It's amazing how much of New York's physical appearance seems like it's been here forever, but has really only existed in my (our) lifetime(s). I already knew, and I bet most people do too, that the streetsigns used to be different colors for every borough. Well, almost every borough - Staten Island was yellow and black, just like Manhattan. They ( Read more... )

Martin Amis, Paul Auster, George Bataille, William Burroughs, Italo Calvino, Raymond Chandler, Michel Foucault, Dashiell Hammett, Jack Kerouac and Jeanette Wintersun.

The Bataille might be entirely due to my friend Mike.

AMAZON.COM IF YOU DON'T SEND ME THE NEW GUYOTAT TRANSLATION RIGHT NOW I WILL RIP YOUR FACE OFF. I ordered that shit THREE MONTHS AGO.

At midnight, it will be Paraguaian Independence Day, as well as The Feast of Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, as well as the 76th birthday of Jasper Johns, 70th birthdays of Ralph Steadman (Hunter S. Thompson's illustrator) and Paul Zindel (Staten Island children's book author), 69th birthday of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, 58th ( Read more... )

A Gram Parsons cover of my favorite Dolly/Porter duet? SIGN ME UP DOGG!

I just got (for me) really nice new headphones - meaning I spent $15 on them rather than $5. The least expensive type of Sony padded headphones. Anyway, now I can listen to music on my computer without buzzing built-in-speakers. You can tell from my music choice below that it sounds pretty rad on a 60 degree day.

Did anyone call me really early this morning from a payphone in Jackson Heights or Corona? I got a call at around nine AM this morning, and it came up as a payphone number on 32nd Avenue in Queens.

I just got terrifed that, because academic success comes so easily without earning, success in the real world will not come. And this will be a slap in the face. My work will get rejected, my writing will be proven poor. Scary.

Apparently, in 2003, they sealed up all the entrances to the abandoned "haunted" monastery near the apartment I grew up in. So, if any of you are looking to go exploring there, it's probably a no go. Which is a shame, because when I went into the building as a kid, it was fucking SCARY - even during all the times I went in during the day. There ( Read more... )

Uhhh I guess these are seven songs I listen to/sing to myself lately when I'm biking. Or just songs I've been listening to recently. Or at least that's how Rosie explained it, with the biking ( Read more... )