mixmas backstory

folks ~ hopefully you've all received your mixmas 2007! if not, well i probably ran out of them, and no worries, you can listen online at my finetune site as long as your company doesn't have a policy prohibiting streaming radio stations like my company JUST rolled out last week (D'oh!!)

i am SO happy with the way this year's mix turned out, although this year more than ever before, i remixed and remixed it so much, that on the final day when i dropped them all in the mail, i couldn't even sleep that night without hearing the tracks - in order - in my head all night long which was definitely a tad maddening.

it's getting harder & harder every year to make and send all the discs, let alone write my cards, so this year i planned ahead and outsourced the production element (instead of burning cd's on my home computer one at a time) and also purchased a "mix kit" of stickers, labels, envelopes, etc. so that's why most of you should have a professional looking one and not a glue & crayons version (although a few last CD's got the glue & crayons treatment).

since late October i have been on a Complaint-Free Diet in an effort to lighten up and appreciate my privileges. most people wonder why anyone would ever put themselves through such a thing (or just look at me as if i've joined a cult) but i took the challenge after being inspired by The Four Hour Workweek blog and as much as i can't commit to a complaint free life (or even a full day) yet, there's something about trying to stop that i love, and it gets addictive. i'm totally sticking with it in the new year, and encourage each of you to try it, even for a week.

what i get asked the most is "what constitutes a complaint?"- well, technically the definition is "an expression of discontent" but the book A Complaint Free World allows that thoughts have a different effect than words, and only statements said out loud count as a complaint. moreover the book suggests that you aim to not complain, gossip, or criticize for 21 days. the criticize part is the hardest for me.

i've been at it for 2 months and like i said, i'm far from achieving a Complaint-Free Life, but i can tell my brain has adjusted a lot already and i don't find myself basing entire conversations on complaints anymore. unfortunately there are some things that happen and it's really hard to "let go" of, like for example, this week, a bunch of my Christmas cards were returned to me because they're square shaped, and who knew, square envelopes that are the size of a post-it note cost more to mail than one stamp. grumble.

i really hope most of you don't let the Christmas crowds and complainers get the best of you. hope you all have a fantastic 2008 and that the mix helps keep you going.

hard times come again no more

i just finished my final task of christmas shopping which was buying for 3 kids at the Denver Children's Home. there's nothing more rewarding and fun than buying for strangers who will appreciate your gifts beyond the depths of your own imagination. i've been shifting in these past couple years towards spending more on that and less on my own family, although i love shopping in general for everyone. now i just have to do the dreaded wrapping & waiting in line at the post office for the rest of my stuff.

for many different and some unknown reasons, this has been a difficult, trying year for a lot of my friends and yet a year of necessary transitions. it's not been easy to keep positive.

i am currently working on a "good mood" themed mixmas to try and shut out the bad ghosts of 2007, but nonetheless one song sticks with me whenever i think about the hard times this year, and it's true, it does come up in my ipod a lot on shuffle (even though i have 7,131 other songs in there). really nicely covered by eastmountainsouth on the Elizabethtown soundtrack, it's this lyric:

let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears
while we all sup sorrow with the poor
there's a song that will linger forever in our ears
oh, hard times come again no more

'tis a song, a sigh of the weary
hard times, hard times come again no more
many days you have lingered around my cabin door
oh, hard times come again no more

while we seek mirth and beauty
and music light and gay
there are frail ones fainting at the door
though their voices are silent
their pleading looks will say
oh, hard times come again no more

Thanks to Mum for these links:

women in art

women in film

bad news for michael knight

trying to not let this become "the knight rider blog" but i have to mention that NBC is trying to bring back the series. oh, puleeze. no one could ever be as cheezie and 80's sexy as david hasselfruit was. don't hassle the one & only knight rider!! in other signficant news, the creator of Borat has had a baby, thank heaven for that.

meanwhile i'm sitting here hitting refresh, refresh, refresh, waiting on my world series tickets to show up. the site has been down all morning and apparently only 300 tickets sold out of 60,0000 which clearly indicates the rockies' web site was unprepared for a city-wide disaster of such epic proportions.

if i go, who should i route for though? dilemma? nawww, everybody knows that you have to vote for the team that has stunk the most in recent years, and though it's normally the red sox, rockies have really stunk the most in the past decade.

Go Rockies!!!

No, Derby is not dressing as the cheshire cat for halloween this year (although he could pull it off).

He is just a die-hard Rockies fan and helped me model a Go Rockies pin for a little fund-raiser at work today. Collective "awwwww, how cute is he".

A.J. Jacobs

no doubt you've probably heard about the new book by called The Year of Living Biblically which i admit i shrugged off as a ludicrous rip-off of Evan Almighty at first glance, but actually i really want to read it now, after having just read A.J.'s. article on Radical Honesty last july. check out that article and see if you can resist laughing (ok, maybe snorting) out loud.

another book i will probably read over xmas break, although i'm skeptical it does sound a little cult-ish is A Complaint Free World. let me know if you've read it or have any feedback for me (like "don't do it, Lara! it's a trap!")

If provoked, a bunny will charge.

this disapproving rabbits book & blog are so rad.

nuff said.

thanks to pop candy for the great mindless entertainment, as usual.

K.I.T.T. and Me

Ahhh, I was organizing my old photos today for the new Picasa site and I came across a few I had completely forgotten about, like the time Kate and I randomly came across a midget version of the world's most beloved Trans Am, Kitt, in Lausanne, Switzerland of all random places.

I tried to just pose with the car, but the old men hanging out behind me wouldn't have it - they put a coin in and wouldn't let me get out of the car until the "ride" was over. It even had the adequate music, which accordingly, is now my phone's ringtone.

random notes

first of all, isn't there something wrong with the fact that a MLB baseball player gets to name himself Coco Crispies if he wants to? can't the league draw the line somewhere? and i read someplace that Coco is just doing this baseball gig until he can secure a career as a rapper / reality tv star. what the fulk.

second of all, it's that time of year where the best halloween costume forwards start circulating around work, and this is my favorite photo i've come across so far. rockin' the pedro wig, little man.

Uh Yuyh, Kaua'i

Chris and I just came back from a week in Kaua'i and boy, is that place the best place on earth. Not just the scenery but the flip-flop lazy way of life. We have been three times now, and adore it more each time. This time we didn't even go to any tourist sights at all, just one hike and the rest of the time we put our feet up, cooked on the grill, walked on the beach right outside our door, and chilled.

I tried out a new little Panasonic Lumix camera on this trip which is much easier to carry on hikes and through airports and things, and I have to admit, I was skeptical, but I am pretty impressed so far. The thing that sucks is it eats up batteries fast, like most little digitals do. It also has some blurring issues compared with my Nikon for sure, but the color saturation and tons of custom settings and features (including "Pet mode" and "Sunset mode" and tons of others) I love.

I am posting more on my Picasa site but here's a few highlights to get the jist. Trust me - the greens and blues have not been photoshopped here!!

here's a t-shirt that Chris bought and totally cracked us both uphere's the rainforesty road that you take to get to our condo, way way up on the north shorehere's the Na Pali cliffs in silhouette, middle of the day
and here's a spectacular view from the Kalalau trail, a 4 mile hike we did on the last dayand a sunset view from the plane on our first day

the kitties next door

i am not exactly a "cat person" and neither is Derby - we both tend to be indifferent to cats. but two weeks ago new neighbors moved in across from us, and their two cats always come running to the window and actually Meow whenever we walk by. i have never seen cats react to a dog like that. they even wag their tails. Derby likes it and always sniffs them Hello through the window, in fact, i think he looks forward to seeing them.

today i took some photos and they LOVED it, they kept jumping and playing and posing.

guava yoplait!!!!

OK this blog was supposed to be about our wonderful visit to the Magic Kingdom last weekend. but i have more important blogtent - today i was at safeway and buying the usual blackberry, peach, strawberry yoplait when i suddenly noticed... GUAVA? and Passionfruit?!! Hello!

ironically it's the perfect segueway to our upcoming visit to Kauai in 2 weeks. Denver must be a test market for these flavors because they're not listed on Yoplait's website. I personally love them both but in all honesty, Guava probably won't make it to the mass markets. It's a taste most people have to acquire - for newcomers, it tastes like peach combined with tomato and maybe a little lemon. But I'm a guava girl, so I ate it up instantly. I applaud Yoplait for going out on a limb.

Anyway we went to Daytona and Orlando last week to visit my Grandma Stef. It was so much fun, and less crowded in September, although it was brutally humid, as expected.

Most of my photos are unprintable here ~ when it's that hot, you wear very little, you sweat a lot, and frankly, that's just not something I want to share with the world wide web. But here's us with Dumbo!
and here's some random platypi that I loved.

I am in the process of relocating all my photos to Google's Picasa soon, 'cause Photosite is fading fast. : ( I like Picasa but I just wish it would offer backgrounds and templates for your photo albums. Stay tuned for a blog from Kauai later this month...

That's One Zen Puppy

Derby just learned a new trick today and I'm completely serious - he now will do the yoga pose Downward Facing Dog on command. He really likes it, actually. Next we'll work on tree pose and awkward pose.

i'm a U.S. american

i do love this new t-shirt that says "I am a U.S. American with a Map". I think I'll get one for Derby.

and speaking of the cute dog art site, they posted this adorable cartoon earlier this week, that i can't help but love. don't you dare f*ck with Scooby and Snoopy. and Huckleberry.

type city

coolest web site i've seen in a while
http://www.veer.com/ideas/typecity/gallery.aspx

L-boogie

yay!!! girl is back! i wish i could be in brooklyn today.

what i'm up to

sorry i've been so quiet this summer, everyone... there's a combination of excuses i can offer, but my latest excuse is i've been reading The Four Hour Workweek this month, and it's got me daydreaming about starting my own business.

it's almost too crazy to believe, because i am totally not the prototype of an entrepreneur. the desire for running a business is not in my blood. i have never wanted any kind of senior management position in a company even, because of the stress level and pressure that comes with it. but the types of business Tim Feriss encourages are almost hands-off entirely. you start it, you get it going for a year or two, you outsource the work to companies that provide the service already, you delegate decision making to capable staff, then you let it run on "autopilot".

i know, most people think it's too good to be true, and a more important objective i have thought is, "who wants to be entirely hands off their business?!", i mean, you gotta have something to get involved in that gets you up in the morning. but anyway there seems to be an opportunity in there somewhere for me.

my career goals have always been: to find something that i enjoy, that allows me to save money and give to charities i care about, to work less than 40 HOURS a week, and to have more than 2 weeks vacation a year. i sort of imagined that my only choice for a job was to ultimately become a teacher (which would require at least a couple more years of college, undue stress and debt, all of this just to get to a job with less stress & more money). and i know it's probably that 30 year old birthday looming ahead next year, that's got me thinking so hard about work and income.

so, there's a lot of planning and brainstorming going on in my head. i won't share the details of my business concept until i have a plan, a web site, and when i'm ready to get the word out... but know that if i'm absent from the blog, that's what i'm working on. maybe i'll add a business blog about it soon. : )

cheers.

a photo i love of our niece, Olivia, in connecticut

simpsonize your friends, you know you want to!

the simpsons creators are genius. i just spent 2 hours totally hooked on www.simpsonizeme.com, creating simpsons characters of my entire family. the one of my mom is SO UNCANNY that i have been laughing outloud for the past hour and can't stop staring at it. shh, we don't want to upset her, but it is so realistic, it's hilarious. i'm trying to find a better photo of myself to use.

LaraChris, (we're both with Derby )my family

just in

just in from monterey and although i squeezed a lot into a 72 hour timeframe, the trip still somehow cooled me down to a slower pace. like taking a deep breath.

i don't know what's the matter with me, but i always forget to pack a jacket for monterey. it's like this disgustingly misleading optimism comes over me as i look over my suitcase, thinking "it could be warm in monterey... it is summer afterall" - and of course the fact that i have to carry around wet wipes with me through the airport in denver - it's been THAT sticky and hot - it's hard to imagine needing a jacket. but the CA weather was night & day with colorado's, of course. breezy in the day, foggy in the afternoon, "brrrr" at night. it's still miserably dry hot here, although we're getting a few sprinkles of rain as i speak, and i swear i think i heard my poor car let out a big sigh of relief.

chris is working a really bad, stressful event this week which really sucks, but the one plus side to that is lots of B-52's and Erasure will be blasting from the apartment stereo after i get home from work (i know, poor derby)

still hooked on etsy lately - check out these bobbie pins i got in the mail today! i lovvvvvvvvvve 'em. you can see a bunch of my favorite etsy artists (if your wallet is up for it) under my link list on the right for 'shopping'.
peace.

here's what's happ-nin

so the beastie boys' little instrumental album isn't very critically aclaimed. so what. they've been saying all along that it was just a project for fun. the only thing is, boys, when you do a project just for fun, it's better to just make that for your friends, and not release it like a regular album 'cause then the critics will critique it - and ya know, career move mumbo jumbo.

the landmark in west hollywood is testing out couches as a new seating arrangement that is apparently being received with mixed emotions. personally, what's not to love?! as long as it's a recliner sofa and i can put my feet up! i can just imagine that movie theaters are going to start to have furniture name-sponsors though like "La-Z-Boy Presents Landmark Cinemas".

oddly also reported in hollywood, it made my day that SNZ are talking about a new album. yes! it's about darn time!! if my zippers CD's were records, they would have be all scratched up by now. thankfully that's why i have an ipod.

guardian came out with a list of top 1000 movies to see before you die last week. as unoriginal as their title is, i do prefer this list to the snooty AFI lists that are always outdated, male-driven, and conservative.

oh yeah, for weeks i've been meaning to post something about this artist who chose amusement park rides as a medium. pre-tty original, i must say. i'mimpressed.

not to be outdone by the ridiculous amounts of snow last winter, Colorado's summer so far has been hot & miserable - even humid which never is usually even possible here! they say it was 93 yesterday, but i swear it was hotter than that.

i was driving around in traffic all day, trying to find some shoes for luba's upcoming wedding. i really regret that now because at the end of the day, i just ended up buying some on Zappos anyway! along with some other adorable and very unnecessary (yet necessary!) shoes. (below)
thursday i leave for a short jaunt to Monterey, and July 21 Chris and I are looking forward to seeing some of southwest New York state and northern Pennsylvania countryside on our way to luba's wedding. actually we will be seeing lots of the insides of small airports the most - we have strange, long layovers in places like Detroit, Cincinnati, and Lincoln, Nebraska.

my ipod's turn to blog

i'm overdue on blogging what music i've been into these past few months. sometime i'll make a finetune mix of all these guys but in the mean time, check out their free listening links here:

kathleen edwards - simple & beautiful, she's proof that folk music is alive & well.
the hickories - these songs are lovely and need some attention, tell your friends!
lucinda williams - of course
rodrigo y gabriela - these guys are getting really popular in colorado but i don't know about the rest of the world... they're like the opposite of gipsy kings, spanish-influenced music that's subtle and yet robust considering it's only two people.
cat power - i am baffled at how i never knew this artist sooner, she matches all my favorite styles. and that is why... i love pandora!
esthero - i always liked her but finally she has moved out of the UK-only market.
tristan prettyman - featured on g. love's "beautiful" all over the radio right now, she is quite the awesome and as of now, under-hyped talent... her myspace has a funny impromptu smack in the face song for lindsay lohan.
eisley - they look like little junior dandy warhols! how cute. and they sound like little sixpence none the richer juniors.
lucie silvas - another UK star who hasn't crossed the pond - i picked up on her at an H&M store in europe. she sounds like a much softer christina aguilera at times.
amel larrieux - beauty. full. nuff. said.

visit etsy if you dare

ahhhhhh! i've been avoiding checking out the web site etsy.com ever since molly mentioned it to me last february and i just knew i wouldn't be able to resist buying a ton of stuff. i ended up checking it for a gift idea tonight and my wallet will never be the same (or my purse...).

etsy is a ginormous online shop of handmade goods by cute artists and designers. i tried so hard to resist going nuts but here's some of the damage already done:

above this bagonebag is totally me, $43 incl. shipping


hedgehog & lil' peep bobby pins from tashabb, $6


blue & brown baby wale corduroy tote (i've been needing something for yoga class) $40 incl. shipping

and my favorite of all, the below little owl 'wristlet' by designer blissful! only i got it in darker red. was $36 but it's a "custom order".

ahhh, love this site. gotta go to bed now.

absolut times square

absolut launched a new non-bottle shaped ad campaign last month that otherwise wouldn't have caught my attention but i LOVE their innovative makeover of times square that was in rolling stone this month. one thing i can't figure out no matter how hard i google, is who the exlamation points painting on the left, behind warhol is. i thought it might be jasper johns but i can't confirm. does anyone recognize it? sorry i couldn't find a blown up version of the ad yet!

trailer reviews with a few althoughs

all the summer blockbuster / family movies are shit, so i won't even go there.

the offbeat movie 10mph totally appeals to me - although not for the originality and drama everyone is talking about - but because it's the real life story of harry & lloyd! did NO ONE else notice the correlation?

denzel's next movie, american gangster looks great - although - does ridley scott have to put russell crowe in every movie? crowe can do a brooklyn accent (cinderella man) but he can't pull off a generic american accent. enough crowe already.

you're gonna miss me is another example of why it's so great that documentaries are finally getting production dollars & a little commercial success (last year's american hardcore was another hidden jem).

finally parker posey is starring in a drama again - yay!

everyone's talking about judd apatow / seth rogan's genius in knocked up but i think their next movie superbad (super bad title) looks more on par with something about mary. the mclovin scene is already a classic!

then there's the upcoming anime film Paprika whose director Satoshi Kon was described at the New York Film Festival as follows, “His new movie plays like a head-on collision be­tween Hello Kitty and Philip K. Dick…This delightful movie is bursting with ideas about Japanese repression, multiple identities, collective dreams and the dark side of the country’s love of Cute.”

awesome! It's so very Bjork sounding. and speaking of bjork-sounding, check out some of the wacky soundtrack to Paprika here.

in other news, dirty dancing: the video game is on its way... is it just me, or what took them so long? this movie only gets better & better with age.

'sniff

everyone told me last year when i came back from europe, i'd miss it terribly the first few weeks i was home.

it took me a full year to catch up to that, though. every day this month i've been dreaming of my 3 month vacation, and today is probably the worst yet, since last year on this day i was in Cinque Terre, Italy. ugh!!!

flossy miscellany

wholly. check out this amazing blog of re-imagined movie posters, grindhouse-style. i guess my favorite has to be milo & otis, page 8.

um, if you are good at drawing monsters, this guy in the bay area needs your help. it's for a great cause and a really original idea!

speaking of original ideas... i'd love to meet the genius who thought of the bed jump blog (which brilliantly now supports a hotel booking web site). this blog is definitely in my favorites and definitely is going to get addictive!! thanks amy for the fwd.

another favorite blog i read this week was the scariness of science fiction-character weddings... eeeeeeeeeeeeyikes. halloween & weddings just don't seem like a good combination in my mind.

the above link is via mental floss, my favorite blog so far. it's everything you didn't know you wanted to know, but are so glad you now know. like that there's such a thing as extreme croquet.

and for a real bust-a-gut laugh, check out these unconventional someecards that say what you really want to say, but never would dare to.

queen of the cheezy

today's news about hilary asking the public to pick her campaign song just made me gag - especially her song choices! jesus jones, right here right now? if you're gonna go back to that horrid era, why not just go with MC Hammer's 2 Legit 2 Quit? and U2... how cliché can you get! hilary is like, so trying to be cool, and it's like, so not working. barack is the one whose web site tactics are working, hil. nobody likes a copy cat.

i still think barack should pick a rage against the machine song for his campaign. well, maybe that would scare a few midwestern voters away. but how about "talkin' bout a revolution" by tracy chapman? yeah?

safe to say one of the biggest things on youtube this week is a bruce campbell commercial for old spice where he sings "hungry like a wolf" lounge-style. i'm more curious about the underlying strategy of this commercial... is it ever actually going to be on television or did old spice just "leak" it on youtube to get free advertising? i'm thinking the latter.

two web sites i'm really addicted to lately, and really crack me up:
the cool kids' dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/yesterday.php boochabla!
and the site for all the news that's random - http://www.mentalfloss.com/

more coffee please.

i love this web site

check out this author's web site for her new book.
http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/

so much to say

lots of news this week...
stop the press - paula abdul just released her greatest hits and that gives me hope that she is giving up on ever continuing with her recording career.

Oprah has officially endorsed Barack Obama (which is no surprise) but I was surprised at the impact several sites are predicting this could have on his odds...

in flip flop news... new james bond style flops with hidden pockets under the soles just came out. this will probably sell really well in nudist communities but other than that environment, i can't fathom a reason i'd want to carry cash or a credit card in shoes that are meant to be worn in the water. duh!

dylan sighting

this story about bob dylan singing to a kindergarten class is almost too good to be true. i'd be scared, too! but glad to hear he's getting along with his son & grandson. jakob dylan is one of the most underrated semi-young talents of this day & age.

dig

the dirty dancing's ultimate fan quiz just came out. can't say i'm going to ace this one but lots of my friends will!!! you know who you are.

lastly

here's an amusing and cute story of the guy who came in LAST at the boston marathon on monday. i enjoyed the photos since i have a lot of memories of walking those same areas of comm ave, beacon, & boylston (just never walked it all in one day!).

breaking news!

menudo is back!! the legacy continues...

joss stone's male counterpart

just found out ryan shaw is touring with joss this spring... love them both, but that might be soul overload.

and now for something unrelated msn has a really cool photoblog and my favorite photo of the year is of the hunky jesus contest on Easter Sunday in San Francisco. only in san francisco!!

technology's so cool

i just discovered there's now a way to give money to charity (a little or a lot - depending on how much you're online) just by using microsoft instant messaging. also there's a search engine called GoodSearch that gives money to the charity of your choice every time you search (even at 1 cent per click, it could really add up...) I hope Google acquires them soon and then I'll be really happy!

my hero, will

check out this automated will-farrell-movie generator. too cool! seriously i don't know where people come up with this stuff but it's great.

in other will news, he is launching a web site of original comedy sketches. check out funnyordie.com in the coming days.

yay cranberries & peeps!

dolores o'riordan is back and she has beautiful hair, too! i wonder why she's not "the cranberries" anymore? she's playing a tiny theater in denver on july 17th, note to self. i saw her in boston once and it was one of the best performances i've ever experienced.

and if it's possible, an even bigger YAY was this peep diorama contest on the washington post. oh my gosh, if i had known about this sooner, liz - you could have had a project encompassing hours & hours & hours of fun! these were all so well-done but i think i love the peepmobile the best.

DAM that's great art

I visited the newly rebuilt denver art museum today, finally. I really am not crazy about the funky angles, angles, angles architectural style of Daniel Liebskind. It's taking the theme too far for me, like when someone collects cows and there's cows in every room in their house, cows on the toilet paper, cows on the door knob...

but the new space definitely does a great job accomodating the modern art work and the layered levels remind me a lot of the guggeinheim, so I can see why Denver is so proud of the darn thing. more photos are on larasue.photosite.com.

probably the most thought-provoking and powerful part for me was a temporary exhibition called RADAR which featured a private colorado couple's interesting collection of surreal contemporary cartoony artists including yoshitomo nara (left) and michael joo (whose beheaded buddha statues with plastic Ken dolls for heads, were hard to accept as art, yet amusing).

the most interesting painting that is still on my mind is gottfried helnwein's epiphany (click for link). it's stiking how the mother and baby are so beautiful, so sharp in focus, and clearly from a different era than those around her. also just fascinating how much it looks like an actual photograph. even close up, it is so real.

i finally got about 100 photos from the last year of walking around Denver up on Picasa, so you can see the neighborhood where I work. it's certainly... what's the word... unpredictable.

here's what's dope

i keep forgetting to mention that if anyone wants to listen to my favorite mix that i have on at work (no login required) click here.

i love finetune. it's like sharing your ipod with friends! lots of similar sites are cropping up too. i'll try to make more mixes throughout the year.

thanks to slammy for tipping me onto a new craze - credit card skins! I can’t believe no one’s ever thought of this idea before. And I can’t believe I already bought one. (I got the one called "ohmigawd", appropriately).

Dang!

i know i've afore mentioned this but it's so not fair!!! (and yes, i'm stomping my feet right now) that beastie boys are playing a number of european festivals this summer. especially my favorite cities of Lisbon and Barcelona. why couldn't it have been LAST summer?

here's a quick ditty about their new album. so, is it going to be sick?

blah.

sorry for the stretch of quiet. there's just nothing good to report this month - i turned 29 (yuck), there's been no progress / responses to resumes when it comes to moving to CA (owch), i am getting weekly accupuncture treatments for ongoing allergies which are not necessarily working and not cheap... yadda yadda.

this past weekend i was a little cheered up because we had a heavy rain day, good for being lazy on saturday, and then gorgeous "flip flop weather" on sunday which was refreshing. knowing Spring in colorado, it will at least snow a few more times before we're in the clear, but i'm content with a couple warm weekends in between!

so here's a couple fun news stories of the weekend:

united way got free advertising on saturday night live over the weekend! yeee! it won't be on youtube for long but you can always go to snl.com.

yessss! finally silver spoons season 1 is on DVD. a true 80's classic! now i just need punky brewster to complete my collection. (kidding, i never watch dvd's of television. i prefer tvland)

and one for the "why didn't we think of this" file.
according to popcandy blog:
"Before the Internet, if three friends [or two roommates] wanted to take a road trip, they just hopped in a cruddy car [such as an '84 dodge minivan with a stickshift] and traveled where the wind [the alcohol, oh - i mean - the wind] took them. Now there are things like CashRoadTripUSA.com. The premise: Three friends want to travel across the country, but first they're selling ad space on every inch of their van. Ads cost $100 per square. The website just launched, so a lot of van space is still available. The gang is also offering the chance to wear company T-shirts during the journey. That can cost up to $7,500 a day, if you want a female to wear the shirt."

$7500 is more than our entire road trip (including the car) itself cost. but then again, we broke down in shasta. with a few thousand dollars, we probably could have bought a newer (like a VW!) van. but then again, after all my stickers were on the car, there wasn't much room for ad space.

stuff like this makes my day

ooooh. lauryn hill finally returns to recording! she's on one song of the very cool new joss stone album. this may actually be one of the few weeks of the year i get off my ass to drive to a record store, instead of just typing a password into itunes. yeah, it's a few bucks more, but itunes doesn't provide the same instant gratification as when you unwrap the plastic and pop a new CD into the car stereo for the ride home.

The New Yorker just launched a new web site with animated cartoons! i like the snail one.

this death by caffeine web site lets you fantasize about how many grande cups of starbucks coffee, or how many reeses peanut butter cups, you could eat before it would kill you. is that meant to actually warn you or just disturb you?

home, alas

wulp. i had a nice trip out to CA, had fun visiting molly & josh, but it sounds like moving to CA is not going to happen yet.


the only thing i'm actually mad at is my fortune cookies lately have been very misleading. : )

so i'm trying to tell myself something bigger & better must be around the bend.

'till then, here's a couple photos of favorite things on my trip - above, a sign on telegraph in berkeley (exactly!), molly's kitchen table, the puppies - siena & sadie, going for a ride to the dog park on friday.

R2

R2-D2 may be moving to a street corner near you soon! how fun. only 400 nation-wide, i wonder if i'll ever see one. also there will be star wars postage stamps on May 25. i think USPS finally has a marketing genius on staff.

(follow up: here's an interactive map of where you can find R2-D2 mailboxes)

laughs from this week

- best / weirdest moments of the muppet show

- the headline says it all "Grown Man Cries Over Not Having His Blackberry" - a hilarious and eye-opening story of technology addiction

- forbes' cover story on Rupert Murdoch says soon MySpace will be automatically matching up advertisers with users based on products mentioned in their profiles! prepare for the onslaught of junk mail, suckers!! ha ha, told you so.

- the movie may suck, but hugh grant's imitation 80's video makes me laugh all day long. I wish I could pay Hugh Grant to get drunk and dance at my wedding someday.

sweet tooth day

so like... sorry i've been mia for a couple weeks. a lot is going on, most especially an unexpected call to interview at my favorite film company (can you guess?) in san francisco this friday. so chris and i are flying out to visit monterey thurs through tues. looking forward to relaxing - or trying to relax anyway. yay beach.

noteable mention this week is the new music site, finetune.com which you can post MIXES for free for the entire world to share! yesssssssssssssssss. does this mean no more all-nighters making my mixmas CD on December 21st? stay tuned, i will no doubt be getting very into this site.

and best of all, if you forgot to buy your sweetheart something, you could get really creative with this make-your-own necco candy hearts site though words have to be 4-letters. (um)

or you could just get them with a ring pop. that always wins me over.

other funny stuff:
- unfortunate / disturbing valentines (you'll laugh out loud)
- stephen colbert gets his own ice cream flavor?
- hoops & yoyo belting out "close to you"

wake up call.

music news -
i am still scratching my head that i have never discovered patty griffin before this year, especially since she's a boston girl.

i am trying really hard to cut back on my itunes junkie habit, but i did have to download Paolo Nutini tonight, he's just so likeable. also recently I'm into Nina Gordon (former lead singer of Veruca Salt)... what else... well I'm not buying any of last year's American Idol contestant's albums...

there are rumors flying everywhere that iTunes is going to get the Beatles library on Valentines Day. I tend believe it's not a coincidence that these rumors leaked the same day that Vista launched, or in other words, it's one more of Steve Jobs' slap-microsoft-in-the-face marketing tactics. it will be interesting to me if and when they ever do sell beatles songs as singles on iTunes, to see what song is downloaded the most. early prediction: it won't be YESTERDAY. and it sure won't be GOOD DAY SUNSHINE. i have to give this some thought... (anonymous tip: if you ever want the whole beatles catalog in mp3 format for about 3 bucks, just take a vacation to Moscow)

and youtube highlight of the week: spike jonze commercials

anyone have an estelle getty fettish?

talk about people who have too much time on their hands. this is the prime example of how the internet provides the ultimate opportunity for ANY freedom of expression and with youtube... there's no need to license the music, or get rights to the video footage.

ran-dom. hilarious. check this out:
the estelle getty workout video remix!

as you know i don't patronize myspace (because it sucks) but if i did, sue teller would be the first in my friends. this old lady's dope.

patty g

i don't know why it took a road trip to texas for me to discover patty griffin because she crosses over with tons of my other favorite artists, but somehow she flew under the radar all these years for me. she even wrote one of my favorite dixie chicks songs, 'Top of the World'.

but she is one of those rare artists i heard once in the car and then i couldn't stop replaying the song over & over...

perfect timing that she's playing at a little theater in Boulder March 22. now if she would just tour with Lucinda, that would be my dream show.

maybe it's just my trip to texas talking...

this is random for me because I'm not usually one to have a lot of PRIDE in Colorado, but it's really bugging me that some reporters in Denver are outright saying that the Democratic National Convention in Denver will "put us on the map" and "dispel stereotypes about Denver being the land of cowboys" (paraphrasing). None of my friends or relatives have ever stereotyped Denver as a cowpoke town in my years here...

And yet stories like this one on our local news last week http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_024141109.html
always make me humbly realize that there are parts of our state, not even two hours away, where cowboys and ranchers actually still rely on cows and hay to make their living. It's remarkable to stop and think that industries exist where physical factors like cattle, weather, and train deliveries affect the business (as opposed to bluetooth and blackberries).

Denver's annual stock show and rodeo, also last week, is consistently a huge money and tourism generator for Denver, so I especially find it disgusting of certain snobby reporters to say we can finally "dispel the myth" about cowboy culture here. WTF.

about damn time

lots to blog about today.

my favorite news of the year so far is Rage Against the Machine is reuniting at Coachella. that is such a badass comeback party. I have really missed those guys, and it's been frustrating that their breakup coincided with the best possible presidential administration to rage about! but I'm a little scared that with all those years of rage built up, Coachella might turn into a giant stampede. or not - this may be the first year attendance is actually down because fans can just catch the replay on youtube! true.

but trying to think positively, maybe Rage will help "rock the vote" in 08. in fact, Barack would be wise if he starts getting bands and other MTV celebrities behind him right away. maybe he can get a shout-out by one of the american idol contestants. it didn't quite work for Kerry, but that's mostly because the message was "vote bush out" and not "vote for kerry" and because the artists were Bruce Springstein and Bonnie Raitt (who?).

is it too crazy an idea to suggest Barack pick "renegades of funk" for his campaign theme song? No Matter How Hard You Try, You Can't Stop Us Now...

anyway.
in a really sad story, that The Village Voice has finally "sold out" to a bigger media company and even the new owner acknowledges it will never quite be the same.

last and definitely least, just when you thought David Lynch wasn't being weird enough lately, he starts giving lectures on Transcendtal Meditation with Donovan and completely redeems himself! Am I the only one that hopes this is part of a secret Lynch film project... like a mockumentary? that would be sweet but i'm afraid too good to be true.

will's your daddy

yay - will farrell's newborn baby just made an appearance online. i am not usually into celebrity babies but will is one person i am SO GLAD has had offspring. whoopie! also hilarious about will accessorizing with his wife's breast pump on the red carpet. he is so badass.
...
...
the music i am in love with this week is...
A Good Year soundtrack, especially an oddly undiscovered french band, Makali - they do have a myspace site but I haven't seen where to buy more of their music yet. please help (svp aide!) if you know anything more about them.

ramblings on

this "what's your starbucks name" concept is so goofy & immature and yet... now i am dying to come up with an alias (other than sue). my sister has already taken "Ursula". i need something fohnky. I don't know if I'd have the guts to use like, "Maverick" or "Viper".

and speaking of top gun... how did someone beat me to the punch in founding an all-things-80's blog? ahh, best 80's villians. i definitely vote for Steff.

bits and rants

some funny sites and articles i stumbled across in blog-browsing this week. links in bold.

a fantastic photo Collection of "Strange Statues around the World" - some less strange than others, although the top one probably is strangest. I need to submit one of my photos from Moscow to the collection.

the most original wedding cake I've ever seen. so cute.

Say it isn't so: I'm shedding an invisible tear today, after hearing that Queer Eye's upcoming season will be the last. I have yet to ever get sick of the Fab Five's obnoxious, outlandish behavior, Carson's stupid puns, and all of them forcing their happy & gayness into the lives of straight men (while making every wife / girlfriend / child's dream come true with a free interior design makeover by Thom). But I felt the same way about Will & Grace. They kept getting funnier and obnoxiouser, and when their time was up, it was two years too soon. RIP, Fab Five. We will always have you on DVD. p.s. - please please please don't sign up to do spinoff shows.

on youtube - a hilarious Canadian study on the effects of drugs on spiders building webs - why didn't SNL think of this?

world leader pretend

among odd headlines, i noticed the inventor of Ramen Noodles (and its close sister Cup O Noodles) died this week at age 92. that's a good sign, right? he lived a long life? Well all I have to say is - the Ramen Museum dedicated to him in Japan is high on my list of travel priorities.

and horray for R.E.M. getting inducted into the hall of fame this year!

Michael Stipe turns 47 today??

yikes this is one of those moments where I instantly feel very, very old. or scared that time is flying. anyway here is a cool little tribute to stipe. the pete & pete clip is classic: is anyone surprised that he randomly breaks into his spastic dancing while talking, too?

I just read today that with the continued musical-madness in the US, the latest victim is one of my favorite 80's movies ever! I don't know if I am happy or sad to hear that. I guess I just hope they don't remake the movie.

p.s.
i just heard that The Police are possibly reuninting for a tour? Can Talking Heads be far behind?!! please say it is so...

taking the long way around

the blog views better in mozilla firefox if you have it...

One thing I will give credit to Texas for is the roadside scenery. If a little desolate, there are at least cute towns every half hour or so with populations of 500, very convincing saloons and old city halls, and cowboy-town names like "Comanche" and everyone sayin' "Drive safe, now!" when you leave the gas station.

The clouds in the sky were amazing to me at times. Probably because they were the spin-off from those storms of the century in Colorado, but still, just amazing clouds.Notice how tiny my car looks next to the sky below.

taking the long way around 2

Yuyp. I'm home finally and man, that was a long drive. New Mexico finally opened for business around 1pm on January 1st, and I'll never forget the moment someone told me the highways were open again... I was sitting at Denny's in Amarillo, TX eating breakfast alone, amongst tons of families with 6 plus children - while the waitress keeps saying "Need some more coffee, baby?" to me. Very surreal and yet so very Texas.

I know you don't all really like country and bluegrass, but you have to appreciate how cool that music is on a road trip. There's too much music to make next year's mixmas out of this, so I just published it and you can download what you want. Elizabethtown Soundtrack was a great influence and stuff like Two More Bottles of Wine is just great music anytime.

OK now here come the pictures at last. that's my lucky armadillo on the rear view.

Again, try to appreciate how bored I was... it was a 16 hour drive the first time, about 21 hours the second time.

common question: yes, I did get stopped for speeding once and thank God (I was praying) the cop was not as scary as the one in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But the cops do wear cowboy hats. And he was polite enough to just give me a written warning. Instant souvenir!

yes that sign says "proud home of george bush", try not to laugh. but the comment "drive friendly - the texas way" - that is so TRUE, texans do drive the speed limit and always wave after they let you in.

above and below is an area of Austin called "south congress", essentially the main street, with really cool funky shops and typical of Austin - plenty of lights and neon signs.
we checked out a very popular tex mex place called Guero's
(thanks for the tip, Kara!) It was tempting to buy a pair of cowgirl boots in TX, but I realize anywhere else in the world that would not really work for me.










The below pictures are from a daytrip I took down to San Antonio
which I found to be a cool, colorful city despite the major-tourist trap the Alamo (flashbacks to Pee Wee's Big Adventure) that's actually in the center of a bunch of skyscrapers (weird) and I'm surprised they haven't just turned it into a McDonalds yet. I know it's an important US monument, but it's way tacky. that's a yummy prickly pear margarita on the riverwalk...