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something of a loft
Friday, August 11 2006
Our friend Susan, the German translator, needed something of a writer's retreat to meet a translation deadline, so today she temporarily moved into our basement. There, with a pile of German-English dictionaries and a willing WiFi connection to do instant cultural research, she has entered into something of a monastic existence, emerging only to attend to the most pressing of basic biological needs.
Meanwhile my garage project continues, with progress mostly taking the form of small details such as shelving and (now that there's a place to put it) plumbing. I threaded a 1.25 inch PVC pipe through the new hole beneath the shop sink and then filled in the small gap around it with wet Portland Cement. Since the water it will drain will never be especially toxic or bacteriologically interesting, I'm just having it empty into the bushes below the house.
One of the most potentially-useful new shelves was one I made today from an old door removed from a Brooklyn brownstone (I'd gathered it several years ago when I happened to be in Brooklyn with my truck). It's two feet wide and taller than a modern door and features the little details that cheap modern luan doors lack. It's also very strong and inflexible, making it something of a loft. I have another door that I'll be making into another shelf at some point as well, since I'll never have enough storage in that garage.
The other day Gretchen and I saw Sarah Silverman's movie, Jesus is Magic, which is mainly film of her stand up act along with a few segments done in the manner of a musical or as simulated uncomfortable encounters with friends. It doesn't take long to figure out what Silverman's schtick is: she's a sweet & innocent Jewish girl willing to say anything, particularly things that are racially insensitive or offensive. Actually, though, she doesn't end up saying many truely offensive things, she mostly just talks about herself saying insensitive things. We never, for example, learn what her piece is that contains the word "nigger" (which she changed to "chink" when she did it in front of a group that included "African Americans.") Silverman is less funny that either of us had hoped, though occasionally she said things that were extremely funny, such as, "Everyone knows that the best time to get pregnant is when you're a black teenager." She seems to thrive as much on causing discomfort in her audience as making them laugh, which is refreshing and laudable, though she tends to hit the same notes over and over and over again.
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