Tangents

Today's subject line is from Bachelor's "Stay in the Car," which has been earworming me since I heard it on WXNP earlier this week.

Dance recommendation: Anna Morrissey's All Together Alone, a modern take on "Ebben? ne andrò lontana," which I've adored since playing viola for it eons ago. Up until May 29. Warning for light-sensitives: there is some strobe action in it.

I keep meaning to mention the Stay at Home Choir's recording of Christopher Tin's "Sogno di Volare," which I sang on. (I chose to participate audio-only on this one.)



A Catholic composer who had also been involved with "Sogno" contacted me via Instagram about joining the virtual choir for one of his recordings, so that's in my practice folder now. I've sat out most of this year's SAHC projects, but they're doing another run at Ode to Joy, this time with a new German text by Michael Köhlmeier, and there's no registration fee for this one. It's unclear if there will be a recording involved, nor can I make the first alto sectional, but I do not care -- any time I can spend with that piece will help me refuel.

Today I squeezed in two dance sessions -- one for a reel that will be shown at a UK folk festival in June, and Karen Arceneaux's Beginner Horton class with Ailey Extension, where we're learning a combination to Billie Eilish's "Lovely" that Karen choreographed with Mental Health Awareness Month in mind. My back and shoulder are not 100%, and I stepped on a splinter last night (ow!), and there's like forty hours of work to fit into the next fourteen, so I'm pleased with myself for showing up (on camera, even!) and staying more focused than not.

It's not all wine and roses here, but my roses are doing very well this year, and my mom-in-law brought two bottles of prosecco to lunch on Sunday, along with this bouquet:



What I served (for four people total):

deviled eggs

bacon jam balls on red pepper strips

cashews

pickled garlic

tortellini with shrimp in a radish-lemon-anchovy sauce (adapted from an Anita Lo recipe)

green beans seasoned with butter and raspberry balsamic vinegar

zucchini soufflé

almond layer cake from Sweet 16th

The next afternoon, the other two members of the museum editorial team came over for our production meeting. I made another plate of deviled eggs, the junior editor brought Russian tea cookies, and we collectively put away more cake while having ourselves a merry time and discussing at length All the Things Due.

A week ago, something decided to eat every mallow seedling in my back yard. It left the adjacent zinnia seedlings alone, and I hadn't spent too much time thinning out the mallows, so I was amused as well as annoyed: I mean, clearly it was a really tasty snack for the critter? It had even consumed the scraps I had pulled from the ground earlier that Friday.

Being slightly ridiculous, I had put some of the bigger thinnings in water in hopes of transplanting them, and by yesterday some of them had developed long plump roots, so they went into some of the dirt patches out front. Fingers crossed . . . This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/175706.html.

Due by noon EDT on Monday 5 April: NPR is collaging a poem about anti-Asian racism, with lines from submitted list poems: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/981147280/poetry-challenge-create-a-list-poem-that-grapples-with-rise-of-anti-asian-racism?mc_cid=11f49db1e3&mc_eid=2302726d91

(A short poem mentioned in the call is Emily Jungmin Moon's "Between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, Today," which is worth your time.)

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Due by Saturday 10 April: short poems (20 lines max) or prose inspired by Untitled (Brooklyn), a painting by Meghan Keene: https://broadsidedpress.org/2021switcheroo/
There is a $3 fee.

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Easter lunch with the in-laws featured ham with raisin sauce, brie on jalapeno cheese crackers, and other goodies. I brought two sparkling wines. I admit to picking up the Carolina Gatti Ratatuja mainly because the label amused me (see https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/carolina+gatti+ratatuja+pet+nat+veneto+italy), but it also turned out to be interesting, in a less filtered, more flavor way.

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My plans for the afternoon had included a virtual dance party and some soil prep, but I instead sacked out for four hours, and in a minute I'm going to heed my body's call for yet more sleep instead of staying up with proofs and spreadsheets. But I did fit in a bit of twirling on my own before my tomato salad and tulsi tea:


Why yes, trying to remember combinations is like patting one's head and belly at the same time . . .


Whee! This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/173874.html.

Today is crowded with overlapping possibilities. Newark Museum's virtual Carnival Celebration runs all day, with the samba/capoeira session at the same time as Iowa's English country dance gathering. Says You's Kisses and Quips show was on my calendar for a long time, but my church's cabaret for Habitat for Humanity streams at the same time. Plus, there's tomorrow's Tuupelo poem to draft, doing enough Chinese/Welsh/Spanish/French to stay in Duolingo's Diamond League, putting ten postcards to voters in the mail, doing something about the butternut squash I roasted two or three nights ago before the next Misfits Market box arrives . . .

This week had a lot of crud. I'm trying not to brood about the things I cannot change, but I am reminded of other bloggers greeting February with EVERYBODY BRACE NOW There's something about the months before the equinoxes that make them feel like a long haul, even though in my case they also feature the birthdays of some of my favorite people. And fatigue with both the pandemic and the equally unrelenting and life-threatening banality of evil is also a thing. It took me five times as long to get to things I normally enjoy dispatching with ease, and some things that would literally make me feel better (working out, dancing, ironing . . .) keep getting shafted because it's easier to stay in the rocking chair for one more Duolingo/Mimo/Earpeggio lesson.

Anyhow, I do like the Befruary take on this gloomy gray stretch of the season, and I did my metal-dawg / Taurus-with-Virgo-rising thing and herded/hauled my mental sheeps to meadow and market. New poems up at Tupelo:

Day 6: "More than a Single Bound" (prompted by a motorcycle stunt)
Day 7: "Gazing at Tennessine" (prompted by Periodic Table Day)
Day 8: "Free As . . ." (prompted by National Kite-Flying Day)
Day 9: "Sweet Spot" (prompted by the Feast of St. Apollonia, patron saint of toothache sufferers)
Day 10: "Imperfect Fragment" (prompted by Edmond Halley)
Day 11: "Gathering Up All the Fragments" (prompted by Lydia Maria Child)
Day 12: "A Foot-Long Tongue" (prompted by Charles Darwin)
Day 13 (up later today): "Through a Screen, Darkly" (prompted by Absalom Jones, a Black Episcopalian priest and essential healthcare provider during a yellow fever epidemic)

The "someday" reading list is getting new titles added to it pretty much every day. There's an orchid display at Cheekwood this month; with Darwin's Contrivance by which British and Foreign Orchids . . . now in my Google library, I'd be keen to see it, but it's indoors, so I'll have to content myself with old photos instead, like these:



Ironically, as a household, we are not hugely into holidays. My belle-mère and closest cousin are by far more into (and better at) decorating; I mailed a Valentine to the BYM last year mainly to yank his chain (it was an adorable design, but it also had glitter); there have often been professional and/or performance obligations that had me on duty instead of at gatherings. That said, I'm weak for stickers and ribbons (even though they too often leave the ironing board and cutting mat weeks or even years after the festival they were originally purchased for), and every third year or so I work up the energy to donate something related to Lunar New Year to the church auction. This year's donation wasn't directly tied to LNY, but the winners of the bao subscription were easily gracious about me wanting to skip January, so I expanded yesterday's delivery of shrimp bao to include Taiwanese tea eggs, radish cake, and pineapple-ginger bubble tea:



The photos show my second take at mixing the tea; the first batch tasted fine but looked revolting. "Failing better" is definitely a thing here. ;)

[The subject line is from a valentine by Emily Dickinson that may be the most daft thing (outside of political/medical misinformation or art historical polemics, natch) I read this week.)] This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/172060.html.

I'm such a sucker for kawaii packaging. I hadn't planned on buying more mooncakes this season, having already splurged on two boxes and a CAAN festival feast last month. But, BUNNIES!!!

(The cakes are gorgeous, so I placated my household budget gods by designating three of the four as gifts to colleagues/family. And I subsequently received a box of four from a vegetarian friend who had purchased them before realizing that they contained lard.)

Autumn Sky Poetry Daily published my poem "Vinegar" this week.

Herding deliverables to their destinations has been grueling, and I missed dances, chats, and services this week. And an alternate service I attended for a few minutes was off-key enough that on five hours of sleep across two days, I couldn't take it. On an un-whiny note, though, it's indeed a silver lining to have multiple options for all three, and to be able to catch some of the recordings later. This week's video sessions also included London Art Week's webinar on 15th-century frames, whose presenters in turn recommended Closer to Van Eyck, which may be of interest to the medieval/Renaissance, restoration/conservation, and interactive programming nerds who happen to be reading this. Today's dance (hosted by Iowa English Country Dance) included "Hazelfern Place," which I had not encountered before, and a breakout-room craic with dancers/musicians in Atlanta (with bonus rubber chicken) and Bristol (UK).

Pounding through piles of pages (and spending hours de-snarling some tech tangles) also meant not restocking on groceries until today, so we'd run out of eggs, bacon, waffles, lettuce, and other staples by this morning. But I was able to produce Uncle Nearest jello cups and deviled eggs for a tiny outdoor gathering, and spiced banana muffins to cover a couple of breakfasts, so go me. I have more work and correspondence to whale through tonight, but first I'm going to make chili with some of the tomatoes I grew:


The green bananas are to help ripen the green fruit I'll have to bring in early because of rodents or frost. speaking of which. . .

The BYM (gestures toward scrabbling in the walls): Can you do something about that squirrel?
Me: Burgoo.
The BYM (shouts at the scrabbling): Hear that, mf? KENTUCKY IS IN THE HOUSE. This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/168645.html.

Via kirbyfest, kass, antisoppist, and others...

1. Are you an Essential Worker?

No.

2. How many drinks have you had since the quarantine started?

1 bottle of chardonnay
5/6 bottle of Bordeaux
2 beers
1/3 bottle of Louisa's Liqueur ("Louisa Nelson was a woman of remarkable strength and character. . . .")

3. If you have kids... Are they driving you nuts? n/a

4. What new hobby have you taken up during this?

There still aren't enough hours in the day.

5. How many grocery runs have you done?

5? If counting from around the Ides of March. We are down to one scant cup of soy sauce and no mirin, and I ate the last apple this morning, so I cannot put off donning the face mask much longer.

6. What are you spending your stimulus check on?

It will be split between part of a mortgage payment and the fee charged by our new estate lawyer to get our wills and directives updated. (See #15.)

7. Do you have any special occasions that you will miss during this quarantine?

The plans canceled so far through July would fill a whole entry.

My birthday is next month, and I hadn't planned to host a party anyhow (because of rehearsals for Grand Magnolia), but I'm still thinking of ordering an almond cake from Sweet 16th, even though I might end up freezing 3/4 of it.

8. Are you keeping your housework done?

I'm able to tackle more of it because I'm home all day (and because I'm less okay with all the dust and grime now that I am), but done? Cue fit of derisive laughter.

9a. What movie have you watched during this quarantine?

Saw You Gave Me a Song: The Life and Music of Alice Gerrard Monday night, courtesy of the Southern Circuit Film Festival.

9b. What are you reading right now?

Good Omens and The Graham Kerr [aka the Galloping Gourmet] Cookbook

9c. What video game are you playing?

I consider Duolingo a video game. Diamond League, my dudes!

10. What are you streaming with?

YouTube/DailyMotion/Vevo, Spotify, and Hoopla (thank you, Nashville Public Library)

11. 9 months from now is there any chance of you having a baby? Oh hell no.

12. What's your go-to quarantine meal?

Fried rice, with ketchup and a scrambled egg added to whatever odd tasty bits can be scrounged from the fridge and the yard.

13. Is this whole situation making you paranoid?

It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.

14. Has your internet gone out on you during this time?

It's periodically flaky, especially when I'm juggling both home and work connections.

15. What month do you predict this all ends?

"All" being the pandemic, or broad "safer at home" measures? Being deeply cynical, I suspect social restrictions here in the South might ease up by summer solstice or even earlier -- resulting in the curve roaring up three or four or even more times before people truly finally register (if indeed they ever do) that it's not going to end until enough of us cooperate with scientific realities and enough policymakers get their heads out of their asses for an effective vaccine not only to be developed but manufactured and distributed in sufficient quantity to inoculate the general population regardless of socioeconomic means. Which I'm guessing will be more than 18 months out, and given how such things often take far longer than hoped for, it would not surprise me if it takes 36.

All that said, I'm still mulling over whether to continue my membership at the Y. I'm leaning towards no, because I imagine that I will feel for a long time like I'm unnecessarily tempting fate every time I use the pool or sauna or shared equipment, and it's going to feel less safe walking alone across downtown given how many more people are now in dire straits. But I am so much better about pushing myself when I'm a regular at their classes. I am also admittedly reluctant to cancel since I would have to pay a new joining fee if I ever wanted to return, and I wouldn't get the discounted rate I have now, and who knows what their offerings will be once things get back to some pretense of normal. But that is bad math on my part -- the new fee would likely not exceed two months of what I pay now, and the full rate not exceed the total otherwise wasted on two or three years of minimal use. And moreover, pressuring myself to resume going to the Y before I truly feel safe there because it's paid for is the sort of daft thing my brain doesn't need to be doing to me.

(So, yay meme for nudging me into spelling all this out instead of the half-baked dithering I'd applied to the situation thus far.)

16. First thing you're gonna do when you get off quarantine?

Get a haircut and a massage. (Yes, there are people I miss, but it's not like I saw them every week or every month pre-pandemic, and I'm not a hug-my-colleagues gal.)

17. Where do you wish you were right now?

I was supposed to be sea-kayaking near Charleston right around now. (Though I'm also side-eyeing the hotel's email, sent last week: "We thought you would have rebooked by now...")

18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most?

Swimming laps and English country dancing and waltzing. And right now I don't know if I will return to any of those after the pandemic ends, although in English maybe it will become okay to wear gloves outside of formals.

(I mean, I probably will. I can be as stupid as many people when it comes to disregarding risk because the prospect of missing out becomes too much to bear. But I also don't lack for other diversions -- or, for that matter, obligations. And there's also working to help save the republic . . . )

(Not incidentally, my stats as of Monday: More than 1300 postcards sent since mid-2017, including 123 for Jill Karofsky (Wisconsin Supreme Court). Plus additional cards sent in response to recommendations from Americans of Conscience, plus some self-initiated messages and calls in reaction to other feeds and sources.)


19. Have you run out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer?

No, although the current stash of TP is on the scratchier side than what we usually keep on hand.

20. Do you have enough food to last a month?

No. I like fresh produce and meat (and general variety) too much (just ask my friends in Detroit who had to put up with me craving salad when we were hitting dive bars). Although I also have trouble resisting sales, which is ironically why we have a good supply of paper towels and wipes (both purchased pre-lockdowns), along with three boxes of Hamburger Helper, a huge bag of tulsi leaves, and other testaments to past bouts of impulsiveness and ridiculousness.

This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/163223.html.

Via el_staplador

Last time I traveled abroad: May 2019 - Cancún - wedding celebration for my friends David and Josh

Last time I slept in a hotel: February 2020 - Lexington, Kentucky - wedding celebration for my big brother and his husband

Last time I flew in a plane: July 2019, returning from the Amherst Early Music Festival

Last time I took a train: same

Last time I took public transit: October 2019, Nashville, when I last took my old car to Markee for an oil change. I was able to pin down the month because Music City Transit had just been discontinued, which I learned while stomping across downtown in high heels.

Last time I had a houseguest: January, when big sister Suz and Uncle Harry stayed with us on their way from Detroit to New Orleans.

Last time I got my hair cut: January. I'm hoping to get another one before I have to renew my license, but if not, that's what sponge curlers and heated clamps are for.

Last time I went to the movies: February 29. Agrippina, live in HD. I was definitely one of the younger people there.

Last time I went to the theatre: January. Wendy Whelan and friends - contemporary dance at TPAC.

Last time I went to a concert: January. Reginald Mobley - countertenor recital at Blair.

Last time I went to an art museum: I was last in the office on March 13, the day after we opened Jitish Kallat: Return to Sender and Mel Ziegler: Flag Exchange. I sang at the Tennessee State Museum in December but didn't have time to look around. Maybe Cookeville's Doll Museum and History Museum with Rae, earlier in the fall? ... Oh, wait, I think I poked around the Country Music Hall of Fame some afternoon in January. (Life has been hectic. The winter was a blur.)

Last time I sat down in a restaurant: February - Chinatown, after Agrippina

Last time I went to a party: February - brunch hosted by big brother and his sweetie

Last time I played a board game: Um.... I legit do not remember. Maybe with someone's kids a few years ago. The last time I cleaned a board game was in November 2014, my last month of sanitizing toys as a volunteer at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. The last board game I enjoyed reading was a hilarious mailer from Lucia | Marquand titled So ... You Want to Publish an Art Book. It was shaped like an ampersand and started with these spaces:



This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/162411.html.

I was put in the right front of the dragon boat during practice tonight, and the coach emphasized that those of us in the first two rows needed to stay zen no matter what was being shouted at us, and that what might feel slow to us in the front would be impossible to keep up with in the back if we went too fast, because of how water works.

Oh, the metaphors to be expanded from that.

Last night, in a dream, I saw myself effortlessly doing splits in front of two co-workers. I've never successfully executed a split in my life. One doesn't need a psychology degree to unpack that one.

Work is providing solid entertainment on top of the crushing load. (I was at the office past 9 p.m. yesterday to meet today's deadlines.) During today's lunch break, a colleague plaintively asked what "Mercury in retrograde" meant, and twenty minutes later everyone at the table was discussing Chinese zodiac breakdowns (precipitated by me mentioning the anticolonial heft to a presentation about Eastern vs. Western zodiacs at a Philadelphia Museum of Art party last year, and then noting that I'm a metal dog).

More important, I am filled with glee at how our tug-of-war team for this Wednesday's tournament is coming together.

Last night, I could not settle down or focus after getting home, so I dove into Jackie Lau's Ultimate Pi Day Party and Ice Cream Lover. Props to whomever on Twitter recommended them to me, and props to my library for stocking them. Asian heroes! Bisexual and biracial heroine! Six-year-old foodies! Snark from sisters! Grandmas digging durian! (Can't stand the stuff myself, but the commentary is fab.)

Surprise gift from a friend. Notes from other friends. Scandalizing the BYM because I went grocery-shopping in a bikini. (I could not be arsed to put my work dress back on after practice, so to speak.) Doing laundry after midnight because of the leggings I want to wear tomorrow (keeping my right hip glued to the side of the boat = chafing). Getting one inbox below 500 unread. Plotting pies . . .

This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/156989.html.

Breakfast

pancakes - Joy of Cooking

bourbon-maple syrup (Private Selection)

eggs - scrambled (for the BYM)

eggs - over-easyish, on leftover white beans and cherry tomatoes with red onion dressing (adapted from Lidey Heuck's recipe [NYT] - I didn't have red wine vinegar or parsley, so I used balsamic vinegar and skipped the herb)

Gracenote Sumatra Tano Batak - I'd bought this coffee in Boston as a thank-you gift to a colleague. They were so blown away by it ("smoothest EVER") that they gave me some of the beans for my own household to try

Lunch

broccoli stir-fried with San-J gluten-free hoisin sauce (leftover from this year's Chinese New Year dinner, where my guests included a gluten-sensitive gent)

leftover roast chicken with leftover brown rice (in my case, mixed with leftover onion soup)

Dinner

Red lentil dal with aromatics - modified from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone based on what I had on hand

Flounder - roasted in oven with yellow tomatoes from yesterday's haul

Spinach - frozen, microwaved, mixed with sour cream and nutmeg and a dash of lime juice (because I didn't have lemon; epicurious recipe consulted for guidance)

Snack
Chocolate-covered frozen banana bites
(unsweetened Baker's bar with some sugar and allspice mixed in)





I should stress that I half-assed my way through this whole lineup -- especially the bananas -- with these factors in the mix:
(1) my sweetie arriving home a day earlier than I'd expected (this list would have been simpler and weirder had I been by myself)
(2) yay, my sweetie's home! I don't have to go anywhere today! (hence pancakes)
(3) using up things on hand, especially things past their best-by dates (chocolate) or beyond ripe (bananas, onion...)
(4) miles to go before I sleep (*glares at proofs and receipts*)

[These notes are both to talk back at the why-didn't-you monsters and to help Future Me out when she's trying to remember what worked today.]



This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/155376.html.

Here in Nashville, when someone says, "You look familiar," it's usually because they've seen me at First Unitarian Universalist Church or because I resemble a woman on NPT (one of these years I'll find out her name). At Wednesday's ballet reception, though (Bearded Iris beer and pimento cheese before a rehearsal for Swan Lake), it turned out the woman had seen me at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser, and that she and her companion were avid kayakers. That was a fun chat.

Working long hours, coping with a heel injury, and chasing after money owed. But also...

writing Postcards to Voters in Texas...

harvesting the first Prairie Fire pepper of the year

transplanting some of the seedlings I saved when thinning them out -- plenty still occupying wineglasses, yogurt tubs, and Cheerwine bottles

enjoying the roses

shrugging at the caterpillar-ravaged hollyhocks

eating salads, including this one from a new local cafe (D'Andrews):

Hope this finds you well, my dears.

This entry was originally posted at https://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/149945.html.

This NYT photo essay on wagashi is cracking me up -- elegant portraits of sweets with cats:

Sweets as Poignant as Poetry

This entry was originally posted at http://bronze-ribbons.dreamwidth.org/412080.html. I see comments at DW, IJ, and LJ (when notifications are working, anyway), but not on feeds.