quit asking.

things i get asked (almost) daily:

1. are you ethiopian/eritrean?
2. where'd you get your ankh ring? (although, usually it's the "what's THAT" question)
3. can i touch your hair?
4. do you have a light?

to all of which get a no, somewhere (and the less extended history lesson), HELL NO and yes.
because i ALWAYS have a light.


this is an amazing talk..totally worth the twenty or so minutes. trust me.

.016

will be in NYC juuust in time.
if you're around, def check this out.
[click to blow it up]



youngandbanging.com

.015

because i have a wildly inappropriate love affair with food
[and at the risk of sounding like a complete fat ass]
i thought i'd hip you to some of my favorite food blogs on the internets.

let's start, shall we?




FIRST UP is Smitten Kitchen, an adorable husband/wife duo who cook up dishes and share the recipes, to the delight of their adoring readership. i don't know if i need to say much about this one, the amazing food shots really speak for themselves. i've never drooled so much on my keyboard. great treat for bakers, cooks and food photographer enthusiasts alike.





NEXT, oishii eats!
between her blogs documenting tasty travels to Thailand, and local LA eats [her now husband is a chef, surprise surprise], i have a rolodex of places i'll make SURE to eat at and what dishes to order, once i do my own year-long gustation tour. because you know...people do those things. loads of recipes cooked up in her own kitchen, wine pairings and more. another treasure trove of fantastic photography...i'm sure you can sense a pattern here.




and LASTLY, eat, drink + be vegan, because you no animal by-product kids need love too. i won't lie, becoming a vegan is THE furthest thing from my mind right now, but these recipes looks kinda tasty. i'm sure i can integrate them into my sometimey pescetarian diet.

.014

hand me my late pass because i'm sure i'm the last to figure out that feist is flipping brilliant. i was kinda feeling her "1234" single [admittedly, not my favorite] and didn't really take it seriously til my friend burned me a copy. such a fantastic, smoky voice. listened to her the whole time i was on the road this week.

my favorite song on the cd...vid is sweet, too.

and since we're on the music tip...here's a vid of j*davey at this years Black Lily Festival:



i'm feeling particularly nice today, here's a download for their single off Land of the Lost EPisode, Mr Mister.

013.

i just read something here that shifted my brain:
(i hope she doesn't mind me linking)

there have been a million hints lately to how non self aware i am.
i'm in serious fisticuffs with a self-defeating ego, which has been aptly renamed my haywire self defense mechanism.

time for some drastic changes.

012.

to turn the other cheek, that is to remain silent in the face of injustice or mistreatment, has to be weighed very carefully. it is one thing to use passive resistance as a political tool as ghandi taught masses of people to do, but it is quite another matter when women are encouraged or forced to be silent in order to survive an impossible situation of corrupt or unjust power in the family, community, or world. then women are amputated from the wild nature and their silence is not serenity but an enormous defense against being harmed. it is a mistake to think that just because a woman is silent, it always means she approves of life as is.

there are times when it becomes imperative to release a rage that shakes the skies. there is a time- even though these times are very rare, there is definitely a time- to let loose all the fire power one has. it has to be in response to a serious offense; the offense has to be big and against the soul or spirit. all other reasonable avenues have to be attempted first. if these fail, then we have to choose the right time. there is definitely a right time for full-bore rage. and it is right, right as rain.

-clarissa pinkola estes

011.

'scuse my absence.
i've been off daydreaming.

"it's not enough to have lived. we should be determined to live for something. may i suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely." -- leo buscaglia


what is it that you're here for?
i think the obsessive planner in me is regarding my life's timeline with a sense of trepidation, trying to carefully plan each move, each decision, with the acute knowledge that the scenery is rapidly passing me by, and the FULL knowledge that my planning means shit in the long run. maybe this explains why i feel paralyzed.

graduation is supposed to be a time to celebrate the fact that i didn't jump out the window of a really tall building and actually went to class, but i'm terrified.
some days i feel like i'm the only one who doesn't know what the F*CK i'm doing with my life. i'm convinced that once i get started (doing whatever it is that i'm supposed to do), that everything will be suave, but it's a matter of pinning down that elusive PURPOSE thing. in the meantime, every day feels like i'm going through the motions, and it's frustrating. i know it will fall into place eventually. i'm just having an emo moment here.