Words are pegs: Bilbo, The Hobbit

"There have been times when I thought the [Shire] inhabitants too stupid or dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable. I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again."

I never thought I'd feel like this about home either, but I do now.

Words are pegs: Words on the streets: San Francisco and Oakland edition

Words are pegs: Words on the streets, Portland edition

Words are pegs: Vancouver street edition

Music glue: The Bronze Medal

"I won't see home till Spring..."

God I love these boys and their beautiful music.  Plus I am having a teeny homesick, or rather people-sick, or rather one particular, special, love-of-my-life person-sick moment and this captures it better than I can.

The lyrics read like poetry:

Furrows

It’s in my belly it’s in my bones

It’s not my corner, not my cove

But with fain, you calm, you wove

It’s in my belly it’s in my bones

Though, I won’t see home till spring

- 

I found my footing, I caw, I’ve sewn

Was sapped all sullen, won’t let love grow

Though with pace you sore, you rose

Alar our branches, unbend our bows

Nor find faucet, nor to flee

- 

And I can hardly hold my seem shut to the sound of lurid sea

Comfort in the furrows, warn into the soil, thawing under autumn trees

-

Came loose from doubts recurring culls

With fern and copper woven groves, all remove and bare to load

And I held you nude in our rapt fold

Just to sleep with home to hold

Words are pegs: Alan Hollinghurst

"It was one in the morning, and he himself was just a bow-tied drunk, a walking wrong note of hope and need."

From The Line Of Beauty.

This novel is so unsettling and compelling, because Hollinghurst just keeps hitting the nail on the head of all those private little things and thoughts that you rarely ever tell another person.  It's uncomfortable, but oddly reassuring to know that one is not alone I suppose.  Who hasn't felt this way at a party?  I know I have.

On that note, I'm going to go sit in a bar and wait for a man to talk to me and it's not even 1a.m.

Words are pegs: Roy Lichtenstein

Was lucky enough to catch the Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Just amazing to see them up close with all the texture and slight imperfection you can't tell from, well, from images like the above.

I love the poetry and simplicity of the words here, even if I know he was messing with our sense of romance and gender.

Words are pegs: NYC street edition

Words Are Pegs: Mark Twain

My bestest friend and soul sister, Michelle, packed me a homesickness present to be opened only in the event of glumness.  I'm almost looking forward to feeling sad enough to open it.  

In the meantime, in-keeping with our letter writing traditions, there is a wonderful quotation on the envelope by the ever amazing Mark Twain, chosen no doubt because of my pre-trip freakout.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover."  

Words are pegs: Salman Rushdie

From Midnight's Children