8.31.2009

TUNED IN TO THE MUHFUGGIN GREATEST

[Grizzly Bear is] an incredible band.
--Jay-Z, via Pitchfork

RELEASE (FEELS SO GOOD)

Diana
whAT
WHAT
WHATTTTTTT???????????

Sam
yeah.

Diana
whoa
whoa

Sam
yes

Diana
WHOA
LIKE YOU ARE BLOWING MY MIND
WHAT

Sam
I KNOW RIGHT MY MIND IS BLOWN TOO

Diana
?!?!?!?!?!

Sam
yeah man
sucks

Diana
WHY ISN'T THERE A BIGGER SIZED CAPS LOCK

Sam
hahahahahahah
HAHAHAHAHA
I KNOW

Diana
HAHAHAH RIGHT?

Sam
dude you like understand how nuts this is

Diana
like that's insane
uhmmmmmm
wo
w
omg
implications are just starting to smack me in the face

[...]

Diana
lets pull out a dictionary you know, and just list all the words that no longer fit

Sam
hahahah ayeah
oh god
i'm so glad you're back





It's been a good weekend.

8.29.2009

TAKIN' IT FOR A SPIN

I'm married now.

I can guess at your various reactions, but when it comes down to it--why the hell not.

8.28.2009

A brainier Web is coming, and the next generation of companies will anticipate your needs. Early this year, much like Gates 14 years ago, Google Senior Vice President of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg wrote a lengthy memo foretelling a day when a perfect search engine would comprehend all of the world's information and the meaning behind every user query, and deliver to users not a dump truck full of search results, but The Answer.
--Kevin Maney, What Scares Google

ALL OF A SUDDEN I MISS EVERYONE

A conversation with my parents reminded me of the afternoon that my family went to see Honey I Blew Up the Kids, and how I was so scared that my dad had to take me out of the movie theater. I felt unbelievably guilty that day for being childish and making my dad leave, and as we waited for my mom and sister to finish the movie, he bought me a pack of Fruit Stripe gum which I saved as a tiny token of his love for me.

While falling asleep I was thinking about the first night that I opened the front door to find Starbucks Boy on my porch, how thrilling it felt, and how I've been trying for over a year now to decouple that memory from Explosions in the Sky (a difficult task, as the mind is a funny thing).

Reading this, in which he writes "Looking back at it now I wonder how 22 year olds could have made each other so miserable," had me thinking of a late night-into-early morning argument in the summer of 2006, when I was so saddened and sickened and in love that I had to break from fighting to throw up. I haven't come anywhere close to feeling that way since, and morbidly miss being so engulfed in another person that it becomes physically painful.

Being home ignites strange emotions. Also, Reading Rainbow goes off air today. How sad is that?

8.26.2009

"God, I hate traveling." Chloe sighed and bit the end of her index finger. "I hate arriving even more--I get real arrival angst. After I've been away for a while, I always think something terrible has happened: all my friends have come together and decided they hate me or my cacti have died."

"You keep cacti?"

"Several. I went through a cactus phase a while back. Phallic, I know, but I spent a winter in Arizona and sort of got fascinated by them. Do you have any interesting plants?"

"Only an aspidistra, but I do regularly think all my friends might hate me."
--Alain de Botton, On Love

8.25.2009

Ah, so--

last week it was almost unbearably humid over here on the east coast, but two days of perpetual thunderstorms broke the suffocating heat and created this perfectly summery morning.

And I had woken up from this spectacular dream of horses, you see. And was wearing my very favorite dress of the moment. And got lunch with Nasser before being told to leave work early to spend more time with him.

And really, what could feel better than feasting and ruminating (word of the day, perhaps of the summer) with him in Philadelphia--his new home, my (almost) former home.

And because I am leaving this segment of my life behind, I would like to fully ruminate about what a strange ten weeks it has been. But. Maybe tomorrow. Today has been too good for that.

8.24.2009

AURALLY EXCITED VERSION

Photobucket

Today at work I drew pictures of animals smoking cigarettes.
Lies I've told my 4 year old recently:

If you sing enough, you will never grow old.

Don't worry, I lock up bad dreams in little cages.

Every good room has a ghost.

When we made you, we left part of ourselves behind so you would never be lonely.

Your shadow knows your secrets.

Books hide when they don't want to be read.

Time moves faster when close your eyes.

You knew everything, but then you were born and forgot, and now you have to learn everything again.

Be nice to your brother, he will always be your best friend.

We're not lost.

Moms and Dads never really get lost.

We know exactly where we're going.
--Raul Guiterrez

See also.


This guy's blog makes me feel like parenthood could be delightful and is not necessarily the most disappointing endeavor one could ever attempt.

8.23.2009

SO DURSTY

You must make sure you're happy when you leave your summer places.
--Animal Collective, Grass
In many poor countries, the greatest unexploited resource isn’t oil fields or veins of gold; it is the women and girls who aren’t educated and never become a major presence in the formal economy. With education and with help starting businesses, impoverished women can earn money and support their countries as well as their families. They represent perhaps the best hope for fighting global poverty.
--Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, The Women's Crusade

8.22.2009

TODAY I GOT MY THOROUGHEST GIRL WITH ME

Highly recommended:

01. Chambray (see 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5)
02. Figs from the tree in my aunt and uncle's backyard
03. Missy Elliott
04. Jay-Z
05. '03 Bonnie and Clyde (middle school memories)
06. Re-watching Bottle Rocket
07. A whistling puppy
08. OPI's "cab fare"
09. Anything yellow, really
10. The Salvation Army on 22nd and Market
11. Profi's Creperie
12. Stefanie Posavec's first chapters
13. Getting a ton of sleep

8.20.2009

THAT'S ALL, FOLKS

...or maybe he is also too busy and soon the whole world will be one huge beehive where everyone swarms above the ground, too distracted to go anywhere except forward. forward! onward! everyone will cry and with a great bang the sun will become a red giant and we will die.
--KD, circa two days ago

8.19.2009

I want to say somewhere: I’ve tried to be forgiving. And yet. There were times in my life, whole years, when anger got the better of me. Ugliness turned me inside out. There was a certain satisfaction in bitterness. I courted it. It was standing outside, and I invited it in. I scowled at the world. And the world scowled back. We were locked in a stare of mutual disgust. I used to let the door slam in people’s faces…And then one day I realized I was on my way to being the sort of shmuck who poisons pigeons. People crossed the street to avoid me. I was a human cancer. And to be honest: I wasn’t really angry. Not angry anymore. I had left my anger somewhere long ago. Put it down on a park bench and walked away. And yet. It had been so long, I didn’t know any other way of being. One day I woke up and said to myself: it’s not too late. The first days were strange. I had to practice smiling in front of the mirror. But it came back to me. It was as if a weight had been lifted. I let go, and something let go of me.
--Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY

Wheelchair-bound Andrew:


Meteorologist Andrew:


Classically-trained piano Andrew:



I appear to be going through yet another Andrew W.K. phase. Oh, Andrew. My love for you is as strong as it was six years ago. What a stud.

WITH LOVE



In April 2009, we sent a personal, handwritten letter to each of the 467 households in the small Irish village of Cushendall. We hoped these unsolicited letters would prompt neighbourly discussion, spreading across the town, promoting community curiosity.
--Lenka Clayton and Michael Crowe, Mysterious Letters [via Design*Sponge]

8.17.2009

I feel old.
--Bodie, The Wire

NOT CRAZY

He [David Foster Wallace] was, in fact, extremely fond of The Wire--he stopped me in the hall one day last year and said, look, I really want to sit down and pick your brain about this, because I'm really developing the conviction that the best writing being done in America today is being done for The Wire. Am I crazy to think that?
--Kottke
Wahhh what a fantastic weekend. It's hard to go wrong with non-stop comedy, gorgeous weather, free booze, and my favorite people in New York City. I was so proud while watching 8th Floor perform--they've improved by leaps and bounds in the past two years and I think they were on par with the better comedians this weekend.

It was strange to see people like Jack McBrayer, Ed Helms, Rob Huebel, and Paul Scheer milling around with us like they were, oh I don't know, normal people or something.

8.14.2009

WELCOME TO THE INTERNET PT. 2










Trying to Give Tim Visual Proof of My Postcard Happiness (feat. Shane)

WELCOME TO THE INTERNET

THIS WEEKEND!

You know that one weird dude in your class who always bitched about your town and talked about how he was going to move to New York one day? He did. They all did. In fact, that’s what New York is.
--Uh, I wish I remembered.

8.12.2009


If ya'll don't like me, blow me ^^

8.10.2009

We are meant for each other and not meant for each other, it's a contradiction. I mean, in order to understand it you need a poet like my father, because I don't.
--Vicky Cristina Barcelona

FINISH YOUR COLLAPSE AND STAY FOR BREAKFAST

“There is a parallel based on the same fundamental mechanisms of the economic collapse that we’re seeing now and the collapse of past civilisations such as the Maya,” he continues. “The message is that when you have a large society that consumes lots of resources, that society is likely to collapse once it hits its peak.”

...

“The average per-person consumption rate in the first world of metal and oil and natural resources is 32 times that of the developing world,” says Diamond. “That means that one American is consuming like 32 Kenyans.”

--David Pilling, Lunch with the FT: Jared Diamond

The conservative activist who claims he was beaten up by union thugs in St. Louis while protesting against health care reform is accepting donations towards his medical care because he was laid off recently and...has no health insurance.
--David Kurtz, via clusterflock

8.08.2009

Sesame Place is an amusement park that has removed all the great things about Sesame Street and replaced them with consumerism and fat (today I fully realized that obesity is a serious, serious problem in this country). Regardless, Shane had a good time so I had a good time, and a subsequent conversation with David led to this gem:




Sesame Street was way better when Kermit was running the show instead of Elmo. Most of my pretension appears to be reserved for children's programming on PBS.
I think, and anyone who has been in a relationship with me would probably agree, that I am Mia Farrow's character in Husbands and Wives, but with less of that being-good-at-getting-what-she-wants thing.

8.07.2009




Come back, Ireland doesn't need you as much as I do.

NONE BUT SHINING HOURS

"You know?" she continued. "I always do the wrong thing. I do the wrong thing so much that the times I actually do the right thing stand out so brightly in my memory that I forget I always do the wrong thing."
--Lorrie Moore, Childcare


This is, by far, the most gorgeous morning I've experienced in my seven weeks here.

8.06.2009

My body staged a violent coup this morning, and it's a terrible feeling, this whole "being ill" thing, because suddenly it's not your brain but some other callow organ that's calling the shots.


After blacking out on the train and barfing in a Starbucks bathroom, I decided to call it quits and head home for the day.

8.05.2009

We ate dinner outside where the only light came from a motion-sensitive lamp near the driveway. Shane had been entertaining us with song and dance for over an hour, so we decided to kill two birds (the lamp that constantly shut off and the ever-moving child) with one stone and sent Shane to the driveway where he faced the wall and danced hard enough to keep the entire backyard lit.

WENT TO SLEEP A SHELL OF A MAN, WOKE UP THE SAME SO I SLEPT IN AGAIN

His point is taken: nothing ultimately, means anything, but in the moment, we forget that, and become convinced that inconsequential matters mean the world. Vicky Cristina Barcelona may be frivolous, but under the surface there’s a serious pondering of how the most frivolous things can temporarily cloud brains and hold otherwise reasonable people hostage, of how even a momentary giving over to impulse can slip an unignorable pea under the mattress of the best-laid plans, of how sometimes functioning façades are shattered by a single slip of judgment over the course of a single night.
--Karina Longworth, via The New Yorker, via Boyland




This sums up the past few days really, really well. I still haven't seen this movie.
Ecologically, this is a fabulously expensive way to produce food--but "ecologically" is no longer the operative standard. As long as fossil fuel energy is so cheap and available, it makes good economic sense to produce corn this way. The old way of growing corn--using fertilizer drawn from the sun--may have been the biological equivalent of a free lunch, but the service was much slower and the portions were much skimpier. In the factory time is money, and yield is everything.
--Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma

8.03.2009

8.02.2009

TODAY > YESTERDAY

How many times in life can we make decisions that are important but will not hurt anyone? Are we obligated--maybe we are--to say yes to any choice when no one will be hurt? We use the word hurt when talking about things like this because when these things go wrong it can feel as if you were hit in the sternum by a huge animal that's run for miles just to strike you.
--Dave Eggers, The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water

8.01.2009

Well I certainly don't understand anything that happened today but I'm glad it's over.
It's shitty to hear that you are down in the dumps. Of course, my first question is why??? But I know for myself the "why" often is not pinpointable, and just seems to be an unavoidable side-effect of being alive.
--ER, circa July 2008


Today my mommy likes me a little less than she did yesterday. Sometimes I think it is the hardest thing to get up in the morning.

IT'S POSSIBLE FOR THE SUBSTANCE TO BE A PERSON

Because if you sit up front and listen hard, all the speakers' stories of decline and fall and surrender are basically alike, and like your own: fun with the Substance, then very gradually less fun, then significantly less fun because of like blackouts you suddenly come out of on the highway going 145 kph with companions you do not know, nights you awake from in unfamiliar bedding next to somebody who doesn't even resemble any known sort of mammal, three-day blackouts you come out of and have to buy a newspaper to even know what town you're in; yes gradually less and less actual fun but with some physical need for the Substance, now instead of former voluntary fun; then at some point suddenly just very little fun at all, combined with terrible daily hand-trembling need, then dread, anxiety, irrational phobias, dim siren-like memories of fun...

...then unbelievable psychic pain, a kind of peritonitis of the soul, psychic agony, fear of impending insanity (why can't I quit if I so want to quit, unless I'm insane?)...
--David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest