furniture futures

i promise to be back in blogging action soon--but i needed a little family & sun, backyards & grill food, visits to friends who i haven't seen in a year. in the meantime, Z is still in london finishing things up in his program & packing up the rest of our lives there. so, if you want furniture, mirrors, fun things with which to furnish a flat, leave a comment here or email. everything has to go before wednesday!

crash years

the new pornographers put me in mind of ithaca--: of the greenery & gorges of a central new york spring (closely followed by the heatwaving lushness of summer). of bars in may & meeting Z for the first time. of rocking out in my car along cayuga lake. of making garland after coffee filter garland for our wedding. so last week, in celebration of our third anniversary, i gifted Z the crash years. & we've been listening on repeat (across continents) to its guitarshine sweetness. i have to say: what a kicking goodbye soundtrack. what a welcoming hello hello.

(p.s. we finally got our wedding photos. & oh my!)

between

today i am flying back, after almost a year of london-ness. it's been too wild a week--mostly postless (sorry!) & without much room for seeing the city before leave-taking (damn you food-poisoning!). so this morning i am hoping to pull out the polaroid & wander around in the neighborhood for a few last snapshots. to take a little bit of time to say my goodbyes at least to the small radius of where we have been living. Z will be here for a little longer, finishing up his work & packaging the rest of our year into luggage & boxes & brain spaces. i'm caught between a feeling of exhilaration at seeing my family after so long & terrible sadness at finding myself at the end of this city year. there's still a lot of posts ahead & london things to unpack & process. so as long as you all will keep reading, this blog isn't going anywhere.

birthdays, bicycles, oysters

i'm still in recovery mode (& hopefully giving a reading tomorrow, then flying off into the sunset thursday). so i thought i'd give you a tiny photo recap of the birthday seaside amazingness. Z swept me off on an almost-surprise trip to whitsable (in kent) for the turning of 29 (the need to buy tickets home bit made it easier if he shared in advance). it was everything one could want out of realizing they are closer to 30: the sea (!), adventure, oysters, wild boar statue kissing, bicycles, delicious seafood, shell collecting, & a little pint-induced silliness. there might have also been some ice-cream, and some hotel-ness, & some general we love england swooning. Z knows i hate birthdays, & his pre-planned whisking off was just the thing to cheer a slightly melancholy me. considering last year at this time i still hadn't left north america, it was quite the way to kick off a new year!

food poisoning

a little under the weather over here. hoping to be back to normal soon. (i had forgotten how hard fevers actually are--& oh, the delirious conversations!)

{image via marshallart's}

england vs. america

today i am off to teach/take part in a panel discussion on the differences between american vs. british contemporary poetry. considering the rest of the panel is composed of much more established writers, i'm a bit nervous. in any case, i'm sure it will be quite the experience. wish me luck! (p.s. tomorrow i will be getting just a little older, a handful of days closer to thirty, & 366 earth revolutions away from twenty-eight).

{image via cambria}

london: well curated

there is nothing sexier than finding yourself in a store with incredible design & a well-curated selection. & while most people don't think about books as things that need to be well sorted or selected, there is a lot to be said for a good eye & a little specialization. i love the feeling of finding myself in a place where i want to read everything on the shelves. i was lured to lutyens & rubinstein by my friend j* while she was visiting (a famous author friend of hers had suggested it). & it was staggering! half bookstore, half literary agency, specializing in fiction & children's books.** i practically fainted. their organization was drool-worthy--how many places separate short story collections from novels?! they also sold a perfect selection of cb i hate perfumes (library & poetry scented perfume in a bookstore? genius.). there were book-page fans on the ceiling & a giant scroll of calligraphied/screen printed quotes swept across the front window. marvelous to marvel at the whole place! i can't wait to take Z there before we head off. the shop, just off portobello road, is a must.

*for the record of records, i have two friends whose names begin with J that i talk about on here. i realize that many of you probably think i am always talking of the same one.

**now if they would just add some good poetry!

furniture

any of you london readers in need of some furniture? sadly, Z & i are having to wind down our year here a few weeks early (unexpectedly) so we'll be needing to get rid of our furniture lickety-split! despite our best efforts to keep our place pretty spare we still have quite a bit. there's a beautiful georgian dining table (with foldable wings) & two chairs, three metal book shelves, a small modern love-seat that pulls out into a bed, a vintage style clothing rack, two danish modern chairs (Z is eating a donut on one above), a long mirror, and the thing i am saddest to let go of--a vintage school desk with two opening sides (perfect for storage or to turn into a vanity with a mirror inside). if you are interested i'll send pics via email.

wet sandwiches

today was not a good day. tomorrow does not look promising either. in the midst of my decidedly un-violet melancholy, i need to prep for teaching. meet deadlines. remember how to sleep. i'm trying to keep a stiff upper lip, drink lots of tea, distract myself in a mizzle of words. but nothing is really helping. any suggestions? in the meantime, i've been listening to a lot of this. why do sad songs always make me feel happier?!

on a sillier note: i'm in love with a slang term i learned for someone whose a bit overly sad all the time--a wet sandwich. isn't it so fitting?! today i am a total wet sandwich.

do not be scared of being eaten

there's something so ridiculous & charming about these little shadow-boxes of animals. so much so that despite a rather dreary morning their cheeky slogans have cheered me right up. can you tell i'm supposed to be working on a deadline?!

the real thing

did i mention that while J was here we went to see the phenomenal tom stoppard play the real thing? we sat in the second row, practically in the room with these lovers as their lives whirlwinded & lusted & crumbled. seeing this piece as my first non-college/high school theater was a spectacular fizz. not in the least for its meta-ness concerning writers & their lives as people, as writers, as lovers. i can't wait to sit down and read the script--to roll back over some of the intensity in detail. there is a lot to be said for the live, electric word. i'm trying to catch as much of the glittery ephemeral aspects of london before we leave, so this afternoon i have tickets to this (i can't decide if i'm more excited for the actual pieces or the idea of feeling like i am in a secret section of the V&A).

buildings of brighton

i have a thing for buying art that marks a specific time in my life. when we visited brighton a few months back, i was really taken by the ghosted seaside town--its intriguing history & vintage postcard looks. since then i've been keeping an eye out for related prints. these ones by robin101 hit the spot with their clean lines & bright color contrast. i'd love to put two or three of these up in our next space.

pop couplets

here's a sugar-poppy tune for you this sunny bank holiday (in england)--i've been listening to it quite a bit since reading this article. who knew lily allen & poetry would end up in the same space?!

disappearing into

day trips out of london during the week are spectacular: empty trains. countryside. tourist-less sites. grey-bright afternoons filled with stillness & tended stones, fields, cows, & the surrealscape of sheep in low grass (in some places it felt like we were traversing across a strange mini-golf course). the english countryside lends itself well to breathing, to the wonders of lost-ness, to disappearing for days.

piercing quotations

quotation mark earrings? yes, please!

{via postgradhaircut}

tying one on

i may have tied one on last night after my reading (it went well & it was incredibly fizz-filled to have J here to support me). so today i'm feeling a little, well, like i wish i was being wheeled around & that i had a paper bag on hand at all times. tomorrow we are off to stonehenge. nothing like trains & prehistoria to counteract a wild night.

{image via retrofuture}

sexy covers

a sexy (& sinister) clash cover for you this brilliant monday.

recycling wind

the idea of a tote made from a recycled sail makes me so happy. like something stitched with wind. and really, today would be the perfect sort of day for sailing. but since that's not really possible, Z & i are thinking to head off to some gardens instead, to a sea of flowers & greening & the first bees of a season. tonight we'll be getting our flat ready for our house guest (yay!) and sipping on the spring-ness of hendricks & cucumbers. this weekend will be filled with old friends (not one, but two of my mfa cohort will be here!), fresh market food, & london london london. (i'll also be anxiously preparing for a small reading monday. wish me luck!). happy friday everyone!

beautiful machines

because i was a sport-playing teenager, i learned to loathe exercising indoors or without a ball-chasing purpose. as a twenty-something, this has meant that most of my cardio has come from walking/hiking/bicycling. but last week i sucked it up & joined the gym across the street. i've been feeling a little bit dark at the edges (my brain curling like burnt paper) & thought exercise might be a way to feel less stressed/ more motivated. so far. so good. this morning i had the mandatory meeting with the personal trainer. & though i was not excited (can't a gal just get her cardio on without someone watching?!) it wasn't so bad. i'm actually not unhealthy! plus, the trainer agreed with my cardio to clear my cluttered writer's head plan.

(i can't decide if i'm thrilled or disappointed that none of the machines i used today were as intricate as the 1920s exercise apparatus above. and my workout clothes? way less classy.)

{via exerciseproper}

stun-glasses

these sunglasses from oliver peoples are fabulous. too bad they are mad expensive. i own one decent pair of sunglasses & i'm always scared i'll forget the case or smash them. (& by decent i mean like $30 & they currently need an eyeglass screw). i can't even imagine the wreck i'd be with a pair that cost as much as my wedding dress. still, those curves are sweet! (i think i'll just head down to the camden markets for a £5 pair that i can toss in my bag and not worry about).

wednesdays have gone to the words

it's been a while since i followed through on my wednesdays. but now seems as good a time as any to pick it back up. here's a water-lyric by annie finch:

Gulls at Todd's Point

Shivering, knowing how lines of the tide

use seaweed, and sea-drift, and sea-touch (and bone)

to etch with, I wait to be marked on the sand

(a dragged sag of rockweed, a bulbed grace undone),

moved each way like feathers, slipped slow like a hand,

or whitened past breath. I’ve been moved till I’m gone

and nothing is ready to hold me inside—

following gull-shadows back over the land,

hiding myself. But there’s no place to hide,

whitening my hair in the wind or at dawn;

seagulls are whitening too, and they mourn,

turning and turning.

vespa love

who says you can't have crazy-love shots at any time? our friends j & r have been married almost four years now. & damn--hotpants! the extra sweet part? the vespa is no prop--june rides that hot red thang to work everyday (she's a professor!).

{via growingtreephotography}

volcanic ash over london

grounded planes. abandoned runways. ash alchemized to glass. ice the size of small houses. flash floods. paralyzed skies. smoke plumes. it is a rather strange time to be in europe. it's quieter. sharper. anxious. volcanoes are usually such shy & slumbering disasters. then with a literal bang, we seem to have found ourselves in a serious flight crisis. of course, my best friend J is scheduled to arrive on satuday. i haven't seen her since the wedding. & there's so much of a city to unfold! so please cross your fingers (especially for all these stranded & stressed-out people--the stories of people out of money, sleeping in airports on issued crackers makes my stomach ache). dream of clear skies, of this pesky volcano settling itself back into blackout.