the sidewalk’s a carpet and the bushes are the walls

maura @ 7:12 pm

Voxtrot, I am so over you.* My new band crush, thanks to Punk Rock Karl, is Even in Blackouts. They play incredible power punk/pop, the singer has a fantastic soaring voice, and they’re from Chicago to boot. How could anyone not love them?

* Okay, that is a lie told for humorous effect. I still love you, Voxtrot, there’s no need to pout.

You can listen to some Even in Blackouts songs on Pure Volume and MySpace. It’s going to be really hard to wait ’til my birthday for their CDs, I may just have to break down and buy them sooner.

On another note, a glance at my course calendars plus the fact that today was merely day 1 of Gus’s ELEVEN DAYS OF SPRING BREAK has led me to conclude that I have a frankly inhuman amount of schoolwork to do between now and the end of April. So expect updates to be spotty around here. Unless I find another band I can’t stop listening to.

brief + random thoughts

maura @ 7:43 pm

Numbered, for easy reading. That’s my game.

1. It was 74 (!) degrees here the other day, so we let Apple go in the courtyard of our building. I miss the little guy far more than I thought I would. Maybe we should get a real pet.

2. T-1 day until Gus’s 11 (!!) day spring break. I also have all of my final papers + projects due for school within the next 4 weeks. No sleep ’til May!

3. Punk Rock Karl redesigned his blog all fresh and lovely-like, with music too! Go there now to read and listen, esp. to Even in Blackouts and The Epoxies.

then i’ll dig a tunnel

maura @ 7:07 pm

Hello universe, I’m ready for March to be over now. It seems like there’s been a succession of small annoyances over the past month and I’m just tired of it.

First I got an irritation on my arm, necessitating a visit to the dermatologist. Total bill = $140, ouch. Also, we got a parking ticket. Yeah, that isn’t really an illness, but at $115 the ticket nearly made me sick, anyway. And now I have a cut on my finger. Finger cuts are the worst — all those nerves, so so painful, hard to type.

I’m currently recovering from a shin splint. At least I think it’s a shin splint — Jonathan thought it was a blood clot, but I think I’d be dead by now if so. My leg was a little swollen and it squeaked when I flexed my foot. It is getting better, per the interweb’s instructions to elevate, alternate heat and ice, and take ibuprofen. But it’s taking forever and I haven’t been to the gym in over a week, which makes me grumpy.

And how did I even get a shin splint, anyway? I do go to the gym, but it’s not like I’m iron man or anything. A little cardio on the elliptical machine, just like the 70 yr old working out beside me. A little weight-bearing exercise, in the hopes of heading off osteoporosis when I’m an old lady. Hardly the stuff of shin splints.

Also the garbage disposal broke (after only 6 yrs, shouldn’t it have lasted longer?). The toilet broke, and then the other toilet broke, but only for a minute, thankfully. Then the vacuum cleaner announced its slow decline when it stopped sucking. Usually we are happy when things no longer suck, but of course the vacuum cleaner is an exception.

I guess all’s well that ends well, because we now have: 1) a new, virtually quiet garbage disposal; 2) new, lower-flow toilet innards; and 3) a new, bagless and sucking vacuum cleaner. And I hope that Al Gore will forgive us buying a new vacuum cleaner rather than trying to get the 10 yr old one fixed, because the new one is bagless, and that’s all eco, right? Plus we will Freecycle the old one, promise. Let me tell you about the bagless: the first time you use it you will be shocked, SHOCKED, at how much stuff comes out of your carpets. Who knew what could hide in low-pile area rugs?

a life full of children and animals

maura @ 9:53 pm

It’s been a long long time since I’ve had a band crush. I used to have them all the time. But that was pre-Gus, and now there’s less time + money + energy for musical pursuits. I’ve talked about this before; I am a broken record (har).

I have had a few band crushes in the past few yrs. Pipas, Math and Physics Club, Franz Ferdinand, Feist, and the Shins. Yes, I am always behind the times, and not as indie as I used to be.

I am having a band crush right now! I’ve fallen hard for Voxtrot. Again, slow on the uptake: their first release was in 2005. But their first full-length album is coming out soon, so I haven’t completely missed the boat.

The funny thing about a belated band crush is that you experience all the levels of fandom at warp speed. The whole shebang has taken me about 3 weeks: “Hey, this band is pretty good…man, that (self-released EP) record rocks…damn, I canNOT stop listening to this song…cool, check out those hidden unreleased tracks on their website…hmm, this EP is okay, not fabulous…wow, the new record sounds so, well, PRODUCED…yeah, I used to LOVE them, I mean, I liked their FIRST record.”

Except that I’m lying about that last bit. I still really like them, even though the new songs that are being blogged are slicker than the old EPs. I mean, that shit happens when you have money to spend making a record, right? And the strings on “Steven” just slay me.

we were born to live here

maura @ 8:02 pm

Apple has changed (again)! One night last week I came out from putting Gus to bed to find that the lil’ pupa was…twitching…flexing…convulsing, if you will. I was simultaneously disgusted and fascinated; I could NOT look away! I even took a little video of it, figuring that by morning the change would be complete (though Gus is much less interested in Apple these days than Jonathan + I are).

And it was. Apple is now a beetle. At first he* was pale brown and looked like a small firefly. After emerging it seemed like all Apple wanted to do was eat and bury himself under oatmeal. For some reason this really bothered me, and I was all: Slacker! You just pupated for two weeks, get up and move a little!

* Why is Apple male? I don’t know.

But then we realized that he was still growing and changing, getting bigger and darker every day. He’s also getting more active. He’s taken to pacing around his little bug house, occasionally even scrabbling against the walls to try and get out.

Apple, dude, we will set you free soon! As soon as the weather gets a bit warmer. It’s been fun watching nature in all its glory, but it’s time for the bug to go live outside. Jonathan even made up a little song about how we love Apple, but if we saw him in the cupboard we would have to smush him.

if i mail this letter you can send it back to me

maura @ 7:36 pm

Have I told you about my new wallet yet? No? Then pull up a chair, Cher!

Once upon a time I had a Badtz Maru wallet. I got it at a Sanrio store in L.A. while visiting my brother at college, oh, 10 yrs ago maybe? It was really excellent: made of this weird plasticy mesh with a billfold, change purse, plenty of card pockets, and a velcro closure. There was even a nice little external pocket for oft-used items like my metrocard, food coop ID, etc. It was super rad.

By last fall the plastic was cracking, and the velcro was fuzzy and shedding. It was clear that the era of the Badtz Maru wallet had come to an end.

Of course I wanted a new wallet that was EXACTLY like the old one, who wouldn’t? I searched and searched the giant interwebs, but couldn’t find a match. Finally I found one that I thought would do the trick. It was made of durable plastic, had a fun design, and featured a billfold, card pockets, and a change purse. I asked for it for xmas and was pleased as punch to receive it.

Except, all was not as I’d hoped in newwalletland. Yes, the wallet was pretty, but the plastic was sharp and pokey on the edges. Yes, it had the essential change purse, but the plastic was so tight that it nearly refused to release the coins inside. Yes, it had card pockets, but they were not as spacious as the old wallet’s pockets. I’m packing a lot of plastic these days, what with the school ID, 2 library cards, 2 access cards for internship libraries, my certified nerd card, etc.

Who is my wallet savior? Why, the lovely Ms. Jill Bliss, of course! A talented designer and craftrix, she makes one fabulous wallet out of soft, washable cloth. LOTS of pockets! A zippered change purse! Fun fabric prints! (I lassoed myself up some cowboyz.) And no pointy edges.

Thanks Jill!

hi fi lo fi sci fi my fi

maura @ 6:31 pm

I must sheepishly admit that getting that ipod is about the best thing that could have happened to my workout life. I used to think that as long as the gym played music that was over 120 bpm, everything was fine in workoutland. Sure, I don’t love the mindless dance music they play enough to run right out and buy it, but it was fine, really. But you know, I was wrong! Because it turns out that listening to music that I actually own and enjoy not only makes the exercise time fly by, it makes me elliptical machine-icize faster, to boot. Who knew?

There has been a bit of a learning curve for me in loading songs onto the ipod. First I threw a bunch of albums on there, because I’m a complete record* kind of gal. I even put some stuff on there I’d been meaning to listen to but hadn’t gotten around to yet. But see, we have an ipod shuffle; there’s no display, and thus no way to read what song is playing. So that was totally dumb — I ended up having to skip song after song after song to get to one I actually wanted to ellipticize to.

* Who still says record, even in this day and age. Because I sit around all day in my petticoats, listening to my gramaphone. (Yes, I do know that the gramaphone played cylinders, not discs. But it’s such a fun word! Say it with me: GRA-ma-phone.)

Now I’ve finally gotten with the shuffle program and am putting individual songs on it, which works much better. Voxtrot, New Order, Spice Girls, Komeda, that Language of Flowers song that sounds like Lush, and also some Lush, among others. I’ve made exceptions for two records: Pixies Doolittle and Bunnygrunt Jen Fi, because nearly those whole dang records are good for exermacizing.

This ipod may also be the first thing to make me seriously consider getting one of those newfangled vinyl-to-mp3 converters. Because I think that I need to be able to listen to Private Idaho at the gym, too.

i wanna understand you

maura @ 9:34 pm

Aiieee…so busy! So very busy that I volunteered to go on Gus’s field trip to go ice skating tomorrow, only to remember JUST after I said I’d go that ice skating with 80 (eighty!) 5 yr olds would probably not be quite as much fun as ice skating with one 5 yr old. Oh well, it’s supposed to be negative 4 zillion degrees tomorrow with 9 jillion degree wind chill, so maybe it will be cancelled.

Two quick things:

1. As you know, I am clothesline-obsessed. What could be more fun than these Camper clothesline shoes???

Frankly, I am also kind of obsessed with Camper shoes. They are ridiculously expensive, but very fun in a casual browsing online way. I did get a pair from ebay for cheap, some nice basic black flats. But my alternate rich self who’s not nearly so clumsy would love these crazy math dominatrix heels. And my alternate rich self who has more fun clothes would look fabulous in some smurfy blue flats.

2. For a few days there we thought that Apple the mealworm was a goner, since we hadn’t seen him move for a while. Luckily Gus is too obsessed with his new video game to track Apple’s activity as closely as he used to. We were just getting ready to book Apple passage on the toilet funeral barge when we took a closer look in the bug jar today and, lo and behold, Apple has entered the pupal stage!

You know, Apple as a mealworm was really not so bad. We got used to his wiggly segmented body and six freaky little legs. But Apple as a pupa, not so much. The pupal stage of the darkling beetle is much more primal yucky bug-type stuff. I’m making a yucky face right now even typing it — click on the link at your own risk.

insanity is our hospitality

maura @ 10:53 pm

Is it weird to have clothesline envy? If you have to ask, the answer is probably yes. Gus’s school is in an old neighborhood full of townhouses and brownstones that is still close enough to the Western European immigrant experience* to have big poles at the edge of each backyard lot, with pulleys attaching a clothesline to the windowsill of each floor. Every time I do drop off or pickup I see the clotheslines and think: LUCKY DUCKS.

* Though it is far enough away that only a few of the clotheslines are ever in use.

I want a clothesline! The increasing crunchiness of me over the past few years has resulted in many new activities, like washing ziploc bags, using old washcloths to clean rather than paper towels, and, recently, clothes-dryer avoidance. Dryers use a ton of electricity. It’s expensive!** Plus we don’t have a dryer that vents to the outside world, which means OPRESSIVE heat in the summer if we run it. Even in the winter, though, I fear the minute particles of lint that are not being trapped by our elaborate indoor dryer venting + lint trapping mechanism and are flying around our apartment, just waiting to get us. Or at the very least to settle on the vents in the bathroom and make them fuzzy, which looks gross.

** We recently switched to the wind power option that our local electric dictators offer, which is a little more expensive than the old-fashioned non-green (brown?) way.

The problem is that there’s a limited amount of space in which to hang clothes to dry in our 2BR apt. We do have a drying rack that can handle most of one load of laundry and folds for storage. And I hang some things on hangers from the shower rod. I’m also not 100% airdrying yet — towels are just too stiff and scratchy, and sheets are too big.

One of my neighbors is also an airdryer. Her apartment is directly across from ours and we’ve jokingly talked about stringing a clothesline on pulleys between us. People would likely flip out to see our underwear strung over the courtyard in the center of the building. But the bigger problem is that she lives two floors above us, so I think that gravity would pull all of the laundry down to our house. Kind of inconvenient.