The simple things

I'm going bowling tomorrow and people will be able to say "Shut the fuck up Jonnie" and that will make me laugh.

My co-worker April brought some Turkish Delight back from her vacation. For some reason it tastes like horrible medicine, yet it is also sugary candy and though we try very hard none of us can resist for long. Every time someone has another chunk they have to grimace and go "Ee-yew" and everyone else giggles.

curry, lager and friends (the holy trinity of happiness) are all converging on our flat tonight. inbetween burping lots and talking bollocks there should be a few laughs.

There will be curry for tea tonight with one of my oldest friends. And a nice bottle of Talisker for afters.

We have cookies in the office. They are very tasty.

Bless your soul, Dan. And dammit that I can't be there to help you feel better.

My favorite record store is having a half-off sale later this week. I intend to splurge.

Bob Marley once sang that when music hits you, you feel no pain. As I am not only getting over this but an emotional sucker punch that landed this past Saturday, I think I'll need a lot of hits.

I'm sort of waiting for the first tasteless joke to come along, truth be told. That's usually the confirmation that people are getting back to normal and all is well with this sick old world of ours. That it hasn't occured yet says more about the scale of the tragedy than anything in my mind.

But it will. And I will laugh and feel appalled and slowly it will all be over...

Good point there, Pete.

In the meantime...I half hesistate about sending this, but still -- nothing gruesome, but in terms of sheer total grim-as-fuck irony:

http:// www.washtimes.com/national/20010911-12926836.htm

This was published and posted early yesterday morning before everything started happening. Note the headline.

today i went to donate blood. that was supposed to be my thing. But i cannot . So i guess going to mass and david always david

I'm going punk bowling tomorrow night. One up on Johnnie.

I'm going down the pub tonight. I shall not get drunk but have a pleasant drink and all the rest of it.

Masturbation.

Making a record. But is that simple?

My sister has got confirmation of her job at the Scottish parliament.

My son lost his coat at school but we found it together.

Chicken with couscous and garlic mushrooms for tea, yum yum. Take care y'all.

Punk bowling! Surely not at Riwan's? Do they allow punks to bowl?

The smile of my daughter. Figo's curling free-kick against AS Roma.

Somewhere in Colorado. My contact makes no mention of actual punks, but does say there will be free beer and, as you can imagine, that attracts me like a giant cartoon magnet attracts an anvil.

"Hidden Place", a bottle of wine.

First tasteless joke I've seen.... http://www.wtc.con.com/pictures/raw/planewtc.jpg

I haven't seen anyone who isn't a work colleague since everything started, which is maybe why I'm going a bit mental. Haven't spoken to anyone, and can't get through to Kate. Last night was the worst, I think. Texting people in the hope they'll answer, becoming addicted to ILE because it's my only link to the world that doesn't expect me to get on with filing.

So the only simple thing I can think of is DJing and running club nights. Which is what I'm doing, I suppose.

Good God, Ned! "I have no desire to attack the Pentagon," "It's a matter of life and death" ... You are absolutely right: irony does not get any grimmer.

I'm deeply shocked still. I think this event will change me. I've been reading comics and trying to remain positive. Taking my dogs for walks. Dan is right, we should all just look for little things that can make us happy right now. And never give up hope. If I feel so shocked 3,000 miles away, I can't even begin to comprehend how the pain and anguish Americans feel right now. I wish you all well. Peace.

I just spent some hard-earned bux @ the local Media Play on (of course) new music (and the new Magnet, too). I am also finishing a semi-delectable chicken sandwich, courtesy of the fine folks at the Berlin Turnpike Wendy's. And, later today, I hope to get my Wendy's- digesting ass on a bike and go for a nice li'l ride around my neighborhood.

The BB's "Hot Shots II" still makes me happy.

The series of "Amnesiac" articles at "Last Plane to Jakarta" are fascinating- Melissa, take a look. Listening to "Pulk/Pull", it seems that Radiohead manage to compress absurdism into a single line: "There are doors on the rudders of big ships". However- opening the "Amnesiac" book and seeing an image of the NY skyline with the words "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire part II" is disquieting. In a similar event, I went to my university library today for a bit of distraction, picked up an issue of "The Wire" from a couple months ago and read a review of the Cannibal Ox album: "As inspiring as the sun rising over the World Trade Centre".

Doh!- I'm meant to discussing the simple things that are *uplifting* and I come up with this. Well, the simple things that have always kept me happy are still keeping me happy- family, friends, cute girls.

One of Isabel's stuffed animals I'd taken with me to Edinburgh. ILE and knowing friends are OK. A handful of tunes, and Daft Punk's "Discovery".

Getting a loan from your boss to buy cigarettes - "well, sometimes, you need them".

Tom - this is meant to be the Good Things thread.

You were doing so well for a while there.

The Pinefox still being the Pinefox.

Two days ago, I made an enormous batch of my grandma's special recipe ultra-comforting macaroni and cheese. I had enough left-overs for last night's meal. It warmed me -- even eaten directly from the fridge.

I'd send you some if I could, Dan.

I feel really detached, and I always do when something like this happens. I know its terrible and I should say its terrible, but am I just that fucking selfish that I cant actually express sadness about it with any degree of conviction. I cant wait for things to be back to normal, again thats selfish, but I just hate having to react to these things in public. I can remember a guy in our class commit suicide last year and we were having a big class discussion as if to resolve it or something, I had no time for deep analysis with other people and I said as much, it felt a lot better, but then a lot worse because people get the wrong idea. I guess what I'm saying is, it feels like lots of people like to really trash out issues like this, but its hard if you feel your contribution won't make the grade in their eyes. I don't know if any of this makes any sense to anyone but it seems to make more sense to me now I actually put it in writing.

Mmmm, macaroni and cheese...

Can I offer the mildly controversial opinion that friends and family are not small, simple, or banal things? Indeed, I can think of nothing larger in my life than my friends and family, even if I don't speak to them all as often as I should. On the other hand, I'm going to try finishing off the Watcher's Keep dungeon in Baldur's Gate II:Throne of Bhaal tonight (I'm further back than I should be; I forgot to save before unlocking the third gate on the penultimate level and got my ass HANDED to me by infernal fiends and a beholder. I won't get caught out again, dammit!)

In response to Ronan:

the media overload can dull our reaction to what's actually happened - can actually normalize it. I felt this re. the death of Diana, which was a shock but became an annoyance, a kind of contrarian rallying point, just cos they hyped it so much.

BUT I don't feel the same way about this as about that one. It's so much bigger, more important, more devastating on a worldwide / longterm scale - and the loss of innocent, unsuspecting life is so immense. It's a vast and catastrophic occurrence.

Can I offer the mildly controversial opinion that friends and family are not small, simple, or banal things?

The day that's controversial, that day I give up.

To capture what it felt like when I realized Mike was okay -- like a weight drop-kicked from my heart.

I don't feel like its the media thing. I just don't know. We'll see.

Indeed Dan, family and friends aren't banal at all, but I kind of read banal as 'usual'. Banal: I just ate a decent hot dog.

I don't like the way Greenspun gave 'dog ' it's own line.

At the end of the lunch period we all got silly and started flirting disgustingly, sitting on each other's laps and insisting that everything was sleazy. The amusement of the day was "zebra cakes."

I'm usually not a very touchy person but I've found in the past couple of days that human contact isn't nearly so awkward when there are bigger things on your mind. Being able to physically reach out to people or let them reach out to you is an incredibly nice and comforting thing.

The series of "Amnesiac" articles at "Last Plane to Jakarta" are fascinating- Melissa, take a look. Listening to "Pulk/Pull", it seems that Radiohead manage to compress absurdism into a single line: "There are doors on the rudders of big ships". However- opening the "Amnesiac" book and seeing an image of the NY skyline with the words "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire part II" is disquieting.

Yes, I've been reading it. Very interesting. Radiohead lyrics and images have been disturbing me for the past 2 days...they're too prescient. "The amazing sounds of the killing hordes, the day the banks collapse on us," being one of the more disturbing lines. The picture of the fall of the Roman Empire with the NY skyline as well.
But I'm glad I have Radiohead. They make me thankful more than anything else to be alive.
I've been listening to a lot of Godspeed You Black Emperor!, a band I normally don't listen to much, finding them formulaic...but "Dead Flag Blues" is fitting for today.
Such a strange, silent day.

A little thing that has made me happy is Mitch's unintentional labelling of cute girls as simple. :)

Botan Rice Candy. Complete with edible wrapper and a free sticker.

edible wrapper! i want one!

I won't name names, but I just helped somebody get a phone call to someone else who really needed it over there. And that does make me happy. :-)

After finding out my uncle and his son, who live directly behind the WTC in Battery Park City, had in fact made it up to their other house in upstate NY (witnessed the first plane hitting the tower and headed up immediately), a lot of the calm I had maintained subsided and I got nervous again. But after a little while I managed to watch the Cartoon Network, read some of Barney Hoskins' Waiting for the Sun, and listen to the Mekons' (very appropriate) Original Sin. All of which made things better.

I am also of the opinion that ILE is a balm in the midst of this-- especially the focus, on other threads, on combating anti-Arab/Middle Eastern prejudice. Thank you all.

The fact that my mom STILL has the worst email in the entire world still makes me grin.

I just got around to reading my friend's account of going to the VMA's with Carson Daily. Some of the funnier bits: "Carson starts talking to me about how he saw Britney Spears rehearsing her number earlier in the day and if I think she is as hot as he does. Which I assume I do." And "Marianne and I have fantastic seats, although not right next to Carson. We are a few rows behind him and to the left. I'd say about the caliber of O-TOWN's seats. Not as good as STAIND's, but considerably better than CARROT TOP's." And finally "I'm wandering around [Fred Durst's] insane hotel room (better than Puffy's I think) when I turn around and see CHRISTINA AGUILERA again. That bitch must be following me. I think of the possible tension between her and Fred Durst a la Eminem's song, and try to get inbetween them in case shit goes down.

To think a few days ago I was actually discussing this shit. It feels more like months.

I've spent the past 36-odd hours trying to stave off the vague but persistent feeling of nausea that crept up on me yesterday afternoon. Nothing seems that much fun at the moment, but being productive has made me feel better ie maintaining the forum, following the news etc.

Ronan, I just reread your first post on this board and I do understand that detachment well. I've been trying quite hard to make myself feel sick and sad because I don't think it's good or human to be as numb and easily distracted as I am, but I am not truly shaken by this. (I'm afraid I will have to add "yet" at the end of the sentence...I do not know if I really DO want to be shaken but I live close enough and know so many people that I think I will.) It is awfully unreal because the sun still rose and the bus still came.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the movies. I saw Summer Catch. It was the only thing I could do. If I hadn't, I probably would've done something destructive. It's a great movie.

I worked on some songs today but don't feel very creative. We had srtawberry Rhubarb pie

Funny the bits about food mentioned on this thread - cos even though this whole thing has me somewhat anxious to my stomoach - I find that I've been eating - compulsively... almost neurotic... Like I keep buying baked goods and thinking of that Raymond Carver story 'A small good thing'... Oh well, at least I've not gotten drunk within the past 48 hours (a small good thing in itself)...

I have been eatign alot of comfort foods

I also thought of that Carver story when watching the footage of NYC restaurants feeding the rescue workers.

Perhaps strangely, I've been fairly unhungry, or at least not pounding down things. The Net has been my diet for a lot of this time...

blue planet on the bbc last night, it wasn't simple but it was ever so beautiful, it's times like this I wish I was a fish.

or an eel.

If you've seen Help! I'm A Fish you would know how dangerous such wishes can be. Merelystick with watching TV and never go down into some mad professors lab.

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening dealing with buying / wrapping birthday presents for one of my housemates.

And this thread has made me realise I became *far* more involved in Blue Planet than I would have under normal circumstances. Aquatic mammals (hooray!) came out by far the best, followed by fish (guarded yay!), then non-fishy aquatic life (ewwwww, except squid) and, worst of all, birds. Birds are worse than hagfish.

Stevie T was on the money when he noted that sharks get nasty forbidding music when they feed on shoals of sardines, while dolphins get pretty light-hearted music when feeding on THE SAME SHOAL! I was on the money when I pointed out that dolphins are not only mammal (=like us) but they also have lovely smiling faces. Sharks are, of course, fish (= NOT like us, kill them) but are scowly and nasty, even when they get to chow down on shoals of delicious sardines for free.

Dolphins have evil cunning (bubble corralling!!) while sharks have brute force! Mind you I've eaten bronze whaler shark and it was tastee.

that was the perfect programme to get immersed in though, the documentary bit on the end with the blue whales was amazing. But I felt a little more sad than I usually would have for the poor grey whale calf (nasty killer whales)

I work nights so it was 8 in the morning when I got home. I was listening to the radio updates all night. I switched on Sky News at home and watched it for a few hours. I didnt bother going to bed so I went shopping for C.D.'s (Radiohead, NERD, John Martyn). Been listening to "Amnesiac" a lot, it seems fitting. Went to the pub and got drunk with my friends Cormac and John and tried to convince John to dump his girlfriend cos shes cheating on him and he knows it but he's obsessed about her. I'm supposed to be going to the pub tonight but I dont feel up to it. I've been sending e-mails to a netbuddy of mine who lives in NY. Thankfully I got word from him a couple of hours ago and he is safe.

Hey hey hey.Back up there.Killer whales are cool.

Cool and evil, they are the Christopher Walken of the sea

Killer whales are deeply uncool, and are descended from a renegade race of freisian cows which were driven into the sea by the rest of the cow community because they were so *nasty* (and not in a cool way).

Can anyone explain the evolutionary advantage of having a head like a hammerhead shark? Or are we better pursuing a more Rudyard Kipling approach to explaining those crazy heads?

What benefit is a cake shaped shark?

I go with Kipling and his cakes. The Hammerhead shark is the carpenter of the Undersea Kingdom. Which suggests that the Jesus of the sea would be a hammerhead shark too.

Runaway sexual selection? I mean, those heads are pretty attractive, aren't they?

Maybe an early shark got a bakewell slice stuck sideways in it's mouth and the ladies loved it.

right, and the basking shark is choking on a french fancy, suddenly it all becomes clear.

I can't wait for next week and the hairy angler.

Luring unsuspecting prey into it's mouth with the promise of an apple pie....

were they *ahem* fishcakes?

hahahahahahahhhahaha i'll get my coat

NO! Mr Kipling does not make fishcakes.

Well I seriously weirded myself out yesterday on my day off work. Watched hours and hours of continuous news coverage. Just couldn't tear myself away. Alternately wondering about the wider situation and just crying about it all. Ended up going to bed for an hour just to get it out of my head.

Later, my escapism took the form of going to see 'Moulin Rouge', which could have been a great film, but wasn't. Was the Kidman-MacGregor romance deliberately flat and unengaging? I had the same problem with Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio in R+J.

The film seemed to fall unhappily between being a love note to love and love songs (which it didn't have the charm or sincerity to pull off) and just being an all-out 'spectacular spectacular' assualt on the senses, which it lost the pace to be after about 20 mins. Maybe the poor sound in the cinema didn't help.

Nicole Kidman singing 'One Day I'll Fly Away' though - *sigh*

For Nick marrying Nicole Kidman = key and vital methinks

If she were a fish she'd be a smoothhound

And if she were a cake she'd be a Harrod's fruit cake rather than a Bobby's Crispy rice cake.

I don't understand. There is no possibility that she is, or will ever be, a cake. Please don't tease me re: Nicole Kidman.

I think Nick probably qualifies as the fruitcake.

I think NK would more likely be a Kiplings Mini Bakewell. Or an angel cake. Or an angel fish.

surely if she were cake based she'd be some sort of muffin, maybe a carrot one with chocolate icing, wholesome but with a naughty twist.

"Surely if she were cake based.." This made me laugh a lot - I had visions of a subbuteo Nicole kidman with her feet wadged in a big cake.

She would not be a cake at all but a TART with a mean thin mouth and a funny scar on her nose.

The fact that I didn't have to eat airline food, and instead feasted on long-missed American crap junk food, provided free by the lovely folks of the Port Authority. (Ring Dings! Individual Fruit Pies! Real fresh brewed coffee served in paper cups with inexplicable Greek designs!)

The helpful staff of the Port Authority, who came round even when there was no news, just to tell us that there was no news, just so we didn't feel left out and alone. One of the workers there got us travel toothbrushes and toothpaste! Do you have any idea how good it feels to brush your teeth when you haven't done so in 2 days? Even if you're sleeping in your clothes with dirty hair, brushing your teeth feels SO GOOD.

The pond in the back of my mum's house. It's a deep black lagoon surrounded by weeping willows and the rolling green foothills of the Helderbergs. Even though it's boring, the Hudson Valley is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Email from loved ones, friends back home who saw the news and wrote to see if I was OK. Just the fact that you're missed when you disappear for 2 days fills you with a sense of belonging.

I just had the greatest fish and chips of my life, like *ever*. It was so fine I had to follow it up with a steamed chocolate pudding and custard. All my work colleagues were laughing at me, because I was in such a dark frame of mind this morning, and then come lunchtime I experienced a complete turnaround. Comfort food. There's an awful lot to be said for it.

me and justin were singing let it be at the batr tongiht. i hate the beatles. it still felt good.

I went to see Life Without Buildings last night. They played an 'acoustic' set but were still tremendous. I realised that I hadn't been thinking about THE STUFF for a while.

I ate octopus.

We just had a dresser, armoire, nightstand, and chest of drawers delivered to the house. My wife called and sang The Furniture Song to me. (Lyrics: "We got some FURniture, we got some FURniture...") I can't wait to hear what she sings when the dining room table shows up.

Did she sing about the armoire to the tune of 'That's Amore'?

No, but I sure as hell am going to when I get home. Thanks for the idea!

No prob. Other ideas:

Nightstand - 'Night shift' by the Commodores. "It's gonna be a long night / but your glass of water will be all right / on the night stand"
Dresser - 'Dress You Up' by Madonna. "The dresser's up in my lounge! / Right next to the armchair"
Chest of drawers - 'Just one Smile' by Gene Pitney "Chest of Drawers / the clothes all hidden / Chest of Drawers / The mess all gone"

"Real fresh brewed coffee served in paper cups with inexplicable Greek designs!"

one of the fine, fine joys of any american city in the mid-atlantic seaboard...

Hear'sailor's Alcoholic seems to have been chosen to Radio 1 and MTV as representing the mood of the nation, which would be depressing, but I've turned it to my advantage and spent the last few days trying to reword the chorus as an Al Caholic crank call, with little success.

Little things? Right. Uh, no. Just checked the stratfor.com website. We would have been in the same aeroport but a half hour later and heading towards somewhere else. We plan to take the plane in ten days and I am a teeny weeny bit nervous. Little things? I'll enjoy washing my filthy clothes now.

Dan - what did she sing when the dining room table showed up?

(This was the thread about Moulin Rouge, well partly, that I was thinking of - see how I recycle my ideas)

Nick: She sang, "We got a TAble, we got a TAble..." She's a great singer but a repetitive composer.

*notes eight month delay in response* Has this been torturing your soul here all that time, Dan? ;-)

An interesting and very affecting thread to reread in context and from a distance.

No, I just tested the search function by looking for threads I'd started (I didn't start the orignal "giving drugs to mice kills them" thread, BTW) and noticed that I never answered this.

it took me like five minutes after looking at this thread to come back and check the date to figure out why on earth dan would be really depressed. until then I was quite confused.