My weekend, and other reviews
Nov. 1st, 2004 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alonewiththemoonMy weekend actually started on Wednesday, since M and I took some vacation time together. First stop, Liquid to have my red hair replenished. Then I went to the MAC counter. It was a girly day!
I picked up one of MAC's holiday pallettes, the one called crystal in a somewhat inappropriately dark amber-brown case. It's got six eyeshadows and a mini-brush. I don't know how I have lived without the color retrospeck all this time--it's a perfect light ivory sparkle, awesome with just black eyeliner. Pink freeze is also a good find, although the concept of pink eyeshadow is a little odd to me.
Thursday M and I went to a costume party hosted by my dance teacher. I wore a Jeannie (as in I Dream of) costume and a blond wig. There was someone else there in the same costume, but we knew each other so it was amusing. I do have photographic evidence of me in pink, which perhaps I will share. Or perhaps not.
Friday was our anniversary. We spent the afternoon running around buying party supplies, and then went out for a lovely dinner at Gargoyles in Davis Square. I had seared tuna with olive tapenade, and M had some kind of pork dish with excellent seasoning. You all don't get to hear any more about the rest of my night.
Saturday was the big party, and it was loads of fun! Thanks so much to everyone who attended, especially those who helped with setup and clean up, and big thanks also to the hosts of the afterparty. It made M and me very happy to celebrate with all our friends. Sunday was spent recuperating, and discovering the unpleasant fact that I have some sort of cold. At least it held off until the end of the weekend. We had about 20 or so trick or treaters come to the door. The best costume was a girl dressed like a reindeer, because I would have done something dorky like that as a kid too. I can only hope that she was pretending to be an actual deer all night.
There was/is a downside to the weekend, though.
We noticed that Pan had started acting very lethargic around Thursday afternoon. He has always had much less energy than Seti (who is a very energetic ferret), but he would walk part way across the floor and just flop down on his belly as though he were too tired to move any further, which in fact he was. I poked and prodded him and could feel that his spleen is enlarged. An enlarged spleen and hind limb weakness are very general indicators of something not being right with a ferret, but unfortunately they are very non-specific, so it could be anything from the flu to lymphoma. I think one of his lymph nodes is also enlarged, but it's hard to tell because ferrets have fatty deposits in the same place as their lymph nodes that feel pretty similar. We have a vet appointment for Thursday morning--I hate waiting, but I want him seen by our regular vet, and that was the first appointment she had open. Pan is eating, drinking, urinating and pooping just fine, so I think we're okay to wait, but it's terrible to see him so weak. He's very alert when he is awake though, his eyes are bright and he clearly *wants* to do ferrety stuff, he just doesn't have the energy. He's always had some GI issues, so I kind of suspect maybe his ulcers are acting up again, but that doesn't totally make sense because he is eating well (just not enough, because he's sleeping so much). Anyway, I guess we'll find out more on Thursday.
I picked up a copy of the NME's special Goth issue. It's a collection of reprints of articles, reviews, interviews, etc from NME and Melody Maker from 1979 to I think 1991 or so. The earlier years were tremendously interesting reading, seeing UK goth sort of coalesce and seeing how the UK media reacted to it. I had no idea that Bauhaus were so hated by the press. Joy Division, on the other hand, were worshipped and inspired some fine writing, including a really beautiful elegy piece for Ian Curtis that talked about how the music of the band will never have the chance again to stand purely on its own, it will always have his death coloring one's hearing. There are also great interviews with Nick Cave that made me miss the good old days of his career. By the end of the magazine I was a bit frustrated with the extended coverage of what boiled down to essentially the Cure, the Cult, the Mission, the Sisters, and All About Eve, with an occasional dash of the Cocteau Twins, but I realize this magazine was probably focused on goth bands that non-goths might listen to, otherwise probably not enough people would buy it. The entire Batcave scene was dismissed early on as "crap goth," so obviously this wasn't meant to be a detailed history or sociology of the movement. Anyway, I'd be happy to lend the magazine out should anybody be interested in a walk down memory lane.
And speaking of Nick Cave...
I picked up the new Nick Cave double CD on Thursday. I haven't listened to each CD with full attention yet, so I'm sure I will have more firm opinions later, but my initial impression is not as bad as I had feared. I quite liked bits of Abbatoir Blues, with the exception of Nature Boy which is not very good. The album as a whole seemed to me sound-wise most similar to Tender Prey. The Lyre of Orpheus I am not so sold on yet. I like the title track, which could have fit in on Murder Ballads. Perhaps there is some correlation between the death toll of a particular Nick Cave song and its overall quality, I don't know. Don't like Breathless at all. Nick Cave seems to have a new fascination with yer basic verse-chorus-chorus-breakdown-chorus-verse-chorus pop structure, which combined with the choir is rather unfortunate. There is some interesting instrumentation going on though; one thing I do like about Breathless is the flute arrangement at the beginning. I suspect I'll make my own CD out of the good tracks on each album. All in all, it certainly isn't going to become my favorite Nick Cave album, but it's not down there with Nocturama, either.
Perfect blue skies, trees in their autumnal fancy dress, leaves floating through the air around me as I walked down the bike path in silence, some unidentifiable hawk circling overhead--I give my walk to Alewife this morning five stars!
Pretty blah. The main motivating factor for me to go to work today is that I forgot to update my direct deposit forms when I changed bank accounts earlier this month, so I am trying to wrestle a check out of payroll so that I can pay my rent, the electricity, all that kind of thing. They can't give me a new check until they are informed by the bank that the deposit failed, which apparently the banks tend to do on Tuesday mornings. God only knows how long it will take to get the check cut. I give being back at work this morning maybe two stars at most.
I picked up one of MAC's holiday pallettes, the one called crystal in a somewhat inappropriately dark amber-brown case. It's got six eyeshadows and a mini-brush. I don't know how I have lived without the color retrospeck all this time--it's a perfect light ivory sparkle, awesome with just black eyeliner. Pink freeze is also a good find, although the concept of pink eyeshadow is a little odd to me.
Thursday M and I went to a costume party hosted by my dance teacher. I wore a Jeannie (as in I Dream of) costume and a blond wig. There was someone else there in the same costume, but we knew each other so it was amusing. I do have photographic evidence of me in pink, which perhaps I will share. Or perhaps not.
Friday was our anniversary. We spent the afternoon running around buying party supplies, and then went out for a lovely dinner at Gargoyles in Davis Square. I had seared tuna with olive tapenade, and M had some kind of pork dish with excellent seasoning. You all don't get to hear any more about the rest of my night.
Saturday was the big party, and it was loads of fun! Thanks so much to everyone who attended, especially those who helped with setup and clean up, and big thanks also to the hosts of the afterparty. It made M and me very happy to celebrate with all our friends. Sunday was spent recuperating, and discovering the unpleasant fact that I have some sort of cold. At least it held off until the end of the weekend. We had about 20 or so trick or treaters come to the door. The best costume was a girl dressed like a reindeer, because I would have done something dorky like that as a kid too. I can only hope that she was pretending to be an actual deer all night.
There was/is a downside to the weekend, though.
We noticed that Pan had started acting very lethargic around Thursday afternoon. He has always had much less energy than Seti (who is a very energetic ferret), but he would walk part way across the floor and just flop down on his belly as though he were too tired to move any further, which in fact he was. I poked and prodded him and could feel that his spleen is enlarged. An enlarged spleen and hind limb weakness are very general indicators of something not being right with a ferret, but unfortunately they are very non-specific, so it could be anything from the flu to lymphoma. I think one of his lymph nodes is also enlarged, but it's hard to tell because ferrets have fatty deposits in the same place as their lymph nodes that feel pretty similar. We have a vet appointment for Thursday morning--I hate waiting, but I want him seen by our regular vet, and that was the first appointment she had open. Pan is eating, drinking, urinating and pooping just fine, so I think we're okay to wait, but it's terrible to see him so weak. He's very alert when he is awake though, his eyes are bright and he clearly *wants* to do ferrety stuff, he just doesn't have the energy. He's always had some GI issues, so I kind of suspect maybe his ulcers are acting up again, but that doesn't totally make sense because he is eating well (just not enough, because he's sleeping so much). Anyway, I guess we'll find out more on Thursday.
I picked up a copy of the NME's special Goth issue. It's a collection of reprints of articles, reviews, interviews, etc from NME and Melody Maker from 1979 to I think 1991 or so. The earlier years were tremendously interesting reading, seeing UK goth sort of coalesce and seeing how the UK media reacted to it. I had no idea that Bauhaus were so hated by the press. Joy Division, on the other hand, were worshipped and inspired some fine writing, including a really beautiful elegy piece for Ian Curtis that talked about how the music of the band will never have the chance again to stand purely on its own, it will always have his death coloring one's hearing. There are also great interviews with Nick Cave that made me miss the good old days of his career. By the end of the magazine I was a bit frustrated with the extended coverage of what boiled down to essentially the Cure, the Cult, the Mission, the Sisters, and All About Eve, with an occasional dash of the Cocteau Twins, but I realize this magazine was probably focused on goth bands that non-goths might listen to, otherwise probably not enough people would buy it. The entire Batcave scene was dismissed early on as "crap goth," so obviously this wasn't meant to be a detailed history or sociology of the movement. Anyway, I'd be happy to lend the magazine out should anybody be interested in a walk down memory lane.
And speaking of Nick Cave...
I picked up the new Nick Cave double CD on Thursday. I haven't listened to each CD with full attention yet, so I'm sure I will have more firm opinions later, but my initial impression is not as bad as I had feared. I quite liked bits of Abbatoir Blues, with the exception of Nature Boy which is not very good. The album as a whole seemed to me sound-wise most similar to Tender Prey. The Lyre of Orpheus I am not so sold on yet. I like the title track, which could have fit in on Murder Ballads. Perhaps there is some correlation between the death toll of a particular Nick Cave song and its overall quality, I don't know. Don't like Breathless at all. Nick Cave seems to have a new fascination with yer basic verse-chorus-chorus-breakdown-chorus-verse-chorus pop structure, which combined with the choir is rather unfortunate. There is some interesting instrumentation going on though; one thing I do like about Breathless is the flute arrangement at the beginning. I suspect I'll make my own CD out of the good tracks on each album. All in all, it certainly isn't going to become my favorite Nick Cave album, but it's not down there with Nocturama, either.
Perfect blue skies, trees in their autumnal fancy dress, leaves floating through the air around me as I walked down the bike path in silence, some unidentifiable hawk circling overhead--I give my walk to Alewife this morning five stars!
Pretty blah. The main motivating factor for me to go to work today is that I forgot to update my direct deposit forms when I changed bank accounts earlier this month, so I am trying to wrestle a check out of payroll so that I can pay my rent, the electricity, all that kind of thing. They can't give me a new check until they are informed by the bank that the deposit failed, which apparently the banks tend to do on Tuesday mornings. God only knows how long it will take to get the check cut. I give being back at work this morning maybe two stars at most.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 08:50 am (UTC)Awwww, yieeeah. Still smokin'. Good for you guys, you guys.
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Date: 2004-11-01 08:53 am (UTC)MIA apologies and Best Wishes for Seti
Date: 2004-11-01 09:00 am (UTC)*hugs* and good thoughts for Seti - hopefully all will be well.
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Date: 2004-11-02 07:03 am (UTC)*hug