now that i've got things to do

lately, all i've wanted to do is read books. i had all the time in the world a while ago and instead i sat around patently not reading books, but now it hits me that, damnit, i love books. i read zadie smith's "on beauty" a few weeks ago and really enjoyed that. it's never happened quite like this before, where i'd live something, and then see it reflected in art 15 minutes later. the narrative to "on beauty" mirrored my life for like 4 days straight and shit. shit was kinda bogus, but pretty sweet i guess.

there's something very mysterious and awe-inducing about everything you need to know being right in front of you, and it just depends what page you open up to, or what you'll let yourself see or hear or know and to see the visiblevisceral progess of flipping one page at a time until suddenly you're in the middle of the book. unless you are me, and you/me are reading "cloud atlas," and three weeks later you're/i'm still on page 40. progress is just for the weak!

one thing i need to work on is posture. how do you properly hold a book? i think sitting up is ideal, but sometimes you just want to lay down cuh.

it's about time

it's time to revitalize this lumbering beast! i will reanimate, revive, rejuve. i've had a lot of things floating around in my head, and, now that i'm on the cusp of the cusp of adulthood (not quite there yet, but i'm almost almost there) i think i want to keep a (b)log of it.

with time comes perspective, they say, but, i never know what to do with it when i get it. i guess we'll see, eh

squash that

i stood at the train station, awash in the hum of resting giants. the wind licked my back and the sun beat down on my back, warming my head. i wondered if the idea of the color spectra was birthed from similar circumstances, when a man with black hair tried to figure why his head got so toasty. if it did happen to come about that way, how come said color-spectra-finder-outer took the initiative to figure that shit out? did he really dissect light beams into colors? roygbiv...he even got a cool, easy to remember pneumonic for his stupid discovery. and how come i -- with the same hair color and same meteorological muse -- instead just stand immobile, holding an 18-inch squash.

oh, the squash. i forgot about the squash. my sister had sent it home with me to give to our parents, a veritable "ha! look what i can do, ma!" to prove the color of her thumbs (read: green {red green?}) after an abysmal tomato crop. mom and dad have meanwhile dedicated a small patch of dirt in our backyard to a little vegetable garden, inciting a competition amongst the family. my parents pack their little 2-meter area with so many damn plants that none of them have room to grow, encroaching on top of each other, an arborous gentrification. the strawberries have to make room for the tomatoes, which are feeling the heat from the plums. nonetheless, they've put out a rather impressive harvest of tomatoes and oft ridicule lucy for her crappy vegetables, conveniently ignoring the sunlight that san francisco invariably misses out on.

sunlight....

that damned color spectra taunts me again!

my darling we will get there

so by request of a certain tall creepy blonde, i guess i'll post more. and since apparently coherence is overrated, here goes a list!

a: the new joanna newsom album, "Ys," is wonderful. 5 songs of excellently written, performed, and arranged songs. she has a great supporting cast this time around: van dyke parks does the arrangements, steve albini records it, and jim o'rourke mixes the record. despite the other personnel though, joanna still remains firmly the focus and her songs are beautiful. the songs don't feel forced and the arrangements really let joanna shine. and any album with a banjo/harp/violin section is cool with me.

b: i'm really excited for september to end

c: living in this apartment and eating the (mostly) crappycrap that i have, i've really begun to value the virtues of fresh fruit. the taste, the non-frozenness, texture, its really pretty great. i still have problems buying bananas, because i like them on the greener side but they get ripe so fast in the heat i have to eat 5 of them in a day or else i won't eat them at all. a yellow-to-brown banana is not whats hot on the streets, especially not on mine

d: weitzel you are hella tall and hella slutty

e: buying birthday gifts is really hard, especially for my mom. she has very few personal interests and anything she needs she has, but i still need to find something. its the token of thought, you know? i wish a pat on the back and a "thanks for birthing me" would be sufficient, but i don't think that is passable currency for birthday presents these days.

f: LA has been exceedingly hot of late. go away, sun, i hate you

"god only knows"

thanks for keeping me company

--

I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
Ill make you so sure about it

God only knows what Id be without you

If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me

God only knows what Id be without you

God only knows what Id be without you

If you should ever leave me
Well life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me

God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows what Id be without you
God only knows
God only knows what Id be without you

i think i'm reconsidering this blog (again)

so last week, i thought to myself "huh, i should make this a food blog!" but then i got to thinking, and i don't think the concentration on food would be good for the mindstate, so i guess i'll make this an LA blog. it'll combine the LA food blog that i originally had in mind and will also have museums and concerts and venues and just LA in general. also, i'm hoping to improve my writing ability. hope it works!

i think i'm going to reconsider this blog

and maybe make it into a food blog of sorts. hopefully i'll be able to snaz it up with some pictures or something, and it'll act as a way of reminding me of what i ate and where...

larry david loves cowboys!

here's something that larry david of seinfeld and curb your enthusiasm wrote for the new york times about "brokeback mountain"

Cowboys Are My Weakness
By LARRY DAVID

SOMEBODY had to write this, and it might as well be me. I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain," nor do I have any intention of seeing it. In fact, cowboys would have to lasso me, drag me into the theater and tie me to the seat, and even then I would make every effort to close my eyes and cover my ears.

And I love gay people. Hey, I've got gay acquaintances. Good acquaintances, who know they can call me anytime if they had my phone number. I'm for gay marriage, gay divorce, gay this and gay that. I just don't want to watch two straight men, alone on the prairie, fall in love and kiss and hug and hold hands and whatnot. That's all.

Is that so terrible? Does that mean I'm homophobic? And if I am, well, then that's too bad. Because you can call me any name you want, but I'm still not going to that movie.

To my surprise, I have some straight friends who've not only seen the movie but liked it. "One of the best love stories ever," one gushed. Another went on, "Oh, my God, you completely forget that it's two men. You in particular will love it."

"Why me?"

"You just will, trust me."

But I don't trust him. If two cowboys, male icons who are 100 percent all-man, can succumb, what chance to do I have, half- to a quarter of a man, depending on whom I'm with at the time? I'm a very susceptible person, easily influenced, a natural-born follower with no sales-resistance. When I walk into a store, clerks wrestle one another trying to get to me first. My wife won't let me watch infomercials because of all the junk I've ordered that's now piled up in the garage. My medicine cabinet is filled with vitamins and bald cures.

So who's to say I won't become enamored with the whole gay business? Let's face it, there is some appeal there. I know I've always gotten along great with men. I never once paced in my room rehearsing what to say before asking a guy if he wanted to go to the movies. And I generally don't pay for men, which of course is their most appealing attribute.

And gay guys always seem like they're having a great time. At the Christmas party I went to, they were the only ones who sang. Boy that looked like fun. I would love to sing, but this weighty, self-conscious heterosexuality I'm saddled with won't permit it.

I just know if I saw that movie, the voice inside my head that delights in torturing me would have a field day. "You like those cowboys, don't you? They're kind of cute. Go ahead, admit it, they're cute. You can't fool me, gay man. Go ahead, stop fighting it. You're gay! You're gay!"

Not that there's anything wrong with it.

Larry David appears in the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

mullet galore

so today, we pooled our resources and cut andrew a mullet. he's visiting from back home and his hair's been growing out for a while. he decided it was time to get a haircut, and what better 'do to choose than the moo-lay?

joshua meehr did a bang-up job

top 20? of 2005

1. sufjan stevens - illinois
2. kanye west- late registration
3. broken social scene - broken social scene
4. wolf parade - apologies to queen mary
5. edan - beauty and the beat
6. prince paul - itstrumental
7. antony & the johnsons - i am a bird now
8. sigur ros - takk
9. lcd soundsystem - lcd soundsystem
10. spoon - gimme fiction
11. dungen - ta det lugnt
12. little brother - the minstrel show
13. bright eyes - im wide awake and its morning
14. fiona apple - extraordinary machine
15. deerhoof - the runners four
16. common - be
17. the decemberists - picaresque
18. clap your hands say yeah - clap your hands say yeah
19. andrew bird & the mysterious production of eggs (this would be higher but i only recently got into it...)
20. beanie siegel - the b. coming

i dont know if i like my list, but it is what it is what it is. what it do.