Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Hats! Hats! Hats!

But first, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am taking some time off teaching work and people-dealing-with-ing (or however you might word "avoiding family") and for the first time in a while have time and energy to do internet shopping stuff. Now, ok, I understand the whole anti- Black Friday anti-consumerism thing, and yes I feel guilty for contributing to that whole problem, but I don't really have any other time to go shopping. Maybe I will compromise by looking at things tonight but not buying anything for myself until winter break. I have to do family christmas shopping too. Argh.

Anyway, this post is really just a chance to announce the resurgence of hats. Hats! There are sooo many lovely 20s style cloches over on the anthropologie website. They make me so happy; I just want to buy some gauzy tube dresses and a garter-belt hip flask and let my inner flapper out. But they also make me confused, since there is nothing else from that time period-adjacent on the site. How are you supposed to wear them? What are they supposed to go with? Could I wear them while teaching and not get overheated in the classroom? It seems silly to buy hats and not have anybody see them because I spend all my time indoors. Hmm.

Dude they even have a sparkly sequin fascinator, which I would never wear in a million years but now I am thinking about gun molls and Busby Berkley and it is making me happy. Unclear on what to wear, but still, happy.

They also have a lot of Deco jewelry which is very pretty but makes me sad because I can't have pierced ears because the metal bothers me too much. I seem to be allergic to it (along with everything else). I don't have a problem with rings or necklaces because I can't be arsed to put on jewelry two days in a row. So really, the thought of me spending any money on accessories, when I never really make the effort to find them and put them on consistently, is completely laughable.

While I am on the subject of clothing I will point out that I still haven't figured out a shoe solution. I think I posted long ago that the weather was getting cold enough that my heels and ballet flats weren't cutting it, but that I didn't want to wear boots every day. Maybe I should just wear boots every day. I bought several pairs of pants in that new slimmer silhouette and don't know what to wear with them. Oxfords with no socks just looks and feels wrong. It also leaves my ankles cold. And my only Oxfords are burgundy/purple. Ballet flats leave the tops of my feet cold, and clogs/full shoes/some booties look really really weird and clunky and big at the end of a skinny ankle pant. Maybe I can find some short boots that don't look too big. I see they have also brought back loafers (shudder) and even the tassled loafers (shudder shudder). They do look slender with the skinny legs, I will give you that. I just associate them with old unfashionable people from the last time they were in fashion.

See, the problem when they make a major silhouette change is that if you update to that new shape, you have to then update everything in a chain reaction. Older styles of shoes don't go with the skinny pant, and then I want longer tops to draw attention away from my crotch, and then you start thinking that the fashion pics are right in bringing back additional layers in boxier shapes on top of the long shirt or tunic, and then you have to update everything to bring it together (I haven't even touched on colors and how I am currently having trouble getting any tops to match with my new(ish) pants). The problem is I want to go out and buy maybe one new thing. Not a whole wardrobe at once.

And I don't even know how the hats fit in with that silhouette anyway!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Concerto for Florist and Orchestra?

Hello people. While grading (when am I not totally behind on grading these days?!?!) today I was looking for something appropriate for keeping me awake and focused. Music with words is a terrible choice for that, and sometimes Philip Glass can beautifully lull me to sleep --- I don't mean that in a bad way; it is wonderful and soothing. But that makes it dangerous for keeping awake while focused.

After listening to a nice cello concerto performed by the La Jolla Orchestra, I of course looked at what other options Youtube would give me. Concerto for ...Florist? That has to be a typo, right? Nope.




I heartily approve of whimsy and absurdism in my art; it was nice; I liked it. Why not incorporate visual arts with the performance of modern classical music? Why not reimagine Forest Management and Floristry as visual performance arts? I will have to listen again to see if the music stands on its own, though, because I felt, like some of the commenters, that the concept was a little "thin" on watching. That said, I think I liked the floral arrangements of the third movement best.

Of course, I only got some of my grading done, because I felt obligated to watch whenever I saw the florist moving about. So now I must go back to some slightly more traditional music and more traditional grading. Alas.

Side note for my own sanity: if you were to have been keeping up on handing the essays back but doing a terrible job of giving back the homework on time, would you bother commenting on the homework when you finally got around to it? Or would you just record grades and hand them back? Or not hand the hw back at all? I have been having trouble juggling everything this semester. I am soooo glad I am not doing job market stuff too this semester!

In conclusion: orange Gerbera daisy in C minor.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Rat Bastard! This means WAR!!!!

Tonight when I unloaded my dishwasher I discovered it had broken a wine glass. A wine glass that I had had to tilt at an angle so it would fit in the top rack.

Oh, it's on, you bastard dishwasher. It's on.