Bittersweet.

Hello, readers.

It was pointed out to me by a friend that my blog is "just so happy." I do not know how or why this has happened, but it may have to do with the fact that generally if I'm feeling not happy in the world is stupid so why do things bother existing sort of way, I do not open my laptop.

At such times, I usually take to writing and ending all of my scenes by killing the characters with meteors.

It's cathartic.

In other news, in the winter camp class which I'm teaching, we discussed adjectives for songs. The students learned such useful terms as: trippy, funky, quirky, gloomy, energetic, aggressive, noisy, and bittersweet. For each word, we listened to a song. So, for trippy we listened to Hendrix's "Voodoo Child." For gloomy, we went with The Cure.

On bittersweet, they were at first confused.

"It's bitter...and sweet," one girl said. "It doesn't make sense. They're opposites."

"Yes," I said. "That's the point."

And then I played "Chicago," by Sufjan Stevens.

And when I asked them what bittersweet meant the one girl said, "Happy and sad."

And I said, "Why do you say that?"

And she said, "Because, it's like the words seem sad and the music is kind of happy and energetic."

And I said, "Yes."

And someone else said, "Violins are bittersweet."

And then we were all killed by a meteor and felt much better.


Here's fun things to click, readers.

Lois Tilton's thoughts on, and favorite short stories from, 2010

A TED Talk by Stefano Mancuso in which plants dance and think about things and you try to resist the urge to name your eggplant before whipping up a stir-fry with garlic and ginger and other brainy things.

One trailer for 5-25-77, a movie which I'm still not quite sure whatever happened to.

Beautiful, fascinating pictures from Love Hotels in Seoul by Grace Kim. She was allowed into the rooms after customers had left, but before the staff had reassembled the pillows and blankets and things. In one there's a remote control on the bed which seems to indicate maybe someone just wanted a nice, quiet, and warm place to watch a bit of television.

Anthony Bourdain lists his favorite things of 2010, which include Barry Hannah, Jack Pendarvis, and How to Train Your Dragon.

He's a smart man who should not be killed by falling space objects.

And now I've noticed that Snow White has started over on the wall so I should probably venture out into the cold and look for a warm place with food.

Happy Friday, readers.


ttfn.