all the small things

* i've heard the word "voila" (pronounced "waa-laa", of course) four times today and at least 15 other times this week. is there a new trend of mispronouncing french words of which i'm unaware? because i really need to jump on that bandwagonesque if there is.

* today memphis smells alternately of almonds and, strangely enough, log flumes. so i want to go to an amusement park and...uh, eat marzipan.

cinco de derby?

what's a party person to do? cinco de mayo and the kentucky derby are both in the same week!

so, do i throw two parties--one on the 5th and one on the 7th or do i combine the two in some really odd mexican independence celebration/horse racing frenzy?

i forsee ridiculous hats mixing it up with sangria in my future.

oh the irony!

remember when dave matthews' tour bus went all septic on a boatload of chicago tourists?

well, ben and jerry's have just made a dave matthews ice cream. and guess what it's called?

*snort! tee hee!*

(found via saucy.)

the more things change...

i just got back from a terrific lunch with pazzo ragazzo and leff!

you know how when you see some old friends that you haven't hung out with in a while? you know how awkward that can be?? well, it never has been with pr! in my 29 years of knowing him, i'm always pleasantly surprised by how we always manage to pick up the conversation right where we left off! *super smiley emoticons!*

of course, he now has his own "rakka left me briefly stranded" story. it seems that everyone acquires one of these eventually (seriously, ask dr. fusbender about the fourth floor of the library.)

it's not that i do it on purpose. normally, i'm 15 minutes early everywhere i go! it's just once every now and then i give bad directions and the people i'm going to meet end up somewhere other than where i thought they were going to be. and then there's never a pay phone around so i can call them....sigh....i feel so bad about it...

anyway, it's been super fantastico seeing pr again!! hooray!!! i'll have to visit him and clumsy in their town before they move!

of course, they might not have fried dill pickles like at the deli, but it's a chance i'm willing to take!

versus

it's the small things that matter.

i'd like to read the intimate world of abraham lincoln by c.a. tripp. so i check the memphis public library's catalog. no holdings. not even listed.

just for kicks, i check the seattle public library's catalog. four copies of the book, one checked out with a second in transit (i'm assuming to be read by some wonderful seattle-ite. of love, perhaps.).

won't someone please unbuckle the bible belt so i can get the hell out of this place????

only the sconely

yesterday, i made some scones!



see, there they are. pretty cool, huh?

not much else is new. it's hard to find exciting, sparkly words to desribe moving preparations. so i just won't try.

i mean, unless you would care to know that i successfully removed the covering that i'd put up to hide the hideous wallpaper in part of my bathroom. nah, i didn't think you'd care.

master of the university??

a pesky little thought has lodged in my brain and refuses to leave.

i'm beginning to entertain the idea of getting my m.f.a. in painting. (i take it out to dinner, we see movies. it's very amused, this idea of mine.)

the only problem i can forsee (besides having to unlearn many of the techniques developed once the whole shindig is over (quite like i had to do with undergrad. i did NOT want to be derivative of my painting profs, thank you very much.)) is funding. because i cannot take out student loans.

i've got a little under a year to get to work on the portfolio (which i've been updating lately anyway), artist statement, application letter, blah de blah de blah. (no gre for artists. we don't even have to take miller analogy. which is a shame because i've always wanted to take that one.)

but what say you, dear readers? am i being foolish to consider completing my fine arts education? (fine art degrees only reach the masters level. there is no phd program.)

in all honesty, i'd only be attempting the program to try to aquire an adjunct prof position once it's all over. (i mean, tenure track would be nice, but let's be realistic...) think it's a good idea???

more books

just when you thought my ranting about books was over, his grocness passed on a meme to me. so, here goes.

you're stuck inside fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?

andy warhol's diaries. so i can hobnob.

i mean, unless you're talking about burning me, in which case, i'll gladly be any of the "nonfiction" political books that have flooded the market these days. throw me on a pyre, baby!

have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

uh huh! most definately. but i'm not telling you who that happened to be.

the last book you bought was:

goodbye tsugumi--banana yoshimoto

the last book you read was:

a bear called paddington--michael bond

what are you currently reading?

independent people--halldor laxness
jeeves in the morning--p.g. wodehouse
goodbye tsugumi--banana yoshimoto (well, i just got it!)
and i'll start ruth reichl's new book if i can snag it at the library today.

five books you would take to a deserted island:

erm....probably...
1) a girl scout handbook.

2) todd oldham's handmade modern: mid-century inspired projects for your home--just 'cause i'm stuck on an island doesn't mean it has to LOOK like i'm stuck on an island.

3) something on tesla--maybe i can figure out how to make electricity.

4) an up-to-date world atlas so's i can figure out where i am and where i need to go next.

5) tropic of cancer--because i've never finished it. (my second hand copy makes me sneeze. i guess i'm allergic to henry miller.)


three people who I'm passing this meme on to:

anybody out there want to do this?

free at last, etc, etc

awyeah!!! i quit my job today! one day ahead of schedule. i haven't been quite so happy in months! MONTHS, i tells ya!

i will now be rakkaing part time and assuming the role of offical box packer/errand doer/go to personage during my remaining time in memphis.

oh, and i'll also be arting if time allows.

*dancedancedance on the corpse of my former job!*

getting the book thrown at me

sigh....

a while ago, allconsuming bit the dust. the official story is that the server crashed. well, after being rebuilt, now it just bites. all of the stuff that i liked about it, like, being able to group books into "currently reading", "completed", "never finshed", etc are just not there anymore. instead there is just the option of adding items to the list of things you are consuming.

this doesn't work for me. at all. so, goodbye allconsuming for good.

additionally, the memphis library web site is not letting me renew my books online. i should still have the option of renewing one time since i have no late fees. but nothing. no option.

i'm not entirely surprised by that. their site sucks like the la brea tar pits. (geddit?? tar?? sucks?? oh, never mind) it's just another tiny annoyance to add to the heap of tiny annoyances that make me want to renounce humanity and go live amoungst a mob of meercats. grrr!

(in case you were wondering, the great bookoff of 2005 is now at a total of 38 books read for the year. i'd like to be a little further along than i am, but, well, getting ready to move is zapping most of my energy.)

more sleep, thank you

i've found that one way to test your level of alertness in the morning is to read the ap wire headlines first thing upon waking.

for example, this morning i read "cardinals cast net for pope's successor". the first thing i thought was "ok, who is pope? and what position are the cardinals going to have to replace now that he's gone? isn't it a little early in the baseball season for trades??"

jeez. someone needs to go back to bed....

on an entirely different note, modest mouse and guided by voices were on austin city limits. yaaaay!!

i've always liked modest mouse better as a live band. but my main draw to the show was gbv! i didn't get to see them on their last tour. (did they even stop in memphis?? the last i recall them being here was in 2002?? i know it was at the deli, i saw it. they had dollar pabst that night. ick.)

anyway, robert pollard did the whole swaggering, cock rock frontsman shctick on the show and it was good. we are very amused!

an open letter to memphis

dear memphis,

please make my apartment stop smelling like gasoline. seriously, this is not cool. i gave up huffing eons ago.

also, can you do something about that pothole on summer blvd?? it's pretty big and it knocked my car out of alignment. also, i'm sure it wasn't so great for my front tire which was kind of low to begin with.

while we're at it, would you give the ramses statues at the pyramid back to the british museum? they really want them back and, you know, i saw what you guys did to that hieroglpyhic block. it's at amum and well, it's full of little holes since you stuck it in a fountain.

you thought i'd forgotten about that didn't you?

come on, give them back. this whole memphis--->egypt thing is really played out.

oh, and those commericals for not killing your baby? they're really dumb. like i want to see "good shake" (some girly bootie shakin' at the club) vs "bad shake" (some girly shakin' her baby) first thing in the morning. what ad agency sold you those? and what, pray tell, did the losing ads look like??

thanks ever so much,

rakka

on quitting work and weeping

today i turned in my two week notice a week before schedule. i'm pretty happy about it, esp since leff gives it the thumbs up.

i mean, really. i'm going to work at a place that can't tell me my work schedule until that very day?!? (ex: monday's schedule will be given to me on monday when i get there, tues on tues, etc.)

i'm all for keeping a flexible schedule buuuuut, no fucking way is that going to fly with me. i have to have some semblence of structure in my life.

now to the weeping part. it's not even remotely related to leaving el jobbo de craptitude. nope, it's allergies.

i'm only mentioning it here because i startled myself. (keep reading. it'll make sense in a minute.)

earlier this morning, i grabbed an armload of seattle travel guides from the library. i've been steadily working my way through them between flickr breaks.

i was reading a section on seattle's co-ops (plentiful, been around at least 50 years) when i found myself starting to tear up! (which is odd, because i don't cry unless maimed or...well, yeah, maimed pretty much covers it.)

and i thought "damn! i can't hate memphis THAT much, can i? and this isn't exactly the most beautifully, moving prose i've ever read about co-ops....what the hell??"

which is when i remembered that i've got the seasonal allergy thing going on.

heh heh.

well, ok, maybe you had to be there...

not so subtle signs

how do you know when the city you live in desperately wants you to leave?

when your place of employment is bought by a corporation and your apartment complex acquires new management in the same week.

it's really, really time for me to go.

westward ho!

i really am feeling a bit like a westward (bound) ho these days since all i can think, eat or breathe is SEATTLESEATTLESEATTLE.

it can be a bit grating, so i've tried not to write too much about it. today i need to get some of the nervous energy out though, please bear with me.

i've always been a fan of not martha and, through her blog, i've found one of my new obsessions, seattle bon vivant.

oh, the glories that magnificent site has shown me!!

the farmer's markets, the festivals (bastille day (le quatorze juillet) is celebrated there!! if i say "bastille day" in this city (memphis), people look at me all mean and say "whudju just call me??" *sounds of knuckle cracking*), the fact that, last year, the americans for the arts study listed seattle as "hav[ing] the greatest number of arts businesses per capita amongst the country's 20 largest {metropolitain areas]", etc, etc, etc!!

why the hell didn't i move there in the '90's?? (oh, right, right, the whole grunge thing...heh heh! it's a joke. please don't hate me, seattle!)

where was i? oh yes. i'm completely spazzing out about moving. in a good way. i don't think i've been this excited about a move since i left b.f.e., tn for my first college town.

do i need to warn family members/close friends that i've started collecting boxes and checking out travel guides for the seattle/vancouver area?? nah, you've probably already figured it out by the glassy look in my eye and the dreamy way i say the words "washington state" and "canadian border" these days.

so, you know, bring me some pie (key lime, please) and help me pack. and i'll promise not to extoll the wonders of pacific northwest too much.

guitar wolf sadness

oh no! now i'm really sad. (i was only kidding about bunchofpants. she's still alive and kicking.)

it looks like hideaki sekiguch or billy or bass wolf from guitar wolf died last night from a heart attack. he was only 38!

it's so sad! he was such a great bassist!

the death of bunchofpants

death to bunchofpants
Originally uploaded by bunchofpants.

bunchofpants is dead. long live bunchofpants! at least she died with her party hat on!

*softly weeping*