Happy Holidays, Loves!

You are my shining lights, dear readers, and I love you all. Thanks for sticking with me, and I'll see you after the holidays.

Friday QuoteDay

“Women with power are always feared.” 

— Libba Bray, author, A Great and Terrible Beauty

Weekly Flâneur: Driven

Post rain sunset. Click to enlarge.

Do not take a photo while driving down 485. That is so dangerous. Why do something so stupid? Seriously. Bad. (But really pretty and I lived and I won't do it again?)

Yesterday's sunset, somewhere on the highway. Charlotte, NC. 

You Find Me

Come on over!

Every once in awhile, I look at my blog stats to see where I am getting my unique web hits from. Most of my referring sites are variations of Google, and the majority of those searches are for Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. (Y'all love the Katy and Lady, apparently!)

But occasionally, I will find a few phrases in the Search Keywords stats that sum up my blog in perfect snippets. You are in the right place if you found FitC via these searches.

Image reads: "hot to be a flaneur"

Yes. Yes, it is hot to be a flâneur.
My flâneuring brings all the boys to the yard.

Image reads: "flaneur bowie"

This is how you find Flâneur in the City. Type DAVID BOWIE into your search engine of choice. If you can remember the correct spelling, type flaneur. If you can't remember the correct spelling of flaneur, type DAVID BOWIE again. And you are here. This is pretty much all FitC is about. Occasional flaneuring, occasional writing, DAVID muggle-lovin' BOWIE.

(And David Bowie? He is the perfect flâneur.)

Image reads: "david bowie vegetarian" and "london penis tower."

String these together in one phrase: "david bowie vegetarian london penis tower." That could almost be my blog's "About Me." Drop the "tower," though. Maybe add coffee?  "Reading between the lines of pavement cracks and pop culture? No, FitC is: david bowie vegetarian london penis coffee."

If you do need towers, go read The Broship of the Rings posts on GingerHaze's page and wait for the tower references there? Hipster Hobbits love Starbucks, FitC loves coffee, so it's all cyclical.

Venti coffees and pints of beer are both beautiful things that hobbits and I love.

Friday QuoteDay

“(Katy Perry’s) 'I Kissed a Girl' was just straight-up offensive. The whole thing is like, I kissed a girl so my boyfriend could masturbate about it later. It’s disgusting. It’s exactly every male fantasy of fake lesbian porn. It’s pathetic.”

— Kathleen Hanna, American musician, activist and writer

(Or, ahem, this post.)

Weekly Flâneur: Decor Amour

Click to enlarge.

You and me? We'll share a French press and scones under one of these lovelies. 

Taken over Thanksgiving weekend, Amelie's French Bakery, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.

 

This is the second post of chandeliers in Charlotte coffeehouses for Weekly Flâneur. Maybe this will become a trend?

 Amelie's French Bakery salted caramel brownies are not the only thing I covet: Here's a sampling of the drool-worthy lighting found in Charlotte's shabby-chic hotspot.

Before I moved to London, I had a cozy bedroom chandelier in my apartment. It wasn't as ornate as the ones that grace Amelie's, but it was polished with pride and gave a cheery glow after a long work day. If I had one of these babies hanging over my bed, I might never leave. (Like I need an excuse to snuggle in bed all day!)

American Holiday Break

Hello, friends!

This week is Drunksgiving Thanksgiving, an American holiday that involves lots of cleaning-up for the relatives and a very large dead bird taking up space in the old Frigidaire. FitC will return next week with the regularly scheduled Weekly Flâneur and Friday QuoteDay, and whatever surprises I can come up with.

Until then, here's a picture of me as Elvis to keep you company.

Thank you, thank you very much! 

See you soon, loves!

Friday QuoteDay

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”

— Assata Shakur, African-American activist

Weekly Flâneur: Home View

Sunset in the city. Click to enlarge.

View from my office window.

Home sweet home, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

No Sleep Till Dawn

Click to enlarge.

Everyone daydreams about delicious foods before going to sleep, right?

Final Brain thought reads, "I read on the Internet that it's common for BUGS to crawl in your mouth during sleep." Bottom line reads: "First time drawing someone lying down! Kinda sucks, but oh well!" (Why does the Brain always want to remember the embarrassing events from Middle School right at bedtime? Like re-living 7th grade was really high on my mental to-do list today. Thanks, Brain.)

Ten Things That Rock My World

Way back in (eep!) late August, Miss Emmie from Emmie's Darlings tagged me in this post. The Ten Things list was a brilliant idea, but it came right around the time I was traveling and then moving into a new house. I remembered it today when I was making my afternoon cuppa tea (certainly a thing that rocks my world!) and thought it'd be a good time to re-visit the idea. (Sorry it took so long, Emma-Jane!)

Ten Things, "which give me a little flutter in my stomach or a little grin on my face," and no, it is not a list of David Bowie and puppies and London. For once. These ten are things you may or may not know already, but not the usual blog fodder. Ready? Here we go!

10.) Sleep

I can never get enough! In fact, are y'all ready for a nap? No? OK, we'll finish this first.

Yawn!

 9.) Summer

Give me heat, give me green leaves, give me slow twilights and give me feet free from wool and lacings. The smell of suntan lotion is my aprodesiac.

 8.) Solitude

Believe it or not, I am very much an introvert. I need peace and quiet and time to be alone with my own thoughts or I go a bit mad. Introverts are the reason we invented garden bathtubs. Solitude and I are old, comfortable lovers.

7.) Friends and Family

All that about my alone-time being said, I get by with a little help from my friends.  They are spread out all over the world, and I love each and every one of them more than they will ever know.

6.) My Friends' Children

It surprises me how deeply attached and emotionally invested I am in the offspring of my mates. I knew I'd like them all, the wee moppets, but I had no idea I'd love them so.

5.) A Hot Cuppa

Tea, preferably the soft perfume of Earl Grey or a spicy Chai. It's the counter to my love of sleep. Coffee, coffee, coffee. Any and all. On our kitchen counter we have four separate containers for coffee, and a whole shelf in the pantry devoted to various blends. Filtered coffee, espresso, iced, mixed with flavored syrups; you name it, I love it.

Friday QuoteDay

“Why do people say ‘grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you really want to get tough, grow a vagina. Those things take a pounding.”

— Betty White, American actress

In Which I Gush Over Early 90's Teen Dreams

Won't You Join Me?

Last month, Hairpin has an awe-inspiring collection of poems and diary entries written to Johnathan Taylor Thomas, circa 1995, all of which are hilarious and concurrently heart-breaking and heart-warming.

One of the comments?

"Maybe it's cause I wasn't fourteen until 2007, but who the hell is JTT?"

I don't know how to wrap my 90's-girl head around this question.

Granted, JTT was not "my" boyfriend; he belonged solely to my best friend Stephanie. Once her relationship with JTT was established, I never gave him a glance. My early-90s boyfriend was the far superior Rider Strong.

 Why? Glad you asked.

Rider Strong, ladies.

1.) Because his name is RIDER STRONG. Ride. Her. Strong.
His name is the single greatest pick-up line dream of hipsters everywhere.

2.) Because his favorite song (according to Tiger Beat) was Pachelbel's Canon in D minor.  Internet friends, believe me when I tell you that I already loved that piece of music prior to reading it as his fav in my teeny-bopper mag. The real kicker was how it was all so very deep and meaningful to 12-year-old me; Rider liking it (or his publicist claiming he liked it) separated him from the pack and shunned anything modern that played on The Edge 95.1 FM every single day. Any stupid boy could claim Nirvana as their favorite music, because, hello, Nirvana in the early 90s. But Rider? Rider was DEEP and SOULFUL. He liked classical music.

3.) On the way to school every morning our carpool would pass the van rental company Ryder, which was an utter sign from God that only I could interpret that Rider was waiting for me to be my forever boyfriend, who would totally slow dance with me in the school cafeteria on dance night and maybe fly in on a magic carpet and I dunno what else, but it would make everyone else super jealous in ways no one had ever been jealous before.

Logical reasons. He was also on a telly show called Boy Meets World, but that's beside the point.

As for JTT,  random-Internet-commenter-who-really-didn't-ask-me, he was the little beat-off from the misogynist-mother-load Home Improvement with really bouncy blond hair. (And The Lion King's Simba, but only talking Simba. Singing Simba was Jason Weaver, or J-Weav.)

JTT. You're welcome, Stephanie.

Other contenders for my Imaginary Boyfriends circa the early 90s were: Will Smith, Tommy Page, Jonathan Brandis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jared Leto and Keanu Reeves. (My attraction to men older than me is a habit that seems to have held over into adulthood.)

So, who was your Imaginary Significant Other? No worries, if you call dibs, I'll keep my hands off.

Weekly Flâneur: Hot Spot

A Facebook friend recently posted a link to the Top Ten Literary Watering Holes on Away.com. The headline image is of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, an awesome pub on Fleet Street. It is the haunt of several writers, through its history and today, and with November being National Novel Writing Month (have you worked on your NaNoWriMo project this year?) I thought it appropriate to feature a street shot of the pub for the Weekly Flâneur photo.

For more info, check out Ashley's review of the place on Yelp. (The Southern friend wary of English mac'n'cheese she mentions in her piece happens to be your favorite flâneur.)

Sunset on London, Fleet Street. Click to enlarge.

Keep an eye out for demon barbers, and you'll be fine.

London, UK.

Some Random Observations

• People used to talk to me about their cats. Now they talk to me about their kids.

• I always overestimate my ability to remember what I need at the grocery store. Upon entering, I become amnesic.

• Ability to retain my In-University-in-2002-gained talent of singing "Hot in Herre," by Nelly word-for-word alone in the car surprises me.  

• "Christopher Eccleston. 11th." -- A note written to myself when drunk with Sharsta.
  
  I think it means I'm supposed to watch Christopher Eccleston as the 11th Doctor in Doctor Who, which would be a very clever trick since he is the ninth incarnation of the Doctor. Or I'm meeting Christopher Eccleston for clandestine time-travel on the 11th on November. Or possibly the 11th of October, which means I am very late. Sorry, Doctor.  (But you know, you time travel, so just come by the house and pick me up, no big deal.)

We are not amused. 

Friday QuoteDay

Image in the carpet of the Gungahlin Public Library in Australia.

Weekly Flâneur: Reading Comprehension

Abandoned sofa next to a No Dumping sign. Click to enlarge.

Someone needs to pay attention.
Seen in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Happy Halloween!

(The Internet gave me this comic, and like most things the Internet gives, it has no author or illustrator credited. If you know who made this, lemme know so credit can be given where credit is due. Until then, enjoy this comic and play nice tricks tonight!)

Super Friday QuoteDay Post #6

Via juliettetang.com.

Super Friday QuoteDay Post #5

If you made this, let me know! It's lovely. 

"Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most."

Thanks, Y'all

Truth.

Super Friday QuoteDay Post #4

If you made this, let me know! Found on WeHeartIt, sans credit.

Believe in Yourself.

Super Friday QuoteDay Post #3

"Sex will always be an exciting mystery to children, they’ll always want to know about it. And they’ll learn about it, inevitably, from scary porn and all those barmy urban myths that circulate playgrounds. As a counter to that, shouldn’t responsible kids’ telly at least try to right the balance? Shouldn’t there be someone out there (apart from your boring parents and your boring teachers, who cares what they say) saying that sex is a natural, sometimes funny, sometimes wonderful thing, that decent, kind, nice people do with other decent, kind, nice people? Rather than a sleazy forbidden horror whispered about behind the bike shed. You can’t stop kids finding out about sex. You can at least make sure some of what they hear is sane and reasonable."

 —Steven Moffat, Scottish television writer and producer

Super Friday QuoteDay Post #2

"Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future." 

— Audre Lorde, Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist

Super Friday QuoteDay Post #1

Via idea-obscura.

Guess who's been slacking when it comes to Friday QuoteDay?
To make up for it, here's SUPER Friday QuoteDay. It tastes like chicken. Which Gandhi would never eat. Which makes sense (shutupyesitdoes), because the above image isn't actually a quote but really super cool. SUPER! Enjoy.

Weekly Flâneur: Enlightened

Cups, mugs, teapots and knickknacks arranged in a light fixture. Click to enlarge.

The entry chandelier in Habitat for Humanity's Julia's Coffee and Books, Charlotte, N.C. 

Go visit!

 

From their site:

"Julia's Coffee is a division of Habitat for Humanity Charlotte. Julia's exists not only to support Habitat, but also to create a place where the community can get a sustainable, conscientious cup of delicious coffee."

Let's All...

Go read this, shall we?

Fannie's take-down of the sexual and racial b.s. behind North Carolina's anti-gay marriage amendment.

Grrr. Argh.

Found via inspiredartjunkie.

Who's ready for Halloween?

Weekly Flâneur: Wino in the City

Image of red wine and city skyline. Click to enlarge.

Drink up!

Taken at the posh Urban Sip, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Weekly Flâneur: Sunset Slogan

Backside of large glowing sign. Click to enlarge.

JFG Special Coffee

The Best Part Of The Meal

Beloved Charlotte landmark atop the VBGB Beer Hall and Garden, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Friday QuoteDay

 "All things on earth point home in old October; sailors to sea, travellers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken."

— Thomas Wolfe, fellow North Carolina native and American author

* Inspired by (a kind way to say shamelessly stolen from) the delightful writer Ann Wicker; please visit her site That's All, She Wrote.

FitC Homework Help

Today in "How I Found Flâneur in the City, the World's Most Sporadically Neglected and Yet Somehow Simultaneously Pompous Blog":

Search results for FitC. Click to enlarge.

It seems someone used the handy-dandy Google to search for examples of real-life homophobia, which strikes this wanton writer as a tad suspicious. Doesn't it sound like an essay topic? Well, FitC is nothing but helpful!

So, you want real-life examples of homophobia, Internet Friend?

Here's the American Republican party's latest move: Tripling their budget for preventive measures against gay marriage. How's that for homophobia? They aren't even trying to hide it.

In other news, National Coming Out Day is Tuesday, October 11th in the States and Oct. 12th in the UK. And Spirit Day 2011 is October 20th. Purple is the encouraged colour to show support, pride or solidarity. 

Fight hate with love. (And remember: Teachers also know how to use Google.)

Weekly (Foodie!) Flâneur: Dessert

Cakies! Click to enlarge.

Even though the month of September is behind us, I couldn't end Foodie Flâneur without sweets! 

Beautiful artistic cakes found near Piccadilly Circus in London.

Damn It, Johnny

Really, Mr. Depp? Really?

Despite being one of the world’s most handsome men, Johnny Depp hates photo shoots so much, he compares them to violent sexual assault. He tells Nick Tosches in Vanity Fair, “Well, you just feel like you’re being raped somehow. Raped ... It feels like a kind of weird -- just weird, man.” He’ll pose with fans, “But whenever you have a photo shoot or something like that, it’s like -- you just feel dumb. It’s just so stupid.

 Shakesville sums it up concisely:

No, Mr. Depp. Sitting for a photo shoot to which you have consented does not feel like being raped.
What a privilege you have to not know what a terrible comparison that truly is.

UPDATE: J. Depp has since apologized (as expected and as he should) for his "poor choice of words." Words matter, Johnny-boy. Also, what Melissa says.

Today's Jam

Florence + The Machine, "Shake It Out."

(Incidentally, the video reminds me of a happier version of Sarah Waters' book Affinity. 

There's your music and book recommendation for the day!)

5 Predictions of the Future from the "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots" movie, Real Steel

The future of technology! (Image Via.)

1.) Though a 2010 iPod Touch dies after a couple of hours, technology will advance in the next 3 years so that a large robot built in 2014 will still be able to power-up with no external power source at critical moments, despite being buried in mud, 20-some-odd years later.

2.) Eminem will be the sole soundtrack of the future. The real Slim Shady must have finally stood up.

3.) Apparently, the recession will be over by the 2020s, and the precocious 11-year-old clone of young Anakin Skywalker representing all of America's youth will have the advanced computer and engineering skills needed for robot care and programing. So ... the repeal of the "No Child Left Behind" act and better funding for American public schools?

Check his midichlorian levels, stat!

4.) Women will be allowed to be a part of future robot fighting, but only through the inheritance of their fathers. Not of their own desire to build robots (Evangeline Lily's character inherited her gym/robot lab from her father) or their own interest in the sport as an owner or business prospect (Olga Fonda's character is pointedly introduced as someone using her father's money to fund her winning robot). Because girls don't like robots, unless they're pink and sparkly and capable of baking whimsical low-fat mini-cupcakes. Tee-hee!

5.) "Bitch, get back in your corner and take it!" -- Announcer guy during a robot match. It seems language tinged in misogyny and undertones of sexual violence will be alive and well in our near future. Surprise, surprise.

(Personally, I prefer this version of the timeless tale of robot supremacy and the battle of chauvinism: the Futurama episode, Raging Bender.)

Things I Have Been Doing Instead of Blogging

Home.

Moving! After a whirlwind search, Mr. B and I have found a new place to nest. All moved in, Internet up and running, and my books that have been in storage since 2009 can finally air out on proper shelves.  Happy contented sighs all around.

Ad Placement Fail: Religious Sensitivity Edition

This week's Charlotte Creative Loafing ran a lovely column on the meaning and importance of respecting and tolerating other religions, a particularly emotional topic in the American South's Bible Belt.

Right next to an ad depicting the Buddha in headphones for a club called Dharma.

Religious leaders are so hot right now.

Whoops!

Here's the close-up:

One can apparently receive a Ph.D in Booty.

Would the Christian equivalent to this club be a space called, "On the Mount," or "Eucharist," and feature images of Jesus as the DJ? Or doing the robot on the dance floor? Because I would go to that club. That club would have the best wine.

Friday QuoteDay

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

— Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman philosopher

Weekly (Foodie!) Flâneur: Dinner

Beer, meat pie, mashed taters and lots o' gravy. Click to enlarge.

Mr. B's favorite eats! 

The 250-year-old Spotted Horse Pub, Putney, London

Friday QuoteDay

Click to enlarge. Found via.

"The pessimist complains about the wind;

the optimist expects it to change;

the realist adjusts the sails."

— William A. Ward, inspirational speaker

Weekly (Foodie!) Flâneur: Afternoon Drinks

Sangria in a plastic cup = Classy!

It's never too early for sangria!

Borough Market, London

Friday QuoteDay

“Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” 

 — Virginia Woolf, English author 

Weekly (Foodie!) Flâneur: Snackies

Bread and cheese and German beer, oh my! Click to enlarge.

A light snack, aka Visceral Cheese Orgasm. Drool.

German Restaurant in Richmond upon Thames, UK.

The Things We Write When We Are Young

The things we write when we are young, and wish to be important. The things we write because we cannot make sense of what we see in terrible moments when the safety of adulthood fails us. The things that are too real to comprehend. The things that become dim and somewhat surreal, abused and exploited. The things we think about in passing when a low-flying jet dots the horizon. The things we wish. The things we know. The things we can never know.

9/11/2002 Entry
We are at Ground Zero, in New York, my mother and I. It is June, 2002.   
 
My face pressed against a cold metal gate; I thought I smelled the salt of a thousand tears seeping into my skin.
Though the summer heat pounded, the fence remained cool to the touch. It was deep, this scar. I could see the layers of subway ruined, six or seven stories of floor barely in tact from the fall. Metal beams were hauled away, and a solitary flag hung by a cross of steel. Tiny, it was, compared to the damage surrounding it. I thought Ground Zero to be smaller, the size of a few football fields. I thought the destruction not so massive as shown on the flashing television screen. I thought wrong. Eyes jaded to modern movie effects, I was shaken. It's more than I could have feared. 
My tears joined those staining the brutal ground, dripping slowly onto the fence guarding the unguarded. 
A child hugs his mother's hand next to me, and asks, "Why are you crying?" 
I look at him, as his mother wipes her own tears and says, "Remember it. This is history." 
I part through the crowd to cling to my own mother's hand.

Friday QuoteDay

Click to enlarge. Found via.

"If you wanna fly,

you got to give up

the shit that

weighs you down."

— Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist 

Weekly (Foodie!) Flâneur: Lunch

Pies a' plenty. Click to enlarge.

None for the hungry vegetarians, I suppose. 

Sorry, stomach!

Borough Market, London

In Which I Am The Pride Of My Alma Mater

I'm sure this is what Roehampton University had in mind when they planned for search engine optimization.

One of these things is not like the other.

(In all seriousness, two things in life that I love unflinchingly are David Bowie and Roehampton University. Both have brought me great joy, great tears and great hours of reflection. If you participate in any activity involving these two topics you are very lucky indeed.)

Fashion, Turn to the Left 100 Years

I cannot get enough of this video. 100 years of East London fashion in 100 seconds. I want all of her clothes on my body. The length of her skirts going up and down and the first instance of pants is well played. Looking at this, it seems mens' fashion is more about fit; the basic suit doesn't really change much until after the war years.

My London readers can head to the new Westfield on Sept. 13th and pick up their own looks. And if you see the featured lovely lady's 2011 black blazer for sale, hook a flâneur up!

Here are my favs from this selection of 100 years:

We should all wear more hats.

Not gonna lie; I would wear this every. single. day. You would get so sick of seeing me in this.

Sooo ... basically 2011, no?

Your boots. Give them to me.

Those boots too. Um, you can keep the rest.