Some fun for a Monday afternoon...

On transportation

Rode a motorcycle for the first time today. Actually, it was more like a souped up moped. Rather scary to be speeding along the dirt roads through the hills trying to keep my balance while wearing a heavy backpack. I did wear a helmet so no worries, ok, Charles? I think I will stick to jeeps from now on.... though next I want to fly in a helicopter.

Where the wild things are....

Thank Goodness they had that PS

Le sigh that season one of Downton Abbey is over. SO GOOD. I'm so obsessed with the servants and seeing all kinds of parallels of how they take care of their employers to the way assistants take care of their bosses. The way you get weirdly caught up in someone else's life and yet they are only half aware of you despite believing they can't get on without you. Loves it. Anyway, the point is thank goodness at the end there they were like PS don't worry, we've already started making more of this stuff cause we know you are addicted!! CANNOT WAIT for season two!!

OMG STEPHEN GOT A JOB

Thank God ZS & DS are so effing great and pick OUR TOP CHOICE WHOOP WHOOP! I'm way too excited about this. HAHAHAHAHA STEPHEN! But I don't love you Stephen! I DON'T LOVE YOU!

This is going to be our official anthem of 2011

Patrick Wolf frolicks around the Santa Monica Pier

How you actually "shower" when working off the map....

No plentiful hot water here....




Also, would never take a naked dip in a freshwater pool, unless I wanted to get schistosomiasis.... peeing blood, not very sexy. Not to mention that the nearest lake to the hospital has crocodiles and hippos.

Since Dodie is probably sad she is missing the new eps

NEWEST OBSESSION!!

Dodie when you get back you're going to have to watch it because it is fucking awesome. DEATH!! INTRIGUE!! BACKSTABBING!! AND A SASSY GAY FOOTMAN!! (okay, more scheming than sassy, but you get the point)

I was upset because I thought that the DVR hadn't recorded all of it only to realize that all of it hasn't aired yet. Can't wait for the next part.

Woke up to the sounds of

Chirping birds, lowing cows and crowing roosters. I'm not in the city anymore...

Dispatch from Kigali

Have arrived. STOP. Very excited about the next 6 months. STOP. Miss you guys.

Watch this then picture him with a flame thrower

Did you guys watch Modern Family?

It was so funny tonight! The kids on that show are so great. They were seriously funny tonight!!!

See? Wedding ring.

See Dodie? Completely different.

So Dodie and I were talking about Johnny Lee Miller and how Ewan McGregor just gets better and better with age. Then I mentioned Kevin McKidd and how different he looks from when he was in Trainspotting. Here are pics of proof for Dodie.

Why isn't this coming to Broadway?

A play based on Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle, starring the now almost unrecognizable Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict "Bite it. You've got to bite it." Cumberbatch. And each night the two actors alternate between playing Frankenstein and playing the Creature. I want to go....

Its that time of year...

...what are we doing for la mere's birthday? I've decided to think ahead on this for once. Do you guys know if she wants anything??

Guess What Comes Back Tonight!!!

It is 4am and the Animals in the Attic are going crazy

They keep on running from one side of the attic to the other and squeaking and squealing. Like I wasn't already having enough trouble sleeping due to the fact that I can't breathe through my nose and have a splitting headache.

Arrrggghhh.

The plan

Ok so I'm thinking this should be the goal. Need to sell a book by the end of June. I want to start sending out the first one in February. That way I can maybe move back East by the end of summer. Even if I have to get some sort of part time job until my fab book makes me money if I at least have a rep and have sold one, then I can work part time and work on the next in the meantime. I've been freaking out about things again and really don't want to stay in LA. I stupidly just read something that said all of California might wash away really soon and I'm very worried. I have to get out of here. No joke. And then maybe we all can get a place together. Would be so much better. And I'm over the West Coast. Sound like an ok plan? I have to get out of here.

Fashion!

I was very pleased that I was able to place the proper time period for most of these dresses (Victorian, Jane Austen, Edwardian, etc.) It was a very very cool exhibit!!

Kitties in space

You've got to admire girls who can work

Ed Hardy, Margaret Sanger and John Donne into a rap about a bad party scene...

"In no other decent country could any civilian, let alone a deranged one, legally get his hands on a Glock semi-automatic."

From The Economist: "SARAH PALIN once urged her supporters not to retreat but to reload. In the run-up to last year’s mid-terms her website carried a map of vulnerable Democrat-held seats, each marked with the cross-hairs of a gun-sight. Sharron Angle, a Republican candidate in that election, once said that the federal government needed “second-amendment remedies”—the second being the one about the right to bear arms. Right-wing radio and television hosts routinely indulge in the language of armed resistance to the tyranny that resides in Washington, DC, as though Barack Obama were a reincarnation of the hated King George III and they were the heroes of the revolution.

None of this is useful or clever—and it is no less awful because the American left is also guilty of crass hyperbole. But it is a big (and so far unjustified) leap to blame the woeful state of American political discourse for the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, a congresswoman, and the killing of six people in Tucson, Arizona, on January 8th (see article). Worse, by focusing on this issue, America is ignoring the real culprit: its gun laws....Such talk certainly makes it harder for America’s two political parties to co-operate in tackling urgent questions such as their nation’s gargantuan debt, or its slide in the world education rankings. And, in the country with the developed world’s highest murder rate and easiest access to guns, violent political rhetoric that paints government as an enemy to be fought is troubling."

I'm very sad that glock sales skyrocketed after the Tucson shootings. Argh. We need better gun control laws.

Flat = apartment

I LOVED Madeleine L'Engel growing up!

And these kids are pretty awesome....must re-read A Wrinkle In Time....

Have you seen the street photos by Vivian Maier?

I think you'll be inspired to take your camera out into the city again, Es! Apparently, Vivian Maier was a nanny living in Chicago and New York City and also an amateur photographer.



Her negatives were sold in an auction and the guy that bought them has been printing her amazing photos and posting them online.

Clay illustrations by Irma Gruenholz

aka illustracion con plastilina. Such whimsy. I love them.

This looks promising

I was afraid Hollywood would tone her down too much

Charles you lucky bitch...

Bet you don't miss being here now...
Freaking shoveling...

Otters holding hands while they sleep so they don't float away from each other.

Water Sculpture by Shinichi Maruyama

I found these fleeting works of art to be beautiful and amazing. The artist calls his work "writing in the sky."

Water Sculpture from Shinichi Maruyama on Vimeo.

In memoriam

Remember. Reflect. Respond.

I WANT ONE

So The 39 Steps isn't a true story?

A moment

By Paul Krugman: "So will the Arizona massacre make our discourse less toxic? It’s really up to G.O.P. leaders. Will they accept the reality of what’s happening to America, and take a stand against eliminationist rhetoric? Or will they try to dismiss the massacre as the mere act of a deranged individual, and go on as before?"

So I am officially freakin' out about my trip

Started packing today. Figured I should actually put some effort into thinking about what I might need for 6 months in rural Africa (no just throwing a couple pairs of underwear into an accordion file folder and hopping on a train...) Anyways, am just nervous about the whole thing and second-guessing myself -- will my French be sufficient? will I be able to provide optimal care for my patients? I'm going to be the pediatrician for a cachement area of almost 1 million people and it is freaking me out. People who live on less than a dollar a day are going to take their life savings and travel miles, days, sometimes even across international borders to bring their children to see a doctor, to see me. Have I trained hard enough? Have I studied enough? Have I seen enough cases to guide me when I will be truly on my own? I think about the other physicians who I beat out to get this position, this opportunity and wonder if my patients would be better served by seeing them? Argh.
I know I wouldn't be happy unless I had a career that pushed me to my limit mentally, physically, emotionally, but what if I can't hack it? I know that when I get there and am thrown into things, I'll be fine, but for right now I'm filled with self-doubt.

Muck it.

So I recently went on a Frontline binge and watched their investigation into police activity the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ("Law and Disorder") and also in BP's history leading up to the oil spill ("The Spill"). Wow. Totally eye-opening, but also completely depressing.

A significant proportion of the investigative reporting featured in the Frontline presentations was by ProPublica, an independent non-profit organization that bills itself as "journalism in the public interest... Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them." ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for 2010 and cover stories that are overlooked by the mainstream press. Very, very impressed by their work. You guys should read their stuff.

Countdown

I liked this poem and photo featured in the CS Monitor....

Kenyan Childhood

When the tremor struck,
All the lizards ran out
From behind the paintings.

Afterwards, we melted butter
On the roof of the car
To make sponge cake.

– Christopher Nield

COME ON you two! how can you not want to watch this??

It looks rad. I'm super pysched. People riding horses! People falling down in the mud! Servants and Upper Class! handsome British men to google! Its all good things for sure.

Best throw-away line in an article ever

From the NYT article on the development of "The Green Hornet":

"But the director was unable to work with Nicolas Cage, the film’s original villain. For reasons known only to him, he insisted on using a Jamaican accent.

'I was quite relieved when he announced he no longer wanted the part,' Mr. Gondry said."

OH MY GOD WATCH THIS NOW!!!

Have you guys seen this before? Hilarious.

Inspiration Part Deux

Read Edwidge Danticat's brilliant, insightful collection of essays, Create Dangerously today. In it she writes:

"Creating fearlessly, like living fearlessly, even when a great tempest is upon you. Creating

fearlessly even when cast lot bo dlo, across the seas. Creating fearlessly for people who see/watch/listen/read fearlessly. Writing fearlessly because, as my friend Junot Diaz has said, 'a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.' This is perhaps also what it means to be a writer. Writing as though nothing can or will ever stop you. "

More of Junot Diaz's thoughts on becoming a writer here.

Inspiration for mes soeurs

Zadie Smith's rules for writers (from my new favorite source for cultural stuff)

"1 When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

2 When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.

3 Don't romanticise your "vocation". You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no "writer's lifestyle". All that matters is what you leave on the page.

4 Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can't do aren't worth doing. Don't mask self-doubt with contempt.

5 Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.

6 Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won't make your writing any better than it is.

7 Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.

8 Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

9 Don't confuse honours with achievement.

10 Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied."

Luckily, due to our PBS childhood, we've got number one down pat....

Some books coming out this year just for you, Es.

First, Alan Hollinghurst finally has a new book out this year, The Stranger's Child. It is supposed to be "an epic story of two families and two houses spanning the entire 20th century." Also, David Foster Wallace's unfinished last work, The Pale King will be published. I should probably pre-order a copy for you now, Es...

Yet another BBC production to look forward to

Yup. Called Page 8. It is about spies or something and involves Bill Nighy, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, and Rachel Weisz. Sounds awesome.

Best description of a sculpture ever

From the Guardian: "Thomas Houseago's sculpture has guts. He makes huge, dishevelled macho figures from gobbets of gloriously messy plaster, built around visible armatures of rusty metal rods. Squatting, crawling or standing proud with legs astride, their provocative postures and gooey materials suggest sex, violence and shit."

No one plays the drums with their feet, but this is my favorite

.

Petrojvic Blasting Company song, "Fido Oro". Thanks for the album, Es!

I think I started yapping about this a year ago too...

but now I feel like Dodie can really get excited...JE and TH in one movie? mostly running around being shirtless? yes please!!

Confirmed flight whoop whoop.

Sounds like a trek... Boston to NYC to Brussels to Kigali then sleep overnight in the airport and a jeep ride off into the hills....

What I am reading now -- short story edition

So I always thought of short stories as something you read in English class ("The Yellow Wallpaper"! "The Lottery"! Poe and O'Henry) or maybe when you picked up one of those highbrow New York centric magazines while waiting in an airport, but this year, I read quite a few short story collections and loved them.

The first was Spoiled by Caitlin Macy. All of her characters are flawed and, well, spoiled women who are confronted by their own moral failings and often don't live up to the challenge. I felt she really got inside her characters heads and pointed out uncomfortable truths for her readers (which is why I think reviewers tended to malign her work -- it hit too close to home). While reading her stories, I found myself asking, "Am I like that? Am I becoming that?"



Next was Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters, a collection of sweet, but sad stories about children with a touch of the fantastic. I was utterly transported and they all left me with a lump in my throat by the end. You must finish reading them, Es! I also loved the homage to the Garment District and the rooms of old dresses all arranged by color. You can read some of her stories here on her website.










The next book purports to be a novel, but it is more of a collection of short stories with overlapping characters. A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert provides glimpses into the lives of five generations of women, all descended from a suffragette who starved herself to death in protest. Cheerful, I know. She writes intelligently about the struggle to find meaning in daily life and how to define oneself as a woman with each character placed in a different historical context. Littered with casual references to literature, anthropology, evolution...I loved it. You can read one of the chapters here.




Lastly, right now I am working my way through Vanishing by Deborah Willis, a Canadian author who was recommended by NPR. Thanks to Charles, I now understand her references to Loblaws and the Bloor Aqueduct. In the interview with the author she says,"As a kid, I grew up reading people like Stephen King and Elmore Leonard, and though I'll never be able to write books like theirs, they left me a sense that stories should generally have a good plot. Though my stories are short, I want them to have movement and drama." She lives up to her word with well-drawn characters and plots that say almost as much as they don't say, leaving you to imagine the rest. You can read one of her stories here.