Monday, July 14, 2008

Meme-Day


Having posted at a reasonable hour last night, I thought I was going to get to sleep at a reasonable time, too. But then I installed the Babel Fish widget, in hopes of being more welcoming to foreign blog-readers...and then stayed up entirely too late seeing how cool the Midnight Garden looked in a host of other languages. (Sorry, Sh@ney: I tried to get one for you Aussies, but they say it's the same language! Who knew?)

Although I'd heard the lightest shower in the night, everything was dry this morning and the sun shining bright, despite forecasts to the contrary...so I tended to watering as usual, with coffee in hand.

So, Java...dear Java (whom I hope to someday visit, perhaps coordinated with a visit to the Park Seed company, since she is in their neighborhood)...has meme-d me. I'm not always a big fan of these, since they can encourage us toward that whole business of Too Much Information the internet spawns with its faux anonymity.

But they can be fun, too...and an enjoyable way to get to know interesting tidbits about fellow bloggers. Or is it? And so, here we go:


THE MEME OF FIFTEEN

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?

A railroad engineer. Then one of the Kids From "FAME".

2. What are you now?

A catering director, a gardener, a blogger and an aspiring beach bum, among other things.

3. What fictional character(s) did you identify with as a child?


Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, for their ability to hide their secrets while still doing amazing things to benefit the world around them.

4. How about now?

Those three, still. But also Mole, from The Wind in the Willows, who is good-natured, easy-going and somewhat uninitiated in the ways of the world.

5. What is your "Gay Pride" song?

"Go West", by the Village People. Which is funny, because I actually went East.

6. What is your drag song (we ALL have one)?

Ha ha, easy: "Le Jazz Hot" from Victor/Victoria.

7. Earliest memory?

Hard to be sure, so many have been supplemented with lots of photos, home movies and family anecdotes over the years that I find myself at a loss to really think of the first thing I truly remember. Perhaps t'was walking around in the grass outside the apartment building, something about dandelions. Or it might've been trains.


8. Memory you'd like to forget?

A hot night spent in a cold, uncomfortable place, as the Universe tried to tell me things I refused to hear. If only I had chosen differently.

9. If you ran for a seat in political office, what would be your platform(s)?


I'm more likely to run for a seat on a trolley. But I'd want to address health care for everyone, a revitalized transportation infrastructure (railroads made this nation great and can return its former glory if given half a chance), greater support of education and the arts...and gardens and seed for everyone!


10. Winehouse. Want her to succeed or are you over her?

The "Rehab" girl/singer? Not sure I know enough to care, or care enough to know, really. Next.

[For the next three answers, "Love" being such a complicated business, I've decided to defer to some of our modern age's philosophers and poets. Can you name them?]

11. The first person you thought you loved?


I was sleeping and right in the middle of a good dream, like all at once I wake up from something that keeps knocking at my brain. Before I go insane, I hold my pillow to my head and spring up in my bed screaming out the words I dread.


12. The first person you actually loved?

I'll make you happy, baby, just wait and see. For every kiss you give me I'll give you three. Oh, since the day I saw you, I have been waiting for you. You know I will adore you till eternity.


13. The person you love now?

And maybe love is letting people be just what they want to be. The door always must be left unlocked. To love when circumstance may lead someone away from you and not to spend the time just doubting.

14. If you could be, do, have, own, or possess anything you wanted, what would it be?

A quiet place in the country, maybe alongside some railroad tracks. Nothing big, a small house with a big porch, a little greenhouse and just enough land to have a few different microclimates for creating different kinds of gardens and habitats to wander around in, and being able to look up now and then to watch some trains going by. Put another way, "a tracthouse of our own, somewhere that's green."


15. Even if you are in love with someone right now, who are you/could you be crushing on right now?

Are you kidding me? This is where memes collapse to like the Fifth Grade level. (Who asked you to ask me this?) No, really; it would be indiscreet to say.

I'll just go with Carter Oosterhouse. Are you kidding me? That smile, those eyes, that hair...America's Favorite Handyman, indeed!


While I'm on a roll, Mary of City Garden tagged me back in June with a meme I haven't come through on, yet...so with no further adieu:

6 RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME


1. My first dog was a beagle named Popcorn. She was a bad girl. Because of the predominance of dogs in our neighborhood named for snack food, someone once remarked that a summer evening on our street was like being at a baseball game: "Licorice! Candy! Popcorn! Taffy!"

2. I think the best dessert in the whole wide world is trifle. You've got cake, pudding, fruit, jam and booze. I ask you, what's not to love?

3. It simply wouldn't be Spring without a host of cheerful pansies in a raft of wonderful colors.

4. I think "Brokeback Mountain" was a pretty terrific movie. The soundtrack from the film always leaves me a little sad and wistful, but in a good way.

5. You know that screen saver with all the multiple-lined polygons that swirl and bounce off the edges of the screen and is constantly changing shape and color? I could watch that for days.

6. Every time I hear the rumble of thunder, I go take a seat on the porch area out in front of the house. It's under the eaves, to keep me dry, but I love a front row seat for a good lightning storm. The storms always seem to fizzle before they get to us, or turn and go in a different direction.

(Thanks, Mary, for your patience with me. It was June when you tagged me and there was so much going on in the garden.)


I suppose I'm a spoil-sport for not tagging anyone to carry on after me. If you'd like to pick up the thread of one, or the other, or both memes, at your blog, have at it!


Of course, all this meme-ing might lead one to believe that there's nothing going on in the garden worth talking about, and mostly, that might be true.

But I'm happy to share with you this first yarrow flowerhead. I found this seedling in the lawn early this spring and carefully transplanted it into the garden bed. I have since, on no less than three different occasions, accidentally dug the thing up and had to replant it...so I give it major props for having bloomed for me. I hope it will be the first of many.


Here's a few of those chamomile seedlings which I'd spotted recently. Really, they have moved past the point of being "seedlings", I think, as it looks like some of them are fixing to bloom.

Anyone care for a spot of tea?


The day came and went without rain until this evening, when we had a bit of a shower for about fifteen minutes. It was probably just enough to cool down the pavement and the plants. If we don't get more overnight, I'll still need to water in the morning.

Before it rained, I did grab a plastic pot and some shears and spent some time deadheading the border. It's fairly time-consuming, that's true, but for every fading flower I snip off, there'll be one or two new ones. It's mostly marigolds and pansies in there, but also some allyssum, a few daisies, a bit of lychnis and some dianthus...and a couple fading lilies from the red asiatics.

There's more to do, but then again, there always is.



Hey, you know that July 14th is Bastille Day over in France, right? It commemorates the overthrow of the monarchy of King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette and the birth of the republic of France.

And I'm just peasant enough to celebrate with a nice big piece of cake.

21 comments:

Joe Jubinville said...

Did you have a model train as a boy? I did. A friend from high school was a fanatic and now as an adult has track all over the back yard at his house.

Will you make chamomile tea? That bowl of flowers looks delicious, a colorful desert or a salad or a soup!

Greg said...

I did have trains, Joe! They are boxed up and waiting for me to move to a drier climate these days.

If I can't get a house near the railroad tracks, I would happily install a garden line through the garden!

I do enjoy chamomile tea. I also simply enjoy the way the stuff scents the air when you brush up against it as you're working in the garden.

tornwordo said...

If I hear thunder at night, I will get out of bed and go sit outside to watch. Of course during the day goes without saying.

Greg said...

There's just nothing like a storm, is there, Torn?

Birdie said...

Such a smorgasbord of thoughts! The one that resonated most with me was your comment about "Brokeback Mountain." That movie absolutely decked me and haunted me for months. I still listen to the music as part of my compilation of western music. Sweetly sad.

Greg said...

Birdie, our NPR station uses the main theme from the music under one of their station IDs.

Since I was probably the only gay man on the continent who didn't see "Brokeback" in the cinema, I knew the music long before I finally saw the movie. I still haven't seen it often enough.

TigerYogiji said...

Faabulous! I like Mr. Oosterhouse too! ;)

Java said...

The memes are great.
I recognize the poet in question 11. That'd be David Cassidy. Well, he probably didn't write it, but he sang it and made it popular back when I was a teenie bopper and had a crush on him.

Greg said...

Tigeryogiji, isn't he dreamy?

Java, it sounds like we had similar "teeny bopping" experiences, which is why I chose this for that particular question!

I did get to meet David Cassidy about a dozen years ago, when he was touring with the musical Blood Brothers--he was shorter than I expected (not that I minded), and still pretty cute!

MartininBroda said...

I write this with great difficulty, because I was just lying almost dead laughing and under the table. There are 2 things that are true, I love and admire your blog and my English is a bad joke.Please forgive me. But Babel Fish is worse. But your sympathy is indeed lovely.

Greg said...

Ha ha...I'm happy to have given you the laughs, Martin.

I was uncertain if Babelfish was worthwhile and tried it somewhat out of allegiance to Douglas Adams, who conceived of the creature for which the service is named.

Is there any online translator you think is better, or is that a false hope?

Hmmm, I hope our governments aren't relying on online translators (Although, it might explain so much about the world...).

: )

Butch said...

Bravo! What a piece of work this last entry is. I too, love trains and when we would be on a trip as children I would hope that our car got caught at the railroad stop signs so I could watch the train go by. My father of course, was upset he couldn't get through before the train came. I owned an American Flier train and also a Lionel "O" gauge train. I still enjoy them today but there was nothing like watching the steam engines when they would travel by.

I agree with Joe, that those clippings look mighty good. In the Northwest, we use edible flowers in our salads during the summer months. Looks like soup would be another way to enjoy it. I'm not sure if some of those flowers are edible though. In any event, thanks for the interesting meme, and "Let them eat cake!" , indeed!;-)

babs said...

mmm. cake...

And one of the Kids of Fame. Yes, I totally did too.

Bought the Season 1 dvd of Fame and it holds up fairly well. I loved the music.

Is no. 12 the song, "Baby I love You." by a group I've forgotten. One of the girl groups?

Ooo, Mama Cass. Very 60s. She did other things beside show up on Scooby Doo?? Sorry, that's painful to a lot of the people out there. I think I first knew about her from Scooby Doo.

How do you link up the soundtrack?

Pretty Me said...

Wow! You have variety of beautiful flowers... =)

Greg said...

Hi Babs. I'm very pleased to hear "Fame" stands the test of time. I haven't listened to the albums in some time (they are vinyl, after all). I'll have to check the library for the DVDs.

Number 12 is a girl group...but I know you were just trying to trick me into saying which one.

I actually didn't realize that Mama Cass was on Scooby Doo. I just knew the album from my Mom playing it all the time - good stuff!

The playlist just plays randomly. But I understand that there have been some happy accidents where certain songs have underscored things about particular posts... which is fun.

lostlandscape said...

Yikes!!! I was putting together a blog tag post draft, pushed the button to tell you that you'd been tagged...and then what do I see! Well...maybe you can bargain me down to one more super secret thing that you haven't revealed...maybe add #26 to your hot "100"? Or was #26 just too scandalous to leave on your original list?

http://www.soenyun.com/Blog/?p=381

Greg said...

Lost, I can't believe your the first to point out that I'd missed #26 on my Hot 99 List!!! What a good eye. I can't say how many times I read and re-read that post, and I completely missed one! (There were a few scandalous things omitted from the final draft. : ))

Okay, so that is owed to you all. And now I'm off to check Your Tagging, to see just what's in store this time around.

Greg said...

Hi Pretty! Your comment snuck in there between the others without my responding. Thanks for stopping by the garden--glad you enjoyed the show! Be sure to come back again soon, it's changing all the time!

Sh@ney said...

Is there where I am meant to say

"OMG all this time I thought the english language was born & bred in Australia. How could it possibly be the spoken/written language of many other countries"

Let's talk slang and we might have something to compare...LOL

A gay pride song & a drag song! Hmmm I don't have either, though I can identify with a few songs that are commonly used by our brother's & sister's.

I can relate to your wanting to live by a railroad, in the countryside. How nice would that be! (I am sensing Fried Green Tomatoes may have been youe inspiration...*winks*)

Thanks for sharing those snippets of Greg, the man behind the colourful garden.

Anonymous said...

It's always nice to discover something new about someone through their participation in meme's. But I hear watching "that" screensaver can cause seizures. ;-)

I was glad to come across more photos of your daylilies. I was concerned when mine exhibited characteristics of "frayed" edges on their petals and after seeing yours, I am assuming that is natural. I always thought the edges were smoother. Although I may have caught the daylilies as they were approaching "their last leg." ;-)

Now you're making me tear up with Bette and "The Rose." :-)

Greg said...

All in good fun, Sh@ney, old buddy!! I quite like your version of the language!

A life of loving trains is probably the true inspiration, though I do LOVE the movie of Fried Green Tomatoes - lots of steam locomotive porn shots there, plus what a great story!

(Bet you have a pride song and a drag song and you don't even realize it!!)

Afod, one of the things I love about daylilies is how each one is unique from all the others, even tho it may not appear so at first glance.

It could be your frayed edges are part of the "design" your plants were bred for, or it could've just been the result of some insect munching the unopened bud, which can create an effect upon opening much like those snowflakes we make with scissors and folded paper!

I'll moderate both my tomato consumption and my screen saver gazing, to be on the safe side!!