French food in Ellicott City

This man is making Crepe Suzette.

a pox on your mirrors

my vote is cast

the week in review

record party at work

leads to record shopping with lori.

ah, to be the lady in red. jealous!

need to decide where to send gretchen on her honeymoon for the raffle. sri lanka, switzerland, spain..?

i still haven't rsvpd because i can't make up my mind.

hair is shorter but i am bad with photos.

Decorator Extraordinaire

In the spirit of cramped Mt. Vernon apartments, here is my wishlist of things I need to make my place look like an adult lives there.

-new floor lamp
-cohesive design theme...most likely vintage...attained by various antiques and tapestry-like pillows and curtains. or very light colored curtains in vintage designs.
-antique desk
-hooked up record player
-cleverly hidden record storage
-dark wood book cases or! those book cases that look like leaning ladders from crate & barrel
-small pictures hanging in large matte frames
-vase
-one prominently displayed floral arrangement
-small, tall bistro table instead of kmart kitchen table
-the couch! what to do about the couch! maybe just throw a revolving series of blankets over it.

i will shove the craft area into the bedroom and not worry about that part yet. oh yes, and of course, i will settle for a headboard, but in my real life, i will take black metal canopy frame. it is not suitable for cramped living adult-impersonating lifestyle.

i would like everyone to know that i now own matching sheets and towels for my master suite.

it seems that i just want furniture from crate&barrel and everything else from anthropologie.

hmph.

talk to us, tinman!

lori and i might have to start writing fan fiction about this abandoned car in our parking garage. it seems to have a story to tell.

i have not talked to anyone for days

on her cottage knitting blog, my friend kellie posted a tidbit about a [west elm] console she had her eye on now that she and her hubby ben are getting into the decorating aspect of first-time home-ownership. it's a lovely console, see?

but that got me cursing my apartment anew. for those of you who have not been there, once inside you feel like you part of something very efficient indeed. an ultra-efficient log-cabin-like space hovering all alone on the roof of an otherwise totally normal and somewhat fancy apartment building. [love me some hyphens!] ashley's apt #3 downstairs (and worlds away) is a nice example of how classy and normal the other apartments are with their high ceilings and shiny wood floors and marble fireplaces. mine is about the size of two twin size beds and wood-paneled all around. delightful! it even has a "junior" refrigerator.

ANYWAY, people, my point is that today is rambling day. on that note, i got a lovely little desk chair for my tiny little apartment and it is so cute I must share it. It ships flat and they let you pretend you are so good at things by making you assemble it yourself and bend some metal! they even give you a link so you can watch a giant squirrel assemble it first if you are nervous. i found this comforting, unnecessary, and somewhat entertaining, so here is the link to that demo. this is what my little guy looks like. he's a gem!

and, fair warning, if i feel like i might ever want to post again about my adventures in home decorating in my laughably small apartment, i will.

in other budget-decor news, jason and i found a nice little pianola on the side of the road a few months back that we have no home for just yet but are counting down the days till we can set it up someplace nice. knowing very little about pianos myself, and seeing as so far i am only really able to play the first noel with any kind of identifiable properties and not a single other tune you might know, i was most excited about this particular little heavyweight because there is a switch on the side that lets you play it as a tack piano, all tinkly and fragile sounding. i am all for extra functions! i have already grown bored with the 700 fun frames my camera phone offers and am ready for more toys! if you need some help getting excited about this tack function, listen to some Fiery Furnaces or The Other Side of Summer or So Like Candy from Elvis Costello.. or or or.. To Find a Friend by Tom Petty. I bet there are more, too, people. Jeesh.

so, the piano looks like this, only more homeless.

it came with a million scrolls for the player piano feature too!! who's lucky!?!! meeeee!

backtrack

perhaps i should have explained more...

this is for gary b's video for 3 horse carousel.

harring was nice enough to mock up how the forced perspective works.

see his rough example here. http://www.redstarkgb.com/chris/forced_perspective.mov

here is mine in its early stages with my mom's bf frank modeling how it will work, sort of.

part 2

sisyphussing

Some reading material

To keep up with the theme of my last post, I've come across this:

Body Position Affects Memory of Events

When we see a familiar face, or even a photo of a favorite car or pet, we're often flooded with memories from our past. Sometimes just seeing a person or object that's similar to the ones in our memory will trigger recollections we never knew we had. Maybe you've had a memory triggered by a scent or the texture of an object. Sometimes emotions such as happiness or anger will spur vivid memories, too...

(click on title of post to be linked to rest of article)

Smelly stuff

"When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered· the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls· bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory" -Marcel Proust "The Remembrance of Things Past"

Recently I've been somewhat preoccupied with smell and memory. Perhaps it's just one of those times in life, like spring time, when things are more fragrant. I wrote a poem the other day, posted on my lame myspace blog, along the same lines.

I never knew that the sensation of a smell that brings up a past memory is actually called a "Proustian Memory," which I find incredibly fascinating, but also a little dissapointed that it wasn't named a "Hackelian Memory." Alas, I'm not as talented.. and well, kinda late.

From searching online I've found a plethora of material relating to smell and memory. It seems that there are a lot of people besides me that are intrigued by it.

Just today I was walking up the back servant steps at work and someone sprayed Raid. It rememinded me of when I sprayed Raid in the cracks all around my ex's and my kitchen floor. During the hot summer, no AC, the ants would infest the kitchen. The sent of the Raid was one thing, but it was accentuated by the muggy heat of the apartment at the time. Also it was an old house, floor boards creaked, plaster fell off the walls periodically, not unlike the building I work in.

Just think about it.. the smell of your grandmother's house, your old car, your first cologne or perfume, your elementary school, the geraniums in your neighbor's yard ... what else?

modeling

april14+/-

spirits dashed; lots left vacant

whats left of my preschool playground?

drum costume

whore queen

cards were scattered all over in the alley next to my building. i had to look around a bit before I found a face-card. it was worth it.

40E

check!

rode horse for first time. check it off the list!

threadlessly