Strange Fruit
Finally after several shirt changes I put on a black dress over my white shirt and jeans and tennis shoes. It almost looks good. I smile at myself in the mirror, I always smile at myself in the mirror because I think it makes me look prettier. "maybe I look hip" I hoped "maybe I look like an idiot" I feared.
It was comfortable and I was hungry, it was time to go, one way or another. I put on some makeup to cover my zits. I tried to tame my hair, which was a mess.
I walked carefully over the mess on the floor in the living room and opened the front door, and turned around and locked it, and sighed and felt the cool humid air and looked at the dark clouds lit by the street lights it was evening. time to go time to find something good something nice. i am hungry i'll get some food then go to the coffee shop, play on my computer, drink wine, go listen to music and maybe somewhere along that line I'll meet someone. Maybe I'll find a conversation, maybe tonight I'll talk and flirt and laugh and dance. Well, probably not. I'll probably end up quiet and alone - not bad, but familiar territory - listening, consuming, observing, nothing new.
I could only hope.
------------
And here I am! At the coffee shop on South Lamar. Nobody is here because the band canceled because they had the flu. The flu sucks. I'm kind of glad that the band cancelled because otherwise this place would have been packed and I wanted to be able to sit and study my new camera and play on the computer.
So 2 days ago I got back from my vacation this year, which was one week long. I went to NYC for a few days, bought a camera (Canon Rebel XT), came back to Dallas, went to Austin, went to the Valley - brownsville, madamoros, south padre and boca chica, went back to Austin, then back to Dallas and work. It was a wonderful trip away from the daily grind. Such precious time! I saw NYC more this time than last time. I walked around Central Park, Times Square, Queens, Brooklyn, Spanish Harlem (where Leonilly lives) and drove through Harlem on a bus. I saw blues and jazz music and danced to weird 70s music. I went to 3 art museums and a graffiti place called 5 pointz. My favorite museum was the Brooklyn Museum of Art with Ron Muecks beautiful, simple and eerily realistic gigantic sculptures of people and Walton Ford's bizzare and detailed watercolors of animals.
I took 300 pictures in NYC and 300 pictures in south Texas. I heart my new camera.
The beach was cold. We camped 2 nights and had to get a hotel room one night because there was a tornado watch and it was raining too much. The last night we were there (christmas eve) we built a fire, looked at the stars and shot off fireworks. It was great to see the stars again. It's been many months since I laid on my back and looked up into the night sky and saw the fuzz of the milky way. Matamoros was different than I remember it. A few years ago it seemed to be more alive and full of people and street vendors but this time it was so quiet and dead, except in the town center. That was bustling and alive but it was weird. It seemed like a completely different place. Here is a picture taken on South Padre Island. I will post more pictures of the adventures I had soon.
In other news I read a poem a few days ago that has been haunting my imagination ever since (a few days ago). A girl on Art Conspiracy told me about it. I read on wikipedia that Billy Holliday used to sing this at the end of all of her performances. They would dim the lights and put a single spot light on her, then she would close her eyes and sing -
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
---------------------------------------------------
Ok, thats all for tonight. I'm going to be in Austin for New Years Eve. It will be my first New Years Eve partying on the streets with my friends. All of my previous New Years Eves, all of them, have been spent with my mom and dad and brother in the exact same house. kinda crazy, isn't it? This will be the first one not with them and not in the same house.
The holiday season is kind of nice, I guess, if you don't make too much a big deal of it. I don't really celebrate anything in particular, but its sort of nice to watch all the celebration. So, to end, I wish everyone who reads this, and even those who don't a merry happy wonderful christmas, yule, kwanza, hanuka, and eid. Bottoms up ya'll.
It was comfortable and I was hungry, it was time to go, one way or another. I put on some makeup to cover my zits. I tried to tame my hair, which was a mess.
I walked carefully over the mess on the floor in the living room and opened the front door, and turned around and locked it, and sighed and felt the cool humid air and looked at the dark clouds lit by the street lights it was evening. time to go time to find something good something nice. i am hungry i'll get some food then go to the coffee shop, play on my computer, drink wine, go listen to music and maybe somewhere along that line I'll meet someone. Maybe I'll find a conversation, maybe tonight I'll talk and flirt and laugh and dance. Well, probably not. I'll probably end up quiet and alone - not bad, but familiar territory - listening, consuming, observing, nothing new.
I could only hope.
------------
And here I am! At the coffee shop on South Lamar. Nobody is here because the band canceled because they had the flu. The flu sucks. I'm kind of glad that the band cancelled because otherwise this place would have been packed and I wanted to be able to sit and study my new camera and play on the computer.
So 2 days ago I got back from my vacation this year, which was one week long. I went to NYC for a few days, bought a camera (Canon Rebel XT), came back to Dallas, went to Austin, went to the Valley - brownsville, madamoros, south padre and boca chica, went back to Austin, then back to Dallas and work. It was a wonderful trip away from the daily grind. Such precious time! I saw NYC more this time than last time. I walked around Central Park, Times Square, Queens, Brooklyn, Spanish Harlem (where Leonilly lives) and drove through Harlem on a bus. I saw blues and jazz music and danced to weird 70s music. I went to 3 art museums and a graffiti place called 5 pointz. My favorite museum was the Brooklyn Museum of Art with Ron Muecks beautiful, simple and eerily realistic gigantic sculptures of people and Walton Ford's bizzare and detailed watercolors of animals.
I took 300 pictures in NYC and 300 pictures in south Texas. I heart my new camera.
The beach was cold. We camped 2 nights and had to get a hotel room one night because there was a tornado watch and it was raining too much. The last night we were there (christmas eve) we built a fire, looked at the stars and shot off fireworks. It was great to see the stars again. It's been many months since I laid on my back and looked up into the night sky and saw the fuzz of the milky way. Matamoros was different than I remember it. A few years ago it seemed to be more alive and full of people and street vendors but this time it was so quiet and dead, except in the town center. That was bustling and alive but it was weird. It seemed like a completely different place. Here is a picture taken on South Padre Island. I will post more pictures of the adventures I had soon.In other news I read a poem a few days ago that has been haunting my imagination ever since (a few days ago). A girl on Art Conspiracy told me about it. I read on wikipedia that Billy Holliday used to sing this at the end of all of her performances. They would dim the lights and put a single spot light on her, then she would close her eyes and sing -
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
---------------------------------------------------
Ok, thats all for tonight. I'm going to be in Austin for New Years Eve. It will be my first New Years Eve partying on the streets with my friends. All of my previous New Years Eves, all of them, have been spent with my mom and dad and brother in the exact same house. kinda crazy, isn't it? This will be the first one not with them and not in the same house.
The holiday season is kind of nice, I guess, if you don't make too much a big deal of it. I don't really celebrate anything in particular, but its sort of nice to watch all the celebration. So, to end, I wish everyone who reads this, and even those who don't a merry happy wonderful christmas, yule, kwanza, hanuka, and eid. Bottoms up ya'll.
posted by Xgoose at 2:23 PM
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