Signs of foreboding and the justice that they bring.

I didn't have high hopes for today. This morning I was abuptly awoken this morning by having my pillow rudely and thoughtlessly snatched from beneath my peaceful, slumbering head, and I can't think of a wose boding to begin the day. Fortunately, although it is only 3:20, it seems to have been a fluke.

I finally dismantled my pirate boatcycle this morning. Having many vertically placed sheets of cardboard makes a bicycle fabulous at catching crosswinds, and it's a notoriously breezy time of year here in the Windy City Live Music Capital of the World. Let me just clarify that when I say "breezy" I literally mean "pleasantly windy.1 While this isn't a difficult problem to deal with, even when riding essentially a giant sailboat, it did mean that I hadn't been able to, to quote Flobots, "Ride my bike with no handlebars." This is tragic. I really enjoy riding without handlebars. It's really the only thing I can do on my bicycle besides riding it normally (although Charles has been coaching me in my kickflips). Perhaps the height of my bicycle career at this point is therefore the morning I rode down Corey's street, waving at his neighbors as they cheered me on.2 As I mounted my bicycle this morning, I was filled with excitement about cruising handless down the breezy street.

But today was no typical November Monday in Austin.
Instead, a slight cold front (a term I use very loosely) had surfaced. Wind gusting! 13 mph to 22 mph! Ridiculous. Absurd. Also, I sensed a hint of moisture in the air. Fontunately, having removed my bicycle bulwarks, I was easily able to cruise down the street while calling the KVUE 24 weather hotline (512 451-2424) on my cell phone to find out if there was a chance of rain without being buffetted by the wind ("thrown overboard," if you will). Because the above screen capture lacks the urgency of the rain-eminent information that the hotline had, here is tonight's forecast.
Whoa! That's a rain-laden forecast, and a frightening prospect for a little girl alone on a bicycle. Miraculously, the rain staved off for a few hours (which is why I had to post tonight's forecast to demonstrate the threat I facing earlier), and I returned home after class, nice and dry, and unmolested by pesky winds (yes, the "air flow" level above "breezy" is undoubtedly "windy" followed by "gusty" and finally "tornado").





As I mentioned a few posts ago, I wrote an email to Vulcan Video, complimenting their new Mogwai and lamenting the fact that Wes Anderson was on the Director's Wall when more deserving directors--like Ingmar Bergman--were not. Today I received my response!

You are correct! A rogue employee put him there and we just have not had a chance to take him down. As for Bergman, since he has made so few movies in English and our Swedish section would be lacking without him, he isn't on the wall.

Any American directors you would want to add?

Cheers!

Joe Shivers

Vulcan Video

Although Mr. Shivers did not mention my compliment to the mogwai,3 you can hardly argue with an email that begins with the words, "You are correct!" If only more of my correspondence were written in such a manner. Also, I enjoy the ambiguity of the the second sentence: "A rogue employee put him there and we just have not had a chance to take him down." This sentence can be read two different ways, one sensible and one awesome. The first is: "A rogue employee put him there and we just have not had a chance to take him (Mr. Bergman) down." The much more fun interpretation is: "A rogue employee put him there and we just have not had a chance to take him (the employee) down." However, I strongly suspect that this was a female employee (come on, everyone who loves Wes Anderson that much has a vagina). Mr. Shivers did leave me with a challenge, however: Who would I recommend being put on the wall? I don't know! Bergman, apparently being the only major film contributor from his country, is stuck being his country. Any suggestions from you guys?4

But one more thing about this email. They "haven't had time" to remove him!? WTF. The people who work at video stores (and I love them all dearly; I think they know this) have nothing BUT time. Sigh.

Another moment of justice today was when I finally signed up for my UFCU accounts. Goddamn, it's easy to sign up to give people your money. I'm going to wait a few days for all the charges on my BoA account to finalize, and then I'm going to cut them folks off without a dime. I am quite excited to be starting this new chapter of my life.

I hope everyone has had a spectacular Monday.




1Oxford American Dictionary

2That morning began in exactly the opposite manner of this morning, full of "win."

3 I highly recommend looking at the mogwai (which may or may not be Gizmo). The artistic representation has captured all of the charm and adorability that the little creatures lose when you feed them fried chicken after midnight. You don't even have to go inside--or even get out of your car to see it; it is directly visible through the front doors of the store which can be easily seen from parking lot. I invite you to do your own drive-by-viewing.

4 Really! Feel free to make me look good.