toronto

dear alex: i was in toronto for PRIDE week, which is a BIGGG deal there (gay marriage is legal there), canada day, and the finals of the world cup, in a global city. it was madness and wonderful.  * i arrived in toronto at 6:30 am on thursday. i checked my bags into the hostel i was staying out (isnt that funny, i stayed out a hostel), and then i walked very very very far around the city. it was empty, it was on the brink of rain, and it was pretty and very clean. a though i had scribbled in my planner at about 9 am that day: “oh toronto! lots of parks, churches, universities and bikes. and your homeless population is crazy in a charming way.” 

because at 7 am on a thursday, who else do you encounter in parks but homeless people!

i then had a photo shoot at 2 pm, so i figured out how to get there by subway. i went to my hostel where i still could not get into my room, or shower, and i packed a bag of all the necessary heels and lacy things needed for this shoot, and off i went. the photographer was talented and wonderful and fun to hang out with, and his make-up artist (well, MY mua at that point) was as well. and that seemed tobe the theme of my time there. i got to shoot w lots of friendly talented people, and i am now shifting through the first ~1,ooo pictures from the trip right now.  

above: here is one. 

and here is a closing thought: alex DONT KILL ME for not getting this for you. it was the best thing i have ever seen, but that shop never opened while i was in the area bc of the pride parade going past it, and i didnt have time to make it back. but it was a tee shirt that said ‘Everytime You See a Rainbow, God is Having Gay Sex’. 

hahaha. perfect right?

 

 

 

dear LAAlex

hey- suzy is toronto is amazingly busy. she is here for work not play, she just realised, two days in, and now she is so tired every morning she can barely move. modeling is tiring, seeing new cities is tiring, especially when the way one likes to explore is by walking. 

however, i will be home and have time on monday to recap. i think i scored (some big) return modeling gigs here, and i *may be returning, and also going to vancouver island in september. come with come with. im thinking about taking one year “off” from office life to model. have i told you that yet? is that pure insanity?? discuss. 

i dont have pics from this trip yet, i dont have concrete stories to write yet, but all i can say is that traveling anywhere makes me feel more alive. awake. aware. afloat. 

 

ps- modeling site: http://www.modelmayhem.com/pics.php?id=358225 (mine- but you cant see the nudes, which are half my work.) (JOIN alex join!!!) 

 

Dear Toronto Suzy,

So why can’t you tell us more about Toronto.  Are you without the internet.  I didn’t think much of the world was left “without the internet”, so you must be super-busy. Which is great.  Again, WHAT is that modelling website, I was to join.

Warm in L.A. and it just a moment ago got dark.  Dark dark.  And I had to turn just one light on in the house.  That and computer screen glow.   Warm.  

Weeknights from 8-10PM on KCRW (my XPN) a guy named Jason Bently DJ’s this amazing block of amazing trance/funk, pretty trippy music.  I want him to fill my iPod.   You could stream it sometime when your going to bed, 11 and on, your time.  Which seems like a better time for trance anyway.

IT’S FRIDAY ! And usually that wouldn’t mean much to me, the often unemployed man that I am.  But I just completed an ENTIRE M-F work week.  PHEW!  That was nuts, can’t believe people constantly do that.  EVERY MORNING at 9 ALL WEEK. ???   Just wacky!   Next week 4 days and short hours, then SF for the 4th and back to no work in LA a couple weeks.  HAHAHAHA!   Since my office is totally wrapped and closed (TV show productions are like the Circus, sweeping through and then disappearing like a carnival drives off.  Leaving behind just the silence of an empty office, a few pencils and staples left behind.)  The fleeting feeling is something I like about my work. Next week I’m working for the writers as the last touches are made on the show before it’s final cut is handed over to ABC.  I’ll be working basically from my car and post-production houses.  

I’m having some Sake.  I met this lovely girl at the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy club a while back and of all the drinks to sneak in for the show she had heaps of cheapo sake.  I was so intrigued and she I exchanged stories and I vowed to try making sake my drink of choice sitting round the house.  It’s basically healthy, right?  And good.  And a wine-sized bottle for 3 bucks can be found at Trader Joes.  

The gay pride parade in Toronto will be very exciting I bet, very international city it is, right?  Well the gay in general are international, by genetics or something.  

This is going to be a health and wellness weekend.  Only because I’m so rarely in L.A. for a weekend.  It’s my chance to do Sat and Sunday morning yoga.  Farmer’s market, eat out with the yogis.  Enjoy.  Sip sake.  I want nothing more.

I WANNA SEE WALL-E.  I DO I DO!  I am hearing wonderful things.  Read this amazing review from Times!

 

 

 

 

not happening

Advice to everyone and Suzy:  Do not see “The Happening”.

See, even for a guy living in Hollywood, I usually roll my eyes at previews for big budget Hollywood blockbusters, especially the summertime crap.  I’d rather Netflix some indy flick that makes me cry.  Not to mention modern movie theaters are not my favorite place.  They are too loud and too cold and too expensive. 

But, for a variety of reasons, I like to support M. Night Shyamalan.  For one, he’s from and works in Philadelphia.  It excites me when a big Hollywood movie is in production outside of the LA area, especially in one of my homes of Philly.  I did like The Sixth Sense and The Village.  I’m not one for horror, but the crazy twist endings were cool.  And Toni Collette’s performance in the car in ‘Sense” made me cry.   I kinda liked Signs cause I like aliens but I hate Mel Gibson. 

I was interested in “The Happening” because it was M. Night, shot in and around Philly, because of sexy Mark Wahlberg, because I knew it had some themes of terrorism and global warming.  I was warned by numerous that it was an awful film, but when I saw that the run time was 90 minutes, I thought: what the hell.  (Another problem I find with new movies is that directors insist on these over-two-hour-epics.  Ever since fucking Titanic, it seems that every movie prides itself on length.  I can’t sit in a cold theater for nearly 3 hours, especially if you count the time for previews and Pepsi ads.  Fuck.)

I asked a friend who saw the movie if it was good? if it had a twist ending? if Marky Mark looked hot? and he said: NO, NO, NO.

Shit.

I gave it a shot anyway.  What crap.  How disappointing.  Who allowed this to be made?
The acting was miserable.  Think monotone statements: “Oh my god, the area is infected, what should we do?”.  There was NO twist ending.  The concept is slightly interesting:  We humans have finally pissed off the trees and greens on the earth so they are fighting back by releasing some psychotropic toxin that causes infected individuals to immediately kill themselves.  However, this was executed pretty poorly and to top it off, the boom mic made a few appearances as well.  I can accept this in an 80’s flick.  But come on, I know how easily a blooper like that can be fixed in post-production.   There is something really mysterious about the whole thing… the bad acting, the bloopers.  Is M. Night playing a joke on us?  “Look, I’m famous from just one movie and I can still get away with whatever I want.” 

So anyway, friends.  Don’t bother with it.  And in my opinion, as I walked the hallways of the Pacific Theater Megaplex in Glendale, I realized that there is not a single film now or coming this summer that sparks interest in me.  It’s funny as I say this I’m sitting in a production office at a studio in L.A.  Go figure.  Maybe I should go have a talk with someone.

For old times sake,

 

dear toronto,

(suzy).

your photo of something-or-other-park-slope did not come through.
i will blog a lot today, later.

look at this photo my father took of my mother probably 30 years ago…

 

off to toronto

hi alex. it is in the 6 o clock hour(YUCK) and i am packing for my trip. 7 modeling jobs in 4 days. whew! 

i dont know if i have wi-fi at my HOSTEL(i am staying in a private room in a hostel, ha!), but if i do i will post. if not, i will tell all my tall and taller toronto tales when i am back in the states. until then, enjoy this lovely pic from a lovely person i worked with in the park near my house this weekend:

check out the

(morning S,)

dinner i made last night.  i had all the fixens so i made a big ol’ cheese, fruit and olive plate for one.  i even snuck some chocolate covered almonds on there.  i feel i belong in a commercial kitchen sometimes. 

i would like to see photos of you in the red lipstick.  i’ve never seen you in lipstick i dont believe. not even in london party days.  (6 years next month).  you promised more photos anyway. 

i’m in an office this week and mostly alone as things for this show wind down.  the funny thing is i sit very still at my desk and the overhead lights on are on sensors, so they turn off if there is no movement for 30, 40 minutes.   its very dark now, but i will stand up and get some water and they will go on.

 

june is over, i thought it was just like christmas time

dearestalex, 

that looks like a word, huh?! your garden is lovely. it reminds me in a way of when we did that in philly, me and those great people i lived with. we lived in the shittiest house in the shittiest part of the city, and one day the shittiest of all the roommates (the only shiity rm) said ‘we should plant a garden out back’ and he build these wooden structures and we planted tomatoes and peppers and a watermelon that never grew in them. the rest grew. but the wm didnt pull through. (he was havin  too much fun underneath the soil.)

anyway i think that garden was there when i had that bday party for you, in that house and that backyard. were they? do you remember them?_____in another life, a millon years later and a practically different girl than the one who lived in that house, i am wearing red lipstick, eating chinese food, dying my hair red, drinking the last beer, discontent with all the music, and hot and sweaty from a brooklyn summer’s air. 

i never wear lipstick but ive been wanting to wear it, and red. and i have.———–i havent dyed my hair since like the 7th grade, and the smell of it makes me feel as if i am in 7th grade, and that my mother is going to yell at me, for dying my ‘pretty natural hair- whats wrong with the real color!’ and for also getting big drops of it allover the bathroom walls. that will reoccur quite a few times, and then i will stop, at blond. having tried it all. red black pink blond. long long, short like a boy, all the inbetweens. i used to be everything when i was younger, but now i am just who i have been for awhile. and i guess now i want to be someone else. 

but- who- doesnt. 

leaving for toronto on wed. i have a LOT of modeling jobs and i am going to make a LOT of money and it is all very pleasing. i hope i dont fuck it up. bc its just me. and no maps, bc i dont like those. and maybe no cell phone, bc i dont know if it works. but i will have many colors of heeled shoes! and i will have a book about philosophy or some shit! and i will make a big to-do list (‘TO DO in toronto, for real!’), that i wont do any of. maybe those will be better than a map. 

what do you think, dearestalex? i mean, we made all it All Through Europe. didnt we?

or was that another girl, a million lifetimes ago, who would never wear red lipstick and dye her hair and eat chinese food that maybe even had egg in it, and drink beer. 

yes- it was… 

have to go wash my hair now. 

i love you, from a million years ago in the backyard party and in the kitchen of our london dorm, and on my rooftop in brooklyn, and today. whoever i am today loves whoever you are today. 

PRESENTING ZANDER’S GARDEN

Does it sound like something is wrong with that announcement. I think it sounds sexy. But here’s what’s sexy, my vegetable garden…. I’ve included photos finally.

HERE IS BEFORE, on the side of my LA house…

HERE IS TODAY!!  2 months later, I have all those big tomatoes…, and the beginning life 
of carrots, beets, basil, snow peas, dill, butter lettuce.  Except snails got to my butter lettuce and
I put a stop to that and started again.

DILL!

BEET GREENS!

SNOW PEAS! 

 

straight hair

dear suzy, my roommates straightened my hair and it became an obsession. tomorrow it all comes off

weather and politics and salsa

dear S and NY,

I’m in the valley region of Los Angeles, always known for its hot desert heat that does not feel the breeze of the Pacific.  It’s 105 where I am and higher deeper north.   The car and the bank both read 105 while I drove around this morning.  MORNING.  It’s 1PM now and should subside.  Hoping in heat. 

Listen, I’m a little confused about the REAL relationship between politicians.  So now Hillary is going to “campaign with” Obama and bring the party together. (Let’s not even look ahead to her maybe being VP).  I just want to know, with all the arguing and competing and back stabbing, are they just still friends. When it’s all over does H really say to O, “great for you man, I’m not at all let down or angry, so I’ll just ride along with you now….”    Do they have each others cell phone numbers or what?    I know that if I had that kind of one on one pressure with another person and their entire movement (all I can compare to is a real hard to leave relationship), I wouldn’t have the kind of face to just “be cool”, like they do with each other all the time. 

I found a way to basically make salsa into a meal, like, eaten with a fork…

SALSA, FOR LUNCH?  AND NO CHIPS?

1 bowl
1 can black beans
1 can yellow corn
2-3 chopped tomatoes
1 diced carrot
1-2 diced jalapenos
1 diced radish, if available
1 diced scallion or onion, whiver available
1 whole squeezed lemon or lime
cilantro
garlic
chile powder
top with shredded chedder cheese and eat with a fork. 

to whom it may concern

dear alex, 

we are going to do this. we are going to write and blog. and blog and write. we will write about news and politics and have interesting dialogue, and we will also write about pieces of our lives. bit and pieces such as this: 

 

i am late for everything for like the 3rd day in a row. i am wearing what ive been wearing for two days, but now i have to change because i am on my way to teach (though late) and i saw my co-teacher yesterday. mr. wally can just NOT see me in the same brown brooklyn industries tee with a red white and blue feather on it two days in a row. 

 

no yoga with two people for me here in new york, but i can tell you, at least once a week i understand why so many people in LA and NYC do cocaine. because where has all my time gone- up til 6 am again, saw the sunrise, did not see enough sleep time, and now i am off off off running into another full night… 

but no cocaine. dont worry. i dont want to rely on something like that. but that doesnt mean i dont understand the pull of it… 

love you. love this. i have a lot to write about, and i will soon. 

x. o.  p. s. i just tried to insert music and couldnt. i want to. do you know?

 

dear suzy (or hey suzy or HI suzy),

(i do like this already)

(also, the blog is nearing 2 years old, time to use it, shiiiit)

So a TV ad just caught my eye. It was a movie preview for the newest summer m night sham. movie, the happening. (is it Philly again?) Anyway, the ad only briefly mentioned the content and made it obvious that Mister Wahlberg is in it. What it did do was announce that it is: THE FIRST MOVIE FROM M NIGHT SHYAMALAN RATED “R”. Well I never knew the others weren’t but then again I guess once your of age you don’t actually pay attention to the ratings. I just thought it was interesting that the movie plugs itself as BEING rated R, when usually America frowns on the adult themes. Yet, THE HAPPENING would be G in France, right? Or they wouldn’t make such a probably shitty movie in the first place?

Steve Carrell is hosting SNL and talking about New York in the summertime.

Wish I was the in the East Village with you wondering after the R.E.M. concert and I’m also glad you saw how emotional that boy can be too. We all love him!

Tell the story about the homeless man and the chainsaw…. TELL IT!

I can’t believe I worked a full a day of work, not a hard one, but like I woke up early and stayed in once place all day and even made some money. I haven’t done that since the day before my step-dads death April 10. AND tomorrow’s already Friday, shit! And I have plans to go dancing I’m hoping…

Lastly, my usual Thursda yoga teach was a sub and she said so kindly to me and my friend Nori, the only 2 there practicing…that her thoughts lately are on friendship. I thought of all my love for friendship through the pain.

WAY lastly: is there anywhere in NY that you could do yoga while in a class of 2 students?

WAYYYYYY LASTLLYYY I’ll leave you with Jill and I in Mexico….. MORE PHOTOGS!

bag

i made this bag online and will start to sell them soon.

home to

well, one of my homes. kitty, garden. I PROMISE GARDEN PICTURES ASAP. Tivo, stereo.

I drove 420 miles home, 7 hours. Averaged 48 MPG and never filled up once – I never even stopped, as I made a deal with my bladder that if the car didn’t need gas then I didn’t need to pee.

It’s fucking HOT in LA.. I know not like YOUR hot, but its all relative, and its very rare living here to EVER have to sleep over the sheets.. and remember – the average person here does not have A.C. We have a big box fan.

Just this morning I was shirtless near the roses and something REALLY weird got stick in me. Like a tiny bug or probably just something from a plant, poinker-like and I had to YANK it out with my finger nails and it is one of the worst pains ever. I’m still sitting in pain on the couch with a big red bump.

I’m going to run the errands and do the playing outside thing now.