In a few hours, I’ll be at the Women, Action & Media two-day conference sponsored by the Center for New Words and MIT’s Women’s Studies dept. Several of my fine compatriots will be in attendance, including Mighty Red Pen and Danielle Martin.
I’m so tired, though, that I anticipate a difficult time staying alert tomorrow. I guess we’ll see. Tune in for real-time updates at tapioca mobile tour.
My bite is a disaster. The front teeth line up with the bottom teeth now, which means I can’t bite my molars together. That, combined with the fateful paper folding machine accident I had last week (resulting in a fat lip, a loose front tooth and, apparently, a popped-off bracket) made for a miserable dental month.
Doc had his assistant re-glue a new bracket onto my front tooth, which was uncomfortable and tasted like chemicals. They removed the latex chain from all my front teeth (bummer — now they all might space out again) and gave me a new upper wire, which immediately pulled up the front tooth that had worked its way down when the bracket popped off. Painful. For five minutes.
Now, I have to return in two weeks. He’s concerned about my bite (duh, I can’t chew very well) but already I’ve noticed it’s improving. I’m still wearing horrible elastics in weird places to pull my jaw over to one side. I feel like a lab rat, every month getting some new contraption put on or taken off, or some new strategy tested. I’ve completely given up hope of these ever coming off: my newest goal is just to get them off by summer of 2008. A more realistic time frame might be, oh, Christmas, but I’ve learned not to hold my breath.
The moral of the story is even if they tell you treatment will only last a year, prepare to have them on for three. Especially if you’re, you know, older.
Lifehacker has debuted some great downloads today:
1. EYEJOT, which lets you send video messages (vmail, instead of email) with no downloading of software. Only crappy thing: although it embeds your video message in the body of an email, it doesn’t allow you to assign your own email address in the “from” section. Get on it, Eyejot.
2. CONSUMERIST’S 9-step beginner’s budget is an excel spreadsheet that helps manage your budget, and so is Pear Budget, although it’s still in beta.
3. Streaming TV Google download. Those kids at Google are always coming up with something. Now we can watch TV live from the interweb….about time, eh?
My premier amigo Ryry Montbleau sang on two radio stations yesterday debuting some new tunes, one of which dedicates a second verse to me. When I heard it via the internet late last night, it made me cry. Buckets. Because it paints me in a better light than I really am, although he disagrees with that analysis. I am so grateful for this good good good good friend, who houses me when I’m homeless/dumped/broke or all three, who drives boxes of my crap from Philly to Boston, and then lets me store said crap in his basement for over a year, to whom I can confide pending metaphysical crises, and with whom I can trade favorite Wilfred Owen lines via text message at 2 a.m. (Was it for this the clay grew tall? — O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth’s sleep at all?)
And now, some MOVIE RECOMMENDATIONS:
Saw the German film The Lives of Others tonight, which is more than excellent. Amazing acting! Well directed, well shot, well edited, great story, uplifting but not cheesy, etc. I could go on and on. Just go see it.
Saw Children of Men two weeks ago, which made me want to vomit on myself. DD enjoyed it, but I have no idea why. Aside from the quality of what’s-his-name’s acting (main character), the whole thing was horrible. But I never did like Hollywood sci-fi thrillers anyway.
Zodiac was totally scary, at first, but a quality horror flick. I don’t like horror flicks either, but this story was pretty solid, and the acting was very good. See it, if you’re into the genre.
The Queen was, well, it’s got Helen Mirren in it, so how could it not be awesome? Not the most exciting film ever, but very well done considering it’s based on an actual (recent) event, about actual people, using actual news footage. Did I mention it stars Helen Mirren? I’d still prefer to watch back episodes of Prime Suspect, but the Queen was worth two hours of my life.
Volver (did I write about this already?) was Penelope Cruz at her finest, and Almodovar in his usual eccentricity. For foreign film lovers only, though.
UPCOMING: Islander, The Last Mimzy.
PS – tomorrow morning I’m running my first 5K. It’s for the South Boston Boys & Girls’ Club. I’m hoping DD & I will have an edge over everyone else since we’ll be the only two there who aren’t hungover. St. Patrick’s Day parade follows, so go to South Boston if you’re interested.
WHEN: Saturday, March 17 @ 2.30p
WHERE: Greater New Bedford Vocational High School, 1121 Ashley Blvd. New Bedford
Sponsored by miracoalition.org
I’ve been having strange dreams, wherein my friend’s father has come back to life and draws cartoons during church, but doesn’t talk.
Meanwhile, I jogged two miles last night despite the bump on my head, the gash under my lip, the gash inside my lip, and the two loose front teeth, all casualties from my collision with a piece of outdated office equipment. I came very close to locking myself in the office bathroom yesterday and sobbing sobbing sobbing for hours (thanks, Sofia, for that suggestion), until I realized the bathrooms don’t have locks, so I went for a walk instead.
It’s a sad, twisted time of year, but it’s also nearly spring, and the prospect of riding my bike and playing tennis again is enough to keep me from losing it. That, and F.’s wonderful 2-month-old daughter, Kayen, who’s been gracing us with her presence the past few days, not to mention helping me build my biceps.
A baby video — no, a baby MUSIC video — will be posted soon.
Found out just now that my mom and her brother reconciled tonight after 12 years of an ugly family feud. I had just accepted the fact that my family had become a sad triangle — my mother, aunt and I — but now, lo and behold, Uncle Denny is back!
My Uncle Denny was the only one in our immediate family to successfully break into middle class. Like some of my friends’ dads in the 80s, he had a widescreen television, a full refrigerator, touch-lamps, and leather couches. In a single-family house. That he owned. Himself. This was a big deal to the pennyless educator/musician/writer/artist women of my family. But what made Uncle Denny really impressive to me, besides his nice car, pension, and full refrigerator, was his video equipment.
Uncle Denny owned a big VHS video camera. He shot videos constantly, and he could edit them. He even converted reel-to-reel footage to video of images from my infancy, and put soundtracks of soft rock underneath. When my mother married my first horrible stepfather (as opposed to my second stepfather, who was great), Uncle Denny was there with his video camera. I begged to use it, and, since I was 12 by then, he agreed. He showed me how to balance the thing on my shoulder and walk around with it. I was in love with it, filming everyone at the wedding as a means of distracting myself from the actual horrendous event.
But the cool part was when our family got together for a group photo, and my uncle told me to put the camera down. I laid it on a table but forgot to turn it off, so the wedding footage shows the camera being lowered, and then me running in front of it to stand with my family posing for still shots, but since the camera is hip-level, you can only see my grinning mug in the frame; everyone else’s heads got cut off.
I credit Uncle Denny for getting me into video. In honor of him, I now let young kids try out my large camcorder and learn what all the buttons do. I think of him every time I shoot something. And, this being the fourth year Tapioca Productions will compete in the 48-Hour Film Project, I’m grateful for the creativity my grandmother passed on to all of us, and the techy geekiness my uncle and I both share.
Hey, Uncle Denny, if you’re reading this, HI! I’m 28 now! I produce, direct, write, shoot, edit, and distribute multimedia content! I’m not such a skinny little dork anymore! My teeth are finally straight! I stopped wearing boy’s clothes a couple years ago, I have a boyfriend I’ve known for a decade, and my favorite color is orange! My next purchases include, in order: Women, Action & Media conference registration, a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, an extra-wide lens, a summer course in business concepts for modern media, Final Cut 5.1 Studio Pro (legal copy), the Sony A1 or similar 3CCD HD handheld camcorder. Aren’t you proud?!
The End.