Made Up, Unmade Up

Last night we watched a few episodes of Kasia i Tomek and I realized that if I were living in Poland, I would be buying and wearing more make up.

As a friend of mine said (referring to academic projects, however): once one has such a realization, what does one do with it?

Add Zombies

I'm not sure I understand why.

I also don't understand why I am intrigued by the idea. But I am. Maybe it's the simplicity of the title, which doesn't purport that zombies are somehow implicated in the story but just adds them. Obviously, I can't answer the big question posed by NY Times -- I don't know what exactly zombies add to the plot. Exercise? A dash of female agency as Elizabeth Bennet gets to run around with a dagger rather than sit in a parlor with her mother and sisters?

Or not.

I found an excerpt and illustration (there are illustrations! the book is scoring points with me) here. Any thoughts?

Unsurprisingly, the Beauty Myth Still Topical

Watch this New York Times video about photo retouching. Then you can click over here for some contrast. Not that those represent anything like a "golden age in socialist advertising" (what a concept...), but at least the people you see in them are not a cocktail of several bodies with extended legs.

Reasons to Write a Song About How You Don't Like Fridays

Manifold:

An hour's drive from here, in Binghamton, gunmen have captured the immigration services building and killed several people. I'm following the news. I have a storm in my head. There's a storm outside. It's raining heavily. I put on another pot of coffee, inevitably thinking that someone had gone to the immigration services earlier today, thinking they'd go back home after getting their business done and they might have been thinking about making more coffee.

Trivialities don't stop. Around noon I get an email from friends about a Neko Case concert later this month. It's pleasantly surprising that sometimes such things happen in this small town. Terrifying that such things are happening in this area as well. The planet keeps turning. News coverage shows that it's also raining in Binghamton. We make lunch. There are probably many people grocery shopping in Binghamton at the same moment. One thinks that grief should stop the world for at least one minute of silence but that is never true. Irony. Coincidence.

I decide I won't go to the concert. Clicking between news articles and youtube, I find this video, am amazed by the beautiful animation (not so much by the music), sad



and still sad, I click over to the news.

(The post title alludes to "I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats, that story, and all shootings, no matter who's behind them and whatever reasons they *pretend* they have. There never are any reasons.)

Powitanie zamówienia

W mojej skrzynce znalazłem email pt. "Powitanie zamówienia". A w nim co następuje:

Może jesteś zajęty i nie mają czasu, aby znaleźć prezenty dla swoich kochanek, znajomych lub rodziny, na naszej stronie internetowej: (adres usunąłem). Wybierz najlepszy prezent dla nich. Możemy pakiet Twój pakiet jako dar i wysyłać je bezpośrednio do Twojej pokazać miłość.
Możemy dać ci przynajmniej masz czas na opakowanie.