Other people write about Latvia!

One of the curious things about regularly visiting a small country where you don't speak the language is that when you leave, it's like the country--except for your friends-- vanishes from your world. Good luck if you want to know anything about the elections, or the economy, or which politician is divorcing his wife.

But in the last couple of days, I've bumped across two interesting articles about Latvia and/or Latvians. Both of them are in English!

This is a New York Times story about bad boy tennis player Ernests Gulbis.


This is a first-person account in the Wall Street Journal of a trip to Latvia by Kathy Reichs, the writer of the TV show "Bones." Reichs is married to a Latvian.

Who knew?

Update: I also found a link to new book about the Estonian ambassador during the cold war.

Shopping in the Junior's Department....(aka...You can go home again!)

When I was in Pasadena earlier this summer, I popped into the Pasadena Town Square Mall with my mother. It's the mall that was built near my parents house in the early 80's.

If you include the Foley's that was there before the rest of the mall was built, this is where I bought most of my clothing from elementary through high school. (To be honest, this is where my family bought most of my clothing... but I did get more of a say in it as I got older!)

Waiting for my mother to get her hair done at the mall this past June, I dropped in on the junior's department of the former Foley's (now Macy's) where I'd bought a bunch of things that I loved to death in junior high.

BOOKS: "One Day." Reading the book moments before the movie came out!

On my way back to Austin from my summer adventures, I read the novel One Day by David Nicholls.  I read it in pretty much one giant gulp.

While I had toyed with the idea of buying the book a number of times--at both the airport and at Target--I didn’t do it until a European dude recommended it to me. Later, when I told him I was reading it, he said that he hoped I loved it.

Which is a very unusual thing for a straight man to say, or, at least, it would be an odd thing for a straight American man to say.

In America, One Day would be termed “chick lit.” It’s in the pink ghetto of writing marketed to women, mostly because it deals with the emotional lives of people. In America, mass-market literature about feelings is pretty much the providence of women.  I don’t generally see straight dudes reading books where the characters have feelings, but that could be because I live in the machismo-poisoned land of Texas.

If you've missed picking up the book, the premise is that Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley kind of hook up in 1988 at the end of their studies in Edinburgh. The book follows their friendship over the next 20 years, dropping in on both of them each July 15th, which happens to be St. Swithin’s Day. Sometimes there are big changes from year to year in each of their lives, sometimes there aren't.

I really enjoyed One Day, although, in some ways, it was strange reliving tidbits of the 80’s. (In 1988, as Dexter rags on “that Tracy Chapman tape” I knew exactly how annoying and overplayed it was at the time!)

FILM: BELLFLOWER (2011) is a Bad Bromance

The car from the film visiting Austin, Texas during SXSW 2011

Last week I saw the movie BELLFLOWER, which, based on the trailers and the general buzz about the film following Sundance, I had totally expected to love.

Instead I was disappointed by this pre-apocalyptic bromance of a film.

Since I’m totally against spoilers, I’ll just let you know that the film is about two angry dudes in their early 20’s who like to blow things up, and deal with their feelings by blowing things up.

I have no problems with dudes blowing things up. The @madspark is one of my real-life friends, and he blows things up on a regular basis, partly because he can think of cool ways to do just that.

Maybe it’s a good movie to see if you are an angry dude. But not if you are a woman.

My husband didn’t care for the film much either, and he likes DIY pyrotechnics an awful lot.

The MEDUSA, outside the Alamo Ritz, SXSW 2011

I Don't Want To Go To The Dentist

When I was in high school, I had the most traumatic dental experience of anyone I know. Stop reading now if that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable.

When I was 15 years-old, I needed to have my impacted wisdom teeth removed. Since my mother was adamant that I shouldn't be "put to sleep" for this--as was the recommended procedure-- she found someone who was willing to take these teeth out under local anesthesia. This was a very bad thing for me.