Lapowinsa: Look, we not want to seem patronizing - after all, it's your duffel cloth - but we been in Mannahatta long time. And, sure, it seem dazzling and sophisticated at first. But living here? (He makes a skeptical face.) It not everything it cracked up to be.

Peter Minuit: (worried) Why? Is there a scourge? Warlike neighbors?

Lapowinsa: Not "scourge" per se. (Pinches fingers philosophically.) More like cultural pathology.

Peter Minuit: I don't follow.

Lapowinsa: You know, little things: like how people only interested in "what you hunt," not "who you are"; the relentless sarcasm; Fashion Week - oh, and how everyone always talking about Greenmarket! Seriously, it's just produce! It make you feel like social pariah because you don't like rainbow chard.

Calkanicha interjects.

Lapowinsa: Chief say chard thing even worse in Brooklyn.

-"Mannahatta" by Yoni Brenner, The New Yorker

'cause you know me, jon stewart...i'm old school, i don't be pullin' out.

man in black: morning.

jacob: mornin'.

man in black: mind if i join you?

jacob: [shaking his head] please. want some fish?

man in black: thank you. i just ate.

[the man in black sits down not far away.]

jacob: i take it you're here 'cause of the ship.

man in black: i am. how did they find the island?

jacob: you'll have to ask 'em when they get here.

man in black: i don't have to ask. you brought them here. still trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?

jacob: you are wrong.

man in black: am i? they come. they fight. they destroy. they corrupt. it always ends the same.

jacob: it only ends once. anything that happens before that is just progress.

[the man in black stares at his compatriot.]

man in black: do you have any idea how badly i wanna kill you?

jacob: yes.

man in black: one of these days, sooner or later...i'm going to find a loophole, my friend.

jacob: well, when you do, i'll be right here.

man in black: always nice talking to you, jacob.

jacob: nice talking to you, too.

[the man in black stands up and walks away. planted just near and towering above the beach spot where jacob has made his breakfast is the four-toed statue of taweret.]

- lost, season 5 episode 16

damon lindelof and carlton cuse, this is what i'm talking about. crazy mythology and the man in black and finally, some answers.

and another 20 minutes left!

"If I were to serve openly as a homosexual, nothing would be the same. Slaughtering terrorists just wouldn't feel special. It would be, like, Yeah, so today I detonated a bunker filled with snipers, and then I texted my boyfriend, and I agreed that we should only use cerulean for an accent wall. Big whoop. But now, when I have to be more coded and paranoid, every time I strap on my body armor and hoist my M16 I can think, Hey, Mr. Jihad, how about a brunch date with my rocket launcher? I'm not an openly gay soldier; I'm a secret gay soldier, and that makes me fierce! I'm Project Gunway!"

-"Don't Ask Me" by Paul Rudnick, The New Yorker

recently there's been a good deal of press regarding terry richardson's alleged...umm...uncouth behavior toward the young models he frequently photographs.

i am a huge fan of richardson's photography and have been loving his blog as of late, so it's just kind of disappointing to know that he's quite possibly a dirty, old man...albeit a supremely talented one.

trailers are the problem.

i somehow managed not to see a trailer for the hurt locker, either on television or in a theater. after my parents saw the movie and loved it, and it won best picture at the oscars, i ordered the hurt locker on demand.

it was a really freakin' good movie. believable acting. a realistic and eye-opening portrayal of a war i lived through (am living through?). fantastic, gritty cinematography. and an edge-of-your-seat plot that wasn't hokey or gratuitous. the hurt locker is a war movie for people who don't like war movies.

but now, watching the trailer, the movie i saw and loved is pretty hard to find. instead, there's suspenseful background music (i'm pretty sure there was almost no music in the film; the suspense of the action itself was more than enough) and a one-dimensional plot (a southern-sounding white guy who diffuses bombs).

also to be considered is the psychological process of habituation: "the psychological process in humans and animals in which there is a decrease in psychological response and behavioral response to a stimulus after repeated exposure to that stimulus over a duration of time" (wikipedia). 

(warning: i am about to describe some imagery that is included in the trailer. if you consider this a spoiler, be forewarned.) there is a bit near the end of the hurt locker trailer that shows a member of U.S. forces (sgt. james) pulling several feet of red wire up from dust and rubble. he follows the red wire, which leads not to one, but five bombs, spread out 360 degrees around him. it's a threatening and unexpected image which pulled me a bit further to the edge of my seat.

but for anyone who's seen the trailer, habituation has kicked in. you know what's coming as soon as sgt. james' hands grip the red wire, and it's impossible for that image to have the same psychological and physiological effects the second time around.

trailers compile the one-dimensional bits of plot, character and dialogue and then play the most easy-to-read music underneath (e.g., low thumping for suspense, swelling violins for unrequited love, et cetera). nuance just doesn't read in two and a half minutes.

go here to watch logorama, the oscar winner for best animated short.

it is pretty cool. and depressingly terrifying.

i used to download a lot of free, illegal music. first from napster, then from kazaa and then from limewire. however, when limewire began infecting my computer with viruses, i stopped.

since that time (perhaps 2-3 years ago), i have, for the most part, obtained my music legally. well, kinda. a lot of it comes from friends. and however they acquire music...well, that's a bit of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy (the only one about which i feel morally decent).

the point of all this is that i recently bought 2 albums from amazon: felt 3 by slug and murs and the soundtrack to crazy heart. and neither of these albums came in a plastic jewel case. both were packaged in cheap-o, crappy cardboard.

i look at this as a chicken-or-the-egg situation. on the one hand, the music industry isn't doing so hot. and i would assume these cardboard cases cost a lot less to manufacture than the shiny, plastic jewel cases. on the other hand, these cardboard cases give me just another reason not to purchase music.

when i know i could get what i'm buying for free (and the packaging is cheap and adds nothing to the product), i'm getting ripped off and i know it.

this is hilarious. splitsies?

the new zappos commercials are fantastic. especially because i love puppets. and zappos.

terry richardson with spike jonze.

i want terry richardson's life.

i watched a lot of mitch hedberg today. it made me start thinking.

mitch hedberg, janis joplin, bradley nowell, jimi hendrix, jean-michael basquiat, elliott smith, kurt cobain, john belushi, dj am, keith haring, heath ledger, chris farley, river phoenix, dash snow, justin pierce, vincent van gogh, mark rothko, nick drake, jim morrison.

just a few of the many brilliant artists who died too young from drugs, suicide or (possibly) a combination of both. what one must ask, though, is how much of what they created artistically could have been done without the aid of drugs, depression or (possibly) both.

above is a photograph of campers and counselors from the 1960s-1970s at hidden valley camp, the summer camp i attended for 4 years. unfortunately, the hvc website doesn't specify the exact date of the photo. 

several things stand out:

1. the camp was far more diverse back in the day than from 1997-2000 when i attended.

2. the camp was just as wonderfully hippie dippy from 1997-2000 as it was back in the day.

3. i have always suspected that hvc highly resembled the fictitious camp firewood from wet hot american summer. this photo confirms my suspicions. 

10.

it is so important to me that things are, simply, right.

today i read a blog post (from a well-read blog) that discussed the movie "an education," but wrote of it as "the education."

also today, i sat with a well-spoken person who referred to an acronym as an anagram.

though perhaps my constant lower-case writing bothers others, these sorts of things bother me to no end.

"when i was in college, i used to get wicked hammered. my nickname was puke. i would chug a fifth of soco. sneak into a frat party. polish off a few people's empties. some brewskies. some jello shots. do some body shots off myself. pass out. wake up the next morning. boot. rally. more soco. head to class. probably would've gotten expelled if i'd let it affect my grades, but i aced all my courses. they called me ace. it was totally awesome. got straight b's. they called me buzz."

-andy bernard

jeff bridges and terry richardson. the dude abides.

shoes.

food.

not maggie. but looks a whole lot like her.

"i think i'm the only person in the history of the world to wake up hungover and not even drink the night before."

- anonymous

speaking of final seasons, here's another that need not worry about the cursed series finale: michael and michael have issues. comedy central has cancelled the show after one season (or at least that's what michael ian black tweeted earlier today).

while m.m.h.i. was no stella, it was still a lovely little show to accompany a joint.

(p.s. michael showalter - i know you live in brooklyn. i love you. find me!)

as the final season of lost continues on its merry way (now 1/3 of the way finished), i'm realizing more and more that it is nearly impossible to create a final season of any beloved television show that will satisfy both viewers and creators alike.

seinfeld couldn't do it. they left off with the predictable let's-bring-everyone-back-for-one-final-hurrah device. not only was the episode boring, it was highly unfunny.

the sopranos couldn't do it. though i, personally, enjoyed the ending, i understand the overall audience anger at david chase. as the audience, we devote time, energy and real human emotion toward these fictional characters. we want a real human ending, not an ellipsis.

arrested development didn't have to do it. i guess that's what happens when you're a self-referential, absurd and intelligent sitcom...you get cancelled after 3 seasons instead.

curb your enthusiasm hasn't done it yet. i have faith that larry david won't let me down.

30 rock and the office also haven't done it yet. i can't say i have the same faith in nbc as i do in mr. david.

i guess what it comes down to is that, at this point, i'm pretty relieved that lost is ending. i'm resigned to the fact that no, i won't be getting many answers. and yes, i probably have wasted a good deal of the past 5 years theorizing, reading lostpedia and allowing damon lindelof to "engage in vigorous intercourse with the squishy contents of [my] skull."

calla lily.

"Eschatology (lit. 'study of the last') is a part of theology and philosophy concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world."

-wikipedia

"On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other."

-stewart brand