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RIP wetlands. many a high-school night was spent there listening to some good dead cover bands and such. now where are all the gen y neo-hippies going to get their jam on?

so i was one of the lucky ones to rock out with madonna saturday night. though i wasn't one cool enough to have strings to pull, our cheap seats weren't half bad. but i was ready to hit the jersey-fied chick sitting next to me (she really belonged at bon jovi, but that's besides the point) because she kept invading my personal space. i just hate that. and what i hate more is when people behind you scream (and even hit!) you to tell you to sit down. um, it's a concert. it's madonna. am i not going to get up and dance to the material girl? perhaps the people behind me instead should have been watching neil diamond live by request like my parents were. but the show was kick-ass regardless. all i kept thinking was she's a 42-year-old mom. with crazy muscles! and she's riding a mechanical bull, the diva. but can you believe she had the audacity to charge as much as $80 for a shirt? i could have gone to a whole other concert and have left over for a few beers! since the show was so short, we needed more entertainment for a saturday night and decided to dance the night away in our glittery tops at miss kitty's. and would you believe with all the cds they have there, not one madonna song? sacrilege! but six or seven yuenglings later, i didn't seem to care. and i apologize to the other tenants in my building for my musical wake-up call at three in the morning. people are always buzzing my apartment at all hours, so why not return the favor?

the add kid from american high got busted for filming himself having sex. guess a whole tv show about his life wasn't enough publicity. those poor parents. one of the only episodes i've seen was the one where he's not allowed to go to graduation, and his parents are so completely devastated. imagine their disappointment now.

i take it back. a few days ago i said i may be too pc. but this is definitely too pc and i know i'm not that bad.

lots of good stuff in the observer today, including this story on the ny times not allowing lesbian and gay couples to announce their civial unions in the wedding pages. for a paper that supports vermont's ruling, it seems pretty backward to me. their excuse is that a civil union "falls short in the equivalency of marriage," which is what their wedding pages celebrate. the other interesting article is this one about heeb magazine, which is supposed to be a new magazine for "cool jews." the idea sounds promising and i'd be interested in reading it, but i have to stay i'm completely offended and turned off by the name. that comes close to naming a magazine about african americans the "n-word" or a magazine about chinese that slur used on conan o'brien not too long ago. i mean, can you use the argument that it's ok because it's a magazine written by jews, for jews? just like people argue that it's ok for rappers to use "that word" in their songs, especially since they're changing the "er" to an "a"? i've never agreed with that one either. but i know, i've always been too pc for my own good. and i'm a little too "quote happy" today too.

apparently you have to get to bryant park at noon to secure a spot on the lawn for a 9:30 movie. my attempt to see rear window last night was unsuccessful. so i drowned my sorrows at old town bar, which was all fine and dandy until i spotted a disgusting, small four-legged rodent scurrying across the floor. i threw my money on the table and ran out the door faster than you could scream "eek!" i then calmed my nerves with some caffeine and yummy smores at xando. hopefully tonight's festivities at fez to see rhett will go a little more smoothly.

tonight, with beach blanket in tow, it's off to bryant park to see rear window. if anyone feels like joining, let me know.

joey jeremiah from degrassi junior high wants you to attend his bachelor party. and did you know they're coming out with a degrassi high: the new generation?a huge thank you to brian for that one.

besides all the rock n roll this weekend, i managed to finish motherless brooklyn and start on bonfire of the vanities, which i'm really liking so far even though i'm only on page 50 of a 700-page book. nothing like looking back on the greedy '80s.

another great weekend filled with fun summer activities. friday night was heather's birthday and we ate a whole lotta pasta and drank a whole lotta wine on mulberry street at luna's restaurant. and saturday was the big day at the siren festival in coney island. my first time there and it was most definitely kick ass with a whole lot of ghetto mixed in for a rockin' good time. i think tim, who i work with, said it best this morning:"it's like they took the whole east village and planted them on the beach." all the scenesters were lounging in the sand in their jeans and skirts thrift-store button-downs and j. lo glasses next to families of 10 with kids running around in nothing but diapers and do-rags on their head and fathers who each had a six-pack to themselves. my guess is if i went back their sunday, there would be nobody left but the families of ten. we paid a whopping five bucks to ride the cyclone, but well worth it. michele, however should have paid more attention to the signs and taken off the shmata on her head before riding. then it was stuffing our faces at nathan's. though the line was way too long, we were more than entertained watching poor renditions of mickey mouse and winnie the pooh get busted for hanging out on the boardwalk and luring kids to come over and have their pictures taken. the best part was when they had to take off the outfits. it seemed the family's grandma got stuck working in the pooh costume. hopefully catherine has pictures of this along with some other highlights of the day. and guided by voices rocked as always, playing a whole lot from their newest, which is the only one i own, lucky for me. all in all, a great day and the sun tan to prove it.

great reality tv america's most wanted actors arrested the ridiculous news links just keep coming.

the pain of working at a men's magazine: every once in a while there are little, skinny models with big chests roaming the halls, and the guys can't help but stare.

the joy of working at a men's magazine: since we have a men's fashion section, there are hottie male models roaming the halls, and the girls can't help but stare

the pain of working at a men's magazine:every once in a while there are little, skinny models with big chests roaming the halls, and the guys can't help but stare.

the joy of working at a men's magazine since we have a men's fashion section, there are hottie male models roaming the halls, and the girls can't help but stare

in case you've ever wanted to make money owning a strip club: the gold club's ba-bing ba-bang school of management

so my last photo class met last night and only four people wound up showing up. i don't get it. the class is hardly inexpensive, why would people not go? and it's not like they had to take it. it's a continuing ed class, they wanted to. i need to give my checkbook a rest for a while and stop with the photo classes, but i'm thinking of taking a free crash course in reading hebrew starting in august. anyone interested in joining me?

i don't mean to laugh at this poor woman's expense but her ex-husband mailed a bomb to her with the funniest message.

people will put anything on the web these days. the lizzie grubman game

last night gail and i were finally treated to our free dinner from brian that was months in the waiting and damn was it good. we headed over to chelsea and ate at bottino, which has a great little outdoor garden to eat in. the overall consensus was three thumbs up. great italian food, though the courses could have been a little bigger, good service (though one of us wished he kept filling our wine glasses more and seemed to be rushing us a little because a big party was coming in at nine), nice atmosphere and yummy desserts, especially the tiramisu.

the fabulous old 97's were on leno last night to sing "designs on you." it's amazing that the camera adds twenty pounds because rhett was looking as skinny as ever. performing on live tv he shouldn't be a starving artist anymore.

this article diary of an la cab driver reminded me that i used to love to read this column about a san francisco cabbie. besides the stuff they show on taxicab confessions, i had no idea cabbies had such interesting jobs.

the all sports update this piece about paul oneill from the observer is an interesting read as is this derek jeter one from the voice. though i refuse to believe jeter is on the way down.

another case of big-wig corporations in cahoots with evil advertisers. it seems espn classic is now digitally inputting modern-day ads behind homeplate in the oldies but goodies games they show on the network. not that i really understand watching some of those old games when you already know the outcome, but is nothing sacred anymore? i like the quote from the professor who says it's like changing the name of the sled in "citizen kane" just because that brand is popular these days.

this list is a little lengthy, but fun to scan. tv commercials from the '80s. there aren't any videos or anything, just descriptions. my favorites i found so far are the latter day saints ones, the psas and that connect four where the kid says, "pretty tricky, sis." [via pcjm]

shameless bar plug last friday a few friends and i went to dba for what was supposed to be an after-work drink on their patio i've heard so much about. but i guess their write-up in time out last week made it a bit too crowded, and there was a two-hour waiting list to sit in the sun. we snagged a table inside instead, and one drink turned into three or four. but even if you can't sit outside, it's worth a visit. they have a whole bunch of great beers on tap, including a delicious lager called old speckled hen. and if you're not sure what you want, they'll even let you taste a few first.

so finally my gym has caught up with the rest of the world. they installed individual tvs on all the machines, which is so much nicer than trying to read close captioning from far away when you're not wearing any glasses. plus, the cool machines have a cd player and tape deck too so i no longer have to spend money on batteries every other day for my discman. now i feel a little bit better about shelling out so damn much every month.

i've been lax today with no good links until now, thanks to mr. chambers. oh, big brother, where art thou? apparently on the streets of tampa. hidden cameras that scan the faces at clubs at night to see if anyone's a runaway or on a most-wanted list. by the way, is anyone else having problems when they go to the edit/delet page of the pitas? every time i do (to erase the date most often) it crashes my damn netscape. any suggestions?

my photography class headed up to lincoln center to take pics of midsummer night swing. i can't believe i haven't checked it out sooner. you can pay to take the class first and actually learn a few steps before the band comes on. and they don't just have swing. every night is a different type of music.

does anyone else dislike the ny times' redesign as much as i do? i feel like it's more work now to read the news. they can't list all the national news on one page? you get to only read a few headlines than you have to click to open a whole other page with more headlines, though some of the same headlines from the previous page are on there too. why do they have to keep trying to change their site? people are going to read the ny times regardless. and while they're at it, it would be nice to put a whole article on one page instead of two or three. all right, i'm done ranting.

nyc's mayoral candidates ranked in order of their club friendliness. a bill werde original.

i'm getting very excited to go to the siren festival next week in coney island. even though i don't really know any of the bands besides guided by voices, i'm still excited for a full day outside with music, art, good company, sunshine and the cyclone.

catherine has informed me that the ever sexy rhett miller will be at fez july 24, and surely i will be there to watch his head go a bobbing. anyone reading this who has never listened to , please do so now. if not for your own good, than for catherine's. i've never met a more dedicated fan.

i really, really want to see the seagull in central park, i just know with a cast like that it will be almost impossible to get tickets, short of arriving at central park at six in the morning. plus you can only get two tickets per person who stands on line. the web site says you can pick up tickets at either the delacorte or public theater, but i wonder if one would have a shorter line than the other. any suggestions?

i just took the best places to live quiz and wouldn't you know it but my number one place was frisco. boston was 2 and la was 3. new york was 7. i'm even more turned on to san fran now that i read that there's an average of 265 days a year of sunshine. san diego, which was my no.6 has 267. funny out only three out of my top ten are east coast cities, dc being the third. and long islan was 12. um, what? and westchester wasn't even listed. i first tried to take the short version, but don't bother because it's not up yet. [via pcjm]

i just took the best places to live quiz and wouldn't you know it but my number one place was frisco. boston was 2 and la was 3. new york was 7. i'm even more turned on to san fran now that i read that there's an average of 265 days a year of sunshine. san diego, which was my no.6 has 267. funny out only three out of my top ten are east coast cities, dc being the third. and long islan was 12. um, what? and westchester wasn't even listed. i first tried to take the short version, but don't bother because it's not up yet. [via A HREF="http://www.popculturejunkmail">pcjm

i'm still not sure i feel about this ruling that a man who never pays child support is not allowed to procreate anymore. on one hand i agree that if you can't support your kids, you shouldn't have anymore. the guy already has nine and owes $25,000 for chrissake. why ruin a child's life like that? it goes along with the theory that there should be a license issued or something before you're allowed to be a parent. but on the other hand, i agree that it sets a bad precedent, like could you forcefully terminate a woman's pregnancy if she had the same ruling against her? or should you be forced to undergo a credit check beforehand like you would when buying a house? any thoughts of your own?

this sound like something a kid at my old camp would do and it's not even a camp for troubled kids.

last night's plan to go to the zadie smith book reading and signing at the b&n in union square was thwarted when we showed up only to learn zadie's signing was actually monday and last night was nick hornby. i wouldn't have minded staying but i hadn't read his new book yet and there was only standing room and the security guards were making people clear the aisles anyway. so we went home and had ice cream instead. yum.

every time i watch "the west wing", i'm reminded once again how great a show it is. that's why i was so excited to see this morning their ridiculous amount of emmy nominations. until i read page six this morning (first item). it seems the actors want something like $50,000 more an episode on top of their $100,000. can someone explain this to me? is $100,000 a week not enough to be on an emmy-winning show, have your face plastered on tons of magazines, go to cool benefits, live in fancy houses, do what you love and, well, be a celebrity?! how greedy can you get? what i didn't understand though was where it said that this made sense when "friends" did it because it's an ensemble show but "the west wing" focuses on martin sheen and rob lowe and the rest of the cast are just supporting actors. um, no. except for the fact that sheen plays the president, i'd hardly say the rest of "the west wing" aren't major players every week.

i told myself i would not like this show, but i really got into mtv's new "becoming" last night. i watched some freshman sorority chick turn into britney right before my eyes. well, not exactly, but i just thought it was so cool how they put her up at the four seasons and gave her a ridiculous amount of free stuff, everything from nail polish to diesel jeans. plus she got to keep the britney wardrobe, including the schoolgirl outfit. i did find it a little strange though how completely obsessed an 18-year-old girl could be of britney, even constantly rewinding the video to learn her moves, but i felt oddly moved for her when her idol sent her flowers for her big day. plus, the video came out pretty cool too.

i just have to share that after getting a whole lotta people hooked on weddingchannel.com yesterday, a very adept fan found the registry of one hottie ny giant and one too-skinny ex law and order star. unfortunately i couldn't find one for brad and jennifer.

every tuesday i look forward to reading e! online's wanda transcripts. she does a chat monday nights where people write in tv questions and she dishes spoilers and such. mostly she pisses me off because she either winds up being wrong or telling us something i could have figured out from the "next week on..." scenes from the week before. and she talks too much about wb shows i could give a rat's ass about. but she's been good for sex and the city stuff lately so i'm happy.

after betsy linked to this a few weeks ago, i went onto yousofyne. after almost a month, i finally got the copy of the pick-me-up i sent a friend, though no word yet from the friend that she got it.now i'm thinking of sending them to myself every few days, they're that much fun.

so i spent a good portion of the afternoon yesterday on weddingchannel.com seeing who i know is getting married these days. and sho'nuff i discovered that two friends from college (jon and stef, for all you review folk) are tying the knot in october, and one of my closest friends from high school got married in may. thankfully no exes were on there yet. i'm a loser in all sense of the word, i know.

for some reason my link to jenna's web page from yesterday keeps connecting to diaryland even though i keep putting in the right address. anyway, it's www.pushorpull.com if anyone's interested.

i just read a write-up of this book in my company-wide magazine. i had never heard of it before though it originally came out about 20 years ago and they just re-released it and are making it into a movie sometime soon. perhaps it's already out and i just don't know it, but this guy's story sounds pretty amazing. supposedly by the age of 21, he practiced law without a license, taught a college class with no degree, cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks, and my favorite, posed as a pan am co-pilot.

anyone who's interested can track jenna's trek cross-country here. there's not a whole lot on the site just yet but there's a country full of the largest ball of twine and oldest covered bridges to get through. speaking of great historical sites, i passed theodore roosevelt's birthplace the other day. it's right next to no idea. who knew?

while i'm on the subject of blatant racism (and the NYT), michele was right in saying this story should have been on the front page of sunday's times instead of somewhere in the middle. how are things like this possible?

if you haven't read this story yet from sunday's times magazine, do it now. all about the 130-pound kid who got taken away from her parents last year because the state thought they were endangering her welfare by purposely keeping her overweight. this article goes on to say no such thing, and had the family been wealthy white people instead of mexican, there would have been a whole different outcome.

this article about a new hallucenogenic herb reminds me of the sign at the gardens this weekend for catnip. it had some description like "causes hallucenations and druglike effects in cats but not humans," which i'm thinking was written for the sole reason of preventing people from snipping some to try for themselves.

checked a few more items off my summer to-do list this weekend. enjoyed the sunshine saturday and went to the brooklyn botanic gardens and took a whole bunch of pictures. there was no wedding going on to watch but there was some fancy schmancy birthday party complete with hula hoops, straw hats and drunken revelers. it's a really great park except for the fact that you can't sit on a blanket some odd reason. does cotton kill grass or something?

poor andre lost in the semis.i wish i could have watched the match, especially after he lost and slammed the tennis ball at the lines judge who reported him for swearing, hence breaking his concentration, causing him to lose. and since capriati (who i feel a special bond with since we have the exact same birthday and all) isn't in the finals either, i have no reason to watch wimbledon this weekend. i shall wait till flushing. the celebrity sightings are more fun there anyway.

we had those fun fake nipples in our magazine months ago, which was why i was psyched to see them on sex and the city last weekend. and now they're written up here. i'm no fashionista, but i sense a summer trend happening.

had a fun visitor for lunch and finally got to check out uncle moe's, which is been right around the corner of my office of over a year now. it's good to know it's delicious becuase it can help quench my recent burrito addiction. mmm, beans!

happy birthday, ryan!

for those of you who were at the old 97s show at irving plaza a few weeks ago, just thought you'd like to know michele and i were walking on washington street in the 'boken tuesday night and spotted the giant catherine danced with. it's a small world after all...

i spent my wonderful half-day off on tuesday at the overwhelming strand bookstore, which i hadn't been too in quite a while and walked away with books, books, and more books. i walked away with a heavy eight books in my bag and lighter wallet to boot. but at least i'll have a summer's worth of reading now that i finally finished bee season, which is a must-read. it's so much more than the coming-of-age story i thought it was supposed to be. and about so much more than spelling bees. makes me want to find a book on the kaballah, which has intrigued me for a while and find out all about it.

the rest of my fourth was spent on chris's roof, waiting for the bbq to finally get lit, only for the rain to come then stop long enough to drink, eat, watch fireworks, eat some more and play with sparklers before the downpour came again.

instead of going to the beach like i would've liked on a day off from work, i spent the fourth at the movies and finally got to see memento. i'm still trying to figure it all out, but now that i saw it, i was finally able to read the lenghtyarticle in salon that i saw last week toting that it told everything you ever wanted to know about memento. but i guess it should, when the writer has seen it four or five times, watched it forward and backward, read the screenplay comparing it to the movie and even gave each scene a letter and a number to match everything up. i don't know if i'd go that far to figure out whatleonard's true story is, but i would see it again. might be a reason to finally buy a dvd player. but anyway, it was good, good stuff, leaving you completely confused for the rest of the afternoon. plus, guy pearce is very easy on the eyes.

pop rocks explode in girl's stomach! i thought this was just the stuff of urban legends.

this might be obvious, but did you know that if you send something through the us postal service and it doesn't get there, you can try to do something about it? though my guess is it's really just a formality. i stopped by the post office this morning to mail my letter to amy in africa and decided to ask them about a package i sent about a month ago that has yet to arrive and even though my return address was on it, has yet to come back to me. so the nice man behind the counter (though i think he was scared of me because he made me pull down my side of the plastic barrier before he opened his to talk to me) made me fill out a "simple tracer" form, but according to him, "there's nothing simple about it." so hopefully the form i've filled out in triplicate will help locate the package of goodies dan has been waiting for.

so mr. cormipants has informed me that i neglected to mention the review's band of choice weenis from new hope. my apologies.

i haven't gotten through this whole thing yet, but it's a diary of a homeless pregnant girl out in san francisco. someone found it on the street and decided to post it on the web for all to see. i can't imagine if that journal was mine how i'd feel, but since it's not, it makes for an interesting read. supposedly it made the rounds on weblogs a few months ago, but i'm new to this, so there you go. [via A HREF="www.popculturejunkmail.com">pcjm]

yesterday the roommates and i ventured down to new hope, which is a great little town in pennsylvania with lots of great antique stores, record stores, ice cream shops and such. it was all loads of fun until the sky openedm, but that's summer for you i guess. i even got the new rem cd for a cheap $7.50. i probably paid way too much though since i think it was just downloaded from napster or something, but it beats paying the usual $16 or so. we even went into this store with all toys from the '70s and '80s. a whole collection of smurfs, strawberry shortcake, star wars stuff, and the erkel board game. since when did the toys of my youth become kitsch? we all grow up sometime i guess. but i purchases some cool sparklers for the fourth of july bash.

is there no place to drink margaritas outside in hoboken on a hot saturday night? gail and i attempted to throw a few back at east la but there was no seating outside. we then noticed that there's no seating outside any of the bars at that hour of the night and i wondered if it was a noise violation excuse like what they used to say at the good ol' deer park. i had to settle for singing along with the music at miss kitty's instead. but i'm still craving some strawberry margaritas and might have to get my fill at the back porch where, i know from last year's july fourth festivities, has delicious margaritas and daiquiris in every flavor of the rainbow. yum.

a fun-filled weekend once again with lots of things i can now check off my summer to-do list. first off, i took time out's advice from a few weeks ago and headed up to the bronx to check out the cloisters. it felt more like europe then the bronx inside the monastary. and i learned what cloisters really are. the courtyards in where monks went to meditate and do whatever it is monks do in peace and quiet. if the ac in my car wasn't busted and it wasn't 90+ humid degrees outside, i might have enjoyed walking around fort tyron park more, but when there's no air, there's no air.

since i'm in the middle of reading bee season, which i highly recommend by the way, i was all psyched when i noticed the main story on salon today is about abuse in hare krishna boarding schools. so i start reading it only to finish the intro for it to then say, sorry, if you want to read more, you need to shell out a butt-load of money to be a salon premium member. what's up with that? they used to tell you on the main page and now they try to suck you in and then drop the bomb. if anyone out there is actually a premium member, would you be so kind to send me the story?

we celebrated jenna's journey cross-country last night with some anchor steam in mason jars (mason jars!) at duke's. jenna's decision to drop everything and head to oregon to try something new and forget the corporate world has me thinking that within a year i just might want to say goodbye to new york.maybe get a little west coast sunshine in my system. john, leanne, will y'all still be there when i get there?

i'll pat myself on the back for sending brian this story earlier in the week. since this is the first story on diversity inc. i've read in a while, i thought i might as well give the web site some more traffic.

this isn't such new news, but i've read two articles this week basically about how depression is the "it" thing to have and debating whether the 60 million people who were prescribed antideppresants this year are actually depressed or are just feeling a little blue lately. i mean, is it really possible to go through every day in pure sunshine? this article> points out how it's hard to believe in depression unless you actually have it and easy to shrug off your friend's serious bout with the illness as just plain neurosis. i guess that makes sense, but this story from sunday's times is just ridiculous. i'm so sick of hearing about this quarter-life crisis. freaking out about life in your twenties is NOT a quarter-life crisis. it's simply freaking out that you want to do something with your life, you're not quite sure what it is, and you may have to jump around to different jobs, cities, apartments, significant others and even religions to figure it out. soon the difficulty in deciding what to wear on the first day of high school will be billed as a national epidemic, worthy of a new pill to ease the pain.

talk about poor proofreading. check out the photo and the subject of the story.

anyone else as excited as i am that another season of the real world is starting? here's something to get you in the mood. [via catherine]. all i have to say is the first ny cast must be really pissed at how much nicer these digs are. and the new ny cast must be really pissed that because of the "downturn of the economy" there are less toys in the house. the roommates are working at arista though, and i'm supposed to look for an old camp friend during shots around the office.

as part of my plan this summer to watch a lot of the movies that i should have seen but never got around to, i watched vertigo last night, which i've now learned has been described as hitchcock's best. i'm still partial to the old episode they used to show on nick at night. you know, the one in the prison with the woman and the blind man. that last scene still haunts me whenever i think about her lighting the match. but anyway, the site above has a whole lot of cool info, including the idea that even hitchcock might not have known exactly what the ending means, which makes me feel a little less stupid because i'm still pondering it myself. anyone have any ideas? next up, ordinary people

was anyone else as excited as i was this weekend after learning that mtv was playing all music, all the time? just like the good ol' days. i got my fill of some spankin' new videos, though i saw the new 311 one way too many times for them to still label it spankin' new.

i also bought the gorllaz cd after hearing on in our office all the time. fun, groovy summer music perfect for a drive in the sunshine.

quick weekend recap: watched save the last dance friday night, where i learned that the only word young urban african americans use these days is "slammin'". besides some cute dance scenes, i was really turned off by how absolutely stereotypical the whole thing was. yet i learned that it's the number one rental among black youths, or something like that. maybe i'm just too pc or something. my big plans to watch chris's band rock out for the first time down in new b got rained out saturday and i spent money i don't have at the mall instead. but i did walk away with a very cute camouflage tank top with a big red glittery star on the front. now i just need somewhere to wear it to. anyone up for a night on the town? and yesterday was a day out in the not-so-sunny weather watching the mets lose. i can't believe i just linked to the mets so here are the yankees just to save face. then it was walking through what was left of the pride parade. a whole lot of sexy guys, none looking my way.

i guess i should be glad i don't still live at home and i'm not the parent of a three-year-old who accidentally swallows a bottle of detergent under the sink. it seems the entire staff of the poison control center near my house quit. the worst part is they're now diverting the calls to the center in western new york. g-d help them all. i shouldn't say that, my sister-in-law is a buffalonian.

some more work diversion the dumb ass guide to ny. i think my favorites are either staten island or ellis island.

made me chuckle. amusing signs.

my good deed for the day.

you can never spend too much on teaching good good penmanship.

"it is an honor to be cookie monster." as long as you don't get the crap kicked out of you.

check out the page six entry on carrot top. oh, the hilarity.

after reading the rolling stone story on angelina jolie i'm more convinced of how freaky she really is. besides billy bob's blood that she wears around her neck and their mobile home they like to hang out in in their backyard, they celebrated their anniversary by smearing their names in blood above their bed. how sweet.

anyone spot an alligator lately?

and a happy, happy birthday to ms. betsy!

saturday i got to spend the day in a fancy party dress, eat a chi-chi lunch at 11 madison park and drink lots and lots of yummy wine. never a bad thing to do. and i must do some research on the taxi cabs on stilts that were in the park across the street. kind of like the cow parade only yellow cabs. saturday night i finally saw shrek, which i previewed for my magazine though got bumped out of the screening for. forget tomb raider, go see this. even if it's just to watch cinderella and snow white bitch slap each other over the bouquet.

sure, it gets nice out now that we're all back to work and staring at computer screens all day instead of romping around in the glorious sunshine. but anyway, not much to say except old 97's kicked ass once again. we weren't exactly on stage like we would have wanted (though a certain someone in the group's panties made a guest appearance up there) but we were close enough to drool (and rightfully so) over rhett and his head-bobbing antics. i send you to catherine's and betsy's pitas where i'm sure you'll find great pictures. the only disappointing part of the whole evening was when some 8-feet-plus tall guy stepped in front of me for a few songs and i could see absolutely nothing. tall guys like that shoudl be restricted to the back of the bar.

thankfully i already have my madonna tickets.

i'm a movie-watching fool these days. last night i watched the virgin suicides but i'm still not sure what i thought of it. definitely different, on the weird side, but the consensus was that something was missing. it was just a little disjointed. but no complaints watching josh hartnett play a guy named trip. trip!

tonight's the night! i turned down yankees tickets to rock out to rhett and the boys at irving plaza and i can't wait! i'm a little nervous that my boss might be coming and hence watching me drool over a too-skinny rock star. but i heard a rumor that they're sold out so i should be ok.

set the vcr for this one: luke and laura are getting divorced!

forget a lot of people's birthdays?

i must hear this song

no joke the cereal adventure theme park. my favorite part is that it's breakfast all day long and you can eat all kinds of crazy cereal and slide down a lucky charms rainbow into a pool of foam shapes.

i had forgotten all about brunching shuttlecocks but just checked it out again via pcjm, which i also haven't looked at in a while. anyway, try your hand at the alanis lyrics generator. mine was about how much i hate skinny people. pure brilliance.

i finally saw requiem for a dream last night and it was just as amazing and disturbing and incredible as everyone says. we didn't know till the opening credits that we had rented the edited version, but i'm not sure blockbuster carries the unrated one and i'm not sure i would've wanted to see it either. all i have to say is how did ellen burstyn lose out on the oscar? it was honestly the best performance i've seen in a long, long time. if you're interested, imdb mentions some good mistakes and trivia, including the fact that the oranges in the supermarket scene is a reference to the godfather, which used oranges to show impending doom.

are some things not sacred anymore? this morning while watching headline news i witnessed an abomination. advertising is no longer saved for the space in between serious news updates. the anchors, in between stories about oklahoma and the flooding in the south, were actually doing a live commercial for amtrak, even referring viewers to their 1-800 number and their web site and explaining what kind of deals they can get. that's got to break all kinds of journalism codes.

if all goes well, i should be seeing "tick, tick...boom" pretty soon in previews. it's the first and until recently unfinished play written by jonathan larson, who wrote rent and died just a few hours before its debut. thanks, michele, for sending me this article, which talks all about larson and the rare disease his parents now believed caused his death. i feel like the mo-mo, because this whole time i thought he died of aids.

i just finished reading the allergy piece from this weekend's times magazine. i always made fun of the fact that nut allergies are the latest health craze these days (though i did get them several times on the plane in my recent trips out west), but after reading how practically the scent of peanuts can cause a little kid to die changed my mind about making fun of such overprotective parents.

this fashion list from salon reminds me of the fashion trend i just don't get. i'm referring to no. 3, the $900 used, ripped and sequined t-shirts that everyone seems to be wearing in nyc these days. had i only saved all my old concert, little league, camp, and smurf t-shirts i could have made a cool million by now. but that's why michele and i have an enterprising plan and it involves ordering one of these.

the dead are releasing a 12-cd box set in october. it might be too steep a price for my dwindling bank account, but when you think about it, that's only $13.25 per cd, plus i'm sure it comes with some cool reading material.

still in first place on studio boss. yee-haw. however, i think the guy in second place is going to kick my ass next week because he's hoarding all the tomb raiders and i just don't think the freaky angelina jolie is going to have any stiff competition in the theaters this week. i now just learned that mr. showbiz has it's own fantasy movie league and the prizes seem a lot cooler than e!'s. if i only knew...

here's one of the great stories about censorship on salon today. ever since an american lit class i took in college, i've been really into the subject. in the other story is the most ridiculous thing about how this one mother dealt with keeping her 12-year-old son from checking out porn on the internet. you'd think she had skipped over adolescence herself and went straight to overbearing mother.

another weekend come and gone, and another weekend in a row that kicked arse. my first experience of a bachelorette party turned out to be a lot of fun and not as much cheese as i expected. i even found myself defending our group as we walked past a a bunch of kids in the east village who sarcastically said they felt unfashionable because they weren't wearing shirts that were low-cut enough. and i'm usually the ones making the comments. we ended our evening at the now-famous coyote ugly. we didn't leave our bras, however, we did get drunk enough to make it onto the bar for one dance.the rest of the time i was in the corner unrhythmically swing dancing with a guy named daniel who was into some serious two-stepping. after friday night, i felt the need to add some culture to my weekend and went to the ballet with my mom. i hadn't been in years but i'd go again in a heartbeat. so beautiful. and then came the big 5k race yesterday. i happily placed 266 out of 300 something runners with a time of 32:21 or something like that. slow and steady, but i'm just glad i ran the whole thing and didn't pass out before the finish line. dancing on a bar AND running a 5k all in one weekend. i am woman, hear me roar!

fun with e libs!

i'm not sure if this is on newsstands yet, or how long it will last, but found is a new magazine that is just what it sounds like. people find random stuff, send it in, and they print pictures of it. not too many interesting items so far except for the notes, which are great. i couldn't decide which one was my favorite but i'm partially fond of "crushed ice, not cubes." [via kerplink]

i just had to post this article on bigfoot because it reminded me of my obsession freshman year of college with this guy we nicknamed sasquatch. ah, i wonder what he's up to these days and if he still has that nice beard and long hair and walks around with his curdory pants hanging off of his ass. he actually called me "buddy" once or twice and i almost died right there.

there's someone else out there who loves the weddings in the sunday ny times as much as i do.and he even has a similar method of reading them. the weekend paper is such a ritual in our apartment, which is why whenever it's stolen, i feel so off the rest of the day. i *always* save the style section for last. my second favorite to the crossword, of course, but i usually start that on saturday. unlike the ironminds writer, i've known the couples exactly three times. and my favorite part of the whole thing is when they end the story with "the bride's first marriage ended in divorce." i heard somewhere that you have to write that.i guess why else would someone put it in there?

my first real photography class starts tonight. last week it was just introductions and the basics, but tonight we're headed out on location. look for me here. i'll be one of the kids playing with the gray card and taking pictures of the beautiful sunset over new jersey.

what's the deal with the wealthy kids in westchester these days? when i grew up there, they never mentioned the troublemakers from schools like greeley or byram hills. it was always my school that got the bad rap. people were scared of our diversity or something. but in the past few days i've seen three stories about various crimes. this one might be my favorite. in case the link doesn't work (ap is like that sometimes) it's about two eastchester kids who stole some guy's cow parade statues. one kid was smart enough to stash the life-sized thing in his bedroom. and then there was another one from earlier today about kids stealing some college entrance exam. and i thought those kids had a better chance of getting into good schools because they were wealthy and could afford those people who help you write your personal essays. silly me. the last one seemed to make national news but catherine already found it.

walking back from lunch today i spotted a celebrity on the street. i'd tell you who he was if i could only place his face. at first i thought he was from the movies, then i picture him either as a dad or a teacher in a family-type drama, but now i'm thinking he's from a soap. however, the only one i ever watched is general hospital, and i don't think he's from there. though he kind of looks like jake, bobby's ex husband from like 10 years ago. but i'm picturing him in something more recent. if only imdb had a feature where you could describe an actor's features and such and they could pull up a picture and a bio. after all this rambling, it'll probably turn out he's some distant cousin i met at a bar mitzvah once or something.

last night's discussion of the bachelorette party led to a lenghty discussion about the ideal wedding, if we happened to have the ideal groom that is. so note to my future husband: before you pop the question, you might want to talk to michele and gail first to see what you're getting yourself into. hope you don't mind spending a whole lot of dough on the reception. and the ring of course. a girl can dream, can't she?

so i'm going to my first bachelorette party this weekend. not that i'm going to the wedding or anything, but that's besides the point. it's at the infamous lucky cheng's, where most every bachelorette in nyc goes to chow down on dumplings and be embarrassed by beautiful six-foot-tall transvestites. let's hope it will be a little livelier than the last time i was there, about a year ago, when the place was almost empty, and brian thought nothing of it to participate in the male strip show. and he's embarrassed to even kiss a girl in public? some people.

can't seem to find anything exciting to link to today. any ideas? so last night our editor announced another staffer was flying the coop. the second in under a week. this time to the evil competition, though, which meant that instead of the usual two weeks, he was out at the end of the day. definitely one of my favorite guys here so i was sad to see him go.but even though it was short notice, we managed to rally up a crowd for a little drinky drinky.

another slow day at work. at least it gives me time to practice posting to the pita. so let's see. last night i got to go to a media screening , which is one of the great perks of working at a magazine. the movie turned out to be better than i thought. a little confusing trying to keep up with who's supposed to be the good/bad guys, but i think it works as a good summer movie. which reminds me, after two weeks of wheelings and dealings, i'm in first place for my league for e's studio boss. after my roommates successfully kicked ass each time they played, i felt as if i needed to get in on the action, and i must admit, it's pretty addicting. basically a fantasy league for the sports inept and the blockbuster savvy.

so my weekend was a whole lotta fun. actually more fun than i've had in a while. watched a great movie friday night ("go, billy!") and knocked back a few at the corner bar with some fine company. one of the more empowering moments of my weekend for the single, independent woman of the post-'90s that i am is when michele and i managed to change my car battery without the help of an expensive, grease-stained, girl-leering mechanic. i'm still trying to get the grease out from the tips of my fingers but it felt so good when the car actually started. another highlight to my weekend was catherine's kick-ass house-warming party. for three different kids inviting a whole lotta people, everyone mingled perfectly. there were even a few people who showed up who didn't even know any of the housemates. some brooklyn musicians who said they got a call from "fate." um, ok. plus they had twinkies! and a cool roof, which led my roomates and i to check out ours yesterday afternoon. i can now say for certain that there will be many a night this summer when we head up there and drink a round or two and enjoy our newfound view of the manhattan skyline. and then last night was the much awaited season premiere of sex and the city , which was even better thanks to gail's expert bartending skills. we may not have gotten to wear the dolce & gabbana jeweled undies, but at least we sipped the cosmopolitans and played along at home. i'd say that's enough of an update for now. and hey, it's almost time for lunch.

i'm still working on my html skills but with a little help from my friends, i think i might be getting the hang of it. i saw this on friday and i'm still amused by it. what would my day be like without obscure store ?

this is driving me crazy. a college graduate should be able to figure this out.

all rightie, let's try this again. i figured i'd try to link to the site that's helping me figure this all out. though i still don't think this will do the trick.

ironminds i wish i could figure out how to just highlight the text in my paragraph instead of having to do it this way to show my links. but anyhow, what i was trying to say was how i love how anything dubya never ceases to be hilarious. besides reading all about the twins' completely normal collegiate shenanigans, i found this and couldnt' stop chuckling. i mean, how great is it that our country can be a laughingstock and still be a world powerhouse?

I think i'm just going to have to do this weblog thing as simple and basic as i can until i can figure out this whole crazy html thing. so anyhow, welcome to my pita. forgive me while i play a bit.

catherine's pita
betsy's pita
leanne's knee
chris's blog