Friday, June 29, 2007

Little Known Facts

I have a long-standing and deep fantasy about being a stand-up comic. Which is weird because: 1) I'm pretty shy onstage and 2) I'm not really all that funny.

Still.

And one of my all-time faves? Dave Chapelle. Lucky for me I spent the last hour reviewing some clips on youtube for that blogging for $$ thing I do.

So I have a little treat for you. Check it out.



Sort of reminds me of the old George Carlin bit--you know, how Snow White must've been on coke cause how else would she have had enough energy to clean up after those 7 dwarves. Couldn't find a clip of that one...

Friday, June 22, 2007

I Married Well.

A few weeks ago Rod spoke with Inc mag about gomadic's new iphone peripheral.

"There's a lot of buzz over this," says Rod Schecter, a spokesman for Gomadic, a Herndon, Va.-based charger manufacturer that has already posted an iPhone page on its website. "We felt we needed to put an antennae out there to gauge demand."

And on Monday he spoke with a NY Times reporter about the same product line.

The bottom line? Our small business is taking off, folks. The dream of a nomadic worklife lives on! Next stop: Hawaii. Because as long as there's wifi and cell phone coverage, we're in business.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

A Chilean Lake Has Suddenly Disappeared. I'm Not Kidding.

From the bbc:

"Scientists in Chile are investigating the sudden disappearance of a glacial lake in the south of the country.

When park rangers patrolled the area in the Magallanes region in March, the two-hectare (five-acre) lake was its normal size, officials say.

But last month they found a huge dry crater and several stranded chunks of ice that used to float on the water."

Saturday, June 16, 2007

A Poem By Tony Hoagland

I found this online. Hoagland rocks.

Beauty

When the medication she was taking
caused tiny vessels in her face to break,
leaving faint but permanent blue stitches in her cheeks,
my sister said she knew she would
never be beautiful again.

After all those years
of watching her reflection in the mirror,
sucking in her stomach and standing straight,
she said it was a relief,
being done with beauty,

but I could see her pause inside that moment
as the knowledge spread across her face
with a fine distress, sucking
the peach out of her lips,
making her cute nose seem, for the first time,
a little knobby.

I'm probably the only one in the whole world
who actually remembers the year in high school
she perfected the art
of being a dumb blond,

spending recess on the breezeway by the physics lab,
tossing her hair and laughing that canary trill
that was her specialty,

while some football player named Johnny
with a pained expression in his eyes
wrapped his thick finger over and over again
in the bedspring of one of those pale curls.

Or how she spent the next decade of her life
auditioning a series of tall men
looking for just one with the kind of
attention span she could count on.

Then one day her time of prettiness was done,
and all those other beautiful women
in the magazines and on the streets
just kept on being beautiful
everywhere you looked,

walking in that kind of elegant, disinterested trance
in which you sense they always have one hand
touching the secret place
that keeps their beauty safe,
inhaling and exhaling the perfume of it.

It was spring. Season when the young
buttercups and daisies climb up on the
mulched bodies of their forebears
to wave their flags in the parade.

My sister just stood still for thirty seconds,
amazed about the way that things can go,
then shrugged and tossed her shaggy head
as if she was throwing something out,

something she had carried a long ways
but had no use for anymore,
now that it had no use for her.
That, too, was beautiful.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Something I Never Thought I'd See In Brooklyn

I belong to the boreumhill listserv and this week somebody posted the following:

"The sour cherries on our tree are ripening. If you would like to pick some to take home, call (718-xxx-xxxx) for a time to come by (Cobble Hill). They make wonderful jams and pies. Unsprayed."


Wow. But really. How many cherries can you really get off one tree?
At Which Point You Better Believe I Rolled My Eyes

I went to a free IntenSati workshop by Patricia Moreno on the Upper West Side last night.

Incredibly wonderful and intense and inspiring. Check it out if you can.

Afterwards, though. The club provided berry martinis and fresh fruit and I hung around for a bit, nibbling on watermelon while I listened to the other women chatting about their experiences.

A model-thin Manhattan chick was speaking to one of the club employees.

He asked her what she thought of the workout.

Did she find it helpful?

Well, she replied. I’ve been coming to these things for a long time now. And I realized something today. I mean I love my husband. I have a wonderful son. My relationship with my parents is great. My friends are fantastic. I have a great job that I’m really good at and I’m happy with the amount of money we both make. So at some I realized I actually have no goals. Which is weird because I’m a very goal-oriented person. So…. But I love Patricia.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Days When I Love The Fact That We Both Work From Home

So yesterday I’m in my office working on my laptop and I get an email from Rod telling me to go on IM.

I log on. And we have the following convo:

MsMinervaJane (10:32:02 AM): well?
Ebronis (10:32:19 AM): oh yeah forgot about u
Ebronis (10:32:28 AM): :-[
MsMinervaJane (10:32:53 AM): i just wrote a post for cultclassicts.com re monty python. someone re-enacted holy grail using legos and posted to youtube. i love the world.
Ebronis (10:33:21 AM): meet in bedroom 4 hugs?

And then I was off to my mid-morning tea/hug break.

Today, though, I’m in the city working at think coffee. Uber-hip and I’m surrounded by all these young NYU folk.

I feel like I’m 23 all over again.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

And It's Only Wednesday

Things I love about the video embedded below:

1. I ran across it while blogging for one of my clients. (My life rules!)
2. In the comments section I read the following exchange:

Doodstormer: You stole this video from one of my favorite lego movie makers, Spiteyourface Productions! You need to give them their due credit or you could get banned.

Diamondgeezapleeza: i am Spiteyourface productions, and thank u 4 da compliment.

Tomthedestroyer: you faggot liar you didn't make this

diamondgeezapleeza: did


So! There's an entire industry built around making lego versions of popular movies! And such loyally indignant fans!

Life is fucking beautiful.


Now, feast your eyes.


Tuesday, June 12, 2007

First The Sims, Now Ancient Rome

BBC reports that "Ancient Rome has been brought back to life through a unique digital reconstruction project, said to be the world's biggest computer simulation."

Wow.
It's A Smencil!

Scented pencils in a variety of smells. I gotta get me some.



Friday, June 08, 2007

Coincidences

So the last four times Rod and I have been out to SF our friend Mark has had a business trip scheduled the week afterwards. This weekend continues the tradition of the post-SF vaca NYC reunion.

On the agenda? A burning man fundraiser tonight. Lots o' good food. (Although all three of us feel we're getting fat, so a morning trip to the gym kicked off the day.) Perhaps hiking at bear mountain north of the city.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Slamdunk

My sister just got into the Squaw Valley writing conference. Go forth and versify, little Gabi.
Videos Of The Weird

When we were visiting SF Rod mentioned to our friend Mark that he'd found a hilarious video on youtube that featured an entire wedding party performing Michael Jackson's Thriller. Imagine, he said, forcing your friends to do that! And now, of course, Mark says he'll definitely make his future wedding party do it. But I think it'd be better if Rod performs solo. In costume. With wig.