It's Important to Go Hard

Espresso Making

Ever since living in Portland, I've grown to like good coffee quite a bit. However, I don't know anything about coffee and it's one of those things that people assume I know things about. Kind of like bikes. Only I know even less about bikes because at least with coffee I know what tastes good to me.

Anyway Amanda, fresh from her trip to Italy, though that probably has nothing to do with it, was making me some kick ass redeyes in Chiacgo and she showed me how those polygonal espresso makers work. She also explained to me that a macchiato is espresso with milk in it; it means "stained" in Italian, the milk staining the coffee. This was all previously a giant mystery to me.

The Room

There has been much talk about this movie recently. It began probably around last year when Amanda and Sophie went on a much hyped-up date to the Music Box (where Amanda has an in with the manager, Sophie was very impressed by this) to see Tommy Wiseau himself present this horrendous piece of cinema. I declined to watch with Sophie when she rented it on Netflix to watch again. I had heard tell of the excruciating sex scenes and couldn't do it. But now my sister is inordinately obsessed and so we went last night to the Piedmont Theater for their monthly midnight showing of The Room. The trailer, in case you're not familiar:



I have to say that it was definitely more fun than watching it on the plane, which I had done to prepare myself. The two Asian women, one old and one young, sandwiching me really didn't appreciate the excruciating sex scenes. They both faced away and pretended to sleep. Anyway, there were a bunch of Oakland hipsters throwing spoons and footballs and pointing out inconsistencies, such as when Mark is being seduced by Lisa and he goes "the candles, the music, the sexy dress" to mention all of the sexy, seducer things going on, but there aren't any of these things present in the scene. So people yell things like "what candles? what music? what sexy dress?" That was pretty funny. People also did a lot of yelling of "who are you?" because people in the film are never introduced. And the guy who plays Peter switches half way through. Overall, it was a fun time and I think it was more fun for Maneka than laughing hysterically by herself over and over again.

It also occurred to me what an amazing soundtrack the movie has. Maneka pointed out to me that there are a few songs with some actual, really interesting and unexpected chord progressions. The sex scene songs are also so grossly appropriate. They gave away the soundtrack and I thought about what a great gift that might be. Here is the unexpectedly interesting song:



This sexy one sometimes gets stuck in my head and it's totally annoying and not something you'd ever want to be caught singing:

Missing Limbs: The Final Episode

If you never got to hear the radio show that Sam and I did together in our last year of college, this will give you a good idea. It also features appearances by Darin, Sophie, Kim and possibly others. I meant to put this up a way long time ago. For those interested, there is a Sophie song around 19:43.

Best Friends in the Freezer

Sam and I once took video class together. Gems were made:

My Pop Candy

My Future Son

Over the summer, and really over a span of many years now, Sam and I often discussed our future children. I think it was the natural progression of our age-old debate about whether or not the idea drinking your own breast milk is gross or not. I remain firm on yes.

Thereafter followed many questions about the way that one could raise a child. Sam is already set on the kinds of lunches her kids will eat and what kind of mom she'll be: a dad mom. I don't know my hypothetical future children as well. But this summer it became obvious that my son would be named Kamalo.

Jesus, my new friend, says he sees Kamalo as a very tall man, 6'2" 280 lbs., who has a suave way with the ladies. "Especially for a man of his carriage," he says. His version of my future son has a low voice with which he pronounces his name: ka-MA-lo.

I have a hard time picturing anything other than a 10 year old boy version of myself. He will probably be mouthy and say things that might be rude if he weren't a child. Kamalo will have to eat everything, picky eating will not be tolerated. So maybe he will become 280 lbs. I also imagine that he'll wear bright colors, have a large collection of sneakers and will always be carrying a toy of some kind. For those familiar with Sam and PamPam, I think Kamalo will be a less brain-dead, more chatty version of Friend. I can see him wearing a spinny hat.

warm weather fun time music

my bed in riverside

You may have heard the news that I no longer sleep on a flimsy twin mattress with a sleeping bag on the floor! I now have sheets, two new pillows, a quilt and a bed frame that is made of real wood. Robyn and I spent a while putting together this piece of Ikea magic. If it weren't for Robyn, it would have never happened.

Summer Adventures

It's been much too long, again, since I paid any attention to this thing. There were many summer adventures, but the highlights: Berlin/Stockholm with the family, the Afrienda with Amanda and Heather, Iowa time with everyone (and dancing Charles), the wagon with Amy, movies galore with Sophie, my big move out of Chicago, play time in Portland with gurl and Kim and my long drive/camping trips with Sam. I miss everybody and didn't take enough photos or videos, but here are some tidbits.


At the Hamburger Bahnhoff:


Nathan's band, Sons of Susan, playing at Duke's:


Joyous times at Rachel's Birthday Party with a Girl Pop Karaoke cd:


Sam and I entertain ourselves on our drive through the NW:

Farm Day

On Friday we took a short half-day trip to Three Oaks, MI to visit Granor Farms , where our friends Jesse and Sara manage and live on the farm. It turns out that we picked a very stormy day in which to take this journey. Rachel was supposed to be in charge of directions since everyone knows that Sophie is like a robot when she drives, programmed only to take directions. But Rachel was also in charge of music and so we ended up not making the correct turn and found ourselves on a rather skinny highway when the storm clouds burst, the wind starting blowing us around and Sophie was urged to please pull over.



However, we did eventually make it around a bunch of fallen trees to our destination. We were happy to be alive. The power was out at the farm, but our hosts had set up these lovely candles to make us feel welcome:



We then progressed to have a pretty good time. There were these little kittens that climbed all over everywhere and had little poops hiding out in places. Plus there was some very nice furniture on the porch. Eventually Sara and Rachel were heroes and went out to get pizza from a place far away that had power (since we couldn't cook anything on their electric stoves), while the rest of us toyed around the farm. Great times!

Meat Eating Birds

While Maneka and I were camping at Lake Tahoe we encountered 3 of these birds that seemed to be very interested in both our raw hamburger and our cheese. I was baffled, horrified and very amused that these birds managed to get far ahead of cows in the food chain.

Road Trip

As some of you may know, Maneka and I drove her car from Oberlin to our home in the Bay Area. We followed I-90 for the most part with a brief interlude in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons before meeting up with I-80 and heading to Piedmont. I know you're dying to know about the unbridled excitement that ensued, which is why I made this video.

ok, new fave song of the moment

"O.N.E." by Yeasayer from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

my current kick-off summer jam

wish it were a real video, maybe soon.

My Rendition of Bieb's Baby

Biebs

There are many things to wonder about Justin Bieber. Why does he always look like there is massive wind at the back of his head? How long did he practice saying "shawty" to get it just right? How is he not a lesbian? Why can't I get Baby out of my head? Would his dance moves woo a 12 year old girl? A 25 year old girl? If you have the time and patience to ponder these questions too, please watch this video and see if you can't employ some of his dance moves (particularly the INCREDIBLY slow pool table roll) in your own life.

Wisdom from the Kids

For those unawares, I tutor weekly at this place called 826 Chicago and this week I was managing the writing table, where kids come in and do a writing exercise before they start their homework. Because there is an upcoming Tom Hanks fundraiser on the horizon (it's called Prom Hanks), the kids were supposed to write life similes, a la "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."

I spent a long, torturous time coming up with examples for them (with assistance from my new friend potential).

Our best: Life is like a pirate ship because everyone is on the look-out for booty.

Kid bests:
-Life is like a math book because it's full of lots of problems, but some of the answers are in the back.
-Life is like a booger, totally gross.
-Life is like Lady Gaga because its style is always changing.
-Life is like pizza, you can put whatever you want on it.

Woman On The Beach

Here is a woman who Sophie and I spied today. She came up from behind us and seemed like a regular old runner until she began jogging past and dropped a small plastic or rubber ball on the ground. We of course assumed she was going to play with a dog and looked around for a furry friend. But there was none. Instead she proceeded to dribble the ball down the beach. There was a moment in which the ball went down into the water and Sophie and I both thought, "uh-oh." But in fact, there was no trouble at all because she just went right in there and kept on dribbling. Who knows what kind of shoes she had on. Anyway, she went down the beach and back and unfortunately when we caught her on camera, her jog had relaxed into a walk. Still hilarious!

Rosehill Cemetery

The other day it was very sunny out and I wanted to go for a walk. I prefer to walk and run in places where there aren't other people. As I once told Sophie, I like private places in public. So I decided to take a walk around the cemetery that's near our house. On the whole, I encountered only two other people: one with a dog and one with a baby in a stroller. I took some nice photos, saw some animals and wrote a poem. I think I will be coming here very often.

The Field Museum

I had never been to the field museum until last Wednesday. Everybody talks about it and and about what a gem it is and when I first moved to Chicago it was mentioned in this book I read about a professor man who is failing at life. Anyway, it turned out that Trish works there and she offered to give a special tour to me and Sophie and Amanda in addition to getting us in for FREE! Which as a total winning point.

I will say that it was an incredibly educational and slightly surreal experience. And one of the best photo-taking events I've had in a very, very long time. We walked up a bunch of stairs to get to a bird area, where we walked in the door and there were just tables of people sitting around and talking as they plucked feathers out of birds and piled the red, meaty carcasses in these bowls. They were specimens. We then visited the room where these specimens have their flesh eaten off by bugs. It smelled a little terrible like rotting things and looked just amazing! The non-waste of it and the thoroughness of the bugs was impressive.



Trish also showed us a great number of skeletons, dried out animal bodies and pickled animals that are being saved. It's both fascinating and horrifying to think that scientists feel the need to have extraneous bodies lying around just in case. Which is pretty much how science works and how we've discovered a lot of important things, but it's so creepy how practical it all seems. There are dead things lying around all messed up and weird looking and it's all just very normal. Which made the whole experience super cool.

For the Inspirational Song Poll

Ashlee:



Good ol' Natasha:



Kelly:


Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone [good quality]
Uploaded by darklibra. - See the latest featured music videos.

Whoa Nelly:

New New Band

Maneka came over to visit and we made some songs together. They prominently feature a new instrument of mine from the thrift store: the Barbie keyboard. This is what it looks like:



If you don't like the whistle as an aesthetic choice, you might be disturbed. But in any case, have a listen to our song Whistle Madness:

Liz Lemon is My Dream Lover

I think this says it all:

Some X-Mas Fun

It's a little late, but my mom decided this would be the best use of the adorable cake on a stick fellows who were one of our Christmas desserts. They were so cute that Maneka ate a bunch and didn't even notice that they were frosting smushed together with cake.