Today's Jam

I now have this song stuck in my head:

The Reading Rainbow theme song!

American public television, the 1980s, and LeVar Burton are a magical combination.

Witty Blog Title Referencing Creative Writing

"Includes fascinating portrayals of casual drug use at house parties, how the author/protagonist had conversations about post-punk while seeing his mate’s band perform at some shitty small venue, internal monologues about consumerism while observing people in a mall and that time when the protagonist had an epiphany about living in the moment while walking in the rain"

-- Via Dinu Lippatti's Bones

You know this guy.  Even if you didn't know him personally through your education, you've sat next to him in Starbucks. Or possibly read one of his meandering online explanations of his body of work that is full of obscure-but-not-really references. Or, you've heard of James Franco and his new novel. Like the above, with more money.

Bonus! A previously published James Franco story included these great lines:

"His window is all the way down, and he breathes his smoke out the black gaping gap."

Gaping ... gap.

"The building is beige, but the shadows make it shadow-color."

So, gray, then? Yeah.

The More You Know

Found via Fiction Writers Review

It's a delicious smell for a reason!

Tonight's Jam

My girlfriend circa 2001, Shakira, "Whenever, Wherever."

Friday QuoteDay

Via WeHeartIt. 

Today In Creepy

Via Politics Daily, an older article that is circling around today and garnering attention for the skin-crawling-shudder it induces. On Her Wedding Day, Saying The Things Left Unsaid begins with:

"The great love of my life marries today and I am not the groom. I had my chance, a few years ago, but did not realize until too late how fleeting my moment with her was meant to be."  

The writer goes on to declare the column a humble gift to the bride, and then lists absolutely nothing about her that does not directly involve his feelings.

This is not a gift. This is a self-serving and entitled piece of pity wanking that hopefully serves as a flashing neon sign for the "one who got away" to never, ever open an email or answer a call from this stalker-in-training again. It's one big The Graduate-wedding-scene-moment with the self-awareness of a bag of rocks.

First: Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She is, shock as this may be, not there to rescue you for life.

Second: Write a sad poem in your journal, not online. Watch 500 Days of Summer. Write vague status updates on Facebook about rain and silver linings and God opening windows. Anything but this. This column is not a romantic gesture; it is a selfish one to draw all attention on you and make her life event part of your grand tragic narrative. Truly celebrating would mean shutting up, writing a thoughtful note to the both of them, and sending something from their Bed, Bath and Beyond registry.

Third: This?

"I want to thank her for being such an inspiration. She did not give in or sell out or become one of those poor women of a certain age in New York who have put their careers ahead of their lives."

Translates as: "Thankfully she was not like those harpies my age who never married me and are successful and make my penis feel small."

Nothing about this is cute or charming and all of it would be better left unsaid.

Weekly Flâneur: Cover Me

Image of parking sign covered in stickers. Click to enlarge.

Commuter reading. 
 Car park of 7th and Pecan Ave, Charlotte, NC, USA

Tonight's Jam?

Nausea and a general sense of malaise make me want to lie on the floor and listen to slow Melissa Etheridge songs. 

Melissa Etheridge, "Talking to my Angel"

Words We Need

Via Margaux:

Words that don’t exist in the English language:

L’esprit d’escalier: (French) The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Translated it means “the spirit of the staircase.”

Waldeinsamkeit: (German) The feeling of being alone in the woods.

Meraki: (Greek) Doing something with soul, creativity, or love.

Forelsket: (Norwegian) The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.

Gigil: (Filipino) The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.

Pochemuchka: (Russian) A person who asks a lot of questions.

Pena ajena: (Mexican Spanish) The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation.

Cualacino: (Italian) The mark left on a table by a cold glass.

Ilunga: (Tshiluba, Congo) A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.

 "L'esprit d'escalier." You beautiful, hungry feeling, you. Could we work that into our English vernacular? It captures so much.

Right There With You

Via Gemma Correll's lovely blog.

Capricorn Babies

Goat Riders in the sky? Via Wikipedia.

Happy 2012! Are we sick of New Year's yet? Have you started your resolutions? How's that going for you?

The whole New! Year! Resolutions! thing isn't really something I've ever been good at. Because I'm a Capricorn baby, the turning of the year is a few days prior to my own turning another year older. That's when the resolutions come. I'm turning wouldn't you like to know a whole number older, so I should be wiser and make all the usual promises for health and exercise and not drunkenly embarrassing myself on a weekly basis. Reflecting on life and making changes are a birthday thing that just happens to coincide with a calendar change.

I always wonder what people who are not Capricorns do. Come April or July, do they make new resolutions? 6 month promises? Or, is it in fact an entire new year for them, old resolutions shunned? New Four Month Resolution doesn't have the same ring to it. How does it work?

One thing I do know is that after I passed the age where birthdays were spent in my parents' living room with a sheet cake from Harris Teeter and my classmates in princess dresses, it's kinda boring to have a birthday at the tail end of the holiday season. People are tired. No one wants go out or do any more celebrating. It's fine now, but when I was younger, it was among my very selfish pet peeves that I couldn't muster up a good party for some nighttime natal rambunctiousness.

So! I would like to offer a little advice for all of those with loved ones born December-January.

First, ask yourself these questions: Are they the type of person who even cares to celebrate their birthday? (Some of us just want a cuppa tea and a nap and maybe a massage? Not everyone is a party cat.) Did they do something nice for you last year when you turned 25 for the 6th time? Do you love them?

If yes, then follow these simple rules for Sagittarius and Capricorn Birthdays:

• Buy birthday wrapping paper. It's on sale, because everyone is snagging Santa prints. There's probably still a roll of balloon paper under the bed from your last birthday wrapping session, so use it. Because it's not cute to receive a b-day gift in Santa paper on January 3rd.

• Do not, unless under extraordinary circumstances, say the following: "This is your birthday AND Christmas gift!" You do not want to be this person. This person is the same type of friend who turns around in September to ask where their birthday gift is and gets all offended when the Capricorn answering says it's coming in December. You don't want to be that friend. And your Sag-Cap friend does not want to dislike you.

• Go out for drinks. Yes, it's cold. Yes, you just bought Christmas gifts and New Years tickets and want to save a little money. Yes, you're all serious about your resolution to get more sleep. But when it's your birthday, none of that will matter and you'll want your friends by your side. Tit for tat. Suck it up and get your coat on.

And that's it! Yay! Now go. Fulfill your resolutions of gym time and salads, and then call your Capricorn friend. And maybe your Sagittarius friend and say sorry about the Christmas wrapping? Why not. Happy New Year!


* By the by: Capricorn Babies sounds like a spin-off of Muppet Babies. Kermit and Piggy as cartoon babies with goat horns and mermaid tails? You know you would watch that show.

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!)