| passage from julian barnes's arthur and george |
[Jun. 7th, 2009|01:55 pm] |
I wanted to insert this here prior to the last entry. it is one of the more stirring love-letter type passages i've come across in awhile:
He looks down into her hazel-green eyes. "Are you flirting with me, young lady?"
She looks straight back at him. "I am talking to you about skiing." But those, it feels, are only her nominal words.
"Because if you are, be careful I do not fall in love with you."
He barely knows what he has said. He half means it entirely and half cannot imagine what has got into him.
"Oh, you are already. In love with me. And I with you. There is no doubt about it. No doubt at all."
And so it is said. And no more words are needed, or uttered, for awhile. All that matters is how he is to see her again, and where, and when, and it must be arranged before someone interrupts them. But he has never been a lothario or seducer, and never known how to say those things which are necessary to arrive at the stage beyond the one where he currently stands -- not really knowing either what that further stage might be, since where he is at the moment appears, in its own way, to be final. All he can feel rising up in his head are difficulties, prohibitions, reasons why they will never meet again, except perhaps decades later, in passing, when they are old and grey and will be able to joke about that ever-remembered moment on someone's sunny lawn. It is impossible for them to meet in a public place, because of her reputation and ... all the things that make up his life. He stands there, a man approaching forty, a man secure in his life and famous in the world, and he has become a schoolboy again. He feels as if he has learned the most beautiful speech in Shakespeare and now that he needs to recite it his mouth is dry and his memory empty. He also feels as if he has ripped the seat of his tweed knickerbockers and must instantly find a wall against which to set his back.
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| Rascal Flatts - My Wish |
[Feb. 14th, 2009|09:50 pm] |
I found a song along the vein of Green Day's Time of your Life and Michael W. Smith's Friends. (Read: good to dedicate this to colleagues who're moving on etc, best tied in with a slideshow for tearjerker effect)
I hope that the days come easy and the moments pass slow,
And each road leads you where you want to go,
And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose,
I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.
And if one door opens to another door closed,
I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,
If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile,
But more than anything, more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.
I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,
All the ones who love you, in the place you left,
I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,
And you help somebody every chance you get,
Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,
And you always give more than you take.
But more than anything, yeah, and more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.
____________________________________
i do think it's a nice song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz32I_GbpeU |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 11th, 2009|10:53 pm] |
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i heard myself speak on someone's recording recently - and my first thought was omg, i sound like an 18-year old ACJC girl (this is not good news as i'm supposed to be...25) who's a jock of some sort. no wonder an old acquaintance who identified herself as a butch said she wanted my voice! |
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| More UCLA gymnastics prettiness: Malia Jones (from 2000 - 2003) |
[Nov. 29th, 2008|01:34 pm] |
such crispness and finesse, even with the requisite booty swirvel which seems to be a feature of american collegiate gymnastics.
plus she was a political science & history major at UCLA who names the great gatsby as her favourite novel. what's there not to like? |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 17th, 2008|09:19 pm] |
A combination of the eels, pearls before swine anthologies, frankie magazine and perfumeria gal lip balm in red currant make my days more bearable.
anyway, this is one of my favourite songs, everyone should google the lyrics. i suppose i've quoted them here before. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 3rd, 2008|10:37 pm] |
i think The Eels is probably the most complete (musically and lyrically diverse) act out of my favourite bands. I like that you get "get your freak on" on an album with the most melodic, even poignant acoustic tunes.
Review here: http://www.allgigs.co.uk/view/review/2771/Eels_Meet_The_Eels_Album_Review.html
this is one of my favourite songs from them, Dirty Girl:
I like a girl with a dirty mouth
Someone that I can believe
We had a window, not open too long
But that time is good and gone
And if I ever see her again
Just walking by with some new guy
I know that we will need to pretend
And hope our eyes keep telling lies
Sit on the back porch and wonder ‘bout her
What is she doing right now?
Making somebody a happier man
Dyeing her hair back to brown
Once in a while your life gets so good
Worth all the trouble of the past
That was the case but I think I always knew
Good things don’t ever last
And if I ever see her again
Just walking by with some new guy
I know that we will need to pretend
And hope our eyes keep telling lies
I like a girl with a dirty mouth
Know that I can trust her
We had our time but it didn’t last too long
And that time is good and gone
That time is good and gone |
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| "Ugly Love" + The Eels |
[Sep. 23rd, 2008|10:57 pm] |
"Ugly Love"
Dear cousin,
I got your letter
It was more than i thought i deserved
Well she sounds perfect, all i dream of
And i dream about so much it is absurd
But when i get there and she sees me
I'll be impressed if she does not run screaming
My kind of love is an ugly love
But it's real and it lasts a long, long time
I had a thought while i was sleeping
And i dreamed about a place for us to rest
Eternity under the old oak tree
But i go too far i guess
Maybe i'll think about tomorrow
And maybe i can get her to stay that long
'cause my kind of love is an ugly love
But it's real and it lasts a long, long time
And if she finds me so repulsive
She wouldn't be the first to wretch
Well i decided one day long ago
I was never gonna be the greatest catch
And if she cares about the car i drive
Then she can get in hers
The moment i arrive
'cause my kind of love is an ugly love
But it's real and it lasts a long, long time |
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| :( :( |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|08:48 pm] |
Tasha Smith of the Oregon State gymnastics team is "out indefinitely" due to "personal issues."
It's her senior year, why? I hope she'll return to the team, she oozes charisma on the floor. Please come back by Jan 09, when the NCAA gymnastics season starts!
Corey Hartung (University of Florida) had better not quit her team too! |
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| Nice insight piece from the NY Times |
[Sep. 10th, 2008|10:46 pm] |
Ignorance must really be bliss. How else, over so many years, could the G.O.P. get away with ridiculing all things liberal?
Troglodytes on the right are no respecters of reality. They say the most absurd things and hardly anyone calls them on it. Evolution? Don’t you believe it. Global warming? A figment of the liberal imagination.
Liberals have been so cowed by the pummeling they’ve taken from the right that they’ve tried to shed their own identity, calling themselves everything but liberal and hoping to pass conservative muster by presenting themselves as hyper-religious and lifelong lovers of rifles, handguns, whatever.
So there was Hillary Clinton, of all people, sponsoring legislation to ban flag-burning; and Barack Obama, who once opposed the death penalty, morphing into someone who not only supports it, but supports it in cases that don’t even involve a homicide.
Anyway, the Republicans were back at it last week at their convention. Mitt Romney wasn’t content to insist that he personally knows that “liberals don’t have a clue.” He complained loudly that the federal government right now is too liberal.
“We need change, all right,” he said. “Change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington.”
Why liberals don’t stand up to this garbage, I don’t know. Without the extraordinary contribution of liberals — from the mightiest presidents to the most unheralded protesters and organizers — the United States would be a much, much worse place than it is today.
There would be absolutely no chance that a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin could make a credible run for the highest offices in the land. Conservatives would never have allowed it.
Civil rights? Women’s rights? Liberals went to the mat for them time and again against ugly, vicious and sometimes murderous opposition. They should be forever proud.
The liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Social Security and unemployment insurance, both of which were contained in the original Social Security Act. Most conservatives despised the very idea of this assistance to struggling Americans. Republicans hated Social Security, but most were afraid to give full throat to their opposition in public at the height of the Depression.
“In the procedural motions that preceded final passage,” wrote historian Jean Edward Smith in his biography, “FDR,” “House Republicans voted almost unanimously against Social Security. But when the final up-or-down vote came on April 19 [1935], fewer than half were prepared to go on record against.”
Liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Medicare and Medicaid. Quick, how many of you (or your loved ones) are benefiting mightily from these programs, even as we speak. The idea that Republicans are proud of Ronald Reagan, who saw Medicare as “the advance wave of socialism,” while Democrats are ashamed of Lyndon Johnson, whose legislative genius made this wonderful, life-saving concept real, is insane.
When Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law in the presence of Harry Truman in 1965, he said: “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine.”
Reagan, on the other hand, according to Johnson biographer Robert Dallek, “predicted that Medicare would compel Americans to spend their ‘sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in America when men were free.’ ”
Scary.
Without the many great and noble deeds of liberals over the past six or seven decades, America would hardly be recognizable to today’s young people. Liberals (including liberal Republicans, who have since been mostly drummed out of the party) ended legalized racial segregation and gender discrimination.
Humiliation imposed by custom and enforced by government had been the order of the day for blacks and women before men and women of good will and liberal persuasion stepped up their long (and not yet ended) campaign to change things. Liberals gave this country Head Start and legal services and the food stamp program. They fought for cleaner air (there was a time when you could barely see Los Angeles) and cleaner water (there were rivers in America that actually caught fire).
Liberals. Your food is safer because of them, and so are your children’s clothing and toys. Your workplace is safer. Your ability (or that of your children or grandchildren) to go to college is manifestly easier.
It would take volumes to adequately cover the enhancements to the quality of American lives and the greatness of American society that have been wrought by people whose politics were unabashedly liberal. It is a track record that deserves to be celebrated, not ridiculed or scorned.
Self-hatred is a terrible thing. Just ask that arch-conservative Clarence Thomas.
Liberals need to get over it. |
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| Along the Yellow Line by Marc Nair |
[Sep. 7th, 2008|01:12 pm] |
An ex class/batchmate from lit honours has put out his own volume of poetry, available at Kinokuniya or Borders. I just got my copy yesterday and I must say the content is pretty good. In any case, anything to support an ex-classmate (who is no poseur and does not have a fake american accent).
See here for synopsis. |
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| Alisha's Attic - The Incidentals |
[Sep. 7th, 2008|09:58 am] |
I found this track very charming in the typical AA way (ref to first album).
I actually purchased their second album off ebay.co.uk because I can't find it in any SG music store, including HMV. What the heck - but AA reminds me of being 14, first crushes, stupid art projects in the march holidays and riding a bus to the hougang central interchange. |
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| why every self respecting gym fan should love cheng fei |
[Aug. 31st, 2008|03:22 pm] |
at their best, her vaults are works of art.
yes, i need to write that card asap. however my mastery of chinese is so abysmal that i think someone needs to vet it for me. maybe i can run it through google's translator haha. |
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| probably the most intelligent and perceptive thing i've read in months |
[Jul. 25th, 2008|11:43 pm] |
from www.gymgossip.com, the gym board i frequent. this makes sense in more than one context.
"I hate when someone tells their truth and someone else refutes it by saying that they don't have a problem with those things. I mean, good for Kim that she's fine with her experiences, but what does that have to do with how Domi feels? If I say I hate my job and the way they treat me there and someone else likes it, how does that invalidate my feelings? What does their positive experience have to do with my negative one?
Whenever people try to speak up there's always a huge majority who find it safer or more convenient to stick with the status quo. Change is scary, and most people would rather believe that there's no option for change, because otherwise it places a burden of guilt or obligation on them to speak up that they'd rather not accept. It's not the same magnitude obviously, but it's like what Harriet Tubman said, "I freed thousands of slaves, and I could have freed thousands more if they only knew they were slaves." |
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