Czech street map

lali puna — faking the books

can we unpack the irony of an honest abe impersonator/commemorative art

I am considering a trial run of Radical Honesty. I don’t want to do it because I’m “addicted to lying” or because I’m crazy about Dr. Brad Blanton, but rather because I have become addicted to apologizing and I think maybe that’s a form of lying, plus it’s ridiculous. Two days ago, I apologized while putting money in somebody’s tip jar. Then I apologized for apologizing. Then I apologized for being so strange. I think I would have preferred to have said nothing; if pressed, it would have to have been something like “Thank you for this coffee. It’s good, but overpriced.”

I like the idea of a thrilling social crime. It seems so selfish, so unsympathetic to the tiny emotional deaths caused in others, and yet it’s endlessly defensible: it’s honesty! Social graces are lovely, but fake. They make others feel nice, but that’s their only purpose; what good is any of it if we don’t mean it?

I can think of a few examples of people whose honesty has created this air of super-charisma about them, perceptible even to people who don’t know them all that well; I’m not sure, but I think being honest comes across as being in charge. I wonder if you also feel great, because you have so much less remembering to do (as Mark Twain would have reminded you). Imagine what you could do with all that extra space on your mind’s hard drive.

New York subway map by Zero Per Zero

A second ago I became aware of this blog, dedicated to “photos and personal observations on pieces from [the blogger’s] Edward Gorey collection” (and which provided me with a Youtube reminder of the PBS show “Mystery,” which used Gorey animation). I remembered, looking at those illustrated fluttery scarves on those long-necked women with the tiny heads, the day I got Amphigorey in fourth grade; I stayed up all night reading it under the covers with a flashlight. The next day I took it to school, after which I brought the book with me to the the Hudson Diner, where my friends and I ate mediocre cheeseburgers and chose our favorite Gashlycrumb Tinies.

yaaaay! today turned itself around! that’s what i’m talkin ABOUT!

left banke — walk away renee

file under: SONGS FOR WHEN LIFE IS TRIFLIN WITH U.

above, a Nuts About You Pecan Pal. It is $44.99.

ModCloth, we have to talk about this.

You’re selling a 5” tall wooden toy for adults for $45. You are naming these toys. Their names (there are five) are:

Jac Jac

Fanelli

Pecan (?)

Claudius

and

Pandacake.

I don’t think I can visit your website anymore.

Best,

Tess

the del mccoury band — 1952 vincent black lightning

eceu:

Nothing sounds as good as music in the fall.

And, while I’ve made many a fall/autumn mix, there are surely hundreds more to be made; the season simply opens itself up to a certain kind of feeling.  An appropriate musical lens becomes necessary, a soundtrack to your feet stepping off the bus and hitting the sidewalk as you make your way home, your freezing breath a cloud only barely in front of you, the sun setting just a little bit earlier with each passing day.

I tried to capture that feeling, that walking pace, that mood in this mix.  I’m not entirely certain that I succeeded, but I still think it’s a mix that will warm you up a bit - in that certain, sad autumn way - and keep you good company on any bundled-up walk through the cold and the leaves and the numbing of your toes…

An Autumn Mix

1. Why Try to Change Me Now? (Cy Coleman cover) - Fiona Apple
2. Theme (from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) - Jon Brion
3. Red - Okkervil River
4. November - Azure Ray
5. Cello Suite No. 1: Prelude - J.S. Bach
6. First Breath After Coma - Explosions in the Sky
7. I’m in Love with a Girl - Big Star
8. King of Carrot Flowers Part 1 - Neutral Milk Hotel
9. Polar Opposites - Modest Mouse
10. Northern Sky - Nick Drake
11. These Days - Nico
12. I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers
13. Sweet Thing - Van Morrison
14. I Felt Your Shape - The Microphones
15. Car - Built to Spill
16. No Name #3 - Elliott Smith
17. Pink Chimneys - The Promise Ring
18. Loro - Pinback
19. Olive Hearts - Bowerbirds
20. For Emma - Bon Iver

(All zipped up)

Tess: [pushes Sadie’s head off her lap, where she is begging for scraps under the table] Sorry, this is so embarrassing.

Cesar Millan: This dog, she needs to be rehabilitated.

Tess: Rehabilitated?

Cesar Millan: And you, her owner, you need to be train.

Tess: You want to train me? You guys?

Dov Charney: [masturbates]

Cate Blanchett: I’ve really got to go.

Dov Charney: [looms over Cate Blanchett while masturbating]

Cate Blanchett: Frankly, I’m quite upset with you, Tess. I’m going to stop taking your calls. You invited me to a dinner party, but it seems to me I’ve walked in on some sort of circus act. [shoves Dov away] And why is he in a gold leotard?

Tess: Dov, I asked you to try to tone down the outfits.

Dov Charney: [motions at his legwarmers]

Cesar Millan: He is only trying to assert dominance. If you want to be a leader of your pack…

Tess: [near tears] I just don’t want him to ruin my friendship with Cate! He’s really offending her! I just don’t want him to ruin my dinner party! Dov, seriously!

[Cesar Millan approaches Dov Charney, touches him on the nose and makes a shushing noise at him. Dov Charney crouches and wimpers in his chair, melting down to a sitting position. He resumes eating his dinner. Cesar Millan offers a hand to Cate Blanchett, to shake]

Cate Blanchett: I’m…unsure of how you did that. Or what you did, even.

Cesar Millan: I did not hit him, I only touched him.

lastnightsmeetup:

Reblog This Film Festival

bangs bangs bangs

6od:

Click above to watch the films from the LA Reblog This Film Festival.