The bumper sticker of wrath

A chilling tale of anger and political hatred in Lacey, Washington:

My sister and I were stuck in traffic there on our way up to a concert in Seattle.

We were in a left-turn lane, and noticed an elderly man -- at least 75 years old -- in the lane to our right. He seemed to be muttering and trying to communicate with us somehow.

We thought he might want to get into our lane, or perhaps needed directions. So we pulled up and from the passenger side, I opened my window and was about to say "Sir, do you need any directions or anything?"

I didn't even have time to let a word slip out: he yelled right at me "OBAMA SUCKS AND SO DO YOU!"

Usually quick-tongued, I was tongue-tied. This was not at all what I had expected for our good intentions.

My sister yelped out a not-so-brilliant "Well, you suck too!" - -which we later agreed could have been a better-turned phrase. But who was I to say, having remained mute through the entire incident?

To close the little exchange, the geezer yelled "FUCK OFF!" at us and drove away.

This is where I belong

My sister and I went to a great concert on July 19th: Ray Davies at the Showbox in Seattle.

I used to really be part of the Kinks Kult and had seen the band plenty of times in the 70s and 80s, but I didn't know if I would cross Ray's path again.

The show was absolutely fantastic. I won't bore you with the details -- I've got the Kinks Preservation Society mailing list to do that -- but I can tell you the concert sure made me want to get back in the Kinks/Ray Davies fan line.

And I've just been thinking that Waterloo Sunset may be my favorite song ever.

Here's wishing you the bluest skies, Ray. I've missed you.

Discover The Kinks!

Having fun with Evernote

In my endless quest to organize my virtual life, I ran into a cool site called Evernote.

I haven't completely explored it yet, but it seems to be a little like a personal del.icio.us -- which I never use because I can never remember where the dots are in the address -- but with a visual aspect.

I'm getting notebooks going on the interesting Internet stuff I'm finding this summer, and it seems like this platform might be just what I'm looking for.

How do you organize your Web finds?

Americana 2: Roll on, Columbia roll on

(The Columbia River between Vantage and George, Washington)

Yes, there is a town called George, Washington. And the tiny town before it on the usual trip from Olympia to Spokane is aptly named Vantage, because it enjoys a view similar to the one above.

When I was a child, my family often stopped at Vantage on the way over to Spokane, where my paternal grandmother lived. There was an A&W hamburger joint perched over the river: arguably the best view from a fast-food restaurant in Washington State at the time, or ever.

I remember looking across the Columbia at a road that descended directly into the river. My father explained that that was where Vantage used to be, but that the town had been sacrificed to the construction of a dam -- the Grand Coulee? -- which somehow brought the water level up and put the town underwater. I knew that this was all planned and that it wasn't like a real flood, but the story still horrified me and I loved imagining that the remains of the town could be found intact underwater.

On last year's road trip from Olympia to Fort Collins, Colorado, it was interesting to see my French husband and daughters -- who had never been "East of the mountains" -- react to the drastic change in scenery once we got out of the somewhat wooded Ellensburg area.

"How can this be the same state?" they asked. "How can this still be my state?" I wondered.

Washington is often called "The Evergreen State," but obviously not all parts of the state were taken into consideration when choosing the nickname.

Americana 1

An over-sized, slightly tattered American flag flies over a pancake house in Ellensburg,Washington

Since I've lived in a foreign country for almost two decades, people often ask me if I "still feel American." Of course I do, but I realize that my vision of the USA is constricted by the geographical limits of my visits here: mainly Olympia, with an occasional hop up to Seattle or down to Portland.

So for me, it's the Pacific Northwest all the way, every time.

A friend recently told me he thought Pacific Northwesterners took themselves "way too seriously." Is that the case? If so, does it explain why I still feel so at home here? And why so many bloggers I relate to seem to have a PNW connection?

Last summer I did break out of my green cocoon and took a road trip to Colorado with my family. As soon as I crossed the Cascades and got "east of the mountains," I knew I was in a different world.

A pancake house was our first stop on a short but revealing journey that reminded me to think beyond Puget Sound when I am asked about the USA.

Blog status

After promises of "blogging from And So Forth" over the summer, I am finding myself with strangely little to say. But I do want to signal my return to the blogosphere after varying degrees of absence from my three blogs.

I suppose I can start with the summer status of each publication:

La France Profonde: After thinking about taking a summer break from this one, I have reconsidered and will be writing some postlets from time to time.

Cuisine Quotidienne: Officially on vacation until September, with a possible redesign in the works.

This blog: Timidly tiptoeing into uncharted territory...

Signing off until summer

I have sorely neglected And So Forth lately, for various reasons. If you're reading this, you likely know I keep up two other personal blogs: La France Profonde and Cuisine Quotidienne. That keeps me pretty busy in the blogging department, and to top it off, my professional blogging load has just doubled.

So... I think I'm going to put And So Forth to sleep for a while. However, I plan to make it my summer place when I'm in Olympia for July and August, so I'll see you there and then.

In the meantime, feel free to add suggestions to my holiday reading list!

Good Google Reader Housekeeping

Feeling a little overwhelmed by all things Internet-related, and perhaps all things period, I just undertook a major clean-up of my Google Reader.

I was trying to limit myself to 50 subscriptions, but was slipping up toward 60. Is that a lot? Not really?

I just know that I was feeling discouraged when I opened, with some dread, the Reader over the weekend (because I never managed to keep up during the week, which is supposed to be the idea, right?) and was finding upwards of 150 unread posts.

So, to get an idea of reasonable dimensions, I asked a very Internet-oriented friend of mine how many feeds he had: around 30.

Definitely time to sweep up.

The Real McCain

I'm sorry the website "The Real McCain" doesn't know the difference between "less" and "fewer," but I suppose that is a pathetically minor point compared to what's at stake in the 2008 election.

If you're attracted by McCain's maverick stances, if you've always been a little tempted to jump the Democratic ship if the Republicans could come up with a seemingly respectable candidate of the center, take heed: NOW IS NOT THE TIME!

Thank you, Randall, for the link to the Real McCain site in your great post Friday -- but I'd love to see you change your endorsement logo.

Of course, nobody is perfect, especially in the world of politics. But anyone who has been criticizing the Iraq war for five years and doesn't take a stand for the candidate most likely to get us out of the mess is, in my opinion, part of the problem.

Online to-read list

Do you have book recommendations for me? I am stepping up my reading pace, and thought it might be fun to put my to-read list on And So Forth. And maybe some of my readers can do just as good a job as Amazon at telling me what tomes I would enjoy.

The first entry on the list is French Toast by Harriet Welty Rochefort. I got onto it from My Inner French Girl, who is somehow much more up on everything French than I am.

In case you're wondering about my tastes, this is what I'm reading at the moment:

Since my post about reading in public, I have slipped a book into my handbag and have decided I will always have a bag-book en fraçais on me. So recommendations in French are permitted and encouraged -- but they must be slim, light volumes. This is my current French, in-the-purse, read:

My husband didn't care for it, but it was the first literally lightweight book in French that I found, so I decided to give it a try. So far, so good -- although since I don't take much public transportation, progress is markedly slow.

My current bedside volume is a third-time reread:

Not that a few books can define my tastes, but maybe it will give you some ideas!

Recommendation number two has come in from SpacedLaw:

I thank her for the reminder because I have enjoyed other books by Daniel Pennac and have meant to read this one, but kinda sorta forgot about it.

I can't wait to get more recommendations! Remember, the books don't have to be in French. I'm looking for smaller tomes in French to carry around in my handbag, and English for evening reading.

CD Pile-ups

Have you stopped buying CDs? I suppose if I were 20 years old and broke, I would have by now. But both my husband and I are still attracted by the object itself, and our eclectic tastes combined with online one-stop-shopping for used CDs means our collection is burgeoning.

Today I decided to reorganize them all: the horror, the horror. Our CD storage space is overflowing and piles of CDs are strewn about different rooms of the house. The worst part of the process is discovering empty cases or homeless discs.

Then there is the classification system itself. Pop, rock and jazz CDs don't cause that much trouble: artist by alphabetical order, then title by alphabetical order. But the classical department (we have our CDs in those two basic categories: classical and the rest) proves to be more of a challenge.

The titles are in German, French or English. So for example, within Mozart, I end up having to alphabetize "Concerto pour piano," "Piano concerto," and "Klavierkonzerte." I decide it should all go under "Concerto, piano," which will precede "Concerto, violin." But somehow nothing looks right.

And what to do about opera? I decided to give it a section of its own. But do I file "Mozart Portraits" by Cecila Bartoli under Mozart or Bartoli? It's pure Mozart, but I bought it because it was by Bartoli. And now for that matter, it's only two-thirds opera -- so does it really belong in the opera section? And what about all of those classical CDs that feature works by several different composers?

All this thought and I know it will only stay in place a few months at best...

Friday's Feast

I haven't done a Friday's Feast for a long time, but this one caught my fancy:

Appetizer

On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 as highest), how much do you like your own handwriting?

I would have to say a three. It is small, scratchy, often unreadable, and totally unworthy of a member of the teaching profession.

Soup

Do you prefer baths or showers?

Sad to say in these environmentally-charged times, I prefer baths -- especially in the winter.

Salad

What was the last bad movie you watched?

My movie-watching time is so precious that I really don't watch many bad ones -- or if I start a lousy flick, I don't finish it. So I honestly can't remember.

Main Course

Name something you are addicted to and describe how it affects your life.

Like many Pacific Northwest natives, I'm addicted to coffee. It controls my early morning routine, and I really need my hit of java during the morning break at work. Since I live in France, people (like my husband) tend to look askance at my dragging-a-mug-around habit.

Dessert

Which instrument is your favorite to listen to?

I play the violin and the piano, so I feel like those should be my responses. But I think my real answer would have to be the human voice -- I just enjoy songs so much more than instrumental music.

Have a great weekend!

Social Networking -- Does It Work for You?

I haven't posted much to "And So Forth" lately. But the platform carries on -- I'm not going to let go of it so quickly! And I expect to post here quite a bit this summer, from the USA, when La France Profonde and Cuisine Quotidienne won't be so relevant.

Also, I must admit that one of the reasons I haven't had much to say on this blog is that I've been playing with social networking sites.

I've held off on going there for quite a while, telling myself that if I started getting into social networking, blogging could go down the drain.

But yet these sites have tempted me. MySpace? Facebook? Linkedin? All of the above? I have reasonably lame sites on all of them. Should I just choose one?

Where do you social network online? And what do you get out of it?

If My Life Were a Movie

OK, this is kind of lame but I'm trying to post more often to And So Forth. And I actually enjoy some of these silly Blogthings quizzes, as well as the way the site admits that they are "like junk food for your blog."

So, if my life were a movie, it would be...tah-dah...!

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few. But if someone's obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky. Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

I'll buy that since I'm feeling like my life is actually pretty boring at times.

Moviewise, I am definitely into some cult classics, though. My favorites are "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "This is Spinal Tap."

What are yours?

(Here is the link to the above quiz if you want to play: If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?)

I laughed, I cried...

After my unconclusive experience watching Sweeney Todd in "version française," I was determined to catch Juno in English.

My daughters had both seen it here in French and had truly regretted not hearing the actors speaking "American."

So partly for this reason -- and partly for reasons much more related to shopping -- we zoomed off to Montpellier for the day for my daughters' only out-of-town outing of their two-week winter holiday. Travail oblige.

One film, two viaduct crossings, six pairs of new shoes, and twelve hours later, I can definitely say it was worth every minute.

I adored Juno.

Cross-Cultural Clichés?

For a year or so, I have been receiving the expat email bulletin from Telegraph.co.uk. My British friends have admonished me about this source of information, and yes I KNOW THE GUARDIAN IS TEN TIMES BETTER! In fact, the latter updated their website not too long ago and it is quite spiffy-looking, so I highly recommend it for quality reading.


But for a mix of legitimate news and plenty of "oh yuk" and "gosh, really?" stories, The Telegraph is just great. It also offers a lot of high-hope-inducing headlines, like these National Cultural Profiles.

"National Cultural Profiles are your guide to the thinking patterns of all the world's major cultures. The resource is taken from the CultureActive cultural web programme, which is used by corporations, governments and non-government organisations."

The CultureActive program is available by subscription only, and I can only hope its information is more complete than the excerpts provided by the Telegraph:

"The Chinese truly believe that they possess a huge store of positive traits, which makes them superior to others..."

"Finnish manners in general are characterised by reserve, reticence and modesty. The sauna is a place where they relax and become more talkative."

"The French believe that they are intellectually superior to any other nationality."

"Senior Saudis, though benign, often adopt a moralistic tone to younger Westerners..."

"Greece is a tactile culture..."

Hmmm, I didn't realize "Greece" was a culture. It looks like both the journalism and the writing could use a little improvement on this piece!

Love emails, anyone? Everyone?

Is anybody surprised to learn that the art of writing love letters is on the wane?

I wonder -- all right, I'm downright curious -- just how long-distance romances are managed in the age of Web 2.0. I'm sure some of you out there could tell me a thing or two.

Of course lovers can now stay in real-time touch with their distant soulmate. They can use Skype to chat free -- no more sinking realizations that their long-distance love conversation just cost about $20.00.

But what has really replaced the old-fashioned love letter: the letter written solely for the purpose of expressing romantic feelings, the letter lovers used to carry around in their purse or pockets, the letter that can still spark a wave of passion when found in a box tucked away in the attic?

Do emails really cut it for this purpose?

(Inspired by Valentine's Day, this post was written last Sunday and modified to submit to Sunday Scribblings, which announced the prompt of "Passion" Sunday February 24th. Click here to read more passionate posts.)

Take this country; come take me home again

"Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun
Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun..."

Hey, these are the restuls of the caucuses in my home state (Washington) and I'm proud of them!


Barack Obama
21,629
67.6%

Hillary Rodham Clinton
9,992
31.2

Or, as my friend Dan from the Empathic Rationalist put it in the conclusion of his eloquent post Spring Fever:

"Obama and I pine for the day when we Democrats will enjoy the kind of renaissance that the Republicans enjoyed with Reagan. Republicans were optimistic. They were bold enough to dream big dreams. They got together in spiritual communities and spoke about social change. They took to the airwaves spreading their ideas. They realized how easy it is to influence Congress with orchestrated letter writing campaigns. And above all else, they realized the benefits of unity.

Sure their ideas were reactionary. But at least they had faith in ideas. And armed with that faith, they changed this country and this world.

That’s all I ask – to have our own day in the sun. It doesn’t even have to be 70 degrees. But we do have to be together. You. Me. Barack. And all the other politicians and non-politicians who are willing to get their hearts broken over and over again if that’s what it takes to change the world in a progressive direction.

Keep the faith."

I wanted to end with a clip from one of Obama's speeches, but I suppose everybody who's interested has been watching them. I ended up running into something on the creative side instead.

A little sappy? Perhaps. But don't you want to feel something other than sick to your stomach when you associate the words "U.S." and "President"?

For me, at this point, any dream will do. And Obama's is a stirring one.

Adieu Marquee

If you read La France Profonde -- and if you're reading this, you probably do -- you know about my fascination for the underside of old-ish places.

I emphasize "old-ish" because prehistoric sites, Roman ruins and vestiges of medieval structures don't do it for me. Give me traces of the 20th century -- like this movie theater marquee in my home town, Olympia, Washington. It went up in 1940; it came down last week.

While plenty of Olympians apparently felt nostalgic about the loss of this downtown landmark, the local paper's photo gallery on the dismantling reveals that the marquee masked treasures: stained glass and sculptures that had been hidden from the public for almost 70 years.

"Removal of Capitol Theater marquee brings sadness but uncovers beauty," reads the headline of the article about the change. Would that all architectural changes were that way...

(Photo courtesy of Ken McIntyre. I couldn't find how to contact Ken to ask if I could use his photo, but given all of the html links he has provided on his Photobucket site, I assume he won't mind.

If like me, you are fascinated by old movie theaters, check out the theater section of cinematreasures.org.)

Fountain of Sorrow

In high school and college, no singer spoke to me more than Jackson Browne. He was one of those artists that kind of dropped out of my listening habits with the years, mainly because I had all his music on (legal) cassettes.

A while back, my daughter introduced me to Deezer and I set up a Jackson Browne playlist. It's almost too painful for me to listen to, yet I keep coming back to it.

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light...