Walking to the subway stop this morning I saw a 3″x4″x4″ block of wood on the ground. For some reason it gave me an itch so I picked it up, fished a sharpie out of my bag and added to it. Then I left it on a convenient nearby ledge. Then I took a couple of pictures of it.

Itch scratched, I went off to work.

…when grandmom spoils the grandkids.

Here’s my mom plying Lehigh with the no-added sugar apple pie she made yesterday.

I took her and my sister to Queens for Thai food yesterday. Bit of an un-traditional TD meal, but it was quite yummy. Then we went back to my Mom’s apartment and had homemade pies.

The day was subdued, but gratifying.

This morning was disturbing, however. I woke to news that a former student of mine, a young man who just graduated from Bard has died. Shocking news, and deeply saddening.

Another dream about finding a new place to work/live last night. Clearly I’m deep down dissatisfied with something.

D and I had dinner at Ony Noodle on Sixth Ave. and I was horrified to read the sign on its door, since it spoke of their impending closing. I love eating ramen, and there are very few places in New York that do it right. Ony is one of those places, and I always found it a comfortable, mid-range resturant, where I could eat by myself or with frinds for not a ton of dough. I’ll miss it, and its intriguing demon mascot.

Talking about dining reminds me that I’ve joined the Incendiary Food Log Community and as such have pledged to post everything that I eat for the next six days, publicly. So, in the last 24 hours:

Sauteed meat and noodle dish at Ony (can’t remember the name)
One glass red wine
Half pint of Zabaglione ice cream and blackberrry sorbet, mixed
Three cups coffee with milk
One cinnamon croissant with butter
One Bowl fruit salad
Three Thai Spring rolls
One Order Chicken Massaman curry with jasmine rice.

Here’s the info on the community: http://community.livejournal.com/incendiaryfood/profile

…to yesterday’s meme/quiz:

1 The Zombies: Imagine the Swan
2 Bobbie Gentry: He made a woman out of me
3 Talking Heads: Psycho Killer
4 Holly Williams: Why do I love you?
5 The Negro Problem: Mahnsanto
6 Steely Dan: FM
7 Marshall Crenshaw: Blues is King
8 X: Year One
9 Dangerdoom: Badda Bing
10 The Pixies: Palace of the Brine
11 The Prodigy: Firestarter
12 Pere Ubu: Drinking Wine Spodyody
13 The Magnetic Fields: Long-Forgotten Fairytale
14 The Negro Problem: The Meaning of Everything
15 The Pixies: Gigantic
16 Abbey Lincoln: The Street of Dreams
17 The Ramones: Sheena is a Punk Rocker
18 Roxy Music: Re-make, Re-Model
19 The Magnetic Fields: Grand Canyon
20 The Ramones: Go Mental

Unguessed answers are bold.

Folks only got half.

All in all this is pretty damn hard. But I’m surprised no one got the second Pixies’ or Ramones’ songs. I’ve actually posted the the lyrics to Street of Dreams here before. And despite my advocacy and the fact that he’s a humpy, bearish singer, it’s clear that no-one is listening to Stew/The Negro Problem. Ah well.

Thanks for playing and congrats to all our experts

Here’s how the meme works: I put my shuffle on random, and pull lyrics from the first twenty songs that come up. You identify those songs. I don’t cheat by skipping songs and you don’t cheat by googling lyrics, ok?

(Word of warning – I autofill my shuffle from a playlist called “mostly favorites” meaning that there are multiple albums by the same artist on there. So odds are that some of these lines will come from the same artists, maybe even the same album)

1 The sadness that I felt was hard on my eyes and the truth on my face was hard to disguise

2 Momma worked in the Big House and Daddy he worked for the county

3 Realisant mon espoir, Je me lance vers la gloire…

4 I don’t wanna give myself away, well, I’d still give myself away

5 Everybody ought to have a mother or a brother who could take them on a magical trip

6 Nothin but blues and Elvis, and sombody else’s favorite song

7 And the joke’s on you, if you don’t know it’s true

8 They don’t feel a thing! no dolls no debutantes no desperate living class

9 Then gave him a cold shoulder for a hour and told him take a gold shower, for fakin funk, soul power… stocky, short and cocky

10 I count about a million head, all the time there’s a motion

11 I’m the bitch you hated, filth infatuated

12 Be sure to be obedient

13 You said there’s nothing to explain – in every life a little rain, et cetera

14 I watched the Oprah Winfrey Show today – I never thought the world would end this way

15 What a big black mess, what a hunk of love

16 Dreams broken in two can be made like new

17 Well New York City really has it all

18 Next time is the best time we all know

19 And you used to love me that way so you know how to love me that way

20 I killed my family, they thought I was an oddity

As correct answers are given lyrics will go back to plain text. Any unguessed answers posted tomorrow –

I Used to think it was a blessing when I could remember my dreams, providing me with valuable glimpses of my turbulent inner life. These days I’m not so sure. My dreams alternate between two scenarios: My wanderings around some sort of college campus and its surrounding environs. Sometimes I’m looking for a place to live, sometimes I’m organizing something. I often take note of the foods available in the cafeteria or surrounding shops. It’s always very clear that this is campus and usually I’m thinking I could make this work. Sometimes I have to move out of the dormroom or studio that I currently occupy and I’m wondering about where to go next. The second scenario is a zombie attack. There is the constant assessment of escape possibilities, triage of victims and relentless chase that you may be familiar with from any number of living dead movies. This is such a constant for me that it no longer is terrifying so much as it is draining, given the sense of no rest and fleeing from place to place for the entire length of the dream.

Last night I alternated between the two kinds and woke up with no sense of rest at all. And I feel like this has been going on with me for months and months now. Always the two options, neither of them providing a resting spot.