HAY UNA DISCOTECA POR AQUI?: OK, I’m just a country mile behind the world, but I am listening to the Pet Shop Boys’ Fundamental for the first time and it is made of gold-plated awesome. …And yes, I know what it’s about, they’re not exactly being subtle. As Quentin Crisp and Jesus might say, no one escapes my love. Read more

AND HIS MOTHER GOES TO MEETINGS, WHILE HIS FATHER PULLS THE MAID: Uh, on a totally different note from the posts below, I’ve recently become addicted to Desperate Housewives. (Some spoilers for s2 follow.) I’ve only watched the first two seasons–and yeah, the second season is weaker than the first (more on that in a moment), but really, this is a great series. It’s really, really rare that I find a TV show–or really anything popular, sigh–that I think genuinely... Read more

THE ART OF WAR: LEE MILLER. Lee Miller is my favorite photographer ever, which probably makes her my favorite visual artist ever. (I have this theory that photography is the visual art most like literature, just as architecture is the visual art most like music. Yeah, now’s not the time to explain.) This post is all stemming from a conversation w/Ratty while I was in Princeton over New Year’s. She started as a fashion photographer and Surrealist. But this post... Read more

THIS WAY FOR THE GAS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Three very scattered points on this excellent collection of short fiction by a Polish Holocaust survivor. 1. This book is a lot better than it has to be. With any book about actual horrors, the subject matter alone will command attention. This Way for the Gas is spare and almost affectless, which I guess you’d expect, but an individual sensibility and talent comes through very strongly. 2. There’s a lot of portrayal... Read more

With a bit of a mind-flipYou’re into the blogwatch… Awesome article on Hitchcock’s music. Via A&L; Daily. “Surviving (and thriving) on $12,000 a year.” Via Ratty. I agree with her that the last section is the most striking. Read more

KITCHEN ADVENTURES: CHEESE SALES. I really need to learn that “on sale” is not the same as “cheap.” Nonetheless! First of all, I stuffed these cute little Mexican sweet peppers with Gruyere. Basically, I just snipped off both ends of a lot of peppers, stuffed ’em with wodges of Gruyere, rubbed olive oil on the peppers, and roasted them in a 375 oven for a while–I forget how long–stirring once. This was delicious, but I had expected the peppers to... Read more

ACECAKES: Oscar Wilde, poet, playwright, gay icon and deathbed convert to Catholicism, has been paid a rare tribute by the Vatican. His aphorisms are quoted in a collection of maxims and witticisms for Christians that has been published by one of the Pope’s closest aides. … Father Sapienza said that he wanted to “stimulate a reawakening in certain Catholic circles”. Christianity was intended to be a radical cure, not a humdrum remedy for the common cold: “Our role is to... Read more

In love’s blogwatch domain… Family Scholars: “Should we two mommies tell our child who our sperm donor was?“ ShoeBlogs: “With these upon your feets the Donatists and the Pelagians would not stand the chance.” The Rat: A drink for the Withnail & I drinking game! Read more

THE WITHNAIL & I DRINKING GAME. ZOMG. “The rules for the Withnail and I drinking game are very simple… just match Withnail drink-for-drink….” Read more

The temple bell dies awayThe scent of flowers in the eveningIs still tolling the bell–Basho Via Claw of the Conciliator Read more