starlit bicycle day
What a great Saturday. Pretty much perfect, actually.
Got up around 8 and bicycle-geared up, headed down to Phoenix Park (home of the mysterious camel statue) for Bike Lexington Day, or whatever they were calling it. Basically, it was the culminating event for the city's observation of Bike to Work Week (which was Commute Another Way Week for Lex; hey, it's something). Anyway, Christopher was already hard at work in his cute little tight pants giving away free helmets and stuff when I got there for the main event, a 10-mile car free ride throughout downtown. Police escorts are such a rare treat in pretty much every facet of life, except at funerals, and so very cool. We were two of around 300 I'd guess, and there was every single kind of cyclist represented -- including lots and lots of kids, some nodding their heads contentedly in bike baby seats on the backs of their parents' bikes. (The kids were totally kicking ass by the end, too.)
We wound all through downtown with a police escort who was mostly okay, but also a little unable to not stop the car and talk to every other freaking policemen at every singe intersection we passed. Thus leading to lots of calls of "slowing," "no wait stopping," "no just slowing." At any rate, I felt pleasantly exercised and fine about skipping the gym afterward. Christopher headed off to lead a 40 mile ride around the city.
The most amazing moment of the day was when we crested a hill at the front of the pack and looked down at the winding road below and saw only the brightly colored sea of cyclists making their way to where we were. It was like the future.
Then I watched THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS, in the vain hope of clearing out our dusty netflixes before we leave for Wiscon. (Right.) I liked it, and found the lead performances very good (and it's not Campbell Scott's fault that you just want to smack his character for the majority of the movie)...but, you know, no matter how good it is, it's probably not as good as "The Age of Grief," which it's based on, and really how many movies about adultery can one girl see in her lifetime? I have to be near my quota. This sounds like I didn't like it, and I did -- I understand why the raves, but, it didn't really open up anything new thematically. It was accomplished and I wish I could say more about it than that, though it's certainly a marker of artistic success in and of itself.
Revised for a bit and clocked my reading piece to see if I needed to shave on it any. I think it's just about the right length (which is comfortably shorter than the maximum length in case anybody coming to reading is wondering whether to bring pillows). I've no doubt the reading will be action packed and excellent, just by virtue of the other readers. I only wish not to be the weak link. Justine has made a very purty flier, complete with Mr. Rowe's faux book cover for my book. There's something delicious about having one's first book cover be fake.
And, well, that's about it, save a late afternoon of Putting Things Together around my folks' house, where we are now. (They babysit The George of Goodness for us when we're gone.) I just went outside with George and was amazed to see a small flurry of fireflies headed out over the field and a sky full of stars above. I miss sky full of stars; I miss flurry of fireflies. Summer, good.
earworm "Temper Tempter" Tuscadero
checkout Catherine Wheel
namecheck Justine "Artiste" Larbalestier
Got up around 8 and bicycle-geared up, headed down to Phoenix Park (home of the mysterious camel statue) for Bike Lexington Day, or whatever they were calling it. Basically, it was the culminating event for the city's observation of Bike to Work Week (which was Commute Another Way Week for Lex; hey, it's something). Anyway, Christopher was already hard at work in his cute little tight pants giving away free helmets and stuff when I got there for the main event, a 10-mile car free ride throughout downtown. Police escorts are such a rare treat in pretty much every facet of life, except at funerals, and so very cool. We were two of around 300 I'd guess, and there was every single kind of cyclist represented -- including lots and lots of kids, some nodding their heads contentedly in bike baby seats on the backs of their parents' bikes. (The kids were totally kicking ass by the end, too.)
We wound all through downtown with a police escort who was mostly okay, but also a little unable to not stop the car and talk to every other freaking policemen at every singe intersection we passed. Thus leading to lots of calls of "slowing," "no wait stopping," "no just slowing." At any rate, I felt pleasantly exercised and fine about skipping the gym afterward. Christopher headed off to lead a 40 mile ride around the city.
The most amazing moment of the day was when we crested a hill at the front of the pack and looked down at the winding road below and saw only the brightly colored sea of cyclists making their way to where we were. It was like the future.
Then I watched THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS, in the vain hope of clearing out our dusty netflixes before we leave for Wiscon. (Right.) I liked it, and found the lead performances very good (and it's not Campbell Scott's fault that you just want to smack his character for the majority of the movie)...but, you know, no matter how good it is, it's probably not as good as "The Age of Grief," which it's based on, and really how many movies about adultery can one girl see in her lifetime? I have to be near my quota. This sounds like I didn't like it, and I did -- I understand why the raves, but, it didn't really open up anything new thematically. It was accomplished and I wish I could say more about it than that, though it's certainly a marker of artistic success in and of itself.
Revised for a bit and clocked my reading piece to see if I needed to shave on it any. I think it's just about the right length (which is comfortably shorter than the maximum length in case anybody coming to reading is wondering whether to bring pillows). I've no doubt the reading will be action packed and excellent, just by virtue of the other readers. I only wish not to be the weak link. Justine has made a very purty flier, complete with Mr. Rowe's faux book cover for my book. There's something delicious about having one's first book cover be fake.
And, well, that's about it, save a late afternoon of Putting Things Together around my folks' house, where we are now. (They babysit The George of Goodness for us when we're gone.) I just went outside with George and was amazed to see a small flurry of fireflies headed out over the field and a sky full of stars above. I miss sky full of stars; I miss flurry of fireflies. Summer, good.
earworm "Temper Tempter" Tuscadero
checkout Catherine Wheel
namecheck Justine "Artiste" Larbalestier
posted by Gwenda @ 5/22/2004 09:47:00 PM
2 Comments:
At 12:35 AM ,
Christopher Barzak said...
I love having a fake book cover too! But really, when my friend Amber made it for me in five minutes, the first version she sent had the little boy on the cover in color, and you could see like blood on his body (not real blood, the picture was originally a cute little boy covered in berry juice or something he was eating, and she took it and used it to ill affect). when it came to me in color, I totally freaked out and almost had a heart attack and made her turn him black and white for my own benefit. Why not an innocent little crow instead, I said, but she liked the bare-chested boy instead. Hopefully if it ever gets published I won't be afraid of my own book cover.
At 5:57 AM ,
Gwenda said...
Oh, I'm sure it'll be published and I really like your faux-cover. Though it does sound pretty gruesome with the blood... when an image representing your own work can scare you, that's when you know you've done the work right.
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