re: What happens in Mexico...

Warning! This post may contain people wearing swimsuits!

Better suck it in, Kai the Meteorologist.

(That's better).




So, I've been trying to squeeze the last few weeks out of summer, and this last weekend there was no better place to do that than the Mexican beaches of Puerto Peñasco.

Let me tell you some of the best things about vacationing over the border, where they don't have all those things like "the FDA" or "Safety laws" to restrict all your fun.

1) There are no regulations on growth hormones, it seems. The shrimp are not that shrimpy.

2) There are no sanitation laws that say you can't cook bacon without a shirt on. Yowza.

3) There is something in the water that makes it so that every time that you get in you can't help but look like a super sexy cologne ad. (Unfortunately, it may be the same thing that kills all of the local fish and makes them wash up on shore).

4) There are no safety regulations on the open seas, so when the man in a little tin boat leaking gasoline comes and offers to pull you around on a banana and you tell him to go as fast as he can, he really will. And he will probably drop your friends that can't hold on into the ocean where they might get run over by other industrious banana pullers. But it is worth the danger.

5) The aquariums in Mexico don't actually have any rules about how much water they need to keep their sea lions and other wildlife in. (this one seems to actually be sadly true.)


(There might be a rule about how big the hole in the fence can be that the sea lion can stick his head out of, though, to keep him from eating your face off).

6) There is something in the air that lets Mexico have seemingly superior sunsets.


7) They have fairly lax dress codes.


8) Plenty of daily siestas means that everyone in our group was always in a really good mood.

re: New York, New York

I flew to New York last week on 9/11. (I was wondering why flights were so cheap.) Upon arriving I immediately made a joke about New York putting the Batman signal out before I realized that it was the memorial that they lit up at the Twin Towers. I am lucky that no one heard me and put me right back on a plane.

One fun thing about this trip was that Amber, one of my oldest friends, just moved out that direction with her husband. So we made sure to get together to have Supper with Kirk, who I have known almost as long as I have known Amber.


Honorable mention for New York people that I have known forever goes to Stephen...

...Jared and Brigham (celebrated by a lunch at Five Guys).


I actually hung out with other new and exciting people that I have not known forever too, but didn't take photos of them because sometimes I forget to take out my camera when I am too busy trying to make people like me. This trip I did make it to the Tenement Museum, the Brooklyn Book Festival (where I first heard about this guy's tragic, untimely demise) and ate at several new and delicious places. One thing I meant to do but never made it to in this trip was to go to the New Museum. Does this mean I am going to have to go back to New York?

re: Stalking

I have lots of real pictures that I should be blogging about since I have been in New York for the past few days, but first I had to share these photos that my roommate found in the trash can in our building.

If you just saw the first photo you might think it was kind of cute - some person fond of their cat, taking pictures of it in bed.

But then you pull out the second photo. Not the same cat, first of all. And, the whole shot looks sort of creepy, like the person is taking the picture from behind a drawn curtain, hoping that the cat doesn't look over its shoulder and realize that it is being watched.


OMG! I think I have a cat pervert in my building!

(i was going to make a pet-o-file joke here, but that would have just been too easy)

re: [Explicit Lyrics]

I think the F word is on its way out.

All swear words are, probably. They are getting to be too commonplace to be all that shocking any more.

This was a girl with HER MOTHER at Bumbershoot last weekend. Wearing a shirt with the F word on it like it was no big deal.


I also saw some other girl wearing a pair of pants with the F word stenciled along the butt in rhinestones. Did you hear me? Rhinestones. All Juicy Couture style.

And last week I was at the Theatre. Guess what? The F word shows up on all the new tee shirts and other merch for the musical Spring Awakening. Not to mention being set to music.

Anyway. Once a word is okay around mothers, shows up on track pants in rhinestones, and gets sung in Broadway musicals, it just seems like we are missing the point of having a good swear word or two.

Do you think someone is going to invent something to top the F word? It seems likely that something is going to have to come along to take its place, but I can't even imagine what it might be. Nothing seems to raise many eyebrows anymore.

(Maybe we shouldn't write our suggestions in the comment section, though.)

re: Working for the Weekend

So, over Labor Day weekend I found myself in Seattle for their yearly Music and Arts fest, Bumbershoot.

I will prove this to you with this photo, because that is obviously the Seattle skyline in the background, and Seattle is where Nathaniel lives and I am standing right next to him. See? I really was in Seattle.

Unfortunately, that was about all of Seattle that I got to see, because the rest of the time I was working at a booth, bossing around volunteers and friends that volunteered to be volunteers for a day.

(Like this volunteer standing on the right, who worked pretty hard but also stole an entire duffel bag of yogurt from the VIP tent).

My friend volunteers and I gave away magazines and helped people stencil tee-shirts for 3 days straight.

Nathaniel. Being so patient. But inside he is probably thinking about how much better he is at dabbing a stencil brush than this amateur.

Rob is also smiling on the outside, but probably wondering why he has to be the one to wash the stencil of the amateur.

Tess and boyfriend came to help move boxes around.

Stephanie and her sister were really cute, and that always speaks well for the magazine.

We had a lot of paint, and a lot of stencils, and that equals a lot of neat stenciled shirts that people made:









This was my shirt that I stenciled, until some jerk thief with impeccable taste stole it right off the clothes line. I looked for the person the whole rest of the time so that Nathaniel would have a reason to pull out his brass knuckles, but it never showed up.

And this shirt was really well made. J/K. This wasn't a stencil. But it probably should be.


We did have one night off, so we went to a great little whorehouse themed pizza place called Madame K's in Ballard for dinner. You could tell it was whorehouse themed because they have underwear hanging on the wall. For people of all sizes.

This was actually the first time I had met Stephanie, Rob's new wife, and although I suspected already that I was going to like her, it wasn't until she suggested that we eat our dessert before we ate our pizza that it truly was confirmed for me. Best idea ever.


And I did make sure to see a few bands play every day too, so it isn't like I didn't see any of Bumbershoot. All I know is that every time I did make it out of the booth to watch some music, I seemed to stand next to a really affectionate couple. There is always a lot of couple-cuddle-standing-dancing while at shows (which I may or may not be guilty of myself at some point in my life, so I can't make fun of too hard). I think it is because there is something nice about listening to music you love and standing close to someone you love while you are listening to that music that you love. And maybe the feelings that you feel for the band and the song get all confused with the feelings that you have for the person that you are standing with, and it makes it so that you don't want to stop touching them the entire time? Even if it means you have to walk in an awkward way just to keep your arms around them?

Like this couple that thought it was the most romantic thing that had ever happened to them when the Weakerthans started playing the song The Reasons (with the chorus that goes "You May Roll Your Eyes at This, but I'm So Glad That You Exist") which I admit is a cute song, and maybe it is the most romantic thing that has ever happened to them as a couple, but it still makes me strangely uncomfortable to be present for when they stare dramatically into eachother's eyes in public and make out right in front of me. This is probably how couples get "their song" though, so I understand the importance of the hug-stand-kiss-dance that sometimes has to happen in public.

Anyway, Seattle. Bumbershoot. I had such a nice time with you. I am not sure what all these good emotions inside of me mean, but it is prompting me to want to hug-stand in front of everyone.

re: Fame

It finally happened - the thing I have been waiting 49 episodes for ....

I was in Seattle over Labor Day weekend and got to be a guest on the infamous Gentle Tyrants podcast!! And on their 50th episode, no less. This is a behind the scenes look at how the magic of Gentle Tyrants is made every Sunday...

Rob takes care of being all gentle.

Nathaniel gets all tyranical.

(if you think he looks too gentle in that photo, you should know that he keeps a pair of these just lying around in his living room, just in case:)

And everyone gets to wear headphones and laugh at eachother.


You can go take a listen, because we talk a little about Stone Temple Pilots and handwriting and I don't even know what else!

Small disclaimer: I am probably never going to actually listen to this particular podcast episode myself. Hearing my own recorded voice makes me cringe. (You know how you always think you might have a sexy voice until you hear it played back to you?) Also, I don't really think I performed very well under the pressure of a live show. The second we were done recording I thought of a million different stories that I should have told, and a million other things that I should have recommended and all sorts of good jokes that should have been immortalized on the airwaves. Luckily Rob and Nathaniel always make a good show, and it was really nice of them to have me on as a guest.

Anyway. My voice is out there on the internet. Now let's never mention it again.