A Song of Modern Love

'Cause nothin' lasts forever
And we both know hearts can change
And it's hard to hold a candle
In the cold November rain



We've been through this such a long long time
Just tryin' to kill the pain

But lovers always come and lovers always go
An no one's really sure who's lettin' go today
Walking away



Do you need some time...on your own
Do you need some time...all alone
Everybody needs some time...
on their own
Don't you know you need some time...all alone



And when your fears subside
And shadows still remain
I know that you can love me
When there's no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness
We still can find a way
'Cause nothin' lasts forever
Even cold November rain



(I came up with this stupidly funny idea while driving to work this morning. And I promised an invalid Tiff I'd post something entertaining today. Well, at least I think it's entertaining.)

Ah, ah ah ah, Table Five! Table Five.*

Whenever I move, I weed and discard stuff I don't really want anymore. I'd sell it in a yard sale--or, more accurately, an abandoned-lot-down-the-block sale--but to be able to sell my stuff, there would have to be more than a handful of people here interested in ironic coffee mugs and pretentious film theory.
Actually, what I usually do is get a big box and label it "FREE STUFF" since I can't be bothered to have a sale or get it to a Goodwill. I'm also usually discarding stuff up to the point of departure, and why take up precious movie space with crap I don't want?
Plus, I know I always enjoy pawing through crap people have left on the sidewalk. My friend Nate in Philadelphia found Marquee Moon on vinyl that way. I was terribly jealous.
Here's a list of the kind of stuff I'm getting rid of. If anything catches anyone's eye, let me know. We may be able to work something out. Otherwise, everyone in my call list will continue to get text messages saying things like, "Remember that black Hilfiger bag I have? Do you want it?"

• The DVD of Gosford Park I got for free when I opened my bank account here.
• a Care Bears mug. I'm keeping the Care Bear Cousins one.
• a black belt with glittery silver skulls-n-crossbones I got at a Philadelphia clothing swap party
• the Clash on Broadway box, on tape
• a biography of Stanley Kubrick that took so long to come out with an updated volume after he died that we went have a semester without the damn text. Also, the biographer is so far up Kubrick's ass, I'm frankly impressed he was physically able to write. Act fast on this one if you want it: (Former) Wacky Neighbor Billy has also expressed interest.
• More librarian tote bags than you can shake a stick at!
• the Beach Boys double record I bought at the Squirrel Hill Record Exchange that lived in my car (this was Midge) for months
• a bunch of old lady clothes I got conned into accepting through liberal use of the word "vintage". I'm keeping the bright pink and yellow plaid cape, though.
• shoes like the espadrilles I was H&M hypnotized into buying** or the black pumps I used to learn to walk in heels with, stomping around my Lexington apartment. I ordered them from Fredericks of Hollywood, and I'd be willing to bet whomever lives at that address is still getting at least one catalog a week.

And why do I have so many goddam phone books, anyway!?

*-ahem- Disco Stu likes disco music.
**Seem this is why I need to always shop at H&M with a loudmouthed, judgemental sister and/or friend.

8 crazy nights.

So I really hope the Chanukkah Bubbe and Santa are reading my blog, because I've totally found what I want for every single damn holiday my family celebrates in December. (Except my mom's birthday. That'd be mean if I got a present.)
Rick Santorum put his office cubicles up on craigslist.
Seriously, people. I NEED this. I don't know what I'd do with it yet--maybe get one of those back-of-Rolling-Stone pastor dealies and marry some gays? The Univ of KY gyno health services office had cubicles. Maybe I could outfit office chairs with stirrups and perform abortions. Maybe I'll just invite homeschooled (in Virginia, but paid for by Pennsylvania) teenaged boys over to make them cry on national television and push their glasses, which have fallen down because of their wussyboy tears, back up with their middle finger. Really, the opportunities are endless.
C'mon, you guys can scrape up $2600, right?

And she looks like Blossom!

(Other post titles considered: "What's your favorite color? Badd." and a Gin Blossoms quote I can't recall right now.)
Also, an apology for those of you who read this that I also talk to on a somewhat regular basis. I've complained about this before; I tend to repeat myself, especially when fashion is involved. I included the potential titles because I think the fact that I heard both "I Wanna Sex You Up" and "Hey Jealousy" this morning on the radio is pertinent to my whole point. Plus, it's funny. Especially when you remember that my car was a rental car before becoming my Junior and, as such, is set up for satellite radio. This means some stations give me information about what song is playing.* This always seems totally futuristic and luxurious to me, because I am a moron and a dork. But not nearly as dorky as "I Wanna Sex You Up...Color Me Badd" looked scrolling across my car stereo earlier today. When I got to work, I stomped into Marissa's office and asked her what year it was.
I bring all this up because of leggings. Look, I like them, too. I like hippie Johnny--unh, leggings. It's just that, when I liked them the first time, when I actually wore them, I was in junior high. And part of growing out of junior high and creating your own style is acknowledging how craptastic and ricockulous your style choices were. Seriously--now matter how old you are, take a sec to think back to how you dressed at 11-13. You were probably obsessed with looking like the cool girls and/or boys, right? No matter how ridiculous those leather-fronted jeans looked on you, right? See, I'm assuming that, if you're reading PoBaL here, you were a goober in junior high, too. It's okay. We all were. No one's got their shit together 6-8 grade. It's sort of the point.
So why are all these girls who are my age going back to fashions that were popular when we were all at our most gawky? It's just weird, and I won't do it. Although I have been thinking about ratty denim cutoffs and black tights recently...but with what shoes?
And speaking of junior high fashion, I feel the need to tell everyone that I feel like I'm dressed like Claudia Kishi today. I'm wearing that map skirt I made (I still feel like Nina Garcia's going to jump out of a bush and lambast me for construction issues and taste levels every damn time I wear this), black tights, my new open-toe, kelly green** wedge-y flats, a black vneck sweater (holey, because it's from J Crew and I've worn it more than once), and (here comes the Claudia) a small blue plastic motorcycle as a necklace. Isn't that just dibbly distant and arctic, or whatever the hell Mallory would have called it in Chapter 2?
In other fashion news, Kyrie O'Connor, who normally is one of my least favorite "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" panelists, when asked "What will President Bush and the Democrats find to agree on?" at the end of the show, said, "They'll all agree that gauchos are not flattering on anyone." Kyrie, I think I love you.
*And yet, my car can't figure out time zone/daylight savings switches on its own, which my phone totally can do. Step up, Junior!
**I'm so excited: I've been after kelly green shoes for 3 years now.

Armed robbery. With a replica.

Billboard11-11-06

• Robert Carlysle, who played Begbie in Trainspotting, is going to be in the upcoming movie version of Eragon.
• I'm pretty entertained by this. Mostly, I'm entertained by the careful omission of that fact in the making of...book we just got in at the library.
• The ad cover of this issue is Disney Records' 50th anniversary.
• Hey! Lara nad I had that Children's Favorites record. I believe it was a 3 disc set. Awesome.
• oooo! And a trivia quiz!
• The first question is incredibly dumb.
• "Which of these 'performers' is included in the list of 20 most recorded songs in American popular music?" A. Elvis B/ Neil Diamond C. Jiminy Cricket
• Well, quiz, you're either insulting Elvis and/or Mr Diamond, or it's the cricket.
• My aunt used to say "Jiminy Christmas!" as an exclamation.
• "College Radio Killed in Canada?"!?!?
• What!?
• Cara, say it ain't so!
• "AOL and Microsoft target hipsters"
• Yeah, and that always works...
• Wow. There's a giant, full-page "For your Grammy consideration" ad for Neko Case.
• AOL's got one of the Upright Citizens Brigade helping them on that hipster thing.
• Did you know that Morrissey and Axl Rose have the same management?
• I am totally not making that up.
• OK, here's the Canadian thing: "Under Tariff 22...noncommercial radio stations would be required to pay a total of 7.5% of their gross annual revenure, or $200 Canadian ($177) per month, whichever is greater, for a license to broadcast online."
• That's not cool, yo.
• Oasis are releasing a Best Of this holiday shopping season.
• That's actually kind of exciting.
• I can't help but love Oasis.
• So, I keep watching "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" because I'm too lazy to get up after "Heroes" (despite that whole moving in 3 weeks and need to start packing thing), but it's so irritating.
• Like, seriously annoying.
• I never watched "The West Wing"; was it as "I AM MAKING A POINT. LOOK AT THE FUCKING IMPORTANT POINT I AM MAKING" as this show is?
• ew. The HP pavilion's ad is this extreme close up of an attractive woman (who may or may not be famous) and the copy is "Let's Spend the Night Together". ew
• Madonna sings on a giant mirrored (discoballesque) cross on the Confessions tour?
• Now Will.i.am is working with Michael Jackson...
• Oh! So Britney is divorcing K-Fed?
• See, this is the kind of thing I don't hear when our stupid filter is blocking Trent!
• Chris Isaak is covering "I Want You To Want Me".
• Go listen to this band called the Bon Savants. It's good.

Lying in wait at the Birmingham Mall.

So I was thinking this morning about the AV catalogers I know, and the catalogers I know who are supposed to be general and do AV but don't.
And then I was thinking about how libraries are always all riled up about being more like those bookstores who totally modeled themselves after libraries in the first place.
So now I wonder: When are we going to start modeling our music and movie collections like they do at those stores? (And, yes, I'm fully aware that everyone thinks the music store is dead. Bear with me, and just think about the music sections of Walmart or Target or whatever, ok?)
My library organizes most DVDs into "general" and "feature". As far as I can tell, none of my coworkers know what the distinction is. We all have guesses though. Wouldn't it be easier on the patrons to do like Blockbuster and organize by genre, or do like the stores and just do straight alphabetical? The other library I use doesn't have an anime or a TV programs section. If you want to check out, say, the 6th season of Gilmore Girls (guess what I'm at the library for...), you have to figure out whether some cataloger thought the show was more drama or comedy. Needless to say, most anime winds up in sci-fi. Wouldn't it be easier on the anime fans to throw that stuff all together?
If we can get things like the newest Harry Potter before its street date so that libraries have copies available for check out (or, as is more likely, on the hold shelf) the same day people can buy it, shouldn't we be able to do the same with new DVDs and CDs?

Standing in a queue of a school canteen.

Yes folks, the wait is finally over.
Introducing...The PoBaL Literary Crush List!
(oooo, aaaaah.)

• The first crush I can remember having on a character in a book was Peter Pevensie in the Narnia books. He's all responsible and noble and shit, plus, if I ever had a giant evil talking wolf that needed killed, he could totally do it for me. And really, isn't that what we're all looking for in a man?
• Zooey Glass. Sure, he's snarky to his mom, mean to his sister (kind of) during her big crisis of faith or whatever, and was quoted in Ally Sheedy's book of poetry, but how could you resist a guy that looks like "the blue-eyed Jewish-Irish Mohican scout who died in your arms at the roulette table at Monte Carlo"?* And you'd be snarky to your mom, too, if she wouldn't leave the bathroom when you wanted to get dressed.
• Carrying on with my trend of wounded, arrogant, asshole-ish boys who are also loyal, noble, etc., I've got quite the crush on Sirius Black (unlike my Oliver Wood or Weasley twin crushes, it has everything to do with J.K. Rowling and nothing to do with casting directors).
• ...and Bran from Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series. Totally arrogant, but, as his absent father is King Arthur, kind of understandable. And hot, if I'm allowed to say that about a fictional 13yrold. Which I'm probably totally not. But that's the thing about literary crushes, especially when most of what you read is teenlit. You have a lot of age-inappropriateness.
• Also, sometimes you get the species inappropriateness. I know Foaly, the smartass tech geek in the Artemis Fowl books, is a centaur, but I still crush on him. Insert your own awful "hung like a horse" joke here.
• I also like Ravus the Troll from Holly Black's Valiant, but he's at least human-shaped. Sort of. And there's this great scene where Val thinks he's about to make a magic potion and it's actually hot cocoa. If a boy made me hot cocoa, I think I could overlook the whole green skin and fangs thing.
• After I read Heavy Metal and You, I got a really big crush on Chris Krovatin, the author. That counts for this list because the book kind of smacks of thinly veiled autobiography.
• I can't tell if I have a crush on Nick from Nick and Norah or if I'm crushing on the whole crazy infatuated night the two characters have.
• Jacklyn Moriarty writes some pretty crushable boys. She's very good at the smirky charmers who are actually quite nice boys once you get to know them.
• If you're the sort of girl who can have a crush on a drawing, which I completely and unabashedly am, there are whole genres of manga dedicated just to you. Right now I'm all about Saiyuki. There's a lot of pretty, and a lot of jackassery.
• Speaking of crushes on drawings, Drake from Scooter Girl is totally my boyfriend.
• Because it's just not a crush list without a straightgirlcrush, Dess from the Midnighters series is awesome. She fights monsters with math! And snarks around a lot!

*Yeah, I had to grab the library copy of Franny and Zooey for an exact quote, but I had a good deal of it memorized. I always forget where the roulette wheel is.