Frankly, I am surprised that no one covered this song sooner. This was the shocking song of my youth, well, teenage youth. I cannot even begin to calculate how many times I saw Purple Rain back then. It was constantly playing at the midnight movies. Not a whole lot to do in Tulsa, when you are a teenager. This song is the key pivotal moment in the movie in which Prince, the hero, makes Apollonia, aka: Vanity #2, cry. He does this by mentioning the taboo subject of self love, and then humping the stage floor. It was very upsetting to her. [I never understood that.]
Darling Nikki – Prince 1984
When I first heard this cover, I believe my words were “Fuck, YEAH! Why didn’t anyone cover this before? That’s hot.” This song was not actually released on the album it was meant to be released upon, if that makes sense, per Prince’s request. So they gave it to the radios to play, which is where I heard it, and had it for free download on the website for a while. I looove this cover. This may be my favorite Then and Now yet.
Darling Nikki – Foo Fighters 2003 [i think .. ’round about then]
Monthly Archives: July 2005
I have some very important news…
I’m adopting. Yes, it’s true. I am going to become a parent. TO A BAT!!! That’s right, I’ve adopted a Grey Headed Flying Fox. I can hardly wait until I get my “endearing letter” from my bat! I’m so excited. I will be sure to update you when news of my bat arrives. Surely this will be the event, or purchase, that will fill that aching, longing, empty feeling I have, right?
So all of you having babies out there… Ha! Take that! I have a BAT!!
Meanwhile, this frightens me, I took a quiz, to find out what kind of bat I would be…
If I were a bat I would be…
a Vampire Bat! Find out more
about this bat or take the quiz
to see what kind of bat you are most like.
a Vampire Bat! Find out more
about this bat or take the quiz
to see what kind of bat you are most like.
Vampire bats live in very structured colonies and form strong social bonds. Female bats who go out to feed will share food with other females in the nursery colony by regurgitating food. They will adopt orphaned baby bats.
They are 70 to 90mm in length and their wingspan is 320 to 350mm. They weigh about 40 grams. Their fur is a dark grayish brown. slightly lighter on its belly. Vampire bats can be found from northern Mexico through Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.
Vampire bats move well on the ground and in the air. When they forage for food, they fly about one meter above the ground. They usually feed on large birds, cattle, pigs, and horses. They rarely bite humans.
They find food through smell, sound, and echolocation. The vampire bat does not suck blood. They use their sharp teeth to make a bite and then lap up the blood that pools there with their tongue. They only need about two tablespoons of blood a day.
My grandmother used to say “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” But you can’t make lemonade out of a dead dog, no matter how hard you try.
This afternoon I went to a place, up on Capital Hill, called the Central Cinema. It’s a small movie house that serves you food and drinks while you watch the movies. The popcorn is brought to you in a bowl. Not that I had any, I had 4 cheese pizza. The serve beer and wine, but no hard liquor. Maybe at later shows, however because shows after 10 are 21 and over only. We were there for the children’s matinee. How can you pass up an opportunity to see The Goonies on a large screen? You can’t. If the Goonies are good enough for you, they are good enough for me.
Next week’s matinee is the Muppet Movie.
When I got home, I got out of my car and started walking down the drive, with a brand new 44 ounce Dr Pepper in my hand, to get my mail. The little girl across the street and her friend came over to me. I don’t know her name, she wasn’t born the last time I lived here. They had a large pump thermos and a tiny dixie cup with them. That’s when I noticed the lemonade stand. They asked me if I wanted some lemonade, so I put my Dr Pepper down and said of course I want lemonade.
“The little brown things are just pieces of lemonade.”
Excellent! Can’t beat that for a quarter. Plus, the new Ikea catalog is here.
I was thinking…
… I might change my name to Olivia Octavia. So my initials could be OOH.
What do you think?
50 Word Fiction Fridays Vol. 17
The theme this week is hearts, be they broken, battered, bruised, loving, warm, big, cold, full, beating or transplanted.
Stay Fresh Heart
I keep my heart in the freezer, sealed tight in a tupperware container, back behind the ice cream, the frozen peas and the vodka. That way, when I am tempted to carelessly give it away again, I will have time to think twice. While I wait for it to thaw.
It’s just like Santa’s workshop! Except it smells like mushrooms… and everyone looks like they wanna hurt me…
Yesterday, when I was driving home from work, I felt certain that someone must have slipped some funny mushrooms in my lunch. Because everything was so beautiful. The lake was so dark blue and deep, I wanted to jump off the bridge and go swimming. I didn’t, because I would have had to stop the car, which would have blocked one of only two lanes of eastbound traffic. Also, you should know, this is a floating bridge, so it’s not like I was high up I would have killed myself. However, the current was coming towards the bridge on my side and it could have slammed me up against some concrete, splitting my head like a coconut. So, not worth it. The greens were more saturated, the sky was clear and I could see every single mountain range, clear as day. Including Mount Rainier. It was so clear, I felt I could touch it. I’m fairly certain I saw deer. Of course, they looked like the ants that an ant would have at his picnic. If they had picnics.
So, what do you think? Funny mushrooms in my lunch? or was I just looking at things through a Photoshop filter.
Tomorrow’s 50 word fiction theme is: hearts.
Bugs make fine pets: Bees
When I first moved into the Easy Back Apartment, oh.. about 10 years ago, I was petless. And soon I decided that maybe I was mature enough to handle the responsibility of a pet. But what kind to get? At this point, I did not think it was wise to try to get a cat, as it might pester my allergies. [Obviously, I changed my mind about that.] I was researching what type of pet to get. Bunny? Sugar Glider? Chinchilla? Soon, I noticed a small hive like structure on the roof overhang, over my balcony. It was tiny, and around it buzzed three little bees.
"Hello little bees!"
"bzzzzzz"
"Would you like to live here with me and be my pets?"
"bzzzzz"
"Awesome! I shall name you… Banjo! And you, I am going to name Butrous. No, just the one Butrous, you are too small for a double Butrous. And finally, you shall be… Babaganoush. Because I like saying it, that’s why."
"bzzzz"
For a few weeks, the bees and I lived happily. I would come home from work and great the bees, ask them about their day. The never seemed threatened by me or behaved aggressively. But one day, I came home… and the hive was GONE!! Now, I lived on the top floor, the only way to get onto my balcony was through my apartment, or to crawl down, precariously, from the roof. Of course, the three bees were gone as well. They had been beeknapped. I waited for a ransom note. I never received anything. Some maintenance main probably thought he’d knock down the hive with a broom from the roof or something.
I mourned their loss. And not long after, I got Phoebe the Bunny aka: The B. Just one B.
Dan, I am so happy that you brought up wasps. Because it gives me the opportunity to share with you the audio of one of my favorite people I don’t even know… Eddie Izzard. He shall explain to us the difference between Bees and Wasps. Bees are good. Wasps are fuckers.
Enjoy! I heart Eddie!
Bugs make a fine pet: Spiders
I.
A week or so ago I walked into the bathroom to see a ENORMOUS spider in my bathtub. It was trying it’s 8 legged best to get out, but kept sliding down. Luckily, I had taken a shower the night before. I don’t like spiders. I’ve been fearing them for, oh… as long as I can remember. [side note: have you noticed that spiders are less scary when they are lower than you, like on the bottom of the tub, vs. up higher than you, like the corner of the shower, where they jump down upon your neck, bite you, and kill you dead?] So I did the smart thing.
“Baby Kitty! Pruuuu. Pruuuudence! Baby Kitty! Pruuuuuu!! Help me please!”
It took her about five minutes to amble in, because I had already fed her breakfast, so there was no need for her to pretend that she was obeying me.
“What?” her little kitty face expressed.
“That! Look! No, over here, in the bathtub.. no, not the sink, get over here… never mind, I’ll lift you. See? See the spider? Git it! Go git it!”
To her credit, Pru did stand on the edge of the tub and make her little hunting kitty yips. Then she jumped down into the tub, and proceeded to sit there watching the spider crawl all around her. I told her I wanted it “taken care of” by the time I got home from work.
When I got home, there was the spider, in the bathtub. He was very still, and looked a little peeked. But upon poking at him with a barrette, I found he was just a little worse for wear.
“Pru, what’s up with this? You were supposed to take care of him.”
“hmmm… oh, that’s Nigel. I’m keeping him. He’s fun.”
“You’ve named him Nigel?”
“Yup… we’re only making plans.. . for Nigel.”
Pru hopped down into the tub and started batting Nigel around a bit. I was actually starting to feel sorry for it. She was playing with her food. Brutal.
I came back later to find, unlike some cats, Pru does not eat bugs. She only beats them to death. Slowly. Over several hours. I gave Nigel a water burial.
II.
Currently, I have a little pet spider that lives on, not in, my car. She’s a tiny golden spider I have named Trixie. And she lives around the windshield. Every morning, when I am driving to work, I think that surely she has found somewhere safer to live. But no, she comes crawling out onto the glass, and waves a little leg at me. She’s learned not to get caught up there when I get on the freeway, however. That makes her curl up into a tight little ball. Poor thing. She gets under cover now, when I start to drive fast.
Trixie is free to live on my car, as long as she doesn’t come in, we are good. I kinda like saying “hi!” to her in the mornings.
In the next installment of Bugs Make a Fine Pet, we’ll talk about my three pet bees who were mysteriously beenapped from my porch. Never to return. I still miss them. After that, I’m done with the bugs because I don’t really like them very much.
Book and design stuff
I’ve been very bad about updating my books I am reading section. As well as the books I’ve read page. I just updated that with 4 books I’ve recently finished. And added a book down below that I am about to start: The Historian. I’m also re-reading a book I love:
“Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life” (Anne Lamott)
I’m sure if I talk up this book one more time… well, just take my word for it. Even if you don’t write, it’s delightful.
I have one final thing to tweak with the redesign, and I cannot figure it out. It’s driving me nuts. But if you go to any category archive page, you can see the titles and underlines do not behave as other pages. Even the they all use the same styles. I really cannot figure it out. It’s driving me batty.
And with that, I will take my batty brain to bed.
Amelia and the Phonetic Code
“What?! You are kidding me! Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot!”
Amelia: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Me: I don’t know….
Amelia: W T F
Me: Ohhh! What the Fuck. That must his way of saying “What the fuck?”
Amelia: Sierra! Hotel! Uniform! Tango!
Me: Uniform! Papa!
Amelia: hee! Uniform papa.
VERY IMPORTANT NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: The monkee will be moving…. tomorrow!!
I do think I am moved to do a little dance!