Poppy Z. Brite's Blog, page 95

Green Goddess Review

There's an excellent 3-bean review of The Green Goddess in today's Times-Picayune, and I was going to link to it and comment on it here. Unfortunately, nola.com (the site that hosts the T-P online) is, as they say, borked. (Does that word mean what I think it means? Hope so.) Watch this space, as I expect they'll get it together eventually. For now, I will only say to my one true love: I told you to quit bothering with that stupid lemon parfait.

Amsterdam

I am going to make more time and effort to come here. It just makes me too happy not to. I love coming alone and will always treasure the memory of that first independent trip, but having Chris here with me is the best thing of all. I'm too tired and happy to go into specifics. Just walking around, hanging out together, seeing a couple of friends, eating lots of wonderful food (I've developed a taste for waffles on this trip - not American-style hot waffles with syrup but the crunchier Dutch ...

Happy Halloween!

Not doing much this year because I need to finish cleaning up. Housesitters arrive tomorrow, and we leave on Monday! I have the pumpkins lit, though, and am giving out candy. Frankie helped me greet the last bunch of kids. I picked him up for them to pet, and one of them -- ten years old at least -- said, "I never petted a cat before." This made me sad.

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If I'd known the smiley one was going to come out looking so much like Ernie, I'd have gotten a football-shaped pumpkin and made a Bert one to...

C.O.O.T. Update

I would like to announce the Cannabis-Oriented Old-Timers' official slogan: "Hey, kid, get off my grass!"

C.O.O.T.

I thought of a better name for my upscale-cannabis-tourism advocacy group: Cannabis-Oriented Old-Timers. Far superior acronym.

Codgers On Cannabis

I'm sitting on the sofa buried in cats, preparing to unearth myself so I can go make a cat chart for our cat/house sitters. Do you see a pattern here?

While exploring this tantalizing site, I learned that the Netherlands' current, conservative government apparently wants to make it illegal for the coffeeshops to sell cannabis to foreigners. There's a stereotype of the typical pot tourist: they're usually young males from the UK or another European country; they come for the weekend, stay in a ...

T Minus 14 Days & Counting

About half of me is already in Amsterdam and find it hard to concentrate on anything that doesn't have to do with the trip. Which is probably just as well, since I have at least two weeks' worth of stuff to do to get ready for it. A tendril of depression tried to creep in yesterday -- maybe you won't have as much fun as you think you're going to, you never know, it could happen -- and I booted it right back out, then went and bought some plants to keep myself cheery. Purple petunias, mint, cu...

Central City Project

Bravo to Mondo Bizarro for taking a fresh look at Central City. It's impossible to ignore the poverty and crime here, but it's also important to remember that this neighborhood has contributed a great deal to New Orleans culture. Several of the placards are in my immediate neighborhood, and I plan on going out to find them, dial the numbers, and hear the stories soon.

Museumnacht

I've spent most of the evening drooling over my new Amsterdam guidebook (new coffeeshops! New restaurants! Much more!). Also got Frommer's 21 Great Walks in Amsterdam, even though we usually have a good time just wandering aimlessly. And I just ordered our tickets for Museumnacht, a wonderful event we've been wanting to return to since we happened across the first one in 2000. I can't wait to find out if the ancient cycads in the Hortus Botanicus are still having sex. They had been doing it f...

Amsterdam T Minus 20 Days & Counting

Twenty days until we get on the plane. Twenty-one until we touch down in the city we've been missing for nine years. Three weeks. 504 hours. But who's counting?

Amsterdam has always represented various types of freedom to me. I first traveled there in 1994, after attending a horror festival in the suburbs of London. Yes, I admit it freely, I went for the pot, and I smoked great sticky green delicious gobs of it ... but I also found a city in which I felt more comfortable than any other besides...