My life right now

Between kids packing for college, my ancient Volvo requiring major surgery (timing belt-- though I have the best mechanic ever), various greyhound-and-tortoise goings-on, life continues.

☞Current favorite quote:

"Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly slipping the lead into the boxing-glove." -- P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves, 1930.


☞Drinking a lot of:

What can I say, I like the Pinot Grigio.


☞Recently watched:

☞New to me:

finally got this beautiful Ninh Wysocan necklace (used) through a blog sale, after lusting after it for months. It's perfect, and has cheered me up considerably.

☞Listening to (constantly):

Sorry for the link, haven't had time to configure this. Rickie Lee Jones' cover of Traffic's Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. Thank me later.

Happy Birthday Paul Reubens

How the hell did he get to be 60?!

Big think

via Roger Ebert.

Wink at the moon

If you want to honor Neil Armstrong (1930-2012), his family has this request:

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.

Lovely.

Source: doublemerrick.com via LB on Pinterest

I haven't been posting lately due to outrage overload. Need some outrage? Here you go:
Thanks so much for sharing, Rep. Akin. This is an old issue that has crawled back out from under a rock. The Atlantic has a good rundown.

And Newsweek doesn't have a fact-checking department? Huh.

Anyway... and what's up with all the Edward/Wallis Simpson love at Pinterest? These people were fascist sympathizers, I don't care if they were stylish. And from all accounts, Edward was none too bright. Sheesh.


I need to go find some more pleasant stuff to post, right? I'll be back later. If I feel like it.

Here's a lovely Edward Gorey drawing for you, from The Doubtful Guest. Isn't he perfect?

Currently reading

Some Kind of Fairy Tale, by Graham Joyce.

How music enchants your brain

via BrainPickings.org.

"...and behind this door is a tiger. Brace yourself."

RIP, writer David Rakoff, age 47. I will miss him.

Some essays:

The Waiting, NY Times.

The Writer's Life, Salon.

Also:

Fresh Air interview.

Gothamist obituary.

"We never said we wanted it all"

Terrific essay by Ruth Rosen, about what happened when feminism was co-opted by the "the media, consumerism and the therapeutic self-help movements" and was turned into a individualistic quest for "fulfillment".

By 1965, young American women activists in Students for a Democratic Society asked themselves what would happen to America’s children if women worked outside the home. Activists in the women’s movement knew women could never have it all, unless they were able to change the society in which they lived.
At the August 1970 march for Women’s Strike for Equality, the three preconditions for emancipation included child care, legal abortion and equal pay. “There are no individual solutions,” feminists chanted in the late sixties. If feminism were to succeed as a radical vision, the movement had to advance the interests of /all/ women.

You can read it in full at AlterNet.

Random

OK, it's been a bit of a tough summer here in Obscurity. But appreciating the summer just as it is, along with a dose of humor, always helps.

❧

Because everyone is talking about London right now, a short list of fiction that features the city:

George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. Link.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, probably my favorite of the bunch. Link.

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. Link.

Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. Link.

❧

Happily, oxblood is the hot new color for fall.

Lizzy Disney leather cuff from Maryam Nassir Zadeh.

Aandd Academy Satchel in oxblood, Assembly New York.

And you need a lipstick to go with that? Ellis Faas Milky Lips L202 (dark blood red):