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Ein sehr guter Tag - De File
Does Collecting Make You Feel Dirty?
10:05 pm June 18th, 2006
cbertsch
cbertsch
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Ein sehr guter Tag
Today was a very good day. I was told to pretend to sleep in while the ladies of the house ran some errands. So I dutifully remained in the bedroom watching soccer with the sound off. After they returned, they summoned me to breakfast, the highlight being a whole pot of coffee that Bean had prepared herself. Then I relaxed to the remainder of the France-Korea game while they retreated to Kim's art room to work on a secret project. Several hours later, it was ready:

Kim already posted a close-up of the collage on her LJ, as well as some great shots of their matching outfits and "opposable hips." Skylar designed the whole thing, from the selection and placement of the photos to the decorations that complement them.

Following our extremely hot photo shoot, we journeyed down to Bean's favorite restaurant Zona 78, where she had her usual salmon, Kim had pizza, and I had the halibut special. Towards the end of the meal, Skylar replied to one of my silly ripostes by noting that something was, "a matter of taste." I told her that I'm very interested in taste and asked for her thoughts on the subject. She proceeded to explain that part of your taste comes from your parents, but not all of it, since "every person is different." Here she is expounding on her theory:


Maybe I'll read her some Bourdieu. But then she'll want to see a photo of him, which would present problems, since he doesn't compare favorably to Nietzsche, much less that bald stallion Foucault.

After dinner, we drove over to the "urban" Target at Roger and Oracle to purchase me a Blaine so that I could play Barbies with her. Sadly, scented Blaine was unavailable, but I did score a more restrained companion who conveniently shares his name. And that meant that I got to spend an hour acting out various scenarios inspired by The Barbie Diaries before Skylar went to bed, most of which turned on the question of who Blaine would be willing to date. Thankfully, this rather arduous judgment of Paris was brightened by several interludes in which Blaine kicked Todd the Republican's ass and expostulated on the difference between being an anarchist surfer dude looking for his next plate lunch of Hawai'ian roast pork and being a run-of-the-mill Democrat. "I voted for John Kerry, sure, but that doesn't mean I like him." By the end of the scenario, Blaine's most favored Barbie had aged from 16 to 18 in order to make him keep the promise he'd made to her to take her on a date once she was no longer "underage." Yes, that word did enter the fray and, no, I wasn't the one to invoke it. Where's that short, hairy Bourdieu when you need him?

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Current Location: 85704
Mode: happy
Muse: Dare I cue the Ice Cube?
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Comments
Thread started by elizabeg
elizabeg From: elizabeg Date: June 19th, 2006 05:48 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Blaine!

Our Harvard House Blaine is *definitely* an anarchist. When he's not so blissed out on his surfer dude life and his pillaging of C's special herbs that he's passed out on our coffee table, that is.

You know you're an honorary member of Harvard House when we've made you smell the Blaine in a Box, that's all I'm saying. And you're even more in the know if B comes out to play.
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cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: June 19th, 2006 06:55 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
In a way, I'm glad this Blaine is stink free and has different hair and clothes. I'd hate for the aura of the Harvard House Blaine to dissipate.
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Thread started by benlinus
From: ex_benlinus Date: June 19th, 2006 06:25 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
HAPPY FATHERS DAY M'FRIEND.
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cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: June 19th, 2006 06:53 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Thanks! And praise from me to you for the wonderfully entertaining Vegas entries. If I read you long enough I might bring out my inner beast. Or at least my inner Hunter S. Thompson.
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Thread started by Elaine Axten
From: e4q Date: June 19th, 2006 07:31 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
when i was at art skule i had a boyfriend who was doing politics. i used to demand stories from him involving me saying things like "say i was a trotskyist feminist, what would i believe?" he would always actually answer these fatuous questions, which i enjoyed immensely.
i have always liked a story. when i was little, my mum would get bored with the standard rendition of anything less than alice in wonderland and would make up loads of, usually ghoulish, detail to go into the crappier stories. no wonder i was horribly disappointed with school books. not only could i already read, but the stories were crap.
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cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: June 19th, 2006 02:11 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
I bet. The fun part for me is combining different stories and discourses. Yesterday Blaine was proposing a split-screen showing of Cabaret and The Wizard of Oz to build on Skylar's suggestion that there be a sing-a-long devoted to the former. "It wouldn't be too postmodern for you, would it?", he asked her. "No, it wouldn't," she replied.
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From: e4q Date: June 19th, 2006 02:59 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
hahahaha. fab.
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Thread started by Kate Bush faery
sisterblister83 From: sisterblister83 Date: June 19th, 2006 04:09 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
that is genuinely hilarious.
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cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: June 19th, 2006 04:16 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Thanks. I felt bad for acting out violence at first, but Skylar really enjoyed seeing the Republican get his ass kicked.
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sisterblister83 From: sisterblister83 Date: June 19th, 2006 04:27 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
I should write a father's day post too. My dad prophesized that I would show up during church. Heh. Does she do Ninja Turtles? That was very early nineties. My ninja turtles always butchered my barbies. I gave them crew cuts, colored them green, and they then could join the underworld, fighting crime and bringing about turtle peace for all.

I've been meaning to write you. I will...
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cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: June 19th, 2006 05:18 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
It's funny. We like turtles a lot. But we missed out on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze entirely. My Little Pony and even Care Bears had revivals during Skylar's pre-school days, but not the Turtles. At least, not in her circles.
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_luaineach From: _luaineach Date: June 23rd, 2006 03:18 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Jet was mutant ninja turtle mad there for quite awhile but it got ousted by the current favorite, Power Rangers. Anything ninja and he loves it.
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cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: June 23rd, 2006 04:20 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Ahh, so the 80s revival is a gendered phenomenon. I didn't realize that the Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers were back with such force.
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_luaineach From: _luaineach Date: June 23rd, 2006 05:32 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Oh yes, we have all sorts of Ninja Turtle action figures and weapons and motorcycles that shoot lances and whatnot. As far as I can tell, though, the Turtles have remained the same. The Power Rangers, however, have exploded all out of proportion -- there are power rangers SPD (space patrol delta) dealing with aliens, and power rangers wild force who morph into animals and, the best one IMO, Power Rangers Mystic Force in which they alternate between modern day and medieval times and morph into dragons and learn "spell codes" and stuff.

Jet and the little boy across the street bonded this past Halloween because they ran into each other on my front stoop and Jet was dressed as the red ranger and the other boy as the blue ranger. Inseparable power ranger based friendship ever since.

It gives me a weird deja vu because I'm pretty sure I used to watch Power Rangers with the kids I *babysat* for pete's sake...

I myself hadn't realized Care Bears were back, although i did see a New and Improved Strawberry Shortcake not that long ago.
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cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: June 23rd, 2006 05:43 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Oh, yes. Our Care Bears phase was short, but rainbow-colored. My Little Pony came back with greater intensity, however. What I want to know is what happened to G.I. Joe?
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Thread started by Pure Wind from a Pure Land
_luaineach From: _luaineach Date: June 23rd, 2006 03:16 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
to take her on a date once she was no longer "underage."

Yow, that's some first date she has planned for Blaine, if her being "underage" plays into it. Quite a promiscuous little Barbie!

:;wanders off thanking the gods she has a son::
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cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: June 23rd, 2006 04:18 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Indeed. Today she reported that an eighth grade boy at art camp is already dating, but is upset because his girlfriend has been icing him: "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride."
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_luaineach From: _luaineach Date: June 23rd, 2006 05:36 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
And apparently it can come sooner than you think (or at least sooner than *I* was prepared to think). I was shocked to learn that my 10 year old niece (who will be 11 in a few months) had already started her period! At 10! Granted, I think I was 12 so that's only 2 years but still... puberty and pubic hair and breasts and periods at 10?!?!? Aie yie yie. I liked to blame such early development on steroids in meat, etc., but my sister and her kids are vegetarian and all organic/steroid/etc.-free on the dairy and eggs they *do* eat, so there goes that theory....
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: June 23rd, 2006 05:41 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
First menses correlates to temperature, from what I've read. The warmer the place year round, the sooner the onset of puberty. And with global warming. . .
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19 comments or Leave a comment
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Charlie Bertsch
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Name: Charlie Bertsch
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ABOUT DE FILE
You're looking at content from my Live Journal, which I have been keeping since 2003. I consider it a personal blog, though it lacks stream-of-consciousness revelations that typify that genre.

That said, if you manage to discern the confessional mode within entries that are superficially tight-lipped, I will reward you handsomely. Or at least pretend to do so.

In addition to reflections, however mediated, on my daily activities, De File features periodic excavations of material from my "files," a revelation sure to disturb anyone who has seen my garage. It's an experiment in integrating past and present, perhaps with a little redemption along the way.

Politics is always on my mind, but rarely explicit here. I’m working on a theory about what personal writing like this does to literary identification and why some people resist its pull so powerfully. But my goal is to make that theory dissolve in my practice, a density in liquid.

You'll note that I have links to blogs not on LiveJournal directly above, as well as assorted websites of note. The blogs I read regularly on LiveJournal itself fall under "FRIENDS" at the top, for those of you unfamiliar with LJ’s workings.

You can write me. I'm "cbertsch" before the circle-a and "comcast.net" after it.
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