Pecan Day and Waffle Day
March 26 is . . . . Make Up Your Own Holiday Day and Spinach Festival Day
March 27 is . . . . National "Joe" Day More Info on National "Joe" Day
March 28 is . . . . Something On A Stick Day
March 29 is . . . . Festival Of Smoke and Mirrors Day
March 30 is . . . . I Am In Control Day
March 31 is . . . . Bunsen Burner Day and National Clams On The Half Shell Day
taken from here.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
life in the country...
back from tennessee, memphis to defeated in one swoop (for those of you who don't know, the town i grew up in is called, 'defeated creek', or just 'defeated' for short, or 'hogtown' if you're from the area...s'wonderful way to begin a childhood).
just to begin where i left off in memphis, i did end up going to the stax museum, and yes, i did end up eating the fried biscuits...and honestly, i can't say which one was better. i've been trying to find a way to best describe the fried biscuits, but there really aren't
words for them. if you've ever had buttermilk biscuits, you know they're already damn good, so to take these little slices of wonderful and deep fry them, cover them in powdered sugar and serve them with chocolate sauce and honey was something to be cherished (but, i'm afraid, only tried once, as afterwards, i thought i might actually die). it seems, somehow, over the years, southerners have taken the stereotype that they can 'deep fry anything' as a challenge, we actually visited a bar that not only served deep fried moon pies, but battered and deep fried candy bars, each and every flavor you might ever want...it was really all i could do to keep from ordering the deep fried reeses peanut butter cups, but i thought better of myself. after our lunch experience we headed over to the stax museum of soul, or soulsville usa, on the corner of mclemore (and, i might add, not the best of neighborhoods, just as the waitress had warned), but an AMAZING museum. i think i might have lost my head if we had missed this one. they wouldn't let you take pics in the museum (in fact, they 
make you check your camera at the door), so here are some shots of my preciousch
otchkiis, purchased in their lovely giftshop.after the museum, the only thing we were ready to do was to go straight to soul-la-lujah at zuzu's back in cambridge and dance our fried biscuits off, but unfortunately, we were far away from zuzu's and we had a long ride to my parents house in defeated...so we popped in my bill withers cd and hit the hiway.
the visit with family wasn't nearly as stressful as i had imagined, with everything sort of on the 'backburner' as they say, and nothing anyone can do about them anyway, we tried to be in the best of spirits and keep things positive. my brother's banjo and lots of beer helped with that. a short and sweet trip, we went antique-ing one day in lebanon and found some unusually odd items. this, definitely, won the award for "most offensive item ever found anywhere". it's an ashtray, if you didn't realize.
no, we didn't buy it. we thought long and hard about and looked deep inside ourselves, and realized that the offensiveness definitely outweighed the humor. i was able to actually find some nice jewelry, a pair of silver and amber earrings for ten bucks, and a nice siam pin. ernie found an iron rooster for his mom's evergrowing collection, and a jack daniel's shotglass. nothing truly exceptional, but we were more than happy roaming around all the attics full of iron pots, depression glass and baby doll heads.
a long long long way home, waiting hours in the airports because of rain, or some sort of weather disturbances, i kept the xannex flowing and slept on the floor of the airport, while ernie finished his faulkner. finally back in mass around two a.m., we settled our heads into our pillows and dreamt of banjos, blues, stack shoes, otis, aretha, isaac and ray...all fried up to perfection and covered in powedered sugar, of course.
the real king in memphis...
Thursday, February 16, 2006
memfra
here in memphis staying in a hotel beside the pyramid. if you've never been to memphis, yes, there is a lifesize pyramid downtown. it's odd...and i completely forgot it was there until we pulled into town and ernie remarked "what the hell is that!?"
ernie had business meetings all day yesterday, so i had the day to myself to wander around this fine city. my first stop was lunch, at the front desk recommended restaurant called "westy's". how the lady at the front desk knew that this would be one of my new favorite restaurants, i have no idea. it was almost as if i had written the menu myself. here are a few sample items:
-cream cheese and olive on grilled rye
-honey melt, grilled cheese with honey in the middle
-peanut butter n' honey grilled sandwich
-turkey rueben (a fave of mine at any sandwich shop)
-chicken n' spinach with cream cheese sandwich
-around 20 wild rice dishes
-3 different kinds of hot tamales
-and of course, my all time fave: fried pickle spears
i sat down at the bar, beaming, and ordered a ginger ale, my usual drink of choice. then noticed the waiters roaming around with pitchers of iced tea. SWEET TEA! how could i forget that i'm back in tennessee, and they actually serve fresh brewed sweet tea, everywhere. i was saddened with my ginger ale decision.
at the end of the meal the waitress kindly offered me dessert choices, which i wasn't hungry for in any way, but on the menu, one of westy's specialties, is...are you ready...fried biscuits with powdered sugar, cinnamon and honey. dear lord...who knew they were selling pieces of heaven at a diner in memphis.
after lunch, i hopped on these trolley cars that run up and down the memphis streets and headed down to beale street, because honestly, i couldn't think of any where else to go. my idea of getting on a bus and heading over to the stax museum of soul music was dashed when my waitress at westy's told me that it wasn't really the type of neighborhood i should be taking the bus to. when in rome, i suppose.
so, beale street it was. beale st has really changed since the last time i was here, it's much more, gentrified, but still some nice and dirty dives if you know where to look. the first thing i noticed was the massive amount of squashed penny machines there were, and being myself an avid collector, i quickly rounded up quarters and pennies and made my way down the street, machine by machine. i was even able to find a very rare squashed dime machine that embedded your tender with a very odd and sort of creepy pic of elvis (of course).
my favorite stop had to be at a store called A.Schwabs...i can't believe these places still exist. my guess is that it was an actual old department store from back in the 20's before the mallification of america...thing is, it's still pretty much the same store. i must have walked around for an hour looking at the dollar toys, overalls, old women's stockings, homemade canned goods and lye soaps. another thing i noticed in the store was the amount of voodoo items, and books on dream interpretation and number readings. odd placement i thought for these items, but i guess the voodoo community is thriving in memphis. my purchases from this fine establishment, included two pamplets: MacDonald's Farmers Almanac for 2006 (which will be quoted many times later in this blog, i'm sure) and Dr.MacDonald's Astrological Dream Book, a comprehensive and scientific system for the interpretation of dreams (their words not mine).
after this amazing experience, i headed to a record store and bought a bill withers cd, since i had been craving that 'use me' song since i got here. i also bought some nice postcards, thelonius monk, and mississippi john hurt. to end my day, i headed over to the museum of rock and soul which is owned and operated by the smithsonian, a small museum but very informative. the best part is the headphones they give you, and throughout the museum are jukeboxes, you can punch in the numbers on your headphones and just sit and listen to music if you want. my favorites were 'blues stay away from me' by the delmore brothers (i've always loved this song) and 'i can't stand the rain' by ann peebles (missy didn't do this song justice)...and so many others...just sitting and listening to old blues, country and soul was literally a perfect end to my day.
cheers.
ernie had business meetings all day yesterday, so i had the day to myself to wander around this fine city. my first stop was lunch, at the front desk recommended restaurant called "westy's". how the lady at the front desk knew that this would be one of my new favorite restaurants, i have no idea. it was almost as if i had written the menu myself. here are a few sample items:
-cream cheese and olive on grilled rye
-honey melt, grilled cheese with honey in the middle
-peanut butter n' honey grilled sandwich
-turkey rueben (a fave of mine at any sandwich shop)
-chicken n' spinach with cream cheese sandwich
-around 20 wild rice dishes
-3 different kinds of hot tamales
-and of course, my all time fave: fried pickle spears
i sat down at the bar, beaming, and ordered a ginger ale, my usual drink of choice. then noticed the waiters roaming around with pitchers of iced tea. SWEET TEA! how could i forget that i'm back in tennessee, and they actually serve fresh brewed sweet tea, everywhere. i was saddened with my ginger ale decision.
at the end of the meal the waitress kindly offered me dessert choices, which i wasn't hungry for in any way, but on the menu, one of westy's specialties, is...are you ready...fried biscuits with powdered sugar, cinnamon and honey. dear lord...who knew they were selling pieces of heaven at a diner in memphis.
after lunch, i hopped on these trolley cars that run up and down the memphis streets and headed down to beale street, because honestly, i couldn't think of any where else to go. my idea of getting on a bus and heading over to the stax museum of soul music was dashed when my waitress at westy's told me that it wasn't really the type of neighborhood i should be taking the bus to. when in rome, i suppose.
so, beale street it was. beale st has really changed since the last time i was here, it's much more, gentrified, but still some nice and dirty dives if you know where to look. the first thing i noticed was the massive amount of squashed penny machines there were, and being myself an avid collector, i quickly rounded up quarters and pennies and made my way down the street, machine by machine. i was even able to find a very rare squashed dime machine that embedded your tender with a very odd and sort of creepy pic of elvis (of course).
my favorite stop had to be at a store called A.Schwabs...i can't believe these places still exist. my guess is that it was an actual old department store from back in the 20's before the mallification of america...thing is, it's still pretty much the same store. i must have walked around for an hour looking at the dollar toys, overalls, old women's stockings, homemade canned goods and lye soaps. another thing i noticed in the store was the amount of voodoo items, and books on dream interpretation and number readings. odd placement i thought for these items, but i guess the voodoo community is thriving in memphis. my purchases from this fine establishment, included two pamplets: MacDonald's Farmers Almanac for 2006 (which will be quoted many times later in this blog, i'm sure) and Dr.MacDonald's Astrological Dream Book, a comprehensive and scientific system for the interpretation of dreams (their words not mine).
after this amazing experience, i headed to a record store and bought a bill withers cd, since i had been craving that 'use me' song since i got here. i also bought some nice postcards, thelonius monk, and mississippi john hurt. to end my day, i headed over to the museum of rock and soul which is owned and operated by the smithsonian, a small museum but very informative. the best part is the headphones they give you, and throughout the museum are jukeboxes, you can punch in the numbers on your headphones and just sit and listen to music if you want. my favorites were 'blues stay away from me' by the delmore brothers (i've always loved this song) and 'i can't stand the rain' by ann peebles (missy didn't do this song justice)...and so many others...just sitting and listening to old blues, country and soul was literally a perfect end to my day.
cheers.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
i'll fly away...
it's no secret that i'm no fan of flying. maybe in a more esoteric since of the word, but as for getting into a large metal box with about 150 strangers and heading up to heavens, it's just not for me.
so, today, i fly home to tennessee for a short trip. a sad, and i'm sure to be stressful trip, since this might be the last time i see my little brother before he is tried and wrongly accused of something he couldn't have done.
this time, i'm more leary of the trip, than the travel. but, as calm as i try to be about my coming flight, my muscles are tense, my hands tremble, i feel a bit of a knot coming up in the pit of my stomach and i wonder where it is all coming from. since i was a child, i've wanted to travel all over the grand earth, so how did i get so afraid of this things that i have no control over.
off i go in my comfiest of pants, and softest of sweaters to brave the great skies above...xannex in pocket, clara rockmore in my cd player.
ahh.
so, today, i fly home to tennessee for a short trip. a sad, and i'm sure to be stressful trip, since this might be the last time i see my little brother before he is tried and wrongly accused of something he couldn't have done.
this time, i'm more leary of the trip, than the travel. but, as calm as i try to be about my coming flight, my muscles are tense, my hands tremble, i feel a bit of a knot coming up in the pit of my stomach and i wonder where it is all coming from. since i was a child, i've wanted to travel all over the grand earth, so how did i get so afraid of this things that i have no control over.
off i go in my comfiest of pants, and softest of sweaters to brave the great skies above...xannex in pocket, clara rockmore in my cd player.
ahh.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
blessed arrangement...
*"hard life" by will oldham..bonnie 'prince' billy (from the album, 'master and everyone')
while my diligent and ever patient husband was slowly and painstakingly editing our wedding pictures the other night, he pulled out this album for background. it's always odd when you fall in love with a song, and then as time goes by, you just stop listening to it, falling in love with newer, younger songs, and then one day...one day, you find it again, on a whim, on an old mixtape or while tooling around the internet, and lo, you're still as completely in love with it as you were before.
this song, 'hard life' is lovely, and achingly painful. it almost rips your heart out and makes you want to sit in a dark corner with a nice cheap bottle of cherry port (even if you're perfectly happy with current relationships, this song will pull out the pain of the past for you to wallow in and relish).
while my diligent and ever patient husband was slowly and painstakingly editing our wedding pictures the other night, he pulled out this album for background. it's always odd when you fall in love with a song, and then as time goes by, you just stop listening to it, falling in love with newer, younger songs, and then one day...one day, you find it again, on a whim, on an old mixtape or while tooling around the internet, and lo, you're still as completely in love with it as you were before.
this song, 'hard life' is lovely, and achingly painful. it almost rips your heart out and makes you want to sit in a dark corner with a nice cheap bottle of cherry port (even if you're perfectly happy with current relationships, this song will pull out the pain of the past for you to wallow in and relish).
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
mushaboom
i don't quite remember what number i was on with this song listing thing, so i'm just going to start a random listing, you know, for fun or some such.
*"mushaboom" by fiest: i was wandering around on myspace last night, and came across a friend's page with this song on it. i had heard the song on a movie i recently saw, ('you me and everyone we know', i think was the title) and thought it was great, but soon forgot about it. now, i can't seem to get it out of my head. it is, honestly, the catchiest damn song i've heard since sliced bread. i checked out the rest of the album, and plan on buying it post haste, it's sultry, and slow and laid back and low, and good for mornings and summer. ahh...summer, i can't wait to get back to the beach. (some info for the info obsessed, 'fiest' is the girl that sings with kings of conveinence and a few others)
like i said, i can't get that song out of my head, so, that's it for today.
*"mushaboom" by fiest: i was wandering around on myspace last night, and came across a friend's page with this song on it. i had heard the song on a movie i recently saw, ('you me and everyone we know', i think was the title) and thought it was great, but soon forgot about it. now, i can't seem to get it out of my head. it is, honestly, the catchiest damn song i've heard since sliced bread. i checked out the rest of the album, and plan on buying it post haste, it's sultry, and slow and laid back and low, and good for mornings and summer. ahh...summer, i can't wait to get back to the beach. (some info for the info obsessed, 'fiest' is the girl that sings with kings of conveinence and a few others)
like i said, i can't get that song out of my head, so, that's it for today.
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