newsweek is weak

forgive the pun on words but seriously, since when is annie leibovitz- who i like, by the way- somehow more newsworthy than a war in which we're still engaged?
(remember? you know- that one in afghanistan? where we were going to '"smoke 'em out of their caves"? i know- i haven't heard much about it lately, either)

The cover of International editions, aimed at Europe, Asia, and Latin America, displays in large letters the title "LOSING AFGHANISTAN," along with an arresting photograph of an armed jihadi.

The cover of the United States edition, in contrast, is dedicated to celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz and is demurely captioned "My Life in Pictures."

The International cover story begins:

"You don't have to drive very far from Kabul these days to find the Taliban. In Ghazni province's Andar district, just over a two-hour trip from the capital on the main southern highway, a thin young man, dressed in brown and wearing a white prayer cap, stands by the roadside waiting for two NEWSWEEK correspondents. It is midday on the central Afghan plains, far from the jihadist-infested mountains to the east and west. Without speaking, the sentinel guides his visitors along a sandy horse trail toward a mud-brick village within sight of the highway. As they get closer a young Taliban fighter carrying a walkie-talkie and an AK-47 rifle pops out from behind a tree. He is manning an improvised explosive device, he explains, in case Afghan or U.S. troops try to enter the village."

The United Story cover story begins:

"Annie Leibovitz is tired and nursing a cold, and she' s just flown back to New York on the red-eye from Los Angeles, where she spent two days shooting Angelina Jolie for Vogue. Like so many of her photo sessions, there was nothing simple about it. 'I talked with Angelina before the shoot,' says Leibovitz, who's famous for her preparation. 'She felt like she was coming back from having the baby and she felt very sexy and ready to go.' ... There were 50 people on the set, and racks of clothes from the New York spring collections to be tried and styled."

The story aimed at the United States then goes on to discuss the difficulties Leibovitz had in photographing Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' infant. The International story continues with difficulties of a very different kind:

"In Ghazni and in six provinces to the south, and in other hot spots to the east, Karzai's government barely exists outside district towns. Hard-core Taliban forces have filled the void by infiltrating from the relatively lawless tribal areas of Pakistan where they had fled at the end of 2001. Once back inside Afghanistan these committed jihadist commanders and fighters, aided by key sympathizers who had remained behind, have raised hundreds, if not thousands, of new, local recruits, many for pay. They feed on the people's disillusion with the lack of economic progress, equity and stability that Karzai's government, NATO, Washington and the international community had promised.

"NATO officials say the Taliban seems to be flush with cash, thanks to the guerrillas' alliance with prosperous opium traffickers. The fighters are paid more than $5 a day—good money in Afghanistan, and at least twice what the new Afghan National Army's 30,000 soldiers receive."

not to be missed

i read two stories today that simply cannot go unmentioned.
as c+c music factory proclaimed in the early 90's (and yes, i listened to them. i was nine, bitches), these are the things that make you go hmmm....


.. language="JavaScript"> ..>
JULIE JOHNSON

THE DEVIL'S APT. BROKER

By ERIN CALABRESE
September 25, 2006 -- A Manhattan millionaire had a devil of a time selling his Upper West Side apartment after his real-estate broker trashed it in a "satanic" frenzy, court papers claim.

Daniel Farash said he returned home to his three-bedroom apartment on West 79th Street after a weekend away to discover many of his mattresses had been urinated on, his belongings broken and laid out in strange patterns - and his broker naked and chanting in a closet.

"I was ambushed. She came out of that closet like a lunatic. She was naked holding my mother's vase in one hand and a towel in another and screaming all this nonsense," Farash, 44, told The Post.

"Portions of my house were turned into . . . a satanic temple . . . like some sort of witchcraft. I was in shock. You're talking about your home - you're talking about your real-estate broker."

Farash is now suing Warburg Realty, charging the incident resulted in him selling his $1.4 million apartment for $500,000 less than market value. He also says it's left him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The broker was identified in court papers by her company as former real-estate agent Julie A. Johnson.

According to a deposition, the firm's president, Fred Peters, admitted the company knew she was mentally unstable, having discussed her anxiety and stress issues with one of her therapists. But Peters insists the company is not responsible for the damages.

Peters and the company attorney did not return calls for comment.

Farash says that in February 2003, after he'd signed up with Warburg to sell his home at 310 W. 79th, he went away for the weekend while Johnson held an open house.

He later learned it hadn't gone very well because the broker was making "bizarre, inappropriate and irrational statements" to potential customers, court papers say.

When he returned home the next night, he said he was ambushed by the naked Johnson, who'd trashed the apartment - defecating in his closet, breaking some of his belongings, and arranging some in "satanic" configurations to look like a woman giving birth.

Farash called police, who took Johnson away for psychiatric observation, the court papers say. He later learned that earlier that night, she'd run through common areas of the building naked and screaming, the papers say.

Farash said he was underwhelmed by Peters' response to the incident and was later dropped by the company.

He said he's speaking out now because Warburg has been uncooperative in the court case, claiming they're not responsible for Johnson's actions.

Farash says he doesn't blame the real-estate agent for the incident, contending Peters should not have allowed her to work on his case because the company knew she was troubled.

_______________________

"Jihad" car commercial upsets U.S. Muslims

Mon Sep 25, 2006 07:51 AM ET

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Top News Pentagon moves to buttress U.S. troop levels in Iraq U.S. to let air travelers carry some liquids CIA paid Pakistan for catching al Qaeda: Musharraf MORE

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - A car commercial proclaiming a jihad on the U.S. auto market and offering "Fatwa Fridays" with free swords for the kids is offensive and should not be aired, Muslim leaders said on Sunday.

The radio advertisement for the Dennis Mitsubishi car dealership in Columbus, Ohio, has "a whole jihad theme," said Adnan Mirza, director of the Columbus office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"They are planning on launching a jihad on the automotive market and their representatives would be wearing burqas ... ," Mirza said. "They mentioned the pope in there and also about giving rubber swords out to the kiddies -- really just reprehensible-type comments."

Details of the radio ad, which has not yet been broadcast, have been reported in the local media, but officials at the dealership declined to comment about the content of the radio spot.

Two employees at the dealership said they had been deluged with calls about the commercial.

"The ad has never been released, it is not out for public listening," said one employee who declined to give his name. He would not say whether the dealership had changed its mind about airing the commercial.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp. could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mirza said several local radio stations had already rejected the ad and he hoped the controversy would convince the dealership to rethink its sales strategy.

He also said the Council on American-Islamic Relations would likely contact the dealer to "offer some kind of cultural or sensitivity awareness training."

barra libre post-script

so saturday's show was fantastic.

by the time i hit the stage mid-show, the energy in the room was happily flowing.
the best part of being an interstitial part of the show is getting to hear the crowd whispers before going up.
"these guys can jam," "yo- these guys rock," and "who are they?" were comments circulating near me.
by evenings end, the experienced and the barra libre virgins were grooving together- a beautiful thing.

i'll try and put some footage up soon, as my wonderful and equally insane friend chris taped the show, despite the fact that one of the waitresses hit him up for a ridiculous $250 charge to do so, WHICH HE PAID.
i told you he was insane.
but thank you chris.
that was so far beyond necessary, generous, etc. and the tape will be cherished forever.
p.s. mom- you should know that when i asked him why he didn't just stop filming, he said he didn't want to disappoint you.
awww.

all this contact with music lately has inspired me to start working with some of the songs i've already written, so after this sunday's show with crystal ponzio, i am going to recruit a few of my talented friends to create a showcase. i will, of course, keep you posted on that. perhaps we'll have a show up before christmas.

a little love for dick

the greatest highlight of my short time living in england was when i was going to meet richard branson at an event he was hosting in the countryside.

the greatest disappointment was that i never did.
he never came.

i really don't know much about him, but whenever his name travels the grapevine, it's always associated with some excellent shenanigan or a beneficial cause, so without any real basis, i hereby say that i love the man.
here he is, at it once again.

Branson Pledges Billions to Fight Global Warming

Sir Richard Branson, the British magnate and adventurer, said today that all profits from his five airlines and train company, projected to be $3 billion through the next 10 years, would be invested in developing energy sources that do not contribute to global warming.

darwin awards

i love me some human stupidity.
thanks for posting this linds.

DARWIN AWARDS 2006.

Yes, it's that magical time of the year again when the Darwin Awards are
bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us. Here then, are the
glorious winners.

Darwin Award Winners:

1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim
during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot
did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel
and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.....

And now, the honorable mentions:

2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting
machine and, after a little hopping around, submitted a claim to his
insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its
men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and lost a finger.
The chef's claim was approved.

3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car
during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his Vehicle to find a woman
had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver
found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting
from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his
incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone
waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the
mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable
and prone to bizarre fantasies.
The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head
wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the
injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close
he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the
counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer,
the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which
the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and
fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he
got from the drawer...$15.
(If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime
committed?)

7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that
he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some
booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his
head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be
thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was
made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man
grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the
woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher.
Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the
car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car
and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes,
officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a
Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5 a.m., flashed a gun, and
demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't
open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion
rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast . The man,
frustrated, walked away.

A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER!

10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on
a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived
at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near
spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying
to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's
sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press
charges, saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

In the interest of bettering human kind please share these with your
friends and family ... unless of course one of these 10 individuals by
chance is a distant relative or long lost friend. In that case be glad
they are distant and hope they remain lost.

my life now.

Things are in full swing here.
Yesterday, which resembles most days, looked like this:

7am: wake up
9-5: work
6-9: class
9-11: rehearsal
11-12: read/homework
12:30: sleep
7am: wake up

School is good.
So far, my non-fiction workshop and audio engineering class have been stand-outs.
Zia Jaffrey leads the workshop class. She's great: very astute, direct, political, intelligent, and she is constantly exposing us to copious amounts of new, relevant literary work.
My audio engineering class is taught by Scott Noll, who I have taken an immediate liking to; he is Lester Bangs incarnate, and his studio- where we work- is highly tricked out, something I might have expected if I'd known that he reads Wired Magazine (which I also must profess to love) from cover to cover.

So like I said, I was rehearsing after class for Saturday's show last night (which I hope you'll come to if you're in NYC. Cibelle, the band we're opening for, just got recommended as 'the' thing to see on Saturday by Flavorpill). This is only the second rehearsal I've had with the band, as I'm only chiming in on one song, but they are a blast to jam with. I always feel like I've been basking in sunshine next to a tall pitcher of Sangria when I play with them.

Ok, must get back to work now.
x.

searching for water- a profile

Searching for Water
by Alexis Stember

Crystal Ponzio wears a simple black spaghetti strap dress and black cardigan while sitting barefoot on the couch of a small, shared East Village apartment in New York City. The first thing that strikes you when meeting her is her confidence and sincerity. She smiles and before a word is spoken, she has already given you the impression that you will be lifelong friends.

It is morning when we speak and she wears no makeup, but thanks to the naturally warm skin tone she inherited from her Mexican ancestors, she has a golden glow none-the-less. "I'm fourth generation American," she tells me, "but I have really strong connections to my Mexican background because of growing up in El Paso, right across the border." She says this without a hint of a Texan accent.

Her heritage and hometown seem to have been huge factors in shaping her character; she speaks of them with great appreciation that almost borders on guilt. "In El Paso, you can see Mexico from any highway. You look over the border and it's like stepping back fifty or sixty years and going into a third world country.... It's really humbling to look at something like that and see where you come from."

It is these qualities of humility and compassion that make her so disarmingly approachable and genuinely endearing. You know she's not pretending when she says it's nice to meet you; she is truly engaged in and moved by the encounter and needs no simple syrup of false exclamations to sweeten the experience. She connects.

I met Crystal four months ago, when she first arrived in New York with a suitcase, a guitar, and a head full of songs. We were joined by an unlikely party- the website Craigslist, an online community board where people can find anything from an eight-track machine to a date for the night. I had posted a room that was available for rent in my apartment and she responded.

There were a number of things I found immediately appealing about her: like me, she had a day-job in advertising, had musical aspirations, and was close to her family. What impressed me most, though, was the grounded optimism and educated fearlessness she exhibited. She had the grace of someone who knew herself and trusted life on an unspoken, visceral level. She seemed to me a wonderful walking paradox: at once fully ambitious and yet peaceably content with where she already was. This continues to be apparent in her attitude toward her musical career: "Before it was like, 'Oh my gosh, I want to be a rock star,'" she says, "Now I look at music as more of a marathon. I picture myself as a 70-year-old woman with silver hair singing folk songs. It's the bonus in my life."

Crystal started writing music four years ago, around the same time she first picked up a guitar and began to play. "I just felt inspired to try and equip myself with tools to write songs, perform, and sing. It's what gave me a lot of joy...." She moved to Los Angeles and began to "cut her teeth" musically, enduring her first few disastrous gigs. "You look back on those things and they're so valuable. It's just a good life lesson to just stumble through a few really bad experiences when you're faced with something that scares you."

From Los Angeles, she went to Chicago, where she met and started working with a producer who helped her with her first CD; four collected songs she had written. Her musical style on the album fuses elements of pop and country, a style she has started to leave behind in favor of a more folk rock sound, one that merges her cowboy heritage with the musical influences of Sheryl Crow and Neil Young. "I've been writing a lot about the desert and looking for water. It seems to be characterized by the fact that I was raised in a place where there was virtually no rain, where it's dry and everything looks dead. It's the song of the wayward wanderer because that's how I feel in my life."

The real core of her music is found not in her genre, her lyrics, or her musical arrangements, though, but in the lush expression of her vast vocal abilities. The whispered qualities of such resonant and darkly intoned lines as the opening of the song World on Fire belies the scorching power of her voice when she cries out in the full-bodied chorus that though the world is on fire, she is fine.

As a lyric, it's almost trite, yet coming out of her mouth it is wholeheartedly believable because for her, it is true. "I'm starting to strip things down musically and just focus on writing from my gut," she says, a statement that falls very much in line with another recent stripping down in her life, one inspired by a return to her religious roots. "It [her faith] actually came back to really slap me in the face. I wasn't just casually coming back to my faith. It was like purging and gutting everything I had worked up to in twenty-five years."

Growing up, Crystal and her two siblings rebelled against their Christian backgrounds the way most teenagers rebel against anything they recognize as familiar. "My parents were like, 'Look this is what we believe is the truth and we're praying for you every day and we want God to be center in your life.' There's nothing they could ever do to force us to feel that way, but it's something we all found our way back to."

The beauty is that Crystal seems to have managed to continue her families tradition, practicing her faith with the same unimposing grace demonstrated by her parents, a faith that leads by example rather than instruction. I didn't even learn that she was religious until we'd lived together for two weeks, and it came up only incidentally after I asked where she was going one Sunday, to which she responded, "Church."

Though we've talked about it before, I asked her for the sake of this story to tell me more about her faith, something I've always been intrigued by given my unfamiliarity with most religions or their respective practitioners. What I discovered was further evidence of something I always held to be true: that human beings have far more in common than we often acknowledge. "When you boil it all down," Crystal explains, "it's just love. That's what the Bible is. That's the only thing I can go to when I try to explain to people why I believe what I believe.... We should just love each other."

Crystal will be performing her first NYC show October 1st at The Bitter End @ 8pm. You can read more about her and download her music at: www.myspace.com/crystalponzio

come watch me get ragga

hello again!
i just wanted to let you know that saturday, september 23, i will be performing at the mercury lounge with the band barra libre (http://www.myspace.com/barralibre ).
barra libre opens at 10:30, with the awesome band cibelle (http://www.myspace.com/cibelleblackbird ) to follow.
i am jumping in for a song or two but the whole show is going to be amazing.
take a listen at the links above and you'll know what i'm talking about- these guys are 100% good times.
i hope you can make it!!!
come say hello if you do.
x.
alexis

Barra Libre @ 10:30pm

September, 23 2006 at MERCURY LOUNGE w. Cibelle
217 E Houston St, New York, 10002
Tickets are $18 at the door or $16 in advance (at link below).
http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=nyc&query=detail&event=683770

haiku farm

There's something very wonderful about the turning of the seasons.

I must have mentioned the arrival of fall more than a few times on this blog by now, and that's because the season conjures so many immediate, mixed emotions: longing, home, dying, fire, solitude, family.... If I were to put it into haiku form, it would sound something like this:

leaves of september
fall like bitter apple winds.
warm, the hearth again.

It's a good thing I don't write haikus often.

Similar to the Greek physician Galen, I believe that seasons have corollary humors, though I've never drawn any medical significance from them.
I do know that I am not the same person in spring that I am in the fall, though.
Fall, according to Galen, is associated with the melancholic temperament.
It makes sense then that this is when I begin to long for silence, when I turn from hyperactive social butterfly back into studious, searching philosopher, cocooning myself in the confines of my miniscule apartment, accompanied only by my books and faithful laptop.

Oh- and my oven.

Fall is also a paramount time for cooking.
Our most gastronomically treasured holiday- Thanksgiving- takes place in autumn, and the ingredients the season offers are some of the most rewarding to work with.
There is nothing I recommend more than going out, if you are able, and actually procuring your own ingredients.

We human beings are born hunter-gatherers and there is nothing more satisfying than eating what you've collected, prepared, and cooked with your own hands.
Here in the northeast, for example, we have great apple and pumpkin farms, where you can pick what you like from the trees and fields and turn them into sumptuous baked goods.

Short of having direct access to farms, the next best thing is going to markets, of which there are a plenty nationwide.
Purchasing your produce straight from the hands that picked it and away from the sterile aisles of generic florescence gives a similar sense of connection to our primal natures. And it supports a lifestyle that we would do well to re-embrace in our modern age.

mess

i'm a mess.

a good mess.
a good mess, with a messy to do list, filled with wonderfully messy engagements, in this messy universe called new york.

currently on the plate:
-working on a film (as lead writer) in its infancy stage
-co-writing a new song for another film soundtrack, due in a week
-starting a band (two person, electronic rock)
-working 9-5
-full time school
-attempt at a social life

ok- it's not going to be like this forever.
i am just finessing all the things i've been working on during the summer with all the things i have planned for the fall.
it's a transition period, a seasonal change.
that being said, i don't know how much time i am going to have to write in the coming days.
i'll try, but i can't promise my posts will be daily anymore.

change of topic-
raul, the guy who i am starting a band with, is already in a band called barra libre.
as you can hear, they are a super fun band, especially live, and if you're lucky enough to be in nyc, they are playing on thursday night.
you should go check them out.
their parties (and it's always a party) are unstoppable.

9/11

it is september 11, a day forever burned into the psyche of america.

newspapers have 9/11 headlines splashed across them.
radio stations have voices that speak of remembrance.
television stations have images of this day, five years ago.
the nation is steeped in 9/11.

i don't feel the need to add to the conversation.
what i'd like is a moment of silence.

emily on the tv

my fellow hometown iowan, the wicked actress emily schweitz, is going to be on the new fox drama standoff, tuesday, september 19.

those who don't watch will be disowned as friends.
how's that for a threat?

goody goody gum drops

last night i went to a party at some friends' apartment.

the party was extraordinary.
there were about 16 of us there, all couples, all married- except, of course, moi.
someone's got to represent.



beth and will, whose apartment the party took place in, have a company together called Big Tips Candy, which customizes and boxes classic candies to order.
we're talking classic candies like nut goodies, mallo cups, u-nos.
and these marrieds couldn't be lovelier, more fun, down to earth people.

beth recently came out with her second book, the sintelicious Chocolate: The Sweet History.
i can tell you right now that when it comes to chocolate, the woman knows what she's talking about.
last weekend i spent an evening cooking with her in the country.
the meal was spectacular but what really made it was the homemade truffles she brought out afterward.
they were absolutely decadent.

you don't have to have a sweet tooth to love will and beth, but they'll make you plenty happy if you do.

lie by lie

Lie by Lie: Chronicle of a War Foretold: August 1990 to March 2003

The first drafts of history are fragmentary. Important revelations arrive late, and out of order. In this timeline, weve assembled the history of the Iraq War to create a resource we hope will help resolve open questions of the Bush era. What did our leaders know and when did they know it? And, perhaps just as important, what red flags did we miss, and how could we have missed them? This is the first installment in our Iraq War timeline project.

true courage

Today, I thought I would type out a passage from Rollo May's wonderful book The Courage to Create for what I see as its relevance to current events, specifically Bush's recent admission of secret CIA prisons operating overseas.
Bush's greatest failure as a man and as a President is not, in my opinion, what most would fault him for.
It's not his mistakes in Iraq, for example, but rather his refusal to admit his mistakes or take appropriate actions to correct them.

Maybe someone should send him a copy of Rollo May's book.
Apparently he likes the existentialists.
He claims to have enjoyed reading Camus' The Stranger this summer.
Who knew?
_______

It is the seeming contradiction that we must be fully committed, but we must also be aware at the same time that we might possibly be wrong. This dialectic relationship between conviction and doubt is characteristic of the highest types of courage, and gives the lie to the simplistic definitions that identify courage with mere growth.

People who claim to be absolutely convinced that their stand is the only right one are dangerous. Such conviction is the essence not only of dogmatism, but of its more destructive cousin, fanaticism. It blocks off the user from learning new truth, and it is a dead giveaway of unconscious doubt. The person then has to double his or her protests in order to quiet not only the opposition but his or her own unconscious doubts as well.

Whenever I heard- as we all did often during the Nixon-Watergate days-the "I am absolutely convinced" tone or the "I want to make this absolutely clear" statement emanating from the White House, I braced myself, for I knew that some dishonesty was being perpetrated by the telltale sign of overemphasis. Shakespeare aptly said, "The lady [or politician] doth protest too much, methinks." In such a time, one longs for the presence of a leader like Lincoln, who openly admitted his doubts and as openly preserved his commitment. It is infinitely safer to know that the man at the top has his doubts, as you and I have ours, yet has the courage to move ahead in spite of these doubts. In contrast to the fanatic who ahs stockaded himself against new truth, the person with the courage to believe and at the same time to admit his doubts is flexible and open to new learning....

Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt, but in spite of doubt. To believe fully and at the same moment to have doubts is not at all a contradiction: it presupposes a greater respect for truth, an awareness that truth always goes beyond anything that can be said or done at any given moment. To every thesis there is an antithesis, and to this there is a synthesis. Truth is thus a never-dying process. We then know the meaning of the statement attributed to Leibniz: "I would walk twenty miles to listen to my worst enemy if I could learn something."

yum

Anyone that knows me knows I like zee food.
I could even be called a glutton at times.
Actually, most of the time.



A friend invited me to The Fatty Crab in the Meatpacking District last night.
My inner epicure was not disappointed.
There is really no way of putting the full experience into words, but I'm still going to try.

The cuisine is Malaysian.
The atmosphere is warm.
The space is intimate.
The servers are friendly.
The flavor is explosive.

This is not a restaurant you emerge from unscathed.
Your fingers are stained by red chili sauces and yellow peanut curries, despite multiple attempts to lick them clean.
Your taste buds are bathed in exoticism and sensuality, dancing coquettishly between salty, sweet, and spicy flavors.

Inspired by my extraordinary meal, I am posting a delicious podcast from the folks at Eat Feed.

I am the kind of dork who actually enjoys reading about the history of agriculture, cuisine, and culinary techniques.
It's nice to know that now I can listen, too.

girl talk

i was cleaning out my inbox this morning and found this email from katie, aka caitlin in seattle (there is only one).

i don't believe in games and i don't usually take these things seriously but i have to say that this is pretty solid advice for the ladies, so i am passing it on.
sorry guys- i'll post something for you someday, too.

GIRL THINGS:

1. If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away. If he doesn`t want you, nothing can make him stay.

2. Stop making excuses for a man and his behavior.

3. Allow your intuition (or spirit) to save you from heartache.

4. Stop trying to change yourselves for a relationship that`s not meant to be.

5. Slower is better.

6. Never live your life for a man.

7. If a relationship ends because the man was not treating you as you deserve, then heck no, you cant "be friends." A friend wouldnt mistreat a friend.

8. Dont settle.

9. If you feel like he is stringing you along, then he probably is.

10. Don`t stay because you think "it will get better." You`ll be mad at yourself a year later for staying when things are not better.

11. The only person you can control in a relationship is you.

12. Avoid men who`ve got a bunch of children by a bunch of different women. He didn`t marry them when he got them pregnant, why would he treat you any differently?

13. Always have your own set of friends separate from his.

14. Maintain boundaries in how a guy treats you. If something bothers you, speak up.

15. Never let a man know everything. He will use it against you later.

16. You cannot change a man`s behavior. Change comes from within.

17. Don`t EVER make him feel he is more important than you are...even if
he has more education or a better job.

18. Do not make him into a quasi-god. He is a man, nothing more nothing less.

19. Never let a man define who you are.

20. Never borrow someone elses man.

21. If he cheated with you, hell cheat on you.

22. A man will only treat you the way you ALLOW him to treat you.

23. All men are NOT dogs.

24. You should not be the one doing all the bending...compromise is a two way street.

25. You need time to heal between relationships...there is nothing cute
about baggage...deal with your issues before pursuing a new relationship.

26. You should never look for someone to COMPLETE you...a relationship consists of two WHOLE individuals... look for someone complimentary...not supplementary.

27. Dating is fun...even if he doesnt turn out to be Mr. Right.

28. Make him miss you sometimes...when a man always know where you are and youre always readily available to him - he takes it for granted.

29. Never co-sign for a man.

30. Don`t fully commit to a man who doesn`t give you everything that you
need. Keep him in your radar but get to know others

details

I remember once reading that physical clarity is necessary for psychic clarity- that a clear physical space will result in a clear mental one.
With tomorrow being the official change of season for me (the end of summer, the start of school), I am in the process of sweeping my mental and physical spaces clear of clutter; performing a fall cleaning of sorts.

The literal and metaphorical act of cleaning and clearing is vitally important to having a good life.
It makes space for a life of intentioned purpose rather than of random consequence and though I sometimes avoid it, I love cleaning.
It focuses my attention on little things.

What I have come to believe with great passion over the years is that life is in the details; that the smallest things often have the greatest impact on our lives.
Research has shown, for instance, that people who perform small acts routinely- walking twenty minutes a day versus working out for three hours once a week, or connecting with their mates in seemingly trivial ways on a daily basis rather than connecting in a significant way over a two week vacation once a year- are more likely to experience happiness and long term success in their exercise routines, relationships, or whatever other area they approach in that fashion.

If you want to clear, change, or address a situation in your life, it helps to translate your broad desire into small, perhapse nearly invisible yet solidly concrete details that lead to deep, long-lasting transformation.

For myself, I have the goal of communicating with greater honesty- being able to say what I want, feel, and mean as things come up in life and letting go of my need to control the way I am received and preceived by other people.
I can do this by maintaining awareness of the small ways and times I am not communicating with the degree of honesty that I'd like, and combating my patterned impulse to remain silent by actively speaking out in those moments when I realize that I am falling short of my aspirations.

To help me in the process, I have a journal to keep me present to when and where I am slipping and how I am working to reengage my intentions by reinforcing them with small actions.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Watch your thoughts; They become words. Watch your words; They become deeds. Watch your deeds; They become habits. Watch your habits; They become character. Character is everything."

It's all in the details.

labor day

labor day weekend (is that an oxymoron?) is exactly as it sounds- a lot of bloody work.
i can't remember the last time i did as much and slept as little.
today i woke up (after four hours sleep), went to the west village for brunch, went to midtown for a brazilian festival, went to central park to walk around the reservoir, went to soho to shop, went to the east village to sleep, went back to soho for dinner, went to the lower east side for drinks, and finally ended up at the bar underneath my apartment where i have been dancing like a mad, spastic woman (full body-slide across the stage and all) for the past two and a half hours.
tomorrow, my friends leave back to the places from where they came.
right now, i sleep.
here's to the labor in labor day.

dalai lama's instructions for life

i stole this from lindsay's blog because
a) i'm too tired to write something original
and
b) it's legitimately wonderful, useful, and worthwhile.

Dalai Lama's Instructions for Life

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs:
Respect for self
Respect for others and
Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

best day ever.

that's what it is.

i had an amazing, illuminating dinner with my friend mo last night.
i was drinking a cocktail called the angry lesbian; it was just what the doctor ordered.
i've had issues with anger my whole life (not being able to express it), so last night my friend had me practice getting what i considered to be viciously angry- and i realized that not only was it not so bad, but it wasn't actually so mean, either.
it was just kind of honest and communicative.
that realization shifted my perspective completely, balancing reality with my skewed perception.
it's crazy how one little cog in the machine of ones psyche can come into alignment and then everything feels, seems, sounds, looks, smells, and tastes different.

warning- topic is now changing....

i leave to go on a brief overnight trip in an hour and i'll have no internet connection or cellphone service (actually there's probably service but my phone is dead) so i'm out until tomorrow.

i come back for my newly brazilianized roommate ray's birthday.
he turns the grand old age of 25!!

also, the amazing laurinah arrives tomorrow for a labor day visit.
absolutely balls to the wall excited about that.
no, there is no logic in that expression.

i hope you all have an extraordinary holiday.
x.
alexis