playing in the mud

the wind

in the palm trees.

if only it worked this way

but it doesn't

and maybe that's what we have to learn.

mele kalikimaka

i'm not sure if what i just saw was this:


the innocent millipede

or this:


the venemous centipede.

but i'm not going out there again to find out.

as it turns out, i was wrong about this whole sun thing

the earth revolves around the surf, don't you get it? the surf.

what was i thinking?

i'm at the tippy top

this is what i need to do

from an LA times article about living in small spaces:

"I tell all my clients to make three piles: the throw-out pile, the maybe pile and the keep pile. The keep pile is what tugs at your heart," says Rucker. "Then I tell them to toss piles one and two. If you have of lots of 'maybe' stuff, you'll feel like a maybe person. Surround yourself only with things you love."

The Rucker rule: Bring into your house only those things you absolutely do not wish to be without. You'll feel a lot better. Throw out that unsightly chair, get rid of clothes you don't wear or items that are only marginally satisfying, give away books you've read (unless you love your library, in which case make a beautiful one). Eliminate all that creates disharmony. A harmonious house contributes to a harmonious life.

i am beginning to feel...cluttered.

i turn my camera on

i got my digital camera back from the shop, almost 9 months after i broke it, and just in time for the holidays.

i found this video on it.

the shortest day of the year

it's all downhill from here, folks.

my high school physics teacher is dying of cancer

he was mean, curmudgeonly, old (even then) and the spitting image of underground cartoonist r. crumb.

he wasn't even a very good teacher.

so why am i so sad?

do you know what i really want for christmas?

to be able to raise one eyebrow. that is all.

look up

castor and pollux, the two brightest stars of my patron constellation, will be visible tonight.
look for them three hours after sunset, 2 and 7 degrees to the left of the moon. i'll be watching.

we sure are cute for two ugly people

just the start

before and after

can you spot the changes?

12:01am

someone just died.

i know it happens all the time, that others are dying too. but knowing about it beforehand - it's different.

it's almost like you can feel a life slipping away.

gizoogle

is an excellent tool for procrastinating.

check me out.

my favorite is the "shawty stick of butta".

the night started later then

9 days until the winter solstice.

that's it.

i think my brain just sizzled.

$2 million

i'm reading about risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis and how you assign value to "non-market" items. it turns out the going rate for a human life is $2 million. this was never decided on officially, but instead backed out by analysis of existing public health policy. government agencies step in to regulate public health hazards if the cost to save one human life is $2 million dollars or less.

i totally understand the need for this kind of valuation, and yet it chills me to the bone.

take that, google earth

be forewarned - stay away from this site if you're trying to concetrate on oh, say, studying or something. Otherwise, happy stalking.

Windows Local

note: although the image quality is much better, the "birds eye" photo function only seems to work in major cities. can microsoft never win?

ananas

ananas means pineapple in french, german, italian, dutch and various other languages. it's fun to say. and fun to listen to.

ananas - tosca

cookies for breakfast

clean sheets, hot, sweet coffee, a package at the post office, and this outside my window:


i'd say i woke up on the right side of the bed this morning.

it's true

molasses really does move slower in january. or december. or whenever it's cold, really.

baby, it's cold outside

although not cold in any real sense of the word, it has been quite chilly here recently - by southern california standards. keep in mind we don't have much in the way of heat or insulation.

but i don't mind. it gives me a chance to snuggle up and listen to this song.

oh my god

the little stick of butter has a blog!


as it turns out, i was wrong about his name.

validation

i usually find business school to be something of a sisyphusian task, but every once in a while i realize, quite unexpectedly, that i've learned something - not just memorized a fact, but actually understand a process.

it helps. it really does.

what is it about vocoders

that are so pleasing?

hide and seek - imogen heap

it's better than studying

jokes courtesy of tiny mix tapes:

Q: Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?
A: Tha drizzle!
-Tim Harrington

Q: How do you get a nun pregnant?
A: Fuck her.
-Steve Brown

Q: What did 50 cent say when he saw his grandmother knitting a pair of socks??
A: Gee you knit??
-Mark Richardson

Q: What's the hardest part of rollarblading?
A: Telling your parents you're gay.
-Patrick Hillman

So this girl walks into a bar and tells the bartender she wants a double entendre, so the bartender gives it to her. -Savingboyw

do you know the way to santa fe?

last night i saw the movie rent. i must confess that i loved the musical in college. and last night, as i sat in the theatre silently singing along in my head, i realized that i still know all of the words.


the idea of new york this musical inspired is one of the reasons i moved there after i graduated, just a few blocks from where rent was set. the reality proved to be quite a bit different from the fantasy, however. not bad, just different. and with less singing.

la vie boheme, indeed.

god bless my brother

for putting up with my morning sing-a-longs on the 405.

today's selection, courtesy of the ronettes:


thanks, ladies.

freshman year

my roommate and i had a couple of pet aquatic frogs (named for offensive song lyrics i won't repeat here). they were very cute and we managed to keep them alive for the first month, despite several cases of what i realize in retrospect was clear-cut frog abuse. winter break, however, was a problem. both my roommate and i were going 1000's of miles away for several weeks, with no one to look after our frogs. this led to one of our most legendary screaming fights. my roommate, you see, wanted to freeze the frogs. and defrost them when we got back. i, naturally, thought she was insane.

it turns out, 8 years later, i was wrong. (via a welsh view)

sorry, bethany.

tai shan

he was the size of a stick of butter when he was born.

bad reputation

i loved the freedy johnston version of this song in college.

no shame.

so people always ask me to define urban planning

and of course i can't - because, well, it's everything.

definitions are hard - it's easier to give an example. so here's an example of an issue in urban design:

Revolting High Rises

do i think le corbusier's towers are single-handedly responsible for the french riots? of course not. but i do think the built environment has implications far beyond the aesthetic.

and that, my friends, is why i do what i do.

or, um, why i study what i study.

sometimes

when i just want to disappear for a while, i go walking on the boardwalk.

and i pretend the that the air is crisp and cold and the palm trees are tall buildings and the people are wrapped in long coats and the sunshine is snowflakes and the light is dark and the smiles are cynical and all the empty 'how are you's' are silent.

oh look

i get a gold star. i am pathetically pleased.

i am a hypocrite

a hypocrite with cute new shoes.

black friday

scene from wal-mart:


quote from a shopper:

“We shop and then we eat, then we shop and we eat, then we shop and we eat...it’s our food and fun day,” Hull said as she, her daughter and a friend stuffed TVs into an SUV before dawn Friday. “We do it every year."

hm. i may have to rethink my plans to go to the bookstore today.

red herrings!

despite careful planning and two trips to the grocery store earlier this week, i still had to go back there today. twice. on thanksgiving.

why, you might ask? because i was fooled. fooled by the red herrings strewn about the store by the subtly devious ralph's employees.

Case #1: the noodles
so i was charged with bringing the vegan entree to tonight's dinner. no problem, i thought - i like vegan cooking and it gave me an excuse to prepare my family's famous "roasted butternut squash and mushroom tofu pesto lasagna," which first debuted to rave reviews at christmas a few years ago. sure, we added some cheese, but the original recipe is vegan, and apparently there's going to be a vegan in the house tonight, so i figured i'd keep it strict.

all was smooth sailing, until i prepared to assemble the lasagna. a closer examination of the no-bake noodles i'd bought revealed that they contained eggs! you heard me - EGGS! who puts eggs in dried pasta? it's unheard of! i mean, in fresh pasta, sure, but dried? i never. trip to the grocery store #1 revealed that every other lasagna noodle was vegan. thanks a lot, barilla.

Case #2: the pumpkin
as my mother and i were scanning the aisles on sunday, i remembered that i needed to get pumpkin. for the pie. and there, conventiently stacked in three seperate aisles, were large towers of Libby's pumpkin. or so i thought. it was not until today, when i opened the can, that i realized: no, i hadn't bought pumpkin. i'd bought pumpkin pie MIX! gag. that's simply not the way things are done around here. yes, i admit that a closer examination of the can in the store would have prevented this little crisis, but really? who uses pumpkin pie mix? why put it on such heightened display while hiding the pure pumpkin on the back of some dusty old shelf? so back to the store i went. ralph's is clearly to blame here. jerks.

although they did save my ass by being open 24 hours on thanksgiving.

so yes, ralphs, despite all you put me through: i suppose i'm thankful for you.

and the true spirit of thanksgiving shines through, yet again.

the end.

let the cooking begin...

now!

god, i love thanksgiving.

ebay anyone?

i don't mean to be a bad influence here (full disclosure: i have occasional lapses into ebay obsessiveness, and am currently off the wagon), but this little site is a wonderful way to find bargains on ebay. it helps you locate mispellings of your search terms - the items other bidders won't find because they've been mispelled.

three cheers for exploiting the carelessness of others! inequality of information! the imperfection of the market system!

wouldn't it be nice

if you could travel from LA to San Francisco (or Sacremento) by bullet train?

it's a long way off, but it is in the works.

let's all keep our fingers crossed.

abbot kinney makes the times

an embarrassingly large portion of my furniture may be from french 50s and 60s, but anyone who thinks that abbot kinney is the "nucleus of venice" is on crack.

the center of venice is, was, and always will be the boardwalk.

aw

isn't my brother adorable? i'm still looking kind of larval,
but he's like the poster child for life or something.

art brut

no, not the band, silly. the genre - outsider art. i didn't really know what it was until i somewhat accidently visited the collection de l’art brut in lausanne. i was blown away. the museum was filled with the art - both awesome and horrifying - of the feeble-minded, the psychotic, and the criminally insane. actually, those categories are rather narrow. the art of people who are not "artists" - they don't create for an audience, but simply because it's the only way they can handle the chaos inside of them. the museum was haunting, but i what struck me most was the attic room - assembled to recreate the reclusive apartment of henry darger.


anyway, the point of this post is to recommend in the realms of the unreal, a documentary about the man himself. i would try to explain, but, like my visit in lausanne, it's an experience best left unexpected.

just trust me on this one.

does this look like the cover of an easy listening album, or what?

what can say? i'm a cheeseball.

next up: kittens and babies dressed as pumpkins.

oh my god oh my god oh my god

my inner urban planner just wet herself.

the santa ana winds

blow through los angeles, bringing hot, dry air to the masses.

and allergies to me.

achoo.

and this

is why i don't go swimming by my house.

Intersex fish discovered off Southern California coast

i've never been a big ben lee fan

but this nigo remix of 'freediving' is pretty great.

according to vicky (from whom i got this album), nigo - with his bathing ape clothing line - is like, the hippest man in all of japan.

can you imagine that? the hippest guy in japan? that's like being the best cook in italy or the hottest woman in brasil or something.

somewhat incomprehensible.

well-intentioned relatives

send the best gifts. my brother returned from santa cruz today, and brought me an early christmas present from my aunt: 2 ashtrays, 2 glowsticks, and this:


a pipe with little bunny rabbit on the end.

oh aunt joyce, how well you know me.

last night at the bar

kelly, mary ann and i were playing darts, when a man came up to kelly, snatched the darts out of her hand, and announced (slightly flirtatiously) that it was his turn to play. they went back and forth a bit about who had called 'next game' first (it was us), but he wasn't giving up any ground, or returning the darts. my slightly inebriated and rather surly self decided to step in and reclaim our darts game. after a little hostile squabbling i just got fed up, so i took the darts from him and in my most condescending voice said "honey, we're not the girls to fuck with tonight"

at which point kelly busts out laughing, grabs my arm and says "amanda, you know we know him, right?"

i look over at him and realize that, yes, i do know him - he's one of kelly's cousin's friends and was actually at the bar to meet us. apparently everyone was in on the joke but me.

did i mention that i occasionally have a bit of an aggressive side?
it's my inner new yorker.

regardless, i'm going to have a hard time living this one down.

we made the playoffs!

#16 of the 16 teams that made the cut.


i have the lowest average score in the league. but i love it.

the littlest genius

congratulations, sam.

update

wallet found. credit card recovered.

and to celebrate - a good old fashioned rock song:

finding out true love is blind - louis XIV

i'm a idiot

last night i managed to:

1) get on the freeway going the wrong direction

2) leave my credit card at the yoga studio

3) lose my wallet

i accomplished all of this in under an hour. hell, at least i'm an efficient idiot.

oh well. at least i know where my credit card is.

cognitive dissonance

from BBC news:

'US does not torture,' Bush says

US President George W Bush has defended his government's treatment of detainees after a media allegation that the CIA ran secret jails in eastern Europe.

"We do not torture," Mr Bush told reporters during a visit to Panama.

from ABC news:

Senate, Cheney Split on Torture Ban

WASHINGTON Nov 7, 2005 — A leading Republican senator said Sunday that the Bush administration is making "a terrible mistake" in opposing a congressional ban on torture and other inhuman treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody....

Mistreatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and allegations of mistreatment at the U.S.-run camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have drawn withering criticism from around the world. Human rights organizations also contend that the United States sends detainees to countries that it knows will use torture to try to extract intelligence information.

i really do live in los angeles

red light at pico and main st.
driving the white station wagon stopped on my right.















vincent gallo.

the line of beauty

i had a conversation with someone (p?) recently about book titles - and how much we hate it when the title turns out to be completely unrelated to the text. it's just some clever turn-of-the-phrase meant to grab your attention and get you to buy the book.

i'd been having a little doubt about the book i'm reading right now -
the line of beauty by alan hollinghurst. but finally, 176 pages in, i came to it.

the line of beauty, it turns out, is this:


the ogee curve.

the ogee curve was pure expression, decorative not structural; a structure could be made from it, but it supported nothing more than a boss or a cross that topped an onion dome. the double curve was hogarth's "line of beauty," the snakelike flicker of an instinct, of two compulsions held in one unfolding movement.

ok, that was worth it.

101.6

i feel like i never woke up this morning. my body is moving, but my mind still has one tiny little foot in sleep. i have a fever.

don't feel bad for me. i like fevers. i purposefully don't take medicine so i can lie in bed and drift, waiting for the sweat to come and the fever to break. i eat grilled cheese and tomato soup. i listen to azure ray. i dream crazy, colorful dreams, and am never quite sure if they're real or not.

at this point, i'm more concerned about who else i might have exposed. i'm sorry.

i'm off now.

smack, smack!

get back to work!

going to have to look out for this on the 405

'A California family is the first in the world to drive a car powered by hydrogen fuel cells...'

champagne supernova

i randomly heard this song today, and it brought me back so fast i nearly got whiplash.

my first AutoCAD drawing

i seem to be having a lot of firsts these days..

seeing vicks

is always worth the trip.

all things go

including me! i'm off to sacramento to visit darling vivian, and on my way up i'll probably be listening to this song a lot (thanks sam!).

chicago - sufjan stevens

sufjan stevens kind of snuck up on me.

it's a cold day here

and i was woefully under-dressed for most of it. i just got home, and as i climbed into my warm fluffy bed for a well-deserved nap, this phrase sprang to mind:

"it warms the cockles of my heart"

which led to the inevitable question:

what is a cockle, anyways?

this, it turns out, is a cockle



cock·le
1. Any of various bivalve mollusks of the family Cardiidae, having rounded or heart-shaped shells with radiating ribs.
2. The shell of a cockle.
3. A wrinkle; a pucker.
4. Nautical. A cockleshell.

perhaps they're referring to definition #3: it warms the little folds and creases of one's heart. i'm not sure, exactly.

but i do know this: it's good to be home.

i may have a ten track mind

but there's only one track when it comes to food.

and these days it's set to:

rye toast with blackberry jam and cottage cheese.

yum.

this makes me sick

wal-mart memo

i mean, honestly. i may be a liberal, but i'm in business school for god's sake - i'm no bleeding heart idealist. i understand the pressure that companies are under to turn a profit. i understand cost-benefit analysis. i defend the business world all the time.

i was reading this article earlier today in which wal-mart claims to be "doing good by doing well."

oh yeah, wal-mart? really? is this how it's done?

this kind of blatant hypocrisy makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

i spend so much time and energy working on socially responsible business issues - sometimes i wonder what i'm really hoping to achieve.

i feel so...disillusioned.

oh the irony

of posting this on my blog. but it's an interesting article, nonetheless.
and something i actually worry about, despite (because of) my own virtual tendencies.

and maybe listen to some more hot chip while you're at it.

defeated by technology - hot chip

secret band

i saw nada surf play at the el rey last night. i always think of them as a secret band. they had that one hit song back in the 90's (and no, i didn't request it last night), and then just kind of fell off the radar screen. my radar screen, at least.

and then a couple of years ago i was wading through the many gigs of music that somehow appeared in my computer, and i came across Let Go. lovely music for walking around the city. this song, especially:

blonde on blonde - nada surf

everyone i know who likes nada surf has a similar story.
no hype, just a happy accident.

drawing on a rainy saturday afternoon

is the perfect time to light candles and listen to silly old jazz music.

your feets too big - fats waller

and sometimes you're lucky enough to have a friend who makes the perfect mixes for such an occasion.

i'm still shaking a little bit

on the inside.

wow.

the thing is

sometimes you just want some action.

baby said - hot chip

this morning on my way to get coffee

i stepped onto a freshly painted curb and left little red blots down the street as i walked away.

you might say i've finally 'made my mark' in venice

or or

that i really 'painted the town red' this morning

oh somebody stop me...i'm killing, here

i can never sleep after i hear live music

i saw iron and wine play with calexico tonight.

i want to crawl inside sam beam's beard.

they did a lovely cover of all tomorrow's parties. i do like that song, but i'd have to say my favorite nico/velvet underground songs are the sweet

i'll be your mirror

and

after hours

i'm starting to feel sleepy...

it is raining so hard right now

the rain is dirty and leaving thick grey streaks and spots all over the place.
i wish i didn't have to go out in it.

but i know when it's over the city will be clean and shiny and infectiously optimistic.

it's growing on me, this place. los angeles.


oooo thunder!

thirteen in los angeles

on saturday night i attended a $26,000 thirteenth birthday party. there was an open-bar for the adults, a candy 'bar' for the kids, a tarot card reader, henna tattoos, a dj, professional dancers and an ipod photo station. the kids had hipster haircuts and designer clothes, and the mom's were all but plastic.

julie and i took full advantage of the amenities.


but the thing is, the kids were still thirteen. they scurried around in insecure packs and fled the dance floor at the first chord of a slow song. they flirted awkwardly yet remained half-children.

i try to remember being that age, but it seems so long ago...

anyway, a beautiful song about being thirteen (elliott smith).

grey

finally, the weather begins to cooperate.

i don't usually go for cars

but damn.



in my headphones: konichiwa bitches - robyn

why are my friends so amazing?

i must have done something spectacular in a former life...

it's not raining yet

but it will be soon

kathy's song

i am a rock

happy birthday, paul

bland yet pretty

lixo

pingo

musical detective

i found it!

blame it on on the bossa nova - eydie gorme

and while i was at it, i also came across this little gem...

eso beso - paul anka

paul anka is my aunt's ex-husband's cousin, don't you know.

i made madeleines yesterday

i've always loved madeleines - partly because they are so tasty, and partly because of proust:

The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it; perhaps because of those memories, so long abandoned and put out of mind, nothing now survived, everything was scattered; the shapes of things, including that of the little scallop-shell of pastry, so richly sensual under its severe, religious folds, were either obliterated or had been so long dormant as to have lost the power of expansion which would have allowed them to resume their place in my consciousness. But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.

beautiful, isn't it?

pacific avenue between windward and market

what if

the winter solstice never comes? what if the days grow shorter and shorter until we have the last day, the shortest day - a flash of sunlight before darkess? what if the laws of time and space and planetary motion adjusted just enough to let such a thing happen?

perhaps the real question is: why not?

playing around

i love it when photographs take on the quality of abstract art. photoshop helps.

buildings from buses