keeping my ears open

On BART this morning. Two young women, roommates,
but not lovers, or so I surmised:

YW #1 ~ I want to warn you that Carl is coming up
from L.A. for a couple of days. He can be difficult.
YW #2 ~ Difficult. How so?
#1 ~ Well, he takes pills and drinks too much.
#2 ~ Oh, that's OK, I'll just stay in my room.
#1 ~ But he's really nice when he's sober.

Ah, the innocence of youth, I could only smile and
pretend to read my book some more.

congratulations to Barry!

Tonight we were watching TV when Barry Bonds hit #756 and
we heard the fireworks in the background. How delightful
this experience was and Barry was so gracious to
everyone, which isn't always the case. Lovely seeing
Hank Aaron's congratulatory video too. Special!

no, august is the cruelest month

Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus

he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

ee cummings

Tomorrow it will be 9 years since my brother died. We were
at the Giants game at Candlestick, remember Blogmaid? Evan
was such a good looking boy and man, a sort of cross between
Sam Shephard and Paul Newman. Bright and intense blue eyes,
a winning smile. Were we close? Not at all, and that is the
second worse thing about his too early death, to me.

My father also died in August, on the 10th ~ many, many years ago.
And yes, we were close, no unresolved issues there, thankfully.
A Good Death, if such a thing ever occurs...

women conquer technology

My headline today is courtesy of Snow Globe Sally who works
down on the Infinite Loop at Apple. The sketch is once again
Paul Madonna's and the mood is much lighter here now that the
spinning beach ball of death (another Sally phrase) has bounced
off to someone else's computer, and my heart goes out to him/her,
poor wretch.

I am off work today because I am getting special training in our
cafe on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I do not wish to discuss
this anymore because my lifelong dream was never to work in the
food world in a big box in the heart of San Francisco. Lordy what
we do for money...

Husbando and I had delicious noodle soups at Mifune in Japantown
and then I met my friend Michael at XO for coffee and a sweet.
I am enjoying having Monday off, but this surprises no one, does it?

good news for the fans of ann

Which did you love most ~ Bel Canto or The Magician's Assistant?

My vote goes to the The Assistant, but of course anything our
Ms. Patchett writes is totally engrossing, even her non-fiction
Truth & Beauty.

Run won't be out until October, but I emailed Harper Collins
and snagged an Advanced Reading copy.

But first I will finish Disturbances in the Field, which I am thoroughly enjoying.

saturday night in an english village

What a delight this movie is, second only to Alan Bennett's play,
I'm guessing. A group of unruly teenage boys trying to get into
Oxford or Cambridge ~ along with their three teachers who impart so
much more than we expect. We all know that British humor is superior
to ours and this is just another fine example. Three Kleenex®. Rent
The History Boys ASAP.

day off with laptop

Yesterday I spent far too much time either futtzing around with
msBook or worrying about her. I like this Paul Madonna sketch
right now. The problem actually seems to be related to browser
and email and blah, blah, blah. I did get a pretty good daily
write out of the whole experience, but there are too many swear
words and I'll have to clean it up if I ever want to publish it,
even in commano. My computer still isn't 100%, but I think I am,
and that's really all that counts, isn't it?

act one, scene one

I think this looks like a set design for some theatre production
where people dash in an out of various apartments. You know what I
mean, the woman leaves her lover next door and almost runs into her
husband who is hurrying to meet his lover on the 3rd floor. Lots of
slamming doors and the audience keeps saying, "oh no" and laughing,
relieved that they are not in that predicament.

Actually this is from my walk on Valencia Street yesterday, north of
the Salvation Army (with their inflated prices). I couldn't NOT
photograph it...

make mine the mish

We have lived on the outskirts of The Mission District for more than
30 years and a more colorful neighborhood you couldn't find this side
of the Mexican border, I believe. These are just 4 of the murals that
I've photographed these past two days and there are hundreds more ~
authorized and unauthorized ~ on fences, garage doors and walls. My
favorite has always been the red woman with those magnificent earrings,
you'll find her down on 16th and Sanchez. The others are mostly around
24th Street in the heart of The Mish. When I walk around here, as I
did this afternoon, I always think of my friend Ginger's expression
that applies to some midwestern burbs...the tyranny of beige. You
can see that we don't do beige very well in The Mish.

our front row seats in pathetica

I really needed to breathe in some sea air, so today we drove a few
miles south to Rockaway Beach in Pacifica. We all know that most
restaurants with great views have rather average food and this
one certainly meets that criteria. A couple of dry burgers and
some french fries, but it was so relaxing to look at the waves
crashing on the rocks and the foam seemed to be extra thick and
white today. We talked about nothing and everything ~ just what
this work weary woman was yearning for.

how did I miss this rich novel?

According to this web site, Disturbances in the Field was
published in 1983. Thanks to the miracle of our blog life
and to my old friend Susan over there on the right (fighting
The Tonsil War) who mentioned it and I picked it up at the big
box and saved it on my bed side table which is stacked
higher with books than most of our displays at work. Whoosh,
was that all one really awkward sentence or what?

But first I had to finish New England White which I did enjoy,
even though there were more plot twists than I could keep up
with. But I love a mystery, even a long and convoluted one.

Speaking of blogs and links, don't miss The Great Plotnik
who is having a fabulous trip in Mexico right now. And Mr. Z
who helped a woman select music for her dying father last
night at work. Very touching post, I thought about it all day.
Ms. K who usually has One Foot Out the Door has both feet in
Provincetown currently, so there is much to read and enjoy.

I now have another 3 days off, we had plans but they went
awry, but I will still enjoy not working until Friday. Oh, yes,
indeed I will.

Susan, thanks for the book recommendation. I'll review it
when I'm finished.

The Italian is a little Russian gem

I don't know how we heard about this movie, The Italian, but it's
been on our Netflix list for awhile. If you loved The Cider House
Rules, you'll adore watching this little orphan boy try to find his
mother after a perfectly respectable Italian couple want to adopt him.
I think what I particularly like is how the older kids teach and
take care of the younger ones ~ a very tough and hidden kind of
love and empathy.

it's almost august, that's BTS

I've mentioned here before that most of us booksellers love
recommending books to customers and every month we get to pick
a book, order a quantity of it and put it in a prime spot down
on FOS (front of store). Here is my selection for August, which
is back-to-school (BTS) time in every retail wonderland.

This is a delightfully colorful and charming book and you might
notice that the artist (Linda Davick) is one of my favorite
daily blog checks over there on the right. Such talent. I've only
met Linda once, at a Borders event for Don Asmussen, but I feel
close to her and now I hope that she comes in and signs some
Kindergarten Countdown stock for us.

One day soon I'll present our beautiful RR with a copy of this
stunning book featuring a little girl and a purple cat when she
gets ready for her first day of kindergarten!

more buddha banter

I keep thinking about the buddhas from yesterday. The panel was
50 to 60 feet long (!) and probably 4 feet wide. No one else
seemed enthralled by this panorama, so I had time to study and
be amazed by this photo. As Ms. K noted in her comment yesterday,
these are the same buddhas that she saw in Kyoto. Here is a link
to Sugimoto's masterpiece.

1000 buddhas await you

We spent our morning at the de Young because there are 3 worthwhile
exhibits there currently. But first we took the elevator to the 9th
floor observation deck where I took these not great photos. The
Academy of Natural Sciences will open late next year, take a look
at the "living roof" which is getting a lot of publicity. I believe
we'll be able to walk around up on this environmental wonder.

The children are playing on some sort of steam path below and of course
we were hoping to avoid them inside, which we did. Notice that every
kid these days has a back pack. De Rigour.

We found our house on this large and very cool aerial map. First we
located the freeways, then Market Street, then General Hospital and
isn't that Bernal Hill? Precita Park? There we are ~ wowza! It's
interesting to note that you don't need a ticket to visit the 9th floor.
That's such a good idea.

Ah yes, the exhibits:
Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer who specializes in ethereal
black and white work. Don't miss the Sea of Buddhas or King Henry VIII.
Nan Kempner's closet ~ I can't really identify with this socialite
from SF who moved to NYC, but the de Young did a nice job here with
her fashions by YSL, Ferre, Le Croix, etc.
Enrico Donati is a 93 year old surrealist painter and sculptor. A
couple of amazing pieces, especially "Fist" which includes two
intense looking eyes.

After all this culture in the fog, we needed a cheap and hearty
Chinese lunch at the Shanghai Noodle restaurant down on Balboa.

summer 2007 ~ addicted to tv

OK, three is enough! I'm afraid that I'm hooked on
these TV programs...good thing there is no sun lately:
1) Big Love ~ season 2 with the Mormons in Sandy, Utah
2) Mad Men ~ first episode featuring glorious photography,
details and costumes from NYC advertising in the 50's
when everyone smoked and men were snakes (well, not ALL
men, of course)
3) Damages ~ scary first episode with Glenn Close, Ted Danson
and Rose Byrne. More NYC drama with some high stakes
litigation as the background story

Of course there is also baseball, but this Giants team causes much
sorrow and heartburn.

slow down, you move too fast...

Thanks to Anne for the Newsweek article by Robert J Samuelson. It's
quite good and much too long for my busy readers, but here are two
paragraphs that you might enjoy.

If all this involved only grammar, I might let it lie. But the comma's sad fate is, I think, a metaphor for something larger: how we deal with the frantic, can't-wait-a-minute nature of modern life. The comma is, after all, a small sign that flashes PAUSE. It tells the reader to slow down, think a bit, and then move on. We don't have time for that. No pauses allowed. In this sense, the comma's fading popularity is also social commentary.

It is true that Americans have always been in a hurry. In "Democracy in America" (1840), Alexis de Tocqueville has a famous passage noting the "feverish ardor" with which Americans pursue material gains and private pleasures. What's distinctive about our era, I think, is that new technologies and astonishing prosperity give us the chance to slacken the pace. Perish the thought. In some ways, it seems, we Americans have actually become more frantic.

One of my writing friends always adds commas and other important
punctuation when I share my work at group, and that's how this
blog title originated. I still like it after more than 2 years
of commano ruling my life.

some amazing pavement art!

Dancing Jen sent me some photos of Julian Beever's work and I am
intrigued. He is a pavement artist in Europe and some of his work
(like above) looks three dimensional. On his web site you can see
how different the art looks from one side ~ some sort of perspective
thing that I can't understand, but it sure is terrific and I'd
love to see some of his chalk art in person.

notes on notes

Last night we watched Notes On A Scandal (yes, we are always
about a year behind with movies) and it was excellent. Very
satisfying. I think all women have probably had to deal with
people like the Judi Dench character who is sad and delusional.
I was worried that there would be violence, but this was all
emotional, rather than physical. Not that I'd wish this kind
of upheaval and turmoil on anyone....

it almost makes it all worthwhile

I rang up HFP for a boy child (7 or so?) with his parents
and as soon as I give him the book he plops right down on
the dirty floor and starts reading. Since the line is
snaking out the door (from 8am on until I left at 3pm),
it really isn't the best place to sit and read, so his
father hoisted him up-up and away. I hope the kid is still
reading in some over-sized chair somewhere with his dog in
his lap and the TV turned off.

Of course with most of the children I used John Oliver's
line from the Jon Stewart Daily Show, "Harry was decapitated",
knowing that the visual is better than just pronouncing
our hero dead.

Tomorrow will be crazy too ~ we are afraid of running out
of books, so Bossman went over to the boutique big box to
"borrow" another 500 HFPs. As usual, I'm amazed at how
hard our staff works ~ on their feet all day long and still
pleasant to the customers for the most part. Only 2 sickies
today ~ not bad at all. My mood? Relieved.