Bizarre

I'd already tracked down the quote below, which is quite worthy of being shared regardless, when I forgot why fate was to be tied to bizarreness (real word, I checked). It was a brilliant thread, no doubt, but it is lost. And so I ask a bit of patience with my all-over-the-mapness in today's posting. Many thanks. :)

I was introduced recently by Last.fm to a band whose style is alternately labeled indie, alternative, punk, folk, psychedelic, progressive rock. Black Mountain are compared to Velvet Underground, Neil Young, and early Pink Floyd. After listening to a few of their songs I'd say it can be wrapped up as stoner music (which you need not be stoned to enjoy, as I can attest). It's a throwback to 70's album rock. Recommended.

Based on a recommendation from someone (I don't even recall who; things do linger on my wishlists for years), I put Tangerinephant on my Amazon wishlist. Amazon now thinks I might like to read The Haunted Vagina (you read that right) by Carlton Mellick (author of, among other "bizarro fiction", Satan Burger and Razor Wire Pubic Hair). "It's difficult to love a woman whose vagina is a gateway to the world of the dead," declares the book summary for The Haunted Vagina. Before you go all "What?!" on me for seriously contemplating this recommendation, consider that the book is described by one Amazon reviewer as "an exploration of the female body and the power it can hold over men (figuratively and literally)". Is it fated that I read such a book?

Last night we watched The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard, about a regular person who runs on her own Purple Alliance platform for British Parliament and becomes Prime Minister based on little more than a desire for change. It's a political fantasy that does a passable job of portraying the realities which would surely come with a dream come to life. I like to dream, but I do enjoy reality more. As fortune would have it, this morning in the newspaper came news of the "There Oughta Be a Law" initiative by California state senator Joe Simitian. If you live in California and have an idea for legislation, go to Senator Simitian's webpage and submit it. In the six years he's hosted this contest, 11 citizen-initiated bills have been signed into law.

Finally, from A Room With a View by E.M. Forster comes this conversation between Reverend Beebe and young George Emerson:

"[C]oincidences are much rarer than we suppose. For example, it isn't purely coincidentally that you are here now, when one comes to reflect."

To his relief, George began to talk. "It is. I have reflected. It is Fate. Everything is Fate. We are flung together by Fate, drawn apart by Fate--flung together, drawn apart. The twelve winds blow us--we settle nothing--"

"You have not reflected at all," rapped the clergyman. "Let me give you a useful tip, Emerson: attribute nothing to Fate. Don't say, 'I didn't do this,' for you did it, ten to one. Now I'll cross-question you. Where did you first meet Miss Honeychurch and myself?"

"Italy."

"And where did you meet Mr. Vyse, who is going to marry Miss Honeychurch?"

"National Gallery."

"Looking at Italian art. There you are, and yet you talk of coincidence and Fate. You naturally seek out things Italian, and so do we and our friends. This narrows the field immeasurably we meet again in it."

"It is Fate that I am here," persisted George. "But you can call it Italy if it makes you less unhappy."

Don't say I give you nothing to think about when you read my blog. :)