jesus of suburbia
12.25.04 @ 11:45 p.m.
The Christmas Haul:
-A whole bunch of White Tea and Thyme scented bath and lotion things, including a hand soap dispenser stolen from Mom (we probably got the whole set split between us).
-American Idiot, Green Day
-Moon & Antarctica, Modest Mouse
-A vacuum cleaner
-America: the Book
-The Ramones, The Ramones
Birthday stuff:
-White Stripes DVD: Under Blackpool Lights
-Henry V DVD
-Pride & Prejudice DVDs
-Digital camera
-set of plastic 'desert combat' toys
-Breyer toy corgi
-Soundtrack from Garden State
-The gift I gave myself: Building Nothing Out of Something, Modest Mouse
I never really expected to find myself reviewing a Green Day album here, not because I'm snobby about music (well, not about Green Day, anyway) but because I thought I'd never get around to listening to them. I certainly wouldn't mind expanding my horizons in that direction over the course of the coming year.
I suppose I can't really review American Idiot yet, as I've only listened to about half of it. Still, I'm almost as entranced by it as I am by Townshend's rock operas. It's intriguing, in that youth angst sort of way. I guess I can't explain very well that it makes me feel very similar to the way that I feel when I listen to Townshend's operas, particularly the first few listens. Remember how enchanted I was with Psychoderelict? (Not that I don't still love it, I do, it just not that same moment of discovery.) Actually, it's not as intense as the Townshend operas, but similar.
I'm in a good mood, not just because of Christmas. I'm allowing my mind to go down paths that I should avoid, and I'll be satisfied with being deliberately vague, which annoys me because I don't want to have to be. But such is the nature of a public diary! The lure of a paper diary is strong at a time like this. Plus it's an excellent excuse to buy a new, pretty notebook.
What if I discontinued this? What if I set up a less personal blog? I could easily grab some of my dad's webspace. I probably won't, but who knows. Maybe if it gets to the point where I am eternally being deliberately vague in a (probably misguided) sense of emotional self defense.
It's bullies like Fawn, who would not fucking let go of my continued (platonic) admiration of my former Shakespeare professor, that make me shut down and stop expressing myself. To a certain degree I have a sense of humor about myself, but I still have a hard time dealing with teasing. Continued teasing, mostly. Or maybe it's the perceived intent. I don't know. I do know I'm overly sensitive.
But enough of that! Last night, somewhat unexpectedly, Julia and Dorian joined us for Christmas Eve, which was nice. Julia is not so intimidating as I sometimes make her out to be. She's actually pretty nice, and my amusement at how managing she is of Dorian grows every time I see them. (Describing a woman as "managing" is probably very Regency. Oh well.) When she was ready to leave last night, she looked over at Dorian, who stopped his conversation to say "Is that the look?" She said yes, and they started getting ready to go. She also had him fetch her drinks and ate off his plate. This is a woman with her husband at her beck and call and is fully willing to take advantage of it. I don't see myself in that position, but it's interesting to watch. My dad is up and about, constantly offering food or drinks to everyone, but she chooses to ask Dorian for things in a low voice and declines offered food in favor of just straight up taking it off Dorian's plate.
It's hilarious, really.
I also FINALLY got around to watching Shaun of the Dead last night, which I quite liked, though I was a tiny bit bothered about the way a character died. Mainly it was the zombie ripping the one guy apart at the doors of the Winchester. Eurgh. I like the actor who played Shaun. And his fauxhawk.
Today was lazy. Like Mom realized this evening, neither of us set foot outside the house all day long. Well, unless you count stepping halfway out the door to get a cold drink from Nature's Refridgerator, which is how we keep canned pop cold in the winter. Actually, we often leave cases of pop just outside the front door all year round. We just bring in armfuls of cans to put in the 'fridge in summer and other warm times of year. We had a great big turkey dinner around 1:30, after which I retired ostensibly to take a nap, but really I just lolled around in bed reading and listening to one of my new Modest Mouse albums. Then I started the endless process of loading the new albums into my iPod. I had to redo half of The Ramones and I'm not sure why. For some reason a bunch of the music files were... corrupted? I don't know. They made the computer start whirring loudly at the same point in the songs, so I trashed them and reimported. ("I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" by the Ramones is actually kind of endearing.) I think I have them all in now. I just have to port Green Day from the computer to the iPod and I shall have them all.
Mom was listening to Garden State (soundtrack) today and said "This is a slow, contemplative movie, isn't it?" She had expected something more like Scrubs. Hah, no, not quite. Soon: we will take Grandma to go see The Incredibles because it's just the kind of thing she'd like, I'd say. Especially since she got her cataracts removed last year, though she never wears her (ugly, ugly) glasses.
Bed, books, and music for me. (No stereo, though... all I have is my iPod and some computer speakers that came with the iMac more than five years ago.)
Previously
fuck it @ 08.01.05
fanciful imaginary sea voyages to come @ 07.20.05
*dies* @ 07.19.05
more ootp @ 07.17.05
harry potter: driving our children into devil worship @ 07.17.05
