really moving since you asked column

'...for the desire, even in the face of death, to set down, for readers still unborn, all the sweetness of our common life.'

..the sexual explicitness that he pioneered in American fiction was additive, ameliorative—the one thing that had been left undescribed, a piece of the world’s experience previously unfixed. Compared with more obvious pioneers of sex writing, how blended his descriptions are into a larger world of memory: sex in Updike happens not in a stripped-down theatre of two but in a coliseum of many, part of the continuum of sensation in which we live.

Throughout all that varied work, one theme rose and was repeated over and over. Updike’s great subject was the American attempt to fill the gap left by faith with the materials produced by mass culture. He documented how the death of a credible religious belief has been offset by sex and adultery and movies and sports and Toyotas and family love and family obligation. [...] He viewed the material culture of American life with a benign, appreciative ironic eye. But he had no illusions, either, about its ability to cover the failure or wish away mortality. His 1996 novel “In the Beauty of the Lilies” [...] makes this almost schematically apparent: the death of American religion is matched by the rise of American movies.[...]

One has a sense of someone who—as much as, though with more wit than, Andy Warhol—has spent a good deal of his life liking things. Women’s clothes, their hair, the hybridization of American accents; the way that the hyper-cold of the airline baggage compartment can be felt like a secret in the bag as you unpack—all these images and moments, recalled at random from his work, are not just reported but quietly rhapsodized, registered with love. It is his affections that rise, and that we recall.

nonniversary

five years ago, i wrote on a walgreens valentine's card (the tear-off kind you gave and got in fourth grade - i think this one was WWF-themed): "love is for suckers!"

the best advice i've received over the past few months is that there are no rules (i think i got this from benjamin button, but still).

my valentine this year is this dress. i'll have to save two unemployment checks to buy it.

playlist 1

lost, near sanchez x 21st street

one great thing about getting lost in san francisco is that you will come upon amazing gorgeous vistas (like this one, at left).
on another note - i cannot believe i got lost between here and toast! FU google maps. i shall only trust my native's instinct from now on.

chai: "you know what they say about people who make complicated snacks"



giada's chicken and avocado napoleons

what i should have said was nothing

i've been talking about this for days: comic mike birbiglia's bit in last month's episode of this american life. i was literally laughing out loud. check it out, it's act 2.

i'm going to start blogging again now that i'm unemployed. i plan to stay away from whining, feeling sorry for myself, or gloating about doing things working stiffs can't do. just notes from someone who has a lot of free time during the day, let's say.

so first note: the winter sky around 4:30 to 5 p.m. - absolutely gorgeous. kind of a crystal blue-grey that just looks cold. something i haven't seen in a long time.

-don't watch the food channel when you're hungry. i think most of have figured this out a long time ago. goes hand in hand with the rule of not going grocery shopping when hungry. when you watch giada cooking 'california light' while feeling like you need to detox all the cookies and PUMPKIN PIE! from the holidays, you end up devoting yourself to a recipe that is way too ambitious and time consuming and not nearly as tasty or satisfying as say, the minimalist, who i completely j'adore. have you seen his recent piece on things to have and to toss in your kitchen?

-while the streets are less crowded with cars, there is a ton of street construction going on in the city during the daytime. and senior drivers. maddening.

for your own good winter:

Skinny Love - Bon Iver

laurie: yo
i made u a presetnt
http://bacolicio.us/http:/macabasco.com
me: LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
laurie: LOL
me: HAHAHAHAHHA
laurie: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
me: HAHAHAHAHHA
laurie: HAHAHAHAHAH
HAHAHA
me: HAHAHAHHAHA
laurie: did you die?
me: i died


FIN.

our secrets sleep in winter clothes



one of a few songs that i couldn't get out of my head on my last-min. trip to the philippines over the weekend. owen serenaded me with it with his guitar from the back of his car in greenpoint, brooklyn, for my 25th birthday (i was in the front seat). i had never heard it before and thought he wrote it himself. he has a surprisingly sweet singing voice, something most people may not know about him.

other songs i couldn't get out of my head:
-"fido your leash is too long," magnetic fields
-"all or nothing," o-town (there was karaoke at my grandma's house, natch)

two new tagalog words i learned over the weekend: "bukas" (tomorrow) and "mabuti" (i'm fine)

my 16-year-old cousin has a one-month-old baby girl named nesle (pronounced like 'nestle' - it's her mom's name spelled backwards)

my 10-year-old cousin diana had a birthday and we all gave her money. she racked up 54 american dollars - and in this economy!

my sister is now a melatonin addict, thanks to mikey, our dealer

i managed to escape without one mosquito bite (probably too much alcohol in my blood) but i predictably ended up with a cold. i am counting down to when i can take this medicine and be dead to the world...

cary tennis can take your breath away. this one's good.

'it's a salad that tosses itself'

Seoul
Originally uploaded by tangents01

got a preview of the new academy of sciences!

spotted on the N
- white woman, grey hair, ethnic-looking bag, reading one-day old ny times
- young black woman, brown glasses, black sweater over grey sweater (with white bearded dude in sweater vest and grey sauconys), reading oscar wao
- white dude, sloppy hoody and tee shirt, reading data modeling essentials
- tall, thin white chick, in yoga pants, fleece top, and pristine nikes, with timbuktu bag, reading women's health
- young asian dude, bald, glasses, reading zombie survival guide
- young asian woman, short hair, keeps looking around, reading two-day old ny times (me)

blogging from casa macabasco -

spent the day boating with the family and then cleaning for a few hours my old junk that i left here since the move to the maxi pad. by old, i mean like from since i was born.
i've been doing it sporadically on weekends for the past month, since steve left. i promised my parents i'd clean one thing each time i was at their place. the whole time it's been a strangely intense emotional experience. like i find scraps of paper with itineraries, packing lists, questions for interviews, notes to self, etc. (i am and always have been a major writer-downer, which is why i still have a planner instead of a palm or itouch).
today i cleaned a huge amount of stuff. i used to be one of those sentimental types that kept everything as mementos. there were tons of photos of friends that i no longer speak to (or care to), short stories i wrote when i was in elementary school, a report i did on isabel allende, a report on the california miners that had a cover page watercolored by me (?), ticket stubs, museum maps (who keeps this stuff?), a pair of leather pants (an unfortunate fashion decision), photos from so many formal dances that i want to dump but will keep for now, mix tapes, metro cards from everywhere, team sweatshirts and warmups from my basketball days, birthday cards, notes - jesus. i found a notebook with a five page letter to a guy - written on one of those long solitary flights where all you can do is wallow in your loneliness and the mistakes you've made - that i never summoned the courage to send and couldn't bear to read now.
god who needs a nap?

marisa's wedding!

QUOTH CHAI
me: "how's andrew awkward"
chai: "he has no energy on the phone"
me: "neither do you!"
chai: "yeah but I GOT GAME!"

beer olympics photos...NEED I SAY MORE

fuck good charlotte and pop punk, but i gotsta give props to joel madden for calling out starlets who can't dress for shit. and mind you, all of these are supposed trendsetters. STRAIGHT UGLY. i've said it before, and i'll say it again - FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS WEAR LEGGINGS. i'm NOT about dressing to please men, but come on, ugly is ugly. he even kind of clowns on his baby mama, nicole richie, in a nice touch.

photos from steve's goodbye bbq

also - LITTLE BRITAIN USA!! why did i never hear of this until now??

LEDE OF THE YEAR (so far)

The No. 1 need right now for some of the builders of the nation's next spaceship: Lots of No. 1.

Space program contractor Hamilton Sundstrand is seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston as part of its work on the new Orion space capsule that would eventually take astronauts to the moon, according to an internal memo posted on the Web site Nasawatch.com.

--
can't remember if i've mentioned this before but the new yorker fiction podcast is my main motivation to go to the gym. the stories are always so great, and the analysis insightful. it's kinda a mix of dial-a-story (oh childhood!) and lit class discussion. get yer act together, this american life! anyone else think it's totally fallen off of late?

--

photos from hyphen party: here and here

I GOT A LOWER BACK TATTOO

yep, that's right. TRIBAL DESIGN.

ok fine i lied. it's a metaphor meaning that i'm totally into lululemon, aka the new tramp stamp. laur tipped me off to a sale there last fri (she is SERIOUS about sales - she texted me about the $1 old navy flip flop sale last weekend at like 10 a.m.), and instead of happy hour, i got drunk off some gear with bamboo threads in 'em (supposed to have cooling properties).

i'm totally off of shopping for clothes for work or going out - i'm all about spending cash on workout clothes. ali says the only thing you'll catch her working out in is an APAture t-shirt and basketball shorts, but i think considering how much time and effort (structuring my schedule, eating healthy, etc.) i put into this whole being fit thing, might as well look good. and apparently there are real gains from changing your workout wear - i wore one of the tops to the gym last night and met my personal goal. awesome! and got totally scoped by the dude next to me. not so awesome. he was not hot.

another bon mot of ali's from our conversation about LL today was that she called it cameltoe heaven. yeah, yeah.

EAT IT, DRI-FIT.

on a final note - one of the writers i work with occasionally really pissed me off today. she's a lawyer and, i gotta say, is on a total power trip. i wouldn't back down to her in an email thread, and she actually called me to bitch at me about my edits. i was almost amused - but she kept interrupting me. which was like - wow, really? fine, dude. whatever. i was just perusing irene's blog and i kind of love her attitude about life and people - to wit: bad things goin' happen. bad people goin' happen. don't let it get to you. this is a great attitude to have.

...and the writer was a hardcore clinton supporter. NEED I EVEN SAY MORE?!