honest = interesting. love = joy. (in response and in addition – from alexander)

your last blog!  YES!  ha…  everyone who is honest is interesting.  never thought of such ideas.   honest=real=notfake/fairly secure=interesting, on the same page.      did you read this book you linked to on amazon?!

 

well, i must proudly admit to the world – i just completed my first day at a “real job”, in over a year.  (meaning getting paid for being somewhere most of your day.  cause i had some jobs say, at burning man, and say, modeling… however….).  

i say, “over a year”, cause i cant bring myself to admit the actual length of time that it has been that i didn’t have a day job – i guess some random things here and there have occurred, but mainly i guess my real last job-job was still in the tv biz.  not the julia louis dreyfus show, but after that were some strange pilot shows, showing me all the reason more that industry sucked my balls.   HOWEVER, in all that free time.  i managed to move to portland, set up life, get a nice house, nice friends, nice bars, spent many a days with family and friends out of town and on the road.  i got to spent 2 months of winter in virginia city with my dad.  i managed a few road trips.  san fran.  saw the world.  i enjoyed a handful of various out of town guests, including yourself, my mother, others, cooked, gardened…. even my cat has stuck it through – so, i do have much to show for myself – just not a pay stub (yet). 

so yes.  http://www.lovejoybakers.com/    my new lovejoy… love it when they hire your on the spot.  joyful when the place is actually amazing, too.  

anyway.  check it out.  great space. modern, interesting, HONEST.  morning and lunch crowd – good coffees, breads. bakery.  smoked salmon!  all good things.   back to my barista days.  and i get to learn all about bread.  what’s funny is the also (and mostly new cause the place is new) employees all mentioned the phrase “like riding a bike” regarding using the fancy espresso machine – because, we all basically did it at some point.  then, went out in the world, day jobs, office jobs, cubicles, and somehow/someway are BACK – to pulling shots and steaming milk.  even the vocabulary came right back to me.  WHAT, CLEAN THIS WAND?  

so i’m happy. and you’re happy and tomorrow is some holiday i don’t usually think of more than grade school aged brown construction paper with some orange and red turkey type things.    this time last year, i was HERE in portland, getting drunk with family/friends.  every single year before that, with family/family.  and THIS YEAR – well, i started work at 5am today.. worked until 4pm.   and am back friday morning.  tomorrows my DAY OFF.  watch dvds and drink this case of fat tire i just bought with my tip money.

more to come.  love u all lots.

 

 

ps.  just saw something in national news – did you know oregon is leader of sustainable winery trend.  love it here.  

 

honest/interesting (suzy is maybe both or none of them…)

just read this on a blog. how good is this sentence/thought?
Stefan Sagmeister, detail of ‘Things I have learned in my life so far’ cover set to ‘Everybody who is honest is interesting’ mode.

love it. its going to change my night out tonight and also my next few days or years

xoxoxoox have fun with family and food. get fat be happy

She’s just a mirror who has been stealing Your light and music for centuries. (s)

Venus Just Asked Me

Perhaps
For just one minute out of the day,

It may be of value to torture yourself
With thoughts like,

“I should be doing
A hell of a lot more with my life than I am -
Cause I’m so damn talented.”

But remember,
For just one minute out of the day.

With all the rest of your time,
It would be best
To try
Looking upon your self more as God does.

For He knows
Your true royal nature.

God is never confused
And can see Only Himself in you.

My dear,
Venus just leaned down and asked me
To tell you a secret, to confess

She’s just a mirror who has been stealing
Your light and music for centuries.

She knows as does Hafiz,
You are the sole heir to
The King.

—- and alex yay for LOVEJOY
i already love lovejoy
i cant wait to be there<3

notes. -alexander

hi hi.  i haven’t said so much lately.  i like what you have to say, about nesting, changing, being healthy every day. at least aiming for all this, anyhow.

it looks like i have myself a little job in portland. finally.  at a great cafe downtown called LOVEJOY i

- i know, right?  

andwelovejoy

i will rant about details/food/atmosphere/happiness soon soon, just want to get the ball rolling a few days and have something to say.   and do you not stop with the office job yourself very shortly?

i made fabulous salmon chowder tonight… its healthy, mostly organic, but yet – loaded with dairy and fish from a can!

ALSO, i just found out a restaurant/bar joint right up me street, not has a palm reader during monday’s happy hour!  way!

 

—

this new yorker page made me laugh.  now you laugh.  i feel this way often…

 

SHOUTS & MURMURS

LIVE YOUR LIFE

by Dave CowenNOVEMBER 9, 2009

I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life. 
—Kanye West, promoting his book “Thank You and You’re Welcome.” 

Whoever said life is an open book probably didn’t have any friends. Sure, he probably liked the people in his book. But did they like him? No. Why? Because they aren’t real.

My friends are real. They actually talk to me. Like just the other day my friend Bill said, “I’m not reading your e-mail for you anymore. You need to learn how to read.” And I said, “Bill, if you don’t read me my e-mail, I won’t sign an autograph for your son.” And Bill was, like, “Well, go fuck yourself. I’m going back to the hospital.” Bill’s son, Bill, Jr., or Billy Bob, was in the children’s unit there. He didn’t read the label on the box of his Sticky Stones™, and when he swallowed three of the iron-ore magnets they fused into a chain along the wall of his esophagus. Bill, Sr., felt extra bad because he hadn’t read that a consumer safety group had placed the Sticky Stones™ on its annual list of the ten worst toys. I told Bill that’s life. That stuff happens when you are doing stuff. In life. Real life. If I had told you that what had happened to Billy Bob had happened in a book, you would have said no way, that would never happen, that’s fiction. But it did. Because I told you it did.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are a few books that I am a fan of. Matchbooks are good. A lot of people are under the impression that books burn only at a specific temperature. But it’s just not true. I can burn most books at or below 451 degrees Fahrenheit. Sometimes below 300, if I soak the jacket in lighter fluid.

I also like MacBooks. You can really do stuff on them, you know. Like see how many followers you have on Twitter, or take pictures of yourself with Photo Booth, or play Second Life, or check if Bill has checked your e-mail. I miss Bill. He set up my Facebook account on my MacBook. I’ve got my own page on there. I have more than a million fans. Do you know how many fans Books have? Twenty-five thousand seven hundred and sixty-four. That’s it. So I’m not alone here. You know what else has more fans than Books? The Olive Garden. One hundred and eighty-five thousand nine hundred and eighty-six. What else? Sleep: over three hundred thousand. More people would rather be unconscious than read a book. Now, I’m not condoning sleep. I’m about doing stuff. Living life. But it just goes to show that I’m in the majority.

Right now you’re probably wondering, Hey, why is this guy, a proud non-reader of books, writing this? Isn’t this a Catch-22? And I say no, it’s not. It’s a Catch-23. What’s a Catch-23? It’s like a Catch-22, except there is no catch. I don’t want you to read this. In fact, you should stop reading right now. Seriously. Stop reading this. Start doing stuff. What kind of stuff, you ask? I don’t know. Why don’t you go to the Olive Garden? But just watch out. They give you the never-ending salad before the never-ending pasta bowl. You wouldn’t think so, but the salad fills you right up. The lettuce is mostly iceberg. All water. And the waiter really makes you feel like shit when you don’t make it to the fettucine Alfredo.

Sometimes when I don’t know what to do I imagine other people doing stuff. But like people in a different time. Or like people in a different place. And I think how cool would it be to be that person for awhile. Like to know how other people I don’t know talk or do stuff. How they really live, you know? But that’s when I’m not doing stuff of my own. Which is all the time anyway. ♦

 

a course in miracles, a miracle in due time (suzy)

life is still frantic and i dont see this changing soon, but, i do know i dont want to continue feeling out of time and out of breath. with all the upcoming HOLIDAY BS, i can only imagine this will get worse… so i have made a strict rule of yoga, good foods, and some sort of spiritual teaching each day. i have meaning to read A Course in Miracles for a long time, and have finally googled it and lo and BE hold it is ON line. here you go loves

a lesson a day. from your iphone or laptop. oh, life. in almost 2010.

besides that, not too much is new. i have had a really weird desire to start nesting, like, in a very real way. i think it is bc i just moved to a new apt. i am sick of shoving my stuff in mostly one room in a small-ish floor of a house in brooklyn. i want to build a beautiful space. isnt that weird? but, i really really want to. ryan had the idea to start collecting ideas from architectual magazines over the next few years, and keep all the ideas i like in a scrapbook. between that and traveling to big cities and small towns to figure out what i love best, i think i will have a fun thing to do in 3-5 years: build a perfect, very cool house in the most perfect, very cool area i can find.
(i still think it will be near hot springs. and will almost certainly be in the united states. when parents are not living (whoa morbid i know…but…its true) i can have alternative plans. but for now im stateside. and its fine.)

and speaking of xmas/etc, i do like having a reason to make some things for loved ones. i have had some ideas for making some cool pillowcases for sometime… and these inspired me today, when i was looking for lingerie online…

FLU you (suz)

bill maher’s great article on flu vaccination.
i agree with this pretty much all the way.

plus, hes funny— “

But no, I don’t think the A.M.A. and Big Pharma and Aetna and Dr. Frist’s hospital chain all meet in a board room and cackle about keeping us sick. They meet on the golf course. (Just kidding.)

“

sandwich # 11 (suzy and her love)

i eat this whenever i work in midtown east:
#11 VEGETARIAN SPECIAL
$6.99
Romaine lettuce, tomato, carrot, cucumber, avocado, alfalfa sprout, shredded red cabbage and sweet pepper on 7-grain whole wheat with honey dijon mustard

it is from an amazing shop called lenny’s.

it was just like this for me with silk city’s black russian sandwich w the avocados (which doesnt exist anymore bc of new owners)– i never make this sandwich for myself. i just love it and buy it weekly or biweekly.

maybe you will like it for yourself, and make it for you. and, for me? may, be,

FL (s)

hi im back! back to working a million hours a week it feels like, already, but, eh, thats ok:)
flordia was nice. somewhat devoid of culture, but, good to get away.

we drove from orlando to miami.
miami was weird and showy, but, also had a few cool things like the art deco and design districts.
and here is the answer to the burning question, are there hipsters in miami? ha. this question is phrased soooo weirdly on that webpage. i think the person asking is either very foreign or very much a db.

i always try to find brooklyn wherever i go. not full on complete hispter havens, but, something i feel comfortable w at least. miami was all scene and weirdness to me, fast cars and girls-gone-clubbing.

alex i saw your friends last night for a quick drink!! nori and tess:)
what else is the good news of the moment…? um, i work two jobs today, but its my last day in my office. thats nice news. i finish moving in this weekend. i am going to maybe do some winter shopping finally bc ive been too busy to… (new glasses!!!). i hope to pick up a good new book to read. and, i try to figure my life out as always. the end, for now<3

HA! -a

soup, fall, portland (alexander)

.. i have been on a huge soup kick, suzy – i wish you were here with me to enjoy.  i make nice big batches that last me a few days of goodness.  and if i get sick of it a some days in, i toss the rest in the freezer.  last night i had the best curried lentil that i froze ages ago.  i’m only now learning the brilliance of freezing (the right things.)   i also had a few delicious days of cream of potato and celery.  and then an amazing smoked tomato with all the roma tomatoes from my garden.  they lacked flavor raw, so a yummy tomato soup was great.  i made homemade croutons by tearing up a whole wheat loaf and tossing it in oil and brown mustard and pepper.  and i think i mentioned the cheddar broccoli soup.  tonight, i am cooking up a split pea, a slow slow cook.  and yes, with bacon!  it such comforting warm loveliness for me these cool cool days in oregon.

i want to see pirate radio only because you said to.   i’ll have to read up on it.  

here are some simple shots of fall from me…

personality test via sirrus radio (suzy)

so… there is a sirrus radio in the car and i LOVEEEE it. new music, old music, anything i want all the time.
and i set all the presets. XMU, alt nation (which is better than it sounds; i know, it sounds so 90s), and underground garage. then 3 npr type stations, with good ole bbc mixed in.

well, i have this very bad (good?) (def annoying for people in the car!) habit of switching between the three music stations. even if a song i pretty much love is on one of the stations, i have this need to hear whats on the other three before i commit.

i think that says a lot about my life.
other people are like ‘you like this song. who cares what else is on?’
and… why do i care?
but, i do.

related: just saw ‘the men who stare at goats’ (good, but more interesting to just know about that stuff broadly to now research it). and then we snuck into ‘pirate radio’ like teenagers after that. i LOVED that movie. omg. i love the music from that era, and there are so many good actors in it. and a cute cute cute young young boy who reminds me a lot of jesse vile (funny!). i want someone else out of our group of friends to see this and confirm or dispute it with me.

and alex, i bought you a great tee shirt.
oxooxoxoxoox world. i loves you.

oh, i see… percentage. forecast. just means a rain sometime, somewhere (alexander in portland)

k. so i know i am still very much a newbie here.  (actually i just realized it is just almost about a year ago that i made the actual decision to come to portland.  it didn’t happen until last march, but as november/08 came, the world persuaded me to depart la for the northwest.)   in any event, the rain stereotype lived on, as i have now told many friends around the world about my moving to portland – rain is always the first question.  from my immediate experience, it was pretty much a myth.  and in the summer, it is entirely true that there is no rain.  but yes, winter was looming and most of the long-time locals warned me it could get bad – more gray than anything.  which sounds just like london.  either way, i don’t care much… i look forward to a dramatic season.  (after all those years in CA, no less).  the funny thing though is the vague weather reports from the internet/local news etc.   as november crept in, the weather forecasts began to more and more look like this:

 

and now that i am truly in it, i realize how to interpret these strange and depressing looking reports.  (i’ve been told over and over not to even look at them, but still, i can not yet come to ignore em).  a day with a rainy icon simply means that there is a chance (maybe 60%) that it will rain at some point, in some area of the city, some certain amount.   so basically, though there is  60% of precipitation, it is even more likely that the cloud may pass over your neighborhood.  or you might be lost in a book store (or god forbid, have a job) and entirely miss the so called rain.  i guess thats why they say shower.  

sitting for the evening in a cafe up the street, after taking some photographs of the fall look around town and dropping yet another resume of at a fabulous health food store, the rain did come. and hard.  a serious downpour.  the kind that made enough noise that everyone in here stopped what they were doing to pay attention to it for a few minutes.  the quick darkness passing over, the water like buckets hitting sidewalks and car tops.  the window view blurs into a painting on the wall.    and quickly, it ends.  it’s like the cloud shakes itself of and moves along out to sea.  just splashing our city clean and fresh.

never in one spot (both of us, FROM A)

S!-  what the hell?  What’s in FL and when/why/HUH?  

Like I should talk… just flew in from a weekend in SF/Oakland this evening.  Now… I PROMISE I have no trip on my agenda.    The weekend was fun filled with family, friends, drinks, sunrises, thai food, indian food, fried chicken, and more bacon that I would like to admit. 

Exciting job interview tomorrow – please think good things peoples.

OK, off to the co-op because all weekend (which has included a wee unhealthy food choices) has me craving something organic and warm and delicious, so I’m going to make up a batch of cream of brocolli and cheddar soup for dinner, and then bed.

 

 http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/broccoli-cheddar-soup-recipe.html

 

opps (by suzy darling)

i havent posted since then. and, now i am off to FL for awhile.
i had a very very long work week last week, and have been avoiding doing anything very real since.
i will write a real post when i return. or maybe from the beach.

i want to camp on the beach and also stay at a hostel. that may be impossible, but we will see : )

workwerkworkwerk …… (s)

im at WORK right NOW
but we just had a fun event with an open bar.
makes it worth it.
sortaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

btw, walking down the street near my office today, and a crazy lady kept saying ‘TIME Time TIME is of the ESSENCE. TIMEEEE TIMEEE TIMEEE’ like a Reverend or something. i liked it. enough. it applied both to my day and my life.