have you had your beans today?

If you choose to do something every day, you might build a habit. Like writing, or eating beans. Brushing your teeth does not count. Let’s see if this works.

I’ve never seen grass get so brown so quickly. It’s like every grain and strain can stand on its own, managing multiple colors and personalities. It’s like the grass knows its not supposed to be that color. How do I handle this? It’s nice to sit and think, to new Bob Dylan on the radio. Let your eyes wander out the windows, follow the wind as it moves each individual leaf. They wave. Serene suburbia. What am I doing here?

Remember that book I told you about, EATING ANIMALS, well the author is quite the man. Without realizing his name was the same, my mother was telling me about this short story she read in the New Yorker. Turns out it was him. Jonathan Safran-Foer. There’s something about this time right now that has inspired me to be a writer more than ever. I’m glad I cannot figure it out.

Here’s something. It’s time to eat right and stop waiting for people’s calls. If there is too much communication, like there is now, we might all just get sick of each other. Some movie once said, constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating. Let’s try and remember that, eh? How about we ask some questions and revert back to new ways of doing things. If something is not right with the world, even if it’s just your world, why not change it?

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books-

I had this weird feeling yesterday. When I realized, now what? Both of my parents tell me that its normal. We graduated three weeks ago and we aren’t (really) expected to have a job by now. Kudos to those who do.

I’ve been reading. Now, as I plan not to go on to graduate school (anytime soon) I can read whatever I want. Since we graduated I’ve read three books, one of which was To Kill A Mockingbird. Something I was supposed to read in 9th grade for Mrs. Stass, but never finished. Its the first novel I’ve read in over a year and I thought I would read Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye too, but got through ten pages of Holden’s whining and couldn’t take it any more, just like the times before. Since my birthday passed and usually all I receive is books, that’s all I’m doing now. THANKFULLY (and finally) I’ve discovered David Foster Wallace and I am taking my time with one of his collections of essays, Consider the Lobster. (Riley- check it out.) I’m also blown away by this book Angeline gave me called Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. He’s the guy who wrote Everything is Illuminated- which I’ve never read. Foer’s writing is excellent and the subject matter discusses food and the idea of eating animals- I just read the section where he makes a perfectly normal case of why eating dogs should be accepted in America and would fix some serious problems- is interesting to everyone. Because everyone loves food and everyone eats food. So this concerns you. I’m also part way through a book called Closing Time, about a guy who grew up in the Philadelphia housing projects in the early 60s. I’ve never seen a vocabulary like this, it made me feel bad about myself and I had to put it down for a while. His writing structure is also overwhelming. Not to mention the subject matter is heavy.

So why am I telling you all of this? Well let me just way one more thing. I am interested in Infinite Jest the 900+ page novel by David Foster Wallace. I’m going to go hand out in Borders today and read it, see if I can do it. (If anyone wants to book-club it with me, lets talk.) I think I can do it, but then again, its also a novel. And we all know how I feel about fiction. I can handle To Kill A Mockingbird because it’s excellent. And probably one of the only classics I’ll ever truly love. In fact, he’s a story about how wonderful it is and why maybe you should get a 50th anniversary copy of it yourself and read a good story, again, or maybe for the first time. It’s just a suggestion.

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its my birthday

Who knew? Two of my favorite men teaming up for music (and comedy?) Yay! Here’s the story.

Also, if you’re into the STROKES…check this out. They played under the band name Venison….weird, right? First time in four years. I’ll say that’s pretty good.

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among other things…twinkies

I had to eat a Twinkie once. Actually, I was forced to eat one. I said I had never had one. I ate it and I haven’t had one since. It was gross. Ninth grade: Human Biology. Mrs. Russell was using a Twinkie as a metaphor to the structure of a bone in the human body. Yes, we all know that the bone isn’t quite as soft as the dessert, but it was a nice analogy between the two structures. Every time Twinkies come up I always think of that. I guess it worked.

So why this? Well, GOOD magazine as always is providing us with incite. If you are trying to eat healthy, which you should be, maybe you can still be eating Twinkies for there are only seven, yes SEVEN, ingredients in them. And there’s quite a picture show to go along with it. Mary just informed me that during World War II there were food rations and there was a shortage of bananas, so the filling became vanilla creme instead of banana cream and has stuck inside ever since. Now there’s your fun fact of the day.

When people tell me that they use Pandora I usually scoff and then question their motives. Let this be a small reminder as to why you shouldn’t be selling your CDs, vinyl or cassettes (yes, people still use and need those tapes.) Not only does this story scare me as a radio jock, but it makes me want to smack people into being able to find their own music instead of having it just handed to them. Does anyone remember music magazines and radio?

Last but not least (at all) READ THIS. It will blow your mind and maybe scare you a bit.

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I saw Conan O’Brien in Atlantic City with my dad. Everyone seems to be talking about Reggie Watts, his opening act, but I’m not sure why. All he does is curse. Granted he is a wonderful voice chameleon, but there was no content in his act. Sure he plays (or played?) with Soulive but that doesn’t make him great. I had never seen Conan’s Walker Texas Ranger clip reel thing-y. I’ve also never seen my dad laugh as hard as when Haley Joel Osment told some old folks that he has AIDS. Conan was incredibly funny as was his writer Damon Cole who did stand up. But I wish O’Brien wouldn’t complain, they DID give him $32 Million Dollars. Some people have things to say about it. They also said this. I look forward to the TBS show coming soon (fall?) because I like Conan, but I do agree, he needs new material.

I have one on my fridge. 10 bucks!

Everyone should be outraged at the new Sex and the City movie. In addition to the fact that Sarah Jessica Parker is still not remotely attractive, its full of let downs. I saw the first one- it was decent (and always on HBO, just like I presume the second will be) but I can’t bring myself to spend over two hours watching this movie. Absurdities are going on! Abu Dhabi is a city where women can’t show their faces because of shame, meanwhile these four already rich women go there, no doubt to help promote Western to Eastern commerce (meanwhile it was shot in Morocco), and flaunt their bodies. They should be spending their $10 million costume budget to build a school for women or a hospital for rape victims. I’m sure you have not heard of this book. My mother and sister Kyle are both reading it. The stories mom shares with me are disturbing- even to a true crime and devout nonfiction reader. People say that it wouldn’t be famous just for Sheryl WuDunn’s name. Nicholas Kristof (the awesome NYTimes columnist and WuDunn’s partner) helped it get to where it is now. Let me just rant a bit…. Women are still being killed every day and murdered and raped, in our own country (I don’t want to even talk about the rest of the world.) All it takes is that fact my mother taught me when I was in junior high school: 1 in 4 women in their life will be raped. Lesson: BE FUCKING SAFE. Okay, I’m done.

see what i mean....

It’s the 50th anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. (Truman Capote’s best friend. Some say he wrote it….I love a good unknown fact.) I was supposed to read it, according to Mrs. Stass’ 9th grade English class, but never finished it. I just watched the movie. We all know the conversation about it in Almost Famous in the opening scenes (I should really re-watch that movie. It’s been almost six months- too long.) I’m a chapter in. My dad had a Borders coupon and I now have a beautiful hardback copy of it. One of many summer projects: tackle fiction and novels. Only the good ones: Catcher in the Rye (something I’ve never been able to get through, I just could never stand it) and The Great Gatsby. Read it in 10th grade with no appreciation. Other goals: get down to the bottom of high school teachers assigning books for shit-head high school kids who have no concept of time, history, culture and have no appreciation for the literature forced on them.

Comedy Central bought syndication rights to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Monday nights, for two hours-I think. Hilarity ensues. Also, I FINALLY read Russell Brand’s memoir, My Booky Wook. It took me probably no more than a day. Who’s in? I know, he’s a strange bird. But he’s been through a lot. Brand can actually write and I’ve always been fascinated by him.

Most: it’s Ithaca Festival. If you’re here, let’s stuff our faces. If not- shame. I got all excited to see Jon Hilton play bass in his band on the commons last night with Kelley, only to find out he’s in CA doing god knows what. Unknown hits from the Birds and b-side Beatles songs would be better with the self-deprecating Hilton. Either way I still knew all the words while straight Ithaca-festers followed Terkel’s advice, my favorite line of the day, “Take off…or tighten up your Tevas!” Ladies and Gentlemen, that is EXACTLY what happened. I wish I had a photo.

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it’s a bagel day.

First of all. Thank you notdrugs for inspiring me to fall in love with THE BLACK KEYS. They are smart, rock really hard and like all things weird in my life, they are two incredibly sexy men. They’re playing Philadelphia July 30th. Who’s in?

Also there is a lot going on. We graduated. The oil spill is destroying our planet and not helping the fact that something is terribly wrong with the world, physically (I suppose emotionally too.) Add on all the hurricanes and abnormalities. I’ve been saying that something is not right with the world for a long time. This just proves it.

And if you weren’t nervous about the new military planes developed that can track footprints from the sky and tell you their origin, try this on for size.

The world makes me sick. Pay attention, because I know that you aren’t. A lot of wrong and weird is happening: oil, the number one MLB pick is 17 (he can’t even buy cigarettes yet!) meanwhile M.I.A. is being featured in the Sunday New York Times Magazine. James Cameron offered (and was turned down) help for filming the deep sea atrocity going on in the gulf. But in the end, my least favorite thing about the world is plain and simple- Obama promised us he would end the war and he hasn’t yet.

Drunk Girls, I realized, is more than you think. James Murphy has something to say. Drunk Girls know that love is an astronaut/It comes back, but it’s never the same. I never heard them before this record, but I like it. Sometimes if you pay attention there’s more to life than, well, life. Also, if you haven’t started doing this yet, I recommend it.

The Saturday night before graduation my sisters, brother-in-law, co-brother-in-law, Morgan and myself made it out to Korova (which yes, is moving down State Street to avoid the college crowd, but is not moving until August.) My brother-in-law’s life long best friend arrived and greeted me in saying “welcome to unemployment!” So far it’s been nice. I’ve been on three job interviews in three days in three very different cities. I am unemployed yes, so I should find more time to do this here blog.

Pay attention already
. What else could you possibly be doing?

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its the end of the end, right?

Show me something.

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i made a friend….once

Yes, I’ve played chatroulette and yes, I have made a friend once. We both even commented about how it was nice to find a stranger to chat about nothing with and not run into penis. Some call it creepy, which it totally is. And yea, it’s strange. But, hey! I was bored and needed an excuse to put off doing work. I’ve ran into some people from Australia and Essex, England, some from Spain and few from around U.S. (mainly high school kids)- but all of them were only interested in one thing. This is just a fun thing to check out. Plus- who doesn’t love the New Yorker? Also, even though it’s fiction…check this out. A new one from our good friend Woody Allen. I found myself reading and enjoying it. Something will shake me out of this no-fiction-phase. But it’s not this.

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Ten years?

2000?

Remember this kid?

2010

Yeah, he’s ten years older.

But so are you – except you’re genitals aren’t exposed in record stores everywhere.

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