did you know?

*The average day is actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds. We have a leap year every four years to make up for this shortfall.

*The full name of the state of Rhode Island is "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."


*There are 1 million ants for every person in the world

*It is impossible to fold a piece of paper in half more than 7 times without unfolding in between folds.

*Dogs can't look up.

my interest in these things is endless.

get some unnecessary knowledge

arquette

why do i remind you of her?

tonight's menu

i've invited a few girls over for dinner tonight to see the new apartment. i haven't cooked for a large group in awhile and am super excited. it's also rosh hashanah, so it will be extra special. this is the menu i've just come up with, what do you think?

devils on horseback
arugula, endive, and radicchio salad
tuscan turkey thighs with fingerling potatoes
seared parmesan polenta rounds topped with mushrooms
green beans with hazelnut-lemon butter

delicious? i hope so.

morning mix

i adore listening to this mix in the morning. i remember listening to it on cold, early mornings when we had just crawled into the car from our night's beds to get a good start on the day's drive; and also listening to it on blissfully warm days, when the sun was beating on our windshield, and the air was wildly drifting through the half-open windows, and we would just listen silently, smiling, and driving.

i think it makes me happy because it inevitably reminds me of those feelings.

1. the innocence mission - into brooklyn, early in the morning
2. nick cave - here comes the sun
3. the zombies - summertime
4. the ukelele orchestra - miss dy-na-mi-tee
5. buffalo springfield - smile on your brother
6. karen dalton - something on your mind
7. my morning jacket - evil urges
8. magnetic fields - 100,000 fireflies
9. talking heads - nothing but flowers
10. sam cooke - tennessee waltz
11. fifth dimension - age of aquarius
12. patsy cline - crazy
13. rusted root - rising sun
14. alice smith - dream
15. the beatles - i'll follow the sun
16. 1971 japan - the flesh failures
17. ratatat - el pico
18. the new pornographers- go places
19. polyphonic spree - lithium

universal declaration of human rights

my friend seth brau made this video for the human rights action center. i think it's awesome!!

p.s. that's my voice at the end!



The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Seth Brau on Vimeo.

curumin

this song, compacto by brazilian musician curumin, has got a perfect vibe to it. it has a california step to it.

found via yellow stereo

someone needs a haircut

jessica

jessica is my favorite person to photograph. i love it.

did you know that's her at the top of the page?

marlow & sons

marlow and sons -- a restaurant in my new neighborhood, reviewed by frank bruni, that i've been meaning to try.

happy accidents

laughing out loud

weeee!

the librarianist

delivery man

the cool kids - delivery man

packing some nostalgia

this is what our mornings looked like on the road trips. 3 girls. 1 car. a gagillion bags.

relaxing days

cypress trees in louisiana

today was an unpredictably perfect day of relaxation. some breakfast at home, unpacked boxes of winter clothes while singing songs, my friend meryl came over to check out my new place, then we went to the east village russian baths for shvitz-ing and napping, then a shared meal of turkey burgers and plentiful vegetables (plus a berry cobbler a la mode!) that really hit the spot at westville east. now i get to see the sunset over the bridge from my windows over a glass of wine, and continue deciding which shoes to keep and not to keep.

i'm a brooklyn girl

i can't stop listening to this: charles hamilton - brooklyn girls

i ain't got no problem with girls outta harlem
but there ain't nothin like a brooklyn girl
see i had a dope fling with a girl on queens
but there ain't nothin like a brooklyn girl
the bronx is alright that's where my mom resides
but there ain't nothin like a brooklyn girl

i saw both of these alfred eisenstaedt images while i was working at time inc yesterday. what fabulous inspiration for fall. the monroe photo is cropped unfortunately--she's wearing sweet high wasted pants with a short, bunchy sweater.

case closed

"father was spy, so sons conclude with regret". thus reads the front page of the new york times today. the case is closed, ethel and julius rosenberg were spies.

i really just adore the above photo of their sons.

free play reading at the public

haunted new orleans

i just caught wind of this event going on next monday night at the public. unfortunately, i will be earning my keep and cannot attend. so, i'm hoping some kind reader will go in my place. after visiting new orleans, i can't shake the spirit of the place. i find that i have a lingering attachment to all things new orleans after feeling the tumultuous energy present in that city.

it's a free reading of a new play by catherine filloux, tarell alvin mccraney, and joe sutton happening at the public theater on monday september 22nd at 7pm.

The phenomenon of a natural calamity like Hurricane Katrina creates chaos, pain and confusion on a mythic scale. In THE BREACH, a play on the drowning of New Orleans, playwrights Filloux, McCraney, and Sutton weave together three unique and separate stories from those who survived the storm. In its exploration of the impacts of Katrina, this powerful and surreal play taps the conspiracy theories, loss and nascent hope of this devastated American region.

A post-show discussion will feature award-winning New York Daily News journalist Nicole Bode, who covered Katrina and its aftermath; Robert Carey, Vice President of the International Rescue Committee's Resettlement Department; and academic Lee Clarke, author of Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination. Writer Larry Blumenfeld, who has conductive extensive research on cultural recovery in New Orleans, will moderate the discussion.

for reservations email thebreach@publictheater.org or call 212-539-8597

california

i was just forwarded these fantastic colorful photos of my preternaturally cool californian family:

didion on new york

But the problem is, you can’t simply leave New York—you have to quit New York. You have to admit to yourself and the world that you’re packing it in, calling it a day, turning out the lights. You have to walk away from, as Joan Didion put it, “the sense, so peculiar to New York, that something extraordinary would happen any minute, any day, any month.”

found in this nymag article

sunrise

grand canyon at sunrise 9.1.08

but i don't think of you

not how i pictured them at all...

trouble the water

this movie, trouble the water, looks incredible. see it at the ifc center!

"The film tells the story of an aspiring rap artist and her streetwise husband, trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning. It’s a redemptive tale of self-described street hustlers who become heroes that takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen."

david foster wallace

David Foster Wallace, whose darkly ironic novels, essays and short stories garnered him a large following and made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, was found dead in his California home on Friday, after apparently committing suicide, the authorities said. Mr. Wallace, 46, best known for his sprawling 1,079-page novel “Infinite Jest,” was discovered by his wife, Karen Green, who returned home to find that he had hanged himself, a spokesman for the Claremont, Calif., police said Saturday evening.

read more about david foster wallace, whose novel infinite jest i have yet to brave, here. and check out michiko kakutani's appraisal.

pumping

i am PUMPING this song in my wherehouse right now, as i climb up ladders, string up lights, and build my prize piece of a dining table.

paint job

these are the colors i am outfitting my apartment walls in.


quiet solitude


woodrose

it was quite the challenge not to go with colors like "cafe mystique", "tunnel of love", and "yesterday".

how does one master the nuances of color to the extent that they get insert these lofty names into the glidden color catalogue? is it like being a sommelier or something?

m-i-s-s-i-s-s

i'm back in new york. in brooklyn to be exact. and ecstatic to be back.

this photo by David Benjamin Sherry from the new york magazine fashion issue remind me of the rainy day i spent driving through mississippi. i love it.

new york city

I'm going back to New York City
I do believe I've had enough

-Bob Dylan

wonderful world

my younger brother serenaded me with this song

from the road...

a real road picture.
taken somewhere in west texas.

dream

i adore this song by alice smith.

When I wake up in the morning time, I
Like to see you sleepin by my side...

newspapers

i asked jack, "well how do you like fame?" he said, "it's like old newspapers blowing down bleecker street."

-mardou fox

back in l.a.

dropped off our cross-country car at a port in the bay area yesterday. it was a wacky experience getting there, leaving it there, and making my way out of there. my eyes were glazed over though and my mind was somewhere else altogether, so i didn't really mind the experience, which i can imagine would have been aggravating under another mindset. leaving the car was strange--i had no safety net anymore. i had to pack up all of my loose belongings in my red suitcase and actively rely on the kindness of strangers for directions. i was directed to a bus stop outside of the car port, where i sat alone atop my suitcase waiting for the empty bus to arrive and take me to the BART station, at which i would board a train that would leave me in san francisco. once in the city, my red suitcase and i made our way to the greyhound station, having stopped for a sandwich and some gatorade on the way. there i bought a one way ticket to l.a. and sat on my suitcase to wait like i would all day for l.a. to come, while madness ensued in the station around me. bus travel in america is sensational. while i was on the road, i kept wondering where all the hitchers were--i think they've moved on to buses. man, these people! i made it to l.a. right after nightfall, having spent the bulk of the afternoon sleeping, reading, and daydreaming while sitting next to a portly mexican grandmother whose company i didn't mind at all until she brought the remnants of her fast food french fries back to our row after the meal break. now i'm in l.a. and i can only think about new york. i guess its a good thing to want to go home after a long, epic vacation--it must mean i've accomplished what i intended and i'm ready to return.

LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; New York gets god-awful cold in the winter but there's a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. LA is a jungle.

-jack kerouac