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How weird is that?

 
  

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Sax
13:34 / 10.09.03
A feature I wrote in the aftermath of the Bradford riots of 2001 has just been used in a text-book for English students at a university in Oslo, alongside pieces by Maya Angelou, Hanif Kureishi, Bill Bryson, Charles Dickens, Tupac Shakur and Emily Dickinson, among others. It also has comprehension-style questions.

How weird is that?

Your turn.
 
 
Ariadne
13:39 / 10.09.03
My god, congratulations! That's very cool.

An article I wrote for Management magazine in NZ turned up in a friend's university course. She was being asked to critique the article (or more probably the management 'technique' I was waffling on about) but said she couldn't take it seriously because I'd written it.

Not quite on your level though. Where can we get hold of this book?
 
 
that
13:44 / 10.09.03
Yeah - wow! Congrats, Sax.
 
 
Sax
13:46 / 10.09.03
Well, thanks, but this isn't about me. I want quickfire accounts of strange but true things that have happened to you, followed by a "how weird is that?" pay-off line. Aww, go on.
 
 
Ariadne
13:48 / 10.09.03
Oh, it is *so* about you. I would boast about this to everyone I passed in the street, if it were me.
 
 
Sax
13:51 / 10.09.03
Well, yeah, it *does* give me Norwegian wood.

No, but seriously, folks. Give me your weirdness.
 
 
that
13:51 / 10.09.03
Oh, it is *so* about you. I would boast about this to everyone I passed in the street, if it were me.

Me too, absolutely.

And anyway, I can't think of any strange but true things of mine own at this very moment. *ahem* How weird is that?
 
 
Baz Auckland
15:45 / 10.09.03
I was busking about 6 years ago when this weird old lady came up to me and told me to "play something from where I'm from", so I played some slow celtic ballad-y thingies, and she kept saying "no, play it with feeling! Something from where you're from!"

After a few minutes of this, my playing seemed to have satisfied her, so she said "keep this up, and you'll make $10 in the next five minutes." (My average back then was about $10 per hour)

...and I did. $10 in 5 minutes. And I started making a lot more while busking ever since.

...how weird is that?
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
15:59 / 10.09.03
I was sitting in a cinema a while back, and a trailer came on for a Canadian arthouse flick.

"Hell," I said to my companion, "I really want to see that movie, but it's sold out."

"Here," said the guy next to me. "Use my tickets. I may not be able to go."

So I went. Half way through, I realised the guy who gave me his tickets was sitting a couple of seats down. When the movie was over - and it was pretty damn good - I leaned across to him to ask him if I could pay for the tickets, since he'd obviously had to buy more.

"Nah," he said, "I kinda sneaked in..."

At which moment, the usher came over to him and said...

"Excuse me, sir, but we were wondering if you'd get up on the stage and tell us a little about what it was like directing this movie..."

True story. Dunno if it's weird, though.
 
 
Scrambled Password Bogus Email
16:34 / 10.09.03
OK. I kind of fled my last last last abode due to racial aggravation and on the advice of the boys-in-blue who had the attitude that it was best if the villains just carried on being as villainous as they liked while the good folks who suffered just shuffle away quietly to somewhere less villainous. Ho hum.

Anywway, I happened to spen a couple of weeks shacked up in a hostel in Earls Court. One fine day, I forgot my keys and my wifey had the other set, so I was locked out til she returned. So I went to the pub and read the paper over a pint. Great. Left the pub, and decided to grab a beer from the offy on the way back. Came out of the offy and literally tripped over my best mate from college whom I had lost touch with and hadn't seen for about 11 years.

This was weird. I was struck by the freakiness of the number of factors that had lead to our meeting like that - not just the 'problems' leading to my move, but also the fucking articles I chose to read in the paper and the speed at which I drank my beer...

Anyway, that ain't even the strange part.

Four days later, I was in Soho going to a gig with my sister-in-law, and I bumped into his best mate, another friend I hadn't seen for about 11 years.

2 in 4 days. After a decade. How weird is that?
 
 
pomegranate
17:21 / 10.09.03
in high school i was vacationing in california and i ran into a girl i went to school with. in michigan. i'm all the way in cali, and i run into her at the train station. that was kinda weird.
 
 
Sax
08:14 / 11.09.03
This is all so weird. I love it.

Once I got a phone call from Kenny Baker, aka R2D2. He said: "I'm the smallest man in showbiz and I've got the smallest bird in Britain [I forget now what it was] in my nest box. Would you like to come and take a picture?"

How weird is that?
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
09:40 / 11.09.03
Don't give it all away, Sax...
 
 
Sax
10:10 / 11.09.03
Good point.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
10:25 / 11.09.03
It takes me an hour to get to work everyday and three separate trains, I work in quite a small building, it has five floors but the top one is empty, we have about 35 people on my floor. Anyway... the other day I was walking back from lunch when I spotted a guy I knew at school. He was in my year group and hung around on the periphery of my social group. He was all suited up and we got chatting, he basically said he'd started work about a week before. Turns out we work in the same building for different companies and both started in the same month.
 
 
Ariadne
12:43 / 11.09.03
So how did you find out about this, Sax? And will you get royalties flooding in?
 
 
000
12:43 / 11.09.03
Last week I chanced upon the superman.ws site through this thread and was sufficiently enticed to hunt down some of the old 70's, 80's Danish Superman comics. Yesterday I ran across some funky issues in a nearby 2nd hand store, including some stories with art by Alex Toth and Terry Austin, Michael Golden and the ever reliable Curt Swan. In one of the stories written by Cary Bates, I saw to my astonishment an opening page where two towers, resembling the WTC, are in flames -- the day before the 'anniversary' !!!

These translated editions don't list the source materials, but this was from 1982, which means the comic in question might have been published around 1978-81.

How weird is that?
 
 
William Sack
12:52 / 11.09.03
Todd and Flux's chewing the fat about Dutch girlfiends has reminded me about a coincidence that happened to me. As a youth I took part in a sporting festival in Oxford where we were put up in college accommodation. One year my team stayed in Wadham College. One night I got lucky and brought back a charming Dutch girl to my room. 2 years later I went to visit a good friend from school who was then at Wadham college. I asked for his address at the porters' lodge and was directed somewhere that began to look increasingly familiar. When I got to my friend's room I had the greatest pleasure in telling him that I had had sex in his bed 2 years before. How weird is that?
 
 
gingerbop
19:49 / 11.09.03
Im on Letternet, a big letter-writing network thang, and i get a magazine from them, in which theres a page with "please write to me" things. I'd never written to anyone in them before, or since for that matter. But this girl, Esme, sounded mental, so I wrote a letter, and planned to post it the next afternoon (it was actually a few weeks since it was published). I went in to school that morning, and there was a new girl there called Esme. It was the very same Esme. How fucking wierd is that?

Somewhat less strange, what i'd more class as fate- In lisbon I met pedro at the closing ceremony for this thing, and spent all nite looking for him, accidentally bumping into him, but never thought to ask his number. There were 30,000 people there. Imaging how many trains, with how many carriages, at all different times, to all different places, you need to get them all where they want to go.
I hopped on the train, dissapointed to be leaving him behind. He sat right in front of me as i got on the train. I felt like singing.

Jackson, that rocks.
 
 
Baz Auckland
01:12 / 12.09.03
Praying Mantis reminded me: In my last year of high school I took a trip to New Orleans for March Break. (Note: I live a few thousand miles from and in another country than Louisiana) While there, I was walking down the street past a family, and the daughter looked familiar. We both turned around after we passed, but kept walking.

Getting back to school the next week, I was taking my books out of my locker, when the girl whose locker was next to mine arrived. I looked at her oddly, and asked "were you in New Orleans last week?" She replied "yeah, I thought I saw you there..."

...how weird is that?
 
 
gingerbop
13:48 / 12.09.03
Same happened to me- I met a whole family i knew in france. And in Lisbon, i met a woman, who turns out knows someone who lives in my village- i mean, NOBODY lives near me. Ah well.
 
 
Lea-side
14:35 / 12.09.03
when i was 17 i got a phone call from the drummer from Steelers Wheel, telling me to 'stop trying to be rock'n'roll because itlle al end in tears'. turns out he was the some distant relative of a friend of mine who was a talented but spoilt public school boy, whose mother believed had fallen in with the wrong crowd (us).
the kid in question is now in a fairly famous band. im not bitter at all.
 
 
rizla mission
09:38 / 13.09.03
Awesome!

I hope you took the once in a lifetime oppurtunity to laugh in his face and say "I ain't never gonna stop rockin', baby!" or something equally ridiculous.
 
 
Whisky Priestess
10:09 / 13.09.03
OK, not as weird as some, but ...

I took a book called Fremder by Russell Hoban out of the library. Read it, loved it, stayed over at a friend's. When I got home it wasn't in my bag. I called her - nothing - when I went down again combed the house - nothing. With a heavy heart I went to the library to confess the loss. While browsing in the SF section I saw the book back on the shelf. Same copy, same return date. I KNOW I didn't return it in a fugue state. The only thing I can imagine is that it fell out of my bag somewhere and a public-sprited citizen returned it for me.

Two months later, same book for sale for 10p at the library. I bought it because it clearly has a homing instinct and I can never lose it whoever I lend it to.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
11:34 / 13.09.03
Some of you'll know most of this, apart from the really weird bit at the end. Just after I first started posting here, a thread kicked off about shitty hometown nightclubs. After I mentioned my local but didn't give its name, another poster recognised the description. "My god! You must be talking about..." I was, and thread swiftly died a death due to the odd coincidence.

Talked to said poster by email and wondered if I knew hir IRL, but figured that the likelyhood of that would be so small as to be ridiculous.

"Hang on," ze says. "Is your dad Mr..., used to teach at ...?"

"Er, yeah."

"My mum's Mrs..."

"Shit!"

Turns out we didn't know each other, but our parents had taught at exactly the same school, my dad teaching hir and hir mum teaching me.

How very odd.
 
 
Mazarine
23:02 / 17.09.03
I was just in the bath and my fiance wandered in, asked me if I was okay-- I've been having a very klutzy month-- and then spooned a small ammount of cottage cheese into my bathwater, and handed me both bowl and spoon. "It's not very good cottage cheese," he said, and wandered out again, leaving me in the bath to nibble some cottage cheese, which was no better or worse than any other cottage cheese I've had.

He's a strange boy, and I really ought to lock the bathroom door.
 
 
Ticker
14:19 / 06.10.06
I'm at home sick but working online 'cause I got mad remote skillz.

anyway I'm on the chaise in the front room with the youngest fleasson curled up next to me making odd sleeping chatter noises. So I start listening to the world a bit. I live in a shack attached to a big ol' house in an upscale family neighborhood. First I hear a low kitten-bird cry of distress repeated several times and I think, shit do I need to rescue some poor critter outside?

Next I hear a grown man howling "Where is my....Where is my...." in profound distress. Cut to a woman screaming. My first thought is do I get the sword or the hand gun? Then I shake my stuffed up head and realize just how bizarre the last five minutes have been.

Silence. Cat snores. Parrot across the street squawking. Distant airplane. Man howls again. I think normal people call the cops. Hammering. More shrieking from next door. Cat snores. Silence. I promise myself anymore howls or screams and I will go outside with the phone..and maybe the sword.

Going to go make tea now.
 
 
Chiropteran
14:32 / 06.10.06
And then...?!
 
 
Proinsias
14:42 / 06.10.06
This time 2 weeks ago I owned five mice and two degus as part of our animal collection.

I went to clean out the mouse cage around 2 weeks to find only 4 mice, a little strange. The cage is plastic with a metal grate which is far too small for the mice to fit through.

I came home a few days later to find 1 dead mouse , fine.Only three mice left.

My Degus both died within a week of each other. 1 died then the other went into depression, hungar strike etc it was only a matter of time.

We move the three remaining mice into a larger cage.

My wife called me at work to say one of the mice was dead. When I got home I found one mouse horribly murdered and one lying dead in the food bowl. The only live mouse was found wandering outside the cage. I renamed the murederer hannibal and placed him in the small, escape proof cage, with a large weight on the cage just incase.

The next night as my friend arrived I was explaining the mouse weirdness. I walked over to the secure tank and spotted a dead mouse sitting in the middle of the cage. The mouse I named hannibal was also running around the cage. The dead mouse was not a domestic mouse it was a dark brown wild mouse.

The cage is sited five foot off the floor, is made of see through plastic, and has a large weight covering the grate sited on the top.

Question: Why are wild animals breaking into my house, cimbing to great heights and floating through plastic cages only to die?

The dead wild mouse did not look like it had been killed by the pet mouse, it was intact.
 
 
Not in the Face
14:53 / 06.10.06
Whwn 19 I spent the summer working in a summer camp in the US just outside Los Angeles. In the month afterwards I travelled across the States and stopped off in Chaicago with another person from the summer camp. We decided to go and see a baseball game.

Baseball was as confusing as cricket so I asked the woman next to me to explain. Turns out that she, an American, went to the same small uni I was about to (St Andrews on the East Coast of Scotland - av student population 5,000). Then the person in front of us turned around and started chatting - he, also American, had gone to Manchester Uni where the woman I was at the game with was attending. Then three rows in front of us in the stadium (capacity 38,000) were two people from the partner summer camp back in California. It was like a strange confluence of connectivity made all the better, and wierder, by the admirable tendency of Cubs fans to buy 19year old Brits beer.
 
 
Ticker
15:01 / 06.10.06
And then...?!

toma-toe soup cooled whilst I consulted the spouse. We agreed next round of screaming invokes a call to the PD. So far only bird song. Cat has wandered off. Cat is trilling hunting cries at the toy basket. No sign of crazy neighbors. Confirmed location of three swords, felt silly about thinking of the hand gun.

Tomato Soup recipe:
(carnivore)

1 pound organic humane bacon
3lbs. organic humane tomatos
1 tiny onion to sneak passed the spouse's hatred of its kind
1 quart milk (goat)
1 teaspoon salt
20 grinds of fresh pepper
1/2 gallon spring water
Soup wand or food processor

chop stealth onion and raw bacon into the bottom of large pot, fry.
Add chopped up washed tomatos cover with spring water and milk.
Stir bring to a low boil add pepper and salt to taste.
Wait 15 minutes.
Insert soup wand and blend in pot or transfer contents to food processor and blend. Return to heat and low boil 1 hour.

For veggie version leave out bacon and use cream instead of milk. For vegan version use 1/2 cup seaseme oil instead of bacon. Almond milk is better than soy in this recipe.
 
 
Quantum
15:16 / 06.10.06
That's a fuck of a lot of soup xk, are you planning a huge soup party? Or just not wanting to cook again until you get better or until human beings transcend the need for food?
 
 
Ticker
15:24 / 06.10.06
you boil it off Quants during the reduction... leaves about a 1/2 gallon of soup when finished.
Is enough for a dinner party or 2 sick people who don't want to go outside for 2 days.

No sense in making a tiny pot of soup with all the work involved.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
15:29 / 06.10.06
FUCK! I thought you said "organic HUMAN bacon"...
 
 
Quantum
15:30 / 06.10.06
Fair enough, I'm a tofu miso soup man myself and cook the biggest pan I have full for the same sort of reasons. But at first glance, a pound of bacon and three pounds of tomatoes? blimey, I have friends that almost weigh less than your raw soup. Small friends. Who don't eat enough soup.
 
  

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