my television is an e-tard*

I returned from an expensive weekend at my mother's place to find that my television has been taking hallucinogens. There are now odd, brightly colored rings circling the outer edges of the screen. They didn't prevent me from watching 24 last night, but it's kind of strange to see Chloe O'Brian pouting with her frowny face surrounded by technicolor rings.

After a bit of Web surfing, I learned that my television - an elderly Sony Wega - probably needs "degaussing". One can buy a degaussing tool online, but they don't seem to be offered via retail. And I spent all my money at my mom's. Crap.

Although I have a cheap spare TV in the spare room, I can't just switch out the two, as the Sony is a pre-flat screen job that weighs literally over 200 pounds.

On the other hand, I'd been considering switching off the TV for a month to treat my ADD, so maybe this is more than a coincidence.

*E-tard: urban slang for someone who has taken the drug Ecstasy and is acting stupid.

Dizzy broads

Right before I left Chez Melina on Saturday to visit my mother, I received a call from my older brother. He was telling me not to go to her house to see her, as she was in the hospital.

The situation is a bit strange, but thankfully it doesn't seem too serious. It's the usual "I've fallen but I can't get up" thing. She didn't break anything and only bruised an elbow, but after two hours of her trying and failing to stand up, my brother called 911. (She's a bit like me; she usually won't go to the doctor or hospital unless someone else insists on it.)

My mother has had severe vertigo for years, and even though she's been through just about every test known to man and medicine, it never improves.

One irony of all this is that her usual doctor (who I don't like) is on vacation, so another doctor was sent in. I like her ten times better. She isn't big on stuffing my mother with prescriptions and she doesn't talk to her like she's a retard. And she even diagnosed low sodium, which often causes dizziness.

Most doctors (including my mother's) bang on about how we all need to lower our sodium intake without ever considering that it may not be necessary. This is something I found out 12 years ago, as my vertigo has never returned after my neurologist suggested I put salt on my food now and then.

shoe fetish part II

I tried these Tory Burch sandals on last night when wandering through Northpark. Would they be better than slingbacks? And is this the sort of footwear that men like, or laugh at? Just wondering.

shopping for libertine footwear essentials

Recently I began shopping for the Elusive Black Slingback. The reason I say "elusive" is that:

1. I have long skinny feet, and few stores carry narrow fittings.
2. It's sandal season, but I would rather have a closed-toe shoe so I can wear hosiery; also, toenail polish is not allowed in shaolin class.

I did some reconnoissance on the Web and came up with this shortlist:

I'm leaning towards the third one down (or third one up - same difference). Although it could be argued that it's not technically a slingback, I liked the detail. But one cannot go wrong with Manolo Blahniks (fourth one down) as long as you don't mind being poor. Any opinions?

More about Saul Bass and Walk On The Wild Side

Partly because of my frustration with being unable to download the title sequence, and partly because today was an especially boring work day, I nosed around for more about the Saul Bass movie credits I posted a few days ago.

Saul Bass was considered one of the best designers of movie title sequences, although he also designed some famous logos and won an Academy Award for the 1968 documentary Why Man Creates.

This is from the oddly-named blog http://potrzebie.blogspot.com/:

What is the best Bass? More than a few feel it is the predatory cat prowling alleyways to the accompaniment of Elmer Bernstein in Walk on the Wild Side (1962).

Bernstein recalled, "Walk on the Wild Side was a second in a series of jazz scores that I wrote in the 1950s and 1960s. The setting for the film was the Southern underworld, which had a particular effect on the kind of music I wrote. Because one thinks of the South as the home of the blues I decided to base the main theme of the score on a kind of rolling blues theme.

Probably the most interesting story about the creation of that theme involves the main title of the film. One day the producer of the film invited the artist Saul Bass and me to come to, what seemed to us, a rather grand home in Beverly Hills. He then started to spin us a story for the images he wanted at the beginning of the film. He started to tell us a story of the good cat and the bad cat and a fight that they get into, and the good cat recovers and walks off. Saul Bass and I looked at each other, rolled our eyes and thought 'a typical silly producer idea.' In any case, Saul went home and started to shoot film with his own cats. He showed it to me, and I then wrote the theme to which the main title was eventually shot."

I also found several online reviews of the movie Walk On The Wild Side, in which it was claimed that fans of Saul Bass would show up for the movie, watch the title sequence, then leave.