Martin Amis

"Dislike and resentment of younger writers is something fairly universal among writers ... My father said to me that when a writer of twenty-five puts pen to paper he’s saying to the writer of fifty that it’s no longer like that, it’s like this. The older writer, at some point, is going to lose touch with what the contemporary moment feels like."

-- Martin Amis

Food

Whoa, what a happy surprise! When was the last time that a food item gave me a delightful thrill? To answer that question, I might have to go back to when mom was still with us. Well, we have made a happy discovery today. When Pop and I went to H.E.B. to finish our grocery shopping last Friday, as I was picking up the frozen, microwaveable bags of spanish rice, I saw something new. It is fried rice, complete with a few peas and carrots and even some scrambled eggs. In truth, I have been keeping an eye open in hopes of finding something to recapture the magic of my old favorite dish of chicken fried rice, for which I developed a bit of an addiction back in Austin. My hopes were not high when I put this frozen, microwaveable bag of fried rice in the cart, as one assumes that nothing great will ever come out of a microwave oven. I was mainly hoping that it would prove to be a decent alternative to the spanish rice that I have been eating for at least five years. I had some for lunch, and after my first few bites, I was sorry that I did not pick up a few bags, and I do not know if I can wait another two weeks when we get groceries again. So tasty good! I don't even need to put soy sauce on it. It is seasoned beautifully. I could eat the rice by itself, for a snack, as though it were a sweet desert, perhaps to fill me up late in the evening when I am filling a little hungry before going to bed, washed down with a little tea. I had chicken with it, and that probably is the best accompaniment to make a full meal out of it, but none of that breaded stuff - only the skinless, boneless breasts, pure chicken meat. I do not doubt that my enthusiasm will moderate, but right now, I feel like I could eat a bag every day. Now, it is still true that nothing great ever came out of a microwave oven, and I would easily prefer that chicken fried rice that I ate pretty regularly in that Asian restaurant in Austin, but, God, that was good!

Moderating

It is fairly common for people to become radical in their political outlook in their adolescence and then grow to moderate their beliefs. People have expressed this evolution of attitudes in a lot of ways. I just came across one that I kind of like and I want to keep.

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

"Since then, my political worldview has steadily grown and evolved and refined itself. I no longer pine for revolution. I don’t hate capitalism or the state as if those were the names of the people who killed my dog. My politics still lean to the left, just not quite so far, and now I view economic and political systems with an engineer’s eye, rather than in the stark colours of moral outrage."

-- Aurora Dagny at The McGill Daily

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

It is hard to age and not become more modest in our expectations, as the innocence and passion of youth give way to a thickening waistline and a deepening sense of tragedy.

Pop

Pop is spoiling my quiet Sunday afternoon, choosing my reading session as a good time to wash his clothes. It sours my whole mood. I may as well try to read and study next to a busy factory or a construction site. I am inclined to overlook this rude intrusion once, but if it happens again and begins to look like a new routine, I might have to do some of my own laundry during his quality TV-time in the evenings. Though, it is not like I can win such a pissing match, since he is not nearly as bothered as I am by extraneous noise, which I suppose is a benefit of never having felt any need to actually think with your brain and so to come to appreciate a beautiful quiet, as I suppose you might actually come to abhor the silence, and maybe even begin to fear being in it after a little while, like the void is sucking you in, even though you would not even be able to come with a concept like 'the void', but you feel it, something dark and terrible, coming for you.

Celebrities and Stuff

"DARK MOON BY ELVIS (UNRELEASED)" (Watch on YouTube)

( Read more... )