Can't Live Without

Amy is ranting again on the ChiTrib's choice of a person (and his list) for this meme in their Sunday Magazine:

1. Sony 7.2 Mega Pixel 3X Optical Zoom camera: I take my digital camera with me everywhere.

2. My custom-designed yacht: It is very fast, and it's made of a material that absorbs light in different ways. Sometimes it's purple. Sometimes it's green.

3. Emile Galle vases: Mine are mostly from the beginning of the last century, but I've stopped collecting because the prices got so high.

4. Patek Philippe watches: They are the best in the world.

5. Black suede cowboy boots and jeans: My favorite way to dress.

6. Ferraris: I have a Testarossa, a Maranello and a Daytona.

7. Ingmar Bergman movies: They didn't cost so much to make and they had something to say.

8. Roses: My favorite flowers. I like daisies too.

9. The film "2046": It's a Chinese movie. So chic. The women are so elegant.

10. [the Ferraris line is repeated. Nice copy-editing, Trib.!]

11. Beyonce: She is a romantic rocker.

12. Sharpie markers: I love their bold, beautiful lines and I love to sketch while I'm thinking.

I swear to God!
Meanwhile, Amy's list goes like this:

1. Canon PowerShot A80 4.0 Megapixel 3x Optical/3.6x Digital/11x Combined Zoom camera: It was sitting on the kitchen table, about 4 feet away from me, while I read this article. I use it probably 5 times every week. It is never "put away"--it doesn't have an "away" in which to be "put".

2. [Hmm. What can I compare to a custom-designed yacht that changes color depending on the way that light that hits it?!] Friends: I have friends. Can that pompous asshole who 'can't live without' a color-changing fucking yacht say that?!

3. Tea-pot collection, including the dancing cows and the glandularly-challenged frog, which always reminds me of Item #2, above.

4. Coach Basic black purse: My one idiotically expensive indulgence, made moreso by the idiotically expensive wallet [not exactly like the one linked but it seems to be off the website currently] that I "picked up" when I realized that I didn't have a black wallet after I bought the purse.

5. Levis 504s and either white or black blouses: I can't seem to keep any color in my wardrobe anymore--except for the occasional blue or gray--but I don't mind. It seems that I'm developing, at long last, a personal style.

6. Hondas & Buicks: It seems that most of the people I love own either one or the other, or both.

7. Hal Hartley movies: Trust is my favorite, but I've loved them all. He has a way of revealing human frailties without celebrating them, and treating characters with affection without being condescending or intrusive.

8. Tulips: the darker, the better. Irises are good, too. Anything bulbous.

9. The film Shiri: It's a Korean action film. So stylishly violent, redolent with imagery of disconnection, reconciliation, and disconnection. The main character, a woman, is elegant...and deadly. My favorite literal and figurative element of the movie is the pair of kissing gourami owned by the lead couple.

10. I think I get a free one here. The [first] soundtrack from Grey's Anatomy: I'm not a big fan of the idea of soundtracks from television, and anytime there is a commercially-available soundtrack, the music is often so overly intrusive as to obliterate any interest that I may have had in the show itself. However, Grey's Anatomy is one of those exceptions to almost every rule...and I love this disc. It doesn't help that the music--and the show--remind me very much of someone I used to know, in the most respectfully melancholy way. "It's love that leaves and breaks the seal of always thinking you would be / Real, happy and healthy, strong and calm...."

11. Dean Martin: There will never be another singer with that kind of voice, and presence, and class.

12. Uniball pens: particularly the Signo 207 (retractable) or Vision Elite (capped, which won't leak in flight). I hand-write a lot, and these are the best pens that I've ever used. Better than my Watermans. Better than my Montblanc. Seriously--better than my Montblanc!

And, here are mine:

1. Family pictures: I've got a box of 'em from my mom. Whenever I think of them, I get warm and comforted. Poor Sparky will inherit a trunk full of photos by the time he's my age!

2. My house: It's custom-designed, only 3 years old, and I still love everything about it. It doesn't change colors, except that when it hasn't been power-washed recently (like now!) it's a little grayer than I'd like.

3. S&Ps and salt dishes: I could live without these, but they make me smile. And I never buy anything expensive, so I smile and enjoy them even more!

4. My Timex Expedition watch: I bought it for about $15 five or six years ago. I have changed the battery once and other than that it has faithfully told me the date and time for the past 1600-ish days.

5. Jeans and slip-on shoes (clogs or sandals): I'm totally not fussy about brands, just comfy and relaxing. I lurve my comfy clothes. I don't lurve nylons, high heels, pointy-toed shoes, or tight clothes in which it's impossible to move.

6. My '98 green Ford Ranger pick-em-up truck: I love me my truck.

7. [This has become embarrassingly low-brow] It's a toss-up between Monty Python Movies and Bill Murray movies: There's simply not enough laughter in the world.

8. Roses: the kind that grow in the garden and haven't been hybridized into scentlessness.

9. Heathers: This movie never fails to make me bark with shocked laughter throughout.

10. [freebie] A connection with God: not necessarily church. This is the one that I really can't live without, try as I might. And I have tried....

11. Bono...Nat King Cole...Nina Simone....: I can't decide really. People who believe in what they sing so strongly that their audience is subjected to a sensory change when in their presence. There is simply no one out there now. Sorry, Xtina. Sorry, Mariah. Sorry, Beyonce (oh, please).

12. Mechanical pencils: they are now available in all sorts of fun colors and sizes and they never need sharpening!! Be still my heart! Plus, my mom saved all the lead my Dad hadn't used when he died, so I'm using it up and thinking of him daily.

Your turn....