FIRES

shitty week for beloved landmarks. shocked at the news eastern market burned down - lin and i wandered in there many moons ago, and he stopped me from buying overpriced tacky earrings.

also catalina island, which was my dream place to live when i was 13...

then surrounded by flames is griffith observatory, where i've wanted to go since developing an interest in men in turned-up collars. oh who am i kidding, i've wanted to go since keanu.

it was also hot as hades in the bay earlier this week. something about going out at night without a sweater that feels wrong, unnatural here. you feel so warm, like your insides are on fire, and you might just -

SHOOTINGS

as i so eloquently said at yesterday's editors meeting (and using the words of the inimitable hillary duff), "virginia tech is gonna be so over, like, yesterday." that's the news biz, baby. i blinked and missed the chance to blog something about this (unlike everyone i know on xanga), but it continues to disturb me how strongly the APA community believes that more and improved mental health services are the "solution" to avoiding tragedies like this. it only strengthens my belief in the how misguided the community can be and how, without fail, it finds the wrong culprit for our problems (abercrombie and fitch? rosie? cmon).

i found this beautifully written and well-informed new yorker piece. we will never solve the problem of mentally ill - we will probably never even make a dent into shrinking that population. shouldn't we focus our energy on something we CAN do something about?

THERE'S NO STOPPING NEIGHBORHOOD SCAMP DENNIS AL MENACE

shit, this was the one i meant to post (the other one is funny too tho)


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BRIGHTLY COLORED BURKAS

IN YOUR EASTER BONNET


forget the ten commandments. watching easter parade was an annual event in my household. judy garland, fred astaire, and that fantastic scene at the end when they promenade down "the avenue...fifth avenue" with all the other blue bloods and those amazing hats.

i didn't believe my aunt last weekend when she said they still do the easter parade today in manhattan, but the sartorialist says i was wrong.

THE ECONOMIST
jpark tipped me off to a post on john tierney's times blog about the numbers game in speed dating. a lot if gems in here; i suggest you read.

By tracking the success of online daters, the researchers calculated precisely how much extra income a man had to make (relative to the average man’s income of $62,500 per year) to offset a less than ideal attribute. Some of their findings:

Suppose you’re an ordinary-looking guy whose online picture is ranked around the median in attractiveness. (In the study, the ratings of attractiveness were done by independent male and female observers hired by the researchers.) And suppose you’d like to be as successful with women as a guy whose picture is ranked in the top tenth. Then you’d need to make $143,000 more than him. If your picture is ranked in the bottom tenth, you’d need to make $186,000 more than him.

Similarly, according to the study, a 5-foot-0 guy would need to make $325,000 more than a 6-foot-0 man to be as successful in the online dating market. A 5-foot-4 man would need $229,000; a 5-foot-6 man would need $183,000; a 5-foot-10 man would need $32,000. And if that 6-foot-0 man wanted to do as well as a 6-foot-4 man, he’d need to make $43,000 more.

For women in the online study, shorter is better. A 5-foot-6 women would need to make $59,000 more than a 5-foot-0 or 5-foot-2 woman to do as well. She’d need to make $50,000 more than a 5-foot-4 woman.

i've got a new article in the april/may issue of audrey - check it out here.

i'm doing a workshop at berkeley's api conference this weekend, part of a hyphen backrom deal to extend our power over young impressionable college types. here is the workshop description. it may sound familiar to anyone from ecaasu 2005 in philadelphia. come heckle!

hey have you all seen junebug yet? i saw it this weekend, and i only cried like five times really. i think it was cuz i was emotional (tho NOT pre-menstrual) but still really moving. add it to the queue!!

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from a few weeks ago - the crew at rickshaw stop (taken by snuggles)

shit like this makes me miss new york so

THIS ONE ALMOST MADE ME FALL OFF THE TREADMILL
cue the sex and the city music.

"i started to wonder: when you talk about your exes' new relationships, are you really just talking about the two of you?"

and

hide the fart

NUGGETS
there's a woman in the office who every day eats frozen chicken nuggets topped with frozen vegetables (corn/peas/sad carrot cubes) for lunch and late afternoon snack. she keeps the costco-sized bags in the fridge and heats them up in the microwave. there is more sadness to this than i can articulate.

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a comment from chai:

i was noticing how easy it is to type your blog name into the web address bar, and realized that 3 out of the 4 letters of your name are on the default keys (asdfjkl;). it really makes a person more likely to visit your blog!

re: philana's comment about what is offensive (see ny post) -
always a good question. i think i've reached the age when i can't get offended all the time anymore. maybe it's age, or seeing the bigger life picture, or maybe it's the onslaught of media/ideas/words i'm exposed to every day. i just don't have enough anger in my reserves to react to every little thing, plus i'm so outraged by other things (iraq, sexism, violence, the 9 express bus).
related, i just read a post about this on reappropriate (run by a gal who some of you know, i think?), and it's something i've been wondering about for a few years. bethany and i always discussed when the time would come when bullshit representation/stereotypes/racist remarks issues would stop being The Major rallying issues among apa activists (esp. college aged). i think it's important for people to know when these things happen, but in terms of organizing protests or petitions, it's really a waste of time.

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this song has been in my head ALL DAY, especially the whistle solo intro:

PLATEAUS
last summer, when i began working out more days each week, i remember complaining to chai that no matter how hard i tried, i just could not run beyond a certain distance in my workouts. i was hitting a wall, so to speak, on the treadmill. i asked her if it was possible that there was just a maximum distance your body could achieve in any particular condition. she said, "no, i think you're just in a plateau right now, but you'll break through."
i think in life we have peaks and valleys, but i disagree that you're either in a peak or in a valley at any point in time. sometimes we're on plateaus. and there's nothing wrong with that.
as kurt cobain so wisely said (i've been listening to the mtv unplugged album in a vain attempt to reclaim my early teen years): i'm on a plain.

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the mac-mosa: blood orange juice ($1.99 from TJ's) and vodka

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some more license plates sightings:
'EAROTIC' (in south park)
'ARRHM8Y' (near costco downtown)

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snap

i'm cured of my h & m addiction. i went to my usual store today and the guy that rang me up actually RECOGNIZED me. GOD. MORTIFIED.

BUT i did get cute stuff. so totally worth it...but i'll have to haunt another store from now on.

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good mid-day snack (especially when you are watching giada and barefoot contessa and you want something salty but not junk) - trader joe's corn tortilla flat crackers, spread with tartar sauce, with bit of sardine(!!), topped with chili flakes.

new article from the newest hyphen magazine - peep it here, get it here

TO RJ
AKA RIMJOB AKA RIMJOBE AKA I'M STONED

BEN SAVAGE! lololololol

A LOWBROW ONE FOR YA

watching american idol out of sheer boredom (and because the ANTM naima cycle marathon ended), and diana ross was the guest mentor. reminded me to find this song - when i was little my mom had a small record collection that we would play all the time on our fisher price record player:


i love the 80s

her collection of 45 rpm singles included: diana ross' 'missing you' and sade's 'smooth operator.' my LP collection included the disney mary poppins soundtrack. anyways - yet another example of how the tiniest things trigger my long-buried happy memories.

my favorite scene!



YEP - UHH!

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF A SUNDAY PICNIC AT CRISSY FIELD THROUGH WHAT I CONSUMED
apple
bud light
pastrami panini
goat cheese garlic chips
PBR (2)
champagne + orangina mimosas in plastic cocktail glass (2)
spicy garlic shrimp chips
mango fandango!!!!!! (fruit bowl)

i think we have gotten this whole indulgent sunday thing down to a science. it was 70 degrees with zero wind, and i have a sunburnt back. a football was thrown, kids were shooed away, people were baptized fully clothed in the bay, and we spent way too long looking for nonexistent shark's teeth in an exhibit at the visitor's center. by the way, you should definitely see 'the prestige' if you haven't yet...we saw a dog that looked like its coat was made of grey cotton candy, and melanie asked if we could eat it. i said, no, no, just because we're (half) filipino doesn't mean we eat all dogs - only the tasty ones. it was an awesomely perfect sunday picnic on a gorgeous san francisco day.

afterwards i introduced rj to his first it's it. tan described our group living in sf as 'the eternal college summer,' and it sure feels like it.






pics from jenn

NEW YORK PHOTOS
here, a few select photos from new york (steve won't let me link to the flickr album and there are too many to upload them all here) -


angel share, a japanese speakeasy near st. mark's - very cool, good cocktails (i had the scenes in the city)




meat (flower) platter at kunjip in k-town


tchotkes at pinkberry - not offended - i think they're orange/lemon juicers? - feel bad for the mexican guy in the center with the slanty eyes


pinkberry - original flavor with mango - yum (lower case)


BIG UNIQLO - where we went EVERY DAY we were there - buying score: steve, 4; me, 1


owen wondered why there were so many asians in there


steve silhouette @ moma (muffin top head)


gratuitous shoe photo in moma elevator


scott, me, and minnie at freeman's (LES)


decor at freeman's, with their hipster busboys


reverend billy and the church of stop shopping, in front of astor place starbucks


c-town - shanghai cafe - right before it started snowing

overall, a good weekend - lots of old friends and cool spots - TOO MUCH UNIQLO?

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p.s. i've made it my mission to go to more museum free days - the new picasso at moma? it was ok, i am more looking forward to the matisse scultpures exhibit coming this summer - the vivienne westwood show at the de young is brilliant and awe-inspiring, definitely check it out!

really awesome post about the misguided reaction the APA community is having to the asianweek fiasco - i am NOT defending it at all (i am totally disgusted by it), but saying 'we all love black people' doesn't fix or help anything...this is basically the same shit that happens any time there is any kind of racist asian thing (abercrombie, rosie o'donnell, etc) - there is a call for an apology, and then the issue dies.

Is this the new model minority that we’re playing out, always apologizing, never pushing the envelope toward justice?