Tuesday, March 28, 2006
LifeSavor Me!
In the meantime, though... enjoy some pictures of Will Dailey's CD-listening party last Saturday night at Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. This kid is so tricky, and so much fun, to photograph. He's also unfairly cute, and nice, to boot.
See y'all in the Days of Fools...
Friday, March 24, 2006
Are You My New Boyfriend?
I
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Upswinging
Fortunately I already know I fight S.A.D. in a serious way. I remember days in Oberlin towards the end of February when I would leave my apartment and try to walk in the same direction as the wind so it wouldn’t blow snow it my face, but it just didn’t seem possible. Or I would see an old boyfriend and melt down at the unfairness of it all, or find myself heartbroken because some friend didn’t call me back when they said they would. I remember making an appointment at the counseling center when I just couldn’t pull myself out of the teary, weighted-down thing, and my appointment didn’t roll around for a couple of weeks. The day it came happened to be the first warm day of the spring, you know, when all the Ohio college kids get the kind of collective sunburn that makes you wince, and I found myself eating a popsicle and humming on my way to my appointment, where… I suddenly had nothing to talk about.
I feel better, too. Different. Pried loose from something, if not by choice then by necessity. Ready for change. Ready for forward motion. It’s not always a bad thing to be so swayed by the seasons.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Look What My Baby Can Do!
Excerpts From an Email to a New Friend
News of the week: Mon appareil-photo est arrivé! Why I felt inclined to say that in French, I have no idea, but I keep thinking it that way. My camera is here. It's great. I haven't been this in love with a material object since I got my little Powerbook two years ago. I generally try to avoid the sentiment.
Sadly I barely got to kiss it hello before shoving it under my desk - work is bordering on insane right now and I've been juggling projects like a circus clown. Though you wouldn't think it, given my long emails. I just type fast! Next week CS is throwing a huge fundraiser called LifeSavor, which entails a huge silent auction and cocktail party before guests are trolleyed off (in actual trolleys!) to dinner at the city's best restaurants in groups of ten. The dinner is completely donated by the restaurants, and at $250/ticket, we make a lot of money with very little expenditure! But whew, it's a lot of work.
My friend Asher just sent me a list of his recommendations of graphic novels. I've only read a few, and I've been in the mood for one lately. I'll pass it along to you.
1) Spiral Bound, by Aaron Renier - around $14, paperback.
This book is just so inventive and beautifully drawn. Don't be put off by the fact that it's all animal characters, it might be one of the most creative and endearing books that has entered the comic sphere in the past couple of years. Plus, he's working on some projects with Alec Longstreth too! (check out their joint work at www.alec-longstreth.com) Alec is a college friend.
2) Blankets, by Craig Thompson - around $30, paperback
Wow. Gorgeous line drawings. Heart wrenching story about the author's first love and struggle with religeous faith. It's astonishing. I've read it at least 5 times, and each time I find something new hidden in the narrative or rich graphics. Maybe this isn't the time for you to read it, but at some point, you'd be doing yourself a great disservice if you let it go.
3) Louis Riel, by Chester Brown - around $18, hardcover
Chester Brown has an odd, removed way of telling the story of the French Canadian revolutionary Louis Riel. Very well written and constructed, Brown's graphics are distinctly his own. Sterile, but a very enlightening and cool read.
4) Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Boy on Earth, by Chris Ware, about
$25, paperback.
Another hearbreaking book that following the family of Jimmy Corrigan, a chubby, depressed momma's boy from the suburbs of
5) Any issue between 2-7 of Optic Nerve, by Adrian Tomine, about $3
each, magazine
Adrian Tomine has mastered telling the story of the guy next door. Amazingly well constructed stories about petty drama and social reality. I love this guy.
Your overly-caffeinated friend,
Jessie
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Up and Running, and My Ass Hurts
Umbrellablues.com is still pretty far from finished, but the photos are being organized, the domain has been purchased, and my good friend Sean drunkenly helped me launch a coming soon page to keep you all enticed. We sat slouched over my computer talking about FTP while our cohorts rallied for the 5th or 6th hour of drinking on a Saturday night. Pitiful.
I am blessed with the gift of scavanging, and tend to find amazing and otherwise expensive stuff out on the street, abandoned by my blasé and overly moneyed neighbors. A couple of weeks ago offered up a box of books, mostly out-of-date travel guides to the UK and religious blabberings, but among them was a hardbound, black-with-huge-gold-text epic called, alluringly, The Book of Secrets. It turns out it's a sexist handbook for bored housewives, instructing them on everything from being a smart traveler to maintaining Your Good Looks (featuring For men: how to dress at the office. Women get no such chapter).
I bring you a passage from the chapter, In And Around the Home, under the subheading, Are men taking more interest in decorating these days? (These days being the late '80's.)
Most men's priorities are a comfortable bed and chair, a lamp and a popcorn machine.
A popcorn machine? What?
My roommate (and dear friend) Kim wants to be in my blog. She makes insanely tasty beefy mac 'n' cheese. That's all I meant by that. It's always a party with Kim around. Even if her life is all about breasts and we get "The Journal of Human Lactation" delivered to our house monthly. She's in public health, people.
My friend Asher, who works for Current TV, was at SXSW this week, and got to meet Craig. Craig started some networking site in San Francisco or something. No, in all seriousness, I have this inkling I'm going to want to want thank him personally in a week or so for his magic List. I'll tell you later. Maybe.
It's good to be here, and I feel plenty of verbal spillage forthcoming.