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| I have just stumbled upon the most beautifully maudlin song, "Dig Me a Hole." I was not immediately taken with Dawn Landes, but this song has made me a convert. She's made it onto my Birthday List.
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I have been sitting at my kitchen table for six hours, writing letters,
drinking tea, reading about the Penal laws, and trying to write about
early nineteenth century Irish poetry. A windowless, blood red van has
been parked outside the whole time. There are very few other cars on
the street. A skinny girl in white capris, a blue t-shirt, and silver
ballet flats patrols the area around the van with a clipboard, walkie
talkie, and headset. Every once in a while a few people come up to the
van, and she lets them in the back. About twenty minutes later, they
leave. There are two young men who sit in the front of the van. They
are dressed identically. Business casual. Almost half hourly they
sprint out of the van into the alley, then slow to a walk after the
first forty feet. They crouch behind a dumpster for three or four
minutes, then return to the van.
At first I thought they were
filming something, because the men were sprinting down the alley quite
regularly the first hour, as though they were filming a scene over and
over again. The girl looks like she could be a PA. Now I think they may
be some sort of data collection team.
The two men just ran down the alley and crouched behind the dumpster. As soon as they were hidden, three
people got out of the back of the van. One girl was holding a replica
Scooby-Doo mystery van. After the people were out of sight, the PA girl
walked to the alley and gave the hiding guys a thumbs up. They casually
walked back to the van and got inside, and are now blaring "Just What I
Needed."
Belfast.
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Ben sampled beers in Northern Ireland, Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic. It took him awhile to master this technique in Brugge, but found the effect most satisfying.
What's a trip to Salzburg without taking The Original Sound of Music Tour on Easter afternoon? We visited houses, churches, hills, and lakes used in filming of The Sound of Music. My favorite part: the gazebo, and our rather sardonic guide, Gary.
Buffalo in the Tiergarten, Berlin.
Gum and graffiti in the stairwell of the Victory Column, Berlin.
Barron, my sweet baby brother, and I pose in front of Roaring Meg in (London)Derry. This cannon was used during the Seige of Derry in 1688.
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| "These past six months I've sometimes run a little ahead of myself, but mostly I lag behind, my footfalls already pre-empted by their echoes."
Muldoon, Paul. "The Key." Madoc: A Mystery. New Selected Poems 1968-1994. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.
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| Everyone just needs to leave Miley alone.
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