See you later people.
We leave soon to go to Sydney for the night then fly away in the morning.
Fun will be had, cocktails will be had, massages will also be had. And by the look of my glowing white legs I'd say a dose of sunburn may be had.
And I'm thinking by the look of my crazy hair I might come back with dreadlocks. Because I'm not taking a hair straightener and I'm not even going to dry it with the dryer. It can just go wild for the next week or so. Will pack plenty of hair elastics.
So I wish all my friends and neighbours here on vox a very merry christmas. I'l think of you lot over there in the snow and sleet while I'm lying on my sun lounge soaking up some rays. And to all my aussie neighbours I hope the weather gods treat you well and you don't get a real scorcher for christmas day.
I think this is the first christmas, or even December, of my life that I haven't eaten ham. Can't say I'm missing it either.
Catch you on the flip side guys.
Part I: Trains and childhood memories…
Trains ran through the towns all around where I grew up.
I remember being in the car going to town or where-not and hearing “hurry up or we’ll miss the train” – meaning if we don’t hurry we will have to sit at the railroad crossing and wait for the train to pass until the gate is raised again. I never minded, I was never in a hurry and I fondly remember counting the train cars while waiting for the caboose to pass. Some of the past-times I had as a kid were putting pennies on the tracks to get flattened and in later years walking on the disused tracks with my friends and trying not to fall off the line.
All over the area you will still find abandoned Railway Stations. One of our most famous, the Dansbury Depot, just burnt down, so sad. It had been renovated into a very popular restaurant and railway museum and I had many a fine meal there. I also hear that the Tobyhanna Station has been renovated and trains once again run through the Poconos, but I don't know if that's true or not...
I have never forgotten that there was this one gatehouse that I wanted to renovate and live in – I was 4 years old and thought that was the neatest building I had ever seen. It’s down the line the tiniest bit from the Tobyhanna Railway Station and I can’t believe I found photos! See the lipped arch over the doorway on the right in the second photo? My Uncle used to hoist me up there to sit…. Super great memory! And still to this day I’d like to renovate and live in it.
I can’t remember when the trains stopped running through my town, but I remember when they still did.
Part II: Phoebe Snow: Famous Railway Icon, not the Singer…
The other day I saw a toy advertisement from 1909, and a game called “Phoebe Snow” was listed and since I had zero idea what that could be I looked it up…
Well. The game took a little looking for to find, but I did easily find some interesting information. Turns out Phoebe Snow was a very popular “local girl” to where I grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania and I’d never heard of her even though I knew of my area’s rich Railroad history!
Phoebe Snow was an early 1900s invention of the advertising department of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Line and she had her image painted on rail car and on posters in rail stations where you could purchase a Phoebe Snow postcard, and actresses would even ride the rails portraying her.
She was so popular that a game depicting a trip from New York to San Francisco was made (probably heartily endorsed by the Rail companies) and probably under many a tree on Christmas Morning 100 years ago!
I wondered what other advertising gimmicks had her name on them, so I searched both the web and images on google for Phoebe Snow Railroad and found some good pictures and reading. I encourage you to do the same… Start here:
I especially enjoyed this "first person" excerpt from womeninrailroading.com and this blog post with a large array of photos, including one not shown here of the Phoebe Snow game. Then there's always the wikipedia page. And a book on google books called “Railroads of Pennsylvania: fragments of the past in the Keystone landscape” by Lorett Treese that mentioned in detail the Railway history of the Pocono Mountains.
Part III: The Toy ad.
This best-ever toy ad is for the adult with an imagination as there are no pictures. It’s a wonderful list of what was in the turn of the century child’s nursery. I could see every one of these toys in mind as they might have been as they were unwrapped on Christmas morning 1909.
I am so curious what the “magnetic toys’ might have been and how they must have seemed so fascinatingly forward for the time. I could see the Indian Suit with its feathers and fringe – I wondered if it was a teepee or a tent? I could imagine all of the gorgeous dolls with all of their finery and falderal. (like that word, falderal? It’s a good old-fashioned one.)
I could guess what all of the Games and blocks were about as I was looking through the list: I’ve always loved Paper Dolls, and I could understand the New North Pole game as the North Pole had been big news in the Spring of 1909 and this list is from December 1909. The Post Office game, I could imagine… but I am sure not the one we played. Anyway, I was all wrapped up in revelry until I got to “phoebe snow”… I took pause and thought to myself I wonder what kind of game that is!?
… and that’s the spark that started this post about trains.
Sarah Palin will be a major player in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles. Her popularity is growing and President Obama's popularity is dropping.
Everyone should be unsuccessful so successfully: From a losing vice presidential candidacy, Sarah Palin has bounced back as a best-selling author with plans to be a major player in next year's elections.
"It has been spectacular," Palin told USA TODAY in a telephone interview Thursday as she wrapped up a three-week book tour that has made her memoirs, Going Rogue, one of the top-selling non-fiction debuts ever.
Hugo Chavez is at it again. He seems to think that he is the leader of the buffoons. Well, he has a long way to go. He will have to be more buffoonish than Fidel Castro. Good luck Hugo.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he "still" smelled sulfur after President Obama made a keynote speech at the Copenhagen climate conference Friday, accusing the American president of carrying the same satanic scent that Chavez believes followed Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.
|
For this Christmas, I did buy myself Swords deluxe edition via my favorite store, amazon. It was a bit pricey for a CD/DVD combo ($23 vs $12 for the standard disc), but I'm worth it.
I actually have had a digital copy of the B-Sides compilation since late October, thanks to pen pal friend Mel, as it was a "bonus" if you had preordered tickets to see Morrissey in live in 2009. And of course, like most fans, we still buy the physical release anyway, so it's a bit of a win-win situation for everyone.
I'll briefly summarize Morrissey's history: he's a bit of a sensitive, indie songwriter with The Smiths. He went solo in "nineteen-eighty-hate" with some classic modern rock hits with "Suedehead" (aka that "I'm So Sorry" song) and "Everyday is like Sunday". He went a bit rockabilly with Your Arsenal (his previous album Kill Uncle was heading to this direction, especially with the B-Sides and singles from this era), and pretty much stayed in this "muscular" rock type music since. As I previously mentioned, I think this has to do with his musical collaboration with Boz Boorer and Alain Whyte.
If you're new to Morrissey, I don't think Swords would be a good starting point for you. I would recommend starting with Bona Drag, a weird mix of b-sides and oddities. Most of the songs on Swords were co-written by Alain Whyte, and there's a nice cohesive feel to each song as they have similiar song writing structure. When you do run into a non-Whyte song, such as "Sweetie-Pie", it just feels out of place. In fact, I think this is possibly one of the worst Morrissey song, right up there with "Michaels Bones".
There is one non-Morrissey-penned song, and it's a live recording of "Drive-In Saturday" (live at Omaha on 11 May 2007). Morrissey's music obsessions tend to be from the 60s and 70s era, so it didn't surprise me to hear him doing a David Bowie cover from the Aladdin Sane time period. But the two are friends, I know that Bowie showed up at a Morrissey show in Los Angeles in the early 90s to do a duet of a T.Rex's song for "Cosmic Dancer", and, of course, Bowie would later record a soul-ish version of Morrissey's "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" in 1993.
Also, it seems in post-2008, Morrissey's songs have been about fatherhood and retirement. Just looking over his titles: "Good Looking Man About Town", "Don't Make Fun of Daddy's Voice", "Teenage Dad on His Estate", "Children in Pieces", that "constipated look" for Swords, and that controversially album cover for Years of Refusal ... you would think that he's married with kids. Maybe that's not a bad thing, with Morrissey's heath in question, maybe he should take it easy. We all can't be like James Dean, you know.
12/19/2009 03:47:04 ♥ vu (
) ♥itsmorrisseysworld.com ♥ truetoyou.com ♥ morrissey-solo.com
- 03:31 @NathanFillion: Oh, Nathan Fillion. How I love you and your nerdy Christmas tree. #
- 16:53 @GameStopCorp: I have to go with Batman: Arkham Asylum #seasonstweetings #
- 17:44 If you're looking for something to do tomorrow night, don't forget that @HoustonGaymers will be at @CoffeeGroundz. Rock Band time! #
- 18:36 Getting dressed for Leslie's party and rocking out to some @JonathanCoulton. Plywood! Brushed steel! ♫ blip.fm/~i0afe #
- 20:25 At Leslie's for holiday celebrating. Yay! #
- 22:29 Sitting outside at Leslie's by the fire. Dave told me I look skinny. He's like the sixth person to say that to me lately. Weird. #
- 22:54 And the Columbian Firewater makes an appearance. #
- 23:17 Woot! @m_kammon left so I got her white elephant gift *and* I drew number 1, so I get to steal at the end! #
- 01:07 I just had first smores and now I have marshmallow in my hair. #
Kymberlie's Tweets automatically shipped by LoudTwitter. Blog comments are welcomed and encouraged!
Big box o' chocolate covered strawberries!!
Since I'm leaving tomorrow, I'll have to eat as many as possible today. Or share with the rest of the office - all four of us who are here today.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
My Groups
-
Austin Voxers Updated: Yesterday
-
My Favorite Things Updated: 3 days ago
-
50 in 365 Updated: 3 days ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
