Monday, March 31, 2008
A Tid-bit
Tomorrow I hit the road that leads to New York. I'm about 10 seconds away from puking. I'm so nervous I can't even deal.
Friday, March 28, 2008
In Praise of Pets
Was cruising the ASPCA website thinking about doggies and all the love they give. I pledged to help fight animal cruelty. What does this mean? It's just a few things you can do:
1. Learn to recognize animal cruelty
2. Report animal cruelty
3. Set a good example for others
So be nice to animals people. They didn't ask to be domesticated so if we take that power over them we have the responsibility to take care of them. You too can pledge to fight animal cruelty by donating to the ASPCA, becoming a member, and/or by clicking below and just signing your internet signature, which is totally free to do. So please think about it. Thanks!
1. Learn to recognize animal cruelty
2. Report animal cruelty
3. Set a good example for others
So be nice to animals people. They didn't ask to be domesticated so if we take that power over them we have the responsibility to take care of them. You too can pledge to fight animal cruelty by donating to the ASPCA, becoming a member, and/or by clicking below and just signing your internet signature, which is totally free to do. So please think about it. Thanks!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
For Fun
I was watching episodes of The Housewives of New York. While watching these pretentious women with their horrendous accents can be entertaining for an hour watching for 3 hours to catch up can actually be nauseating. If there was ever a group of people who were never told it doesn't matter what other people think it was this group. I mean I know for sure that there are people who are all about image. I even know some personally and it makes me sad that they are like that to begin with. However, to be honest, I'd rather be part of the nitty gritty New York than be a part of this ridiculous "social elite" circle. They're so shallow you need a whole new word to actually describe them.
So I moved to the internet to entertain myself. I visited the blog of Shelley Hocknell Zentner. She's an English artist who lives in Tahoe. I modeled for her just a handful of times but it's nice to visit her page every once in awhile and pretend that you actually 'know' an artist. She had this really funny video on it and I had to share. I hope you guys find it as funny as I did.
So I moved to the internet to entertain myself. I visited the blog of Shelley Hocknell Zentner. She's an English artist who lives in Tahoe. I modeled for her just a handful of times but it's nice to visit her page every once in awhile and pretend that you actually 'know' an artist. She had this really funny video on it and I had to share. I hope you guys find it as funny as I did.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Just In Case You Haven't Heard
I'm Coming Back!!!
I depart Southern California on April 1st, also known as Fool's Day. Either gloriously funny or sadly ironic and telling of the future. Who knows, we'll have to wait a couple of months to tell. I'll be sitting in the cab of a rental van or truck with Mark and Vinnie for a week. We'll eat lots of trail mix and sandwiches, we'll argue over music, we'll moan over gas prices, we'll stop by the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (I'm so close I want to see it now for fear of never having the chance again).
We'll sneak a parrot into hotel rooms, we'll spend a lot of time getting to know the Interstate system, and when we arrive we'll be living in a 2 bedroom, New York City apartment fully furnished and also fully occupied. Also known as the Matias Household. This includes: Father, Mother, adult Sister, vicious miniature hamster, psychotic, poorly trained dog. We will be adding Mark, me, and a biting, screaming, poorly trained parrot who will be mercilessly hunted by earlier mentioned dog. AWESOME!
I depart Southern California on April 1st, also known as Fool's Day. Either gloriously funny or sadly ironic and telling of the future. Who knows, we'll have to wait a couple of months to tell. I'll be sitting in the cab of a rental van or truck with Mark and Vinnie for a week. We'll eat lots of trail mix and sandwiches, we'll argue over music, we'll moan over gas prices, we'll stop by the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (I'm so close I want to see it now for fear of never having the chance again).We'll sneak a parrot into hotel rooms, we'll spend a lot of time getting to know the Interstate system, and when we arrive we'll be living in a 2 bedroom, New York City apartment fully furnished and also fully occupied. Also known as the Matias Household. This includes: Father, Mother, adult Sister, vicious miniature hamster, psychotic, poorly trained dog. We will be adding Mark, me, and a biting, screaming, poorly trained parrot who will be mercilessly hunted by earlier mentioned dog. AWESOME!
Erotic Things I'll Never Do
This is Vinnie literally eating the sweaty saltiness off of Mark's hair after we went for a run. He does it all the time and he has to be physically pried away or he'll never stop. Talk about loving the essence of a person.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
iPod by J.Crew
Everyone if fully aware that some things are just yuppie. Whole Foods, Volvo, J. Crew, renting a house in the Hamptons. But some things are definitely bought by a wide market and yet the commercials continue to baffle me at how 'exclusive' their message seems to be.
iPod commercials: Nothing but Facebook, Emo, white guys in chinos and chunky dark eyewear. I'm pretty sure when I went to the Apple store in Lower Manhattan to buy my iPod a few years there was a nice style and ethnic mix of employees and customers. I'm pretty sure when I was riding a subway last the guy sitting next to me in oversized jeans was listening to some old Tupac on white headphones.
Maybe it's my tiny bit of minority pride I have in me, on a growth spurt since I've been spending too much time in Southern California. But I almost get the vibe from these commercials, and magazines like Harper's Bazaar, and catalogs like J.Crew that they are sending some sort of subliminal message. A message that says why advertise to a genre of people who obviously can't afford our items. I mean...we don't do layaway.
iPod commercials: Nothing but Facebook, Emo, white guys in chinos and chunky dark eyewear. I'm pretty sure when I went to the Apple store in Lower Manhattan to buy my iPod a few years there was a nice style and ethnic mix of employees and customers. I'm pretty sure when I was riding a subway last the guy sitting next to me in oversized jeans was listening to some old Tupac on white headphones.
Maybe it's my tiny bit of minority pride I have in me, on a growth spurt since I've been spending too much time in Southern California. But I almost get the vibe from these commercials, and magazines like Harper's Bazaar, and catalogs like J.Crew that they are sending some sort of subliminal message. A message that says why advertise to a genre of people who obviously can't afford our items. I mean...we don't do layaway.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Yes, I'm Still Alive
For the past two months I have taken over Mark's library card. I'm reading throughout the day. Most of it is stuff that people will make fun of. A lot of it is stuff I know other people have read and like to read. I've decided to not be embarrassed and to just talk about it. I have nothing else to do. So if you're looking for intellectual book talk you'd better leave fast.
Jodi Picoult: The author of books quite obviously written for the young woman to mom crowd. I was a big fan of hers after reading the book My Sister's Keeper. Which apparently is being made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz as the mom. Which is bullshit. The day Cameron Diaz isn't a bubbly blond with a six pack of abs is the day I will believe she's a upper-middle class suburban mother of three. But anyway...while I've been here I've read The Tenth Circle, Vanishing Acts, and Nineteen Minutes. I've read six other novels that she has penned. Here is what I've decided: I'm not so much a fan anymore.
Your first Jodi Picoult book is fun. It's fresh, modern, current. Three adjectives that I'm pretty sure mean the same thing. It's got a court drama, a twist, a whodunnit feel.She can create a hip teenager and a single attractive yet brooding male cop and you feel that she really gets their struggle down. And maybe if you take your time reading her books you never get too tired of them. But when you read three in a row you realize THEY ARE IDENTICAL. They're not only exactly the same but I'm pretty sure the teenage girls in both The Tenth Circle and Nineteen Minutes had the same descriptive paragraph when they are first introduced.
It's one thing to have a character be in more than one book, I can see it being a treat to some very dedicated and excited reader (I know that guy!) But it's another thing for descriptions of characters and emotions to be pretty much a dead ringer for the last book. Ugh.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire: Now a Broadway musical, Wicked is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West. What happens I couldn't tell you (other than her melting of course). I disliked reading this book so much I didn't even get halfway through. I should've known I wouldn't have liked it when I can't even recall being that into The Wizard of Oz. I remember there was a while when they would air the movie around Easter for a few years in a row and the commercials would try and remind you how much you loved it the first time so many years ago and how much better it will be when the color is all enhanced. And there were those times when all anyone could talk about was how you could see some dude hang himself in the background. But I just never cared much. Dorothy was a bit annoying for me.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: Awesome. Something so intriguing about this book. I mean come on! First the character tells you he's a hermaphrodite. Then he tells you he was raised as a girl. Then you go back to learn his family history and find out Grandma and Grandpa were actually brother and sister AND THEN you get to watch the lives of this lively Greek family. You're sold! Everyone knows from the wild success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding that people LOVE Greek families in America. The more spanakopita the better!
Little Children by Tom Perrotta: Sure I've seen the movie which didn't exactly blow you away but I was eager to read the book. I figured why not, what else am I going to do? It was okay. It's as basic as storytelling can get. He's hot. She's blah. She's bolder than she realizes. He's kind of a preppy failure. They have lots of sex. And I think the molester is much scarier as a skinny gross man than a fat mean guy.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: Almost like a Frank McCourt book. But not in Ireland and not that destitute and depressing. Dad's an Irish drunk, mom is from Austrian stock. Both were raised in Brooklyn, get married young, have kids, and of course realize to late they don't know what they are doing. The main character is Francie, their daughter. They live in the tenements in Williamsburg and it's pretty much: Mom scrubbing floors, Dad on the bottle. Francie and brother collecting junk for money, Dad on the bottle. Life is hard and will always be hard for poor folk like us, Dad on the bottle. Etc.
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory: Sure it's a movie but I got the book for free. And movies cost money. And it will probably suck anyway. I'm totally into it. So juicy.
Jodi Picoult: The author of books quite obviously written for the young woman to mom crowd. I was a big fan of hers after reading the book My Sister's Keeper. Which apparently is being made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz as the mom. Which is bullshit. The day Cameron Diaz isn't a bubbly blond with a six pack of abs is the day I will believe she's a upper-middle class suburban mother of three. But anyway...while I've been here I've read The Tenth Circle, Vanishing Acts, and Nineteen Minutes. I've read six other novels that she has penned. Here is what I've decided: I'm not so much a fan anymore.
Your first Jodi Picoult book is fun. It's fresh, modern, current. Three adjectives that I'm pretty sure mean the same thing. It's got a court drama, a twist, a whodunnit feel.She can create a hip teenager and a single attractive yet brooding male cop and you feel that she really gets their struggle down. And maybe if you take your time reading her books you never get too tired of them. But when you read three in a row you realize THEY ARE IDENTICAL. They're not only exactly the same but I'm pretty sure the teenage girls in both The Tenth Circle and Nineteen Minutes had the same descriptive paragraph when they are first introduced.
It's one thing to have a character be in more than one book, I can see it being a treat to some very dedicated and excited reader (I know that guy!) But it's another thing for descriptions of characters and emotions to be pretty much a dead ringer for the last book. Ugh.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire: Now a Broadway musical, Wicked is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West. What happens I couldn't tell you (other than her melting of course). I disliked reading this book so much I didn't even get halfway through. I should've known I wouldn't have liked it when I can't even recall being that into The Wizard of Oz. I remember there was a while when they would air the movie around Easter for a few years in a row and the commercials would try and remind you how much you loved it the first time so many years ago and how much better it will be when the color is all enhanced. And there were those times when all anyone could talk about was how you could see some dude hang himself in the background. But I just never cared much. Dorothy was a bit annoying for me.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: Awesome. Something so intriguing about this book. I mean come on! First the character tells you he's a hermaphrodite. Then he tells you he was raised as a girl. Then you go back to learn his family history and find out Grandma and Grandpa were actually brother and sister AND THEN you get to watch the lives of this lively Greek family. You're sold! Everyone knows from the wild success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding that people LOVE Greek families in America. The more spanakopita the better!
Little Children by Tom Perrotta: Sure I've seen the movie which didn't exactly blow you away but I was eager to read the book. I figured why not, what else am I going to do? It was okay. It's as basic as storytelling can get. He's hot. She's blah. She's bolder than she realizes. He's kind of a preppy failure. They have lots of sex. And I think the molester is much scarier as a skinny gross man than a fat mean guy.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: Almost like a Frank McCourt book. But not in Ireland and not that destitute and depressing. Dad's an Irish drunk, mom is from Austrian stock. Both were raised in Brooklyn, get married young, have kids, and of course realize to late they don't know what they are doing. The main character is Francie, their daughter. They live in the tenements in Williamsburg and it's pretty much: Mom scrubbing floors, Dad on the bottle. Francie and brother collecting junk for money, Dad on the bottle. Life is hard and will always be hard for poor folk like us, Dad on the bottle. Etc.
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory: Sure it's a movie but I got the book for free. And movies cost money. And it will probably suck anyway. I'm totally into it. So juicy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)