life dream #1 and a few other things

We (some friends) move to Europe for a year. Where? I don't know, maybe someplace in Spain, by the water. The sun sets. The sun rises. Mostly, though, the sun sets because we're asleep when the sun rises. In the morning, as the sun is rising and we sleep, the mesh curtain over the bedroom window (or door to a balcony!) billows because there is a breeze from the water and of course the window is always open because of the fresh sea air. Everything is labeled in Spanish. In the evening, after bongo drums and campfires, we walk back home along the shore, sandels in hand and hair in messy ponytails or unevenly flattened. Hair that we'll find is full of sand and fire ashes and clumsy singing when we finally take a shower the next morning. When we first move there, we're some kind of tripod; we are fluent in the same language and we giggle about things in ways that tripods do. That second week, our rooms still bare and luggage spitting out clothes, we go skinny-dipping at night. We scream about our rum-tinged liberation. But after a couple months (of writing in coffeeshops and painting with easels set up by the water and picking wildflowers for hair accessories), we start to become more independent of one another. We're not drifting apart, we just keep some things to ourselves. Everything changes just a little bit and then nothing is really the same. Not in a bad way, but in a quiet way. Because the writing is so organic and the art is sensual and the wildflowers turn into crowns. We're best friends but we're bodies, too. Sometimes we still walk back home along the shore together, but now we're more boisterous. 'We belong here, this is ours,' we think. So we throw a half-empty bottle into the sea to prove it. We stumble over our feet and lean on each other for balance. The sun rises and sets and rises and the curtain billows and the tub fills up with sand every shower. We never make our beds.


I recommend watching this video starring Emile Hirsch. It's perfectly pretty ('cause he's perfectly pretty?).

Currently,
1. I'd like to learn how to skateboard.
2. I want to figure out how to dress like this or like this. Preferably both. And also, peruse HEL LOOKS because it is amazing and inspiring when you get dressed every morning by peeling something off the carpet and checking to make sure it's not smelly.
3. I'm drinking at least one cup/travel mug of tea a day.  With honey.

My Redemption? Please?

Okay, so some people weren't pleased with my last post. And by 'some people' i mean my housemate Debra, of course. I stand by both videos, by the way. But i would like to redeem myself in her eyes because without her, i'd probably be left with three people reading this blog. Maybe two.

Nathan Fielder is very funny. There is evidence of this on his youtube channel. Also, he's friends with Levi MacDougall, who is the most funny, so you know Nathan is going to be great even before watching his stuff. Sometimes, Levi and Nathan combine their talents and create magic.

But their magic is not what i'm here to write about. I'm here to write about the following video of Nathan's that is so so so great (and hopefully very redeeming).


I award that video an internet crown. For being the best. The crown has 'best' spelled out in gems and valuable stones.

let's just move to Europe, guys

Or maybe just L.A.

Acting like i haven't dreamed of you and i and marriage in an orange grove

1. McSweeney's Internet Tendency is sometimes very funny. I first discovered this a few years ago when i read the following by contributor, and "verbal cartoonist," Dan Liebert:

Fun Facts to Know and Tell.
Some so-called superstitions have a solid basis in fact. For instance, if you're leafing through a magazine at a newsstand and a subscription card falls out and touches the floor before you can catch it, you will die before nightfall, because I will follow you home and kill you, I swear I will.

Kind of, a lot, like a Jack Handey. For those that wish there were two Jack Handey's out there in the world.

Anyway, i rediscovered McSweeney's this past week, when i was randomly going through their "Lists" feature, a collection of really funny and unnecessary lists about anything, and i laughed and laughed alone in my cold, cold basement. There are so many lists, so start with these:
- Things My Father Has Said to Me in Crowded Restaurants
- What People Said Tornadoes Sounded Like Before the Invention of the Freight Train (in Reverse Chronological Order)
- Pickup Lines to Use While Moving
- Topics of Conversation at My Cousin's House on Any Given Holiday
- What My Father Said About Thanksgiving, What I Thought, and What He Meant
- Relationship Advice I Might Give, Considering How My Last One Ended
- Text Messages That Would Have Been Helpful

Oh, bahaha!

2. Do you have an interest in photography that does not really exceed oh-wow-four-photos-in-one and i-wish-my-photos-looked-like-dreams? This is the Lomography Diana Dreamer Camera:

To be perfectly frank with you, it makes me want to name my children Diana. Diana Dreamer is a remake of the vintage all-plastic Diana camera, she is beautiful, and doesn't she make you want to wander around a park and lie down on the grass and take photos of clouds that look like animals or food? The camera young Amélie is holding there is probably the Diana Dreamer in black. No, i'm just kidding. But seriously, my heart yearns for this camera the way only a heart unfamiliar with photography can yearn for a camera. Does that make any sense? Sold exclusively at Urban Outfitters (your photography one-stop shop, right?) and look! it has one review that gives it 5 stars out of 5, so you know it's good. If i were to submit a list to McSweeney's it would be

Adjectives Urban Outfitters Uses to Describe the Diana Dreamer Camera That Totally Appeal to Me
cult
dreamy
faithful
loving
classic
dreamy (yes, twice!)
endless
easy
off-the-wall

Also, check out Lomography Diana + Camera. It's also pretty cool but i can't write about cameras on this blog forever.

3. daytime fantasies

4. Do you like sunglasses? Sure you do! But do you like them as much as me? Yeah, why not! But do you like them enough to spend $108 US on one (vintage) pair? Why am i suddenly so materialistic? Oops, that was an aside. Anyway, these two pairs of sunglasses are really cool, but also super expensive. It's a good thing i don't put a lot of effort into being stylish -- i'd be poor. And we all know i'm leaving that economic position for after university.

5. I can't wait for this movie to be released in Canada so i can want to go see it, not go see it, wait for it on DVD, never find it at Blockbuster, and then buy it Previously Viewed for $4.99 six years later. But seriously, it looks so good.

6. There are a lot of things one could say about the following song. Could one, like me, say it better than Sean from Said the Gramophone? Probably not. All i will say is this: "you're the only thing in any room you're ever in"? Oh god. Can real life be better than that?

Elbow - Starlings [mp3]

oh man

watch this and almost die of awe:

Western Spaghetti by PES

also,

"All good things are wild, and free."

- Henry David Thoreau

art by Chrissie Abbott, who is super-cool you guys.

Slipping Through The Years

Before i leave for a week of water trampoline, swimming with one of these, roasted marshmallows, some reading, wearing sunglasses, bingo, and maybe mosquitos, i thought i'd leave a post.

When i was in Israel, i went through my uncle's old photographs, which he had inherited from my grandma or grandpa (can't remember which). Like all vintage photographs, they're lovely and were swiftly scanned onto my laptop. The feeling i get when i look at these and have to reconcile who these people are now and who it seems they were then is probably not something you'll get from glancing at these, but they're still pretty cool.

my uncle

rockstarbadass
my mom and grandma visiting my uncle in the army
the whole fam.

my grandpa, brooding before both Ryan Atwood and my brother my grandpa (right) and a friend
my grandmother Sara, looking gorgeous.
(note her dress sleeve caught on the chair)
my uncle and mom (also known as Sailor Moon in Japan)
a little more grown up

(you can see my uncle turning into a rock star here)
(everyone thought my mom was Mongolian when she was younger because of her dark, dark hair and blue eyes)

Something That Is Weird

Here is something that is weird: faxes. How are they sent? How are they received? How does this all happen? How can someone send and/or receive a fax nonchalantly without sitting down to wonder about this? I have done this myself but I don't remember how. I once worked as a receptionist and in between reading novels and looking at the internet (which is another very weird thing) I would send and receive faxes. And I did it nonchalantly, without wondering how. When I was a kid, I thought the way faxes were sent was like this: the paper would roll itself up very tightly and then fly through the fax machine's cord, right into the electrical outlet. And inside the electrical outlet were a bunch of other cords, linking to other electrical outlets which connected to other fax machines. And in this way, all fax machines were connected. But now I know it is not like this, although I wish it were because a) I wouldn't spend so much time wondering about faxes, and b) I would know that we were all connected and this would make me feel less lonely sometimes.


art credit: Shannon Rankin, whose art freezes up my limbs for a little bit -- you can find her on flickr and etsy.