It’s Tuesday, time to see what Miss Plumcake is:
Reading: The Essential Rumi, my favorite volume of collected works from my favorite poet. If you’re unfamiliar with the work of this 13th century Sufi mystic, prepare to have your minds blown. His sometimes wry, always heartfelt offerings on love, God, the human and divine experience (and how to have sex with a donkey using a gourd, but I don’t really think that’s one of his greatest hits) should be required reading, especially for anyone whose only exposure to Islam has been on the nightly news.
Watching: To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a tradition at Château Gâteau to watch this classic the night before the first day of school. It’s the only time of the year I eat popcorn. For my money, the most powerful sentences in film is uttered as Atticus, defeated, leaves the court room. “Stand up, Scout. Your father is passing.”
Hearing: Songs of Leonard Cohen. There’s always room for Leonard. Aside from putting on what is hands down the best concert I’ve ever seen last April (with SEVEN encores of three songs each) Leonard Cohen is the closest thing we have to a living psalmist, even if most people know the covers –Jeff Buckley– better than the man behind (and often underneath) them. Don’t read his erotica though. Cuh-reepy.
Smelling: Jasmin et Cigarette is pure nostalgia for me since that’s what I was wearing when I first spent the weekend with Andre in New York. He said his favorite flower was jasmine –mine is not– and I knew as a Frenchman he’d appreciate the little perverse twist. This is a bad girl fragrance all the way and the only juice from Etat Libre d’Orange I even halfway like.
Loving: We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel According to U2 by Greg Garrett. Greg is a dear friend and occasional colleague so I hesitated to read anything he’d written for fear of not liking it and then having to say something nice about the binding or the typeface. I shouldn’t have worried. Anyone who’s been through the long dark tea-time of the soul, as Douglas Adams would say, should be able to relate to Greg’s writings. I particularly liked his novel Shame, but this new one strikes my fancy this week because Greg knew U2 back in the early 80’s and writes about how you can be a person of faith (any faith) and integrity and still be a positive, contemporary part of secular culture.
Hating: Cramps. To be fair I couldn’t find a picture of actual cramps, so I thought I’d put one of my favorite albums by The Cramps up in its stead. I think I’ll listen to Bad Music for Bad People tonight as I go to the gun range and drink a lot of soda, the two things that make me feel better on Days Like These.
Wanting: Tŷ Nant water, in the blue bottle. I got hooked on this stuff when an accidental delivery to my local grocers had it on sale for less than a dollar a bottle. I bought out the store’s entire stock and when my supplier ran out, I ended up going retail and dropping upwards of $15 a day on the Welsh water. There’s a place in town that sells this gorgeous stuff, but for $5 per bottle it’s a special treat. Yes I know it’s ridiculous to feel this strongly about water, but I do. The day I beat my first felony I’m going to take a bath in this stuff. I drink Harrogate Spa Water now, which is almost (well, almost almost) as good and only a buck a pop.
Buying: McVitie’s Digestive Biscuits. If my dog manages to get these…well, there will be a cookie-loving black Shar Pei available to a good home in the very near future.
What’s crumbling your cookie this week?
thats not a proper translation of rumi’s poetry. coleman barks doesnt even know persian…
Comment by jasmine — September 15, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
The perfume sounds great! I am not a smoker, but love the smell of fresh cigarette smoke outdoors. As far as the cookies, Dark Chocolate Hobnobs fill my suitcase every time I return from England.
Comment by class factotum — September 16, 2009 @ 9:42 am
Jasmine, I’ve got several translations and I still maintain it’s my favorite, if not the most accurate. Do you prefer Shah? Have you ever heard Robert Bly do his readings? It’s something to behold although he probably doesn’t speak Farsi either.
Class Factotum, I’ve never smoked or even HELD a cigarette in my life but this is a great scent. Not something I’d wear to church –ESPECIALLY not after that weekend with Andre– but for a bad girl scent that doesn’t make you smell like a bridge and tunnel secretary? Glorious.
Comment by Plumcake — September 16, 2009 @ 10:26 am