chronicles of jacicita

In the next week I will be deleting/mirroring content from here, and then I will be gone for good. Those still interested in following my adventures in knitting, film going, book reading, and Seattle living would do well to follow me to librarinth dot net slash wordpress.

Hey, maybe I'll even break out of the default layout by then.

What are your plans for the weekend?

First, movies. The Seattle International film Festival started Thursday, and I've only seen one film so far! I have tickets for two more this weekend, and might add a third. I'll be posting about them at my movie blog, letterboxed. Last night was a French horror/thriller, tonight is a Canadian indie, Sunday is a documentary, and Monday might be a film from Hong Kong.

Second, if I can drag myself out of the house for something other than film, I'll head down to the Seattle Center for Folklife. I looked through the schedule, and there is something each day that I am interested in, as long as it doesn't clash with movies or napping. Hey, napping is key on the holiday weekend.

Third, my apartment is a disaster. I need to fold laundry and maybe do more, take out trash, do dishes, and do some cooking out of my organic produce box. 

All that, plus knitting! Movies from Netflix! Catching up on "The Sopranos"! And maybe even some sewing? Too bad it is -only- three days.

At work last night one of the kids, probably in junior high or so, was -shocked- that I didn't have a car. That used to happen a lot, but ironically slowed down once I actually got a license. (Not having -that- was just over the top, I guess, especially as I wore on towards my late 20s.)  Furthermore, this one argued with me.

"They're expensive!" says I.
"But you could get a used one!" says she.
"But then I'd have to pay to get it repaired!" says I. "Plus gas, and insurance, and parking."

I mean, on one hand I am cognizant of the fact that I'm lucky. for all we bitch about the bus system in Seattle, it -exists- and is not ridiculous for getting me to and from work, even though I work far outside of the downtown core. (I finally got my license at the age of 27 precisely because I was living in the suburbs of a town without decent transit.)

But on the other, part of this is me being -conscious- of things, of choosing to live in the city, at an apartment with good bus service, and furthermore, one with an excellent walkshed. I mean, not only can I walk to the library, bank, grocery store, restaurants, bookstores, & movie theater in ten minutes or less, in another ten I'm in the downtown core. That was a decision I made. I find it bizarre that it is so shocking.

Earlier this year I worked out how much I paid in transportation. A bus pass every month, six bus tickets to Vancouver, and two plane tickets to Spokane totaled just under $1100. That's as high as my transportation costs could possibly go, and you certainly can't drive for that. I overestimated on the out-of-town portion, probably, as so far this year I've only been up to BC twice. But I have been to Spokane once already, and all of those trips are ones where I would have at least considered driving if I had a car.

I don't know. I know there are many great reasons why people choose to never use transportation alternatives, why people live in their cars. But I am tired of it being shocking that I made a different choice.

What was your favorite TV season finale this year? 

Questions like this remind me that normal people don't watch TV the same way I do.

For one thing, to have a favorite, you need to be watching more than one show. Which is usually where I trip up, but not this year! This year I am watching -three- shows! Please be in awe!

However, only one of them has had a season finale so far. The "House" finale is next week (and I will miss it because I have a movie at the film festival) & the "Doctor Who" finale is ages off, as we're only halfway through that season.

So that leaves "Heroes". Which was -awesome-, so I guess it works out.

Oh, television.

What is the one saying that your parents said to you that you absolutely hate?

Ooh, this is a question made for me. My mother still says "Choices, all the time choices" in this tone of voice that makes it quite clear that whatever choice you're making is the wrong damn choice. It drives me up a wall.

On the other hand, my dad always said "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" which has been the blueprint for my life of INFJ doorslamming. That I do not hate. It's saved me a world of trouble.

I do a lot of shopping online, and I get everything delivered to my office to eliminate the risk of theft at my apartment.

Goodies in the past week...

...my first box from Pioneer Organics, which is so exciting! I'm getting one of the smaller boxes every other week, and it looks like that is going to be perfect.

Also, I got sock yarn for myself & a friend...

...and today, my order from KnitPicks. I placed it mostly to replace the needles I left on the plane & to get a longer set of Options cords (in case I ever finish the cable-that-doesn't-end and make progress on the rest of my Samus cardi), but while I was at it I got a few notions, sock yarn to dye with Easter egg tablets I got on clearance, and what is that? Oh, just some more sock yarn. It was on -sale-. I couldn't help it.

Show us something covered in stickers.

My dead laptop is covered in stickers, but I don't have that at the office. Because it is dead. I do have my Nalgene, though, because it goes with me everywhere.

Stickers include: Gogol Bordello, Girlyman, pirates from Archie McPhee, John Fluevog shoes, Reading is Sexy and Knitting is Knotty from Buy Olympia, and two gay couples via a housing rights sticker I got at Pride a few years ago and cut up. It goes through a lot of abuse, though, so that's just the current batch. Next year it might be an entirely different, though still totally me, assortment.

Who: Rufus Wainwright (with opener Teddy Thompson)
When: April 22nd
Where: The Triple Door

Notes: Where to begin? At the beginning, I suppose. I stumbled into the ticket for this concert, randomly checking the Triple Door's website the day the tickets happened to go on sale. I was joined by friends for the show, including two who had come up from Oregon, which was pretty awesome I have to say. We got in line wicked early because we wanted to ensure that our three sets of reservations were seated together, and it paid off, because we were given the best seats in the house.

No, really.

See? Yay. Also, please to note Rufus's stripy pants.

But first, Teddy Thompson opened, which was fantastic. His set was nearly entirely from his upcoming album, which is straight-ahead old school country. Partway through I was thinking it was the sort of set where you expect him to say at any minute, "And now a tune by Townes Van Zandt." He didn't, though, but he did cover Merle Haggard, George Jones, and Dolly Parton. Which is pretty awesome for an English folksinger, I have to say. His voice is just gorgeous. I am looking forward to the release of Upfront & Down Low because I, unsurprisingly, have a soft spot for classic country, but I guess I have to wait a bit.

Then Rufus came out (with a full band!) and blew us all away. His first number was the title track from Release the Stars, and seriously, I could not take my eyes off of him. I could barely -breathe- he was so ON, and he didn't let up a bit. It's the first show of this tour, so he joked about it being a rehearsal and there being songs he "had to do". He did every single song off of the new album, plus a few older songs, two from the Judy Garland show, and an Irish song his mother told him he had to do since he had a horn section. She was right.

There were a few flubbed lyrics... easy to do when the songs are as wordy as his... but he's utterly charming and the audience would have forgiven him anything, I think. The last time I saw him was an outdoor show & he had some trouble with his voice (we remember "Vibrate" in particular being tricky), but this show was note (if not word) perfect

His band is great, and look! They are all stripy too! What you can't see in the photo is that they're all wearing rhinestone brooches. Very sparkly & fabulous. There was a second show on Monday night, and it was all I could do to not go down and get in line for a standing-room-only spot.

At the merch table they were selling the new album, more or less. You got a copy of the liner notes & a voucher to pick up the CD when it's released next month. Said voucher was also a ticket to get the liner notes signed after the show (!). He was down to whispering at that point, but I got to look him in the eye and say "Thank you", and that was all I really wanted.

Rufus's album (Release the Stars) is amazing and comes out on May 15. I put Teddy's most recent album below, but his new disc comes out in August, I believe. And I'm going to try to stop looking at Rufus's tour page and plotting out trips I really can't justify taking to see him again. And again. And again.

I've been doing a lot of black-hole knitting lately, it seems, which is not interesting to blog about. See the never-ending Slytherin scarf (four of twelve or thirteen trapped bar sets) & the never-ending Samus body cable (five of eleven 32 row cable repeats).

Then, there was my knitting tragedy. I left the mate to this sock on the plane to Seattle. I am in love with the pattern (and the yarn -- Socks that Rock -- and the needles -- KnitPicks circulars) so I will do some version of it again! When I am finished mourning.
I did finish one crafty thing in March, though, a baby blanket for a co-worker. It's the  Star Baby Afghan, and is easy and fun to crochet. I did it in Caron Simply Soft because it is washable (which is key for a baby) and yet still soft.
Go me! Now I'm working on a Totoro hat, which I should finish tonight, so we'll see. I'm not entirely sold on it yet, so I suppose either way I will report back. I decided to do it in the first place because, well, Totoro rocks, and also I needed some attainable knitting.

I have a little backlog of posts to write here -- one about knitting & one about the Rufus Wainwright show this weekend -- but I read in Andrew Sullivan's blog today that yesterday the Catholic Church directly equated suicide bombing with civil unions or civil marriage for gay couples.

And then my head exploded.

I'm trying to see the Archbishop's point. No, really. The Catholics have this fun little "hate the sin but love the sinner" fence-sitting thing happening, and they have a certain amount of actual logic in that they are opposed to ALL non-reproductive sex. So I wondered how this worked.

I started with researching the speaker. He's Archbishop Angelo Amato, Secretary of Doctrine of the Faith, an office which cites as its role to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world and to spread sound doctrine and defend those points of Christian tradition which seem in danger because of new and unacceptable doctrines.Well, okay. So this isn't some random Catholic. This is The Guy as to morals.

Then I wondered... what did he actually say? That is harder to track down; I've failed to find a transcript of the speech, given on the topic of "The Problem of Evil."

Catholic News Service has the story thus:

Evil also is present "in the parliaments of so-called 'civil' nations where they promulgate laws contrary to the nature of the human person, like the approval of marriages between persons of the same sex or euthanasia," he said.

The archbishop described this phenomenon as "'terrorism with a human face,' which also occurs daily and is equally repugnant" with the actions of a suicide bomber.

Just. Let's think about that. "Equally repugnant", he says. Two people, promising to love, to be faithful, to share a life, are "equally repugnant" to a terrorist, to a mass murderer of innocents.