There you are standing vertically, miniature on this orblike floating world that's stuck in a colorless infinite nothingness covered in clear liquid between heaps of hot and cold minerals surrounded by billions upon billions of varieties of the exact same DNA structure consuming each other then dying or multiplying and dying for 5.5 billion years, long after an inexplicable explosion billions of light years away began pushing everything away from itself, slowly, forever.
And it's a beautiful day. The sky is blue, the air cool. Somebody smiled at you, your phone buzzes as a friend calls. Down the street is a your favorite breakfast cafe, but you need to go to Trader Joe's.
The planet Mars floats lifeless and quiet. Red dust moves in little tufts as pressures rise and fall, air molecules get pushed in invisible clouds. A few gusts of wind tap softly against a little round red rock, perched over a bunch of smaller red rocks. The wind is mild, and the rock is pushed forward a bit by its force. Inching the rock down towards the edge of the other rocks, the wind moves it closer and closer to a red hill that slopes down just beyond. The wind picks up as pressure changes and a stronger gust whips at the moving red rock. The littler rocks underneath it sink away and gravity starts to pull the red rock over them, into the dust and off from its other rocks towards the hill.
Inside Trader Joe's you pick up an apple and look at it. It has a bruise on one side, so you put it back down. You pick another, two bruises, and put it back. Taking a moment you scan the neatly uniformed pile of apples and see a perfect round one just big enough. You pick it up, turn it over, and on the back there's a little brown gouge from shipping that you frown at. Frustrated, you quickly put it back down. Three apples below it give away and slip from their places, dashing down the pile and towards the edge in a rush of speed.
The pebbles have pushed away and the red rock begins to roll. Gravity takes hold of it and in a steady new urge the rock's rolling down the hill towards the bottom. A tail of dust spits up behind it and a little path is carved as the rock spins fasterin its travels. The rock now rolls steadily towards a brand new crop of rocks at the base of the slope.
The three apples reach the edge and jump off. You scramble to catch them all but your hands are only big enough for two and with an "ahh!" the third apple thuds against the tiled floor. The lady next to you cocks her head.
The red rock rolling careens closer to its new outcropping. Ten feet away, five, three feet, one...
in the silence of the Martian landscape a little bang echoes in the wind.
You stoop to pick up the third apple and look at the lady, embarrassed. She shakes her head, pushes her cart forward and moves away. You smile because it's still a lovely day, put the apple back on the pile and move on.
The END!
(based on a true story)
Mikie
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
mini-thoughts
Why do people sit in their parked cars
I eat food and spend money in quite the same fashion
Today I bought a video game that cost less than my day's gasoline
I have a love/hate relationship with people that don't ask
Unlimited text messages = Christmas every day
River water is nature's running bathhouse
"will the mountain last as long as i can wait" -Iron & Wine
We're always 5 minutes away from being in the mid-19th century
My heart lives in the old west
If God created Chocolate then Satan created Peanut Butter.
Oops. Too much Tabasco, not enough scramble.
Thanks sun, I needed that.
What keeps biting me
I love eating fruit picked from the wild
(aka blackberries, oranges, apples, grapes, grapefruits, cherries, pears, figs and now mulberries)
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams -Thoreau
Come see my play "Elevator" at the Hudson Guild Theatre!
Get naked, a trail
Poison oak
tiny little Rockies
31 Flavors, 1 middle finger
the last thing I want to see before I die
a building
chillaxin for the bus
Crazy Legs lovin the iPad
VIPOS status
don't fight it
I eat food and spend money in quite the same fashion
Today I bought a video game that cost less than my day's gasoline
I have a love/hate relationship with people that don't ask
Unlimited text messages = Christmas every day
River water is nature's running bathhouse
"will the mountain last as long as i can wait" -Iron & Wine
We're always 5 minutes away from being in the mid-19th century
My heart lives in the old west
If God created Chocolate then Satan created Peanut Butter.
Oops. Too much Tabasco, not enough scramble.
Thanks sun, I needed that.
What keeps biting me
I love eating fruit picked from the wild
(aka blackberries, oranges, apples, grapes, grapefruits, cherries, pears, figs and now mulberries)
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams -Thoreau
Come see my play "Elevator" at the Hudson Guild Theatre!
Get naked, a trail
Poison oak
tiny little Rockies
31 Flavors, 1 middle finger
the last thing I want to see before I die
a building
chillaxin for the bus
Crazy Legs lovin the iPad
VIPOS status
don't fight it
Sunday, June 13, 2010
You can take the boy out of the country... but
wait, we're still in the country. It's just a city within it.. nearly defenseless against it's natural counterpart. Yet we raise these mental bulwarks to block out the wild winds of the desert, echoing mountain ranges, ranging animals, canyon-gouging rivers, billowing thunderstorms, etc etc etc.
I rode my bike today around a river and beneath the overgrown underpasses crisscrossing the foothills of my Pasadena mountains. It was a glorious ride, full of rocky descents and colorful flowers and weeds. I found a little makeshift bridge crossing a steady stream surrounded by unkempt foliage. I stopped to feel the sun on my skin and smell the must of the late spring pollen. It was so quiet, and I noticed that there was nobody out there with me on the little trail save one girl who jogged by, sweating and smiling.
I eventually came to an opening that put me at the edge of a large and luxurious golf course, wrapped by a running track that was painted/sanded/prepped nicely. The track was smothered with hundreds of people jogging and playing in matching workout clothes and welltuned family patterns. Girls roller-bladed, kids biked, rich men ran, wives struggled to keep up. Hundreds of people.
Now, I understand comfort. I really do. But why is it that people never have an instinct to venture off the beaten path?
It takes a split second to see the trail, follow it and enjoy where it takes you; see what little learning experience or adventure you can discover. These trails all exist, but nobody occupies them! Instead everyone just jogs along in a boring circle around a flat, perfect track surrounding a landscaped golf course.
I don't really mind. I have my fun, and people will do what they do. They'll build cement canals for water that's already flowing the same direction through a valley floor. They'll build a high-rise in Burbank and hope that somebody rents out the office space. They'll overstock their shelves with 50 versions of the same thing then sit and wait. They'll listen to the radio and watch movies and TV then have a low opinion for aspiring artists. They'll get angry when the toilet clogs. They'll take the lettuce out of their sandwiches. They'll wear shoes and jeans when it's hot out. They'll talk and talk and talk. They'll jog on repeat around a single golf course track while surrounded by dozens of beautiful, eclectic forest trails.
They'll do endless amounts things that don't make sense to me, but I love people regardless. And if they're happy then I'm happy too. Just so nobody gets hurts.
Mikie
I rode my bike today around a river and beneath the overgrown underpasses crisscrossing the foothills of my Pasadena mountains. It was a glorious ride, full of rocky descents and colorful flowers and weeds. I found a little makeshift bridge crossing a steady stream surrounded by unkempt foliage. I stopped to feel the sun on my skin and smell the must of the late spring pollen. It was so quiet, and I noticed that there was nobody out there with me on the little trail save one girl who jogged by, sweating and smiling.
I eventually came to an opening that put me at the edge of a large and luxurious golf course, wrapped by a running track that was painted/sanded/prepped nicely. The track was smothered with hundreds of people jogging and playing in matching workout clothes and welltuned family patterns. Girls roller-bladed, kids biked, rich men ran, wives struggled to keep up. Hundreds of people.
Now, I understand comfort. I really do. But why is it that people never have an instinct to venture off the beaten path?
It takes a split second to see the trail, follow it and enjoy where it takes you; see what little learning experience or adventure you can discover. These trails all exist, but nobody occupies them! Instead everyone just jogs along in a boring circle around a flat, perfect track surrounding a landscaped golf course.
I don't really mind. I have my fun, and people will do what they do. They'll build cement canals for water that's already flowing the same direction through a valley floor. They'll build a high-rise in Burbank and hope that somebody rents out the office space. They'll overstock their shelves with 50 versions of the same thing then sit and wait. They'll listen to the radio and watch movies and TV then have a low opinion for aspiring artists. They'll get angry when the toilet clogs. They'll take the lettuce out of their sandwiches. They'll wear shoes and jeans when it's hot out. They'll talk and talk and talk. They'll jog on repeat around a single golf course track while surrounded by dozens of beautiful, eclectic forest trails.
They'll do endless amounts things that don't make sense to me, but I love people regardless. And if they're happy then I'm happy too. Just so nobody gets hurts.
Mikie
Friday, June 11, 2010
breakdown Koreatown
Last night my car wouldn't start in the backstreets of Koreatown (near downtown LA) and at the same time my telephone died. A group of mexican kids walked up and started looking in the windows of my tattered vehicle and I realized that it might be time for me to get a better car.
Of course, the mexican kids were really cool. I rolled down my window to say hello and avoid negative confrontation and they were all "Hey! you need a jump? We have cables, we're right here" (funny how the media has conditioned us to be scared and judgmental in mildly untame situations). I was cool with them "nah it's cool man. It has this problem.. just takes a few minutes to start." He was persistent, but eventually they walked off and I just sat there in the Los Angeles darkness waiting to see if my car really would start.
Not good. No starting.
See, my car has this problem. It's called the Badfuelpump+ruinedstarter+unfixablehead=Nostarting+baddriving problem. Unfortunately, however, if you jimmy the ignition timing and pedals in just the right amount of steps, you can get the automobile to eventually fire up and drive away ("unfortunately" because if I have the ability to jimmy something to make it work I will continue to jimmy it until the end of time. Why do you think I purposely shattered my old Razr phone?)
here's the breakdown:
1 - pump the gas a couple times
2 - depress clutch, turn key *briefly* then turn off!
3 - pump gas couple more times, release and depress clutch
4 - turn key, turn off! release and depress clutch, turn key, turn off! (turn offs because the battery will die quickly otherwise)
5 - STOP. Wait about 14 seconds (check your Facebook)
6 - Repeat steps 1-5
this WILL work. I've been doing it since October. These steps, repeated, will get the car started in anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes. But last night, around midnight, in Koreatown, with a dead phone, after 15 minutes, it wasn't starting.
So I just sat there, eyebrows locked in a scrunch.
Occasionally a bum or strung-out person would saunter by. I stared ahead at the cross streets in front of me. See, usually when I park my car I do so with the awareness that this could be the last time I ever turn it off. But lately I've been running around between rehearsals and jobs so much, I've been tending to forget that my car has this terminal ailment that will, someday, eliminate my car's ability to function (I leave it running when I get gas. Pretty bad news). Sitting in Koreatown I realized that this is it. This is that day. And of course, what better place in my ever-lucky life to be caught carless and phoneless..
And then it started.
I REVVED that engine like an excited child! Brrrrrrooom brroooooooommm!!! and drove off.
Point is, I need a new or different car. Driving home, I was even thinking about what options I had. What options DO I have?
When somebody needs a car and has very limited funds to even pay their bills, what the heck do they do? Is it always a family member or friend that helps them out? What do you do when that's not available? I mean, a car loan isn't reasonable because I'm barely scraping by as it is! What is the norm here. I feel like I'm missing something.
Sidenote: When I finally get enough money to survive, here's exactly what I'm gonna do:
1 - get a better vehicle
2 - FILL my cupboards. I mean, completely stock every single one of them. I'm cashing that check and heading straight for Trader Joe's, buying 5 of everything, and the cart, pushing it all the way home and spending an hour just stocking all my food shelves and fridge compartments. Full. Brimming.There's gonna be food falling on the floor.
3 - go see a triple-feature at the Arclight
The catch? You need a reliable car to get a better job, which is where I'm at now.
Folks, let me just say this: sure there's a lesson or two to be learned when having to earn every penny of your own since you were 15, but if you're that guy or girl who's parents will help you out in a time of need and lend you a car/food/money while you're out living on your own then for goddsake APPRECIATE IT.
The end.
Mikie
Of course, the mexican kids were really cool. I rolled down my window to say hello and avoid negative confrontation and they were all "Hey! you need a jump? We have cables, we're right here" (funny how the media has conditioned us to be scared and judgmental in mildly untame situations). I was cool with them "nah it's cool man. It has this problem.. just takes a few minutes to start." He was persistent, but eventually they walked off and I just sat there in the Los Angeles darkness waiting to see if my car really would start.
Not good. No starting.
See, my car has this problem. It's called the Badfuelpump+ruinedstarter+unfixablehead=Nostarting+baddriving problem. Unfortunately, however, if you jimmy the ignition timing and pedals in just the right amount of steps, you can get the automobile to eventually fire up and drive away ("unfortunately" because if I have the ability to jimmy something to make it work I will continue to jimmy it until the end of time. Why do you think I purposely shattered my old Razr phone?)
here's the breakdown:
1 - pump the gas a couple times
2 - depress clutch, turn key *briefly* then turn off!
3 - pump gas couple more times, release and depress clutch
4 - turn key, turn off! release and depress clutch, turn key, turn off! (turn offs because the battery will die quickly otherwise)
5 - STOP. Wait about 14 seconds (check your Facebook)
6 - Repeat steps 1-5
this WILL work. I've been doing it since October. These steps, repeated, will get the car started in anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes. But last night, around midnight, in Koreatown, with a dead phone, after 15 minutes, it wasn't starting.
So I just sat there, eyebrows locked in a scrunch.
Occasionally a bum or strung-out person would saunter by. I stared ahead at the cross streets in front of me. See, usually when I park my car I do so with the awareness that this could be the last time I ever turn it off. But lately I've been running around between rehearsals and jobs so much, I've been tending to forget that my car has this terminal ailment that will, someday, eliminate my car's ability to function (I leave it running when I get gas. Pretty bad news). Sitting in Koreatown I realized that this is it. This is that day. And of course, what better place in my ever-lucky life to be caught carless and phoneless..
And then it started.
I REVVED that engine like an excited child! Brrrrrrooom brroooooooommm!!! and drove off.
Point is, I need a new or different car. Driving home, I was even thinking about what options I had. What options DO I have?
When somebody needs a car and has very limited funds to even pay their bills, what the heck do they do? Is it always a family member or friend that helps them out? What do you do when that's not available? I mean, a car loan isn't reasonable because I'm barely scraping by as it is! What is the norm here. I feel like I'm missing something.
Sidenote: When I finally get enough money to survive, here's exactly what I'm gonna do:
1 - get a better vehicle
2 - FILL my cupboards. I mean, completely stock every single one of them. I'm cashing that check and heading straight for Trader Joe's, buying 5 of everything, and the cart, pushing it all the way home and spending an hour just stocking all my food shelves and fridge compartments. Full. Brimming.There's gonna be food falling on the floor.
3 - go see a triple-feature at the Arclight
The catch? You need a reliable car to get a better job, which is where I'm at now.
Folks, let me just say this: sure there's a lesson or two to be learned when having to earn every penny of your own since you were 15, but if you're that guy or girl who's parents will help you out in a time of need and lend you a car/food/money while you're out living on your own then for goddsake APPRECIATE IT.
The end.
Mikie
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Money
People get weird about money. Seriously, It's got to be one of the most uncomfortable subjects for most Americans to talk about.
So I'm gonna write a blog about it. Get ready to squirm.
Money amazes me. I have very small amounts of the stuff, but from my little social vista (overlooking vast valleys of independent wealth, spoiled young, year-round blossoms, volcanos bubbling up in all-consuming clouds of golden bills and fashionable automobiles) I can only ask myself, "whaaaat???"
Let me clarify.
You know what I'm talking about here. That guy who rolls up in his 2010 Porsche Carrera, steps out in his perfectly-coifed collared shirt with two busty women in LBD's on each arm, stiff hair and smoothed brown skin pulled tight around his chin under eyes that frighten you as he passes by, then two seconds later a homeless man with misshapen legs and a crooked walk saunters next to him in spit-covered jeans browned with dried muck and soot, wobbling under two lazy eyes gazing separately, humming an indiscernable tune from his wrinkled, shrunken chin and withered neck, smiling. You double-take between the rich man and the homeless guy, scrunch your eyebrows and think "whaaaat???"
Very whaaaat-worthy. No wonder people get uncomfortable. Because there's such an intense discussion, a world-wide can of worms just waiting to be popped open at a moments notice.. but nobody talks about it.
What if Carreraman had to spend a day in Homelessman's shoes, and vice versa? Homelessman would probably enjoy the experience, but would Carreraman? probably not.. why not?
I think Fear. My conjecture: Carreraman is scared to death because, even though he has lots and lots of money, he's afraid that someday he'll end up just like Homelessman (a terribly foreign and therefore negative thing). Maybe in a NY second he'll be felled to his knees and find himself crammed between the trash cans and waste water of the city streets with ownership over nothing. For Carreraman, this is a terrifying threat, and so he fights harder and harder for financial Kingship to avoid his own harsh reality. It's about survival for him.. he wouldn't survive in Homelessman's world because he's just not strong enough.
At the same time so saunters the Homelessman in his baseness without a care but for where he'll find his next beer and bit of leftovers. He can go to the beach tomorrow, sleep wherever he likes, sing at the top of his lungs, leave town at his leisure, play all day long and make friends with everybody. Total baseness, and total freedom.
I mean, who gets to live like that? Sounds more like a life of luxury than baseness.
Something only reserved for the richest men in the world.
So which is which?
well, I don't know. Just thinking. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I largely avoided the sore spots.
Mikie
So I'm gonna write a blog about it. Get ready to squirm.
Money amazes me. I have very small amounts of the stuff, but from my little social vista (overlooking vast valleys of independent wealth, spoiled young, year-round blossoms, volcanos bubbling up in all-consuming clouds of golden bills and fashionable automobiles) I can only ask myself, "whaaaat???"
Let me clarify.
You know what I'm talking about here. That guy who rolls up in his 2010 Porsche Carrera, steps out in his perfectly-coifed collared shirt with two busty women in LBD's on each arm, stiff hair and smoothed brown skin pulled tight around his chin under eyes that frighten you as he passes by, then two seconds later a homeless man with misshapen legs and a crooked walk saunters next to him in spit-covered jeans browned with dried muck and soot, wobbling under two lazy eyes gazing separately, humming an indiscernable tune from his wrinkled, shrunken chin and withered neck, smiling. You double-take between the rich man and the homeless guy, scrunch your eyebrows and think "whaaaat???"
Very whaaaat-worthy. No wonder people get uncomfortable. Because there's such an intense discussion, a world-wide can of worms just waiting to be popped open at a moments notice.. but nobody talks about it.
What if Carreraman had to spend a day in Homelessman's shoes, and vice versa? Homelessman would probably enjoy the experience, but would Carreraman? probably not.. why not?
I think Fear. My conjecture: Carreraman is scared to death because, even though he has lots and lots of money, he's afraid that someday he'll end up just like Homelessman (a terribly foreign and therefore negative thing). Maybe in a NY second he'll be felled to his knees and find himself crammed between the trash cans and waste water of the city streets with ownership over nothing. For Carreraman, this is a terrifying threat, and so he fights harder and harder for financial Kingship to avoid his own harsh reality. It's about survival for him.. he wouldn't survive in Homelessman's world because he's just not strong enough.
At the same time so saunters the Homelessman in his baseness without a care but for where he'll find his next beer and bit of leftovers. He can go to the beach tomorrow, sleep wherever he likes, sing at the top of his lungs, leave town at his leisure, play all day long and make friends with everybody. Total baseness, and total freedom.
I mean, who gets to live like that? Sounds more like a life of luxury than baseness.
Something only reserved for the richest men in the world.
So which is which?
well, I don't know. Just thinking. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I largely avoided the sore spots.
Mikie
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Tie Dye Revolution
I predict the next big fashion trend revival is going to be Tie Dye.
To help muster things along (or "budge the boulder" so to speak) I'm going to set down a few preparations from someone who's TieDye-in-the-know, so that when the great TD-Day occurs, you'll be ready.
1 : Learn HOW to Tie Dye
- it's quite simple
- 3rd graders do it
- revive those grungy whites with a new look! Recycling!
2 : Take it slow
- Nobody like the guy who wears TD every single day.
- be patient - girls will be drawn to you but you must be patient.
3 : Start clashing NOW
- begin to assimilate a lack-of-match back into your wardrobe.
- try on things that don't look good together. Think 80s
- actually wear these clashing outfits out. supafly!
4 : Fall in Love
- once you start wearing Tie Dye regularly, you'll need someone there to back you up "just in case"
- Dinner and a movie in matching Tie-Dyed Snuggies is totally awesome
- Tie Dying alone can be depressing. Trust me.
5 : Tie Dye ALL your socks and underwear
- colorful swirls in your undies? I know.
6 : You're A Man. Be Proud
- This goes for women too
7 : If all else fails, wear TD to bed
- loose-fitting shirts, or "Daddy's Shirts" (for the ladies)
DO's and DONT's
DONT - wear matching TD'd shirts and shorts
DONT - Tie Dye wifebeaters and then never wear them
DONT - acknowledge TD once you've put it on. People will see it
DONT - grow dreadlocks unless you have a compelling, socially sound explanation
DO - wear TD on a 2nd date.
DO - walk nonchalantly through business sectors
DO - Thank others for their numerous compliments
DO - sweat profusely and forget to wash the shirt until a month later
DO - get excited!!! The Tie Dye Revolution is upon us!!
Mikie
(This message is dedicated to Dan Beckner, because he's waiting in the truck)
To help muster things along (or "budge the boulder" so to speak) I'm going to set down a few preparations from someone who's TieDye-in-the-know, so that when the great TD-Day occurs, you'll be ready.
1 : Learn HOW to Tie Dye
- it's quite simple
- 3rd graders do it
- revive those grungy whites with a new look! Recycling!
2 : Take it slow
- Nobody like the guy who wears TD every single day.
- be patient - girls will be drawn to you but you must be patient.
3 : Start clashing NOW
- begin to assimilate a lack-of-match back into your wardrobe.
- try on things that don't look good together. Think 80s
- actually wear these clashing outfits out. supafly!
4 : Fall in Love
- once you start wearing Tie Dye regularly, you'll need someone there to back you up "just in case"
- Dinner and a movie in matching Tie-Dyed Snuggies is totally awesome
- Tie Dying alone can be depressing. Trust me.
5 : Tie Dye ALL your socks and underwear
- colorful swirls in your undies? I know.
6 : You're A Man. Be Proud
- This goes for women too
7 : If all else fails, wear TD to bed
- loose-fitting shirts, or "Daddy's Shirts" (for the ladies)
DO's and DONT's
DONT - wear matching TD'd shirts and shorts
DONT - Tie Dye wifebeaters and then never wear them
DONT - acknowledge TD once you've put it on. People will see it
DONT - grow dreadlocks unless you have a compelling, socially sound explanation
DO - wear TD on a 2nd date.
DO - walk nonchalantly through business sectors
DO - Thank others for their numerous compliments
DO - sweat profusely and forget to wash the shirt until a month later
DO - get excited!!! The Tie Dye Revolution is upon us!!
Mikie
(This message is dedicated to Dan Beckner, because he's waiting in the truck)
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Long Live Richard Dunn
Today the crazy world lost an old and wonderful man named Richard Dunn. It makes me sad, because hardly a month ago I stopped him on Hollywood Blvd to tell him how great he was....and he talked my ear off.
He talked about his 2 Facebook pages, he told me about how he hasn't been on Tim n' Eric much this season but hopes he gets to do more. He talked about his past and his life now and shopping.. and as we talked his bus came and he started running his lanky legs as fast he could to catch up with it. The stop was about 100 yards away, and I sprinted ahead of him in my black W clothes, jumped in the bus door and told the bus driver to wait for him. She didn't mind and he caught up soon enough with his shoulder sack, loafers and cardigan. As he got on the bus I told him how nice it was to meet and talk to him. He thanked me.
So if you don't mind, please take a moment out of your day to commemorate this man, the coolest celebrity I've ever met, and be happy for the laughs and jolliness he's brought for all of us. Thank you Richard for being so strange and amazing, and knowing it the whole time. We love you.
Mikie
He talked about his 2 Facebook pages, he told me about how he hasn't been on Tim n' Eric much this season but hopes he gets to do more. He talked about his past and his life now and shopping.. and as we talked his bus came and he started running his lanky legs as fast he could to catch up with it. The stop was about 100 yards away, and I sprinted ahead of him in my black W clothes, jumped in the bus door and told the bus driver to wait for him. She didn't mind and he caught up soon enough with his shoulder sack, loafers and cardigan. As he got on the bus I told him how nice it was to meet and talk to him. He thanked me.
So if you don't mind, please take a moment out of your day to commemorate this man, the coolest celebrity I've ever met, and be happy for the laughs and jolliness he's brought for all of us. Thank you Richard for being so strange and amazing, and knowing it the whole time. We love you.
Mikie
Friday, June 4, 2010
A word's worth a thousand hair extensions
just a thought.
I have this friend who's good with her words. I can't really describe it, except that she spells things outright and uses slang properly, and takes a little extra time before sending text messages, but stays classy (San Diego). and it's sexy. In fact, there is much sexiness to be had in good wordplay! If you have an ear for phonetics and grammar, wit and response and can tie it all together with nonchalance and/or seamless dry cynicism, then I applaud you and will respond in kind while finding you truly attention-worthy. Because there is something so sexy about a girl who's good with her words.
Bye.
I have this friend who's good with her words. I can't really describe it, except that she spells things outright and uses slang properly, and takes a little extra time before sending text messages, but stays classy (San Diego). and it's sexy. In fact, there is much sexiness to be had in good wordplay! If you have an ear for phonetics and grammar, wit and response and can tie it all together with nonchalance and/or seamless dry cynicism, then I applaud you and will respond in kind while finding you truly attention-worthy. Because there is something so sexy about a girl who's good with her words.
Bye.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Play
After making a little play in the park outside the Rose Bowl, I just ran into Adam Whatshisname (the main guy on Party Down and other things) in downtown Pasadena. Twas a nice little momentary hello, and again I'm reminded that what seems so horrifically impossible to achieve really isn't all that far away from my reality, sometimes by a matter of feet.
Back to my little play in the park. I jaunted from bench to bench cursing Bastard speeches (Henry IV Part. II?), King Lear groans and the occasional rant from my current play Elevator to the weeds and overgrown amphitheater tucked away between the trees. I have a forest stage too which I've discovered over there (my Secret Garden, so hidden and well-guarded that none shall pass into my realm of pure imagination!) where I climb the top end of a fallen tree and chant sweet nothings to the chipmunks, lizards and stupid weeds (the weeds I see as such base things, I have no guilt in tearing them to shreds with verse). From my stage I noticed a tree growing up at a slant, some kind of sycamoresque thing reaching with its oval bunches of green leaves towards the sky, and I realized I could run right up the side of it - which i hesitated but did anyhow. Solid like a Mowgli, I run right up its trunk and stood in the nook where all branches meet. Awesome.
On my way out of the park, the dirt trail wound round and I took it with abandon. I started to wonder if there's a person in this forsaken place that enjoys playing outdoors like this .. I mean really, what's in an age? You say you're 28 and people are like "Oh my gosh, no way" but what's the big deal? Do I have to be fat, bearded and lazy? Is it so bad to still enjoy playing and being positive even into your early thirties? I mean we're still kids for crying out loud.. looking for work and all, but beneath we're just PLAYING with all this extra time between meals and sleep. Right?
If these were preagricultural days we'd be spending every waking hour scrounging for pieces of food, like cows grazing the fields. But no, we ruined ourselves by developing a means for working nature's order by growing food at our leisure, and BAM! We're released to do anything else our little hearts desire, so long as we're fed and slept.
The problem is, nature hasn't caught up to us. There isn't really anything else for us TO do; we aren't evolved to have more necessity beyond food/sleep/procreation. If you think about it, once you eat, rest and mate.. what happens next? That's where we get all goofed-up and our imaginations take over. To make up for this lack of necessity we've developed little manmade activities: Education, Religion, Games, Trade, Pleasure, Adventure, even Space Travel. But for what? Why do we do all this extra stuff?
I call it Play. The stuff we do between eating, sleeping, sex, birth and death is all play. We're children who use the word "adult." We go to work, and if we aren't playing the way we want to be playing, at least we're daydreaming about it.
So here I am enjoying a bit of playtime on a Tuesday afternoon when along comes Adam Whatshisname strolling as well. I think to myself, 'how nice that I'm not the only one who enjoys playing' and say hello to him, tell him I like Party Down and continue on my way. Am I right? Does he like to play?
Yes, because
1 - he's a professional actor (a make-believe profession to so many)
2 - he's good at it.
Pretty admirable if you ask me.
Enough of this. Ciao
Mikie
Back to my little play in the park. I jaunted from bench to bench cursing Bastard speeches (Henry IV Part. II?), King Lear groans and the occasional rant from my current play Elevator to the weeds and overgrown amphitheater tucked away between the trees. I have a forest stage too which I've discovered over there (my Secret Garden, so hidden and well-guarded that none shall pass into my realm of pure imagination!) where I climb the top end of a fallen tree and chant sweet nothings to the chipmunks, lizards and stupid weeds (the weeds I see as such base things, I have no guilt in tearing them to shreds with verse). From my stage I noticed a tree growing up at a slant, some kind of sycamoresque thing reaching with its oval bunches of green leaves towards the sky, and I realized I could run right up the side of it - which i hesitated but did anyhow. Solid like a Mowgli, I run right up its trunk and stood in the nook where all branches meet. Awesome.
On my way out of the park, the dirt trail wound round and I took it with abandon. I started to wonder if there's a person in this forsaken place that enjoys playing outdoors like this .. I mean really, what's in an age? You say you're 28 and people are like "Oh my gosh, no way" but what's the big deal? Do I have to be fat, bearded and lazy? Is it so bad to still enjoy playing and being positive even into your early thirties? I mean we're still kids for crying out loud.. looking for work and all, but beneath we're just PLAYING with all this extra time between meals and sleep. Right?
If these were preagricultural days we'd be spending every waking hour scrounging for pieces of food, like cows grazing the fields. But no, we ruined ourselves by developing a means for working nature's order by growing food at our leisure, and BAM! We're released to do anything else our little hearts desire, so long as we're fed and slept.
The problem is, nature hasn't caught up to us. There isn't really anything else for us TO do; we aren't evolved to have more necessity beyond food/sleep/procreation. If you think about it, once you eat, rest and mate.. what happens next? That's where we get all goofed-up and our imaginations take over. To make up for this lack of necessity we've developed little manmade activities: Education, Religion, Games, Trade, Pleasure, Adventure, even Space Travel. But for what? Why do we do all this extra stuff?
I call it Play. The stuff we do between eating, sleeping, sex, birth and death is all play. We're children who use the word "adult." We go to work, and if we aren't playing the way we want to be playing, at least we're daydreaming about it.
So here I am enjoying a bit of playtime on a Tuesday afternoon when along comes Adam Whatshisname strolling as well. I think to myself, 'how nice that I'm not the only one who enjoys playing' and say hello to him, tell him I like Party Down and continue on my way. Am I right? Does he like to play?
Yes, because
1 - he's a professional actor (a make-believe profession to so many)
2 - he's good at it.
Pretty admirable if you ask me.
Enough of this. Ciao
Mikie
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Onto the river
I'm sitting in a towncar right now driving through the dawn-lit empty streets of Pasadena towards highway 110, which will trek through the flows and turns of the Arroyo Seco highway, along beneath the highrises of downtown, across the expanding valleys of rooftops towards the great air port we all know of as LAX. It's been somewhat of a mad dash for the past 24 hours, trying to get my life (or AKA the collection of imagined realities I flounder in from day to day) together or in some order enough to leave it all behind without a thought or backwards glance. Which I think is exactly what I just did. Stepping into this towncar and sitting down, closing the metal clink of the doors together I had this rush of relaxation wash through me, a sort of cleansing for every piece of thing I had been controlling up until this point, where once I'd turned my body over to the black sleekness, to the man (the driver) behind the wheel I realized in that moment next to my house that I had no other choice but to relax. If I'd left something behind, forgotten my toothrush, packed incorrectly, didn't take care of some outstanding problem well so be it.. because I'm officially taken away in a black horse, there is no turning back. Maybe this happens every day, but I'm always in control and rolling solo. This time leaving my house, I've got 6 days of new stuff before I have to get off the river. And so step I into the Lincoln, shove off and float swiftly away from the shore and towards a semi-familiar horizon with only the skills I've brought with me to use. Now I can relax for the first time in months. For a second that's really nice.
Let's just hope my dinner clothes are nice enough :-)
See you in Florida
Mikie
Let's just hope my dinner clothes are nice enough :-)
See you in Florida
Mikie
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Haircuts and Summertime
I'm avoiding writing a blog I thought of last night, after a conversation with Michelle Trachternberg, about what life would have been like if my parents had signed me with that LA agent back in 1991..
Let's just do a blog about memories. And summer and haircuts. and stuff.
I spent a good hour walking to a bar in Pasadena tonight called Barney's Beanery. On the walk, under the brisk night dew that hangs a hundred feet above our heads this close to the ocean, I could smell the must of salt and found myself reminiscing about the month of May. If you had to remember every May you've experienced, could you do it? I gave myself the challenge, and aloud on my nighttime jaunt I recounted each may from 2010 through 2003..then I got to the bar and started meeting the natives.
It's funny, how each May was accompanied with a distinctive feeling, like a nostalgia that was hardly even tied to the idea but surfaced the moment I brought it up. For instance, I thought. 'hmm, May 2007' and suddenly my head was aflood with memories from that year, including several smells that cloud my senses even until today..some including that musty salty ocean wet smell that is filling my nostrils right now.
But who cares about our ability to memorize the past, to remember from whence we came? I'm more interested in the present, what dishes lay before us now, what spread is available.
As we heave into these upcoming summer months, I look forward to the rafting season, the hot sun on my peeling skin, the cold water and Daniel's blue nose, the weird train rides and uncertainty of it all... I love it. But also I look forward to anything unexpected that will be thrown into my face - there's a place for that in my summer wishes. Like, a huge deal with some incredible people that changes the course of life. God wouldn't that be nice.
Another thing I realized while walking to the bar is that I've started a business and I've been fairly irresponsible and shy with it. I need to treat myself as a working professional and get my business going, hustle myself and get people to buy my services. Seriously, I have some products worth selling that are genuinely useful to society. Why not attempt to market what I have spent years growing?
I'm being too honest. Just like Elena, there's too much honesty. But what the hell. I could tell you a million things, and I'd never fully disclose it all.
Now, I didn't sing at karaoke tonight at Powell's because, well, I live 450 miles away. But I wish I had because I love those people. However, I additionally wish those people would realize how big of an influence they could have on the world if they took their creativity and art and shared it with the masses. and there's so much space for that, for those creative people. Because here there's a scramble for true creativity, and it's sad to see in the midst of that international crave for change a massive collection of individuals living cyclically far away only for themselves.
Enough. This blog is a worthless half-drunk rant. Goodnight. Join me. And goodnight. Business time. Sleep time. Goodnight.
Love
Me
Let's just do a blog about memories. And summer and haircuts. and stuff.
I spent a good hour walking to a bar in Pasadena tonight called Barney's Beanery. On the walk, under the brisk night dew that hangs a hundred feet above our heads this close to the ocean, I could smell the must of salt and found myself reminiscing about the month of May. If you had to remember every May you've experienced, could you do it? I gave myself the challenge, and aloud on my nighttime jaunt I recounted each may from 2010 through 2003..then I got to the bar and started meeting the natives.
It's funny, how each May was accompanied with a distinctive feeling, like a nostalgia that was hardly even tied to the idea but surfaced the moment I brought it up. For instance, I thought. 'hmm, May 2007' and suddenly my head was aflood with memories from that year, including several smells that cloud my senses even until today..some including that musty salty ocean wet smell that is filling my nostrils right now.
But who cares about our ability to memorize the past, to remember from whence we came? I'm more interested in the present, what dishes lay before us now, what spread is available.
As we heave into these upcoming summer months, I look forward to the rafting season, the hot sun on my peeling skin, the cold water and Daniel's blue nose, the weird train rides and uncertainty of it all... I love it. But also I look forward to anything unexpected that will be thrown into my face - there's a place for that in my summer wishes. Like, a huge deal with some incredible people that changes the course of life. God wouldn't that be nice.
Another thing I realized while walking to the bar is that I've started a business and I've been fairly irresponsible and shy with it. I need to treat myself as a working professional and get my business going, hustle myself and get people to buy my services. Seriously, I have some products worth selling that are genuinely useful to society. Why not attempt to market what I have spent years growing?
I'm being too honest. Just like Elena, there's too much honesty. But what the hell. I could tell you a million things, and I'd never fully disclose it all.
Now, I didn't sing at karaoke tonight at Powell's because, well, I live 450 miles away. But I wish I had because I love those people. However, I additionally wish those people would realize how big of an influence they could have on the world if they took their creativity and art and shared it with the masses. and there's so much space for that, for those creative people. Because here there's a scramble for true creativity, and it's sad to see in the midst of that international crave for change a massive collection of individuals living cyclically far away only for themselves.
Enough. This blog is a worthless half-drunk rant. Goodnight. Join me. And goodnight. Business time. Sleep time. Goodnight.
Love
Me
Monday, May 10, 2010
positive feedback
what happened to the man who refused to see life from someone else's point of view?
I think it's important to live and feel free, seek out joy and embrace new opportunities (especially the ones that slightly scare you), make friends and never forget any of them, look at the clouds often, smell the night air, remember everything, never be satisfied, never let yourself win for too long, go home when you're too tired, eat to feel good then use the food energy like your body was designed to do, play games and be fidgety, listen with your eyes, speak with your words, get naked whenever there's a chance for it, wash your hands, splash your face, don't take peoples' sh*t, apologize even if you don't mean it, drive fast when you feel like it, drive slow when you're not rushed, focus like every second is the most important second in history, kiss the mornings, sing into the nights, cry like a baby and film it, shake, scream, laugh, hurt, dance, open your eyes, get jokes, talk to your family, never give up, never 'try', get really close to the ground and touch it, know poison oak leaves, don't do drugs, love someone, sunsoak you skin, bathe regularly, pay attention, sleep, eat, discipline yourself, steal from the rich and give to the poor, stand up for noble and honorable causes, be active in pursuing those causes, confront your dragons, have aha! moments, quit your job, jump off a bridge, get made fun of, contradict yourself, be embarrassed, be a servant, deconstruct the social world that raised you from infancy, study foreign religions, believe in equality, love nature, make music, hug fully and comfortably, take nothing seriously, receive positive feedback and constructive criticism, have an opinion, forget everything you ever knew, know you know nothing, pick a direction and go for it.
I think it's important to live and feel free, seek out joy and embrace new opportunities (especially the ones that slightly scare you), make friends and never forget any of them, look at the clouds often, smell the night air, remember everything, never be satisfied, never let yourself win for too long, go home when you're too tired, eat to feel good then use the food energy like your body was designed to do, play games and be fidgety, listen with your eyes, speak with your words, get naked whenever there's a chance for it, wash your hands, splash your face, don't take peoples' sh*t, apologize even if you don't mean it, drive fast when you feel like it, drive slow when you're not rushed, focus like every second is the most important second in history, kiss the mornings, sing into the nights, cry like a baby and film it, shake, scream, laugh, hurt, dance, open your eyes, get jokes, talk to your family, never give up, never 'try', get really close to the ground and touch it, know poison oak leaves, don't do drugs, love someone, sunsoak you skin, bathe regularly, pay attention, sleep, eat, discipline yourself, steal from the rich and give to the poor, stand up for noble and honorable causes, be active in pursuing those causes, confront your dragons, have aha! moments, quit your job, jump off a bridge, get made fun of, contradict yourself, be embarrassed, be a servant, deconstruct the social world that raised you from infancy, study foreign religions, believe in equality, love nature, make music, hug fully and comfortably, take nothing seriously, receive positive feedback and constructive criticism, have an opinion, forget everything you ever knew, know you know nothing, pick a direction and go for it.
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