Check out the bluejays. Their mum and dad made a nest *right outside my study window.* Been watching them get all big and adorable.
This update’s mostly just a quick note—given the lack of post office box mail I’ve been receiving, I have decided to close my box, effective at the end of the month. So if there’s anybody out there who really wants to send me something but doesn’t know where I live and is confident I’d refuse them my home address, wrap up those fish heads and razor blades STAT! You only have a couple weeks left. (The PO Box is listed at the left.)
Utne perk: Loads of free review copies. Today was Music Purge Day. Lots of stuff I’ve never heard of (world music, lama chants, a hot Croatian piano boy with ridiculous epic techno-epics) and mistaken identity: my Doomtree find is unfortunately a metal band and not the homegrown hip hop I was expecting. Soon shall be the book—I have first dibs on Coetzee’s newest Slow Man, not available to all you laypeople until September. An uncorrected proof copy, nonetheless! I shall experience a master in a state of imperfection! I am such a rockstar.
Last but not least, keep eyes wide for Night Watch: A Movie with Vampires That Doesn’t Suck. It’s Russian. It’s pleasing. Find yourself a copy or wait for the U.S. release (“in select cities July 29”). It might be best saved for the big screen—not to mention competent subtitles. Mine weren’t always cogent—at times I had no idea what was going on. But as testament to its visual appeal, the subsequent narrative gaps didn’t bother me. Watch a trailer. It’s a trilogy! And yeah, it has an ample dose of silliness, like the entire premise, and a dude ripping out his own spine to use it as a sword, but it’s still enjoyable.
The sun is shining bright and it’s pouring outside.
Bree
June 13, 2005 at 7:04 pmZombies and vampires? Oh my.
megh
June 13, 2005 at 7:53 pmoh yes yes yes (though the spine-sword guy’s not a zombie. he’s just evil). i bittorrented it. get your boy to get it! hell, he’s probably already seen it.
speaking of vampires and zombies, my youngest brother sent me a cute story about how in “midevil” times there were vampires and zombies and warriors but his awesome sister “meg the great” managed to slaughter them all—all except for the zombie general. and with the story (which was actually a little card), was a poster of said zombie general. it’s hanging on the inside of my closet door. it makes me cry. rob is so proud—he paid for it with his own money. why does my family think i’m goth?
Bree
June 14, 2005 at 1:42 amThat is so adorable, but I have to know…what happened to the zombie general? Other than the music career, I mean – did you decide to just peacefully coexist?
megh
June 14, 2005 at 8:10 amoh, i have to destroy him. rob reinacted the whole story over the phone, and he ended with, “and he’s *staring* at you, he’s *staring,* and you have to *kill him.*”
Shawno
June 18, 2005 at 9:00 pmI think that perhaps that you’ve transcended all the physical appearances of goth-dom yet retain all that is required to be a pure goth. What most people call ‘goth’ are simply apprentices in the trade, apprentices who haven’t quite ‘got it’ yet. Kind of like Buddhism.
All my sister ever did for me was draw mean pictures of me in fluffy shirts and holding dildoes, or pushing a shopping cart around with a giant penis sticking out of it.
Yes, she still does this.
megh
June 20, 2005 at 5:44 pmsome sis. heh.
you might be onto something with this surreptitiously goth thing. i was once called a “hardcore kid” by someone who witnessed my moshpit thrashing, to which i responded, “actually… i’m secretly a raver.” methinks i’m secretly a lot of things.
fake
June 21, 2005 at 7:07 pmi am secretly Shawno
megh
June 22, 2005 at 8:09 amoh shit…
Shawno
June 27, 2005 at 3:14 pmWoah, someone is secretly me. No wonder I haven’t been feeling myself lately.
Now I’m wondering if I get to secretly be someone/something…
Spun
June 28, 2005 at 9:16 pmSo I was somewhat puzzled as to where to leave this, being as it applies to an earlier post, but seeing as I want you to read it, I’ll post here.
He Moved
It began with a pop-pop-pop
and it ended with a swish.
A pop-pop-pop
with crackle fluidity
with a neck to the slip to the shoulder to the slip to the arm to the slip
to the hand.
He moved he grew he flew
and I watched it all with silent staring eyes.
His slick-slip movement
so beyond what I thought we could do
what I thought was a human,
move-ment.
What I thought he didn
steph
July 10, 2005 at 12:41 pmMEGH.
i’ve neglected you. i’ve had The Teaching Emotion on my nightstand for the whole almost-year i’ve lived in st. cloud, and today as i flopped down upon my bed after church, i glanced at it. “huh. i have a former student who should read that.” and then i thought, “gee, i haven’t talked to meg forever.”
so here i am, visiting, and i devoured your last few news entries. loved the creepy pictures. and your description of Mars Volta makes me feel as though i was there. and your internship at Utne sounds incredible. did i tell you i was playing around with the idea of the MLIS, too? we’ll see where my job search takes me (yay for being an unemployed teacher)…
this is long. i should have emailed you.
before i stop, though, random sidenote: ever heard/seen the mpls area band SMB?
megh
July 12, 2005 at 8:09 amyarrrr!! the number didn’t change on this link for awhile, so i didn’t realize people were still responding! just who is Spun with the happy-making poem? i enjoyed it much–thank you.
hey, steph, nice to hear from you. i have heard of but not seen SMB. i can’t get past the name (ahem… Screaming Monkey Boner). um… no thanks.
steph
July 12, 2005 at 10:17 amohhhh, meg, they recently changed their name to Screaming Mechanical Brain. (for obvious reasons…such as your reaction…) this allowed them to get on several tour dates with Mindless Self Indulgence this spring…so don’t be scared!
i wondered because one of my former students had me listen to them this year (i’d heard OF them, too, from fargo bands who’d played with them)…and i fell in love…and then i met them at a moorhead show…and then i started hanging out with the guys.
but! they’re crazy and wonderful, and you might like them for their unadulterated passion.
also, chris called me this morning and told me to buy dredg’s new album. i’m going to go do that now.
megh
July 13, 2005 at 2:55 pmoh, they changed their name, it’s all different now! hee. yeah, i’m being a smartass. i’m sure they’re cool guys. but somehow i think anything associated with MSI is worth hrm, maybe not avoiding, but still, making no effort to go out of my way to hear ’em. sorry, just how i feel.
i still haven’t heard the new dredg, other than what i heard live a couple months back. sigh.
steph
July 14, 2005 at 2:24 amalrighty…
the new dredg is fabulous, by the way.
megh
July 14, 2005 at 8:07 pmthree record stores later… got it.
g o r g e o u s.
steph
July 23, 2005 at 2:51 pmglad you dig…
i bought it at Target for $7.99. *meek smile*
ashley
August 4, 2005 at 5:46 pmRockshow?
megh
August 5, 2005 at 2:03 amBWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAA!!!