pa sent us some pics from her goodbye dinner last week - i really like this one of the group, since everyone looks a little fucked up, which we definitely were because of the SANGRIA.

i also like this one because robot looks CRAZY, and that's just what happens when you try to imitate alex.

OMG on last week's proj run podcast, tim gunn says "HOT AS HADES" - HADES!!!

MINES

did you ever think you would see this sentence in the ny times?

As 50 Cent put it, dismissively, “When you sell like Eminem, you get plenty of groupie love.”

or even this, from ThuStyles:

In his duet with the rapper Eminem, Nate Dogg describes his hunt for “a big old slut” in the single “Shake That.”

(AND get this, from the same piece:

According to a government report released last year (“Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures”), men age 30 to 44 have had a median of six to eight sexual partners in their lifetimes. The women’s median was about four.

CRAZY!!!!!!!

Update: Thanks, Gawker, for this handy infographic on the matter.)
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for your viewing enjoyment today

yyys, cheated hearts
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someone recently asked me what kind of style i like on guys (no, it was not at a slumber party). i didn't have an answer at the time, but i can definitely say that basically everything the sartorialist shoots is pretty much golden in my book, especially the men. i guess it's like relaxed casual, a black/white/cream/grey/beige palate, with maybe one carefully-selected bright or quirky color or pattern piece, and in the words of my hero nina garcia, "most importantly, expensive-looking!"

also, i'm kind of in love with burberry designer christopher bailey:

LISA, MAKE IT WORK!

minnie got me an autograph from project runway's t!m gunn!! yesssssss.

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SWEET MEATS PLUSH TOYS

maggie, how gorge are you?

source
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this almost as funny as this.

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FOR ALL YOU WORKING STIFFS

This small, sixteen-page pamphlet is produced to put inside the postage-paid, business-reply envelopes that come with junk mail offers. Every envelope collected is stuffed with the pamphlet and mailed back to its original company.

check the full pamphlet out here (business ready pamphlet).

ROB0T, FOR YOU
how amazing is this meat necklace????

more meat jewelry awesomeness here. (source: guise)

interesting piece on black men and asian women couples
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another great story from one of my new favorite writers, on the makeover show 'what not to wear.'

i've watched this a number of times with my mom and aunt, but was quickly turned off by how harsh they are to women who seem genuinely nice.

While public humiliation is de rigeur for reality programming, what makes “What Not to Wear” painful to watch is that none of its participants resemble the attention-hungry contestants on “Survivor” or “Real World.” These are, for the most part, really nice women, many of whom are working moms with low-level white-collar jobs who simply don’t have the money or time to preen in front of the mirror.

As the 19th century U.S. sociologist Thorstein Veblen observed in his book, The Theory Of The Leisure Class, “[O]ur apparel is always in evidence and affords an indication of our pecuniary standing to all observers at first glance. … [D]ress, therefore, in order to serve its purpose effectively should not only be expensive, but it should also make plain to all observers that the wearer is not engaged in any kind of productive labour.” So it isn’t surprising that a number of the tips doled out by the experts have little connection to the real lives of the women they’re making over. When one woman refuses to buy “dryclean only” clothes, Kelly and London are dismissive and impatient. Fashion has always been about class in the literal sense, and aesthetics aside, the women’s greatest fashion crime seems to be that they aren’t rich.

Worse, the show pretends that the women’s emotional debasement is “for their own good”—just like the tough love meted out by a Marine drill sergeant. “What Not to Wear’s” distinctly military approach is all the more striking when compared to the maternal attitude of its male counterpart, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” where male participants are instead coaxed, teased and gently jollied into changing their wicked sartorial ways. While “Queer Eye” does offer a message of self-improvement — “it’s you, only better” — it does not make the same connection between self-esteem and attire. When men dress badly, it’s because they’re clueless, lazy or just plain incompetent. Not only is their sense of self not invested in how they look, but the so-called “Fab Four” are careful to handle their male participants’ egos with appropriate care and respect.

Interestingly, the hosts of “What Not to Wear” also take a kinder, gentler approach in their rare shows featuring a man. The critique is far milder, and tempered by fulsome compliments: “You’re a well-formed young man;” “You’re a prime piece of beef.”

When it comes to women, however, the hosts assume that they have nothing to lose, especially their pride. After all, what self-respecting woman would match pink polka-dotted boots with an ill-fitting candy stripe dress? More importantly, the show reveals how so-called fashion gurus constantly reiterate the most retrograde ideas about femininity in the name of style. Women are continually derided for looking “slutty,” “cheap and nasty,” or “trashy,” and cautioned against “sending the wrong message”—even as the frumpy ones are urged to show more flesh. Host Jessica London’s favorite word is “appropriate,” because women need to look, and—by the show’s logic—be proper at all times.

What’s sad is just how eager the women are to be transformed even at the expense of their dignity. Each episode ends with the participant beaming in delight and gratitude at how wonderful they look and feel. This reveals the depressing reality that women are no strangers to shame, which is a constant presence lurking on the edges of our daily lives. All it takes is an incautious look in the mirror in the morning; a dress that won’t fit at the mall; a careless remark from a boyfriend. Being a feminist just redoubles the sense of failure, since the very experience of shame points to our inability to escape the binds of socialization.

my smelling salts!
dear lord, how hot is the italian team? i've never wanted to be a trophy so bad in my life.

source (from PITNB)

it's a neverending story, but with no luckdragon
ask a ninja's review of pirates of the carribean 2
"a lot more gore, and a lot less verbinski"

last night by the numbers
number of:

gold chains worn: 2
pitchers of sangria consumed at cha cha cha: 1.5
times "plantains" was said out loud when the plaintains arrived: 2
women friends who would describe steve as preppy: 3
women friends who would say preppy was "not their type": 3
skateboards i walked into at milk: 1
times mike kicked me but robot thought he groped me: 1
homeless men who were chased out of escape from NY with a pizza paddle: 1
times i've seen chai barf/about to barf in the past week: 2
times alex described what i was wearing as "sluttier" than chai: 1
times chai zinged alex by saying 1/0 was an error: 1

availabot, you slay me
NOT a joke!

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more pics from the weekend added to the post below (swiped from rtfm)

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awesome piece on how the emasculated asian male rhetoric is inherently anti-women.

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MoDo usually writes a little too cutesy for my taste, but there were a series of really interesting points in this piece today, titled "How to Train a Woman":

Amy Sutherland struck a chord with her recent Times essay — still high on the most e-mailed list — about how she successfully applied the techniques of exotic animal trainers to change some annoying traits of her husband, Scott. He became her guinea pig for methods she discovered as she researched a book on trainers teaching hyenas to pirouette, baboons to skateboard and elephants to paint.

"The central lesson I learned from exotic animal trainers is that I should reward behavior I like and ignore behavior I don't," she wrote. "After all, you don't get a sea lion to balance a ball on the end of its nose by nagging."

She began using "approximations," which means rewarding the small steps toward learning a whole new behavior. "With the baboon you first reward a hop, then a bigger hop, then an even bigger hop," she wrote. "With Scott the husband, I began to praise every small act every time: if he drove just a mile an hour slower, tossed one pair of shorts into the hamper, or was on time for anything."

She also learned the concept of "incompatible behavior," training an animal in a new behavior that would make the annoying behavior impossible. To keep Scott from crowding her while she cooked, she set a bowl of chips and salsa across the room.

Could it be that simple? And does it work the other way around — can men train women using exotic animal techniques?

Helen Fisher, a Rutgers anthropologist and the author of "Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love," speculated that it might be easier for men to train women because "women are better at reading the emotions in your voice, better at seeing things in their peripheral vision, better at seeing in the dark. So just the man's tone of voice as opposed to even the words could be rewarding."

Both sexes would be better off following the lead of animal trainers and ignoring irritating bad behavior.

"Women are more verbal," she said. "But that doesn't mean that men aren't manipulative. I think both sexes are busy manipulating each other. Women will nag and men will tease. There's a kind of teasing that's just cloaked nagging."

She observed that it may be hard for men to use compliments to alter female behavior because women give and get so many polite or insincere compliments from other women that they're immune to flattering words.

"Men and women tend to get intimacy differently," she explained. "Women get intimacy from face-to-face contact. We do what we call the anchoring gaze. It comes from millions of years of holding your baby in front of your face. Men tend to get intimacy by doing things side by side, because for millions of years they faced their enemy but sat side by side with their friends.

the cool kids

hiking at mount tam:


emily and business casual hiking steve

emily

margot with the wine for us yuppies

party at suite 555:
today's specials: irish car bombs and lunchboxes
emily puts a bib on before carbombing

rob0t

me chai philana


sutro baths:



weekend pics: mine and philana's (with cool captions)

maybe one of the only fashion ad campaigns with all asian models.

MY DRESS WAS ON THE SARTORIALIST!!

yay!

PANDORA KNOWS MY THIRD GRADE MUSICAL TASTE

chai turned me on to pandora, an internet radio station that creates stations around artists/songs you like. it's pretty awesome, especially since it knew intuitively that i liked "your wildest dreams" by the moody blues when i told them i like "there is a light that never goes out" by the smiths. i used to watch this video all the time when i was a kid on VH1, and it had a great influence on my musical taste development. you are wonderful, pandora!

so it's ridiculous enough that fall out boy and the killers are in a feud. and yes, more ridiculous that i would click on the link to that story to read about said feud. MOST ridiculous, however, is this quote from fall out face:

"I kinda like how he called Fall Out Boy 'dangerous'. It felt like how Ice called Maverick 'dangerous' in 'Top Gun'." He said. "I kind of think of it this way: How could you feel like a superhero if you didn't have an arch-nemesis?"

are we losing sight of ourselves when we are fall out boy and brandon flowers calling each other 'dangerous' AND THEN FURTHER comparing ourselves to maverick and iceman? the only thing dangerous about brandon flowers is his eyeliner but i believe he solves that little problem by using the 18-hour, waterproof type.

there was this great bit from a new yorker piece by nora ephron last month, and i loved it so much that i'm willing to type it here:

When you give up your apartment in New York and move to another city, New York becomes the worst version of itself. Someone I know once wisely said that the expression "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there" is completely wrong where New York is concerned; the opposite is true. New York is a very livable city. But when you move way and become a visitor the city seems to turn against you. It's much more expensive (because you have to eat all your meals out and pay for a place to sleep) and much more unfriendly. Things change in New York; things change all the time. You don't mind this when you live here; it's part of the caffeinated romance of the city that never sleeps. But when you leave you experience change as a betrayal. You walk up Third Avenue planning to buy a brownie at a bakery you've always been loyal to, and the bakery's gone. Your dry cleaner moves to Florida; your dentist retires; the lady who made the pies on West Fourth Street vanishes; the maitre d' at P.J. Clarke's quits, and you realize you're going to have to start from scratch tipping your way into the hear of the cold, chic young woman now at the door. You've turned your back for a moment, and suddenly everything's different. You were an insider, a native, a subway traveller, a purveyor of tips into the good stuff, and now you're just another frequent flyer, stuck in a taxi on the Grand Central Parkway as you wing in and out of LaGuardia. Meanwhile, you read that Manhattan rents are going up, they're climbing higher, they've reached the stratosphere. It seems that the moment you left town they put up a wall around the place, and you were never manage to vault over it and get back into the city again.

is it too early to call it the SUMMER OF THE "what the hades?" HOOKUP?

you've got your looks, your pretty face

source

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I AM THE AUDREY HEPBURN OF KOREA

click to enlarge. these are the celebs i look like according to myheritage.com - two korean actresses, a k-pop star, a thai pop star, jennifer beals, margaret cho, the president of the philippines, and posh spice. and ll cool j.

THE COZMODECK WILL MAKE ME FAT
rob0t and i are the fattest pigs ever. we went to this restaurant called home for a full debrief on the past six months and two weeks. i had a cozmodeck discount card to use, which entitled us to $15 off a $40 meal (info on how to get your own free deck here). so to meet our $40 food quota, we ordered no less than:

Field greens, dried cranberries, feta cheese, champagne vinaigrette
Chicken pot pie with “Home” made pastry crust (robot)
Niman Ranch natural cheeseburger, French fries (me)
Macaroni & cheese
Black & white molten chocolate cake
PLUS it was happy hour so drinks were only $3

our feast lasted over two hours. i went home and totally passed out from food coma. robot, you will be the death of me yet!

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note to MoDo: Saint John's Wort AKA ROOFIE! (zing!)

HOT PINK EYELINER

no, it don't mean jack

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finally got around to watching the notebook last night. i've had the dvd for over almost a year, but have not been sufficiently bored enough to watch it. i think i'm going to write up a notebook drinking game, where you take a shot when:

1) allie and noah kiss furiously
2) allie wraps her legs around noah's waist
3) allie runs towards noah and squeals
3) you correctly predict something that happens
4) you want to barf (just drink through the nausea)
5) you remember that they started dating in real life after this film
6) you want to punch rachel mcadams in the face

selma and didds - believe it

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hands up if you already knew john mayer was an ass. bubblegum tongue this beeyatch.

last night i watched a car grate a block of cheddar cheese by driving in circles around it. thus marks the end of my tv watching life.

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found this cool artist through the pop77 blog - i bought one of her prints for my room.

there is also this jenny lewis video for 'rise up with fists!!!' (also from pop77):

i didn't like the song much when i first heard it, but i think once you embrace the country-ness instead of struggling against it, it's sweet.

not the british children

who knew gw was so gansta? (link via the fiddle) eat that, lazy sunday!!!

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philana and i were having a chat about the greatness of a black-based wardrobe, and she spewed this jewel:

Philana: it's so funny, because i imagine this to be just the opposite of the type of conversations you have when you are with the guys
me: LOL
Philana: they are fun though
me: what do you imagine our conversations to be?
Philana: i'm not sure i imagine conversations
me: you've been there, you see what we talk about
Philana: yea. definitely not fashion, whatever it is.
well, maybe i could imagine a conversation
around fashion with them being like
"so what's up with girls wearing those boy shorts all the time"
or like "are thongs really that bad"
i don't know

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email from anne:

If you come to SD you should aim for the first weekend in August. We can go watch a Kanye concert and holler "we want prenup."

let's make love and listen to death from above

i'm recommending some good asian am. short story writers to minnie, and i found this one by andrew lam online in its entirety. he was a guest in my fiction class, and it was awesome to hear him read it in that teenage vietnamese tenderloin voice.

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WHEN, DEAR GOD, WHEN???

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feminists bloggers debate blowjobs (well worth the two second salon ad to see the article)

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check me out on yelp.com: lisainthesky.yelp.com

roxie's pastrami sandwich on dutch crunch
chai and philana

mikey, steve-o, boss snuggles

jamie and beverly

christine

emily


with jericho

mmm shrimp chips



while we were gone, they dug a hole.

jeff hid inside, and they put a blanket over it.


they put everything back as it was before we left.

alex returned.

he got a sandwich. jeff jumped out and scared him. alex fell to the ground in shock.

he was in this pose for about 15 minutes.

tan was in this pose for the same amount of time.

more pics from field trip to half moon bay: mine and philana's

the reason i love my boyfriend so much is he's all about class. always classy.

i'm not one to bush-bash unconditionally, but this is classic. (link from jane's blog. yes, jane magazine. eat it.)

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is anyone surprised? (from mediabistro)

oh gorby, you kidder!


yes, that is orly and claire danes, who apparently like to grind.

--

song o' the day: lily allen - oh my god

Gloria: look, I read about all your summer of mischief and it ain't happening

i'm a sagittarius born in the year of the monkey, so i'm a pretty mischevious person, yes. something isn't worth doing if there isn't the threat of getting caught doing it. i get a thrill out of making trouble of all sizes, and the time when i shine is undoubtedly summer. summer is time for troublemaking.

i think this explains the past few weekends. many birthday parties and many potentials for people to hook up. when you've been with someone for 2.5 years, you take more than a little pleasure in seeing people who are about to hook up or newly minted couples. living vicariously is an understatement. "we're the ali and jonny," steve loves to taunt me, referring to that much loved couple who was together for many years and who towards the end were prone to public arguments, sass laced with disgust, and more than a few "i don't fucking care" shrugs.

back to the topic. i've always been an instigating drunk, and i'm a firm believer that there needs to be one in each group. how many people are only waiting for someone to say, "hey, you should hook up with ___!" and then make it happen to the best of their abilities? granted, i have a pathetic track record. but it still beats chit chatting at the bar about some topic neither of you will be able to remember tomorrow, yes?

so look out, you. only ten more weekends of summer left.

--

jin's pics here. i don't even remember dancing at all, but there you have it.

i'm an engineer, duh

everyone always asks me what i do at googie, so here are some samples of my work that are finally up here:

case study 1
case study 2
case study 3
case study 4
case study 5

putting my journalism master's to good use!

jamie's post says it all: "the asian uma thurman has returned"


"is the back the new front?" asketh margot. in this pic i'm mid-chastizing alex across the kitchen ("aleeeex!").


this pic freaks me out because i think there was only one camera taking a photo and yet philana and i are both looking elsewhere, in opposite directions.


alex was saying something gross, i think. check out the endearing look on mike's face! i later poured 11 shots of watermelon vodka in dixie cups, and it felt like an eternity.

more pics at jamie's.


nob hill/union square is the new mission. it is. we went to lucid, which seemed cool last time we went, but this time, the whole lower floor smelled like barf. after a jaegerbomb or two and much of alex's complaining "what are we doing here?!?" the 15 or so of us stumbled over to tunnel top...where i don't think anyone remembers what happened. we stayed until after last call, and then walked up sutter, where emily thought she had parked four blocks away, but she had really just parked across the street. it was one of those nights.

just when i thought i had completely taken control of my eating habits here, the cafe in my building finally opened today. i am eating crabcakes benedict, sausage, potatoes, and fruit. damn you delicious crabcakes!

ps and there's evian water in the fridge!!!

---

alex?



...or not? (good call, g-lo)

because there is no 'e' in 'fuck'
trying to figure out the mystery of why 'E' key on my ibook is the only one that has rubbed off, i have come to the conclusion that it can only be due to the frequency at which i find myself typing the phrase - "eeeeeeeeeee!"

from salon:

The Daily Mail reports on a new study out of Britain that claims more women are speaking in lower voices to be accepted in the workplace. Although a little light on details, the study claims that women want to mimic the husky voice of actress Kathleen Turner to "compete with their deep-voiced male counterparts."

This conclusion is based on evidence that women's voices have become deeper in the last 50 years; the average pitch among women 18 to 25 apparently dropped by 23-hertz, equivalent to a semi-tone drop. (That means lower.) "Women have been striving to attain acceptance in a previously male-dominated society and they may have lowered their tone to enter that realm," Jonnie Robinson, a curator at the British Library and a dialect expert, told the Mail. "A deeper voice might be associated more with power."

...

I seriously question whether this so-called trend, which started in the 1970s, according to the article, is an effort to sound "manly," but rather to sound more "professional" -- the same way you hope your parents call you at your first job so you can shock them with how serious your voice is. It is interesting that when women try to make their voices deeper, they're thought to be trying to sound more masculine, although men talk in lower tones, too, when they want to appear extra authoritative.

There also may be another force at work: body changes. Yorkshire voice trainer Francis Newton says that as women's bodies grow bigger, their vocal cords become longer. As a result, their pitch and frequency become lower.