If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?

In a fit of money madness, I went ahead and purchased both cd's. And, what's worse, I feel no regret. I love them both. As a matter of fact, it's the happiest I've been in months. So fulfilled am I by both Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Arcade Fire that I may never stop listening to them. You wanna talk to me? You'll have to speak louder. I'm experiencing audial love.

I'm really not even asking for your input. I just thought I'd be polite.

Say you've got a coupon for a record store and you needed to use it before you moved thousands of miles away from said record store. What album would you buy? Clap Your Hands Say Yeah? The Arcade Fire? I'm leaning toward CYHSY, just to let you know.

I've been going on television-watching binges every few days in which I'll sit in front of the television for about five hours and watch almost anything. What I've really been enjoying, though, are commercials. I've started to become very curious about market research and advertising. So it was very timely when a friend coincidentally showed me this and this. Someone gets paid for these and I want in.

Djibouti has greater tangibility than does math

I don't get math. It's hard. I'm studying for the GRE and every time I go to study math, there are always numbers there that weren't there before. I'm going to fail. Is anybody good at math? Brother doesn't believe in Portugal. I don't believe in math.


This is Jack with Number One Kid. There's been a lot of discussion about Number One Kid lately.

The only consensus I've reached: EVIL!

MI or bust

I'm moving back to Michigan. I like Seattle a lot, but it's not liking me nearly as much. I'll be heading to Royal Oak to live with my friend Drew. At least that's the plan. Right now, I have no real clue what will happen in the next few weeks. There's just no telling.

I saw Salman Rushdie again this week. He was reading from his new novel, about which I have read mixed results. I like the way he writes, though some of the criticisms are probably warranted. I cannot recall these criticisms all too clearly at the moment, but know that they are reasonable (that is, about his writing in general - I have not read the new book, I'm just not surprised by some of the things being said). Earlier this week I was reading a book of Rushdie's essays, and in one his point was that the best literature coming out of India or being written by Diaspora-Indians is primarily being written in English. A few works written in native Indian languages were worth noting, but primarily it is in English that the best of Indian literature is written. So I wrote down a long list of books he considered to be among the best and I will, hopefully, find them in my local library (I'll be relying on the Capital Area District Library and probably some Metro Detroit library from now on. I'll really miss Seattle's library).

Among the author's Rushdie mentioned (for your general information and to all interested readers): Anita Desai, BC Chaterjee, Muhammad Iqbal, Banerjee, Premchand, Vikram Seth, Bapsi Sidhwa, and, of course, Rabindranath Tagore. There are more, but my notes are a little hard to decipher at the moment.

Fewer words, more pictures, relatively child friendly

Coffee is generally a good way to start the day, but not when it sends you vague, ominous threats. I was sort of hoping for a coffee drip that resembled the Holy Virgin, not Death. But I guess that's what you get when you're obsessed with genocide.

I realized I had a bunch of pictures I had yet to share with all my devoted fans. So bear with me as I attempt to make sense of the past few weeks, pictorially.


Bumbershoot!


With the exception of a few pictures of Sarah Vowell (which did not turn out) my pictures of Bumbershoot were primarily of DeVotchka, though this is, by no means, a terrible thing. So, feast your eyes!



Animals!
These are the animals I have lived with for the past month and a half. I'm not a dog person. I think the picture proves that.


But the Kitty and I get along rather well, though I did just clean up cat pooh from the computer room floor. Bad kitty.

International Fountain!

Definitely, the highlight of my day was cooking tofu

Seahawks lost, from what I hear. So did the Huskies. I'm no fan of football, not at all. Just thought I'd update all those Washington football fans who were, themselves, completely unaware.

Yesterday, as I walked along Rainier Ave toward the bus stop, I stepped on a piece of cardboard which made me slip and fall directly on my knee. I didn't know this, but I had completely skinned my knee. Furthermore, I was completely out of commission today due to the pain. And Christ Almighty what a boring day. There were reports that LA had lost power, but by the time I'd heard about it, things were working again. I didn't leave the house until nearly 4 o'clock (there it is again, that lovely word) to go buy ibuprofen, which subsequently bankrupted me for the rest of the week.

So I primarily layed around hoping I might drift off to sleep (who am I kidding) and thinking about all the movies and television shows I'd like to own on DVD. If anybody wants to get me a gift (you know, for being in pain or for Rosh Hashana) you could always get me Mr. Show or Arrested Development. I just wanted to throw that out there. For all two of my readers (who are, in order of greatest number of visits to The Crime of it All: me and Brother. And sometimes the elusive PK).

I'm Snooty Because I Insist on Referring to it as American Football

This is kind of fucked up.

I had two whole "meeting people to see if we can live together" meetings today. God I'm getting sick of these. But I liked the people, especially the first people. I know a lot of people like dead baby jokes, but it's a good sign when you first meet people if they use that as a criterion for liking you.

Otherwise not a whole lot can be said for the past few days. I had a job interview and it went well, and if they agree with me then they'll call me back for a second interview and I'll be that much closer to having a job. And I stared at a lot of walls. And I saw The 40 Year Old Virgin which was funny, as all reviews had promised it would be. I met my friend Ari at his house in the U District to have dinner at his co-op, and the food was excellent and lentil-riffic!

But I'm realy tired and I don't know why. I mean, it's only just before eight o'clock and I want to pass out. You know what's a funny word? O'clock. So Irish looking. Paddy O'Clock. Like Shaquile O'Neal. Or Michael O'Slattery.

And I have VH1 to thank for getting a Jewel song stuck in my head.

A mystery demystified

Also, the New York Times had this to add. I had been wondering.

Somehow I can't stop thinking of Ignatius J. Reilly

This hurricane business. As a human (emotions, concern, all the rest) I feel compelled to comment. As a student of sociology, I feel compelled to comment. But, as I am, I am certain that nothing new can be said (at least by me) that will bring anything into the world. I'm terribly curious as to how all this will get sorted out, and I hope it gets sorted out soon. I'm distressed at the slowness of response by Congress. My friend Drew points out that Congress managed to jump to action to save Terry Schiavo, but they can't be expected to convene for this. That's certainly disheartening. And I'm not entirely certain how I feel about making the number one priority of New Orleans police to stop the looting. Certainly, quelling violence should be a priority, but in this crisis situation it should not be a top concern what people are walking out of stores with. Yes, it's bizarre and criminal that they are stealing dvd players as well as food and water and deodorant. But I still say that rescuing those stranded is the number one concern. My biggest hang-up concerning my own argument (I'm fighting with myself) is regarding the shooting and raping and all that is going on. If more people were being saved, would that be happening, or should the priority be stopping this before saving people? I'm going in circles. Please, thoughts? Here's an interesting article. Well, it was only a matter of time, I suppose. Also, my friend Pete alerted me to this. It's not pleasant.

I still urge all my reader(s?) to donate. A friend of mine said he donated to the Church World Service, an organization that, while Christian, does not proselytize. Furthermore, Google has a link to donate to the Red Cross, which has collected (thus far) $1,377,558.00.

All of this is suddenly weighing very heavily on me.