03.02.07top of the march to you, internets! it's been a notable week for my near and dear -
wabes owned her grad school oral exam yesterday, and both she and my sister have birthdays today* - but i have been puttering away with largely uninteresting things. of the dozens and dozens of reinterviews i had to call in, only one was memorable: on wednesday i chatted with a really helpful source about a story on oral health. i asked at the end of the call if he had any questions for me; he told me i sounded like a very nice person, then asked me if i watched
conan or
saturday night live. sure, i said, i watch both. it turned out that he was
robert smigel's dad ("have you seen 'the ambigously gay duo? my son does that!'). he said he's heard that college students all over the country quote triumph the insult comic dog; yeah, i said, that's probably true. the obvious pride in the guy's voice when he talked about his son was great, especially because it was so random in the context of our discussion. i was in a fine mood for the rest of the day - proud dads are adorable.
to pass the time this boring week, i've been playing
iTunes iChing (like using your song list as a tarot deck - ask a question, hit "shuffle," and divine your answers with the first five songs that pop up). what the music had to say about politics and my feet:
Q. will al gore enter the '08 presidential race?("good luck mr. gorsky" - sleeper)
hmm. "best of luck mr gorsky / all the world's waiting for you" - not
all the world, but he's picked up a lot of fans in the last few years. word on the street is that a decent number of republicans are going sweet on him, even. the line is sarcastic - the rest of the song is about pedaling into dementia on an old bike, which i certainly would have bought during the mangy beard phase - but i remain hopeful.
("black star" - radiohead)
if this is a comment on obama, iTunes, it's not a very tasteful one. i'd rather blame nader again if gore joined up and tanked; i just dislike him that much.
("a wolf at the door" - radiohead)
more depressing lyrics i can get behind! "Someone else is gonna come and clean it up / Born and raised for the job / Someone else always does always pick it up" implies that junior could save us from dubya's mess, but one has to slog through a lot of sarcasm on thom yorke's part to get to that.
("no easy street" - psychedelic furs)
"you got no reaction / knocking on my door / you had no attraction / for anyone at all" - so maybe the exploratory committee is discouraged early. why would that be?
("jackie, dressed in cobras" - new pornographers)
hillary's people will run them out of town, you say? those fuckers! conclusion: no gore for us.
Q. were my new red shoes a wise purchase?("young and insane" - the magnetic fields)
okay, so red might not match with much. still, that's harsh.
("her grandmother's gift" - yo la tengo)
my grandmother wears stilettos, thank you very much: mary janes aren't
always old-fashioned, you know.
("i got you (at the end of the century)" - wilco)
at the end of the going-out-of-business sale, anyway. $25 for new shoes is not bad.
("everything changes" - matthew sweet)
it's true: it was time for me to stop wearing head-to-toe black.
("support system" - liz phair)
i think this is iTunes's way of telling me that i should stand firm when joe mocks my shoes. i will, iTunes!
*i have no problem with my own age, but i refuse to accept the fact that my little sister is turning 26;
that makes me feel ancient. i won't be one of those people who says they're 39 for a decade, but i'll wish emily a happy 21st at least a few more times. until i have better coping mechanisms in place.
