sundries

[rm]

dr_is_in's husband passed away this morning after a long illness. Despite the seriousness of his health condition, he'd been making good progress lately and this was somewhat unexpected at this time. To add to the tragedy (and I am heartbroken that this is the second time I've had to post something like this this year), Tami needs our help in order to have a funeral for her husband. They'd been struggling to get by for some time now, and with a focus on day-to-day survival, no one was ready for this. I've never met Tami personally, but we've had significant contact online and know she's an actual person who has just experienced an actual loss.

People were seriously not kidding about the intensity of the pressure changes up here. Last night I woke in the night with intense nausea and vertigo and came in this morning to hear a colleague was at home vomiting from a migraine as the sun tried to burn off the cloud seal. When things cleared briefly, my ears popped and I had another dizzy spell, and my face has sort of ached since, but I'm mostly okay now. I am, apparently, getting off easy, and I'll be glad to be back down to Zurich this coming weekend.

Patty and I made some plans when we vid chatted yesterday, both for Zurich and for when I am in the UK. We've agreed to go down to London on the Sunday before I leave and stay at the ridiculous hotel I stayed at last time at the end of my Bristol trip, as she wants to see it. We'll go to our favorite restaurant on Brick Lane and we'll spend some time in Camden. We've also agreed to plain other excursions when we see each other in person this coming weekend because it's easier then.

I've been thinking, brought on by a recent post of Patty's where she mentions missing New York (and links to this fab article, which I don't agree with all of, but love with most fibres of my being), about places I love versus places I miss. I love London, feel absurdly and easily at home there, but I don't ache for London. New York and Sydney, I ache for. Burlington, VT and SF's Chinatown too. Interesting stuff. All places where I've had both love and loneliness.

My endless New York.

Speech and harm: examining the power of slurs.

A fiery way out for women in Afghanistan.

Visiting the kitchen at The Ivy.

Europe house of the day: Nightingale House.

I have survived the goblin episode of Merlin, It was terrible through and through. That said, I totally see why some people care about this show now. It's taken on just a slight edge of something I can't put my finger on in S3 -- maybe it's just that Merlin looks slightly older, but the show has this energy of teetering on a great abyss now, and even if it's still a mess as narrative and structure, that teetering is damn compelling.

Aaaaaand, it looks like it's officially Gatsby for the next Luhrmann film with DiCaprio officially playing Jay Gatsby. No surprise, but official's official. Gah, get me back to New York.

Comments

[chicleeblair.livejournal.com]

I yearn for London, and Oxford more. Not for my parents' or for Atlanta. I do not think I will yearn for here, when I eventually leave.

I wonder what causes connections like that only to certain places we find ourselves? Is it experience, or something more ingrained? I longed for London the moment I left the first time, after four days....

[rm.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I don't long for London, simply because it's relatively accessible to me, and I've been there a lot lately. Of course, SF is as accessible to me, if not more so. Burlington is a pain without a car. And Sydney is damn hard to get too. I'm fascinated by what the pattern may be and what it may be for others.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I was amused to see that the late Tony Judt's description of his relationship to NY was similar to mine: that it drives me to distraction at times but I love it.

[chicleeblair.livejournal.com]

Nostalgia? Certain experiences being closed, no matter if the place is accessible or not? But that doesn't seem right, it seems cliche. I imagine it's something deeper than that

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah. For me I really do think it's love and loss. London's seen me happy, coupled and working my butt off. All the places I really long for, I have both great joy and a bit of tragedy about.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

Thank you for passing on dr_is_in's information and need.

A year and a half ago my partner of thirteen years died suddenly and I didn't have the money to cremate him. I called my credit card company (I was nearly maxed) and they authorised almost enough of an overdraft to pay, if I could find someone who would do it cheaply enough.

My best friend convinced me to let her send around a quiet, very private email, and some of our friends gave me the money. They wouldn't let me pay it back, so I pay it forward, as I can afford, whenever I hear about something like this.

It made a huge difference to me at a very bad time. Sometimes I don't think people realise.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

I loved SF and the Napa/Sonoma area, but wouldn't want to live there. Otoh, I miss, ache for and love New Orleans with passion, loved it before I even saw it, and when I got there it looked and smelled and felt exactly as I thought it would. I swear I lived there in a past life, everything felt so familiar and right. Katrina sent me into a state of grief hard to put into words.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I found the piece Speech and harm: examining the power of slur interesting, but also unconvincing. I remember when various anti-gay slurs were in more common use, and found them no less hurtful before they became widely prohibited (at least socially) than after. Ultimately, what the article is talking about is the affect of such words on people who are specifically not in the targeted group. In the mid 1970s, a straight person was likely not shocked or potentially offended to hear words like faggot, while today (at least in much of the US) they are.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

My mom blamed the Fohn (seasonal winds) for her migraines in childhood in Switzerland; I have the same pattern of headaches she did without them but I do believe her that they were a factor.

I just read online that the Swiss blame EVERYTHING on the Fohn, which cracked me up. Here (Northwest) we choose the rain/dark/gray as our scapegoat-of-choice :)

[featherofeeling.livejournal.com]

Interesting paragraph on putting ego in blogging third of way down: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/11/i-am-a-blogger-no-longer/66223/

[requiella]

Thank you for posting about dr_is_in, she is not just apart of the Torchwood fandom, she is a compassionate person as well. ♥