i am driving a boat

Here we have it: Evidence that I'm kind of a girl, and not very fast, and half-deaf, but that I nevertheless manage to get myself into some fantastically pretty places, surrounded by cool smartypantses with unplaceable accents. :)

more sweden

Too road-fried to write anything much this morning, but here are a few more pix - they don't do it justice, though. Sweden's gorgeous in the fall.

I stayed with the ever-entertaining Matt & Lindy in Tarnaby on Tuesday night and woke up to this awesome view:

Then we took a boat trip out to the little island in the middle of the lake, which is adorable and famous and covered in the softest mossy carpet of all time - if only the whole world were so comfortable!

The previous day I did a little hike I'd attempted to do last time I was up here, but that time it was spring and I got sleeted off the top of the mountain. This time I was about a hundred feet from the top when I ran into these guys ^^^ and they were not interested in letting me by. Plus they made scary snorting noises, and they had big scary antlers and evil looks in their eyes. I turned around. (Took some video first, though - will post later. You'll be terrified!)

(Which reminds me of Matt's comment to me in the boat: "You're a bit of a girl sometimes, aren't you?" Understatement of the century.)
The mountain, Atoklimpen, is the Sami holy mountain - when you're up there you can see why. It's pretty awesome, and the views are astounding.
There's a trio of little huts at the trailhead - this one's my favorite.

More coming soon!

I'm in Ostersund now, heading toward Orebro. Cooking along.

xo

hmm

Dennis's article makes Gaspar Noé sound kinda Lars von Trier-like. I wonder what those two think of each other's movies?

picture time - sweden

I'm in Sweden. Here are a couple of pix from today:

Uppsala Cathedral, view from the huge pink castle.

Didn't turn off. Still regret it.

Possibly the world's largest structure made entirely of wood...and definitely a super-duper long bridge to the middle of a lake. Rattvik!

Jail. Uppsala.

Home, for tonight. Rattvik.

Queen Stars!

This is pretty awesome.

genius

The Onion nails it:

"8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place to Live"

Sample paragraph:

"Other incidents that prompted citizens to pick up and leave included the sight of garbage bags stacked 5 feet high on the sidewalk; the realization that being alone among millions of anonymous people is actually quite horrifying; a blaring siren that droned on and fucking on; muddy, refuse-filled puddles that have inexplicably not dried in three years; the thought of growing into a person whose meanness and cynicism is cloaked in a kind of holier-than-thou brand of sarcasm that the rest of the world finds nauseating; and all the goddamn people."

RF

Making me happy today:

linkage

Margo pointed this out...pretty neat. Post-it monsters! (I love the antlers and the huge teeth and the sad ones and the ones with trees growing out of their backs.)

And for those of us whose exteriors tend to reflect whatever chaos lurks within, a few moments of gazing at this might be soothing...beats organizing the sock drawer, anyhow.

becky reads

I'm not all that thrilled with this review, as often happens with reviews of things I really like. But don't let that put you off the book (Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray).

Headline aside, I wouldn't use the term "quirky" to describe it (or anything else, really - sort of allergic to the word, after years of forced exposure to Lonely Planet book covers).

It is odd, though, for sure: topics addressed include Gaelic mythology, anorexia, string theory and the eleventh dimension, rotten priests, diet pills, sonic torture, role-playing games, heartache, nerds and zombies.

Nothing not to like about that.

:)

picture time

Some photos from last week in Rye...

i eat food

Here is proof.

555 x 2: Now Even Dumber!

Remember the 555? Bunch of dudes and one spy (me) riding cheap, tiny, old, smoke-puking motorcycles from Portland to Knoxville, Tennessee? It's happening again, but crazier:

http://555portland.tumblr.com/

Several of the fellas are flying out to Detroit this weekend and buying bikes there (same rules). Should be total chaos, and fun. I can't go to Detroit because I'll be in Colorado for my (ahem) (five-year? ten-year? no one knows, it all happened so long ago) high-school reunion hayride dance-party thing. But I have a plan: I'm going to buy a 555 bike in Colorado while they're buying theirs in Detroit, then intercept them somewhere on that long lonesome road. We'll see how that goes. I'm picturing a high-speed U-turn mid-Wyoming.

So meanwhile, if anybody knows of any cheap, small, old motorcycles for sale in Colorado this week - call me!

xo

florida - that shit's crazy!

I wrote a hasty little riff on Carl Hiaasen's latest goofy-ass Floridian circus novel, up now at BookPage.

evidence

Karl's caption for this photo was something like, "Watch Aunt Becky break out in baby-allergy hives! Best birth control ever!" Which is kind of true. I post this merely to show that I am, in fact, much braver around the freshly hatched than I used to be. Look, I'm holding one! See? OK, here! Take it back! (Whew! That was scary.)

Actually, this one seemed harmless and is incredibly cute. It's Axel, one of my brand-new twin nephews (Zachary is the other one, equally adorable). They're about a week old here, and approximately the size of my feet. (Most of what you see here is blanket.) They don't even look real. They're also very calm, which is a trait I particularly like in babies. When they're all wrapped up in their tortillas and chilling in their comparatively enormous crib, they look like little cowpokes out on the prairie. In short, these mini dudes are cool.

the trouble with alphabetical order

Smoothest transition on my iTunes list: Calexico to Califone. Most jarring: a tie. Joy Division to Kenny Rogers? Janie Frickie to Jeff Buckley? or Wire to Wynonie Harris?

more un-bragging

The latest KBOO Movie Talk show is up....

RWE

Between 35-word reviews of absolutely everything in Seattle, I've been snacking on Robert D. Richardson's little book about my boyfriend Ralph Waldo Emerson, First We Read, Then We Write. (It's kind of a goofy title, and there's not much to it; Richardson's biography, The Mind on Fire, is the one to go for if you like RW like I do.) It's a week overdue from the library, so I'm giving it back today, but here are some of the parts I liked most:

"The way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent."

Yeah!! Ralph is a badass.

How'd he get to be such a badass? He blames nonconformity: "I never listened to your people's law, or to what they call their gospel, and wasted my time. I was content with the simple rural poverty of my own. Hence this sweetness."

Here's a good rule for those days when self-pity seems like a handy excuse for stagnation:

"Work and learn in evil days, in insulted days, in days of debt and depression and calamity. Fight best in the shade of the cloud of arrows."

This one's particularly relevant lately (especially on weekends):

"You must do your work before you shall be released."

This one too:

"I lose days determining how hours should be spent."

And this:

"Always that work is more pleasant to the imagination which is not now required."

But this sentence might be my very favorite one:

"Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can."

poop in space

I review Packing for Mars, Mary Roach's latest investigation into the disgusting package that is the human body, here, in BookPage.

Keywords: fecal popcorn, space toilet, NASA, in-helmet upchucking.

Enjoy!

on the radio

The latest KBOO Movie Talk half-hour is posted here. I remember going on and on about how much I liked the A-Team and the newest Judd Apatow movie. What is happening to me???

Update: KBOO blog posting.

what a drag it is...

I've managed to pull every muscle on the right side of my body from approx the waist down. I believe I accomplished this feat by walking. Just walking. Or possibly sitting. Or walking after having spent many months sitting, softening like a catered dish under the heat lamps of government work. (See how government is always somehow to blame? Uncanny!) Whatever the reason, walking, which used to be the easiest thing in the world, as easy as breathing, now hurts. Inconvenient, considering that this humble glob, once upon a time a travel glob, is suddenly a travel glob again, after many months, heat lamps, softening, etc etc. I'm writing about Seattle, from now until August. If anybody knows anything. All ears.

The good news is, sitting hurts more than walking. Also, I think I'm spending Saturday on a dirt bike, so whatever is wrong with me now will soon be masked by a more global, nonspecific sort of agony. Which I'm really looking forward to, actually.

Anyhow. Seattle! I'll try to post regular updates. And photos, if I can remember to bring my stupid camera with me. Yesterday I got to see my friend Abby, from NYU, who was in the area for the Sasquatch music festival. I dragged her and a friend all over town trying to discover which would make my hamstring (?) feel better faster, beer or donuts. (Both helped. And pinball removed the symptoms entirely.) Several times during the day, it struck me not for the first time that my job right now is flat-out hilarious. Granted, we're still in the honeymoon phase, before all the typing and the mapping and the 12-hour days that end in tears, but even so. This is pretty fun. I walk around (in excruciating pain, I remind you) checking out fun things to do so I can help other people have the best possible time when they finally get a chance to leave their desks. (Answer: Go to Shorty's. There. Now you don't need the book.)

It can't possibly last. But it is not a drag.