California Love (a month later)

It's sad how much I was amused by this video

via Davy Dangerous

It's not what you say, what you say is way too complicated

Phoenix - 1901 - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Good morning, good morning!

Yesterday did not begin well. Twenty minutes behind schedule and with one foot already out the door, I realized that my ear buds were not in my satchel. I didn't need to have them. I could have come home and gotten them before going to the gym.

But, oh no, I had to spend a good five minutes searching. Had they fallen under the passenger seat of my car? Were they in my gym bag? I checked that bitch twice. Bonus, I tend to curse, stub my toe, and make a mess of things whenever I hit frenzy search mode.

Yeah, and I couldn't find them. Grabbing the backup pair (not the same!), I started for the door. Whoa whoa whoa, what is that? A glaring empty space where my keys should be hanging. Fuck!

Run around the house. Top of my dresser? On my desk? When did I have them last — oh shit, did Pa accidentally take them with her to William & Mary?! Motherfu— oh, here they are.

Anyway. 

Life has been hectic lately — long nights in the studio, minimal sleep during the week (though nowhere as much as some people I know *cough Liz & Richard), procrastination, projects and deadlines galore. Today, in the interest of taking a breather and enjoying my morning (seriously, my favorite part of the day), I had a nice little alfresco breakfast. Soft-boiled egg (I like my yolks squidgy!), whole grain toast with blackberry jam, coffee and the Bourdain-edited The Best of Travel Writing 2008.

So nice.

I'm 89% sure that I just wanted an excuse to show you what I had for breakfast and to link some happy morning-themed videos. Long story short, here's wishing you a pleasant morning.












Finally, this video.

Liz: So, how do you feel about shorts and high heels?
me: Unless you're a Pussycat Doll, I don't want to hear it.

JAP: So, they're opening this new pop-up shop in SoHo...

Asian friend: Why is it when white people open a temporary store it's called a "pop-up shop," but when any other race does, it's called a "bazaar?"

via overheard in new york

I love it when Alton Brown turns on the Southern charm

Homemade pop tarts, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

I must try making these though I don't always have the best of luck with dough-rolling. Strawberry Pop-tarts are my favorite but that chocolate looks slammin'. I don't like the s'more ones. Thems gross. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Homemade pop tarts recipe at Smitten Kitchen

Fun with Floating Lab

[via text]
me: I'm buying snacks, any requests?
Daniel: something healthyish
(half an hour later)
me: Angela bought pita chips, cheesy dips and baklava. I have a loaf of french bread, goat cheese and strawberries. I might share if you're nice. (I had not eaten since noon and it was damn near 7 PM. So hungry.)
Daniel: If I'm nice?! I'm always nice! Goddamn nice too!

me: oh and Angela has a bottle of wine
Daniel: Wine is awesome. I guess I should tell you then to steal some cups on your way 'cause I have like three.
me: Really? That's one more than I thought you'd have.
Daniel: Your humor humors me.

Edgar: Ok, are we in agreement? Everyone on the boat? 

Daniel: I'm on the boat.
Blake: I like boats.

Post-meeting twitters and texts


me: @Floatinglab Blake is singing to us in broken-ass French and strumming his out-of-tune guitar. Oh, out the car windows now. I heart FLC.


Daniel/Floatinglab: Fresh from Indianapolis we're back at work planning the next project - Albania anyone?


me: Your boy is singing to us in broken-ass French. 
Daniel: Figures. Make him sing you Robot Jesus and tweet that shit. 
me: He said Robot Jesus song en français. 
Daniel: BS. 


Mr. Turner was indeed strumming his guitar and singing nonsensical French as we walked to the car. We looked like the saddest La Blogotheque episode ever. Edgar was in stitches. At one point Blake rolled down the car window and "sang" to some people on the street. Madness. 

Why I love the AVT crew #973

Yathrib's reply to the "brunchlunch on MAY 2ND" email chain:

bad news, i just realized i have virtually no kitchen appliances. Please make requests now so I can supply them or you're welcome to bring your own..Sorry

examples of stuff i don't have

blender

toaster

griddle

waffle maker

stand-up mixer

---

me:  you don't own a toaster?!

 Yathrib:  well i did

but it broke 

 me:  oh

how?

 Yathrib:  same way the blender broke

made a funny smell then stopped working

A Sunday Kind of Love

sounds like: Billy Squier/My Kinda Lover, Vital, Mates of State, French tunes from the An Education soundtrack, Simon & Garfunkel.

tastes like: toasted bagel and schmear, strong coffee, sticky rice and lao sausage, dark chocolate

feels like: midnight and I've yet to start making the art, merde. Closing my eyes and swaying to good musics. Eyelids at half-mast.

smells like: tomatoes on the vine, herb seedlings, freshly-popped kettle corn at the farmers market, spring.

Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon

Pa: (holds out her hand, we hold hands) Why are you so warm?
me: I have better circulation than you?
Pa: Ass.

Thirty minutes after saying “I have so much to do!”

Thoroughly entertained by Hyperbole and a Half

Sandwiches almost always end in one of two ways.

---

“Imagine that you are five years old.  You have just exploded enthusiastically out of your house, expecting to find the Easter bunny, which you are hoping to trap and keep as your chocolate-making slave.  Instead, you find your mom.  There is no Easter bunny in sight even though he is supposed to be there.  Your mom is wearing rabbit ears.”

So far so good, the way my day is going

me: I think I'm going to nap for a bit. Rainy days = nap times.
Justin:  yeah totally.  don't dream of raptors. 
me: I'll do my best.

With all your lies, You're still very lovable.

#93.3 - BON IVER - For Emma, Forever Ago
Uploaded by lablogotheque. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

I had a nice geek-out session with Libby tonight about Bon Iver. We have decided to see them in concert whenever they grace the DMV area with their presence. She can't stop listening to Lump Sum and I adore For Emma, Forever Ago. The blogotheque version is so nice. All blogotheque song versions are nice. More on that later.

That's all. Goodnight.

Getting down and dirty with SoA Green

 

Please welcome the new blog, SoA Green

You will remember some of it, but if you solve it, you will remember all of it.

Book Forest

A “book forest,” where people can leave or find old volumes. 

Read the full NY Times article on Do-It-Yourself culture. 

“Do you like to ‘do it yourself’?”

Sorry, I couldn't resist some movie quoting fun. 

Side note, who amongst you is willing to build me this tree trunk bookcase?

This would be my sister for sure.

Friend to girl who has just fallen on the street: Are you okay?
Girl: My phone is okay!

via overheard in ny

Michael Squints Palledorous walked a little taller that day.

"And we had to tip our hats to him. He was lucky she hadn't beat the CRAP out of him. We wouldn't have blamed her. What he'd done was sneaky, rotten, and low... and cool. Not another one among us would have ever in a million years even for a million dollars have the guts to put the moves on the lifeguard. He did. He had kissed a woman. And he had kissed her long and good. We got banned from the pool forever that day. But every time we walked by after that, the lifeguard looked down from her tower, right over at Squints, and smiled."

I love this movie oh so much.

Telling People About Your Dreams Make You Sound Crazy Reason #987

me: I dreamt I had a Jurassic Park situation at home and didn't gym it up because I'd have to deal with the velociraptor upon my return. Raptors scare me.
Wheatley: Yeah, raptors are pretty scary.
me: I know, my pet raptor almost ate my leg.
Wheatley: Wait, it was a pet? I want a pet dinosaur.
me: Yes, I had a t-rex and a raptor. I wasn't afraid of the t-rex because a. it wasn't as mean and b. it wouldn't see me if I stayed still. The raptor was sneaky.
Wheatley: I'm not sure what I would go for.
me: I would hope that you didn't have to worry about your pet dinosaurs eating your limbs when you came back from the gym.
Wheatley: Nah, they would know who was boss.
me: Psh, no. They're dinosaurs.
Wheatley: Hey, I've got my ways. You just have to establish dominance and be able to quell any uprisings.
me: to dinosaurs?!
Wheatley: Yes.
me: Fine. When your pet dinosaur tries to eat your neighbor, I'll be yelling "establish dominance!!"
Wheatley: You crazy? You can't let your dinosaurs near people to eat them. Once they develop a taste for human blood, it's all over.
me: No, I want a cute little Yoshi dinosaur that I can take to the park.
Wheatley: Oh...Yoshi isn't a big deal. He would eat you then poop you out as a shell.
me: Seriously, I can't believe we are having this conversation.

Asya, East of Eighth, and cocoa powder clouds

full flickr set

highlights:
+ Whitney Biennial
+ Super delicious food at East of Eighth
+ Not watching Inglourious Basterds on the bus for the third time (Hangover, Death at a Funeral and 2012, if you're interested)
+ Asya Reznikov. What a great name.
+ Getting two seats to myself on the way back. Sleeping (and drooling) from Annapolis to Fairfax.
+ Coming home to a house full of Lao people. Ah, Lao New Year.

Spring, s'mores, and smashing pumpkins

full flickr set

Impact 2010: 24 hour arts marathon

full flickr set

Highlights: 

+ All the ice cream sandwiches we could eat.

+ Sneaking off for nap time. 

+ Steamroller prints

+ more of a sleepover than a marathon

+ Sneaking off to watch Valentine's Day

+ Sleeping at school. Madness. 

+ Helen's crazy medical tent robe

+ Spray-painting things at four in the morning

+ Sneaking off to Southside, hence the nap time.

Though I’m shinin’, keep on grindin’, what you see ain’t all of me

Snoop and a lumberjack theme, I never would have guessed.

I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora.

me: such a nice word, conducive
Wheatley: I personally prefer perplexed
                I like words with  x in them.
me: I like words with p
      copious
      plethora
      emphatically
Wheatley: PLETHORA
                hahahahhahahahahah
                Would you say I have a plethora of piñatas?

Tourist man to tourist wife: Look at that sign: "No honking, $350 fine."
Sane-looking New Yorker: It's unreal, isn't it, how the government continues to discriminate against geese? No justice, no peace.

--5th Ave & 13th St

---

I've probably had this conversation before, hopefully with not as many "likes": 

Girl #1: Oh my god! I love, like, a good avocado. Like a really flavorful, ripe, good avocado. When they're, like, really good for you.
Girl #2: Yeah, and olives.
Girl #1: Oh my god. Olives.


via overheard in new york

Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

THE ESSENTIAL GROUCHO, GROUCHO MARX

Free panties. 
Mint growing in packaging material.
Free art opening/critique food.
Tall pumpkin seedlings.
Nude musical zombies.

What a nice day.

Black lady to family in Obama t-shirts: You know how all those Irish people have pictures of Kennedy hanging up in their living rooms? Now we can do that too!

via overheard in new york

I just called to say I love you

I kept this photo post unread in my Google Reader for about a month. It is just so pretty. I could easily spend hours there cooking, eating, making the art, reading, anything really.

SOA garden updates: 
Cherry tomatoes have sprouted. Pumpkins have sprouted. I planted basil seeds this morning and will transplant mint tomorrow. We have a tiny garden gnome. Justin wants to grow coffee plants in Starbucks cups. I want to start a garden blog but don't know what to call it. I need to check out the local farmers market to see if they have any plants I want. We need lettuce and arugula for sure. I'm going to make signs, Victory garden style, after we transplant everything into planters. Side note, are we supposed to build the planters? Can't we assign Turner or Dean to do it? I don't know if you want me near the nail gun.  

vina updates: 
I'd like some kind of time apparatus to lengthen the days so that I have more time to do things that need to be done. I'd like someone to invent Procrastination-B-Gone so that I don't waste what little free time I have on things like naps and Law & Order SVU marathons. My bedroom is a complete mess and has been for awhile. I'm loving the warm weather but not loving the "air is too hot to breathe" nonsense. It is only April, Mother Nature, you eager beaver. I haven't worn jeans in a month. I've been listening to dance beats during the day and old-timey jazz in the evenings. Have been eating avocados a-plenty but that might just be so that I can sow the pits later. That's all.

photo via Urban Greenery

[via text]

Pa: I have sunspots on my hand. BECAUSE I DON'T WEAR SUNBLOCK.

me: Oh man, what's that one phrase that applies in this kind of situation?

                 I TOLD YOU SO.

Pa: BITCH.

Tourists don't know how to take photos, I mean, yayyy cherry blossoms.

Visual voices? But it's so nice outside!

Holy guacamole!

Alina

im eating like the biggest avocado ever.

3:10pmVina

oh

florida avocado?

3:11pmAlina

i dont know where this avocado descended from, damn.

Alina

AH THERES A BUG ON THE LAMP

it's one of those stink bugs

2:26pmVina

so kill it

2:26pmAlina

sorry

i used your book

2:26pmVina

which one

2:27pmAlina

best food writing 2008

it is the best

for killing bugs

2:28pmVina

  ass