Showing posts with label trains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trains. Show all posts
Apr 12, 2011
Apr 10, 2011
Apr 9, 2011
Apr 8, 2011
Apr 7, 2011
Apr 6, 2011
Apr 12, 2010
Listomania
Awesome. Louis Armstrong.
Buy me this book please.
I now know what a pot walloper is.
Nancy Pelosi, the Anna Wintour of Congress!
"Bank Failures Strike a Blow to City's Art"
DO clap between movements!
Y'all know how much I love maps. Here's an interesting one. All of USA could fit into New Hampshire!
The Yet-But
Buy me this book please.
I now know what a pot walloper is.
Nancy Pelosi, the Anna Wintour of Congress!
"Bank Failures Strike a Blow to City's Art"
DO clap between movements!
Y'all know how much I love maps. Here's an interesting one. All of USA could fit into New Hampshire!
The Yet-But
Sep 6, 2007
the northwest
So I am in Portland today until Monday. 'Took the train in. While I had never been on a train previously, I had built up pretty extensive and detailed images of what I wished it would be like from many cultural references, but specifically the oft-referenced-by-me 1956 gem of a film, Around the World in 80 Days. Unfortunately, the AmTrak Coast Starlight isn't as awesome. I wasn't playing whist with my neighbour; nor was I admiring the flocked wallpaper on the walls and the gold buttons on the porter's uniforms because none of that was there. And, the food in dining car was pretty lame. But, I still thoroughly enjoyed it, singing some Woody Guthrie songs in my head.
The hotel we're in here is pretty crazy. I prefer it to your average Hilton, but they are going a little overboard with the clashing patterns, trying so hard to prove their hipness. Free wireless, though, so yay. And, there's a cute little recycle bin! Oh, you 'ecochic' Portland. I have this idea to get on top of a lot of the ecoroofs here, but I don't think that's going to happen.
Ran into the Ice Cream Man this evening, as well--pretty exciting, but no ice cream was being given out yet and the folks didn't want to wait around. Hopefully, we'll be able to arrange a Automatic Stapler Ice Cream session (which was supposed to happen when the station basically collapsed).
Following are a few choice photos of the last several days in Seattle. For full size and additional photos, check out my flickr.
.
The hotel we're in here is pretty crazy. I prefer it to your average Hilton, but they are going a little overboard with the clashing patterns, trying so hard to prove their hipness. Free wireless, though, so yay. And, there's a cute little recycle bin! Oh, you 'ecochic' Portland. I have this idea to get on top of a lot of the ecoroofs here, but I don't think that's going to happen.
Ran into the Ice Cream Man this evening, as well--pretty exciting, but no ice cream was being given out yet and the folks didn't want to wait around. Hopefully, we'll be able to arrange a Automatic Stapler Ice Cream session (which was supposed to happen when the station basically collapsed).
Following are a few choice photos of the last several days in Seattle. For full size and additional photos, check out my flickr.
.
May 22, 2006
Gets me going.
What do you think about when you hear Rufus Wainwright's "Oh What a World?" I, for one, think of David 
Niven and the classic 1956 movie Around the World in 80 Days. Not just plain old handsome and sophisticated David Niven, however. The David Niven I think of when I hear this song is the Niven on an elephant being suave and racing to get back to London even though the train tracks haven't been completed as scheduled so his train cannot make it to the next destination. (phweh. that run-on sentence just had to get out of me). This is the Niven charming the Indian princess Aouda, asking her "Will you join me on the verandah? I understand they serve an outstanding lemon squash."
So much of Rufus' catalogue feels like classic movies to me. The end of his "Old Whore's Diet," wow! What do I see? Camels moving languidly up sand dunes, so slowly, so up-and-down that one only sees the humps of the
camel every few seconds or so and in such a hot environment that everything is blurred like the world is melting away. You know what I am talking about? When it is just that hot that things look all curvy, all vague. The camels are slowly ascending the dunes towards a sea where an armada is arriving. Some galleons, too. Perhaps Lawrence of Arabia fits in there somewhere. But one thing is for sure, Rufus is riding one of those camels, slowly bumping up the sand, and, as the sweat drips of his brow, his voice becoming louder, stronger, more urgent. It's the end of the movie, he reaches the top of the mountain of sand, and end. That's it.
Rufus may be some people's Gay Messiah, but he will forever be my David Niven in a hot air balloon landing in India, taking an elephant to the camel, where he will travel until the end of the movie when he reaches the water. This is what "gets me going in the morning."
Niven and the classic 1956 movie Around the World in 80 Days. Not just plain old handsome and sophisticated David Niven, however. The David Niven I think of when I hear this song is the Niven on an elephant being suave and racing to get back to London even though the train tracks haven't been completed as scheduled so his train cannot make it to the next destination. (phweh. that run-on sentence just had to get out of me). This is the Niven charming the Indian princess Aouda, asking her "Will you join me on the verandah? I understand they serve an outstanding lemon squash."So much of Rufus' catalogue feels like classic movies to me. The end of his "Old Whore's Diet," wow! What do I see? Camels moving languidly up sand dunes, so slowly, so up-and-down that one only sees the humps of the
camel every few seconds or so and in such a hot environment that everything is blurred like the world is melting away. You know what I am talking about? When it is just that hot that things look all curvy, all vague. The camels are slowly ascending the dunes towards a sea where an armada is arriving. Some galleons, too. Perhaps Lawrence of Arabia fits in there somewhere. But one thing is for sure, Rufus is riding one of those camels, slowly bumping up the sand, and, as the sweat drips of his brow, his voice becoming louder, stronger, more urgent. It's the end of the movie, he reaches the top of the mountain of sand, and end. That's it.Rufus may be some people's Gay Messiah, but he will forever be my David Niven in a hot air balloon landing in India, taking an elephant to the camel, where he will travel until the end of the movie when he reaches the water. This is what "gets me going in the morning."
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