notes from france: orangina
In first year French, Madame Gabet taught us how to order an Orangina. But what was an Orangina? Was it better than Fanta? It was so French and mysterious. On a layover in Calgary the summer after freshman year, my family stopped at the resort in Banff and had lunch on the expansive terrace overlooking the Canadian wilderness. And oh mon dieu, there it was on the menu, Orangina!! The moment I had been trained for arrived. With rapture, I said to the English-speaking Canadian waiter, “Un Orangina, s’il vous plaît.” It was delightful. Ever since then, even though I don’t like soda anymore, I can’t help but ask for an Orangina s.v.p. in Francophone countries. And it is still delightful.
plainsong
A sketch about listening to the Cure’s Plainsong when I was 16. Sometimes you hear a song and it overcomes you and you have to hang on while the earth spins.
Filed under 90s youth, life drorings, life of liza, sketchbook | Comments Off on plainsongmy 90s frocks
i attended high school with great sartorial exuberance. i’ve been working on this here and there for the past few months when i got stuck on other things (fantastic wacom tablet practice! i’m not afraid of it anymore). now what will i do to procrastinate?
Filed under 90s youth, life of liza, sketchbook | Comments Off on my 90s frocksformative music
Music I loved in high school that helped me grow up into a person! Wildly beloved tapes: the Violent Femmes, a Smiths tape with The Queen is Dead and Meat is Murder that my oldest friend made me, They Might Be Giants. CDs: Tori Amos, Under the Pink; REM, Automatic for the People; Bjork, Debut; Ani Difranco, Out of Range; Mazzy Star, Among My Swan; the Cure, Disintegration; Jethro Tull, Aqualung; and Sting, the Soul Cages. I also listened to lots of Beatles (Sgt. Pepper, the white album, and the Magical Mystery Tour) and the Police (Ghost in the Machine, Synchronicity), but ran out of room.
formative books
Books I loved in my ancient long-ago teenagerhood: the Elfquest graphic novel series (this particular one is book three: Captives of Blue Mountain, by Wendy and Richard Pini); The Darkangel, Meredith Ann Pierce; The World According to Garp, John Irving; The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley; Franny and Zooey, JD Salinger; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams; The Belgariad series, book three: Magician’s Gambit, David Eddings; Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard.
