To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

In the historically-themed category, we have: "Everywhere," by Fleetwood Mac, the video of which depicts events in Noyes's "The Highwayman." It is fabulous.

They have another historical video, this one about the 1930s, with "Gypsy." The song is great, but all I remember after seeing it once is Stevie Nicks twirling around in a long dress under a soft focus lens, so you may just want to go listen to the song.

And apparently Annie Lennox can always be counted on to do something bizaare. To wit: "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)". I'll just back away slowly before she kills me with a knitting needle...

Oh, 1980s, I love you for your strange, strange we-took-too-many-drugs-in-the-70s-and-this-is-what-happenedness...

Speaking of that, I took a stroll through the toy aisles at Target yesterday, and found that every single toy from my 1980s and 90s childhood has apparently come back into fashion.* And half of them have come back in horrible mishapen forms--particularly My Little Ponies and the Littlest Pet Shop creatures, who have new forms that are all rounded and bulbous and kind of creepy, quite frankly. I wonder if their designers took too many drugs.

Does this have something to do with the sudden resurgence of interest in leggings and flannel I've seen lately? I feel that it might.

* Except for the Popples. I can't find evidence of them anywhere.

Well, I just saw rowdycamels off home. :(

We had a good time, though. Did a bit of walking at Radnor Lake. Then we came back and watched a lot of TV. I have thoroughly introduced her to Northern Exposure, I think. We watched...ten episodes? Ish? In twenty-four hours? We took a tour through some of the more dysfunctional episodes of seasons three, four, and five. Plus there was Blackpool horror. I'm scarred for life now.

We also watched the DW Christmas special.

( Runaway Bride )

*flake*

*flake*

*flake*

No, that's not snow outside my window. That's all the skin on my legs slowly flaking off, and itching like fire.

You know, I could handle winter a lot better if only it weren't so dry. Where's all that humidity we were sweltering under in July, huh? (...Okay, I'd like my fingers not to get so cold that I make one typo every three words, too. That would be great.)

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More fourth season-NX from Netflix today. It was the first time I've been disappointed with the music Universal chose to replace the original songs. They took out Loreena McKennitt's "Tango to Evora" at the end of "Survival of the Species," replacing it with some Italian aria. It wasn't the same. And in a musical travesty, the song that closes "Ill Wind," in the shot where Joel and Maggie walk down the snowy main street together after their exercise in miscommunication¹, has been changed from Vinx's "There I Go Again" (you can listen to it on his MySpace page) to some schmoopy country song. Yech. I was surprised at how much it changed the tone of the ending to that episode. Lyrically, it's all wrong; there's no wistful edge to something that's basically, "My girlfriend and I took a while to get together, but now we're in luuurve. P.S., She's fabulous. The End." Not the same at all. And you all know my feelings on country, so we'll dispense with that.

But anyway, that same disc had one of my favorite episodes, "Grosse Point, 48230," the one with Maggie's crazy family. Buffy fans, this one features James Marsters pre-Spike, playing an Episcopalian reverend who hates listening to people's personal problems. Fleischman suggests he seek alternative employment. ;)


¹Loosely paraphrased: "Our roll in the hay [literally] was all the fault of the winds! We are totally not attracted to each other in any way! Um, except for the part where we are, and despite what I'm saying about feeling like the whole UST thing between us is over, I'd do it again in a heartbeat...but damned if I'll tell you that!"

Sign it's fall: passing trains sound like they're right outside my window, instead of three miles away. (I actually just found this out today. I did know about the propensity for sound to travel better in cold/dry air, which is what we've had for the past several days, but the trains at night are so much louder that I thought CSX must have changed the routes to run closer to my house. I can now just barely hear them actually chugging along the rails, in addition to just the whistles at the crossing. I've never been in this house in October before--we moved in February of my senior year of high school--so this is new and different. I like it, though.)

Another sign it's fall: Oktoberfest. Which was today, and which was also kind of a bust. This is the first year I've gone, and really, the one here is more of a neighborhood party that the rest of the city is invited to, rather than anything to really do with Germany (or rather Germany-as-conceived-by-Americans, which is likely to be very different from the actual country). The band up onstage was doing some passable oohm-pa-pa, and there were a few guys in leiderhosen wandering about (also some guys in kilts, which didn't make a whole lot of sense), but beyond that, it was just people trying to sell various handicrafts. The houses in that area are very pretty, though, and one of the booths was for a greyhound rescue organization. They had greyhounds there for petting. Aw, doggehs.

Anyway, better festivals last weekend, which brings me to the main subject of this post: Pictures!

First of all, we have my incredibly belated photos from the trip to a local butterfly garden/greenhouse we took, um, more than a month ago. Butterflies everywhere!

Next, we have pics from Chandra's visit. Last Saturday, the new symphony hall had an open house, with music everywhere, all day. It was fantastic. The hall is beautiful, and the acoustics are fantastic. We were there for a performance by the Philharmonic Orchestra (yeah, I didn't even know we had a Philharmonic), and they sounded amazing. Part of that was of course that they are very good; Chandra and I were sitting in the choir seats behind the orchestra and could see the conductor as he very vigorously conducted. He was singing along with the music ("Hoedown," something about dancing by Webern, something relating to Jupiter by Mozart, and something that was incredibly familiar, but which neither of us could place) and waving his baton all over the place. He was so funny. I've gotta try and hear these guys again.

After the symphony hall, we wandered around downtown for a bit (I finally had my camera while I was at the library for the first time in years, yay!) and then ended up at the Celebration of Cultures at Centennial Park, where the first thing we saw on the stage was...the youth program of the Nashville Ballet doing part of "Laurie's Dream" from Oklahoma. Hmm. We had some really excellent Indian food (I must find a recipe for vegetable korma) while sitting in the shadow of the Parthenon. Yes, Nashville has a full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon. It's a long story. We wandered through that, since it was free that day, and saw that hideous 40-foot statue of Athena, which is even more hideous now that it's been covered in gold leaf. (I weep, people. Weep.)

Sunday saw a visit to the Hermitage (Andrew Jackson's home) and Opryland Hotel (a kind of indoor arboretum writ large, with a hotel added on...must be seen to be believed). Oooh, pretty.

Monday was the zoo, 'cause they have baby snow leopards! We, and everybody else at the zoo that day, came by for feeding time, and got to see the handlers drag those wee little cubs from their hiding/sleeping place at the very furthest point of their enclosure and carry them down to near the fence so they could eat. SO. CUTE. They'd also finished their lorakeet enclosure since I was there in August; you go inside and they'll come land on your hands or head, if you're lucky. They sell little cups of nectar to make that more likely. Everything else was much the same; the meerkats were still adorable, I got a better picture of the elephants, and the goats in the petting zoo were still kind of zoned out from excessive kid attention. Yay for zoos.

Hmm. It's 1 AM. I should probably go to bed. Although I want to keep listening to my new Hem album over and over and over...

Check out this photo, apparently from the latest issue of the BSG magazine. (No spoilers unless you haven't seen S2.)

*hearts Adama/Roslin SO MUCH* Soooo cute. I wonder if this being released is meant to indicate something for S3...? (I am completely unspoiled for every episode and wish to remain that way until I see them. Please don't change that.)

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In even more exciting news, softstepshoes is coming to visit me tomorrow! Yaaaaaaaaay! I'll likely be away from the computer for much of the weekend and Monday, 'cause we'll be out doing stuff. Wheee, Chandra's coming to visit!

I just got back from walking the dogs (as is my wont around this time of day), and this time, I was wishing for a jacket. It's chilly out! Well, okay. It's 78F and cloudy and breezy out. Whatever, chilly. Aw, fall's happening again. The leaves started turning a couple weeks ago. And the days are shortening, of course...because Nashville's about 45 minutes west of the line between the Eastern and Central time zones, we get everything early--sunrise, noon, sunset. I'd prefer it the other way around.

How strange to be here for fall, and not at Kenyon. That hasn't happened in a while.¹

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Drive-by fic rec: Grounds for Annulment by SubRosa. Six, Peri, hilarious.


¹ Our little officer trainees had their first ballroom officers' meeting without us on Tuesday! *sniff* They're all grown up now and budgeting for the swing dance! Awwww! *is proud*

I think I hate change most when it comes to food. Twinnings just changed their teabag packaging over here. Not only do you get five fewer teabags for the same price (argh), but the individual bags don't come in a paper wrapper that you can leave attached to the string anymore. Now it's a plasticy tear-off pouch and a little card tag at the end of the string. I liked the paper wrappers because they let me squeeze the teabag at the end without burning my fingers.

(Yes, I know, sacrilege. But since I also steep my tea for twenty minutes and use no less than three sugars in a cup, I figure it's the least of my sins.)

( Who ramblings: The Stones of Blood, The Androids of Tara, and Romana )

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In random news, I found a pair of jeans that fit with a minimum of looking around. Not only do they fit at the top, but they are ALSO in "short" length, which I don't think I've seen for at least three years. Hooray! I don't have to take this pair up by the nearly two inches that "average" length requires!

(Yeah, so I'm about an eighth of an inch under 5'5". I am also not unnaturally sticklike and able to fit in, like, a size 2 or whatever would usually have the inseam of under 30" that I need. This means that the "petite" sizes some stores do, for people 5'4" and under, are just a bit too short, both in the legs and the waist, but EVERYTHING ELSE is too long. I love "short" lengths of things in my size.

And yes, I realize the tall people reading this are rolling their eyes and saying, "At least you have the option of altering them! We have to live with pants that are too short!" Yeah, well, anything that helps me continue to be lazy is nothing but good. ;))

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Question: Am I a very strange person for eating cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and a generous helping of brown sugar sprinkled on top? My mother says that no bagel is meant to be sweet, while I think that any bread product which has a spice like cinnamon and little fruit bits in it damn well better be sweet, or what's the point, really?

New Zealand. Hobbit. Death Flu. Gaaack.

(Actually, it's not as bad as that horrible thing I had sophomore year. New Zealand Hobbit Rather Inconveniencing Flu?)

Bah.