ō-fêht...

Oh! The Places I Need To Go!

Bibi — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:47:54 +0000

With an upcoming work trip to Milwaukee bearing down on me, I decided to escape to Paris for two days. Actually I was only there for 96 minutes this afternoon, thanks to miracles of modern cinema. I think Two Days in Paris is the first Julie Delpy movie I’ve seen. She was second of Kieslowski’s blue-white-red films (I only saw the last), and also in the Sunrise/Sunset movies with the icky Ethan Hawke. 2DiP is a really funny (laugh out loud and sometimes squirmy) look at a couple who have perhaps been on holiday too long and possibly nearing the end of their relationship. Delpy’s real life parents play the crazy dsyfunctional parents in the film, and I was constantly wondering how much of familial funk on display was real. Adam Goldberg (her real ex) plays her annoyingly neurotic boyfriend. The movie picks up after they’ve just returned from a “romantic” vacation in Venice and are stopping in Paris for a couple of days before heading back to NYC.

The little I’ve seen of Goldberg makes me think he is very much like the characters he usually plays (a little crazy, and very caught up in his own issues). Kind of like the way you know Vince Vaughn can really work a nerve (and hey, Mr. Peter Falk confirmed this in an interview after Made was released). But I digress…the movie reminded me how Paris can be beautiful (and as Goldberg’s character says: “This is not Paris. This is hell.”) and hellish all at the same time.

The characters in 2DiP experienced things very similar to my first and second trips to the city of love: 1) extreme weirdness on the Metro (in my case it was a crazy bag lady pointing me out to the police while screaming “noir noir!” across the platform. I didn’t oblige a request for money, 2) going to Pere Lachaise for kicks, stumbling on to some nutty ritual stuff happening at Jim Morrison’s grave and then getting scolded by the gendarmes for leaning against a tombstone…did I mention the nutty ritual stuff happening before we arrived? 3) Americans not on their best behavior (there is a hilarious scene between Goldberg and some expats wearing Bush T-shirts). If you think I’m kidding, David Sedaris captured more of the same in an essay that appeared in “Me Talk Pretty One Day”. But remembering going local in Paris and wandering around the markets, finding a quiet spot to enjoy a glass of wine, or going to my favorite spot in Monmartre makes me forget the bad stuff of travel lore. Hope to get back there soon. Until then, I’ll have a day hike in Coventry next weekend, Milwaukee (if you know of cool stuff to do there please please share!) in a couple of weeks, tix to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings in November, and possibly a jaunt to Reykjavik in December.

oh isiah

Bibi — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 02:38:19 +0000

Ugh. Back when I used to care about professional basketball, I was a huge fan of the original Bad Boys Pistons Team, especially whenever they were playing the Celtics. (Suck it Celtics Fans, it’s in the history books, and even the most ardent haters love Bill Laimbeer now. ) Something about those scrappy, hardscrabble guys. I always thought Isiah Thomas was a bit of a hayseed (which at that time would have made Rodman even more so), and it kind of makes me sick to hear these allegations, because there is always some truth in the story (hello Clarence Thomas). What bugs me even more is the tired argument that it’s somehow more okay to call someone by an offensive and derogatory term if both people are of the same race. Right. I can’t believe he actually said this in a deposition. Beyond ignorant and it’s just really frightening that people like this are in positions of power. Why is it so hard for people to just be decent? Mr. Vonnegut said it best.

Exodus Damage and this game is being brought to you by the letter T

Bibi — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:39:17 +0000

Exodus Damage refers to the first John Vanderslice song I ever heard (and also mistook for a Bright Eyes tune). I actually thought the song was called Dance Dance Revolution cuz that’s the chorus. I have a cool mix of this that was on one of the Alias eps. I listened to him all the way up to Manchester, Vermont yesterday (about 3.5 hours and a slightly harrowing nine mile drive on an unpaved and sometimes eroding route 121 (note it is decidedly worse to try to take photos or videos with the Dash while driving vs. texting..TRUST this) to rendezvous with the peeps in Grafton Village. I had plenty of time to ponder why my own exoduses are often damaged in that every time (I) go away, even IFF for a day, there is a measured amount of aggravation that accompanies said pleasure of getting away. No pleasure without pain, if you will. I made it through the first week relatively unscathed and with bunches of beautiful flowers that kept appearing on my desk. I always forget how crazed the first few weeks of September are until it happens again. I have to get a cat sitter for Kramer and I had to fit in a meet and debrief (and get some extra keys made) with the owner’s assistant before heading out of town. The first aggravation came in the form of the assistant locking herself out of her own car the first night we were to meet. Not a confidence builder. The second aggravation came when Home Depot ran out of the key I needed and I searched high and low for any mom and pop hardware shop still open on a Friday after 6pm. I really need to figure out the GPS on my phone b/c I keep running into the problem of only googling one or two things when I need SIX. Manchester (and Vermont) is quite beautiful this time of year and I am glad I got a chance to join the Bond girl and her gang before the foliage fanatics descend upon New England. This weekend also revealed that there was a board game void in my life that I needed to rectify. For the first time ever I played Balderdash (not a favorite, but I quite enjoyed getting people to vote for my fake associations (SOBC – Sudanese of British Columbia and BLTI – British Liturgical Tamborine Inc.), Scategories (love this game…the zA Brit and I both picked “Nero” as our hero. I naively asked the group if my hero could be a bad hero. Reply from S-with-a-pH: “Yes…that would be a ‘villain’”. Tough crowd them peeps. I also got a couple of eyebrows to my gerund induced phrase for the funnest reason I can think of for being late to work..this became a running joke for the rest of the night), 90′s Trivial Pursuit (really there is no value in knowing any of the internet trivia from this time period. I hate Trivial Pursuit will never play it again), Uno and Poker (I beat the boys twice). Sadly, we never got to Scotland Yard. My small group social skills are solid.

Chicken livers, Rhode Island lettuce and Kookaburra

Bibi — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:53:42 +0000

Just back from meeting up with the Bond girl for dinner at La Laiterie. Slightly celebratory because I’ve just accepted a new position (and completed negotiations….even those in the land of books and shiny new databases must negotiate) at my current shop and I couldn’t be happier (or more excited. I’d say slightly terrified, but that would not be completely accurate. My new title is longish. It will definitely be challenging, but I’m looking forward to it). My boss asked if I had a minute to talk today, and I joking pushed my expense report from IFLA forward for him to sign. His response (laughing): NO MORE NEGOTIATING. We are done. Heh. Once you start, it is difficult to turn it off. At least for me.

Back to regular programming: You’d think since I get the same thing from their small plates list every time I go (seared naturally raised chicken livers w/stack of handcut crispy onion rings, it’s actually quite a vision too), I would have taken a photo of it by now. Next time. Also had an awesome salad of Rhode Island lettuces, toasted pecans, chevre and baked peaches. They do these “flights of fancy” wine pours (3 two ounce pours). I gave myself a funny by ordering the “White Flight” with a straight face. (I also once ordered my White Russians as “Caucasians” after seeing the Big Lebowski.) The white flight had an Albarino, French Chardonnay and a Cali Sauvignon Blanc. Bond girl had the “Rhone Flight”, heirloom tomato stack, and a black mission fig and grilled cheese.

Kookaburra – Experienced a slice of radio heaven on the way to dinner tonight. WERS (Emerson College radio) played Vanderslice’s Kookaburra song, the Decemberists’ We Both Go Down Together, and a Juliana Hatfield song I hadn’t heard before. I’ll probably end up picking that up since I’ve been a fan since the Blake Babies. It sounds like she’s finally lost the baby voice. So, I bought John Vanderslice’s new cd before my trip and I absolutely love it. He’s just begun his US tour, and he’ll be playing the Middle East (with Bishop Allen) at the end of this month. I’ll certainly be ready for a live music fix in a few weeks’ time. He’s also playing the Blind Pig in A² in early October. Go see him. Very indie, very troubadour, catchy tunes. I think he sounds somewhere between a Decemberist (love) and Bright Eyes (without being as annoying). And his lyrics are tight. Check out the live video for Kookaburra. Digging it. Free download of his White Dove single. When I was a kid, I my dad or mom used to sing me this song about Kookabears. Or, so I thought until hearing the song on the radio tonight. It’s

Kookaburra sitting in the old ~~oak~~ gum tree

Eating all the gumdrops he can see

Laugh Kookaburra, Laugh Kookaburra …

So, yes now that I know that the song is about a bird and not a bear, it really doesn’t make sense that a bear would be sitting up in a tree laughing. But I’ll always remember the song fondly and the fact that I was told I had Kooka~~bear~~ toes. Have to get to Australia one day soon to hear the call of this bird. I’m headed to Baltimore for the weekend tomorrow for the Sox game (no I’m not much for baseball, but Baltimore’s a cool slice of grit and how often to I get to do a road trip with fellow shushers?). Should be fun. I’ve been invited to crash the Bond girl’s (w/her mister and their cool posse) Vermont weekend in the woods next week and will hopefully get my first crack at playing Scotland Yard. Will have to pack the lone surviving bottle of Amarula for the occasion. Nite…

Thierry Henry plays for Barcelona now?

Bibi — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:03:33 +0000

Survived the first day back at work. Decided to attack email first, despite many interruptions (most pleasant) and one half-serious question about what my other priorities were for my first week back. Why not just tell me what you want…? The sugarcoating/sideways approach grates sometimes. Am very close to being able to talk about a pending change in my life. More later (I’m such a tease). I’m at home now killing a little time before taking Kramer to the vet. In mere moments, I will have to ~~cram~~ put him into the carrier and endure the silent treatment as we drive to the poshy vet office in the Jewelry District. So I caught a Yahoo headline this morning (actually two), Shaq’s getting divorced after 5 years and so is Thierry Henry (didn’t know he was married). Henry is also apparently not playing for Arsenal anymore. Henry now earns $260K/week playing for Barcelona. I called myself catching up on the arsecasts I’d missed, but apparently I missed some key podcasts. Even if you don’t follow English football regularly, the podcasts are pretty hilarious. I found out during the World Cup last summer that Spike Lee is way into soccer (football) and that Henry is one of his favorite players. Kind of cool bit of trivia. I got great seats for the Revolution game last month to see Beckham not play, and had a lot of fun despite that.

Bibi — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:34:50 +0000

So when I googled the encyclopedias I mentioned earlier, I found a set being auctioned off on Ebay for $9.99. Now I don’t need them, but it would have been fun to win these. I waited a little too long to bid and the winner didn’t have any challenges. Someone must teach me the art of “snipering” cuz I’m not getting it…Now of course, I must find another set. The evil that is Ebay.

More pics to come and wanderlust

Bibi — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:24:55 +0000

I’ve only just organized the first photo dump (~214 pics) and still have at least another 200 not including the 2 rolls of black and white film I shot. This could go on forever… I bought a copy of the Reader’s Companion to South Africa before my trip but didn’t get past an excerpt written by Mark Twain. It’s a cool collection of travel stories about the Continent (one of my fave type of writing) beginning with the earliest explorers during the colonial period to present day South Africa. I think it’s better I didn’t go to deeply into the book before my trip. I think I will get some porch time this afternoon and start reading. There are a few other of these in the series, and I sent J one on Alaska. This trip has been an eye opening experience (I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this) and has reawakened my wanderlust. I would like to go back in 2010, but am seriously thinking about exploring Fulbright opportunities. One of the librarians on the trip spent 8 months in Uganda on a Fulbright training other librarians. In the meantime, I’ll have to be satisfied planning an extra long weekend holiday in London in November or December. Time to replenish the Airwaves stash, and I love London (even though the dollar is really weak there). When I was there in January, I read a travel article about eco vacationing in Mozambique. Sounded amazing. I am sooooooooo very open to being whisked away to some exotic locale…

Re-entry………I’m Baaaaaaaaaack

Bibi — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 18:56:25 +0000

5:55am – Plane lands after 18+ hour flight from Jozi via Dakar. The refueling stop in Dakar at about 12am Senegal time was a little wild. They blast the inside of the plane with this cold moist air and make us take all of our carryons out of the overhead compartments. I don’t get my original space back which made me very bitchy and mean to the woman sitting behind me who was feigning concern although she had taken up all of the space in the compartment over my seat with her stupid drum. No regrets about being mean.

7:07ish am – Checking in early never pays off, my luggage is last unloaded which means I have to hall it to the ticket counter to recheck my bags.

7:30ish am – Line is snaking around, but I look pitiful enough that they agree to check my bags so late (not entirely clear since my flight doesn’t board until 7:51 am). Really need to pee but no time.

7:40 am – Go through security, took my socks off on plane so have to walk on the floor in barefeet. Ick. I’m pretty sure I didn’t catch malaria in zA or the crud the from the guy with the hacking cough sitting next to me on the long flight (thank you Airborne) but who knows what I’ll get from walking on this floor. Stop at the ATM (cuz the free cart concept has not hit domestic US flights yet), US money now looks weird to me. Race to catch shuttle to my United gate.

7:50 am – Still have to pee, but haul it to gate because they are doing a last call. WTF. Go back outside on the tarmac to get on the teeny plane. Sour looking faces on the flight. Can feel the shift happening. Welcome home girl. Fall asleep in my seat for a few and didn’t even feel the plane take off.

9:45 am – Land in Providence. Wait for bags to be unloaded. My gift bag has been inspected and the bottles of Amarula and Chenin Blanc have been broken and everything is soiled. Plus those jokers kept my brand new TSA approved lock. Very much wanting to rip TSA a new one right now, but apparently that can only be done via a facsimile or USPS. Whatever.

10:30am – Home. Mom has been at my place for a week (had a cat sitter stopping over the first week) and my place is spotless (no I didn’t not leave it that way). Loving the Mom. We catch up and she actually produced her little list to make sure I got everything (!) she asked for. Passed the test, phew! Also find out Mom has found a few things I forgot to hide before leaving. Oh well. Cats quickly resume following me from room to room. Feels good to be back.

2:00pm – Force myself to stay up to lessen the lag…drag myself to hairdresser (only time I’ll have to do it and I need a warshin’.)

6:00pm – Cannot keep my eyes open any longer and give in and crash. Wake up at midnight and then again at 3am.

1 September

6:00am – Awakened by cats and feed them.

7:00am – General loafing. Feeling news deprived.

9:00am - Shower and head to Blue Cottage for pancakes and read the Times.

10:00am – Get a much needed pedicure. OPI – God I love this colour shade. Seems like they have several shades with this name. Toes look sexy again.

11:00am – Chill until 4 by listening to NPR (Desiree Cooper (a Detroit Free Press columnist who is now the permanent co-host of Weekend America, yay! I send her a fan email cuz we have a Detroit friend in common. Yammer too much about myself I’m sure. I’m such an NPR geek), catching up on personal email (no work until next week man), Facebook, Twitter, and the travel blog.

4:49pm – Head over to the kickball field to watch some friends play in the all star game. Sit next to a Crusty (someone with fake dreads) chick with some serious b.o. She never stops talking (she’s from MI, a vegan, blah blah blah). My guys win! Do some texting, then leave early for some hijinks.

9pmish - Talk to J about her b-day trip to Alaska and hit the sack around 11pm.

2 September

The plan – All day chillaxing and watching the US Open!!

Apartheid museum…and last night in zA

Bibi — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:37:12 +0000

The Apartheid museum is located in Gold Reef City in Jozi. Gold Reef City appears to be one of those mini amusement park style entertainment complex. Why the museum is here escapes me. It’s still a powerful experience (you enter by self-identifying yourself by color (optional…but I went through the nie-blankes (non whites) door), and a little unsettling spatially as you must go through each area in order to move through the exhibit and get to the end. I made so many wrong turns and felt like I had no control (probably intentional). There is a beautiful outdoor reflection area at the end as well as a cafe and small gift shop. No cameras were permitted inside the museum:

After the museum we checked into our hotel in Sandton (Jozi suburb). The Sandton Garden City (very upmarket Holiday Inn) is directly across from the Sandton Shopping Centre, a mega sized upscale mall (that seemed to go around and around instead of straight up and down) with a library. I was hoping to take a look but I was wrapped up trying to find the post office to mail back my IFLA stuff and the super heavy voltage converter (which worked and didn’t fry my hair the one time I used) and blowdryer. Should arrive in the States ten days after me. There was another group dinner, but I’d had enough time on the bus and couldn’t take one more trip on it or a buffet meal. Ended up having dinner with J and R , the other two amigos who didn’t get to go to the primary school. Had a stingily prepared (should have gotten a double) Sapphire Gimlet and gnocchi with pesto and was introduced to this game where you pick three male celebrities (can be any variety of celebrity) and you have decide which one you’d kill, which one you’d marry and which one you’d sleep with. As you might imagine, it quickly turned into a giggly meal. At various points I had Mini Me, the black little person from Bad Santa (because I was not believed when I said I hadn’t seen Bad Santa), Gary Coleman, or R Kelly. I was much more generous with my new friends…

Capetown the First, again

Bibi — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:40:44 +0000

Our second day in Capetown included a full day tour of the Cape Peninsula and a funicular ride up Table Mountain just before sundown (they call these events “sundowners”). Our local travel contacts attempted to rearrange the Robben Island trip, but it wasn’t to be. The little cutie on the far left wanted my camera but was sweet enough to agree to having his picture taken instead (you should always ask if you can take someone’s photo). I wanted to take him home with me, but that would probably be kidnapping. Oh god, I think I might actually have a biological clock…When I was a kid I wanted to do what Angelina Jolie has done: adopt a child from every ethnic group (including one from Lappland (the kids had great reindeer sweaters on and toothy grins: yes I am a little weird, but some find it très charmant), but that could have more to do with having a full set of Childcraft Worldbook encyclopedias around the house). Back to the day long tour…The Cape Peninsula and Cape of Good Hope are pretty stunning: lush, green landscapes everywhere and you could spend your entire vacation there. Very laid back place. We stopped at the National Park there and took a funicular ride up the mountain for a lighthouse view of the Indian and Atlantic oceans. It was about 10° C so it was very much like fall on the Vineyard which I love. You had to climb steep stone steps to the lighthouse if you really wanted to take it in. By this time, I had probably had another full English breakfast that morning, so it was good to burn it off (not that the calories weren’t constantly being replenished. The weight I lost before the trip is quickly coming back. ) This park is home to those aggressive baboons you’ve probably heard of, Eland, gigantic ostriches (and btw, ostrich served stir-fry style is pretty damn tasty) and many more animals whose names I cannot remember. One of the baboons got on the bus and ate someone’s orange. We had alot of fun embellishing the story. This first sign was not a casual warning:

Afterwards, we stopped at the Black Marlin restaurant (we had to walk calmly past the baboons on the pathway to before getting into the restaurant) in Fish Hoek for a delicious lunch (King Klip kebabs (yummy South African meaty whitefish, each chunk was wrapped in bacon…they love bacon here) and vegetables and a refreshing dish of vanilla ice cream with some type of berry (boysenberry maybe) compote. Steph, the dessert photos are all for you.

After lunch, we walked down (then back up a hill) to take a peek at the Jackass Penguins at Boulders Beach before heading to Table Mountain.

On the way back to Capetown (and Table Mountain) , we zipped past one of the prisons where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated before Robben Island. Speaking of which, here are some shots from Table Mountain (including one of Robben Island):

There is also a footpath up Table Mountain but it takes 2-3 hours. Would like to come back and take in the view after a rigorous climb. The sundowner progressions are courtesy of the revolving floor on the funicular. Genius! The only thing that would have made this more perfect is if we could have enjoyed a glass of Cape wine while taking in the view (cafe was closing when we arrived). Long day, and after not getting any takers for dinner, I ventured down to the V&A waterfront to find the cool aprons from Far Flung that EW told me about. Bought two with matching oven mitts and a couple of cool tshirts. Had dinner at the Capetown Fish Market where my Dash again sparked another interesting conversation. This time with a cute bartender from Jozi. His accent was more African Brit.