How I adore the sound of your voice. Sigh. Saw him with Allen Toussaint last night at the Beacon. In addition to hearing some of my favorites like "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," and "Watching the Detectives," he did a rockin’ version of "I Don’t Want to Go to Chelsea" with a very cool brass arrangement, and they did a version of Paul Simon’s "American Tune" that was absolutely beautiful. Hope I can get a recording of that at some point. Thanks to Sarah for being my date for the evening!
Author: Laren
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Identity Theft
I was telling Augie that I wanted to write a post about online dating. "Before you do that," he said, "do a search on your blog for ‘online dating.’" So I did. But this post is different (so there). Although I truly believe that it is highly unlikely that I’ll end up with someone that I met through online dating, I still put my profile back online. Why? Well, on the positive side, you do end up meeting people you wouldn’t meet ordinarily, which is a good thing, and going on dates helps you stay in the game, at least mentally. On the negative side, since the last time my profile was up, I turned 35. There’s something about 35 — I think many people use it as a cutoff point. Suddenly, I’m getting emails from guys who are closer to my dad’s age than mine — absolutely disgusting (no offense, dad — you’re not disgusting).
And if that wasn’t enough, I recently had the experience of having my entire profile ripped off. Some guy emailed me recently saying how much we had in common, and giving a few examples. His profile was still "being reviewed by Customer Care" so I couldn’t see it, but when I checked back a few days later, his profile was up. It was, word for word with a few minor tweaks, EXACTLY what I had written in my profile. I sent him an email calling him on it. His response? "Yes, I took the parts of your profile that worked for me as well. I was having a problem figuring out what to say and you covered it very nicely." Well, gee thanks. So then it boils down to this: Apparently this guy and I have so much in common that I was able to give words to his personality without even meeting him, but he’s slimy enough to rip off someone’s profile. Date, or no date?
This is just another example of why I’m fairly confident that I won’t be meeting my boyfriend/husband online, but a girl’s gotta keep her bases covered, so the profile stays up, at least for now.
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Songs in My Head
Touching back to my discussion of theme songs, I think I’ve found a good one — 1985. It’s not quite accurate (it refers to "her two kids in high school"), but it still sort of rings true. I’ll freely admit that my musical tastes are stuck in 1985. The other song that is competely stuck in my head these days is Overkill by Men at Work. We learned it out at the beach house and I’ve been singing it nonstop since. Unfortunately, I’ll miss seeing Colin Hay this Thursday night because I’ll be shaking my booty at the Ozomatli show.
Had a busy week — got a new DVR (I’m a little worried it’ll turn me into a hermit), had dinner with the girls from the beach house on Thursday at Esperanto, and then last night was drinks at White Horse followed by dinner at Blue Smoke. No worries, I’ll be working it all off today on a bike ride to Piermont — my longest ride so far this season. Hopefully I’ll make it back in one piece!
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The Safety Word is “Bananas”
Nothing has made me laugh harder than that particular phrase in a loooong time. No, I can’t even begin to explain.
The long weekend was so much fun that I had to stay out at the beach last night just so I could enjoy yet another amazing meal (pulled pork sandwiches (pig roast leftovers) with grilled pineapple, grilled corn with chipotle lime garlic butter, caprese salad, "sex rice," and homemade ice cream cake) with fantastic company and a gorgeous sunset to top it all off. I took the 7:25 a.m. ferry this morning and went straight to work. Between the early morning, four (yes, count ’em, four) FOUR MILE runs (yay!) and a session with my trainer at lunchtime today, I’m about ready to keel over, but I had to put up the pictures first. Enjoy — they’re all right here.
Picture of the American flag composed out of jello shots. Talk about your patriotism!
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I Made the Empire State Building Disappear
So I tried to take a picture of the Empire State Building on my way home tonight — the way the light was hitting it made it look almost fake, like part of a movie set. Apparently, my camera phone sucks — you can’t even see it at all.
I’m home tonight packing for an extra-long weekend at the beach house. We’re having our second annual pig roast (pictures from last year are here). I’ve apparently been given the honor of singing the Star Spangled Banner while the pig is being carved. [Note to family: probably not as high-pressure as some of my other Star Spangled Banner performances]
The 4th is also my brother and sister’s 25th birthday, so a happy early birthday to Bill & Katie! Have a great weekend, everyone. Anyone got any good cookout plans (or pig roasting tips)?
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Breakup Mix
As you may or may not know (or as you may or may not have figured out from reading some of my gloomier posts recently), I recently went through a breakup. The evening of the final discussion, we were out to dinner, and when the topic came up, I insisted that we go somewhere more private to continue the conversation. We went back to my apartment and as we sat down on the couch, I picked up my iPod. "Let’s see, what’s good breakup music?" At the time, I don’t even remember what I put on — something fairly quiet and innocuous, I suppose.
Having the time to give it a bit more thought, I went through my iTunes library and here’s what I came up with. I made an iMix out of it for your listening pleasure, but so many of the songs weren’t there that I wanted to include the entire playlist below. It’s in no particular order, and most of the songs are self-explanatory.
I actually saw Jill Sobule last night at Joe’s Pub (she was fabulous as always), and she pointed out that Angel/Asshole is a breakup song for the person who did the breaking up — not your typical breakup song perspective. Shoot me an email if you want a copy of the mix (assuming I can fit it all on one CD).
Wise Up Aimee Mann God Only Knows Beach Boys I Let Her Get Away Candy Butchers / Mike Viola I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You Colin Hay Brilliant Mistake Elvis Costello Permanent Broken Heart E God Give Me Strength Elvis Costello I Hope You’re Happy Now Elvis Costello & the Attractions I Can’t Get Used to Losing You The English Beat Love Gets You Twisted Graham Parker / The Rumor Love’s a Mystery Grant Lee Phillips Romeo and Juliet Indigo Girls Love Is Never Equal Jill Sobule It’s Different for Girls Joe Jackson Band Bummed Out City Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’ Journey No More Love Songs Lloyd Cole / Negatives The Bed’s Too Big Without You The Police Complex Person The Pretenders Thin Line Between Love and Hate The Pretenders So Tired of Being Alone Al Green Angel/Asshole Jill Sobule -
Viva Mexico!
If last night’s dinner at Mercadito highlighting the Region del Sur is any indication of how good the rest of them will be, I may just find a way to make it over there every Monday night this summer. Other regions include Golfo de Mexico, Region del Centro, and the Costa del Pacifico. The grilled red snapper we had last night was particularly delicious, infused with coconut and topped with a fruity salsa (papaya, perhaps?). It would be a perfect date (a hint for anyone out there who might want to take me out), and made a lovely belated birthday dinner for Matt.
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Burgers Galore
After a very long day on Friday, Jenn came over for dinner. We shared a good bottle of wine, some olive tapenade from my night with Ted Allen, and I made what was quite possibly the worst pizza I’ve ever made. I’m going to blame it on the fact that I didn’t let the dough sit out at room temperature long enough, although it could have just been me.Despite the rain on Saturday, I mangaged to go to the gym get a haircut, do some errands, watch Mean Girls, and eventually made it out to the Burger Bash. My favorite was the green chili cheeseburger (pictured), but I also tasted the Motz burger (named after George Motz, burger documentarian), the Guber burger (with peanut butter — odd), and the butter burger (a.k.a. coronary on a bun). Pics are up on flickr. I’m looking forward to visiting Water Taxi Beach on a sunny day sometime — they’ve got a great view of the city!
Today I met Mom & Stephen for brunch at Prune (after the gym, of course), and I’ve thrown in a couple of loads of laundry, etc. All in all, a fine weekend. Now, a quiet night in to gear up for a hectic week.
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What Goes Around Comes Around
Back in January, I got an email from one of my high school boyfriends, Charles. He had stumbled across my blog and had been reading it for a while. Charles was definitely my first major boyfriend. We dated for six months (an eternity in high school), despite being an ardent pacifist, he offered to defend me when some jerk cut off my little braid that I had (à la Aimee Mann circa her "Voices Carry" video) at a party, and he brought me my very own little Charlie Brown Christmas tree, leaving it outside my doorstep Christmas morning.
After reading my jackass stories, Charles had some particularly fitting observations: "You
taught me what the term "ménage à trois" meant, yet when presented with the
opportunity declined. Jackass #2 reminded me of our prom, where you may
have been jackass #2." It’s true. I kissed another guy at our prom, which, looking back, was a big mistake on many levels. I lost a great boyfriend and hurt someone a great deal whom I cared about deeply. I can only defend myself by noting that I was seventeen at the time; my judgment has gotten much better since then. And I truly hope that I got what was coming to me and that I have now paid off that karmic debt through Jackass #2 — Charles made it clear that he doesn’t hold a grudge. Now, hopefully, the slate is clean. -
Keep Your Laws Off My Body
Since I spent the evening last night volunteering as a model student for instructor trainees at my self-defense class, I’m feeling pretty strong-minded (and thanks to all of my trainer’s efforts, strong-bodied as well). When I initially took my self-defense class as a student, I reconnected with my college self in some ways: the feminist, the women’s studies minor. I don’t think those things ever went away, but I think they had gotten so strangely quashed by law school and particularly by my experience as an associate right afterwards that the class helped me welcome all that back into my life the way it is today. So yesterday, when I read the article in the New Yorker about South Dakota’s law banning abortion outright being put on the state ballot this November, I got pretty fired up.The article pins down a particular flaw in the right-to-life argument that seems to be stumping even some of South Dakota’s most staunch right-to-lifers:
If the premise is to remain intact, a person who professes to be pro-life but instists on a rape-and-incest exception (which covers most pro-life polititians in this country, including President Bush) is saying one of two things: either it is justifiable to kill children in some circumstances, or what grows in a woman’s uterus is a child if the woman had sex voluntarily but not if she was forced into it.
Interestingly, many citizens of South Dakota who generally consider themselves to be pro-life will likely outlaw the legislation by a simple majority vote, due to the lack of any exceptions. I have to say that I am particularly curious as to how this plays out, as this is exactly the issue that got me interested in going to law school in the first place. If the law stays on the books, it is likely to be pushed up to the Supreme Court; I hope it doesn’t come to that.