You don't. Except Taz. But I don't talk about that. She might hear.

See now, I imagine skrik as a small rodent-type animal, in cartoon form. Possibly with a vest and eye patch.

jonmc wears a leather jacket at all times and has a sort of Sid Vicious meets the Ramones look about'im. Without the tracklines, of course.

Given what we know about jonmc's crankiness, smoking habits and body size I have determined that he is, in fact, Spider Jerusalem.

Generally, Metachat looks like a box of peeps, but the bunnies, not the chickies.

When other mechanisms say nice things about me, they look like a young Angie Dickinson. Or Claudia Cardinale or Ursula Andress. Naked, leaning forward, and kissing my nose.

I can see pubes.

Kids with cans and string attached. Big smiles. Parents calling for dinner.

White folks in glasses flatteringly photographed by SmartDalek.

I am stewing in a sea of filth. Thought I might save you the time.

Hugh Janus is a big lanky guy, kinda cute.
jonmc is indeed Spider Jerusalem.
taz is tall and tan and smiles a lot.
Frisbee Girl is small and very animated.
Schyler is skinny with curly hair and glasses.

Everyone wears bunny ears.

And only bunny ears.

Specklet I picture as small-but-fierce Shangri-La's type gang moll chick with razor-blades hidden in her beehive and a switchblade in her leather jacket.

scody is a hot mod chick frooging on a platform in white go-go boots.

The Divine_Wino is Legs McNeill on a Romilar and Flintstone chewables bender.

...and a switchblade in her leather jacket.

Awesome.

jon, does this fit in anywhere?

I think I just saw Ursula Andress' muff.

Thanks, Specklet.

Oh, my. Just Oh, me, oh my.

I never imagined that.

I see you all sitting round some hip but unknown bistro in down town New York. You're all wearing cool Thora Birch - Ghost World glasses and thrift store chic and you're laughing about something hip and urbane.

I ask what you're laughing about and for a minute the world goes quiet.
Then someone... I don't know who, wipes a tear from an eye and says ... "We don't know."

Then I'm laughing too, and there's some shuffling going on and a space appears at the table in this hip but unknown bistro, and there on the formica top is a pair of Thora Birch - Ghost World glasses and I realise with amazement that they're for me.

Hey... I know it's soppy, but I love you guys.

Enough with all the glasses. I ain't no freakin' four-eyes.

Jealous.

Except jonmc. He's the short order cook with a name like Ernie or Jerry who makes the best pastrami on rye this side of the east-west-north side. There's a tragic story to tell, but you wouldn't know it because he never tells it. Everyone think's he's a grouch, but towards the end of the film, he'll do something unbelivably nice which saves the day.

Also, everyone thinks he's really cool. Even if he does grumble about "you damn kids and your stupid glasses."

*sniff*

extra garlic pickles for seanyboy.

is there a legal limit to the amount of teasing permissible in online communities? because I'm afraid we've surpassed even the most liberal ones

ok, matteo, ok.

extra garlic pickles for you, too.

*scratches ass, picks nose, munches on sandwich*

no garlic pickles for you!

Hey jon, what about me? Do I get extra pickles?

Mmmm ... garlic pickles.

Sure, baby. Garlic, dill, or extra sour?

(the irony here, is that I hate pickles. I love pickled sweet peppers, pepperoncini, pickled eggs, pickles sausage (my nonno loved pickled pigfeet) and of course, getting pickled, but pickles themselves, no.)

I only like the garlic ones, and would take the pepperoncini, or pickled garlic, for that matter, over pickles any day.

I like garlic anything, basically. Dill is okay, bread and butter pickles are so-so, and the sweet are an abomination.

I remember visiting my grandfather, originally from Arzignano, and eating pickled garlic right out of the jar. Mmmm.

In Japan, they pickle garlic in soy sauce (and doubtless other stuff) so you can take it home and enjoy it.

Me, I like pickles of all sorts. Lightly pickled fennel bulbs are awesome, and will taste good with your first beer of the afternoon.

You guys all look hotter and hotter every time I see you. Especially you, Angie. Gr-r-r-rowl!

I don't really "see" people in my head when I read comments. It's more like a general impression or feeling that I get. Like taz is my favorite crazy aunt. Specklet is a dominatirx/motorcycle mechanic. Divine_wino and Hugh Janus are the adorable wisecrackers. jonmc is Johnny Fever. Frisbee Girl looks very much like I pictured her actually, lovely and funny. me3dia is the guy who used to live above me in DC who wears Adidas with his business suit and loquacious is the guy at the rave who is there for the music, dammit.

The only person I see clearly in my head is quonsar, and he looks like a cross between Yosemite Sam and Brian Dennehy.

Unfortunately i don't have curly hair...sorry specklet

jonmc could be spider jerusalem if he picked up a nasty pharmy habit to go along with the drinking, smoking, and the cranky stuff curmudgeonishness...

specklet has burns new skin on her tummy, and i'll stop there. ;>

honestly i can't get past hugh janus's username, so i just imagine goatse or something similar...

matteo and amberglow i see as the don juan types...Debonair and whatnot...though that punk rock picture of amberglow colors him as old-school badass.

cryptical envelopment is a steal your face! :p

EB is a dictionary...with feelings.

loquacious is someone i'd like to meet, and just listen to for a while...and maybe see some drum and bass. ;>

dame is cute, smart, intense, and periodically peeved at the people in the way.

the dodgygeezer is neither dodgy nor a geezer, but is a tattooed and pierced rock'n'roller...

i know i'm leaving a few out...don't hate me forever

The only people I ever put faces on were (1) Frisbee Girl, who looks like a guy I used to work with whose last name is Frisbie, (2) jonmc, who looks like this other coworker, a grumpy guy named Travis who yells at his computer a lot, and (3) me3dia, who wears a spandex suit with a big 3 in the middle. Ok, fine, my imagination sucks.

oh my...

frisbee girl spins through the air with the greatest of ease...in the air way up there.

taz _is_ the awesome quirky aunt that makes you laugh, but still makes sure you're okay when you're down...

quonsar is a force of nature not to be dealt with in a flippant manner...you could get hurt.

moonbird is mother nature's son...

divine_wino is a divine wino goddammit and wtf is your problem with that?

kenko is the math rock nerd that blows your mind with sound...then puts it all back together again.

mudpuppie is exactly that...a muddy puppie.

So, uh ... Specklet, yeah.

(Lightly pickled fennel bulbs? I'm there.)

Huh? *blinks innocently*

And yeah, fennel bulbs sound awesome. Where might I procure some of these, Schyler?

Er, I mean Hugh.

specklet = teh hawt

No one ever thinks about me.

I imagine matildaben looking like Notre Dame cathedral.

(No, I'm serious; that's the first thing I think of every time I see the name. Dunno why.)

I always read matildaben as "matildabean" which makes me think of jellybeans.

loquacious, you made me blush.

loq made you blush? Well, let's just say it's a good thing I'm too shy to write a mash note. ;^)

Well, Matteo was almost exactly what I expected my favorite Roman to be...tall, dark, urbane, handsome...rawr!

Taz I imagine as a tiny ball of energy, FrisbeeGirl as a tall, blonde, tanned, beach goddess, Dabitch as the hippest one in the room, jonmc as a younger, less doped out member of the Ramones, matildaben as a flavor of jellybean, (hee), loquacious as a flavor of heretofore untried fruit, Specklet as the world's smallest tattoo, divine_wino as someone who should hang out at my house, amberglow as someone who could rescue me from poor taste, seanyboy as someone with whom I could share an egg and cress at tea, and quonsar...well, let's just say that the first rule of quonsar is that we don't talk about quonsar. ;)

Actually, a night a the bar with us would convince you that Me and Divine Wino are basically Norm & Cliff gone grunge or something.

I've only had pickled fennel in the Levant. All it takes is vinegar, lemon juice, salt, sugar, water, and time. In what proportion I do not know.

It's so good with beer. Ranks with olives and peanuts. And popcorn.

I've seen too many pictures now...but I still get little flickers of unflickred impressions...

-- I mis-read the 'ben for a long time too so she's like Matilda + bean with hip granny glasses.
-- Hugh Janus: two faces, big smile.
-- Interrobang: I alwas hear/imagine a loud bang/pop when I read that name.
-- Quonsar: Frank Black meets the comic book guy, only deadlier. Specklet is a little chickadee.
-- OmieWise: an old highschool friend named amie + Gandolf.
-- Frisbee Girl is like she looks in photos except in totally different accouterments (way crazee hippie gear + an actual frisbee).
-- Our wendell is like the wendell from Bloom County (at least in my head).
-- loquacious: a torrent of words, more like the sound of a downpour/storm.
-- Kenko: is that 70s guy with the fro + a zen-like monk.
-- Taz: a Tazmanian devil blowing kisses.
-- Contrary to how he actually looks, dodgygeezer is hunched with a cane yelling "next time you kids run through my yard...GO AROUND!" which he may recognize as a quote from the Jesus Lizard.
-- PsychoKitty: meow + rawr! Cat recently free of straightjacket.
-- MyGothLaundry, how she really looks crossed with Winona Ryder as Lydia in Beetle Juice.
-- Divine_wino...Barney Miller meets John Waters in a trench coat all Divine with wine in one hand while welding a rapier in the other. Or, something.

It's more difficult to imagine Dame, jonmc, Smart Dalek, Schyler523, gaspode, amberglow and a few others now that I've met them.

Speck should've got her own line with -- , too. :(

Wow... This is really hard for me. It seems I tend to think of posters more in terms of settings and "atmospheres", as well as, sometimes, associated objects, "fetishes", or "familiars", for lack of better terms. I have pictures in my head of certain surroundings for people, with accompanying details and impressions, while their faces are not at all clear... and this is very much like my dreams.

I will try to come back with some really brief descriptions of a few of these.

LeeJay and goatdog, you're both right -- I wear my spandex superhero costume under my suit and Adidas.

And returning the favor, I see LeeJay as a cute country'n'western girl (dunno why) and goatdog is a very hairy gent (lately he's been overheard in Mayfair).

I now find it impossible to imagine Specklet as anything but hot, shaved and soaked, but I used to picture a very small animal, sort of like pikachu but without the tail.

quonsar once claimed to be in his 70s, and ever since I've imagined him as a crotchety old man, typing away surrounded by piles of old newspapers and magazines, smoking up a storm.

taz and iconomy are both elegant but comfortable women of sophistication -- iconomy in an urban setting, wearing black for some reason; taz in white, sitting on the patio of a whitewashed Greek villa.

Okay, let's see. Here are a few:

safetyfork: something about camping, woods, nature. Very tall trees. Coldish and overcast, but crisp and bracing. Coffee on a campfire.

omiewise: high, blue mistwrapped mountain cabin hidden away. Snug and poetic.

dabitch: bright, elegant cafe with mirrors in the afternoon; a lighter-than Chis Isherwood kind of feeling. Laughter.

iconomy: I always see tulips and art. A long shimmering glass counter, picture windows and ficus trees. Everyone depends on her to solve their crises, and she does it happily, gracefully.

dodgygeezer: down at the pub with mrs. geezer, surrounded by lots of friends and revelry, early evening, cold violet outside, warm orange inside.

frisbee girl: The friz. dressed in her black-and-whites, someplace smashing and tony (sp?). She's working but she's light as the breeze and happy. Radiant. She blows the room away.

mudpuppie: barefoot, outdoors in a big, big back yard, late afternoon, almost twilight. She's talking on the phone, and I hear chickens! I think she she might be cooking some kind of really aromatic bean stew thingy. and I want some.

LeeJay: She is a character in "Tales of the City", retrocool and fun. I think she's wearing go-go boots. She is in the middle of an urban adventure that we would all love to read about because she tells it so well.

matildaben: a kind of Alice-in-Wonderlandish kind of feeling, somehow. She's wearing a yellow raincoat, rainhat and galoshes.

Peacay: He's on a walkabout, he's doing something with a bilabong. Anyway, really, I see him in this large-sky kind of outdoor setting, and there's a stream.

dhruva: Darkened laboratory, lots of slides, lots of fancy electronic equipment. He's drinking coffee or tea. Something hot from a mug, and he's wearing a lab coat. he doesn't know if it's night or afternoon.

specklet: She's wearing bunny slippers and drinking peppermint tea (of course!). There's this really nice, big, comfy sectional couch where she's camped out reading a book and watching videos, plus checking emails and post updates on her laptop. Her owie will be mended.

mygothlaundry: Like a totally cool, quirky 2000s version of Doris Day in that movie, "Please Don't Eat the Daisies". If things ever settled down to "normal", she wouldn't know what to do with herself. She's laughing.

me3dia: He's in a cool, fashionable club at night, but it's a place that's familiar and everyone knows him; he's a little bit harried, too much on his mind, too much to do, but he's meeting someone about another project that he can't resist. I think he's drinking club soda or sparkling water with ice.

loquacious: He's sitting on the steps outside, late, late at night. There's a big moon, and the millions of stars are greenish. He goes in and out, back and forth from the computer to outside, he's smoking and drinking a cocktail.

Hugh Janus: He's in a very posh banker's office; decor- and atmosphere-wise everything is veddy British, with mahogany panelling and soft, deep oriental carpets. He's eating a tunafish sandwich, and there's a thunderstorm outside.

Cryptical Envelopment: It's late nighttime, and he's in this almost surreal white on white large, two-level studio space with a huge grand piano and deep, soft carpets (also white). It's only one big room, and there are almost no other furnishings. It has a skylight and very luxurious lighting.

MightyNez: I have to see her at night, among the colorful swaying lanterns of a festival parade. It's a little bit chilly, and she's wearing a cashmere muffler and really nice gloves. She's smiling.
_____________________________

There are a few. I will be taking requests all evening.

taz, I would be afraid to see your impression of my enviornment.;>

Oh, no, it's quite nice really. I imagine you and Pips in this smallish apartment (the kind I tend to favor)... You are sitting at the dining table with a laptop, and Pips is doing something in the kitchen just behind you. The dining area and the kitchen and the living room are basically one really big continuous room, and there are groovy concert posters, cool artwork, and vintage neon signs on the walls. It is late morning, the sun is shining, and you can hear birds outside and children playing.

dining table? we eat on the couch, generally speaking.

Those are awesome, taz.

*returns from vacation*

*kicks dirt*

Hmm. mcgraw I see as a sort of Sam Elliot/Mark Twain type who sits on the porch at dusk, rocking liesurely while spouting jumbled brilliance and smoking a pipe.

Elliot IS Twain wow!

Thanks, Specklet! You are a superlative super heroine!

*smokes pipe*

mcgraw, I have a problem seeing you, because I get these Kodak Instamatic double exposure thingies with you and dfowler, and that tends to obscure my picture. But here is what I have: something like a very, very big tree limb (such as from a really old Live Oak, for example), and when you look closer you can see the little ants making their way back and forth along certain pathways, and you realize that it's a whole huge universe right there in that tree limb.

It's not you, obviously, but it's something representative, somehow.

taz is a goddess (with bunnies as minions?) (^_^)

and I always picture ethylene on a sofa in a darkened house with wispy curtains for some reason

The images I get of people are never anything like how they actually look, and even after seeing an actual picture, I still tend to have the image my mind created instead of the "real" person. (Unless, of course I see them a lot face-to-face, and then I'll forget whatever the mental picture of them was...)

I do have mental pictures for most everyone here, but noone knows me, so seems odd to share...

And I am not a porcine deity...the tag was there before you all were sharing portraits.

I'm glad to be back here.
It's good to see you all.
You are good, kind friends.

and thanks taz!

:)

oh, MightyNez, share! share! I've been loving reading some of these... It's exactly the sort of thing that perfectly fascinates me, and, as it happens, offers some shelter from the storm.

(I have more, too, so if other people pipe up, I won't feel so embarrassed about my hugeass comment, and will come forth with Part ii)

Also... I'd like to add psychokitty, who is one of the few whom I picture more in typically physical terms, with dark, glossy really wild hair tumbling all over her shoulders. Also, you want to stay on her good side.

And I happen to know exactly what Melissa May looks like, which was almost exactly on-the-tee what my mental image of her was. Hah!

I'm very intrigued by MightyNez's image of ethylene, which is not at all far off from mine, except in mine there are little semi-organized piles of interesting things scattered around the (nice old, dark wood, not ultrapolished) floor, and she goes from one group of objects to the next. And it's afternoon. About 3 p.m.

I picture ethylene in an old wood-floored house during the late afternoon, pacing and saying "ooooh WEE honey chile!"

Nice thread! I thought about participating in a taz-like fashion, but in the interest of bruising no one's ego and keeping amberglow's posse of pouters at bay, I'll just defer and say that you all look simply fabulous in my mind's eye.