Things about seattle pride, my picasa web album, and off to spend a week on the road. Goodbye-Alexander

Suzy, friends…  It’s somewhat funny I thought that this blog was always mainly centered around the crazy/lovely/good and bad happenings in our cities… which for so long we NYC and LA and yet, not really those places, since we don’t really stay in those or any places.  I feel like I’ve been in Portland, longer than I have, naturally… as these few months sure have been packed in, but I also feel I’ve already been off to Seattle, SF, the coast, the hills, weekends getting storage from Nevada, etc.    And here I go the month of JULY and big GOODBYE… I love it this way.

This last weekend I headed to Seattle to see good pals and be silly at the gay pride festivities…. of which we did.

After tomorrow I’ll be embarking on a car ride…  via hostels in Boise, friends in eastern Idaho, to my hometown in Wyoming and a few days and nights and the 4th and hiking and visiting…  then we ride back via small town Montana and Washington and back into Oregon…. maybe 5 states.  Holy Travels!

I’ll be happy to be doing all this with my new camera in hand…  finally something artful will be in my mind at time… not just beerful.    Sometimes both.

I decided for now, I will upload my favorite pics from time to time to my picasa album on google… they are easy to upload to, easy to share, easy to view and that way I can show off more photos than I would prefer to do on here.

SO PALS, BE SURE TO NOT THAT I WILL BE MUCH MORE CONSISTENT UPDATES ALBUMS HERE AT http://picasaweb.google.com/lavake (full screen viewing works great!!)

And unlike the previous albums full of hundreds of photos, the new albums will be highly edited so only the beat of photographs get passed along…

check out a few from Seattle Pride HERE

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL SUMMER JULY HOLIDAY , if thats what this weekend is for you… and if it is nothing or anything else, enjoy love and peace and laughter!

seattle friends…

bernie madoff, tibetian monks, and another bus ride. {luv suz}

another busy last week, another busy past weekend. working long long hours at multiple jobs, again. traveling away from my city on the weekend to other cities to do a bunch of stuff, again. all in all, its good and great. but i still feel like i havent sat down in a long time.

took a bus from philly this morning in some antic attempt to make it to my office at a decent hour. the bus fills up with all sorts, and included in the cast is a bunch (gaggle?, flock?) of tibetian monks. i love this, and find it curious.
it was a china town bus, and our route into ny was through lower manhattan. we are suddenly in tons of traffic and i am watching the minutes tick by (a habit i dont usually subscribe to, but was trying to get to my desk this morning). i look out– where are we? whats the problem? and, we are in front of the courthouse, and there are hundreds of people there. for bernie madoff’s trial. the monks get off here. why, i wonder?

a guy that didnt look like a religious kook, or any sort of kook, at all, is standing outside the mob of people with a sign that says ‘to forgive is divine.’ i wonder if the monks had a similar motive for being there.

or maybe there were just in town for some good chinese, and got off the bus a little too early.

ok- off to drink some raspberry wheat beer (yum!) and then take a walk in this beautiful weather (yes!). the perfect weather of life; a summer night, not hot, a little breezy. something you want to bottle and keep.

[[[lots of work this week, and then a wedding followed by family stuff this coming weekend. and on and on and on. whew! BUT so soon it will be portland-time for me:) cant cant wait. ]]]

have a good night everyone. enjoy the weather, and maybe find a little forgiveness in your hearts so that scumbags like bernie might become better, loving people! <3

OH SUZANNE IS SO TRUE BELOW! + Fathers Day VS. Summer Solstice + Summer is here!! (Posted by Alexander in Portland)

TECHNOLOGY

Suzy, your quick blog below should be so so elaborated on…. pages, volumes….  what media has gone and turned itself into in such a fast fast moment of time, that our progressive thinking college experience just 5 years ago seems so trite.  I guess it was impossible to see it coming, as tech/media itself seems like a creature on it’s own path and we just adapt to it.  Do you think that?  I know its human-made yet I can’t drop the ida that the twitters and gmails and virals are all just getting to be SO much bigger than us…

I feel like everyday I hear a new and interesting author talk in the radio about a new book on twitter or social networks…  I am really interested in the social aspect.  (Remembering I am without twitter/fb/and am ex to mspace, not to say I don’t spend a significant amount of time checking email on my phone, reading blogs, etc.)  I do wonder what the effects of this electronic celebrity was all have has on our people.   One book is out called something to the effect of “you’re not that important” about how the self satisfaction of telling the world what color we have on that day will soon break apart and these tweet sentiments will fade.  Then again I just suppose I’m just being part of the “I’m too cool for facebook” crowd, which in a sense is just as annoying – yet I did use myspace and I don’t like how it absorbed me, thats mainly why I stay away.

Another aspect is the Hollywood celebrity…  from my short stint there and the little big of stardom I cam close to I started to think that really the majority of these people are passionate about acting, art, (& money) and that the trails of their US WEEKLY lives were just part of the downside, yet now to see how many of these tv and movie stars (not just the pop culture ones) are doing twitter and perpetuating the exploitation of their everyday lives… guess they are really liked it anyway.. hey now they have control instead of the gossipy magazines and websites… eh.

This could go on forever… my head stars to spin and more than all of it, I’d rather think about your big trip here and the things we’ll see and the woods we’ll explore.   There is starting to be a lot of us and I like it… maybe we’ll figure out 2 cars… or rent a yucky big SUV.. that WOULD be fun.  And then have the ability to be out in nature more than just a night…

SOLSTICE

SO yesterday was Father’s Day and I have to point out my somewhat eccentric father (who’ve you met!) for years has found these holidays pretty meaningless but yet I often like to call to hear his sarcastic reaction… this time after talking a bit I said “you know it’s fathers day”.  He said, “Oh is it that bull shit today?  You know, I had to read the bible as a kid 12 times and it never mentioned that Father’s Day bull shit once.”  -  He has a point.

To make the event weirder…  I went to a yoga class and the teacher (a hippie dippy surfer yogi, if you can imagine) mentioned at the start of class it being father’s day.  Ok, I kinda ignored it and it didn’t effect me, or my father for that matter.  But what’s funny is a STUDENT spoke up to say “It’s also Solstice”, to which the teacher agreed and mentioned. I just thought it fucking strange  yogi mention the hallmark holiday over the astronomical one.  HM.

Well, it looks like, being unemployed, not sure what to do with myself (for work) but having some savings and leftover unemployment insurance from bankrupt CA the summer is starting to unravel..  I’m in a whole new place and love it.  I’m road tripping to Jackson Hole to explore and camp (JH is my birth home!!! and I haven’t been in 4 years and haven’t EVER been there as an adult w/o family… if that makes sense.)   I might hop up to Seattle for gay pride this weekend.  I will be at my mom’s in PA a week of July… then you are all here end of July…  loves it.

weekends, iran, cab rides (by suzy)

‘ello.
i am feeling a bit better. i was spinning off center from too much travel and too much work for a little while there.
i took a self imposed hibernation for most of today, and feel much better for it.

thoughts from the weekend: i took a $150 cab ride to white plains for a shoot that someone needed me for IMMEDIATELY! what the hell. they paid for it… bizarre night. but i got a free room in the ritz carlton, and, they gave me money for a cab ride back, and i took the $7 metro-north into grand central, so, i made out with a bit extra;)

i will take a picture of the receipt later and post it. i had to keep it. it was such a crazy experience.

so iran/twitter/wtf?
new york times, cnn, everyone has to write about the ‘opposition leader’s facebook page was updated with the following information’, and ‘twitter is ruling the agenda on what happens for the moment’. A-mazing. who would have thought we would see this day? these types of things were NEVER brought up in our media classes, were they? this is what i wanted to discuss all along: media and how it shapes power, politics, opinions, actions. instead we talked about media buying, when to purchase commercial slots for the most bang for your buck in a given demographic range. ugh. and my teachers in my politics courses were always so confused when they found out i was an advertising major. i seemed passionate about politics. i was! but advertising. yes! they all tie in! but for some reason my teachers thought i was bat shit crazy. maybe in college i was a bit more batshit crazy, but, i swear, i had a grand plan.

and currently that grand plan is;;;; getting the most out of my sunday night that i can. doing some work from home in a bit so i dont have to go to office til mid-day tomorrow. going to a photoshoot w a friend in a little bit. here are some pg-ish(?) pics to illustrate what my life is like right now, and what it may be like more often if i am done with dayjobbing soonish… wishes on stars and crossing fingers. love to you all, of course of course.

suzy has not been posting= RAIN in NYC

hello alex, world, readers.
i have not been posting, for a few reasons, but mostly because it has been RAINING in new york city almost every day for the past two months and i simply cannot deal with it. everyone is becoming so uninspired. ugh. we are wearing sweaters in mid-june, and have not enjoyed many days of basking in summer weather.

ahhhh.

whats up with all this rain in nyc?

vegetables, flowers, cameras, and more – from A

I spoiled myself today with a credit card and finally put back in my hands a good quality professional SLR camera…. I was going to call you and ask you what most of the photographers you work with use – at least what is the bigger name brand?  But no matter, I got all anxious for it asap and I  got a mid-grade Cannon DSLR and I’m just so glad to have a camera again… I sold a professional Olympus some time in LA and have only had a stupid point and shoot or iPhone.. so now, new projects,newart, new things!

I’m quick writing to you… I wanted to show off that I am eating a wonderful salad made from lettuces from my garden…  raspberries from my yard.. chives, beets, radishes…. all grown outside the window I sleep through!  And it must be true that the best energy and nutrition in any food item is something that was just picked moments earlier, still warm from the sun of the day!  YUMMMY.. I topped my lettuce mix with avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers and sprouted chick peas… and I have a side of bulgar wheat in organic butter and chives!

And a beer.

Tomorrow I am going to head to a little hiking site where Salmon Berries are growing EVERYWHERE – they are like a blackberry native to the area – and pick buckets of them and make pies… also I’m bringing my new camera so I will have loads of pictures.   I think I might have to create a new site or blog to post larger versions of my new photos instead of fill up here.

We’ll see.

Great new yard improvements thanks to mom and friend in town all weekend.

LOVE LET US!

BURY LOVE!

quotes and coast (A)

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Well, I’m off to the Oregon coast for the night.. I will discover all kinds of amazing things for us to do on our trip!!

LIFE death art and buses (by suzy)

i know of two deaths this weekend. one, maybe two, almost deaths.
one of the almosts was very real. very real and very scary and i keep thinking about it. (and am so glad you are ok!! <3 ) to hear about death makes me shaky and makes me know i am not living as i should be. i WASTE time. i do not show enough LOVE to the people i love! i was going to write 'the only way to not be scared of dying is to really live, so you have no regrets', but i am unsure if i think thats true. i think i can do that and still be scared… so, on that note, i will give you my handwritten notes from my trip to philly. they are about really living, in, some, sense:::

-i never doubted i would sleep in a hammock for an extended period of time.
- hats are useful for sleeping while on buses.
-i wonder why that guy isnt embarrassed to drive around w a mcCain sticker on his car?
-everytime i go back to nyc, its raining. is that a sign?
- (from later) it actually stopped raining this time. and my route from the bus stop to the R train takes me through the flower district, and today i passed many boxes full of rose petals. i think thats a sign, also.
- * I AM READY to be an artist.
-i pass a company housed in a huge huge building. it is called 'preferred freezer services'. i like things like that.
-i saw a sticker in PA that said 'All Else Failed'.
-i saw a puppy walking across a bridge in NJ.
- when i was analyzing my actions from the night before while at brunch the next morning, kyle said something that stuck w me for days… 'If I reflected on the night before, I would never leave my house.'
- i saw a sticker in northern liberties that said 'Fuck You if you can't take a Joke'.
- i split an entire vodka drink from a big red cup in the back of a cab. i gave the driver a $10 trip for a $4 ride and he didnt know why.
-i befriended an artist from san fran who was visiting philly for the first time, and i drank whiskey from a bottle with him in the back room of the gallery.
-i found out my friend who was deported to Myanmar is teaching english and is happy. so im happy.
-in the same day i read articles about how our generation is sick of chain stores, and boring porn. both talked about new, real, authentic living. that made me happy.
-the bus from philly to nyc had no AC, so we had to pull over and get a new one and it was a big stupid thing, but no one even complained, and now we are on a new bus and just fine.

the end. good luck living. i am going to try to start doing more of it and being better and more pure and cultivating more peace and beautiful things. <3

Monday Love Things By Alexander

Ah, Monday morning!  You and I live such non-conformist lives, yet I do take note of the vibe in the air on a Monday morning, everyone tired, cranky, not wanting it to be this day.  But as the unemployment rate grows, so do the amount of people on the couch like me this morning.  WELCOME!

Here is a pretty interesting article on the new idea of FUNEMPLOYEMENT – taking advantage of your new free time.  I mean, one can not really spend 40 hours a week “searching for a job”, so, have some fun on the beach on the other days.

HEY!  My pal Theresa gave me/blog a little shout out in her LA Examiner column on frugal living…..

and ONE MORE FINAL I LOVE YOU SUZY AND ALL MY FRIENDS AND ALL THE BEAUTIFULS OUT THERE… a dear, dear, dear friend of mine has suffered a very upsetting loss this weekend.   Her boyfriend of 2 years died tragically in a car accident in out hometown in PA.  He was 25 years old, a sweet, cute, wonderful guy and they had just moved in together less than a week earlier.  She was out in Seattle and I had just spent the night with her and the next thing we all know, a loved one has died and she was on a flight back home.    I have had such little, little experience with death of those around our age.   From a big, Italian family I have been to endless funerals, seen close relatives and distant somebodies die sadly, but there is such a different feeling I get inside, a much more unsettling one when a person leaves us so young.  What does that mean?  I just don’t know.  It’s almost too big for me to try to understand, so instead I will feel sad and confused and leave it at that.

wanting what you cannot have. (from suzy)

thank god this blog still exists. i got your email, and i was not in the state to blog at all this entire weekend, but i was so sad to get your email, and a few from friends too, saying the blog wasnt working. (people did notice!, fyi…) my mind went racing. what will i do without this blog? how will we ever get back all the things we said to each other, to ourselves, to the world?

i am not thankful for this on a day to day basis. but to not be able to have it, mentally it was all i wanted. what is that about people? we talk about it all the time with sexual things. ‘the chase.’ how if one person holds back a little then they are more wanted by the other person. why do we want what we cannot have? any way, i am glad to have this blog back.

i think i had one of the better friday nights in all of the friday nights that were happening all over the planet. i went to philly and did twelve thousand things. it started with good food and friends as always, and then an opening at a DIY-ish clothing store in northern liberties with free vodka and pineapple juice, and that sort of set the tone for the night. it was an adventure with lots of art openings, concerts, bars, new friends, parties, and finally falling asleep in a house someone was trying to sell that had no furniture what so ever in it. ha. and i was in town for a bachlorette party, and this was the night before any of that even happened!

i am now at my parents house in nj. its 6 am. i have a modeling job in philly early today, then, back to nyc. i will book a ticket to portland today. ive booked a bunch of gigs, so i may stay long like leah.

BACK/SORRY/WHATHAPPENED/PASTA? (from Alexander)

And perhaps no body even noticed. But some kind of mishap took place with the wordpress and I emailed to ask about it and was told we were providing links to some adult websites illegally.  I said this seemed like some kind of mistake, please check again. And they said,

Hi,
My apologies – it looks like there was a mistake.
Your blog is good and this will not happen again.
Sorry!

So Anyway.   As my dad has said numerous times,

“To err is human, to really fuck up requires a computer.”   True dat.

Now it’s a cool summer Sunday night in Portland.. My mom is here, we saw then new Pixar UP and it was GOOOOD and cute and I will take my kids to movies like it sometime.  Tonight, Sunday pasta – all homemade (meaning homemade pasta and sauce and organic sausage from the local Italian deli).

Tomorrow, massages!  What a life.

Are you listening to Bon Iver much.  We need right away to get the new “GOD HELP THE GIRL” album from Stuart from B&S…  I think it’s released this month and I hear so many good things.  I think he wrote most of it but to female vocals. And speaking of, I just read that Stuart Murdoch isn’t a drinker – did you know that?  Does that surprise you?  I think I find it just a wee unnerving that (because of his lyrics) I find out he isn’t a big indie rock star drunk!  wtf?  I guess it goes back to the whole “how sober is so in” right now.  Uhg, spare me.

AND, LEAH BOOKED!  So, when are you getting your ticket…?

CITY OF BORDERS documentary – loved by A

Hey All, especially in NY/LA areas:

I saw this really good well made moving funny sad documentary at the Portland Queer Film Fest last week… CITY OF BORDERS, about the riff in the gay community between the Jewish and Arab worlds in the middle east.  I learned a lot not only of the gay community, but those religious communities in general.  The idea that Palestinian queers are forced to dangerously cross the border into Israel where there is at least a small underground gay community that is accepting of them….

Well, I liked it a lot.  It was made by a South Korean film maker.   What a world.

It comes to both NY and LA in JUNE, So I encourage friends to check it out…. schedule is on their site.

the first for two things (1.seattle//2.a crow attack) from/alexander

SUZY!!

HI!!

It’s tuesday night, latish, half-watching sitcom reruns, half folding laundry, and half stopping to write to you….  I’ve been off line, spending all weekend in Seattle – the kind of weekend that I planned to “check out Seattle for  night or 2 and get home for yoga on Sunday” that turned into many days and nights of greatness…  met loads of good precious people from all over the country, all over the world, and oddly, a lot from Pennsylvania.  I  was lucky enough to be driven around in a convertible day and night with top down, 85 degrees.  Found time to skinny dip in Lake Washington (not my greatest moment, hating my swimming skills and hating water at night got to me fast and I was the first one panting and crawling back onto the dock to drink beers).   Checked out Pike Place and saw that same “first starbucks” that you posted a picture of.  (So I didn’t take one).   Also found a wee magic shop in the basement of Pike Place that is owned by a magic fan who has written books on my great great uncle Alexander, the place was loaded with giant posters of him… my namesake!  Or am I his namesake?  How does it work?  ///  What else?  ////  ///  I LOVED SEATTLE and will be back, be back…  especially if you folks are flying in SEATAC July before coming down to Portland.

But I get to go back Thursday, anyway to spend the day and dinner with an old friend from home/PA.  And rush back to Portland Friday when mom arrives in town for a stay.

Seattle was all the things one loves of the Pacific NW…  clean, green, happy, wet, cheap, sunlight until 10PM, hippie, open.  And this time even warm:

Downtown Seattle from Volunteer Park

Lake Wahington

Need friends with boats at sunset!

How cute and gay is this mess?

I meant to mention, this was my first time in SEATTLE …   of alllll the many American cities I have come at least to pass through, Seattle is a corner I hadn’t brought my feet into until now.

Since there is a first for everything, I should tell you what has turned my day upside down, as it would yours, I’m sure.

CROWS ATTACKING ME, MOTHERFUCKERS!

So, I went to bed fairly sleeps after my 4 day weekend of smiles and awoke this morning to SCREETCHING sounds out my window.  A bird, a big black bird.  SCREAMING.  CAWWWING.  CAWWW.

CAWWWW.

CAAAAWWW CAWWW.

Annoyed but lazy, I didn’t really do much but squince under a pillow and ignore it until I had to ready and go anyway. I spent the day doing some errands and other work and came home in the mood to work in the garden some, use my borrowed weed whacker to clean up the yard a bit.  The crow (and sometimes 2) is there SCREAMING and flopping from one tree to the other, back and forth, screeeetching.

FINALLY, I notice that there is a sick/maybe dead looking bird nearby, in my yard, near the garden and under a giant tree.   A little grossed out, I only slowly got close to see that it is breathing, fairly alive – and the crows begin TO CIRCLE AND SCREAM at me.   Thinking that what happened next never could be an option, I decided to at least remove the thing, perhaps trash it if it looked very ill.  (Sorry if this offends any PETA people).  So I get a paper bag and garden shovel and head over to the baby bird when OUT OF NOWHERE the mother fucking mother crow swoops open her huge wingspan and ATTACKS me with a peck of the beak or claws on the top of my head SO FAST.  I screamed (pretty girly) and dropped the things in my hands and ran around to the front door when the crow SWOOPED again and hit me on the back of the head just as I got onto the front porch and ran into the house.   To which it then perched near my house on the closest branch pointing and screaming at me whenever I went back outside.

The rest of the day is as expected…  as much as I tried to do outside I was under watch and often swoop of this bird, more prepared now, I did not get close to the sick one and when I was outside for a prolonged time period, I walked hunched and with a rake in my hand, ready to fight.   I was even followed for about 2 blocks with an occasional threat of a sweep that had me shouting obscenities at a crow in front of neighbors.   If they had missed the swoops and only saw me screaming at it, what would they think?

When I told my roommate I really had to go get some lettuce from the garden, the same end of the garden close enough to the baby to bring attack, he suggested I wore a bike helmet.   Which I did.  And cut my arugula and scurried in.

It’s midnight and quiet now, not sure what will happen, I’m hoping that the thing is either gone (healed and flew away or eaten by something else, I don’t care).  I don’t want to hurt it but more I don’t want that crazed mother crow looming around me.

Just a little curious, I’ve done some googling and it turns out that crows are the most likely bird to attack a human that seems to endager its fallen youth. I came across this to make me feel less alone…..  a response to a person in a very similar scenario:

Since you gave no indication of where you live, I have to guess on exactly what is happening. But, right now (late May) in most areas of the country crow babies are just fledging (leaving the nest). In the first couple of weeks that the young are out of the nest they cannot fly well and are very vulnerable to predation. They hide in the trees and the parents are very protective of them. At this time the parents will mob (attack) any potential predator in the area. Usually this means cats and dogs, but it appears that you elicits the same response. You are too big to risk getting too near. Just wait a few days and the fledglings will leave your yard and the parents will calm down. Try to keep in mind that these birds are not vicious fiends bent on your destruction, but merely dedicated parents trying to defend their own young in the best fashion they know.