PAPERMONSTER update

My friend Victor Garcia is doing amazing things with his art work! Please check it out!

www.papermonster.org

He's also released a skateboard deck!

You can check out more details and download pictures of pieces in the show by visiting:::
http://papermonster.wordpress.com

There, you will find upcoming shows and projects including a laser cut skateboard which you can view pictures of here:
http://flickr.com/photos/5280lasers/2808499681/

at the museum

1
Statues of archaic figures with
almond eyes hover above a diffusing crowd,
much like storm clouds do in springtime.
I have rewritten their language to be my own.
Clinging my belongings as they spill
over my weak half nelson, I appear to some
as a bag lady, some as an Olympian.
The clicking of my too-tight-shoes
grows loftier as I make my way down the corridor,
and the stare of some Doryphorus burns itself
some place between my shoulder blades.
Athens rests upon my lips here, it is
sweet and the scent of Cyprus, of clay,
of dry air -- it is all the heaviness
of the Gigantomachy on the Temple of Zeus
in Berlin, and it stings my sinuses.

2
These many words have not been translated,
not to me and everybody knows it, even the guards
in all of their hand me down shirts.
In some other hall or gallery a thousand
Madonnas line the walls, the pietas
sag and melt like molten steel -- she
sinks low and slow like blackstrap molasses,
or like some Herb who's reluctant to speak up.
This is my thirteenth time visiting this wing,
which is why the Mother's behaving this way.
It's tricking and I got it.

3
In the darkness of the third floor
I'm noticed by a woman of about ninety,
the thick lines of pragmatism hide in her face.
She picks my scarf up off the floor, looks up,
her bright eyes the like the hole in the Pantheon.
I imagine scooping them out like soft pearls
and fashioning a necklace to see forever with.
Shade thanks the woman for her keffiyeh,
then continues down the hallway in silence.
She will go on knowing the woman is
only steps behind her and will think
about the years between them, all of
the miles and countries that make
her a girl in her twenties and
the woman unknowable.

4
I lean against the salty marble wall,
wrapped in shivering coldness chattering
teeth that could provoke an earthquake.
In nomini Patri... In the name of the father,
I mumble this while all the saints and sinners mock me.
The legends here have their place on the wall,
I am their outsider getting drenched
in their laughter and finding my
way back into the crowd.

reckless, depraved, and bitter

Tonight is the season 2 premier of Californication, one of my most favorite shows ever. Nevermind the articulate (yet pithy at times) dialogue, picturesque setting, or the bittersweet Hollywood hopefulness, oh and the youngest daughter from The Nanny's boobs popping up every once in a while -- I'm entranced by David Duchovny's transformation from almost character actor (can we remember Evolution? that was him, wasn't it?) into -- BRACE YOURSELF -- David Duchovny basically acting like himself. An intelligent, super awesome, slightly pessimistic, ridiculously sex driven "power" male... oh throw in the fact that he is the type of writer in the show I'd love to be and we basically have a match made in heaven. Never watched X-Files, don't know which is Mulder or Scully, but I can say this... since Twin Peaks, you've come a long way baby!

honesty. honest tea.

While working at an organic food store I became reacquainted with my love for Honest Tea of all flavors. Moroccan Mint Green, Assam Black, First Nation Peppermint, Just Black, Just Green, Pearfe"ct White, and Community Green Tea (with Maltese Orange essence!) -- just to name a few. Anyhow, much like the famed Snapple caps, the makers of Honest Tea have included what I find quite interesting quotes underneath the lid of each delicious bottle. I began to compile a collection of the quotes, and I see no better time than now to share them:

"In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous." -Aristotle

"The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused." -Shirley MacLaine

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." -Confucius

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." -Ghandi

"The first human being who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization." -Sigmund Freud

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit." -Nelson Henderson

"I would rather regret the things I have done than the things I have not." -Lucille Ball

"Never hope more than you work." -Rita Mae Brown

"To bend a bamboo, start when it is a shoot." -Malaysian Proverb
Abraham Maslow

"He who throws mud only loses ground." -Fat Albert (umm, ok)

"The bad news: there is no key to the universe. The good news: it was never locked." -Swami Beyondananda

right now

Little Bit by Lykke Li from the album Youth Novel

my brother's morning playlist

I had a Zooey Deschanel in Almost Famous moment during my family's Jeopardy and countertop dinner last night. As most of my friends know, we have this really great nook off of our kitchen which provides a nice place to eat dinner but for some reason my family is more apt to sit around the island in our kitchen and eat dinner there amongst the yammering of Sam Waterston on Law and Order, or the obnoxious voice of Alex Trebek. Anyways, this moment made me proud to be a sister. My brother decided to share with me the music he listened to on his way to school (he's a high school junior)... nonetheless this completed me. On a rainy morning on a bus filled with really lame wannabe fitted hat wearing "gangstas" he tuned them out first listening to Blinded by the Lights by the Streets. He was "super into the hook" and Mike Skinner's stream of consciousness writing... little did he know about the ecstasy driven storyline, but awesome still. What was even more fascinating was that he said he didn't even know he had this on his iPod, and so he listened to the first five tracks of the album. We dished about this for a bit. He moved himself into some Black Moth Super Rainbow and (the to be expected) Broken Social Scene... starts droppin' bombs on me about Nas and how he's lyrically misunderstood, talking about subtle nuances and shit. I'm like, when I was 16 I moped, wore lots of black, and listened to the Cure. I would have talked about how Robert Smith was a misunderstood lyricist and how the album Disintegration changed my life. I wasn't nearly as insightful... didn't know who Mike Skinner was.

guten morgen!

Somehow yesterday I was transformed into this half-a-pack-a-day smoke coming out of my ears no sleep till Brooklyn type of narcissist. After that wine induced night I woke in my bed after a series of bizarre dreams -- like, I was tripping on mushrooms on my old campus, a ridiculously heavy backpack strapped to myself, and all of my middle school nemeses were there -- pissed at myself for leaving the window open again because my throat hurts and the fan was already on. I'm a sucker for listening to storms as I try to fall asleep but I'm forgetting we're punching into fall and summer is long gone. My sufficient enough weekend was bumped up to a 4-day weekend yesterday when office manager Betty called me to say they were closing the Arts Center because of (potential) power outages. I'm feeling lazy and thin this morning, sleep gunk half gluing my eyelids shut, hands shaking like a wino's would. My room needs to be cleaned, it's vomiting itself up again. I'm trapped inside a toddler who can't hold his animal crackers... so I guess I have something to do today.