There’ll be no sadness / There’ll be no sorrow

Last night I tried two new things. I drank a “Flirtini” and I painted my nails a fairly bold shade of pink. (Nars’ nail polish in “Schiap.”) The Flirtini was okay but I love how glossy and smooth and shockingly pink my nails are. I keep running my fingertips over them and it feels so lovely.

It looks like this month is going to end on Bruce Springsteen / Einstürzende Neubauten notes. The highest, most shining ones being “Drive All Night” and “Steh auf Berlin,” the latter of which sounds absolutely delightful but the construction sounds across the hall from my office—I could do without that noise.

Recent feed reads include Who Are We? Coming of Age on Antidepressants which seemed especially relevant because I accidentally went cold turkey on my meds. I was still okay on day four but I’ve been feeling my condition slowly deteriorate since then. It’s been an interesting experience but I’m finally picking up my refill tomorrow.

Anyway, I’ve just finished gorging myself on Santitas tortilla chips, Gefen Coconut Flavored Macaroons and cranberry juice. (Last night I had duck with almond-encrusted brie!) I amend my previous report on music month-end because today I was also Live Seeds obsessed. Go into a little space, shut the door and play “The Weeping Song,” “Jack The Ripper” and “New Morning” as loud as your poor ear drums can handle.

Isn’t she beautiful?

Happy Earth Day: Beautiful Pictures of Our Planet

3 x 3

All the News Scientists Want Your MacBook for Earthquake Detection, Old Nick, ‘West Memphis Three’ Inmate Makes New Appeal

This Charming ___ charm bracelets, finally bought Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, whites / neutrals with kapow! colors

A week of links.

New-to-me artist Ana Bagayan. I can’t remember where I found out about her.

Some eye-catching photographs at the Cut: Slimane Shoots Sasha for French ‘Vogue’, Magazines Take a Walk on the Wild Side (Especially the shot of Guinevere van Seenus.)

Takashi Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum. The walk from my mom’s house to the Brooklyn Museum (with stops at the farmers market and Botanic Garden) is really nice in the summer.

BigDog: The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth via Coilhouse. Watch the video, it’s actually pretty cool.

Perhaps a new weeknight staple? Shrimp and Artichoke Pasta. For next time, I’m halving the amount artichokes and not settling for canned. Too watery and salty.

Some highlights from NPR: Wading Through an Endangered Species Backlog, Boston Wants to Harness Composting Energy, Brooklyn Spill Dwarfs the Exxon ‘Valdez’ Disaster

Reznor vs. Radiohead: Innovation Smackdown and a brief interview with Trent Reznor (via Wired).

Huge Iceberg Breaks Away, Antarctic Ice Shelf ‘Hangs By A Thread’ via Wired. Also video of the British Antarctic Survey’s flyover and a thin silver lining?

Awesome guest room finished at Making it Lovely.

Keeping it brief.

Stork and Diff are playing “Fight For Your Life” on harmonica and guitar, respectively. Oh wait, now they’re playing “Just Like Heaven.” And earlier, Merdud and I figured out the secret lives of the 52 dogs in a pack of Umbra K-9 Playing Cards. We ate two pizzas, one with potato-sausage-onion and the other with spinach-mushroom-broccoli. I couldn’t resist making Paula Deen’s Banana Pudding (Bake or Break). The sugar caused my teeth to explode but not before giving me 26 root canals.

Friday nights are icing on the cake at the end of a good work week. While I was on the phone with my dad this afternoon, I commented on how much changes when you’re suddenly happy with your job.

On the first day of spring.

I’ve waited months for today and yet it still managed to snow this morning. I’m really hoping for the whole “out like a lamb” thing to come true this year because I’m so very tired of wearing my down coat and slipping on ice and forgetting to bring a hat or wear my mittens. I’m ready for open toe shoes and longer days (wish true—check!) and skirts! Okay, I’m never really ready for skirts but maybe this year I’ll wear them more often. And thunderstorms. I’m definitely ready for thunderstorms!

Work is still wonderful. (I can’t believe I’m saying that.) I’ve been assured that it won’t always be that way and I’m sure that some days won’t be marvelous but at least the floor isn’t shaking, I don’t have to listen to the boom of what is essentially 46 sewing machines and I escaped the evilevilevil clutches of my former boss! You can have all of that crap in exchange for the stress and challenges of my new position. I think you’re getting the short end of the stick, though.

A few currents for you:

Netflix The Doom Generation, A Clockwork Orange

Work Mix Alien Sex Fiend, Best of / Skinny Puppy, Ain’t It Dead Yet? / Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Let Love In / Bauhaus, Swing the Heartache / Leonard Cohen, Various Positions / Joy Division, Unknown Pleasure

Colors black, grey, acidy yellow, blues

Mess in the Kitchen homemade Devil Dog, Ding Dong or Hostess cake, Irish soda bread, mango chipotle chicken sausage with bell peppers and onions over couscous, baked ziti!

Links Radiohead Launches In Rainbows Video Contest, Trent Reznor Calls for User-Generated Music Videos, Smith Island Cake Poised for Maryland Fame

Link Dump

Hydrogen Sulfide May Kill Us, Bring Us Back to Life – Mass extinctions, more theories on where all of this climate change is going.

French village bans death – Outlawing death as protest.

Study Finds Drugs Seeping Into Drinking Water – “A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans.”

Soïa & Kyo via Door Sixteen – Love some of these coats for spring, especially Lotta and Wanda.

Global Warming to Affect Transport – “The nation’s transportation system was built for local conditions based on historical weather data, but those data may no longer be reliable in the face of new weather extremes, the report warns.”

Did IPods Cause a Crime Wave? – Maybe but then again, maybe not.

Music Industry Proposes a Piracy Surcharge on ISPs – More developments in the music industry vs. the internet story.

Nine Inch Nails Album Generates $1.6 Million in First Week – Some figures on how Nine Inch Nails’ recent album is doing. (Follow-up to this.)

Alan Moore + Cheesecake

Alan Moore’s highly acclaimed graphic novel, Watchmen, is being turned into a movie! Apparently they’ve been working on this for awhile so I’m just out of the loop.

I’ve been eyeing these Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Bars (via Bake or Break) all week. I think I have to make them this weekend. Cheesecake probably wouldn’t help my chest congestion but it would certainly taste good.

Finally: food worth writing about.

I’m feeling marginally better and I’m determined to go to work tomorrow because I can’t take another day of sitting at home. To commemorate this, I made dinner! Pork chops with roasted sweet potatoes and roasted zucchini. It was the perfect meal to make because it was so simple and tasted great (especially compared to the canned soup and tea diet I’ve been subsisting on).

Major thanks to Simply Recipes and Smitten Kitchen for always being such reliable sources. Those are absolutely my two favorite food blogs, simply because I use them so much!

Championing the Pseudo-Goth

For some of us, “goth” never really died. Or actually, it died more than a decade ago and we just continued listening to the same old records because uh, they’re still good. But it seems like goth—or some semblance of it—periodically has life breathed back into it and currently, it might be going through an itsy bitsy resurgence which is neither a good thing nor a bad thing.

Deadly night shades via New York Magazine’s The Cut – “Black lipstick, crucifixes and scowls at the ready – the key look of autumn will be futuristic goth chic. [...] In all honesty, what appeared as futuristic goth on the catwalk is likely to be rebranded as an office-friendly vision of dynamic black-and-white when the season starts commercially in mid-August.”

‘The Moment of Truth’ Finally Delivers on Its Promise to Ruin Marriages – It may not (yet) be “Treadmill to Bucks” or “Swim With Crocodiles,” but reality television keeps inching its way closer to the wonderfully dystopian story line of The Running Man. (Yes, I did watch because it’s not all Nature and Nova around here. I’m a horrible, horrible entertained person.)

Ghosts I-IV via nin.com – I keep up with Nine Inch Nails because I like that Trent Reznor ditched his record label and is doing it all on his own now. I do not keep up with Nine Inch Nails because the music is good. It isn’t. (NIN ≠ gospel.) At any rate, last night a new album was released “Radiohead style” and I think it’s going to be interesting to see how well it fares, its further-reaching effects, etc. Some preliminary commentary: New York Magazine’s Vulture Blog, Billboard, Pitchfork, Wired.

Speaking of new albums, the new Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! comes out tomorrow!

By The Way This was written in a swimmy sickhead haze while desperately wishing my lungs didn’t feel like they were made of rock. Hopefully when I look back later, it still makes sense…