August 2011
1 post
The drive home
When I left this morning, I had eaten breakfast on the terrace, in the sun. The view was of a small touristy town in Spain. It was sleepy in the morning, but was often overrun by tourists by midday.
We left before they even began the steep winding path down the mountain.
Four hours later, we had begun our ascent in the Parc de Cevennes. A large swath of dark grey clouds came forward like a...
October 2010
2 posts
Why I agree with the strikers →
Everything I wanted to say about why I think the French strikes are not only important but positive has been said, and said better than I ever could, right here.
darkness
It’s almost midday and I need to turn on a light in my apartment.
September 2010
2 posts
finished
In the last week finished Stephen King’s The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon and Casares Asleep in the Sun. Girl gets lost deep in New Hampshire wilderness; man gets progressively more paranoid when his wife gets shipped off to a psychiatric hospital by the local dog trainer. King writing so invisibly you can’t tell you’re reading; Casares writing so lyrically you laugh and cringe at...
Uncle Boonmee and Valhalla Rising
How do critics tackle a film that essentially speaks about what cannot be spoken, cannot be translated into words? That Uncle Boonmee either provokes wonderment or boredom is curious indeed. A few words on the inevitable old argument that there are those who are sensitive, those capable of sustained interest, those who’s conception of reality is far from the mere objects, those whose sense...
July 2010
1 post
Still alive
That’s right. I’m still alive.
Malgré la manque de présence virtuelle, je continue. Malgré les accidents de montagne, les accidents conjugales, et mon instincte suicidaire, je suis là.
Pourquoi?
March 2010
3 posts
Pink
Go counteract that morbid post, I find myself drinking a lot of pink grapefruit juice these days. Really quite refreshing!
Complain Complain.
I’m going to say it quickly. I have been depressed and might still be in the throes of it. It’s odd how the thing just sneaks up on you, and then catches a hold of your life, paralyzing normal actions. You know, you know, you know…. Of course you don’t. How could you. Oh, you might. I’m not sure. I used to think it was laziness, or lack of willpower. There’s no...
All I do is eat
I’m hungry. I’m lying in bed. I can’t seem to get out. What to do? There is a pot of boiled rice on the stove but what I’m really craving is blood pudding, breakfast sausage, eggs and hash browns. What I’m really missing is a good shot at a heart attack.
Yesterday, I ate some ramen noodles with two poached eggs and broccoli, rice with greens and shrimp, carrots with...
February 2010
1 post
June 2009
2 posts
I have stayed away from the whole MJ kerfuffle. I always loved his music and his dancing, and this never waned with the years, and so there’s nothing to mourn. What I did find very moving was Jermaine’s statement to the press.
May 2009
5 posts
Strange melancholy morning, filled with fossil reading, Salinger, and a pervading sense of unease.
As I was walking from work yesterday, near nine with light still in the sky, I found myself opening and closing my book repeatedly, nervously, next to Abel. The temperature shift around six, from cool rain to stinging sun, was destabilizing. I felt fragile.
Here was a path I had taken before and...
affairs of the heart
are ill suited to airplanes, airports and nosy side passengers. It amplifies those voices in the basement that like to holler and bang pots, driving me to distraction. Floating in and out of consciousness with the subtle reminder of the body in the form of cramps, the sound of the air pressure sucking out waste products in flight, the casual flickering of whatever film is playing in front of me...
The Truth
Food in Sydney is better than in Paris.
April 2009
3 posts
Good bars in Manly
… are hard to find. Most of them veer towards the land of pounding bad music combined with people I have nothing in common with. This includes bars which cater to teenagers, bars which cater to professionals, and bars which cater to people who like white formica and steel in their eateries.
Luckily, last night, we found Safety Wolf. Yummy cocktails and soft scrumptious white tacos. Even the...
… time only goes forward, and at its own pace. We have no control over it. This can be a source of great frustration… But anticipation and knowledge of other states through experience makes the feeling of real happiness possible. Conclusion: I am regularly frustrated and therefore have a capacity for happiness. And no, I don’t equate bliss in ignorance as real happiness. Now, off...
March 2009
1 post
February 2009
3 posts
packable lunch
I now live alone. It’s been years since I’ve had a place to myself; it’s been nine years, to be exact. The first thing I’ve noticed so far is that I’ve grown up since then, and now actually clean and tidy the house to something very respectable. It helps that almost three quarters of my things are in storage and perhaps I should take note of this. Less is better.
...
Baden Baden
It’s 2009. I’m going away to Baden Baden for a little Valentine’s getaway. Planning on amusing myself at Friedrichsbad and the world famous Louis XIV casino, as well as wandering about the Black Forest and eating copious amounts of lovely German food. This will be my first real holiday I’m treating myself to since London in October. Geez…
December 2008
7 posts
Oh... those long forgotten memes...
andy’s version of the iPod shuffle (encore)
1. Put your iPod (itunes) on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
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IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY? Dreams never end – New Order WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY? Delia’s...
When reading makes you really really hungry, and a... →
Amazing food blog by an art director in Singapore that always makes me both writhe in agony with hunger, and nibbled by little pangs of jealousy as I can only imagine his life must be unbelievably satisfying, both artistically and gastronomically. And check out his new kitchen!
Fabrics Interseason →
The designers of the two pieces I picked up this recently, a gorgeous mustard cape and simply fabulous baby blue shirt with a high funnel button up collar.
Hans Joachim Roedelius →
What I listened to all last night after chatting, and it kept me up till eight in the morning!
Gopher Cocktail
Chill cocktail glass. Prepare as follows:
Moisten rim of glass with hock wine and coat with curry powder. Muddle in cocktail shaker salt & piece of passion fruit with a dash of orgeat.
In pre-chilled cocktail shaker combine
2 oz raspberry flavored vodka
½ oz marc
½ oz peach puree
1 tsp. Vouvray
1 tsp. Calisaya bitters
3 dashes apricot syrup
Do the Mambo whilst shaking...
Nadal, by Wertheim →
John Wertheim, a journalist I actually admire and can name because I read his columns almost weekly, throws down the gauntlet for Sportsman of the Year with Rafael Nadal. I can’t help but agree. Nadal is awesome: a true sportsman and not likely to throw a tantrum, always up for a fight, gracious, generous to fans, humble, and an all out knuckleball of a tennis player. Ok, he’s lousy...
November 2008
6 posts
He's coming back!
Happy beyond belief.
Topsy Turvy
The nice thing, though, with being sick is it gives one the excuse to cosy up in bed with books, and possibly get some writing done. For the second time in three months, I’ve had a stomach bug. Part of me wants to blame this on where I work, another part of me is furious that this is happening on a work day. Luckily, I have finally found a good and kind doctor, even as he sent me home with...
Thank you Mr. Ehlert
Recipe for having one of the best birthdays ever:
1. Get taken to the Hemingway Bar for a martini at the stroke of midnight.
2. Wake up in the arms of someone very special.
3. Get taken to the Opera to see Die Zauberflôte.
4. Turn up late at the bar and get ridiculously trashed, while receiving copies of not only Dracula in Pakistan, several CDs worth of music, but also the new book on YSL and...
Take that angst!
I refuse to be maudlin’
I choose to be ridiculous and ecstatic.
And hopefully, later, drunk.
Possibly the best online magazine out there →
And it sure doesn’t hurt that they put awesome in their URL!
Because I like to roll my eyes just a little too... →
Vaguely meaningful editorial on the response of our generation to the fluffy hippy optimism that seemed so backward, to past, and so uncool, to most of us in our now thirties.
October 2008
5 posts
It’s amazing how the only critical commentary Republican stalwarts can summon up is some absurd extreme statements like “Obama is just a minion of Karl Marx,” he’s a socialist or that he’s a terrorist. It’s shameful that people can be so scared of actually having to think about complex issues instead of bleeting out platitudes and gibberish like that. Annoying...
I am overwhelmed.
Hillary said it three times: "President Obama" →
Hillary Clinton calls Senator Barack Obama “President” Obama three times on CNN immediately after debate!
John McCain: selfish, corrupt and impotent →
Scathing Rolling Stone report on McCain that really makes him sound like the biggest lowlife idiot there could be. I never thought I would say this, but George W. Bush would even make a better leader than this doorknob.
CBS's "virtually undetectable" full frontal →
New Survivor stud, Prince William… oops Marcus, shows a little wang on the run. CBS offers official statement about it being “virtually undetectable.” Pure little dude.
September 2008
11 posts
Entering a strange phase in my life regarding men. Receiving unwarranted attention from unsavory quarters, and blank walls from unknown quarters. Will take this as a gentle reminder from the universe that life is anything but expected.
In good news, had tea at the Mariage Freres with Emilie. Had the Sweet Samourai, which consisted of thinly sliced monkfish carpaccio topped with Egyptian tea,...
"Who's your daddy?" - Jeff Probst from Survivor →
4 tags
after the white night... a sea
Nuit blanche, a white night, is what they call it when you stay up all night without sleeping. This bears no allusion to what keeps you up, but to the night which contains an internal sun so brilliant it burns out the dark. Afterwards I did see the sun. Stepping out of Saint Michel, the light was sharp and brilliant but without warmth, as it is at the end of summer. At the bookshop, I went to the...
2 tags
Getting ready to get skinned at dominos tonight. Feel that maybe I should play for money as it will surely cure any gambling habit to play while having the hangover the size of the Sahara.
why am I all of sudden listening to so much punk and psychedelia?
4 tags
I've got a zucchini the size of John Holmes
That’s right… I was forced to get creative with vegetables. Hauled in over two weeks ago from my sojourn in the deep French countryside, the giant zucchinis that are possibly three times the width of my arm, and the length of my thigh, were causing me no end of anxiety. I had no idea what to do with zucchini that large, but was terrified of seeing it get moldy, going to waste.
...