In medias res

In a nutshell, it means that a lot of white, upper-middle class people pack themselves into their Volvos and head to Veneta for the Oregon Country Fair. Once there, they wander topless, or paint themselves with glitter (because that is like, natural, man), or buy random hippie crap, or smoke pot.
Not that I am speaking [...]

Summer finally arrived. Yesterday, I think it was. It was hot enough here to melt the north pole from afar. Spent the day at a friend’s pool, but in the shade. Forgot about the reflective properties of agua. Now we are having a thunderstorm, and I am watching lightning strike to the SE. I’ve been [...]

He estado leyendo los cuentos de Borges, pero en ingles. Me asusté un poco hace tiempo, queriendo leer 100 años de soledad. El vocabulario es muy…especializada. Márquez es muy especial. Hay palabras las cuales no me las se ni en ingles ni en español. Es como leer Moby Dick sín saber nada del mar. Mejor [...]

My recent announcement that I would be learning to play lead guitar this summer was met with utter enthusiasm.  (Keeping my baby bro’s electric guitar for him this summer while he wanders South America.)
We are about to watch Eddie Izzard’s Dress to Kill. In the $14,000 theater downstairs.
And that’s just for today.

The Portland Opera has renewed their annual campaign to convince me to buy tickets. I took last season off because I was so disgusted with the 06-07 season (The Magic Flute is many things, but is should never, NEVER feel like a burlesque show). Apparently, 07-08 was better. A friend saw Aida and enjoyed it [...]

Who knew? Watching this video of her appearance on The View (thanks, Pop politics), my ears perked up when she mentioned that her brother Craig Robinson, whom her working-class parents also put through Princeton, is a coach at Oregon State University.  The basketball team, to be precise.
It’s on Wikipedia, so not really breaking news. But [...]

Spotted just now on oregonlive.com. I know what the picture should be, but still…this is a really unfortunate caption. The text reads as follows:
Ramsey McPhillips says he spends much of his time cleaning up trash like this from his family property in McMinnville. He says the rubbish is from trucks that haul trash to the [...]

Zbigniew Preisner composed the scores for Krzysztof Kieslowski’s films.
If you are familiar with Kieslowski and have never looked into the origin of the scores, this is significant information.
Preisner’s contribution includes and is not limited to the music attributed to Van den Budenmayer, a Dutch composer, invented by Kieslowski and Preisner, who is featured in a [...]

Unseasonably cold here in Portland. Could be worse…the flooding in the midwest is affecting a number of people I know. So, we are lucky. No sun, but no real weather problems either.
Among the sites I own/manage for fun is one for friend, A. She is a medical professional and is starting to “blog” for fun. [...]

I’m watching Brief Encounter and have stopped midway. The fainting, hysterical representation of women is a real impediment to my full enjoyment of this 1945 classic. Then again, if I were a housewife and had nothing else to look forward to besides cooking, mending, and child-rearing, I might swoon on occasion as well.
Who am I [...]