Nina Zero

I have begun rereading my Nina Zero novels, a series of five little volumes by Robert Eversz. He gave us a twist on noir, by making his heroine a paparazzo. It is also obviously a feminist project for him, but he keeps it sharp and fun. I don’t usually read series fiction, but when I read my first Nina Zero novel, I sort of crushed hard on her. This is the first book in the series, and this is the first paragraph.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I don’t have any experience writing stuff down. I like to take photographs. That’s how I see things. Don’t know how to go about telling my life story. Most days I spend staring at photographs taped to the walls, thinking about the way things turned out. Some of the photographs are self-portraits I took my last month on the outside, when everything started to change. The way I looked, how I thought, everything. There’s a picture of my friend Cass, then one of my mom, took it the last time I had dinner home. A couple newspaper and magazine clippings are up there too. They remind me how infamous I’ve become, how a nice girl like me wound up in a place like this.

-- “Shooting Elvis” by Robert M. Eversz

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

morning mow

The temperature was just shy of 80 degrees, and the grass was fairly dry, only a tad dewy, and so I decided to do a morning mow. I had my reservations, because there were only the merest wisps of cloud in the sky - no relief from the bright sunlight. I had not forgotten from my experience of years past that the sunlight is the thing to dread, more than the temperature itself. I had to give it a whirl.

My old lesson was not ill-learned. This mow was not really torturous, but I could tell that it would have been better to do it in the evening, beneath the shade of the neighbors' trees. I'm glad to have it done. And now the cats will not have to wait until late the evening to be let outside.

* * *

1720

Sammy resumes his whining, and this time I let him go, and then I let the other cats go. The temperature is below ninety. The skies are thoroughly overcast. I shake my head in the realization that I would have had a more comfortable mow if I had waited. But who would have bet on this outcome? Such funny weather. I just hope it doesn't start to rain, now that I have let the cats outside. We got our needed rain yesterday. I say, let the cats run free for a good week. With the temperature moderating for these next few days, I plan to take the cats off of starving rations, to let the enjoy the nights and the morning better. I don't feel as pressured to get them inside, not until the next heat-spike.

A Coup in Egypt?

It looks like the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood is being given a run for its money in Egypt, as the army appears to be getting behind the protesters.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

CAIRO — Egypt’s top generals on Monday gave President Mohamed Morsi 48 hours to respond to a wave of mass protests demanding his ouster, declaring that if he did not, then the military leaders themselves would impose their own “road map” to resolve the political crisis.

Their statement, in the form a communiqué read over state television, plunged the military back to the center of political life just 10 months after they handed full power to Mr. Morsi as Egypt’s first democratically elected leader.

The communiqué was issued following an increasingly violent weekend of protests by millions of Egyptians angry with Mr. Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backers. It came hours after protesters destroyed the Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo.

-- New York Times

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This looks promising, but the Middle East nations have a way of turning every step forward into three steps backward.

Michael Jackson

The blackening of Michael Jackson's legacy continues, as the FBI reportedly has opened up its files on the star. He supposedly was a very lusty fellow. And here is an excerpt from taped interviews with former employees Philip and Stella LeMarque.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Stella: Boy A came to see Michael. The parents were in the room smoking pot with a five-month-old baby. At the time he was crazy about Boy A and his little brother.

Philip: Michael likes them young. Boy A was getting too old. The first time Michael saw Boy A in the movie, XXXX XXXX, he told Boy A he wanted to meet him.

Investigator: Wait a minute. She (an ex-member of Jackson’s staff) makes deals with the parents?

Philip: She makes the deals with the parents to bring everybody... the parents with the kids to the ranch. If there are five Michael takes the one he wants.

Investigator: You’re saying (the Jackson staffer) brings a selection of kids for Michael to choose from? Like a pimp?

Philip: Yes.

In another excerpt Philip tells how he found Jackson with his hands in the pants of another child after being woken up at 2am to make the star French fries.

And Stella says she saw Jackson kiss a boy in his cinema “like lovers” with his mother sitting just two or three rows in front.

-- ONTD

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

* * * *

July 4, 2013

Now some mainstream reporting has come out arguing that the story about the FBI files is bullshit, emphasizing that the source was a tabloid. Nevertheless, if the ONTD crowd is any indication, the debate - did he or didn't he? - keeps raging.

{ONTD}

Sylvia

We have a report that Sylvia had a slutty side. This is surprising news to me. Recall that I have thought the sexual repression of her era might be a big factor in her personal hang-ups. Obviously, I need to make more serious progress in her journals, or is it possible that she kept her fornication out of it? I hope not.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

As many of her college contemporaries have since reported, the feverish Plath not only sought kudos for her studies, she also sought the role of reigning Smith-girl nympho. (Sorry, fem-crits, but the 1950s pulp-fiction term seems oddly appropriate.) Readers of The Bell Jar will not be surprised to hear of Plath’s intense adolescent sexual curiosity or her close-to-febrile desire, even in high school, to lose her virginity at the first opportunity. Plath seems to have viewed sexual defloration—followed by energetic if not acrobatic promiscuity—as a sort of academic prerequisite to becoming a serious writer.

-- Terry Castle at The New York Review of Books

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Castle even relates that one of her lovers revealed "that along with reading Plato together, erotic spanking was a part of their experimental lovemaking." She sounds like my kind of girl.

Daily Fun

Hyacinth Macaws!!

( Read more... )