Recipe no°15: Making Flippy Floppy

1 bottle of nice white wine
some nice snacks of your choice
1 Talking Heads album (also your choice)

I just found out, grace à l'internet, that David Byrne's refrigerator contents (Grapefruit, white wine, cheese, leftovers, tortillas, ice cream, frozen pizza, hummus) are scarily similar to what I often have laying around. So let's crack open that wine, put on that record and rock out. And don't worry about the government.

"Loved ones, loved ones, visit the building, take the highway, park, and come up and see me. I'll be working, working, but if you come visit, I'll put down what I'm doing, my friends are important."

Fun moment today (well it was actually a couple of days ago)--the meeting of two of my very favorite minds in the world: Stephen Colbert and David Byrne. I thought I might explode. They were quite cute together, actually. I got to see David perform in 2004 at the State Theater in Ithaca, NY (highlight: hearing him sing "Life During Wartime" and saying "I got some groceries! Some peanut butter!"); Stephen performed there at some point over a year ago, and I didn't make it. Someday. But if you're interested, David Byrne and Brian Eno just came out with a new album, that you can hear in it's entirety without even clicking on anything, just by going to this website:

www.everythingthathappens.com

Pretty cool, huh?

The Talking Heads have been my favorite band since I was about 5 years old, thanks to my dad who played lots of cool music for me, while my mom played me opera and Raffi. Apparently my dad decided to initiate me into the world of music through his mainstream favorites (he studied computer music in the 1970s, so I'm sure his own projects would have been beyond me), also including The Cars, The Police, and Paul Simon. This music became permanently lodged in my brain, and has forever branded my taste in music. I can quote just about any lyric of the album "Speaking In Tongues", despite the fact that Byrne apparently wrote the songs first, made noises to accompany the music (hence the "speaking in tongues") and only then wrote the words, to whatever the sounds sounded like. That's obviously not totally true, as the lyrics include well-formed sentences, with subjects, verbs, etc. But the entire album is basically a sequence of non-sequiters. From the paragraph that holds together:

I remember when

Sittin' in the tub

I pulled out the plug

The water was runnin' out

To the more literal interpretations of their motto, "Stop Making Sense":

I got a girlfriend, who's better than that

She has the smoke in her eyes

She's movin' up, goin' right through my heart

She's gonna give me surprise

Despite (or maybe because of?) their strangeness, the music of the Talking Heads will be forever near and dear to my heart. I love the bizarre simplicity of their music, so hypnotizing and appealing; this simplicity often pertains to the lyrics as well, despite their non-sensicality (exhibit A: their second album entitled, "More Songs About Buildings and Food". And they are.) If you have the time and/or the inclination some day, I highly suggest listening to the entirety of "Speaking in Tongues" with headphones. It's like listening to a mathematical equation. If you like that, the film "Stop Making Sense" is definitely worth a view; you get a live concert in your living room, and get to see David Byrne shaking around in a giant white suit, as is his wont.

*****

In other news, G. sent me a text asking if he should erase my number from his phone. Boys. I pointed out the ridiculousness of this question, and it seemed to go over well. But I think things are cooled down between us. In fact, I have developed a new interest in a restaurant owner, but have visited the establishment 3 more times only to discover his absence. Gotta keep on tryin'... However I am convinced that he is keenly interested on me based on this iron-clad proof: as I was leaving the party where I first noticed him, I thanked him (very gauche-ly, as if he had personally invited me) and he replied, "Je n'ai pas entendu ton prénom." This seemingly innocent request for my name is clearly indicative of a strong attraction, don't you think? I'll go ahead and obsess about it, thank you very much.

But now I'm worried it's been too long, and he will have long forgotten my prénom and perhaps our initial coup de foudre. Fortunately I remember both, so I can go back eventually and do that awkward thing where I say "Bonsoir, Nicolas," admitting my obsession, and he says he forgot mine, admitting his non-chalance. On verra...I'll let you know how it goes.

That reminds me, why are Americans obsessed with the concept of awkwardness? It's apparently the word all the cool kids are using. I've been repeatedly asked for a French translation over the last few months. In French, however, there are several words to convey the concept, depending on the context; whether it's a physically awkward person, or an uncomfortable situation, etc. I wonder if it has to do with the recent popularity of what I call "awkward humor" (which I love but some cannot stand), genre "The Office" or sometimes "Arrested Development". This kind of humor doesn't really exist in France, to my knowledge. Some graduate student should study the differences between senses of humor in different cultures; it's something that fascinates me.

This post is all over the place. I'm signing off.