I Want Candy*

If you were to call me right now, and our discussion somehow devolved into "hey, what are you wearing?" (as it so often does), I would respond as such:

Hey baby, I hope you like pre-shrunk cotton, cause I've got on a t-shirt. It's more than just a t-shirt, it's an over sized, traffic cone orange frock with delightfully whimsical black felt shapes placed strategically to resemble a carved pumpkin. Oh yeah. My boxy tee, lovingly and expertly crafted by the youngsters in my office to celebrate the holiday, sits atop a pair of ill conceived J. Crew jeans. They seemed like a steal at the time, but months later, after an unfortunate brush with a full length mirror, I've discovered these jeans are more mom than MILF. That's cool, though, cause I rock my Chuck's that used to be cream colored but now are closer to asphalt. Hello? Are you there? Hello?

*

Otis Redding Wednesday

Sometimes, there is nothing that describes one's mental state better than an Otis Redding song.

Zack Harrison Memorial Music Monday: Actual Music Edition

Sometimes, I have these moments where I revert to my seventh grade self, where the most important thing was hovering near my stereo late at night, while the rest of the house was silent, absorbing, then reabsorbing a newly discovered song. My room had a window that got enough of a street light to cast a long rectangle over the carpet next to my bed. I'd lay on the floor in the middle of the lighted outline with my ear pressed to the speaker, pressing repeat until I couldn't lift my arm any longer.

TV on the Radio - Family Tree*

*Not the official video, but oh well.

Zack Harrison Memorial Music Monday: Hamm Sandwish Edition

I have no music for you. Apologies. It all sucks anyway.

In a related story, I love Jon Hamm. L.O.V.E. love. He brilliantly hosted SNL Saturday night (and no, I didn't TiVo it, I was actually at home watching). I think my favorite thing, besides the kick ass extra sets performed by Coldplay (not!) was the introduction of Jon Hamm's John Ham.



I can't find a clip of that, so instead, enjoy Don Draper's Guide to Picking Up Women.



Also, if you're not watching Mad Men, you are nuts. The season finale aired last night, so you have ample time to Netflix seasons one and two in preparation for the new season beginning in what feels like forever. Get your gimlets and cigs ready and just do it! I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone since I know you're all going to watch. Right?

Hey look, we're in the paper! The NY Times Magazine, no less.

Get a load of this. (For those not in the know, Oklahoma City is the location of Oklahoma's only professional sports franchise, the newly transplanted Seattle SuperSonics, now known as the Thunder - probably not on the radar of most NBA fans.)

Where the Thunder Comes Dribbling Down the Plains

Here is a highlight:

With Seattle on a roll — it’s home to Microsoft, Amazon.com, Starbucks, Costco, Nordstrom — it is difficult to fathom why any team (or business, for that matter) would leave the city and its famous quality of life for a metropolitan area one-third its size. And why Oklahoma City? Even in its own state, Tulsa would seem to have greater national prospects, with its rolling hills, mansion-filled neighborhoods and cultural accouterments of a serious place, as opposed to flat, brown, insular Oklahoma City, where unseemly oil wells blight even the Capitol grounds.

Ok, fine. It ends up being somewhat fair in the end. And, it was the best written piece about Oklahoma I've seen in a long, long time since we're usually stuck with The Oklahoman. In any case, I gotta find me some tickets.

Food politics. It's a lot more interesting than the other kind.

I've had a little crush on Michael Pollan since I read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals back in 2006. It got worse when I followed that with his 2001 book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World. I devoured his most recent book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, in about five minutes earlier in the summer (I had to wait till it went on sale since I spend all my income on trips to Whole Foods). He makes me want to swear off Sonic and Chick-Fil-A forever. He makes me want to quit my job and return to the land. I actually do make an effort to avoid high fructose corn syrup at all costs. He recently wrote an article in the New York Times Magazine that eloquently sums up the importance of the oft overlooked and problematic American food system.

READ: An Open Letter to the Next Farmer In Chief.

LISTEN: Terry Gross and Michael talk food as a national security issue on Fresh Air.

Zack Harrison Memorial Music Sunday: No one reads so I don't have to follow a schedule edition.

This week, I was inspired by the boys over at TLO (The Lost Ogle, for the non-Okies) who have managed over the last few weeks to cobble together the beginnings of a videotrack of some supersweet, cringeworthy musical moments of my youth.  Seventh grade school dance montage! Yeah!  You can check it out here.  Pretty sweet, no?  

Hold On - Wilson Phillips

Here Comes The Hotstepper - Ini Kamoze

Motown Philly - Boyz II Men

Rico Suave - Gerardo

Black Velvet - Alannah Myles

More Than Words - Extreme

I'd Die Without You - PM Dawn

This one's just for fun since I couldn't find a video for All-4-One's (She's Got) Skillz and embedding is disabled for Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover (Sophie B. Hawkins).

Oh, how I wish I was lying,

but unfortunately, I have terminal dorkitis. It's hereditary, you see. Here's my belated submission for DorkFest.

1. When I was a young girl growing up in Norman, Oklahoma, I went through a phase that I assume most girls enjoyed; Victorian decoration obsession. Essentially, I pressed a lot of flowers, covered things in ribbon and doilies, developed topiaries, collected an astounding number of hatboxes, silver plated trays and leaded glass. It looked like I lived in a nursing home, except, you know, I was 12 or whatever.

2. I know all the words to this song:

3. Currently, there are three kinds of tahini in my kitchen, because I am conducting a taste test. The early lead goes to Joyva.

4. There was this little incident: Live blogging the HPVII.

5. I've made it a point to memorize the phonetic alphabet.

6. I learned to drive a standard, even though I've never owned one, just in case there's a terrible emergency and the only car is manual.

7. I used to blog regularly.

8. At the end of the tax year when I was little, before my parents would shred all of the bills, receipts, etc that had outlived the seven year retention rule, I would invite a lucky friend to come over and bring her stapler, tape, pens and paper clips - it was time to play office!

9. The voice of StarDate is Sandy Wood.

10. My pet fish was named Rimsky-Korsakov.

Boomer Sooner!

Out of office reply:

I will be out of the office from Monday, October 13 through Wednesday, October 15. I will return to the office Thursday, October 16. Should you require assistance, please contact shitoutof@luck.edu.

-Blythe

blowing donkey balls

well, that just happened.

hamburgers.

Zack Harrison Memorial Music Monday: One political song in honor of the impending presidential debate edition.

When The President Talks to God - Bright Eyes

Nice Day - Persephone's Bees

Heartstopper - Emiliana Torrini

New Kicks - Magic Bullets

Mockingbirds - Grant Lee Buffalo

Ambulance - TV on the Radio

Id Engager - Of Montreal

He Doesn't Know Why - Fleet Foxes

Acid Tongue - Jenny Lewis

A Family Affair - Sly and the Family Stone

Shain, this could've been us!