like hella

Filippi's Pizza Grotto

2012-01-16T22:41:00.001-08:00

Vermont and Sunset

2012-01-14T01:35:00.001-08:00

Vermont and Franklin

2011-12-21T09:05:00.001-08:00

random picture entry

2011-11-05T11:39:00.001-07:00

AC had kittens! (i mean obviously he didn't, his lady cat* did). anyway they're adorable.

*since she's had her ovaries or whatever they take removed, she's been a totally different ~~person~~ lady cat. and it's sad that she no longer feels like she has a purpose in life, but honestly i'm fucking glad, because before she was always strutting in front of me making it obvious that she was way prettier than me. ugh.

The Gold Room

2011-06-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

"We got in an accident! We were on the way to Hollywood but we didn't make it! [pause] You're gonna laugh, but we were just really excited about Del Taco." - a Gold Room ladypatron to her friend on the phone, as reported by Tony Tuna

things Tony Tuna and i did on the drive to San Diego

2011-06-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

__ talked about boys
__ played Mad Libs
__ listened to No Doubt
__ ate In-n-Out
__ discussed "Gone with the Wind" at length, the end result being that we essentially quoted the entire film to each other (thematically, not chronologically)

random script treatment #1

2011-06-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

Let's get one thing straight: British accent as shorthand for sensitive/dreamy/perfect is tired and untrue. British accents are not hot, they are unintelligible. Also, maybe it's my spinsterdom talking, but I seriously don't care about another couple of good looking, upper middle-class humanities majors falling in love, especially if they're essentially cardboard cutouts."

i'm not saying i could do better. i'm just saying i wouldn't pay money (even via cable subscription) to see this movie.

overheard on Fountain

2011-05-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

"Girls are like snakes. You can kiss 'em and you can pet 'em all you want, but you never know when they're gonna fucking turn around and bite you in the ass." -- a guy to his gang of homies walking down the street towards the liquor store

overheard at work

2011-05-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

"Dude, my friend and I were watching Twilight for like 40 minutes before we realized it. I was like, dude, what is this sick movie with werewolves and vampires?!?"

its finals

2011-05-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

this is me right now:

wait, who'm i kidding. it's more like this:

Spaceland

2011-05-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

(or whatever it's called these days. anyway...)

me: I like my dogs snub-nosed and muscle-y and kinda mean looking.
Uncle Johnny: Just like your men.

ZING!

i miss thee Parkside

2011-04-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

that is all.

text message from Helena Bonham Carter

2011-04-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

"Just saw the fighter! Really sweet but unless the dk murphys wanna make a sex tape the boston irish genre has officially been tapped"

idk, i remember thinking one of the lead singers was kinda hot when i saw them at Oysterfest. i'd watch a tape of theirs if one were ever to materialize.

consolatory text message from Elwood Blues

2011-04-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

me: my presentation was so bad, a dude who had been eye-fucking me refused to look at me afterwards
Elwood Blues: That's harsh. He prolly has a small cock.

The Laugh Factory

2011-03-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

dude, if you had seen Bryan Callen imitate an ostrich, you'd have laughed your ass off, too.

intercampus shuttle

2011-03-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Driver: How was your Spring Break? What did you do?
Regular: I got married! What did you do?
Driver: Nothing that exciting.

7 Grand

2011-03-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

i finally went here and really the most exciting thing about it was that it is next door to a Malo.
oh and i guess the bathrooms are pretty big and nice, which is always a plus.
but seriously, don't tell me you are not returning to college next year because you are going to join the NBA when you are 5'7". honestly, how dumb do i look?

figaro cafe

2011-03-22T13:21:00.001-07:00

what's funny is that i knew this place from when i was living in SB, and that one time Snake and i came down to see Philly Jacob and Mandy Z and Jules and then hung out with Tony Tuna. it's delicious. i ordered a bowl of coffee and hunkered down to do some work; the only other people there were these two dudes who were doing some scriptwork and knew everyone who worked there. they put the waitress in a chatty mood, coz she came over and for some reason my having a blog came up -- "it's mostly things I overhear though."
Waitress: Did you hear the conversation we were having? About peeing everywhere?
me: yeah
Waitress: It's a classy place.
in retrospect, she may have started talking to me mostly because she is from Uzbekistan and she thought i was from a -stan as well, like people are wont to do.

boozy cupcakes

2011-03-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

happy belated St. Patrick's day! basically i spent the second half of Spring Break hanging out with Chris and K and Beni (! who i managed to turn into a beer-loving Iron Maiden fan in just four days) an they were awesome enough to throw a party while i was there. the least i could do was make a shit ton of baked goods. (i never want to see a cakepop again, but that's another story.) i've made this recipe before, but never in cupcake form. and never so beautifully. i just kept walking past the display because i was so proud of myself.

US Air, Phoenix to Los Angeles

2011-03-22T13:19:00.001-07:00

there were distractingly hot men on this flight. and they were all wearing baseball caps and flip flops, which i guess is par for the course when you're flying from Phoenix to LA during Spring Break.

Honey Bear's

2011-03-22T13:18:00.002-07:00

"Y'all are watching Step Up. We ain't no gangsters here."
-- employee, to me, Mari, K, and Beni, as he changed the channel away from the station that was playing Four Brothers.

Mrs. White's Golden Rule

2011-03-22T13:18:00.001-07:00

we had a HELL of a time getting service here. either because we are brown or because they thought we were lesbians, or some combination therein. a direct result of this visit was my making sure there is always hot sauce in my fridge. and for a little while, being dead-set on there being fried chicken to put said hot sauce on. which of course directly contributed to this situation.

Pat O'Brien's

2011-03-22T13:17:00.004-07:00

look. on my last day in town, i would have been a fool not to order a bottle of champagne in the courtyard after that round of Hurricanes.

The Columns

2011-03-22T13:17:00.003-07:00

boy howdy, Bartender George was a tall cool drink of water on a hot day. serious cutie-pie. we eventually made ourselves sit outside so we wouldn't just stare at him/giggle while he made our Grasshoppers and Ramos Gin Fizzes.

new orleans! is awesome!

2011-03-22T13:17:00.001-07:00

white russian jello! shots!

2011-02-28T20:07:00.003-08:00

basically i am awesome and i made some. it was fairly complicated, and involved me using math and these two websites. they were a hit. the only downfall was that having the ingredients for White Russians directly contributed to my getting passed-out drunk by 8pm the next day. it was kind of a low point.

Vermont and 5th

2011-02-28T20:07:00.001-08:00

this lady was dying her hair at the bus stop. look, i'm as into looking good as the next female who buys into the extremely limited boundaries of heteronormativity, but... c'mon.

Cha Cha Lounge

2011-02-26T12:11:00.001-08:00

just another version of the ballad of sexual dependency.

later this night i left to go to The Red Lion because "the bathroom line was shorter." but really i ordered a basket fries (with a side of mayonnaise) and a huge Heff and put another nail in the coffin of my dying alone.

it's dark and we are wearing sunglasses

2011-02-26T12:10:00.001-08:00

so i went to Chicago to visit Helena Bonham-Carter. i kind of hate it there but i did have wayyyy more fun than i did last time, probably in large part because i didn't get food poisoning this trip.

we tried to go to this hot dog place called "Hot Doug's" but they were closed for Valentine's Day. for two weeks. this meant that we spent some quality time on the corner in front of the place in the snow, trying to figure out where else there was to eat. neither of us minded though because we had the warm and fuzzies from these dudes loving their wives so hard.

i fucking love the Tribune Tower

Fado Irish Pub

2011-02-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

the well whiskey at this joint was Bushmills. being hella fancy or dissing Protestants? i think it's the latter, but Snake kinda was leaning towards the former.

San Diego Public Library

2010-12-25T17:04:00.000-08:00

we were driving down E, headed home, and stopped at a red light, and i couldn't help but notice the middle-aged women pulling goody bags out of the backseat of an SVU and jaywalking to the library and handing them out to the homeless kids camped out in front of it. it was super super sweet -- i was glad to be witness to it.

last minute shopping at Plaza Bonita

2010-12-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

overheard at Borders:

Girl: Why does Santa wear red?
Boy: Because he's East Side affiliated.
Girl: Did you just say...? You ruined the spirit of Christmas by making Santa Claus a gang member.

breakup movies: a compilation

2010-12-22T14:22:00.000-08:00

just a little somethin' me and Tony Tuna have been working on this week, helpfully broken down by category to fit your mood:

life-affirming, "you're gonna make it after all!"

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Legally Blonde
(updated 11/12/11) Sita Sings the Blues

subgenre: it was nice while it lasted but maybe it is better that we are not together

500 Days of Summer
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

like a fish needs a bicycle but still secretly or not so secretly dreaming about
a real-life prince proposing to you with a 3-carat Cartier ring in front of Cinderella's castle

Bridget Jones' Diary
The Holiday
High Fidelity
Sex and the City

single-girl--who--has--resigned--herself--to--crazy--cat--ladydom--with--daily--
"Grey Gardens"--re-enactments makes good

Miss Congeniality
The Proposal (i guess like, a lot of Sandra Bullock movies, maybe)

"i want them all to know"/"you ain't never seen a fire like the one imma start"

Kill Bill
Thelma and Louise

damnit Janet

2010-11-18T09:29:00.000-08:00

Susan Sarandon sat three rows behind me in lecture last night. she's just as pretty in person, seriously. and her voice is so cute.

(i was going to title this post "she also fell prey to the great breakup epidemic of Fall 2009" but then i realized that she and Tim Robbins broke up over the summer and i just only heard about it in december, and anyway, who's to say she wasn't the dumper or that it was mutual or whatever anyway)

Vermont and Sunset

2010-11-17T13:53:00.000-08:00

i know it is horrible, because it sucks that someone else is hurt, and being entertained by someone's pain is awful, but as i was walking past the Children's Hospital, I saw a little girl, all in pink, in a cast and on crutches. she was aDOrable. so cute. it reminded me of this website. and totally made my day.

we had been talking about Hamlet

2010-11-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

i mean, really, that's the only logical explanation for this text from Snake, right?*
"BTW, if ghosts ever warned me against something, I think I'd take their advice."

*(like it's pointed out by one of the inmates in that amazing "This American Life" story -- he's willing to believe that his father's ghost has appeared to him, but he is not willing to believe what his father's ghost is saying?!?! that makes no sense. Hamlet sucks, gimme the one-two combo of Macbeth and Macduff any day)

overheard on campus

2010-11-08T13:35:00.001-08:00

"You can't miss her, she's a fucking dimepiece blonde girl."
-- a guy on his cruiser to another guy on a cruiser. i'm not exactly sure what he meant by dimepiece but i think it would be safe to assume that said girl is in a sorority?

-----

Girl: Since you broke up with me, like, the night before
Boy: I wasn't planning to, until you called me in a rage...

overheard at the pharmacy

2010-11-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

"I'm gonna step my game up to a Harley-Davidson."
-- one of the employees to his coworker.

(updated 07/11 [lolz]: i'm not really sure who he thinks this will impress. Tony Tuna went on a date recently and i asked her if the guy picked her up and she said "yes. [pause] he has a motorcycle." i immediately rolled my eyes and said "ugh" and TT was like "i know!" exasperation didn't equal game the last time i checked, but maybe i'm not pharmacy dude's target audience.)

waiting in line for Home

2010-11-08T13:33:00.001-08:00

"Germany has bomb pizza."
-- a girl to her friends on the sidewalk

overheard at AFI Fest

2010-11-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

"The Weinstein Company had a party... yeah. And David Arquette was the kind of drunk where you could tell he was really sad. It was kind of heartbreaking, actually. He wore the sadness on his face, and he was jumping through bushes and asking me to take pictures of him..."

---------------

Man #1: [...] "I Wore Lipstick to My Masectomy" in which she said the word lipstick 26 times. She wrote a book about being rich and having cancer and feeling bad about herself.
Man #2: Write a book if you're a wealthy white woman. Or black woman, for that matter.
Man #1: [...] But I'm just saying, how many black women are writing about their cancer?

----------------

"Stop it or do me!"
-- one of the photographers on some hot dudes hanging around the hotel. "it" being just standing around and looking sexy.

Trader Joe's

2010-11-07T12:04:00.000-08:00

Checkout Guy: [after slowly handing my ID back] We have the exact same birthday.
me: same year?
CG: Yeah.
me: did you know that Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" was #1 on the Billboard charts the day we were born?
CG: I do now. What time of day were you born?
me: ugh, probably in the middle of the night or some other annoying time because i am obnoxious. how 'bout you?
CG: 11 am
me: way to rub it in. my dad left, got a tuna sandwich, and then passed out on the hospital bed. my mom was so mad.
CG: You an only child?
me: nah, i have three younger siblings.
CG: She couldn't have been that mad, then.

things "The Social Network" made me miss about Facebook

2010-11-07T11:25:00.001-08:00

-- being able to say how you knew someone. "So and so lived with blank from ____ to _____." "So and so and him dated from ___ to ___ and it was ____."
-- the subsequent timeline
-- the 60 picture limit on albums, and how particularly epic nights needed multiple albums
-- being able to list the classes you were in
-- the days before having to create multiple lists with varying levels of access because it populated with people who wouldn't judge you for having a beer in your hand in 140 out of 141 of your profile pictures.

Vermont and Fountain

2010-11-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

"Instead of free shipping, they give us garlic mozarella cheese breadsticks."
-- one of the four Goth Beatles impersonators i passed on my way home from the bank. i thought he was dumb because he said it like it was a bad thing that they were paid in delicious fried foods.

Halloween Party at Taix

2010-11-03T01:16:00.000-07:00

there was not one but TWO animal attack costumes at this show: one home-made, one store-bought, both pretty rad.

trying to find a 90s - themed costume

2010-10-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

are you lucky enough to live in SF? you are?!!?!!??!?! you should totally go to Debaser at 111 Minna on Friday. the one time i went with L-Mac the The Knockout there were way lots of hot guys there (what can i say? i loves me some flannel). earlier today, The Conster and i were getting a little pie-in-the-sky about what i should be if i were able to make it:

me: i could be Monica from Friends but i'm too fat.
TC: You could be Monica Lewinsky...
me: i'm not that fat!

World of Color

2010-10-18T11:46:00.001-07:00

some highlights:
- the now-infamous "white. privilege." incident
- thinking Rick had food poisoning and realizing that he only puked blood for several hours because he had eaten five Fatburgers the night before. Rick is a vegetarian.
- the "World of Color" light show at California Adventure. it was awesome and tear-inducing
- getting an abstract unicorn painted on my face by a girl i went to high school with
- hitting a flask on "Splash Mountain"
- hearing about a $100,000 Disney wedding
- discovering bridal Disney ears and being weirded out by them
- falling in love with "It's a Small World"

Pattaya Bay Thai Restaurant

2010-10-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

bottles of champagne on ice? $1-per-song karaoke on an elevated stage every night of the week?

yes and yes.
much to the chagrin of my wallet.

a mysterious exchange

2010-10-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

i was walking home from the bus stop, and as i turned onto my street, i heard whistling. at first i was a little bit startled but then i just took time to appreciate what a good whistler this guy was* and what a pretty tune it was, and then notice that the man who was whistling was pushing a dolly packed with what looked like delivery boxes. just as i was going to be really impressed by what sounded like his ability to harmonize with himself, a man came out of that wall of bushes i walk by. he was going the opposite way as the first man, but he was also whistling -- the same tune, in harmony, while pushing a dolly packed full with what looked to be delivery boxes. i was and still am astounded. what was going on??!?! it couldn't have been a coincidence! one man was young, in his early twenties, and the other was well into middle age. they were on opposite sides of the street. was it a drug deal? some other merchandise exchange? the only way two men who love one another (either filially or erotically) can see each other???? when i first heard the second whistle, i was a little frightened, but now i just think of it as one of those memories you want to hold in your hands as carefully as you hold a bowl of milk. i feel really lucky to have been witness to it.

*which i do sometimes, which always makes me think of Stradlater

Vermont and Lockwood

2010-10-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

every time i pass this corner on the bus, i can't help but think of Tina Lamont and Don Lockwood.

in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month

2010-09-26T19:38:00.001-07:00

i will tell you an embarrassing story about myself that shows you how ethnocentric i am.
some time ago, who knows how this came up, but i was with someone who was talking about Genesis. my concluding statement was, "poor Peter Gabriel, he felt he had to hide his heritage to succeed." of course Snake (that tells you how long ago this was) was like "What the fuck are you talking about?!?!?!?!" and i was like, "he changed the pronunciation of his name from Gabriel to Gayy-bree-el. he white-ified it." i am so ethnocentric i thought an Englishman was Latino. Snake looked at me like i was the dumbest of Dumb Breezys and told me to never repeat that story again. did i listen? obviously not.

i like white teeth

2010-09-26T03:10:00.000-07:00

the real thing. the novel was ok, i mean it had its problems but it's not like i'm saying i could do better.
anyway, this commercial -- leaves me a little bit speechless.

i honestly can't tell who they are making fun of. i mean, i think what's more likely is that they are hedging their bets and hoping that several different audiences appreciate the ad for different reasons. either way, i am fascinated. luckily! (ha, joking)

what fascinates me the most is the layers of culturality that this commercial is employing. i saw it on a Spanish-language station in LA and it seemed to be especially focused towards an incredibly specific focus group that i happen to be a part of. it was dubbed to be "read" (visually) in Spanglish. it's interesting that the Orbitz spokeswoman has a British accent. it's purposefully anachronistic and speaks to the savvy consumers; acknowledgment of the attribution of authority to the British accent in english-language commercials, but in the Spanish language commercial it has the extra level of imperialism, especially since it is meant (i am assuming) to be shown in parts of both countries where Mexican-American population is very high and the economy of mexican city relies very much on the economy of its sister and adjacent American city.

also there is the additional level of the female body and female sphere (the mother and grandmother are scandalized) being colonized by "masculinity", which, horrifically enough, transcends and overpasses (bypasses) the loyalties of culture, race and language.

hi my name is roslyn taber and i spend a lot of time alone in front of the tv

The Gold Room

2010-09-24T01:38:00.001-07:00

"I have stank-ass feet. And I know I go in and all those Asian ladies are talking shit about me. But this place -- here's what you do. You go to the back. Ignore the ones in the front, just go to the back and ask for Kim. She'll take care of you. Ask for Kim."
-- overheard by Incarnacion in the women's restroom

we are not watching the same movie

2010-09-24T00:17:00.000-07:00

or, "I Watched Machete Twice in a Week and I Think I Know How Huey Newton Felt When He Saw "Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song"
some notes on some of the movie's more vivid impressions:
so at the point where they are bumrushing the compound and "El Rey" comes on, i'm in Heaven. "El Rey", you'll remember [link to the gold room post] is, shamefully, the only mariachi song i know all the words to, but also maybe (and i may be getting ahead of myself by making this grand sweeping statement) the defining song for my generation (as opposed to, say, "Volver" for my parents' generation -- i'm losing conviction as i type, really)

anyway i realized it the first time, but the second time, because i was drunk, and i was with someone who was drunk, but when Angel and i realized that the license plate for the forerunner of the lowrider brigade had a personalized license plate that read "LAHONDA" we LOST.IT. we laughed so hard other people in the theater kept turning around and then really pointedly looking at the screen in a supreme effort to see what exactly it was that was so funny.

so OF COURSE Jessica Alba is the fucking Migra. and like yeah, it's cool that she renegs her previous bad decisions of putting her faith into a broken system but like, did we have to have her in the first place? like it makes sense eventually, because she is kinda light skinned and beautiful in a way that is palatable to an Anglo Saxon audience/people who are only attracted to white people, but ay.
ALTHOUGH, seeing a Hollywood-thin actress* who hasn't really made a point of her ethnicity thus far jump on top of a car in stilettos (exploitation +1, nice touch) and yell "We didn't cross the border. The border crossed us!" simultaneously gave me goosebumps (and made me tear up a little, and this wasn't even the screening i was drunk at!!!!!!) and made me cringe.
nice touch with Lindsay Lohan's dad badmouthing Mexicans while he asks for more salsa. i love when racists love Mexican food. (they can't stay away!)
while the adopted ginger is entertaining, as Dr. Nick Riviera pointed out, "couldn't they have gotten a light-skinned Mexican? or a Puerto Rican?" -- but to give the benefit of the doubt -- i he a shoutout to Smicks?

*let's get this straight: her body is her body, she can do what she wants with it, and Latinas, like everyone else, come in all shapes and sizes, but all i can think about is Paula Deen saying "I don't like this skinny trend because it makes people fight against their own body shape." and part of me is opposed to her being cast because of this weird body type vibe that i have gotten from Latina lesbians that suggests that anything other than a pretty grab-able amount of squish around the middle is succumbing to Whitey's opressive paradigm, but i think that segues pretty smoothly into my being disappointed with Rodriguez for using his clout to get some boring-ass gabacha who can't even pronounce the main character's name instead of someone like, totally awesome who could benefit from a leg up from a respected director.

California Adventure

2010-09-19T02:45:00.001-07:00

some general notes:

the key to world peace is riding the Silly Symphonies swing ride and singing Christmas carols karaoke (but mostly the former, since the latter could get problematic in Israel)

ordering six beers at a time and then coming back for two more rounds will get you cut off at a Disney establishment

dude the hot dogs on the fake Coney Island are bomb. i don't care that mine cost $6.

just like last time i went to a Disney theme park, i suggested we create a bingo game so we could keep ourselves occupied while waiting in line. the only thing i got was twins. Princess Banana Magique got something but now i can't remember what.

Jumbo's Clown Room

2010-09-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

so i went to a strip club last night for the first time ever. and i am not even sure if Jumbo's even really counts because there is no vagina. (showing. i mean, obvs. there is vagina present. basically, the girls stay in their underwear. i don't even remember seeing nipple? but i was drunk. so.) (anyway i think the lack of visible labia is a positive, but that's just me)

anyway! in addition to seeing Lemmy, i had the absolute pleasure of seeing this amazing dancer (i wish i had caught her name) kicking total ass to "Mr. Cellophane" from Chicago. i know, right?!?! the guys sitting next to me (who i suspect were roadies for Motorhead) were in total shock, too, which is kind of awesome, because it means that they recognized the song. seriously. this chick was above and beyond. she had a little top hat and tails, and was totally singing along, and her routine was really well choreographed, and her kicks were really good, and -- here's the kicker -- she did like three triple pirouettes in 5 inch heels. i love her.

celebrity sightings

2010-09-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

-- Elijah Wood celebrating a friend's birthday at Club Tee Gee
-- Lemmy hanging out with a dancer with dreads at Jumbo's Clown Room. he was waiting for a cab at the same time i was, and when the car pulled up i was like, "you can take it, Lemmy." he was very gentlemanly and insisted that i take it (the bouncer was also insistent, so maybe that had something to do with it). he also seemed surprised that i knew his name.

overheard on campus

2010-09-01T12:23:00.001-07:00

Girl 1: I don't understand that mindset.
Girl 2: She didn't even have internal bleeding.

The Gold Room

2010-08-30T00:08:00.001-07:00

the first time i went to the Gold Room was President's Day weekend 2007. it was that holiday Monday and Snake and i were taking our sweet ass time getting back to Santa Barbara after that impromptu co-op reunion.

we were the kind of drunk you can only get after a "let's stave off that hangover" meal that's immediately followed by day drinking out of the sunshine. you know, the kind of drunk that you can only get from 11:45 am - 4:00 pm and makes you wanna make out with your boyfriend or take a nap under a sweater. Snake passed a girl who was so drunk at 1pm that she was having a hard time making it to the bathroom. we later saw her trying to eat her boyfriend's face. with love, i think.

needless to say it was one of the places i was most excited about having easy access to when i moved here, so i was ecstatic when Dr. Nick Riviera and Albie suggested it as our first mutual outing.

the highlight of the night was befriending the man who was paying for the mariachis. Flaco was spending money like a sailor on shore leave. honestly, he looked happy to be alive the way only heterosexual men who've spent the last six weeks cooped up in a tight space with a bunch of other dudes look. i partner danced with him, we sang along to "El Rey", we had peanuts, it was a blast.

the greatest lines hip hop has given us

2010-08-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

1) i got five on it
2) a state that's untouchable like Elliot Ness
3) LA face with the Oakland booty
4) she got a light skinned friend looks like Michael Jackson/she got a dark skinned friend looks like Michael Jackson

my new corner store

2010-08-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

me to a girl that was wearing a really sparkly ring and was also trying to get one of the liquor store employees to open a bottle of wine for her because she didn't have a bottle opener at home and also had really long nails: i like your ring
Girl: (looking down at it) Oh you do? (looking down at it again, disdainfully this time) Let's see if I can turn it into a wedding ring.

Hollywood & Vine

2010-08-29T12:26:00.001-07:00

spotted: a man in scrubs sucking on a Marlboro light like his life depended on it

overheard at Vermont and Barnsdall

2010-08-27T15:27:00.001-07:00

"It's tough because we make mistakes. As a human, we make mistakes."
-- a middle aged guy to another middle aged guy

the weekend already?

2010-08-26T17:48:00.001-07:00

overheard cell phone conversations:
"You know what? Just ask if you can come by the house and have a beer."
- some bro
___________________

"Because Anna got a little... sum'thin.'"
- some chick

shameful admission #1

2010-08-25T00:34:00.000-07:00

i am so fucking ridiculous some (most of) the time. before i left San Francisco, pretty much the only things i could guarantee you would be in my kitchen were 3-6 kinds of cheese, popcorn kernels, salt, butter, and at least three kinds of ice cream. today i was really disappointed to realize that my fridge now contains celery, tomatoes, spinach, peanut butter, tuna salad, wheat bread, baked chicken, wild rice, and one sad lonely block of cheddar cheese. you know, like real people food.

2010-08-21T14:34:00.001-07:00

spotted crossing Sunset: middle-aged Filipina wearing a tribal "Team Edward" shirt

overheard on Fountain

2010-08-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

Woman: I mean being gay is already hard, but then he has this boyfriend...
Man: Maybe if he has his own room he'll experiment with girls more. He kinda swings both ways anyway.

Vermont between Sunset and Fountain

2010-08-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

spotted: a man in a muscle car waving a woman over and handing her a bouquet of flowers before she got on the bus.

The Drawing Room

2010-08-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

totally inadvertently, Daria and i ran into the new Dalva, and equally inadvertently, made friends with the HBIC for Sunday night karaoke. his name is Jeff and he is super nice and has a great voice.

i also have a soft spot in my heart for Jeff because he has a soft spot in his heart for Hall and Oates. apparently he had spent the whole day at Jumbo's, and at one point, one of the dancers had accidentally put Hall & Oates' "Kiss is On My Lips" on the jukebox. he was so ecstatic, he ran to the stage and got ready to throw money at her, only to realize that she was insistent upon the fact that it was a mistake and there was no way she was dancing to that song. he was so upset, all he could do was start chanting, "No Hall and Oates, no dollar notes!!!"

things i have experienced that are "so LA"

2010-08-19T14:47:00.001-07:00

-- the poolside bar at the Roosevelt
-- partying at a recording studio
-- this text message from a new friend:
"I am filming a movie all afternoon but then I am hanging out at my friend's pool. You're welcome to join."

Mi Vida Loca

2010-07-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

you guys i know this is really stupid but this movie is one of the main reasons i am super pumped about moving to L.A.

growing up i hated L.A. i'm not sure why -- i thought it was too big and dirty without anything cool about it. to me it was a place where people complained about traffic and chased movie stars. then in college, living in huge houses with a bunch of hippies in Berkeley, i decided that like L.A. was antithetical to my lifestyle beliefs. or something. but then i moved to Santa Barbara and the city became this glittering, beautiful thing that was worth striving for. like oh shit there's a lot of art in L.A.! and taking the train through the dried-out river emblazoned with graffiti and arriving in one of the most beautiful buildings i've ever seen, Downtown's Central Station, was the best part of the trip home to my parents' house. so thank you, Alison Anders, for making me realize that there's a lot to love about this dirty town.

i mean come on, with stills like this, how could one not surrender their heart?

i know i shouldn't, because it is Raiders-colored, but i really like Sad Girl's outfit here.

i have shoes like this. Kimmy Gibbler gave them to me.

"What the fuck are you gonna do with that, Mousie? Brush my hair?"

i have seriously acted this movie out more than once for people who have not seen it. what the fuck is my problem. hands down my favorite line is "Computers? That's fucked up, eh", and while it's spoken by Sad Girl, my favorite "character" (if she can even be called that, since she was an actual gang member pretty much playing herself) BY FAR is, of course, Whisper.

i also get really excited when i see actors from this film in other projects. i mean Helena Bonham Carter is the one who first said, "let's count how many members of this cast overlap with the cast of Selena" -- we've only counted two. i near about stood up out of my chair in the theater when i realized that El Duran is Che's friend in "La Mission."

* also if i'm talking about things that made me love L.A., i gotta thank the entire genre of Film Noir, but also specifically Brian DePalma. i took the train down from SB to Orange County to see "The Black Dahlia" with my Tia (because she's like super into that case and knows allllllllll the grizzly details and would tell me and my siblings about them at Christmas when everyone was digesting their brunch), and seeing the city being shot so beautifully, without facades, just totally awed me.

* oh and of course, "L.A. Plays Itself." so awesome.

2010-07-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

oh shit remember the last time i moved? i mean not the last last time, but like, the last epic time i moved? like from Berkeley to Tucson?

yeah. that time.

so like i mean ok i was pretty discombobulated because i was leaving the place i had lived in the longest other than with my parents and it was like my favorite place ever and i mean i was not that excited about moving to a place where the biggest consolation you get for living in a place where it is 97 degrees at 9pm for like 9 months out of the year is, "at least it's a dry heat." so i was procrastinating on packing. and the Conster was procrastinating on finishing a paper for her summer school class. naturally we decided to help each other by staying up all night the night before our flight to Tucson, like, in solidarity or something. which means that by the time we were loading Daria's car with my worldly possessions, we were pretty out of it. and made Daria make a detour to Walgreen's to buy something stupid even though we were already running late.
did i mention that i hired Ukiah and the Conster as transporters? i paid for their flights in return for their only packing a carry-on and each checking two of my suitcases containing said possessions. so they had to pretend like the humongous duffel bags that they were carting around were theirs, which is why when we got to the check-in counter and the Southwest employees weighed the bags and told us two of them were too heavy to fly, it was kind of awkward because like, i was really the one who was reacting, even though it was like, supposedly Ukiah and Conster's bags that they were talking about.
[before i get to the next part, keep in mind that i was working offa very little sleep and just the general mindfuck that is moving to a different state to start a new life]

so then i turned around, kind of exhaled, and said, "well i guess i'm not going to grad school then." luckily Ukiah wasn't having it, and asked the counterperson if we could have a few minutes to rearrange the materials in the luggage. he agreed, and we dragged the duffel bags off to the side of the check-in counter. for what was to be merely the first time that weekend, my underwear and most embarrassing personal items were flung about in a flurry of rearrangement. it was at that point that we realized that some of the bags were indeed much lighter than others and that this rearrangie thing just might work! at that point it was just a matter of finding heavy things ("like searching for buried treasure!" the Conster chirped). finally a culprit was unveiled. basically i am an idiot and i packed all my books in one bag. and then stuffed the other too-heavy bag fullllll of clothes and... this.

i was so out of it i packed a half-empty bottle of detergent. let's hope this move goes a little smoother.

things to look forward to

2010-07-09T10:27:00.001-07:00

numbered, but in no particular order:
1) avocados
2) sunshine
3) ROLLED TACOS
4) returning to my natural color (see #2)
5) proving people wrong when they say you "have" to own a car to live in LA
6) The Gold Room -- a mere 15 minute bus ride from my new home! (see #5)
7) going to a bar called the H.M.S. Bounty (!??!!??!?!?!?!?!? are you fucking serious ?!?!!! that is so exciting!!!! i grokked on the Bounty trilogy SO HARD this summer. like i'm still sad it's over, and the only other books that have really made me feel that way have been Infinite Jest and Remembrance of Things Past [no shit. of fucking course] like i talked everyone's ear off about these books and fairly recently went on a harangue about how i can't believe that there are no metal albums about them, especially Men Against the Sea and then i think i was like, "let's start a band for this express purpose!!!!!" so yeah. i'm stoked on this)
8) new decade new me!