Saturday, November 8, 2008

JitterBug Perfume

Anyone on here ever read Tom Robbins? Picked up Jitterbug Perfume at a Garage Sale last year. I enjoyed Jitterbug Perfume so much - I gifted the book to Matt - informed him that he would probably like it ... the book goes off on little universal tangents now and then. Matthew read it, loved it, became a little bit obsessed with the symbol of the Beet that is scattered throughout the book.... Anyways, Matt bought a bunch of beets and has been cooking them, eating them, drinking their juices, and smushing them all over his face to rejuvenate his skin for the past week..... hahaha..... I took a picture.

This week has been a bit of a blur - Been busy trying to see everyone, trying not to spend tons money on stupid things (which is my ultimate favorite thing to do. I cannot have enough funny looking necklaces made of yarn). 

My friend took me to a Japanese Tea House in Syracuse.... one of those places where you take your shoes off and drink tea while sitting on little mats. I made him eat seaweed and rice balls...wish I had known about that place earlier.... I would have spent a lot of time there.

Quick writings: I rescued a chipmunk from my basement and set it free. Sweet potatoes with brown sugar are to die for! - Decemberists play in Ithaca tomorrow - whoooo! Found a canoe but I cannot figure out where to get paddles for it... can you rent them? My cat got in a cat fight a few days ago and now I have to feed him antibiotics and it is very difficult to get a cat to eat pills that are not made of Tuna. New music on my computer makes me happy. Whoever made the CDs that are colored, with itty bitty boy-handwriting - you musical taste is great. Matt likes your Soul song and I just like that you admit to listening to Paris Hilton. How about some of them Tom Robbins quotes, eh? “Using words to describe magic is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef” "When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on--series polygamy--until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimensions to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.” "You should never hesitate to trade your cow for a handful of magic beans." "My personal motto has always been: Joy in spite of everything. Not just (mindless) Joy but Joy in spite of everything. Recognizing the inequities and the suffering and the corruption and all that but refusing to let it rain on my parade. And I advocate this to other people. “There's always the same amount of good luck and bad luck in the world. If one person doesn't get the bad luck, somebody else will have to get it in their place. There's always the same amount of good and evil, too. We can't eradicate evil, we can only evict it, force it to move across town. And when evil moves, some good always goes with it. But we can never alter the ratio of good to evil. All we can do is keep things stirred up so neither good nor evil solidifies. That's when things get scary. Life is like a stew, you have to stir it frequently, or all the scum rises to the top.” “If little else, the brain is an educational toy.” "It's never too late to have a happy childhood." "If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that's perfectly valid— but don't go out trying to sell your beliefs to the system. You end up contradicting what you profess to believe in, and you set a bum example. If you want to change the world, change yourself." "Nature isn’t stable. Life isn’t stable. Stability is unnatural. The only stable society is the police state. You can have a free society or a stable society. You can’t have both. Take your choice. "Human beings were invented by water as a device for transporting itself from one place to another." "In the Seven Dwarfs, only Dopey had a shaven face. This should tell us something about the custom of shaving." 
"As a child, I was an imaginary playmate." "Reality is subjective, and there’s an unenlightened tendency in this culture to regard something as ‘important’ only if it’s sober and severe. Your Cheerful Dumb are not so much happy as lobotomized. But your Gloomy Smart are just as ridiculous. When you’re unhappy, you get to pay a lot of attention to yourself. And you get to take yourself oh so very seriously. Your Truly Happy people, which is to say, your people who truly LIKE themselves, they don’t think about themselves very much. Your unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer him up, because that means he has to stop dwelling on himself and start paying attention to the universe. Unhappiness is the ultimate form of self-indulgence." "There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better." "If God had a bumper sticker, it would probably read SHINE: DONT WHINE." "Beets. The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is the more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious." 

10 comments:

PD said...

No offense to Matt, Beet Face looks a little scary. I like the pics of you & Matt. Must have been on one of those good days before the real November returned. Like your pics show, the sky was pretty on those days.
The quotes from Robbins are good. Definitely got me thinking. Its a good thing there are people out there that know how to put the right words together.
I dont think you can rent paddles. Any good sporting good store should have'em. Was the chipmunk named Alvin, Simon, or Theodore? Dont dance too much. You dont want to be wiped out for the Decemberists tomorrow.

Kev said...

Tom Robbins is very cool, but I've always been a Jack Handey guy myself.

(I was gonna write that as 'Jack Handey man,' but it just sounds wrong when you read it aloud.)

"Never criticize a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes. Then when you do, you'll be a mile away and you'll have his shoes."

"Children love to be fooled. One day I told my nephew I was going to take him to Disneyland. Instead, I drove him to an abandoned factory. 'Oh, no!' I cried. 'Disneyland burned down!' He cried all the way home, but I'm sure he secretly enjoyed it."

"I think a mistake a lot of us make is thinking the state-appointed psychiatrist is our 'friend'."

"It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man."

Jim in Huntsville said...

"There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better."

And its corollary: Seven fifths of the population do not understand fractions.

vikingman said...

Thank You so much for those wonderful autumn lights!!
new tendon in place, being home at my parents, crutches and no car driving in 4 weeks !!!!!( SUCK!!!!!),
found I had to submit now, at once, to THE inevitable mission:

"It's never too late to have a happy childhood."

( not quite sure why You brought this particular one up just now......?)

Seems sooo right, am just working on it, for some strange reason sucessfully establishing new ways of talking and responding to my parents, lovingly, full of respect, listening to them, theirs thoughts and fears and laughing about long gone scenes and hard fought-about topics in the past
-of course being treated the very SAME way from their side, which is AS important for me and sooo nice!
And so new.....

And another one in addition:
"....If you want to change the world, change yourself."

Jepp, that's it, SO easy!!

still in Bavaria....

Thank You so much for this blog and those wonderful quotes!

I <3 it!



Hi pd,
think it was Alvin,
he is always a bit off the tracs, after having got access to the internet and found some wonderful blog.....
Hope Jessica doesn't mind!!;-)

thanks kev and jim for great comments,
like the one best with shoes and a mile.. and the big man too!

semi234 said...

Re: Jitterbug Perfume...

Excellent, excellent book. Had to read it for my Patterns in Myth & Folklore class.

& fret not, those "universal tangents" DEFINATELY all come together by the end.

London Andrews said...

You will giggle but Matthew was like, "Oh you caught a chipmunk... we should name it something original!" And I am like, "What should we name it?" And he is like, "How about Simon?" And.... I just stood there looking at him.... for a very long time....

Jack is a clever man, always enjoyed his work.... : )

You'll get off the crutches soon, Viking Man.... : ) Positive thoughts for you and all that is going on in your life.

“Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have always known it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek” - Tom Robbins

Anonymous said...

thanks for the author recommendation

i always like your blogs

- hammer

vikingman said...

who knew that Vikings:

- used to meet their Masters of the art of surgery in some secret places north of the Alps?

- use small boxes with strings and cables to communicate and exchange thoughts, colourful pictures and comments with wonderful souls all around the world...?

- are so thankful for the chance to participate in wonderful circles of people around the world, keeping contact with those small boxes with strings on...?

- really appreciate positive thoughts and all other form of exchange?

- make somersaults when they are happy and have a healthy body?


Who knew??


Thank You all!
All the best to YOU !!!

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Anonymous said...

time to post a new blog jlo ....i love you

Anonymous said...

"Mix antibiotics with dry cat´s food on your hand.don´t work? open it mouth and the pils on it´s tongue.