i am at the wall st. protests.

I am at the Wall St. protests. I am very steadfast and confident in the importance of what I am trying to do; however, because of the lack of people who seem motivated or inspired by defining actual tangible goals and pursuing solutions, it’s discouraging. It is so very discouraging. Whatever is the point? Earlier today I wrote up what I guess you could call a manifesto — of what I believe and the change I want to make, the role I want to play. Well, crud. I don’t know what shape that will take on necessarily, though I am trying to pass it on. There is one girl, Earth, who seemed very muh in favor and aligned with my interests — but other than that, everyone seems to think it is a good idea but not to the point where they are willing to take it up for themselves. I am less than stoked by this. How is it in a park of thousands of people, and different ones everyday, the majority of people are only inspired enough to make meaningless signs and spout rhetoric? Who are the people who actually want to make change? are they really so lacking in ability that no one realizes that organizations need to become involved with one another, that people’s skills and talents need to be directed to places outside of the confines of this park? It is entirely annoying, and as “frustrating” as capitalism can be, making signs about how rich people suck is — first of all, short-sighted and ignorant; second of all, just absolutely useless. What is a sign like the one that just passed by — “END THE FED” — going to do? Why is absolutely nobody interested in actually working to actively do anything? I hope Giovanni and Michael and co. take it over. I really hope that they do… and that because they are a group of individuals, that they will be able to find the flaws where I could not, and actually direct this flow of energy into a place that gets things done, that creates answers and solutions for goals that everyone can agree upon rather than those that people can only individually spout off about. FUCK.

recap central: cross-country kamut road trip, day seven: omaha.

(I am currently writing this from Gaia Italian Cafe in Lower East Side, Manhattan. Just the best fucking place, man, and right downstairs from where Jeanette lives. Wish I had found it earlier. I am soooooo into it…!!)

—

ACTUAL DATE OF TRAVEL: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2011.
SMALL PICTURES WERE TAKEN BY ROSE ON HER IPHONE; LARGE PICTURES ARE MINE.
—

OMAHA, NEBRASKA

Ohhhh so many days in Omaha. After a night out last night, woke up early to go to church. Wooooo! Not exactly my ideal type of church, but it was quite fun nonetheless. But a Monday mass is pretty much guaranteed to be mass with hardcore people, and as my previous trip to a weird Houston Catholic church also revealed…

This was the first time Rose had ever been to church, and man, I don’t know if Catholics just don’t want people to become Catholic or what, but the barrier to entry is set soooooooooo fucking high. It feels seriously that it is impossible for one to just simply jump into Catholicism. There’s not a goshdarn thing to jump into! They go to infinity from the get-go, rushing through just tons and tons of movements without anyone commanding anything, chanting lines here and there that mean Lord knows what; confusing, confusing, confusing!!! At least I still remember the Lord’s Prayer from my days in Catholic elementary school… woOoooOoooOoOo! :L

We went to St. Cecilia’s Church, which is huge, towering, and definitely not the type of church you see frequently in the United States. So it had that going for it. I would post some pictures that Rose took, but honestly, I’m so churched-out at this point in my life that particular church was not particularly all that interesting (it was alright, dude) that generally I am going to stamp a big fat “PASS!” on doing that shit. Boo-hoo-ring.

Let’s talk instead about the service itself, because that’s way more interesting. There were probably like 20 people at mass, with a priest dude who honestly seemed like he was totally a newb and didn’t entirely know WTF he was doing. Pretty sure he stumbled over his words a few times. Also, do they fucking take Communion at every mass? Cause if so, I didn’t know that, or didn’t remember that, and man dudes, that’s just kinda eating up the Lord Jeebus Christ a little too often, isn’t it? He doesn’t even taste that delicious in wafer form.

I refrained from taking Communion even though I’m baptized because I’m so very not into it and no longer feel the need to pretend. Well, that’s kind of a lie. When I went to Israel recently with my parents and a shit ton of the other parents from their church, I did in fact take Communion, though I only took the wine (or was it grape juice? Whatever…) and not the actual host. But that time it was mostly for the peer pressure reasons that led me to sign up to be baptized and to be remain sexually sacred until marriage back in high school… I was always the last one to do both! So… WHUTEVA! I remember there was one older girl in our church, Tammy, who refrained from doing the True Love Waits bullshit, and for sure, everyone whispered and wondered why she chose to make that decision. Judgmental churchgoers? NEVERRRRRR. I can’t say that I didn’t whisper and wonder because I’m quite sure I did or this wouldn’t even be on my mind or in my memory whatsoever, but… so it goes. It’s a natural repressed curiosity to wonder why someone else wouldn’t make the same ridiculous decision as you!

While we were at church, Rose picked up this book when they were reading a verse from Ezra. She thought it was a Bible but it was not; it was some weird book with hymns but also occasional directives. Not really sure what it was. It certainly did amuse me, though, that the verse from Ezra they chose to display basically just talked about how people should donate money. But… of course…

Afterwards, we went to AVANZAAAAA! I was really excited to go to a Mexican supermarket buuuuuut Avanza (2900 Leavenworth St.) was just alright. Been to better ones, bitchez. But what they DID have was a huge cup of fresh flan, made with milk not cream, and I ate the shit out of that for breakfast. A huge cup of flan for like $2.00, for breakfast? TALK ABOUT HEAVEN! HEAVEN FOR A SUGARY FATASS SUCH AS MYSELF!!!!

Beyond that, we went to explore a few places because we had nothing particularly better to do… Starting with the arboreteum area. We actually found it because we got lost, but whatever. It actually cost money so we didn’t go in and ended up at this mini-park with old Union Pacific trains and such… (Omaha being a middle-of-the-country connection point for original trains; it was just about the only thing near where it was). The trains were KINDA interesting just because I had a recent stint being really interested in trains (they’re such aesthetically-pleasing things)… but that’s about it.

Then I guided us to a random downtown park (where Rose learned that the oldest restaurant in town was a Chinese restaurant, and wanted to go there later on…) but yeah. It was a really nice downtown waterfront park they had, and I did a brief, long-overdue meditation there. It was quite good, quite good.

Alright, I guess I will share a couple of my photos since… they exist… (but that’s the only reason).

Not gonna lie; this dude was pretty cool, and like the praying mantis, this was the closest I’ve ever been to a grasshopper and the first time I’ve ever really had the opportunity to study em! It should also be noted that this motherfucker was fucking huuuuuuuuuuuuge!!

A husk of a man.

Then we headed to that oldest Chinese restaurant Rose had seen. It is called King Fong Café (315 S 16th St) and honestly is apparently quite shitty but the history behind it is KINDA cool… it was one of the first places in the States to import these Chinese lantern things and looks very old-school, even with the restaurant being on the upper floor as opposed to the first floor. I don’t doubt it has history but the food is probably MEHHH, with a and super Americanized menu, but the lady was very nice and let Rose snap a whole buncha photographs even though they were closed for lunch. So that was nice. But the street it was on was this weird ass part of town that reminded me a bit of Seattle’s Pioneer Square, only there was nothing really going on and just a whole bunch of somewhat shady people hiding under somewhat shady trees, waiting for the bus or something. Ohhhh the sketchiness of bus malls.

Instead we went to Panda House (301 S. 16th St), where Rose got crab rangoons, and I can bet this place is way better. They defo had some legit crap on their menu, though none of that was ordered (and we had just missed the lunch specials by 3 minutes or something). Because we dilly-dallied a bit, we got a ticket for an expired parking meter, though. But tickets in Omaha are only $15.00…!!!

Randomly found another park downtown soon thereafter. This shit was really fucking cool. It had the most amazing pioneer bronze sculptures ever, which had apparently just been put in in 2009. The detail on them was INCREDIBLE. Seriously. It seemed like they were real. I wish you could see that the wagons had grains, the tools had bolts, the drapery was amazing… everything was just so godamn rad. Definitely one of the coolest parks I’ve been to ever, and I can totally rant and rave about this place, for suuuure.

So fucking epic.

Afterwards, went back home to meet up with Bill and then headed down south to go to the Mexican neighborhood, which, strangely enough, seemed perhaps one of the hippest parts of Omaha, and it was the place with all the thrift stores and such. It had a SHIT TON of restaurants, some of which are supposedly amazing, but because people wanted cheap margaritas, we ended up at a restaurant that was pretty much not good at all, and of course, I don’t drink margaritas. C’est la vie… (here is a pic of the not-so-amazing food, the boys, and the drinks)

Before we went to the restaurant, though, we did go to this place that sold gardening pots for like, the least amount of money ever… it was seriously kind of incredible how cheap this place was… you could buy huge ass ones – you know, those giant planters – for like $20.00 or something. Surely that place is a front! Apparently there are never workers in there! Anyway, these are total Mario boots!

Our horrible “band” photo…

Gotta buncha snacks from the International Bakery (5106 S 24th St.) afterwards, which is a Mexican bakery. Can’t complain. They had these particular cookies and were really dry, and we all know I love a fucking dry cookie. The drier the better. Which I was joking, but I’m notttttttt at all.

A mural from the Mexican part of Omaha, had you any doubts as to its existence or legitity (not a word, but it should be, maybe…)

That night, we met up with SC dude and went to their venue, The Slowdown (729 North 14th St.) and got a tour of it. I mean, honestly, meeting with dude and going to tour the SC stuff is basically the only reason we stayed in town the extra evening, so it is great that it actually lived up to expectations (not that I had any, really, but Rose did) and it was easily the coolest part of our Omaha experience, just cause Slowdown is such a cool space; they really, really put a lot of thought into it and you can tell that from just looking at their setup, their weekly specials, etc. There is, apparently, like a giant 20-foot television; they have room separators so they can cater to large or small shows; the green room is fucking huge and amazing, and with showers; they have beer specials when they don’t have shows that are like $2.00 for anything – domestic or international – that’s on tap, and they have shit like Newcastle on tap, lucky me; etc. etc. The place is just super solid, and visually looks appealing in that typical black-walled venue kinda way. And it’s all-ages, and I guess most good shows that come through town go through there (as they are one of perhaps two venues).

From here I will show Rose’s pics, as I didn’t take any… also learned some more about Nebraskans and football from Jason, which was no doubt interesting… he was talking about how he was in fact super into football when he was going to school in Lincoln, and that the seats there are teeny tiny and are on benches that are marked with spaces (as opposed to being individual seats), and that, as a result, if you have a fat person on either side of you (which, judging from a lot of what I saw of Nebraska, is wholly possible), there’s a good chance that you’d be standing for an entire game because you literally cannot sit. So that’s funny. Anyway. Pics.

[ABOVE] Inside their offices; [BELOW] Jason has a creepy clown thing on his door… it is pretty downright creepy…

Inside their record store… dude, that chair is seriously the most amazing fucking find. You can’t see all of the details, but it has like, a wooden tree trunk base, and is made of upholstered brown leather with tartan patterning? WHAT THE FUCK; IT’S SO COOL! Evidently Omaha is a bedrock of amazing vintage finds, because no one really gives a shit and there is so much of it. I promised I wouldn’t let out the secret. I think I just did…

But yeah, it was pretty cool to see their warehouse and attached store. Rose was like, “Why is there no dedication or commemoration to Conor Oberst in Omaha?!!!” and that’s a funny thought, in general. The closest thing was this wall in the SC record store that had a bunch of old tickets and memorabilia tacked up from the early days of Bright Eyes and other SC bands. I dunno. Amusing…

Anyway, that’s it. Beyond that, I went to bed after doing some work; Rose went out and had a night out on the town with a boy. Snore! Snarf!!

(Side note: I am about to order what I think is an eggplant parmigiana sandwich from that place I said is amazing and I am totally stoked. And jealous that owner speaks Italian and Spanish fluently and owns such a cool place. I am also in major recipe-development mode and have been coming up with some ideas for things… and started practicing yesterday… so when I go home I am just going to be an insane baking fool! Imagine Chinese ingredients mixed with Latin American ingredients – that will about sum up what I’m going for…!!!!! STOKED!!!)

i am probably the least paranoid person ever…

… but i just slightly spooked. i was walking home from northside festival in brooklyn, to the lower east side of manhattan, around 12:30am. it wasn’t even that late, and there was plenty of thru-traffic. buuuut.

the williamsburg bridge splits into two parts about halfway through: one side for pedestrians and one side for bikers. towards the williamsburg end, the two lanes merge right now because of construction. i am walking in this section, ever slowly… and people are biking by in great number, generally ignoring me. some pay attention, though, in the form of one kissy face, complete with smacking sounds, and a couple who look me up and down. generally no big deal. then comes this dude. black dyed hair. gothic. scraggly. older. boombox attached to the front of his bicycle (??).

dude bikes by from the opposite direction, eyeballing me all the while. i see him slowing down as he is passing me, so i half-turn to see what he does. he flips around then gets off his bike. i see him look up and down the bike lane to see if anyone else is coming. there is another biker coming, but pretty far off in the distance. it just so happens we are in the section of the bridge where the pedestrian and biker lanes split once again. he gets off his bike and sits at the entrance of the pedestrian area, looking as though he is waiting for me. i mean. it’s kind of really obvious. i mean, EVERY move he’s made ever since he initially passed by me was really obvious, even though he probably thinks quite the opposite. he smells like alcohol; i smelled it as soon as he started heading towards the pedestrian area.

he lets two people pass; they don’t know each other but are walking extremely closely together. there are no other pedestrians for as far as the eye can see, and the eye can see pretty far at this point. i realize that if i am to now go down the pedestrian path, it could easily be just me and him for another mile. there is a great gap separating the bike and pedestrian paths, and most likely, no one in the bike lane would notice if anything were to happen anyway.

after the pedestrians pass, he puts on GLOVES. i don’t know what the hell that even means, but that may be the most chilling detail of all. all the while, i’m waiting in the bike lane to see what he does. i say aloud, “what are you doing??” to no one in particular, as i watch him from behind a grating.

finally, he comes to me while half-riding his bike, eyeballing me up and down again. he says, “no bike? no skates?” in an almost mocking, sneering manner. i say no. i then ask him why he is waiting for me, and he said that his friend was following him and he is merely waiting for his friend. i don’t believe him for a bloody second.

and i think this next action probably blew his mind, but i decided to defy all the “rules” and walk down the bike lane. he did not follow. i studied the face of every future biker to pass; i am quite certain none of them were his friends.

narrowly avoided catastrophe.

like i said…
i’m probably the least paranoid person ever…
but something was absolutely definitely 100% amiss there.
dee-sss-gusss-teeng.

bury me in the folds of your arm.

the intention’s the important part.
we’re dawdling in it, and what is this moment telling us?
plan less.
and life live’s better.

i have this obsessive quality about myself, which i generally find is fine, other than when it comes to food. that is — the desire to do all things, always. it’s fine… mostly… when it comes to life… and only occasionally doesn’t work out. but when it comes to eating and pre-planning meals… man, i’m really trying to kick this habit.

i’m in new york right now, sitting in the kitchen of jeanette’s apartment. she is lying in bed, reading a book. we walked around a lot today. we walked around a lot yesterday. i walked a shit ton the day before. lots of walking.

i think that my month of september will be dedicated to jetblue’s all you can jet pass; my month of october will be dedicated to living in new york. jeanette said most likely i can split her apartment rent with her for a month, and that sounds ever-so-appealing. i want to explore endlessly this land of endless exploration. had this been any other time of year — rather than limited lovely summer — i would be in new york for longer during this trip. i like it so much… there’s so much to do, so much to see, new smells, new people. i walked three miles from downtown manhattan to the upperwest side (or something) and swear that i passed every type of person along the way; it just is that new york contains everything, for everyone, and it’s remarkable.

the redefine showcase at northside went fine. it went about as well as one might imagine that a show at a non-centralized venue, with one week of promotion, would do. it was quite fine. not the best, but fine enough.

i am at peace, anyway, and it’s time to move onto other projects, based on the west coast… along with other things.

i love returning to an area which i have spent some time but not a TON… and having attached memories that i can weave together like puzzles. occasionally i’ll still find places in portland which i finally realize the location of, and then am able to complete a map in my memories… in new york, jeanette lives down the street from the mercury lounge, and she lives a block away from a restaurant that aaron ate a meal at, a street away from a park we walked around in. it’s just fun, being able to have “homes” in other places, which is kind of my reasoning for creating this nomad’s local haunts section on my blog. aaaaahh… good times…!

and tomorrow morning! gospel church! hallelujah!

we will intend to be to one another, wonderful things.
intention.

a year in facebook status updates – 2009.

January

does believe people should go to the new and improved http://www.redefinemag.com

done did got her laptop infected by a virus. ~__~ BSOD FTL.

February

got a web facelift: http://www.redefinemag.com — and a new arts blog: http://www.redefinemag.com/arts/

is going to be in Los Angeles tomorrow, until the 17th! Holla!

is wondering if anyone would like to go to Peru with her in late March / early April for a couple weeks?

March

is wondering if anyone knows anyone trustworthy who needs a room to stay in for SxSW?

is going to Peru, April 1st through April 23rd. Confirmed, son.

is wondering if anyone else noticed Facebook looks different! Rounded profile pictures, omg!! Bigger fonts!!!!

thinks the Indian holiday, Holi, is AWESOME. ^__^

is pretty sure SxSW is the best shit ever.

cannot WAITTTTT to get back to Seattle where allergies are more or less tolerable and not complete complete death action.

… did I say I couldn’t wait to get back to Seattle? Well, I don’t want to be in Austin, but I don’t want to be here, either. RESPONSIBILITIES. BLACHHH.

It’s funny when you have a sudden epitome on a way to fix something that is obviously wrong, with so obvious an answer it’s ridiculous. Naw mean?

Today I hung out with a 23 year old Australian dude I met at SxSW and an 18 year old super mature and smart (and classically very good looking) British lad. I rarely ever meet and get to know English-speaking foreigners while living in the States. It’s in…

Feeleth so dehydrated…

is headed to Seattle’s Green Festival… for anyone who wants to go tomorrow, if you go to PCC and buy some shit, you get a free ticket ($15 value).

Sometimes you just need a giant 16 ounce cup of cappuccino / hot cocoa mix from — no, not the coffee shop down the street — 7/11. Hail. Yeah. Son. Sure, you’ll regret it later as you are shaking with its sugary nastiness, but the first half hour or so o…

is headed to Mexico City / Peru in one day and seven hours. Here’s to not pulling a “Tony Cordova”. Not pulling a “Tony Cordova” can be defined as, but are not limited to: 1) not breaking arms while arm wrestling, 2) not getting rings stuck on fingers til…

April

was told that her brother’s house has Oreos for consumption, but the Oreos cannot be seen!!!!

is in the Lima airport, at a Starbucks. Ohhh nooeettthh! They’re seriously everywhere. X:

is in Lima, waiting to go to Trujillo, Peru. Lima is just a city, like every other city, but man, is Peruvian cuisine colorful and exciting. But people here drive like maniacs. It’s super fun to be in a taxi, wondering if you’ll get in a crash, but even i…

is going to Huacas Del Sol Y De La Luna today… and then off to the desert. – http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huacas_del_Sol_y_de_l a_Luna

is wondering about how strange it is that I’ve been here for like… three days… and it feels like an ETERNITY somehow. It’s fucking bizarre.

is thinking about how a girl on my flight from Seattle to SF five days ago finished off our 2 hour conversation with one another by telling me that I have “really nice hands” and that she has an “obsession with hands and necks.”

has photos online at http://picasaweb.google.com/veez0ri

helped another teacher teach some 2nd graders English today. We did one class in Spanish and one class in English, teaching kids things like, “What’s your name?” and “What’s her name?” and the class taught exclusively in English did MUCH better than the c…

$569 roundtrip to Iceland from Seattle this summer. Who wants to go

es muy confundido.

is PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY. K thx. Off to the mountains of Peru this evening for Semana Santa!!! Holy Week!

is just a girl.

has new photos from an awesome weekend in Cajamarca, Peru: http://picasaweb.google.com/veez0ri/042009Cajamarc aPeru#

has just been reminded that holy shit… art is better than pretty much everything. – http://www.redefinemag.com/arts/ – http://1988watcher.blogspot.com/

is wondering who wants to go to Burning Man this year… like, for real. This time.

& Mihae received many a love letter this evening from Peruvian men. Here is a note a hot 17 year old Peruvian waiter wrote us before we left: “Cuando vas muy lejos adonde yo no te puedo ver se que vata (?) o extranarte mucho Vivian te extrano mucho quisie…

is forever in love with “Gorecki” by Lamb. One of the most awesome songs ever.

feels like she just smoked at least five cigarettes due to the plethora of secondhand smoke this evening ~__~

doesn’t like secondhand smoke but residual smoke-in-hair is SO GOOD. So good.

is sad to be leaving Trujillo cause the kids are SO cute. ~__~ Want to come back for longer. How to do so logistically…

is Lima-bound tonight. Hello overnight bus.

says: If you’re riding a bus in Peru, reserve the freaking 1st row of seats on the 2nd floor of the bus. AMAZING view (And “Bruce Almighty” in Spanish is amazing, too.)

is in Cusco, and NOT altitude sick! Yay. Mihae is yet to be determined, however.

Cusco / Cuzco is uncharming, expensive, drab, unexciting, and completely un-Peru-like. Machu Picchu may be great, but this tourist trap mecca definitely is not. Just saying.

is tired after a day of hiking up a 3,500 meter (11,500 feet) above sea level mountain because two Peruvian waiters (we sure like making friends with waiters) told us to. Tiring and hard, with some parts of the “trail” actually being giant ladders we had…

is thinking, WTF, BBQ, LIFE, and using the internet while sitting on the floor of our hostel in Cuzco.

actually heard a stranger fart last night in an alleyway and then SMELLED it. That’s SO wrong.

got a tarot card reading today from a Peruvian jungle man nicknamed Captain Jack, while sitting on a giant rock and stuff.

is in the Lima airport… again. Living in Trujillo was SO cheap, but coming to Cusco and Lima is SO expensive!! BAHH! Sapping money like a motherfucker!!

is leaving Peru tomorrow. Already? Is it over already?! :[

is back in the States after a night of 0 sleep and techno music in Mexico City. Thanks, Franco.

is dying of stomach ache! WTF!

is feeling better. Yay for no Mexican flu

is wondering why people would install shit on my computer. Kinda annoying.

wants it all -- brand new socks and drawls -- and I'm ballin every time I stop and talk to y'all. I want it all, all, all, all.

lied a little. Stomach still hurts. :X And it is not reassuring that one of the people I was hanging out with in Mexico City also has had a stomach ache!!! (But I don't have any other flu symptoms, so I'm not going to die, right?!! RIGHT?!!)

can once again think of a zillion reasons to never live at home.

is wondering if anyone wants to pick her up from the airport at 11:00pm on Tuesday. No? OK.

is going to interview Crystal Antlers tonight at the Crepe Place in Santa Cruz. Bands? At a Crepe Place? We'll see how this goes.

is wondering WHYYYYYY WHYYYY STOMACHE WHYYYYY!

is pretty convinced what burned my stomach was drinking a glass of absinthe (when I never drink) on an empty stomach. Finally took medicine, and now it's all peachy.

is thinking four days or so is about the maximum amount of time to visit the parentals in California without going batshit crazy.

is wondering if anyone is going to Sasquatch, cause I'd actually maybe like to go for once, perhaps.

May

is thinking that looking at high school people's Facebook profiles is some Twilight Zone shit.

wants Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits. SRSLY.

is having her patience tested, z0mg.

reckons there's always a lesson to be learned in experiences that test you, but man, it's hard to glean something super positive from someone's annoying the shit out of you.

is gonna see some dags. Do you like dags?

revolutionized nail-cutting this afternoon. Cut your nails outside; never worry about mess again!!!!!!!!! ZOMG!!!!

gives in to Conor Oberst. I had always written off Bright Eyes as mediocre, but dammit, it's kind of good.

is wondering if anyone wants to go with her to either The Kills / The Horrors' show or The Curious Mystery / Ole Time Relijun's show. Both on Friday and free. Hollar.

is going country line dancing or something tonight. They call it 2-steppin? What? We'll see.

is HOLY FUCK, round-trip tickets from Seattle to NYC for $219 and from Los Angeles to Australia for $646. HOLY FUCK ASS!!!!!

just fell in the mud with my Nikon d40 D-SLR. But dude, smoothing concrete is fun (and the camera is okay).

is now officially only one degree of separation removed from Mike Patton (of Faith No More / Mr. Bungle fame). Wee!

is going to Hammingbell, aka Bellingham, for the day...!

recommends that you go watch The Kills and The Horrors, on tour now. They killed it this evening.

needs to need to not want to need.

loves the VH1 show "Daisy of Love." I'm just a lameass.

sometimes wishes she liked alcohol even a little bit. But alas, no.

is an idiot around boys I have even remote interest in, and I will run away prematurely. But hey, if I don't like you, I will talk to you for fucking hours.

... sometimes you think you know, but then find out what you know ain't shit. But it's nice when that can be said in a positive manner. SON!

spent the night at a bar with a fucking banana in my purse. SON!

eats a little too much hummuses!!!

necesita aprender mas espanol :0

was late for the bus but forgot bus money, had to run back home to grab the bus money, grabbed the bus money, kept it in her hands while running down the hill, lost a quarter of the fare in someone's unkempt lawn (where it was never to be seen again), and...

was called by her mother today, and her mother said to her in Chinese: "Your house is actually pretty clean now! But you live with boys, so make sure you wrap up your pads well when you throw them out while you're on your period." To which I replied (verb...

thinks the problem of being a sucker for pretty writing and pretty words is that, more often than not, that's all it is... pretty words... not pretty actions.

thinks may all die a nuclear death... in 2012.

just interviewed Mike Weiss of mewithoutYou. They have a new disc out: http://www.myspace.com/mewithoutyou

has been trying to install a Ruby on Rails environment on the computer all day. ALL DAY. Lord.

is being FUCKED OVER by Google. Motherfuckers. The Redefine website is inaccessible via Firefox without a warning of "vulnerability", and I fixed the errors, but they're still not removing this warning. PISSED!!

June

is up late, being emo. ~o~

: incentive for waking up earlier... $290 round-trip tickets from Seattle to Madrid, including taxes. *WTF*. Too bad I slept in and it got sold out. :L

is going camping in the Olympic Peninsula until Tuesday. Suckaz!!!

... just saw *the* most amazing dance-off ever at Trinity, by a pair of strangers, to dub-step. INSANE. They were *literally* climbing on the wall, crawling on the floor, and doing the fucking splits. In fact, the chick did the fucking splits on the wall,...

had an awesome weekend playing Rock Band, white trash golf? (testicle toss?), eating yummy catered food, and seeing ScM friends from looong ago. Congrats Pwny & Renae, and thanks! Even the sanest of girls is crazy.

is going to Ashland, Oregon for July 4th to watch Macbeth at the world's most awesomest Shakespeare Festival. Hail yessssss, dawwwwwgggg.

totally kind of believes in astrology crap. Do you?

July

was volunteering at Real Change today and Rosette made a joke about my going to bed at 4AM last night because I was watching Michael Jackson videos. That was untrue. Today, however, I am actually staying up til 4AM watching Michael Jackson videos. ~__~ Li...

thinks it's hilarious that *NOW* the FDA says Tylenol (and Percoset and Vicodin) is bad. - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31671172#3 1671172

inhaled too much nail polish, omg... headache galore.

still can't get over the fact that my parents have Facebook. Can they read this?!!! I have no idea!!!

just had a car trunk closed on her head and it hurt like a motherb!tch. If a giant bruise emerges on my face, I'm going to have to pin domestic violence on some lucky person!!!!

battled four nosebleeds today and won. Then again, if they keep coming back, does that still count as victories? Are they all the same nosebleed coming back to life again or are they four separate nosebleeds?!! HMMM?!!!!!?!!!! And if they're separate nose...

+ sports bra = boy... pretty much.

wonders if you would ever read a magazine in downloadable PDF form???? Check yes or no.

is disturbed by how different raisins in the same pack taste from one another Some are so nasty and mushy I have to spit them out!!

hates going through all the CDs we get for Redefine and really realizing how many bands we simply don't have the resources to give the time of day to. :{

spent the last four hours sorting through CDs. Got a couple discs in the mail that seem fairly exciting for me personally: Volcano Choir (JagJaguwar), OKie Dokie (Aagoo), Forks And Knives (Self-Released) and INF (Beats Broke)... WOOHOO!!!!!

is putzing around Portland for the day... what to do, what to do, other than talking to random crazy awesome strangers...

pretty much loves Portland. Seattle's still more beautiful, though. But Portland's more fun.

told Kyle that my house is really super empty because Chris moved out all his furniture. Kyle told me to try doing cartwheels now that I have space. I've been trying to do them... and I'm not going to give up til I actually do a legit one... but what's pa...

It's a bitch convincing people to like you/ If I stop now call me a quitter/ If lies were cats you'd be a litter/ Pleasing everyone isn't like you/ Dancing jigs until I'm crippled/ Slug ten drinks I won't get pickled!.../ Oh I could throw you in the lake/

fucking loves cherries! WHY OH WHY MUST I BE ALLERGIC! WHY!!!

is going to sleep at 4:30am and waking up at 9:00am. WOOOOO!

thinks is unfair that Block Party is this weekend in Seattle (still haven't been!) for a zillion dollars and PDX Pop Now is a free event this weekend. Pish, posh, poosh.

thinks it's kinda sorta fun to live without: a microwave, a television, a bed frame... a clue. Just me, music, hardwood floors, dreams, and a zillion dust bunnies are ADEQUATE!

had a freaking amazing day doing the "Talk To Us" thing in downtown Seattle (imagine Christian women's conference meets Narcotics Anonymous crowd meets Torchlight Parade participants), choosing from 60 FREE CAKES in Seattle Center, high-fiving marathon ru...

... when all the furniture goes away, all the spiders come out to play :/ including the hobos the size of your palm. WOO! This is when sleeping on the floor not so good.

... [stolen from someone else cause social experiments rule.] This is a Facebook Experiment. If you are reading this, even if we don’t speak often, post a comment with a memory of you and I. When you’ve finished, post this paragraph into your own status u…

HOW IS IT 105 DEGREES IN SEATTLE? THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

… damn you, bleeding from the nether regions! I wanted to go swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wonders if anyone knows of good electro/disco-type bands in the Portland and Seattle area??

August

had a memorable dream for the first time in a long time… kid ghosts, kid ghosts, kid ghosts… so plentiful in number they were flying and practically overlapping with each other in my vision. plus feelings of being insane.

enjoys the sleeping positions of the two cats I’m cat/house-sitting… teehehehe! Their names are George and Bert (because of resemblance to a Muppet)… but strangely, they’re both female. (Crazy cat lady in the making?!!…)

is going to hit up the $7-haircut-run-out-of-a-house place I’ve been wanting to try for almost a year now! Wish me lux.

“Your skin is something that I stir into my tea/ And I am watching you/ And you are starry, starry, starry…”

… me: going to tillamook today, never been / rachel: huh / me: what could possibly be confusing about that statement lol! / rachel: cheese / me: yes / rachel: holy shit, didnt know that was possible

is loving the new Portugal. The Man disc, The Satanic Satanist. More falsetto + blues/funk? Sweeeet. – Free MP3 here (not the best song on the disc, though, but whatever): http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/278763095/Pe ople%2BSay.mp3

… “Lovers loving love just like these lovers are loving in love.” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv3z8m1qbOQ

had a fantastical evening with Miss XL consisting of (but not limited to): getting lost in a maze of freeways, taking the LONGEST freeway detour EVER, being hit on by a guy using the classic, “Are you hot wearing that jacket? I mean, you’re HOT, but are you hot?” line, and laughing our asses off when a whole crowd of ridiculous clubbers got, “Low low low low,” in unison because “Apple Bottom Jeans” told them to.

is so very jaded by traditional Christian weddings… receptions rule, though. Fo’ realz.

is officially REALLY bad at frisbee golf. Really good at living off of snack foods, though.

… “A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one can talk to a horse, of course, that is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.”

should give lessons on being a nomad. August / September / first half of October = PDX -> SEA -> PDX -> SEA -> LA -> NEVADA -> SO-CAL -> PDX -> SEA -> SF -> ????. All rent free. Jea.

… new nomad schedule for Aug-Oct 2009: Portland > Seattle > Los Angeles > Black Rock City, Nevada > Long Beach > Austin > Orlando > Seattle > Portland (MusicFestNW) > Chicago (La Dispute!!) > Detroit (:D) > Chicago > New Orleans (:D) > Pittsburgh > Seattle > San Francisco (Fever Ray/Castro St. Parade!) > New York > New Jersey > New York > Montreal > New York > Seattle…! (Settling down in Nov? Mayhaps. TIPS??)

… despite making films that would lead one to believe the contrary, David Lynch IS in fact Captain Obvious. Gems include, “And I thought to myself that in California, people wear sweaters! So it must sometimes be cool at night or something, because it was kind of a night-time thing, I imagined. And I thought, ‘What a great climate, that it’s warm in the day, and cool in the night — cool enough to wear a sweater!”

… 1) does anyone know if you need to take a GRE to get a Master’s in Social Work?… 2) does anyone know why I keep freaking getting Charlie Horses in my sleep? CHARLIE HORSES *SUCK*!!!

… emo emo emo mo mom oomaoo.

is gonna interview Theo Ellsworth in a hot sec. Awesome. – http://theoellsworth.blogspot.com

presents… a cross-section of Dutch words cuz Dutch is awesome/impossible … afschuwelijk = horrible, beschonken = drunk, droogtrommel = tumble drier, eigenaardig = peculiar, hulpvaardig = helpful, loopjongen = errand boy, natuurwetenschappelijk = natural phenomenon, ooghaar = eyelash, prijzenswaardig = commendable, raaskallen = talk nonsense, schurkenstreek = roguery, verachtelijk = despicable, zaniken = bother

… all of this past month’s Redefine updates in one handy ol’ August 2009 newsletter: http://www.redefinemag.com/newsletters/2009-08-new s.html (you can sign up for future similar updates in the right-hand column of http://www.redefinemag.com)!… … duude. Redefine life is doing good. It is, it is. A horse is a horse, of course, of course.

is pretty godamn satisfied. Bitches. And you need to listen to Leftover Cuties. – http://www.myspace.com/leftovercuties

… I know I just had a conversation recently about how band/musician names really shouldn’t play a role in determining how good he/she/they are, but man, Mac McAnally’s name is pretty funny.

is wondering if anyone in the Seattle / Portland / Los Angeles areas have crazy, super HOT desert weather clothes that they don’t need anymore that they want to give me to wear / demolish / never return (?)

wonders how many of the neighbors can hear me singing my ass off through the open windows. Hahahahahahahahaa.

wonders where I should go from Austin… Boston, Raleigh, Charlotte, Portland (Maine), Fort Lauderdale, Orlando…?? Decisions, decisions. VOTES?

is wondering if anyone in LA has a shitty bike he/she wants to sell/lend me? EH?????

has too much to do and therefore wants to do *nothing*…

… dude, coffee-drinking today has been CRAZY and has kind of sent me into this world where if I sit still for a hot sec I’m reeling into the unknown folds of the universe. Seriously.

is friggin pissed. Got a virus trying to download Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. Virus rendered Internet unusable. Now, while trying to clear space on my hard drive to back up data, guess what I find? Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. Godammit.

is watching a documentary on noise music called “People Who Make Noise”, and the cats are definitely freaking out in parts.

hates iTunes. I formatted my iPod Touch when my iTunes was set on shuffle and now my songs will only play on shuffle. Anyone know how to fix short of reformatting again?

September

is back in the real world (as real as Los Angeles is, anyway). Hello dry skin and straw hair.

is Austin and San Antonio-bound tomorrow, September 10th, through Monday, September 14th. Holla, Texans! And recommendations, por favor!!!!!

… funny press release of the day: “Name Your Tune is an exciting new children’s music compilation that is made-to-order and personalized for each child. Children will hear their name more than 80 times throughout 14 much-loved songs, such as If You’re Happy And You Know It (becomes If You’re Paul And You Know It) and Old MacDonald Had A Farm (becomes Little Ringo Had A Farm.)”

… guy’s name at the Long Beach Airport (the weirdest airport I’ve ever been to, BTW): Rohan McGee. AWESOME!!!

… one of my new favorite names for a city: Gay Hill, Texas!

equals not impressed by TexMex. TexMex is kinda sick. I’ll take Mex over TexMex every day of the week.

… dude, there’s a PLEASANTON in Texas!!!!!!!!!!!! 30 miles or so from San Antonio!!!!

passed a 5-mile stretch of highway in Houston today in which like, every American chain store had a branch. It was both amazing and disgusting! I’d begun to think that for sure every chain store had already shown up, but new ones kept popping up! Bed Bath And Beyond was like, “Don’t forget about me!”, Kohl’s was like, “I wanna play, too!”, and Panda Express was like, “Eat me!”

… three-hour-long+ adventure on Los Angeles Metro, here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

… actual synopsis for the film “Hood Of Horror”: “The Ghetto can be a scary place. And thanks to Snoop Dogg, it’s about to get even scarier. Snoop brings us three tales of terror from the hood featuring Billy Dee Williams, Method Man, and Jason Alexander. They’ll scare the shizzle out of you.”

loooooves eavesdropping on non-English-speaking humans (that I can understand, obviously)… cause sometimes you get real gems cause people think no one around can understand them!

… funny press release of the day: “Megan Fox is hot. She’s everywhere. And those short shorts and tank top and the black leather motorcycle costume she wore in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are available for all to buy.”

… awesome press quote I just saw on some taxi in Chicago about some theatre show: “Like Cirque du Soleil, but with horses.” — WTF!

… two assholes, at two shows, two days in a row. One racist in Detroit who said the Asian Yale girl who got murdered and stuffed in the wall begged her murderer, “Please no keel me; I sucky sucky for free,” (seriously??) and another dumbass who told Micachu And The Shapes that their music wasn’t music and that he “didn’t pay to have my ears pissed in.” Why so angry, Chicagoans and Detroiters?!!

self-loathes with a vengeance this evening, and to top it off, my electronics keep committing suicide, too. UGH.

… yet another low: MySpace Music is now brought to you by McDonald’s. WTF?

was thinking it was too early to sleep because my computer clock says 11:45pm, Pacific Time. Realization: I’m on the east coast. Dammit.

… MOTHAFUCKIN THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES IN DC, BEEYOTCH!

is so frustrated with myself!!! The airport security workers were totally being a dick to this Spanish-speaking lady and I wanted to stand in and translate, but I kept asking the security worker what she needed to do and he kept ignoring me, so I just stood down. It was so sad! They just wheeled her off in her little wheelchair and she was like, “No comprendo!” and had no idea what was going on :{

October

… Sondre Lerche twittering about Redefine? Awesome!

thinks it’s funny when people (*ahem, Sherry*) get all worked up over sports on TV.

… TONIGHT: Fever Ray in SF!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!

… who wants to make me a cupcake costume for Halloweenie!?

… anyone have experience with podcasting and can chat with me about it?

… funny press release of the day: “Dell [has] partnered with Major League Baseball to offer fans across the nation opportunities to bring their team spirit to their PC. Dell Design Studio offers designs for all 30 MLB teams in three customized levels – Fan, Classic and Die-Hard.”

is gonna be in New York City until the 13th, Montreal until the 17th or 18th, New Jersey until the 24th. Let’s meet up!?

is pissed! Of all the freaking delicious places to eat in NY I somehow settled on a place with THE WORST godamn eggplant parmesan sandwiches ever!! How could an eggplant parmesan sandwich possibly be this disgusting? AND it’s expensive. I’m craving one from Romio’s now. Ugh.

wishes bugs didn’t like biting me so much!! AAHHHHHHH. Three bug bites on the face… mostly no big deal, except for the one around my eye that makes me look like I got punched in the face

wants to eat something warm and hot, but I don’t have any Canadian money left except for $1.11, and I’m leaving tomorrow! I can’t even buy something from McDonald’s here with that! Much less the poutine next door.

being in the Northeast during the fall might be one of the best things ever… so beautiful, aaaah.

… my 16-year-old cousin doesn’t have ANY idea what Schindler’s List is. That’s almost as scary as Lingo’s nephew {?} not knowing who Michael Jordan is. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Social networking does a REDEFINE body good.

… explaining non-meat-eating to 85-year-old Chinese grandpa = impossible. Meat sickness impending. Not to mention they were pork buns, which I hated even when I did eat meat regularly!! ~__x

… wowowow Spaceland venue in Los Angeles!!! Taking word-for-word my article on Nurses for use in their promotional mailer: “By blending everything together in a way that turns layers of instrumentation, samples, and loops into structured tracks, Nurses create underlying backgrounds which teem with life and create a visual musical experience.” FUCKFACES. Where’s the credit!?

is geeking out on music so hard. Amusing finds for the evening: Terrible Records – Ghosts (http://terriblerecordsus.com/blog/wp-content/uplo ads/2009/10/ghosts.mp3), Yura Yura Teikoku – Dekinai (http://girlieaction.com/yurayura/sounds/Dekinai.mp3), Pylon – Beep (http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=down load&ufid=C646D21D51E64387), and finally… this really rad Nesey Gallons album, Eyes & Eyes & Eyes Ago! Yay!

is thinking, in this day and age where music videos are better than ever, why don’t VH1/MTV actually show music videos???????? Certainly they would hold someone’s attention…

just turned in my absentee ballot today, and I actually looked up all the candidates, but I feel like they’re all just about the goshdarn same. They all care about the environment and safety… blahblahblah. So I just went with whatever person seemed like he/she liked public transportation and homeless people the most. Ha!

November

… The Norwegian word “Røyksopp” means puffball fungus (lit. “(a) smoke mushroom”)… now you know!!!!!!!

… ever get those moments where you’re so insanely idiotic that you can scarcely believe yourself? They’re kind of special.

… funny press release of the day: “The Beatles cover [of] “I’m Only Sleeping” was recorded the day “The Beatles: Rock Band” game was released in protest of the idea of great musicians wasting time playing games about making music instead of actually making music.” – AEONs

… “I did not stir, and presently I began to breathe with the dispassionate rhythm of sleep. He listened, that was certain. I listened to his listening. He listened to my listening to his listening. Something snapped. I noticed that I was not thinking at all of what I thought I was thinking; attempted to catch my consciousness tripping, but got mazed myself. ” – Vladimir Nabokov, Despair. <3 <3 <3

… s o m e t i m e s l i f e i s r e a l l y r e a l l y a w e s o m e a n d i t f e e l s a m a z i n g . i feel like i'm onto something.

… loudly listening to music on Mihae Jung's $700 speakers = kinda better than going outside.

… so glad I don't work for a corporation… some corporate politics are truly ridiculous.

… "And we were laughing at the stars while our feet clung tight to the ground. So pleased with ourselves for using so many verbs and nouns. But we were all still just dumb, dumb, dumber than the dirt, dirt, dirt on the ground."

… "My grandfather used to say: 'Life is astonishingly short. When I look back now it is all so condensed in my memory that I can hardly understand, for example, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village, without his being afraid — quite apart from unfortunate accidents — that the whole span of a normal happy life is far from being adequate for such a ride.'" – Franz Kafka (The Next Village)

… three hours in Korea, and already I've been kidnapped and forced to drink beer and chat in broken Korean with two older Korean men (with the pimply-faced one stroking my back / laughing creepily and the other one — although hilarious and drunk as hell — calling me his wife and saying that Xinlei and I would be his friends forever); thank JEEBUS for being rescued by Xtra Large. <3 <3 <3

… mmmm, dreams about Joseph Gordon-Levitt…!!

… day two in Korea consistethed of going to seven different convenience stores to acquire seven types of banana milk and then taste-testing them one after the other. You'd be surprised at the array of flavors. The one with Bart Simpson sucking on a banana and having crazy eyes that looked like spirals was the winner.

… Portland's YACHT (http://www.myspace.com/yacht) and White Rainbow (http://www.myspace.com/whiterainbowwhiterainbow) are in Korea = free comped tickets for Friday night's show ($30 each!). Dunno if I actually like them, but it's not just a concert; it's a concert plus a DJ set by YACHT which goes until 5:00am. UMMMMMMMMMMM, AMAZING? 350 people confirmed on Facebook so far. S T O K E D!

… YACHT = awesome live show.

… I think I've done it. I think I've made myself sick of banana milk. THIS CAN'T BE!!!!!!???

… 2012 = worst movie ever……………… two hours of sheer and utter pain.

got rescued by the cops today. They pushed my car to the Honda dealership. Two of them plus one civilian. Hell yeah.

December

… cars are a pain in the snarse.

… breakfast! It’s what’s for dinner!

… the problem with always making faces or doing weird shit while taking photos is that when you actually need a professional-ish photo for business purposes, there are zero. Zilch. None. Nada. The closest to a passable photo might even be one you took with a Macaw bird on your shoulder. BLARGH!

= dry cereal addict. NOM NOM NOM. (so much better than wet cereal.)

… what’s an awesome name you think needs to be used more often? My vote: WYATT.

… Iceland/Europe in spring, anyone? Round-trip airfare from Seattle for $474…………. including taxes…….?

can’t sleep worth shiet.

is doing a post on Album Covers Of The Year!! Have any favorites from this year?? Anything blow you away?? Share

gets to eat lunch at Google today, heck yeah!!!!!!!! Free fooood come to meeeeeee!

… dude, remember Tomodachis?? And Furbys? Scary the random things you remember…….!

… REGIFTING RULE #1: Remove that sweetly-worded card that’s addressed to you. (Saving mother from embarrassment since 1983.)

… dude, did all of my tape singles get thrown out?!!!!! THERE WERE LIKE A HUNDRED OF THEM!!! Goodbye, childhood memories! You left without saying goodbye!

… 46 rad album covers from 2009! This is the most fun I’ve had writing an article in a while. Enjoy! (PS, Duran Duran is awesommmmmme.) – http://www.redefinemag.com/music/reviews_cover_2.php?artist=46-Fantastic-Album-Covers-From-2009,-Part-One&id=1379

recap central: new orleans, louisiana.

wednesday, september 30th, 2009
headed over to new orleans from washington dc, with a stopover in new york. arrived around dinner time and overheard a hilarious conversation (see here). then got picked up by my couchsurfing host, daryl, and we went rock climbing indoors! it was $10 for like four hours of all-you-can-climb rock climbing. i will admit that it was harder than i initially thought it would be, for sure. i didn’t feel like i was too weak to do it, but the finger dexterity was for sure lacking. but it was somewhere between fun and non-fun, i guess. but yeah, there was a group of people he knew there, and like we got there and i vaguely introduced myself and literally a couple of the people just stared at me. it was kinda fucking weird.

{funny! i’m at this coffee shop in new york’s bushwick neighborhood, and they just started playing this really super epic orchestral music and everyone in the coffee shop is being put on edge, because it was originally this really quiet ambient stuff and now it’s all up in your face, haha. it’s like going through my headphones. funny.}

anyway, went to meet up with daryl’s friends at some coffee shop where they were playing some card game. i’m all for games, but they were quintessential nerds in every sense of the word. like, comic book guy from simpsons style. which is fine. it was funny, though. they were nice enough — well, one of them was. i didn’t care for the other two, really. they were babbling on about nonsense, too, and it wasn’t even funny nonsense, it was just like, “you’re kind of crazy” nonsense, and i happen to like crazy people.

head back after walking around a bit. another couchsurfer chick from france (pictured) was staying there too. daryl definitely had a grudge against her because she is the kind of couchsurfer that kind of stays in a place but doesn’t really wanna hang out with the host, and he’s the complete opposite and pretty much wants to spend tons of time together. that usually isn’t my style, either, but i ended up seeing some pretty cool stuff because of it. but yeah, french couchsurfer chick was funny because she used to work at mcdonald’s in france and she’d been in the states for like, three weeks (or was it three months?) and pretty much ate mcdonald’s EVERY MEAL which is fucking ridiculous, but she said she was doing it to assimilate to american culture, which is even MORE ridiculous.

talked to one of daryl’s roommates for a bit, and she was cool… one of the other roommates had the chillest fucking dog ever! it was like a cat! you could do whatever the hell you wanted to it and it wouldn’t bark or anything. AND it was really cute. jealous, jealous.

thursday, october 1st, 2009

woke up kinda late and went to eat gumbo at this place called coop’s, after dropping off french couchsurfer chick!

daryl! i have to mention that daryl’s house had this message that said basically that you could walk around naked in the space if you wanted to. that being said, he was never naked, and i think it was just so people who wanted to be naked could feel comfortable, but at first i found it kinda weird and later i was like, ah well, probably because he didn’t actually get more naked than underpants.

cool horsehead statue — broken!

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. in the downtown area.

i love old shit. therefore, i love new orleans. seriously, though, new orleans rules. it’s as foreign country as you’ll get in the united states, i feel like. granted there are some section of the u.s. i haven’t been to yet… but still.

street performer (who gave me a business card — going out of character — and wanted me to send him pics that i took… i still need to do that).

go to the farmer’s market and i snatched myself a harmonica, along with some really cool feathery masks that were only like $2 each or something sold by chinese people, of course. they’re always pawning the ridiculous warez.

didn’t even know beads came in so many styles.

who doesn’t want to pull tissue papers out of mr. bean’s ass?

these arent’ the masks i bought, but mine weren’t bad. i noticed after taking these photos that there was a huge sign saying, NO PHOTOS! oops.

need to go to an atm though, and visit an artisan market along the way.

come on, even the grating looks neat.

get driven through a neighborhood called bywater, where some artist has taken it upon himself (i think his name is bob) to name the place “bobwater”. haha. his art and reminders of his art are all over the place. rule.

new orleans = textural old time heaven. i would like to go back, for sure.

went to a store in bobwater and i really fucking wanted this ceramic sculpture. it made me sooo happy. saint with babies for clothes? I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT! unfortunately, it was like $30, and i was pretty sure i’d destroy the shit out of it, so i didn’t get to bring it back. but it was soooo awesome. :{

more cool stuff at the heavily mexican-influenced store.

i was kinda in love with this shit… wanted to take home like, all of it.

daryl with mask. this store was a LITTLE too fun.

old school baby stroller of death. doesn’t that look soooo uncomfortable?

best collection of fucking foods, ever!1!

head on over to the lower 9th ward shortly thereafter. these photos below are from a house that has essentially been left unchanged since the hurricane. it’s pretty insane that four years later so much of this shit is still in shambles. the government, i guess, asked people to board up and strip their own houses, but for people who just left and didn’t do it, sometimes no one did it. i think the reasoning is that it’s a bit of a hazard — which i completely believe, because we were in this house for like less than five minutes and i got fucking COVERED with mosquito bites.

not much was moldy other than this particular painting, it seemed.

that on the floor was mud. it was about an inch thick, i wanna say. daryl said his house had like 3-4 inches of mud on the ground. what’s surprising is that the 9th ward got a really low amount of water compared to many other parts of the city… the thing is just that the lower 9th ward was poorer, so there was less chance of people rebuilding than in other parts. like where daryl lived was a bit better off, i guess, so probably like 70% of the houses there were rebuilt (others were like boarded up and left alone). in the lower 9th ward, most of the houses were pretty much still shit or completely stripped and unlivable.

also in the lower 9th ward: new houses brad pitt is building. this one is just hilarious. most of them are modern in design but none of them really looked like this other than this one, haha. some of them were already completed and people were already living in them. the houses were built on super high stilts so that if it flooded again they’d generally be mostly okay. they also had like styrofoam walls and were super light.

fema dog house! how’s that for social commentary!

this is a sign around this gas station we stopped by shortly thereafter. the gas station owner showed a pic which showed how high the water was… it was completely over the top of the gas station. fucking CRAZY.

a whole strip mall full of stores that are like WTF now.

went to lincoln beach shortly thereafter, which is a former beach that isn’t really used now other than by graffiti people, it feels like. this here is what used to be locker rooms — the walls were these pretty brittle tiles, and remnants of those tiles are pretty much everywhere on the ground.

reminds me of the albany bulb in albany, california. i still need to write a blog post about the albany bulb, shit!!!

locker rooms!

that night, met up with dominique who runs blue lace, a music publication thing based in new orleans. wandered around a while. came across this funny headline. went to this “dad” outdoor concert for a bit and then tried to see what other shows were going on but nothing much really.

people are all bout brad pitt for mayor. this was in a local weekly thing.

went onto frenchman street — where there was supposed to be jazz, but there wasn’t this evening. ah, well. bummer. next time. we ate at a restaurant called 13 where they had tater tot nachos — i forget the name but it was a cute name. and it was REALLY delicious. i think they were called tater-tachos?

funny sammich.

a banksy piece, preserved under plexiglass, cuz new orleans has this guy who has been dubbed the gray ghost, and he goes around covering up graffiti everywhere with gray rollers.

we went along the river walk after that, which was alright, same as any.

popcorn that night. see the cob? the popcorn was just an entire dehydrated cob that you put in a paper bag and it all pops. haha. it cost more than a traditional bag of popcorn, but one would think it costs less to make (asides from the organic crappity crap crap).

daryl kinda gave me a guilt trip for wanting to go to bed after all this, but whatever. i was done exploring.

friday, october 2nd, 2009

went to bourbon street in the morning, and got some yummy croissant. it was weird, though, absolutely nothing going on there in the daytime. i didn’t happen to go at nighttime. it’s whatevers. i don’t party anyway. i’m an old lady. was gonna go see “zombieland” with dominique if she went but she ended up not going. ah, well.

also had the most hilarious mocha i’ve ever gotten in my life. i asked for a small and it was literally in one of those teeny tiny styrofoam cups. like, wtf! it was really, really GROSS, too.

so bz.

even with like zero plans stuff is too busy to write journal entries! how annoying! i’ve been in new york like two and a half days, and i’ve taken like, ten photos. MAX. hahahaha. nothing to take photos of!! no huge amount of dilapidation as found in detroit and baltimore and houston that i love so much!!!! been spending most of my time in manhattan, though, and that’s probably the problem. brooklyn tonight. tomorrow, the world.

east coast time.

i’m listening to… andy combs and the moth – www.myspace.com/andycombsandthemoth

every time i’m on the godamn east coast, i realize i hate being on the godamn east coast!!!! see right now for instance. it’s a fairly reasonable hour, at 6:50am, but it’s so unreasonable because there’s barely anyone i know who’s awake!!! it’s only 3:50am on my clock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMME… YOU’VE GOT MEEEE RUNNNIIIIIIIIIING!

time to start going backwards in time and writing about some other journals… alas, battery is dying. again, i reiterate: fuck you, jfk airport.

once this battery dies, i will resume the hunt of looking for an outlet. in the event that i fail, i will have to resort to one of the following things: (1) reading bret easton ellis’ “lunar park”; (2) writing back to my prison penpals; (3) deciding if i want to hang out on the subway in rush hour… likely not; (4) wishing someone, anyone was awake to talk to me in my miserable east coast time-ness!!!!, (5) attempting to sleep on these uncomfortable airport benches.

give me some godamn outlets, JFK airport!

so i’m hanging at the mothafuckin jfk airport because i need to head to my hostel, but it’s currently 6:41am, and do i really want to head out right now, at the peak of rush hour? the answer is no. that being said, the mothafuckin jfk airport thinks that outlets are an unnecessary thing to invest in, so there are LITERALLY like no power plugs ANYWHERE. it’s fecking ridiculous! who would create such a busy airport with no godamn power plugs?! luckily, this computer lenny‘s let me borrow has a longer battery life than my piece of shit laptop (which is hanging out by itself at lenny’s house) and i have a decent amount of time. nonetheless. it’s just ridonkulous. eff you jfk. eff you.

in other news, i slept on the whole flight, pretty much, and the lady next to me practically had to shake me to wake me up when the flight actually got in and was landing. oOps.

in other news, brock! was on my plane! totally random! he was on my plane after three weeks of partying in seattle, i guess, post coming back from fishing in alaska! crazy random! didn’t think i’d actually get a chance to talk to him cuz i kept missing him somehow, but i think he was waiting for me after our flight landed, which is nice.

word.

next things to do on the agenda:
- brush teeth.
- figure out how to get to hostel.

well, i already figured it out, actually. just trying to procrastinate. look at the ridiculousness below (so not looking forward to this):

From JFK AIRTRAIN TERMINAL 4

Take the JAMAICA STATION TO JFK bound AIRTRAIN departing at 06:43 AM
Get off at JFK AIRTRAIN TERMINAL D – JAMAICA at 06:58 AM

JFK AIRTRAIN TERMINAL 4

Take the:
JAMAICA STATION TO JFK bound AIRTRAIN

Leaving At: 06:43 AM

To:
JFK AIRTRAIN TERMINAL D – JAMAICA

Arriving At: 06:58 AM
From SUTPHIN BLVD-ARCHER AV/JFK E line J line Z line LIRR

Take the WORLD TRADE CENTER bound E line Train departing at 07:06 AM
Get off at 42ND ST – PORT AUTHORITY BUS TERM A line C line E line at 07:41 AM

SUTPHIN BLVD-ARCHER AV/JFK E line J line Z line LIRR

Take the:
WORLD TRADE CENTER bound E line Train

Leaving At: 07:06 AM

To:
42ND ST – PORT AUTHORITY BUS TERM A line C line E line

Arriving At: 07:41 AM
Follow the signs to 42ND ST – TIMES SQ STA 1 line 2 line 3 line 7 line N line R line Q line W line S line

Transfer to the 148TH ST-HARLEM bound 3 line Train departing at 07:57 AM SERVICE ADVISORY
Get off at 96TH ST STATION 1 line 2 line 3 line at 08:04 AM

42ND ST – TIMES SQ STA 1 line 2 line 3 line 7 line N line R line Q line W line S line

Take the:
148TH ST-HARLEM bound 3 line Train

Leaving At: 07:57 AM

To:
96TH ST STATION 1 line 2 line 3 line

Arriving At: 08:04 AM
Walk 0.27 miles (5 minutes) Northeast to destination

call me silly as fuck but.

I was going to plan a trip to New York in early June.

But then I thought about it.

The Bible Code (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_code) dictates that a nuclear attack is supposedly to befall the city of New York on May 9th or May 10th, 2009.

It obviously didn’t happen.

But what if they’re a month off!!! That would put me in New York City right on the period of June 9th or June 10th, 2009, and while I realistically think nothing will happen, it’s enough of a stupid reason that I don’t want to go. Call me retarded. But that’s how it is.

So I reckons the next best thing I will try and do is catch a ride from a Couchsurfer up to Alaska, because there are a fuckload of road trippers heading there, for some reason. We’ll see how that goes. But all signs in life point to the idea that I should go to Alaska this year.

I’m a freak, FYI. Is superstition a good reason not to go to New York City in June of 2009? We shalt see.