Continental<\/a>, which is nice. I mean, I reached Elite status with some of my friends a long time ago, but it’s cool when a major airline tells you you’re special. Even though they did mess up my special meal (I eat kosher on long flights, because you get better food that way) during the trip back from Amsterdam last week (which seems like it was 3 months ago).<\/p>\nThe year, I’m trying to say, has hurtled by, whether I mark the months with realist paintings or beautiful women in handcuffs. The days are filled with joy and love, along with a ton<\/em> of work. Here’s a song I listened to this morning. It’s by Massive Attack, and Sinead O’Connor sings it:<\/p>\nWhat Your Soul Sings<\/span>
Don’t be afraid
Open your mouth and say
Say what your soul sings to you
Your mind can never change
Unless you ask it to
Lovingly re-arrange
The thoughts that make you blue
The things that bring you down
Can only do harm to you
So make your choice joy
The joy belongs to you
And when you do
You’ll find the one you love is you
You’ll find you love you<\/p>\nDon’t be ashamed
To open your heart and pray
Say what your soul sings
To you
So no longer pretend
That you can’t feel it near
That tickle in your head
That tingle in your ear
Oh ask it anything
It loves you dear
It’s your most precious king
If only you can hear
And when you do
You’ll find the one you need is you
You’ll find you love you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Holiday gifts have been trickling in. Because I’m a Jew, friends send me gifts throughout December, hoping to catch Hanukkah. If they’re late, they can say it’s an early birthday gift (my birthday’s in January). I love my friends dearly, and tend to give them gifts throughout the year, when the mood and the opportunity … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Present Perfect”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-6Q","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1137,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/fauxhawk-friday","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":0},"title":"Fauxhawk Friday","author":"Gil","date":"October 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, Amy said that on Fauxhawk Friday, Musee D'Orsay offers free admission, and I fell for it. They charged for admission, but it was all worth it. Orsay's a fantastic museum, between the collection and the crazy vibe of an antiquated vision of the future. (In a sense, I suppose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1138,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/home-4","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":1},"title":"Home!","author":"Gil","date":"October 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In safe and sound, after a 75-minute delay in CDG because of problems with the hydraulics! Customs snagged our sausages, which we bought in duty-free as gifts for our fathers. This peeved me to no end. Amy was already peeved when the second security point at CDG took her jars\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Paris"","block_context":{"text":"Paris","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/paris"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1258,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/just-a-couple-for-the-road","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":2},"title":"Just a couple for the road","author":"Gil","date":"December 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I have about 50 pages remaining in Ron Rosenbaum's Shakespeare Wars, but I don't wanna carry that along this trip, so I'll finish reading it when I'm home. Instead, I'm bringing along Berlin Noir, an omnibus of the first three Philip Kerr detective novels about Bernie Gunther, and Sophocles' Ajax,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1391,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/hammertime","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":3},"title":"Hammertime","author":"Gil","date":"March 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Amy had to work late on Monday, so our anniversary dinner consisted of pizza and the rest of a fantastic bottle of champagne left over from the weekend (a wedding gift). We gave each other our \"paper anniversary\" gifts: she got me a wonderful print of a New Orleans photo\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/hammertime#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3428,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tongue-tied-and-painful","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":4},"title":"Tongue-tied and painful","author":"Gil","date":"February 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This month marks the 13th anniversary of one of the dumbest thoughts ever to cross my mind. I was covering the annual Toy Fair for a trade magazine. Held in February in two buildings on the west side of Madison Square Park in NYC (it's moved to the Javits Center\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tayback.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4728,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-dec-11-2009","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Dec. 11, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"December 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a busy, hectic work-week, so bleary-eyed links await you, dear readers! Just click \"more\"! Good thing there's coffee! * * * Another Pevear & Volokhonsky interview! I'm so bizarrely easy to please! (I just wish more of their translations were available on the Kindle.) * * * I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}