I ain't 'fraid o' no toaster

Dreary is as dreary does

The view of the Boston skyline from Brandeis this morning.

At least I'm not biting my lower lip

This is what a dance party looks like in Rome, in 1996. The boombox deluxe sound system is on the chair.

Perpetually changing

Here's the Spotify Class This Week playlist that I alter weekly, sometimes daily, with tracks intended to be played for Theory 1 or for Orchestration. I put it here mainly because it changes SO MUCH. Meaning every time you come back it could be different.

Plus, dear reader, you are worth it.

Yellow

Today I had the best yellow-colored soup I've ever had. I put this here so it's easy to know how to get another one.

Staples of the electric kind

For Nico Muhly.

Is it possible to be afraid of your toaster?

The wobbling chicken takes it in stride.

I edited a book! No I didn't. Yes I did.

It was a book in which I and a poet solicited writers and composers to write about the relationship of words and music, and to which we contributed an article, that was cancelled by its editor after the publishing house was bought. But amazon and maybe some other places on the web seem to think it once existed and perhaps will exist again.

Considering that you can still buy a book that was never published, imagine how hard it's going to be to get those embarrassing childhood photos of you off of the internet.

Tentative tentacles

They chirp when you squeeze 'em, too

Currently amassing a collection of Audubon plush birds. The birds on the top of the Jaymar wren are joined by Millie's cousin, also named Millie.

Cartooniest Great Blue Heron ever.

TWO wood thrushes because I dig their song so much.

Current count: 30. Yes, I said 30.

Calligraphic soup

Butternut bisque — the two B's. At J's.

There was this one time? At the Gardner Museum?

The meal that repeats on you

After the meal

Dopo la cena

Kitty Thanksgiving

... that's Cammy on the left, in the catnip, and Sunny on the right, rooting through the recently dumped fireplace ashes.

No longer chimney bound

For $325, we paid a guy named Jim to empty 15 years (or so) of fireplace ashes, which have now returned to the woods from whence they came (in that weird meta way). It's 135 gallons of ashes, so it cost $2.41 a gallon to move.

Yes, please.

Spotify has embed code?

Old things come back to haunt. Find below, if you have Spotify, my Imaginary Dances, from 1986. I do not like the piece. Also, the typo libermente (which would apparently mean bookly in comparison to the actual liberamente, for freely) has dogged this release since its inception. Note also how the durations of the other three pieces are separated by no more than six seconds.

Krups dekrappified

Amazon sent a replacement Krups espresso maker in record time, and this one works. Note how it elegantly complements the Krups citrus juicer. Note also how the wobbling chicken completes the effect.

Llama llama ding dong

Spied on our walk this morning. Apparently they are Alpacas.

I got seven of these

They were $7.99 a jar a year ago, and $5.99 a jar today. Progress.

And I like them very much.

You'll wonder where the yellow went

And incidentally, there's a weird puppet guy looking over your shoulder.

This is what begging for treats mode looks like

Firewood and CDs

The one splayed paw

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness

You stupid darkness.

This faux candle (it's a flickering low intensity light bulb in a candle holder with actual wax inside) was purchased on today's megaultrashop. Six hours of extreme activity, doing nothing (well, maybe a little Christmas and Thanksgiving shopping), with stops at Colonial Spirits ($114.88), Video Signals, Trader Joe's ($30.23), Ace Hardware ($30.01), Staples ($112.39), Pier One ($153.79), CVS ($6.51), Blue Coyote Grill ($46.42), Shaw's (recycle plastic bags), the Stow liquor store ($18.53), Whole Foods ($56.54), Shaw's again ($11.66), and Shaw's again ($2.99). And from Pier One, the flicker.

Also at Pier One, steps purchased at closeout prices, to replace what was a mundane table.

Also, it was an Epic Laundry Day.

Purcell

Thus thickens the plot

Update! The Krups is krap. It does not work. Being returned to amazon forthwith.

My finger tentacles

My first attempt at meta, circa 1993

Early Christmas present

The wobbling chicken perched on the Korean candy is not part of the present.

When catnip calls

CVS and train tracks

A 2.25 mile walk the back way to CVS, since I needed provisions. I was curious to how the flyover would treat the extended amount of time I was inside CVS.

The united colors of holiday refreshment

Just before the magic

It's my loud hair day

Vista, Route 88

The coffee maker

Is in the bathroom? Holiday Inn weirdness.

There is a bomb in Gilead

Do they play Bucky Ball here?

No picnic today

Sidney, NY

Ithaca, I just met ya

A finger lake.

Wilton, New York

The line for the golden corral restaurant — at 5 pm! — was impressive.