Today was one of those days when it felt like the entire universe was heaving a gigantic sigh - half out of some kind of misplaced melancholy, and half just because. As if in accordance with the pervasive humdrumness of the moment, it rained again today, all day and all night, like some kind of prolonged sequence out of a bad 70’s self-actualization movie (sample titles, “Why Me”, “On the Edge of Nowhere”, “The Master of None”, “Oh Lord, Why Hast I Wasted My Life?”).
My mood, surprisingly, has lifted, though I’m still trying to shake a momentary blip in my own social fabric. I guess it just was the incredibly Dickensian weather this weekend, because everyone around the apartment (cats and humans) were a bit on the anti-social side this weekend.
With all of the greyness and rain, it was as good an opportunity as any to tune out the rest of the world and spend some quality time reading, learning, and listening to music. I can’t seem to get enough of Snow Patrol’s Chocolate these days, and I have been getting re-acquainted with the Van Morrison back catalogue. The “redefines-the-word-‘severe’” neo-fado singer Mariza has also been getting a lot of air time.
With school finished, and now that I have a semblance of a life, I have been trying to get through a handful of mid-reads:
- Reefer Madness, Eric (Fast Food Nation) Schlosser’s most recent book on the underground economy
- The jaw-dropping House Industries Book (highly recommended for all of the designers in the house)
- Lonely Planet’s World Food: India (YUM)
- The second most recent McSweeney’s (issue #11, and getting ready for #12, the new Comic special, edited by Chris Ware - you listening, crispy?)
- A handful of software books too geeky to be worth mentioning
Reading is some kind of manna sent down from an anti-socialite’s concept of heaven. Rain, grey afternoons, cozy living rooms, good music, and books galore: life could be worse.
