has she considered any films involving scary clowns?

Since I stopped working last May, there are some websites that I've been neglecting.  When I was a bored worker bee, I spent much more time perusing The Superficial and Go Fug Yourself than I do these days.  Today I was inspired to check in at Go Fug Yourself for the first time in a month or two, and I was rewarded with this phenomenal post comparing Kate Winslet to Susan Lucci with respect to awards snubs.  Pure genius to this former All My Children addict.

better than tabasco in your eye

In case you are interested in such things, I am now a contributor on the Yo! Venice! blog.  Officially I'm supposed to be focusing on goings on within the Venice arts scene, but I can also write about other things -- I've kicked it off with a fascinating update on the status of a parking lot in my neighborhood*, because I'm exciting like that.  Anyway, yo, check it. 

And, uh, if you hear about anything arty or otherwise cool in Venice, shoot me a message about it.

*There actually is quite a controversy relating to the parking lot and there was an article about it in The New York Fucking Times (slow news day?) because some famous artist types with names like Ed Ruscha and Laddie John Dill would have their open air studios torn down under the initial plans for the lot (these guys closed in spaces behind their buildings on the public right-of-way many years ago to keep the local vagrant population that hangs there from bothering them while they were working; and no, adverse possession** doesn't seem like a claim that has much merit against the city, so they're working more of the public sympathy and desire to keep our famous artists in Venice angle).  I haven't heard whether some sort of accommodation was reached with the artists or not. Yes, it is still just an update on a parking lot. 

**Don't make me break out my bar prep mnemonic on this one. Don't make me remind you that I have passed three bar exams.  Don't make me think about the bar dues I'll be paying for at least the next year or so despite my hope not to have to practice again.  Just don't.

and quartered

A friend sent me the link to a cool drawing/painting/collage blog called Drawn.  We're doing a 3D collage assignment in my multimedia class starting this week.  The assignment is "animal".  

black cab sessions

I love this site!  I spent about an hour this morning listening to (and watching) session after session.  I can't pick a favorite (Brit pop! Singer-songwriters! Both of my favorites in one place!), but in the interest of free samples*, here is a fun song by Martha Wainwright:

*(the site is free too, so really this is merely a no-need-to-click-through-to-the-link sample.

meet me at third and fairfax

ffffound.com had this cute little illustration up today and at first I was a bit alarmed because I am currently (one block) EAST of Fairfax (Avenue, Los Angeles) and I am about to move (several miles) WEST of Fairfax.  Doomed to a life of SUCK, it would seem.  

Until I remembered that I have lived in the vicinity of a Fairfax before.  As in Fairfax, Virginia.  In fact I have lived WEST of that particular Fairfax (by Dulles airport) and EAST of Fairfax (Falls Church) and I can confirm that the map is more or less on point with its biting analysis of NoVa suckage.  Well, not that Falls Church is all that cool, really, but it blows the doors off all points WEST of Fairfax.  

But then I thought -- wait just a minute -- I currently live WEST of Fairfax, Virginia and where I live now doesn't seem so SUCK to me.  Where does this map leave off?  Am I moving even further into the WEST of Fairfax, Virginia SUCK??  And where do these WEST and EAST directionals meet up anyway?  I need some sort of legend here.  Who makes a map without a legend, anyway?  And, wait, is the earth really flat????  And then I realized I really should go to bed.

Mind.  Blown.

[Uh, I probably should add, in the interest of full disclosure or whatever, and despite the damage it will do to the credibility of the above blog entry (to the extent it ever had any credibility), that the illustration is from the Popkiller website, which appears to be a trendy LA hipster clothing store.  So, yes, I am clearly moving from COOL (barely) to SUCK (totally).]

write here, right now

This is awesome:

(brought to me by ilovetypography.com)

i (heart) typography

I found another interesting blog the other day - ilovetypography.com - and so I wanted to pass it along. To, you know, anyone who loves typography or even sort of likes it. I like the guess the font game. I got 20 on my first try, but I plan to retake it after I finish my typography class this quarter.

in therapy

CNN has an article up today about the therapeutic properties of blogging.  This as I'm waiting to watch Heather Armstrong of dooce.com on the Today Show discussing why she doesn't believe mommy-blogging constitutes child abuse or endangerment.  Sounds like any kids traumatized by their moms' blogs merely need to sign up for their own and blog about the embarrassment of having bath time photos from when they were 4 splashed across the internets.

she said with a smile(y)

I love this recent entry from one of my current favorite sites, Passive Aggressive Notes (dot com).

Oh, to be young again and concerned about the cost of toilet paper. Too bad the I-do-not-use-your-toilet-paper card has been summarily tossed from the deck. I thought that one might be a winner.

spark

As usual, I'm a bit late to the game but I found out today about a cool creative site called Illustration Friday that lists a one word topic each week (on, uh, Friday, it turns out) and displays submissions of drawings, paintings, collage, etc. based on the weekly theme. Just another place to look for inspiration. I want to play!

copycat

I liked this quote enough to steal (ahem) borrow it from Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl:

Dave Grohl in Esquire Nov. 2007 — “Anybody who has to focus on being real has a problem. It’s like having a panic attack over how you’re prone to panic attacks.”

slippery slope

I just saw this in the weekly PostSecret Sunday Secrets. Welcome to my world.

moving beyond the mental note

Adding to my ever-growing list, I want one of these walls in my next apartment. Thanks to Maggie Mason at Mighty Girl for letting me in on the pixelnotes secret.

my internet girl

Today I give you a list inspired by MySpace. Because I have the mentality of a 15-year-old girl.* Here is my list of people I have reconnected with because of MySpace:

• middle school best friend - She isn't on anymore, but we both joined up around the same time and we hadn't been in touch for a year or two before finding each other there.
• sophomore year cheerleading friend - I hadn't spoken to her in approximately 20 years. Apparently she was mortified because her mom yelled at us once when we were getting a ride home from practice from her. I have no recollection. I guess I had a knack for tuning out other people's yelling parents too.
• several cousins - Most recently I reconnected this week with a cousin who came out of the closet in his early twenties and walked away from his family for quite a while shortly thereafter (um, rural Indiana is not a bastion of gay acceptance, it turns out). The last time I saw him, I was 22 and he was 18 and we took a road trip (with his twin brother along too) across the country in my red 240SX. I am not in as close of touch with my dad's family (and the multitude of cousins I have on that side of the family) as I could be. So the internet is actually helpful to me in finding out what those folks are up to.
• Mike's ex-wife - She looked me up on MySpace and sent me an e-mail. Now we correspond just about weekly.
• multiple friends from Dallas - I don't get back there to visit as often as I would like, so it is nice to keep up to date on their parties and goings on.
• my bestest friends Zach Braff and Aimee Mann

My sister joined Facebook recently. I guess this is how I'll be keeping up with all of my friends and family at some point...

*Is MySpace even popular with the 15-year-old girls anymore or have they moved on?

inspired

Lovely Ericka of City Elf inspired me to join NaBloPoMo and try out the 31-days-of-blog-posts experiment. I couldn't do this last November because of exciting and fun travel plans I had, but lucky for me March looks to be a relatively boring travel month! And even luckier for me, they added a theme for the March posts, should I choose to follow it: Lists! I love lists!

So, uh, look for a new post from me tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that. And... I assume you get the point.

good design, bad design

For my design class, we had a project called "Good Design, Bad Design" where we had to find examples of both and bring them in. The Bad Design part would have been much easier for me if I had just stopped by Gucci's website, from the look of things. Mediabistro's Unbeige blog tells me that this is a limited edition bag issued in celebration of the opening of the biggestest bestestest Gucci store ever, right in the heart of NYC (natch):

The good news: all proceeds from the bags, which go on sale tomorrow, will benefit the Central Park Conservancy. The bad news: the bags look to have been designed by committee, combining Gucci's old-school script logo (one of a handful of logos the brand has been switching among lately) and the house's signature GG-monogrammed canvas with a nod to Milton Glaser's I [heart] NY design. Topping it off is a blue-red-blue racer stripe that evokes Goyard and Dior more than Gucci, with its green-red-green signature that derived from the company's distinctive saddlery webbing.

They are right, now that they mention it, it does appear to be designed by committee, but I would have just gone with: "God damn! That's one ugly bag!"

turning off the computer

Today is National Handwriting Day, according to the good folks at Unbeige. So sit down today and write a thank you note, love letter or, I don't know, grocery list. Am I the only one who still gets excited opening up a handwritten letter from the mailbox? Sigh. Lost art. Kids today...

2007, My Year in Travel

I guess I've been at this whole blog thing for over a year now, since I posted one of these blogs here last year around this time. I'm thinking about ways in which my blog may be changing in the future, and I'll give you an update as I figure things out, but since I'm thinking and learning about web design these days, I'll probably have some new/different purposes and interests to reflect here (or somewhere new?) at some point.

But without any further delay, I give to you my list of places I visited in 2007 (in roughly chronological order:

San Francisco, California
Bloomington, Indiana (2 times)
Las Vegas, Nevada (2 times)
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Salt Lake City, Utah
Dallas, Texas (2 times)
Chicago, Illinois
New York, New York
Washington, D.C.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Boston, Massachusetts
Indianapolis, Indiana
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Again I note that I stayed far too close to home (all in the continental US other than Mexico, which hardly counts as international travel anyway) and went to very predictable places. The only destinations on my list this year that were *new* places for me were Santa Fe and Minneapolis. I'm pretty sure that was my first time in Minnesota EVER (I've driven through New Mexico on at least two occasions, but never stopped in Santa Fe). Not that it, uh, seems to be all that different from Wisconsin. But still.

Anyone care to share any fun 2007 destinations in my comments? At this point vicarious adventures seem to be the best I can do...

and then came you

I really enjoyed reading today's blog by dooce's husband* about living with someone with mental illness. It really could be about the work that goes into successful relationships generally, but obviously that work is increased when you are dealing with severe depression or other chronic mental health issues. I'm sure most people have dealt at some point with these issues, if not with a spouse or significant other, then with a family member or friend. I certainly have. And I firmly believe that medication (permanent or temporary) is the answer for some people. It has changed people that I love dearly for the better.

Maybe I'll add better communication skills to my ever-growing mental list of things to work on in the upcoming year. Oh, wait, it was already there.


*I'm sure he is much much more as a person than merely dooce's husband, so pardon my sloppy shorthand.

an empowered and informed member of society

This summer I blogged about trouble at a pretty weird (but cool) multiunit building in Venice that Mike and I checked out one year when we were deciding whether to renew our lease or not (we did renew). The owner of the building didn't exactly follow the rules when he built the place - his permit allowed him to build to 30' and he built to 34' - and the surrounding neighbors didn't like the aesthetic of the place.

Well, there is more. Curbed LA tells me that the Venice City Council has voted to require the owner to comply with the 30' limit. Meaning the structure will most likely be torn down (unless he can somehow remove the top floor, but having seen the building, I doubt that would work, even if it were a cost-efficient alternative). It sounds like he broke some other rules - renting out too many units and somehow illegally obtaining electricity.

Still though, I feel bad for the guy. He really tried to do something different. The building has concrete floors with radiant heat and is entirely comprised of fiberglass windows/walls that open and close panel by panel. It was a bit commune-like (a Borg-inspired commune, if you will), with residents leaving doors open and wandering from unit to unit. Call me a cynic, but I have a feeling that if someone came in and built some run-of-the-mill townhomes that didn't comply with the building permits on that land, they wouldn't have received the same ruling.* And if you can't build a weirdo hippie commune box in Venice, California, then where oh where is there a place for such a thing in this great country of ours??


*Yes, I was the law student in Property class that got into a fight with my classmates about aesthetics zoning and restrictive covenants. Dammit, they should have left the people who built the jack-o-lantern house alone!!