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Making the scene

November 7th, 2009 (11:23 am)
busy

current mood: busy


Today is Scout's Honor Pet Adoption Event in the Heights, so Pixie is on an outing. If you're in Houston, go by and see all their wonderful animals available for adoption. This is a great photo Lindsey took of Pixie sleeping on top of her BFF, Sugar. These two have such a fantastic time playing together. Lindsey hopes that Pixie's forever family will want to set up play dates for the two of them.

Going to your local brick-and-mortar store would be a great way to celebrate National Bookstore Day. Remember to be kind to your booksellers, who provide the best links between you, writers, and the nourishment of your imagination.

It's a good day to post a photo of your favorite local bookstore or tell a story about why it's special to you. My favorite Houston independent bookseller, Murder By the Book, will be hosting Greg Herren's signing for Murder in the Garden District at 4:30 today. That's where The Compounders and The Brides will be. Join us!

Windows, No. 2

November 3rd, 2009 (01:55 am)
sleepy

current mood: sleepy



We've recently switched our thermostat from air conditioning to heat. A couple of times since, I've heard this odd, part musical, part moaning sound late at night and tried to determine if it's coming from the furnace.

In looking through my photos, I found one of several stuffed owls (cropped to a single owl in the above photo). It occurred to me that maybe what I'm hearing is an owl. Tom said he's seen one recently near The Compound. Of course, now that I want to hear the noise, I haven't heard a damn thing.

This window display reminded me of another book I think might be interesting: The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse. Because, as certain characters in a novel called The Deal could tell you, mocking bad poetry is a good time.

Blame the Internet for a late Halloween post

October 31st, 2009 (11:59 pm)
bitter

current mood: bitter

Apparently, for me, Halloween was all about the tricks. I tried for hours to upload my Halloween photo set to Flickr--a photo set I've been working on for several weeks just for the holiday, including costuming and setting--with help from Tom on enhancements to The Compound.

Belatedly, from our coven to yours:


Happy Halloween!


If you're interested in a closer look at the models, including all twelve Birthstone Barbies, four horses, a banshee, and representations of Greg Herren, Famous Author Rob Byrnes, Timothy J. Lambert, and me--or as we affectionately call each other: Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death--the full set may be here, depending on the whims of Flickr and Live Journal.

Sorry for being late.

Photo Friday, No. 170

October 30th, 2009 (03:05 pm)

Current Photo Friday theme: Well Groomed

Windows, No. 1

October 26th, 2009 (01:10 pm)
creative

current mood: creative

Beginning my own new photo series with a theme of windows. This photo:



has led me to this book, which I think I really must own: Eating Her Wedding Dress: A Collection of Clothing Poems, edited by Vasiliki Katsarou, Ruth O'Toole, and Ellen Foos. Description: One hundred contemporary poets—local stars and literary luminaries such as Kim Addonizio, Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Elaine Equi, Jorie Graham, Maxine Kumin, Paul Muldoon, and Charles Simic—join together in this anthology to celebrate clothing in its many forms and functions: as desire, as ghost, as body, as poetry, as talisman, as transformer of the soul.

Photo Friday, No. 169

October 23rd, 2009 (11:59 am)

Current Photo Friday theme: Autumn 2009


Houston doesn't get autumn's riot of color found in cooler climates.
So Mother Nature gets dressed with a little help from her friends.

Hump Day Happy

October 14th, 2009 (01:19 am)
sleepy

current mood: sleepy

Once a woman's shared memories of her tender teenage years in a post, the only thing she can do next is...

Post pictures of gigantic presidents' heads!


Marika, your two favorites...TOGETHER! Presidents Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt.

My personal favorite of the photos, President Gerald "Chia Pet" Ford:


To see more of David Adickes' presidential sculptures and to name the presidents that I'm too tired to Google and identify, you can check out my full Flicker set. C'mon--you KNOW you want to see Richard Nixon's nose.

Meanwhile, if you comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, Candidate Snoopy promises to find you something to be happy about.

Look, Mark, look. See Mark look!

September 29th, 2009 (12:31 am)
pleased

current mood: pleased

Today I found some dudes for our mannequins to date!



And Galleria security didn't appear and threaten to eighty-six me from Macy's for using my camera. So shhhh, don't tell!

Button Sunday: Double Shot

September 27th, 2009 (02:07 pm)
bookish

current mood: bookish



September 26 - October 3, 2009 is Banned Books Week.

You get two buttons today, because this issue rates high on the Becky List of Importance. It should rate high on anyone's list. Not every book is for everybody, but once we allow a group to dictate what we can't read, the next book on their list may take YOUR intellectual freedom away. Thank every librarian, teacher, parent, citizen, attorney, publisher, bookseller, and organization who has protected your precious right to choose your own reading. Please understand that every time a "crazy liberal" speaks out to protect And Tango Makes Three, that effort stems from the same passion that protects some of the books pictured below in a display from the Montrose location of Half Price Books in Houston, Texas.






Some titles seen in these photos:

The Secret History of the English Language
The English Illustrated Dictionary
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Brave New World
English Literature
Sayings Usual and Unusual
New Pet
Vocabulary Builder
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Great Gatsby
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Uncle Tom's Cabin
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Pearl
The Lord of the Rings
The Fellowship of the Rings
The Two Towers
Catch-22
A Farewell to Arms
Harry Potter (series)
The World in a Phrase
The Koran
Song of Solomon
The Color Purple
The Holy Bible
Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English Dictionary
The Da Vinci Code
Angels and Demons
The Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
Ginsberg's Journals
The Red Badge of Courage
The Poetry and Life of Allen Ginsburg


Some banned books not pictured here:

1984
A Clockwork Orange
A Separate Peace
A Wrinkle in Time
All the King's Men
Always Running
An American Tragedy
Animal Farm
Annie On My Mind
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret
Arizona Kid
Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture
As I Lay Dying
Beloved
Blubber
Boys and Sex
Brideshead Revisited
Bridge to Terebithia
Cat's Cradle
Charlotte's Web
Crazy Lady
Cujo
Daddy's Roommate
Earth's Children (series)
Fade
Final Exit
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Forever
Girls and Sex
Go Ask Alice
Go Tell It On the Mountain
Gone With The Wind
Goosebumps (series)
Gossip Girl
Halloween ABC
Heart of Darkness
Heather Has Two Mommies
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Cold Blood
In the Night Kitchen
Invisible Man
It’s So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families
James and the Giant Peach
Julie of the Wolves
Killing Mr. Griffin
Lady Chatterly's Lover
Lolita
Naked Lunch
Native Son
Of Mice and Men
On My Honor
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ordinary People
Pillars of the Earth
Private Parts
Rabbit, Run
Rebecca
Satanic Verses
Scary Stories (series)
Schindler's List
Slaughterhouse Five
Sons and Lovers
Sophie's Choice
Summer of My German Soldier
Taming the Star Runner
That Was Then, This Is Now
The Bluest Eye
The Boy Who Lost His Face
The Call of the Wild
The Chocolate Lover
The Dead Zone
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things
The Face on the Milk Carton
The Goats
The Grapes of Wrath
The Handmaid's Tale
The House of Spirits
The Jungle
The Kite Runner
The Naked and the Dead
The Old Man and the Sea
The Outsiders
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Sound and the Fury
The Stupids
The Sun Also Rises
The Wish Giver
The Witches
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The World According to Garp
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Tropic of Cancer
Ulysses
We All Fall Down
Whale Talk
Winnie-the-Pooh
Where's Waldo?
Women in Love




Here lies originality and thought,
loving progenitors of imagination.






RIP Invention, Ideas, Progress, Imagination,
Originality, and Thought

Another one bites the dust

September 18th, 2009 (05:26 pm)
melancholy

current mood: melancholy

It was different from all the other stores in the Bookstop chain. The people who worked there had a certain attitude--not quite as "customer-friendly" as the one trained into Bookstop employees in different stores. The attitude came with the neighborhood. Their customers seemed to expect and even like the rudeness, much as tourists crave the same from NYC cab drivers or the French. Such attitude gives us stories that usually end with a shake of the head and a slow smile of acceptance that we've joined a community of the skillfully insulted.

When Barnes & Noble bought the chain, only the Alabama Theater Bookstop got to keep its name, as if to reassure customers that nothing important to them would change--and the exterior, with its blazing marquee and art deco facade, rated high on the list of importance.




Over time, Bookstop's next-door-neighbor, Cactus Records, disappeared, but Whole Earth Provision Company expanded to fill the empty space. Another neighbor, Whole Foods, moved to a new location across from the Borders down the street, but was replaced by a Petsmart. The copy place turned into a restaurant, then a different restaurant, but Bookstop stayed, lighting up the night, luring customers with the promise of multi-levels of book browsing, a magazine off the stand in the mezzanine, a cup of coffee or tea from the barista in the balcony, an impromptu conversation with a fellow shopper, and beautifully preserved walls and ceiling.

Now B&N has been lured to a tonier address in a new development a few blocks away--across from the River Oaks Theater, also a beloved landmark. No one knows what will become of the Alabama Theater Bookstop, but we all know this is a city that loves to level and rebuild. So we wait and see what an improving economy will bring and hope developers are listening--the chatter seems to have made them back off a plan to tear down the River Oaks theater, at least for now.


On the night when I took these photos, the doors of the Alabama Theater Bookstop closed for the last time not just on a store, but on a piece of my history. It was here I met a person who would reshape my personal and political landscape in ways I never imagined. I miss him.

And I will miss this place.

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If you own any of the books in the opposite side bar and would like them signed, mail them to:
P.O. Box 131845
Houston, TX 77219
Please include three dollars for return postage. Thank you.


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