Poppy Z. Brite's Blog, page 103

Wah

I have simultaneous Cymbalta failure, garden burnout, bad sciatica, and a catch in my back from bending over to harvest mint that leaves me unable to do much of anything but lie on a heating pad.

All together now:

SUCKS TO BE YOU, DOC!!!

Please Keep Him

I always thought the people who had "THANKS, HOUSTON" bumper stickers* on their cars after the federal levee failure were racist assholes, and I still do, but today I just have to say:

THANKS, CHINA

*as in, "Thanks for taking black people out of New Orleans"

Drive-By Update

I've got to get into the habit of at least checking e-mail and posting here occasionally, otherwise I'll miss important happenings and people will get disgusted with me. But I can't help it; lately I feel like doing, not talking and most definitely not writing. The tomatoes take up much of my time; if kids are more trouble than tomato plants, I honestly don't see how parents stand it. Had a bout with the monstrously cute but dangerously voracious tomato hornworm; made an infusion of basil that (

Happy Birthday to Me (One Day Late)

I had a lovely, relaxed day with Chris. Over coffee he gave me a mushy card and a crazy Indonesian mask, whose picture I will have to post soon. Then we had lunch at Piccadilly Cafeteria (From "Crown of Thorns": [Dr. Brite:] wouldn't take himself anywhere nice; he'd drive out to the Piccadilly Cafeteria on Jefferson Highway and have a Spartan four-vegetable plate, poking sadly at his corn niblets while some poor fucker played the hits of the forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies on a Hammond o

Mixed News

I go through periodic spells of several days to a couple of weeks where the idea of getting online just revolts me for some reason, and I'm in one of those spells now. (I apologize if I've ignored any important communiques, and offer my earnest intent to get to them the next day it rains soon.) I did want to quickly jump on to give two updates.

First the bad news: Catcentric readers may recall that our Siegfried had to undergo extensive dental work a couple of weeks ago. The doctor thought the so

Fair Weather Friend

I am indeed a fair weather friend, in that I don't get online when it's this gorgeous out and there are this many plants begging to be planted. Forgive me. I'll be your bosom buddy in the dog days of August, when it's 95 degrees and 95% humidity.

Forgive Me, Lord, For I Have Eaten

Earlier this week we were delayed at the vet's office while taking Frankie and Junior in for their annual checkups, and thus I found myself thumbing through a copy of People magazine. The cover story was about how actress Kirstie Alley had gained 83 pounds. Inside, I saw photos of a beautiful, healthy-looking fat woman and read an interview about how "ashamed" she was to be so "ugly" and "disgusting" because she had "slipped" and eaten the foods she loved. She didn't binge on gallons of Haagen D

My Name Is Norman Bates, I'm Just A Normal Guy

I'm reading a short story collection called The Littlest Hitler by Ryan Boudinot (which he or somebody apparently sent me as an ARC back in '06 -- Ryan, if you're reading, sorry about that; 2006 was not a good year). I think this might be the kind of thing people mean when they talk about "slipstream." The stories are strange, sometimes funny, sometimes surreal. I like them.

But in the editorial letter -- which is bound into the ARC, otherwise I probably would have lost it ages ago -- I found per

Mein Hair

Since someone asked about the picture yesterday: yes, that is all my natural color. I put some red streaks in it in the spring of '06, but they've long since faded out. I refuse to dye it any more because there is some gray coming in, and I feel that I've earned every one of those silvery strands and want to show them off. Besides, I'm too lazy to bother with all that mess these days.

As long as I'm on this fascinating subject, I may as well mention that I am growing my bangs out. Those of you wh

One O' Those Long-Haired Hippie Fags

I took this picture to post to longhair (which I joined when I realized my hair was actually long enough to wear in styles, not just in a ponytail, braided, or clipped) and will probably do so eventually, but for now, I thought people here might like to see how long it has gotten.



It hasn't been anywhere close to this length since I was, like, 8. For reasons I'm not entirely clear on, I haven't cut it (except for trims) since the post-Katrina failure of the federal levee system, and I have no pla